Bloodline (Whyborne & Griffin Book 5) (21 page)

“One for the land, and one for the sea.” But no, that was
absurd. Whatever the meaning of the prophecy, it had nothing to do with me. “Why
did she never say? All these years…why hide the truth?”

Persephone shrugged, a startlingly human gesture. “Our
grandfather went mad and tried to kill our mother before she was even born. You
chased me from the cemetery. Our mother tried to kill me, when I climbed to her
window.”

“If we’d known…”

“Perhaps it would have been different. I don’t know. Perhaps
it simply seemed too great a risk. Matriarchs rule beneath the waves, so Emily
chose me to take. She summoned the ketoi and gave me to them. The
transformation spell saved my life.”

I closed my eyes, then opened them again. Nothing I’d ever
believed was true. Not about me, or my sister, or anyone. “And the dead girl in
the post mortem photograph? The one buried in the casket meant to be yours?”

“We survived that night. Others did not.”

And Mother never knew. Father didn’t. All these years, their
daughter had swum beneath the waves, alive but monstrous.

Despite her inhuman form, I hadn’t felt any fear of her at
all the entire time we’d stood on this pier. Perhaps some deep part of me
recognized the twin who had curled beside me in the womb.

“Why now?” I asked. “Why—”

The sound of running feet drummed on the boards behind me.
Griffin raced toward us, his face white with fear and his sword cane in his
hand. “Ival! Get back!”

“No!” I flung out my arms to either side. “Griffin, wait.”

There came a soft splash. I spun about to find the pier
behind me empty. No fins broke the heaving, wind-tossing waves.

Griffin halted beside me. “Why did you stop me?”

I stared bleakly at the empty waves. “Because the ketoi is
my sister.”

Griffin sheathed his sword cane. The rain plastered his
curls to his face, and I longed to brush them away from his eyes. But I
couldn’t bring myself to touch him.

“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.

“What I said. You were right…Daphne was right…we’re
hybrids.” The entire story spilled out of me, from Theo and Fiona’s comments on
my magical proficiency, to the provenance of the jewelry, to my realization the
horrors plaguing the town, killing sailors, and murdering everyone who might
stand against them, were my own people.

My own blood.

When I’d finished, Griffin stared at me numbly. “Oh.” He
took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I wondered…but I dismissed it, as
you did. How could my love be one of the very monsters we’ve fought against?”

Each word laid me open, like a razor against skin. “I’m so
sorry.” My throat tried to close against the words, but I had to get them out
now, while I still could. “Just…try to forget you ever met me.”

His brows drew together. “I didn’t mean—” he began,
reaching for me.

“Don’t touch me!” I jerked away. “Don’t you understand?
Aren’t you
listening?
I’m descended from the ketoi. A part of me isn’t
even human. I’m…I’m tainted.”

He grasped my arms, fingers tightening when I tried to pull
away. “You are not tainted. Or corrupted, or anything else. I don’t give a damn
who—what—your ancestress was. I only care about you.”

My eyes burned. “You just said I’m a monster.”

“No!” He stepped closer, until his thighs pressed against
mine. “Listen to me, please. If you’re one of the monsters we’ve fought
against, then—then they can’t
be
monsters. No more so than humans,
at any rate. Some terrible and some good, but not inherently evil.”

“What if you’re wrong?” I swallowed hard. “You’ve already
seen what I’m capable of. With Abbott. And that came from the non-aberration
side of my family. What if…what if there is some darkness in me? Something
terrible inside?”

“Then we’ll face it together.” Griffin touched my face with
one hand, fingers tender. Finding the hotter wetness of tears amidst the cold
rain. “You are the love of my life.”

“But it isn’t enough,” I echoed the words back at him.

“I should never have left last night. I should have waited
and talked. I knew I’d done the wrong thing as soon as I got home. Because I
realized no matter how frustrated and angry and scared you make me, I won’t
give up on you.” He shook me gently. “Do you understand, Ival? I love you, and
I will
never
give up on you.”

I tried to speak, but a sob tore its way out of me instead.
Crumpling into his arms, I buried my face in his hair and wept while he held me
tight.

~ * ~

“I’m sorry,” I said yet again. I sat shivering on the
hearthrug in the study, my sopping clothes removed and a blanket bundled around
me instead. Despite the crackle of the fire only a few feet away, I couldn’t
seem to get warm, as if the cold day had crawled in through my skin.

Griffin carefully set a tea tray on the table beside me.
He’d exchanged his wet clothes for dry, but forgone shirt and vest alike, only
wrapping himself in a dressing gown while he went down to make tea.

“What are you apologizing for?” He poured a cup, then gave
it to me. The heat scalded my fingers, but I cradled it gratefully in my hands.

“There’s rather a lot of choose from, isn’t there?” I asked
ruefully. “My behavior has been abominable, I know. It just seemed so right at
the time. So easy.”

“The magic?” he guessed. Pouring a cup of tea for himself as
well, he settled cross-legged in front of me.

“Yes.” I sighed. “I should have listened to you. I wanted to
protect us, you and Christine and everyone else. My arcane studies saved our
lives, and I only wanted to see their usefulness, not any dangers. When Theo
talked about our true natures, about how we don’t bow to society, but make
society bow to us…” I shook my head miserably.

“It’s a seductive thought,” he agreed with a wry twist of
his lips. “Those men I spoke of before, the Pinkertons or the police, began
wanting to help people. Believed they
were
helping people. ‘One can’t
make an omelet without breaking eggs’ and all the other platitudes which let
them sleep at night. When you’re certain your cause is just, it becomes easy to
excuse almost anything to further it.”

“You were right all along, though. About the sorcery. I
rushed ahead and didn’t think, didn’t consider the consequences. I lied to you
and ended up lying to myself.” I bowed my head. It wouldn’t be easy, but it had
to be done. “I’ll give it up. All of it. Stay out of your investigations. Never
cast another spell. Go back to being boring old Why-were-you-born.”

“The one thing you’ve never been is boring, my dear.” He set
his tea aside and rested his hands on my ankle. “But before you make any
drastic decisions, will you hear my apology?”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“You’re wrong.” Sadness darkened his eyes. “If I hadn’t been
so against your sorcerous studies, you wouldn’t have felt the need to hide them
from me again and again. I thought magic was just something you did. But now I
realize I was wrong. It’s something you
are
. Whether by your ketoi blood
or your Endicott, or some strange combination of the two, I don’t know, and it
doesn’t matter.”

His words felt true in my gut. “Still, I don’t have to practice
it.”

“I won’t ask you to clip your wings.” He took my teacup from
my hands and set it aside, then twined his fingers with mine. “I’ve seen how
you’ve bloomed, my dear. Discovered yourself, your confidence. And although I’d
like to think our relationship might have something to do with it, I’m not
quite so arrogant as to claim full credit. We could have spent the last two
years talking about your sorcery, about the good your spells have done for all
of us, including you. And discussing, as well, the dangers of taking it too
far. Instead, I made you feel as though I wanted to hold you back.”

I winced. “Griffin—”

“Ival.” He squeezed my hands. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you
to feel like you have to hide anything. If you wish to learn some new spell, do
so here, and don’t fear I’ll chastise you. Just promise to discuss it with me,
and listen if I raise a concern.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. “I’m sure. Magic is a part of you, the way it
isn’t other people.”

I looked away. “You mean humans.”

“I mean other people.” He let go of one hand so he could
catch my chin with his fingers and turn my gaze back to him. “I love
you—all of you. I love that you want to protect Christine, and your
family, and me. And despite your zeal to see justice done at any cost when it
came to Abbott, you didn’t hurt your father today. You got angry and wrecked a
bunch of his possessions, but you didn’t hurt him.”

“I’d already done enough harm.” I found the courage to meet
Griffin’s gaze. “Thank you. For not turning your back on me. I thought once you
found out the truth about my heritage, you’d be disgusted.”

“And why would I be?” he asked, arching a brow.

“Because…well…all the things we’ve done together. Er,
intimately. To know you’ve…”

“Been buggered by a fish-man?” he suggested.

“No!” My cheeks heated. “Well, yes, but I wouldn’t have put
it like that!”

Griffin laughed. “I’m sorry. Should have said seduced by a
shark-man?”

“You’re not taking this nearly as seriously as you ought,” I
grumbled, but in truth, I was desperately glad he could make such a joke.

Griffin shifted closer, until our knees pressed together.
“Whatever you are,” he said, “you were the same thing yesterday. And last week,
and last month. Nothing has changed.”

“Easy for you to say. You’re not the one who just discovered
he has a fish-woman for a sister.”

“True. Do you think the prophecy might refer to the two of
you?”

“No.”

“You seem awfully certain.”

I shrugged. “
The time will come for one to rise, To ride
the foam and touch the skies
—does that
sound
like me?”

Griffin leaned in to kiss me, slipping one hand beneath the
blanket as he did so. “Parts of it,” he murmured against my lips.

I snorted. “I don’t think that’s the kind of ‘rise’ it means.”

“Then I like my version better.” He tugged the blanket from
around me and spread it on the floor. “Lie down,” he murmured. “Let me show you
just how I feel about you.”

I did as he asked. He trailed his gaze appreciatively over
my naked form, without even a flicker of revulsion. It was more than I could
ever have asked for, and my eyes burned again with emotion.

Griffin stripped off his clothes, the firelight painting his
skin with gold. The sight of him stole my breath: firm muscles and broad chest,
the dusting of freckles across his shoulders and the darker line of hair
curling from navel to groin. My member roused in response, and he smiled. “Do
you like what you see?”

“Very much,” I whispered. “Do you?”

He bent over me, lips feathering across my temple, my cheek.
“Yes,” he whispered into my ear, before drawing back and kissing me hungrily on
the mouth. He tasted of the tea we’d drunk, and I was reminded sharply of
Theo’s kiss last night.

“Last night,” I said.

He stilled. “Yes?”

“Theo kissed me.”

“I see.” For a long minute he stared off into nothing. Then
he met my gaze. “You know I’ll forgive you, if it was more than a kiss.”

“What? No!” I ran my hand over his face, tracing the lines
of cheekbone and jaw. “I know you would, but there’s nothing to forgive. I
refused him immediately. I just…I didn’t want to start anew by lying again, even
by omission.”

He looked at me searchingly…then his lips curved up into a
smile. “I won’t pretend I’m not relieved to hear it. An educated man…another
sorcerer…that British accent…”

“Hmph. Perhaps I ought to be the one who’s jealous.”

He laughed softly and kissed me again, more leisurely,
driving any thoughts of Theo out of my head. “Tell me what you want,” I said. I
reached for his length, but he caught my hand.

“I want to touch you for a while.” His fingers skated over
my collarbone, down to my nipple, pausing to tease. I gasped softly at the
pleasure and arched my back in silent invitation. But he only grinned and took
my right hand in his.

He traced the lacework of scars the lightning had left
behind: down my fingers and hand, up my wrist and over my forearm, lingering on
my elbow. “Do they trouble you?”

“Not really. Occasionally. When I use magic, mainly, as if
they’re sensitized to it.”

He traced them all the way up to my shoulder, then said,
“Roll over.”

I obeyed. The lightning scars came to an end on my right
shoulder blade. On my left showed another knot of scars, these caused by the
vicious bite of Nitocris, queen of the gh
ū
ls.
Although the infected bite had nearly cost my life, not even an ache remained
now.

I lay on my belly, hard cock tucked down to point between my
slightly parted legs. Griffin kissed first one shoulder, then the other, and
the brush of his skin on mine made me shiver with desire. His cock slid against
my crease, and he kissed the back of my neck. He breathed deep and nuzzled my
hair. “You smell so good.”

I closed my eyes at the reminder. “Like the ocean?”

“Like companionship.” He kissed my neck again. “Like love.”

He worked his way slowly down my spine, planting a little
kiss on every vertebra, his hands tracing the curve of rib and flesh. An
involuntary yelp escaped me when he bit me on one buttock. He laughed and
repeated the same action on the other.

He gripped my buttocks in his hands, spreading me open. My
breath grew short with anticipation, and after a moment, I was rewarded with
the touch of his tongue on my fundament.

I bit my lip against a needy whimper, felt the soft breath
of his chuckle on my exposed flesh. He licked and kissed until I squirmed
beneath him. Then he dragged his tongue lower, over my balls and onto my cock,
hard against the blanket.

“Griffin, please,” I whispered.

“Turn over.”

The request startled me; I’d assumed he meant to take me.
But I did as he asked, rolling over onto my back. He nuzzled my thighs, then
moved to my length and took me into his mouth.

After a heavenly few minutes, he drew back. His eyes were
dark with lust, his lips full and red from sucking on me. “You taste so good.”
He moved to straddle my hips, so his prick lay against mine. “Smell so good. I
love it. I love everything about you.”

I slid my hands up his thighs to his buttocks, firm beneath
my questing fingers. “You feel good, too.”

“I’m glad.” He leaned over me, bracing his hands to either
side of my shoulders. “Hold us together and let me make it feel even better.”

I wrapped one hand loosely around our cocks. The other I
slid around the back of his neck, fingers tangling in his hair. His hips
flexed, sliding us together, the slow, slick pleasure of his hard length
against mine. I caressed the tip, gathered the liquid seeping from us both,
spread it mingled together over our members.

“Look at me,” he whispered. “I want you to know just how
badly I need this, need you.”

Only thin green rings showed around his dilated pupils. His
lips were parted, damp from our kisses, from sucking on me. The expression on
his face was one of desire, as raw as the friction of his cock against mine,
the gasp of his breath. All the hollow spaces inside were filled with his
presence, and I whispered his name over and over again.

He responded, rocking against me with greater urgency. “Yes,
this, Ival,” he said and a shudder of pleasure went through him. “This. Us,
together.”