Dead After Dark (42 page)

She lifted his hand and placed it over her heart. “You hear love with your heart, not your mind. I can’t read your thoughts, either, but I hear your love in every word you speak, every time you touch me, every kiss we share.”

Damn. He’d never considered that she couldn’t read his mind, either. She was taking as big a risk as him, more so if he could take her as a mate because she didn’t know what she would be signing on for if they joined as one for life.

“I love you, Sasha.” The words leaped out without thought, but now that he’d said them Trey would not take them back.

“I know you do. I love you, too, so let’s stop spending our life apart.”

“If I take a mate,” he began and cleared his throat, “my mate and any children from the union would be subject to any repercussions I’d suffer from a bad decision.”

“I don’t understand.” Sasha scrunched her forehead.

“Basically, if I break my oath—honor above all else—and
take an action Macha considers dishonorable any mate will face the same fate she decrees for me.”

“Oh, is that all?” Sasha smiled. “You’re the most honorable man I know. If she sends you away it means I go, too? That seals the deal for me. I trust you completely to make the right choices, so I’m in.”

Which was exactly why that condition had been attached to all Belador unions. No warrior, male or female, would risk a mate by making a careless decision.

“The final decision is not in my hands,” Trey added. “Beladors normally mate with humans, not another supernatural. We carry a gene from our ancestors that could turn into an evil spawn if two Beladors mate. The woman in the hologram was Brina, the warrior queen who leads our tribe. She answers only to Macha. We’d have to get her permission and she can be—”
Difficult, irritating, impossible to find
. . .

I can also send you to live in Antarctica
, Brina snapped.

Sorry, Brina
.

“
She’s
the leader of the Beladors?” Sasha asked. “Wow, she’s so totally awesome and beautiful.”

I like this girl
, Brina piped up.

Brina, would you approve of Sasha as my mate?
Trey asked before he couldn’t find her again.

Sasha proved she is honorable and worthy of a Belador. Now you must prove you are worthy of her. I welcome her into our tribe. She’ll at least assure you won’t start another war
.
So marry her with my blessing
.

Thank you, Brina, and thanks for tonight
.
I’m going to do my best to not disappoint you for helping me
.

You’d better not disappoint me
. A spot on his forehead tingled briefly—a Brina touch of affection. Then she was gone.

“Uh, Sasha, we got approval already.”

“What? Did you two just talk? I’ll have to think on how I feel about that.”

Trey’s stomach fell through the floor. “So you’ve changed your mind?”

“About what?”

“Marrying me.”

“You haven’t asked. Now that I think about it, I may make you wait for my answer as payback for nine years of misery.”

He pulled her into his arms and kissed this woman who believed in him without question. Fate had thrown him a curve ball at twenty-one when he accepted his destiny. If he’d known then he would end up with Sasha, he’d have been a lot happier about it.

Trey broke the kiss. “I’m asking you tonight and you’re answering me immediately.”

“You think?” She grinned, full of mischief.

“I know. Give me five minutes with you in bed and you’ll be willing to agree to anything.”

“That would be taking advantage of me, which may fall under the heading of dishonorable.”

He turned serious. “There is no dishonor in loving a woman as much as I love you.”

Sasha’s mirth softened and her eyes glistened. “I believe you.” She lifted up on her toes and kissed him, her lips hotter than fire. When she slid her hand down to rub an erection that might never go away with her always close, Trey groaned and kinetically turned off the lights near them. Sasha obviously intended to take just as much advantage of him as he wanted her to. He willed her sweatshirt to split open down the middle and fall away, then dipped his head to prepare her for their negotiations.

Batuk’s bellow shook the foundation of Mount Meru, his fury beyond all that Ekkbar had ever witnessed. Serving wenches scattered. His soldiers shuffled from the great hall.

The walls glowed fiery red. Flames spewed from crevices and loose boulders crashed against each other.

“M-master, please listen. All is not lost.” Ekkbar’s knees chattered against each other. When his master turned burning eyes on him, the magician shrank away.

“I will not tolerate another lie from your poisonous mouth, knave!” Batuk reared up from his throne, chest expanding convulsively with each angry breath he drew. The tips of his fingers sparked, sharpening into claws.

“I do not lie, Master,” Ekkbar whispered, his throat too dry to produce a full sound. “P-please hear me out. Hear me, please.” He swallowed and rubbed a hand over his head. Sweat streamed into his eyes. Batuk’s rant had steamed the
nihar
, threatening to boil the underworld inhabitants.

“Give me one reason I should not spend the rest of eternity in this dung pit slicing a strip off your skinny hide daily and making you fry it for my meal.”

“B-because Vyan is still in the other world. Alive.”

“I care not that he has survived when the rest of us are still imprisoned.”

“Vyan can—” Ekkbar swallowed again, hoping he was not about to seal his grisly fate. “He can search for another to open the portal on his side.” At the tiny spark of interest in Batuk’s eyes, Ekkbar rushed ahead. “ ’Tis true, ’tis true. I can guide him through dreams, just as I did the witch.”

Batuk bared his teeth and snapped his fingers. A razor-edged dagger appeared in the palm of his hand.

Ekkbar cringed at his stupid blunder.
Don’t mention the witch again
, ever. “But this time, Vyan will be on the other side to assure success. We can do this, Master.”

Batuk growled low in his throat, panting. He stared off into nothing, thinking. The temperature slowly lowered until he dropped his gaze to Ekkbar. “You have one more chance.”

Trey leaned against a giant oak at the side of the wide clearing, arms crossed and impatient as he waited for the strike of midnight. The two months Brina had made him wait to marry wouldn’t have been a big deal if he hadn’t spent half that time away from Sasha on VIPER missions.

Beladors, VIPER teammates, and the Wiccan side of his new family milled around. A full moon smiled down at its reflection in the lake surrounded by a fortress of Blue Ridge Mountains.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t invite your father, Trey, but we’ll have a lovely ceremony with him, too.” Rowan glided toward him so smoothly he had to check to see that her sequined shoes actually touched the ground beneath the tail of her garnet gown.

“I know.” It hurt not to bring his father here, but Trey lived in two worlds sometimes and keeping his father in the normal one protected the only parent who had ever really loved him. And his dad was crazy about Sasha, always had been. He spent almost as much time now with Sasha as Trey did.

“Who all came from VIPER?” Rowan asked casually, but Trey knew who she was looking for.

“I invited Lucien, too, but I never heard a word from him.”

“That doesn’t surprise you, does it?”

“No. Just thought I’d let you know.”

She smiled. “Thanks. I think I’ll see him again. I like that Sasha wanted you in all black and everyone else in red.”

He smiled, willing to have worn any color Sasha wanted, so long as she spent the rest of her life with him.

“Who sent the fairies?” Rowan asked. “Sasha loves them.”

“Lucien.” The dog. Trey glanced at the tiny sprites fluttering around the tall wedding cake, lighting the layers with their blinking glows. “Wish I’d had a resource for them.”

“Lucien?” Rowan’s eyes melted with adoration.

Trey appreciated anything that made Sasha happy, just not from that guy.

The fairies began to hum, their voices rising into a hauntingly beautiful melody.

“Excuse me, that’s my cue.” Trey stepped into the center of the opening.

From the shadows of the woods, Sasha appeared in a sprinkle of light where fairies fluttered around her. She wore short black boots with stiletto heels and a strapless dress of sheer material draped in alternating red and black layers. Trey had gifted her with the silver-and-black Belador pendant. The triangular icon crafted with their Celtic design hung from a silver choker.

Her lips were painted a deep red, so dark they were almost black. The silky rush of black hair fanned her shoulders.

Trey hadn’t thought he could love her any more than he already did, but he’d never forget her walking toward him at this minute. The attendants circled them when Sasha reached
him. She held a bouquet of black roses and red baby’s breath that Rowan had conjured up for her.

Trey leaned down to kiss his future mate and the love of his life. The roses in the bouquet sighed. When a hologram spun into vision, he turned his left wrist up where the shape of a star glowed beneath his skin; then he took Sasha’s right wrist and pressed it to his. By the end of the ceremony, they would be linked for life.

Shooting stars exploded in the cloudless sky, showering the clearing with a dazzling light.

Trey whispered in Sasha’s ear, “
Those
are from me.”

Her beaming smile outshined the light display that continued as Brina began the ceremony. No telepathy reached him tonight. His tribe had refrained from doing so as a consideration for his future wife, reaffirming for him the value of listening with his heart.

He squeezed her fingers. When Sasha smiled up at him, he accepted his destiny knowing she would always be at his side.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

DEAD AFTER DARK

“Shadow of the Moon” copyright © 2008 by Sherrilyn Kenyon.

“The Story of Son” copyright © 2008 by Jessica Bird.

“Beyond the Night” copyright © 2008 by Susan Squires.

“Midnight Kiss Goodbye” copyright © 2008 by Dianna Love Snell.

All rights reserved.

For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

eISBN: 978-1-4299-4667-4

EAN: 978-0-312-94798-9

St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / December 2008

St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

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