Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 (21 page)

“Not really,” she said quietly.

That surprised him. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Pretty sure.” She took a deep breath and finally looked at him. “Gabe said you would know how the war started, who started it, who’s to blame, and so on.”

Hadrian sat back. She used her violet eyes just like Amelia had. When his beloved was angry, she could use them as weapons; their innate beauty became unnerving. But not to him. He had grown used to it. He had learned a few things about Magic User women, one being they hid their vulnerability well. Syney was scared, but there was no way she would let him know it. “Maybe.”

She stared at him for a moment. “You’re seriously going to hold out on me?”

“No.”

“Then start talking.”

“Not until we get to know each other.”

She opened her mouth and looked away from him. “I don’t really want to get to know you, if you want to know the truth. You scare the hell out of me, and I’m not so convinced you’re my father. And even if you are,” she paused, “you’d better have a damn good reason for why my mother died and you’re still here.” She looked back at him, tears filling her eyes.

Maybe Gabe was right. She wasn’t a typical Magic User. “Because she wanted it that way,” he said. “I tried to stop her, but she knew that if I were with her, they would kill me too. Your mother was the bravest woman I’d ever met. She died to save you.”

“So I’m the reason she’s dead.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Yes, you did. I guess Daemons don’t listen well, even to themselves,” she spat.

Hadrian sighed. “They were tracking any magic around the Realm. She needed to use magic to find out the truth about what was going on in the
Village. She chose to find out anything she could, to help you and the Realm, and give up her position.”

“Why would they kill her? And who are ‘they’ anyway?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Uncomplicate it.”

Hadrian’s temper had been rising more and more as they talked, and he could no longer hold it back. “Would you just stop for a moment and acknowledge the fact that you’re finally meeting your father! There’s more to all this than just the damn war! I want to know you, not some damn Chosen One! Because you’re my daughter, damn it!”

Syney jumped to her feet. “I already have a father, thank you very much! He raised me and taught me right from wrong. He was an amazing dad, and he died because of all this crap! So, no, there isn’t much beyond this damn war, because it’s taken so much from me and the people I love, and I just want to stomp it out!” she yelled before heading out of the room.

After a moment Gabriel walked in and took the seat Syney had abandoned. “She hates me,” Hadrian said, deflated.

“Yes, she does.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Thanks for the encouragement.”

Gabriel laughed. “You’re Hadrian, the Daemon king who seduced Queen Amelia, whom if I’m not mistaken was in love with someone else at the time. You don’t need encouragement.”

“She wasn’t in love with him.”

“Yes, she was.” Gabriel looked at him. “I told you nothing was going to get accomplished today. Let her get some sleep. We’ll try in the morning.”

“I don’t know how to get to her,” Hadrian admitted, although it almost killed him to do so.

“Just tell her what she wants to know. Once she trusts you, she’ll want to know more personal things.”

Hadrian nodded. He looked over as the others walked down the hall, heading for the staircase. He knew he should take Gabriel’s advice and just let things settle, but he needed to prod her a little. He couldn’t let there be any chance that she might not want to talk to him at all. “Syney!” he called out.

She stopped and looked at him.

“Syney was my grandmother’s name,” he said. “I wanted you to have an ‘A’ name, like the rest of your line, but Amelia said she wanted part of me with you, always. So we named you Syney Ashling. ‘Ashling’ means ‘vision,’ like the one she had when she had you.” He was well aware that everyone’s eyes were on him, but he didn’t care. He wanted to give her some proof that she was his.

Syney looked away from him and headed up the stairs.

He felt Gabriel’s hand on his shoulder. “I’ll work on her tonight. Or Noelle will. She’ll listen to her.”

Hadrian nodded. “I hope so.” He gave Gabriel a smirk. “She’s pretty.”

“Looks just like Amelia.”

“I wasn’t talking about Syney.”

Gabriel dropped his hand and looked away with a grin. “Yes, she is. And part Shifter too.”

“Interesting.”

“Yes, she is,” Gabriel said, walking away. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night.” Hadrian sighed and headed to the back of the house. He found Becca in the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of tea. “Got anything stronger?”

She laughed and grabbed a bottle of red wine from a shelf. She put it on the table along with a glass. “Girls are temperamental, or at least that’s what my mother always said.”

Hadrian poured a glass and took one large gulp. “I don’t know. I just hope too much time hasn’t passed.”

Becca shook her head. “No, she’s just…unsettled about all this. She’s very open-minded. I wish she had brought her other wolf, though. He helped her sort things through.”

“Sounds like Amelia’s wolf. He was a pain in the ass to everyone but her.”

She laughed and sipped her tea. “Hunter was very possessive. I will say that. Plus he loved her in a way a Protector shouldn’t. I was more than surprised when he didn’t come.”

Hadrian stared at her. “Hunter?”

She nodded and drank her tea.

Hadrian downed the rest of the glass and poured another. Damn wolves. He shook the thought off and grabbed a pad of paper from the table. He asked Becca for a pen and started to write things down. If Syney wanted to know about the damn war, he would give her everything he knew. He wrote for half the night, ending with the highlights of his relationship with Amelia. He was going to force her into her it if he had to.

Adam looked at the open bedroom door behind him before answering Gabe’s question. “I just wasn’t sure I wanted to be stuck with you people for three whole days.”

“Hey!” Noelle said, sitting next to him on the bed.

“You I don’t mind,” he said, looking at her. He looked at Gabe, who was sitting on the window seat. “You, on the other hand…”

Gabe shook his head. “That’s no reason not to want to come, especially since Syney wanted you here.”

Adam glanced at the door again. “I’m not sure how I feel about that either.”

“You love her. What’s not to know?” Noelle said softly.

Adam shrugged. He had been thinking the same things for the past few days. He did love Syney, but she still loved Hunter. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be second place. What would happen if Hunter ever returned to the palace? Would everything he and Syney had be pushed to the side? He didn’t know if he could handle that.

“Syney and Hunter are never going to happen.”

Adam looked at Gabe. He knew that Gabe couldn’t read his mind, but the Vampire was overly observant. “She still loves him. I can’t compete with that. No matter how much I love her.”

Gabe looked past him. “I don’t know. I think a lot of it has to do with who you choose to be with.”

“He’s not here, so I win by default?”

“She could have asked Reed to take her somewhere other than here,” Gabe said. “But she didn’t. And she asked for you to be here.”

“Doesn’t mean she loves me, the real me.”

“Do you love her?”

“Yes, I already said that.”

“Then I would trust her to love you back,” Gabe said. “Tell her everything, and I think she may surprise you.”

“Whatever,” Adam said, standing up. “I’m going to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned and looked right at Syney, who was leaning against the doorframe. She gave him a small smile. He sighed and turned back to Gabe. “You’re an ass.”

Gabe laughed. “That should be my middle name. Gabriel Ass McMann.”

“I like it,” Noelle said, sitting down next to him.

Adam took a deep breath and turned back to Syney. “Forget you heard any of that.”

She frowned. “But I don’t want to,” she said slowly.

He didn’t say anything; he just shook his head. “Do you need something?”

“I…um…didn’t want to be alone.”

Adam looked at Noelle, who nodded and stood up.

“I was hoping you’d stay with me,” Syney said, looking at Adam.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.

She bit her lip. “Did I…do something?”

He sighed. “No.”

“I just…I’m sorry if I…Hunter is just a sensitive topic for me.”

“I get it,” Adam said, walking past her into the hallway.

“No, you don’t,” she said, pulling him to a stop. “He’s very much my past. Even if he did come back, I wouldn’t be anywhere near him, and I wouldn’t want to be. He chose this—you were right. It would have been easier if he had died.”

Adam shook his head. “Not for you. Either way would be pretty bad.”

Syney nodded. “I guess. But whatever he did or didn’t do, it doesn’t matter. Because I love you, and you’re here right now. That’s all that matters.”

He looked at her for a moment before cupping her cheek in his palm. “I need to know you really want this because I can’t…You mean too much to me.”

Syney took a deep breath and closed the gap between them to kiss him. “I’m all in. I promise.”

He smiled and kissed her again. Then he pulled her into the room across the hall. “I really do want to be honest with you.”

“OK,” she said, kicking off her shoes and sitting up against the headboard. “Let’s talk then.”

He took off his suit jacket and shoes and sat next to her. “Where do you want me to start?”

She smiled. “You’re not really twenty-six.”

Adam laughed. “Yes and no. I stopped aging at twenty-six.”

“How do you do that?” she asked, turning to face him, her face bright with intrigue. This was the Syney he had fallen so hard for.

He shrugged. “It’s a Vampire thing. I tell my body to just stop.”

“Can you start again?”

He nodded. “Usually Vampires wait for someone they want to spend the rest of their life with, or they just get tired of life.”

“Huh. So how old are you actually?”

“One hundred nineteen.”

Her eyes grew a little wide. “So you’re…wow. Your number s
o
isn’t eighteen, is it?”

He laughed. “No.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to know.”

He took her hand in his. “But you really will be the first I’ve cared about. That I didn’t lie about.”

Syney leaned forward and kissed him. “Good. So who are your parents?”

Adam sighed. This he never talked about, even to those who knew what he was. He didn’t like to talk about it. “My mother was Queen Faye’s handmaiden. And my father was Gabe’s good friend and the commander of the Vampire army.”

Syney slowly nodded. “Gabe was the one who took you in.”

“He did.” He took a deep breath. “He wasn’t the best father in the world, but he tried. He blames himself, you know. For all this. That’s why he pushes himself so hard.”

“He blames himself? Why?”

“Because he joined with Faye. They were the first interracial joining that was in the public eye. They pissed some people off, greatly.”

Syney sighed. “He still has a problem with messing around with people’s lives.”

“Yes, he does. That’s been that way for a long time. Trust me,” Adam said.

“Do you know how they died?”

“Only what Gabe told me. There’s this power that doesn’t like the mixing of the races. He thinks it’s Magic User based. They killed the whole Blocadrian line and the Vilori line, letting other races take the blame. He told me he had left the Vampire palace to do something with Hadrian. When he returned, they
were all slaughtered. He found me in a vent, half dead. He thinks my mother got me there before they killed her.” Adam heard his voice crack.

Syney wiped some tears from her eyes before moving to put her arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”

He leaned against the top of her head. “I’d give anything to be able to do what you can here with your father.”

Syney pulled away. “Then why don’t we? Can’t we do that spell that you did for me, with my adoptive parents?”

Adam shook his head. “I’ve tried. They’re not there. I don’t know why.”

She put her hand to his face. “I really am so sorry.”

Adam stared at her for a moment. “Don’t let this opportunity slip by. I don’t care if you like him or not; just keep an open mind.”

Syney nodded. “I’ll try.” She leaned forward and kissed him again, this time much deeper.

Adam slid his hand along her neck, pulling her closer to him. He wasn’t sure how far she wanted to go until she moaned into his mouth and shifted to lie down then opened the buttons on her top. He felt his heart race as he slid on top of her, losing his shirt in the process. This time he had nothing to hide from her. It felt even more amazing than he thought it would as he kissed his way down her neck. He brushed his lips against her ear. “I love you,” he whispered.

Syney moved her hands to grab his face and pulled him so they could look into each other’s eyes. “I love you so much,” she said before kissing him hard.