Tempest of Vengeance (3 page)

“What did you do?”

“Grabbed her up, and headed downstairs,
feeling ashamed of myself. I called Titus, told him what I needed
him to do, and he said he’d come and do it. He bespelled Diana last
night, after I moved her to the other room. But I was still angry,
and after he left, I came to you...” Devlin trailed off.

I reached out and grabbed his hand. He looked
over at me, his golden eyes a little sad, and squeezed mine. I was
glad I’d taken back my words from last night. Maybe I wasn’t woman
enough to keep his violent nature under control. But Venus seemed
already a match for him.

* * * *

It was Saturday morning, the thirteenth of
November. I’d not heard from Theo all week, and in spite of
spending all of Friday with Devon and Elle, I’d promised them both
I’d come for a big breakfast the very next morning, at Elle’s
request. With all that had happened, I didn’t have the heart to
refuse her. Especially knowing that Jenny was going to visit Mary
for the weekend and would not be at Danial’s to possibly run
into.

Mary, Danial’s retired housekeeper, had
waited only a week to make sure her daughter was okay after
becoming werecougar before moving out of Danial’s estate, and down
south. Part of me was glad she was gone now, so Jenny would also be
gone for a while. Mary had loved Danial, and I knew Jenny was in
part going to break the news to her of Danial’s injury. She’d been
with him for forty-some years at least, if not longer, and news of
his injury was going to hit her hard. Part of me was just glad to
know I’d have Theo to myself for a weekend. I’d let things slide
with him already for far too long.

I arrived at Danial’s at about nine. I felt
so odd to be there, and know that if I knocked on Danial’s bedroom
door, I’d get no answer. Well, I would, but it would be T, not his
father. I’d heard from Elle he’d taken over the central bedroom
now. It was so strange to think of him there, sleeping on the bed
on which he’d been conceived. I shoved the thought aside.
Be
grateful he’s still alive. If Ulysses had his way, T would be
dead.

I tried not to dwell on that, and went to see
Elle. She was asleep in her bed.

I woke her by gently shaking her shoulder.
“Elle?”

“Sorry,” she responded sleepily, looking a
little guilty. “I stayed up late watching a movie—”

“It’s Saturday, you’re supposed to sleep in,”
I comforted. “Where’s your father?”

“Downstairs, I think,” she said, giving me a
knowing look. “And he’s alone.”

It was good to have a smart daughter who
didn’t make her mother ask certain things. “Go back to sleep then,”
I said, with a smile. “Let Devon sleep in, too. But if you hear
him, please—”

“I’ll stop him going downstairs,” Elle said,
giving me a smile. “Don’t worry.”

I closed the door, then quietly made my way
into the basement. Theo had heard me coming, of course, and was
waiting for me in bed awake before I reached the bottom of the
cellar stairs.

I took it as a good sign that he didn’t have
a gun in his hand. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he said coldly. “Why are you here so
early?”

“I came to make breakfast,” I said, biting my
lip. “Do you want some?”

“No,” he retorted, and rolled over to face
the wall, putting his back to me.

Great. Be an ass.
I went over to the
bed, and sat down. “I’m sorry, for what I said to you that day in
the kitchen,” I said. “I was upset, and took it out on you.”

“You don’t give damn for me or for our
son—”

“I love him best of my children,” I said in
the quietest whisper I could manage, not wanting Elle to overhear,
or T, if he was indeed sleeping above us, and not with Serena. “And
I give a damn about you, too, or I wouldn’t be here talking to you
when you’re being such a jerk.”

Theo didn’t any anything nasty in retort, but
he didn’t roll over, either.

I sighed, and deftly slipped off my
sweatshirt, jeans, and my underclothes. Then I crawled into bed
beside him, though I didn’t touch him. “I left messages for you.
Did you—?”

“Of course I got them!” Theo growled. “How
blunt do I have to be? I didn’t want to talk to you, Sar. I didn’t
want to see you! You had said you didn’t want to see me,
remember?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching out and hugging
his body to mine. “It isn’t your fault, any of what’s
happened.”

“It’s fucking Devlin’s fault, all of it,”
Theo growled. “He’s a son of a bitch, and he’s brought down this
shit storm on us all!”

“It is all his fault.”

Theo turned over to face me, surprised. “You
aren’t going to defend him?”

“How can I?” I said bluntly. “You’re saying
what I told him a few nights ago, some of it almost word for word.
I can’t defend the guilty.”

Theo stared at me, his blue eyes penetrating
and standoffish. “Why didn’t you come to me before now?”

“Because Danial told me you were with Jenny
every night. And I didn’t want to risk coming and interrupting
anything.”

Theo hugged me to him. “I thought you meant
what you said, that you didn’t want to see me, maybe not ever
again.”

“No,” I explained, “I was angry, and—”

Theo kissed me suddenly. I shivered a little,
feeling his warm body against mine. “I’m safe,” he whispered, as he
pushed my legs apart gently, but my answer was drowned in his growl
of pleasure as he thrust into me. Theo was shaking hard, growling
almost continuously, and in a few seconds, he roared out his
climax, the warmth of him filling me.

He pushed up from me, shoving back a lock of
hair that had fallen over his forehead.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t wait,” he said, not
looking sorry at all. His face was one big grin.

I rolled my eyes at him. He tickled me. I
shrieked, and pleaded with him to stop, which he did, but only when
I grabbed hold of his penis, the thickness rapidly firming in my
hand.

“Again?”

He gave me a tender look. “Yes, wife.
Again.”

Theo made love to me a few more times before
we lay sated in each other’s arms. Every time he came very fast,
much faster than usual for him, or what had been usual in the time
we’d been together.

“Couldn’t wait?” I teased.

“Mating in animal form brings the urge to
mate as human, just like the reverse is true,” he whispered, his
tone hesitant.

He had been unsure how I’d take the
explanation, due to the direct reference to sex with Jenny. I
wasn’t upset. On the contrary, his behavior proved he’d been true
to me, that he hadn’t been with Jenny, save as animal. “I’m glad
you waited for me,” I said.

“I love you,” he said happily, kissing me.
“Of course I waited. I had promised to, besides. It’s a—”

Just because I was accepting of his needs
didn’t mean I wanted details, though. “Want some breakfast?”

“Sure,” he said eagerly. “Want me to go wake
the kids?”

“No, you can go make us all breakfast—”

That led to another round of tickling, until
I yelled out for him to stop again. “I’ll go get Devon and Elle,” I
said, kissing him. “Meet us in the kitchen?”

He nodded. “I’ll call T, and let him know
where I’ll be, and then I’ll see you there.”

Hearing that made me believe T was indeed
with Serena. But it was just as well, because otherwise he would
have overheard us, and I still felt funny, thinking of my child,
even grown, hearing me having sex. It was hard enough still for me
to think of him having sex.

I dropped that line of thinking and slipped
on my clothes, and Theo got into some jeans. He kissed me a last
time, grinned, and gave me a light slap on my ass as I walked
upstairs. I shot him a look to remind him I didn’t like it when he
did that, and he shot me the look that said he liked doing it, so
oh well.

I walked into Elle’s room and made the offer
of breakfast, giving it even odds that she would fall back asleep
after I left. Closing her door, I went down the hall to T’s old
room, which was now Devon’s room. Theo had told me that Devon had
been moved in here from the smaller storage room after he began to
get so big these last few weeks. It made sense, as T had taken over
the upstairs bedroom back then, saying he liked the up in the air
feeling of the greatroom’s loft. I thought he must have gotten that
from Danial. I hated the idea of sleeping so far up off the actual
ground.

Devon was in his human bed in lion form,
stretched out on top, as he liked to. Briar the black cat was
curled up beside him, and she raised her head when I came in the
door. But Devon didn’t.

I couldn’t believe Devon was still sleeping.
But he’d probably stayed up last night with Elle. She’d said she’d
watched movies late.

“Come on honey, wake up,” I said loudly.
Briar, always skittish, started, and jumped down, running from the
room.

Devon still didn’t stir.

“You’re as bad as your father,” I said,
smiling. “Devon, get—”

It was at that moment that I saw he wasn’t
breathing.

Chapter
Two

My heart seemed to stop, and everything from
that point went in slow motion.

I grabbed Devon up in my arms, feeling how
cold and stiff my son’s body was.

“No! Please God!
No
!”

My next scream deafened me, as I went to my
knees, holding the lifeless body of my son. I kept screaming,
stopping only to take great draughts of air to give sound to my
pain.

“Sar! Sar, what the—?” I felt Theo’s hands on
me, holding us. As he roared out his rage and agony, I fainted.

When I awoke, I was lying in Danial’s bed
with Theo. Instantly Devon’s death hit me like a ton of bricks. I
began screaming again hysterically, and crying. Theo held me, and
we cried together for a long time, not saying anything to each
other. What was there to say? Our baby was dead. And everything I’d
hoped for him to become, and experience, would never happen.

We slept after, holding each other tightly.
When I awoke, I felt calmer, the enervation borne of grief that was
temporarily exhausted. Theo was sitting beside me. He seemed to
have aged considerably, his face lined and grief-ridden.

“Sar, please listen. I have to tell you some
things,” he said roughly. “First of all, Devon died of natural
causes. Terian and Titus examined him for cause of death, as well
as Dr. Camlyn. They can’t find any reason; Devon was in perfect
health! Stephen says that he most likely died of SIDS, that it
happens sometimes, there’s no cause that’s known, that a baby just
stops breathing—”

I began crying again, but motioned for him to
go on.

“It’s important that you know that Ulysses
didn’t get him. No one hurt him. He just died in his sleep, and he
didn’t suffer. And as much as we loved him, we have to let him
go—”

“He’s my baby,” I sobbed. “I can’t let him
go. I won’t!”

“We’ll see him again, at least you will, in
Heaven,” Theo said gently. “He never did anything evil or hurtful,
so he’s there, if there is a Heaven, Sar.”

“You’re right,” I said, wiping at my eyes,
grabbing at the comfort in that belief with both hands. “He’s
there. Suri will watch over him, until you and I get there
someday.”

Theo hugged me. “I want to put him in
Danial’s graveyard. I’ve ordered a rough stone, and I’m going to
carve it myself. I’ve told T that I need a week off, and he said
Terian can cover for me—”

“Is that safe?” I said, looking at him in
surprise. “You were already shorthanded—”

“T isn’t Danial,” Theo said harshly. “He
wants to make enough money to live, and that’s it. We’re going to
work hard for the next month, and finish the outstanding cases. And
then we’re only going to take on enough work so the three of us can
make a decent living. All of us want to have a life besides work,
something Danial never seemed to understand. Terian’s got a baby
coming, and T wants to have some downtime, too. He’s been working
sixteen hour days for most of the past six weeks, and at least a
few hours on every weekend. And I need to be there for you, and for
Elle. We’ve lost so much. I don’t want to lose you too.”

I hugged him tightly, and didn’t say
anything, fresh tears rolling down my cheeks.

* * * *

That very afternoon, we buried Devon. The
weather was fitting, as it poured rain and sleet for hours. Terian
made a deep grave as he had before for Suri, the whirlwind churning
up the half-frozen earth and mud. We placed our son’s ashes into
the hole, crying anew at the wrongness of that little wrapped
bundle down in the cold earth.

“Titus cremated him earlier, under my
supervision,” Theo murmured to me. “It’s safest for Devon.”

I didn’t know what that meant, and didn’t
want to ask. Theo had said earlier he didn’t want to hear any shit
about God, or anything religious, that any God who would take his
son from him was a grade A bastard he wanted nothing to do with. I
didn’t fight him, knowing it would be useless. Instead, Terian
spoke some good things about Devon, and so did Cia. Theo and I
stood together with Elle, the other foxes, Theoron, Sundown, Brian
and Demi behind us, as Tears filled in the hole. There was only a
rough stump where the grave was to mark it, though Theo told me
again discreetly he’d already ordered the granite, and that it
would arrive tomorrow. I nodded absently as he hugged me close, too
worn out to speak.

Later, we went back to Danial’s, and had a
somber gathering in the great room. Everyone gave condolences, and
I nodded in return, hugging them back as they hugged me. I got
through most of it in a daze, and didn’t remember afterward who had
even been there, or what they had said to me. All I could think of
over and over was that Devon, my baby, was dead. I’d never see him
grow up, or smile again, or come to me with a mouse he’d caught, so
proud, with his tail in the air like a banner. What hurt me most
was that I’d never seen him in human form, only as a lion cub. Now
I never would.