Temptation, Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 3 (17 page)

Chapter Fifteen

“Xander and Kyanna will be here soon,” Gideon told Maggie as he crossed the backyard and approached the gazebo.

“I’d better run inside and change,” Maggie murmured. She rose from where she’d been clearing out one of the many flower gardens and dusted her hands on the knees of her jeans. She’d politely refused his offers to conjure the yard back into shape, insisting she needed something to do.

She studiously avoided looking at him as she hurried toward the house. She’d been doing a lot of that since this morning, avoiding him like the plague ever since she’d begged him to get her a pregnancy test and then sat for hours staring in shock at the little plus sign on the stick. His temper was coming apart at the seams. Much more of this and he was likely to snap.

He watched her scurry across the yard, as if fearful he might follow if she lingered. Swearing beneath his breath, he swung around to glower at the lazy river. But getting his temper under control was fast becoming more than he could manage. Not even the peaceful solitude, nor the gentle sounds of nature could soothe him as they once had.

He glanced over his shoulder at the gazebo where Maggie seemed to prefer spending so much of her time. The damned thing was all but falling apart. She’d insisted it was fine. That it had character.

It was a damned hazard. An accident waiting to happen. And she was—

He stopped, forcing a swallow.

She was pregnant. She didn’t have any business putting herself in danger. With a swift, focused thought and a push of energy, Gideon conjured the gazebo back to its original whitewashed glory, complete with climbing emerald vines. She could get mad all she wanted—at least she’d be safe.

Hell, maybe that was what he needed to do. Piss her off on a regular basis. It might relieve him of some of this anger, and it might chip through that careful, cordial wall of ice she’d erected between them.

No. Probably not the best idea. She was pregnant after all. He should be working to keep her calm, give her peace. Not plotting ways to make her blow a gasket.

Even as the thought occurred, a burst of pain shot through his head, and he could feel his energy waning. Made reckless by his frustration, he ignored the pain and extended himself further, depleting his energy just a bit more by conjuring a sturdy log swing, placing it in a golden patch of sunlight.

Sitting down, he tipped his aching head back, basking in the sun’s rays. This would be a peaceful place for Maggie to read, or just to sit and enjoy the calm. He turned slightly in his seat, taking in the yard behind the house.

It was too soon just yet, but someday he’d put a swing set beneath the shade of that big maple. Maybe a jungle gym. Oh, and a sandbox too. Kids loved sandboxes, didn’t they? Of course, he’d have to put up a fence. No little kid should be playing around a river.

Will he hate me as much as his mother does?

His shoulders sank, and he squinted against the bright sunlight. How had everything gone to hell so fast?

A shiver of awareness went through him. A new, familiar power had arrived, in the direction of the house. Xander was here.

Stirring himself, he drew his focus in, preparing to shimmer to the kitchen, only to catch himself at the last moment. Heaving a sigh of resignation, he pushed to his feet and slowly made his way up the gentle slope of the yard.

Gideon opened the back door to the kitchen and stepped inside. Heaving another sigh, this one of disgust, he closed the door with a rude thump. Xander had Kyanna perched on the edge of the counter, his narrow hips wedged tight between her thighs, one hand gripped tight on her ass. A mass of long blonde hair was wound around Xander’s fist, and he tugged the woman’s head back and to the side as he devoured the side of her throat. At the sound of the door closing, pretty blue eyes flew wide open, and Kyanna began pushing Xander away.

She was like a beautiful butterfly struggling against the inevitable force of the wind. She wasn’t going anywhere until Xander decided to let her go. As if to prove the point, his hand still anchored in her hair, Xander held her head still until she stopped fighting and met his steady stare. The moment her struggles ceased, he sealed his lips over hers, patently ignoring Gideon’s presence.

Xander, otherwise known as the Slayer and formerly Lucifer’s personal assassin, kissed the living daylights out of his woman. By the time he was through, Kyanna clung to his broad shoulders, fingers speared through his short deep brown hair, as she made needy little noises in the back of her throat. Their audience was all but forgotten.

With a wholly male grin of satisfaction, Xander stepped back, balancing his woman with a hand on her shoulder until she found her legs once more. The side of her neck was bright pink, abraded from Xander’s teeth and the dark whisker stubble covering the lower half of his face.

“Xander!” she hissed, red staining her cheeks as she remembered Gideon’s presence once more.

“Yeah,” Gideon drawled, plopping onto one of the kitchen chairs. “Thanks for that, by the way. I can never unsee that, you know.”

“Welcome,” Xander snarked. He sat down at the table and drew Kyanna onto his lap, one arm around her waist as he laced their fingers together on her thigh.

“First sign of trouble, and I’m shimmering Kyanna out of here,” Xander warned pointedly, the rough rasp of his voice grating through the room.

Xander had once possessed a voice every angel in Heaven envied. The sound so pure and clear, so persuasive, he could make you do his bidding and believe it was all your own idea with a simple suggestion. When the angel Gabriel and the others had torn Xander’s wings from him, they’d also mutilated his voice, forever cursing him with the abomination of sound he used now, which explained why he seldom spoke.

Kyanna twisted in his arms and jabbed Xander square in the chest with a pointed finger. “Oh, no you will not. You will not interfere with me doing my job.”

“Baby,” Xander uttered warningly.

“Xander.” Kyanna’s her chin went up in mutiny. “You promised.”

The fine lines around Xander’s mouth tightened, but eventually he nodded.

“And you will not hover,” she added, poking him again for good measure.

“That I did not promise.”

She shot him a mock glare, but then relented, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He captured the back of her head in retaliation, giving her another eye-glazing kiss. Just to prove some point, Gideon was sure.

“So where’s the Halfling?” Xander asked, turning to Gideon.

“Her name is Maggie. Use it,” Gideon snapped, earning a surprised look from Kyanna. Xander’s expression remained placid, but a spark of interest glittered in the depths of his stormy gray stare. Conjuring a caramel macchiato, Gideon leaned back in his chair and propped his ankle on his knee. “She’ll be down when she’s good and ready.”

Xander grunted, conjuring a can of Pepsi for himself and a tall glass of iced tea with a wedge of lemon for Kyanna.

“Go ahead and say it,” Gideon barked.

“Carly told us,” Kyanna admitted, excitement bubbling from her. “About Maggie being able to touch you. So it’s true? I mean, not that I didn’t believe Carly. But after all this time, Gideon! You can finally touch someone!”

Heaven forbid something should actually remain a secret. Not in this group.

“How are things going between you?” Kyanna leaned closer, whispering conspiratorially.

Gideon gritted his teeth, reminding himself that Kyanna and Carly, now viewed themselves as his honorary little sisters, nosing into his business at every turn. Even as that reality chafed, the thought warmed him.

Before he could tell Kyanna to butt out, Maggie appeared in the doorway. For a moment, he could only stare at her, probably with that same stupid look of awe Mikhail had aimed her way that morning. She’d changed into a fresh pair of jeans, and a silky, patterned top that hugged her curves and fell in soft layers around her hips. She’d also pulled her hair up in some kind of a claw-shaped clip. A few tendrils had come loose, streaming down the side of her face and trailing over her neck.

She reached up and tugged the strand by her face behind her ear. From the corner of his eye, he caught the way Xander stiffened and stared hard at Maggie’s belly.

“I’d say they’re getting along pretty damned well,” Xander growled, turning his head to give Gideon an arch stare. “Wouldn’t you, Gideon?”

Gideon watched as Maggie made her way around the table, sitting down on the opposite side as him, vigilant not to meet his gaze.

“Not so much,” he muttered.

Kyanna, as if sensing the sudden tension and seeking a way to dispel it, reached over and extended her hand.

“Hi!” she chirped brightly. “I’m Kyanna Hughes, and this is my husband, Xander.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Maggie said, shaking Kyanna’s hand. “Maggie Michaels.”

Kyanna landed a sharp elbow to his middle when Xander made no effort to greet her. He grunted before thrusting out his hand as well, obviously not pleased he was being expected to extend himself this way. Eyeing Xander warily, Maggie accepted his handshake.

“We’re still working on manners,” Kyanna stage-whispered, earning herself a fierce scowl and a warning squeeze from her husband, who nestled her firmly back in his embrace.

“So you’re the one who found me,” Maggie said. “I don’t know whether to thank you or…well, not.”

“With this group, I’d say you pegged that right on the mark.” Kyanna grinned impishly. “My mother actually found yours about the time she first got pregnant with you. They met a handful of times. My mother had begun to teach Clarisse some of the incantations to mask your powers so demons and angels wouldn’t be able to locate you. But the last time she went back, Clarisse had disappeared. By the time Mom figured out what had happened to you, you were already in the system. I’m so sorry it took so long for me to find you.”

Maggie shrugged. “It’s okay.”

Kyanna offered her a sympathetic smile. “I found papers in Mom’s things. She filed a petition to have you placed with us, once she’d managed to track you down again that is. Records back then were a nightmare. But you’d already been placed with another family, the Hansen family, and the courts felt it wouldn’t be in your best interest at the time to pull you out of the home.”

Maggie blinked in surprise. “I don’t remember meeting your mother. But that wouldn’t necessarily mean anything. I’d bounced between so many foster homes, one more grown up in the bunch might not have made any impression. I didn’t know that.” Maggie paused for a moment, taking it all in. “About your mom searching for me, I mean.”

Gideon clenched his hands beneath the table to keep from reaching for Maggie. She looked dumbfounded. As if someone had swept the rug out from under her. So she hadn’t been as alone in the world as she’d thought herself all these years.

“Why did your mother never come for me later when I was removed from the Hansens’ care?” Maggie asked in a small voice.

A fleeting look of sadness swept over Kyanna, but she quickly pushed it aside. “You’d slipped through the cracks in the system once more. By the time she found you again, you’d been placed in Stonebridge Academy. You were doing well there, had adjusted to the environment, and hadn’t exhibited any…ah, nonhuman tendencies. She checked on you a couple times, put enchantments on the school itself, but decided to wait. She wanted to let you have a normal life, if possible. She didn’t want to have to disrupt your life to tell you about…well, all of this, not until it was necessary.”

Kyanna paused then, drawing a deep breath. “Mom died before you graduated. She’d already taught me all the enchantments and such, ever since I was old enough to speak. Other kids got fairy tales. I got the
Twilight Zone
,” Kyanna said, smiling as she shook her head. “I’m kidding! But seriously, while other little kids were reciting Jack and Jill went up the hill, I was reciting angelic incantations and spells. But Mom hadn’t told me about you yet, and then she died. I suppose she thought she’d have more time, to prepare both of us. Xander and I were only recently able to track you through your teaching records.”

Maggie nodded, lost in thought as she absorbed the information. Gideon sat in stoic silence, knowing she would not appreciate any offer of support or comfort coming from his side of the table.

Kyanna glanced from Maggie to Gideon and back, eyeing the distance between them, too perceptive by half. Clearing her throat, she pushed herself from Xander’s lap.

“Maggie, why don’t we go to the den and get comfortable. We can talk a bit more before we get started on the training.”

Gideon pushed to his feet, filled with doubts. “You know, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“You promised,” Maggie said, frowning as she stood.

“That was before.” His gaze dipped to her abdomen, lingering meaningfully before lifting to hers.

Her hands crept forward to shield her stomach. “All the more reason I should learn how to protect myself—protect
us
.”

Kyanna gasped. Xander reached up and gently clasped her hand to quiet her.

“That’s right, Kyanna,” Gideon said. “We now have another relic. The Chosen One, to be exact.”

Maggie aimed an angry finger his way. “You call my child that one more time, and I’m going to throw something at your head again.”

“Again?” Xander asked, only to be shushed by Kyanna.

“
Our
child,” Gideon corrected her, ignoring Xander’s snort of laughter.

“Um, come on, Maggie,” Kyanna coaxed as she held out a hand. “I’d say we have a little bit more to discuss now.”

Maggie shot Gideon a fulminating stare, before taking Kyanna’s hand and following her from the room. Xander barely waited until they were out of earshot. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“Obviously, I wasn’t.”

Xander stared at the door the women had just exited through for a long time. “Ah, damn it. Don’t beat yourself up,” he said at last, shocking the hell out of Gideon. He’d been expecting a royal ass chewing. Not wry commiseration. “If she’s anything like Kyanna,” Xander added, shaking his head, “you didn’t stand a chance, brother.”