The Dark-Hunters (228 page)

“Really?” Tabitha asked, perking up. “Want to share? Come on, Ash, I need the Powerball numbers. Please. Please, please share! I’ll even let Simi eat all the popcorn if you tell me.”

Ash snorted, then turned toward Kyrian, Amanda, and Tabitha. “I think Vane needs some time alone with his brother and mate to talk.”

Tabitha whined. “Ash, give me those numbers!”

He looked at Tabitha drolly. “Six.”

Tabitha held up her hands and motioned to him for more. “And?”

“There’s definitely a six somewhere in the winning numbers.”

“Oh, you suck, big time,” Tabitha said, pouting for a second before she shrugged it off good-naturedly. “Well, now that we know Ash really is cruel and Vane isn’t a serial killer, I guess I better get back to my store.” She paused by Ash’s side. “We still on for the movie Friday night?”

Ash nodded. “I’ll be there, same as always.”

“Cool, see you then.” Tabitha made a quick exit.

Kyrian stared at him with his mouth agape. “You’re dating Tabitha?”

Ash gave him a crooked grin. “No, but I find her highly entertaining. She screams the most fascinating things at the movie screen and eats more popcorn than Simi. I have to say, Tabby is definitely one of my favorite people.”

“You’re a sick man, Ash,” Kyrian said as he headed for the back of the house.

“I think you’re wonderful,” Amanda said before she reached up and pulled his head down toward hers. She kissed Ash on the cheek. Releasing him, she turned in the direction Kyrian had headed off and raised her voice. “And my husband will be sleeping in the guest room for the next couple of nights.”

The baby started crying upstairs.

“I’ve got her,” Ash said, vanishing instantly.

Amanda paused by the couch. “I’ll be in the kitchen if anyone needs anything.”

“Sure,” Bride said. “You going to just poof out of here, too, Amanda?”

“I don’t have that ability.” She touched Bride’s hand comfortingly. “I know how you feel, Bride. I really do. Like you, I thought my sister was a screaming loon, and have found out over the last couple of years that she is strangely wise. Just take deep breaths and believe in the impossible.” She offered an encouraging smile to them, then left them alone.

“Well,” Fury said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess this is where you give me the heave-ho and I head out. You guys have a nice life.”

“Wait,” Vane said, standing up. “You really didn’t betray me, did you?”

“No. I only planned on betraying Stefan and his group to the Arcadians. It was a moral imperative that I screwed with their heads, not yours.” He watched Vane warily. “I’ll be honest though, Vane. I hate you and you piss me off to no end. You always have.”

“Why? What did I ever do to you?”

“You have no idea,” Fury said, his expression cold and angry. “Mom wasn’t always that nutcase you met. At least she wasn’t to me.”

Fury met Bride’s gaze. “I’m really sorry for what she did to you, Bride. But you have to understand what the Katagaria took from them. After she was kidnapped by my father, they sent all their strati out to find her. While they were gone from the village, another Katagaria pack came in and slaughtered every child they could find. They raped and murdered most of the women. Those who survived only did so because they fought them off, and most of them, like our grandmother, were never right again. That’s why you didn’t see that many women in the town.”

Fury sighed and turned back to Vane. “You don’t know about our Arcadian half. Since the first birthing of our kind, there has been an Aristo in mother’s family in every generation. Her older brother, who was killed when she was taken, was one of them. Our grandfather was another. When she returned with me, Dare, and Star, they thought I would be one, too. I had a strange scent to me that they assumed was the power.”

“But you’re not Arcadian.”

Fury shook his head. “I was the yin to your yang. I was a human child, then when I hit puberty, my base form changed to that of the wolf.”

Vane winced. He understood his brother a lot better than he cared to. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you’ve no idea. You think you had it hard? At least Anya and Fang stayed by you. Protected you. I tried to hide, but the minute Dare found out what I’d become, he told Mom. She went, pardon the bad pun, medieval on my ass.”

Vane didn’t expect anything less. His father would have done the same to him had he ever learned the truth. “She’s a Sentinel. It’s her job to kill the Katagaria.”

“Yeah, I know. I was too young to fight her off. She attacked me with a vengeance unimaginable and tore me to shreds.” Fury paused and flinched, as if the memory were hard for him even now. “I lay bleeding for days as I tried to hide from her and the others. You want to know why I can’t command magic worth a damn? No one ever taught me. Markus, for all his shortcomings, at least made sure the three of you were trained after you returned from your year of survival. For a hundred years, I was totally alone. I didn’t dare enter a Katagaria den for fear of them smelling the Arcadian scent on me. The only thing I’ve ever learned to pull off well is camouflaging my scent. For all you know, I could be lying to you now.”

Vane stared at him, hard. Dangerously. “You’re not.”

“How do you know?”

“Ash wouldn’t have left you here with me if you were.”

Fury scoffed at that. “You put too much faith in a Dark-Hunter who could care less about our kind.”

“No I don’t. I put a lot of faith in a man who has never been anything other than a friend to me.” Vane crossed his arms over his chest. “So why did you come to our den?”

“Same reason you sought out Mom. I wanted to know what the rest of my family was like. I had every intention of telling you who I was, but as soon as I saw how much Markus disdained you and Fang, I figured it would be a mistake.”

“You could have told
us.
We would have welcomed you.”

“And again, I remind you that Dare, my litter mate who was my best friend, had already betrayed me. He delivered me up to our mother in chains. I was raised believing that animals are unreliable and unpredictable. But you know what? Animals only kill for two reasons: to protect and to eat. Humans kill for many, many more reasons. In spite of what they think, we’re not nearly as dangerous as they are. But you know that, don’t you?”

Vane nodded.

Fury sighed and stepped back. “Well, you guys have a nice life or whatever.”

“Where are you going?” Vane asked.

Fury shrugged. “Wherever.”

“So that’s it?” Vane asked. “You’re just going to introduce yourself to me as my brother and hit the road?”

“What else is there? You don’t want me around. You damn sure don’t need me.”

Vane frowned at that. Didn’t Fury have any idea …

No, he didn’t. The only family he had ever known had betrayed him. Little wonder his brother hated him. At least he, Fang, and Anya had banded together through any and all threats and obstacles.

Fury had been alone for centuries. He’d always stood back in the pack and never talked to anyone. While other strati formed inner circles of friends and allies, Fury had always remained solitary. For that matter, he had seldom fought to claim a she-wolf.

It must have been awful for him to know they were kin and to never breathe a word of it. How often had Fury watched the three of them laughing together? Seen them huddled together as family against the rest of the pack, while knowing he should have been included in their group?

For that omission of friendship, Vane would feel eternally guilty. He should have sensed the bloodline that bound them together.

Fury really was good at hiding his scent.

“You’re my brother, Fury,” Vane said sincerely. “Family means something to me. If you know nothing else about me, you should know that.”

“Since when am I family?”

“Since the minute we were born and since the second you came to me to warn me about Stefan.” Vane held his hand out to him. “I don’t need an oath to be bound to you, little brother. We’re family.”

Fury hesitated, then placed his hand in Vane’s. Vane pulled him forward and hugged him.

Bride’s throat tightened at the look of pain on Fury’s face. It was obvious he had never expected Vane’s reaction or his acceptance.

“I won’t betray you, Fury,” Vane said. “Ever. And if Fang ever comes out, he won’t either.”

Fury stepped back and nodded.

“And if you walk out that door,” Vane said between clenched teeth, “I might have to maim you for it.”

Fury laughed. “Okay. I’m here for a while, I guess.” He cleared his throat and took a step backward. “You two probably want to talk now. I’ll go be in the kitchen with Amanda.”

Vane waited until they were completely alone before he turned back to Bride. “Hell of a day, huh?”

Bride sat back on the couch and took a deep breath to help her cope with all the odd events of the last twenty-four hours. “Yeah, oh yeah. We got flying babies, wolf-brothers, psycho moms, serial-killer boyfriends, vampire-killing friends, and I’m not even sure what else.”

This was so beyond her ability to cope. “Am I insane?” she asked him. “Really, be honest.”

“I wish it were that easy. I wish I could say yes so that you could have Grace fix you, but no, you’re not crazy.”

She was afraid of that. The question now was, what should she do?

“So let me see if I got everything straight from your mother. This”—she turned her hand over to show the mark—“means that we are somehow meant to be husband and wife. But if I refuse you, you spend the rest of your life impotent and alone? But I, on the other hand, am free to live my life however I see fit?”

He nodded.

“It really sucks to be you, doesn’t it?”

Vane looked away as a muscle worked in his jaw. “I don’t expect you to accept me, Bride. I never did. I mean, I hoped for about an hour or two, but I’m not stupid and I don’t live in the world of … well, okay, I do live in a world of fantasy, but I’ve never deluded myself.”

He knelt on the floor before her, took her hand in his and kissed her palm. Oh, he was so tender with her. So kind. She curled her fingers against his warm, whiskered cheek.

How could she leave a man like this?

He’s not human.

Not fully, anyway. And he lived in a terrifying world of magic and mystery and scary monsters capable of all manner of cruelty.

“What do you want, Vane?” she asked, desperate to know. “Be honest with me. Do you want me simply because of this?” She held her palm out to him. “Or do you want
me?
I mean, you don’t really know me, do you? Nor do I know you. I know you’re a great guy in a pinch and that you have a family that makes the Addamses look normal. But I don’t know the real you.”

He took her hand from his face and held it in his callused one, staring up at her with those piercing hazel-green eyes. “The truth is, I don’t know. I’ve never wanted any female the way I want you, Bride. But I honestly don’t know if it’s the mark or not. I don’t.”

At least he had told her the truth. That was definitely one thing in his favor. He’d never once lied to her.

“How long do I have to make a decision on this?” she asked.

“Two weeks. Roughly. Barring any further demon or mother interference.”

“Then how about we try and act normal?” She burst out laughing at the ludicrousness of that statement. Yeah, they were just Jack and Jill Average climbing the hill to hell. She only hoped Jack didn’t break his crown or that she went tumbling after.

Bride sobered. “Okay, at least we can pretend to be normal. Let me see the real
you
in all your strangeness so that I know what I have to look forward to and then I’ll decide if I can handle it all without going totally insane.”

He looked stunned by her suggestion. “You’re not just running away from me?”

“I probably should and I can’t imagine why I’m even considering this. But I do like what I know about you, Vane, and I guess everyone has problems. Not as profound as yours, mind you, but at least with you, when I tell people that my boyfriend is a dog, it’s not just a figure of speech.”

He chuckled at that.

Bride squeezed his hand. “So give me your worst, wolf. I’ll give you mine, and at the end of two weeks, we’ll see where we are.”

Vane couldn’t believe her. She was too good to be true. In all honesty, he had expected her to scream at him and run out the door, calling all of them loons.

But she was giving him a chance.

And that was something he hadn’t had in a very long time … Hope.

Joy burst through him at the thought that she might actually stay with him. “There’s so much I have to tell you.”

She cringed. “You’re not going to suck my blood, are you?”

Damn. She would pick that one thing to fear. Well, it was pointless now to keep anything from her. Better he lay it all out for her than she get pissed because he withheld something from her. As his mate, she deserved to have her questions answered. “I don’t have to, no.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “What do you mean, you don’t have to?”

“My people aren’t vampires, but there are two parts to a mating ritual. First is you accept me as your mate.”

“How do I do that? Is it like a wedding?”

“To my people it is. Only we do it naked.”

Her jaw dropped. “With witnesses? Forget it!”

“No,” he said, laughing at her outrage. She was beautiful whenever her cheeks colored. It made her amber eyes glow. “It’ll be just us. I lie on my back, we join our marks together, and you take me into your body, then we make our verbal pledges to each other.”

She tilted her head as if she were less than sure about his honesty. “That works?”

He nodded. “It’s magic.”

“Okay, I guess, and then what’s the next part?”

“The next is optional and can be done or not done whenever we choose. It’s where I combine my life force to yours.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re human, and if we don’t you’ll die in less than a hundred years, while I still have another four to five hundred years left before my old age kicks in.”

Bride was completely stupefied as she recalled Bryani’s words. At the time she had attributed them to either her insanity or Bryani’s. Apparently, it was true, just like the rest of this madness. “You really are four hundred years old?”