The Dark-Hunters (231 page)

That was something she didn’t want to consider. She didn’t like thinking about Vane with anyone else. But at least she didn’t have the fear of him cheating on her. There was much to be said for that. Her own sister was currently going through a divorce over that very thing.

“So you pretty much live out your lives as wolves?” she asked.

He nodded. “For the Katagaria it’s really easy since the wolf is their base form. It’s what they default to whenever they rest or are hurt.”

“But you’re Arcadian.”

She could tell by the way he stiffened that it bothered him. “Yeah. So for me, it was unrelenting torture to maintain a wolf form. One of the reasons I’m so strong magically is that I had to learn to channel my powers so that I could remain a wolf while I was fighting, injured, or sleeping. Things that I should do as a human.”

“And the tattoo on your face?”

“It’s more like a birthmark.” He let out a deep breath and it reappeared on his face.

Bride traced the scrolling pattern that was oddly beautiful.

“Sentinels are Arcadian guardians,” he explained. “Once an Arcadian is finished with puberty, the Fates choose who they think is strong enough to guard the world from the Slayers or animals who are out to prey on Arcadians and humankind.”

She winced as she understood what he was telling her. “So you were living with wolves when you became human and then you became their worst enemy.”

“Yes.”

Her heart ached for him. “You must have been terrified. Why didn’t you leave?”

“I probably should have, but I was young and frightened. I knew nothing about the Arcadians and even less about humans. Remember, I was a wolf as a child. Our young are never allowed near real humans. I had no idea how to conduct myself or interact with your world. That was why I made a bargain with Acheron to take me into the past to meet my mother. I thought if I told her I was no longer an animal, she would help me adjust.”

“But she didn’t.”

“No. She called me a liar and drove me away.”

She could kill Bryani for that. What kind of mother would be so cruel? But then, cruelty existed everywhere in the world even though it shouldn’t. “Meanwhile Fury was going through the same thing in reverse.”

“Yes.”

She didn’t know which of them had it worse. It was probably Fury. Unlike Vane, he hadn’t had a brother and sister to accept him. “So you went back to your pack after you met Bryani?”

He nodded. “It was all I knew and I couldn’t ask Fang and Anya to leave because of me. I figured if my father killed me, at least they would still have a home and be protected.”

“And no one ever knew the truth about your base form changing?”

“Just Fang and Anya, and apparently Fury. I should have known when he came to us. But he always kept to himself. Stefan and the others tried to turn him into an omega, but he wouldn’t have it. What he lacks in magic, he makes up for in brute strength and willingness to kill anyone who crosses him.”

Bride paused, her hand in his hair as she tried to understand his world. “Omega?”

Vane kissed her stomach. “In every pack, there’s a scapegoat that the other wolves pick on. It’s always a male and he is called the omega wolf.”

“That’s awful.”

He lifted himself up to stare down at her. “It’s nature and we’re animals. You said you wanted to know me and so I’m answering all your questions about my world, gruesome though things can be.”

Bride tried to imagine the Vane she knew being cold and merciless. It was hard when he looked at her with such love and desire in his eyes. “Did you ever pick on the omega?”

He shook his head. “I usually came between the omega and the others. It’s why the pack hates me. Fang always thought I was an idiot to bother.”

Her heart soared at that. He was a good man, even when he was a wolf. She shouldn’t have doubted him. “I don’t think you’re an idiot. I think you’re wonderful.”

He kissed her for that.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Hey, Vane,” Otto said from the other side. “I meant to tell you two that dinner’s in an hour, so if you guys wish to eat with Valerius, be in the drawing room promptly or he’ll have a major meltdown.”

“Does he want us to dress for dinner?” Vane asked loudly.

“Of course he does, but I’ll be wearing Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt.”

Vane chuckled. “He’s going to kill you, Otto.”

“I wish. See you guys later.” She heard Otto’s footsteps receding down the hallway.

Bride lay back in bed, amazed to realize she wasn’t the least bit body-conscious around Vane. She should be, given how ripped he was. But she wasn’t.

It was so strange to be with a man who was so accepting of her, faults and all. He didn’t try to alter anything about her. It was a great change of pace.

She laid her hand against his whiskered cheek and drank in the sight of his lean, languid handsomeness.

But in the back of her mind was that awful voice that kept whispering “All good things must come to an end.”

“Do you believe in eternal love, Vane?”

He nodded. “When you live for hundreds of years, you see all kinds of things.”

“How does someone know the difference between that and infatuation?”

He sat up between her legs, then pulled her into his lap to cuddle. “I don’t think there is a difference. I think infatuation is like a garden. If tended and cared for, it grows into love. If neglected or abused it dies. The only way to have eternal love is to never let your heart forget what it’s like to live without it.”

His wisdom stunned her. Bride pulled back to stare incredulously at him. “That is profound, especially coming from a man.”

“It was what Anya always said.” The sadness in his eyes made her heart clench.

“I wish I could have met her. She sounds like she was a wonderful woman.”

“She was.”

Bride frowned as an idea struck her. “Can’t you go into the past and visit her? Or better yet, save her?”

He placed her head under his chin and stroked her arm. “In theory, yes. But we’re not supposed to. Time is a very delicate object and it’s not something that should be tampered with lightly. As for saving her, no. The Fates have a nasty way of dealing with anyone who trespasses on their territory. Once a life is ended, they tend to get really upset at anyone who thwarts them.”

“You sound like you’ve made that mistake.”

“I haven’t. But I know someone who did.”

“Fang?”

“No, and I won’t betray this person by naming them. Destiny is destiny and no mortal should fight it.”

“But how do we know what our destiny is? Am I to be with you or not?”

“I don’t know, Bride. The only one I know who could answer that is Ash and he won’t.”

She found that hard to believe. “Ash is what, all of twenty-one?”

“No. He’s eleven thousand years old and is wiser than anyone I’ve ever known. There’s nothing, past, present, or future, he doesn’t know. The only problem is he won’t share that knowledge. It seriously pisses me off most of the time. He has this tendency to say that we make our future by our decisions, but he knows what we’re going to decide before we decide it so why he won’t tell us is beyond me.”

“Because you learn from your mistakes,” she said as she realized the reason. “And if you choose wrongly and it turns out badly, you can’t blame him for it because he told you what to do. Likewise, if it turns out well, you can take credit for making the right decision on your own. Good or bad, it’s our life to do with as we see fit. Jeez, that little booger
is
smart.”

Vane laughed at her words. “He’s not little, but the rest is true enough.”

She waited for him to ask her what her decision would be regarding them, but he didn’t.

Instead, he held her in his arms, as if purely content with this moment. Part of Bride was content as well, but another part of her was scared. What would be the right thing to do?

She wanted to stay with him, but where? She wasn’t a wolf to live out in the wild and he wasn’t the kind of man to be content owning a store in the French Quarter.

At the end of the day, Vane was wild and untamable. He wasn’t just a man. He was a guardian.

And a wolf.

She pulled back to stare up at him. All she wanted was to keep him like this forever.

But could she really tame this man? And did she really, truly, want to spend the rest of her life looking back over her shoulder in fear that his parents or brother Dare would be coming for them or their children?

It was a scary proposition.

And the clock was ticking for them. In a few short days she would have to make a decision that could either make them supremely happy, utterly miserable, or …

It could kill them both.

Chapter 11

An hour later Bride made her way downstairs alone. Vane had “created” a very pretty dark emerald velvet dress for her to dine in. He had left her at Valerius’s with Fury while he went to Sanctuary to see if one of the Were-Hunters there would either give him word of Fang or perhaps rescind his banishment long enough for him to check on his brother.

Bride smoothed her hair nervously as she came down the stairs. She wasn’t sure what to expect from a vampire who hunted Daimons. Unlike Tabitha, she’d never met one before. And it would have helped if Otto hadn’t departed the house shortly after Vane.

As she left the stairs, she noted the pasties were gone from the statues. She smiled in spite of herself.

She entered the elegant drawing room to find a tall, black-haired man standing with his back to her as he gazed out the bay windows into the rear courtyard. His stance was rigid, unyielding. He wore his hair pulled back into a perfect ponytail and was dressed in an obviously expensive, tailor-made black silk suit.

He cocked his head as if he sensed her presence.

As he turned around, she paused.

He was an incredibly handsome man. Black eyes stared out of a face that had been carefully sculpted by the right kind of genes. He had a long, aquiline nose and lips that were set in a firm line that was unyielding and harsh. He was, without a doubt, the most intense person Bride had ever met.

No wonder Otto gave him such a hard time. It was obvious this man had no sense of humor and took everything very seriously.

“You must be Bride,” he said in that odd Italian accent that Otto had pegged perfectly. “I am Valerius Magnus. Welcome to my home.”

With his regal bearing, she felt a momentary impulse to curtsy before him.

“Thank you for letting us stay here.”

He inclined his head with the stiff formality of royalty.

“Please,” he said, indicating a black velvet-covered armchair. “Be seated. Dinner will be placed promptly on the table in five minutes. I shall have a servant bring you your wine while we wait.”

Bride had never been more self-conscious in her life than she was walking across the room to sit in that chair. This vampire did seem ancient and powerful.

Most of all, he was good manners and patrician breeding incarnate.

Valerius moved to an intercom where he pressed a button and did in fact, order her wine.

Once finished, he returned to her side. “I apologize that my house wasn’t in order when you arrived.”

She looked around the perfectly kept room. “How so?”

“The statuary,” he said with only a slight curling of his lip. “You may rest assured that Tony Manero has been properly castigated for his actions.” She heard him mutter under his breath, “It’s a pity that in this day and age it’s illegal to beat your servants.”

“Tony Manero?” she asked, amazed a man like Valerius would know the pop culture character from
Saturday Night Fever.

“Otto,” he said disdainfully. “I still can’t believe the Council sent him to me. I asked them for an Italian Squire, not an
eye
-talian.”

Bride burst out laughing. She couldn’t help herself. Oh, Valerius had a sense of humor all right. It was just a very dry one.

His face softened a degree at the sound of her laughter, and at that moment, Bride suspected Valerius wasn’t as cold and formal as he appeared. That a secret part of him actually liked sharing laughter, but that his icy demeanor kept it all but alien from him.

Fury flashed into the room, just in front of them. Like her, he was still fidgeting with his clothes, which were a bit rumpled.

“Damn,” Fury said under his breath. “One day I’m going to master this shit if it kills me.” He looked up and blushed as if he weren’t aware he’d already arrived. “Sorry I’m late.” He cleared his throat and straightened up.

Valerius arched a regal brow at the Were-Hunter.

“You must be Val,” Fury said, extending his hand.

“Valerius,” he corrected with an arctic glare. He looked with derision at Fury’s hand and made no move to take it.

Fury lifted his arm and sniffed at his armpit. “What? I bathed.” Shaking his head, Fury tucked both his hands into his pockets. “Otto’s right. Someone needs to take that stick out of your ass and beat you with it.”

Bride covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing at something Valerius obviously didn’t find funny. He might like to laugh, but not at himself.

“Excuse me?” Valerius growled, taking a step forward.

“Wine for the lady?”

Bride turned to see an older man dressed in a black coat and tie, entering with a crystal goblet of red wine for her.

Valerius seemed to get himself under control. “Thank you, Gilbert,” he said, reverting back to his pompous superiority.

The servant inclined his head. “Would your lordship care for another glass for your new guest?”

Bride could tell that Valerius would rather toss Fury out on his rump, but good manners dictated otherwise. “Yes. But bring it in a bowl.”

The servant left to complete his new errand.

“Actually,” Fury said, “Bride, I can’t really hang here with him looking at me like he’s afraid I’m going to piss on his rugs or something. You want to join me for a burger?”

Yes, she did, but there was something about Valerius that said he was wounded by Fury’s words. It didn’t make sense. Yet there was definitely a degree of hurt hidden in those midnight eyes.