Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (17 page)

Bahlin, however, was as still as old death.

Hellion made his way back to the sitting area and leaned in close to me, gently grasping my chin so I couldn’t turn away. His pupils had eaten the whites of his eyes and the fathomless black depths eddied with power. “No,” he said softly. “I’ll no’ run the risk o’ ye being raped by some crazed creature an’ bein’ impregnated an’ taken from me. Fate will
no’
do this tae ye, tae me, tae us an’ what we’ve started together.”
 

I closed my eyes and grasped his wrist, shifting his hand so I could rest my cheek against his palm. “I don’t want this either. I don’t, Hellion.”

Kissing my forehead, he released me and turned to Bahlin. “I apologize, Bahlin, for what this may cost ye personally, but I won’t let this happen. I can’t lose her. I
won’t
lose her. No matter what.”

The dragon continued to stare at me during Hellion’s rant, his face devoid of any emotion. If eyes were truly the windows to one’s soul, these shades were drawn.
 

Taking a deep breath and blowing it out hard, Hellion waffled between touching me and not touching me, finally going back to the bathroom to get yet another cool rag I could lay across the back of my neck as I tried to control my breathing. I thanked him and patted the sofa next to me.

He sat as if I were fragile.

Bahlin still stared.

I wasn’t sure whose reaction was scarier, but I believed Hellion’s was more sincere while Bahlin’s was more calculated. Sincerity I could count on. Calculation was a lying bitch. On impulse, I turned to Hellion. “Do you trust me?”

“Withou’ a doubt.”

“Give me five minutes alone with Bahlin.”
 

He balked, shaking his head. “I canna risk it.”

“Please.”

“But the hormones, yers and his both.
Mo chroí
, it’s no’ tha’ I don’ trust ye, but ye’ve had such strong feelings fer each other.” He paused and looked down, seeming to search for the right words. He didn’t raise his head to look at me when he said, “He loves ye, Maddy.”

“I do,” Bahlin said in a soft, controlled voice. “And if you think I’d ever do anything she didn’t wish me to do, you’re not half so bright as I’ve credited you with being.”

Hellion whipped his head around and stared at the other man. “Less than thirty minutes ago ye didna want tae let her go.” Sighing, he rubbed he temples with his thumb and middle finger. “Doona ye get it, man? That’s joost it. She may think she wants it tae be so if the hormones are influencing her unjoostly. I canna leave her tae Fate’s fickle whim.”

I reached out and touched Hellion’s hand.

He closed his eyes. “Maddy, please.”

“I need five minutes, but I’m not unreasonable. Go to the bathroom and shut the door. You’ll hear if anything… If anything happens, you’ll hear it. Then you’ll be able to put a stop to it.”

“It would come tae serious blows between me an’ the dragon. Ye understand this?”

“I do.”
 

He stood and drew me to my feet. “I’ll ask ye for five minutes o’ my own when ye’re doon with him.”

“Will I get to hide in the bathroom and eavesdrop?” Bahlin snarked.

Squeezing Hellion’s hands before he could reply, I said, “Five minutes.”

He gave a curt nod and walked to the bathroom. Despite the emotional assault, he shut the door gently.

I sat across from Bahlin, unsure how to say what clearly needed to be said.
 

He took care of it for me. “What does this mean for us, Maddy?” His deep voice settled around me with comfortable familiarity. He drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes, and when he re-opened them I wasn’t surprised they’d changed to icy blue.

“Beyond a fiercely loyal friendship and unending affection, there is no ‘us,’ Bahlin. I respect the fact that you love me, and a small part of me will always belong to you. Hellion knows this. It’s not a secret.” Meeting his gaze was harder than I thought it would be. “Bahlin, the vast majority of my heart is his. No prophecy, no threat and no fallen angel will change that. As much as I care for you, I love him.” The need to apologize for my feelings was overwhelming, but I wouldn’t offer Bahlin any false hopes about us.

“If you had the opportunity to do it all over again, would you make the same decision?”

I was sure he was referring to the night in Hyde Park only days ago. I nodded slowly. “Even if there was a way to turn back time, Bahlin, I’d still end up with Hellion.”

“Are you happy, then? Truly and incomparably happy, I mean.”

He sounded almost desperate for me to say no, but I wouldn’t lie to him. “I am, Bay.” He winced at my use of the easy endearment and I held up a hand. “You’ll always be my ‘Bay,’ and I can’t promise to stop calling you that.”

He nodded. “If you’re truly happy, Maddy, and this is the life you want, I’ll respect it. But I’ll be here if you ever change your mind,
grá mo chroí
.”

“I know,” I whispered. He stood and stepped up to me, pulling me to my feet and straight into his arms.
 

He kissed me very gently and then whispered into my hair, “I never deserved you, Madeleine Niteclif.”

“We just met at the wrong time, Bahlin, in the wrong lifetime.”

“Yeah.” He shifted and slung his arm over my shoulder and called out for Hellion.

Hellion walked into the room, clearly having gained control of his emotions. His eyes were back to normal and he smiled a little as he approached us. “Everything all right?”
 

“Yeah.” I closed my eyes for the briefest second. “We’re good.”

Hellion held his hand out to me and I went to him, sliding under his arm in a practiced movement.

Bahlin nodded and said, “I’m going to leave you two to talk while I round everyone up. What do you want me to do with Micah?” He looked at me, but the question was clearly directed to Hellion.

“I don’t want him alone with her.” Hellion tightened his arm around me. “In fact, I don’t really want her alone with any but Darius or me…or you. We’ll meet in Ireland as planned. Ask the coven members downstairs to start warding preparations as soon as they’re at the manor house. Stearns should join in the warding, but Mark needs to sit out. He’s not strong enough yet for what needs to be done. I’ll seal everything when I get there with Maddy. We have to be prepared for anything. Micah’s beacon may have flared, so it’s safer to assume something’s coming.”

Bahlin hooked his hands in the pockets of the borrowed jeans and they rode lower on his hips, reminding me he was a commando fan just as Hellion was. I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to think of anything but the way the two men in this room looked when they were sans clothing. Yum.
 

“Maddy?” Bahlin asked.

“What?” I jumped, his address drawing me away from dangerous ménage fantasies that were far removed from my normal comfort zone. I was fast developing a new appreciation for what these hormones could do to me.

“I was asking why we couldn’t just let the demon have Micah. Why are we going so far out of our way to protect him?”

“I suppose it’s for the sake of his soul, but honestly? It’s the right thing to do. I won’t turn anyone away who comes to me looking for true justice.”

“But what if the requestor transfers the threat to you through association?” Bahlin insisted.

“Bahlin,” I said on a sigh. “You’ve spent lifetimes with former Niteclifs. You know this is how it works.”
 

Turning to Hellion, he said, “Surely you see where this is going? Every night she spends near Heaven’s resident reject, she’s bait. I don’t like it.”

“You feel no more strongly about it than I, but I understand her need take an active part in her own life.” Hellion’s voice had taken on a hard edge that usually meant his temper was creeping up on him and was about to make a break for daylight.

Bahlin’s lip curled in a snarl. “No, Hellion, you don’t get it. This is going to get her killed.”
 

“Hey,” I interjected, waving a hand. “Person under discussion in the room.” They both looked down at me, and I let go of Hellion’s waist to turn more fully toward Bahlin. “You think I don’t get that I might die, Bay?”

“Don’t ‘Bay’ me right now, Maddy.”

Shrugging out from under Hellion’s arm, I took a step toward the dragon. “I think your problem is that when we worked together right after my evolution, you made all the decisions—where I would live, who I would meet, what weapon I would or wouldn’t use, what I would or wouldn’t know about the original prophecy—and I fell in line like some, some simpering female.”
 

I’d worked myself up to shouting and, when Bahlin answered me, he shouted right back. “Ye were so bluidy broken when ye arrived I had no choice but tae lead ye aboot! Ye couldna think on yer feet, ye did evrethin’ I asked of ye without a grumble, and ye hadna the sense whether tae sheath a gun nor fire a knife!”

Hellion tried to step in between us, but both Bahlin and I darted around him so we were nearly toe-to-toe.

“‘No choice’?” I spoke so softly he instinctively leaned in closer to better hear. “You had ‘no choice’? You want to talk about no choice? What choice did you leave
me
when you knocked down Pickledean Henge? I’m immortal now, and if I fail then I fade.” I buried my face in my hands and the sound of my rapid breathing was hollow in my palms. My next words, though spoken softly, rocked him back on his heels. “I never wanted to fade. I would have eaten a bullet before I allowed that to happen. Now? Now I’ll either have to be one hundred percent fucking perfect or I’ll end up worse than one of Agares’s wraiths. Thanks for that, Bahlin.”
 

“Ye selfish wee bitch,” he seethed, his fists clenching and unclenching as the blood drained from his face.
 

Hellion must have missed the dangerous glitter in my eyes because he stepped up beside me and growled, “Watch ye’re fecking mouth or I’ll weld it shut so effectively that ye have tae learn how tae blow yer mighty flames out yer arse. She may be fond o’ hearing yer pipes on occasion, but I’m noon sae attached tae them.”

Bahlin’s eyes flicked to Hellion before settling back to me. “So ye’d joost end it all without consideration fer another’s feelin’s?” He looked at Hellion and shook his head. “Good luck to ye, man. I’m well rid o’ her.” He stalked out of the bedroom without looking back.

Hellion grabbed me around the waist and tossed me over his shoulder as I made to sprint after Bahlin. “Ye doona need this fight tonight, Madeleine. Ye’ll set right here ’til ye’ve cooled off enough tae keep from killin’ him the next ye see him. Ye’ve since learned which end o’ the knife’s most effective,
mo duine dorcha
, an’ ye’re a bluidy fine shot.”

“Put. Me. Down.”
 

“No’ until ye promise tae take a deep breath an’ calm doon before headin’ after him.”

Pure evil overtook me. I dug my fingers into his ribs and began to tickle him.
 

Hellion let out a mean-ass squeal and shot forward.
 

I laughed so hard I had to push off his shoulder so I could let the pressure off my diaphragm and get more air into my lungs.
 

He tossed me on the bed and growled, “Like tha’ is it, ye lack?” He jumped on the bed and snagged me around the waist as I tried to roll away, pulling me close and trapping my legs with his. He bit me on the back of the neck and it was my turn to squeal.

I arched back into him, and he hummed in clear appreciation. The reverberations from his deep voice skated down my spine. I groped behind me until I found his hip and yanked him even closer, reveling in the feel of his erection pressed into my ass as he rubbed himself against me. I sighed. Bahlin could go screw himself.
 

“Sir?” called a voice from just outside the bedroom door.

Hellion released my neck and, laying his cheek on the side of my head, said, “When this is all doon, do ye think we could ge’ away fer a few days, Maddy? If ye canna cook, we’ll either eat oot or I’ll steal from the neighbors, but me poor flute needs tae have a break from all the interruptions.”

I grinned. “Your flute?”

“Aye. Me flute, cock, stalk, whatever ye wish tae call it. The poor bugger’s near fashed with all the false starts.”

I laughed out loud and he kissed the back of my neck where I imagined an imprint of his teeth might be.

“Sir?” came the call again, this time closer.

Hellion pushed up on an elbow and called out for Mark to come in.

“Couldn’t it ever be Stearns?” I asked, trying to contain my laughter.

Hellion looked down at me and quirked a brow. “An’ tha’ would make ye feel better?”

I snorted. “Point.” Remembering how awkward it had been with Mark less than two hours earlier, I shot up and was going to head into the bathroom but the butler beat me to the doorway. Resigned, I collapsed onto the bed and Hellion snugged me back to him.

Mark walked in and blushed beet red at finding us clearly on the bed, if not in it. He stumbled in his haste to turn around and leave, his words a hodgepodge of apologies.

“Mark?” Hellion asked patiently. “When we start having sex with the doors open, you can either worry, man, or start calling before you come up. In the meantime, it’s fine. What’s bothering you so?”