The Beloved, page 36
“Are you asking me out on a date?” he drawled.
She snapped back to attention, and kicked her chin up. “Maybe. And with the way you’re smiling, I’m thinking you’ll say yes.”
The future King gave her a slow nod. Then those eyes went up and down her body. “FYI, I’m always going to say yes to you.”
She had to laugh. “Even if I tell you to paint this house?”
L.W. glanced up the side of Safe Place. Shrugging again, he had a quarter smile and a whole lot of heat in that stare of his as he looked back at her.
“Charity work’s important. And if it makes you happy, Sherwin-Williams, here I come.” He nodded at her and took a step back in the snow. “See you at two a.m., Bitty. I’ll pick you up… and we’ll see where we go.”
With that, he dematerialized.
In the wake of his departure, she stared at the empty space he’d taken up, threw her head back—and giggled like she’d lost her damned mind.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Down in his quarters, Nate held his Nalla against him and drew his fingers up and down her spine. A pleasant exhaustion had overcome them both and he gave in to it, allowing himself to drift in a way he didn’t think he ever had before.
Funny how “safe” was a state of mind, not just a well-defended position.
Except it wasn’t going to last. Fucking Uncle—although the solution to that problem was at least clear and easy.
“Nalla?” he said as he stared at the ceiling overhead like it was a movie screen, his mind picturing all kinds of dead bodies on it.
“Mmm?”
“It was Rahvyn. Who gave me immortality.”
As her head lifted from the crook of his arm, he met her shocked eyes and nodded. “Thirty years ago, I got shot in the stomach in front of her. She got me help, but I ended up dying. My parents… were there at the bedside, the Brotherhood, too, and I guess everyone was crying—and Rahvyn came into the hospital room. I don’t know exactly what happened… but she brought me back over the divide between the living and the dead—and I was different after that.”
“She was the one,” Nalla breathed.
“I thought I was in love with her.” He shook his head. “Even before she did what she did to me, I had all these feelings for her, and they got stronger afterward. I guess maybe I felt like the gift—which has been more of a curse really—meant she felt something in return. But she was always meant for Lassiter.”
His eyes sought and held his female’s. “Just like I am meant for you.”
As Nalla smiled, the shy pleasure that bled through her beautiful features fed him at a fundamental level.
“Shortly after everything went down,” he continued, “I saw her with Lassiter, and eventually, I just asshole’d out. I behaved like a total shit, and the immortality thing became a toy I tried to break. I tested a lot of lines in the beginning because I was angry. Attempting to kill myself became like a fuck-you to her, which was stupid. But the thing was, the more times I came back? The more it dawned on me that I was trapped in time. All I had was time, and nightmares about the lab, and nothing to live for. That was when the numbness set in and I got dangerous. But like I said… now you’ve come around.” He brushed her face gently. “And I might have been immortal for a while… but I’ve only just started living. Thanks to you.”
“I feel the same way,” she whispered. “About you.”
“I didn’t want to talk to you about Rahvyn because for one, I know she volunteers at Luchas House and I didn’t want things to be weird for you. But two, none of the way I’ve behaved toward her is any kind of good story about me, you know?” He played with a strand of Nalla’s multi-colored hair. “And to answer your question about the sweatshirt I burned? It was one I used to give me an excuse to see her at that house. Not that there was anything real between us. Ever. I was just out of my transition and rootless and scrambling. It was what it was—and I’m over that now. I do owe her an apology, though, and I am going to make it to her.”
He thought of the quest the female had sent him on. Kind of ironic, how it all turned out. Yes, he was going to go to her, and to Shuli, and to his parents, and the Brotherhood, to make the peace. But not as a goodbye.
Because he was going to stay around.
“Thank you for telling me,” she murmured.
“I’m not hiding anything from you. Ever.”
As he thought about what he’d demanded of Rahvyn and the exit strategy he’d set in motion, he wanted to throw up. Thank God he hadn’t started on all that a week ago…
Nate closed his eyes and shivered just under his skin. “Timing is everything, isn’t it. And I mean it. I’m always going to be totally honest with you. Anything that you want to know, I’ll tell you. I may not be good at words, but I’m holding nothing back.”
“Oh, Nate…” She leaned into him. “I love you.”
For a moment, his heart stopped. Then it started to pound.
“Now, those are words,” he whispered against her mouth, “that I want to hear for an eternity. I love you, too… my beloved.”
As her eyes grew luminous with tears, they turned into spring sunlight, something that he had only ever seen on TV—
Nate frowned. “Wait, why are you crying? Those aren’t happy tears.”
When she couldn’t seem to speak, he suddenly knew what she was thinking about, and he pulled her into him, cradling her to his chest. “Maybe your father will come around.”
After a long silence, Nalla eased back, and as she looked him in the eyes, he’d never seen her so grave.
“It doesn’t matter whether he does or he doesn’t. You’re my future—and if he chooses to only be a part of my past, then he’ll lose me forever. I can’t control that, though. Those are his decisions. But if he can’t accept you, then I’m letting him go.”
Picturing the Black Dagger Brother Zsadist, with that scar and those eyes that could flash black, Nate knew that this was a lose/lose for her. But what could he do? Other than start living right and being right, that was—and hoping like hell it caught up to him in the same way the consequences of his being a fucking dickhead had bitten him on the ass.
And, hey, Uncle had given him an opportunity to prove his allegiance, right?
That human wanted a body for his family to bury—no fucking problem. Nate was happy to do the job on the man himself—to save his father-in-law’s life.
“Your sire’s not wrong about who I’ve been,” Nate said. “But I’m going to be different, now and in the future.”
She nodded “My mahmen said that broken can mean ruined. But you’re not ruined, Nate, and I’m going to be with you to help you. Now and forever.”
“And it’s a two-way street.” He stroked her hair. “I’m here for you as well. It’s us, together.”
“Us, together.”
As their lips met, he recognized the bittersweet feelings that were in her heart. He had them, too. Why couldn’t life be simpler—
A subtle beeping sounded out next to the bed, and he instantly went on the alert. Instincts firing, he grabbed for the gun he kept tucked between the mattress and the box spring. Picking up his burner phone from the side table, he accessed his trail cameras.
For a split second, he closed his eyes. Lessers. He knew them by the white hair—except how in the hell had they found him? Not that it mattered.
“Get dressed,” he barked. “Right now.”
“What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
Even as she was asking the questions, Nalla was on her feet and going for her jeans—which was a testament to the fact that she’d been raised by a Brother. But there was no time to answer her. Jumping up as well, he yanked his leathers on, and went under the bed. As he pulled out a tray of the weapons he’d checked before, he was grateful that his paranoia about infiltration had taken him where it had.
And rank pissed off he’d been right.
“Take this.” He held the mattress gun out to her. “It’s fully loaded and the safety’s off. You need to go out my tunnel and dematerialize from my barn.”
At least there was only one flank of the enemy that his cameras picked up on—although fuck knew how long that was going to last.
“What kind of visitors?” she said, even though going by her hard tone, she knew.
But again, Nalla just accepted the weapon he gave her, grabbed her parka, and came with him, into the bathroom. Triggering a panel release, he flipped a light switch that illuminated a narrow crawl space that opened up to a passageway lined with steel mesh.
“This goes out to my barn,” he repeated as he kissed her quick. “Follow it, and dematerialize from there. Go.”
“Nate, I can help fight—”
“Not a chance. I can’t die, remember? I’ll be okay, but I need to know you’re safe. That’s the most important thing in the world to me. That’s all that matters.”
* * *
Nalla’s heart was pounding and she wanted to drag Nate with her into the escape tunnel. He was right, though. Between the two of them, he was vastly more likely to come out of some kind of conflict alive.
And yet if he fell into enemy hands? They could literally torture him… for centuries, his nightmare turning into reality with no chance of him waking up and being saved.
“Nate, you need to come with me. I have a bad feeling about this.”
How many other times had those words been spoken, she thought with a panic. Between two people right before the plan went wrong.
And death came knocking.
“The longer you wait here,” he said, “the closer they come. Go.”
As their eyes met, stark terror choked her, but there was no negotiating with him so she stepped into the tunnel.
“I love you,” she shouted as he shut the steel door on her.
She could barely hear his deep voice echo those three words before they were cut off.
For a split second, she was frozen by fear. Then she was like, fuck this, fuck them, fuck the war. She didn’t run. She was the daughter of a fucking Brother, her mate was going into danger, and she was going to stay and fight.
With quick efficiency, she ran a check of the gun, assessing its weight and sight, confirming its full magazine. Which of course was just as Nate told her it was.
Riding a wave of aggression, she reached for the latch.
It was locked. And there was no keypad. Not that she could have guessed a password for him.
“Shit.”
Pounding on the steel mesh didn’t get her anywhere, but like Nate was wasting time in his bathroom, staring at the hatch? Hell no. He was arming himself and about to go out and face the enemy. Alone.
Fine, she’d help him from the other end.
Shuffling along the cramped tunnel, bent over, breathing hard, fear sharpening her instincts and making the sounds of her boots and the rustle of her clothes seem super sharp and very loud, she just told herself she needed to get to the other side, and then she could engage the slayers.
Assuming Nate hadn’t lied to her and completely locked her in here for safety.
When she got to the far end—after what seemed like a week of pushing forward—there was a latching mechanism, and she swore she was going to punch him in the dick if the thing didn’t budge. Taking a deep breath, she—
—sprang the lever, and there was a vapor lock release.
“Thank fuck,” she muttered as she led with the weapon.
Emerging at a short stack set of stairs, she went up the narrow steps and waited at a wooden door at the top.
No sounds. No scents.
Taking two quick, deep breaths, she—
Threw open the panel, and had to blink as motion-activated lights came on. Then she focused and cleared what was in front of her, swinging the gun muzzle left and right.
The barn interior was not a barn space at all, but a neat-and-tidy suburban garage, with tools and equipment tacked up on the concrete walls, and some kind of hulking vehicle draped in a tarp in the center of everything.
Whatever was under there was big as a mountain, and it appeared to be parked ass in so it could be driven straight out of the double doors.
When nothing moved or came at her, and she didn’t smell the sickly-sweet scent of the enemy—yet—she went over to some windows that she knew, based on what she’d seen from an exterior view, were coated in a reflective, one-way film.
So she could look out and stay undetected—
Across the way, coming through the trees toward the cabin, she saw the attack closing in… and she couldn’t believe it.
There were so many of them.
A dozen… or more, the lessers’ bodies moving in a freaky kind of unison, as if they had a hive brain that coordinated their positions and strides. Not all of them had the white hair and skin that showed up over time as the pigment in their coloring leached out. But the newly inducted were dangerous, even if they didn’t have the experience that the older slayers did. As soon as a human was turned, they had an increase in strength and stamina that she’d been told her whole life she had to be careful of.
Sudden terror closed her throat, but she needed to get past that right now. Was Nate calling the Brotherhood? He’d mentioned over day that he’d been kicked out, though. And he’d have no need for backup—in his mind, he was invincible.
She glanced around and saw nothing that was going to help her.
It wasn’t like there was an armored tank under that fucking tarp. She wasn’t that lucky.
As she negotiated with all kinds of bad outcomes, and time funneled out the sink of this shitty situation… there was one, and only one, solution that came to her.
Taking out her cell phone, her hands were shaking so badly that she had to thank Lassiter for facial recognition because punching in her pass code was going to be next to impossible. And then as she went into her contacts, she almost couldn’t move through the short list for the same reason.
As she stopped on the one entry she needed more than the others—on some level, had always needed more than anybody else—tears came to her eyes:
Father Mine.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
When Zsadist’s phone started to vibrate with a call, he was back at Four Toys HQ, and leaning over V’s shoulder to check out the footage they’d managed to get from inside that Lessening Society tunnel.
He pointed at the monitor as he took the cell out of his jacket’s inside pocket. “That nano-drone is a thing of beauty. This is exactly what I wanted.”
“The size of flies, I’m telling you. As soon as that lesser came out of there, Allhan sent the unit in and none of those bastards knew a damn thing—”
Z frowned as he glanced at the phone screen. For a second, he thought surely this must be wrong because his daughter was not speaking to him. And after the latest Nate/Nalla update from his shellan, things were progressing in ways that made him want to start digging the fighter’s grave.
So no, she was not returning any call of his.
“Hold on, it’s Nalla.”
Swiping left, he braced himself for the female to tell him she and that out-of-control rage machine were eloping. “Hello—”
“I need you.” Her voice was direct, but also thin as a reed. “Oh, God, they’re everywhere—”
“What’s everywhere.” Even though he knew. Fucking hell, he was going to kill that male. “Where are you—”
“I’m at Nate’s—they’re surrounding his cabin and he’s about to go out there. I’m in the barn, and I have a nine millimeter. The slayers don’t know I’m here yet, but—”
“We’re on our way. You stay where you are. Do not engage the enemy.”
“There’s twelve to fifteen of them in the woods.”
As a shaft of true terror nailed him in the nads, he looked at V and nodded sharply. While the brother palmed up his own phone and sent out an alarm, Z said, “Can you dematerialize?”
Except he already knew the answer to that one, and reported to V, “She’s in the barn at Nate’s. Okay, Nalla, I’m coming, we’re all coming.”
V started sending out the location, and Z didn’t wait. He busted out of the glass office, blew down the aisle between all the desks, and flew out into the open air.
It took him way too long to dematerialize. Waaaay too fucking long.
But when he finally did re-form, it was in the forest behind the rural property’s barn and with a pair of fully loaded forties up and ready. Sending out his instincts, he could sense the lessers even before he started to pick up their movements in and among the leafless birches and maples and fluffy pines.
When he shifted his position, he used the trees just as the enemy was, taking cover when he could, moving fast when he couldn’t. He told himself that it was good news that the log cabin was the target, but that wasn’t going to last. Sooner or later, they would infiltrate the barn, either because they needed to for a defensive tactic, or they wanted to because they were raiding the property after they won.
But he was not alone.
Like wraiths in the night, his brothers and fellow fighters arrived on scene, Phury, V, and Rhage right next to him, Xcor, Qhuinn, and Blay off to the left, Payne and Tohr flanking right. Everyone else had followed protocol and stayed back to protect Wrath.
“We’ll draw their firepower,” Phury said in a hard, low voice. “You take care of Nalla.”
“Roger that.”
His twin grabbed his arm in a stiff grip. “We got this. Okay? You worry about her. That’s your only priority.”
Their eyes met. And Zsadist nodded once. “Kill them, kill them all.”
Just as he said the words, Nate burst out of the front door of the cabin. For a split second, Z had to give the male a little respect. The fury on that face was epic, and that huge body was strung with so many weapons, the fucker was like a walking armory.
Gone was the laconic resister who was fucking with shit because he was bored and unconnected and hateful: The vengeance that was clearly threading through every molecule in that body… was exactly what was going through Z’s own veins—and it wasn’t because the guy was protecting two buildings and his rights as a fucking landowner.
