Page 94 of Possess Me at Midnight
I snarl at him. “No mad rages or mass slaughters. Yet.”
Lucan clears his throat, his stare asking Sabelle unspoken questions. She nods once, and MacTavish visibly relaxes.
Fuck all. I’ve known for two hundred years that everyone thinks the worst of me. It never bothered me until now. Until Sabelle.
“I’ll be going, then.” Lucan backs out. “I promised to help Duke, Marrok, and Olivia transport the Doomsday Diary here. Olivia and Duke can both drive a car. I’ll lend protection.”
Then Lucan is gone.
“Here?” I bark at no one in particular. “Why the hell would you all come here?”
I glance at Raiden Wolvsey, the unmated twin. I can only tell them apart because Raiden’s hair is as pale as Ronan’s is dark. Other than that, they have the same green eyes and wicked smiles.
“We have nowhere else to go. Bram’s house is destroyed. When asked an hour ago, Sterling refused to back Mathias’s bid for the Council, so we’re fairly certain he’s next on the Anarki’s hit list. Marrok’s cottage was destroyed by the Anarki months ago. Lucan’s dwelling was breached when Anka was abducted,” Caden recounts. “Duke’s place is overrun with humans we can’t put in danger. And Ronan and Raiden’s manor is…busy.”
And then some. It’s magickind’s den of iniquity. The Wolvsey wizards are renowned for their sexual appetites, so Ronan’s mating is a surprise. Usually, the Wolvsey males bed one female after another until they get pregnant. Considering the difficulty of conceiving a youngling between an unmated pair, that effort says something about their single-minded pursuit of pleasure. Vaguely, I wonder why Ronan broke tradition.
“So…” Caden winces, shifting Tynan’s dead weight in his arms. “That leaves here.”
Bram approaches from behind, Sabelle on his heels. I sense them, smell my beloved’s sweet fragrance.
“Your place is a veritable fortress, Ice,” Bram commends. “Easy to defend. Damn near impossible to breach.”
“At least let us stay temporarily. I must transcast the news of O’Shea’s murder to all magickind immediately.”
Before Mathias kills again.
I bite back a curse. They ask too much, damn it. They’ve demanded I give up Sabelle, then begged me to fight and perhaps give my life, despite the fact that none here like or want me. They ask to invade my house and shelter them, even though if they saw me at one of magickind’s functions, they would ignore me at best or spit on me at worst. Certainly, none will accept, much less applaud, a union between me and Sabelle.
Yet what will become of the Doomsday Brethren if I don’t acquiesce? Clearly, they have nowhere safe to go. If they all die, so too will magickind’s best hope at vanquishing Mathias. Worse, Sabelle will never forgive me for turning my back, particularly if I might have prevented the slaughter merely by taking them in.
Hell. It’s not as if I lack the room. My father, mad prick that he was, expanded the cave feverishly, hoping to fill it with a dozen sons. What it lacks in luxury, it makes up for in space.
Plus, having them all here means Sabelle stays. Every day she’s under my roof is one more day I might be able to persuade her to follow her heart and Bind to me.
“Fine,” I snap, then step back to admit them all. “My bedroom is the one at the very back. No one comes near it.” I send Sabelle a glance. “Unless you’re invited. I like quiet and privacy. The locked door just down from mine is also off limits. Transcast mirror is in the front room. This isn’t a five-star hotel. Not every room has furniture, but I’ve plenty of pillows and blankets. I don’t keep servants. You’ll have to do your own cooking. Mine is dreadful. No bitching about the accommodations.”
“Thank you,” Caden says simply.
Then he nods at Sydney, and carrying Tynan, leads his mate and uncle down the hallway to the left. Plenty of bedrooms there—far from me. Excellent.
“Should I send for a healer?” I call after them. Blood oozes from O’Shea’s left side, making Tynan look dangerously close to his nextlife.
Sabelle shakes her head. “We don’t dare yet. Let me look at him first. Maybe…his injuries aren’t as serious as they appear.”
Whatever ails Tynan is serious enough for the wizard to lose consciousness and drag him to death’s door. But I can’t fault Sabelle’s caution. No telling what means Mathias might use to track these people down.
“Let me know if you change your mind,” I murmur.
Sabelle nods.
“You’re not so bad after all.” Raiden smiles as he and his twin saunter in.
Ronan repeats the gesture, his mate at his side. They follow the MacTavish clan to the far side of the cave.
I make a mental note to put Tynan, Marrok and Olivia, and Bram on my side of the rambling stone dwelling. Sabelle, I’ll keep in the room beside mine. If I’m going to lose her to duty and politics, at least I’ll have these final days to show her what we could have been. It’s a fool’s hope…but it’s all I have left.
Sabelle
