Artistic Vision (19 page)

But it was too late. Leo was on his knees, his hand pressed to the wound at his back. Bres stood over him and knocked Leo out with the butt of his sword.

Robin sighed in relief. The boy was out, and relatively safe; the last redcap was a whimpering mess, and who cared what
they
saw?
 

A toothy grin on his suddenly inhuman face, Robin squared off with Bres.
 

Now it was Robin’s turn to play.

Shane stirred, moaned. Pain was etched into every cell of his body. Nausea raced through him and, barely managing to turn enough that he didn’t choke, Shane puked. Thick, viscous black goo poured from his stomach, as foul tasting as it smelled.

“Ew. What the fuck is that? Tar?”
 

His baby sister’s voice brought a weak smile to his face. He couldn’t even open his eyes, but he could imagine the expression he would see there if he did. Her nose would be wrinkled in disgust, but her green eyes would be lit with worry.

“Ugh. What the hell have you been eating?” Footsteps sounded on wooden floors; Akane
hadn’t
taken him to his studio. He must be in his parent’s house. “Ma!” Moira bellowed, confirming it. “He’s awake and he puked!”

“I remember when I used to bellow that,” Shane tried to joke, but the words were barely whispered. He tried to remember what Constance and Klaussner had done to him, but he couldn’t think past the pounding in his skull and behind his eyes. Pain wracked every inch of his body. “I think I was hit by a burning oil truck.”

“Close enough.” Warm fingers pushed back his hair, soothed him. His mate’s touch burned him, warmed the cold places that had started to settle through him. “Welcome back.”

He managed to open his eyes, but it was like a film had been drawn over his sight. He could barely see her, and what he did see was shrouded in shadows. “What did they do to me?”

Smoke curled from between her lips. “They hurt you.”

He blinked. “I got that. What
exactly
did they do to me?”

More smoke. His dragoness was ticked. “They put things into you, pumped poison through you.”

Oh. That. No wonder she was upset. Shane was in for a rough time of it, but when he told her the cure she was going to be
really
upset. He held back the shivers threatening to rip him to pieces. “I see.”

Her head tilted, her expression fierce. “Do you?” She lifted him in her arms, startling him. “Strip the bed please, Moira.”

Moira huffed but obeyed. Akane’s tone left no room for argument, but at least she’d said please. “I’m okay,
a ghrá
.”

Akane snorted. “Sure you are. You puke up black goo every day.” She placed him down on cold, fresh sheets, then curled up around him. “I thought you were dead.” She stroked the dragon on his arm, the tears she was desperately trying not to shed obvious in her voice.

“I know.”

“You knew they were coming for you.”

He nodded. He wouldn’t lie to her. He couldn’t. “Da?”

“He’s fine. Whatever they used to knock him out didn’t last long, but he is seriously pissed off.” Moira took the one seat in the room that wasn’t the bed and rubbed at her face wearily. “You are in
big
trouble.”

“Anyone hurt?” Shane could barely stay awake. All he wanted to do was sleep in his dragon’s arms.

“Leo.”

His eyes snapped open at that. He struggled to sit up, but Akane held him down. “What happened?”

“The leader of the redcaps showed up at his place to take him and Ruby to the Dark Queen.”

Shane shuddered. He hadn’t seen that possibility. “How badly is he injured?”

“Bres sliced him up, but he’ll be all right. Mostly cuts and bruises. He managed to take out most of the redcaps by himself. Robin was seriously impressed.” Akane stroked his arm, trying to calm him down.

Shane sagged back onto the bed in relief. “They shouldn’t have attacked him on his own land.”

“Ruby is pissed. She wants Bres’s head on a pike. Apparently one of the blows came close to Leo’s eye and she thinks it will leave a scar on that perfect face of his.”

Shane shuddered. “He’s all right?”

“Yes, Shane. He’s all right. It would have been different if Robin hadn’t been there, but he’ll be fine.”

“We owe him.” He snuggled back, Akane’s warmth once more driving away the strange chill, lulling him to sleep.

“Yes. We do.” She kissed the nape of his neck, and he got the feeling she wasn’t talking about Robin.

“
Tá grá agam duit.
”

She sighed. “What the hell does that mean?”

He smiled, unable to answer, as his sister did it for him. “It means
I love you
.”

Akane’s face burrowed into his hair, her breath hot on the back of his neck as he drifted off to sleep.
 

“
Tá grá agam duit,
you stubborn son of a bitch.”

If he’d been capable of it he would have demanded she repeat the softly whispered words, but the exhaustion wouldn’t allow it. Shane let himself fall into darkness, knowing when he woke he’d have little time to hear those words again.

Akane lay beside her mate and breathed him in. Her dragon slowly calmed, but something was off. His scent
had
changed, and Akane was terrified over what it could mean.

“Moira?”

“Hmm?”

“Get Sean.”

Moira nodded and left the room.
 

“What’s wrong with him?”
 

Akane wasn’t surprised to find Jaden had slipped into the room. The vampire would scent the change in Shane and come to investigate, especially if it involved her mate’s blood the way she thought it might. “I think the poison they pumped into him is hurting him.”

Jaden leaned down and sniffed, wrinkling his nose. “Let me check something.” A black claw curled from where his nail had been. Jaden sliced Shane’s arm, a shallow cut that should have bled a sluggish red.

What came out of Shane’s body was neither sluggish nor red. Tiny black tendrils oozed out, reaching for both Akane and Jaden, a parasite eager for a new host.

“Holy fuck!” Jaden leapt back, forcing Moira, who’d returned with her father, out the door. “Don’t come in.”

Moira, like every other member of this crazy family, was having none of that. She tried to push past her mate, but Jaden held her fast, one eye on the ick that slithered from Shane’s veins. The vampire gagged. “That is
so
fucking gross.”

Akane leaned over Shane, allowing one of the tendrils close to her face. She breathed out, her flames engulfing the tendril.

An almost inaudible screech of agony raced across her senses. The tendril curled in on itself, bubbling into inanimate black goo. The remainder of the tentacles pulled back within Shane’s body, writhing beneath the skin of his arm.

“Double gross.” Jaden allowed Moira in, ignoring the smack to his stomach. Sean raced toward his son, growling at Jaden when the vampire pulled him up short. “You don’t want to do that.”

“That’s my son.” The ground outside the farmhouse rumbled, a sure sign of Sean’s displeasure with his son-in-law.
 

“Listen to me. Whatever’s inside Shane is dangerous.” Jaden eyed Akane. “How fireproof is your mate?”

She blinked. He could not be suggesting what she thought he was.
 

His brows rose. “If he’s truly your mate, he’ll be safe, but the…thing should be fricassee. Think about it.”

Once again her dragon nature took over. She found herself crouched protectively over her mate, growling at the vampire. Her wings, which she hadn’t consciously unfurled, fluttered in a dominance display that would have sent another dragon either running for the hills or accepting the obvious challenge.

Jaden threw his hands up in the air. “Well, I sure as hell ain’t sucking it out.” He shuddered. “There’s no amount of Listerine or blowjobs in the world that could convince me to do that.”

She hissed at him. He wanted her to set her mate on fire or somehow drain his blood? Was he insane?

“It could work.” Moira leaned against Jaden, smiling slightly when his arm went around her waist. “Aren’t dragon mates immune to their mate’s flames?” Moira looked at her expectantly.

“I’m not a full dragon, remember? I’m a hybrid. For all I know I’ll accidentally barbecue him.”

Sean leaned close and grabbed something off of Shane’s nightstand. It was only when he pressed a button that she realized it was Shane’s cell phone. Sean’s eyes never left hers as he called the one person she should have thought of. “Is this the Seer?”

Akane bit her lip, hoping her mother had the answer they were seeking.
 

Apparently she did. Sean didn’t even get to asking his question before her mother’s quiet voice began speaking. Sean paled, but his gaze was glued to his son’s body.
 

The thing Shane had been injected with was moving under his skin, not just in his arm but in his abdomen, his thighs, even his face. They could all see it writhing like worms under his skin. Akane grew worried as his skin began to take on an unusual pallor. His bright hair darkened, turned copper. “He’s changing.”

Sean hung up the phone and turned to Jaden. “Take him into the yard. Please.”

Jaden nodded, silent for once. He picked up Shane and followed Sean out of the house, Akane and Moira hot on their heels.
 

“Why is Jaden carrying him?” Moira was watching her mate with a worried expression.

Sean grimaced. “The Seer said that whatever is inside Shane can’t hurt Jaden because his blood would destroy the invader. It’s part of Jaden’s nature.”

“Oh.”
 

“But it can still gross me the fuck out.” Jaden shuddered.

Aileen gasped at the sight of Shane in Jaden’s arms. The tea she’d been pouring for Duncan splattered on the tile floor. “What are you doing?”

Sean shook his head, unable or unwilling to speak. Jaden’s mouth was grim, his eyes glittering with green fire. Duncan stood and started to approach his mates, stopping when Jaden shook his head.

He obeyed when Moira gestured him closer. “Don’t touch Shane.”

“Why not?” Aileen tried to block their exit from the house. “What are you doing? Why is he out of bed?”

“He’s got a parasite inside him, a Dark Court one. We have to burn it out.” Sean gently set his mate aside and opened the back door. “The Seer says if we don’t…” He shuddered, and for a moment grief dimmed the vibrancy she was so used to seeing in the leprechaun. “I want them dead.” He looked at Akane and Jaden. “If I don’t get them, you will.”

Jaden nodded. “Damn skippy.”

Akane bared her teeth and snarled.
 

Aileen covered her face with her hands, but followed them out onto the back porch.

Jaden took Shane to a spot where grass had once been. Sean, using his powers, had cleared away all grass and undergrowth, even digging a shallow, round pit in the ground. There would be no chance of Akane’s flame damaging the house or accidentally setting off a grass fire.
 

Jaden set Shane’s body down in the fire pit. Her mate’s arms and legs were twitching, the thing under his skin controlling his movements. She prayed with all her might it hadn’t wound itself through his brain.

Akane took a deep breath and prepared to burn the affliction from the man who’d claimed her heart.

“Wait!” Aileen rushed forward. “What if he needs to be Bonded before he’s immune to your fire?”

Akane blinked. “We test it.” She stepped around Aileen, grateful her partner trusted her enough to let her do what she was about to do. He lifted Shane’s shirt out of the way and moved before Akane blew. Flames danced across Shane’s stomach. She dared not flame his hands. Those beautiful hands had to remain unscarred. A barely audible shriek made her flinch, but it didn’t come from Shane. Where her flame touched his flesh it turned pink once more, the pallor that had taken over the rest of his body disappearing under fire. She nodded, satisfied and curiously aroused at the thought of bathing her mate in her flame. “Strip him, Jade, then stand back.”

Jaden made quick work of Shane’s clothes, those lethal vampire claws tearing the cloth in a frenzy almost too quick to see. Everyone else obeyed, moving away from the circle of earth Sean had created to cradle his son. Akane crooned to her mate, her song hopefully soothing him. When Jaden stepped back and nodded, she spread her wings and let her inner flame fly.

He ran, trying to outrace the darkness that chased him, but everywhere he turned, every door he opened only led to more darkness. Soon he would have nowhere left to turn, no place to hide. The darkness wanted to devour him, use him for its own ends, make him like…like… He flinched, the thoughts whispering to him from the darkness too evil to contemplate.

It wanted him to bow down, to succumb. To become one with it.

Shane would rather die than do what the darkness wanted.
 

Flame licked across his senses and the darkness retreated, screeching in rage.
 

Shane grinned. She’d figured it out, his clever mate, and Shane would get to live another day. “Akane.” He followed that glow to its source, the warmth lulling him. He centered himself in that flame, allowed it to protect him. Shane marched in step with it, pointing out all the places the darkness had tried to hide. The flames obeyed his wishes, destroying the invader, eliminating every trace of the darkness within him.

Shane was finally warm again, oh so warm. He basked in it like a cat in the sun, stretching beneath a heat that smelled strongly of his fiancée. He moaned as the heat licked across his inner thigh, danced across his cock with light, teasing touches. The only bad spot was a constant itch across his arm, the last bit of the darkness trying to escape the purifying fire. Shane opened his eyes to see Akane standing over him in all her glory, fire dancing across her skin, licking at her breasts. Her hair danced in the breeze stirred by the heat of the flames. Her wings were spread wide, the delicate tracery of veins glowing with her inner fire.
 

She was so beautiful his heart stopped. He must have been a very good boy in a previous life to have earned her love.