Blood Knot (29 page)

Sebastian wrapped his threaded fingers around one bent knee. “You’re not talking about you and me, are you?” His voice was mellow.

She shook her head as she chewed. Then, “He’s not in this for himself, Bastian. There’s someone behind him and he’s carefully shielding them from us.”

Sebastian shrugged. “Lot of jobs come to us via a front man.”

“
Not one who works his way into our bed.”

Sebastian straightened up quickly. So quickly it was like she had slapped him. Or shocked him. “No, Winter. You’re wrong. One hundred and eighty degrees wrong.”

“
Am I?” She shrugged. “I asked for honesty of emotions but I was careless. I forgot to ask him why he was bothering about all this in the first place. He never did explain why he just suddenly decided to look you up after four years. We both got distracted by him offering the job. He never said why
he
was doing the offering.”

“
Nial has abided by your demands all along. Honesty of emotions isn’t enough for you?” Sebastian asked. “You have to trust him, Winter. Please.”

She stopped eating to look at him.

Sebastian sighed and sat back. “Damn, I said too much.”

“
Yep.” She picked up her coffee cup. “What do you know that I don’t?”

He shook his head. “I can’t say.”

“
Can’t, or won’t?”

“
Won’t, Winter. If you want to know, you need to ask Nial.”

She studied Sebastian. “Is he manipulating me, Bastian?” she whispered, her heart thundering.

Sebastian’s reply took forever. “He’s doing everything in his power
not
to manipulate you.”

Winter put her cup down. “Then he won’t tell me if I ask him, will he?”

Sebastian shook his head. “Probably not the direct question. But you could try being sneaky.”

“
Do you know who Nial is working with?”

“
The vampire faction?” Sebastian shook his head. “He hasn’t told me either, Winter. But I know this much. He’s troubled about something.”

“
Why do you say that?”

“
He spent the night talking to Julius and Marcus after you and I fell asleep. I found them on his desk this morning.”

Winter simply looked at Sebastian, expecting an explanation.

“
He was reading Plutarch’s
Parallel Lives
and Julius Caesar’s writings—in the original Latin, of course,” Sebastian explained. “Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the two greatest Roman generals and strategists who ever lived. He gets inspiration from them when he’s stuck for answers.” He picked up a piece of ham from her plate and ate it, with a grin. “Nial thinks Mark Antony would kick the ass of any modern army if he was bought back and put in charge of the US military, with all the firepower they have. And the US military personnel wouldn’t know what hit ‘em, with Mark Antony lickin’ ‘em into shape with Roman discipline.”

He rolled off the bed and stood up, his smile fading. “Give him time, Winter.”

“
Time for what?” she asked. “How much time?”

Sebastian took a breath, as if he meant to answer, then let it out, frustrated.

“
You can’t answer,” she said flatly.

“
Just trust him,” he replied.

“
Tall order,” she shot back. “You spent years telling me not to, that he used people, pushed them around, and worse. Now you’re telling me the complete opposite, Sebastian.”

His shoulders lifted as he took a deep breath. “I know.”

“
Don’t you even want to try and remain a little consistent?”

“
Haven’t you ever broken up with someone before?”

“
No.”

“
No?” He seemed shocked.

Winter put her knife and fork down and slid off the bed. “No, she repeated. She picked up the tray, annoyed.

“
What, they all dumped you?”

“
No.” She headed out of the bedroom, intending to drop the tray in the kitchen. The robe, too big for her, trailed on the ground behind her like a train. Sebastian followed like a satellite.

“
You’ve had relationships,” he insisted. “I’ve seen them.”

“
Have you?” she asked. “What exactly
did
you see, Sebastian?” She climbed down the circular stairwell carefully.

“
Fine, you tell me, then.”

“
Nothing that last longer than four days,” she said, stepping onto the lower floor and heading for the kitchen counter.

“
No! I would have remembered that. I would have!” Sebastian declared.

“
Clearly not,” she said, putting the tray down and turning around to face him. “You say you were watching me all the time, Sebastian, but you weren’t really seeing me. Not always. You were idealizing me for some of it. The perfect lover, the perfect human mate who also happened to be just out of reach. It made life nicely Byronic and angst-filled for you. Except I’m not human and I’m not out of reach now. And now I
have
to be in your life.”

“
What are you saying?” he asked, his tone suddenly sharp and low. All levity had fled.

“
I didn’t mean for this to happen, Sebastian. But in a while, a month or two, you might begin to feel like you’ve been forced into it. Manipulated, you might say.”

His mouth opened as if he were about to speak but Winter touched his lips, silencing him.

“
The longest relationship I’ve ever had is with Nial, Sebastian. I’m on day two with you, now, so you’re warming up in the wings for second longest if you stick around a day or two longer. I’ve never broken up with anyone. They’ve all just…drifted away. I don’t know why and since that first job you and I did, I really didn’t care to know why, either, because I didn’t want them in my life long term, anyway. They weren’t you.”

“
Jesus, Winter. How to make a man feel like an absolute heel and a prince in the same moment,” Sebastian murmured. He pulled her into his arms. His shirt
was
as soft as down and she stroked it with her cheek.

His hand toyed with her hair. “Of course I said terrible things about Nial, Winter. I was frustrated, lonely and on my own for the first time in two hundred and fifty years and that frankly terrified me for a while. I never stopped loving him, even while I resented the hell out of him. What was worse was knowing that Nial knew it all along. There was a kernel of truth in everything I told you about him, but I exaggerated nearly all of it because I was angry and I stayed angry for years. I stayed angry because I was torn between you and Nial.”

Winter lifted her head to look up at him. He smiled gently. There was warmth and peace in his eyes, so unlike what she was used to seeing.

“
And you realized this…?” she prompted.

“
When I brought you breakfast just now and saw you lying in Nial’s bed, where I’ve seen Nial lying so many times before.” He picked up her hand and for a moment she thought he would kiss the back of it the way Nial did. But Sebastian threaded his fingers through hers and kissed her palm, his eyes closing like he was experiencing the most delightful sensation as he did it. “You always smell glorious.” His sea green eyes opened and gazed at her steadily. “I need you to trust Nial, just for a while longer, Winter. If you can’t do it for his sake, do it for mine.”

How could she refuse him? “I will,” she assured him gently.

And with perfect timing, the chime announcing the elevator sounded.

“
Nial,” Sebastian said with a smile.

They both turned as the elevator doors opened and Nial stepped out.

A very different Nial from the normally charming, well-groomed, sophisticated man she was used to seeing.

He was barefoot. He wore what looked like a pair of suit trousers, but they were so ripped and filthy it was hard to tell. They were daubed in dark stains.

The rest of him was hidden under an oversized white Nike hoodie, with the hood pulled over his head and down as far over his face as it was possible to get it. The clean hoodie was startling in comparison to the rest of his dirty outfit.

Winter surged out of Sebastian’s arms at the sight of him.

Sebastian swore “What the hell happened?” he added.

Nial held up his hand. “Don’t touch me,” he told them. “I’m an offense to the nose and hand.” He reached up and lifted the hood back.

Winter smothered her cry with her hand. Nial’s face was covered in dried blood. Now she understood the reason for the hood. If he had walked the streets openly in that state he would have drawn the wrong sort of attention.

His eyes seemed feral under the coating of blood as he unzipped the hoodie and dropped it to the floor.

His chest was similarly coated in blood and dirt so for several seconds Winter didn’t see the big pink scar running parallel with the edge of his ribcage, from the centre of his chest to just over the top of his left hip. It was new and ugly. She reached out to touch it, to analyze it.

“
Don’t touch me,” Nial repeated. “Don’t touch anything,” he added. “Winter, there’s bug spray under the kitchen sink. Spray everything while I shower. I’ll take it up to the roof after I’m clean and burn the lot.”

As he spoke he continued to undress until he was naked. Beneath the hoodie, his body was bare except for the trousers. He wore no belt. Nor did he have a watch, she realized. And he pulled nothing from his pockets.

“
Your wallet,” she said.

He nodded. “Bastian, do you remember my computer passwords?”

Sebastian nodded.

“
Good. I need you to log on and start up the processes for replacing all my IDs and credit cards. Advise all the usual people about stolen cards. Pretend you’re me for twenty minutes until I get clean.” He grimaced, looking at his bloody hands. “If I can.”

“
You were mugged?” Sebastian asked. “
You
?”

Nial shook his head. “Not even close. But please, let me wash this crud away first. It’s like a statement of disaster clinging to me. Then a full explanation, I promise.” He turned and strode toward the stairwell, moving strong and confidently, despite the huge scar across his torso.

Winter watched him move, her heart slamming in her chest.

“
Winter.”

She looked up at Sebastian. From his tone, she guessed it wasn’t the first time he had spoken her name. She blinked. “That scar! The blood!”

Sebastian shook his head. “He’s fine, Winter. You saw him walk away. He’s moving normally. Come on, we need to sort things out for him while he cleans up. Something’s going on.” He turned her toward the kitchen. “Bug spray, Winter.”

She nodded and moved toward the kitchen, trying to bring her emotions and her thoughts under control. What was wrong with her?

She sampled her biochemistry, trying to analyze it the way she would anyone else, and came to a stumbling, shocked halt half-way back toward the pile of clothing Nial had left two paces from the doors of the elevator.

She was half an inch away from hysterical. She had all the symptoms of someone in panic mode. No wonder Sebastian had shepherded her toward the kitchen like a five year old child in need of tutoring.

She gripped the spray can and started walking again, attacking her internal symptoms, neutralizing them, bringing them back under control. But that didn’t stop the mental fear and surprise at her own over-the-top reaction to Nial’s return home.

Winter carefully sprayed the garments, picking them up with the tips of her fingers and laying them out flat to minimize folds and pockets where bugs might hide, embracing the minor chore and busying herself.

But she kept seeing the thick dark pink line of scar tissue across Nial’s body as she worked. And his face covered in blood when he dropped the hood. The images wouldn’t go away.

When the disreputable clothing was doused, she put the can of spray away and headed for the pocket made by the elevator shaft, where Nial kept his office.

Sebastian was working on the computer, a fine line between his brows. His fingers moved quickly and competently over the keys.

Winter hugged herself, a shiver catching her by surprise.

Sebastian glanced up once, but then his frown smoothed out and he looked at her properly. “What is it?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

“
From the way you’re holding yourself, you look like you need a hug,” Sebastian said.

Winter bit her lip. Until he’d suggested it, the idea hadn’t occurred to her. “Yes, that’s
exactly
what I want,” she said. “But if you put your arms around me right now, Sebastian, I don’t think I…I mean, I’ll be…shit.” She stopped trying to find the words and just looked at him.

Sebastian reached for her hand and pulled her into his lap. “You don’t know anything about lovers, do you?” He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head gently against his shoulder. “You’re allowed to cry, Winter. That’s one of our functions—we get to see you cry and be pathetic and scared and all the other things you’d never let the rest of the world see.” His voice reverberated in his chest, strong and deeply reassuring.

Just the mention of crying brought the tears to her eyes, scalding hot and making her eyes ache. Her chest hurt and made her breath jam up in her throat.