CONCEPTION (The Others) (43 page)

I can’t do that.
Eden’s agony ripped at Deuce.
It hurts
too much to be calm.

You will trust me in this.

Deuce didn’t know if she would, or could. Their relationship
was so new. He’d had so little time with her. It was his duty to protect her
from moments like this, not throw her into the middle of them.

Oh, get over yourself. I’m not that fragile.

Deuce touched the gold of her hair, sinking his fingers into
the curls.
You read my mind.

It’s only fair if you get to read mine.

He caught the frantic rush of adrenaline as she prepared
herself, and evened it out.

There was a short pause in which he felt her indecision.
What
if I fail?

I will not let you fail.

Her fingers twitched on his thigh. He caught her hand in
his, bringing it to his cheek as her breath, that precious sign of life
caressed his neck. He whispered in her ear, “Trust me.”

She took an uneven breath, her body caught between
unconscious and alert, defense and acceptance and then she relaxed. Her mind
reached for his, falling open, giving him blanket permission to do with her as
he willed.

Go for it.

He did.

* * * * *

It didn’t hurt. Eden opened her eyes, the dragging sense
gone, the memory of Pietre heavy on her mind. Deuce was staring down at her,
the lines by his eyes the only indication of his worry.

“Jalina?”

“Our daughter is safe. Nick and Marlika have been taken to
heal.”

She glanced to the right, saw Pietre’s mangled body and
flinched. She turned her head back and caught Deuce’s gaze. “Others like him
should come with a warning label.”

“Others like him should not exist.”

“Can anyone else from the Pack or Pride do what he does?”

His lips thinned. “No. He has been altered.”

She closed her eyes, accepting the truth. “By my
grandfather?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry.”

His lips brushed the back of her hand. “You are not
responsible for his actions.”

“But if it weren’t for me—”

“I would not be a happy Chosen.”

She took another quick glance at Pietre. “Is he dead?”

“Yes.”

“Who…” The question drifted off. Deuce brought her hand to
his chest. Beneath her palm his heart beat steadily.

“He touched you. Threatened our daughter. He knew the
price.”

Deuce had killed him. With great joy it would appear from
the blood splattering the walls of the room. “I don’t think he expected to be
on the losing end of the deal.”

“He was a fool.” Only Deuce could pack that much disgust
into a sentence, reducing something she regarded as fraught with complexity to
something so simple.

“If you had zapped him mentally there wouldn’t be such a
huge cleanup to do.”

“He was killed according to custom.”

She did not want to know the details. “You Chosen have a
ritual for everything.”

He nodded, his hair falling over his shoulder onto her
breast, where it pooled in a dark spill. “Yes.”

She glanced at the glistening puddle surrounding Pietre’s
head. “For all your longevity, you are a rather primitive bunch, aren’t you?”

Deuce stiffened infinitesimally as a soothing brush of calm
surrounded her. “Yes.”

She didn’t fight his hands sliding under her shoulders. “You
don’t have to try and shield me, Deuce. It’s not as if I hadn’t already figured
that out.”

For the first time ever he didn’t meet her gaze. “You have?”

Did he think it was a well-kept secret? “The first hint
might have been when you started with the mate business, then got all feisty
because I wore another man’s jacket and the fact that you can’t stand to lose
the edge in bed…”

He lifted her against his chest. “I would prefer that you
had not experienced that part of me so fully.”

She caught his hair and gathered it into a ponytail at the
base of his skull. “The one thing you should understand about humans, Deuce, is
that we really get off on emotions.”

“You are not upset at the killing?”

“Are you kidding? That freak hurt Nick and Marlika and tried
to take Jalina. Killing was too good for him.”

“Would you like the details of his death?”

She shuddered. “I understand the need for his death but
details are not necessary.”

His lips brushed her ear. “You are bloodthirsty…but
squeamish?” She suspected that hitch in his breathing was a chuckle.

She nodded, cuddling her cheek against his chest, listening
to his heartbeat, breathing deeply of his scent. “We humans are funny that
way.”

“I am thinking not all humans, but maybe just
mine
.”
His free hand slipped under her knees.

The emphasis he put on mine did not escape her notice.
“Maybe just yours.” If he hadn’t been holding her so tightly she might have
missed his stillness at her agreement. She let go of his hair and opened her
fingers over his shoulders. “Take me out of here, please.”

Without the slightest of jostling, he lifted her. “You feel
well enough to move?”

“Yes.” She could be near death, and she’d feel well enough
to be out of here. She kept her eyes on the pulse in his throat, ignoring the
darker stains on his black shirt, knowing instinctively what they were, and asked
the one thing she feared most. “Did we lose her?”

Dusan shook his head. “No. Bohdan has her.”

“Physically has her?” As impossible as that seemed, she
wouldn’t put much past the Chosen after what she’d experienced.

“No. But he holds her life.”

She linked her arms around his neck. “The way you hold
mine?”

“No. He has to find her first for that.”

Remembering the desperation, combined with the determination
with which Bohdan had torn through her mind toward the woman, she didn’t have
any doubt that he would. “What if she doesn’t want him?”

She could easily see Bohdan scaring the pants off any woman
with all that intensity.

“She is his mate. There is no choice.”

She didn’t know much about the woman who had been speaking
in her head, who Bohdan now claimed was his mate, but she did know one
thing—she was not a pushover. “I don’t think that whole mate thing is going to
hold much water with her.”

“Bohdan will see to it.”

“Or she’ll see to him.”

Deuce paused and glanced down, his right brow arching in
that endearing way. “You fear for him?”

“He has a few likable qualities.”

Deuce’s lips twitched. “No doubt his mate will find a few
she likes also.”

If she didn’t kill him before she discovered them. “I hope
so.”

A shift of energy in the room had her stiffening. Deuce
turned. Dak stood in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling the expanse. His
clothes were torn. Blood smeared his hands and the gun he held. Three slashes
marred his left cheek. One glance was all he spared Pietre. The disgusted curl
of his lip indicated how he felt about the lion’s plans for a takeover. “The
invaders have been eliminated.”

From the number of dark stains on his clothing and skin,
Eden figured the Others were as primitively ritualistic as the Chosen when it
came to dealing with traitors.

“Casualties?” Deuce asked.

“None.” He jerked his chin in the direction of Pietre’s
corpse. “The rest were not strong psychics like that one. With the Chosen’s
help we were able to defeat them easily.”

Dak said that as if it was over, but Eden knew better. It
would never be over. Not as long as Clay Lavery lived.

“He won’t give up, you know.”

“Who?” Dak asked, running his gaze over her. Maybe she
didn’t look as bad as she thought because with a quirk of his lips, he relaxed.

“My grandfather. His biological clock is ticking. He’ll just
keep creating more and more monsters until he finds what he needs to get what
he wants.”

“And what does he want?”

“Immortality.”

“We will not give that to him.” Calm as always, Deuce had
given her the answer she’d dreaded.

“I think he just plans on taking it.”

“He is welcome to try.”

Dak shifted the gun to his shoulder, stepped back and
motioned two Others into the room toward Pietre’s body. “We will be ready for
him.”

There was no getting ready for what a man of her
grandfather’s intelligence and determination could create. “You need to just
kill him.”

“Not all of his discoveries were evil,” Deuce pointed out.

Jalina. He was talking about Jalina. “Surely your own scientists
can find out what he did and recreate it on their own?”

“We cannot risk that they won’t.”

“So you’re going to let him live?”

Deuce nodded, his lips a hard, flat line. “For now.”

Eden tightened her grip on his shoulders. There was one
option they were all overlooking. “He might take a trade.”

To her surprise, it was Dak who shot her idea down before
Deuce could utter the denial pouring through his body. “We do not trade our
mates for secrets.”

“It was just a suggestion.”

Deuce’s grip on her tightened to the point of pain. “If ever
the suggestion is made again, you will discover the discipline a Chosen mate
delivers to his woman.”

“There’s no need to get huffy.”

“I am not huffy, I am displeased. We will find the solution,
but we will not trade the lives of our people for a shortcut.”

Dak nodded. “Agreed.”

“So, my grandfather gets to live.” It did not seem a fair
trade.

“On borrowed time, but for now he has a reprieve.”

She arched her brows. “But you do have someone working on
it?”

He nodded. “Yes. Many someones.”

She rested her cheek against his chest. “Good. Now, could
you get me out of here?”

“With pleasure.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Deuce was gloating. Eden stood on the porch, looking out
onto the moonlit yard, Jalina in her arms, and knew it was true. It wasn’t
readily apparent to the naked eye, but the man was on an out-and-out gloat
fest. He said something to Dak. Whatever he said shocked the Pride leader as
his eyes widened briefly before resuming their steady stare. Or maybe it wasn’t
what he’d said but the fact that Deuce had been smiling when he’d said it. Eden
knew Deuce wasn’t much of a smiler.

Before today I did not have much to smile about.

You still don’t as far as I can see.

I have my daughter, my mate and the trust of each. It is a
very happy day.

The
ping of resentment that he’d listed Jalina first took her by surprise. Deuce
loved her. She had no reason for her insecurity.

Immediately, she was enfolded in mental comfort.
I love
my daughter, but you are my soul.

Peeping Tom.

His laugh stroked her nerve endings with its note of
promise.
Later I will peep, now I am just observing.

She stuck her tongue out at him. Dak, who’d followed the
direction of his glance, laughed out loud. Eden hitched Jalina up on her
shoulder and rubbed her back. As far as she could tell, not much had changed,
but to Deuce it seemed as if the world had shifted.

“Your mate is a happy man.”

“Marlika?” She turned, tamping down her shock. “Should you
be out of bed?”

“The Others heal fast.”

She must, since Deuce had told her that Marlika had suffered
a severe concussion, lacerations to her face, and two broken ribs. All that
remained of the lacerations were faint lines where five hours ago they had been
gaping wounds. “More benefits of a fast metabolism?”

Marlika shrugged slightly, her right shoulder moving more
easily than her left. “Since I was feeling better, I thought I’d see how
everyone was.”

She used the word “everyone” but her eyes were on Jalina,
and a strange glimmer of energy surrounded her. “Thanks to you, she’s fine.”

“My help was not much.”

Now, Eden recognized the note in her voice and that glimmer.
“You are so not going to tell me you’re feeling guilty?”

Marlika’s gaze ducked hers. “I underestimated Pietre, and he
almost succeeded.”

“Good God, no one could estimate Pietre.” The Coalition had
altered him, making him a strong telepath. Unbalancing his mind in the process.

Marlika touched the soft curls on Jalina’s head, apology in
every nuance of her posture. “I should have been more careful.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

Marlika flinched and now Eden was the one who got to feel
guilty.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve lived with my grandfather my whole
life. Even when I had no idea of what he was doing and operated under the
delusion that he loved me, there were two things that always stuck out about
the man.” She kissed the top of Jalina’s head. “He’s brilliant, and he’s
ruthless about getting what he wants.”

Marlika glanced uneasily over Eden’s shoulder. “The
Coalition is very determined.”

“They are not as determined as the Chosen,” Deuce said,
coming up behind Eden. She leaned back into him as his arm came around her
waist. She put her hand over his, holding him to her. She didn’t remember much
about her time in that black void, but she remembered one thing. She hadn’t
been alone, and Deuce had been her anchor, keeping her safe. She tilted her
head back to see his face. “Tell her she didn’t fail us.”

His hair brushed her cheek as he inclined his head in that
arrogant, unconsciously regal way he had. “The Chosen are forever in the debt
of wolf Marlika and her blood. We offer our eternal gratitude and protection.”

That wasn’t what Eden had meant. Men were so obtuse.

Marlika didn’t say thank you. She didn’t even seem to
breathe. Then she collected herself, and nodded her head, her aura as regal as
Deuce’s. “On behalf of myself and my blood, I thank you.”

The words were nice, but Eden knew only one way to express
her confidence. “If you are feeling up to it, would you mind watching Jalina
while she naps? I need to talk to Deuce.”