Dark Legacy (17 page)

Some part of Sarah still believed in him, beneath the
hate and pain he’d helped cause. Toxic emotions he’d have to cleanse from her mind once the Brotherhood had her back. Once he’d circumvented the survival and combat skills he’d taught her and found a way to save Sarah, her twin, and the future his shortsightedness had endangered.

None of which would happen if Madeline Temple didn’t find a way to trust him first.

Sarah was dying.

Down deep, where she was still pissed and running and fighting to hold on, a part of her accepted that she was lost and alone and dying.

She was Death.

The command echoed. A raven’s wings spread. Bare tree limbs swayed.

The gun in her hand fired.

A scream ripped through the night.

“No!”

Sarah struggled to her feet, stumbled, and landed hard on the filthy floor of a rotting, vacant building she’d crawled through a broken window to get into. This was the tomb for that final sane part of her. This was where it would end.

Dark and empty. Nothing…closing around her, until she could see…

Until she could see her twin taking her place.

The good sister drowning in filth instead of Sarah. The healer killing everything she cared about. Killing, because it was who she’d been taught to be.

Why had Maddie been at the center? To laugh at Sarah, that’s why. To laugh at Death, because Maddie had always been better. But Sarah had shown her. She’d
used her. Just like when they were little. Then, just for fun, she’d pointed Maddie at those guards surrounding her and her doctor. She’d shown her twin what she really was. What they both were. And Maddie had started fighting. Trying to kill. Angry and drowning in the hate and the fear and the loneliness, just like Sarah. The good twin had been choking the life out of men she didn’t know, while Sarah ran.

And it had felt amazing.

Better than anything in a long time.

Until Sarah had stumbled into the woods. Then even farther away. And now their link was nearly gone, abandoning Sarah to her demented memories and fractured dreams and her need for her Raven…

The command echoed. A raven’s wings spread. Bare tree limbs swayed.

The gun in her hand fired.

A scream—

“No!”

The Raven wasn’t there. Sarah had killed him. At least she’d tried. And when she couldn’t, she’d run and left him Maddie’s mind to pick apart. He was stalking Maddie now. Sarah could feel it. Just like she could feel the evil that had taken their mother. She’d felt them cart Phyllis away. She’d laughed while it happened, while Maddie had cried, until the darkness of it had choked off every thought. Every sound. Every sensation in Sarah’s world. Until she was completely alone.

While Maddie had run through the night to help…then wandered through the house to help…then finally accepted that there was no help coming. Not for them. Not for the madness or the pain or the loneliness.

Except Maddie hadn’t been alone. Sarah had sensed that, too, through their fading link. There’d been arms
to hold the good twin. To guide her. A deep voice in the darkness, in her mind. A promise that Maddie would have help as she faced the truth. That she could survive it.

The way a deep, piercing voice had once promised Sarah the same things. The voice coming to her before the dreams, while she was still in a coma, freeing her and binding her to him. Helping her live. Chaining her to a world he’d soon teach her how to destroy.

Her Raven’s voice.

The command echoed. A raven’s wings spread. Bare tree limbs swayed.

The gun—

“No!” Sarah screamed into the empty night.

She hated the Raven.

Or was it that she needed him to see the evil inside her—her drive to be Death—so he could fix it somehow? Is that why she hadn’t been able to kill him? Except, the Raven wasn’t there now. And neither was Maddie.

Sarah would have no help.

The sane part of her knew she’d never survive now.

The command echoed. A raven’s wings spread. Bare tree limbs—

“No!” It wouldn’t go away. She had to make the dream go away. “Stop it!”

She crawled as far as she could before collapsing onto the floor. Collapsing into the truth.

The Raven had given her back her life. Now all she wanted was to die. Because he hadn’t stopped the other creature in the dreams. The Wolf that fed on hate and had poured it into Sarah. Then the bastard had linked Sarah’s mind with Maddie’s. The good sister who despised Sarah and had abandoned her. Sarah hadn’t wanted Maddie in her mind again, but the Wolf had insisted, or he’d take the Raven away.

So Sarah had done what she was told. She’d found Maddie’s dreams. Then she’d learned to hate the Raven, even more than she hated her sister and the Wolf. Because it was the Raven she’d never survive without.

So, it was all Maddie’s fault, really. Maddie and her happiness and her ability to love and her forgiveness for everyone, including their mother. Everyone but Sarah. Maddie who’d come to the center and given Sarah the strength she’d needed to break free of what she craved most.

Sarah’s Raven.

The command echoed. A raven’s wings spread. Bare tree limbs swayed.

The gun in her hand fired.

A scream ripped through the night.

“No!”

The darkness couldn’t have Sarah. Not yet. She had to find her sister’s mind. Sarah would use their link again. Let it strengthen her while it drained Maddie. Because Maddie had to pay.

Maddie’s dreams.

What Maddie wanted most.

That’s what had to—

Die!

Jarred had somehow gotten Maddie out of her mother’s house.

He’d called another cab from Metting’s cell, giving another phony name just in case. No way could they have gone back to Victoria’s apartment or used Metting’s car again. Not with the center and God knew who else after them. He’d had the cabby drive around aimlessly to be sure no one was following. Then he’d paid for the taxi with the last of the cash in his wallet, in front of a no-tell motel somewhere in the rural badlands between the suburbs and the fringes of Boston’s industrial hub. He’d secured a ground-floor, street-adjacent room with the cash he’d lifted from his ex’s hiding place in the cupboard above her refrigerator.

He walked to the bed and laid a near-catatonic Maddie on the cheap spread. Then he checked the room’s single window, making sure it would open if they needed an alternative exit. He secured the insubstantial locks on the window and the door. Then he rechecked them both. He was officially freaking out.

Someone had kidnapped Maddie’s mother. Someone not associated with Richard Metting. And whoever it was wanted to use Phyllis as bait to lure Sarah and Maddie back to the center, where they would likely—

Die!

Jarred spun around, half expecting to find Maddie standing behind him, her eyes crazed the way they became every time her sister’s dementia returned. But she was curled in the fetal position on the bed, motionless except for her eyes darting back and forth behind their closed lids. Whatever was going on in that amazing mind of hers was a metaphysical puzzle that the scientist in Jarred had to solve. And whatever was going on in her heart…

Her heart was home to him now. The bond between them grew stronger every time it whispered through his mind. They had to find the sister who was terrorizing Maddie to the point of incapacitation. But even if they did reach Sarah and somehow got her well enough to help them, there was no way in hell Jarred was turning either woman over to the center. Or to Metting. Though the man seemed less of a threat now, because Jarred and Maddie had other, bigger, threats to contend with.

The entire situation was a clusterfuck. And Jarred’s pushing Maddie to face her family secrets had accomplished exactly nothing. The insanity stalking her every move claimed more of her mind by the second. Just like Metting had said it would.

But Maddie finally trusted Jarred. She’d initiated their kiss beneath the looming tree in her mother’s backyard. Her mind had begun to clear once she let herself focus on him. When she’d focused on them, rather than her sister’s insanity. That connection was Jarred’s only remaining weapon. Their bond would have to be strong enough to see Maddie through the next crisis.

Terrified of what that “next” challenge might be, Jarred crawled onto the bed beside Maddie, cradling her soft body against his. He breathed in the fresh scent of her
until he no longer felt alone. His mind brushed hers, out of habit now. His fingers tunneled through the auburn fire of her hair. He rolled her to face him and tucked her in closer. He shouldn’t be closing his eyes and letting his exhaustion settle deeper. He should stay alert and aware in case they’d been followed. But this was Maddie in his arms. His mind. His heart. And she was suddenly all he could feel.

There were no good answers to any of their questions. The threats to Maddie and her family kept growing. But with Maddie in his arms Jarred could almost believe his promises that they could face anything together. And as promises became thoughts of hope, his thoughts drifted toward dreams of Maddie. A place where there was no room for fear or failure as long as they were together. No room for anything but the light caress of her breathing against his neck. Her feminine moan of approval as his hands splayed across her back, following the line of her spine, until it dipped just above her hips…

A wash of soft, white peace seeped through him. The shadows of deepening sleep bloomed into gray, and then into the gentle promise of a dawn sky.

“Stay with me,” his mind called. “Come back to me, Maddie. Show me what you need.”

Jarred was floating just beyond her dreams. Then with a vibrant rush of color, his mind dove toward wherever Maddie was. Searching for what he’d lost. Finding himself welcome. Finding relief and joy, because he’d been gone too long, and he was needed more than he’d ever thought he could be. He was loved here. He was craved with the same all-encompassing passion that had been building inside him.

Maddie’s lips fluttered against his skin as she filled him with images that were really feelings. Nothing had form
wherever they were, but everything meant something amazing. Something uniquely Maddie. He saw a woman’s view of the world, combined with a poet’s dream of what each morning’s new beginning could be. A healer’s soul, creating hope from failure and faith from doubt. A lover’s lost passion, firing streaks of crimson through a growing collage of sensation. Her hands clutched at his body. Her dream shifted to another plane, his consciousness and imagination her hostage for the ride.

In their dream, Maddie was free. They both were. She wasn’t weak, and he wasn’t protective. She wasn’t broken, and he wasn’t on the outside helplessly watching while she lost her mind. God no. He was with her. He
was
her. And she was him, and he was never letting her go. And he wasn’t just dreaming, he realized…Their minds were linked, but he was also touching her body, holding her, making love to her, feeling Maddie respond with erotic abandon in…

Reality…

Jarred opened his eyes—half dreaming still, half awake. He rolled Maddie onto her back, pursuing now instead of passively following her lead.

No more barriers. No more safe. No more careful…
her mind whispered, her thoughts giving his permission to take more. Give more. All of him. All of her. Everything. And then her eyes opened, too. They were dreamy and soft with sleep, but she was with him in this reality that was all theirs, too.

He cherished her soft body with his hands. The taut muscles beneath his touch trembled. Her legs quivered as he raised them to wrap around his hips. He angled her body closer. They were both splitting, who they’d been falling away so they could become something new. Something truly free.

They clung to each other. In their shared dream they
were on the soft grass of a country hill. The sun and the breeze and the smell of spring tempted them to reach for more.

“Don’t hold back,” Maddie whispered. “Don’t…I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”

“I’m here.” Jarred kissed a path down her neck, his hips rocking against the damp heat pooling between her denim-clad thighs. “No holding back.”

His body rocketed to full arousal. He wanted to strip her clothes away. Bare her breasts to the warm sun. Drown in every inch of her until he was sated. Except he’d never have enough. He’d never want to stop. And she was just as ravenous—a woman who’d been running from him for months.

“Kiss me again,” she breathed, the need in her voice demanding that his mouth return to hers.

“Yes.”

And it wasn’t a sweet kiss she offered. It was biting nips of her teeth. A wicked smile in response to his growl. Her tongue intertwining with his, inviting him to lose even more control because she knew she’d be safe with him. The wildness in her, the strength he’d know was there, wanted all of Jarred in this sunny place that pain and fear couldn’t touch.

He deepened the kiss. His fingers plucked her nipples, his touch roughening until she purred with pleasure. She arched as his nails scraped down her waist, down the soft fabric of her sweater until he’d reached its hem. Her fingers met his there, and they both pulled the material up her body and over her head, baring curves and satiny skin and a tempting black bra.

“Please, Jarred,” she begged, a little scared now. A little more the Maddie who kept fading into her sister’s reality and needed saving because she was afraid she’d disappear forever. “Please…”

“I’m here.” His thumb rubbed along her trembling lips. “You can let go here. You can have anything you want. What do you want, Maddie? Show me.”

His challenge banished everything timid and unsure and weak from their dream.

“I want you.” Her nails scratched down his shirt, biting deep.