FALL (The Senses) (32 page)

Her eyes shot to Waleron.

He looked different. Impassive
mixed with a deadly glint in his eyes. When he spoke it was calmly, but she
knew he was anything but. “He knows you’re here. Xamien said you were attacked
in the orchard. And this arrived.” His finger slid over the edge of the paper.
“It was sent in a package. How did he have this, Delara?”

Xamien shifted to lean against
the doorframe and Jasper stroked his stubble with his finger and thumb.

“It was in my book in my
nightstand.” She always had it with her and she had brought the book here, but
the note hadn’t been inside. She’d put it in her drawer the day Waleron came to
her room.

Xamien straightened. “Jasper?”

“Impossible. Been all over this
place. No one has been in this house.”

“No,” Delara continued. “In Toronto.
I left it in Toronto.”

Jasper’s brows rose. “So this
Tarek managed to get in a Talde house? Impressive. I understand Ryker lives
there. Can’t see anyone getting past him.”

“They can’t.” Waleron said. “It’s
been on lockdown.”

Jasper was right. After Ryker’s
Talde in Newfoundland was attacked by Rayne’s husband and Ryker’s wife Hannah
was killed, it was unlikely anyone could get past him. The guy had become a
vigilante when it came to killing those that deserved it.

“The importance of this letter?” Xamien
asked. “And what do you mean package?”

“Package arrived with a vase,”
Jasper said. “Inside—a snake and that note. It was delivered half hour ago.”
Jasper raised his chin and a slow underlying grin played at his lips. “Your
little pet Max picked it up knowing damn well the thing could kill her.”

“Sounds like Max.” Xamien lowered
his voice and gave Jasper a fierce glare. “Hands off, Jasper.”

Jasper shrugged.

“What’s in the note?” Xamien
asked again.

Damn it, why was Tarek doing
this? He had his freedom, why did he want to torture her with her past? But she
knew why. He was warning her, playing with her. He wanted to unsettle her. And
he had; she didn’t want to talk about Waleron’s once-upon-a-time love for her
publically. “That letter is from...”

“I wrote it to her.” Waleron
flattened the paper, his palm smoothing over the creases. “It’s a letter I
wrote to Delara. It allows me to Trace with her. A blood oath.”

“What?” She stared at Waleron.
The second half of the note, the words she didn’t understand.
A drop of your
blood within me
—that day he’d given her the note, he cut her finger. He’d
put it in his mouth and tasted her blood and then he’d read her the words from
the note. She’d thought it was a romantic gesture. Wanting to bind them with
the blood and proclaim his love for her. “But how?”

Waleron answerd, “My mother was
one of the most powerful witches before she was a Senses, as you know. The
Goddess made her one of the first Senses. But she didn’t like the Goddess’s
stipulations that came with Tracing, so she wrote this spell. I imagine it took
her years to figure out.  I found it after she died when I was burning her
belongings. You may only cast the blood oath once and it will only work if
you…” He stopped.

“Have undying love for the
person,” Xamien finished for him. “You must be willing to die for this person.”

Waleron nodded. “My mother never
knew if it worked. It said in her journal she tried with several different men.
But my mother could never love another more than herself. Nor would she die for
anyone.”

Delara closed her eyes and
swallowed the lump in her throat. All this time, Waleron had been able to Trace
with her because of a spell with her blood and those words. Because he loved
her. She’d memorized the letter, knew every ink blot on the paper, but she
never knew what those words meant until now. “I kept it in my book while living
with Tarek.” She focused all her attention on Waleron. He stood cold and
unmoving, his eyes glued to her. She hated how he remained stoic as if her
words meant nothing. “He found it the day he nearly killed me.”

The note crumpled between
Waleron’s fingers then rolled into a ball on the counter. The urge to run and
grab it from him was like stopping an addict from lunging for a hit. The
muscles in her body quivered with the need. It was the last thing she had of
him from their past. His words to her so long ago. But did they mean anything
now?

“He beat you because of my
letter?”

Out of the corner of her eye she
saw Jasper slip out the back door. Delara fidgeted.

“Answer me.”

“Yes. It was stupid. I shouldn’t
have left it there.”
Tarek never looked at her books.

Waleron’s complexion paled and he
curled his fingers into fists. The snake eyes on his tattoo went a brilliant
red and it started to move across his skin, slithering behind his neck, curling
around his ear and back again.

She waited for the usual
routine—Pez dispenser to come out, Waleron swallowing several pills, but it
didn’t. He must have taken too many already. God, why did he have to take so
much responsibility for issues he had no control over? It wasn’t his fault
Tarek beat her and it certainly wasn’t his fault that he was hunting her now.
Pez took the blame for every damn thing that happened in her life.

“Pez, don’t. This has nothing to
do with you. If it wasn’t the letter it would’ve been something else.”

His voice shouted in her mind,
“He
tried to kill you, Delara! This has everything to do with me.”
“Zurina is
at the Realm; she will protect you. I will take you there until I can decide
what to do.”

Delara glared at Waleron, her
hands on her hips, fingernails digging into her flesh. He remained unflinching
as usual. “He’s playing with us, damn it. He’ll remain hidden until I stop
running. Let me fight. I’m a trained Senses, you goddamn trained me. We can use
me to draw him out.” Ending this was too important. The longer it took to find
Tarek the more chance Waleron would act irrationally and the Wraiths would take
action.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Waleron.” Xamien moved towards
Waleron, his eyes unwavering as he glared at him. The lowering of the brows and
his confident stride was magnetic and Delara was uncertain who she’d be afraid
of more. Xamien had a quiet, deadly calm about him that was unsettling. “When
have any of us run and hidden with the Wraiths?”

“No!” Waleron pounded his fist
down on the counter and his face flushed red.

Xamien never took his eyes from
Waleron as power pulsated from both of them.

Delara backed up at the same time
as Xamien stepped forward, his hands curled into fists. His intent was obvious.
He and Waleron were going to have it out and she was the only one to break them
apart.

A body came swirling through the
air and dove on top of Xamien. The sound of muscled frames smacking the floor
echoed off the hardwood.

Damien punched his brother in the
jaw and then in the gut. Xamien groaned, but didn’t hit him back, merely held
him off as best he could without throwing any punches. There was this sadness
in Xamien’s eyes though, as if he was disappointed with Damien.

Delara jerked when Damien managed
to crack a good hit into Xamien’s neck and she could see Xamien had lost his
breath for a few seconds. “Stop! Damien, Stop it.” She ran into the fray and
pulled on Damien’s arm that was being held off by Xamien and now her.

It was as if Damien didn’t even
realize she was there. There was a mad fury raging through his body, urging him
on with each and every punch. Xamien dislodged him and Damien fell backwards.
Delara touched Damien’s arm and he spun around and took a swing for her.

Waleron intercepted the punch. He
grabbed Damien’s fist and pushed it back, then squeezed. Damien’s face
contorted and he fell to his knees. Waleron was furious, his eyes the coldest
blue she’d ever seen while his jaw was tight and his lips were pursed together.
He remained controlled, but the power behind him was unyielding. As soon as
Waleron let go, Xamien hauled off and punched Damien in the jaw.

“You ever hit her or any other
women and I will kill you, brother or not,” Xamien’s voice was unrecognizable.
She’d never seen him this fierce.

“Delara, my apologies. It was
an accident.”
Damien appeared stunned at what he’d
nearly done.

“I know, Damien. I’m glad
you’re here for Abby.”

Damien stared at her for a
moment, took a hitched breath then he climbed to his feet.

Waleron picked up the paper,
still crumbled in a ball on the counter, and shoved it in his front cargo pant
pocket. “You’re on a flight to Toronto when I return from the Realm. And call
your Scar, he is too attached to Abigail and should not be alone with her.”

Damien’s Scar Simian had grown as
devoted to Abby as Damien had in the months they’d been together. The Scar
protected Abby as if he loved her, but an emotional bond between a Scar and
someone outside of the wearer of the tattoo was unheard of.

Damien’s chest heaved in and out.
His fingers curled then uncurled as he glowered at Waleron. “You lied to me.
You said she was dead. I begged her, damn it I begged you to take me with her
and you refused. Why? Why, did you make me believe you’d killed her?”

“She asked it of me.” Waleron’s
answer was unfeeling and calm.

Damien’s eyes were unbelieving as
he backed away to the stairs. “No. No. She’d never do that to me.” He was
shouting now. “Abby loves me! She wouldn’t have left me.”

Delara saw his devastation. His
pain. It leaked from his pores like blood. “Damien your brother—”

“He’s not my fuckin’ brother.”

Xamien scoffed. Delara saw the
hurt on Xamien’s face, it was just a flicker, but it revealed enough for Delara
to know that he was stung by Damien’s words.

“Damien,” Waleron said. “You
attacked a Taldeburu, brother or not—”

“He’s keeping the woman I love a
prisoner. Yes, I fuckin’ attacked him and I’ll do it again.” Damien’s eyes kept
shifting to Waleron and then to Xamien, untrusting, as if he feared they’d take
him right now.

“You know the penalty for
attacking our own.”

“Put me in Rest. But you better
pray you aren’t anywhere near me when I get out because I’ll kill all of you.”
Damien was wild, his lips were twitching and his jaw was clenched.

Jasper strode into the room and
took in the scene fairly quick. “Trouble in reunited brotherly paradise?” He
shoved his phone into his pocket.

Delara watched as Damien
contemplated his next move. He spun around and ran back up the stairs.

“He won’t let her go this time.”
Xamien put his hand on the counter and Delara noticed the way his fingers
tapped the smooth surface. “He’s what she needs and Abby needs someone she can
trust. She’ll come around faster if he remains here.”

“After he threatened to kill you,
you want him living in your house?” Waleron asked.

“He’s my brother. That will never
change no matter what he does.”

Jasper opened the fridge and
pulled out a Stella Artois. A hiss sounded as he cracked the cap opened. “Glunk
and I searched the area. Horse is dead. No sign of Tarek. Not liking the no
scent thing.”

Delara shook her head, “How did
he know I was coming here? He had to have known. Been prepared.”

“Yes, and that is why you are
going to the Realm,” Waleron answered her. “Tarek has no couth as to who he
harms in his pursuit of you. So until we find him and find out who is assisting
him, you remain there.” Waleron left no room for argument as he held out his
hand.

She closed her eyes, knowing she
had no choice.

She sucked air into her lungs
just as Waleron touched her arm. Dizziness swirled and the coolness of Tracing
seeped into her bones. She tried to speak quickly to Xamien, but it was too
late.

****

Returning to the Realm brought
back memories Delara didn’t want to think about. Walking through the garden,
Waleron catching her with Edan…what he must have thought of her. Why did she do
it? To help Balen in the end, but she used Edan just as she had Liam—to
convince herself that she was immune to love. To Waleron.

Lies.

She loved long ago. The man that
walked beside her now, who made her blood boil in anger and, at the same time,
with desire. She was so caught up in what they didn’t have, she forgot about
what they did have.

She stopped walking.

Waleron paused a few feet ahead
and turned, a frown marring his face.

Xamien was right. Waleron
would’ve moved her to another Talde if he ever thought there was a chance he’d
harm her. But he didn’t. Even if they were no longer together, they’d really
never left one another. He never left her. She ran, but always came back—to
him.

Before she could say anything,
Zurina appeared in a soft swirl of mist. “Waleron. Delara. I hadn’t realized
you were coming to the Realm.” She bowed her head elegantly.