Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) (14 page)

“But it’s just a book,” Riley said. “It’s not made of gold, is it?”

“No...” Liam said very carefully. “But Kyaerin started it during a difficult time and it holds great sentimental value.”

Gideon could see Riley trying not to pry. Thankfully, Kyaerin took that moment to spot them and glide over.

“What’s going on over here?” she asked, glancing from one face to the next.

“Just having a few drinks,” Gideon said at once, lifting his glass and setting it down again. “What are you doing over here?”

His sly tactics seemed to work as her mind was pulled away from their presence.

“Contemplating retiring,” she answered. “I’m exhausted. This whole business is just tedious.”

Liam moved to her side and slipped an arm about her shoulders. “Come, darling.” He brushed a kiss to the side of her head. “Let me walk you to our quarters.”

“I should stay and see if—”

“There’s really nothing left for you to do,” Gideon interrupted. “Magnus will probably stay up the rest of the night going over the charts. I’m sure he’ll wake all of us once he finds something.” He stepped around the counter to join the others. “In fact, I think I’m turning in myself. All this excitement the last few nights is beginning to wrinkle this gorgeous face. Can’t have that.” He turned to Riley. “Does the handsome hero get a kiss goodnight?”

Riley smirked at him. Her sharp little fangs glinted in the dim light. “Oh I have every intention of kissing my husband goodnight.”

Hissing in feigned agony, Gideon clutched at his heart. “Why must you hurt me thus? Does our love mean nothing?”

Riley rolled her eyes, shook her head and walked away, chuckling.

“You know, one of these days, Octavian is going to kick your ass,” Reggie predicted.

“Flirting with a pretty girl is not a crime,” Gideon argued. “Besides, he’d have to catch me first. I don’t look it, but I’m spritely.” He exhaled in frustration at their dubious glances. “Relax. I’m not interested in Riley and Octavian knows it. It’s kind of insulting that you think I would poach my brother’s wife. I do have some pride ... and the will to live.”

Leaving them watching after him, he crossed his way to the door leading into the kitchen. He had every notion of climbing into bed and sleeping the week away. It was unlikely, but even he could dream. Maybe, if he was lucky, no one else would get killed in the next twelve hours.

“Gideon!” Imogen fell into step alongside him as he pushed his way through the swinging doors.

“Hello,” he said. They reached the door leading upstairs and he held it open for her. “How are you holding up?”

Slipping past, she waited for him to follow before starting down the narrow hallway together, their shoulders bumping.

“My family was murdered,” she said evenly. “I’m holding up.”

He glanced sideways at her.

She was a tiny thing, he mused, barely coming to his shoulder. Her frail innocence had never been something he fancied in a bedmate, but even he had to admit there was a slight allure to her. Granted, it was nothing he would even consider. She was just too young and, despite everything, he was very much taken.

“Is there something I could do for you?” he asked.

Next to him, she seemed to straighten. Then she ceased walking altogether and turned to him. There was determination on her face and in the harsh line of her shoulders.

“I want to see my family,” she blurted.

Gideon blinked. “Pardon?”

“My family,” she repeated. “I want to see them.”

He frowned. “Imogen, they’re dead,” he said softly.

“I know that.” She took a deep breath. “They deserve a proper burial. They were my family. It’s my responsibility.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Have you talked with the others about this?”

Her grimace gave her away even before she shook her head. “I wasn’t sure how.” Her blue eyes rose up and met his. “You’re easy to talk to. I was hoping you could help me convince the others to let me go.”

“Imogen.” He faced her squarely. “You’re not a prisoner here. You are free to go anywhere you please.”

It was her turn to look wary. “Really?”

He nodded. “Just make sure that someone knows where you’re going in case something happens.”

She seemed to mull this over carefully before giving the slightest of nods. “Okay. Thank you.”

Inclining his head, Gideon wished her goodnight and went up to his room. He kicked off his boots and dropped face down, fully clothed, onto the bed.

H
e didn’t exactly get twelve hours of sleep. It was more like five, and while he attempted to convince himself that it was better than nothing, he couldn’t stave off the urge to punch the person flicking his nose.

“Fuck off!” he grumbled into the pillow, eyes still closed.

“Get your ass out of bed,” came the response from a familiar voice.

“Bite me.”

For a moment, Reggie didn’t respond. Then Gideon was rewarded by the brisk thump of retreating feet towards the door. He smiled happily to himself as he snuggled more deeply into the pillow he clutched to him.

The feet didn’t make it all the way to its destination. Instead, they got midway, and before Gideon could brace himself, stopped at the foot of the bed a split second before the sheets were torn away, bathing him in a rush of frigid, morning air.

“Motherfu—”

“Careful,” Reggie snickered. “She’s your mother, too.”

In a single motion, Gideon flopped over and pitched the pillow at his brother’s head. Reggie caught it.

“What’s your problem?” Gideon snapped. “I just went to bed!”

“Imogen’s gone,” Reggie said. “Dad thinks she went home.”

Gideon closed his eyes and cursed. “That little idiot. I told her to wait for someone!”

“You knew?”

Leaping off the mattress, Gideon marched to where he’d kicked off his boots. “She came to me last night. She wanted to go see her family. I told her to ask.”

Reggie raised a single brow and blinked at him in dry annoyance. “You’re the idiot.”

“What?”

Reggie threw his arms open wide. “She did ask. She asked you and you said fine.”

“I didn’t say fine!” But he couldn’t help grimacing. “I didn’t think...”

“Come on.” Reggie started for the door. “We better get her back before something else gets her first.”

They left his room together, Gideon tugging down the lapel of his coat.

“Do you always sleep in your clothes?”

Gideon spared Reggie a sidelong glance. “No, usually I sleep with my freak flag flying free and the breeze blowing up my ass. It’s very liberating.”

Reggie’s eyes widened. He blinked, shook his head. “I am never going to erase that image from my head.”

Smirking, Gideon quickened his pace. “You’re welcome.”

Magnus, Octavian, and their father were already in the dining area. They glanced up when Gideon strolled in, Reggie a step behind him.

“Imogen has gone home,” Reggie announced. “Genius over here told her it was okay.”

Aiming a misaimed swat at his brother, Gideon scowled. “I did not say it was okay. I told her to ask ... someone that wasn’t me,” he added as an afterthought.

Their father narrowed his eyes. “She asked you to go home?”

“Well, yes and no. It’s a really funny story.”

“Gideon!”

Exhaling, Gideon decided to just get it over with. “She asked, but I told her she would need to make sure a responsible individual knew where she was going. I had no idea she thought I was that responsible person. Clearly the girl has problems that I can’t be held accountable for.”

Frowning at him as though he were singlehandedly liable for the world’s problems, their father turned to the others. “Reggie, come with me. Gideon, go with Magnus and see if you can’t pick up Micah and Cara’s scent.”

Valkyrie took that moment to storm into the room, decked out in her habitual boots, leather tights and a white halter. Her daggers were tucked into the tops of her boots. She had her duster grasped in one hand and a sword in the other; she was a woman on a mission and damn if she didn’t make him tight in the shorts. She took the group in with a flick of her blue eyes.

“I think it would be wiser if I went with Magnus,” she stated boldly. “Gideon managed to lose the scent once. We can’t risk that a second time.”

Annoyance shot through him. “I didn’t lose the scent!” he declared hotly. “I misplaced it amongst the hundred other scents swirling around that place.”

Valkyrie didn’t seem to care how it happened, only that he had been the cause of it. “I’m sure you have other more pressing matters to attend to, like going back to bed.”

“Is that an option?” Gideon looked to his father. “Because I pick that one.”

Liam pursed his lips even as laughter danced in his eyes. “That isn’t an option.” he said to Gideon. Then focused on the warrior standing a polite five feet away from them. “Thank you, Valkyrie, but—”

The kitchen door swung open yet again and Riley hurried out, followed by an anxious Kyaerin.

“Any word?” His mother rushed to his father’s side, blue eyes bright with concern. “Is she all right?”

Liam took her small hands in his large ones and brought the knuckles to his lips. “She is fine,” he assured her. “I will bring her back.”

Although a good majority of his mother’s tension melted from around her shoulders, she still continued to eye his father with uncertainty. “She’s so sheltered, Liam. So innocent. If anything happens to her—”

“Nothing will,” he promised. “We are leaving now to retrieve her.”

“I can’t believe she would just leave like that,” Riley murmured, wearing the same anxious mask as his mother. “What if something happens to her? She could get killed and she would be completely alone and helpless.”

Gideon cleared his throat and concentrated on nudging the salt shaker on a nearby table closer to the pepper shaker, tactfully avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room.

“I’m more concerned that we won’t get all the information we need to find whoever’s responsible,” Valkyrie piped in. “She is a witness after all.”

Riley narrowed her eyes. “She’s just a kid!”

Valkyrie snorted. “You can’t know that. We don’t age like you mortals.”

“I think we should concentrate on heading out,” Liam interjected when Riley opened her mouth. “Valkyrie, you go ahead with Magnus—”

“Hey, wait!” Gideon’s head shot up. “That was my job!”

“And Gideon,” his father continued in the same even tone. “Reggie and I will find Imogen.”

“You should go with them.”

Riley had slipped around the group to stand at Octavian’s shoulder. She had one thin arm hooked around his elbow and was looking up into his face with her chin resting on his upper arm.

It always amused Gideon how tiny she was next to his giant of a brother. But she had a strength to her that made her appear much larger, a strength that had nothing to do with her strigoi blood. It was something deep inside her. Something she had been born with.

“A Caster needs to stay behind,” Octavian told her. “Final Judgment can’t be left unguarded.”

Riley squeezed his arm, but said nothing else.

Gideon opened his mouth to offer Octavian the opportunity to prowl the rancid docks in Gideon’s place when he was interrupted by the dark, purple smoke coiling from the ground, rising high to the ceiling before the doors. Everyone in the room tensed as a hulking figure emerged from its core and strode into the room.

Commanding, with skin the color of burnished gold and eyes like the pits of hell, the man was seven feet of raw muscle. He surveyed the room with a flat, cool expression, settling in turn on each face.

“Ramses?” Valkyrie shifted a single step closer, but drew herself up short and straightened her spine. Her face became a blank mask. “Was there another attack?”

“No.” His voice boomed through the room like thunder.

Valkyrie’s posture gave the faintest little jolt. No one would have noticed it, but Gideon had trouble not noticing things when it came to her. No matter how slight.

“Is it my father? Does he wish to see me?”

“No,” the man said again. He turned those dark eyes towards Liam. “He wishes for an audience with the Gatekeeper of the North.”

“My father has already met with your leader,” Magnus interrupted. “We can’t simply drop everything every time a Keeper has the urge for a tea party.”

Liam put his hand up, silencing his son and the man at the door when he seemed to pull himself up to his full height, his features twisted in outrage.

“If Arild wishes to see me then of course I will oblige, but I have matters that need attending first—”

“It is to be now,” Ramses stated sharply. “It is a dishonor to keep—”

“It is also a dishonor to demand another leader to run when summoned, like a dog,” Magnus hissed. “My father will meet with your leader when he is ready.”

“It’s all right, Magnus,” Liam said calmly. “Perhaps Arild has information on the attacks that he wishes to share.”

“Then I will come with you,” Magnus decided at once.

Liam shook his head. “You and Gideon need to find Micah and Cara. Reggie, you and Valkyrie—”

“Does my father wish my attendance?” Valkyrie asked Ramses.

“No,” Ramses said with more than just a hint of frost. “But he has sent you a message.” He paused for a full heartbeat before continuing. “He wishes for me to tell you that you have disappointed him. It has been three days and you have not captured those responsible for these attacks. Had he known you would humiliate him in this manner, he would have sent Erle. Then perhaps the task would have been completed properly.”

His words rang through the room, a sharp slap of cruelty that marked Valkyrie’s cheeks pink. She kept herself rigid, but Gideon could feel her humiliation and her desperation to keep from showing just how badly the message hurt her. Outwardly, she was the perfect mask of indifference.

Gideon wasn’t nearly as trained to suppress his emotions.

In three powerful strides, Gideon ate the distance separating him from the intruder and stopped when he was nose to nose with Ramses.

“I don’t know who you are,” he said calmly, but with an edge of barely suppressed fury. “And frankly, I don’t give a shit. But if you ever talk to her like that again, Arild Devereaux will find himself one asshole short of a full deck, do you understand me?”