Hels's Gauntlet [Forbidden Legacy 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (11 page)

Together.

“I love you.” Cassandra found her voice before he did, and he buried his face against her hair. Three hearts beating in perfect rhythm.

Together.

Jacob was standing outside Helcyon’s room when the door opened. By mutual agreement, they’d settled it all down for the day. Jacob called Miller back in to meet with the Brotherhood of the Crimson Rose and to keep an eye on Vanagan and their purple-haired prisoner. In an effort to get Cassandra to rest and Helcyon to heal, he’d talked the Elf into keeping her in bed for the rest of the afternoon and most of the night.

When dawn kissed the mountains in the distance, he’d given Helcyon a not-so-gentle mental shove. The connection between them seemed to be wide open, a live wire. The Elf’s thoughts were a hum underscoring his own.

Disconcerting as hell, but not half as disconcerting when he’d walked from the shower to his bedroom to change and between one blink and the next Helcyon’s vision overlaid his own and he’d seen Cassie kneeling, bottom rosy and pussy wet and ready.

There’d been no time to extricate his mind, and he’d ridden the tidal wave of passion with them both, every ball-aching, pussy-clenching moment.

He’d needed another shower by the time they were done.

Hell, he’d needed three.

He straightened from his slouched position and glanced around the Elf to see Cassie tucked soundly on her side, one hand splayed over her belly. Her quiet, whisper soft snore hung in the air until Helcyon closed the door behind him.

“She okay?” The unnecessary question was a better greeting than
what the fuck, over
? But only by a little.

“Exhausted, but sleeping well. She will wake before too long, but I canceled her appointments and turned off her alarm.” Helcyon reflected Jacob’s choice of clothes in jeans and a T-shirt. His right arm seemed nearly whole, the black sleeve of the tattoo retreating up under the cotton shirt.

“How’d you manage that?” Jacob led the way, down the hall to the stairs.

Helcyon held up the slender black phone that was never out of Cassie’s hands. The screen was completely black. “It can’t wake her if it’s off.”

Jacob barked with laughter. “She’s going to kill you.”

“I will take my chances.” Serenity restored to his dark countenance, the Elf actually looked to be anticipating her reaction. Of course, the thought of spanking her pretty ass red gave Jacob’s dick a twitch of its own.

He would have to experiment with that method of discipline. She seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed it from the Elf. A memory that didn’t belong to him, the hard clamp of her too-tight pussy around his cock as his hands covered her hips and he watched his cock disappearing inside her over and over, asserted itself.

“And on that note.” He paused to give Helcyon a bland look. “Let’s keep it PG-13 for a little while till we work out this new wrinkle.”

Helcyon laughed, a long, hearty, chest-rumbling sound that echoed a deep bass trumpet stroking out a lyrical jazz note. In the kitchen, a platter crashed to the ground, and the shatter didn’t diminish the wonder of the sound.

“Holy crap on a cracker.” The heretofore unnoticed Jude sat up on the sofa, a book hanging limply from his fingers. He gaped at Helcyon. The expression seemed to set Helcyon off further, and his laugh deepened, shaking something old and rusty loose within Jacob’s soul.

Jacob chuckled. It wasn’t as though he’d forgotten to laugh, but he couldn’t remember the last time genuine mirth raced through him unchecked by deadly danger, worry, or anxiety. The deep belly laugh seemed to resonate through him, tickling forgotten funny bones, and he wheezed for air.

As abruptly as the humor swamped Helcyon, it tapered off. Helcyon’s expression sobered. His gaze swept from Jacob to Jude and then to the kitchen door. Jacob twisted to follow his line of sight. Paul stared at them, shock mingling with awe in his normally blank expression.

“I haven’t heard that sound in a really long time.” The sober words dried up Jacob’s humor. He frowned and cut a look to Helcyon.
The sound of Fae laughter.

Real laughter.

He’d never heard it. Even when Helcyon chuckled, it always held an edge, a counterweight to genuine mirth. With Cassie, intensity lingered in every deliberate action and flavored every word.

Was this really the first time he heard the Elf laugh?

“My apologies.” Helcyon exhaled. “I think I had forgotten how it felt to be so amused.”

“Wow,” came the understated response from their youngest Wizard. Jude continued to stare at Helcyon like he was Hendrix risen from the ashes.

“Breathe, Jude.” Paul walked into the living room and stood between Jude and the Elf, breaking his line of sight. “Breathe.”

“What the hell was that?” Jacob’s ears hummed, a low-level buzzing that seemed to fill his head. An icy hot sensation skated over his nerves and filtered through his extremities. If he hadn’t just come down to get coffee, he could almost believe he was drunk.

“That is the lure of the Fae.” Paul’s words held no censure, but the same could not be said for his expression. “I didn’t think it would work anymore…we’ve been around you for months, and I’ve never felt it before today.”

“He hasn’t laughed for real before today.” Jacob focused his attention on Paul, brows drawing together in a frown. “He didn’t do it to seduce us.”

“Easy, Jacob.” Helcyon’s hand came down on his shoulder. He would typically have shrugged off the contact, but it steadied him. Just like yesterday when their shields blended seamlessly together, it reinforced his sense of self and brought him greater clarity.

“Mother of the Gods.” The epithet rolled out of him, and he twisted to look at Helcyon. Greater clarity, greater connection. He could hear the hum of the Elf’s thoughts. A feeling he’d never experienced before the day or night before. He’d experienced Helcyon’s sex with Cassie, his body responding to their fevered coupling.

“Yeah, I’m going to say we have a lot to talk about. Jude.” Paul gave the younger Wizard a kick. “Go shower and get some hematite on that wrist of yours. Salt, too.”

“‘The hell for?” Jude’s words slurred, but Paul ignored him and gave the younger Wizard a boost up and a shove in the direction of their wing of the house. He followed in his wake.

Jacob stared after them, and more because he thought he should than out of any real need or desire, he stepped away from Helcyon. The lack of his hand and physical connection didn’t diminish the mental or emotional one.

Or was it a magical one?

“Just tell me this isn’t on purpose.” His jaw clenched and he didn’t turn around. He didn’t dare look at the Fae lest the odd sensations running riot through his senses turn out to be glamour.

“It’s not.” The simple response lacked artifice or the notion that the Elf placated him. Jacob wanted like hell to believe that their friendship hadn’t turned into some sucker punch of allure that fostered faux loyalty.

Wanting to believe him and actually doing it, however, were two different things. He sucked in a deep cleansing breath, found his center, and grounded the chaotic swirl of emotions in him. Cassie complained once that she found it hard to get her equilibrium around them, that they robbed her of thought. He hadn’t really understood it.

Until now.

The hum in his ears diminished, and his pulse calmed. Confident he had some measure of control back, he turned to look at the man he was beginning to think of as a best friend, if not his closest ally and yes, on some level, his family.

“Is it Cassie?”
Was this a reflection of their need for her?
Their ties to her bound them in the beginning, but it went deeper than that now. He wasn’t too hidebound or stubborn to admit to those changes.

“No.” Helcyon shook his head slowly. The dark length of his hair seemed to slide over the cotton shirt, a riot of untamed darkness shadowing his reserved expression. All trace of his earlier humor seemed to have evaporated.

“But you know what it is?”

He knew the answer before the Elf nodded.

“I’m about to be really pissed off, aren’t I?”

Again, he expected the grave nod and blew out a long breath. Hands on his hips, he dropped his gaze to the wooden floors. The house that Cassie’s love built. The house they built together. It decorated every notch in the wood, every stitch of the furniture, and reflected in every blade of the grass.

For better or worse, they were all in this together.

“Fine. Coffee first. Then you can explain it.” He turned on his heel and headed into the kitchen.

Helcyon followed at a more sedate pace. “Jacob…”

“Uh-uh.” He turned and pointed a finger at him. “Not a word. Not till after I have coffee and you have whatever the hell it is you’re going to drink. Just keep your happy hummy thoughts to yourself. I want a clear head when we discuss this.”

Amusement speared him at the faint upward twitching of the Elf’s lips. Jacob sighed and focused all of his attention on the coffeepot. He paid particular attention to measuring the coffee, adding the filter and pouring the water into the reservoir.

Because whatever the hell this was, if it meant he was falling in love with the Elf, he may just have to punch him before he kissed him.

Hell, he might punch him anyway.

Helcyon chuckled at the image in Jacob’s mind. The last thing he wanted to do was kiss the Wizard. But the mild offense coupled with the intense desire to hit him struck his funny bone. The amusement rolled through him and redoubled when it struck the open connection between him and the Wizard.

Bastard.
Jacob didn’t even try to disguise the thought as he flattened his hands against the counter and laughed until tears crept out of the corners of his eyes.

“Sometimes.” It was the maudlin apology in the word that dried up the dregs of humor soaking through his mind. It felt good to laugh.
To really laugh.
He’d not had much in the last few hundred years to be cheerful about.

Loving Cassandra brought the light back. Jacob’s acceptance and friendship turned up the warmth. But the family they were forging, the lack of censure and judgment, it reminded him of everything he’d missed in the centuries since bad feelings hardened into war between Wizard and Fae.

Too many centuries Underhill left him a diminished shell of himself. He’d forgotten who he was, what it was to be Helcyon, Lord of Sun and Sword. He tested the silver twining silver that extended through him to Jacob. The connection remained new, delicate almost, yet stronger than he expected. The connection bypassed Cassandra, despite the silver twining through her, bridging them together. They were bound on another level.

The bond was different than one he shared with Cassandra. The differences were not subtle, the shape of the silver twining on silver, the dimension of it. They were more slender, tighter woven, and where Cassandra’s link pulsed, even in sleep, with the constant awareness of her affection and on a lower level, lust and need, he heard only Jacob’s thoughts. They were a hum, a low level of white noise underscoring everything, even his own thoughts.

Jacob. Look at me.

He sent the thought quivering along the bond, and the Wizard pivoted sharply, his brown gaze open and expectant, then shuttering with narrow intensity. The silver connection went flat, but it didn’t dissipate.

“My apologies. I was testing a theory.” Helcyon held up his hands and retreated to the opposite counter. Crossing his arms, he was surprised to feel the gentle ridges he expected where his wounds knitted together transformed to smooth skin. The pinch, burn, and sting of his wounds were gone.

Jacob blew out a breath. “Screw the coffee. Explain.” The Wizard’s anxiety climbed several notches, and that leaked through. Helcyon concentrated, flattening the bond further.

“Block me.” The Wizard would need to help shut the connection down so he could explain it or it wouldn’t matter how Helcyon described it. The inclination to believe him would exist one way or the other. He preferred a Jacob with his self-determination intact.

“How exactly? It seems to be buried deep in my psyche, and even if I shut that down, I can find you through Cassie.”

“True, but the issue is not our mutual bond with Cassandra, but the bond we created together. If we close the door on both sides, it should mute most of the effects.”

“Most?” Jacob’s eyebrows climbed, and a brief flash of animosity ricocheted down the pathway to knock against Helcyon’s conscience.

“It’s been a long time since this happened, Jacob. I think I’ve forgotten more about these types of bonds than I remember. If I’d realized what was happening when it did…” Helcyon hesitated. He didn’t want to say he would have stopped it because deep in his soul, the Lord rousing from his too long sleep recognized that he wouldn’t have.

“But you would have clued me in and let me make the choice for myself.” Jacob finished the unspoken thought with a grimace. “I believe you, but is it because I believe you or because of the bond?”

It’s because you’re madly in love with me.
Helcyon let that thought drift out, and Jacob snorted.