Her Secret (40 page)

“Nor will he be!” Devlin said loudly,
smirking.
Samuel’s mouth dropped open, but no words came out.

“You bastard,” Perseus said, his eyes
widening. “You’ll burn for this!”

“You’re bluffing, you has-been,” Zane said,
sneering. He took a step toward Devlin.

“Ah, now, you need to learn respect for your
elders,” Devlin said and shoved him. His blow sent Zane all the way
across the room to crash into the wall. He stayed there, stunned,
some of his bones clearly broken.

“You drained him,” Samuel said, aghast. “You
drained Ebediah.”

“Him, and his lover,” Devlin said, still
grinning. “They were almost the same age.”

Titus came up beside Danial, a ball of that
glowing blue fire in each hand. Blackness engulfed me suddenly, as
Theoron’s wail became a scream of terror. A whip cracked
unexpectedly, the crowd scrambling to get out of its path. Lash
walked up to stand beside us, drawing his knife with his left
hand.

I gaped at him. Where the hell was his gun?
We faced vampires...

“You do not have enough power, even with what
you stole from Ebediah and Sola,” Perseus said through clenched
teeth. “Not even you and Danial combined are a match for the three
of us, especially with so few guards—”

Lash struck with his whip, making Perseus’s
guard at his side flinch backward, barely evading the whistling
leather.

“You may be number one, but that doesn’t mean
much,” Perseus said, baring his fangs at Lash. “I have fifty guards
here, some of them flanking you as we speak—”

Lash turned in a smooth motion and threw his
knife. It hit a large man square in the chest. He began shrieking,
black blood pouring from the wound, then collapsed.

“Anyone else?” Lash hissed in the dead quiet.
He went to the twitching body, then pulled out the knife. The body
began to collapse in on itself, eerie blue flames slowly eating it
from within. The crowd moved back quickly, leaving Perseus and
Samuel standing alone before us.

“Do you want a war, Samuel?” Devlin said, his
words a caress. “It’s true you may take her if you attack in mass.
But you know me. You know that won’t be the end of it!” He grew
louder. “I’ll be your enemy forever after! And I have so many other
ways to get to you and more especially, those you love! Such as
your sweet Olivia, back in Madrid? Or gentle Gwendolyn, or
Beatrice? You want me to visit one of them some night, when she is
alone, Samuel? Ah, the things I could do to her in just one night!
And after, she would never be the same—”

“Enough!” Samuel shouted, his face white.
“What do you propose, Devlin?”

“I lay claim to Sarelle,” Devlin said, taking
my hand. “I’ll not share her with you!”

“You who’ve bedded countless women,” Zane
said painfully, as he walked to rejoin Samuel. “What concern is
this of yours?”

“I am making it my concern,” Devlin replied.
“Though everyone else here cowers at your feet, I will not stand by
and see evil done to innocents in my home domain.” He glanced at
me, then back to Samuel. “Someone must. It’s time I was that
someone again.”

“You have no claim on her,” Perseus said
scathingly. “Probably no more claim than your brother has.”

“I have drunk her blood, I have marked her,
and I have lain with her,” Devlin said, his voice echoing loudly.
“I have more claim than any other vampire here, save Danial.
Sarelle took an Oath to me as well. You would have her break that,
by taking a vampire lover other than my brother and I. The Oath she
took excludes all others, save us two.”

There was a collective gasp, then muted
conversations began all over the room.

“Sarelle, if what he says is true, say it
now,” Samuel said.

“It is true,” I said defiantly.

“Is it true?” Samuel repeated.

“Yes,” an aged voice said flatly from behind
him. “She speaks the truth, and so does he.”

“I will not be robbed of my prize—” Perseus
snarled.

“I am not going to break the law,” Samuel
said, turning on him. “I recognize his claim.”

“If she is Oathed to him, where is her choker
with his symbol?” Perseus said, his eyes livid. “To be truly
Oathed, she must always be wearing it while in the presence of
other vampires—”

“Sarelle,” Devlin said softly, glancing over
at me. I stepped forward, and raised the hem of my dress, revealing
his choker at my ankle. The emerald eyes of the bear sparkled in
the light.

Samuel gritted his teeth, then let out a
breath. “We recognize your right to Sarelle, Devlin. You may try to
have a child with her, and we will not interfere. You have one
year.”

“Then someone else will try,” Perseus
added.

“No one else will try with Sar, ever, save me
and my brother, unless we give permission for it,” Devlin retorted,
his eyes completely red. “You will agree to that, here and now.
There will be no breaking of the law, or amending it either.”

“If we do not agree?” Samuel said, his eyes
full red.

“Then it will be war, and though you may
bring us down, we will destroy you as well,” Devlin declared. “I
swear it!”

“It will be war,” Perseus said, not backing
down. “She is the only one who can—”

“No, she is not,” Devlin said. There was
another collective gasp.

“The key to her success is her resistance to
the vampire virus that lives in our bodies,” Devlin continued
loudly. “She is not the only one, though women like her are rare. I
know this as I knew a woman centuries ago, Anna, who was like
Sarelle is. This resistance can be determined by her blood, which
will taste unusually sweet. I call it the taste of spring. Find
such a woman, and expose her to demon blood. When her blood turns
even richer, matures from spring to summer, then she will be ready
to bring forth a dhamphir.”

Conversations again started, some of them
loud and excited.

“How do you know all this?” Samuel said,
amazed.

“I have a brain,” Devlin said scathingly. “I
can reason that this is the way, from what I have seen and what I
know was done. Other women must exist; it is only a question of who
will find them first—”

“I know of a woman, my Lords!” a voice cried
out loudly, over the others. “My Harriet is such a woman.”

Perseus turned immediately toward the voice,
and strode off toward the crowd, Samuel and Zane following.

“Well, that went well,” Devlin said, turning
to Danial.

“How the hell did you kill Ebediah?” Danial
said, incredulous.

Devlin ignored him and came over to me. “Miss
me?” he said teasingly. “I have missed you, Love.”

Theo growled, his eyes light yellow.

“Upstairs to my rooms,” Danial said. “We can
talk better there.”

Chapter
Nineteen

Devlin and Danial
strode into the hotel room, talking loudly. I followed them with
Theoron. Brian, wanting no part of this, stayed outside with
Terian.

“Why didn’t you tell me you had taken
Ebediah’s blood? Why didn’t you tell us what you were planning?”
Danial asked angrily.

“I knew what was going to happen here, and I
knew I had to be powerful, knew that I had to be strong enough to
protect Sar. You weren’t going to do it,” Devlin said
sarcastically. “I’d be surprised if our secret isn’t out now,
Brother.” He chuckled. “That or they’ll think you’re bi.”

“Very funny,” Danial said angrily. “Our
kinship’s not a concern, or less of one anyway. It was bound to
come out before long with all the attention we’ve been
getting.”

“On the contrary, it’s a shared weakness,”
Devlin cautioned. “What is Theo’s position? Is he leaving your
employ or not?”

“I’d like him left alone,” Danial said with a
grimace. “He’s staying; I’m not sure for how long.”

“We have the advantage, but it’s only
momentary,” Devlin cautioned. “We need to decide on a plan—”

The door burst open, and Theo came in, his
eyes light yellow slits. He walked up to Devlin and punched him in
the jaw, knocking him to the floor.

Devlin picked himself up. He grinned at Theo,
baring his fangs. “Theo,” he said evilly. “Come to thank me for
saving your life?”

“So you were Sar’s lover,” Theo growled,
still glaring at Devlin. “I’m surprised Danial shared her with you,
but I know that he liked to share women with you sometimes in the
past. I’m surprised she let you touch her.” He gave a bitter smile.
“I’m not sure how you fooled them into thinking she’d ever promise
herself to you. That must’ve been your demon’s spell.”

Theo clearly thought Devlin had been my lover
sometime in the years he’d been separated from me. I resisted the
urge to correct him.

“This explains a lot,” Theo continued. “Why
you brought her flowers sometimes, why you took those bullets for
her, and why you went to save her that night she was taken.” He
smiled sarcastically. “You must have been pissed off when she and
Danial split up and she married me. So much for your being
irresistible.”

“I Oathed to Dev a few days ago,” I said
scathingly. “As for us being lovers, that’s been going on a while.
My only regret is that I didn’t say yes from the first.”

Devlin glanced at me in surprise. Danial
rubbed his forehead in irritation.

“You slut,” Theo shouted, rounding on me. “I
suppose all those Saturdays at Danial’s were really orgies—!”

“That did not happen, Cougar,” Devlin said
coldly. “Sar has been sick, no thanks to you. Now that she’s well,
she’ll be moving on with her life.” He took my hand. “Go back to
your child lover, where you belong.”

Theo glared at me. “He tried to kill you and
you’re letting him fuck you.”

Devlin’s patience snapped. “She came for me
all night, Theo,” he said silkily. “We’ve been having quite a time
while you’ve been away. Don’t you think that her eyes as she
climaxes are the most beautiful green you’ve ever seen?”

Theo turned in a murderous rage, screamed
once, and launched himself at Devlin. Devlin caught Theo easily,
and held him, his fingers like a vise around Theo’s neck, holding
him off the ground. Theo thrashed and roared, but couldn’t get
free.

Devlin bared his fangs, his eyes almost
glowing. “Theo, you have many failings I could call to your
attention. But the best is what you just heard; that if Sar could
go back, she’d have started with me instead of you. You must be
truly awful.”

“Fuck you,” Theo growled, his eyes
yellow.

“Don’t fuck with me, Theo,” Devlin said, his
eyes turning from gold back to reddish gold. “You’ll end up dead.
You exist on my good graces, as you always have.”

“I should have killed you there on the great
room floor, years ago,” Theo snarled.

“You’ve never been too bright,” Devlin said,
nodding. He threw Theo to the ground. “Now get out, or face not
only my wrath, but Lash’s.”

Theo got to his feet, shot me an angry
glance, then left.

“He’ll be gone before the week is out,”
Danial said sadly. “You’ve humiliated him.”

“I’m sorry,” Devlin said quietly. “He pissed
me off.”

“He pissed me off, too,” I said regretfully.
“I should’ve stayed quiet.”

“What’s done is done,” Devlin said, hugging
me. “I’m glad of your decisiveness, Love. I’ve never liked dealing
with Theo. This will make things easier.”

“It will,” I agreed. “You’re right; we should
make some kind of plan. The Rulers are going to expect a child
sometime in the coming year. We need to come up with something to
tell them—”

“We don’t have to worry about that,” Devlin
said. “We’ll have a child by then to show off ourselves.”

I gaped at him, my face whitening.
“What?”

“As for a plan, I have one,” Devlin
continued. “I’ve much to do here, both in building up some
provincial Rulers I can trust, and figuring out Ebediah’s governing
system. That will keep me very occupied until late Spring. Danial,
you’ll also be busy getting Solutions, Inc. back on track, not to
mention hiring a replacement for Theo—”

Danial nodded.

“—
Sar can spend some time with you and
some time at Hayden with me. Now that she can teleport, there’s not
so much worry about her needing to be guarded. Still, we should
have at least two guards with her at all times—”

“I didn’t say yes,” I said loudly, backing
away from both of them with Theoron in my arms. “I didn’t say yes
to another dhamphir.”

Devlin crossed to me. “You’ve heard my
proposal. What do you say?”

“I don’t want to be clawed up again, Devlin,”
I said with trepidation. “Another dhamphir baby might kill me.”

“Sar, if there is any danger to you, we’ll
abort the child,” Devlin said flatly. “I’ll not risk your life,
even to have a child of my own. I promise you that.”

I didn’t reply.

“Will you try with me?” Devlin said, both
hopeful and fearful.

“Do I have a choice?” I said with a ghost of
a smile.

“You always have a choice with me,” Devlin
replied, his eyes on me. “Truthfully, I wish you had more of one.
But I realistically know that if you had more of a choice, you
would not even consider this.”

“That day, when I asked you what you wanted
of me—”

“Yes,” he replied. “I told you the truth,
Sar, as I said I did.”

“Remember, she is Oathed to both of us,”
Danial said warily. “There is going to be time in her life for me
as well as you.”

“Stay your jealousy, brother,” Devlin said,
rolling his eyes. “It is your symbol around her neck, not mine. It
was you in her bed, not me, your child she holds in her arms. I
wanted her to come to me then, but she stayed with you. I am the
one who has been jealous all this time.”

Danial gave me a satisfied look, but didn’t
reply.

I faced Devlin, realization dawning. “You
planned this all. Everything from my rescue from Alphonse to
Oathing me.”