Lost Paradise (9 page)

Sigh.
“I’m coming now,” I said.
Hanging up, I faced Devlin, Elle and Theoron. “I need to go talk to
Terian. I’ll be right back. Call his lab if you need me.”

“Okay,” Elle said, pleased that I was leaving
and Devlin wasn’t going.

He was not pleased. “I’ll walk you over.”

“No, I’ll be right back. Please, stay here
and watch the kids.”

Devlin gave me a smoky glance, then
nodded.

I arrived immediately in Terian’s lab. He was
waiting for me, his suitcases near him.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

His cherry wood colored eyes were determined.
“I read the letter from Leri.”

It took you this long?
I’d have read
it that same night with a bottle of wine handy. “Where are you
headed?”

“Leri didn’t know much about Keriam,” Terian
said sadly. “Except that his real name was Matt Mairek. That’s why
she called him Keriam; it was an anagram of his last name. She
liked that it was similar in sound to her name, too.”

“Do you want to talk?” I said, sitting down
and hoping he didn’t.

Terian sat down in a nearby chair. I shifted,
uncomfortable. This little alcove he kept for reading in his lab
was comfortable enough for one, but close quarters for two.

“Leri knew she was going to deliver soon. She
teleported to Las Cruces, New Mexico, and went to a community
campus in one of the surrounding towns, searching for someone to
entrust with my care. She wanted to find a smart young man. She was
worried about leaving me with a woman, that a female wouldn’t be
strong enough to handle the kind of baby I’d be. She finally found
a medical student. He had just gotten off the night shift at the
local hospital, and was walking home to his fiancée.” He swallowed
hard. “She told him she was scared, that she was going to deliver
soon. He could see both of those things were true.

“He took her back to the hospital. She went
into labor before he could do more than secret her into an unused
room. She put a compulsion spell on him when he tried to leave to
get help—”

I grasped and squeezed Terian’s hand.

“She used her magic to help speed up the
birth. She was able to heal herself, though she lost a lot of
blood. He cleaned me up. While he was occupied, she performed
another spell, a very complex one she’d worked on for months,
taking a bit of his hair and blood. She told him his name was
Keriam, that he was her son, and I was his brother. She told him to
take care of me, then gave him a few hundred thousand dollars.
Teleporting him to Texas, she got him settled in a hotel there.
Then she left.

“The potion she gave him made him forget who
he had been, though it didn’t change the kind of man he was, or his
hopes and dreams. Leri made him forget everything he’d been before
they had met. He lost his fiancé, his entire life, everything he’d
wanted! It was all my fault!”

Terian was crying now openly. I hugged him,
though his tears were almost boiling in their heat.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I soothed. “It was
hers.” I handed him some tissues.

“We’ve come full circle,” he said, using
them. “I remember that first day we met, that day I handed you
those tissues. I felt so bad that day that I’d made you cry.”

“I needed you to tell me what you did back
then,” I replied. “But sometimes crying is good. I always feel
better afterward. You must feel better too, to finally let it
out.”

“I’m leaving tonight,” Terian said, standing.
“Sundown is coming with me. This time I’ll find my brother’s
family, and put his spirit to rest.” He hugged me hard. “Thank you.
I owe you one for this. You need some spell or a potion for
something, just let me know.”

“Thanks,” I said automatically. “You don’t
have to—”

“I want to,” Terian said firmly. “You’re my
best friend, Sar. I’ve never had a friend like you. I love Sundown,
but it’s not the same.”

“You’ve been there for me too, my gallant
sorcerer always ready to save me,” I teased.

“I always will be,” Terian said gently,
kissing my forehead. “I just wish you wouldn’t get into all the
trouble you do. I’m good, but there’ll come a day when even I can’t
save you.”

A shudder went through me.
That day had
come: it had been today
…Quickly I masked my feelings. I didn’t
want him to know any of it. “Hopefully not. When will you come
back?”

“I’ll be back in a week or so,” Terian said.
“If I’m longer, I’ll call. Danial knows. He said he’d work out
something with Brian and Theo.”

“That’s okay,” I said steadfastly. “Do what
you need to do. I can arrange to have Lash guard me if I have to.
Dev won’t mind—”

Terian gave me a look. “You won’t mind?”

“He’s not a jerk,” I said defensively. “Lash
takes his job seriously.”

Terian shrugged. “Maybe he’s not the fuck
that Theo has told me he is.”

I thought of several descriptive replies, but
held my tongue, mostly out of surprise that Terian had sworn so
casually. Maybe he was spending too much time with Theo.

Sundown came in. “Hi Sar. Tears, we’ve got to
go,” she said, shooting me a polite smile. “We’re going to be late
if we don’t leave right now. That fucking plane will leave without
us.”

Maybe it wasn’t Theo that was influencing
Terian’s language. “You’d better go. Be safe.”

I teleported back to Danial’s kitchen. Elle
was packing the cookies into bags. Being used to Terian popping in
at odd times and places, she didn’t even flinch when I
appeared.

“Dad’s back,” she said neutrally, her eyes
upset.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, concerned.

She shook her head, and didn’t answer. I went
to go to her and muscular arms enfolded me from behind.

“Sar, are you feeling any better?” Theo asked
tenderly

I turned to him instantly and hugged him, his
wet hair cold against my arms. “Yes.” I took a deep breath,
smelling prairie grass, pine woods, and wide blue skies. “I’m glad
you’re—”

“We need to go,” a hissing voice said.

I turned to see Lash there, regarding us,
dressed in a grey shirt, his weapons at his sides. Elle threw down
the cookies, and stalked out, growling at Lash as she went by
him.

Someone had let slip to her that Lash had
been my lover.
I went after her.

“No one told her,” Theo said, grabbing hold
of me. “Lash still smells like you—”

Lash shot Theo a smile, then slipped out the
door.

“—
Elle smelled your scent on him. She
accused him of hurting you. He didn’t know that she didn’t know
about the two of you, so he told her the truth. She was very angry.
Danial heard the shouting from inside his bedroom and came out to
see what was the matter.”

God, this was a nightmare. “What does she
know?”

“He told her that what Lash had said was the
truth. She’s been in the kitchen ever since, trying to come to
terms with it.”

I sat on the kitchen stool and put my face in
my hands. “Jesus Christ.”

“I’ll talk to her later tonight,” Theo said,
putting his hand on my shoulder. “She’s old enough to understand
what happened, and that it isn’t your fault.”

It wasn’t, but that didn’t matter, did it? At
least Theo was being nice this time. “Okay.”

“I’m going to go now,” Theo added. “I’ll
probably be gone until at least three a.m. Danial’s arranged for
Ivan to go and watch our pets tonight. I’ll come back here after
the movie with the kids and crash in the basement. Tomorrow, we’ll
go home.”

I wanted to tell him to take me home tonight,
that I just longed to go home with him, watch a TV movie, and have
him hold me. I was tired of all the intrigue, The Lust, and
Devlin’s constant demands. But I couldn’t. There was no way out of
what had to happen here, and I had my own duties to perform. He
couldn’t save me from this.

I gave myself a sudden mental slap.
What
the hell was wrong with me?
I didn’t need a savior; I was
strong enough to deal with my situation on my own. “Be safe,” I
cautioned, hugging him. “I’ll make you breakfast in the
morning.”

“You’re on,” he said. He shot me a last grin,
then left.

There was a soft meow at my feet. The black
cat Theo had saved from our woodshed was there looking up at me.
“Are you hungry?” I said, reaching down and picking him up. “You
want some food?”

“I gave her several cans of cat food this
morning,” Danial said, flashing me a smile from the doorway. “Plus
a few bites of ham. She’s well fed.”

I petted the purring cat. “What did you name
him?”

“It’s a her,” Danial said, coming over. “Her
name is Briar.”

“Briar,” I said, stroking her. She purred,
kneading my shoulder.

“They’ve left,” Devlin announced gleefully,
coming through the door and over to us. “It’s about time, too. I
thought they were never going to go.”

Danial shot him a nasty look. Devlin ignored
him, putting his hand on mine. He ran it up my arm to clasp my neck
loosely. “Sar,” he whispered. “Why don’t you slip into something
more comfortable?”

Startled, Briar leapt out of my arms and ran
out of the room, ears flattened.

“Knock it off,” Danial said, giving Dev a
shove. “We have hours. You don’t have to rush things.”

Devlin snarled, baring his fangs. “Why don’t
Sar and I go to Hayden, then, and leave you here? It’s my night
anyway.”

“Did it ever occur to you that Sar might not
want to have sex?” Danial said, clearly exasperated. “She had a
full day already with what she went through.”

Devlin was quiet, looking from Danial to me
and back. It was obvious he had not thought about it, just of
himself. “Do you not want to be with me?” Devlin said
tentatively.

Despite myself, him, and everything that had
happened today, I found it humorous that he could be so full of
himself one moment, and so vulnerable the next. It was one of the
things I loved most about him. “Are you ever not in the mood?” I
said with a roll of my eyes.

“No,” Devlin said, grinning. He pulled me
close and began kissing up my neck.

“He is
always
in the mood,” Danial
said, irritated. “You’d think after centuries, after thousands
of—”

“Shut up,” Devlin ordered, breaking away from
me. “Or I won’t let you join us, Danial.”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
Devlin had said he and Danial had business with me. As I suddenly
understood what that meant, my eyes got as big as saucers.

Devlin caught my look in my eyes and nodded.
“Danial told me about your fantasy,” Devlin purred, kissing my
cheek. “Both of us at once. Your fantasy is going to come true
tonight, Sar.”

Suddenly, I was in the mood completely, the
desire all my own. I pulled Devlin close and kissed him hard,
slipping my tongue into his mouth. He responded instantly, kissing
me deeply, his hands roaming my body.

Danial pried us apart. “Hey,” he said firmly.
“I’m not doing this in my kitchen, and I’m part of this tonight.
Let’s go into my bedroom where we can all get more
comfortable.”

Devlin looked at me, his eyes melting gold
now, hot with love and lust. “That sounds good,” he purred. “I’ve
brought something for Sar to wear.”

Looks like I wasn’t the only one who had
fantasized about this.

“I have something I want her to wear,” Danial
said mildly. “And it’s my bedroom, Dev.”

That was a surprise, yet on reflection, it
shouldn’t have been. I hadn’t been the only one getting hot and
bothered over the idea of a threesome when Danial had first
broached the delicious idea. “No fighting, gentlemen.”

“Fine, you can have your fantasy first,”
Devlin said easily. “Mine can be later, when we can take
longer.”

First? Later? Longer? What was I getting
into?
I followed Danial and Devlin into Danial’s bedroom.
Danial locked it behind us. “Go and change Sar. What I’d like you
to wear is on the back of the door.”

I went into the bathroom. There on the back
of the door was a bra and panty set, made entirely out of bits of
red lace. There was almost nothing to it, it was so scanty. Closing
the door, I put it on with trepidation. To my surprise, it fit
fine. Those daily treadmill workouts were working to control my
pregnancy weight gain. There was only the small swell of my tummy
to give proof I was pregnant at all.

I wrapped myself in my robe, then looked in
the mirror.
Could I do this?
It was one thing to take
several lovers. It was another thing entirely to have lovers plural
at the same time.

Screw it.
I wanted to try it. I took a
deep breath, then opened the bathroom door.

The light had been turned off. Now several
candles burned around the room. Danial and Devlin were both on the
bed, reclining there naked in the flickering light, their eyes on
me. The sight of them together waiting for me was enough to make me
pause.

We watched each other for several minutes in
the candlelight. I wanted to remember this always, to capture the
moment and commit it to memory. It didn’t matter what the night
brought, or if other nights like this one followed. I would never
feel this way again; eager and shy equally, hesitant as a
virgin.

Danial got up from the bed and came to me.
“You’re trembling. What’s wrong?”

“I’m a little afraid,” I whispered, awkward.
“Just nerves, I think.”

Devlin came to stand at my back. He clasped
my arms with his hands, then slid them up my shoulders to my neck,
massaging gently. “Why are you afraid?” Devlin whispered, kissing
my neck lightly. “Is it because of the last time you and I were
together in this room?”

The night he’d tried to drain me dry. “Stop
it, Dev,” I said angrily, tensing. “I’ve been trying like hell to
forget that other night, and you casually bring it up...”