Stealing Kathryn (24 page)

Sleeping soundly after a long night of gathering energy to give to the Ampliphi, Aerlyn was completely unprepared for the brutal onslaught of energy that struck her out of nowhere. The power of it physically flung her from her bed, forcing her to awaken and take it all in. She felt the pure pleasure of it, felt the resonance of her brother’s release as he abandoned himself to it. That was when she realized what was happening. This was the power of kind coming together, the energy of kindri and kindra reaching a point of passion together. Powerful enough to feed an entire village. There was no place for all of that energy to go except into her; the other option was to let it wastefully dissipate into this dead plane where no one had use for it, and she would rather drop dead than let that happen.

She sat on her knees, her head bowed and her hands gripping at the floor as it continued to ride her like a bucking bronc. She needed to get to her feet. Needed to move. She could only take so much before she burnt herself out or her head exploded. It took several tries, but she was finally able to grab one of the curtains to her bed. She used it to drag herself over to the bed and with a remarkable show of strength she pulled herself up to the tips of her toes with just a single pull. And still the energy kept coming, rolling into her now like breaking swells in the surf. She wasn’t built to take in so much energy. No one was. If she didn’t find a way to stop it she was going to do herself serious harm, and Adrian would blame himself for it. Her brother was taking the weight for a great many wrongs of late, whether he was responsible for them or not. She would not add this to his payload.

Aerlyn staggered into the hallway and straight to the stairs. She almost broke her neck as she stumbled down them at a hazardous speed. Next were the narrow stairwells leading down to her and Adrian’s workrooms.

Her workroom was everything her brother’s wasn’t. She had decorated it warmly with a desk and footstool, a comfortable chair to rest in after a hard night’s work, and pretty little china bits she’d taken a fancy to over the years. Her own version of a treasure room, she supposed. Sage and potpourri were scattered everywhere, so the room smelled fresh and not of the dank basement location it was in. If she’d had her choice, she would have worked out of one of the upstairs rooms, but Adrian had demanded a low, dismal place in which to work, reflective of his hateful duties, no doubt. She couldn’t bear the idea of him working alone down here, so she had moved herself in across from him. Her love for her brother had never wavered. Not even when it had gotten to its very worst.

Now she knew she had to do something crucial for him. She walked like a drunkard toward her mirror. Oval in shape and framed in white, ivy-like fronds of worked metal, it was twice her height and equally large around. The bottom of the glass touched directly to the cold stone floor. She looked inside the glass, gasping at her own reflection. The stars in her hair looked as though they were going supernova, tiny bursts of light that had they been to scale would have blinded the cosmos. Her silver eyes glowed with depth and energy. So much so that she knew she had gone well beyond her tolerances. The only way to stop it now was to leave the house…hell, the surrounding area, for that matter. So she took the quickest route she knew. With a charge of green electricity, she stepped into her mirror.

The Ampliphi were arguing, as they did quite often, when Aerlyn staggered through her mirror portal and into Justice Hall.

“Aerlyn, what is the meaning of your intrusion?” Rennin demanded irritably because he had been the one losing the argument at hand. He didn’t like to lose. What was more, he despised being thwarted.

Instead of explaining herself, Aerlyn did what she was designed to do. She unleashed all of the energy she had absorbed on the Ampliphi. Like her, half of them were knocked out of their seats. Their ethereal forms slowly but surely turned to solid flesh and blood, a state they so rarely indulged in, in order to conserve energy. But there was no need for conservation today. What Aerlyn had brought them was a treasure trove. The Ampliphi picked themselves up and reordered themselves. Flushed with the nature of the passionate energy they had received, they all changed in demeanor from belligerent and stubborn to easy and sated.

They turned to Aerlyn, whose eyes were still aglow as she tipped her chin and took them all in with the sweep of her arms.

“My brother has found his kindra, and I have brought you the proof of it. His life is no longer on the line and you must accept that now.”

There was so much silence for so long that Aerlyn began to doubt that they had heard her. What she didn’t know was that their recent argument had been about the best methods to destroy her brother when the opportunity finally presented itself. Now that opportunity had vanished before their eyes and they were astounded by the impossibility of it. Yet there was no questioning what Aerlyn had brought to them for proof. The last time they had been so solid had been when Julian had first taken his mate. That had been such an explosive coming together that no one had starved that week. The same would likely have been true had Adrian taken his mate here on their plane.

“Aerlyn.” Sydelle had to stop to clear the huskiness from her throat. “We thank you for this generous gift.”

Christophe, the leader of the Ampliphi and Aerlyn’s mentor, sat forward in his seat. His steady eyes were apologetic and Aerlyn felt a frisson of worry wend its way down her spine.

“Aerlyn, you must go to your brother right away and tell him we will not tolerate his absence Beneath for another day. He and his mate will relocate to your former village, where the energy from their bond together can feed thousands.”

“But you can’t do that!” The stern folding of his handsome face told her she had overstepped herself with the outrageous shout, but she really didn’t care. She was always the first to respect the wise Ampliphi, but in this she would argue for her brother’s sake. “I understand your reasons for wanting this, I do, but he has barely won his mate’s trust, and now you want to thrust them into a world that is so alien to her own? At least the Barrens closely resembles the world she knew!”

“And what will you do, Aerlyn? Take onslaught after onslaught of this energy they create? Look at what it has done to you already. You can barely stand and your eyes are bloodshot beneath their glow. You are lucky you didn’t have a stroke trying to manage that all on your own! This setup is a danger to you and wasteful besides. It was not a suggestion, Guardian, it was a command.”

Fury rolled through her as she faced down the man who had taught her how to rein in energy from the world of dreams. She had known nothing when she had come to him, only sporting a raw talent she’d been born with. He had taught her so much, more than anyone there might realize, and now he was passing down dictates on her as if she were a dog expected to obey.

“What is wrong with you?” she demanded directly from him. “Is it that you wish for Adrian to fail at this? Are you angry to have your opportunity to kill the monster taken out of your hands?” The moment Christophe cast a look at the other Ampliphi she knew, with horror, that she had hit the nail on the head. “Oh my God. You were hoping he would fail!”

“Untrue. We did not think he would succeed. There is a difference,” Christophe said.

“And now you want to throw their relationship into trial before they are ready. It sounds to me that you are still thinking,” she accused.

“If Adrian fails to please his kindra, it is not because of his location. And this is no longer about your brother but about the thousands he and his mate will feed every time they come together. This is not open to discussion, Aerlyn. He will be here by night’s fall or he will suffer consequences. Am I making myself clear to you?”

“Perfectly,” she bit out.

She turned on her heel and with a wild green electrical show, she and her anger stepped into her mirror. Once they were sure she had left, Rennin turned to the others.

“So now how do you propose we get rid of the bastard?” he demanded.

It took all of Adrian’s remaining strength not to collapse on top of Kathryn and crush her beneath his considerable bulk. Just the same he lay on her heavily, drawing for each breath as though it might be his last. He was stunned, to say the least. His entire body was humming with the power rushing through it. How could he possibly feel so weak and so energized all at once? He brushed both of his hands through Kat’s hair, cupping her head and making her look at him while he tried to comprehend his own thoughts.

“Your eyes are glowing!” she exclaimed. “How do they do that? Is that because of…That’s so freakishly cool!”

“I am glad my freakishness fascinates you,” he said with amusement.

“You’re lucky it does, because you’ve shown me quite a lot of it so far.”

“Oh?” He frowned. “Then why would you let me anywhere near you?” he wondered.

“I’ve been wondering that myself. Wait!” She grabbed his shoulders when he moved as if to leave her. “Adrian, I’m only teasing you. Stop this.” She brushed at his turned-down mouth. “I don’t care about the fangs and the claws or the eyes. Well,” she paused, “I do care, actually. But only in the sense that you do that wicked cool thing with the claws to me and I would hate to lose that. It gives me goose bumps.”

Finally, he smiled down at her, flashing her considerably less fang than the day before. “Liked that, did you?”

“Mm-hmm.” She nodded healthily.

“My eyes glow only when I am loaded up with energy, enough to deliver to the Ampliphi for feeding to others. But…it’s never felt like this before. Always it was like something vile crawling beneath my skin. I used to hate it…and then I began to crave it.”

“It changed you a lot, didn’t it? All that negative energy?”

“And now it’s all the good things about you that are changing me back.” He held up a hand between them, indicating the long nails and their only slight curve. They were lighter in color, more like natural nails now. He looked into her eyes, so deeply she gave a self-conscious giggle. “You’ve saved me,” he said.

“Oh! No, I didn’t!” She laughed, the sound catching in her throat as she tried to wave the idea off.

“Yes. You did.” His mouth curled into another of his newly ready smiles. “In so many ways. And I feel as though I owe you something for it.”

“I think you just gave me something,” she joked.

“Kat, I’m serious. Let me give you something. Anything.” He lifted his head and looked around the room. “I know!”

He moved from her, finally disconnecting their bodies and making her pout in consternation. But he ignored the moue, knowing it was about to change. He went over to a jewelry chest and began to pull open drawers and doors. He passed by dozens of stunning pieces that might have made any woman on any plane die of happiness, but he was looking for something much more specific.

He found it with a triumphant “Aha!” and then hurried back to the bed.

“Good, you’re back. I’m cold,” she fretted, giving him a theatrical shiver to back up her claim. He chuckled at her and slid beneath the covers with her as he dangled the pretty piece of jewelry from two of his fingers.

“Ooh, it’s so pretty,” she said as she reached for it. But he jerked it up out of her reach and teased her with it. “Oh, you’re so mean! And after I saved you and everything!”

He sobered. “True. Very true.” He lowered his arm and pooled the diamond and sapphire chain at the very base of her throat, filling the little hollow full of precious gems. Once he finally let go of the chain she reached for it and wound it around her fingers. She’d never seen anything so exquisite and so expensive in all of her life. And true to his nature, it was also quite unique. Each sapphire was in a setting of diamonds, like an eye shaped around a pupil. The links between were either silver or white gold, she couldn’t tell the difference because she’d never had jewelry before.

“It’s called the Eyes of Irina. It was the necklace of a queen, generations of them to be exact, made to commemorate the great sacrifice a queen once made for her lover that cost her her sight. The lover commissioned the necklace in gratitude to her.”

“And why isn’t a queen wearing it now?” she wondered.

“She will be,” he said with a smile of pure mischief.

“That’s the charming thing to say,” she scolded him. “I’m serious. Did you steal this from someone?” Like you stole me? It was the unspoken thought to follow and they both knew it. He frowned down at her.

“I am not a thief. That line of queens is from the Barrens and is long extinct now. Their things were left behind, useless to them. On your plane that would make me an archaeologist. There is no crime in appreciating things from other cultures, and the stories to go with them.”

“No. There isn’t,” she agreed softly, reaching to pet his face warmly. “Will you tell me something?”

“If I can,” he agreed.

“Tell me why you have so many clothes here for a woman. All these pretty things. Jewelry for a woman. Were you always planning on giving them to someone?”

“Not someone. You.”

She blinked at him. “Well, not me specifically. You mean someone like me. Someone you wanted to woo with pretty things one day?”

“Not someone,” he reiterated. “You. You specifically, Kathryn. I have been in your dreams for a long while now,” he confessed to her. “I left you alone because I knew you were too good for me, but I guess I dreamed of you being here one day and started to collect things based on that idea. All the clothing is in your size and is something I longed to see on you. All the jewels are meant to complement your gorgeous eyes. Every delicate thing here is meant to caress your sweet skin. Please, don’t look at me as if I have committed a crime. I felt that since I couldn’t have you, I would pretend that I could. And one day…one day pretending was no longer enough for me. I had to have you here. I had to be able to touch you and kiss you.” He leaned forward and kissed her still lips, willing her to accept the things he was telling her.

“And keep me and hold me like every other thing you acquired. God, what the hell was I thinking?” She pushed away from him, wriggling back into her nightgown as fast as she could. Panicked now, Adrian sat up and reached for her. She yanked herself away before he could get hold of her. “Don’t touch me!”