Waking Eden (The Eden Series Book 3) (9 page)

“I’ve heard. Your father may as well have hired street criers.” He strolled to the far side of the room and peeked beyond the window curtains, staring out at the front lawn. “How’s it feel to be your father’s most recent marketing ploy?”

Bastard. One of these days she was going to find a way to take his smug attitude and shove it up his tight and very fine ass. “Better than how you must feel knowing I’ve got sympathizers.”

He snapped around and lasered her with a killing look.

She lifted her chin.

“You’re pretty cavalier about the whole situation.” Eryx glanced at Ludan and jerked his head in her direction.

Ludan stalked closer.

Eryx remained by the window. “If you’ve got nothing to hide, then you won’t mind Ludan checking to see exactly where you’ve been.”

“That depends.” Probably shouldn’t have poked the tiger. The smart move would be to call Thyrus, but damn it, she’d been playing by the rules, as much as it bored her to tears. “Has there been a charge leveled against me?”

Ramsay huffed a harsh laugh. “Aiding and abetting the Rebellion isn’t enough?”

“I’m paying for my poor judgment.” She reclined into the wingback and shrugged. “Besides, I offered my memories already.”

“You call this punishment?” Ludan’s coarse voice raked through the room, an auditory affront compared to Eryx and Ramsay’s easy baritone. The freak. Scary and decidedly lethal, but a freak nonetheless. Just once she’d like to swipe that superior expression off his face.

She focused on Eryx. “I’ll ask again, what exactly do you think I’ve done?”

Eryx paced to the artful floral arrangement centered on a marble-topped stand between the windows. He stroked the petal of one white bloom hanging low over the vase’s edge, a deceptively gentle move. “Seems someone decided to bring half a dozen humans on a sightseeing trip to Eden. Every last one came back with wagging tongues and accurate descriptions. The only thing they can’t remember is their tour guide’s face.”

Interesting. She feigned a bored expression. “Sounds terribly exciting. Or terrifying. Maybe it’s fallout from your,” she waved at the mark on his arm, “prophetic mating. Still not something I can help you with.”

“So you were here and can corroborate it with your memories?” Eryx said.

Serena froze. Waiting for Thyrus would be safer. Not only for keeping Ludan out of places he shouldn’t be, but from a pure witness perspective. Then again, nothing felt better than calling your ex’s bluff.

She held out her hand to Ludan. “See for yourself.”

Ludan grinned, though there wasn’t anything happy about it. More like a demon looking forward to eating its own young. His big hand gripped hers.

Cold, stinging and brutal, stabbed up her arm and down her spine. Her vision dimmed and a loud roar barreled through her head.

She ripped her hand free and looked up at Ludan. Her chest heaved as though she’d sprinted four miles. “What the hell was that?”

“Time conservation,” Eryx answered from beside her.

When had he moved? Ludan had only gripped her hand for a second or two.

“It’s also a comprehensive record all rolled up into one,” Eryx said. “Ludan’s handy with memories.”

“Feel good?” Ludan’s eerie grin stayed locked in place, but frustration marked the corners of his eyes.

She fisted her hand in her lap and forced her jaw to unclench. To histus with him. With Eryx and his twin too. They had nothing on her. Her memories proved it. “If Ludan’s so talented, then you know I was here.”

Ludan ambled back to his place near the door. “Nothing but black space at the time the humans say they were here. Could be sleep, could be you blocking.”

“Oh, please,” she said. “I’m not that good.”

Ramsay laughed. “Like to get that on record.”

Serena stood, adrenaline making her movements jerky and awkward. She faced Eryx. “Why on Earth would I want to jeopardize myself to bring humans here?”

“Maybe you’re out to stir up trouble and claim it’s the prophecy,” Ramsay volleyed from behind her.

She kept her focus on Eryx. “Maybe you’re worried I’m getting more positive press than your new baineann.”

“Maybe it won’t matter.” Eryx ambled around her and headed to the door. “Ramsay, check her room. Gather up everything she’s got.”

Ramsay grinned and opened the doors with a flick of his wrists.

Eryx kept moving toward the entry.

Serena trailed them, a shaky urgency rattling through her torso. “Everything I’ve got of what?”

Eryx stopped in the foyer and watched his brother dart up the grand staircase. He waited until Ramsay disappeared from sight and faced her, eyes triumphant. “When the humans were interviewed, they all said the person had a unique perfume. One they couldn’t get out of their head.” A deadly smile stretched across his handsome face. “One screw up, Serena. That’s all I need and you can spend the rest of your life without power surrounded by people you detest.”

His gaze drifted to Ludan still behind her, and he jerked his head toward the front lawn. The two strode to the main courtyard without another word, leaving the doors wide open to the bright Cush afternoon.

Ramsay’s voice floated down from her rooms on the east wing, mingled with surprised squeaks and placating words from her maids.

The son of a bitch. Eryx was setting her up.

She should have called Thyrus. Should have put Eryx off and gained more details before she gave in.

Smoothing her silk gown, she returned to the empty sitting room and the window overlooking the front lawn.

With the rest of the guards gathered round them, the two men waited, arms crossed and silent.

It didn’t matter. None of it. Eryx could try to spin this new twist however he wanted, but there was no way in histus she was going down without a fight.

R
amsay landed
beside his brother outside the main castle entrance. Late afternoon sun dipped behind the high walls and cast the wide stone veranda in cool shade.

Ludan touched down a heartbeat behind them.

“Track ’em down, Ludan,” Eryx said, not breaking stride. “Find the humans, scour their memories, and see if you can find anything that ties Serena to this mess. I want her ass gone.”

Ludan stayed tight on his heels. “Send someone else. I’m with you.”

Eryx spun so fast Ludan barely avoided a collision. “Do what I. Fucking. Asked!”

Ludan took two steps back. One and a half centuries they’d been in each other’s shit, but Ramsay had never seen Ludan so dumbfounded.

Eryx planted his hands at his hips and hung his head. He sucked in a powerful breath. Gone was the anger, replaced with something far more raw. Vulnerable. He lifted his head and looked at Ludan. “I don’t know what I’m up against. I need someone I can trust. With your gift, you can get in and out faster than anyone.”

Ludan stared, his body locked in place. Histus, for a minute Ramsay wasn’t even sure his brother’s somo was breathing. “I don’t like this. Serena. The Rebellion. The prophecy. The Dark rogues. None of it.”

Eryx shook his head. “It’s not the prophecy. Don’t ask me how I know. I just know it’s not. The prophecy is something else. Something bigger. Better.”

“What if it’s not?” The question leapt from Ramsay’s mouth before he could sensor it, every one of the suspicions he’d had the last few days fueling its power.

Eryx snapped to attention. He edged closer and narrowed his eyes, a move that would have been threatening if Ramsay hadn’t been on the receiving end of his brother’s suspicious focus since they were toddlers. “Is there a reason I should think otherwise?”

Just what he needed. His damned brother was like a rabid hound dog when it came to scenting trouble. “Um, yeah. You got it firsthand from the Spiritu at Reese’s swearing in. I think her exact words were, ‘It’s only a matter of time before the prophecy begins to unfold.’ Can’t get much closer to the horse’s mouth than that.”

“Uh-uh.” He stepped closer, bringing them nose to nose. “You said, ‘What if it’s not?’ As in I-know-something-you-don’t-know-yet.”

“Oh, give me a break, Eryx.”

“He’s right,” Ludan said. “Spill it.”

Son of a bitch, he needed to learn to watch his mouth.

Both men glared, feet firmly planted on the gray stone terrace like they’d stand there all day if necessary.

He wasn’t ready for this. Not yet. “You need to get Lexi.”

Eryx held his place. “You need to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“Not on this one I don’t. Trust me when I say she’s gonna be pissed enough to know I waited. More if she’s not here when I share.”

The whites around Eryx’s eyes glowed and the muscles along his neck strained.

“Calm down, already.” He’d call his brother a hotheaded asshole, but the truth of the matter was that was usually Ramsay’s M.O. Eryx was always the cool one. Unless the topic involved Lexi. “It’s not a bad thing. If it’s what I think, it’s good. I just don’t know how it all ties with what’s going on in Evad.”

The tension in Eryx’s eyes lessened, no doubt buffered by a telepathic contact with his mate. He waved a hand and the massive entry doors flew wide open, cracking against the stone at either side. “My study. Now.”

Ludan ambled beside Ramsay as they followed Eryx into the cool shade of the castle foyer. “You holdin’ back intel’s not your style.”

“Yeah?” Ramsay said. “Wait until you hear before you judge.”

Or until he saw Trinity. No way would Eryx or Ludan blame his hesitation once they factored in the details.

He hoped.

Lexi hustled into the study she shared with Eryx, the jeans and form-fitting tank top she wore a pretty good indicator she’d had her fill of Myren attire at council. Seriously, she and Ludan were kindred spirits. “What’s up?” She glanced at Eryx’s murderous face and her steps slowed. “Whoa, big man. Who pissed you off?”

He jerked his head at Ramsay.

“Okay.” She nestled close to her mate and stroked his chest like he was a cute kitten instead of a raging, unleashed beast. “You two not sharing your toys again? Or did you throw a bachelor party and forget to invite him?”

Ramsay laughed despite the situation. Damn, but he loved his new shalla. He hoped to histus she didn’t hate him by the time he was done.

“Talk.” Eryx pulled Lexi in front of him, hands at her shoulders.

Ludan perched at the edge of Lexi’s desk.

Ramsay let it all out. The night out with Jagger and meeting Trinity. The pendant. Trinity’s adoption and her tie to the same agency as Lexi. Her inability to touch most people, but that he seemed to be the exception. Even the fact she’d shocked him unconscious when he’d tried to scan her memories.

The details on what went down in Trinity’s bed? That and the pull she had on him he kept to himself.

“You think she’s Myren.” Eryx’s voice had evened out alongside his tension.

“I think she’s not human,” Ramsay said. “Or at least not like any human I’ve ever met.”

“You think we’re related,” Lexi said, blunt and to-the-point as ever.

“That’s just it,” Ramsay said. “I don’t know what to think. I’ve been trying to find out. First by taking her out, then with Ian. But then this thing with humans hit us out of left field and—”

“Hold up.” Lexi held up a hand. “You went out with her?”

Ramsay glanced at Ludan.

His deadpan expression stayed locked on the drama unfolding in front of him, legs crossed at the ankles.

Yeah, no help from that quarter.

Ramsay shrugged. Better to play it off as innocent at this point. “I wanted to find out who she was, so I asked her out. Thought I’d see if I could get a better look at the pendent while I was at it.”

“How?” Lexi straightened. The only thing preventing her from stepping forward were Eryx’s hands at her shoulders.

Ramsay kept his feet locked in place. Barely. “How what?”

“How did you plan to get a better look?”

Something snapped. Frustration. Anger. Loss. It all coalesced at once and dropped like an axe on his conscience. “Any. Fucking. Way. I. Could.”

Lexi lurched forward.

Eryx dragged her back, arms wrapped around her shoulders and his cheek pressed to her temple.

Her face was livid red, a fierce protector ready to charge the man who’d dare defile someone she didn’t yet even know.

“She’s innocent,” Ramsay blurted.

Lexi stilled.

Ramsay took a shaky breath, the oxygen weighting his lungs ten times heavier than normal. “I don’t know who she is. I don’t know what she is. But I know she’s as innocent as they come. A damned beacon for everything good in this world.”

And you want her.

Lexi’s eyes narrowed, a feminine version of Eryx’s hound dog behavior only minutes before. “You like her.”

Well, this was awkward. He really hated his shalla’s emotion sniffing abilities. “Everyone likes her. The diabhal would like her. She’s a perpetual ray of sunshine. So, yeah. I like her.” Ramsay fought the need to fidget. The space between his shoulder blades itched from the weight of Ludan’s stare behind him.

“I want to meet her.” Lexi turned to eyeball Eryx. “Prophecy or not, she’s got a connection to my past and I want to learn about it.” She aimed a raised eyebrow at Ramsay. “Might want to learn about other things too.”

Leave it to Lexi to whip out her handy emotional radar at the worst time. Ramsay gave into his need to pace and angled toward the windows overlooking the gardens. “Turn those feelers of yours off. It’s rude.”

“Oh, so it’s rude for me to sniff around at what you’re broadcasting, but you diving into someone’s head isn’t?” Lexi crossed her arms and leaned into her fireann’s chest. “Personally, I kind of dig knowing someone knocked your ass silly for trying.”

True. Much as he hated to admit it. When Lexi found out how far he’d gone to learn more about Trinity’s background, she’d be ready to dish out even more justice, even if he’d ended the night with an entirely different goal in mind.

“What does she look like?” Lexi asked. “Do we look like sisters?”

“On the surface? No. She’s light to your dark. Blond hair, almost black eyes, and a lot lighter skin. You’ve got an easy four inches on her height-wise.”

He paused and really studied Lexi, beyond her striking slate blue eyes and soft black hair. “If you look past that though, maybe. Same oval face and jawline. And your eyes are shaped the same too.”

“Set it up.” Eryx grumbled. “We’ll do it on her turf.”

He knew it. Ten minutes they’d known about Trinity and already they were pushing into territory he wanted all to himself.

Shit. Not the kind of thoughts he should be having. He did
not
want a relationship. Not now. Maybe not ever. “What about the tenets?”

“What about them?” Eryx said. “She’s got a mark around her neck to match my mate’s and has some kind of mojo to knock you on your ass. I’ve got more than enough cause to cover divulging who we are. It’s not like I’m carting her over here. So, set it up.”

Ramsay scratched his head and stared out the window. “Yeah, it may not be that easy.”

The quiet thickened to a near hiss.

“What did you do?” Lexi asked, her voice indicating judgment was about ten seconds from being handed down.

Ramsay faced them. “I haven’t exactly called her back since I saw her last.”

Eryx’s shoulders snapped back. “You slept with her?”

“No.” This so wasn’t going the way he wanted. “I mean, I was going to, or get things far enough along I could get a look at the pendant, but…”

Eryx and Lexi both glared at him.

“Look, I realized it was a dick move, okay? I made it right and got out. Nothing but straight and narrow since.”

More quiet. More accusing glares.

Eryx lifted that imperial fucking eyebrow he used to intimidate damned near everyone. “You made it right how?”

“None of your damned business.”

“Oh, yeah.” Lexi grinned in a way that made Ramsay’s insides cramp. “I wanna meet this girl.”