Dark Gold (39 page)

When Aidan joined him, he leaned on the hoe and regarded his master steadily. "So, you feel it, too. I had trouble sleeping last night." He spoke in their native language, another sure sign of his state of mind.

"The vampire howled last night. A distinct call for vengeance. I thwarted their plans, whatever they were, and now the one remaining undead intends to destroy me. How he will attempt it, I do not know."

"It will be through one of us," Stefan said sadly. "We are your Achilles' heel, Aidan. We always have been. He can bring you down using Marie, the boy, or me. You know he will."

Aidan frowned. "Or Alexandria. I fear her reaction to what must come."

"She is very strong, Aidan, very courageous. She will be fine. You must have faith in your chosen lifemate."

Aidan nodded. "I know what is in her heart and mind, but I want her happiness above all else." He gave a humorless smile. "I remember a time many years ago, I went to the aid of Mikhail. He had found his lifemate, a human woman. She was very strong-willed, and I remember thinking that he should better control her, make her do his bidding at all times so that she would remain safe. We cannot afford to lose even one of our women—you know that. She was so strange to me, so unlike the women of our race. She showed no fear even of me, a Carpathian male she did not know. I vowed if I found my lifemate, I would not do as Mikhail and bow to her wishes. Yet now, I cannot stand to see sorrow in Alexandria's eyes. I feel sick when she is hurt or upset with me."

A grin spread across Stefan's face. "You're in love, my old friend, and that is the downfall of all good men."

"Even Gregori, the dark one, allowed his lifemate her freedom because of her fear of him. How does one strike a balance between keeping a woman happy and protecting her?" Aidan mused aloud.

Stefan shrugged. "You're in the modern world now, Aidan. Women rule their own lives. They make their own decisions and generally drive us all crazy. Welcome to the twenty-first century."

Aidan shook his head. "She thinks she is going to work with that madman, Thomas Ivan. Yet I know what he wants to do with her."

"If she wants to work, Aidan, have you any choice but to allow it?"

The golden eyes flashed. "I have a choice, Stefan. Still, perhaps the line of least resistance is to have a little mind-to-mind chat with Mr. Ivan. I am certain I can make him see things my way."

Stefan laughed. "I wish I had that particular talent, Aidan. It would come in handy with some of my business dealings."

"Do not allow Joshua to go to his school this day. The vampire will, in all likelihood, try to strike at us through him."

"I agree," Stefan said. "The boy is the most vulnerable."

"Use Vinnie and Rusty again. Keep them around for the next few days," Aidan advised. He glanced up at the sky through his dark glasses. "The trouble will come today."

Stefan nodded in agreement. "I will keep a close watch. There will be no fire this time to destroy all we have built." He looked down at the ground, still ashamed of a past catastrophe even though it was not his fault.

Aidan clapped him on the shoulder. "Without you, Stefan, no one would have survived that day, perhaps not even me." He had been safely buried beneath the soil, but the loss of his "family" would have been devastating. Because of that time, so many years earlier, when a vampire had used a human to try to trap them in an inferno, and he had lain helpless beneath the soil, he had redoubled his studies and his safeguards, strengthening his power and abilities. Never again would he be caught unable to aid those he cared about.

Joshua's laughter reached him, and the soft, carefree sound did something to his heart. The child touched him in ways no other had. He was so like Alexandria, so filled with the joy of living, and he had the same beautiful blue eyes.

"No one will harm the boy, not if I live," Stefan said firmly.

Aidan turned away. He did not want Stefan, who knew him so well, to realize how those words filled him with dread. For all his powers, Aidan was vulnerable in the sunlight, and a vampire could use human puppets, minions, to capitalize on the weakness the day brought. Even with his ability to project during the daylight hours, a feat few of his kind had accomplished, Aidan would still be leaving Stefan without his physical aid, and Stefan was no longer a young man. Aidan did not want to lose his friend any more than he wanted to lose Joshua.

Joshua burst from the kitchen laughing, his blond curls bouncing. "Help me, Aidan, she's after me!" he hollered as he charged toward them.

Stefan stepped squarely in front of his prize tulips, while Aidan glided in to wall off the roses. He caught Joshua's flying figure with one hand and swept him up to his shoulders. "Who is after you, young Joshua?" he asked, pretending not to know.

"Don't you protect that little scalawag!" Alexandria came running after her brother, her hair bouncing in a pony tail, her sapphire eyes dancing with mischief. "You won't believe what the little monster has been hiding under his bed!"

Joshua ducked behind Aidan's neck. "Run, Aidan! She's gonna tickle-torture me, I just know it." Aidan obliged, trotting the boy into the shelter of the garage, knowing Alexandria would follow.

"Ha!" Alexandria said, unaware that she had placed herself in danger from the early morning sun. "You wish I'd tickle-torture you. I'm going to do a lot worse than that," she threatened. "Put him down, Aidan, and let me box his ears."

Joshua clutched at Aidan's thick mane of hair. "No! I'm telling you, Aidan, we gotta stick together on this."

"I do not know." Aidan pretended to think about it, winking at Stefan as he twisted and turned to protect Joshua from Alexandria's jumping attempts to reach the boy. "She looks pretty mad to me. I do not want her coming after
me
like that." He shifted slightly, as if he might really turn the child over to his sister.

Alexandria pretended to spring at him, laughing wickedly. At the last second, Aidan turned to keep his body between her and Joshua. Joshua grabbed him even tighter, squealing in feigned alarm.

"I'm gonna tell her!" Joshua cried. "If you don't save me, Aidan, you're gonna go down, too!" His eyes were alight with mischief.

Alexandria stopped in her tracks and glared at Aidan. "You are a party to this mutiny?"

He attempted innocence. "I have no idea what the child is trying to accuse me of to save his own life." His golden eyes were laughing, belying his words. "Remember, Alexandria, that a man will say anything to save his own skin."

"Ha!" Joshua snorted. "You tell her, Stefan. It was all Aidan's idea, and you helped, right?"

Alexandria faced the older man accusingly. "You, too? You were in on this blatant disregard for my orders?" She put her hands on her hips. "And it
was
an order."

The three males hung their heads in unison, looking for all the world like naughty little boys. "I am sorry,
cara
."

Aidan took the blame squarely on his broad shoulders. "I could not resist the little creature."

"Little? You call that
little
! It's a moose!"

Stefan pushed out his chest. "No, Alexandria, it wasn't Aidan. I saw the little thing, and young Joshua's face was so bright, I just had to get it."

"Little? Are we talking about the same animal here? That dog is not little. It is huge. Did either of you two pushovers take a look at the paws on that thing? They're bigger than my head!"

Joshua burst out laughing. "No way, Alex. He's really cute. You are gonna let me keep him, aren't you? You just have to. Stefan says he'll be a good guard dog someday. He says he'll look after me and be a friend if I treat him right."

"And in the meantime, he's going to eat like a horse every day." Alexandria swept a hand through her hair, her smile fading. "I don't know, Josh. I barely make enough money to feed the two of us, let alone whatever that thing is."

Aidan lifted the boy to the ground and circled Alexandria's waist with one arm. "Have you forgotten,
cara
? You promised to marry me. I think I can cover the cost of the dog food."

"You mean it, Aidan?" Joshua shouted, jumping up and down. "You mean it, Aidan? You're really gonna marry Alex? And I can keep my dog?"

"You'd sell me out for a dog?" Alexandria demanded, catching Joshua around the neck in mock aggression.

"Not
just
a dog, Alex, but this neat house and Stefan and Marie, too. Plus, you won't have to work for that bozo."

"Bozo?" Alexandria turned slowly and regarded Aidan with glittering blue eyes. "Now, how would an innocent little boy come up with a descriptive word like that?"

Aidan smiled at her, a sweet, innocent smile that should have made her feel like laughing but instead sent heat curling through her body. She tilted her chin. "You're lethal," she accused him.

He framed her face with his large hands and lowered his head slowly, purposefully. "I would hope so," he murmured right before his mouth claimed hers, sweeping her into their own private world.

But Alexandria was soon reminded they were not alone. "Holy moly," Joshua said in a loud whisper. "Can you believe that, Stefan?"

"Never saw such a display," Stefan admitted.

Chapter Seventeen

The sun was unusually large in the sky, gleaming a strange red. There was little wind, few clouds, and the ocean itself was tranquil, the surface like glass. Beneath the earth, a heart began to beat. Soil shifted, churned, then spewed like a geyser from the secret chamber beneath Aidan's house.

He lay still, his great body drained of strength. Beside him, as silent and still as death, lay Alexandria. Aidan's eyes snapped open, fury burning in their depths at the disturbance to his sleep. Outside his home, somewhere close, something evil lurked in the bright sunlight on the peaceful afternoon.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his arms folded across his chest. He sent himself seeking outside his body and into the air itself. It took intense concentration and focus to be bodiless, completely without form. He moved upward through the chamber and passed through the heavy trapdoor. Passing through solids was disorienting, a strange wrenching of atoms and molecules, and Aidan mentally shook himself. He had experimented with this process and often found the complete separation of body and mind difficult. In the other forms he took, his body was different but still with him. With only his mind and soul, his senses were altered. Sounds were strangely distorted, as he had no ears, and he couldn't actually touch anything, passing straight through it if he tried, causing a slightly sickening sensation. As he had no stomach, the nausea was even stranger.

Yet it was imperative to stay completely focused; it was essential not to allow himself to be disturbed by the unwanted sensations. He traveled along the rock tunnel deep within the earth. It always seemed so narrow, his shoulders nearly brushing the sides, but without his body, the space was enormous, another sensory distortion.

He passed through the door leading to the basement. Already the dark, oppressive evil that had awakened him deep within the earth was filling the air with its stench.

Aidan proceeded through the basement door into the kitchen of his home, warped vibrations and tones seeming to bounce through his being before he could identify them as Joshua's laughter, Marie's musical voice, Stefan's deeper baritone. The knowledge that the three were still safe gave him a measure of comfort. Whatever was in the air, whatever was stalking those he loved, had not penetrated the safeguards of his home.

The sun blazed through the huge windows, and Aidan instinctively veered away from the rays. He had no eyes, no skin to burn, but he felt the wrenching agony all the same. When every survival instinct screamed at him to go back to the safe, cool earth, far from the burning sun, the stench of evil impelled him forward.

Over the centuries, he had often lived in proximity to humans, more so than most of his kind, yet it never failed to astonish him that they had so few warning systems, or if they did, that they completely ignored them. The air was thick with the stench, the disturbance so great it had penetrated his chamber below the rich earth, intruding on his deep sleep. Yet Marie was singing in the living room as she dusted his jade collection, and Stefan was humming as he tinkered with an engine in the huge garage, one of his many hobbies. Aidan wanted to call to him, to warn him, but in his energy-consuming formlessness, he didn't dare try. He moved through the garage and back into the house, homing in on Joshua in the kitchen.

The child was the obvious target of the madness aimed at both Alexandria and Aidan. Aidan sped toward him, the bright sunlight sapping his energy. His mind rebelled, flinching from the brilliant rays, but he forced himself through the light to reach the boy.

Joshua was playing with the puppy, his eyes dancing, his blond curls bouncing, the picture of boyish joy. He had no idea he was in deadly peril.

Even as Aidan observed, the dog ran to the door, whining softly, and Joshua glanced about, looking for Stefan or Marie, who had told him in no uncertain terms not to go outside. Snapping a leash on the puppy, he opened the door and rushed into the garden.

The heat of the sun pierced Aidan's very soul. He felt as if he were on a skewer, roasting, burning. He followed the boy anyway, putting aside the pain.

"Come on, Baron," Joshua insisted. "Hurry it up." The little boy looked around again to make sure he was alone. "Baron's a dopey name, but Stefan really wanted you to be called that. He says it will make you noble, whatever that is. I'll ask Alexandria. She knows everything. I wanted to call you Alex. That would have made her laugh."

"Joshua!" Vinnie del Marco appeared, his large frame intimidating, his arms folded, his face stern. "Weren't you given orders? Soldiers get court-martialed for less than this."

The air was thick with the stench now. Aidan could see that Vinnie felt safe in the garden as he teased the boy, the high wall around them, the security system in full force. He had no perception of the danger lurking so close. Vinnie bent to scratch behind the puppy's ears.