Dark Lover (30 page)

Tabby and Brie exchanged glances, smiling.

“Nothing is funny, guys. The monk needs to pay. Ian needs payback, and can you blame him? I think peace will follow, and then he can heal. Of course, stealing the page of illusion and refusing to hand it over to Nick doesn't exactly lay the groundwork for a peaceful life. So I guess that's where I come in.” Sam paused.

“Maybe you're meant to be the one to bring him peace,”
Brie said. “The way I brought Aidan to salvation. He's certainly gone out of his way for you.”

Ian
had
gone out of his way for her, many times, but Brie was wrong. “This isn't a karmic love connection!”

Brie smiled.

“Can you really go behind his back and hand over the page to Nick?” Tabby asked quietly.

“I hate the idea, but there's no other choice,” Sam said quickly. “It will save our lives.”

“And what will that do to your relationship?” Tabby seemed worried.

Sam started. “Whoa! Didn't you hear anything I just said? We don't have a ‘relationship.' We're allies, but we're still rivals. We may be lovers, but it's not the real deal, Tab, like you and Macleod. It's not even close. He'll be pissed as all hell at me. We'll have great make-up sex. We'll vanquish Hemmer and the monk. And then we'll go our separate ways.”

Tabby didn't respond.

Sam flushed, uncomfortable. “This is just a case for me. There'll be other assignments and lots more war. Eventually this will be an interesting memory…if that.”

“Wow,” Brie said. “You have your life all charted out.”

Sam looked at her.

Brie just shrugged. “You've never bothered with compassion for anyone other than me or Tabby, and of course Allie. I don't think this will be as easy as you think. Ian reminds me so much of Aidan when he took me hostage. He's meant for great things, I just know it. But he can't achieve his destiny until he heals. I don't think you will find it easy to walk away, Sam, not when he needs you.”

“Is that your romantic nature speaking, or have you seen something I should know about?”

“Ian has white power,” Brie explained. “The gods will want him to use it to protect the Innocent!”

Sam stared. “Do you know that for certain?”

“I'm sure of it, but not because of a vision,” Brie said. “I just know it.”

Sam tried to imagine Ian as a Master. It was hard to do. She knew that if he ever took those vows, he'd fight evil his way—flying solo and acting as indifferent as possible about it.

Tabby touched her. “Sam, has it ever occurred to you that if he can get past his past, he might have a very different future? I think you two are peas in a pod. Aren't you his flip side, in a way?”

“What?”

“You come across as arrogant, indifferent and tough as nails. But it's all a facade—one that began when Mother was murdered.”

“Are you crazy? Are you trying to piss me off?”

“Why would my pointing out that you shut down your heart the day she died infuriate you?” Tabby wasn't perturbed. “I always wondered if you'd ever come to grips with her murder.”

“I
have
come to grips with it. I learned that being soft is for suckers and for victims. Mom was a helluva witch, but in the end, she was just another victim.” Sam breathed hard. “Life sucks, doesn't it? I sure as hell learned how to be strong that day and I have no regrets.”

“I think you can be strong and compassionate without being a sucker or a victim.” Tabby put her arm around her. “I love you. I'm glad you care about Ian. He needs you—and you need him.”

Sam pulled away and stood. Was she crazy? “You don't get it, Tabby. Let's back up. No, let's start over! We're only having
sex
. This isn't
love
. It isn't even friendship.” An odd pang went through her, as if she wanted what she was denying, which was absurd. “We're not even on the same side! And we are not the flip side of one another! Right
now, we're partners, but only because the die landed that way. He's out for number one and I'm an HCU team player. This is a moment in time for us. A brief moment, one that will pass.” She paused to take a breath. “I love
you
guys. And that is the extent of my romantic nature.”

Tabby stood, too. “Okay, Sam, if you say so.”

Sam hated it when Tabby became that know-it-all-schoolteacher, speaking to her as if she were an ignorant child.

“I think she doth protest too much,” Brie murmured.

Sam realized she'd forgotten how annoying her sister and cousin could be. She sighed, but it was great to have them around to annoy her! “Let's make a bet. Five years from now, no, one year from now—no, six
months
from now, not only won't Ian and I be together, I won't even recall his name.”

“I'll take it,” Brie said quickly. “Loser buys dinner at the best restaurant in L.A. Better yet, at the Beverly Hills Hotel.”

Tabby and Brie weren't getting what she was trying to tell them, that she and Maclean were no big deal, not now and not ever.

“So what's next?” Brie asked seriously now. “In order to steal the page and hand it over to Nick, we need to get to 2009. But if we've figured out where Ian stashed the page, Hemmer probably has, too. And then there's Carlisle.”

Before Sam could speak, Tabby said, “I don't want you doing this alone, Sam. Brie is right. My powers are very strong now, and we can help. It sounds like Hemmer is dangerous, the monk even more so.”

Sam began to smile. She was thrilled.

“We are going to come with you,” Tabby said firmly.

“Sounds like a plan,” Sam said happily.

“Can I point out something logistical?” Brie asked. “Before we bop over to the future, the monk happens to
be right here, right now, just a few hundred miles to the south.”

“I'm almost certain that Ian kept us in this time so he could hunt Carlisle. For him, it's personal. As much as I think the page should be handed over to Nick immediately, Brie has a good point. Let's get rid of the monk before we do anything else. It will be one less bad guy to worry about.” Maybe Ian's vengeance would pave the way for his healing, Sam thought.

“Since when do you worry about the bad guys?” Tabby teased.

Sam was thinking about Ian's need for revenge against the monk now. She didn't answer, because her answer would be, “Since Ian.”

Tabby said seriously, “If we intend to go back to Carlisle and confront and destroy the monk, we need to bring the men into this.”

Ian liked going it alone. He'd hate working alongside his father, but he would have to deal, Sam thought. “A little extra white power never hurts.” She thought about the savage Macleod. “I'd sure love to sic Macleod on Carlisle.”

“The more, the safer,” Brie said. She was sober now. “Masters have died facing off against the monk. We need to know what we're going up against. I'd like to know which powers he has, exactly.”

“No one is going to die,” Sam said firmly, looking at Tabby. She didn't seem worried about Guy. “We can do this. A bit of vision, a bit of slaying and lots of magic…it's a shoo-in.” Just then, it felt like it would be that easy, with them all together again.

Suddenly they all clasped hands. “Like old times,” Brie whispered.

“Yeah,” Sam said, smiling. “Like old times.”

 

A
MAID WHO DID NOT
speak English showed Sam to Ian's chamber, but when she got there, the room was vacant. A
small fire burned in the stone hearth. The bed hadn't been slept in. But a bottle of wine and two cups had been left on the table, which was beneath a window with glass panes. Outside, the night was blue-black and brilliant with stars.

Sam went back downstairs. As she approached the great room where she'd spent the past hours with her sister and Brie, she heard a man speaking. For one moment, she thought it Ian, but quickly realized it was his father.

She was about to walk in when she saw that Ian was there. Sensing the tension between them, she faltered on the threshold.

Aidan was holding out a glass of wine to his son, his expression so somber he might have been at someone's deathbed. Ian looked ready to explode in anger. He shook his head abruptly. “No thanks. I'd rather drink alone.” He walked away from his father to stand before the hearth.

Sam saw Brie, sitting on the bench at the end of the table, looking distressed and unhappy. She got up and went over to Aidan, touching him, the gesture meant to be consoling.

Aidan was visibly trembling. He put the glass down and walked over to his son. “I dinna see ye fer twenty-five years. Can ye sit down with me, at least?”

“Why?” Ian snapped. “What do we have to talk about? My memories of the years I spent in captivity?”

Aidan inhaled. “If ye want to speak about the past, then that is what I will do.”

“I have nothing to talk about,” Ian snarled.

“Ye came back to Awe, not once but twice,” Aidan tried.

“I came here to ask ye to help me rescue Sam,” he said harshly. “Not because I needed a favor, but because ye owe me more than ye can ever repay.”

Sam inhaled, shaken by his cruelty.

“I owe ye an entire childhood, many times over,” Aidan
whispered, his eyes tearing. “An' we both ken there be no way fer me to ever give it back to ye. So ye'll punish me instead, until I die.”

Ian shrugged indifferently.

“He grieved for you for sixty-six years,” Brie cried shrilly. “Ian, he loves you so much! He hated himself for sixty-six years for failing you! He still hates himself sometimes, for that failure!”

“Good, then that makes two of us,” Ian said sharply. He turned, saw Sam and stiffened. “Are ye ready fer bed?”

Sam nodded, overcome with pity for him.

Brie put her arm around Aidan, who never took his moist gaze from his son. “We love you, Ian,” Brie whispered.

Ian stormed out. Sam quickly followed. When they were on the third floor, in the chamber she meant to share with him, she debated whether to butt into his life or not. She knew any comment she might make about his relationship with his father would not be welcome.

He slammed the door closed and threw the bolt. “Don't start.”

“Someone needs to start in on you.”

He glared at her.

She hesitated. “Ian, he's your father and he loves you.”

“I have no father.” He tore off his T-shirt and flung it across the room.

“I get why you're so angry. He never came to rescue you. That sucks. But he thought you were dead. Moray made sure he believed that, Ian. Have you ever tried to lay the blame on Moray, instead of Aidan?”

He stared at her, all attention now. “I hate them both.”

Sam shook her head. “Aidan is a good man, Ian. And he's your father. You can't mean it.”

“I was just a little boy! An' did he save me?” he raged. Sam knew he didn't expect an answer and she didn't try
to speak. “I waited, I wept, I begged, I prayed, I hoped! An' then one day, the hope was gone. One day, I knew I'd live there like that forever!”

“I'm sorry,” she whispered.

“I don't care! Do ye know that the gods have charged him with the duty of protecting
children?
He spends his days saving innocent children, when he couldn't save his own son!”

“It sucks,” she said. “It really does. But life is goddamned unfair.”

“Unfair?” he choked, incredulous. “I was the sacrifice, so he could learn a great lesson and take on his damned destiny!”

“Thank God, you survived.”

He gave her a look which said he was sorry he hadn't died.

She trembled. “Ian, you survived. You lived. And now you need to move on, because you have a lot to live for.”

He started to laugh at her. “Ah, yes, my fine homes, my fancy cars, the money, the art, the sex…”

“You might like your life a whole lot more if you had a family in it.”

“Well, I don't and I never will.” Sweat beaded on his temples.

“I hate to argue with you, but guess what? Brie's your stepmother, Aidan's your father, and any kids they have will be your brothers and sisters.” He started. “So you do have a family, one dying to be given permission to care about you.”

Ian stalked to the chamber's window, pushed open the glass pane, and stared at the starry sky outside.

Sam breathed in the scent of the Highland night. She could smell the loch and pine. She went over to him. “I didn't come up here to fight.”

He kept staring outside. A shadow crossed the moon.
When he didn't speak, Sam took a moment to look at his perfect profile. Then she looked at his broad and bare shoulders, his chest. She was acutely aware of his heat.