Deceiving the Protector (20 page)

He still wasn’t sure he believed in it, but it had worked with Lia. He knew that. He’d felt her, sensed her in a way he’d never sensed anyone else in his life. If Jade could feel that, if she could follow it to him…She could move as light. He’d seen her do it. It was an impossible thing to ask, but there was nothing left. No other way. He fisted his hand in Lia’s hair, his head falling on her chest, desperate for a hint of her heartbeat. Anything.

“Please,” he whispered, eyes squeezed shut.

All the pain, the loss, the need, he wound it as tight as he could, trying to draw it together. He pictured his brother, the mountain they called home, the sights and smells of the forest. As always before, the walls of his own reserve held firm, protecting him from the wash of emotion waiting behind them. So much, he’d always thought he’d go feral if he ever let the dams fall. None of those pathetic safeguards would matter if Lia died.

Until she was gone, he’d fight. He’d claw, he’d bite, he’d sell his soul to keep her with him. The primal scream built up, a roar from a Wolf and a man alike, both unchained and without rational thought, shattering the walls like so much dust.

Save her. Save her for me!
It felt like an explosion in his soul, a stretching sensation he didn’t bother to try to understand.
Jade, please…I need you.

He couldn’t hold the force of it long, his body all but drained. He fought to raise his lids, to look at her face.

He didn’t know how much time passed. Minutes, hours, he couldn’t tell. Pounding on the door caught his attention, fleetingly. His vision kept darkening. Losing focus.

Maybe Jade hadn’t heard him. Maybe she hadn’t been able to control the shift well enough to come. It didn’t matter. He didn’t need the bonding to take his soul if Lia was gone. He’d go with her anyway, right here on the floor of this dingy room. Wherever she went, he would follow.

Don’t you leave me behind, Lia. Wait for me, baby. Just a little longer, wait for me…

Blood already tainted his mouth. He couldn’t feel his legs anymore, didn’t care about them. His breath felt as if it were coming through a wet sponge. Not long at all now.

He closed his eyes, letting the darkness take him.

But it wasn’t darkness that caught him.

Tate opened his eyes, blinking slowly at a smooth ceiling he didn’t recognize. Not the motel room anymore, but he was definitely in a bed. A soft one, sleep-warmed and, most definitely, not unoccupied. Lia, on her side in a plain white blouse, asleep. Her hair hid most of her face, but it was brushed and lay gleaming like corn silk over her shoulder.

“Cut it a little fucking close, don’t you think?”

He turned his head at the growling voice he knew better than his own. Sitting in a chair, his familiar black boots crossed at the ankles where they rested at the end of the bed, Pale waited to be acknowledged.

Relief flooded Tate at just the sight of his brother’s not-quite-tamed black hair falling into his occasionally eerie blue eyes, dressed in his usual head-to-toe black uniform of T-shirt and denims.

But then Lia shifted against his side and he remembered that these two people should never be in a room together. He sat up without thinking, ready to shove Pale out of…wherever the hell this place was. “You can’t be here.”

Pale crossed his too-big arms over his too-big chest. “You summoned my mate across the whole damn country. Where the hell else would I be? And when you’re done answering that one, how about you tell me exactly how the fuck you did that in the first place?”

“You don’t understand, you can’t
be
here. Lia’s tagged, it’s not safe.” It was only when he grabbed the blanket on his bare belly that he realized there were no bandages there. There should be. He’d been bleeding. Asher had shot him—twice—and there wasn’t even a mark. Not even the puckered pink jagged mark where the knife wound had healed. He splayed his hand over his stomach, almost unable to believe it.

“Do me a favor and don’t check if your dick’s gone too. I just had breakfast.”

“Jade came?” A ridiculous question but his mind was still processing all the memories beneath the mental gauze. Lia, she’d been burned. Electrocuted. Dead or nearly there. He looked down at her, torn between waking her to search for injuries and letting her rest. He settled for allowing the shaky breath to slip through his lips, his hands fisting in the blankets.

“As soon as you called for her.” Pale put his feet down, leaning forward onto his knees. His mouth, not well hidden beneath a heavy groomed beard, hardened into a solid frown. His gaze pinioned Tate to the spot, the friendly teasing brother gone in the flicker of a blink. “Part of me wants to kick the shit out of you for asking her to come to you when you know she doesn’t have complete control in that light state.”

Facing his Alpha, Tate knew he should lower his gaze in respect, and any other time he would have, but this wasn’t something he could bow down for. It was for Lia. Pale would do no less for his mate. He kept Pale’s gaze calmly. “And the other half?”

“You called on your pack. There’s nothing to apologize for in that. Jade did for you what she’d do for
any other
packmate.” The emphasis on that last bit wasn’t for nothing. The command on his face would not accept discussion. “This grudge bullshit of yours ends here, Tate. I stayed out of it because she asked me to, but no more. If you’re going to blame anyone for Vayere, you blame me and we’ll deal with it.”

“It’s already done.” Tate answered, thinking back on Lia’s assertions about his feelings for the other woman. She was right that he’d been taking his anger out on everyone else. That wasn’t news. Getting it out of him, though, or maybe just sharing it with
her,
had changed his perspective. “Nothing needs to be dealt with between any of us. I should have come to terms with Vayere a long time ago.” Instead he’d let her memory fester in him like poison. “I know I owe Jade an apology.”

“You owe her more than that. She could have killed herself—and who knows how many other people—in that form. She could have been seen.”

He lowered his gaze at that. “I understand.”

“No, I don’t think you do. Regardless of what either one of you thinks, she’s not all-powerful. Gifts like hers come at a cost. She’s been lying in that bed for three days, trying to regain her strength. The two of you were nearly dead, Tate. She said your mate didn’t even have a heartbeat when she got there, and yours was almost gone.” Pale rolled to his feet, gearing up to a full-on tirade—which Tate knew he was well within his rights to give—but Tate had to stop him.

“Did you say three days?”

The scowl leveled on him from the foot of the bed where Pale stopped his tromping could have sent a lesser pain in the ass to Hell and back. Twice.

“You’ve been—where the hell are we?”

“Still in North Carolina. Betha transported the three of you to the nearest safe house until my flight came in. We didn’t want to risk moving you again until you came to.”

“What about the logs? The traveler logs? Did she find them?” If they’d lost those books…

Pale nodded. “Found them when we went through the car. And by the way, I’d steer clear of that hellcat for a while if I were you. She’s damn near feral over the loss of her men. She was still so bloodthirsty, the owner of that motel you two were holed up in wouldn’t take a dime for the damages after seeing her.”

“How’d she know where we were?”

“Trackers in the cars, remember? I set her on your tail as soon as you hung up on me, dumbass.”

Tate nodded, but too much information was swirling in his mind. “You’re sending it to him anyway, right?”

“Given that the poor bastard has a drive-through where he used to have two floors of rentable rooms, what do you think?”

Tate winced. He’d seen Jade in her light-form. A human shape still, but all trace of human flesh was gone. At best she appeared to be formed from some kind of white plasma, a being entirely of raw energy. At worst, she was a giant pillar of light that burned things into dust. He didn’t have to ask which form had answered his call. “I’ll make sure the funds are transferred as soon as I can.”

“Did I ask for that?” Pale’s snarl didn’t recommend questioning. “I’m your brother, asshole. We’re pack. We solve our problems
together.
You don’t get to walk out on us. I thought you knew that.”

“I do know that.”

“Prove it. Let us help you.”

“You can’t.” Shit, was this how Lia had felt when he’d asked for her trust and she knew she couldn’t give it to him? It felt like swallowing nails to see that disappointment in his brother’s eyes. “I wish you could, but they can find her anywhere, and we won’t lead them back to you. You shouldn’t be here. I appreciate it—”

The nerve under Pale’s eye began to twitch. “If you pull this solo shit again, Tate, not even Jade will be able to keep me from shoving my foot in your ass.”

“What do you want me to do, damn it? I can’t protect
both
of you.” He couldn’t even protect Lia and she was his fucking mate. He’d let her die. Slept while she fought for both their lives…and lost. “Do you think I want us to face this on our own? You’re fucking lucky no one has come after her already. You need to go, Pale. You and Jade need to get somewhere safe and as far from here as possible.”

“Not according to this thing.” Pale stomped back to the rocking chair he’d been sitting in, picking up a black cuff of some kind. He lifted it up by one end, revealing a small flatscreen with various blinking patterns on it. “Your dead guy had this. It hasn’t found a signal since Betha and her men caught up with you. And before you ask, no, it’s not broken. He didn’t even have it on him when your mate there fried him. He’d lifted a car from somewhere, had it parked in the lot right there for Betha to find. Duffle bag in the backseat, chock full of sharp objects, ammunition and first aid. I don’t know what you did to him, man, but that asshole should’ve been inches from being dead even before you turned him into barbeque.”

Tate almost laughed for some idiotic reason. “Yeah, well, let’s just say Lia’s a good driver.”

Pale raised a brow, tilting his head to take a better look at her still-sleeping form. “I might like her.”

Tate’s growl was just this side of disrespectful.

Pale only shrugged, tossing him the open neoprene object. “Look for yourself. It’s got a signal search running, but there’s nothing for it to find.”

Tate caught it, flipping it around to read the screen. Four separate readouts, three of them including the waving lines of a topographical map. One for a locked signal it had labeled lost, a second for general area sweeps that were coming up empty, another for manual signal search and a final bar for battery life. At least that last one was full. He squeezed the rubbery material, but no hard compartments bumped his fingers. “Nice gadget, but something tells me this thing doesn’t run on double-As.”

“A thing like that could come in really handy, don’t you think?” Pale eyed the machine in Tate’s hands speculatively. “Maybe handy enough for a crazy old lady to send someone hundreds of miles away into a deathtrap to get it?”

“It would, especially if you’re planning on ditching anyone who has a tag before you run to safety.” Tate met his Alpha’s eyes, finally getting an idea what might be going on in the ugly shithead’s mind. “
This
is what you made me come out here for? This is the Sibile treasure? Why you were willing to let them tell you what to do?”

“First, I’ve never done what they’ve told me to. They’re not crazy enough to expect that. This time I was given a choice. Send my best man to find a treasure that would ensure the future of our kind or watch everything we’ve built and everyone we know be destroyed. When the world’s foremost oracle tells you something is integral to your survival and the welfare of your entire race, you tend to listen.”

Tate tossed the open cuff to the foot of the bed. “That old woman never thinks in single steps. There’s more to this than a tag reader, you know it as well as I do.”

Pale nodded, gathering the cuff and rolling it up. “And I’m sure she’ll roll out her plan whenever’s convenient to her. But if it makes you feel any better, I get the very clear sense she intends to keep us all alive.”

“Yeah, right. You see the future now too?”

“No, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that woman is burning Sibile bridges left and right. You don’t do that unless you have an idea where you’re going to hide when the fires are all lit.”

The answer didn’t need to be voiced. Resurrection.

Oh yeah. This was a serious
Aw, Fuck.

“I suppose the next obvious question is whether or not to tell them they can de-tag if they’re willing to take on a few thousand volts first.” His steady stare fell on Lia again. There was no reason for Tate to feel threatened. Pale’s expression was one of acceptance. “It takes some serious balls to do what she did. I’ll have to keep an eye on her once you bring her home.”

What he wouldn’t give to bring her to Resurrection. Tate looked down again, restraining the need to touch her with more than the sides of their bodies against each other. Just to run his fingers over her cheek, but he wasn’t going to risk waking her. Not when he still had no idea what to say. “That’s up to her. She might not want to, now that she’s free.”

And he wouldn’t blame her if she chose to go on her own.

A rough harrumph interrupted his thoughts. “Seems to me she made her choice. I can’t see why a person would electrocute themselves unless they were trying to save someone they love. And you can’t tell me you don’t love her, either. Jade isn’t the only one who felt you yesterday.”

Like Tate was going to ever say anything so blasphemous. He did love her. But he hadn’t done right by her, not since he’d found her in that orchard. He hadn’t earned the gifts she’d given him or her loyalty. Time and again, he’d forced her into a situation where she lost, she sacrificed…where she
died.

It was time for him to make sacrifices for her.

Tate curled his hands into fists and threw off the blankets to look in the dresser drawer next to the bed. “She’s never had a choice about anything in her life. Even if it kills me, she’ll have a choice in this.” He yanked on the clothes he found, the material whooshing from the speed that he shoved his limbs through them. Socks and shoes were already on the floor by the bed. Tate bent to pick them up, hurriedly sitting on the edge of the bed to tug the socks on. “I need to talk to Jade.”

“You can’t, she’s sleeping in the other room.”

That was enough to make Tate stop for a second. “And you’re in here?” It wasn’t like Pale to leave his mate unprotected at her weakest time. Then he remembered who his brother’s mate was. “She threw you out, didn’t she?”

A black scowl darkened Pale’s face. “She says if I’m going to force her to rest, I have to stay out of the room. Something about my
hovering
keeping her awake. Damn woman is probably in there practicing her shifting while I’m not looking.”

Tate smiled for the first time since waking. At least it was still fun to see Pale screw up from time to time. “You
do
hover. Like a damn mother hen.” But his smile faded quickly. “That’s why I want you to take Lia home with you. Keep an eye on her, give her a place to belong in the pack. I’ll meet you back in Resurrection soon.”

“You’re leaving?” Her soft voice carried a bite to it that nearly had Tate wincing.

Lia sat up, looking confused, much like he’d felt at first. Her hands—each one with perfect, unbroken skin, not so much as a scratch to mar them—were both on her cheeks, feeling where cuts and bruises had once been. No burned flesh, and the vicious bruise spanning her cheek and eye was completely gone. As if it had never been. Eyes widening by the second, she tugged at the collar of her T-shirt, trying desperately to see her shoulder where Asher’s angry mark was. Or rather, where it had been. Only smooth flesh remained, pale and perfect in every way.

“What the
hell
is going on?”

Damn if she wasn’t the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, displeased frown and all.

“It’s okay. We’re safe. It’s all right.” He ached to wrap his arms around her, but he forced them to stay on his shoes as he tightened the laces. “This is my brother, Pale Rysen. The Alpha. He and his mate, Jade, they’re here to help.”