GraceinMoonlight (10 page)

Before he could move, she grabbed one of his wrists with her
good arm, feeling his pulse jump beneath her fingers. “Thank you. For
everything.”

He sighed and shook his head as he stared down at her.
“Don’t. I’m no fucking hero.”

Then he turned and strode toward the door.

She released the breath frozen in her lungs in a slow stream
through her lips. Yes, he was. To her.

She wished she could say it without him thinking she was
merely talking about the way he’d rescued her children. She’d have to ask him
the particulars at another time. She needed to know what had happened.

Had John killed Ettore? If so, would the
Mal
retaliate? If not, would Ettore? He’d taken her son for a specific reason,
otherwise, he wouldn’t have bothered. Ettore had no use for a sick child.

If he lived, he’d definitely be coming after Amy. She liked
the name, even though he’d chosen it for her. She couldn’t wait to see her.
Wondered if her daughter looked at all like her or if she favored Ettore. The
girl probably hated her. She shouldn’t get her hopes up for a loving reunion.
Who knew what lies Ettore had told the girl about her.

She hadn’t even asked if the girl had left willingly.

Guess she’d find out soon enough.

The door opened again and she nearly burst into tears.

She managed to hold them back as Kaisie set Alex on the bed
by her good arm. Still asleep, her little man looked no worse for wear as he
curled against her.

She tried to speak but didn’t think she could without
sobbing. So she buried her nose in her baby’s hair and pretended she wasn’t.

* * * * *

Kaisie left, figuring she’d want the time alone with Alex.
Besides, he could smell her tears and he didn’t think she’d want him to see
those.

Heading back down the hall, he knocked first then pushed
open the door into the room the girls were in.

Nica smiled tiredly at him from the side of the bed, where
she sat with her hand resting on Mara’s swollen belly. On the other bed, Amy
lay with her back to the room, curled in around herself. Asleep. Or so she
wanted them to believe.

He’d let her get away with the deception for now. Hell, the
kid had earned some downtime.

“How’s she doing?” He nodded at Mara, deeply asleep.

“I’ve managed to get the contractions stopped but she’s
close to eight months pregnant according to Amy. Dane’s going to do an
ultrasound when she wakes but I believe the baby’s far enough along to be born
without complications.”

“And they’re both healthy?”

“Mara’s been very well taken care of.” Nica’s face twisted
in an ugly grimace. “Of course, they put a spell over her so they wouldn’t have
to hear her cry or have her hear what they were saying. But then we are talking
about the
Mal
.”

His eyes widened. “You’re fucking kidding me?”

Nica’s mouth flattened into a cold hard line. “No. I was
able to get that much out of Amy before she clammed up and told me to mind my
own business. The girl’s got balls. Guess you’d have to grow up
Mal
.
But…”

“But what?”

Nica sighed as she removed her hand from Mara’s belly and
stood, stretching out her back. Then she motioned for Kaisie to follow her to
the far corner of the room, where she thought she’d be out of hearing range.

“There’s something different about Amy,” Nica said. “Something
I can’t put my finger on but there’s definitely something…off with her.”

“You mean something other than being
Mal
.”

Nodding, her gaze went over Kaisie’s shoulder to the girl
still pretending to be asleep. “I can sense that part of her, that darkness that
makes her
Mal
, but then…there’s something else beneath it. I just don’t
know how to explain it.”

“Is she sick? Like Alex.”

Nica shook her head. “No, she’s perfectly healthy. It’s…
Hell, it’s like a shadow underneath everything else she is. That’s the only way
I know how to describe it and that’s not doing a very good job.”

“Did you ask her about it?”

“No. The girl’s exhausted. I don’t think she’s been able to
sleep more than a few hours a night for the past few months. And maybe less
since Alex’s abduction. I think she took on the job as Mara and Alex’s
protector and…” Nica tried unsuccessfully to stifle a huge yawn. “Took the job
seriously.”

Kaisie didn’t have to think that’s what had happened. He
knew it. “Why don’t you go get some sleep? I’ll sit with the girls.”

Nica didn’t put up a fight. “Thanks, Kaisie. If Mara wakes
and complains of back pain or cramps, come and get me right away. I’ll be in
the next room.”

“Got it.”

Nica’s gaze landed on Amy again then she shook her head.
“That girl’s got a backbone of steel. What the hell are we going to do with
her, Kaisie? She’s got wicked-strong power.”

And she’s
Mal
. Nica didn’t have to add that last bit.
They both knew that was the elephant sitting in the middle of the room. Or
lying on the bed.

Nica gave him one last tired smile then headed out the door.

Kaisie waited a full minute before he walked over to Amy’s
bed. “You can roll over now. I know you’re awake.”

Amy rolled to her back, one arm behind her head, the other
over her stomach as she stared up at him. That look was back, the stubborn set
of her mouth that Kaisie recognized. From her mother.

“You really need to get some sleep, little girl. You’ll be
no good for your cousin if you can’t keep your eyes open.”

“Mara may need me. I’m her eyes and ears now.”

“So I understand.” He drew the chair by the wall to the side
of the bed and sat down as Amy watched his every move. “You wanna tell me what
happened to her?”

Amy’s sneer would have done Grace proud. “You wanna know
about how my loving father put a spell on his niece so he wouldn’t have to hear
her cry or worry about her overhearing his plans for her and the baby? About
how, if the baby was born
Mal
, he’d be able to get a much better price
for Mara the next time?”

Kaisie’s blood ran cold at the flat, dead sound of Amy’s
voice, though he struggled not to show his disgust. He had a feeling she’d clam
up if he did. And that was the last thing he wanted her to do.

“So you both learned sign language.”

She shrugged, as if there’d been nothing else she could do.
“Mara needed me.”

“Was she born
Mal
, too?”

“No, but her father is. He’s my father’s brother. I guess
that makes him my uncle.” She said the word like a curse. “My father brought
her to live with us four years ago. Mara said her parents told her they’d done everything
they could for her and now she needed to earn her keep. She was sixteen.”

Kaisie had to work hard to keep his teeth from grinding. He
just nodded at Amy, knowing she was watching his reactions, looking for any
hint of softness so she could dismiss him as unworthy.

“A year ago, Mara fell in love with one of our bodyguards.
She thought he loved her. She got pregnant. And found out my father had
orchestrated the whole thing. The guy was the son of one of my dad’s business
partners. And
Mal
. Father was so pleased she got knocked up so fast. And
when Mara found out she’d been used, she cried for three days straight until he
brought in an old hag to cast a spell to take away her hearing and her voice.
She’s been like this for the past six months.”

Staring into Amy’s deep-brown eyes, Kaisie sincerely hoped
the bastard hadn’t died because he wanted the pleasure of torturing the man for
days until he took his last agonized breath. He had the feeling Amy wished she
could do the same.

Which just added to his fury. No fifteen-year-old girl
should ever have to go through this nightmare.

“If Mara okays it, we’ll have our
streghe
take a look
at the spell. See if they can break it without harming her.”

Amy nodded, a short, sharp motion that was almost military.
“And what about me? What are you going to do with me? I’m
Mal
.”

No hint of any emotion whatsoever in her eyes. The girl had
her emotions locked down tight. And who could blame her, the way she’d been
reared?

“You were born
Mal
, yes. But you heard what Nica said
before she left. Wanna tell me what she meant about that shadow she senses in
you?”

Now fear flared for a brief second before she could hide it.
“I don’t know what she’s talking about.”

Yeah, she did, but now probably wasn’t the time to push
about that. “What about your powers? Obviously you’ve come into them.”

Usually
streghe
came into their powers with their
first period, which made for a hell of a wicked month.
Lucani
girls’
first change hit when their bodies reached a certain maturity level, which didn’t
always coincide with their cycle. But maybe there was something different about
Mal
powers.

She didn’t say anything for so long, he thought maybe she
wouldn’t open her mouth again. “I have an affinity for stone. And I can make
things explode. Apparently I’m quite the trick dog.
Daddy
had such plans
for breeding me.”

The sarcasm was thick enough to cut with a knife but he
could smell her fear and her heartache underlying it.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Amy. You won’t be going
back.”

“But I can’t stay here either. I’m
Mal
. I know what
that means, what people like you think about people like me. I’m dangerous. I’m
deadly. And let’s not forget evil. I have no soul, right? Isn’t that what you
and the rest of the Etruscans believe?”

Yeah, it was. Because it was mostly true. Although he didn’t
believe they were born without a soul. He believed they had that beaten out of
them.

Which totally sucked when you were staring into the face of
a fifteen-year-old girl who knew exactly what you were thinking.

“You didn’t ask to be born
Mal
.”

“Doesn’t matter, does it? Doesn’t change the fact that
that’s what I am. What I’ll always be.” She shook her head. “I can’t stay here.
You know that.”

Also true. Shit. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. Why
don’t we table that discussion for another time?”

She shook her head again. “Doesn’t matter when we talk about
it, the facts’ll still be the same. I don’t know what my father wanted with
Alex. I only know it wasn’t because he wanted to get to know the son he’d
thrown away because he wasn’t born
Mal
. And I know if my father’s still
alive, he’ll be coming for us. And he won’t stop until he gets us back.”

“The
lucani
aren’t afraid of the
Mal
, little
girl. We’re stronger, faster and there are more of us. If he comes after you, he
better be prepared for a war.”

Her eye brows lifted. “Didn’t you lose the last war you
fought with the
Mal
?”

He released the smile he’d been holding back until now, the
one that scared grown men. “Honey, that was almost two hundred years ago. Trust
me, we’ve learned a few tricks since then. Now that we’ve stalled long enough,
why don’t you let me introduce you to your mother?”

Chapter Five

The girl standing beside her bed had her face.

Grace tried not to appear dumbstruck. Or allow tears to well
in her eyes. Or to jump out of bed to grab the girl, dressed in too-baggy
shorts and a t-shirt that practically drowned her delicate frame, who stopped
just inside the door to her room and refused to come any closer.

“Grace,” Kaisie’s voice rumbled through the room, “this is
Amy. Amy, this is Grace Bellasario.”

Grace knew she looked like crap, with her puffy, bloodshot
eyes and her messy hair. Her complexion had to be white because exhaustion was
starting to seep through her and she felt sick to her stomach with anxiety.

She forced herself to smile, shifting Alex’s sleeping body
closer as she tried to rearrange herself so she was sitting up.

“Hello, Amy. How are you feeling?”

The girl shrugged, hands deep in the pockets of the shorts,
her mouth set in uncompromising lines, as if she hadn’t been through a hell of
fear in the past twenty-four hours. “I’m fine. How’s Alex?”

“He seems fine. Kaisie told me you took care of him. I want
to…to thank you for that.”

Amy’s head tilted back the tiniest bit but her expression didn’t
change. “He’s my brother.”

As if that meant more than anything in the world to her.
Much more than a mother who’d abandoned her to be reared by a monster.

“Yes, he is.”

An awkward silence fell as Grace tried to find the right
words, the words that wouldn’t send her daughter running. But everything she
wanted to say, everything she
needed
to say would sound like excuses.
And this girl with her eyes and the same stubborn expression on her face
deserved more than excuses.

“Were you injured at all in the escape?”

Amy shook her head, her gaze dropping to Grace’s bandaged
arm. “Were you?”

“Just a cut. It’ll be fine.”

“Good.”

“Would you like—”

“Can I go back to my room now?” Amy addressed her question
to Kaisie and Grace felt the cut as deeply as she had the one Ettore had made
with the knife. “I think I wanna get some sleep now. I’m kinda tired.”

Grace forced a smile, nodding. “Of course. When you wake,
I’m sure Alex will be glad to see you.”

“Sure.” She shrugged. “Tell him I’ll check in with him.”

Then Amy looked at Kaisie, as if for permission, before she
turned and disappeared through the door.

Two minutes. Had it even been two minutes? She hadn’t even
gotten to touch her.

Grace’s vision blurred but she blinked back the tears. She
had to be stronger than this. She’d known it was going to take more than a few
minutes to undo fifteen years of Ettore’s influence.