In the Beginning... (29 page)

Now his sister sat shaking
in the
demon’s
arms. Sat whispering in his ear, while he rubbed a hand up and
down her back, soothing her.

Fucking goddess, the bastard
demon had
claimed her as
consort
. Cormac
doubted

Kindara even knew what that
meant, or how that would change her life. The average Dardaptoan
knew very little about the Demonkin. The
Predatoi
kept it that way to keep
Dardaptoans from getting curious about the creatures that were so
much stronger than Dardaptoans.

This demon would do
everything
and
anything
to keep his
sister. And even if Cormac attempted to kill it at this point,
chances were good the damned incubus would simply return as a ghost
and attach himself to Kindara. He would haunt her
forever.

Only the demon himself could break the bond,
and that would take centuries to accomplish—if the demon even so
desired. For now, Cormac was stuck with the demon.

At least until he could find another
solution. If he flung the damned demon back to his own realm, the
bond might be weakened enough for Kindara to sever it.

But for now, they had
logistics to work out about the laboratory that the Taniss women
were apparently
building in Dardano. The
lab his Jocelyn had neglected to tell him about.

Was she keeping it secret
for some reason? Or had other events, such as the kidnapping of his
sister and niece overshadowed what his
Rajni
was up to?

The
Dhan
continued speaking. “We want
Mallory to oversee it. With Josey as head of Dardaptoan research
and development, while Anna Macgregor handles the human side of
things. If we have
to, we can introduce
Anna to the world of Dardaptoans. She will keep it utterly
confidential, and can help Josey coordinate any overlap between the
research while protecting it from unsuspecting eyes. We also want
Uncle

Jason to be the official head of the Dardano
lab.”

The wolf nodded. “I think
that will work for him.
If
he’s satisfied that Josey is happy and safe where
she’s at.”

“Jocelyn is happy and safe
where she’s at.
I
am the one who decides her future from now on.” Cormac would
make that abundantly clear to whomever questioned it.

“Do not assume so, my friend.” The demon
smirked at him. “If our Josey decides she does not wish to be with
you, you will not stop her father nor I from removing her from your
care.”

“Demon, quit it. Josey is fine where she’s
at, and I would appreciate you stop needling my brother.” Kindara’s
words were mild, spoken from where she still sat on the demon’s
lap. Cormac could not fathom what she thought she was doing.

But she seemed oddly comfortable on the
male’s lap. Damned incubus. He would definitely need to find a way
to deal with the demon before too long.

“Can we continue?”
Dhan
Emily asked. “Josey
is already at work on the logistics of this. Staffing, and
equipment requisitions. We’re looking at getting this going as
quickly as possible. Mickey is gathering all the necessary legal
documents, as well.”

“So without speaking with the Board, then?”
The wolf smacked the table with an open palm, his irritation easy
to see.

“Why should we speak with
the Board?” his twin asked from her position beside her
Rajni
. “Half the new board
is already present or has given approval. Mickey and Josey, Emily
and myself. That just leaves you and Marshall. Uncle Jason and Dad.
This is going to happen, Rand. Just suck it up and get used to
it.”

The wolf growled. Aodhan hissed, putting a
hand on his female’s shoulder to keep her in place as he shifted in
front of her. He poised to attack. Cormac tensed, ready to assist
his comrade.

“Oh, can it! Both of you!” the female pulled
away from Aodhan and glared at her own brother. “I’m not too happy
with you right now, bro.”

“When are you ever?” The
wolf turned to Aodhan. “Don’t ever
interfere with us again.”

“That’s enough!”
Dhan
Emily stood and
looked at everyone around the table. For one so small, she
certainly had a commanding presence. She would suit his best friend
well. Cormac looked at his sister again, to check on her like he
had always done. She was even closer to the demon, whispering
softly in his ear. What were they saying? “We have other things to
deal with than stupid male
posturing.”

Before much else could be said, the far door
was flung open. A male with black hair stood panting in the frame,
eyes trained on the redheaded wolf. “Rand, we—”

The man stopped mid-sentence. Sniffed the
air as he looked around. His eyes— green like the rest of the
Taniss clan—landed on Cormac.

Cormac tensed, sensing the other man’s
animosity clearly. Who was he? Why had he trained his attention on
Cormac? If it was a fight the bastard wanted, it was a fight he’d
be getting. Cormac tensed. Grinned a feral grin.

The man lunged forward, knocking Cormac to
the ground. At the first contact Cormac had no trouble reading the
man’s fury, his animal hatred. Another Lupoiux, then. This one bent
on killing Cormac where he stood. The Lupoiux was strong, almost
surprisingly so. Another alpha, like his redheaded brethren.
Strange that two alphas would be found in the same home. Usually
Lupoiux alphas fought when together.

The wolf slashed a clawed
hand across Cormac’s shirt, ripping the skin beneath. Cormac
laughed.
This
was
the fight, the challenge, he had been aching for. The wolf pulled
him to the ground and the two grappled for several
minutes.

Cormac swore when the wolf
proved stronger than he’d expected—he would go home to his
Rajni
with more than a few
bruises.

His
Rajni
.

The wolf shared the same eyes. The same
blood.

Fuck the goddess! He couldn’t kill the wolf
any more than he could kill the demon.

Strong hands yanked him and the wolf apart.
Cormac put up a show of resistance, but he knew it would have to
end there. “He smells like my daughter! Where’s Josey?” Cormac
backed off to stare at the man.

His woman’s
father
was another damned
dog. How in nine hells had that happened?

His woman’s father glared at him from across
the chopper. The black haired wolf kept his younger daughter close,
but his eyes were all for Cormac. Full of fury and questions.

They would have another
opportunity to finish their battle. Cormac had no doubt about that.
The sound of the blades made conversation impossible, but before he
let the damned wolf near his
Rajni
, Cormac would be finding out how
the once human had become a Lupoiux. How was he to tell his Jocelyn
that her father was one of the very creatures who had nearly killed
her?

It had been obvious in the way she spoke of
her father that she adored the man. And the way he held the younger
girl made it clear he loved his daughters equally strong. So how
had two of Jocelyn’s relatives become Lupoiux and attracted the
friendship of a demon?

The father had done nothing
but glare and growl at him since the moment the demon had separated
the fight. It was obvious his female's father wanted nothing more
than to kill him. Interesting. Had the Lupoiux not brought word
that forty more of his Kind had surrounded the Taniss vacation home
and
Dahr
Rydere not
offered the Taniss relatives sanctuary in Dardano, Cormac knew
his
Rajni
's father
would have provoked him until they had finished the fight between
them.

Instead the wolf watched Cormac's every move
from the opposite side of the helicopter. Cormac fought a laugh.
His damned father-in-law was a fucking dog. What had the goddess
been thinking?

The research she was doing
while she waited for the damned vampire man to return with word
from her family wasn’t holding her attention. And it probably
wouldn’t for very long. Josey ate lunch with Mickey in the small
restaurant off the side of the lobby. It was filled with favorite
human favorites. Probably for the human guests who stayed in the
hotel, not knowing what danger they were putting themselves in.
Josey had no trouble identifying humans from Dardaptoans by now.
Dardaptoans usually wore the
vestis
and
pardus
sets in various colors. And they were all tall and
lean. The humans all wore current fashion and had the look of
travelers and mixed body types.

It was definitely weird
mixing with both humans and vampires. To knowing that her original
species were merely food
for her now. The
idea of feeding from the people wandering the hotel lobby sickened
her. Would she ever get used to it? She could not just feed
from
him
for the
rest of her life, could she?

It hadn’t been so disgusting tasting him.
Where was he now? Was he sitting in the dining room at the vacation
home? Was Claudette serving him some of her famous desserts?

It was strange, but she
knew
he wasn’t in the building with her.
Knew that she couldn’t just speak with him anytime she wanted, like
she could when he was in her general vicinity.

She was preoccupied for most of the early
afternoon, having difficulty taking any kind of notes from the
texts spread across the desk. She closed the last one and drummed
her fingers on the worn leather cover. It was an old book, listing
common creatures from each of the nine realms. She had had a hard
time understanding the concept that this world she lived in wasn’t
the only one. Eight others existed, and each of the nine realms was
populated by beasts and beings that ranged from dragons to
humanesque to water creatures.

It would take her years just
to read about each one, and their physiologies. And that was with
the information all neatly recorded in Kindara’s precise
handwriting in two volumes titled
Creatures
of the Nine.

The drawer where the grandfather files were
stored beckoned her.

Hadn’t it been long enough
that she’d waited? She knew the images were bad— Em had said she’d
been shown some. But shouldn’t she read the information and get it
over with? What if her grandfather
had
found something that could
actually benefit the Dardaptoan people? What if Kindara had
overlooked the finds, or been unable to deal with what she had seen
and had missed a vital piece of research?

Josey stood.

Two hours later and she’d wiped most of the
tears away. Her vampire man hadn’t lied. If anything, he’d
downplayed the extent of her grandfather’s actions.

Her grandfather had
been
photographed
even. Doing cruel, torturous things. How could he do
that?

He hadn’t stopped with adults; she’d found
fourteen files he’d created on children. Babies. Jierra was
identified by name.

She’d lost every bit of the lunch she’d
eaten.

What made what he’d done so much worse was
the maniacal enjoyment she’d had no difficulty seeing. It had been
especially evident on videos. How could he take so many videos of
the atrocities he was performing?

She estimated some of the videos and files
were at least fifty years old. He’d been torturing people for more
than twice her lifetime.

She washed her face in the small restroom off
her office, then looked at herself in the mirror. Did the evidence
of her tears show?

She hoped not.

The knock at the door vibrated the room—a
setup the vampire man had had installed the day after he’d first
shown her this office.

She hadn’t had to ask, he’d just done it. For
her.

Suddenly, inexplicably, she felt a rush of
longing. For him. At least for his voice, his presence in her mind.
Had she become that accustomed to him in so short of a time?

Right then she didn’t want to see a single
member of her family. The thought of being associated with the
people who were responsible for so many Dardaptoan deaths, so much
pain and suffering, made her more sick than she’d ever felt in her
life.

No wonder so many of the Dardaptoan people
backed away from her and her cousins. They had to know who she,
Mickey, Mal, and Em were.

Why
had Cormac and his friends
not
killed them? Not acted against their family
before?

Josey opened the door when the knock sounded
again. It was the girl Bronwen, Theo’s little sister. She had her
brother’s kind eyes, and the physician in Josey had had little
difficulty seeing the young woman was going blind, as well. It was
in the way Bronwen looked at things.

Bronwen smiled and spoke, looking directly at
Josey. Someone had obviously told Bronwen that Josey read lips.

“Yes?” Josey didn’t often speak, though she
still remained a working percentage of her speaking ability. She
couldn’t hear the sounds, but she could feel them as they left her
voice.