Incendiary (The Premonition Series (Volume 4)) (43 page)

“Wwhen
n have yyyou known mmmee to wwalkk around nnnakked on the dd
eeckkk of a ssship?” I ask him
.

“Now,
that’s been a
while,” he grins
teasingly. “At least a few centuries.”

“Was it Brennus?” Reed asks
, his arms tightening.

“Uh huh,” I nod
.

“W
as i
t a spell?” Russell asks
.

“It didn’t f
ff
eel like his other
ss
spells,” I admit
, after sipping my coffee. “
It was like he
ww
was inside my head—
and exerting energy
ff
from without.”

“Thrall,” Tau says, “a
nd magic, too. You were
bitten
recently
?” he
asks
me.

“
Yes,” I answer
, glancing at Tau
.

“And you we
re bitten before—
months ago?” Tau
asks
.

“Yes,” I respond
.

“More ve
nom makes their thrall stronger—
maybe
it’s beginning to work on you. But t
hey
still had to use
magic, too. You’
re covered in fro
st,” Tau says
. H
e gestures
to my skin that is just now losing the twinge of blue.
“What did Bren
nus tell you to do?” he asks
.

“He t
tt
old me to come to h
hh
im,” I reply
in a small voice.

“
You know where he is?” Tau asks
.

“No,” I say
hesitantly.

“
No…but?” he prompts
me.

“No, nothing,” I reply
, not looking in his eyes.

Tau says nothing
;
he just watches me drink my coffee. I glance
at Russell. He’s aware that I hav
e the means of locating Brennus—
we both do.
I begi
n to get warmer and my teeth sto
p
chattering.

“I look forward to meeting him
,” Tau says
.

“D
o you know where he is?
” I ask as confusing emotions erupt
in me, f
ear the most dominant among them.

“Not at the moment,
but I don’t need to because
he will come to me,” he replies
, before sipping
his
coffee.

“Wh
y would he do that?” I counter
.

“Because I’m going to make it so that he
has no other option,” he replies
easily.

“How?” I ask
.

“I will begi
n by insulting him,” Tau say
s
. “When I make him appear ridiculous, he will have to retaliate or risk losing his stature among his peers.”

“H
ow will you insult him?” I ask
, my brows pulling together.

“I intend to move into his home,
assume his th
rone…with his queen,” he replies
.

My stomach clenches in fear as my mouth goes
dry. “We’re going
back
to Ireland?” I ask
in
a raspy tone.

“Yes,” he replies
easily
, like we’re discussing the homework
assignment
for English class.

“You should be careful.
Brennus is ver
y clever and…determined,” I say
, meeting his eyes again.

Tau pauses
, his
gray
eyes showing amusement. “
Are you afraid for me?” he asks
, his head tilting to the side as he assesses my demeanor.

I shake my head slowly.
“N
o, I’m afraid for me,” I reply
angrily
.
“I’ve lived with them and it was a struggle for survival from one day to the next and you want to take me back there.”

“Y
o
u don’t trust th
at I can protect you,” he states
, his brows pulling together in a frown.

“I don’t trust you. Period,” I sho
o
t back.

“
Yes, I can see that,” Tau agrees
. “You don’t need to trust me. You just need to obey me.”

My eyebrows rise in surprise.
“Obey you?
”
I ask
incredulously. “I don’t
even know you.”

“If you don’t respect that I am your father
, then respect my rank,” he says
in a calm tone, his face a mask of tranquility. “I am the authority here.”

Glancing at Russell, he’s frowning at Tau, too. “Are
you hearing this, Russ?” I ask
him.

“Yeah
, I’m hearin’ it,” he replies
. “I’m just tryin’ to understand it. I mean, I’m down for th
e whole insultin’ Brennus part—
I just got a problem with draggin’
you
back to the creepy castle. You
want you
r daughter
to be bait?” he asks
Tau
with
agitation in his tone
.

“I want what you want: m
y daughter to be safe
,
and she wi
ll be safe with me,” Tau replies
.

“
Brennus wants me on my knees—
you can’t protect m
e from that,” I retort
, angrier with
him than I probably shoul
d be. He’s not doing this,
it’s Brennus, but my emotions are a tangled mess right now.

“He will grovel on
his knees to you,” Tau counter
s
.

“I don’t want that,” I reply
.

“What do you want?” he asks
.

“I want hi
m to stop…just stop,” I breathe
.

“Then,
I will make him stop,” Tau says
.

“What if you can’t,” I whisper
.

“I can,” he replies
, his eyes softening a little in the corners.

“
You think you
know him, but you don’t,” I say
grimly, feeling a desperation I can’t even begin to describe. “He’s seductive and sweet one minute and then he turns ruthless and horrifyin
g the next. He changes, adapts. H
e makes allianc
es with the most awful monsters. H
e kills wome
n and he only craves one thing: me. You can’t stop him—
n
o one can stop him,” I say
, shaking my head.

Tau ri
se
s
from his seat. Drawing nearer to me,
he crouches
by my side, looking into my eyes
that are a replica of his own
. “You don’t have the benefit of my experience to know that he is not all-powerfu
l. He has many, many weaknesses—
especially
when it comes to his desire
for you.
” Tentatively, Tau re
aches
out, tuckin
g a piece of my hair
behind my ear. “I will show you how to bring down your enemies…you just need to remember that
that is exactly what Brennus is:
your enemy.”

Stiffening, I pull
back from his hand. “You d
on’t think that I know that he’
s
my enemy?” I ask
.

“I think that if you truly believed that, you would have
killed him already,” he replies
.

My eyes narrow
at Tau
menacingly. “You think that I w
ant him in my life?” I ask
between my teeth.

“I think you a
re reluctant to kil
l him,” Tau replies honestly. He stands up and moves
away from me
. “He can’t be allowed to exist
, Evie. He’s a killer. He preys upon the weak. When you see him for what he truly is, you may then be able to do what you were meant to do.”

“And what am I meant
to do?” I ask
him.

“Protect the weak,” he replies
. “Dr
aw out evil and dispatch it,
not pity it.”

“Black and white, good and
evil, sinner and saint?” I ask
him derisively.

“Yes,” he
replies
.

“Then why can’t I th
ink in those terms?” I ask
.

“Maybe it’s your soul that always wants to leave room for the possibili
ty of redemption,” he answers
contemplatively
.

“Or maybe I
’m just not like you,” I counter
in a not-so-
nice tone
.
“Did you know that Brennus saved my
life from an Ifrit?” I inquire
.

“Yes, Valentine,
” Tau responds
quietly
. His back is to me as he’s starin
g out at the sea beyond the glass
doors.
“He did it for him, not for you…and you saved him from the Werree, and that also
, was done for him, not for you—
although, with your life tied to his, it did work in your favor as well. I was at Dominion
recently;
they apprised me of
what happened while you were with the Gancanagh.”

“So you know eve
ryt
hing?” I ask
him
in a derogatory way
, because he
can’t possibly know everything—
he has no idea
how I felt when all of that was happening.

“Everything?” he asks
me, glancing over his shoulder at my face. “No one among us
can know everything,” he replies
.
“And you haven’t spoken to me about it, so I cannot know your perspective.”

“That’s right…you don’t know my perspective. You haven’t had a chance
to speak to me about it,” I agree softly, “b
ecause you’v
e been, where exactly?” I ask him, trying to keep
anger from leaking into my voice with little success.

“Paradise,” he answers
.

Nodding my head, I s
ay
, “Right, Paradise…a little R & R from all that pare
nting you were doing,” I reply
with sarcasm.
“You must have been exhausted.”

Tau slow
ly turns
around to face me. He ha
s lost his blank mask of c
alm and the scowl on his face speaks
volumes.

“Okay, love, I think you need to rest now,” Reed cut
s
in,
lifting me in his arms as he ri
se
s
from the chair.

Russell ri
se
s
, too, saying,
“Here, I’ll get the door for you
, Reed.”

“You had a
n
excellent parent…James. H
e loved you very much,” Tau says
and my throat
closes
as tear
s
instantly co
me to my eyes.

Wi
ggling out of Reed’s arms I make
hi
m put me down. Facing Tau I say
, “He was the BEST parent and he LOVED me more th
an anyone and ANGELS killed him
for it
!
” I
sob as tears ru
n down my cheeks. “They tore him apart in the house that we lived in because NOBODY WAS THERE TO PROTECT
HIM
—
N
OT YOU, NOT ME—
AND HE SUFFERED
...and he died
,” I whisper the last part as it beco
me
s
almost impossible to breathe. My
hands go
to my eyes and I feel
like my heart is breaking all over again.