Kiss Of Twilight (10 page)

"Five minutes."

"I'll wait. It'll be dawn soon," Dupree said.

Luke nodded his thanks and teleported back to the mansion. He went straight to his room, changed into sweats and jogged down to the main level. He opened the basement door and stood on the threshold. He got the familiar weird crawl up his spine, the certainty that someone was watching him, but when he looked around it was empty. Construction was in full swing.

He went down the stairs. For the moment, the gym stood finished but abandoned and the library was mostly complete. Luke walked through the vestibule and poked his head in. It was incredible, but spooky as hell in a Hollywood B movie way, empty with dark corners everywhere. He ducked out and went down a short hall into the gym where he breathed in deeply in relief. Perfectly normal. He walked to the CD player mounted on the wall, cranked Limp Bizkit full blast and spent the next few hours lost in the punching bag.

Kara met Father Mike in the park across from headquarters. Instead of Vic and Jonas playing guard, two older female soldiers were hanging back out of sight somewhere in the trees, which just pissed her off. Dupree had taken two people she knew and trusted, and put two people she'd rarely had contact with in their place. Why? She'd suspect protectiveness, but he'd replaced her friends with women. So was it possessiveness? Jealousy? If that was the case he was so far out of line she'd be happy to kick his ass back to reality. Maybe he was right. Maybe they shouldn't be together. She could handle possessive and protective--to a point--but he was crossing a line now she couldn't allow.

She'd argued against guards, but Dupree refused to bend on that. He'd even tried to forbid the counseling session, but Winter had stepped in for her. He wasn't speaking to either of them at the moment, which was fine with Kara. This was her third and final meeting with Mike. Everything was ready to move forward after this.

They'd decided to meet at noon in the park across the street from headquarters for a take-out lunch. It was the perfect day for it. The trees provided a shady, gold-and-green canopy. Mother nature provided a slight cool breeze and warm sunshine, and she had the food.

They met at a weathered old table under a huge oak several feet back from the trail. It was on a little rise and they could see everyone coming and going. They couldn't have looked like an odder couple. She looked like an upwardly mobile accountant or something, and the last thing Mike looked like was a priest. He was in his standard summertime garb: baggy cargo shorts, a loud Hawaiian shirt and flip flops.

It might be an official meeting, but she'd known him for years. He made easy small talk but she was wary. With Mike the conversation could go from simple to complicated in half a second flat. Their first two meetings had been so casual she was sure she would get hit with the complicated this time around.

But the conversation stayed mundane and her mind wandered. She wondered how Mike had ended up with the Order. He was around fifty, she guessed. Tall, lean, good looking and, like all Order priests, not a hybrid. As a Catholic priest he took a vow of celibacy, but hybrids couldn't remain celibate. They had to mate or go rogue.

"You're off somewhere, Kara. Where?"

She smiled at him. "I was just wondering how long you've been with the Order, and how you came to be with us."

He smiled back. "Ah, good questions, but for another time perhaps."

So now he would hammer
her
with questions, right? She braced herself. "I guess."

His expression became wistful. "There was a time I might have chosen a different path. But I lost her and God called me here."

Whoa and damn. There was a mystery woman in Mike's life? "Who was she?"

He shook his head once and she knew that subject was off limits. "Someone I knew when I was much younger than you. My life would have taken a very different path though, if things had been changed. Have you given much thought to that? What you stand to lose, and gain, after the merging ceremony?"

"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously. What had he heard?

"I mean Dupree Jackson, our master at arms."

He'd apparently heard too much. She sighed. "Dupree. It's complicated."

Mike laughed. "Everyone's life is complicated, Kara."

His amusement was infectious and she laughed with him. "Yeah. But he wants me to be something I'm not. And for some reason he thinks we shouldn't be together. So if we were, one, I'd have to change in ways against my nature, and two, eventually I'm sure he'd come to resent my presence. We'd both be miserable." She shrugged. "There's no winning there. I'd lose him either way," she ended softly and felt a sudden kinship with this priest who'd been like a favorite uncle to her for years. Is that what had happened between him and his girl?

He nodded with a very faint, teasing smile. "A quandary."

And she wondered, "Would you have lived your life differently?"

He thought about it before he answered, as if no one had ever asked before. She liked that about him. "I don't think I would have, no."

"Well, there ya go. I'm just trying to be true to myself."

"And you think this is true? Would you choose this if your parents hadn't died, if you hadn't been raised by the Order?"

Was this a trick question? "I don't know," she answered honestly. "I can't guess how my life would be different. How I would be different. I only have what it has been and what it is and what I know now."

She wrung her fingers in her lap, under the tabletop where he couldn't see, and tried to find the right words. "But I think I know what I lost and I can never get that back. I can never
un
-know it. And knowing what's out there, I can't run from it. If I do some other little girl somewhere might have to grow up like I did. Or worse, not grow up at all. I
know
it's there, Mike, and I know I can
do
something. I have to. I couldn't live with myself if I walked away, safe and protected, and let other people suffer without helping."

He reached an arm across the table, his hand palm up, and when she took it she felt like she'd finally found someone who understood.

"Have you talked to Dupree about this? Tried to explain?"

Till she was blue in the face. "He won't listen. He has this image of me that, I dunno, I guess he can't change. Little girl Kara. Poor helpless Kara." She heard the bitterness creep into her voice and couldn't seem to banish it.

Mike patted her hand. "He's set in his ways, but even he can learn new tricks."

The allusion made her snicker. Could she bring him to heel? She decided she didn't want to. She didn't mind a little overbearing possessiveness as long as he gave her the space to be herself too. Her phone beeped an incoming message and she scowled as she dug it out of her pocket. Another thing about Gia's job she hadn't adjusted to yet. She was
always
on call. After reading the text, she stood and stuffed their trash into the take-out bag.

"Sorry," she said when Mike gave her a frown that was more curious than disapproving for checking the phone. "Winter wants to know how the meetings went this morning."

"Not Dupree then."

"Why would it be?"

He shrugged. "I told him to stop by."

What else had Mike told Dupree? "Why?"

"I wouldn't betray your confidence, Kara," he chided. "But the two of you are important to each other and this is a life changing decision. Besides, he's the one objecting to your application and I think it's only fair to hear him out."

She went cold. Dupree couldn't really stop her, but if he convinced Mike, he could. Before she could think of a response, she sensed him behind her. She turned around to face Dupree. She hoped like hell he hadn't been lurking close by the whole time, but she could tell by his eyes he'd heard too much. They were guarded. Closed. She tried to school her expression to match, but suspected it was a lost cause. Damn.

Dupree crouched in the trees behind them, well within hearing distance, and wished like hell he could erase her words from his mind. He was an idiot. Even though Mike had asked, he shouldn't have come, but after the last incident he didn't trust anyone else to keep her safe. He shouldn't have stayed close enough to hear their conversation though. She wouldn't appreciate the breach of her privacy and he knew it.

That wasn't what bothered him. And neither was it her determination or her reasons for merging that punched him in the gut. It was the guilt. What she didn't remember, what she didn't know, was he'd been part of the team hunting those demons the night her parents were killed.

It was twenty years ago, but he recalled it like yesterday. He'd already been in a life or death struggle with his demon side, a fight he was losing. As the hunt that night had progressed his control had slipped to the point he'd called a halt for an hour. Those sixty minutes had cost Kara everything. So he'd made sure the Order made a place for the orphaned girl, made sure she was trained to protect herself and made damned sure his control never slipped again. Ironic, crazy even, that the night that had hammered the need to always be in command of his demon half was the same night that made her willing and eager to risk her soul.

Now his control was being sorely tested again. It was so much easier when she was just a lost lonely little girl, when he didn't see her as the woman she'd grown into, or even before he'd let himself see her as a man would. And it was inevitable that eventually those things would happen. It was a foregone conclusion that he'd have her. He couldn't breathe anymore unless he knew where she was and that she was safe. He burned for her every waking second.

But was it unavoidable that she merge? If she was bonded to him first she couldn't do it. It was too dangerous. There wasn't one record of anyone surviving it and he should know. He'd searched. He could have used his experience to seduce her, to convince her to bond with him first, but it wouldn't be fair. It would be the worst kind of coercion. Instead he'd focused on convincing her not to merge with a demon. He'd almost changed his mind a dozen times. He could have her and keep her happy, right?

Hell, who was he kidding? Human or hybrid, when they bonded he would be impossible to live with. He'd probably ruin everything with domineering possessiveness. She had no idea what she was in for, but just like there were things about herself that she couldn't change, he wasn't getting a personality transplant any time soon. He closed his eyes and practiced deep breathing, the task before him filling him with trepidation. He wasn't good at compromise.

But walking away was no longer an option. No matter how withdrawn she'd been, how quiet he'd been, they both knew this was happening. The age minimum no longer existed, and she wouldn't be swayed from her decision. He knew how mule-headed she could be. But after that, once they were on more equal footing, all bets were off. He smiled, slow and anticipatory. Once she merged, bonded to him or not, in Order matters he was the boss. If he was very careful he could keep her safe without her even realizing what was going on. Not all hybrids were soldiers after all and Winter needed her in her current capacity more than out on the streets fighting.

He heard her phone, heard her exchange with Mike and knew he had to make his presence known.

"Sorry I'm late."

He shouldn't have done it so suddenly. He should have teleported down the path and let her see him coming. Too late now. She knew he'd been right there. Knew he'd heard every word. And she was really not happy about it. Her eyes were bright with anger, the blue darkening like an angry sea. She turned her back on him and carried their trash to a nearby can.

Mike met his gaze and shook his head. "I'm tempted to insist on couple's counseling for you two."

Surprising himself, Dupree actually considered it. Lately, every time he and Kara spoke it ended badly, but he knew that was his own damned fault and he'd try to fix it on his own first. "This is my mess," he said softly. "I'll clean it up."

Kara stepped back into hearing range. "Clean up what?"

She was close enough to reach for and his heart skipped a beat while he fought the urge. Soon enough he'd give in to that pull, but not with Father Mike as a witness. He had some decorum.

"Dupree? What do you have to clean up?"

God, he'd been staring, imagining her naked, moving under him. With him. Keep that up and he wouldn't be able to walk. He willed the responding erection away and, shaking his head, joined Mike at the table. "Nothing. Sit down."

She cocked her head to one side. "I don't think that's such a good idea. I'm not changing my mind," she said, turning to Mike who just smiled and turned back to him.

"You know what my recommendation to Winter will be."

"I know," Dupree answered, resigned to the inevitable.

Sighing, Kara finally sat down next to him and looked him over suspiciously. "You'll quit trying to block it?"

He hadn't realized how important it was to her before. Honestly, he hadn't let himself see. "I'll talk to Winter about scheduling the ceremony."

Her smile was brilliant, well worth the concession even if when it came down to it, this was one merging ceremony that damned well might kill him.

"Come on. I'll take you home." He stood and held his hand out, intent on teleporting her to safety and putting a bit of distance between them before he gave in to the lust that smile ignited. He wanted to take things slowly. "I have a meeting with Winter and Mitchell that I'm going to be late for."

"We can't leave Father Mike."

Shit. She was right. He'd sent her guards away, so there was no one to escort Mike back to his car. "You ready, Mike?"

The priest, aware of the undercurrents between him and Kara, hid his grin with a cough and walked to the path. "Whenever you kids are."

Dupree snarled out of habit more than real aggravation. Kara narrowed her eyes and he sensed her temper flare a moment before she moved to catch up with Mike. Dupree fell into step bringing up the rear. Kids? He rolled his eyes. He was older than both of them combined. Didn't matter, though, did it? Mike still managed to make him feel like a teenager with his first crush. And, oh what a crush.

He decided he could feign irritation more often if it meant he got this view. He'd heard her complain just the other day to Nadia about her ass but he honestly couldn't see a damned thing wrong with it. Round, tight, grabable, especially with that vixen sway of her hips. The erection he'd willed away just minutes before was back in full force, hard and painful under the restraint of his jeans.

They reached the street and paused next to Mike's car. Dupree kept his distance while they chatted a moment and didn't move as Mike got in, cranked it and drove off. He saw her frown as she came back to him. It marred the perfection of her sexy, kissable lips. He couldn't wrench his gaze from them.

"Earth to Dupree."

His gaze lifted to meet hers.

"What's wrong?"

He searched her eyes, amazed to realize she didn't know. Usually she read him easily. But then her eyes changed, understanding filling them, and she lifted one hand, slow, cautious. Her fingertips brushed over his mouth, traced his lips with a soft gentle touch before she yanked her hand away and glared at him.