Lover Avenged (46 page)

The sandwiches were exactly the way he liked them: overstuffed with meat, light on the lettuce and the tomatoes, plenty of mayo. He ate both of them, and though they should have perked him up, the exhaustion that had a death grip on his body just pulled harder.

“Come on, let’s go.” Beth took his hand.

“No, wait,” he said, rousing himself. “I need to tell you what’s doing at nightfall tonight.”

“Okay.” Tension crept into her tone, like she was bracing herself.

“Sit. Please.”

The chair pulled out from under the table with a squeak and she settled her weight slowly. “I’m glad you’re being up front with me,” she murmured. “Whatever it is.”

Wrath smoothed her fingers with his, trying to calm her, knowing that what he had to say was only going to make her more worried. “Someone…well, likely more than one, but at least one we know of, wants to kill me.” Her hand tightened in his, and he kept on stroking her, trying to relax her. “I’m meeting with the glymera’s council tonight, and I’m expecting…problems. All of the Brothers are going with me, and we’re not going to be stupid, but I’m not going to lie and tell you this is a garden-variety sitch.”

“This…someone…is obviously part of the council, right? So is it worth your going in person?”

“The one who started it all is a nonissue.”

“How so?”

“Rehvenge had him assassinated.”

Her hands tightened again. “Jesus…” She took a deep breath. And another. “Oh…dear God.”

“The question we’re all wondering now is, who else is in on it? That’s part of the reason my showing up at that meeting is so important. It’s also a show of strength, and that matters. I don’t run. Neither do the Brothers.”

Wrath braced himself for her to say, No, don’t go, and wondered what he would do then.

Except Beth’s voice was calm. “I understand. But I have a request.”

His brows popped up over his wraparounds. “Which is?”

“I want you to wear a bulletproof vest. It’s not that I doubt the Brothers-it’s just that it would give me a little added comfort.”

Wrath blinked. Then he brought her hands to his lips and kissed them. “I can do that. For you, I can absolutely do that.”

She nodded once and rose from the chair. “Okay. Okay…good. Now, come, let’s go to bed. I’m as exhausted as you look.”

Wrath rose to his feet, tucked her against him, and together they walked out into the foyer, their feet crossing over the mosaic of an apple tree in bloom.

“I love you,” he said. “I am so in love with you.”

Beth’s arm tightened around his waist and she put her face on his chest. The acrid, smoky scent of fear rose up from her, clouding her natural rose fragrance. And yet even so, she nodded and said, “Your queen doesn’t run, either, you know.”

“I know. I…totally know.”

In his bedroom at his mother’s safe house, Rehv pushed his body back until he was lying against the pillows. As he arranged his sable coat across his knees, he said into his cell, “I have an idea. How about we start this phone call over.”

Ehlena’s soft laugh made him feel strangely buoyant. “Okay. Are you going to call me again or…”

“Tell me this, where are you?”

“Upstairs in the kitchen.”

Which might explain the slight echo. “Can you go to your room? Get relaxed?”

“Is this going to be a long conversation?”

“Well, I’ve rethought my tone, and check this out.” He dropped his voice, going total lothario. “Please, Ehlena. Go to your bed, and take me with you.”

Her breath caught and then she laughed again. “What an improvement.”

“I know, right-lest you think I don’t take direction well. Now, how about you return the favor. Go to your bedroom and get comfortable. I don’t want to be alone, and I get the sense you don’t either.”

Instead of an, It’s true, he heard the gratifying sound of a chair being pushed back. As she moved around, her dim footfalls were lovely, the creaking stairs not-because the sound made him wonder where exactly she lived with her father. He hoped it was an antique house with old, quaint boards, not something run-down.

There was the squeak of a door opening and a pause, and he was willing to bet she was checking on her father.

“Is he sleeping soundly?” Rehv asked.

The hinges rasped again. “How did you know?”

“Because you’re good like that.”

There was another door noise and then the click of a lock getting flipped into place. “Will you give me a minute?”

A minute? Shit, he’d give her the world if he could. “Take your time.”

There was a muffled sound, as if she’d put the phone down on a duvet or a quilt. More door protests. Silence. Another squeak and the faded gurgle of a toilet flushing. Footfalls. Bedsprings. Rustling close by and then-

“Hello?”

“Comfortable?” he said, aware he was grinning like an idiot-except God, the idea that she was where he wanted her to be was fantastic.

“Yes, I am. Are you?”

“You’d better believe it.” Then again, with her voice in his ear, he could have been in the process of getting his fingernails pulled off and still been all jolly-jolly.

The silence that followed was as soft as the sable of his coat, and just as warm.

“Do you want to talk about your mom?” she said gently.

“Yes. Even though I don’t know what to say, other than that she went quietly and with her family around her, and that’s all anyone can ask for. It was her time.”

“You’ll miss her, though.”

“Yes. I will.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me.”

“Let me take care of you.”

She laughed quietly. “Right. How about I clue you in on something. In this kind of situation, you’re the one who’s supposed to be taken care of.”

“But we both know that I was what cost you your job-”

“Hold up.” There was another rustle, as if she’d just sat up from her pillows. “I made the choice to bring you those pills, and I’m an adult capable of making the wrong call. You don’t owe me because I messed up.”

“I disagree with you completely. But putting that aside, I’m going to talk to Havers when he comes here to-”

“No, you’re not. Dear Lord, Rehvenge, your mother’s just passed. You don’t need to worry about-”

“What I can do for her is done. Let me help you. I can talk to Havers-”

“It’s not going to make a difference. He’s not going to trust me anymore, and I can’t blame him.”

“But people make mistakes.”

“And some cannot be remedied.”

“I don’t believe that.” Although as a symphath, he was not exactly anyone’s go-to guy on moral shit. Not by a long shot. “Especially when it’s you we’re talking about.”

“I’m no different from anybody else.”

“Look, don’t make me bust out my tone again,” he warned. “You did something for me. I want to do something for you. It’s simple barter and exchange.”

“But I’m going to get another job, and I’ve been making things work for a long time on my own. It happens to be one of my core competencies.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He paused for effect, playing the best card he had. “Here’s the thing though, you can’t leave me with this on my conscience. It’s going to eat me up inside. Your bad choice was the result of mine.”

She laughed softly. “Why does it not surprise me that you know my weakness? And I really appreciate it, but if Havers bends the rules for me, what kind of message does that send out? He and Catya, my supervisor, have already announced it to the rest of the staff. He can’t go back now, nor would I want him to just because you strong-armed him.”

Well, shit, Rehv thought. He’d been planning on manipulating Havers’s mind, but that wouldn’t take care of all the other folks who worked at the clinic, would it.

“Okay, then let me help you until you have your feet back under you.”

“Thank you, but-”

He wanted to curse. “I have an idea. Meet me tonight at my place and we’ll argue about it?”

“Rehv-”

“Excellent. I have to tend to my mother early in the evening, and I have a meeting to go to at midnight. How’s three a.m. sound? Wonderful-I’ll see you then.”

There was a heartbeat of silence and then she chuckled. “You always get what you want, don’t you.”

“Pretty much.”

“Fine. Three o’clock tonight.”

“I’m so happy I changed my tone, aren’t you?”

They both laughed, the tension draining from the connection as if it had been flushed out.

When there was a rustle again, he took it to mean she was lying back down and getting comfortable once more.

“So can I tell you what my father did?” she said abruptly.

“You can tell me that and then explain to me why you didn’t eat more for dinner. And after that we’re going to talk about the last movie you saw and the books you read and what you think about global warming.”

“Really, all that?”

God, he loved her laugh. “Yup. We’re in network, so it’s free. Oh, and I want to know what your favorite color is.”

“Rehvenge…you really don’t want to be alone, do you.” The words were spoken gently and almost absently, as if the thought had snuck out of her mouth.

“Right now…I just want to be with you. That’s all I know.”

“I wouldn’t be ready, either. If my father passed tonight, I wouldn’t be ready to let him go.”

He closed his eyes. “That is…” He had to clear his throat. “That is exactly what I’m feeling. I’m not ready for this.”

“Your father has also…passed. So I know it’s extra hard.”

“Well, yes, he’s dead, although I don’t miss him at all. She was always the one for me. And with her gone…I feel like I just drove up to my home to find someone’s burned it down. I mean, I didn’t see her every night or even every week, but I always had the potential of going over and sitting down and smelling her Chanel No. 5. Of hearing her voice and seeing her across a table. That potential…grounded me, and I didn’t know it until I lost it. Shit…I’m not making sense.”

“No, you totally are. For me it’s the same. My mother’s gone and my father…he’s here but he’s not. So I feel homeless, too. Adrift.”

This was why people got mated, Rehv suddenly thought. Fuck the sex and the social position. If they were smart, they did it to make a house that had no walls and an invisible roof and a floor that no one could walk on-and yet the structure was a shelter no storm could blow down, no match could torch up, no passage of years could degrade.

That was when it hit him. A mated bond like that helped you through shit nights like this.

Bella had found that shelter with her Zsadist. And maybe her older brother needed to follow his sister’s example.

“Well,” Ehlena said awkwardly, “I can answer the question about my favorite color if you like. Might keep things from getting too heavy.”

Rehv shook himself back into gear. “And what would it be?”

Ehlena cleared her throat a little. “My favorite color is…amethyst.”

Rehv smiled until his cheeks hurt. “I think that’s a great color for you to like. A perfect color.”

There were fifteen people at Chrissy’s funeral who knew her, and one who hadn’t-and as Xhex scanned the windswept cemetery, she looked for a seventeenth person hiding among the trees and tombs and larger headstones.

No wonder the fucking graveyard was called Pine Grove. There were fluffy boughs all over the place, providing ample cover for someone who didn’t want to be seen. Damn it to hell.

She’d found the cemetery in the Yellow Pages. The first two she’d called hadn’t had any space left. The third had had space only in their Wall of Eternity, as the guy called it, for cremated bodies. Finally, she’d found this Pine Grove thing and purchased the rectangle of dirt they were all standing around.

The pink coffin had been about five grand. The plot another three. The priest, father, whatever humans called him, had indicated that a suggested donation of a hundred dollars would be appropriate.

No problem. Chrissy deserved it.

Xhex searched the frickin’ pines again, hoping to find the asshole who’d murdered her. Bobby Grady had to be coming. Most abusers who killed the objects of their obsessions remained connected emotionally. And even though the police were looking for him, and he had to know that, the drive to see her put to rest was going to override logic.

Xhex refocused on the officiant. The human male was dressed in a black coat, his white collar showing at his throat. In his palms, over Chrissy’s pretty coffin, he held a Bible that he read from in a low, reverent voice. Satin ribbons were laid among the gold-leafed pages to demarcate whatever sections he used most, the ends trailing out the bottom of the book, waving red and yellow and white in the cold. Xhex wondered what his “favorites” list was like. Marriages. Baptisms-if she got that word right. Funerals.

Did he pray for sinners, she wondered. If she remembered the Christian thing right, she believed he had to-so although he didn’t know Chrissy had been a prostitute, even if he had he would still have had to affect that respectful tone and expression.

This gave Xhex comfort, although she couldn’t have said why.

From out of the north, a chilly breeze blew, and she resumed surveying the landscape. Chrissy wasn’t staying here when they were done. Like so many rituals, this was for show. With the earth frozen, she was going to have to wait until spring, housed in a meat locker at the mortuary. But at least she had her headstone, pink granite, of course, set where she’d be buried. Xhex had kept the words of the inscription simple, just Chrissy’s name and her dates, but there was a lot of nice scrollwork done around the edges.

This was the first human death ceremony Xhex had ever been to, and it was utterly foreign, all this entombing, first in the box, then under the earth. The idea of getting stuck beneath the ground was enough to make her tug at the collar of her leather jacket. Nope. Not for her. In this respect, she was solidly symphath.