Rhyannon Byrd - Primal Instinct 04 (41 page)

A swift head count confirmed that everyone had made
it, and Riley began working the levers to raise the drawbridge, just in case
any Casus decided to follow. Though from the looks of things, it seemed that
any remaining Casus had decided to turn tail and run. The Death-Walkers,
however, were a different matter. As the tired, blood-covered band stood on the
deep stone porch waiting for the drawbridge to close, they spotted the
Death-Walkers speeding through the sky, their bodies silhouetted against the
moon as the creatures headed straight for them.

“Anyone who has anything left in their flasks, get
them ready,” Aiden grunted, putting himself in front of Olivia after he’d
placed Jamie in her arms. The Death-Walkers picked up speed, moving faster,
soaring high above the ground. Then they suddenly came to a crashing stop,
slamming into some kind of invisible wall when they reached the moat. Hissing,
they hovered in the air, glaring down at everyone gathered on the wide porch,
their yellow eyes burning with hatred, before finally turning and disappearing
into the night.

“Holy shit,” Noah grunted, his deep voice thick with
surprise. “It actually worked.”

“Remind me to thank Gideon when I see him,” Kierland
panted, leaning his back against the massive, double wooden doors that led into
the house.

“Thank him? Hell, I’m gonna kiss him,” Kellan drawled,
bracing his hands on his knees as he bent forward, still struggling to catch
his breath.

“I think we owe Jamie some appreciation, as well,” Ian
murmured, sliding Jamie a gentle smile. “You were amazing, sweetheart.”

THOUGH SHE WAS still shivering in Olivia’s arms, Jamie
managed a shy grin before burying her face against Olivia’s throat. Olivia
could see the questions burning in everyone’s eyes as they all looked at her
niece, wondering how Jamie had managed to turn the Casus and Death-Walkers
against each other. It had been nothing short of amazing, and Olivia could only
thank God that Jamie seemed to be fine now, if a little shaken.

Rubbing her hand against Jamie’s small back, Olivia
stood off to the side, listening as the others talked, until Riley finally
managed to get the drawbridge completely raised and Aiden suggested they get
inside.

And that was when the real work began.

Because of the local legends surrounding Harrow House,
Smithson had apparently been unable to round up a full staff willing to come in
and tackle the cleaning. Still, he’d managed to get the process started, but
they still had a long, tiresome evening ahead of them. Keeping Jamie close to
her side, Olivia had worked with Saige and Morgan, rummaging through the
endless number of rooms until they’d managed to get beds made up for everyone
to sleep in. She hadn’t seen Aiden since they’d come inside, and figured he was
either busy with the others or doing his best to avoid her. Not that she’d
expected anything different. Despite what had happened that afternoon, he’d
given no indication that his feelings toward her had changed, and she knew
better than to wish for a miracle.

After all, they’d already had their fair share of
miracles that day. To ask for another seemed greedy, and she didn’t want to
press their luck, no matter how sweet it would have been on a personal level
just to have the stubborn shape-shifter seek her out for some simple
conversation.

It was late, and they were finally done for the night.
There’d been an anxious hour when most of the men had gone back out, heavily
armed with weapons that Kierland’s grandfather had stocked in the cellar, and
taken care of the bodies that had been left at the site of the battle, but they
were back now. They’d also managed to retrieve the luggage from the cars, which
meant that everyone would be able to sleep in clean clothes. While Morgan took
Jamie downstairs to show her the game room they’d found, Olivia went upstairs
to grab a quick shower in the suite of rooms she and Jamie would be sharing.

She also needed just a bit of time to herself, to try
to sort out what she was going to do about Aiden.

“You need to just get a grip and forget about him,”
she muttered to herself as she entered the shadowed room, the only light
provided by the milky glow of moonlight that spilled through the leaded
windows.

Pulling off her dust-streaked sweater, she headed into
the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. It was a good twenty minutes later
when she came back out, dressed in a loose T-shirt and a ratty pair of sweats.
She’d taken no more than one or two steps into the bedroom, her head lowered as
she rubbed a towel through her hair, when Aiden’s deep voice rumbled through
the shadows. “If it’s all right with you, I’d rather you didn’t. Forget about
me, that is.”

Gasping with surprise, she looked up, and the low wash
of light spilling through the bathroom door reached just far enough into the
room to illuminate Aiden’s long, beautiful body perched in a chair beside the
bed. He sat leaning forward, with his elbows braced on his knees, his bruised
hands hanging loosely between his parted legs.

“You scared me to d-death,” she stammered, noticing
that his hair was damp and his clothes were clean, which meant that he’d
already showered, as well. She also couldn’t help but notice that he was
staring at her as if he wanted to eat her alive, his eyes burning with hunger,
glowing a bright, mesmerizing shade of amber. “What are you d-doing here?”

Scraping his fingers back through his hair, he spoke
in a halting, gritty rumble. “Yeah, well. See, I realized something tonight.”

Too afraid to think of where this might be leading,
Olivia clutched the towel against her fluttering belly with both hands. “And
what’s that?”

“I, uh, realized that I’m a total jackass.”

Snuffling a soft laugh under her breath, she said, “I
find it hard to believe that this revelation never came to you sooner.”

His mouth twitched with a wry, crooked smile, and he
shook his head. “I might be pretty, but I never claimed to be brainy. Sometimes
it takes me awhile to figure this emotional stuff out, and it doesn’t help that
I’m stubborn as hell.”

“Sounds like you know yourself pretty well,” she
murmured, tossing the towel on the foot of the bed so that she could cross her
arms.

He gave a rough laugh, the husky sound melting down
her spine, turning her insides to honey. But she wasn’t ready to give in. Not
yet. Not when there was so much at stake. “What do you want, Aiden?”

Instead of answering the question, he asked, “How’s
Jamie doing?”

“She’s good,” Olivia told him. “Smiling. Laughing.
Molly and Saige think that what happened was some kind of psychic release of
all the emotion Jamie’s been bottling up since Chloe first disappeared and
Monica was killed. When she saw us surrounded by all the fighting, and thought
she might lose us, it finally all came pouring out. Saige thinks it might even
be a sign that the Mallory curse could be nearing its end.”

“Christ. Is she going to be okay?”

“With all the love and attention she’s getting, I
think she’s going to be just fine,” she murmured. “But you didn’t answer my
question. What do you want?”

He blew out a rough breath, looking for a second as if
he was going to bolt, but then he scrubbed his hands down his face and said,
“I’m no good at this, but I can’t deny you anything.” Surging to his feet, he
braced his hands on his lean hips in a purely masculine pose and just stood
there, his chest rising and falling with his hard, ragged breathing. He was
glaring at her, but she had to bite back a smile, because she could see the
emotion he was trying so hard to deal with shimmering in his golden eyes. “I
guess what I’m saying is that I’m an even bigger jackass than I realized, not
to have been able to see what’s right in front of me.”

Olivia had never imagined she would see Aiden looking
so nervous and unsure. So…hopeful, the unguarded look on his beautiful face
melting what was left of her anger, transforming that cold, brittle ache into
something soft and shivery that filled her chest, warming her from the inside
out.

“You asked me once if I’d ever changed, and I have,”
he rasped, his head turned a little to the side. “At least, I have now. I
wouldn’t have believed it was possible, but it happened. I don’t know how,
except to say that it’s because of you. Because of how I feel about you. And to
think that I could have lost you today…Christ, it almost killed me.” He raked
his hair back from his face again, and she noticed that his hands were
trembling. Shaking. When he realized what she was looking at, he shoved his hands
into his pockets and went on, saying, “I don’t want to have any more secrets
from you, Liv. So I guess I came here so that I can go ahead and just get it
all out in the open.”

She nodded, her heart beating like the frenzied wings
of a hummingbird as she waited for him to go on.

He took a deep breath, and then in a low voice he
said, “I got my tats when I was fourteen. Just after I escaped from Mueller’s.
One of the other kids there, Adam, was from one of the other clans called the
Feardacha. He told me that in their culture it’s bad to leave the evil souls of
the dead unchecked, so the warriors tattoo themselves with symbols that are
meant to draw the souls back to them, if they ever escape.” He paused and
glanced down at his tattooed forearms. “These markings are sort of a memorial
to Adam, I guess.”

Moving a little closer, she kept her voice soft as she
asked, “Why didn’t you want me to know?”

His chest shook with a low, gritty bark of laughter
and he tilted his head back, staring at the high ceiling. “Because I guess
there’s always been a part of me that wonders if they might actually work. Not
exactly a big selling point for a relationship. Can you just imagine me saying,
‘Hey, check out my tats. Oh, and by the way, if any of the psychopathic assholes
that I ripped to shreds ever crawl out of hell, these are supposed to pull them
to me, so that I can try to figure out a way to kill them all over again’?”
Lowering his head, he looked right at her, another wry smile lifting the corner
of his mouth. “Call me crazy, but I kinda figured you had enough baddies coming
after you already, without throwing something like that in the mix.”

“Aiden,” she whispered, taking another step, drawn
toward him as if there was some kind of powerful magnetic pull between their
bodies, but he held up his big hand, silently telling her to stop. She wrapped
her arms around her chest, vibrating with emotion, and waited, though it was
killing her to stay away from him.

“I don’t make much of a slice of normal,” he said
huskily, rubbing his fingers against his scratchy jaw as he stared so deep into
her eyes, she felt as if he was sinking into her. “But hell, who wants normal
anyway? You’ve had normal all your life, Liv, and look what it’s gotten you. A
pathetic ex who wasn’t worth the time it took you to drop him.” Like a swell
rising up over the wide expanse of the ocean, she could see his confidence
building, rushing against her like a warm wind. “You need me, Liv. You need
someone like me to show you what you’ve been missing. You need someone like me,
because I might be a pain in the ass, but I’d lay down my soul before I’d let
anything happen to you. It’s a hell of a thing we’re mixed up in right now. I
know that. But you’re going to be in danger wherever you go, and I’m the best man
for dealing with that. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you or Jamie, because I
refuse to lose you.”

He paused, glancing back down at his tattooed arms.
“And if these markings ever do bring those bastards back to me, well, I figure
you’re strong enough to help me take them on.” Lifting his gaze, he said,
“You’re an amazing woman, Liv. One who can handle whatever life throws at her,
even if it is a screwed up smart-ass like me.”

Realizing that this was the most important moment of
her life, she forced herself to take a deep breath and see it through, afraid
that if she let herself go she might throw herself at him and tackle him to the
ground. “What exactly are you saying, Aiden?”

He rolled one muscled shoulder, and this time he was
the one who took a step forward, his voice a dark, delicious rumble as he said,
“I realized that you matter, Liv.”

She shook her head and smiled. “Is that the best you
can do?”

“Aw, hell,” he groaned, taking another step closer.
“You’re gonna make me say it, aren’t you?”

“You’re tough,” she whispered, trying to sound sultry,
though she suspected the happy, goofy grin on her face was probably ruining the
effect. “You can take it.”

He took another deep breath, then let it out. “Fine.
Enough of acting like a pussy. I can do this.” He walked right up to her,
standing so close that she had to tilt her head back to see his face, and then
she was drowning in the golden depths of his eyes as he said, “I’d just tell
you that I love you, because I do, Liv. But I don’t see how that one little
word can do justice to what I feel for you.”

Suddenly all the pieces that had been so broken inside
her were mended into something that was perfect and pure. Her heart felt hot,
melted down into a molten glow that burned in her chest. She was afraid to
blink. To breathe. Because she didn’t want to break the spell.

She recalled the feeling she’d had when she’d first
met him, that strange, exhilarating rush of awareness that had told her she was
going to need this man in her life. Need the physical presence of him to live
and breathe and exist.