Tempest of Vengeance (4 page)

Everyone left around four-thirty. I sat for a
while, trying to think of what needed doing, trying to make myself
move. But even Theo coming to tell me he had to go and pick up
Jenny at the airport later that evening didn’t get much reaction
from me. My only thought was why couldn’t he send someone else to
get her, and then deciding it didn’t matter, anyway.

Terian came in after Theo left to check on
security, and took my hand, saying he was very sorry. He also
slipped me a vial filled with a little liquid.

I looked at it with revulsion, then at him,
not bothering to hide my suspicion.

“It will help you sleep,” he said quietly.
“Take it, if you need a night’s sleep with good dreams. Sleeping
pills knock you out, but you don’t get to dream, and not dreaming
at all can mess you up—”

“I don’t want to dream again, not ever
again!” I hissed at him. “I don’t want any vials, Terian! No more
potions! Nothing good ever comes of them!”

“I talked to my father,” Terian said, looking
earnest, and apologetic. “Titus showed me what happened, Sar. I
made that first potion that you took

wrong—”

I hate you, you bastard, for bringing this
up now of all times.
“Well, that isn’t a big fucking surprise!
Didn’t your clients ever complain about all the screwing up of
spells you always seem to be doing, Tears?”

Terian’s eyes flashed red, then they softened
as he continued. “It was trying to combine the wings, and the
Heart’s Truth potion into one. They separated out, when I put them
in the vial to give to you, those years ago. And no matter what I
did, they wouldn’t mix! So I used another ingredient to bind the
two spells together, a plant called, appropriately, ‘bindweed.’ But
it didn’t just bind the two spells together, it make the one
stronger. What you share with Theo is real, Sar, but you were bound
together much tighter than normal—”

“Do you have a point in here somewhere?” I
said harshly, interrupting him.

“My point is Titus said he’ll finally break
the last part of the spell tonight,” Terian said quietly. “He also
said to tell you he was sorry it’s taken so long. But he doesn’t
know how this will affect you both. So please call me, if you need
me to teleport you to Hayden. I’ve put in place some barriers on
teleportation in the house that will stop anyone but Titus and
me—”

I nodded, but thought to myself there was no
way I was calling him. I could teleport myself, thanks very much. I
wasn’t even happy he knew about the bond being broken. But it had
sounded like Titus had needed Tears to show him what he’d done, so
Titus could undo it. I couldn’t fault him for that.

“—
ok?” Terian finished.

“Sure,” I agreed absently. “And I’m sorry,
for coming down on you. I’m just upset.”

Terian left soon after, and I was again
alone. For a long time I did nothing but stare into space, marking
the passing of each moment like it was a milestone of achievement
that I kept existing in this world without Devon. But the more I
sat, the more I realized I needed to do something. So I picked up
the phone and called Dev. He listened, and said he’d do it. After,
I headed to the couch, and took a long nap.

Later that night, when Theo was picking up
Jenny at the airport, Devlin, I, and Serena walked slowly through
the bitter cold to the cemetery. When we arrived, I laid the mass
of white flowers that Devlin had purchased for me on the snowy
grave.

White roses. Devon and I had gotten them from
Theo when my baby was still growing inside me. Devon was getting
them this one last time from me, in remembrance. Then I was never
going to have another white rose within my sight again, if I could
help it.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there with you today,”
Dev said softly, hugging me. “I wanted to be, very much. I’m glad
you asked me here tonight, so I could pay my respects.”

“Theo did it on purpose, held the funeral in
the daytime, so you couldn’t be there,” I said emotionlessly.
“Don’t feel bad. I needed this anyway, to pray, to take some
comfort in my beliefs. I need my faith now more than ever.”

Serena made the sign of the cross, and the
three of us bowed our heads. We recited the Lord’s Prayer, and
Devlin recited a poem by a woman by the name of Hitchcock, called
“Ascension”. I recited one called “If You Go First and I Remain”.
And finally, Serena said a prayer asking God to watch over Devon,
and to be with us all, but especially Venus, in her time of
loss.

I felt fresh tears on my face, and looked
over at Dev. In all this, I hadn’t thought of her, not once. Deep
shame flooded me to the core. “How is she, Dev?”

“She’s been crying quietly since three a.m.
this morning,” Devlin said, his expression haggard. “Nothing I did
or said would make her stop. Nothing anyone said or did would make
her stop.”

“Why didn’t you call and tell me?”

“Titus said she was fine, there was nothing
wrong with her. We didn’t understand why until T called, and said
Devon was dead.”

I swayed, and Devlin steadied me with his
hand. “Come home with me now. Please, Sar. Let me take care of
you—”

“No,” I said reluctantly. “Theo needs me now,
like you did back in September. He’s lost Danial, and he’s lost our
son. Elle needs me, too. You need to take care of Venus—”

“Bring Elle to live at Hayden,” Devlin urged,
hugging me tightly. “Come home tonight with me! Don’t stay here!
Please, Sar! It isn’t just me who is worried. Titus sent his
sympathy too, but even he said you shouldn’t be here unguarded,
with only Theo, T, and Elle! Lash hit the roof when I told him you
might stay here tonight. It was all I could do to make him swear he
wasn’t going to break out of jail to drag you back to Hayden!”

I didn’t want to hear about Titus or Lash. I
had to be here with the man I called my husband. I’d screwed up
enough this whole year, I was not screwing this up, too. “Terian is
back, and he’s guarding Theoron and me,” I said wearily. “He’s been
staying in the upstairs bed at night, and sleeping days with
Sundown, whenever he’s not out with either of them at meetings. I’m
safe enough. I can teleport if I need to. Danial’s home was the
only one that wasn’t attacked yet, for whatever reason.”

Devlin didn’t release me. “The roses are
partly from Lash, too. He asked me to tell you he was sorry about
Devon. He said he liked him a lot, that he would’ve taught him too,
like he taught Theoron, when it was time and if he’d wanted to
learn, no matter what Theo said.”

I felt a fresh stab of pain, because Devon
wasn’t ever going to be learning anything again.

And I’d never got to hear him call me
“Mommy,” or hear him tell me he loved me. I’d thought my tears were
used up, but I found a fresh untapped reservoir inside. For a
while, I cried, and Devlin held me, Serena hugging me too.

Finally, I let them both go and dried my
tears. “You should call Titus, have him teleport you both back,” I
managed, my tone bone weary. “I need to get back to Theo.”

Devlin nodded, and gave me a last chaste kiss
on the cheek. “Call me please,” he instructed, his golden eyes
worried. “Every day you stay here, and every night, Sar. I want to
know you’re safe. You don’t call, and Titus is going to show up
wherever you are, to make sure you’re okay.”

“Okay,” I agreed, hugging him.

I walked back to the house after Titus had
come to get them. I could’ve teleported, but I needed the break. I
didn’t know what to feel, what to think, what to care about. I felt
like I’d lost everything that I’d really cared about, so what was
safe for me to love anymore? I’d been bereft when I’d met Danial,
depressed, but I’d had my pets, I’d had my house, and my memories
about Brennan, as well as some good friends, and neighbors.

What did I have now? I’d lost all my close
human friends, I’d lost my house, I’d lost my child, and I’d lost
Danial to the coma-like sleep he was in. And my parents—my parents
still weren’t talking to me, after hearing what I’d done with Lash.
I still didn’t know if Theo had told them, or they’d somehow
figured it out on their own. Either way, I’d have to call them
now.

Walking improved my spirits, as my usual
optimism tried to emerge. I had a home here still, if I wanted one.
I had a home at Hayden. I still had Elle, Theoron and Venus. I
still had a lot of non-human friends, and Sundown, who was at least
partly human for now, even if she might not be after she had her
baby. Theo and Dev were healthy, and Danial might still recover.
Lash would be getting out of jail in a month or so, and coming back
to Hayden. He wasn’t dead.

There was still hope.

I entered the house and went directly to
Elle’s bedroom to check on her. She was asleep in her clothes, wads
of tissues around her, her face still red from crying. I covered
her up, and threw the tissues away. She didn’t awaken as I kissed
her forehead, and so I left her there undisturbed.

I called my parents next. My stepfather
picked up, and when he heard what I had to tell him, he made my
mother pick up. When I told them Devon was dead, my mother started
crying, which made me start crying again. I somehow got out that it
had been a natural death, if a child’s death could be called
natural; that no one had hurt him—that he hadn’t suffered. There
was beginning to be some small measure of comfort from that for
me.

“I’m sorry,” my stepfather said gruffly.
“When is the funeral?”

“We had it earlier today,” I said. “I’m sorry
no one called you. I can teleport you to his grave if you want to
visit him tomorrow. We had him cremated, and Theo’s carving a
stone—”

“Are you back together?”

I was pretty closed off emotionally, but that
comment still seemed odd to me. “Back together?” I said blankly.
“What?”

“Do you need us to come and get you?” my
stepfather said gently, some of the gruffness gone. “You need
family around you now. If Theo and you still aren’t talking, if
you’re not together anymore—”

“We’re talking,” I said, not wanting to talk
about this now at all. “I’m okay. I’ll call you if I’m not,
promise.”

“Listen,” Chris said. “Your mom needs me, and
she’s crying hard, so I’ll say this quickly. We’re both sorry we
haven’t talked to you for a while—”

Only a month or so, Stepfather-Dear.

“—
but we thought you needed to work out
things with Theo. Danial called us in late October and told us
about your house burning, that you were okay, but you were going
into hiding. He said that you wouldn’t call us for a while, that
there was a dangerous man hunting you and he, and that you wouldn’t
be visiting us, either, until it was safe.”

How had I missed calling my parents
through all of this? Because I had been so preoccupied with my own
troubles.
Fresh shame flooded me. “That’s true. He’s still out
there. He’s attacked Devlin at least four times, and Danial’s been
hurt badly. He’ll recover, but—”

“What could hurt a vampire? Sunlight? Did
someone stake him and miss?”

I began to shake thinking again about Danial,
and knew I had to get off the phone before I broke down crying
again. “Listen, I have to go. I don’t want anyone hurting you, and
for all I know this phone is tapped, and I’ve already said too
much. So keep that special gun Theo gave you this summer handy, and
your cell phone within reach. Don’t let Mom walk the dog by herself
in the woods. In fact, don’t let her walk out of sight of the
house. Buy a treadmill. If you see anything out of the ordinary,
anything at all, call Hayden immediately—”

“Danial gave the phone number to us, when he
called. He’s called here once a week for the last few weeks,
telling us how everyone was, so we wouldn’t worry about you—”

I felt a fresh rush of feeling for Danial;
he’d done his best to protect my parents, to try to make them as
safe as he could, while not making them too scared. As usual he’d
had taken up the slack for me when I’d been too busy thinking about
my own problems with Theo. My eyes welled up thinking of my beloved
vampire lying alone at Hayden, unresponsive, with no one to comfort
him.

Focus, Sar. You can go to pieces after
you’ve hung up the phone, but not until then
. “Good. Call if
anything strange happens, and we’ll bring you to Hayden to stay
temporarily. It’s safe there. I finished getting furniture, so
you’ll have a place to sleep. But—”

“No ‘buts,’ Sarelle,” my stepfather stated,
his tone gruff again. “We love you, and we’ll be here if you need
us. We’ll call if there’s a problem, and evacuate, though you know
your mom, and you’d better make sure you lay in a supply of cat
food for her twenty cats, because she won’t be leaving them or the
dog behind—”

“I will,” I said, my voice cracking with
emotion. “Please be safe. ’Bye.”

Totally exhausted, I took a long hot shower,
dropping my clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor. After putting
on some pajamas and my black velvet robe, I went in to the great
room with my novel and a blanket to wait for Theo, knowing I might
have an hour’s wait in front of me. Before I’d read ten pages, I
was fast asleep.

I dreamed of being chased relentlessly
through a forest. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t get away,
the hot breaths of my pursuer louder and louder behind me. Just as
I turned and screamed, I awoke, gasping and flailing, my heart
beating rapidly.

I checked my watch trying to calm myself and
got more worried. It was ten to three in the morning! Where were
they?

Apprehensive, I changed back into my regular
clothes, slipping the small knife Lash had given me onto my belt.
If something bad had happened, I didn’t want to be lounging in a
nightgown; I wanted to be prepared. I sat back down on the couch to
wait.

A half hour later, the front door closed with
a slam. Theo came sauntering in, reeking so strongly of sex I could
smell it as a human. I knew who he’d most likely been with, and
that for whatever reason, this time it hadn’t just been sex in
animal form. I was irritated immediately, because it was obvious
he’d done it on purpose. But strangely, my jealousy felt more like
an abstract concept than like my real feelings. Some of that was
the loss of Devon, but it was almost as if I’d known this was
coming, though I couldn’t say why I felt that way.