Tempted by Darkness (20 page)

“What?” Jameson hadn’t intended for the
question to sound as harsh as it had come out, but his patience was
wearing thin—dangerously thin.

“Well, something about the Council members
that came for the girl didn’t seem quite right. I’d like to discuss
it with all three of you as soon as possible. I’m also calling Ruby
and Cecil.” Tristan turned on his heel and headed for his office
but called back over his shoulder, “Go check on your brother and
mate. Something had shaken Trev up pretty bad.”

Jameson didn’t take time to respond, he just
took off up the stairs, clearing them two and three at a time until
he’d reached the second floor. It was a short sprint to the door of
their suite and he was relieved to find Trev sitting in front of
the black onyx fireplace with Kit curled up on his lap.
She just
nodded off, but she won’t stay asleep long when she senses you are
here.
He’d no sooner heard Trev’s words than Kit launched
herself out of his brother’s lap and into his arms. His fatigue
evaporated the moment his arms locked around her securing her
against his chest. Their heartbeats synchronized and Jameson felt a
sense of peace roll through him just holding his mate against his
bare chest. There was no denying the tension coming off his brother
in waves, but Jameson intended to hold Kit against him for just a
few precious seconds before delving into whatever had taken place
after he’d left the house.

“My love, what happened?”

Trev shot to his feet and began pacing the
width of the room with a restlessness Jameson couldn’t remember
having ever seen in his usually laissez-faire brother. Whatever had
happened was obviously affecting Trev far more than Kit and that
alone was worrisome. But Trev’s stride was eating up the distance
between the sitting room’s floor to ceiling windows and the door
faster on each pass—hell, he was practically vibrating with an
energy that Jameson couldn’t identify. His brother had rarely
locked the door on their mind link, but it was sealed tight
now.

“I had a little day dream—well, to be fair it
was probably a little more than that, but Trev saw it too for some
reason.” She buried her face against his neck and Jameson took a
moment to relish the feeling of her warm breath as it washed over
his sweat damped skin. Ordinarily he’d have taken a quick shower
before coming upstairs, but he hadn’t wanted to waste those
precious minutes. Any hesitance he’d had about skipping it
dissolved in that instant, but then when she drew her tongue up in
a slow lick, from the hallow above his collarbone to just below his
ear, he felt blood surge to his cock tightening it to the point the
skin was stretched painfully taunt. Damn, the woman could steal his
focus faster than anything ever had.

“Goddammit, kitten. I know what you’re doing
and fuck me if it isn’t working.” He felt her shutter in his arms
and knew he could be inside her in ten seconds—and it was too
tempting so he loosened his arms and let her slowly slide to her
feet. “Let’s sort this out first, and then we’ll pick up where we
just left off—I promise.” Her groan at the loss of physical contact
vibrated clear to his soul, tempting him to reverse his decision,
but one look at his brother let him know he’d made the right
call.

Just as Kit started to recount what she’d
seen, there was a thunderous knock on the door. Hell, Jameson had
even startled at the booming sound of someone’s fist battering
against the thick wooden door. He didn’t get a chance to ask who it
was before Nick Michaels’ voice sounded from the other side. “It’s
Nick. I have Braden with me. You need to hear what he has to say.”
That was one of the things Jameson loved about Nick—the man
couldn’t be any more direct in his communication. But even though
he admired the man there were times when his timing really sucked.
He opened the door and ushered them in, then excused himself to
pull on a shirt because it was hard telling who else was going to
show up.

Jameson spent the next hour listening to
three versions of the same story—each one similar, but still unique
in their perspective. Trev’s anxiety was certainly easy to
understand. They’d both wondered hundreds of times about the
meaning of their mother’s cryptic promise about what Trev’s gift
would be. She and their dads hadn’t been at all ambiguous when
they’d explained what gifts he’d been given, but explanations about
Trev’s gift had always been remarkably vague. Up to this point,
neither of them had ever exhibited any magical abilities, so
Jameson understood Trev wasn’t just upset about what he’d seen.
Jameson fully understood his brother’s trepidation because this was
a game changing moment. Hell, they’d shared everything from the
womb and for the first time, Trevlon had experienced something that
had Jameson hadn’t even sensed.

“I was thinking.” Braden hadn’t said much
after his initial description of what he’d seen. He simply sat
quietly next to Nick and listened to Kit and Trev’s versions.
Turning to Kit, he asked, “Did you notice that you weren’t seeing
things very clearly? Like you were looking through water?” She
looked surprised, but nodded. He smiled then and continued, “I
think you weren’t really there—well, not your actual body. Geez,
I’m not saying this right. I think you and I projected you there,
sort of like a hologram.”

When Braden paused, Nick nudged him, “Tell
them. This is no time to decide to be shy. Hell, I thought we’d
gotten past this point, son.” It warmed Jameson’s heart to hear
Nick’s endearment for the young wizard. When Braden had first
arrived at the estate, he’d almost been traumatized by years of
being on the run. When Damian hadn’t been able to acquire his
grandson by the time the young man approached the age he’d come
into his full powers, the dark wizard decided to kill him. Luckily
Carla Harris had been nearby and managed to rescue Braden. With
mere moments to spare, Carla had whisked Braden off to the hospital
where Angie Wolf-Michaels had been working. Angie had assured them
that Carla’s swift actions had been the only thing that kept Damian
from being successful.

“Yes, sir.” Braden took a deep breath and
then leaned forward meeting Kit’s gaze, “I think you and I joined
our power to send you there. Well, I mean, I think we could do it.
I’m not sure it was so much a vision as a message. Like someone on
the other side was saying
here,
‘This is how you can do
this’ if you know what I mean. I think you can go and see who is
helping him without
really being there.
But you’ll have to
be careful because they’ll be able to see you just like Trev
did.”

Jameson watched as Kit unfolded her legs from
beneath her, standing quickly before she began pacing the same path
Trev had been using earlier. He hid his smile but wondered what it
would look like if they all three paced like that to help them
focus and think—hell, it would look like something akin to the
Chinese fire drills they’d done as kids whenever they stopped at
stop signs—God that had driven their parents to distraction.

Braden tilted his head to the side and looked
at Jameson thoughtfully, “You ran around the car at stop signs?
Why?”
Fuck me, this kid is so smart he’s dangerous.

This time Jameson couldn’t hold back his
laughter, “I promise to teach you.” Then he leaned closer to
whisper conspiratorially, “It’ll drive your parents insane—so it’s
well worth the effort.” He couldn’t help but smile at Nick’s
growled threats of retribution—times two.

Kit paced back and forth letting her mind
work through everything. She wasn’t listening to the chatter around
her, she’d discovered that was one of the great things about having
small children—she’d had to learn how to tune out unnecessary
distractions. There was still a piece of the puzzle missing, one
she instinctively knew she had to have before they took any action.
There was something missing, turning to Trev she interrupted the
nonsense happening around her to ask, “Downstairs you said
something about tumbling boulders—what was that?”

Her mate closed his eyes and she watched as
his expression became tortured, and when he opened his eyes and met
her gaze, the fear that reflected in his dark eyes caused her to
suck in a quick gasp. She’d known he had been shaken to his core by
what he’d seen, but in truth Kit had been so absorbed in trying to
sort out her own feelings she hadn’t really taken time to consider
what her mate was going through. Chastising herself for her
selfishness, Kit moved quickly so she was standing directly in
front of Trev. Taking his hands in hers, she leaned forward and
pressed her lips softly against the side of his neck whispering,
“I’m sorry.”

Trev pulled back, studying her with his brow
raised in question so Kit continued, “I knew you were upset, but I
didn’t take time to hear you out. That isn’t what mates are
supposed to do. It certainly wasn’t loving, nor was it even fair.”
His eyes softened and he pulled her into his arms, and for the
first time since they’d come upstairs, Kit felt as if they were
finally set on a path to resolve their problem with Damian.

Turning her so she was standing beside her,
Trev pulled her tightly against his side before speaking to the
group, “Part of my disquiet about what happened downstairs is
related to something personal that my mother said before she
died—but I’m going to leave that out of this particular discussion.
What is important here is the part Kit just mentioned. I saw huge
rocks and gigantic boulders falling all around her. I could still
see the seal and hear the chanting she and Braden have mentioned
but not the people. My initial fear was that I was seeing the love
of my life buried alive, but after listening to Kit and Braden, I
agree that she wasn’t a solid form.” Kit realized now that he’d
been terrified that he was seeing her death, and she couldn’t help
turning to wrap her arms around his waist. After what had happened
to their parents, he had to have been horrified by what he’d
seen.

Tightening her arms around him, Kit was once
again humbled by how much more she received than she gave in her
relationship with her mates. Knowing the depth of his fear for her
was just one more example of their remarkable capacity for
unconditional love. As the discussion continued to swirl around
them the room began filling up until Jameson’s deep voice finally
boomed over everyone, “Let’s adjourn this for now. Everyone meet in
the downstairs meeting room first thing tomorrow morning—and I do
mean everyone. Any pack member who is free, needs to be there.
Nick, make sure everyone is notified and I’d certainly like to see
Kit’s family and Cecil there as well. It’s time to get a plan in
place and wrap this thing up.”

Kit couldn’t have agreed more. She was tired
of living with the entire mess hanging over her head. The dark
wizard was taking up entirely too much time in her life and Kit was
more than ready to relegate him to her past.