Hels's Gauntlet [Forbidden Legacy 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (6 page)

“Three decisions. First, they are sending an emissary to the Danae’s Court to establish cordial relations.” Vanagan ticked the information off on his fingers. “Second, they established their own watchers to investigate your descendants, Jacob, and of any Wizard loyal to you. It seems they are not altogether certain that you will be honest with the Council. Third, they will require that you allow Cassandra to be examined by a physician from our ranks.”

The air weighed heavy as Jacob tipped his head to the side, his eyelids descending to half. “Is that all?”

“For the moment. I’m sure someone else will get an insane hair up their ass any moment and summon us back.”

“You keep saying ‘they,’ Mr. Marcus. Are you not on the Council?” Cassie ignored the warning squeeze from Jacob. Vanagan did not seem the type to choose his words carelessly.

“Yes, well, I voted against their idiotic plans, but Elijah and I are in a minority when it comes to reacting out of fear.” The Wizard shrugged. “And they are all very afraid, especially after the rash of attacks in Europe over the last month.”

They were afraid of her. No one said it out loud, Jacob rarely mentioned it after the battle in the Council chamber, but her use of magic was undisputed. She could pull energy from both her lovers, transform the power, and then use it herself or return it to them. Women were not Wizards, yet she could handle complex spells such as building gates with almost no training. Her Fae blood let her kindle that power within her, but her DNA came with a lot of strings. Her father, Gustav served as the inquisitor general of the Wizarding Council. Her great-great-grandmother was the Danae.

“Why do they want a physician to examine me?” They’d told no one of her pregnancy. She refused to glance down at herself. The oversized robe would disguise the baby bump. Even if the bump seemed larger than it should this early in her pregnancy. What did she know about being pregnant?

“Your abilities, primarily. They want to know if there are genetic markers they can search for.” Vanagan left the window to toss himself carelessly down in the closest chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. “And no, before you keep worrying about it, they don’t know you’re pregnant. At least not yet.”

“Stay out of her head,” Jacob reminded him, but with little heat in the words. He tugged Cassie with him over to the sofa, and she sank down next to him, all but crawling into his lap.

“She’s broadcasting.” Vanagan’s words echoed those of Paul and Jude. “But I will do my best to respect her privacy. The point is they don’t know. What they want to know is if there is a way to narrow their search for female Wizards.”

“And they want to verify if our lines have any females first. Are they worried that we’ll hide them away?” Jacob’s mild tone worried her more than if he shouted. Direct, sometimes to the point of brutal, he was far more dangerous when he was quiet.

“You won’t let them see Cassandra, you keep her shielded by Wizards loyal to you, and you’re allied with my uncle.” It always gave her a start when Vanagan reminded her of the relationship between him and Helcyon. They certainly didn’t act like a family. Well, maybe a dysfunctional one.

Vanagan burst out laughing, and Cassie glared. “How do I stop ‘broadcasting’?”

“We’ll train you.” Jacob brushed his hand up to her hair and pressed a kiss to her forehead. The world shifted a fraction, as though a bolt slid home against a door. She could almost hear the clicking. The splashes of sunshine diminished, and the wrapped-in-cotton sensation spread to her ears. It was like she had a cold, and the gentle click and whir of the ceiling fan muted.

Vanagan is interesting and I’d like to ask him more about Helcyon at some point.
She glanced over at the black-and-white-haired Wizard, but he spread his hands out.

“You didn’t hear that?” Cassie glanced back at Jacob and then to Paul and Jude. Neither of the other two Wizards moved from their sentry positions near the kitchen.

“No, they can’t at the moment. But this is only going to work as long as I concentrate on it. We’re going to have to teach you how to do it for yourself.” Jacob stroked her hair, his expression thoughtful. “You are far too open and unabashed to be safe. Which means the Council are going to keep their distance from her.”

“What if I can find us a physician we can trust?” Vanagan whirled a finger up into the air. “One loyal to us, but they can be persuaded to believe is loyal to them.”

“I’d wonder by ‘us’ do you mean, you?” Jacob echoed the thought in Cassie’s mind. She should get out of his lap and sit next to him, but the hard, stern heat of his body seeped into her pores and she didn’t want to abandon the safety or the comfort of his lap. She could barely keep her hands in check from touching him. Only the easy, rhythmic comb of his fingers through her hair quieted the urge.

“Well yes, by us I do mean me. I thought you trusted me, Jacob.” No rancor decorated the words, merely an observation.

“As much as you trust me, Vanagan. You have been playing a game since the first time I met you.”

“True, but you trusted me enough to let me come to your home. A courtesy I will note that you have not extended to your Domovoi.” The verbal dart fired true. For all of Jacob’s respect for the man who trained him, Cassie hadn’t seen him since the battle in the Council chambers. In fact, Jacob barely mentioned him.

“You saved Cassie’s life.” Jacob’s explanation mollified Vanagan, but Cassie didn’t think it explained all of it. “You allied yourself with us, you haven’t withdrawn that alliance, and you’re obviously here to protect our mutual interests. That lends itself to some trust.”

But…
Cassie waited, and she noticed that both Paul and Jude seemed to stiffen at the implied word hanging in the air.

“But you are worried that when we no longer share that common goal, we will be enemies.” Vanagan nodded once. He rose to his feet, a flash of light glinting off the blade suddenly in his hand. The room whirled with activity, Paul and Jude were directly in front of them, and Jacob dropped her on the sofa as he rose, the three men forming a barricade that she couldn’t see around.

The coppery scent of blood filled the air, and Cassie pushed against the hard barrier of Jacob’s back to see around him. Vanagan held the knife away from him, and blood oozed from his right palm.

“Would you like an oath sworn in blood? For if the child Cassandra carries is my uncle’s, then that child is my cousin. My family. My blood. I will protect them. If the child is yours, you will have it on my blood that I will treat it no differently.”

The air hummed, and the flutter in her stomach became a pulse. Cassie clapped a hand to her womb. “Hels…”

The men spun to look at her. Pain sliced into her chest, stabbing along her ribs. “Jacob…Hels is in trouble…”

Pain tightened Cassie’s face and uncertainty flickered in her eyes. Jacob pulled on the house shields, wrapping his own energy around her in a fierce attempt to block whatever attack she experienced. She flinched, her hands pressing hard to her side. Tugging her robe aside, he skimmed a look over her, but no visible injury appeared.

“Jacob…Hels is in trouble. The beach house. He’s there. Fighting.” Each word rode an explosive breath. Pain pinched the corners of her eyes.

Turning his attention inward, Jacob found the silken blue ties stretching from his soul to hers. They were strong, dense, tightly woven with affection, love, lust, and respect. Every emotion pinged true where they spilled from his soul into hers, redoubling to golden strands that wrapped around his blue, returning everything he gave. The golden strands glowed in his mind’s eye, pulsing with robust life.

Careful never to jerk or tug, he manipulated the strands, following them to where they joined with a green, so close to the surface of her essence that her scent flowered around him, filling his nostrils with the sweet fragrances of summer, sand, and sun. Beneath her potent perfume lay a darker, muskier scent of forest.

The hind portion of his brain identified the familiar tang of Helcyon’s musk. The Elf belonged in the ancient forests of the Old World with their soaring tree trunks stretching up like fingers to touch the face of the gods in the sky above. The green threads were faint around his own ties to Cassie, but they were there. Plunging along the path, he found the thicker strands of green and gold extending into the darkness. They trembled, reverberating with chaotic feedback.

Pain.

Fury.

Determination.

Blood.

Like the blue and gold that bound him so tightly to Cassie, the green and gold flared with each thud of awareness. Both burrowed into the dark, and silver edged the roots where they disappeared into the well of the woman they loved.

A well brimming with molten gold and pure silver.

Forcing himself to focus, he trusted Paul and Jude to keep Vanagan off his back as he traced Helcyon. The beach house flashed before his inner eye, the thick rocky escarpment cutting down to the sand. Waves pounded against the beach. A dozen figures, no, only seven now. Five lay bloodied and battered at Hels’s feet.

Ferocity speared Jacob, driving a white-hot dagger of pain into his skull. His awareness plunged him into Helcyon’s mind. The Elf stumbled, confusion muddying both their thoughts, and then a wave of welcome solidified. Hels knew he was there, and he welcomed it. His sight snapped into clarity. The trap, cleverly set, held Helcyon between the rocks of the earth and the waves of the ocean. But he fought his assailants with wild abandon, sword flashing, parrying, cutting, and slicing. He gave his enemies no quarter.

Enemies shrouded in the black armor and masks of those that assaulted the council chamber.

We’re coming.
He withdrew, soaring back to himself with caution, determined not to injure Cassie. Helcyon’s injuries included a deep cut across his ribs, the same spot their woman covered with her own hands.

She experienced enough pain.

Sinking back into himself, he jerked his eyelids open and turned to Jude. “Stay with her and lock down the shields. Call Domoir in and tell the fairies.”

“Where is he?” This from Vanagan, whose unrelieved black rippled into scales of armor quite similar to the armor Helcyon sheathed himself in when he went into battle. He noted the similarity for another day.

“The beach below Cassie’s house in San Diego, twelve assailants. Five are down, seven up, dressed as they were in the Council chamber a few weeks ago.” He rose to his feet and spared a hard look for Cassie when she would have stood to join him. “Stay here. Stay with Jude. Do not leave the house. We will get him and bring him home.”

He trusted her to accept the severity of the situation and raced up the stairs. His gear lay in a jumble on the bed where he’d dropped it on arrival. He jerked a T-shirt over his head and strapped on his gun. He grabbed the bag of hematite and shoved it in his pocket. Rather than wait for him downstairs, Paul and Vanagan appeared in the doorway. Blood still leaked from Vanagan’s hand.

“Can I trust you?” He slid two fast reloaders into the back pocket of his jeans.

“I have only my word and blood oath to give.”

“You shouldn’t offer that when you don’t know the whole score.” Blood oaths were serious business. They could bind, and they could destroy. To swear in blood offered the deepest alliance, the call of blood to blood. But that alliance had to be reciprocated. If Vanagan needed him, Jacob would be forced to answer. If Vanagan were struck, the backlash could strike Jacob.

“I know what I need to know.” The flat response allowed for no dispute. “We can debate the merits and problems once my uncle is safe.”

“You can bet your ass we will, and the next time you draw a knife when Cassie’s in the room, I’ll gut you first and ask questions later.”

“Will Cassie be safe here with the younger Wizard?”

The question struck Jacob as odd. Jude was his brother, but Vanagan’s expression betrayed nothing beyond mild curiosity and concern. “He’ll be fine. Don’t let his age fool you. He may not be the best combat Wizard, but what he lacks in skill, he makes up in raw talent.”

“And he likes Cassie,” Paul supplied, breaking his customary silence. “We will go farther for those we care about.”

Vanagan nodded and extended his arm. “I take it you both need a lift?”

Paul and Jacob clapped their hands down on Vanagan’s forearm. Fortunately, Vanagan could not only teleport, he could transport, bypassing all but the most cursory folds of Underhill where it brushed against their world.

Downstairs, Jacob’s heart beat wildly in Cassie’s keeping. Her fear pinged against the ties stretching between them. No matter how powerful everyone believed her to be or what stupid prophecy they subscribed to, she was still fragile. Her open, compassionate heart and her utter devotion left her dangerously vulnerable to the cutthroat world surrounding them. He focused his attention, sending a wave of love and energy down the gold and blue thread twining them together. Her wordless pulse of response surged through him.

“Let’s go.”

Vanagan needed no other encouragement. The world tilted hard to the left, and with a twist they appeared on the beach. Helcyon’s attackers were down another two men, leaving only five surrounding him. A dozen cuts bled freely, including one slicing clean down his cheek from the corner of his right eye to the top of his lip.