5. Ianto
Chapter five
Ianto
I step outside for a smoke and lean up against the side of the building. It’s the time when the night is at its darkest. The sounds of the world are at the quietest. Even the hum of city life is muted.
Zaden appears beside me and leans his head back against the wall.
“You should be sleeping. Aren’t you relieved I don’t have an errand for you to run?”
“I am sad over that,” I deadpan.
Zaden snorts. “I can tell. You’re old today. Another year you survived.”
“Survived,” I agree sullenly.
A light flickers in the mansion that I’m staring at without even intending to. I push up off the wall and take a step.
“Now, what is she doing up so late?”
Zaden follows my gaze and sighs. “I’m starting to think we need to move or something. Between that beta and this asshole who keeps trying to set us up with the cops, I’ve got a bad feeling. Thank you, by the way. I know you pulled strings to get the cops to lose that evidence. You saved the club a lot of money, Ianto.”
Two guys explode out the door, slamming their fists into each other. I turn away from it, uninterested.
“Ianto, what's wrong?”
I turn on Zaden. “I don’t know. I just feel like I need more.”
“More?” Zaden growls and reaches out, snagging my jaw in his hands. His eyes blaze with the promise of pain and violence. “What more could you possibly want? ”
Both our heads turn at the same time. A dark shape slips nimbly through the shadows, disappearing and reappearing.
“What is she doing now?” Zaden growls.
I grab his wrist, holding him here with me. My hand slides down his and our fingers lace together. He still makes my world stop spinning out of control. Even after all these years.
“Zaden,” I murmur.
His fingers tighten on mine. “I’m here, Ianto. Always.”
My heart’s beating faster, and the sounds of the fight have faded away. I take a step, trying to keep her in view as she disappears around the property.
“We should stop her,” Zaden grumbles, but it’s halfhearted.
None of us are quite sure how Lia is getting into the mansion. Or how she is sneaking around when so many of the club are here so often.
Seeing her in action is a rare and beautiful gift. I have an image of us together, sneaking into a house and setting it alight.
Would she like that?
Would she stand watch while I beat the fuck out of someone for information?
Would she see the dark parts of me that are far too violent for civilisation, and could she embrace me?
No. Only those who are as fucked up as me could see all the dark parts of me and not run screaming.
I shrug out of Zaden’s hold.
“Where are you going?” he snaps.
“I got to piss. Can you be Daddy for a couple of minutes and break this shit up?”
Zaden groans but moves towards the two men who are still tussling.
I slip through the house and jog up the stairs, stepping over passed out men and women. I reach the top of the landing and pause.
She’s got her back to me, pulling a door closed. She looks beautiful and like she should be mine.
So innocent. Her hair, though I can’t see the colour right now, shines like gold. Like a living halo around her head. Her eyes are the biggest blue-green eyes I’ve ever seen, depthless, fearless. Her skin is gold-touched, but she moves like me, easily, dangerously silent. Where did she learn to walk so quietly?
She turns then, and the smile is instant and blinding. Full of fun and mischief. Does she realise how enticing she looks? Like a damn angel who has been put on Earth to tempt me into repenting my wicked ways .
And then her eyes sweep down my body and back up, and to hell with repenting. I want to corrupt her with every single breath I take.
“Lia, what are you doing here?”
She smiles and dances towards me on the lightest feet. I hold perfectly still as she stops in front of me.
I reach out, unable to help myself, and put a hand on her waist, drawing her towards me.
“Lia,” I whisper, drawing her name out.
“It’s your birthday,” she’s nervous now, unable to meet my eyes. Her hand lifts and presses against my chest, her fingers splaying out over the hard muscle, and I, I’m a lonely dog leaning in for just one more touch.
“It is.”
She beams up at me, those two words erasing her nerves completely. I’m frozen by the glow, the happiness that pours out of her.
She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a tiny little parcel, wrapped in balloon wrapping paper that is obviously a few years old.
“What is it?”
“It’s your present.”
I peer at it and feel a strange tightness wrap around my chest.
“You shouldn’t be here, Lia.”
All that delightfully inquisitive, radiant energy withdraws into her.
“Well, I was just dropping it off.”
I hate that I’ve put that meekness in her voice.
She steps back, but I hold her, refusing to let go. With each step, I follow her back, into the shadows of the landing, far out of the eyes of anyone who might save her. Ranger stole one. Maybe I can, too?
“What I would like is something…a bit different.”
“Oh?”
I lean in faster than she can anticipate. And I brush my lips against hers. Her lips are softer than any I have kissed. There is a warm, sweet scent I can’t place. She’s frozen, and then her lips move under mine. Tentative, experimental, unsure.
I move in closer, with all intents to take the kiss deeper and into darker territory, but a creak on the stairs has me pulling back and drawing a knife out of my sheath, ready to throw it should the person attempt to harm…
What am I doing?
Still, I don’t sheath my knife until I recognise Harlow. He spots me with my weapon, holds up his hands, and retreats down the stairs .
Lia hums softly, almost inaudibly, and then tugs free and races off before I can stop her.
I stare after her, knowing I won’t find her. Then I look down at the present in my hand. I carefully open it and go still as I take it in.
I fold the wrapping and put it in my pocket, and then turn on my phone torch. It’s half a locket, but on the inside where a photo should be is a tiny, hand-painted picture of a road that stretches to the horizon and five shadow bikes.
Damn it.
I lift the leather cord up and add the necklace to the collection I wear.
This is why we can’t have her. How long would it take for us to steal that bright, golden light out of her and leave her an empty shell?
Zaden is right. She’s not for us.