Chapter Thirteen
Chapter
Thirteen
Beck
I walk into the house and swear silently. How I
managed to live with that slob brother of mine for thirty years without killing
him is a mystery to me. The small living room and kitchen area are cluttered,
and it looks like no one has done a single dish since I’ve been gone.
“You were supposed to be fading, Ci,” I mutter to myself.
“Not wrecking the kitchen.”
I quickly go around, straightening up what I can so Meg
doesn’t take one look at her new home and walk out. She might think the woods
are cleaner.
“Beck?” Cian’s voice is weak and barely carries out of the
bedroom.
“I’m here.” I walk through the door and am grateful because
the bedroom is far neater than the kitchen. Someone cleaned up in here. There
are neat piles of papers and books stacked around the room. More than likely it
was Dante. Vampires tend to be a bit fastidious. If my cousin spent the night
and this morning sitting at Cian’s bedside, he probably felt compelled to
straighten up a bit.
The room is dim, all the shutters closed. I walk to the two
small windows and toss them open, letting the afternoon light in. It
illuminates my twin’s self-proclaimed deathbed.
Cian lays on his side. His hair is lackluster, and he’s lost
weight. In the light of day, his skin looks pasty. Though he probably hasn’t
been out of bed much for the better part of two months, he looks tired and
haggard. I try to summon some sympathy and find none.
“Get out of bed, ya bastard.” I kick the frame. All this
time I’ve been trying to save us and he’s been napping. The frame shakes, but
Cian stubbornly stays prone.
“No,” Cian replies with far more bite than a dying man
should have. He pulls the quilt up to his neck and pointedly closes his eyes.
“I’m done. It ain’t worth it. I can’t think anymore. My mind won’t work.”
“You think you’re the only one having trouble?” I’m tired of
listening to my brother’s whining. Sometimes Cian forgets he’s not the only one
hurting. “I wanted to kill everything in my path for a while there. I had to
stop myself from going into a rage and killing innocent people. You just can’t
focus.”
Cian’s gray eyes open suddenly and burn with resentment.
“You can’t understand. I can’t even read a book anymore. My mind drifts.
Sometimes I don’t remember where I am. Do you know what it’s like to have
everything that made you who you are taken away?”
I roll my eyes. “I bloody well do. You’re not the only one
who’s in trouble here.”
Cian shakes his head and dramatically turns away. “I don’t
want to fight anymore. There’s no point to it. I haven’t the energy. Can’t we
just get along? It won’t be long before I’m gone. I feel it. I feel death
coming for me.”
“You sound like a bad play,” I say with an affectionate
laugh. Cian has always been overly dramatic. Goddess, it will be good to have
my brother back.
A sad sigh comes from the figure on the bed. “And you sound
like you couldn’t care less. I suppose I understand. I haven’t been much use to
anyone lately. Well, did you have any luck on your hunting trip? Did you catch
anything?”
Cian is turned away, so I know he can’t see my sly smile. “I
didn’t catch anything to eat, if that’s what you’re asking.”
I don’t mention that I actually ate Meg’s sweet pussy quite
a bit the night before. I don’t think I’ll ever get my fill of that sweet
treat.
“Oh, well,” comes the ho-hum reply. “I wasn’t hungry,
anyway.”
It’s time to get my brother moving. I can’t leave Meggie
alone for too long. She gets into trouble. “I didn’t really go hunting. I went
to market and got us a wife.”
Cian sits straight up in bed. Yes, that got his attention.
“Yeah, I thought that might get you moving, you lazy
bastard.”
Cian appears more animated than I’ve seen him in months. His
hand goes back to smooth down his hair. “There’s a girl here?”
“Meggie’s a woman,” I correct. “She’s all woman, not a
girl.”
“Meggie.” Cian rolls the name around on his tongue as if
he’s tasting it. He seems to like the flavor. “How did she escape from Tír na
nòg ? Do you think Torin is hunting her?”
“No, you don’t understand.” I put a single hand on my twin’s
shoulder, a silent request to calm down. “She’s not Fae.”
Cian slumps back down. “Oh, I thought you found us a
bondmate. I guess I was being fanciful. Well, I hope she brings you some
pleasure in our last days.”
“She’s a human from the Earth plane, and she is most
definitely a proper bondmate. She’s also the most beautiful thing in all of the
planes,” I say with confidence. “I already bonded with her and feel
spectacular, but if you’re not interested, I’ll keep her for myself.”
Cian is on his feet before I can finish the offer. “I need
to change clothes.”
He needs far more than clean clothes. I can smell him from
here. “You need a bath before I’ll let you anywhere near my own sweet Meggie.”
Cian’s face turns stubborn. “Our own sweet Meggie.”
“Fine, then.” It’s good to see my brother up and about. I’m
not worried about sharing Meg with him. I’ve expected it all of my life. I’ve
shared everything with Cian. I want to share a life, a real life, with Cian and
Meg. I walk to the dresser and pull out clean clothes and a bar of soap. “But I
should warn you, she slept with me last night. She might not want you.”
Cian huffs. “Well, if she’s only had you for company, she’ll
need a little intelligent conversation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but
mostly you grunt.”
“She doesn’t seem to mind the noises I make, if you know
what I mean.” She seems to have forgiven me for my brutish behavior before. She
was a sweet bundle of soft femininity in my arms while we traveled home. I
found the ride a bit rough since I was hard the whole time, but I wouldn’t have
changed it. I like holding her. After nearly losing her, I find it calms me to
have her close.
Cian tosses off the pants he’s been wearing. “I can’t
believe you bonded without me.”
It wasn’t what we planned. It wasn’t anything close to the
traditional ceremony we should have had—nor had it concluded in a full bonding.
The guilt of that weighs heavily on me, but I won’t be able to open myself
fully to her. She will never be able to handle some of the things I’ve done. I
have to keep part of my soul to myself. The dark parts. “You would have done
the same, little brother. Trust me. Once you’ve seen her, you’ll understand.”
Holding the items in one hand, Cian walks through the
bedroom to the rear door of the cottage. He looks back, the slightest hint of
uncertainty in his eyes. “She’s a proper bondmate, then?”
I cock an eyebrow questioningly. “The bond works. I know. It
will work with you, too.”
“That’s not what I meant, brother,” Cian says. “I was asking
if she’s like the other bondmates. Is she anything like Maris?”
I remember well how Cian felt about our intended. He could
barely stand the sight of her. Maris had made her preferences clear. She wanted
to be queen. She would have preferred to only be married to the warrior half of
the king. “Not in the way you mean. Meg is sweet, and she’s got quite the mouth
on her. She wasn’t raised to be a highborn lady, but she deserves no less
respect. She’s a little scared, too.”
Cian’s spine straightens. “We’ll make sure she’s got nothing
to be afraid of, then.”
“Go, make yourself presentable for our wife. I’ll find us
something for dinner.” I’m grinning as I change the sheets on the bed and
straighten up the room we’ll share with our wife. Out of the back window, I see
Cian hurrying down the path to the pond. It’s been a long, long while since I
saw my brother move so quickly.
As happy as I am, getting married also brings about a range
of problems. I’m going to have to figure out a way to bring in some steady
income because I don’t want Meg to feel she has to keep the house. She’s a
bondmate, not a housewife. I’ve made up my mind to talk to Dante about the
situation. Susan Dellacourt told me she’s always interested in my services. The
vampire companies have long-reaching arms and always have some strange security
problem clogging up the roads of trade. I might be able to make decent money
that way.
In the back of my mind, I know once word gets out that Cian
and I have bonded, the loyalists will come calling. They’ll offer me a lot to
lead the attempt to reclaim Tír na nòg. They will come, and the pressure will
be on. I’ll have a decision to make, and now it doesn’t seem like a clear one.
Once I would have done anything to get the chance to avenge
my father. Am I willing to risk Meg? For the first time since I was seventeen,
it seems that I might have a future. It will be a very different one than I was
raised for, but it’s mine. I can have a good life with Meg and Cian, and
eventually our children. All of that could be lost if I gamble our lives on
taking back the crown.
I shake off the dark thoughts. It’s a worry for another day.
Today I need to feed them, and that’s all that matters. I hope Cian hasn’t
managed to kill all our chickens while he was busy fading. I walk out the back
and down to the chicken coop where I select a particularly healthy hen.
The hen is big and will make a good meal. The day might have
started rough, but if it ends with a full belly and a warm bed, I’ll call it
perfect.