Dark Deceiver (17 page)

“No.” He could almost hear her thinking. “Why didn't you do it?”

“Because of you.”

Her arm wrapped around his waist, filling him with such tender affection he feared there would be no room left in his chest for his heart to beat.

“Why?”

He stared at the ceiling, wondering that question himself. “I don't know. I looked in your eyes and I couldn't do it.”

“You were struggling with it before you looked at me. That's why you had that terrifying look on your face.”

He couldn't deny it. The war inside him had been terrible, his Punisher's mind railing at him to move, but he'd hesitated, unable to bring himself to kill.

“I've never before had difficulty fulfilling my duties.”

“Do you kill people a lot?”

“No. Never.” He blinked at the simple answer.

“But they sent you here to do that, anyway. To kill the Sitheen.”

“Yes. In Esria, they call me the Punisher. When one of the king's subjects fails him in any way, King Rith sends me to mete out the punishment. I break bones—arms, backs, necks—causing as much pain as I can.”

“They heal quickly, though, don't they?”

“Within seconds.”

“Still, that must be awful for you.”

Kaderil grunted. “It's worse for my victims.” But her softly spoken words burrowed deep beneath his shields, deep beneath the armor he hadn't even realized he wore. Because it
had
been awful for him. He'd hated the terrified eyes, the screams of fear as he'd grabbed his victims, the feel of bones snapping beneath his hands. Hated the terror his arrival sparked at any gathering.

He hated being the Punisher.

But, as he stared at the bleak expanse of white ceiling above his head, he knew it didn't matter. There was nothing else for him in his world and no place for him in this one.

Autumn's hand slid over his chest and back again in a move that both comforted and aroused. “What's going to happen if you don't kill the Sitheen as you're supposed to? Will you be the one punished?”

“Yes.” He lifted her hand and raised the soft underside of her wrist to his lips. The future held no interest for him. Punishment, banishment, remaining the Punisher. They all suddenly felt the same—the same wide expanse of nothing that he'd lived with for fifteen hundred years. Only with Autumn had he ever felt alive.

The difference was, before he met her, he hadn't realized how barren his life had been. He'd been content. But no longer. When he returned without her, he would miss her warmth and her sweetness every day of his excruciatingly long existence.

As his lips moved over her wrist, he felt her shiver.

“Are you cold again?” he asked sharply.

“No.” The word held a hint of laughter.

He unbuttoned the cuff of her flannel shirt, pushed it out of his way, and moved his mouth slowly up her inner arm, one lingering kiss at a time, drawing delightful shivers from her with each and every one. When he reached the tender underside of her elbow, he traced its line with his tongue.

“Kade…” She said his name with half a laugh, half a groan, filling him with joy.

He rolled toward her until he hovered over her, searching her gaze for a sign of welcome. The quick dart of her tongue on her lips told him all he needed to know. As his mouth covered hers, that tongue traced his lips and his heart swelled until he thought it was going to explode. The emotion struggling to get out went beyond joy, beyond caring, far beyond anything he'd ever known or ever imagined. It filled all the hollows, drove out the dark, sang in places that had only ever known silence.

Was this what the humans called love? Was this the reason some few Esri were willing to forsake all others for an eternity? He hadn't believed anyone could feel such depth of emotion for another. He hadn't believed such feeling existed. Yet it surged through his blood, transforming him.

Love.
After fifteen hundred years, he'd fallen in love. With a human, Autumn McGinn. A woman who could never be his.

The bittersweetness of the moment filled him with such desolate longing that his eyes turned hot. The ache in his heart went almost beyond bearing. With everything he was, everything he would ever be, he wanted her.

Autumn pulled back, turning her face from his kiss. “Kade. I can't. I'm sorry. I just…can't.”

She didn't have to explain. He understood all too well.

He rolled away from her, covering his eyes with his arm.

She couldn't forget what he was.
Esri.
A monster.

He had to let her go. As soon as the last of the power stones arrived in her mail, he would release her into Jack's protection. But not before. If he let her go now, he'd never get that last stone. And he had to have it. That much he could do for his king and his world. That much he
must
do. Or he would truly have no place at all.

The ring of the doorbell made him stiffen, then bolt upright.

Autumn rose more slowly. “Who do you think it is?” Their gazes met, eyes wide.

“I don't know, but it can't be good.” He looked into the face that would haunt his dreams for thousands of years and felt his heart clutch with fear. He grabbed her chin and kissed her hard, then released her. “Hide, Autumn. Don't come out, no matter what.”

She grabbed his arm as he pulled away. “Be careful.”

Her tender concern sang through his veins. “Hide.”

Kaderil strode through the living room, his pulse hammering in his chest. Either the Sitheen had found him or Zander had decided to check up on him. Zander worried him more. His hatred of the humans was spinning out of control. If he found Autumn…

Kaderil took a deep breath and wrenched open the door.

Zander stood in the doorway, his white hair brushing the top of his silver tunic, his face hard. He pushed past Kaderil and strode into the apartment.

“Ustanis says you have the draggon stone. He felt the transfer of possession. He also traced three of the lesser stones to you.”

Zander's nose lifted, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. “I smell power. Other than yours. An oddly weak power, yet something.”

Kaderil's pulse leaped. Clearly Autumn had acquired enough power during their lovemaking for Zander to sense. She was in grave danger.

As Zander started toward the bedroom, Kaderil stepped in front of him, blocking his path. “Leave her alone.”

Zander cocked his head, his eyes widening. He started to laugh. “You dipped a virgin well with your heart open and leaked power to her, didn't you?” His eyes glittered with a triumph Kaderil didn't understand. “The dark blood has fallen at last.”

Zander thrust out a hand as he moved to step around him. Kaderil grabbed his wrist, keeping that deadly palm away from him and immobilized.

“I'll break it.”

“Your breaking my bones won't stop me, Punisher. It never has. I'll have what I want and we both know it.”

Zander tried to catch him with his other hand, but Kaderil caught the second wrist, as well. “She's nothing to do with you.”

“There you're wrong, dark blood.” Zander struggled against his hold. “She's the means to my revenge.”

Kaderil stared at his captain, uncomprehending as he fought to keep those vicious hands controlled. “What revenge?” They'd been enemies for as long as he could remember, but the true hatred was Zander's and had always been. Bigotry, as the humans called it, toward Kaderil's dark blood. At least he'd always thought that the cause of Zander's hatred.

Zander's mouth curved in a grimace as he fought to free his hands. “Her life is mine to destroy.”

The words were followed by the sound of someone stumbling in the bedroom, then a crash as something breakable hit the floor.

Autumn.

That moment's distraction cost him his edge. Zander's fingers brushed his flesh, sending pain shooting through his arm.

“Give me the stones, Kaderil.”

The draggon stone was around his neck, but the other three were in Autumn's purse in the bedroom and he wasn't letting Zander near her. He must get the upper hand. Using every ounce of strength he possessed, he pushed the man's wrists together, grabbed them with one hand, then broke both Zander's arms over his knee.

Zander cried out, but Kaderil kept hold of him as he felt the bones reknit beneath his palms.

“I'm not giving you the stones, Zander. Rith tasked me with bringing the draggon stone to him, and I've already told Ustanis I'll bring the lesser stones to the gate.”

“That's not…good enough,” Zander hissed between clenched teeth. “I want them now. All of them.”

“You still question my loyalty?”

A strange light leaped in Zander's eyes even as he laughed. “You break the arms of your captain, dark blood. What kind of loyalty is that?”

“You threaten a woman who is not Sitheen.”

“A woman who is
human.
Of no account except that she has somehow caught your lust. But she is of less import to me than the stones. I will have them, Punisher, make no mistake. And I'll have them now.”

“No. They're of no use to you.”

“That's where you're wrong. I have great use for them.”

Kaderil stared at him, watching the light of excitement in his captain's eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Scenters often possess some small ability to call the power from the stones. Ustanis is such a one.”

“So do you intend to use them to kill more humans?”

Zander smiled, the pain gone from his eyes, no longer struggling in Kaderil's hold. “Killing humans is always a worthy goal.”

“You're wasting life, Zander. King Rith would not condone such slaughter, even of humans.”

Zander's smile turned ugly. “You know Rith so well, do you? Do you think he covets the seven stones so that he can renew the natural power of Esria? Don't be a fool, dark blood. Rith is a Caller.”

A chill slid down Kaderil's spine. “The Callers are no more.” Only a Caller could raise the true power of the seven stones, a terrible and destructive power in the wrong hands, but the last was destroyed eons ago after a brief reign of terror that had left half of Esria dead.

“Wrong again, Punisher. Rith is a Caller and one of the strongest ever to rise. He has kept his gift a secret. But now that the stones have been found and are all but reclaimed, he will rise as the true ruler.”

Kaderil stared at him with confusion and a deep sense of foreboding. “He already rules Esria. What more can he do?”

Zander's smile was vicious. “With the power he raises from the stones, he'll break down the very walls between these two realms. Gates will no longer be needed, for the Esri will move freely from our world to this without fear. The entire human race will be enchanted—or dead—and completely at our command. King Rith shall reign supreme. In both worlds.”

The wrongness shook Kaderil. “He has no right to this world.”

“Don't be a fool, dark blood. Our vast superiority gives us every right.” With a quick, sudden move, Zander twisted his hands and grasped Kaderil's wrists, catching Kaderil off guard.

Fire poured through his body. Kaderil tried to yank his arms out of his captain's grip, but the pain debilitated him.

“Every right to seek out humans and destroy them where they stand,” Zander continued. “Beginning with your female.”

Kaderil's vision began to swim. He had to protect Autumn. He had to protect her world.

Terrible thoughts rolled and crashed in his brain. He'd known King Rith was not the most benevolent ruler Esria had ever seen, but he'd not suspected the man capable of such greed, such destruction. Yet he couldn't deny the avarice he'd seen in his ruler's eyes at the talk of the lost gate's discovery. Deep in his gut, he knew Zander spoke the truth. King Rith would use the seven stones to destroy the human world.

For centuries he'd been ashamed of the human blood that ran through his veins. In a shift that shook the very foundations of his existence, he realized it wasn't his human blood he was ashamed of, it wasn't his human side that didn't fit.

It was his Esri side.

With a massive surge of determined strength, he wrenched free of Zander's grasp and clamped on to his captain's wrists, immobilizing him.

“You'll not get the stones.” Kaderil's voice sounded raw and winded to his ears, but fury burned through his muscles, lending him strength. He whipped around, lifting Zander off his feet until he was flying in an arc around him. Then he released his foe, sending Zander crashing through the window in an explosion of shattering glass.

The Esri was gone.

As he stared at the destroyed window, he heard Autumn behind him. He turned to find her standing in the bedroom doorway, her eyes as wide as the full Earth moon.