Demon from the Dark (Immortals After Dark #10)(93)

He heard Carrow approaching.

“Why don’t you ever stay inside with us?” she asked from behind him.

He shrugged.

“Do you mind if I sit?”

Sit. Talk to me. Say the one thing that will ease my mistrust. Malkom didn’t want to feel like this, but four hundred years of misery couldn’t be cured by a few days with her. Old fears died hard.

Sensing she was about to leave, he grated, “Sit.”

She settled next to him on the sand. “I need to know when you’re going into the interior to search.”

He wouldn’t be. Because Malkom would not be returning her to her old home. If he did go off to “search,” he’d just return with word that there was no way to escape.

This place was paradise. For the first time ever, he was utterly satisfied with all that belonged to him.

Though he’d had no choice about coming to this island, he would choose to stay, seizing another territory to guard, one with ample room to run, water, and food.

Food from the sea. Fishing for his mate and their young one was satisfying.

More importantly, ’twas a place without the screeching sounds and blinding lights of her home. Without the wars.

“Why are you so eager to return?” he asked her. “Is it so bad here?”

“I have to get home. That’s where my life is.”

“You are my female. Your life is with me.”

“Then let’s spend our lives together. In New Orleans,” she said brightly. “Malkom, you would be happy there with us. But you’ll have to trust me.”

Just accept what she offers, a part of him commanded. If she betrayed him again, he would survive. Yet then he pictured how she’d looked today, smiling down at Ruby as they’d collected shells.

No. No, I would not.

If he let himself love Carrow and she forsook him again, he would not go on. So to trust her in this would be to trust her with his very life.

Now the situation was even more complicated. He was growing to care for the witch’s adopted one, too. If Carrow forsook him, she’d take the child with her.

Which was unacceptable. He’d already decided that if Carrow could adopt Ruby, then he could as well. If the girl needed a mother to love her, then she also needed a father to protect her.

Father. A new purpose for him, a new name. Something to take the place of bastard, slave, murderer. A whore’s get . . .

When he didn’t respond, she asked, “And what about Ruby? Her friends and school are back home.”

“The girl will adjust. Just as I’ve had to do again and again.”

“I want more for her. I thought you would, too.”

“Tell me how I can trust this next world you want me to go to. The last time I trusted you to take me to a new place, I did not fare well.”

“But you’re better off now, aren’t you?”

“If I am, I’ve certainly earned my good fortune,” he said, recalling his capture and Chase’s torture. Reminded of that man’s disgust, Malkom said, “In your world, would your people accept what I am?”

She gazed away. “Your kind isn’t . . . well, there are those who’ll want to make you an enemy just because of what you are. But we won’t know if they can be made to see differently, not until we try it.”

“Your home cannot possibly be better than this.” The blinding lights, the sounds, her behavior . . .

“Maybe not better, but different. We belong to a coven there, and Ruby needs to learn from them. Malkom, she could grow up to be dangerous. The Sorceri showed a disturbing interest in her,” she said. “And I have a bad feeling about this place. A sense of something coming. More mortals will return here. And the dangers on this island are greater than there could ever be at home.”

“Ah, you have a sense, then?”

“So you’re not going to believe that either?” Her cheeks flushed with anger. “If you think I’d lie about a potential danger, then I’m beginning to wonder if we truly can come back from this.”

“ ’Tis convenient. Your sense.”

“La Dorada could still be out here. Remember her? That ghastly woman who crept through the ward, wreaking havoc?”

“She did not bother me. Aided me, in fact. She is not a concern.”

Carrow narrowed her eyes. “You seem utterly convinced that this island is better than my home. Have you dreamed my memories?”

“Yes,” he answered shamelessly.

Her lips parted, but she quickly collected herself. “What have you seen?”

You, dancing upon tables. “Glimpses of your world. Cars and gadgets. Enough to know I’d prefer it here.”

“What have you seen of my life?”

Why not tell her? “I saw your wars. Saw you fighting recklessly.”

“There aren’t that many wars, Malkom.”

“I saw you disrobing for strangers.”

She didn’t even have the grace to flush. “Have you seen me with another man?”

Malkom dreaded that possibility. “No, I have not. But what I have seen is damning enough. Why would you behave like that?”

She shrugged casually. “A lot of reasons. I was single—unbound—and it was exciting. I’m not shy, and our culture is fun-loving and free. Plus, I get power from it.”