Lover Arisen (Black Dagger Brotherhood #20)(117)

“I needed to make sure you were okay.”

“And if I had not been…?”

“I would have done what was required to save you.”

Tears entered her eyes, putting a gloss over her vision that blurred him and the meadow. “Why,” she breathed.

An eternity of silence stretched out between them. And then he reached out and brushed her cheek.

When he dropped his hand, she smelled the scent—and could not understand it. Why would the perfume of fresh flowers be out—

Rahvyn gasped.

Looking down at their feet, she saw violets spring up from the scruffy ground, the fragile purple blooms unfurling, little flags upon green nests. And among them sprouted also daisies and dandelions, then other colorful blooms, all of the heads lifting free of the soil, maturing as if it were July, not April, as if the air were warm, not chilled.

The rush of wild flowers swirled around them both, encompassing their vicinity in the meadow, bringing daylight unto the night—and Rahvyn was so o’ercome, she let out a sound of delight and swept her hands to the sky. In a twirl, she imagined that she could gather them up in her arms, a sight for sore eyes, a lift for a heavy heart, a sniff into a grateful, astounded nose.

And then she stilled.

Lowering her arms, she saw that he remained grim. “Are you leaving right the now?”

He took a step back. “I just wanted to give you something beautiful, so you can feel even a little of the wonder I have whenever I look into your eyes.”

“Where are you going,” she asked in a desperation that she did not understand. “Lassiter, where do you go?”

He stopped. “You know my name.”

“I… yes, I do. Of course, I do.” She wrung her hands, an anxiety striking her. “Oh, Lassiter.”

Riding a sudden surge of emotion, she jumped into the space between them, and the instant she did, he caught her, his arms wrapping around her and drawing her flush against his strong body. With his great strength, he lifted her easily from the wild flowers he had created for her, holding her so tight that they nearly became one. And in response, she attempted to encircle his shoulders. They were far too large, so she settled for his neck to hold him back.

She had the sense this was a beginning for them.

But also an end.

And in the poignancy of the moment, so consumed was she… that she missed the young male who stood at the edge of the meadow, a bouquet of flowers dropping from his hand, his heart as shattered as hers, from an altogether different cause.

She was still embracing the angel as Nate turned back to Luchas House.

Walked around the far side.

And took off into the dark, cold night.

Alone.





CHAPTER FORTY-SIX




I need you to know something.”

Erika and Balthazar were upstairs in her bed when he spoke up, the blankets on the floor, the sheets tangled around their still cooling bodies, only one pillow still within reach. Not that she was interested in moving at all in the dim room.

“That sounds ominous.” She was so relaxed that lifting her head was a struggle—so she just turned herself over and laid its heavy weight on her upper arm. “What’s wrong?”

“That night you found me by that human woman who had been killed. In the trap house.”

Between one blink and the next, she caught a vivid, hard-to-see image of Connie’s body on that dirty mattress. “Yes?”

“I went to find her because I tried to buy some cocaine off her boyfriend down by the river.” He put a hand up. “I don’t do drugs recreationally. I was trying to stay awake because every time I fell asleep, the demon… well, you know what she did.”

Oh, God, Erika thought. He’d been down there… with Christopher Ernest Olyn. That dealer who’d shot himself in the head.

Supposedly.

“What did you do to him,” she said tightly.

“Look, I was desperate. I just needed to stay awake because I couldn’t take Devina anymore. I even went to Vishous—the Brother with the goatee—and told him… well, I’m going to have to apologize to him for what I asked him to do to me.”

“What did you ask him.” Even though, going by the expression on his face, she knew. She knew. “Did you ask him to kill you?”

There was a long pause.

“I figured—better him than my bloodline, my leader.” He shook his head. “But I don’t feel like that anymore. And as for Devina, after I met you properly, I couldn’t get it up anymore with her. This all happened before you were in my—I was with you. Here, with you.”

Erika nodded slowly as her heart dropped. Yet somehow, she wasn’t surprised by any of it.

How could she abide a murderer? The stealing, maybe she could get over. But taking a life—

“I just went down there to get the coke,” he said quietly. “The guy pulled a gun on me. I didn’t want to deal with the shit, so I was only going into his mind to replace the memory of me. I swear, that was it. But once I got in there—I saw from his memories what he’d done to her. What he’d been doing to her. I knew he’d beaten that woman senseless. And fuck that, you know.”

Erika sat up and pushed her hair out of her face. “You made him shoot himself, didn’t you.”