Page 47 of Possess Me at Midnight (Doomsday Brethren #4)

Instead, Caden’s voice stops me. “Ice, let us in! Tynan is injured, and Sydney is freezing.”

Fuck. I don’t want to see a decent wizard die unnecessarily. And while I hate Lucan MacTavish for stealing Sabelle, I don’t want his human sister-by-mating to suffer. But the last thing I want is everyone invading my personal space and secretly mocking how I live.

“Why the devil are all of you here?” I roar, marching to the front of the dwelling. “Sterling’s fine estate has plenty of rooms for you.”

“My uncle’s home is no longer safe,” Lucan shouts through the door.

Grumbling, I drop my defenses long enough to let them all close, then fling the door open.

First, I admit the pretty redhead, who huddles in a coat I recognize as Caden’s.

Her mate follows, carrying a limp, bleeding Tynan.

Lucan and the Wolvsey twins sidle in from the cold, Ronan curling a pretty blonde at his side.

Their magical signatures declare her human and them mated.

Sterling MacTavish emerges from the back of the pack and pushes his way in front of his nephews, just past my front door. “Clifden O’Shea is dead. Attacked and slaughtered. Signs point to Anarki.”

I nearly stop breathing. Mathias is moving bloody fast.

“Tynan went to visit him and encountered a fight. He was injured but managed to get himself out,” Duke adds. “It’s clear Mathias intended to finish off Clifden’s heir, too. Damn near succeeded.”

I curse. Tynan, I somewhat like. For a Privileged, he isn’t all bad.

“Can we come in?” Caden holds the injured Tynan, who looks dirty, bleeding, and unconscious. “If Tynan dies, Mathias will have another open Council seat to vie for.”

Bloody hell. I can’t let that happen.

“I should go,” Lucan announces, gaze lingering on Sabelle. “I merely came to check…the situation.”

In other words, make certain I haven’t raped or harmed her. As if I could.

I snarl at him. “No mad rages or mass slaughters. Yet.”

Lucan clears his throat, his stare asking Sabelle unspoken questions. She nods once, and MacTavish visibly relaxes.

Fuck all. I’ve known for two hundred years that everyone thinks the worst of me. It never bothered me until now. Until Sabelle.

“I’ll be going, then.” Lucan backs out. “I promised to help Duke, Marrok, and Olivia transport the Doomsday Diary here. Olivia and Duke can both drive a car. I’ll lend protection.”

Then Lucan is gone.

“Here?” I bark at no one in particular. “Why the hell would you all come here?”

I glance at Raiden Wolvsey, the unmated twin. I can only tell them apart because Raiden’s hair is as pale as Ronan’s is dark. Other than that, they have the same green eyes and wicked smiles.

“We have nowhere else to go. Bram’s house is destroyed.

When asked an hour ago, Sterling refused to back Mathias’s bid for the Council, so we’re fairly certain he’s next on the Anarki’s hit list. Marrok’s cottage was destroyed by the Anarki months ago.

Lucan’s dwelling was breached when Anka was abducted,” Caden recounts.

“Duke’s place is overrun with humans we can’t put in danger. And Ronan and Raiden’s manor is…busy.”

And then some. It’s magickind’s den of iniquity.

The Wolvsey wizards are renowned for their sexual appetites, so Ronan’s mating is a surprise.

Usually, the Wolvsey males bed one female after another until they get pregnant.

Considering the difficulty of conceiving a youngling between an unmated pair, that effort says something about their single-minded pursuit of pleasure.

Vaguely, I wonder why Ronan broke tradition.

“So…” Caden winces, shifting Tynan’s dead weight in his arms. “That leaves here.”

Bram approaches from behind, Sabelle on his heels. I sense them, smell my beloved’s sweet fragrance.

“Your place is a veritable fortress, Ice,” Bram commends. “Easy to defend. Damn near impossible to breach.”

“At least let us stay temporarily. I must transcast the news of O’Shea’s murder to all magickind immediately.”

Before Mathias kills again.

I bite back a curse. They ask too much, damn it.

They’ve demanded I give up Sabelle, then begged me to fight and perhaps give my life, despite the fact that none here like or want me.

They ask to invade my house and shelter them, even though if they saw me at one of magickind’s functions, they would ignore me at best or spit on me at worst. Certainly, none will accept, much less applaud, a union between me and Sabelle.

Yet what will become of the Doomsday Brethren if I don’t acquiesce?

Clearly, they have nowhere safe to go. If they all die, so too will magickind’s best hope at vanquishing Mathias.

Worse, Sabelle will never forgive me for turning my back, particularly if I might have prevented the slaughter merely by taking them in.

Hell. It’s not as if I lack the room. My father, mad prick that he was, expanded the cave feverishly, hoping to fill it with a dozen sons. What it lacks in luxury, it makes up for in space.

Plus, having them all here means Sabelle stays. Every day she’s under my roof is one more day I might be able to persuade her to follow her heart and Bind to me.

“Fine,” I snap, then step back to admit them all.

“My bedroom is the one at the very back. No one comes near it.” I send Sabelle a glance.

“Unless you’re invited. I like quiet and privacy.

The locked door just down from mine is also off limits.

Transcast mirror is in the front room. This isn’t a five-star hotel.

Not every room has furniture, but I’ve plenty of pillows and blankets.

I don’t keep servants. You’ll have to do your own cooking.

Mine is dreadful. No bitching about the accommodations. ”

“Thank you,” Caden says simply.

Then he nods at Sydney, and carrying Tynan, leads his mate and uncle down the hallway to the left. Plenty of bedrooms there—far from me. Excellent.

“Should I send for a healer?” I call after them. Blood oozes from O’Shea’s left side, making Tynan look dangerously close to his nextlife.

Sabelle shakes her head. “We don’t dare yet. Let me look at him first. Maybe…his injuries aren’t as serious as they appear.”

Whatever ails Tynan is serious enough for the wizard to lose consciousness and drag him to death’s door. But I can’t fault Sabelle’s caution. No telling what means Mathias might use to track these people down.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” I murmur.

Sabelle nods.

“You’re not so bad after all.” Raiden smiles as he and his twin saunter in.

Ronan repeats the gesture, his mate at his side. They follow the MacTavish clan to the far side of the cave.

I make a mental note to put Tynan, Marrok and Olivia, and Bram on my side of the rambling stone dwelling.

Sabelle, I’ll keep in the room beside mine.

If I’m going to lose her to duty and politics, at least I’ll have these final days to show her what we could have been.

It’s a fool’s hope…but it’s all I have left.

Sabelle

I sigh. It must be late, though I can’t be certain without windows. The heaviness of exhausted limbs and grittiness of tired eyes tell me that my mating tomorrow morning is but hours away.

Resignation weighs on me. This morning, I woke in Ice’s arms. After I healed and loved him, I prepared to fight my brother for the right to become his mate. But nothing went as planned. Tomorrow, I will lie in the arms of another as his mate—the first of many times.

But I’ll always think of Ice.

As I scan the surprisingly well-furnished chamber, the next task is one I both look forward to and dread.

Ice.

I press a trembling hand to my stomach and hold back tears. I’ve shed too many, and they’ve done no good. Now is the time to buck up, do my duty, be proud of my contribution to magickind’s safety and future. Lamenting my own heartbreak serves no purpose.

Except the pain won’t stop.

On leaden feet, I approach the door and raise my hand, drop it, and lift it again. Close my eyes. Then I force myself to knock. No sense in prolonging what I can’t change.

In seconds, Ice whips the door open. His expression is a question, not harsh, but guarded. Hope haunts his beautiful green eyes, and I wish I was seeking him out for any other reason. After what I’ve already asked of him, what comes next hardly seems fair.

But nothing about this situation is.

“Do you want to come in?” he murmurs.

I nod and step into his domain. Quietly, I shut the door behind me, then step closer.

“I’m glad you knocked. I-I have something to say and… If you require me to step aside, if you need that to believe that I love you…” He presses his lips together and pauses, looking as if I’m about to rip him apart. “I await your Renunciation.”

His voice breaks slightly on the last word, nearly yanking my heart from my chest. In a few short words, he’s erased most of my doubts. Yes, I suppose it could be another ploy…but Ice doesn’t seem the type. Straight and to the point, without subterfuge. One of the things I love about him.

“Thank you,” I choke. “I’m sorry it’s…ended like this. Your cooperation for the cause?—”

“I’m not relinquishing you to that wanker MacTavish for everyone else.

I’m doing it for you. I might loathe your brother, but I don’t want you at odds with him.

I feel Gailene’s absence every single day, and I can’t bear the thought of you suffering his loss.

Your sense of duty to magickind would eventually bring you to regret becoming my mate if following your heart cost lives.

I don’t want you bearing that burden, either.

I won’t go in happiness, but I will go in peace, knowing that your family and conscience will be soothed. ”

Is it enough for him? The sad answer is all over his face.

My heart crumbles again.

I struggle to hold back more useless tears. “I truly am sorry.”

“You’re many things, princess.” He takes my hand, his thumb tracing over my knuckles like he’s memorizing their shape. “Among them, too kind to hurt me on purpose.”

Yet I am hurting him all the same. The air between us, the knowledge that this will be the last moment I’m ever alone with him, ever allowed to touch him, is like a funeral cry for my heart.

“Kiss me?”

Ice tenses, every muscle frozen. “I won’t have the willpower to stop at kissing you.”

Another chance to be in Ice’s arms sounds heavenly. Tomorrow, I will give my future to another. What few precious hours remain of tonight are ours.

“I won’t have the willpower to resist.” My voice shakes.

He says nothing more, just looks into my eyes like I’m his sun. His forever. A bittersweet smile stretches across his face.

Then he steps back. “If you go to him tomorrow morning after spending the night with me, he’ll scent me all over you. He’ll know.”

A valid point, and one I should have considered.

Lucan’s decision to mate with me requires sacrifice on his part as well, giving up all hope of ever reconciling with Anka.

Still, I can’t bring myself to care that Lucan will know I lay in Ice’s arms. We both need this last night to treasure what might have been before we face the cold, unforgiving dawn.

“He’ll know my feelings for you no matter how I spend tonight. Once I speak the Binding words with Lucan, we can never have this moment again. Please… Don’t say no.”