Page 20 of Temptation Unleashed (Talaenian Fae #3)
“You use magic to keep me here because you know I’d have been long gone otherwise.
Why don’t you find yourself another faery princess to waste away your time playing bedmate with and stop wasting your precious time with the likes of little me?
While I’m going to be saving lives, you threaten to take them.
” She leaned toward him, against the restraints, and said between clenched teeth, “Tell me, Thaddeus. Who’s truly worthless out of the two of us? ”
Despite the lick of frustration that tread a dangerous path along his mind, he braced his hands on the wall on either side of her head and lowered himself to her.
He narrowed his eyes, the tension in his body at the breaking point, and closed the gap between them.
To his surprise, Rori held her ground, not leaning away.
Her breaths came heavy, the smell of lingering blood greeting his nostrils.
“The worthless one would be the one who doesn’t survive.
There is no worth once dead, little one.
” He chuckled, a low rumble that resonated through his chest. He shifted, slipping his cheek against hers until his lips brushed her ear.
Dear Goddess, how the subtle tremor that suffused Rori at his touch set his entire body aflame. “You’d best remember that.”
The front door opened. Thaddeus grinned to himself, drawing his lips across her temple before he cut her free of the restraints.
“Rori?”
She shoved at Thaddeus’s chest with a fierce grunt, forcing him away.
Thaddeus snickered, straightening up as Cael rounded the corner, two plastic bags dangling on his arm.
His brother’s relaxed expression hardened, his eyes on alert, as he caught Rori in a one-armed embrace when she collided with him.
He dropped the bags to the floor at his feet.
“What are you doing here?” Cael groused.
Thaddeus folded his hands behind his back, holding his brother’s infuriated gaze steadily. “Purging your place of unwanted vermin.”
“Then why are you still here?”
Thaddeus smiled, nothing shy of chilling. “To ensure it doesn’t return. ”
Cael hissed, gathering Rori beneath his arm and guiding her out of the abode, mumbling Gaelic curses beneath his breath.
The instant Thaddeus heard the door slam shut, the farce he’d kept himself hidden behind shattered.
The potent burn of raw magic poured over his skin, bolts of unspent energy seeking escape.
His mind whirled in a deadly dance with the darkness that he’d managed to keep at bay while in Rori’s presence but now it consumed him.
The vile thoughts that swarmed his mind, the vision of red and black pulsing with each hard beat of his heart, sent him stumbling to the sofa, where he fell into the cushion, squeezed his eyes shut, and focused on grounding.
His blood simmered with a heat he’d never before known.
Not an eve with Daeanna, nor any other woman.
It singed his veins and left him to suffer an indescribable agony throughout every other part of his body.
’Twere the wounds that brought him to the brink of losing control. The ache he suffered through some connection with the woman. The jagged tear in her lip, the marks around her neck. Goddess only knew if there were other wounds he did not see.
His fingers bit into his knees. Energy circled from his palms to his legs, a closed-circuit cycle until he finally began to bring it under his control. The blistering heat cooled, but the invading darkness remained, and it wanted blood.
Through the muffle of his energy, he heard the door open, close, and Cael’s steps approach. Slowly, he opened his eyes and met his brother’s infuriated gaze.
“You’re a fucking piece of work, Thad. I’m beginning to wonder if the arrow missed your cold heart so you could torture me for some karmic balance bullshit.” He rounded the chair and started to close the gap between them.
“I’d keep my distance if I were you. ”
“Well, you’re not me, thank the Goddess for that.”
“Cael.”
“You’re in my fucking place?—”
Engulfed in the blackness, Thaddeus launched from the sofa, grabbed Cael by the throat, and slammed him to the floor.
A sheet of magic rippled over Cael’s body, his brother defending himself through his own magical efforts.
Thaddeus’s lips pulled back from his teeth as he bore down on his brother, bringing his face close, narrowing his eyes.
“Who?” he snarled. He barely recognized his own voice. “ Who did it ?”
Cael growled. A burst of power threw him backward. He hit the side of the sofa. Cael rolled onto his hands and knees, gasping for breath between coughs.
“Goddess damn you, Thad!”
He threw a scathing look back at Thaddeus. Thaddeus met it with a deep scowl as he pulled himself onto the sofa, limbs trembling with a mix of spent energy and adrenaline, and resumed grounding.
“I warned you to keep your distance.”
“ You need to control yourself.” Cael stumbled to his feet, swaying as he gained his balance.
Thaddeus followed his brother with his gaze as he shuffled to the chair directly across from him and dropped heavily into the seat.
“What’s your trigger? A woman in my home? Oh, wait. A mortal woman, right?”
Thaddeus’s jaw tightened. “Why was she here?”
“I asked her to come. Had I known you’d take it upon yourself to invade my home, I would’ve changed plans. As for a reason why, that’s none of your concern.”
“ You are my concern, Cael. Your doings in this world are my concern.”
Cael huffed an unamused laugh. “Don’t get me excited thinking you actually care about your little brother after all these centuries.
” Cael’s sarcastic sentiment nudged at a sleeping corner of his soul.
The man rubbed a hand over his face, leveled his gaze on Thaddeus and stared for an uncomfortable moment.
His brows furrowed. “Wait. You asked who while trying to choke the ever-living breath from my lungs. Who did what?”
Thaddeus stared back, unyielding to the turmoil in his mind. He had lost control, control he had always possessed under any and all duress. He’d involuntarily showed a hand he had not wanted to show. A break in his willpower.
Cael raised a brow. “Now you don’t want to talk. I see.” The way those silver eyes tried to pick him apart, scrutinize him like a specimen of interest, kept Thaddeus on high alert. “How badly was she hurt when she got here, Thad?”
Thaddeus’s emotionless mask faltered for a split second, and bloody hell if Cael didn’t catch the falter.
“Rori never deserved what she’s suffered.” Cael sighed, a frown tugging his mouth. His gaze pierced through Thaddeus. “You healed her. For that alone, I can forgive your feral attack.”
It took more strength than he cared to hold his brother’s gaze. The strange flutter in his chest made the room fade briefly.
“I don’t care for such unnecessary imperfections. ’Twas foul, the wound on her lip.”
“You’ve always had a talent with your tongue and dancing around direct statements.
I see you still have that talent, even now.
Why would you care if you have no interest in her?
Her lips would come nowhere near you, right?
” Cael tapped his chin, his eyes taking on a mischievous glow.
“Not like you’ve any plans to kiss her.”
“Cael,” Thaddeus growled .
“I finished healing her lip, so you can keep your ego intact. She won’t realize you’re the one responsible for leaving her wound-free.” The light in his eyes dimmed. “Were there other injuries? Or just her lip?”
Thaddeus sucked in a slow, deep breath. The vision of the rings around her neck threatened to send him over the edge again. Without speaking, he drew a line with his finger across his neck.
Cael slammed his hands on the arms of the chair, bringing himself to the edge of the seat in a heartbeat. “ He fucking cut her neck?! ”
“Nay. Discoloration. ’Twas the markings of strangulation.
” Thaddeus forced back the darkness that unfurled along the underside of his skin.
“Tell me, Cael. Who is responsible for those injuries?” He projected the images of the pictures as he had to Rori a short time ago.
“’Tis the same mortal who is responsible for these? ”
Cael tilted his head. “You were in her apartment.”
“Investigating.”
“What were you searching for in Rori’s bedroom? Isn’t your concern me and my relationship with Cassy?”
“Who’s responsible for the wounds, Cael?”
After a few moments, Cael settled back in the chair, his expression melting from one of worry to one of danger.
“You’ve no right to know anything about her because of your poor behavior, but since I wasn’t here when she arrived to hide the wounds and ended up at the mercy of your fury, I’ll give you this much.
Her ex, Rich. So, if you’re bloodthirsty, spill his blood.
He’s a true monster who deserves to become intimate with the edge of your blade. ”
The corner of his mouth twitched as he fought to temper his rising fury. An ex , someone who had no right to the woman. “Don’t tease me with a good time, Cael. ”
Cael lifted his chin and pinned him with an unblinking, dead-serious glower. “There’s no teasing to be had.”
“If you care so much for the human, why haven’t you delivered this ex to a bloody demise? Or do you fear finding yourself at the mercy of Dagda and his Court?”