He held strong, refusing to move, knowing if he died now everything he and Reveca had built would perish. His life, along with the very few marks he had made upon it, would go up in a cloud of lust.
There would be no going back, not as weak as he was.
Seeing his stubbornness she glided forward. He felt her touch long before he saw it— feathered glides across his brow, through his hair, across his shoulders.
When she was before him the touches were no longer whispers, he felt how real they were as her strong hands moved down his chest.
“I am your life,” her voice echoed around him, embracing him.
Her lips met his neck. He felt her slow languid kisses, felt her bare chest press against him. He sensed her want and his body, with a mind of its own, ached for her.
His hands fisted at his sides as he stood stock-still. But she didn’t waver. “Come home to me.” Her hand glided across his aching crotch. “Come for me.”
He knew if he did, it would be over.
Every non-sexual thought that could be had, he called forward. He used the only weapon he had in her presence—his mind.
It was the hardest battle he’d ever fought, and he’d fought many.
***
Adair was lingering a breath away from Talon, wishing she could see behind his expression. At best her ability, which apparently didn’t work well on the immortal, only gave her the impression of what Talon was going through.
His lip was twitching, and his brow was drawn. His fists were clenched, but more than once he went to reach for her.
“You’re going to have to do more than just stare at him,” Miriam said from her place in front of the door.
When Adair glared at her she shrugged sharply. “He’s coming out of it—you’ve all but killed us with this stupid idea of yours. At least you can make it worth his while.”
“You want to do this?” Adair snapped.
It wasn’t the first time Adair had suggested as much. With her newfound memories she knew she was being cruel by just being here. Judge had nothing but respect for Talon, and here Adair was, basically alone with him, easing him into a lust filled trance.
“I told you once—I cannot hold the illusion spell over him and touch him at the same time.”
“Didn’t have an issue when it was Judge,” Adair said venomously.
“And I wasn’t robbed of magic because I was helping you then either.”
“No, you were fucking my boyfriend.”
“Oh, that is low.”
“Yeah, you’re right about that.”
Right then Talon groaned, his eyes fluttered. He was fighting to wake up.
“You want to get back at Judge? Here you go. Either you seduce him or he wakes and whatever reason possessed you to even fucking care if Reveca kills this man or not goes up in smoke.”
When Adair further hesitated Miriam spoke again. “It’s not cheating. You’re not with anyone—he’s not. And to be frank the action is going on in his head, not out here. All you got to do is get the boy’s body in the right state of mind.”
“And how do you suppose I do that?”
Miriam hastily looked over her shoulder as if she sensed danger, then back to Adair. “Touch him—do you really need a play by play?”
After a tense few seconds, with shaky hands Adair reached out to Talon. She was hoping the feathered touches through his hair, across his shoulders would be enough. It had to be because her stubborn heart was not going to let her do more.
The first whisper of her touch across his temple eased him a bit, but then he fought again. So much so he jerked back, falling backward on the table, but never opening his eyes.
“Straddle him, hold him down!” Miriam harshly whispered across the sound of the moving table and empty whiskey bottles crashing to the floor. “He’s going to wake!”
She did, mainly to keep his massive body from falling.
Her legs were locked across his gut, his hands were reaching for her thighs—then, all at once, cold water came from nowhere, pouring over Talon, as Adair was thrust to the ceiling.
In the chaos, the room became full of people.
Dagen had appeared, so had King—apparently bringing Reveca. The door crashed open, Judge was there, Thames and Thrash were pushing in after him.
Talon was cussing and thrashing on the floor.
“You bitch,” Adair roared from the ceiling at Jade. “Let me down!”
King was holding Reveca in place. Even though he made it look easy, Adair was sure Reveca was putting up a fight. Miriam was promptly knocked out by Thames with one pinch between her shoulder and neck.
“I said let me down,” Adair roared again at Jade as she tried to think of every defensive hex she could.
“Now, Adair,” Jade said calmly as ever. “I realize this is a trying time for you, and you are missing your father figure.”
Talon all but bellowed from the floor as Jade spoke, gathering himself to stand in one fluid motion. Both his fiery bird and beast were driving him to look as deadly as he did.
Unbothered, Jade went on. “However, missing Talley gives you no reason to seduce your sire, in any way. Dreams or not.” She lifted her chin. “It’s unnatural, you see.”
“Seduce,” Judge and Reveca yelled at once.
“My-my sire,” Adair said, feeling her entire body go boneless.
“She didn’t touch me,” Talon said ruthlessly to Judge, ignoring Reveca. He nodded to Miriam passed out in Thames’s arms. “That one tried her damndest to make her do so.”
“Sire,” Reveca roared again.
“Ah, I see my work here is done. Come down now, child,” Jade said.
At once Adair began to fall. Talon caught her within the same breath.
Their stares met for a long instant; the chaos of the room wasn’t heard.
A father. A real one. Not an adoptive one. Not the ghost of a memory. Not a symbol in a journal. Not a mystery.
A father.
For the first time in Adair Vallet’s life she believed she was home. She had a piece of who she was staring back at her.
What sucked was that he had always been there. He came the second she called out to him and brought her states away from the only home she’d ever known. Placed her with Finley and Talley, and he watched her grow.
He was always there.
And like Judge…he let her go.
By the time her feet hit the ground she felt faint.
“Dagen,” she breathed, knowing he was not only sworn to protect her but could and would take her anywhere on this earth in a blink of an eye.
She had to run.
She had to find a breath to think.
That instant she felt Dagen’s arms encircle her waist. She felt the heated rush of wind.
The swamp house—and the secrets it revealed—vanished.
Episode Seven
Chapter One
He was so close. Death was right there. Lust and desire in abundance…
Of the millions of ways Talon had imagined telling Adair she was his daughter, of actually speaking to Reveca about any of this, what had just occurred was the last fuckin’ scenario to cross his mind.
In his Zen, the red Lady of Death had taken his mouth. Her hands were rushing across him, sinless touches that promised to deliver. A ruse he had fallen for before.
In the past when she had gotten him this far he was always so starved for energy and furious at Reveca that giving in was as easy as slipping into a dream. He didn’t feel the pull or the lull of death surround him until he was far under the spell and lost in his mind.
The first time, two hundred years after Talon’s original death, when Reveca fought for and won Talon, the Red Lady came for him.
Talon fought her, clashed against the pull of seduction. At the time, much like now, he was all but obsessed with Reveca—she had given him life in more ways than one. The thought of being inside another woman sickened him, even if it was only in a dream.
A century later, outside of what had become their ritual two hundred year meet and greet, she came forth during one of Talon and Reveca’s famous ‘breaks’ and she almost had Talon.
He’d given in to her whims, he was worshipping her body with his lips and hands, ravishing it—the more brutal he was the more she adored it. Somewhere in the midst Talon realized though he could see Reveca’s face in his mind; he couldn’t recall her name or how he knew her. He started to fight to wake up then, claw his way from the Lady of Death’s touch, ignoring the rage her words sliced him with.
From then on it was always a dark game. She knew when to arrive, when to test him, and he learned how best to fight her.
Apparently, how cleverly Talon would bait and then evade her became a bore, because she changed her play and possessed a human woman. Since that one long, heated, erotic night of skin to skin he’d never seen the Lady of Death in the flesh again.
She’d only emerged in Zen, threatening and taunting as ever. She swore to him the only reason Reveca still lived was because she gave her mercy—she claimed the mercy was a gift to Talon that she would rescind if he did not come to her. Come home to where he was meant to be, with who he was foreordained to complete.
Tonight was worse. Tonight he hungered for her touch. Not out of lust, but out of survival. His own soul was gasping for breath and she owned the air.
For a few silent moments, answering her call after all this time seemed less cowardly…it felt like coming home.
Talon had fought to hate Reveca for weeks and was damn near the point he could, so the Lady’s first move—to erase Reveca from Talon’s mind—was simplistic, a welcome act. Without memory there was no pain. His Club, sadly, forgetting them with every deliberate sway of the Lady’s hands was easier than it should be. A ghost of a voice kept telling Talon his boys were fine—he’d led them as far as he could…his ride was over.
It was one image, one face, one soul that gave Talon the strength to fight on, the idea to hesitate and think before submission.
Talon kept focusing on Adair’s voice, a sound that seemed to travel from somewhere far away.
Adair was arguing with another. He heard her say over and over, “I’m trying to save him!” Her voice was desperate and strong, but the mark of confusion and fear was evident. The tragedy was she had no idea she wasn’t saving him, she was delivering him to death.
The moment Talon realized what he was hearing, knew Adair was all but holding him within the Zen he was in, the Lady of Death smiled coolly. “She will deliver you to me.” Her fingertips traced his jaw. “My family is coming home at last.”
“You’d slay her?” Talon asked as the words cut his gut wide open, as fear he’d never acknowledged prickled his skin.
She raised her gaze to him. “It is you who has made this choice.”
Talon clutched her shoulders and shook her violently. “What have you done, Brosia?”
She flew from his arms emerging feet away, a ravaged look of betrayal upon her stunning face. “What had to be done to bring you home.”
Talon’s wrathful gaze shifted over her as he did his best to grasp everything he knew.
Adair had been tested and all but tortured by her emotions—so had every soul close to her. His dark gaze grew heavy as he realized why. Who was behind it all.
Sacrifice.
Jade had told him once when she found Talon staring into the flame of a candle, lost in deep thought and regret, “An act of love, a sacrifice made for such will be the only way Ambrosia will bring you home against your will—or with it for that matter.” She grinned gingerly. “And you do not love Reveca.”
No, he may not have been in love with Reveca then or now, but he did love her. Enough to lay his life down without question.
It all made sense to him now.
He knew what Jade was saying; he knew what Brosia had done.
Talon would lay his life down for Reveca…but he’d surrender his very soul for Adair.
Brosia had given him a child and was prepared to use their child, Adair, to destroy him, a fate he’d felt coming for a long time.
A fate that was easy to ignore when faced with the constant trials his MC endured—when the curse upon King was now also saddled on Talon’s family.
“Leave her be. I’m here,” Talon said in a vacant rasp, hoping that at the very least he’d remember his family, his daughter, once Brosia finally owned him.
Brosia stared endlessly at him, jealously in her green gaze, pain too. Before, when her stare held those emotions there was also wrath, so much so Talon feared for Reveca’s life.
Now, there was regret mingled in her gaze—an emotion that truly destroyed Talon. He knew then what Brosia had done was now out of her hands, out of her control, and for someone as powerful as her to not be able to protect and defend the act had to be horrific.
“The barter has been made. It must come to be,” Brosia said finally.
“What barter?” he raged as he charged her and found he couldn’t reach her. She had shielded herself from him.
“Eternal life free from imprisonment.”
“For who?” He knew it wasn’t for him or Adair; if so, the regret would not be in her gaze. Brosia may have been a cold bitch but she loved him, she loved their daughter. In her own twisted way, she truly did.
“This is your ill will.” She drew her elegant shoulders back. “You should have surrendered. Now, well now true evil will walk among the living.” Her gaze watered. “A testimony for how far I will go to claim what is mine.”
“What have you done?” Talon asked weakly. And he wasn’t entirely sure to whom he was speaking—her or himself.
Mine. It was her one and only claim when it came to the likes of Talon—he was hers and an evil blonde witch, Reveca, had robbed her of him. If he had gone with her long ago would any of the hell that was about to rain down have had a chance to come to be? He doubted it. Talon’s lust for Reveca had put his only child and the world in which she lived in jeopardy.
In the whispering distance he heard Adair’s voice once more, arguing with the Miriam girl.
“Stay with me,” Brosia said. “Our daughter will be home soon. Our family will never fear or face the malevolent power that is to come to the living. ”
Soon to a Lady of Death could be centuries. There was no way he was leaving Adair in a world with all of his enemies. Not yet.
“I’ll be damned,” Talon grunted as he fought and fought to wake, holding on to Adair’s voice. He knew if he got back at the very least he could warn them. He could call every immortal he knew, pull every power he possessed to stand and fight who or what Brosia had bartered with to bring evil to the living.
As he struggled he felt his soul shred. He was too weak for this fight. Nothing short of pure adrenaline pushed him beyond any limit set before him.
He won.
He woke in time to sense Adair before him, to know he was more than halfway back from the grips of Zen.
The gnawing knowledge Adair was in danger kept screaming at him—telling him to wake up and get her away from the witch who was taunting her. Fuck Miriam.
The water Jade had tossed on him was what jerked him completely free. Of course, the hell that broke loose afterward focused him all the more.
He felt vindicated and raped all at once.
For decades it had burned that Talley played the role that was his. It was agony to watch Adair seeing him in the light that only Talon could claim to rightfully own.
At the same time, he knew from his position he could ensure the only child he’d ever sired—flesh of his flesh—would be safe.
Even if Jade had not seen forward, told him Talley would protect Adair, that Finley would caress her fears away—and Judge would love her—Talon would have handpicked each of those souls to watch over Adair. Without question.
Like always, Jade’s words were shallow and never made sense when she spoke them—their truth comes when it seems most improbable—a lesson Talon learne
d the hard way, and to this day was still struggling to understand.
The first words Jade said to Talon when she met him nearly a century before, after one of her long stares was, “She has your eyes. No, not the color. The shape, the depth. The fire beneath…your lips, the color of your hair…the silent dare she walks with.” Jade’s gaze moved over him, enjoying how tense and confused Talon was. “With mortals it is always difficult to tell, but I would venture to speak she is more of you than her. Adair lacks Ambrosia’s knack of latching on to obsessions. Adair has your patience and tolerance for pain.” She grinned delicately. “In mortality both serve her well.”
It was the first time Talon had heard his daughter’s name. The first time he considered the possibility. It was the first time he realized that even if it were possible, no mortal he sired would still be walking the earth. Adair would’ve been over a hundred by then—it had been that long since Brosia had possessed a mortal, since he had been with another woman beyond Reveca.
Talon mourned Adair. He would fall into fits of rage for no reason—furious he had walked the same earth as a child of his blood and was blind to her, unable to protect and provide for her the way a father should.
It was difficult, with Reveca also so close and suspicious of Jade, but Talon pushed Jade for answers. At first Jade acted as if Talon had imagined her saying such things. She was vague when he pressed her to know if it was even feasible for him to have a child of flesh.
When the grief had subsided, when he realized Jade would never give him a clear answer and the one witch who could possibly explain any of this to him in laymen’s terms, Reveca, was the last person he could confide in, Talon let go. He let the knowledge of Adair rest deep in his heart, a regret he had no power to ever amend.
Three decades ago, as if it were nothing more than an afterthought, Jade told Talon of how Talley, Finley, and Judge would impact Adair’s life. As she was leaving his lair she said, “Ah yes, in Savannah, Talley will vindicate Adair and bring her home. It won’t be long now.”
She spoke of it as if it were to happen, not as if it could have or should’ve happened, confusing him all the more.