Part 20 (2/2)
Daegan knew it wasn't always the amount of time that formed bonds, but the circ.u.mstances. He inclined his head, though. ”Then, if that is all, I will take them back to our quarters to recuperate. I expect to take my leave tomorrow night, unless there are other matters to address.”
”You expect?” Lady Barbra rallied enough to send him a sharp look. ”You may request to be excused, Lord Daegan, but you never presume to expect anything of us.”
”I believe I was addressing Lord Belizar,” Daegan said shortly, making it clear how much authority he gave her. While he hadn't held much doubt, the moment he'd met their gazes, he'd known Stephen and Barbra had been responsible for Barnabus. Like Gideon, he understood that meant they were responsible for Anwyn as well. For that alone, they'd earned a death sentence, and as soon as he could figure out how to administer it so it didn't endanger Anwyn and Gideon, he'd carry it out.
”Though I do concur with Lady Barbra's admonishment,” Belizar said, in a rea.s.suringly mild tone, ”I will allow for the fact that, if you have amazed and depleted us, you have likely depleted your limited diplomacy skills as well. Go to your quarters, Lord Daegan. I will send word as to the Council's pleasure regarding you and your charges before dawn.”
16.
WHEN Gideon surfaced, it was to a gentle hand on his brow and cool cloths on his back and b.u.t.tocks. He was facedown on a bed and bare-a.s.sed naked. When he tested movement, he found he could move far more easily than he expected. Reaching back, he found one of the deeper stripes along his rib cage was already a pink strip of healed skin.
”The blessing and curse of being a third-marked servant. They can beat the h.e.l.l out of you, torture you all they want, and after a day or two, they could do it all over again, your skin completely unmarked.”
”Not entirely,” he murmured, finding her hand, whispering over her stroking fingers. ”My Mistress gave me some permanent ones. You did good, Anwyn. They're the jerks, not you.”
She paused, adjusting the packs on his back, though he thought the whisper of her fingers felt even better over his flanks than the ice.
”Let me amend that,” she said. ”You'll be fine in a day except for your brain damage. That's inoperable because no surgical saw is strong enough to cut through your thick skull.”
”Nice.” Gideon cracked his eyes open at last to see her lovely face. ”Hi there.”
Her eyes crinkled, though he saw the strain around her mouth, in the blue-green depths. ”Hey yourself. I can probably remove the towels if you want to sit up.” She stroked his brow again. ”Gideon, I'm so sorry.”
”Not your doing, Mistress. I'm just grateful you remembered you have a vampire's strength before you started swinging that thing, else you might have had to rea.s.semble my ribs like bowling pins.” With a cautious groan, he pushed himself up, giving Anwyn time to move the packs. Except for an initial moment of light-headedness, he was remarkably himself. ”Wow. I feel like a superhero. How did I get here?” He gave her a sidelong glance. ”Please don't tell me that you carried me. Flesh-ripping pain I can handle; being carried by a girl will require ritual suicide.”
”Worse than that. Daegan did.” She gave him a mock grimace. ”And though you weren't carried by a girl, you were carried like a girl. He cradled you in his arms as gently as a mother. It was very touching. And impressive, considering how big you are.”
”Christ. Tell him next time to just drag me by one boot heel.”
”Letting your head thump, thump, thump down the stairs?”
”Well, you said that couldn't hurt anything, right?”
Anwyn put a hand on the side of his face, her gaze sobering. ”I am am sorry.” sorry.”
”Sorry for having to do it, or sorry for the fact you kind of enjoyed it?” He kept his gaze level with hers, no condemnation in the simple truth. She c.o.c.ked her head, stroking her knuckles through the hair at his temples, teasing the light scattering of silver strands, and pa.s.sed her thumb over his lips.
”I was immersed in your thoughts there at the end,” she murmured. ”Though I've always known the relations.h.i.+p between pain and surrender, pleasure and release, there is something about what I am now that has made testing those boundaries that much keener. I felt how you let go to me, and to Daegan, and for a moment, despite how horrible it all was, it was . . .”
”Perfect.” He finished it for her, lifted a shoulder. ”Whatever it is that you have in you, combined with what was before, found an answer somewhere inside me. Don't know how to deal with it, how to talk about it. h.e.l.l, really don't want to talk about it. Would rather just leave it there, you know. It happened, and that's that.”
He was right. On the surface, the horror of it should have sent her straight into a seizure, watching his flesh slice open at her hand, the blood running down his back. Yet somehow, somewhere along the way, she'd let go of that as well, her consciousness and Daegan's twining around the chaos of Gideon's pain-wracked brain. A thought had come to the top of that spiral, from her servant's mind. Something his brother, Jacob, had apparently said. The true meaning of utter trust and surrender, Gideon. Being stripped so bare that a Mistress could walk the avenue straight into the darkest room of a man's heart, and he would want her there. Need her there The true meaning of utter trust and surrender, Gideon. Being stripped so bare that a Mistress could walk the avenue straight into the darkest room of a man's heart, and he would want her there. Need her there.
”It happened, and that's that.” He'd repeated it. She knew it was far more complex than that, yet she found his way of summarizing it uniquely him, and therefore appropriate.
”You've never been very verbal.” She watched him lace their fingers together, bring her knuckles to his lips.
”No, I'm not. Mistress.”
It flickered in her heart like a warmed flame, made her fingers tighten on his. His lashes fell against the proud cheekbones as he pressed his mouth harder to her flesh, holding it there.
”Well,” she said, somewhat unsteadily, ”I've had one good thought, sitting here with you. As long as the two of us are connected to a supersecret agent like Daegan, it's not likely we'll often be required to be part of the vampire social scene.”
”Supersecret agent.” He gave a m.u.f.fled snort against her hand. ”I guess there might be one perk to hanging around with the arrogant b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Now all we have to do is get out of here alive to enjoy it.”
”True enough.” She spent several more precious moments stroking his face, the line of his shoulder; then he lifted his head.
”I seem to be wearing nothing, so maybe I should put some clothes on. If you have no objections.”
”I have plenty, but given the circ.u.mstances, I'm going to wait until we're home to start imposing the no-clothing-except-when-I-allow it rule.”
He couldn't tell if she was serious, G.o.d help him. He decided to leave that alone as well and rose to go to the closet. ”Where's Daegan?”
”One of the Council servants came and got him about two hours ago. You've been out awhile. I'm not sure what it was about. He told me not to worry, that no matter what, we leave here when he gets back.” She nodded toward her laptop, open on a desk. ”I've been working on some billing issues and logging messages to James and Madelyn, though I have to go up top for them to go through. For some reason, stone walls don't lend themselves to good Wi-Fi reception.” She attempted a grim smile. ”I really do need to get back. We have an annual VIP reunion coming up, and it's always our busiest weekend. I need to be there.”
At his look, she lifted a shoulder. ”Insane, isn't it? Daily life goes on despite this kind of thing.”
He grunted, a noncommittal acknowledgment. But when she rubbed her arms, he saw an ink mark and gestured. ”Did you get yourself with a pen?”
She glanced down at it. ”No. I was asked to accompany Lord Brian to his lab so he could take some tests. This was a needle marker.”
”Ah, h.e.l.l. It was because of what Vincent saw, wasn't it?”
She nodded. ”Daegan said I shouldn't be concerned about it. But then, he says that about everything, doesn't he?”
Gideon gave a gruff snort at that, and she managed a half smile. ”I don't know what will come of it, but at least it wasn't that difficult. It was actually pleasant to see him again. It was private there, so we didn't have to pretend we'd never met.”
Though Anwyn wouldn't say the conversation had been entirely comfortable.
Still shaken from the dinner, Anwyn had gratefully received the injection Brian had prepared for her, which he said also included a vampire version of a sedative.
”I can tell you need it,” he said gently when she at first balked. ”It has no sluggish side effects. It won't dull your wits. I know Gideon is still unconscious, because you get a particularly strained look to your face when you're having to manage the gremlins by yourself.”
”After that dinner, how can you tell the difference between that and your standard nervous breakdown?” She gave a harsh chuckle. ”Daegan can help, but they're intimidated by his presence in my head. They cower, but they're sullen and angry about it, testing. With Gideon, they calm, lie down like birds in the gra.s.s. I haven't quite figured out why.”
”It's likely a mixing of their psychology with yours. When you're agitated, Gideon calms you because he is your servant, not a threat to your dominance.”
Her lips twisted. ”Early on, Daegan said something similar. He always has to be right.”
”Well, he's about seven hundred years old, I believe. There's a theory, not entirely proven, that there's a connection between time and the acc.u.mulation of wisdom.”
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