Part 32 (1/2)

He extended his hand, a curious gesture with Gideon sitting there, not a st.i.tch on, but the vampire hunter-or former vampire hunter, Anwyn was pleased to correct herself-met it, the two clasping forearms. ”You have my respect, Gideon. I will always watch your back as well.” A light smile touched his mouth as he gave Gideon back his part threat, part promise. ”And Anwyn's.”

She saw Gideon's face tighten in unexpected reaction. His battered soul was barely able to absorb it, all of this emotion and feeling. It overwhelmed him, in a good way, but she knew they needed to help him. Daegan gave her a slight nod, acknowledging her desire to change the subject before Gideon's nakedness wasn't the only thing that would embarra.s.s him again.

”I do have one more question for you, Gideon,” she said. ”You won't think of it without being asked. Therefore, it's not something I can just pluck out of your head.”

He cleared his throat, managed to speak in a steady voice. ”So I need to concentrate really hard and make sure I don't think about all those other women I've had?”

”Neanderthal.” She pinched his a.s.s, hard enough to make him jump, though she curved her leg over his hip, holding him to her. Daegan's fingers slipped along her calf, teasing the back of her knee, making her increase her grip, pressing her still-damp s.e.x against Gideon's lower abdomen. But since she wanted an answer to her question, she pushed away the silky swirl of l.u.s.t, in her mind and theirs. There was time for all of it. That was what made it so worth the wait.

”You've been doing what you do for a long time, with no rest. Is there one thing, something you haven't done in a long time, maybe, that you'd like to do?”

As she expected, it came into his head, a bright fruit on a tree of memory, the first thing that flashed. It startled him, she could tell, because it came so easily. He'd never entertained such a question, though he'd apparently revisited it in his subsconscious a thousand times.

”I haven't been to the beach in years,” he said.

A simple wish for a complex man. Running her knuckles along his strong jaw, she gazed at his beloved face. ”We can do that. We couldn't be with you during daylight, but . . .”

He shook his head. ”I always thought the beach was pretty at night.” Looking at her, he added softly, ”Now it'll be flat-out beautiful.”

Anwyn lifted a brow. ”Having Daegan there won't make it beautiful?”

Gideon raised an eyebrow, glanced at the vampire. ”Sometimes you have to take the ugly-a.s.sed weeds with the flowers.”

The tackle was expected, even though she shrieked and had to use her vampire speed to get out of the way.

”In the weapons room,” she commanded loudly, waving her arms at them. Gideon countered Daegan's attack with a few lithe moves that quickly became quite an impressive display, seeing as he was wearing no clothes, and Daegan was wearing very little. Then he landed a sharp elbow in Daegan's jugular that had her wincing. Gideon bolted for the weapons room, the vampire in close pursuit.

Taking another leisurely sip of her wine, she trailed after them. In the doorway, she folded her arms and watched them hit the mats, a light smile on her face, bright joy in her heart, contentment settled in every pore.

No woman in her right mind could underappreciate what she was watching now, the two men she was certain would become more irrevocably lodged in her soul every day, just as she would in theirs. She knew it not only because she was in their minds, but because she was in their hearts, every double beat met with a resounding one of her own.

She had Daegan, Gideon and the world of Atlantis. Tragedy had taken her down roads to wondrous places never imagined. Those places didn't replace or make up for the tragedy, but they underscored that there was sweet mystery to life she'd never dismiss or underappreciate, whatever shadows or gremlins she met.

Gideon and Daegan would help her make sure of it.

Epilogue.

THE ocean waters glittered in moonlight, the white curve of sand private and long, stretching into the night shadows. As he drew the smell of clean salt.w.a.ter into his lungs, Gideon realized not only had he not smelled the ocean in a long time; he hadn't really breathed deep and easy in a long time, either. It was amazing how emotional pain cramped one's breathing, without even realizing it.

The night Anwyn had asked him about this, he'd also remembered why it was his favorite memory. Ironically, the last pain-free day of his life had been the day he'd lost his parents. They'd been on a beach, he and Jacob, playing in the waves, making sand castles, running along the sh.o.r.eline, wrestling.

Because Anwyn knew his heart so well, he didn't know why it surprised him now to look up the beach and see three figures-two adults, one carrying a child-joining Anwyn and Daegan. He'd left them relaxed on a blanket, next to the picnic basket of food for him and good wine for them.

Though instinct had him briefly tensing, scenting for danger, a part of him already knew who it was. A man with his own stride and set to his shoulders separated from them and came down the beach.

He'd talked to Jacob a few times by phone these past couple of months. Some of it had been hard, covering ground that should have been covered years ago, but he'd done it. Jacob had wanted to come see him then, but Gideon had put him off. It had been too difficult to explain that he had to wait until he was allowed to wear clothes. There were some things he was not going to share with his brother, though he expected Jacob knew all too well what vampires were capable of doing to their servants in the name of that inexplicable owners.h.i.+p he now embraced like a bizarre but vital gift.

”Hey, Gid.” Jacob greeted him, as if it was nothing unusual for him to show up on a beach miles from his home.

”Hey.” Gideon studied him as his brother came to a halt. Slightly leaner than Gideon, with their mother's reddish brown hair, they nevertheless shared those midnight blue eyes. And without rancor, he admitted Jacob had always been prettier. Anwyn and Daegan didn't seem to mind the rugged cut of his face, though, the scars he carried. Jesus, he had changed, if he cared about something like that.

With a slight smile, as if reading his thoughts, Jacob moved in, took him easily in a hug. It was awkward at first; then Gideon let it go, banded his arms around his little brother, held him tight. It was okay; his face couldn't be seen. He sensed the vampire in his brother, the strength restrained, and yet Jacob conveyed in his embrace the love he'd always bore for him, that Gideon had kept at bay for far too long.