Текст книги "Black Moon"

Автор книги: J. Tyler

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

“You’ve got the right Sorcerer but the wrong impression,” Kalen said stiffly. “Malik doesn’t needa reason to make everyone’s lives miserable, but he’s got a couple all the same, and his plans happen to include me.”

“And what do yourplans include? Balancing on the fence until you figure out which side you’re going to land on?”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop about twenty degrees and Mac’s stomach twisted. “Daddy, please—”

Kalen interrupted her plea. “That’s a fair question. No, sir, I’m not sitting on any fence. I’m fighting as hard as I can against the asshole who wants me in his camp. And I’m determined to win, but if I don’t . . .” He swallowed hard, but held her father’s steely gaze. “I’m prepared to do what I have to in order to protect your daughter and my team.”

Her dad nodded, new respect easing the harshness of his face. “If it looks like you’re going to fail, I’ll help you do it. Believe that.”

God. They were discussing Kalen, her mate and the man she loved, losing his life, right in front of her! Mac’s stomach lurched again, and she knew she was going to be sick. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Excuse me.”

She ran for the bathroom, hit her knees, and heaved. As she did, her father’s incredulous voice floated in the air. Made her pulse pound with panic and regret.

“Sooo . . . when the hell were the two of you going to tell me that my baby girl is pregnant?”

Twelve

Pregnant?

What the fuck?

Kalen made like a statue, stared dumbly at the undoubtedly badass General Jarrod Grant and searched for an appropriate reaction. Unfortunately, his brain short-circuited and he gaped at the general with his mouth hanging open and his heart doing a weird stuttering thing in his chest. Maybe he was going to have a heart attack.

“What? Don’t tell me you didn’t know,” Grant demanded. “She’s been rubbing her stomach since I got here, she didn’t take a single sip of her coffee, and now she’s throwing up her guts. And the kicker is, she’s not really sick—in fact, I’ve never seen her more radiant. How long has this been going on?”

“I—I don’t know.” He thought back, trying to remember.

“Wake up, son. Seems like you’ve been so busy with your Unseelie problem that you’ve been blind to what’s most important.”

Kalen blinked at the man. “You must be mistaken. She wouldn’t keep something like that from me.” Would she?

“Actually, Dad, I was waiting for the right time to talk to him,” Mac said, her voice tight with stress and irritation. “So thanks for bulldozing right over me.”

“Shit! I’m sorry, baby girl,” he said contritely.

Kalen felt like his head was going to explode. He rubbed his temples, staring at his mate. “You’re pregnant.”

“Yes.” Her blue eyes were clouded with worry. “I was going to tell you. There just hasn’t been a good time.”

Some thread of knowledge was trying to come to the forefront, but he hadn’t grasped it yet. He was still too busy assimilating the facts to think about how excited he was over the news. “How long have you known?”

Her face paled and she licked her lips. “A few days.”

A few days. Okay. He processed that and the unwanted information slowly dawned. She wouldn’t have—but yeah. She fucking had. A hot flare of anger ignited inside him and built rapidly toward something very, very ugly.

“You knew,” he said in a deceptively low voice that quickly ramped up in volume. “You sent me out to battle with the pendant around my neck. The pendant that should have been protecting not only you but our child.”

The general frowned. “What pendant?”

“The one she’s wearing that protects against evil. I gave it to her, but she took it off when we went into battle against some Sluagh and begged me to wear it.”

“Mac,” her father began, “what were you thinking?”

“I can explain!” Her eyes filled with tears as she fingered the disk in question. “It seemed safe for me and the baby here, and I didn’t want anything to happen to you!”

But Kalen’s rage was far from averted. “You chose to protect me over our baby? How the fuck could you?” he roared. He hadn’t even realized he’d taken a giant step toward her until Grant was between them, a palm on his chest, holding him back.

“Okay, let’s all calm down.”

“I’m sorry!” she cried. The tears broke free and rolled down her cheeks. But Kalen wasn’t swayed.

Malik pounced on the situation. Didn’t I warn you, my boy? Do you believe now that I’m the only one you can trust to tell you the truth?

“You endangered our child, Mackenzie,” he said hoarsely, grabbing his head in both hands. The pain of her betrayal was so great, it threatened to send his anger over the edge. “I don’t know if that’s something I can forgive.”

There’s something else she knows that you do not,Malik said, his voice sly and pleased. Ask her.

“What else are you keeping from me?”

Sobbing openly now, she shook her head in confusion. “What? Nothing!”

She lies. Come to me and I’ll forgive your betrayal. I’ll reveal the answer to the question you asked me not so long ago. The answer she refuses to give to you.

“You’re lying,” he hissed at her.

“Wait a damned minute,” Grant began, his face reddening in anger. “My girl wouldn’t lie to you. Maybe she made a mistake. But she only did that because she cares about you.”

A mistake that could have caused you to lose your child.

“I can’t—I have to get out of here before I say or do something I’ll regret.”

Spinning on his heel, he pushed out the door and summoned the rest of his clothing onto his body with a wave of his hand. His mate cried out his name, but he kept going. Faster and faster until he was running, nearly barreling into Ryon as he rounded the corner at the end of the corridor.

“Hey, dude, where’s the fire?”

He kept going. But the facts chased him anyway, dogging his steps. His mate had endangered their baby. Sure, the wards over the compound meant that the child was probably safe. Probably.But nothing was ever one hundred percent. She’d gambled with a defenseless child’s life.

That’s right. She refused to protect your child. Just like your mother refused to protect you.

His anger and shock were much too hard to contain. His shift happened almost without conscious thought and his panther was set free. Streaking through the compound toward the rec room, he was hardly aware of the surprised shouts. A teammate calling after him, asking what was wrong. If he could’ve laughed, he would’ve.

What was right?

He bolted through the rec room, leaping and easily clearing A.J. and Kira, who were sprawled on the carpet watching television. He ran straight for the outside door—and right through the glass, which shattered on impact. Alarms blared. Somebody would have to fix that. He didn’t give a fuck.

There was no pain from any possible injury. Only pain inside that had no outlet.

He ran through the forest for a long while, moving in the direction of Malik’s cabin. The place that was nothing more than an illusion, filled with wickedness. So wrong. But he needed to know what the damned Unseelie was talking about. Was his mate really keeping something else from him, or was it a trick? If she was, he might not be able to forgive her.

But didn’t everyone deserve another shot? What if nobody had been willing to give him a chance when he arrived in Cody? What if Nick and the Pack had turned him out? They could have at any point in the last few weeks, when it had become obvious Kalen came with a battleship full of trouble. If they had, where would he be now?

Right where he was currently headed. Of that much he was suddenly sure. Malik would have simply lured him in sooner. In an epiphany, it struck him that Malik was, almost without a single doubt, the one responsible for bringing Kalen to the Shoshone in the first place. Until now, he’d always chalked it up to fate that he’d ended up here.

Now he knew better.

The rustic cabin came into view and he slowed, trotting into the yard. The front door opened before he even reached the porch, Malik standing there in his guise as Kerrigan, looking as handsome and urbane as ever.

“You could have teleported,” the Unseelie observed with impatience. “I don’t appreciate being kept waiting.”

Letting his magic flow, he shifted back into human form. “Tough shit. I’m here now, aren’t I?”

A flash of anger sparked in his fathomless eyes, but then Malik’s lips turned up in amusement. “Come inside, whelp. The last time you were here you asked me a question. I have the answer.”

Kalen followed him into the house. Nothing had changed—but something was about to. The air was heavy with the weight of a secret that might soon crush him with the telling. Any secret Malik was excited to impart could only mean bad things for anyone around him.

“What is this answer going to cost me? You want blood?”

“I already have that,” he answered cryptically. “And so do you.”

Kalen suppressed a shiver. “Are you going to dance around this all night? I don’t even remember the question I asked.”

Malik walked to the wet bar and removed two tumblers from the glass shelf. Into each he poured two generous fingers of the fine Cognac he’d served before, his stance all too casual. But Kalen had no trouble reading the growing anticipation in the Unseelie’s expression. His posture. He turned, a feverish light in his eyes as he brought Kalen the drink, handed it to him.

“You asked me, why you? Why, of all the powerful beings in the world, did I choose you?”

“I remember now.” Kalen took a fortifying sip of the liquor, let it warm his insides as it went down. “I assumed it had to do with what Grandma told me. That I was born under a black moon, which makes me vulnerable to dark forces.”

“That is true, what she told you,” he allowed.

“But there’s more.”

“Of course. Isn’t there always?” Malik swirled the amber liquid, took a drink. Then he closed the distance between them, standing casually a mere couple of feet away. Too close. “You are one with the darkness because it’s in your blood, Kalen. It’s a part of you that causes you intense pain to deny, and yet you fight it so.” He seemed genuinely saddened by this.

“I feel it,” he admitted. “All the time.”

“There is no point in your fighting it any longer.” The other male gazed into his eyes. Kalen couldn’t look away if he tried. “You were born to be the greatest Sorcerer, the most powerful Fae in the universe. I want you to learn all that you can so that one day, when my time in the universe is done, I may pass the torch. You will rule as I have. You’re the only one who can carry on my work.”

Kalen shook his head. “That’s crazy. I’m nothing like you.”

“Remember what I said about blood. You were born under a black moon, which means your sire was a creature of power and darkness. This is what your grandmother kept from you,” the Unseelie said earnestly. “Don’t you understand?”

His brows furrowed. “Not really. You’re saying that my father was, what? A ‘creature of darkness,’ as you put it? Dave was Unseelie or something?”

“May the gods damn David Ray Black for the spineless human worm he was!” Malik thundered, hurling his glass of Cognac across the room, where it shattered into a zillion shards. The Unseelie’s fangs lengthened and his human glamour began to slip. Claws emerged at his fingertips, and his ebony wings erupted from his back as he raged.

“That worthless slug could never sire such a force as you! That is why he hated you so fucking much! That’s why he beat you and your mother daily! Why he tossed you out of his home that night, so afraid of you that he almost pissed himself when he realized you were coming into your magic! Don’t you get it, boy?”

Kalen swallowed the sickness rising in his throat with the liquor. “He wasn’t my father? Then who is?” he rasped.

Oh, God, no. If there’s any hope for me at all, please—

“You are mine! Myson! You have always been mine!”

Kalen’s glass hit the carpet. He stared at Malik in sheer horror.

Malik’s palms cupped his face, sharp claws digging into his scalp. His dark gaze captured Kalen, refused to let him go. “I am your father, my boy. Your mother was once royalty, a much younger cousin to the Seelie queen who birthed Sariel. I talked my way into your mother’s bed in the Seelie court, fucked her right under your grandmother’s nose.” He chuckled, low and dangerous.

“Then I waited for her to realize I had bestowed a child upon her. She would hand over my son at his birth, and I would take away the evidence of her shame with none the wiser. That was my offer to her.”

“Which she refused.” Kalen felt numb.

“Yes, which she refused, the stupid bitch,” he spat. “She and your grandmother secreted you away to the human realm. There she seduced Black, let him believe the child was his, and he was happy. Until you were born and he overheard the two women whispering that he could never learn you were not his.”

“And you left me at his mercy for years,” Kalen hissed.

“I did not know where you were! When I finally found you, you were wearing your grandmother’s pendant and I couldn’t approach you. I waited and bided my time. Allowed you to grow into a man.”

“Allowed me to suffer, you mean,” he choked, shame and regret clogging his throat. “The pendant didn’t save me from doing what I had to do to survive. You should have intervened.”

“You grew stronger,” Malik countered. “Because of your trials, because of the darkness you encountered at the hands of others, you learned to feed your own.”

“So that’s the real reason.” He hung his head. “You let me suffer to feed this awful rage inside, so you could one day come in and show me how to hone it into a weapon.”

“You needn’t make it sound like such a harsh decision,” the Unseelie said with uncharacteristic gentleness. “Are you not strong? Are you not ready to stand at my side?”

A bitter laugh escaped his chest. “Strong? Not so sure. Stand at your side? I don’t fucking think so. I stand alone. You taught me how, remember?”

To his surprise, Malik smiled, looking extremely proud. “Yes, I do. And I taught you well. Had you agreed, that would have been a great disappointment. No one will ever be your equal, boy. Not even me, given time. I have more to teach you yet, but you have all the makings of a fine Unseelie king. My son.”

He backed away, panic fluttering. “No, I don’t. And I’m not your son. Not in any way that matters.”

“You are, and you will prove me correct.”

“Yeah? How’s that?” He was about two seconds from bolting. Fuck, he needed out of here.

“You will see.” Malik paused, studying him. “Have you forgotten why you came here today, to my humble cabin?”

Kalen’s mind was a mess. He thought for a few seconds before he recalled his original reason for the visit. “You claimed my mate lied to me. That she knew something and wouldn’t tell me.”

Malik paused, then detonated his world. “Your Mackenzie knows that you are my son. She knows that the baby she carries is my grandchild.”

The room dipped and the Unseelie’s clawed hand steadied him on his feet. “You’re lying!”

“No. I told her several days ago, a fact that you can easily confirm by speaking with her. Which I assume you will do.”

“Does Nick know?” he managed.

“That I cannot say.” Malik shrugged. “But he is a Seer, is he not? How many, I wonder, hid the truth from you? Perhaps my other wayward son—your half brother, Sariel? Did he lie as well?”

His conversation with Sariel in the infirmary flashed through his mind in snippets.

As his progeny, I am the only being with the power to destroy him. Or so I believed until recently.

I’ve known you were Fae since the second you entered the compound.

As humans say, my sire lies like a fucking rug. Don’t believe anything that passes his foul lips, Sorcerer. I mean that.

Kalen couldn’t speak. There were no words for the agony of betrayal. His mate’s, perhaps Nick’s and Sariel’s, too. So many lies and half-truths, he didn’t know who to believe. Who to turn to in his confusion and pain. And Malik understood exactly how to apply salt to the wound.

“Those pathetic humans you’ve come to trust, they will destroy you,” the Unseelie said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“They won’t.” But he was no longer sure. Hadn’t Nick promised that if Kalen gave in to the darkness he’d be executed as a rogue?

“The commander practically has a hard-on at the possibility of being able to blow your brains out. And Sorcerer or not, there’s no coming back from having your gray matter splattered over the forest.”

That image reminded him of another, this one very real. “You really did murder my mother and my fa—David Black,” he accused, seething.

“Yes. I wiped from the earth the man who had abused you for years and the woman who stood by and allowed it to happen.” He regarded Kalen coolly. “And when you saw their bodies, didn’t a large part of you wish that youhad done the deed? Isn’t that really why you became ill?”

God help him, he couldn’t deny that.

All he could be thankful for was that his grandmother had died months before he was forced from his home. Ida May never knew the horror that befell her daughter.

Wait. “You never harmed my grandmother, did you? Because if you did—”

The Unseelie held up a hand. “On my word, I never touched Ida May. We locked horns many times, but I rather admired the old bat, in my own way. As far as I know, she perished of natural causes, whatever those might have been.”

Strangely, he believed that, if anything, was the unvarnished truth.

The two of them stood for long moments, neither speaking. In all of the horrible revelations, the one that hurt the most centered on Mackenzie. She was the sole bright light in his entire miserable existence. If he couldn’t count on her, he had nothing.

“You are thinking of your mate,” Malik said. “She kept two very important truths from you, but don’t take my word. Confront her for yourself and you will see.”

“I don’t need your advice on how to conduct my personal life.”

He shrugged. “Whether you heed my advice or not, it doesn’t matter. The reality is what it is.”

If only he could grasp what that reality was. He turned to get the hell out, but the Unseelie grasped his arm.

“You’re forgetting something.”

Kalen glared at him, ready to snap out a retort—and then the Unseelie opened his wrist with a claw and held it out.

“Your blood reward.”

“I don’t want it.” He gritted his teeth against the tantalizing scent of the blood, so intoxicating. Better than liquor. He wanted to resist, but was about as successful as a junkie trying to turn down a hit of heroin.

“Taste. And this time, do so knowing who you are and that you’re mine.”

The wrist waved in front of his nose and he hesitated a few heartbeats before grabbing it and giving in to temptation. His panther purred, glad to have any blood that he didn’t have to hunt. His other half enjoyed letting the sweetness, so like molasses, slide down his throat to warm his belly. It infused his body with a shot of adrenaline, filled his soul with wickedness.

He wanted to hurt those who had lied to and misled him. Longed to crush them all. Except his mate. Her, perhaps, he would show mercy. But the others? There was no limit to his wrath, no stopping his revenge.

Delicious tendrils of excitement snaked around his balls. This sort of absolute power was pure arousal, frighteningly addictive. Drugs were never a lure for him, but this was different.

“My boy,” Malik whispered. “My son. Take all you need. I give you my strength to add to yours.”

Kalen drank until he couldn’t think straight anymore, while Malik stroked his head and murmured.

“Embrace who you are. Then make them pay.”

The wonderful darkness had obliterated all reason. Hadn’t he endured enough agony? What had he ever done to deserve the abuse he’d suffered his entire life? All of it was too much. His mind, his will, could no longer stand against this seduction.

“Make them all pay.”

Yes. He wanted that. “How?”

“First, you will kill Sariel. He is a threat to me, to us,” Malik said quietly. “I know this will be difficult for you, but it must be done.”

“But . . . he’s my half brother.”

“Yes, and he must die, or you and I will. If we perish, so does our mission—to rule the world and put paranormals at the top of the food chain. Remember what I told you before about the greater good. Sometimes sacrifices must be made, my boy.”

“I understand.”

“Very good.” He gave Kalen a sly smile. “Have no fear. You will come to enjoy the killing. Do you feel the wicked rush in your veins from the blood reward?”

“Yeah.” He wanted more.

“Killing your prey slowly, draining their life force as you do . . .” He made a sound of satisfaction. “There is nothing like it. Multiply how the blood reward makes you feel and you’ll have an idea how pleasurable it is to take your prey.”

Against his will, his cock thickened in anticipation. Deep in his brain, some part of the former Kalen recoiled in dread at his own salacious thoughts. The longing to feel what Malik described. But he couldn’t deny that he wanted it. He was tired of being the nice guy, of coming in last.

It was time for vengeance.

“I’ll kill Sariel,” he heard himself say. What? No!

“And then you will kill one other Pack member of your choice. Someone you truly like.”

“Why?” He frowned.

“Because I order it so, and you must prove your loyalty is to me and none other.”

That settled him. He had a purpose. “All right.”

Malik looked beyond pleased. “You will be amazed at how easy and satisfying it is to drain the life force of another and take it into yourself. This is your birthright. It is only natural for the strong to consume the weak.”

“I’ll do it. What else?”

“When I give the order, you will lower the shields on the compound again. And this time they will remain down. I have an army of hundreds of Sluagh ready to storm the base and slaughter every living soul inside. Except your mate, of course. I have big plans for my grandson.”

Kalen tried to feel something at that news, any sense of remorse. But it was as though he’d signed away his soul to the devil.

Except . . . his son. The screaming voice was back in his head, protesting. He had to protect his son from Malik. But then the voice was fading away, buried under layers of malice and confusion. Replaced by animal excitement.

Death and destruction. Why did that sound so inviting?

This isn’t me. But I can’t stop him. Don’t know how.

Oh, how he longed to kill.

But can I do it, when the time comes?

“Would you like to practice?”

He blinked at Malik. “What?”

“Trust me. I’ll create an avatar for you to practice on.” With a wave of his hand, the Unseelie chanted a few words in a language Kalen had never heard before. In moments, a whirl of energy whipped round and round in the living room and slowly formed into a familiar figure.

“Sariel?” he whispered.

In the middle of the room, the prince stood blinking in confusion, uncertain of where he was or what was going on, it seemed. The Fae looked to Malik and then Kalen, fear blooming on his face.

“Why am I here?” the prince asked.

“You were supposed to create an avatar, not bring someone here for real!” Kalen said.

“This isan avatar.” Malik shook his head. “If it were that easy to bring my wayward first son here and kill him, I would’ve done that long ago.”

“As if you could ever kill me,” Sariel’s image sneered. “You’re pathetic, both of you.”

With that, Kalen let the darkness loose. He shot a bolt of white energy at the blue-haired, blue-winged figure. The bolt hit him square in the chest and he went down.

Kalen pounced, but the prince rolled away, proving to be a more agile target than he’d thought. He went after the fleeing form, tackling the Seelie before he got halfway across the room. A fragile bone in one of the wings snapped and the prince shouted in pain. One tiny drop of blood, and the lust for the kill was ignited.

He let his panther loose and pinned the faery as he would a deer, going for the throat. Just before he struck, the prince turned wide, stricken eyes toward him and whispered, “Brother.”

But it was too late to stop the panther. His jaws closed over the vulnerable throat like a steel trap and crushed. Slowly. Flesh, muscle, and bone gave way to his superior strength. The weak feeds the strong.The prince’s cries were strangled, then silenced, but his body continued to fight.

“That’s it, Kalen,” his father rasped, his voice thick. “Now feel his life force with your magic and drink it in like fine Cognac. Take it all.”

Reaching out with his magic, he did just that. He followed the tendril of life to its source and began to breathe it inside himself. At the same time, he drank. Slurped the blood of his victim and began to feed at his neck, tearing the tender meat. So good. So fucking fantastic. He could comefrom this, feeding and glutting—

And suddenly the body beneath him was gone. It simply vanished into thin air. There was no blood anywhere. Not on himself or the floor. He turned back to human form and scowled. Where had his prey disappeared to?

“I’d say you got the hang of that rather quickly.”

“It really was an avatar?”

“Yes. As I said, the real Sariel has been much harder to catch.”

Kalen shuddered. He’d known, deep down, the avatar wasn’t real and said a silent thanks for it. But he’d still reveled in the act of killing. Could he do it next time, for real?

“You can do it,” his father said, as if reading his thoughts. “I would not have chosen you to rule at my side if you did not possess the strength.”

“Thank you, . . . Father.”

Malik smiled, his expression one of triumph. “You will not let me down.”

“No, sir.”

“Go, boy. Do what I told you. Kill Sariel and one other, and then wait for my command to lower the wards.”

“Nick will execute me as soon as I make a move to harm anyone there.”

“If he apprehends you, he’ll have you locked up first. That will be his downfall—the hope that he can still save you. Remember, when the time comes, embrace the great Sorcerer you were meant to be. Now go.”

The farther he got from Malik’s cabin, the more his returning awareness weighted him down. The end was near. He knew the Pack would never allow him to go rogue. Any more than he could allow himself to follow through with his raw, bestial urge to destroy.

One way or another, very soon, Kalen was going to die.