The Darkest Kiss (Riley Jenson Guardian #6)(53)

Yann waved the comment away. “Your brother is probably the only reason Liander held on. That was a bad wound, lass.”
“I know.”
His gaze briefly slipped to the raw wounds still visible on my arm and my face. “I guess you do.”
He sat back down. I leaned against Quinn’s shoulder and finally allowed myself to relax.
Liander was going to be okay, and so was my brother.
Maybe fate wasn’t such a bitch, after all.
A day later, the doctors confirmed Liander was out of the woods. They’d moved him out of intensive into a general ward, but they still had him restrained. Apparently, they wanted to give it one more day before they allowed him to shift and accelerate the healing.
But at least with him now in a general ward, Rhoan could finally sit by his side and hold his hand. That was what he’d been doing for the last twenty-four hours, and Jack appeared to understand. He hadn’t hassled Rhoan once about getting back to work.
Maybe it was just my love life he couldn’t show any sympathy for.
I handed Rhoan a coffee and a burger, then sat down beside him. For the first time in days, he actually looked relaxed. I took a sip of the bittersweet liquid, tried to pretend it was hazelnut and nice, then said, “So what are the plans, then?”
He unwrapped the burger and took a bite, then washed it down with the muck they had the cheek to call coffee. “Once he’s cleared to leave, I plan to take him home and look after him.”
“His home, or our home?”
He met my gaze and gave me a tired half-smile. “Our home. It’s what he wants.”
My heart did a happy little dance for Liander, but part of me couldn’t believe Rhoan really meant it—that he wouldn’t change his mind sometime down the track, and break his lover’s heart all over again. “What about what you want?”
He took another bite of the burger, then shrugged lightly. “You were right before.”
I raised my eyebrows. “This is a first. Not me being right, because I usually am, but you actually admitting it.”
He snorted softly. “Enjoy it while you can, because it won’t happen again.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will. Me being right, that is.”
He grinned and leaned sideways, hitting me lightly with his shoulder. Coffee slopped over the edges of my cup, splattering my jeans. “Hey, careful. It may not be good coffee, but it is coffee, so let’s not waste it.”
He shook his head and finished the burger. After tossing the wrapper in the trash, he said, “I was always so scared about making a commitment and then dying, leaving Liander to cope alone. I never really thought about the opposite happening.” 
“We all have to die sometime, Rhoan.” But may it be many, many years away, and not on the job, as Iktar had stated.
“Hell, yeah, but you and I, we have a higher rate of succeeding than most others.”
“You know, that’s a really depressing line of thought when I’m sitting in a hospital filled with sick people and ghosts.” I took a sip of coffee, then added, “So because you’ve suddenly realized that Liander is as vulnerable to death as you and me, you’re letting him live with us?”
“And I’m going to share more of myself with him. I’m going to try and give him what he wants, up to a point, because he deserves better of life and better from me.”
I smiled. “Well, that’s true.”
He snorted softly. “You are such a bitch, sister.”
“Had a great teacher, brother.”
He shook his head. “I won’t do the ceremony. I can’t. I just can’t. Not with what we do, not with what we face. But I can give him everything else he wants.”
Not doing the ceremony wouldn’t save Liander from hurt or pain or worse if Rhoan died. Not if what Ben said was true. But I wasn’t about to give my brother another reason to push Liander away. Not when he was finally getting everything he wanted.
“He’s never wanted the ceremony, Rhoan. All he’s ever wanted is you.”
“And that’s the whole problem, sis. I love what I do. I love the adrenaline rush of it.” He hesitated, then added softly, “I’m addicted to it. I need it. I can’t completely give it up, not even for Liander.”
And he wasn’t talking about the killing. He was talking about the sex.
“I never knew.”
His gaze met mine. “Liander does. I told him a while ago, when he basically told me to give up other men or he’d walk away.”
“So that’s why you’ve been behaving yourself.”
“Everywhere except work. He understood, Riley. He really did.”
“He’s an amazing man.”
“And as I’ve said all along, I don’t want to lose him.” His gaze went to his lover. “And especially not like this. If one of us has to die, then let it be me.”
“Let it be no one in this little family unit,” I said softly. “I think we’ve coped with enough shit in our lives already.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” He looked at me for a moment, then touched a hand lightly to my still-scarred arm. “The hole is gradually healing.”
“Yeah, thankfully.” Though it was taking its time, it would heal and probably without much of a scar. I was going to end up with one on my face, though, at the point where one of the bakeneko’s claws had dug the deepest. But at least it wasn’t in the middle of my face nor was it that big. I could live with it.
Especially given what could have happened.
“But you still look very tired. Maybe you should go home and rest.”
“Brother, I look better than you do.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t lose buckets of blood and then refuse to let the hospital do something about it.”
No, he’d almost lost something worse. His heart. His soul. “You know I hate hospitals.”
“And I’m giving you the chance to get out of one.”
I studied him for a moment, then said, “Are you sure you don’t want company?”
“I’ll be fine. Liander will be fine. All is good. Go home and rest.”
I leaned forward and kissed him. “Thanks. Just make sure you eat, bro. You’re going to need all the strength you can muster to look after Liander when he comes home.”He snorted softly. “And you think I’m a bad patient. Wait until we get him home.”
The anticipation was there for the world to see, and I smiled. “Bringing him home has a nice sound to it, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” he said, and flicked my nose. “Go.”
I went.
Dusk was settling in by the time I got home. And resting against the front door of our apartment, waiting for me, was a clear plastic container holding a single red rose.
As a cure for tiredness, it was pretty damn fine.
With a smile teasing my lips, I walked into the apartment, tossing my bag and keys aside before sitting down on the arm of the sofa to read the little note.
I really would like to start again, it said, and I’d like to take you to dinner. Our first official date. No strings. Nothing expected. Just you and me, finally getting to know each other.
There was no signature or name, but it didn’t need one. It could have come from only one man.
And it seemed Rhoan wasn’t the only one who finally had something to look forward to.
With a silly grin stretching my lips, I all but ran over to the phone so I could ring my vampire.
About the Author
KERI ARTHUR received a “Perfect 10” from Romance Reviews Today and was nominated for Best Shapeshifter in PNR’s PEARL Awards and in the Best Contemporary Paranormal category of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Awards. She lives with her husband and daughter in Melbourne, Australia.
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Some things I remembered.
Some things I couldn’t.
Like who I was.
Or why I was sitting naked on a beach next to a dead man.
And yet I knew why I was here. I was waiting for the dawn to give him a final kiss good-bye before she guided his soul on to its next life.
The breeze that curled around me was cold, as cold as the sand was harsh. And yet these sensations were a fleeting thing. Goose bumps might tremble across my skin, and sand might grate against my buttocks and thighs, but both failed to register on anything more than a flesh level. I felt no cold, no pain, no sorrow. 
Nothing.
It was as if I were dead inside. As dead as the man lying beside me. Yet, for some reason, I was still breathing and he wasn’t.
Why?
That was a question that haunted me, teasing the frozen edges of my thoughts and memories.
Why him and not me?
I didn’t know, I just didn’t know, and yet I knew it was a question that was important. I knew my life might well depend on the answer.
I drew my knees close to my chest and studied the distant horizon. Though dawn had yet to stain night’s cover, it was coming. Already its warm power vibrated across the air, an eager humming that was both familiar and alien. I didn’t understand the sensation, didn’t know the reason behind it, and yet the mere fact that I could feel it had relief sweeping through me.