Darkness Avenged (Guardians of Eternity) Page 0,88
to our lair in Italy.”
“Yes, eventually,” she agreed. “But not yet.”
Gaius frowned. “Dara, I don’t have the strength to fight the Commission.”
“You don’t have to fight the entire Commission,” she assured him. “Only their two emissaries.”
He didn’t bother asking how she could feel the approach of the Oracles, or how she seemed to mysteriously know that they’d sent two emissaries.
He wasn’t sure he wanted the answers.
“Who did they send?” he instead demanded.
“The female clan chief.”
Gaius hissed. There was more than one female clan chief, of course. But, there was only one whom the Oracles would send to try and capture him.
“Nefri.” He clenched his hands, pretending the raw stab of guilt was anger. He wasn’t going to admit that he’d abused Nefri’s generous trust. What choice did he have? The Dark Lord had lured him with promises of Dara. Any vampire would betray their people for their beloved mate. “Damn her. How can she know I survived?”
“The Oracles, no doubt.” Dara’s features twisted with a bitter fury before her eyes grew distant, as if she were looking at something far away. “Now that is intriguing.”
“What is?”
“Her companion.” She slowly smiled. “This promises to be an interesting reunion.”
Reunion?
Gaius began to shake his head in bafflement only to freeze as he was struck by the haunting memory of being ripped through the rift by the Dark Lord. At the time his only thought was to scurry away from the raging battle, but he was certain that he’d caught a glimpse of an unconscious Nefri being held in the arms of an all-too familiar vampire.
“Santiago,” he said, his voice harsh.
“Yes.” Dara’s expression was . . . what? It almost appeared smug. “Our son.”
“No.” Gaius paced across the cramped space, hating the sick regret that flowed like acid through him at the thought of Santiago. “No longer.”
“He will always be ours, Gaius.”
“You don’t know what I’ve done.”
“Tell me.”
He hunched a defensive shoulder. He didn’t want to speak about his son. Of all the sacrifices he’d made, Santiago was the one that would always torment him.
Feeling the weight of Dara’s stare, he at last muttered a low curse. “I betrayed him when I sold my soul to the Dark Lord and then I abandoned him and he became a slave to the blood pits,” he forced out. “He’ll never forgive me.”
“He’s angry and confused,” she said softly.
He gave a sharp, bitter laugh. “He has every right to be.”
“Perhaps.” There was a misty brush against his naked shoulder. Dara’s touch? “But Nefri has used his emotions to manipulate him into becoming our enemy.”
“I doubt it took much manipulation.”
“You can’t believe that. You know Santiago,” she whispered directly into his ear. “No matter what you’ve done, if he’s coerced into harming his sire he will be tortured by guilt. It will eventually destroy him.”
Gaius tried to shut out her words.
The last time there was a whisper in his ear, the Dark Lord persuaded him to betray his son, his clan, and eventually the entire world.
He wouldn’t be fooled again.
But then he turned his head to catch sight of the delicate, honey-tinted face and his logic sizzled beneath the burst of intense yearning.
Once he’d been happy.
Centuries ago he’d been a powerful clan chief with a devoted mate and a fiercely loyal son he was training to follow in his footsteps.
He wanted that back.
He wanted it with a hunger that destroyed any lingering threads of sanity.
“What can we do?” he at last rasped.
Dara smiled, pleased with his capitulation. “We must convince him that he’s still our son and that all we want is to be a family again.”
“A family.”
“The three of us together,” she continued, weaving her web of temptation. “Just imagine, habibi.”
He frowned. “What if it’s too late? I cut all ties with Santiago when I abandoned him.”
“It’s never too late,” she assured him. “He’s following our trail even as we speak.”
He gave a slow nod. “Then, we can speak when he arrives. I can apologize and tell him how much I regret leaving him.”
“Yes, yes, but first you must make him help us,” Dara said impatiently, interrupting his fantasy of the long overdue reunion with Santiago.
“What do you mean?” he asked in confusion. “Help us with what?”
“I have something that needs to be retrieved and he’s the only one who can get his hands on”—there was a faint hesitation—“it.”
Gaius flinched. “We can’t ask him to help as soon as he arrives.”