Chapter 210: Reunion
What was it about the feel of him that brought me running even when I hated him just then? The back yard felt so far away as I scrambled out of bed, lurched from my room, down the stairs and through the screen door. I stopped myself finally, panting and angry.
No way were we playing this damned game again. I glared at Quaid where he stood, hands in his pockets, a thin T-shirt the only thing between him and me. That and the ten-foot gap my anger insisted on. "What do you want?" I hated the mere touch of his mind had so much unconscious control over me. He'd left me, hadn't he? How dare he come back like this after abandoning our family magic, severing the link between us, shacking up with that ice-cold bitch Ameline?
He didn't say anything for a moment, gaze on the ground.
"Well?" I stormed closer to him, the hem of my pajama bottoms instantly soaked with dew from the grass. "Look at me, you coward."
Quaid did. And the moment our eyes met all of my anger and hurt went away. I couldn't stop the soft cry that escaped me as I closed the last of the distance between us, he moving to meet me, all the love he felt for me brimming in his beautiful eyes.
I hugged him hard around his neck, felt him lift me, holding me to him as I wrapped my legs around his waist and clung to him. His magic embraced me, the deliciousness of it wrapping me up and filling me to the brim with its heat. I refused to sob like an idiot, but couldn't stop the few tears that leaked out and darkened the collar of his T-shirt.
"Syd," he whispered. "Oh Syd, I've missed you so much."
Was he crying? I pulled back, pressed my nose against his, freeing one hand to stroke the wetness from his stubbled cheek.
"Why?" I wanted to be angry again, wished I could hurt him as much as he'd hurt me, lash out, something, anything. But the longer we touched, the stronger our connection became, and I was unable to do anything that would risk the loss of it again.
"I couldn't tell you," he said. "They had to believe me. If you knew, you could have given me away and I needed them to trust me."
The Dumonts. "Quaid, what was so important you would risk us?" It seemed the only question though I had millions more.
"Odette," he said between clenched teeth, arms tightening around me as he reacted to saying her name. "I knew she was connected to Batsheva."
Gram wasn't the only one after revenge. "You could have told me."
He shook his head, dark hair falling over his eyes. I quickly brushed it away so I could see him clearly. Quaid strode the few feet to our familiar bench, sitting with me sideways in his lap, the lovely smell of him, leather pants and all, making my heart beat faster.
"I had them all fooled," he said, "but I couldn't convince Ameline. Not if you knew. You had to have an honest reaction."
My heart hurt in a sudden stab of grief. "Tell me you're not going to marry her!"
He hugged me, lips brushing my forehead, hands stroking my back. "I'd rather die," he said. "I love you, Syd. And I always will."
I let myself cry then, clinging to him for a moment before sitting up straighter and pulling myself together. "I'm going to make you pay for this, you know."
His laughter rumbled out of him, making my body vibrate. "Oh, I know."
"So now what?" Sudden hope surged. "You come back?"
He didn't need to speak to shatter that dream. Quaid just looked at me, level and calm, while I figured it out.
"Not yet," I whispered.
"No," he said. "Not yet. I'm so close, Syd. The stuff I've uncovered..." Quaid sighed. "I'm pretty sure Odette was behind the deaths of my parents."
Her own daughter. "You have proof?"
"Not enough," he said. "But I only need a little more to connect her to Batsheva. It was the Moromonds who killed them, that much I know. But without the last link, I can't bring them down. And they will all pay, I swear it."
"I can help." I twisted the soft cotton of his shirt in my fingers, already knowing what he was going to say.
"I have to do this alone."
"Stubborn idiot." My anger flared. "No you don't. Mom can help. Gram. She's a freaking Enforcer, in case you missed it."
"I didn't." He grinned at me. "I might use her help, at that."
"Jerk." I sank against him. "Fine. Run off. Be the avenging angel. But Quaid, I'm worried. What if they figure it out? That you're playing them? They'll kill you." Literally. No jokes. Odette would, without a doubt.
"I'll be okay." He stroked my hair. "As much as I wish you could help, I can't involve you. The High Council ordered you to stay away, remember? We're breaking coven law right now."
"Screw coven law." And to prove to him just how little I gave a crap, I leaned close and kissed him. His lips parted under mine, soft, hot breath in my mouth, in my lungs. Power rippled through me and into him, binding him as close to me as I could get. I heard his soft moan, felt it and answered it with a deeper kiss.
He finally pushed me away, panting, eyes burning with the same emotions I was feeling. I wanted to jerk him close again, devour him, eat him alive. But he held me off with a soft chuckle igniting my entire body on fire.
Quaid stood slowly, setting me on my feet, hands in my hair, leaning close. He brushed his hot lips over my brow, my cheeks, the tip of my nose.
"I'll be back," he whispered. "With Mia, if I can save her. I promise."
More tears. Damn it. "You have to be careful."
"I'm always careful." He kissed me then, and as he did, as our power linked, I felt the connection we'd lost, the one he'd severed, flare to life again, stronger than ever. As he pulled away, the strength of his touch dimmed, but remained with me.
I hugged myself as he stepped back as if I could embrace that link.
"Now I'll always be with you," he said. "I love you, Syd."
"I love you too." Finally. Finally I was able to say it, even though he was leaving me again and might never come back, might die for his revenge. At least he knew.
And I'd said it.
It was the hardest thing I'd ever done in my entire life, harder than any horror I'd faced, any threat to myself for my family, to simply stand there and watch him walk away.
***
