The Darkest Kiss

Kade leaned forward and kissed my uncut cheek. “Today was fun.”

“You have a very odd definition of fun,” I said, voice dry. “And kissing is against the rules.”

“Like you care about the rules.” He gave me a salute good-bye, then spun on his heel and walked out.

I walked over to Iktar and held out my hand. “Keys?”

“In the car.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded, then his all-blue gaze met mine. “This job will kill us all, won’t it?”

I hesitated, then nodded. “Probably. None of us is immortal, Iktar.”

His gaze went back to the bakeneko’s body, then he nodded slowly. “I guess it’s as good a way of going as any.”

“Oh, I think getting old and slipping away peacefully surrounded by friends and loved ones would be a hell of a lot better than this.”

His gaze came back to mine. “But you and I are not destined for that, are we?”

“Probably not.” I squeezed his shoulder lightly, his flesh cold and clammy under my fingertips, then walked away. I didn’t want to think about a future I might not have. I just wanted to get to the hospital and make sure my present was alive and well.

Liander’s surgeon walked in an hour after I arrived back at the hospital.

Ya

“How did the operation go?” Raina asked, her normally warm tones thin and high. Shaky.

The gray-haired surgeon gave her one of those smiles doctors all over the world seemed to use. The one that said everything was fine, even if things were going to hell and back.

“We repaired the bowel and the small intestine damage, but we can’t one hundred percent guarantee we’ve gotten all the fecal matter out of his abdominal cavity, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for infection. For that reason, we’ve confined him with light silver to stop him from shifting.”

“But silver will kill him—”

“And by shifting, he could accelerate the infection as much as the healing, and that could be dangerous. We need to give it a day or so to be sure.” The doctor gave her his best professional smile. “We don’t use enough silver to kill, just restrain. It’ll burn, but he’ll heal from that and be fine.”

“Oh, thank God,” Raina said, raising one hand to her chest.

The surgeon hesitated, then said, “He did lose a lot of blood, and we’ll have to keep him in the hospital for a little longer than we normally would for a wolf, just because the risk of infection is a lot higher, but I think he’s going to be fine.”

“That’s excellent news, Doc,” Ya

The surgeon smiled. “I wish all my patients were as tough as this young man. I don’t like losing patients.”

Which in itself said just how close Liander had been to death.

“Can we go see him, Doctor?” Raina asked.

The surgeon hesitated again. “Only two of you. And only quickly.”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

He nodded and spun on his heel. “This way.”

Raina squeezed her husband’s hand, then followed the surgeon. Ya

Rhoan looked up quickly. “Yes, sir?”

“You’d better get in there, boy, while the surgeon is feeling kindly.”

Hope flitted briefly across Rhoan’s tired features. “But he’s your son—”

“And he’s your soul mate. And I know he’d probably be more comforted by your presence than mine. Go, son. Go see him.”

“Thank you,” Rhoan said, and scrambled after Raina. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and walked down the hall with her.

I smiled at Ya

Ya

“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 Qui

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 gri

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.