I pressed my forehead against his chest, twisting the hem of his shirt around my fingers.
'But if that doesn't work? What if they make us …?' The thought of being with Owen was nauseating. Not only because he was like a brother, but because he wasn't Tristan.
He lifted my chin with one hand and looked deeply into my eyes, penetrating my heart. 'I pray it'll never come to that, and I'll do everything in my power to prevent it, but if it does … well, the pain would be worse than anything I've suffered in my entire long life. It would break my heart. But I would still love you, ma lykita. Nothing can change that.'
My chest squeezed, and my heart swelled at the same time, feeling both the pain and love he expressed. I threw my arms around his neck and pulled myself up against him. 'I love you, my sweet Tristan. Always.'
He leaned his forehead against mine. 'And I love you.'
'Some anniversary, huh?'
'At least we're together.'
'Forever?'
'If it's up to me, yes.'
I sighed. Unfortunately, not everything was up to us, but I would take what I could get. He kissed me, then took my hand as we walked slowly back to the house. It was farther than I thought–I'd run half a mile in the twenty seconds before he'd stopped me.
We entered the house through the rear door right as Owen walked through the front door.
'That was a mistake,' Owen said darkly. 'We have a problem.'
Mom and Charlotte appeared in the hallway, halfway between Owen and us.
'Where's Dorian?' I asked.
'Come outside and see for yourself. See what he did in front of everyone. Thank God there weren't any Normans around.'
We all followed him out the front door and down the steps. When we reached the ground, Owen turned and looked up. I followed his gaze, and my heart jumped in my chest. Dorian stood on the edge of the second-floor roof.
'Dorian! What are you doing?' I yelled.
'Watch, Mom. I can fly. Like Ironman!'
'No, you can't!' The scream tore through my throat as he launched himself off the roof before any of us could flash up there to get him.
Like any other young boy disillusioned by superheroes, his body plummeted toward the ground, my stomach plunging with him. Tristan reached out for him, but when he was just out of reach, Dorian suddenly swooped upward and hovered over the roof for several seconds before slowly descending and landing next to me on his feet, exactly as he'd done on the Amadis Island. By that point, we all stood there, staring at him with our mouths open.
'Yeah, I can,' he said with an I-just-showed-you tone.
Part of me wanted to scream at him to never do that again, and another part wanted to pull him into my arms, relieved he was safe. But the biggest part of me fought to simply stay upright because the weight of what this meant was enough to crush an elephant.
'Well … bloody hell,' Mom said, and we all turned our heads, mouths still gaping, to stare at her. Mom never cussed. She looked around at us and quickly dismissed it, taking on her normal tone of control. 'Get him inside. Now.'
Tristan scooped Dorian into one arm, and we all rushed inside.
'Did I do something bad?' Dorian asked, looking up at us as he sat on the couch, all five of us adults standing in front of him, again staring at him as if he were from another planet.
'He did that on Captiva?' Mom asked, her voice tight.
'Yeah, right in the middle of town,' Owen said. 'Blossom saw. And a couple others, I think.'
I closed my eyes, squeezing them tight to hold the tears back. So not good. Shit, shit, SHIT.
'What's the matter, Mom?' Dorian asked, but I couldn't answer, knowing my voice would break.
'Dorian, didn't we tell you not to do any tricks in front of other people?' Tristan asked.
'I didn't mean to. The balloon the scary white lady gave to me flew away, and I was trying to catch it.'
Dorian didn't frighten easily, which meant he'd sensed the white lady as more than a mere Norman. I peeked into his mind to see the vampire who gave him the balloon. I didn't recognize her, which gave me a slice of relief. For a moment, I was afraid it was Julia or Vanessa.
'I'm sorry, Mom,' Dorian said, his voice tiny.
I finally opened my eyes and pulled him into my arms. Don't cry. Be strong for him. Sobs stuck in my throat, choking me and making my chest heave. I fell to the floor with him locked in my arms, silently rocking him. All I could think was, They're going to take him … take him away.
People saw. The Daemoni would find out, and they'd come looking for him. One more reason the Daemoni would come to the quiet colony. One more reason for everyone to think us a danger. Because I certainly wasn't going to simply hand him over, even if doing so meant protecting everyone else. Maybe it was selfish and un- matriarch-like, but he was my son. My baby.
After a few minutes, Mom reached for Dorian, and I panicked.
'No,' I screamed. 'You can't take him!'
Sasha was suddenly at our side, twice as big as normal, a growl in her throat. Tristan knelt beside us, and I felt him tugging in my mind.
'Lexi, they're not taking him away. You're scaring him.'
I looked down at Dorian. He trembled in my arms as he looked up at me with wide, haunted eyes. I relaxed my fierce hold, and Mom took him. Tristan picked me up and half-carried me to our room. He sat on our bed with me in his lap, and the tears finally fell.
'I can't take anymore,' I blubbered after several minutes. 'You two are my life, and everyone wants to take you both away. And this whole daughter thing … all this pressure. I feel like I'm losing it again.'
'We're not going anywhere,' he murmured. 'I'm here, Lexi. It's a lot to deal with, but I'm here for you.'
I inhaled a jagged breath and nodded. His being here meant a lot. Everything, actually. Which was why I couldn't lose him again.
I eventually calmed down, and Mom must have heard because she popped her head in our doorway to tell us she, Charlotte and Owen were going to Captiva to do some damage control. Dorian came in as she finished, and she slipped away. He climbed onto our bed and into my lap, and wrapped his arms around my neck.
'I'm sorry, Mom,' he said. 'I'll never do that again.'
I wanted to tell him very bad men would take him away otherwise, but such a threat wasn't enough to scare Dorian. So I simply said, 'No, you probably shouldn't.'
'Are you okay?' he asked quietly. 'Because I don't want you to be sad again. I don't want you to be like when Dad was gone.'
More tears slid down my cheeks as I kissed the top of his head. 'Don't worry. You and Dad are right here, so I'm happy. I'm just having a bad day.'
He nodded. 'Okay. I love you, Mom.'
'I love you too, little man, very, very much.'
'I'll never leave you. Me and my wife and our kids will live with you, okay?'
'I would love that,' I said with complete sincerity. If only it were possible.
'I know what you need,' Tristan said, gathering us in his arms and standing up. He placed us on our feet, then took our hands and led us to the kitchen.
He popped open the bottle of wine Charlotte brought, poured us each a glass (well, a glass of juice for Dorian) and turned on some music. Then he started pulling food out of the refrigerator: ingredients for fajitas. And he was right. Cooking dinner together was exactly what I needed and a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary. Our kitchen wasn't fully stocked with all the gadgets and gizmos I couldn't wait to buy one day, but we had the necessities–good knives, pans and food. Listening to 30 Seconds to Mars, feeling the knife move under my hand, tasting the wine, smelling the onions and peppers and joking around with my two guys felt incredibly and necessarily normal.
Mom, Owen and Charlotte, along with Blossom, returned just as we started searing the meat. I hadn't
