Embraced By Darkness

Adrienne's will.'

He blinked, surprise briefly moving the contempt. 'Why would you care about Adrienne's will?'

'Because she asked me to care.'

'What?'

I smiled coldly. 'The pack trait of clairvoyance didn't only go strange in Adrienne. I can speak to the dead. I spoke to her.'

'Even if I choose to believe that, what I or my family choose to do in regard to Adrienne's will is none of your business.'

'Adrienne made it my business.' I stepped forward, until I was all but standing on his toes. This close, I could feel his body vibrating with the force of his anger, and part of me wished he'd just let it go. Give me an excuse to hit him. 'I've done a little investigating of my own, Blake. Does the name Petri Constructions ring any bells inside that thick head of yours?'

Wariness flickered through his eyes. 'Of course. It is a building firm the pack owns and runs.'

Sound whispered behind me. 'Take one more step, Patrin, and I'll throw you off the balcony.' He stopped. I smiled benignly at Blake, and said, 'Petri Constructions was a successful business concern that belonged to one Shawn Davis, a friend of yours from way back. When he died—of apparently natural causes—his will surprisingly left the construction company to you rather than his pack and family.'

'So?'

'So, as I said, I've done a little digging. I found his grave and talked to his soul.' Which was my first lie, but Blake was never going to know that. 'Seems things surrounding Davis's death and will aren't quite as straightforward as they appeared. It also seems that it took the disappearance of one Michael Davis from the Davis red pack to stop them contesting the will.' I grabbed his collar and dragged his face down to mine. 'I will destroy you, Blake, if you do not leave my mother alone, or if you contest Adrienne's will. Destroy you, and ensure you and your whole damn get live in poverty and disgrace for the rest of your lives. And I will love every single fucking minute of it.'

I threw him back, suddenly needing to rid his scent from my nostrils. He hit the wall with a grunt, and flung out an arm to brace himself.

'Do you believe me?' I said softly.

'Yes,' he replied, his voice filled with murderous fury. Fury he knew he couldn't unleash. And that was such a delicious sensation.

I glanced at Patrin, then said, 'Rhoan, all finished up here. Meet you out front.' I looked back at Blake. 'And don't think about enlisting your cop or judge buddies to help you out of this situation. They're going to have enough problems of their own.'

He didn't say anything. Didn't do anything. He couldn't, and he knew it. It was sweeter, so much sweeter, than using my fists as I had so often dreamed of doing.

I gave him a smile, then turned and walked across to the balcony. The leap down to the ground jarred my leg, but I refused to limp as Rhoan joined me and we walked away.

As soon as I got home, I rang Kellen. I desperately wanted to see him now that everything else had been sorted out. I wanted to tell him my news, my decision. Get my new life—our new life— underway.

My fingers were shaking as I pressed his number. It rang several times, and then a voice said, 'Yes?'

For several beats I wasn't entirely sure it was him. His voice sounded rough, tired almost beyond recognition.

'Kellen? It's Riley.'

'You're home?'

'Yes. Do you want to meet somewhere, or would you rather I come over to your place?'

'I'll come to you,' he said, then hung up.

I frowned down at the phone for several seconds, not quite believing that he'd hung up on me. He wasn't usually so abrupt, but maybe it was just the tiredness. He'd sounded like hell, so maybe work had been a pain in the ass again.

'Everything okay?' Rhoan asked, one eyebrow raised.

'Yeah.' He was coming to see me, and that was all I had to worry about for the moment. 'What are your plans for the evening?'

'I'll shower, change, then head over to Liander's. He'll be wanting to kiss my war wounds better.'

I snorted. 'You hardly have a damn scratch on you.'

'I have a bump on the head.'

'Hardly worth sympathy.'

'You're just jealous of my beautiful, unmarred skin.'

This from the man who had almost as many scars as I did. 'Totally,' I said dryly.

He grinned and gave me a hug. 'Being a guardian is so much more fun now that you're one of us.'

'Being a guardian is many things, but I wouldn't say a fun time was one of them.'

'Depends on your definition of fun, doesn't it?'

'Well, getting shot and blowing away bad guys is not mine.' I paused, feeling the lie in my words but still not wanting to acknowledge it. Dammit, I wasn't my brother, I wouldn't enjoy my job. I wouldn't. 'The only guys I want to blow are sexy good guys, and only in a sexual sense.'

Not that that was a thrill I'd be pursuing any time soon with anyone other than Kellen. And while there was a part of me that was sad over that, mostly I was just happy to be pursuing a long-held dream with someone I cared about, and who cared for me.

It might not work out in the end, I knew that, but at least I was here, taking the chance instead of skipping away from it.

The cab finally pulled up at the front of our apartment building. Rhoan paid the driver with his credit card while I raced upstairs to get first dibs on the shower and the hot water.

Once clean, and with coffee and chocolate in hand, I sat down on the sofa to wait for Kellen. My brother showered and then headed out, leaving me alone to a silence that seemed filled with expectations. Thankfully, it wasn't all that long before Kellen's footsteps echoed in the hall and his rich, warm scent drifted on the air.

I walked over to the door and opened it. He looked good, despite the tiredness etched deep in his face, and my heart did this happy little dance.

'Hey,' I said, a smile splitting my lips. 'Nice to see you again.'

'And it's a damn relief to see you.' He stepped through the door and wrapped his arms around me, holding me so tight it was difficult to breathe.

And I didn't care one little bit. It felt so good, so safe, so right. Like all my troubles, all my worries, just faded away under the warm security of his touch.

'Would you like a coffee?' I said into his shoulder, not wanting to move and yet knowing we couldn't stay in the doorway forever. 'And I'll tell you what happened.'

He pulled away slightly, and there was something in his eyes, an intensity that I'd never seen before, that made me oddly nervous.

'The coffee can wait. And I know what happened.'

I arched an eyebrow at the edge in his voice. 'Jack contacted you?'

'Jack or the Directorate didn't tell me squat.'

Confusion swirled, and right in amongst it, apprehension stirred. 'Then how do you know what happened?'

'Because it's what always happens. Your job got messy and you totally forgot about the other people in your life while you were dealing with it.'

Ouch.

But at least his comment explained the reason for the edge in his voice and the anger in his eyes. 'I was supposed to meet you for lunch, wasn't I?'

'Yeah.' He gripped my arm and led me over to the sofa. 'But as usual, I wasn't first in your thoughts.'