"Here's more: if you don't order the Death Decree on Terra. The Council could order a Treason trial for you."

And give the baldies what they wanted? No way.

"Play your cards well and you'll keep your head," he added. "Your heart is another matter. I don't want to lose you over Terra. You have to think of something."

I nodded my agreement. I have family and as much as I wanted to get away from them, I loved them. Terra wasn't worth it.

I made my way down to the underground holding cells. I had to talk with Illy, but this was extremely important and it had far reaching ramifications for her. It was a historic moment. Terra was our first offender. The guards opened the heavy steel doors.

Terra sat with her back to the cell bars alone, defeated. A great mind used to destroy her kin could have improved the lives of vampires and humans everywhere.

With a flourish she turned her slim body around, faced me with her violet-blue eyes, and said, "Ah, the great Enforcer here to gloat."

"I should gloat, but I'm not in the mood to."

"Whatever for? I destroyed your life, Enforcer." She grasped the bars separating us. "Kill me and get it over with."

I could easily snap her neck without opening the cell door. I wanted her to bleed inward first. Family is important to her. She craves it like she craves blood.

"Did you know you are related to the woman I love."

I heard the breath catch in her lungs. She stiffened and held the bars tight. The blood drained from her hands.

"Ma.n.u.s was her grandfather. That makes you her aunt, three times removed."

She moved her shoulder as if adjusting her suit jacket.

"In short you tried to kill your own niece. Congratulations on reaching another low."

"Why are you telling me this?"

I unlocked the cell door, pushed it over, and held up my sword.

"I a.s.sume you studied the bushido code."

"I had to, to understand you. You'll make this quick?"

"Yes."

I made M slash with the Katana, tossing it up as Terra's body split in two perfect halves. The sword made two revolutions in the air elegantly then gravity grabbed it. I reached my hand out. The handle landed in my palm.

Ilida lurched as she put away the last of the dishes. Then she felt relief soothe her. It couldn't have been her emotions, she was anything but relieved. She felt nothing but anger, confusion, and regret. She tested herself. No regrets. She'd loved every minute with Daedalus. They had challenged each other. They'd fed each other. They had fit each other like a glove.

"So why don't you go to him, Child?"

"Should I call you auntie or grandma? Which do you prefer?"

The only response from Ca.s.sandra was an audible sniff. Tears streamed down the face of the woman she thought was her aunt. She couldn't hold onto her animosity any longer. Her grandmother had suffered. They all had.

Wordlessly Ilida ran to her and held her. Ca.s.sandra's dreads brushed her cheek, tickled her ear. This is my grandmother. My grandmother.

She took in her different smells: sage from her dreads, shea b.u.t.ter from her skin. All the familiar scents she'd grown up with. She held her past and her future and she wasn't going to let years of secrecy ruin one more minute.

Chapter Thirty-nine

Ilida awoke the next night with a buzz. Beverly gave her strange looks. Her sleeping habits were off, but she couldn't come out and say, I'm a vampire-understand my strange ways. So she smiled and told her...what else was she going to do? The incident at Tilly House was still under investigation and though Daedalus's friend, Matt Rodriguez, rea.s.sured her that it wouldn't touch her, she was still nervous.

After catching the last call at the Wulf Blood bank on Pacific and Atlantic Streets, she took the IRT train to Thirty-Fourth Street in Manhattan.

b.u.t.terflies flew and crashed into each other making a ruckus in her stomach. Something-a voice-kept telling her to go back to Suffolk County. So she followed her inner voice.

From Times Square, she took the train to Riverhead.

She couldn't help but think about all the times she had taken the train back and forth from Long Island to Brooklyn. She must have been nuts to make those four-and-a-half-hour combined trips. She believed in Tilly House, but she wasn't going to visit the remains of that place.

She jumped in the cab at the Riverhead stop and, with difficulty, described where she wanted to go. The cab driver complained but took her to where she thought the cabin was. Instantly, she recognized the service road and the slight turn where her car had skidded out of control on slushy ice.

Her heart lurched.

It couldn't be the same cabin. It looked brand new.

Then she knew when she opened her mind. He was in there waiting. d.a.m.n blood bond! Her pride and her need battled each other. She swore again. Her hand froze on the latch.

"Hey, lady, you staying? I got other pick ups."

"Uh sorry. How much?"

The meter whirred then spit out a receipt. "Twenty seventeen," he said.

She handed the cab driver twenty-six dollars then exited the cab. He thanked her then drove off grumbling about crazy women.

Without the snow, the cabin looked inviting. The windows were no longer dirty. The steps had been restored and the roof replaced. He'd added a porch just so you could linger and enjoy the outdoors before shutting it out.

She should have called first? He might have a woman in there with him. He was within his rights to move on. She knew better than most that Daedalus didn't have a woman in the cabin with him. Her indecision had a vise grip on her stomach. As a vampire, she felt so much now.

Before she could knock, the door opened. He stood there in jeans and T-shirt and bare-footed.

"Come in."

Ilida hesitated then took two wobbly steps inside and felt the warmth immediately. She hadn't planned on staying.

"Are you going to stand there in your coat or are you going to relax so we can talk?"

"I-I don't know why I'm here."

"My blood runs through your veins. You came because you needed to see me."

"I'll try to ignore it next time."

"I don't want you to. I don't want to ignore it."

"We can't be together because of what my grandfather did to you."

"You aren't Ma.n.u.s."

"No kidding. I'm not belittling what you went through with him, but for a while there I thought you hated me."

"I did hate you. Because of you I can't go back to the male I was."

"I can't undo what happened here."

"And f.u.c.k up the best two and a half days of my life. Are you insane? I love you."

"No, no." She ran to the door; before she could open it, he was there with his arms around her holding her to him. She remembered the way his skin smelled; that odd mix of earth and blood. His heat so familiar...

"Don't do this to me. Not after what happened at the gargoyle house."

"I want to take that leap with you, if you want to take it with me. If you would just stop running away."

Well, now she wanted to kick his leg, but what would that do? She met his eyes, saw her reflection in them. She felt warmth on her ear and realized his thumb caressed her lobe.

He said he loved her but she had to be sure. Did he really want her or just the idea of her? "Certain people in your family dislike me."

He placed the barest b.u.t.terfly kiss on her forehead.

"Alec sometimes doesn't know how to express his real feelings, and he doesn't hate you. He respects you."

"My father..."

"Will get over it. He married your mother, remember."

She felt his hands playing with the hair on the nape of her neck. Then he pulled her hat off.

"I missed playing with your hair."

He did just that, running his hands through its tight, tight curls.

"I can't believe I'm considering this."

"I want to be with you."

"We need to take this slow."

"We're beyond taking things slow, Illy."

She placed her hands on his chest feeling his heart beat at a frightening pace.

"My heartbeat matches yours."

"The Hymeneal is some trip, isn't it? Hearing his laugh turned her insides to mush. G.o.d help her, she was going to be with him. "Well, what do you recommend we do then?"

"Close our eyes and jump in with both feet first."

"You need to stop smoking."

He stepped back and smiled. He took out a pack of cigarettes, waved it in the air, then stopped. He took a cigarette out.

"The idea is to stop smoking?"

"I'll need one tonight."

"Why?"

"After the o.r.g.a.s.ms we'll give each other it'll be needed."

Then she followed his long strides to the kitchen and she hoped he was going to do it.

Daedalus pushed the lever of the steel garbage can down with his foot. The lid opened and he threw the pack of cigarettes inside then lifted his foot off the lever.

"Now let's bring this cabin down."

"Hold on now. We still have issues to work out." She didn't know where they were going. She wanted something permanent from him.

"How about you move in with me?"

"And live at the Gargoyle house?"

"Live with me at the townhouse in Gramercy Park."

"That's a big step for you. Are you sure?"

"Are you sure? Why are you backing off?"

"I could go through the what-ifs all night."