“You are Lady Lyssa's gift. You are her heart.

When I honor you, I honor her. She knows this.” Catriona put her hem to his cheek again, blotting more tears. “Was it a good gift?”

Jacob nodded, but could say no more. Catriona seemed to understand.

21

WHEN Jacob joined Lyssa in her lower bedroom, she could tel from the flush in his cheeks, the gleam in his eyes, he'd been tel ing Gideon not only about their parents, but about the Fae world. And Avalon.

As he lay down next to her, he propped himself on his elbow so they could close their upper bodies in a heart shape around Kane, now dozing off after his meal. She caressed Jacob's five-o'clock shadow, enjoying his facial hair again. He'd had a neatly trimmed beard and moustache when she met him, much like the knight she'd met a few centuries before.

“When you came back from Avalon, Rhoswen told me we needed to leave the very next dawn,” she said, low. “She told me I should watch over you closely.”

That day, she and Rhoswen had been in the main bailey. When Jacob rode back into the courtyard, what Catriona had shown him fairly vibrated from him. Lyssa understood the sheer enormity of it to him. But something about his reaction disturbed her as well. Since they'd returned from the desert world, she'd sensed an odd struggle inside of him, too amorphous to define. Rhoswen had provided the missing piece.

He's human again, Lyssa. This world is an addictive drug to the mortal soul. The moment they step foot here, they yearn to be a part of it, never wanting to leave. He has already started to feel the twisting desire not to depart, though he's balancing it with the love he has for you and your son, both of whom belong to another world. While I expect his desire for you will always be greater than anything else, a heart can be damaged by being torn in two.

Leave at dawn. Before you next come here, we will try to figure out how to shield him. Humans whose blood becomes infused with the essence of our world can never return to the mortal world. Their hearts explode from the agony of that separation.

Now she kept her hand on his face. “Wil I lose you to the Fae world, Jacob?”

Keeping his blue eyes steady on hers, he curled his fingers around her wrist, kissed her pulse point, making it quicken. “It will never match the yearning I have to be with you and Kane. Being without you is what would truly tear my heart in two. Be easy on that, my lady. I am always yours. What kind of knight would I be if I wasn't?”

Later that evening, as Lyssa laid out the plan to the others, she found she'd convened a dangerous strategy team. As hunters, Daegan, Gideon and Jacob all had experience in difficult confrontations, so they provided her a wealth of contingency plans and alternative scenarios if things didn't go exactly as planned—or even if they did. Anwyn contributed her experience as a Mistress, honing the diplomatic approaches into a razor-sharp edge. Lyssa hadn't wanted any household staff other than Mr. Ingram and John present, so was amused when Anwyn took charge of dinner for the four humans. The fledgling vampire enjoyed cooking, though she herself no longer benefitted from it.

Despite the serious nature of their discussion, it was a relaxed environment. Jacob and Gideon helped Anwyn fetch and carry. John, after being cal ed in from the library where he'd been doing his homework, helped set the table. Daegan was absent at the moment, but Anwyn indicated he would join them for dinnertime. Lyssa understood. For the most part, Daegan had been alone and on his own for nearly seven hundred years. When she had Jacob in her mind, available to her as she wished, she often had no need for other company.

Still, after having been in the Fae world, surrounded by strangers, this was a quiet pleasure.

John sat on her lap so she could test his spel ing for class the next day. Jacob was nearby with Kane balanced on his knees, holding his hands as he pushed his chair back onto two legs and made it bounce like a horse for his son. Anwyn and Gideon were teasing one another in the kitchen. If Mason and Danny were here, she'd feel like she was surrounded by . . . family.

Vampires lived on a pyramid, rating every other vampire as over or under them, and behaving appropriately. They didn't have families, not usual y.

Even those that got pregnant with their servant or another vampire often stil treated the servant or vampire as a lesser or superior, and the child was expected to cleave more to the dominant vampire parent in time, relegating the human back to a servant's status as the child matured.

She glanced at Jacob, watched the boy fal face-first against his father's chest with complete trust as Jacob caught him then held him high in the air, teaching him how to fly like Superman. The idea of ever all owing anyone—whether it was Kane, herself or another vampire—to treat Jacob as less than a ful father to Kane, was reprehensible to her, particularly seeing the unconditional love in Jacob's eyes for his son.

When Gideon came into the room, she saw that cautious smile on his face as he looked toward his brother and nephew. This was all new for him, too.

Spending time with people he loved without having to always be on guard, emotional y or otherwise.

They were a dangerous group, with bloodlust issues and dominant and submissive sexual proclivities that could be way over the top. So vampires were never going to be a warm fuzzy family, but this worked for them. As Anwyn arrived, her gaze sought out Gideon instantly, and he lifted his head, his eyes warming on her. He kissed his nephew's head, then came around and held her chair for her. As he did, Daegan strode in. When he slid his knuckles along Anwyn's cheek, he also brushed Gideon's body with intimate familiarity, closing his palm on his hip.

Daegan, Anwyn and Lyssa had wine flavored with their servants' blood and a smal sampling of the meal Anwyn had cooked. Elijah, Jacob, Gideon and John got steak, mashed potatoes and a Cobb salad.

Anwyn had accurately guessed the tastes of the

“meat and potato” males, though Lyssa was amused to see John somberly tel ing his grandfather he should eat only half of the meat and save the rest for later, to watch his cholesterol. Jacob, on the other hand, had attacked the meal with gusto.

You don't have to savor that quite so obviously, you know.

Shooting her a grin, he cut her another tidbit of the well -buttered potatoes and held it out. She took it, well aware of how he watched her mouth as it closed over the morsel.

When they'd all slowed down a bit, she lifted her wineglass, drawing their gazes. Kane had fal en asleep in her lap, and she held him in one arm. “A toast. To good friends and family. Perhaps the changes we make will all ow us more times like these, Goddess will ing.”

“Or we'l all be dead and it won't matter,” Gideon added.

She inclined her head. “True. Over the past year, I've learned that there is never an age where you can't learn something new about yourself and the world, and be the better for it.”

“Here, here,” Daegan murmured, touching his glass to Anwyn's and giving Gideon a fond look.

Lyssa's gaze shifted to Jacob. “Let us hope we can convince the Council of that, peaceably.”

“After we stake a couple of them.”

This time Daegan did not have to perform the head slap, because Anwyn, sitting between him and Gideon, managed it quite effectively. Gideon gave her a pained look. “You did that because he told you to do it. Puppet.”

“We were merely reflecting the same desire,” Anwyn responded.

Gideon caught her hand, brought it to his lips to soothe any sting to her palm caused by his hard head. “Just remember our bet,” he shot at Daegan.

Daegan lifted a brow. “As long as you remember what you owe your Mistress, regardless of the outcome.”

Anywn shook her head at both of them, lifted her goblet toward Lyssa. “I agree wholeheartedly,” she said quietly. “Everything I value most is at this table, and I do not want to lose them. well said, Lady Lyssa.”

Elijah sent John off to the den to watch an hour of TV then, while Anwyn sent Gideon to retrieve the desserts. He took Jacob with him. Once they'd left the room, Lyssa raised a brow. “What is the bet?”

“Gideon thinks you'l have to beat Lord Belizar to a bloody pulp to get him to listen to reason. Daegan thinks you'l have to stake him and start from scratch.

If Gideon wins”—she glanced at Daegan, confirming he was fine revealing the nature of the agreement —“he wants Daegan to set aside his Master role for one night. Gideon wants to . . . take Daegan.” Intriguing, and more than a little bit astounding.

Jacob had fucked men in her service before. It was not his favorite thing, though it had not compromised his male pride to do it. Only extreme circumstances would make her put him in a situation where the reverse was necessary, because of what she knew of him. Since he'd known his brother was of the same bent—innately and often intensely heterosexual—it had been a paradigm shift for Jacob to see his angry, violent-natured brother as the servant for a male and female vampire. However, because of the circumstances that had brought the three together, Lyssa knew this was a significant step for them. It explained why Daegan had agreed to the wager. Gideon actual y wanting to be the initiator with Daegan, give his Master pleasure through penetration, rather than being the submissive recipient who could passively deny his own desire, underscored how much he accepted Daegan as his Master.

“And if you win?”

Daegan took a sip of his wine, pressing his lips together over the taste of it, flavored with Gideon's blood. “Wild card. I get to choose.”

“Hmm.” There were pleasures in peace and contentment. But for vampires, there were darker pleasures as well , ones stirring in her blood now.

“What did you mean, he must honor what he owes his Mistress?”

Anwyn answered. “When Gideon surrendered to us, one of my conditions was that, at some point, Daegan takes him down alone, without my participation.”

Lyssa privately hoped Anwyn had a diabolical plan to watch that, because she couldn't imagine wanting to miss such a sight, two strong warriors in a sexual embrace, so passionate it would appear like they were in mortal combat. “Now I understand why you sent them both out. Brothers don't need to share everything.”