Seize the Night

Tabitha gasped as pain engulfed her. She'd never felt anything like this. It was as if something had invaded her body.

Ash cursed as he threw his hand out and blasted her.

Tabitha screamed from the agony of his blast. It was as if something was trying to rip her apart.

Unable to stand against it, she started to fall, only to realize someone was holding her against a strong chest.

"I've got you," Valerius said as he picked her up in his arms and held her close.

Tabitha's heart soared at his nearness. She didn't know how he'd gotten there to catch her, she was only grateful that he had.

"Careful," she said between the teeth she had clenched to keep from moaning out at the pain that overwhelmed her.

Her eyes blurred by tears, she feared the ghost was now trying to move into Ash or Valerius.

"Forget it," Ash said.

The spirit laughed, then vanished.

Ash was beside her in an instant. "Breathe easy," he whispered.

Tabitha couldn't speak anymore as she laid her head against Valerius's neck and inhaled the warm scent of his skin. She would have never thought to feel this way about anyone.

She felt strangely protected even though she couldn't fight for herself.

"We need to get her to safety," Valerius said sharply.

Ash nodded.

One second they were in the driveway outside of Kyrian's house and in the next they were in Valerius's room in his home.

Valerius looked relieved as he laid her gently down on his mattress. "Are you all right?"

"I think so," she whispered. The pain was starting to abate a bit.

He offered her a warm smile before his face hardened and he turned to look at Ash. "What are we facing?"

Ash took a deep breath and appeared to debate what to say for several minutes. "That ghost outside of Kyrian's house was Desiderius. The good news is he isn't corporeal... yet."

"But I fought him in corporeal form," Valerius said. "He attacked me earlier."

"When?" Tabitha asked as her terror returned tenfold. "I didn't see him."

"He was the one the ghost protected at the end of the fighting. Remember?"

Tabitha shook her head. "That wasn't Desiderius. Believe me, I remember that bastard's face." She touched the scar on her cheek.

"No," Ash said. "It was his eldest son. According to Urian, they share the same name."

Tabitha rolled her eyes. "What is it with you ancient people that you only had, what? Three names in the whole family lineage and everybody recycled them?"

"It was tradition," Valerius said. "One I'm glad to have seen broken. Believe me, I take no joy from a name that reminds you of a cheesy song and a man doing unspeakable things in a high school gym. But I suppose, all things considered, 'Valerius' is infinitely better than 'Newbomb Turk.'"

Tabitha laughed at his unexpected comment, amazed that he'd actually understood her earlier reference to the movie The Hollywood Knights.

"Knowing Tabitha, I'm not even going to ask about that one," Ash said, rubbing a hand over his eyebrow.

Ash went suddenly rigid. Tabitha could sense his dread.

"Ash?"

"What happened?" Ash whispered without acknowledging her. It was as if he were talking to someone else.

"Ash?"

"You two stay here and do not leave this house again tonight." He vanished instantly.

She looked at Valerius, whose frown made a mockery of her own. "What was that about?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I have a feeling it's not good."

Ash entered his home in Katoteros with a whirlwind maelstrom flowing behind him. The fifteen-foot-tall, solid oak doors echoed menacingly as they slammed shut of their own accord in his wake. The minute he crossed the elegant threshold, his clothes changed from his modern-day Goth to ancient Atlantean. The seams of his jeans turned into tightly woven, crisscrossed laces that held the tight black leather pants perfectly sculpted to his lower body. His shirt and jacket dissolved away into a heavy black silk foremasta, a long duster-like robe that was left to flow regally around his lithe, muscular body. On the back of the foremasta was embroidered the emblem of a golden sun pierced by three silver bolts of lightning.

It was his personal symbol of power and it marked everything he owned.

Without stopping, he walked directly across the large black marbled foyer that held the same design in the center of the floor.

There was no furniture in the circular foyer, but the golden domed ceiling above him was supported by sixteen columns that had been carved into statues of the most prominent of the Atlantean gods.

Gods who had once made this realm their home. In those days, they had gathered affectionately here in this hall to share time with each other as they watched over the human world and protected it.

But those days were long gone.

The ancient gods themselves were long gone.

Ash headed for the throne room that faced the main doors. The doorway to it was flanked by the likenesses of Apollymi the Destroyer and her husband Archon Kosmetas, a surname that meant Order. At one time, the two of them had presided over the nether realms of Katoteros and Kalosis and in one fit of anger, Appolymi had laid waste to all who dwelled here.

All of them.

Not a single Atlantean god had remained standing after she had swept through this temple in her violent fury. Ash had never understood what could possess her to do such a thing.

But as he entered the throne room of the ancient gods, he was beginning to have enlightenment.

"Urian!" he growled, summoning his servant to him.

Urian popped into the Atlantean throne room ready to take on the devil himself. He drew up short as he caught sight of Ash's true form while the Dark-Hunter stood before the gilded dais that contained two gold thrones that were carved into the shape of dragons.

Urian was still having trouble dealing with Ash when the man looked like this. The blood-red, flaming eyes were enough to make even a demigod like Urian cringe, and Ash's iridescent blue-streaked, marbled skin tone...

Errr...

But the most disturbing thing was the deep, vicious scar that ran from Ash's navel to his throat where someone's handprint had been branded. It looked as if someone had once held the man down by his throat as they sliced him open.

Urian had learned from Alexion on the day he had arrived at Katoteros that while the hand scar came and went, the vertical scar was only visible in this realm and that he should never react to it.

Not if he valued his life, anyway.

Ash's unbalanced temper was present in the lightning bolts and thunder that crackled and sparked outside the leaded windows of the temple.

There were very few things in life that frightened Urian. The extremely powerful man before him was one of them.

Not even Ash's pet pterygsauri would come out to be with their master in this mood. Unlike Urian, the small winged dragon-like creatures had stayed wisely hidden.

"What have you to report?" Acheron asked him, his voice thick with his Atlantean accent.

"Basically that all hell is breaking loose in hell."

Acheron looked less than pleased by the news. More lightning shot across the sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows behind the thrones. It gave an eerie glow to Acheron's body. Thunder clapped ominously as it shook the temple floor where Urian stood.

"What is happening?"

Urian bit back his sarcasm as he started to point out that the weather in Kalosis mirrored the weather here in Katoteros. That would most likely be suicidal.

"I don't know. Desiderius came back to the hall with his son in tow a little while ago. I was told that he said something to Stryker that caused him to reward Desiderius by giving him the ability to reincarnate. Apollymi the Destroyer is locked inside her temple and no one is allowed to see her. Apparently someone did something wrong and she has since sent her Charonte demons off on a blood hunt throughout Kalosis to find the perpetrator. There are Spathis dropping like flies all over the place and everyone is pretty much wetting their pants in fear of her wrath."

"And your father?"

Urian tensed at the reminder that Stryker, the leader of the Spathi Daimons who were controlled by the Destroyer, had fathered him. "I don't know. The minute Desiderius left, he flipped out in the main hall and has been tearing the place apart ever since." His face hardened. "He keeps screaming out my name and I don't know why. Maybe he learned that I'm alive."

Acheron looked away from him.

"What's up with all this, Ash? I know you know."

"No, I don't. The Destroyer is silent to me. I hear nothing from her and that's what concerns me most. She's never silent in our battles."

Urian cursed at what that signified. "What could have set them both off at once?"

The muscle in Acheron's jaw beat an impressive staccato rhythm. "My guess is Stryker sent Desiderius out with a test for me. Once Desi saw that it was effective, he reported it back to Stryker, who had all the confirmation he needed."

"Confirmation of what?"

Acheron's gaze cut through him. "What he really is to Apollymi."

Urian gave a low whistle. "Yeah, that would freak him out. Maybe we'll get lucky and he and the Destroyer will kill each other."

Acheron shot him a look that made him take a step back.

"Sorry," he said quickly.

Acheron started pacing. With his robe flowing eerily out behind him and his silver-soled boots clicking against the black marble floor, he was a spooky sight.

"Why would Desiderius try to take over Tabitha's body?"

"What do you mean?" Urian asked.

"He tried to take over her while I was there. After I blasted him out of her, he came for me."

That didn't make sense. How stupid could... well, it was Desiderius, after all. "Why would he attempt that if he knew what you were?"

Ash gave a low, ominous laugh. "I don't think Stryker shared that information with Desiderius. He wouldn't dare. It would undercut his own authority in Kalosis if he did so."

Good point. "So I guess the real question is who will be the body donor."

Acheron cocked his head as if he just realized something. "He's after Kyrian and Amanda. Since he couldn't get either Tabitha's body or mine, he'll probably go after someone else they know and trust. And that's the next bit I need you to find out. Stryker has me blocked so that I sense nothing in regard to Desiderius."

"For the record, I'm beginning to feel like cannon fodder here. There are a lot of people in Kalosis who rejoiced the day Stryker cut my throat. If one of them finds out that I'm there spying on them, they'll send me back to you in pieces."

Acheron gave him a wry, wicked grin. "It's okay. I'll just put you back together again."

"Thanks, boss. And I find that thought even more disturbing. Humpty Dumpty here doesn't want to fall off the wall, okay?"

Acheron's face hardened once more. "Go, Urian."

Inclining his head, Urian stepped back and willed himself to Kalosis.

Acheron stood silently in his throne room, listening. Still, he heard nothing from the other side. More lightning clashed outside as the winds whistled against the glass panes.

"Talk to me, Apollymi. What are you doing?"

But for the first time in eleven thousand years, she was utterly silent.

The only sound he heard in the deafening silence of his mind was his sister's faint voice. "Be careful what you wish for, little brother. You will get it."

Tabitha hung up the phone from talking to Amanda. Kyrian and Julian had been in the process of taping up Nick's ribs while she'd warned her sister about Desiderius's attack just outside of their house.

"I'm scared, Val," she said as she put her phone down. "Really scared. I keep hearing Amanda's voice telling me about her dream where she and Kyrian die. I know you hate the man, but-"

"I don't hate Kyrian, Tabitha. He hates me."

She nodded as Valerius pulled her into a tight hug that she really needed. He held her carefully against his chest while one hand played in her hair.

She inhaled his rich, welcoming scent, which soothed her even more than his touch.

"Acheron won't let her die," he said comfortingly. "You know that."

"I hope so, but her vision..."

"Those can be altered. Acheron is always saying that fate is helpless against free will. What she saw was one possible outcome."

Tabitha choked on her tears as she thought about what life would be like without Amanda. It was more than she could stand. "I can't lose my sister, Valerius. I can't. We've always had each other."

"Shh," he breathed before placing a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "I'm sure she feels the same way about you, and I swear on my life that neither one of you will ever have to fear losing the other. Not on my watch."

Tabitha was amazed by his tenderness when it was obvious he'd never been shown any himself.

She pulled back to look up at him. "How could your brothers have ever killed you?"

He released her instantly and took three steps back. By the look on his face, she could tell her question had hurt him deeply.

"I'm sorry, Val. That was insensitive of me."

"It's all right. Things were different in those days."

That seemed to be his answer for everything, and it seemed too easy for her to accept.

"I shall call Otto and have him bring us dinner. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

Tabitha nodded and gave him the reprieve she sensed he needed. Without looking back, he left her alone in his library.

"Whatever do you see in that bastard?"

She turned quickly at the sudden voice behind her to find a man of Val's height, staring angrily at her. Dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt, he was incredibly handsome with a neatly trimmed goatee, short, jet-black hair, and electric blue eyes. "Who the hell are you?"

"Zarek."

The unexpected name caught her off guard. So this was the infamous whipping boy who had lived in Valerius's Roman home. Offhand, there wasn't much other than the dark hair and height that marked them as brothers.

Tabitha folded her arms over her chest as she faced him. "So you're the dirtbag with the lightning bolt."

He laughed evilly at her insult. "I'd be careful if I were you. There's no law that says I can't fry your ass, too."

She scoffed at that and refused to give in to his intimidation. "Sure there is. Ash would kill you if you hurt me."

"He might try, but I doubt he'd succeed."

She sucked her breath in between her teeth at his daring tone. "You are arrogant, aren't you?"

He shrugged nonchalantly.

"So, why are you here?" she asked him.

"I've been watching the two of you."

She was disgusted at his confession, and the thought of being his personal viewing choice. It made her shiver in revulsion. "You unbelievable perv!"

His gaze narrowed dangerously. "Hardly. I've made sure to look away when you two start the lovey-dovey shit. I've already been blind once in my life. I have no wish to go back to it."

"Then why were you watching us?"

"Curiosity mostly."

"And you're here now, why?"

"Because I'm curious as to why the sister-in-law of Kyrian would fuck someone like Valerius."

She sneered at him. "That's none of your damned bus..." Tabitha trailed off as the room spun around her.

Suddenly, Valerius's library was gone and she found herself in what appeared to be a mirrored hallway. She saw herself reflected in the mirrors with Zarek by her side.

"Where are we?"

"Olympus. I have something I wanted to show you."

The mirror before her shimmered and changed. It no longer reflected them.

Instead it showed her the past.

She saw an ancient canvas tent with a bloodied man tied to a wooden frame inside it, being tortured. His screams rang out as he begged for mercy in Latin while another man beat him with a barbed whip.

Cringing, Tabitha covered her ears until the beating stopped and another man dressed in Roman armor stepped forward.

It was a young Valerius. His dark face was in need of a shave and his armor was spotted with bloodstains. He looked tired and ill-kempt, as if he hadn't slept in days, but still he held that regal air of superiority.

He threw water into the man's face. "Tell me where they're marching to."

"No."

The Latin words echoed in her head along with the sight of Valerius ordering a soldier to beat the man more.

"It was your lover who blinded me," Zarek snarled in her ear as the mirror clouded, then cleared to show her the image of two small boys.

One lay on the ground, curled into a ball while the other beat him with a whip. One of the lashes cut deep into the one boy's eye, causing him to scream as he covered it with one grimy hand.

"I'm the one on the ground," Zarek snarled in her ear. "Valerius is the one beating me mercilessly and you fucked him."

Unable to watch the cruelty, Tabitha turned and ran into someone else.

She started to fight until she glanced up to see Ash looking less than pleased.

"What are you doing, Z?"

"I'm showing her the truth."

Ash shook his head at the former Dark-Hunter. "I can't believe you married a justice nymph and have yet to learn anything from her. There are always three sides to every memory, Z. Yours, theirs, and the truth, which lies somewhere in between the two. You're only showing her a single sound bite to prove your point. Why don't you give her the whole clip?"

Ash turned her back toward the mirror. "I'm not going to lie to you, Tabby, or try and sway your opinion. This isn't Zarek's memory or Valerius's. It's just the untarnished, objective truth of what happened to them."

She saw the child Valerius again as a man in a toga who looked remarkably similar to Zarek stepped forward. He had to be their father.

Laughing, he patted Valerius on the shoulder. "That's it, my son. Always strike where they're the most vulnerable. You'll make a fine general one day."

The child Zarek glared at both of them as if he could kill them where they stood. Their father jerked the whip from Valerius's hand and commenced to beating him again.

His face horrified, Valerius ran from the room, sobbing. He looked as if he were going to be ill as he stumbled across an old Roman courtyard until he fell down by a huge fountain in the center of the atrium. He braced his folded arms on the edge of the fountain and lay his head down.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he repeated over and over again as he cried.

His father came running out of the house, toward him.

"Valerius!" he snarled as he came up to the child. "What are you doing?"

Valerius didn't answer. His father pulled him up from the ground by his hair.

The horror on the boy's face seared her.

"You pathetic little worm," his father sneered. "I should have named you Valeria. You're more woman than man."

His father backhanded him so hard the sound echoed and sent several birds into flight. Unbalanced by the blow, Valerius fell back to the ground.

His nose and cheek bleeding, Valerius tried to push himself up, but before he could regain his feet, his father brought the whip down across his back. The boy dropped instantly.

Still, his father beat him.

Valerius covered his head as the blows rained down on his little body.

"Get up," his father snarled after he'd delivered twenty lashes.

Valerius was crying so hard he couldn't speak.

His father kicked him in the ribs. "Up, damn you, or I'll give you twenty more."

Tabitha had no idea how he managed it, but somehow Valerius pushed himself to his feet, where he shook and trembled. His clothes were tattered, his face covered in dirt and blood.

His father seized him by the throat and shoved him back against a rough wall so that his ravaged back was scraped by it.

She cringed in sympathetic pain, trying to imagine how a child so young could stand there and not collapse.

"You will stand here until nightfall and if you so much as bend your knees to rest them, I will see you beaten every day until you learn to stomach your pain. Do you understand me?"

The boy Valerius nodded.

"Markus?" his father shouted.

Another boy who closely resembled Valerius came running out of the house. It was obvious he was a few years older. "Yes, Father?"

"Watch your brother; if he sits down or moves, you come for me."

Markus smiled as if his father had just given him a present. "I will, sir."

Their father turned and left them. And as soon as he was out of sight, Markus turned to laugh at Valerius. "Poor little Val," he said tauntingly. "I wonder what Father will do to you if you fall down." Markus struck him in the stomach.

Valerius groaned at the pain, but didn't move from the wall.

That only made Markus angrier. Growling at Valerius, he began striking him. Valerius fought back, but it was no use. In no time, Markus had him on the ground again.

"Father!" Markus cried, running for the door where their father had vanished. "He fell down!"

Tabitha turned away, afraid of what additional punishment Valerius's father had heaped on him. She'd already seen his back firsthand. Had run her hands over those scars that he bore with grace and dignity.

He must truly hate his father, and yet he never spoke a word against any of them. Valerius merely went on with his life, quietly suffering and keeping all the painful memories to himself.

He was remarkable to her.

The screen went black.

"It changes nothing," Zarek said, curling his lip. "So he was beaten, too. I notice you didn't correct the fact that he was torturing-"

"A Greek soldier whose army had marched on a Roman village," Ash said, interrupting him. "Every woman and child there had been locked inside Minerva's temple before they burned it to the ground. Valerius was after the army to stop them before they killed any more innocents."

Zarek scoffed. "They weren't all innocent."

"No," Tabitha said, her throat tight. "But he was a general during a time when things were violent."

"Yes," Ash said quietly. "And he did what he had to do."

Zarek snorted. "Yeah, right. Valerius spent his entire human lifetime trying to please his father, trying to make that animal proud."

Ash refuted that as well. "And when you were children, he was so afraid of your father that he stuttered every time he was in his presence."

"He never hesitated to commit an act of cruelty to please his family."

"Never?"

Tabitha watched the mirror as it again showed her Valerius as a child. He was around the age of eight, lying in bed asleep. Her heart pounded at the peaceful, sweet sight he posed.

Until his bedroom door was slung open.

Valerius jerked upright as lamplight cut across him.

His father seized him from the bed and literally threw him to the ground. Valerius looked at his father and then to the one who held the lamp.

It was Markus.

"What is this?" his father asked as he threw a blanket at Valerius.

Valerius turned pale.

"What is that blanket, Zarek?" Ash asked.

Zarek's blue eyes turned cold. "It's the piece of shit old horse blanket that the little bastard gave to me one winter night and I was beaten for it."

"Valerius!" his father shouted as he slapped the boy. "Answer me."

"B-b-blanket."

"I saw him give it to the slave, Father," Markus said. "So did Marius. He didn't want the slave to be cold."

"Is this true?"

Valerius looked horrified.

"Is it true!"

Valerius swallowed. "He was c-c-c-cold."

"Was he now?" his father sneered, "Well, better a slave to suffer than you, is it not? Perhaps it's time you learn that lesson, boy."

Before Valerius could move, his father tore his clothes from him, then wrenched him up by his thin arm and hauled him from the room. Completely naked, Valerius was taken outside, where his father tied him to a hitching post. It was so cold that their breaths formed icy clouds around them.

"P-p-pl-"

Valerius's plea was cut short by another vicious backhand. "We're Roman, boy. We don't beg for mercy from anyone. For that you'll be beaten even more come morning. If you live through the night."

Shaking from the cold, Valerius bit his lip to keep his teeth from chattering.

Markus laughed at him. "I think you're being too kind, Father."

"Don't question me, Markus, unless you wish to join him."

Markus's laughter died instantly. Without another word or looking back, the two of them turned back toward the house and left Valerius outside alone.

The small boy sank to his knees while he tried to loosen his hands. It was no use. "I swear I'll be a good Roman," he whispered quietly. "I will."

The scene faded.

"You're not convincing me, Acheron," Zarek said coldly. "I still think he's a ruthless bastard who deserves nothing."

"Then how about this?"

This time when the mirror lightened, she saw what appeared to be a seriously disfigured version of Zarek chasing an older version of his father through the ancient Roman house she now knew was theirs.

The middle-aged man was bleeding, his face ravaged as if he'd been knocked around.

The man spilled into what appeared to be a dining hall where Valerius sat at a desk wearing his armor, writing a letter. Frowning, he rose to his feet as he saw his father's frantic run.

His father fell against him and grabbed the metal straps of Valerius's cuirass. "For Jupiter's sake, help me, boy. Save me!"

Zarek drew up short as he saw Valerius in full military regalia. Candlelight shone off the golden armor that was contrasted by his blood-red cape.

Valerius made a fearsome sight as he pushed his father aside and pulled his sword out slowly from its burgundy leather scabbard as if to engage Zarek.

"That's it, boy," his father said with an evil laugh. "Show the worthless slave what I taught you."

"Go ahead, you bastard," Zarek snarled defiantly. "I'm here for my vengeance and you can't kill someone who's already dead."

"I wasn't planning on it," he said simply.

"Valerius," his father snarled. "What are you doing, boy? You have to help me."

His face completely stoic, Valerius looked at his father as if the man were a complete stranger. "We're Roman, Father, and I've long since ceased being a boy. I am the general you made me and you taught me well that we don't beg for mercy from anyone."

He handed his sword hilt-first to Zarek.

With those words spoken, Valerius saluted his brother, walked out of the room, and closed the door.

His father's screams echoed as he walked slowly down the corridor.

Tabitha couldn't breathe as she witnessed the tragedy that was both their lives. Part of her couldn't believe Valerius had left his father to die like that and another part of her understood it completely.

Poor Valerius. Poor Zarek. They both were victims of the same man. One son spat upon because he was a slave and another because he wasn't cold-blooded and unfeeling. At least not until that one moment.

She looked at Zarek, whose eyes still bore the hatred and pain of his past. "If you hate Valerius so much, why didn't you kill him, too, Zarek?"

"Pardon the bad pun, but the blind man was shortsighted at the time."

"No," she whispered. "You knew, didn't you? You knew who deserved your hatred and who didn't."

Zarek's sneer turned even colder as he shot a menacing glare from her to Acheron. "This changes nothing. Valerius still doesn't deserve peace. He doesn't deserve anything except contempt. He is his father's son."

"And what are you?" Tabitha asked. "It seems to me that you're the one carrying around the acidic hatred that won't let you live in peace. Valerius doesn't strike out at other people. Ever. To me that makes him twice the man you are."

Zarek's look pierced her. "Oh, you think you're so special. That he's worth defending. Tell you what, sweetie, if you want to know who Valerius really loves, go to the solarium in his house. Imagine how much Agrippina must have meant to him that he's been lugging her stone statue around for more than two thousand years."

"Zarek..." Ash growled in warning.

"What? It's true and you know it."

Zarek took a step back and then looked as if he were trying to disappear. "What the...?"

Ash gave him a droll stare. "Just for the record, Zarek. If you ever do hurt Tabitha, I will kill you. Gods and goddesses be damned."

Zarek opened his mouth as if to argue, but vanished before any words could escape.

The next thing Tabitha knew, she was back in Valerius's library right where she'd been standing.

"Tabitha?" Valerius asked as he walked back into the room. "Did you not hear my question?"

Tabitha reached out to touch the shelf nearest her to confirm that she was here. Yeah, she was back. But she felt rather strange all of a sudden.

"No," she said to Valerius. "I missed your question, sorry."

"Otto wanted to know if you like mushrooms."

"I'm totally ambivalent to them."

Valerius cast an amused look at her before he relayed the information to Otto. After he finished ordering their dinner, he put the phone back in his pocket. "Are you all right?"

No, she wasn't. The images and words of Zarek and Ash tumbled through her mind.

And she wanted to know who to believe.

"Where's your solarium?"

There was no missing the wave of apprehension that went through Valerius. "My what?"

"Your solarium. You do have one here, right?"

"I... uh, yes, I have one."

At least he didn't lie about it. "Can I see it?"

He went rigid. "Why?"

"I like solariums. They're nice rooms." Tabitha headed out of the library toward the other side of the house. "Would it be this way?"

"No," Valerius said as he followed her. "I still don't see why you'd want-"

"Humor me. Just for a sec, okay?"

Valerius debated. Something wasn't right with Tabitha, he could sense it. And yet he couldn't hide from the past; and for some reason he didn't understand, he didn't want to hide anything from her.

Inclining his head to her regally, he took a backward step toward the stairs. "If you'll follow me."

He led her up the stairs to the room beside his bedroom where the door was sealed with a keypad.

Tabitha watched him key in the code. The lock clicked. Valerius took a deep breath before he swung it wide.

Tabitha's heart shrank as she saw the statue in the middle of the solarium of a beautiful young woman. There was an eternal flame burning beside it

She looked up at Valerius, who refused to meet her eyes while he stared at the floor.

"So this is why you were freaking out about the lamp oil. You must really have loved her."