"I thought you were leaving," Giacinta said casually from
her place by the window. She didn't look at him, but continued to keep a
watchful eye on Morgan as she played with an adorable human boy. The child was quite skilled at finding her
own dinners anymore.
"I am." Kieran didn't look at her, either, instead
gathering various items from around the room. "I leave for Ireland
tomorrow and I'm not coming back."
Surprise made her face him, her full mouth falling open. "But
I thought you said--"
He shrugged. "I changed my mind," he replied. He finally
looked up at her and she saw the determination and hurt written on his face.
"What happened?" she asked, concerned. One black eyebrow
arched questioningly. She didn't know it, but somehow her expression became
condescending instead of caring.
A corner of his mouth twisted. "Nothing."
Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She glanced out the window briefly
to check on Morgan, to give herself some time to figure out what was really
going on, but the children had disappeared. "Something happened. And what
do you mean you're not coming back? You have to."
"No, I don't," he retorted, "and I’m not going
to." He glared at her from beneath heavy lashes that hid the touch of
desperation in his eyes. He was not as successful at keeping it out of his
voice.
Her lips pursed, she asked the question that had been bothering her
for the last several weeks. "Why aren't you killing Kian's soulmate?"
He knew the question shouldn't have startled him, but it did.
"Why should I?" he countered.
"Because you always do," she replied disbelievingly. "Why would you stop now?"
He hesitated a moment, his lips barely moving to form words she
didn't understand. Then he sighed. "It's gotten boring."
Her black eyes were sharp, burning like coals and snapping with
sudden insight. "You're never
bored, Kieran Redfern. What are you not telling me? What is this human girl to
you?"
"Nothing," he answered just a little too quickly to be
believable. He met her eyes and regarded her blankly, keeping all traces of
emotion from his face.
It didn't work. She smirked, one corner of her mouth curving
gleefully. "Why, Kieran, you're in love with her, aren't you?"
His eyes went flat and cold. "No," he said shortly.
"I'm not."
She laughed delightedly. "You are! That's why you're not going to kill her!" She laughed
again and her eyes sparkled. "I'm sure Kian would love to hear this."
"I'm sure he would, too," he stated slowly. "But if
you tell him, those will be the last words you ever speak."
Her grin faded. "Don't threaten, Kieran. Didn't your mother
ever tell you it isn't nice?" She paused, waiting just a split second to
let those words sink in, then she continued, "Don't make me take away your
toys, my love."
He shot her a moody look from eyes the color of blood-drenched
sapphires. Catching the light, they seemed neither blue nor red, but that
startling color in between, vivid and sharp. "I'm not your love," he
said viciously. "And if I were, you wouldn't know what to do with
me."
"Wooden nails and a sledgehammer would do nicely, I
think," she responded, her voice tranquil and undisturbed. She smiled
angelically.
"And if you were my soulmate, I'm sure I'd agree with you on
that one." He returned her smile easily, but his expression was cruel.
"In fact, I'd probably suggest it myself."
She stood abruptly. "Kian told me centuries ago that I
wouldn't bother wasting my time on him if I found my soulmate. Perhaps I should
offer the same advice to you. Stop wasting your time, Kieran. Kill the bitch
and spend the next few years looking for your
soulmate, not his."
"Ah, but if I found mine, why would I bother to kill
his?" he countered. He lounged back against the table and folded his arms
across his chest. He already knew the answer.
"Consider it a personal favor," she answered sweetly. She
tossed her dark hair back over her shoulder and smiled at him. "You always
were the nice twin."
He laughed so hard the table shook. "Flattery will get you
nowhere, especially with me." He sobered, the laughter dropping from his
eyes as quickly as a pebble off the Empire State Building. "I don't do
favors."
"You do for me, Kieran dear," she murmured, gliding towards
him until she was almost leaning against him. A red-tipped nail rasped against
his shirt and toyed with one of the buttons. "And in return, I'll help you
look for her."
His voice was almost taunting as he replied, "I've already
found her." He laughed at the fury written on her face.
Winding her fingers into the fabric of his shirt, she maneuvered
his face until it was inches from hers. He let her do it, not bothering to
fight or move away. "Who is she?" she demanded, infuriated that he
hadn't told her before.
He shrugged, easily disengaging himself. "It amazes me
sometimes how remarkably dense you are, Giacinta." One corner of his mouth
quirked. "Haven't you figured it out by now?"
She stared at him, searching his chiseled face for some clue. He
stared back at her impassively, the mid-afternoon sun glistening like teardrops
on those heavy lashes and illuminating the planes of his face. "Who is
she?" she repeated.
"You don't really
think I'm going to tell you, do you?" he answered. "It's not any of
your business. And I don't exactly relish the idea of giving you something to
hold over me."
Sadness washed over her features. "You really don't think much
of me, do you?" she asked quietly. She stepped back, turning away and
walking to the window, where she stared into the yard. Morgan and the human had
reappeared. The human child was playing much more docilely than before. She
would even venture to say that his movements were sluggish. When Morgan learned
a lesson, she learned it well.
He sighed, striding across the room to join her. "Just accept
it, Giacinta. Let the girl live this life in peace and let her be happy with
Kian. They deserve it." He stopped then, wondering if he'd really just
said that. Let his brother live in peace? With his soulmate?
He must be crazy.
"So what do you do now?" she asked moodily. She glanced
at him. "Go back to Ireland and live happily ever after with your
soulmate?"
He shook his head negatively, almost wishing she knew how wrong she
was. Kieran didn't believe in happily ever after. He had no reason to.
Abruptly, he turned away. "There is no such thing," he told her
seriously. "Maybe for some people, but not for me." A wry grin.
"Never for me."
"Doesn't your soulmate like you, Kieran?" she questioned
coyly. She swiveled to face him, her gamin face alight with curiosity.
The violet lights in his eyes twinkled sardonically. "No more
than she'd like jumping from a plane without a parachute."
Giacinta was startled at his candor. "Why? What did you
do?"
"This and that," he answered evasively. "Twisted a
few knives, sucked a little blood… All in all, nothing that unusual."
"Is she human?" she asked sharply. She watched him for a
reaction, hopeless and hopeful all at the same time. Hopeful because Kieran deserved
a human soulmate, just to teach him a lesson. Hopeless because he probably
wouldn't get what he deserved. Ironically, it was because she cared about him
that she hoped the girl was human.
His upper lip curled. "No, she's not." A scornful sweep
of those intense and somewhat tragic eyes. "She'd be long dead were that
the case."
Giacinta lifted one sculpted eyebrow. "You'd kill your
soulmate? How… sweet… of you, Kieran." She stared at him while he met her
eyes impassively, as chilling as she had ever seen him. Something clicked in her mind just then and she
had to suppress a gasp. What if… Her sparkling black eyes were suddenly
calculating.
"I wish you luck, mon
cher." She turned abruptly, fingers thoughtfully smoothing the length
of her skirt. "I have to go teach Morgan some manners. It's not polite to
play with your food."
"I rather enjoy it," he responded lazily, wondering what
prompted this. He watched her, surprised, as she glided quickly to the door.
"I don't think you do it quite the same way Morgan does."
She stopped on the threshold, just for a moment. "I'm going out of town
myself today," she informed him suddenly. "I probably won't see you
before you leave." A moment's hesitation, then she continued, "Have a
safe trip. Whether you come back to the States or not, I do intend to see you
again."
"Thanks for the warning." He winked at her. A brief
responding smile flitted over her face, but quickly disappeared as he
continued, "I need some time to disappear before you get there. Make sure
you call first."
She blinked. "I wouldn't think of it," she answered, eyes
narrowed in hurt for the second time. "There's nothing I enjoy more than
making your life difficult -- except maybe ruining Kian's."
His mouth tightened angrily. "I've told you to leave Kian
alone."
She nodded. Gliding softly towards him, more of a predator than a
person, she only stopped when she was nearly touching him. "I won't touch
Kian," she promised softly, knowing that her promise would be kept. She
hadn't promised not to hurt him; she'd promised not to touch him. And in those
two things lay a world of difference.
Before he could react, she leaned forward, her mouth closing over
his sharp cheekbone in what should have been a kiss. But instead her teeth
scraped roughly over his skin until it broke and blood sprang from the marks.
Then she pulled away.
"You bit me, you bitch!" he swore, more shocked than
angry or hurt. He shoved her away from him. The sting was already fading and he
knew the mark had nearly disappeared, but the trickle of blood down his cheek
was still heady to his senses -- even though it was his own.
She smiled. "All's fair in the game of love and war," she
answered softly, reaching to wipe away that glistening trail of blood and
leaving a vibrant scarlet smear on his cheek. She brought her fingers to her
lips, her tongue flicking out lazily to lick away his blood, savoring the
exotic taste. Her eyes slid shut in drowning ecstasy. Sliding one finger in her
mouth, lapping away all traces of the burning liquid, she murmured, "And
I've just taken your pawn."
***
"I can't believe you," Jessa continued, as though Cameron
hadn't said anything at all. "Maybe you should tell me that one more time
just to make sure I got it."
Cameron gritted her teeth.
"I could say it seven times or seven thousand times and you're
still going to hear the same thing. Telling you again isn't going to change
it." She pushed a silky fall of black hair away from her forehead and
glared.
"Let me just make sure I've got this straight. Kieran Redfern
offered -- no, 'begged' seems to be the more correct term here -- that you kill
him and instead you kissed him? What
could you possibly have been thinking? 'Maybe if I seduce him he'll let me
live?'"
Her blue eyes sharp and luminous with anger, Cameron answered
flatly, "I couldn't kill him. I tried."
Jessa nodded. "Right. I understand. Of course, next time he
attaches himself to your neck, you might want to remember how you tried to kill
him and try not to bleed to death, too." She laid her hands flat on table
in front of her, itching to wring Cameron's lovely white neck. "I don’t
know why he hasn't killed you yet, Cam, but he will. You know that."
"I know what he plans to do," Cameron said softly.
"He hasn't exactly made a big secret out of it."
"Well, what do you need?" her friend snapped. "A
billboard? Because you certainly haven't seemed to grasp the concept."
Cameron sat back in her chair, hurt. "I don't think anyone
understands better than I do." Tears welled in those sky colored eyes, the
watery sheen bringing emphasis to heartbreaking pain. Softly, she repeated,
"I couldn't kill him."
"Did you not have a stake?" Jessa demanded, searching for
some explanation that made sense. She yanked absently at the golden waterfall
of her hair, fingers sliding through sheets of flaxen strands, and she bit her
lower lip in frustration.
Cameron sighed. "That really isn't the point, Jessa. You know
damned well I would have found a way around that if it had been a problem.
I…" her voice trailed off, seeping into the air like water draining
through dry sand.
After several seconds of silence, Jessa shoved her chair back from
the table and rose, resuming her patrol of the path between the stove and the
refrigerator -- all six feet of it. "Lovely. So Kieran's not dead. We can
work with this. What about Kian? He's still alive, right? You didn't decide to
let the murderer go but kill your soulmate, did you?"
Cameron tried to keep the guilt from creeping across her face.
"He's still alive," she muttered. "I can't kill him, either, no
matter how much I want to." She avoided Jessa's bottomless chocolate
stare.
"You don't want your soulmate dead," Jessa responded
bitterly. Her eyes slid shut for just a second before snapping open to meet
Cameron's own. "Maybe he can figure out a way to keep you alive."
Grimacing, Cameron replied, "Now might not be the best time to
ask him about that. I would venture to say that I'm not anywhere near even the
bottom on his list of favorite people." She glanced to where Jessa had
abruptly stopped pacing, her expression apologetic. She nervously twisted the
ring on the third finger of her right hand.
Jess' reaction wasn't long in coming. "What did you do?"
she asked tiredly. She sounded almost like she'd been expecting this. Her hands
crept to rest imperiously on her hips as she waited for an answer.
"I told him never to come back," Cameron answered
bravely, hoping Jessa's reaction would be on a smaller scale than the firework
display they'd seen last July.
No luck. "You what?!" Jessa gasped, her voice somewhere
between a shriek and a growl, or maybe an odd combination of the two. Whatever
words you wanted to use to describe the sound, it wasn't pleasant. She resumed
her pacing and skeptically demanded, "Why would you do that?"
Cameron decided that her reasons should probably be kept to
herself. Jessa didn't seem highly conducive to her thought patterns today.
"It doesn't matter," she said firmly. She hoped Jessa wouldn't argue
with her on this one. "I don't know if it worked, but if it did, he won't
be coming anywhere near me before I die. I don't think I was convincing enough
to keep him from the funeral, but you never know."
A look of utter shock washed over Jessa's face and she paused for a
split second before regaining her composure. She eyed Cameron disbelievingly.
"Third time's a charm, Cam. Maybe this time he'll actually stay away,
whether it's your funeral or your birthday."
"And Jean-Luc will suddenly start calling Remy and sending
flowers," Cameron snapped. "Hell might freeze over, too." She
shook her head, sitting up straight in the chair. "I really don't think it
will really stop him, but I had to try."
Jessa suddenly stopped pacing, hoisting herself onto the dove gray
countertop. Cameron could tell she was trying not to fidget. "Why?"
she asked.
"I'm sick of dying!" Cameron's eyes dropped briefly,
staring painfully into the wall's blank canvas. "I want to live my life
and not concern myself with either of the twins or their damned games. I never asked for any of this. Just because I'm
their soulmate --" The words died abruptly as she realized what she'd
said.
"Their?" One perfectly golden, perfectly sculpted eyebrow
rose questioningly. "Did I just hear that right?"
Cameron brushed her question aside. "It was a slip of the
tongue," she muttered. "You know what I meant."
"No, I really don't," Jessa argued, determined to pry any
information she could out of her charge. Their? Something told her that was the
first truly honest thing Cameron had said to her all night. "Why don't you
enlighten me?"
"About what?" She denied the accusation that there was
more to tell doggedly. Silently, she cursed herself for not watching her mouth.
Wonderful, Cameron, she thought. Why don't you just tell her everything and get
it out of the way before you really screw it up?
Jessa watched her, unmoved and unsympathetic. "I'm waiting."
She wasn't going to get away with it. Sighing, she finally gave up,
asking, "What exactly do you want to know?"
"Their?"
Only one word, but it prompted Cameron enough to answer honestly. "Kian and Kieran are both my soulmates. Happy? Now all my secrets have been revealed and you know why I didn't kill him tonight."
"You could have said," Jessa accused. "Do you realize
how much easier that would have made everything?"
Cameron wasn't sure what she referred to. "Easier?"
Jessa paused, disconcerted. Had she really said that? You should
know better, Jessa, she scolded silently. "I wouldn't have made all these
plans to find Kian, kill Kieran, et cetera. It would have saved a lot of
work."
"I suppose so," Cameron agreed. She flushed,
embarrassment creeping over her features. "I just didn't want to tell you
that you couldn't kill that twin either and ruin all your fun."
Jessa slid off the counter, still reeling from Cameron's
revelation, but trying her best to hide it. How was this possible? What…? She
shook her head, hoping to clear it, but it didn't work. "So now what do we
do?" she wondered, all her answers suddenly gone.
Cameron didn't know how to answer her.
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