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  Cormac. Barlaam handed Jade up to her brother-in-law.

  Cormac laid her on the concrete next to where her sister huddled beneath towels. “She’s not breathing.”

  Barlaam dropped to the concrete next to her.

  He knew what to do for humans that had almost drowned. He’d insisted the staff know human emergency response as well. Had been emphatic about it.

  He did what he could to clear her airway. Then he covered her lips with his own and breathed for her. He kept breathing for her.

  Until her green eyes opened and she gasped.

  He rolled her on her side into the recovery position.

  When he deemed it safe, he pulled her into his arms and held her. Just held her.

  He had almost lost her. In his own damned home, where she should have been safe. Shouting sounded from just behind the crowd. Barlaam recognized his brother’s voice. The crowd parted for him.

  “Barl?”

  “She’s going to be ok now.” He tangled his fingers in her sopping wet hair. She pressed her face to his chest. “We’ll both be ok.”

  “She’s your female,” his brother said flatly.

  “Yes.” He would never deny her. “Get me a blanket for her. She’s freezing.”

  Someone was there. Jannen. She had a large towel in her hands. He took it quickly. It dwarfed Jade’s narrow shoulders. Her breathing was calming, stabilizing. There were tears now. And she was trying to turn. “Joselyn? Mickey?”

  Barlaam finally looked away from her. He focused on Cormac first. “Her sister?”

  Cormac had her tight in his own arms. “She’ll be ok. Just frightened and confused. Worried for her sister and cousin.”

  Barlaam turned toward Theo and his redheaded female. “Is she ok?”

  “Yes. She will be fine, after she rests for a few days, I think.” Theo’s brother, Thadd, a healer and good friend of Barlaam’s for many centuries, answered for him. “She and the babe are both doing better than can be expected.”

  Theo lifted his female from the cold concrete. Barlaam and Cormac did the same. Jade’s arm slipped around his neck. Already her arm was starting to swell, to show where the elhydra’s bands had tightened.

  She would be hurting for several days. But his female was alive. Thank the goddess, she was alive.

  “I am taking her to my suite. We will speak there.”

  He looked at Faelix, who was being helped by Jannen now. The warrior showed the worst injuries. “Faelix?”

  Faelix waved his sister aside. “Jann, stop fussing. I’m fine. A bit bruised, but I’ll be fine. Let’s go. I’m not comfortable letting her out of my sight, myself. Something…” He paused, looked at Rydere and Barlaam. “We’ll speak privately.”

  Jade pulled in a shuddering breath, and her arm tightened around his neck. Rydere adjusted the towel on her shoulders and nodded. He patted her back gently.

  Nothing was said as Barlaam carried her to his suite, the one place he knew he’d be able to keep her safe.

  35

  Jade had never been as terrified as she had when she’d realized a water monster had had her and her sister and Mickey. That they’d all three survived was a miracle. But she wasn’t going to think about that. Not today.

  Not right now. She needed time to process.

  “What was that thing?” Her voice was going to be hoarse for a while. But things could be a lot worse. “I think my rib is broken.”

  “It is. I will heal you when we get to my suite.” His words were soft against her ear. “I will make you better as soon as I can. And I will keep you safe from now on. I am sorry I was not with you today.”

  “Hey, we can’t be together all the time.” Jade wasn’t about to let him feel guilty for something she strongly suspected wasn’t his fault. “How else will you learn to appreciate me?”

  Someone called her name. Barlaam stopped walking, long enough for Emily to catch up to them.

  Her cousin fussed over her a little until Jade felt slightly embarrassed. “I’ll be ok, Em. I promise. Just bruised. Why don’t you go check on Mick and Joselyn?”

  “Because they aren’t human any longer. You are.” Emily’s voice broke at the last. Rydere pulled her closer to comfort.

  Barlaam began walking again. Jade rested her head on his shoulder. She was freezing. He was a handy source of warmth. And of safety. She suspected his extra-perfect arms would be just strong enough to keep her safe for what was coming.

  And that would be needed. Because something out of this world was definitely coming for all of them. Jade just knew. But now was not the time for that.

  She’d need to talk to Mickey’s vampire first. She closed her eyes as she contemplated what was coming. Within moments, sleep claimed her, and she rested—in Barlaam’s arms, where she belonged.

  36

  Jason knew something had happened, the instant he stepped foot back in the building. And it involved his daughters. He hurried toward the wing he had been assigned. He’d check Joselyn first. He hadn’t been fooled by her claims that she was feeling better. His daughter was far too weak right now.

  He stopped at the suite across from his and pounded on the door. He wanted answers, and while he didn’t exactly care for this new son-in-law of his, he knew the bastard would tell him the truth—exactly as it was.

  But it wasn’t his son-in-law who answered the door—it was a small, brown-haired healer in denim blue. “Hello…M-Mr. Taniss. Please come in.”

  There were others in the room now. And Joselyn was snuggled on that damned vampire’s lap—wrapped in a thick towel. Her arms were so tight around his neck Jason was surprised the other male wasn’t choking.

  He wasn’t stupid.

  Something serious had just happened. “What’s going on?”

  The vampire looked at him. He was almost rocking Joselyn; Jason couldn’t miss that. Hell, he had to admit, they looked good together. Like they belonged together in some weird way he didn’t quite understand.

  “There was another demon attack. Your daughters caught the brunt of it after they fell into the pool. The demons had called an elhydra into the waters. It was waiting for your niece Mickey. To consume her.”

  Fear shot straight through him. “Is Mickey safe?”

  “She is resting,” the little dark-haired female in healer blue said. “She’s with her male and his brother now. Barlaam has Jade in his suite, I believe.”

  “I’ll head there next.”

  Cormac leveled a look at him. “She took the worst of it, Taniss. And it was damned close. Had Faelix not been assigned to guard her, Joselyn would have lost her sister today.”

  Fear and anger boiled through him. Jason forced himself to breathe, to think. “I’m heading to his suite now.”

  He looked at his daughter. Her eyes had closed, and she was resting—peacefully resting—pressed against a damned vampire.

  There was nothing Jason could do to stop it.

  Just why were his daughters chosen by this goddess? It didn’t make any sense at all.

  37

  “She is your female, and you’ve known since we first saw her.”

  It wasn’t a question. Both Barlaam and his brother knew it.

  “Yes. She is my female. And, no, it took a few hours. It was the first time I touched her. I lifted her out of the helicopter.” She’d barely stumbled into the bathing room attached to his suite long enough to change out of her wet swimsuit and into one of his sleep vestis. Emily had fussed over her until Jade was tucked into bed—Barlaam’s bed, at that—and drifting off to sleep.

  Kindara had been waiting in Barlaam’s suite when he’d arrived, with a tonic designed to send Jade to sleep so her body could heal. It was experimental, she’d said.

  Made from the mesmus of the demon.

  Barlaam had been hesitant to try it, fearing side-effects. Until the demon stated he’d already used mesmus on the girl. Several times. When questioned, he’d admitted to using Jade as the one to call Kindara the night s
he and Jierra were taken. Jade had no memory of it.

  Emily and Jade had let the demon have it.

  They weren’t exactly shy and retiring, these new Dardaptos females of theirs.

  Then the demon had stated that he’d also used it on her when she’d broken her arm at fourteen and had needed to heal. Rathan had sat by her bedside all night while her father had been playing airplane air-tag, trying to get home to her. She’d been hurting and afraid, and the demon had been there when she’d needed him.

  It had had all of the females in the room softening toward the damned demon. No doubt just as Malickus had intended.

  Barlaam had had to trust that Kindara would never do a damned thing to hurt Jade. It had been the first time in four hundred years that he had ever doubted Kindara’s abilities as a healer. And that had everything to do with Jade.

  He straightened the blankets around her shoulders. Her hair was dry, thanks to a wave of the demon’s hand over her head. She was dry and warm—and safe.

  “When do you plan to convert her?” Rydere demanded.

  “I—” He had intended to wait. At least five or ten years. Just watching her, guarding and protecting, until she was older. A foolish plan, he realized that now. “I would not have found her now if the goddess had not intended it to be now.”

  “No. That’s a good way to look at it.”

  “We will discuss converting her when she is healed. I—had she not had a guard, she would have died.”

  “Yes. We would have lost you both.”

  Had Jade died this day, Barlaam would have fallen to his knees and died. Just ended. His entire existence was this beautiful girl. “I will not take her choices from her.”

  “I understand.” His brother darted a glance at the female who stood speaking quietly with Kindara and the demon. How much his brother loved her was written on the face so like Barlaam’s mother’s had been. They had lost both their parents in childbirth, as well as their infant sister, long before they had migrated to this continent.

  It had been one of the reasons they had chosen to leave their home in South America some three hundred fifty years ago.

  “I know you do. But I cannot…leave her vulnerable as a human any longer. Not in the world we inhabit. I am not letting her leave this suite until I am certain she will be safe. I can do nothing else.”

  Someone pounded on the door. The demon was the one who answered it.

  No surprise, it was Jade’s father.

  He looked at Barlaam. “How is she?”

  “We’ve given her a sleeping aid. She needs to stay still and rest for a while, let the bruises heal. And it is just bruises, and a few nightmares.” He would not tell her father how close they had come to losing her. Barlaam could not speak even the words. And he never would. “She is safe here, now.”

  “What the hell happened? I wasn’t even gone a full day.” He stormed into the bedroom, past his niece and Kindara. Barlaam followed. If Taniss tried to take her out of the bed and to his own suite, Barlaam was fully prepared to reeducate her father rather quickly.

  The wolf stopped at the edge of the bed, staring down at his sleeping daughter.

  “That’s what we were just about to find out. As soon as Jannen is finished with Faelix, he’ll be meeting us here shortly,” Rydere said. “I assume you’ve spoken with your elder daughter?”

  Taniss jerked his head in a nod. “Bruises. Frightened. Damned Jareth is calming her down now. But they didn’t give me much to go on. Demons. And something about a water beast.”

  Jade shifted on the bed at her father’s voice. Her green eyes opened. It was obvious she was fighting the drug Kindara had given her. She sat up, though her movements were sluggish.

  Barlaam sank to the bed behind her. She leaned into him instinctively. “Shhh. It’s the drug Kinney gave you making you sluggish. I’m here. You’re safe now. It won’t hurt you again.”

  Her eyes drifted closed. “It wasn’t me the demons wanted. At least not after they saw Mickey. Thought I was her first…”

  They did resemble each other a great deal.

  Rydere stepped closer. Kindara shifted, putting herself between the Dhar and the side of the bed. Barlaam focused on the female in his arms. “How do you know?”

  “Could feel it. Feel them. Knew…knew they wanted Mickey and didn’t like saltwater. Didn’t know you had monsters in your pool, though. Or I would have just splashed them or something. What did you give me? It’s making some seriously pretty colors now. All…purplish. There’s a purple demon there. He’s really big and kind of looks like Rath.” She sent a sleepy look at the demon. “He’s waiting for you. And someone else. A girl. But he doesn’t know it yet. She’s a vampire. Now it’s turquois here. Raining blue. Wicked. Might tell Mallory ’bout the blue rain.”

  “Kindara?” the demon asked.

  Jade shook her head. “No. Not her.”

  “Why is he waiting for her?” the demon asked gently.

  “No. Not waiting. Looking for her. In a purple world. A really purple world. She’ll change the world one day. Everything changes for her. For us. For everyone. But it’s not right now. Later. Next year, I think—before Cass changes, too…” She trailed off. “Everything is about to get crazy, Rath…and I don’t know what it means…”

  She was out, curled up in Barlaam’s arms. He kissed her hair slowly and tightened his arms around her.

  Everyone was silent for a moment.

  “A dream?” Rydere asked, quietly. “Or something more?”

  “The girl has sensed the future since her sixteenth birthday. An extremely strong prognosticative gift,” the demon said bluntly, after an apologetic look at her father. “It was a secret the two of us have shared for six years now.”

  “You believe her?” Taniss asked. “About a purple demon? And what does it have to do with Cass?”

  “I don’t know. But I think we might want to get her here soon. I do not like not having all of the females in one place.” The demon’s eyes burned as he looked at Jade and then Rydere’s Emily. “There is only one purple demon that I have ever known. He is the most dangerous to walk the lands, other than me, of course. Sinister, dangerous, intelligent. Very, very cunning.”

  “Who is he?” Kindara asked, after taking Jade’s pulse one more time.

  “My brother. The one I believe has betrayed me and is trying to steal my kingdom. I will be returning to my home on the morn.” He shot Kindara a pointed look. “I have to prepare my kingdom for the imminent arrival of the crown prince.”

  “That is not happening. There is no way my babe is going to be going to the demon world. Especially if your own brother is trying to steal the crown from you.” Kindara pressed her hands against his chest. “Mark my words: it just isn’t going to happen. We go, study your medicine. Then I get back here with my family—where I belong.”

  The demon ignored her. He turned to Jade’s father, then looked at Barlaam. “Keep Jade safe. If it ever became known just how strong a gift she has—and that she is human—far too many of the more unscrupulous Kinds will be coming for her. She is becoming more and more of a target every day.”

  Within an hour, everyone had left, leaving him alone with Jade’s father.

  38

  Jason looked at this second son-in-law and decided, as things stood, he liked this one better than he did the other. Barlaam adored Jade, practically worshipped the very air she breathed. And the poor bastard didn’t even fully realize it yet. Or perhaps maybe he did.

  He watched the vampire fuss over his daughter for several long moments. Then Jason asked the question that was burning through his mind. “You are going to convert her soon, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.” Barlaam didn’t lie. Jason respected that. “It’s unsafe for her to remain human. Hell, all of your human relatives are probably on the chopping block.”

  Jason fought the urge to tense. He’d had the same thought. And with what had been revealed in those files, it was time he had a very blunt
discussion with his five brothers.

  It was time they got some answers. “I’m going out to look for my niece Rebecca now. I trust you’ll be taking care of Jade from now on.”

  Barlaam nodded. “As soon as she wakes and can give her consent. If she says no…I’m leaving it up to her. But I will protect her for the rest of our days.”

  “I know you will.” Jason held out a hand. He might not have wanted a vampire for his daughter, but he had one. And at least, it was a vampire he could damned well respect. “Take care of her. I have some answers to find.”

  39

  Jade opened her eyes late the next day. First thing she realized was that she was not in the suite she’d been assigned. And the bed around her smelled like her vampire. The second thing was that she was alone. Her vampire was nowhere in sight.

  She took a quick shower and changed into the clothes someone—most likely Emily—had placed next to the bed. Then she took a good look around at her vampire’s private space. There were medical books everywhere—it didn’t look that much different than the house she shared with her sister. Joselyn had always had her head stuck in some book.

  She couldn’t stay in his suite all day. She had family waiting for her.

  Rebecca was somewhere nearby. And Jade needed to hear some details.

  She opened the suite door and smiled at the guards. They straightened. “Hi. Where’s Barlaam?”

  That was probably going to be her first question every time he disappeared on her.

  “He’s in the Adrastos wing,” Faelix said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Sore. But I’ll survive. You?” He looked far more beat up than she did, but he had fought a dozen demons—she thought they were demons, anyway—before he’d followed her into the water. “Thanks for the save yesterday, by the way.”

  “Anytime. And I will heal.”

  She rose on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. He was Barlaam’s first cousin, he’d told her. And she was going to adopt him as a big brother. She had a feeling he was going to be guarding her back for a very long, long time. “Thank you. I know you didn’t have to jump in the water yesterday, but it is extremely appreciated.”