He was aware of someone trying to lift Jessica from him. He growled, not sure who the blond woman was.

“We need to help, Lord Mason. Jacob, help me. He’s lost too much blood. I can’t get him to let her go—” Mason hissed at the male vampire, who had blue eyes that seemed familiar, but he was male, and he wasn’t touching her. He was tired. If they’d let him alone, let him lie down with her in this cool marble place. A tomb. He’d wanted to die in someone’s tomb . .. her tomb? The woman he was holding. Jessica.

“Look, Mason. Lyssa. Lyssa’s coming. Jacob, hold on a minute. If he fights you, we’ll lose him . . .” Vague impressions. He wasn’t lost. This was a garden. His garden. There was a new garden in his backyard. No verandah, though.

Damn it, if he was facing construction again, he was obviously dead and in Hell.

No, he couldn’t be in Hell. This was Eden. There were even two large trees in the middle, leading down to a grove of quite a few more. The biblical story, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One permitted ignorant bliss, the other gave sorrow and pain. By Allah’s mercy, he knew what choice Jessica needed to make. No one who had a heart like hers, permeated with love and goodness, deserved the curse of knowledge, all its agony.

Out of that garden, a naked woman came, as if she were Eve herself. Only instead of walking with shame, she walked as if she should be nibbling the forbidden apple, the serpent twined intimately around her.

The haze cleared, for he knew her. Lyssa. Her jade eyes flamed in the aftermath of their battle, the power she’d commanded still arcing off her like stray bursts of lightning.

The blue-eyed vampire—Jacob, Mason remembered now—straightened from his tense crouch near Mason. Danny called out urgently. “Lyssa, he needs your help.” Somehow, her fingers were on him, pressing on his heart, stopping the flow of blood completely. He tried to shrug away, because that was for Jessica, if Jessica needed more, but he could barely move. He felt cold and sluggish. When they eased him down to the ground, they let him keep the slight body in his arms, so he allowed it. He couldn’t let his guard down, though, couldn’t slip away. He tightened his grip on Jessica further.

Lyssa crouched over him, her attention on the wound, but she glanced at Danny. “Our son?”

“Safe. In the barn, with Mason’s head groom. When this all started, I took Kane to him. Jorge was ready to slip out unnoticed into the forest if things had gone badly. I’ll go check on him now.”

The blond vampire rose. She’d held on to one of her sabers, but Mason remembered now that she’d pinned one vampire to the ground with the other. He saw her gingerly tug the weapon from the clutches of a new bush dotted with red flowers, giving it a bemused look. Lyssa’s fingers probed his wound, and it hurt.

“Oh, Mason,” she murmured. “What did you do to yourself? You may have killed both of you, trying to save her.”

“The weapon was steel,” Jacob said, his blue eyes concerned.

“Thank the heavens it wasn’t wood. Mason.” Lyssa’s tone became firm, unyielding, and her hand cradled his face, making him focus on her relentless gaze. “If you want to save Jessica, you must let her go. Right now.” Yes, she was right. He knew that. But he’d also thought something else . . . What was it? That he didn’t want to be left alone again.

He couldn’t bear it.

But she needed him to let go. It was best for her. So he did, despite the fact it made his heart hurt even worse, and not from blood loss. When Jacob and Dev eased Jessica back, he turned his head and watched Lyssa kneel between them. Using one of Dev’s knives, Lyssa opened the artery at her own throat and brought it to Mason’s mouth, cupping her hand behind his head. Jacob steadied her, holding her shoulders as she brought the rich taste of her blood to his lips.

With that first swallow, her hair fell forward, brushing his jaw. He was glad for it, because as he looked at Jessica’s pale, unconscious face through the curtain of it, he didn’t want to shame himself with the tears that were trying to fall. Perhaps it was all right. Jessica would take Brian’s serum and the third mark would be erased. Then he could die without harming her. He could go to Farida’s tomb. It wasn’t Jessica who was supposed to die there. It was him. His time had been over for a long while. Allah, he didn’t even know how to use a cell phone or computer, couldn’t care less about learning. He’d thought a remote location, a forest and an ocean would keep interlopers out of his home, in a world of fast powerboats and GPS.

You will not die. Lyssa’s voice. Jessica needs you. Will you let her go so easily? Will you leave her unprotected in the world, no matter what she chooses?

No. He would never leave her unprotected. He’d promised. It didn’t matter whether Jessica took the serum or not, knew of his existence or not. He would always be near to protect her. Make sure she found the happiness she deserved.

And you can learn to use a damn computer.

31

DEV looked down the slope of the lush, tangled, wild ravine, to the untamed garden that had spilled out below it, bumping up against the more manicured landscaping. He cocked a brow at Jacob, sitting next to him on a pile of rock they’d adapted into a rudimentary bench outside the ballroom. “I’m thinking this verandah was never meant to be. Second time in recent history it’s been blasted.”

The corner of Jacob’s mouth tugged up as he took a swallow of his beer. “As Lord Brian said—once they find their power, the Fey can kick vampire ass any day of the week.”

“Hmm.” Dev sobered, gave him a thoughtful look. “You know, Mason’s still pissed at us for leaving Kane with Jorge like that. Told us we should have run off, gotten him to safety. You and Lyssa haven’t said that, but still, I’m sorry if we made the wrong decision.”

“No.” Jacob lowered his beer and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I trust your instincts, Dev. You wouldn’t have left him there if it wasn’t the best decision. Without you and Danny, Mason would have been overwhelmed before we returned. Even though Trenton didn’t know you were here, how long do you think it would have taken them to discover the scent of a vampire infant and track you? What you did was the best choice for risky odds, for all of us. And Kane.”

“Well, truth is, Danny tried to get me to leave with Jorge. Got pretty ugly, except we ran out of time to fight about it.” Dev pressed his lips together. “And yeah, I can say I did it because it was the best decision, but—” Jacob finished it for him, locking with his gaze in perfect accord. “You wouldn’t leave her. Just because you can’t leave her side doesn’t make it any less the right decision. No worries, mate.” Imitating Dev’s broad accent, he tapped his bottle against the human servant’s.

The Aussie nodded, his shoulders easing. When he glanced down, he saw a small female figure appear on the left corner of the old garden area, near the horse sculpture. She sank down on the fountain’s edge, reaching out to the spray. “Do you think she feels that way about Mason?”

“I don’t know.” Jacob frowned. “But I have a feeling we’ll soon find out. He received the third-mark removal treatment from Brian two days ago.”

The return of the full staff several days earlier had been a relief, because it was the first time she and Lyssa were able to convince Mason to retire to his rooms and seek a truly deep, restful sleep, one he desperately needed. While technically he couldn’t have died from a metal stake, the wound had been serious enough that he was still paler than Jess would expect even a vampire to be.

Her chest had healed as it should, thanks to him, but that too had been a near thing. She was better off than Mason, but she still had unsteady moments if she worked out too hard or spent too long in the stables, pushing herself in an attempt to manage her worry about Mason.

It was an unpleasant echo of the many months she’d fought off that near-death feeling in her search for Farida’s tomb. She’d lived on the edge of uncertainty, or certain tragedy, for far too long.

When he’d finally agreed to take that full day’s rest, she’d gone with him. After his tense grip on her waist at last eased, she studied his face for a long time, tracing his straight nose, firm lips, the eyebrows and soft strands of hair over his forehead. When she finally slipped away, it wasn’t because she wanted to leave his embrace, the reassurance of his very much alive, powerful frame. She needed to think.

Before he’d slept, his silence, the long, steady looks where he’d gazed on her face as if he was preparing never to see her again, had disturbed her. But he would speak of nothing, and gently shushed her if she tried to voice her own thoughts. He told her he was simply weary. But she knew it was bullshit. She longed to hear the endearment in her mind, habiba. Or some encouraging or even infuriating comment, a seductive suggestion or romantic observation that would melt her insides.

But there’d been only one moment he’d been open to her since the fight on his property, and that moment had been neither seductive nor romantic.

They’d chained Trenton up in the dungeon she’d feared, Jacob and Lyssa wrapping him in chains and suspending him, ensuring he’d be in nearly unbearable discomfort for the two days that passed before Mason was recovered enough to decide his fate.

He’d brought Jessica with him down the spiral staircase. Jacob came as well, a silent, dangerous presence at their backs. She suspected they’d all wanted to come, all worried about Mason’s paleness, but his pride would brook only Jacob coming along, and only because Lyssa pointed out it was additional protection for Jess if anything went awry.

They had Trenton gagged. Lyssa had definitely not been kind, Jess saw with a wince. The gag she’d used was the spiked ball of a small mace, the sharpened steel prongs piercing his cheeks and lips so they poked out of his blood-encrusted face. Jessica had swayed at the sight of him, and Mason’s arm went around her.

I don’t want to be here, my lord.