Exactly what happened when she touched Duke.
To say they’d been shocked would be an understatement. The absolute joy she’d felt at that moment must have opened her Gift to Nic and he’d seen her thoughts. He’d caught glimpses of everything she remembered from the past days and he’d even caught bits and pieces of the collective memory she’d gained from her mom.
She still wasn’t sure why that had happened but she was fairly certain it had something to do with her love for Nic. The willingness she now had to love him.
And since Duke was the other half of her heart, she knew it would work the same with him.
Keeping her eyes on his, she opened her senses, reaching out with them to connect with Duke. She saw his eyes widen, felt his hand tighten around hers then watched as his gaze turned inward.
Watching the memories she carefully chose for him to see. She’d learned a little bit yesterday with Nic about how to control this and she purposefully kept certain images from him. She didn’t want Duke to see anything that would upset him.
She only kept the connection open for thirty seconds or so before she shut it down. And waited for what it meant to sink in.
Duke blinked slowly, his eyes refocusing on hers.
“I accepted the mantle of praenuntio right after you left with Nic to go find Kaine and the eteri. It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing I could do. My mom deserves to have her life back. She’s earned the right to see if she and my dad can recapture some of what they lost.”
Her mom had told her that Marc Daniels was sticking around for a while, to get to know his daughter. And to get to know Su again. If and how they were going to explain their lives and their community to him… Well, they hadn’t gotten around to figuring that out yet but Tira was looking forward to getting to know her dad.
She was looking forward to spending time with Nic and Duke even more.
Her mouth began to curve in a smile. “And I believe—and so does my mom—that Nic’s fate changed at the exact second he decided he didn’t want to die. He made a conscious decision to stay with us, to change his ways. I think that altered the outcome of the fight.”
“Vaffanculo, Tira. How… When… What…”
Nic snorted but his smile couldn’t be contained. “Damn, you must have hit your head harder than we thought. Try not to think too hard or you’ll hurt yourself.”
Duke flipped him off with his free hand, but the gesture was absentminded as he pulled Tira closer. He needed her closer. “Are you telling me Nic’s not going to die? At least not now?”
She nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Relief rushed through him, making his heart pound even fast than it already was. “I love you, Ti. I— We always have. We’re not easy to live with. I apologize for Nic’s snoring now—”
“Hey, you talk in your sleep, scassacazzo.”
“—and I know we’ll have to split our time between our house and yours. But you will always be first in our lives.”
He kept tugging her closer and she let him, her smile widening by the second. When he had her close enough, he reached to lift her onto the bed beside him.
Before he could, Nic had moved to help him, setting her on the bed next to him and keeping his hand on her back as she leaned down to kiss Duke.
Her sweet, soft lips took his breath and he opened his mouth to allow her tongue to flick against his.
Heat rose and blood began to chug through his body. Hell, he wanted her. Wanted to lift her and settle her on his fast-hardening cock even though he knew he probably shouldn’t. Whatever monitors he was hooked up to had started to beep like a metal detector over a stash of gold.
He couldn’t give a flying fuck.
With one hand on her head, he widened his mouth and kissed her harder, deeper.
But she drew away, laughing, and he let her.
“You’re in no shape for that, Varro Ducati. And Tam will—”
As if she’d been conjured, Tam walked through the door. Well, more like ran through the door.
“What’s going on? Why— Oh. Oh, for Christ’s sake, Duke.” Tam stopped in her tracks, shaking her head. “I thought you were having a heart attack.”
Nic started to laugh, doubling over with the effort, and Duke couldn’t help his own smile as Tira blushed and put her hands over her face.
Damn, he couldn’t wait to get the fuck out here and go home with Tira and Nic.
Four days later
“Kaine,” Tira said, “are you really sure you want to be there?”
Nic’s fork froze halfway to his mouth before he forced himself to continue eating breakfast and acting as if he didn’t hear them.
“Yeah, I need to—I just need to see it. To—” Kaine shrugged and lowered her eyes to her own plate as she started to shovel in chocolate chip pancakes.
Tira had made breakfast this morning, saying Duke needed to get his strength back, which was true.
But Nic had noticed how Kaine’s expression had actually lightened when Tira had mentioned chocolate. Kaine had a weakness for it. Tira had remembered and she’d made the pancakes specifically for Kaine.
Tira still hadn’t said anything about living with him and Duke permanently. But when Dr. Dimitriou had released Duke from the med ward yesterday, Tira had returned with them.
She’d slept in their bed last night, between them. No sex, though, because Duke just hadn’t been up to it. The guy had collapsed into bed after dinner and hadn’t woken up yet this morning.
Nic was willing to wait. Just not for long.
And when she did move in, he realized they’d have to be respectful of Kaine.
Because, as Nic had realized, not only would Tira be living with him and Duke, she’d also be moving in with Kaine.
The tomboy tracker had been so much a part of their lives since she, Duke and Nic had joined Kyle as sicarii, they’d never considered what bringing another woman into the house would mean. And he’d never considered asking Kaine to move out.
But that had seemed like one huge, fucking bad idea when Nic, Duke and Tira had returned yesterday. Kaine had been as prickly as a rosebush, the tension thick enough to choke a horse.
At first, he’d thought it’d been because of Tira. But last night, when Tira had pulled Kaine into the kitchen with her to cook dinner, Nic knew that wasn’t it. The girls had spent an entire hour huddled together in the kitchen talking about the Goddess only knew what.
No, it was that damn eteri staying with his sister at Kyle’s home.
The girl, Evie, who they’d rescued from the crazy woman, had been a mess. Pumped full of drugs and crawling with fucked-up spells that several of the strongest streghe from Tira’s boschetta had only been able to unravel after a day’s steady work.
The eteri, John, refused to leave her side. Not that Nic blamed him. If that was Kaine in that bed, Nic wouldn’t leave either.
But Nic would be happy to see the ass end of the guy when he got the hell out of their lives.
Not only because he didn’t belong here but because he fucked with Kaine’s head.
Today, the streghe planned to wipe John’s and his sister Evie’s minds of their memories of the Etruscans.
While John and Evie had sustained too much trauma for the streghe to wipe away all of the memories of what had happened to them, they could at least conceal their community.
John had agreed to the procedure. Hell, he’d seemed more than happy to put everything he’d learned the past few days behind him.
And he was breaking Kaine’s heart. She thought she was in love with the guy. Hell, she’d never said it but Nic wasn’t completely clueless. He saw the way she looked at the eteri whenever she was in the same room.