Raoul was the only vampire she’d ever met whose signature was tainted with black magic. It made no sense for him to be here now, though. Michael and she had been hunting him for years with no luck. He wouldn’t return now, not with Thomas here.
Even Raoul wasn’t that stupid.
Chapter Nine
They arrived at Sara’s house and Juliana climbed out before Thomas had a chance to go around and open her door. He bit back a curse and reminded himself she was capable of opening her own damn door. Even though she shouldn’t have to. He put his keys in his pocket and started up the front walk.
“This way.” She gestured with her hand for him to follow and went around the side of the house. After a glance at the front door, he followed. She tapped lightly on a door and opened it. He was right behind her, but hesitated before crossing the threshold. It had been years since he’d been in his sister’s home. It was possible the wards would no longer accept him. There was only one way to find out. He took a deep breath and stepped into the house. Once he was sure he’d set nothing off, he exhaled in a quiet sigh.
Sara sat at the table, a coffee mug wrapped in her hands, her dark hair piled on top of her head. Her eyes widened at seeing Thomas and Juliana together.
“She’s in her room,” Sara said to Juliana. “She might have given up, but I doubt it. She’s persistent when it comes to you.” She shifted her gaze to him. “Can’t imagine where she gets that from.”
That was his sister, ever so helpful. He watched Juliana leave the room and waited until he heard her steps in the hall above before speaking. “I’d say we’re overdue for a long conversation, you and I.”
She nodded once and stood. “Let’s go to the living room. We might as well be comfortable while we yell at each other.”
Thomas smiled at that. He had no intention of shouting at his sister. She may be several hundred years younger than him, but she should know him well enough to know that he rarely lost his temper enough to yell. And when he did, it was normally at Juliana.
“Sit.” He gestured to the sofa and went to stand by the window.
He turned to face his sister. “Before we discuss anything else, you should know that Juliana and I are United.”
Her spine straightened and she twisted her hands in her lap. “When did this happen?”
“The night before I left.”
In the silence that followed his revelation, Thomas listened for sounds from above. Juliana was still in his niece’s room.
“I can’t believe neither of you told me, especially her,” she said, accusation in her voice, though he didn’t miss the hurt that colored her words as well. “Why doesn’t everyone know about this? It’s not like you to not publicly stake your claim.”
“The next morning she asked for time. I gave it to her.”
She snorted a laugh. “That’s why you left? You’re an idiot.”
He shook his head. “You know me better than that.”
“Then why did you leave? When I think about what she went through...”
He moved to sit beside her on the couch. “Tell me. You’re both keeping secrets. I need to know.”
Sara locked eyes with his. “Not until you tell me the real reason you left.”
He raked his hands through his hair. What to tell her? She wouldn’t believe any lie he came up with. Perhaps it was time to admit the truth. Sara wouldn’t see his actions as a weakness, and if she did, so be it. She wasn’t likely to use it against him.
“I did it for her,” he said, dropping his head into his hands. “She was so scared. Terrified. I could taste it in the air. Feel it through our connection. I didn’t know what to do. Then she asked for time and I realized that I’d had mine. Centuries of it, in fact. She was barely twenty and I’d tied her to me for an eternity. I was so incredibly selfish.”
He sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. “I knew I couldn’t give her permission to experience life without me. And I couldn’t stay here and watch her do it. The only way she was going to get that opportunity was for me to leave.”
His hands fisted where they rested on the cushions beside him. “And then I return and she wants nothing to do with me.”
“You’re here aren’t you?”
“I didn’t really give her a choice.”
Sara snorted a laugh. “Trust me. If she didn’t want to come with you, she wouldn’t have. Even you can’t make her do something she doesn’t want to.”
“Are you so sure about that?”
“Yes,” Sara said simply without further explanation.
Things had changed while he’d been gone if his sister truly thought his bride was a match for him. “I’ve come back for her. I’m tired of waiting to claim what’s mine.” He sounded like an overbearing asshole, but he couldn’t make himself care.
He was tired of playing, pretending he was okay with whatever Juliana wanted. And it was time she found that out for herself. As she no doubt was since she was listening from the stairwell. Did she really think a vampire as old as he wouldn’t know precisely where she was in the house at all times? Hopefully she would stay hidden until he got some information out of his sister.
Sara didn’t say anything for a long moment. She closed her eyes and shook her head before focusing on a picture of Rachel and Juliana that sat on the other side of the room. “She sat in your room for two days waiting for you to come back, call, anything. When you didn’t, she came here. I was at work. James was the one who let her in. She was like a zombie. He told me later it was one of the scariest things he’d ever seen, that blank look on her face. Like there wasn’t anything of Juliana left in her.”
Thomas frowned as his sister got up and began to pace. She stopped after a moment and looked out the window. Her voice softened. “She lay on that couch for a week. She didn’t move, didn’t sleep, didn’t eat. She didn’t do anything but leak red tears from her eyes. Finally, at the end of the week she broke down into these heart-wrenching sobs. I thought she was dying from grief, but it seemed to be the catalyst that brought her back.”
He knew she’d be hurt, confused even. Never did he imagine his departure would affect her so deeply. Then he realized what his sister had just told him. “Red tears? The dark fae cry red tears when—”
“Their hearts are broken,” she finished and turned to look at him. “That’s what you did to her when you left, Thomas. You didn’t give her a chance to live her life without you, you forced her to live it without you and I think she’s hated every second of it.”
“There’s something else. Something you aren’t telling me. Either of you.” His voice was quiet as he leaned forward on the couch to study his sister.
“There’s a lot I’m not telling you. If I’d known you were United, I might have, but I can’t now. You’re back. She’ll have to tell you herself when she’s ready.”
Damn it. They were running out of time. He wasn’t sure how far Juliana would let this go and the moment his sister realized they had an eavesdropper the conversation would be over. “I need to know, Sara. If she won’t tell me, you have to. What am I missing?”
“I swore I wouldn’t tell you. I was so angry with you for so long, it was an easy promise to keep. I blamed you for most of it, thought about telling you just to hurt you the way she’d been hurt. Lately though...” She turned back to the window.
“For what it’s worth, I came back.”
“And how’s that working out for you?” she asked with a smile.
He grunted. No doubt she already knew the answer to that question, but he answered anyway. “Not well. She is not the Juliana I left behind. She’s changed.”