“You need to hunt. The moon is bright, alas, but not even I can control the heavens.” Matthew’s lie flowed from his tongue like honey. He ruffled Lobero’s ears. “We’re all going—you, me, your father, even Gallowglass. Lobero can come, too.”
Jack’s nose wrinkled. “Not hungry.”
“Don’t feed, then. But you’re hunting nevertheless. Be ready at midnight. I’ll pick you up.”
“Pick me up?” Jack looked from me to Hubbard. “I thought we would stay here.”
“You’ll be just around the corner with Gallowglass and Miriam. Andrew will be there with you,” Matthew assured him. “This house isn’t large enough for a witch and three vampires. We’re nocturnal creatures, and Diana and the babies need their sleep.”
Jack looked at my belly wistfully. “I always wanted a baby brother.”
“You may well get two sisters instead,” Matthew said, chuckling.
My hand lowered automatically over my belly as one of the twins gave another strong kick. They had been unusually active ever since Jack showed up.
“Are they moving?” Jack asked me, his face eager. “Can I touch them?”
I looked at Matthew. Jack’s glance slid in the same direction.
“Let me show you how.” Matthew’s tone was easy, though his eyes were sharp. He took Jack’s hand and pressed it into the side of my belly.
“I don’t feel anything,” Jack said, frowning with concentration.
A particularly strong kick, followed by a sharp elbow, thudded against the wall of my uterus.
“Whoa!” Jack’s face was inches from mine, his eyes full of wonder. “Do they kick like that all day?”
“It feels like it.” I wanted to smooth down the mess of Jack’s hair. I wanted to take him into my arms and promise him that no one was ever going to hurt him again. But I could offer him neither of these comforts.
Sensing the maternal turn my mood had taken, Matthew lifted Jack’s hand away. Jack’s face fell, experiencing it as rejection. Furious with Matthew, I reached to jerk Jack’s hand back. Before I could, Matthew put his hand at my waist and pulled me against his side. It was an unmistakable gesture of possession.
Jack’s eyes went black.
Hubbard pitched forward to intervene, and Matthew froze him in place with a look.
In the space of five heartbeats, Jack’s eyes returned to normal. When they were brown and green once more, Matthew gave him an approving smile.
“Your instinct to protect Diana is entirely appropriate,” Matthew told him. “Believing you have to shield her from me is not.”
“I’m sorry, Matthew,” Jack whispered. “It won’t happen again.”
“I accept your apology. Sadly, it will happen again. Learning to control your illness isn’t going to be easy—or quick.” Matthew’s tone turned brisk. “Kiss Diana good night, Jack, and get settled at Gallowglass’s house. It’s a former church around the corner. You’ll feel right at home.”
“Hear that, Father H?” Jack grinned. “Wonder if it has bats in its belfry, like yours.”
“I no longer have a bat problem,” Hubbard said sourly.
“Father H still lives in a church in the city,” Jack explained, suddenly animated. “It’s not the same one you visited. That old heap burned down. Most of this one did, too, come to think of it.”
I laughed. Jack had always loved telling stories and had a talent for it, too.
“Now just the tower remains. Father H did it up so nicely you hardly notice it’s just a pile of rubbish.” Jack grinned at Hubbard and gave me a perfunctory kiss on the cheek, his mood swinging from blood rage to happiness in a remarkably short period of time. He sped down the stairs. “Come on, Lobero. Let’s go wrestle with Gallowglass.”
“Midnight,” Matthew called after him. “Be ready. And be nice to Miriam, Jack. If you don’t, she’ll make you wish you’d never been reborn.”
“Don’t worry, I’m used to dealing with difficult females!” Jack replied. Lobero barked with excitement and orbited Jack’s legs to encourage him outside.
“Keep the picture, Mistress Roydon. If both Matthew and Benjamin covet it, then I wish to be as far away from it as possible,” Andrew said.
“How generous, Andrew.” Matthew’s hand shot out and closed around Hubbard’s throat. “Stay in New Haven until I give you leave to go.”
Their eyes clashed, slate and gray-green. Andrew was the first to look away.
“Come on, Father H!” Jack bellowed. “I want to see Gallowglass’s church, and Lobero needs a walk.”
“Midnight, Andrew.” Matthew’s words were perfectly cordial, but there was a warning in them.
The door closed, and the sound of Lobero’s barking faded. When it had faded completely, I turned on Matthew.
“How could you—”
The sight of Matthew, his head buried in his hands, brought me to an abrupt stop. My anger, which had been blazing, slowly fizzled. He looked up, his face ravaged with guilt and sorrow.
“Jack . . . Benjamin . . .” Matthew shuddered. “God help me, what have I done?”
Matthew sat in the broken-down easy chair opposite the bed where Diana was sleeping, plowing through another inconclusive set of test results so that he and Chris could reevaluate their research strategy at tomorrow’s meeting. Given the late hour, he was taken by surprise when his phone’s screen lit up.
Moving carefully so as not to wake his wife, Matthew padded silently out of the room and down the stairs to the kitchen, where he could speak without being overheard.
“You need to come,” Gallowglass said, his voice gruff and low. “Now.”
Matthew’s flesh prickled, and his eyes rose to the ceiling as though he could see through the plaster and floorboards into the bedroom. His first instinct was always to protect her, even though it was clear that the danger was elsewhere.
“Leave Auntie at home,” Gallowglass said flatly, as though he could witness Matthew’s actions. “Miriam’s on her way.” The phone went dead.
Matthew stared down at the display for a moment, its bright colors bringing a note of false cheer to the early-morning hours before they faded to black.
The front door creaked open.
Matthew was at the top of the stairs by the time Miriam walked through it. He studied her closely. There was not a drop of blood on her, thank God. Even so, Miriam’s eyes were wide and her face bore a haunted expression. Very little frightened his longtime friend and colleague, but she was clearly terrified. Matthew swore.