Chapter 8

"You're back." Cain emerged from his office dressed in a white button-down shirt and black pants. It was like a uniform for the guy.

After leaving Eden, I'd come straight to the war room to check in with him and Brien. "We arrived about half an hour ago," I said, automatically lifting my hand.

We bumped fists, a leftover ritual from when we'd been two neglected, half-feral ten-year-olds united in our anger against the world. Habit kept us doing it even now, nearly thirty years later.

"You have any trouble in New York?" he asked.

I slanted a look at Diane, the wiry, black-haired dhampir monitoring the video feed nearby. "Nothing unusual."

"Let's take this into my office," Cain said, following my gaze.

I nodded and led the way. "Brien's not around?" I asked as we passed the primus's office.

"He's with Twilight." Cain closed the door behind us, his hard mouth edging up in a half-smile. "You know."

"Ah." We exchanged he's-a-newly-mated-man-so-what-d'you-expect smirks.

Cain leaned a hip against the edge of his glossy black desk. Whenever possible he stayed on his feet, another remnant of when we were kids. If he kept moving, his abusive SOB of an uncle couldn't catch him.

"So you knocked up Eden," he said.

"I did."

Cain pressed his lips together. "What about that promise we made each other?"

I met his glare with one of my own. "Things happen."

He scraped a hand over his short blond hair. It fell back into place, every strand perfectly aligned. That was Cain—precise, controlled, polished—from the buttoned-up collar of his crisp cotton shirt to the hem of his perfectly pressed pants. "You sure it's yours?"

Anger flared in me. First Brien, now Cain.

"Yes," I said shortly.

"You'll have her tested anyway." Cain's office was too small to pace in. Instead, he put his hands on his desk on either side of him, jiggling his right leg.

"A paternity test? No. The spawn's mine. She told me straight out. She was telling the truth—there were no ambiguities or half-lies."

For me, lies came entwined with curlicues and embellishments, and even a half-lie had an oily twist to it. A troubling vibration in my gut.

"You're trusting that—?" Cain halted mid-sentence, and I realized my fangs had elongated.

"She's the mother of my spawn," I gritted out. "And before you say anything else, she accepted my blood bond. Adrian and Nathan witnessed it."

I waited for him to tell me she was playing me. Hell, maybe he was even right, although I didn't think so. She wanted this baby—that came through loud and clear.

Even if she had some hidden motivation, I could handle her. She was only a human, after all.

"Sorry," muttered Cain.

I took a deep breath. Retracted my fangs. "I believe her, yes. A human has to be trained to lie to us. You know that."

He snorted. "She conned you into thinking she was a fun, party-loving thrall who only wanted to fuck you, didn't she? When all the time she was a greedy you-know-what spying on us for pay."

Uneasiness settled in the pit of my stomach. Cain was forcing me to face my own fears, and I kind of hated him for that.

But damn it, Eden seemed to genuinely want to make things right between us. Her apology had been sincere. She was truly sorry.

I just had to establish a clear boundary and make sure she kept to her side: Vampire and his blood-bonded thrall.

Boundaries were good. They kept things…safe. Unemotional.

They didn't screw with your head.

"You said yourself she didn't do any real damage," I pointed out. "And she wasn't spying on me—she was spying on Twilight."

Cain's leg jiggled faster. "As far as we know," he said under his breath.

"What the fuck's that supposed to mean?"

"That she wasn't spying on you as far as we know."

"She wasn't, okay?" I said, even though I wasn't completely certain myself. "And none of this is your goddamned business."

He stiffened. Even his leg stopped moving.

I'd offended him. I didn't apologize, though, because there are some lines even an old friend didn't cross.

"No?" he retorted. "Her spying put us all in danger."

We glared at each other. I looked away first.

"I'm handling it, okay? Now tell me what's happened since I left." I dropped into a gray leather chair he'd bought at some chichi French store in Montreal. "Any word about Lemaire?"

A high-ranking Quebec City soldier, Lemaire and another vampire named Fleur had helped place Twilight on Lilith Island so she could stake Brien. When the truth had come out, Brien and Twilight had gone after them, taking out Fleur and a couple of other coven members—but not Lemaire. He'd managed to escape in time.

"Hasn't been seen since Brien staked Fleur," Cain told me. "We have intel that he may have fled to France, but I haven't been able to confirm that."

"I'd like to find the motherfucker who tipped him off."

A tight-lipped nod of agreement. "Now that you're back, I'm putting Adrian on it full-time, just in case Lemaire is thinking about staking Twilight in retaliation."

"Brien amped up security on her?"

"Yeah. But FYI, Twilight doesn't know. Insists she doesn't need it."

"Understood."

We discussed a couple of other current projects, then I started to rise. "If we're done here, I have some work to catch up on."

Cain grunted. A suspiciously vague grunt.

I sank back into my seat. "What?"

"Nothing." His eyes focused on the door behind me. "It's been pretty quiet, actually."

"But?"

Cain adjusted the left cuff of his dress shirt. Then he fiddled with the right.

"It's your father," he said, still without looking at me.

The back of my neck crawled. The last time I'd seen my ‘father'—and I used the word loosely because as far as I was concerned, Marco Esposito was my sperm donor and nothing else—had been five years ago in Montreal. Somehow, he'd found out I was in the city with Brien and had talked his way into a vampire speakeasy.

The man could charm anyone; it was his superpower.

Anyway, Esposito had hit me up for ten thousand dollars—a "loan," he called it, even though we both knew I'd never see that cash again. I paid up and told him to get lost. He hadn't, of course. Every six months or so, he sent a request for more through his friends or family on the island—or worse, my mom.

I willed the tension lifting my shoulders to loosen. "He just wants money."

"You shouldn't keep paying him."

"It's worth it if it keeps him away from Lilith Island."

Maybe it wasn't reasonable, but deep down, I was afraid that if he ever moved back, he'd somehow fuck things up for me. I'd come a long way from that angry kid with a deadbeat father and an alcoholic mom, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"Besides," I said, "if I cut him off, he'd only hit my mom up and she'd give it to him."

Even after all these years, she was still in love with the SOB. As for me, I didn't even use his name. The night I'd been made in the syndicate, I'd dropped the Esposito to go by my first name, Talon.

Cain shook his head. "It only encourages him to keep coming to you, his hand out."

"It's my money."

"You should just off the asshole."

I lifted a brow. "Like you should off your uncle?"

Cain's mouth bent down, but he stopped pushing me. "Anyway, while you were in New York, I heard from the PI we hired to keep track of your father. Esposito's in Halifax. The PI thinks he's on his way back to the island. Something about him owing a shitload of money to a loan shark."

I worked my jaw from side to side. "I see."

"Why don't you have Brien ban Esposito from the island? Who cares if the man's family has been on the island for practically forever? He's a leach. Half of his family doesn't even talk to him."

"Two reasons." I held up a finger. "One, the humans are touchy about things like that, and Brien's just ascended to primus. Why piss them off when it's something I can handle?" I raised a second finger. "And two, if we ban him outright, he might sneak onto the island anyway. This way, we can keep an eye on him."

"You forgot number three."

"What?"

"Your mom would come crying to you."

"So?" I met him stare for stare.

He broke first, shaking his head and looking away. We were equal in dominance, but on this, I'd wouldn't back down. Ever.

Cain didn't remember his own mother—she'd died giving birth to him—and he'd lost his dad while still a toddler. His aunt and uncle had been more like prison wardens than parents. It was easy for him to say that as a vampire, I should break my human attachment to my mother.

Maybe my home life had been screwed up, but I'd always known my mom loved me.

"Does Brien know?" I asked.

"No. I figured I'd tell you first."

"Thanks, bro. Don't tell him, all right? Give me a chance to look into it."

The last thing I wanted was to drag Brien into another of my messes, especially with Eden still fresh in his mind.

"This isn't syndicate business," I added when Cain looked like he was going to object. "It's personal."

His knee was jiggling again. "Fine. But I hope it doesn't come back to bite you."