Unbearable Read Free Page B

beating himself up about perceived errors, about the harm he’d delivered upon those he loved. “Is that why you haven’t come near me?” I added gently.
    “ You’ve held it together!” His tone was fury-filled. “You had the guts to tell her. I’m not…I’m not….”
    “Worthy?” I suggested.
    He blew out his breath. “Christ, Damian. We’re both seen these hard times before. Over and over. Why can’t I just let it go?”
    “Because you love Tally and you can’t stand watching her hurt the way she is.”
    “Then I’m an old fool,” he said harshly. “An idiot for letting myself love at all. I know better.”
    I took him in my arms, my heart hurting just as his was. “ I love you.” My voice was rough. “You can’t get away from that. Tally loves you, too. You’re going to have to go on being a fool, Nick, because you’re not going to get away from either of us.”
    Nick closed his eyes and let his head drop to my shoulder. That made my heart ache even more. He was letting himself be weak and vulnerable. He was letting me see the mortal, human core of him. He was hurting just like Tally so I held him and tried to soothe it away, knowing that nothing but time would do that. But I tried, anyway. For Nick.
    We made love that night, once we had tucked Tally and Riley into bed in the tiny room upstairs. It was the first time that year and to say I was pathetically relieved would have been an understatement.
    I had won Nick back to me, even though I had fucked up as badly as he had. I hadn’t been there for Tally any more than he had been—I had been frozen in my unexpected grief. The death of humans always takes me by surprise. Every single time. I have never gotten used to it.
    Nick’s pain stirred me to more normal life.
    The next day, we helped Tally move back into our big house just outside Albany and we got used to the sound of a baby crying. I relearned how to change diapers and Nick and Tally kept training, although Nick was not quite as obsessed about it as he had been.
    When she wasn’t training, Tally wrote letters to hunters around the world and letters came flooding back. No, nothing, sorry. All quiet here. Demons galore, no gargoyles, sorry.
    When we did finally get word, it was Nick who took the call from old friends of his in Britain, reporting on odd news from Scotland. The people of New Galloway believed wolves had moved back into Clatteringshaw Forest, right on their doorstep.

April, 1983
    Nick and Tally travelled as husband and wife while I trailed behind as Tally’s big brother. It was an arrangement that eliminated a thousand questions and speculation yet let us share hotel rooms and accommodation.
    If it had been 1883 instead of 1983, or even 1933, we could have taken a three-day transatlantic ship to Britain and arrived with our sanity and our swords intact. However, modern jets had destroyed the shipping lines and forced us to leave our equipment at home.
    Riley travelled with us. Mostly in my arms, where she slept or smiled up at me sunnily while Tally slept between Nick and me. Vampires have a hard time dealing with altitude adjustments because our inner ear fluids aren’t as liquid as humans, but I barely noticed the flight. I was too busy looking ahead, wondering what Scotland held for us.
    Nick didn’t say anything, but I knew he was thinking the same thing. Scotland made sense. Scotland was where the gargoyles had originated. Perhaps they had fled back home.
    We landed in Edinburgh early in the morning, rented a car and drove to New Galloway, where Nick’s old hunting friend, Alasdair, had agreed to meet us. I remembered Alasdair from when Nick had dealt with the Stonebrood Clan for what everyone had thought would be the last time. That had been when Queen Victoria was still upon the throne and Alasdair had been the wee son of a demon hunter called Angus.
    Alasdair was now a frail man of ninety-two, but his wits were still intact and his rheumy eyes still sharp