CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Come,” Cadell said before disappearing into the apartment.
I aimed a glare at Inara and Lowen as I picked myself off the floor. They ignored me, fluttering into the apartment with a flick of their wings.
I grumbled about annoying house guests as I followed. It would have been nice to have had a little warning before Inara shifted me through time and space once again, but at least this dealt with one problem—getting me a meeting with Niall and Cadell without Liam’s knowledge or interference.
After the whole debacle with Miriam, I was hesitant to introduce another set of contacts to him.
I walked into the living room to see that unlike me, Niall and Cadell had found the time to change since the party, looking almost human in jeans and t-shirts, instead of like Fae lords about to jaunt off into the woods.
I felt slightly self-conscious in my rumpled dress, which was looking worse for wear. I scrubbed at a spot of blood that had dried on the beautiful fabric. I wondered vaguely if vampires had dry cleaners who specialized in blood removal. It would make sense, given what they liked to eat.
“Aileen, I want to express my appreciation to you for coming,” Niall said in a cordial voice.
“Your lackey over there didn’t give me much of a choice,” I said, turning my stare on Inara.
She flicked her hair over her shoulder and met my glare with a haughty look, not repentant in the least.
I turned to the other two. “I can’t stay long. Liam is going to notice I’m missing.”
If he hadn’t already. Vampires didn’t have need of toilets. He wasn’t going to believe the excuse of “I just had to use the bathroom”.
“You want to tell me what a bunch of fairy princes are doing living in a place like this?” I glanced around. Their apartment was nicer than mine. A lot nicer, but it wasn’t exactly what I pictured them calling home.
A guffaw escaped Cadell.
Niall’s face was slightly startled at the sight of his friend bent nearly double, lost in laughter.
“Our people don’t really have princes as you understand it,” Niall said.
“And if we did, we would not be among their number,” Cadell chimed in.
“Our fairy tales beg to differ,” I said.
“Because they’re so reliable,” Cadell said, his amusement fading slightly. “How’s the state of your soul? Have you turned into a ravening monster yet?”
Point taken. Many of the myths about vampires weren’t true either.
“Jury’s still out,” I murmured, my thoughts turning to earlier in the evening.
“The proper term would be lord or lady,” Niall said. “But it’s not so straightforward as your human inheritances.”
“Anybody who is powerful enough can earn the title, regardless of lineage,” Cadell said. “Niall is one such person.”
“But you’re not?” I asked, just to be sure.
Cadell smirked, letting that be his answer. No, I was betting he served as Niall’s guard. He moved with the sort of purpose and confidence acquired through extensive training in the deadly arts.
While the lesson in Fae hierarchy was interesting and all, it didn’t answer my question.
“We’re in hiding,” Niall said.
I snorted. “You sure could have fooled me.”
I wouldn’t exactly call it “hiding” when you show up at a vampire get together with the same people you’re supposedly avoiding. That was the exact opposite of hiding.
Cadell looked at his friend. “I have to agree with the vampire.”
“I told you we had no choice,” Niall said. “Niamh felt us the moment she crossed over. Running or hiding would have brought unwelcome suspicion.”
“And so, the very people we’re trying to avoid now know exactly where we are,” Cadell said flatly.
“But not why,” Niall returned.
It seemed like this was a familiar argument between the two.
“How dangerous is this Wild Hunt?” I asked, watching them. I knew what the vampires thought of it but wanted their take as well.
“They’ve called a hunt?” Inara asked, sounding alarmed.
“Yes,” Niall confirmed.
Her wings beat rapidly. Lowen watched her with a concerned expression.
To me, Niall said, “And very, if you’re the prey. There are only a few who can survive a hunt.”
They all studiously ignored the small pixie queen as her wings gave away her tumultuous emotions.
“I feel bad for whatever poor bastard Niamh decides to hunt,” Cadell muttered.
“I thought the magic of the hunt decides the prey.” At least that was what Liam had led me to believe.
Inara’s laugh was ugly. “Perhaps once, but not now that she has gotten her claws into half of the lords of the hunt.”
Niall and Cadell’s faces were grim. They agreed with her.
“How is that possible? I thought wild magic couldn’t be tamed or controlled,” I said.
A faint agitation showed in their faces. Niall was the one to answer. “That isn’t entirely true. There are those among us who are closer to the wild magic than others. People like Arlan. I don’t know if I’d call what they’re able to do “control” so much as influence.”
And because Niamh held influence over them her will bled down into the hunt.
“Tell me about the hunt’s mark,” I said.
Niall went very still. “How do you know about that?”
How much to tell them?
“Because I have one on my back,” I said.
The words that came from Inara would have put a sailor to shame. They were jarring coming from the small pixie queen.
“Show me,” Niall said, sitting forward.
I turned and moved the back of the dress from the mark.
There was an indrawn breath and then warm fingers touching me lightly. “You’re lucky. It’s only half a mark,” Cadell said from behind me.
I let the dress fall into place and turned to face him. His gaze was intense and his thoughts hidden.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“You’ve been marked by the hunt, but you are not yet its prey,” Niall said.
Okay, that fit with what Liam and Thomas had said.
“A lord of the hunt would have needed to physically place that mark on her,” Inara said, fury radiating from every small line of her body. Her glare could have scorched flesh as she aimed it at the two Fae.
The revelation was jarring. “Neither Arlan nor Niamh got close enough to lay a hand on me.”
I tried to think back if I crossed paths with any of the other Fae in their party. I didn’t remember any run ins, certainly not the type where they could lay a mark on my back.
The only Fae who’d gotten close to me all night was Cadell when he passed me the note.
I’d looked at the mark in the mirror earlier. It was simple, something any tattoo artist could do, a drawn bow with arrow nocked in it.
“That may be, but someone got close to you,” Cadell said.
The statement was disquieting in more ways than one. I turned my attention to matters I could still control.
“You said it’s only half a mark. What would turn it into a full mark?”
Niall’s expression was sympathetic. “I don’t know.”
I rubbed my forehead. That wasn’t the answer I wanted. Not even by a little.
The situation was starting to spiral out of my control. I was marked for a hunt I wanted no part of, with no way of knowing how to keep myself from turning into its prey. Half the city wanted me dead and I could no longer trust Liam or the other vampires, not after what happened tonight.
Nor could I trust the people in front of me. They had an agenda, the same as everyone else. They might appear to be on my side for now, but they were working from a plan I couldn’t yet see.
Being out on my own in the cold was a lonely and scary place. It was a position I’d promised myself I’d never be in again.
“The attack tonight. Was that aimed at you or Thomas?” Dwelling on my problems wouldn’t solve them.
“I’m not sure,” Niall said.
“Why would they want to kill you or Thomas?” I asked.
“We don’t know if that was their goal,” Niall said carefully.
“They weren’t throwing marshmallows around,” I said. “That spell I intercepted wasn’t the sort of thing that would have made you sing arias and see sparkling unicorns. It was a nasty piece of work. They intended their target to die a horrible, horrible death.”
“Yet you survived.” Niall contemplated me as if he knew a secret I didn’t.
I shrugged, affecting nonchalance. “I got lucky. A friend gave me a charm to ward off attacks.”
“Your friend is very powerful then.” Cadell said. His tone made it clear he wasn’t entirely convinced with my explanation.
I didn’t respond to that. Too many people already knew my secrets. There was no need to add four more to the mix.
“Why here? Why now?” I asked.
Niall seemed slightly uncomfortable. “That’s hard to explain.”
“I’ll try to keep up,” I said with a hard smile. My patience with these games was wearing thin. I was tired and my bones ached, to say nothing of the mental and emotional fallout from this evening I still hadn’t worked through. I was done with all the tap dancing.
“The Wild Hunt is important, but it’s just one piece of a larger puzzle,” Niall explained.
I got that, but I still didn’t know why.
Irritation crossed Cadell’s face. “Stop dancing around it. The Wild Hunt is pure, untamed magic, wild and primal. When the prey is killed, it acts as a sacrifice to the old gods. For a very brief moment in time, its potential is nearly limitless.”
“The barrow,” I said.
He nodded. “Every inch of the Summer Lands is spoken for. The only way to move up is to kill those above you. A new barrow—especially one with such strong ties to the human world and its magic—would open up new possibilities.”
“Our politics tend to be drenched in blood and death. A change of power is rare but when it happens it usually results in a high body count. There are many who would welcome the creation of a new barrow,” Niall said in a soft voice.
And Thomas had been asked by the vampire council to let it happen. It made me wonder what benefits such a barrow would have for them. Because there would be a benefit. Vampire politics were no less deadly and bloody than the Fae’s. They never did anything without a reason. It was finding the reason before you were dead, that was the tricky part.
“How do the witches fit into all this?” I asked.
“Niamh is using them. When they fulfill their purpose, they’ll be discarded like all the rest,” Lowen said in a low voice.
Inara looked startled at his interjection, then realization dawned on her face. Outrage filled her as she rose several inches above the shelf she’d grabbed as a perch.
“You went spying for Niall?” she asked.
He ducked his head. “We needed to know what Niamh and Arlan were up to.”
“She could have killed you,” Inara screeched. “You know how dangerous she is. Was her destroying our court not clue enough?”
Grief and devastation were obvious in Inara’s face as she stared at her consort. Watching the two of them felt awkward, as if we were spying on a private fight between lovers.
“That’s why I had to do it,” he said, lifting his head and meeting her gaze. Inara was the more dominant of the two, a tempest waiting to blow. Lowen had always been calmer and less inclined towards anger. He had a steadiness that made one listen. “You know her. She’s already spun her web on half the Fae in the city.”
He turned to me. “Your old boss is caught by one of her glamours. He has no choice but to help her.”
I figured as much. There weren’t a lot of reasons Jerry would abandon all he’d built over the years.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“That’s how she caught our old court. She uses geases and glamour to entrap people. Once trapped by such vows, they have no choice but to obey.”
That would explain why Jerry had been acting so weird, why he’d looked like he’d wanted to be anywhere but there, and why he had brushed me off.
“Shit,” I said. A thought occurred to me. It was insidious and I didn’t want to give it credence.
“Can she use the hold she has on him on the rest of his couriers?” I asked. I know Jerry had his Fae employees swear different vows. I wasn’t sure, but I’d heard one of them was a vow of loyalty and fealty.
The resigned looks on the others faces told me all I needed to know.
“He’s established a court here through his couriers. The first of its kind. It’s likely she’ll have control over any Fae who swore fealty to him. We’re not sure about the rest,” Niall said reluctantly.
Damn it, that was not good.
“Good thing you were fired,” Inara said.
Yeah, except it didn’t feel like that right now. I wasn’t super-close with any of the other couriers, our schedules kept us too busy, but I’d had a few friends among them—work friends I said hey to every now and then. I couldn’t just leave them in that woman’s control.
“Who else did she bring with her?” Inara asked.
“The twins, Breandan and Baran,” Cadell responded.
Inara let out a filthy curse, the word surprising originating from such a small creature. “Those two are hunters. They’ll be dangerous.”
“You seem to know a lot about these people,” I observed. Understandable, if Niamh had really killed the rest of their court.
Inara lifted her chin. “One of the reasons they chose this place is probably because of me.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”
It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to murder one small pixie, queen or not. My roommate was annoying, tediously so, and she could be more prickly than a mama porcupine, but I couldn’t see holding an entire city hostage just to kill her.
“We have a history. I stole something of hers,” Inara said, her chin lifted, and her voice proud.
I waited.
“What did you steal?” I asked, when it became clear she’d said all she was going to say.
“You don’t need to know that yet,” she said, her chin lifted in challenge.
I stared at her for a long moment. I didn’t need to know? This crazy Fae was going around the city and enslaving people to her will, including my friends. She’d already tried to kill me once—which did not make sense—and I’d upset her plans earlier that night. But I didn’t need to know Inara’s secret.
“What she means to say is that we can’t tell you quite yet,” Niall said, stepping into the breach, his tone placating.
“Why did you pull me down here?” I asked abruptly.
Niall’s forehead wrinkled, his expression a perfect impression of confusion. I wasn’t buying it.
“We thought you deserved a warning,” he said.
“No.” I shook my head. That’s not what this was about. “You wanted me to keep your presence here a secret. I’m willing to bet your ‘friend’ doesn’t know you’ve been here longer than a couple of nights.”
There was a slight flinch from Niall. Cadell went stiff, his body tensed and poised as if he was expecting an attack.
I was right. This wasn’t about helping me. It was about covering their own asses.
Fine, I could play that game too.
“We need you to make sure Cadell and Niall aren’t chosen to be prey,” Inara said, not letting my anger affect her. She met my gaze with a steely resolve.
“How do you expect me to do that when I can’t even figure out how to keep myself from being chosen?” I hissed.
None of them answered me.
We sat in angry silence for several long moments.
“I’ll return you to your apartment,” Inara said, lifting off the shelf.
“Would killing her work?” I asked, holding my ground.
Niall and Cadell traded looks. I narrowed my eyes, not able to decipher what message they sent each other.
“It should,” Niall admitted. “But she has powerful allies. Drawing their ire would be inadvisable.”
“Nor would it be as easy as you seem to think,” Cadell said. “Niamh has many enemies and they’ve all tried to wipe her from this world. You are barely into your eternity. What makes you think you will fare any better?”
I didn’t answer, following Inara out of the room. Most of what they’d told me had been things I’d known or guessed, but I’d learned enough to have a hundred new questions.
Inara fluttered into the bathroom, waiting for me to join her. This time Lowen stayed behind, the quiet murmur of men’s voices following me.
I was ready as the magic rose, using my othersight to watch as hundreds of glittering lights surrounded us. They reminded me of fireflies buzzing around us as the magic built.
Even watching, I couldn’t tell how she did it, or pinpoint the exact moment when she broke the laws of physics as humans knew them.
With a pop, the world jerked sideways in a sickening lurch and I once again ended up on my ass. This time in my own bathroom.
I picked myself up off the ground with a groan.
“I will never get used to that,” I informed Inara as she settled on my upraised knee.
I started to push my way to my feet and froze at the sight of the open door. Liam leaned against the doorframe, his body perfectly relaxed as he watched me.
“Oh shit,” I gulped.
Inara froze, her small eyes growing comically wide as she noticed Liam.
The three of us stared at each other, Liam contemplative, Inara and I in horrified shock.
“I guess you’re wondering what’s going on,” I tried.
Liam didn’t respond, just turned and disappeared into the apartment. We heard the front door open and shut moments later.
That wasn’t good.
“Stop him, you fool,” Inara screeched, pinching my ear.
I flinched at the pain before batting her away as I scrambled to my feet and darted after Liam.
He had a decent head start. He was already out of the apartment and had reached Niall and Cadell’s door by the time I landed somewhat ungracefully on the ground.
“Liam,” I warned.
He raised his hand and knocked.
Before I could say anything—not that I could think of anything to say—the door swung open, Cadell’s eyes narrowing as he tensed.
Liam pounced. A light shimmered around the door. Liam bounced off it and flew past me.
He rolled to his feet, his fangs down and his eyes a sea of blue. He shook himself. Then he crouched, took a deep breath and sprinted for the door.
Cadell had relaxed when Liam was repelled but now he tensed again.
Liam hit the door with a crash, the light sparking. There was a boom as Liam sailed past me again.
“Liam, that’s enough,” I said when he climbed to his feet.
He gave no sign he heard me, sprinting for the doorway. Another boom, this one louder than the last.
“Are you done?” I asked when he got to his feet again. A snarl was my only answer.
I rolled my eyes and walked away. Stupid man. If he wanted to throw himself against the equivalent of an unmovable wall, he could be my guest. I wasn’t sticking around to watch.
I stalked back to my apartment, repeating the laborious climb up.
“Did you distract him?” Inara asked as soon as I reached the door.
“Does it sound like I distracted him?” I asked just as there was another loud crack.
We both looked down at where Liam was picking himself off the ground, giving no sign that he was tiring. I was actually surprised his antics hadn’t attracted any onlookers. It was the early morning hours, but the noise should have drawn some attention.
Inara sighed. “What does he think he’s going to accomplish?”
I shook my head. Her guess was as good as mine. Vampires couldn’t enter a home unless they were invited. It was one of the very weird myths that turned out to be true. Not to mention, I strongly suspected that Niall and Cadell had their place warded to hell and back to prevent any uninvited guests.
“Where are you going?” Inara called after me as I left the door and headed further into the apartment.
“As amusing as this is to watch, I have better things to do,” I said.
Before I made it more than a few steps, I heard a sound beneath my door. I backtracked and watched the edge, poised to attack if a golem or anything Fae appeared.
A hand landed on the threshold and Caroline pulled herself up, panting. “You really need to do something about those stairs.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked her, rushing forward to help pull her into the apartment.
She stood and dusted her hands off. “Thought I’d update you on my progress.” She jerked a thumb at the door. “You know tall, dark and handsome is throwing himself against your neighbor’s door, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, he’s not exactly rational at the moment.”
“You do have a way of driving people out of their minds,” Caroline said, looking around.
“Thanks, friend. It’s always so good to hear what you think of me,” I said, heading back toward my room. Caroline followed me, throwing herself onto the bed as I rummaged through my dresser.
“Do you want to hear what I found?” she asked.
It took me a moment to remember what she was speaking of. It felt like months had passed since I asked her to look into the golems and the Wild Hunt.
“Regale me with your knowledge, oh smart one,” I said in a dead pan voice.
Her smile was quick and sly before it faded. “A whole bunch of nothing.”
I paused and looked over at her. She could have called and told me that.
She chuckled at my expression and sat up. “I’m not lying. Golems are mostly associated with early Judaism. You can even find a couple of references of them in the Bible. Most versions I found said they have a written Hebrew word inscribed on their heads, which when removed destroys the golem.”
“That doesn’t describe what came after us,” I said. None of those had writing on their foreheads. I would have noticed.
She nodded. “You could say they’ve been improved upon since the first golem’s creation. Nowadays, anyone with enough juice can make one. All they need is a focus to which they affix their magic and then you’ve got an army of inanimate mud at your beck and call.”
“The pebbles,” I said.
“Yup, I took a look at the one I had. There are small symbols inscribed on it. Runes similar to the language of the witches,” she said.
That wasn’t exactly nothing. Unfortunately, it didn’t tell me much that was new.
The periodic booms from outside told me Liam was still preoccupied with trying to get at Niall and Cadell.
To my not so surprise, I found what I was looking for in a drawer of my dresser. I picked up the book that now had the title Dangerous Waters Ahead - Turn Back, Stupid.
“I see you managed to make it back,” I told it. Not that I’d really been worried. This book had a tendency to roam. I still hadn’t figured out how or why it had chosen to follow me around like a lost puppy.
“What’s that?” Caroline asked, leaning forward with interest.
“A pain in the ass,” I told her.
I’d tried many ways to get rid of my not-so-welcome guide to all things supernatural—including losing it accidentally on purpose, tossing it from a bridge, putting it in the trash can on trash day and even giving it to a random stranger. Nothing worked. It always returned, usually with a sarcastic title designed to insult me. The only thing I hadn’t attempted was setting it on fire.
“It looks interesting,” she said.
That was one way of putting it.
“I’m less interested in the golems now than I am in the Wild Hunt,” I said.
“You and everyone else. Brax has forbidden the wolves from taking part in it. He said anyone caught in those woods during or after the hunt would be punished severely.”
I frowned. “I would have thought the hunt would appeal to your natures.”
It involved donning their fur and chasing creatures through the woods with the end resulting in a fresh kill. It seemed right up their alley.
“Probably, but I think he’s more worried one of us will end up as the prey,” she said.
“I thought only the weak became prey.”
She shook her head. “Common misconception, according to my research. It depends on who calls the hunt. The more powerful the hunter, the more powerful the prey. From what I can tell, the more difficult and challenging the hunt, the more magic generated from it.”
“I was told the kill acts as a sacrifice,” I said.
She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Perhaps, though from what I can find it’s the hunt itself that really gives the magic the boost. Either way, if you sacrifice something that’s weak, you get weak magic out of it. That’s what the book keeper said anyway.”
Ideally, they’d want someone strong enough to give the hunt a good chase but weak enough to be caught.
“What about the mark of the hunt?”
She lifted herself half off the bed. “Why the interest?”
I fiddled with the book, unable to look her in the eye. I thought about keeping the reason to myself. Just as fast as the thought occurred, I discarded it. Hiding and keeping secrets was what had nearly destroyed our friendship in the first place.
“I have one on my back.”
Caroline was off the bed and in front of me, moving with a preternatural speed. “Show me.”
Reluctantly, I did.
“Okay, we’re going to figure out a way around this,” she said, sounding calm. “I’ll talk to Brax, get him to let me attend the hunt.”
“No, Caroline, that’s a bad idea.”
“I’m doing it,” she snapped. “You’d do it for me.”
She was right. I would.
Still, throwing a demon wolf into the mix would probably make matters worse.
“For now, figure out all you can about this. I’m told it’s only half a mark right now. There’s a set of criteria I need to meet before the hunt chooses me as prey. Find out what they are and how I can avoid them,” I said, trying to use logic to keep her from an unwise course of action. “We can create a plan after that.”
She nodded. “Alright, I can do that.”
I held up the book. “I’m hoping this might help.”
I set it down on the bed and flipped through it. Caroline crowded closer, curiosity in her face even as she held her silence.
“Oddly enough I picked it up from the book keeper,” I said, referencing her boss and the book store for spooks where she worked. “Sometimes it’s more helpful than others.”
She made an interested sound as she bent closer.
“What stellar advice do you have for me today?” I asked it.
Something on how to break Niamh’s hold on half the Fae in the city or how to keep me from being part of the Wild Hunt would be good. Hell, any advantage would help.
I doubted it would be that simple however. The book seemed to take a perverse pleasure in tap dancing around an answer. It liked to give me just a hint, a small tease, but refrained from ever being truly helpful. You had to read between the lines with anything it shared. Its advice was often subtle and not apparent until the moment when you needed it most, when it was oftentimes too late.
Those were just a few of the reasons I could never truly trust it. Not to mention the odd way it had come to me and the mystery surrounding it.
I flipped it open, randomly selecting a page. My intent was to look for an entry on the Fae, hoping to glean some small tidbit that might help me.
It opened on a blank page.
“Not helpful,” I told it.
I flipped to another page. A picture of a forest looked back at me. Another page, another part of the forest. This time with the remains of train tracks partially covered by overgrowth. Again, and again, each time showing me a different part of the same forest.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Caroline asked.
I slammed it shut and threw it on my bed. That was even less helpful than normal.
“Perhaps I should give more thought to the fire idea,” I said to where it lay on the bed.
There was a soft sound and then abruptly the book was on fire.
“Oh my God,” Caroline shouted at the same time I yelled, “No.”
We both leapt into action. I grabbed a towel from my closet, while she picked up a pillow. Together, we beat frantically at the fire, trying to smother it.
After several heart-pounding moments, it went out.
I lifted the towel, cringing at the sight of my blackened bedspread, small holes in it from where the fire had touched. The stark markers of soot were very noticeable on the soft blue. There was no way to salvage it.
Caroline stared back at me with wide eyes, saying without words ‘what the hell just happened’.
In the middle of it all, lay the book, untouched, not a mark on it. Nothing to show it had been on fire moments before.
I glared at it, wanting more than anything at that moment to put it in a shredder but not daring to voice that thought. Who knew what it would do if it knew what I was thinking? Nothing good.
“Did the bed offend you?” Liam asked from the doorway, his gaze on my ruin of a bed.
Caroline jumped, while I sighed, depressed all over again. It would take money I didn’t have to replace the bedspread and possibly the sheets. I just hoped it hadn’t burned all the way through to the mattress.
Liam’s gaze moved to Caroline. “Leave, wolf.”
She looked back at me, a question in her eyes. I nodded and indicated she should go.
“Alright, I’ll call you later,” she said. She edged past Liam before shooting me a significant look with raised eyebrows as she disappeared down the hall.
“What did the wolf want?” he asked, ice in his voice.
“She was just helping me with something.”
His gaze turned back to my scorched bedspread. “So, I see.”
We were quiet for several seconds as we observed the destruction.
“If you wanted to come home with me, you only needed to ask,” he said.
I snorted. “You can hold your breath about that ever happening.”
“Why? Because Thomas showed you a few unwelcome truths?”
I hesitated in the act of tossing the book to the floor, eying the wood there. On one hand, Thomas owned the apartment. He was the one who would have to deal with the aggravation of fixing it when I moved out. On the other, I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t figure out a way to take the damages out of me, whether monetarily or by binding me ever tighter to him.
Yeah, it wasn’t worth chancing the book having another spontaneous combustion episode.
Liam ignored my preoccupation as I looked around the room for a better place to stash my current pain in the ass. He prowled along the perimeter, fiddling with the things I’d collected through the years, picking one up before placing it down and picking up another. He held up a glass ocean buoy I’d found when I was a kid on a trip to the ocean.
“We both know it’s only a matter of time,” he said, putting the buoy back down.
“Maybe before. Not anymore.”
With a sigh, I placed the book on an end table. It was the cheapest piece of furniture in the room. Replacing it would hurt, but not as much as if the book did permanent damage to my floors.
Liam brushed past me, his smell, the scent of a spring thunderstorm, wrapping around me as it danced along my senses.
I moved away from him. I didn’t need distractions and Liam was the biggest of them all.
“Believe me, a chuisle, you’ll be mine in the end. Fight it all you want,” Liam said, giving me a smile that invited sin and decadence. It was the type of smile meant to con a woman out of her underwear. The kind of look that said he’d give you a night you would never forget, a night you’d spend the rest of your life measuring other men against.
Despite what I knew of him, the anger I still had, his smile got to me. Just a little. Just enough that warmth filled me even as I brushed it off.
I arched my eyebrows and smirked. “You have an inflated sense of your irresistibility.”
His smile widened, a hint of fang peeking out, his eyes heavy-lidded. “There’s nothing inflated about me.”
I rolled my eyes at him. Sure, there wasn’t.
“What’s that?” Liam asked, his gaze going to the book on the table behind me.
“What’s what?” I asked, looking around the room.
“The book you just had in your hand.”
I glanced at the nightstand.
“Nothing. Have you finally tired of throwing yourself against my downstairs neighbor’s door?” I asked, stepping between Liam and the book, not fully recognizing what I was doing. There was this need, urgent and all-consuming, to prevent him getting a look at my book. To keep him from knowing, just what, I wasn’t sure.
Liam’s gaze sharpened. I fidgeted.
He relaxed. “I’m glad you mentioned that. When did you plan to tell me a deposed Fae lord and the captain of his guard had taken up residence in the apartments below you?”
I snorted. “Why ask questions you already know the answer to?”
He didn’t seem to appreciate that answer, his eyes darkening as he prowled closer, stopping just far enough away I couldn’t object to having my personal space violated as he examined the burn marks on my bed.
“I remember Niall of old. He is dangerous and always liked to play with his food before he ate it.”
And I suppose in that analogy, I was the food.
“Everyone is dangerous,” I told him. It was true. Compared to me, everyone was. Even Inara and Lowen could be deadly if they put their mind to it. Their magic, for one, was way out of my league.
“Are you sleeping with him?”
The question came out of nowhere leaving me to blink dumbly at Liam. Anger erupted in the next second, heating my blood and setting my pulse pounding.
I threw my hands up. “Yes. That’s it. You’ve got me. I was down there for a secret assignation.”
His gaze went stony. That was all the notice I got before he made his move, skirting past me and grabbing the book from the end table. I yelped and lunged after him.
He hissed and dropped it, cradling his hand as he glared down at the offending piece of leather and paper.
I crouched and grabbed it.
“How did you get an object of power?” Liam asked, staring at me like he’d never seen me before.
I straightened and held the book in front of me. “What are you talking about?”
“That,” Liam said pointing. He seemed disturbed by the fact that I was holding the book against me. “Where did you get it?”
“It just came to me,” I said. In a way it had. And now it refused to leave.
“Those things don’t just come to people,” he said. “You need to get rid of it.”
“Can’t,” I said.
His stare said that wasn’t answer enough.
I sighed. “I’ve tried. It just keeps coming back.”
He grimaced. “Yes, I’ve heard of some being able to do that. It usually means they’re very powerful with a mind of their own.”
“You know what this thing is then?” I asked.
Because the last time I’d asked a witch, the response I got in return was that it was powerful but didn’t mean me direct harm. Not exactly a comforting thought.
“Enough to know this is one of the higher objects of power. It was probably created by a Fae; they’ve always been amused by such things. I’m surprised to find it here,” he said. “Has it done anything for you?”
“Depends on your definition. Mostly it gives me little hints when problems arise in my life.”
Setting it back down, I moved into the living room, looking for my phone. Liam followed after another dark glance at the book.
The phone was in my fridge. Definitely not where I left it, but given who I had for roommates, it could have ended up in a much worse place—like the toilet. It had taken me a week to dry the phone off enough to work the last time that had happened.
I flipped it on and paused. There were fifteen missed calls and five messages from my sister starting around ten p.m.
I hit play on one of the voicemails and lifted the phone to my ear. Only seconds later, my face paled as I listened.
“Aileen, where are you? Please, pick up. I need my sister.” My sister’s soft sobs filtered through the phone. “Linda’s in the hospital and they don’t know what’s wrong. She keeps throwing up blood.”