by Gwen Rivers
I still couldn’t read Liam, but I got the feeling he was uneasy about something.
“Is there something I can help you with?”
“I wanted to explain, about what happened at the diner.”
I held up my hands. “You don’t have to explain—”
“I’d spent the first two decades after I was turned as a wolf, completely celibate.”
My teeth clacked together.
“We all did. Well, most of us. We don’t have sex with our own kind.”
“Why not?”
The corner of his lips twitched. “Because we’re all related.”
My mouth opened then closed. What was I going to say?
Liam ran a hand through his shaggy dark hair. “We don’t exactly advertise that. We don’t change anyone with a bite. We are all decedents of Fenrir, by two generations.”
I frowned, trying to remember what my mother had taught me about Fenrir. “The wolf destined to swallow the world? But isn’t he imprisoned?”
Liam nodded. “He is. Currently inside the flesh of a thirty-two-year-old mortal named Gretchen. She’s the first to know he is within and she’s refused to have children because of it. So that’s at least one generation we won’t have to worry about turning.”
I sank down on the bed. What was he saying, “So one of your parents was Fenrir?”
“My grandfather. I know because my father turned the same time I did.” Liam’s gaze grew shuttered.
I knew that look. It was the, I don’t want to talk about it look. The same one I got every time someone asked about my family.
“So you were celibate.” Why did my voice sound so hoarse? I cleared my throat and then pushed on. “And when you changed back to part time man you decided to make up for lost time. I get it, Liam.”
He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. “That’s not it. I mean, I don’t want you to think that I go around treating women like shit. I never made promises. Intentionally. If someone got too attached, I backed off.”
But the women probably hadn’t. He was a handsome, powerful guy. Many females would sell an ovary for a chance to land him, werewolf or no.
“The woman earlier.”
“Michelle.” I didn’t mean to bark it at him but damn it, if I could recall her name, so could he.
Liam nodded. “Michelle. She caught me off guard. When someone approaches me with aggression, it’s my nature to fight back. Not physically, not against a female. But a challenge must be met.”
I saw the wolf rising in his multihued eyes and quickly looked away.
Liam crouched down in front of me. I saw his hand reach for mine and I flinched.
“What I’m trying to say, badly, is I’m not that guy. The one who sleeps with random women and then dismisses them. That isn’t who I am.”
“I know that.” I got up and scooted around the bed. I wrapped my arms around myself. “Like I said, you don’t owe me an explanation.”
“Emma,” He exhaled my name like it had been sustaining him.
The way he looked at me made me stiffen. I could see him studying my body language. Who knew what sort of insight the werewolf had?
“Call North if you need anything.” After another moment’s hesitation, he backed out of the room.
My arms dropped to my sides as I exhaled and studied the space. It was so…clean. Too clean for the likes of me.
I checked on Kiesha. She was playing a weird game of tag with the sylph, trying to guess what object he was in before he spoke. Her room was buttercup yellow, but otherwise almost an exact match to mine.
“I’m going to take a bath,” I told her.
She waved me away.
My room had its own private bath and I humped my guitar case in with me. I removed the extravagantly expensive smartphone from my pocket and placed it on the counter. After I turned the faucets on high, I start stripping down, eager to scrub myself raw.
The shower curtain catcalled at me. “Take it off real slow. Now where did I leave my wallet?”
“I guess you’ve never heard of sexual harassment?”
The curtain scoffed. “Who do you think invented it, darling?”
“North, do me a favor. Say, must get moose and squirrel.”
The curtain rustled. “I like a woman with a sense of humor, Kotik.”
“What does that mean?”
“In my tongue, pussycat.”
I muttered a banishing spell. A second later, the shower curtain was once again inert. I heard the sylph’s laughter from the other room.
“Oh, how I do love a challenge,” Liam’s unusual P.A. called.
I shook my head. Only a man would still be a pervert even when he didn’t have a body. The spirit might be a letch but I was fairly sure he was harmless. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have left him alone with Kiesha. My senses picked-up only mischievous humor from North. Besides, I trusted Liam’s judgment.
Liam.
Part of me couldn’t believe I was in the PR, in the Alpha’s home, stepping into his bathtub. The stank bus seemed like a lifetime ago.
I closed my eyes and drifted in the water. Hot baths were one luxury I’d missed terribly. Most days I was lucky if I had access to a sink for a whore’s bath.
But there had been a time when I’d had all the hot water I wanted. A time before my life had gone to hell and I’d been on the run.
A door creaked open. Knowing eyes that glowed in the dark.
Doesn’t that feel better, Emma? Tell me you like that.
I jerked up, having been unaware that I’d fallen asleep in the bath until the knock awakened me.
“Emma?” Liam called.
“Hang on.” I unstoppered the tub and then reached for a fluffy white towel. With the linen in place around my body, I moved to the adjoining door.
Liam’s eyes grew hooded as he took in my attire. “I just wanted to let you know I’d be heading down to the in-between. Another group is due to cross in an hour.”
I nod once. “Okay.”
“Did you want to come with me?”
“No.” It’s not a lie. If Liam asked if I wanted to keep him company, my answer might have been different.
Instead of leaving, he leaned against the doorframe. “North will get you anything you or Kiesha need.”
“He likes her. I found them playing a while ago. And he called her pussycat.” And not in the same skeevy way he’d said it to me.
“She’s sound asleep now.” He glanced over his shoulder, a small smile on his lips.
“Are there any others like her?”
He shook his head. “Not in my pack. Not that I’m aware of.”
“Will she be in danger? Because she’s dominant?”
Liam’s gaze swung back to me. “I won’t let anyone hurt her.”
I believed him. It might be stupid, but I trusted his word. He could lie but for some reason I felt Liam was much more trustworthy than I was.
He took a deep breath, as though collecting his strength. “See you later.”
I watched him walk away and then closed the door.
I’d stalled long enough.
Dressing quickly, I paused over the silver knife. While its value staggered me, I couldn’t bring myself to sell it. What if it was used against Liam again? Or Kiesha?
Liam had asked me to hold onto it, so I shut the battered guitar case, silver blade still inside.
I’d leave the phone though. It would just give Liam another way to track me. Not that I believed he’d bother. Kiesha was safe and I was nothing more than a curiosity. He wouldn’t come after me.
Maybe if you keep telling yourself that Emma, you’ll believe it.
“Where you headed, Kotik?” North inhabited the battered old case as I trooped to the stairs.
I shook it, hoping to jostle the sylph loose. “Out. Stay here and guard Kiesha or I swear, I will find a way to hurt you.”
“Liam will not like this,” he muttered from a painting of an obese man with a pointy beard in
the foyer. The eyes of the male figure shifted to follow my progress.
“He doesn’t have to.” I hesitated on the threshold. “Tell Liam…tell him I am grateful for everything. But I can’t stick around any longer.”
“Da. If that is your wish. But I still say this is a mistake.”
I glanced around at the clean windows, well-oiled wood trim, expensive rugs and gleaming floor. I didn’t belong in this place. The dark fae were out there, and they would kill again.
“The mistake was taking my eye off the prize.”
6
Liam watched the haggard fae cross the in-between from Underhill. They were different sizes and shapes and colors without their glamour. Most fae had been using magic constantly and the sudden loss of it was unsettling. Their scent was a miasma of bewilderment and despair.
Autumn, third in his pack, was last to cross. Pieces of hay were caught in her red-gold braid. He approached her, water bottle in hand.
“Where did you find them?”
She took the water, her multihued eyes betraying her exhaustion. “Some tundra type place. Nic sensed them and sent her own people but the fae are like roaches, scattering at their approach.”
Damn. Nic’s people were enthralled humans that were sentenced to serve Underhill for a year and a day. Though his uncle’s mate had released most of the thralls before the fae announced themselves to the humans, some were too dangerous to let go.
“I don’t understand why they’re so insistent on staying there.” Liam shook his head as he looked at the rag-tag band.
“It’s their home, Liam.” Autumn’s tone was even. His third gave nothing away. Her stoic expression was almost impossible to read in her human form. But wolves read body language easily.
Most of the time. He thought of Emma’s guarded stance when she stood by the window, shoulders slumped, arms wrapped protectively about herself. The picture would haunt him.
He turned to face Autumn, who had the water bottle tipped up to her lips. “Why do you keep volunteering to go there?”
She shrugged. “Someone has to.”
Liam turned away to look at the converted warehouse that had become a temporary shelter for most of the fae. Cots were lined up along the back wall, but there weren’t enough for everyone. Very few had taken up residence in the empty buildings, the apartments that were just waiting for them to occupy.
“Garret and the others,” he began.
She shook her head. “They aren’t good with the children. I am.”
Liam wondered if it was more than that, something she wasn’t telling him. But he had enough secrets of his own to understand the value of respecting his third’s privacy.
As though she could hear his thoughts, Autumn gave him a searching look. “There’s something different about you.”
“Got stuck with a silver blade last night,” Liam pulled the collar of his t-shirt aside to show her the wound.
She frowned. “A mortal got the drop on you?”
He didn’t dignify that with a reply.
Autumn’s expression changed. “The twisted ones?”
“Keep your voice down.” He dragged her a few feet further away from the new arrivals. Some of the fae had hearing that was almost as good as the wolves. “Call a pack meeting for nine. We’ll discuss it before our hunt.”
“I didn’t miss it then,” Autumn’s shoulders relaxed infinitesimally. “Good.”
The full moon run was a pack tradition. Born out of human superstition that werewolves were forced to change under the light of the full moon, Liam had instituted a monthly hunt with his pack on that night. It was the one night they were free to be who and what they really were.
The few fae that had occupied the dwellings across the PR stayed out of their way.
For a moment, he considered bringing Kiesha and Emma to the run. But his mate wasn’t a werewolf. And the girl….
“I have something I need to discuss with you. Come back to the house with me.” He wanted to get the hell out of there before….
“Pup!” Magda barked.
“So close.” Liam exhaled and turned to face the bane of his existence.
“We be needin’ blankets and bedrolls. And a bit of that human elixir wouldn’t go amiss.” The short squat fae said in her thick brogue.
Magda was one of the few who had ventured out of the sanctuary of this building. She was solid and strong and took absolutely no guff from anyone.
“No liquor.” His tone was firm.
“It helps with the transitional phase.” She waved her sausage-like fingers toward the walls.
“Getting stinking drunk doesn’t help them cope with reality,” he snapped.
Magda took his measure with narrowed eyes.
Liam had no idea what sort of fae she was. Her background was shrouded in mystery. All he knew about Magda was that she hailed from a remote region in Underhill and her skin was a vivid blue that sparkled like twilight on snow.
“Fine, but I’ll be puttin’ my request in to her royal highness.” Magda put her hands on her ample blue hips and then spun on her heel.
Magda feared nothing, as far as he could tell, especially not the Alpha werewolf. He knew he couldn’t run this place without her but she tried his patience.
Autumn clapped him on the shoulder. “Liam, best escape before you tear her throat out.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Though he might fantasize the next time he ran prey to ground that it was the fae woman’s blood coating his fangs.
Outside in the open air, he took a deep breath. Seeing the newly crossed fae was difficult at the best of times. He wished he could make them promises. Life will be better once you cross the Veil. But it wasn’t. The humans were jumpy and the twisted ones seemed to grow in number. Was it any wonder so many of the fae turned dark, when they were crowded into a dingy warehouse with nary a trace of magic?
“This isn’t a healthy long-term plan.” Autumn said as she eyed the squat building.
Liam had the same sense of unease but said, “In time they will spread out and start living again. Once they feel secure.”
The she-wolf snorted. “They can’t even defend themselves against the humans.”
Well, most of them couldn’t.
“Have you ever seen a fae attack a human?” Liam asked.
“The Oath forbids it.”
He nodded and thought about Emma’s complex scent. Honeysuckle and fairy wine. Somehow, she didn’t need to obey Addison’s edict. What made her immune?
And could he use that to track the dark fae, maybe even to find the mythical Savior.
“Liam,” Autumn’s tone was quiet. “We need to do better.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know how. Nic and Aiden told me to leave the fae to their own devices. I’ve tried to. Very few of the adults bother with the training. They fear humans and their inability to defend themselves. Stories of the attacks don’t help. The mortal authorities often turn a blind eye to the human on fae crimes. We’re the monsters, Autumn. And we are all that stands between the fae and the mortals. It’s not a comfy place.”
“I know all that. But I also know that the fae need to spread out. Every time I cross back into that warehouse I feel as though it’s had another layer of despair shellacked onto it. And if I were the enemy, I’d strike there, where it would do the most damage.”
His third had a keen mind for tactics. She also had a good heart. Autumn didn’t like to see creatures in pain. “Tell me, do you know anything about the sword of the Tuatha De Dannu?”
She frowned. “Only a few stories. Why?”
“Skathi brought it up.”
She growled low. “What’s it supposed to do?”
“Be indestructible in battle.” Liam’s tone was grim. “She also said something about a spellcaster. Any idea what that is?”
“Ask Magda. I heard someone call her that.”
He paused on the doorway. “Do you know what it is?”
Autumn shook her hea
d. “No, but the way the fae said it, it didn’t sound complimentary.”
Great, so he was going to have to deal with Magda twice in one day. Skippy.
He opened the door to his building and his coat was invaded by the sylph.
“What are you doing down here, North?” Liam asked his PA.
“Hoping she would return before you,” the wind spirit replied.
“She?” Cold dread filled Liam’s stomach and he knew what North was about to say even before the sylph spoke her name.
“Emma is gone.”
For someone who’d spent a great deal of her life on the move, I had a lousy sense of direction. Luckily the Manhattan grid pattern held true even in the pocket realm.
It amazed me, the power it had taken to replicate the city that had been growing upwards for more than a century. One day this had been open water, the next, an island, complete with habitable buildings.
Although I hadn’t seen any signs of life. Where were all the fae?
It wasn’t just the lack of bodies. There were no vehicles, no clothing strung up on lines, no smells of food or waste. Just the low hum of elemental magic.
If the fae were around, they didn’t make themselves known.
Curiosity got the best of me and I trudged up the steps to peek in a random window. The house within was fully furnished but held no signs of life. Not a newspaper or a book, a stray mug or a blanket tossed over the back of the couch. No one lived within, I was sure of it.
I thought of all the nights I’d passed under bridges, afraid to sleep. What was wrong with these fae, that they didn’t take what their queen and kings offered? And just what had Addison Jager had to give the giants to set up this paradise?
My teeth sank into my lower lip. Don’t do it, idiot. You’re supposed to be leaving.
Thunder rumbled and clouds gathered. Another storm was on the way. Even if I managed to escape the PR, I couldn’t go back to the Italian restaurant. Liam was having it renovated. I needed a place to sleep to be my best for tracking.
It was a bad idea. I didn’t know the rules of the pocket realm. Malcolm had warned me to stay away from the fae. No doubt Liam would find me sooner rather than later.