Rogue

by Karen Lynch

  “Maybe we’ll get a few months of peace before the next ones come along,” said the apothecary, a short demon with pale skin, a long furred face, and large orange eyes. He gave a sigh of resignation. “There are always more gulak thugs waiting to move in.”

  “Just tell them your talael... or whatever… is keeping an eye on things here,” Jordan said as she walked up and laid an arm across my shoulders. “She is one fricking badass warrior.”

  The vendors nodded fervently.

  I asked the apothecary for a piece of paper on which I wrote a number. “Call this if you guys have any more trouble with gulaks. The Mohiri will gladly help you with them.”

  He held up his hands when I tried to give him the paper. “The Mohiri do not help our kind.”

  “Have you ever asked them for help?”

  His orange eyes blinked in confusion. “No.”

  I smiled and shoved the paper into his hand. “Maybe you should.”

  His furred hand gripped mine. “Thank you, talael esledur.”

  “You can just call me Sara. I...” I stared down at our clasped hands. “Hey, you’re touching me!”

  He yanked his hand away. “I am sorry. I did not know it was forbidden.”

  “No, it’s not that. It’s just that I can’t touch demons without hurting them.” I studied his face. “Are you a demon?” I whispered.

  He drew me away from the others. “I am a quellar demon, and my people are not affected by your magic.”

  “You know what I am?”

  He shook his head. “I am not sure. I can sense the Mori demon in you, but I saw you use Fae magic to kill those other demons. And you came here with another Fae.”

  I glanced around at the other demons who were watching us curiously. “Um, do you think we could keep that between us for now?”

  He smiled. “My people are also known for our discretion.”

  Chris raised an eyebrow at me when Jordan and I joined him and Nikolas near the loading bay. “Giving out your number, Sara? He doesn’t seem like your type.”

  “He’s not.” I looked at Nikolas, and the warmth in his eyes made my pulse quicken.

  “You ready to get out of here?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I glanced at the spot where Eldeorin had been standing when Nikolas arrived. “It looks like my ride left, so you’re stuck with me.”

  Jordan snickered. “Something tells me he doesn’t mind one bit.”

  The four of us went outside to one of the SUVs parked in front of the building. At the door of the building, the three of them stared at me when I slowed to push my way through the thick jelly-like demon ward.

  On the other side, I wrinkled my nose. “Demon wards and Fae blood don’t mix.”

  I was happy to let Chris and Jordan take the front seat of the SUV, and I climbed into the back with Nikolas. As soon as we were buckled in, his hand found mine, lacing our fingers together and sending a warm tingle up my arm.

  Conversation centered mostly around what had happened at the demon market, with Chris and Jordan telling us how the gulaks had cornered them.

  “What were you guys doing in a demon market in the first place?” I asked them.

  “We discovered Adele has been sending letters to someone there,” Chris said. “We thought it was worth checking out.”

  “People still send letters?”

  Nikolas nodded. “People who suspect their electronic communications are being monitored.”

  “And who have something to hide,” Chris added.

  I met Chris’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Did you find anything?”

  “We found the demon she was sending them to. He said he was paid to drop them in a mailbox. Inside the envelope was another envelope with an address and postage. Unfortunately, every time he tries to remember the address he draws a blank.”

  “Some kind of memory spell?”

  “Looks like it. Adele is proving to be more covert than we gave her credit for.”

  I scowled at the seat in front of me. “So I’m learning. And I bet it’s Madeline she’s writing to. Turns out they have been friends for a lot longer than she let on to us.”

  “How do you know that?” Nikolas asked.

  “I brought a box of Madeline’s things back with me from New Hastings today and –”

  “Whoa! Hold up.” Jordan turned in her seat to stare at me. “You went to Maine? Today? How the hell did that happen, and why is Nikolas not freaking out about it?”

  “Eldeorin took me there and we didn’t stay long. I found a box of things belonging to Madeline that Nate had mentioned last fall. I was going to give them to Tristan, but I wanted to look through them first.”

  “And you were okay with her going there?” Jordan asked Nikolas.

  He shook his head. “I didn’t know until after she got back.”

  “We were in the middle of discussing it when he got the call that you guys were in trouble.”

  Jordan looked from Nikolas to me. “Discussing it. Riiight.”

  “What did you find in the box, Sara?” Chris asked.

  “Pictures of Madeline and Adele that were taken back in the seventies, and they look pretty chummy in them.”

  Nikolas looked thoughtful for a moment. “That would have been just a few years after Madeline left Westhorne.”

  Chris nodded. “Looks like we need to pay Adele another visit, Nikolas.”

  “Not without me.” No way was I staying behind for this one.

  “Or me,” Jordan added.

  Nikolas looked at me, and I begged him with my eyes not to start that old argument again. Finally, he said, “We’ll go see her tomorrow.”

  I smiled at him and mouthed, “Thank you.”

  Dinner that night was a whole new experience for me. Sitting across the table from the man you love and knowing he loves you back, makes everything… better. I could have been eating plain bread and water and I don’t think I would have noticed. Jordan and Chris joined us, and there was more than one teasing comment when one of them had to repeat something they’d said to Nikolas or me. Normally, I’d be embarrassed, but I was too happy to care.

  After dinner, I expected Nikolas to say he had to go to the command center. He surprised me by asking me to go for a walk instead. It was a clear night, and the moon cast a silvery glow across the grounds and reflected in the lake as we strolled around it. When we reached the gazebo, the little structure suddenly illuminated with thousands of tiny faerie lights, and I smiled to myself because I knew it had to be Eldeorin’s doing. My faerie friend might shy away from love, but he was a romantic at heart.

  “Wow, it’s beautiful here.” I sighed happily as I stood by the rail and looked across the moon-kissed lake.

  Nikolas wrapped his arms around me and tucked my head under his chin. “Are you warm enough?”

  “Yes.” It was a chilly night, but between his body heat and the warmth coursing through me, I didn’t feel the cold. I was still trying to believe this was real, that we were here together and that Nikolas loved me. He had loved me all along. How blind the both of us had been. How many times one of us could have said the words, but we’d held back. We were quite the pair.

  “What do you think would have happened if someone else had found me in Maine? Or if I’d been found when I was little?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, who knows when we would have met? I would have been just another orphan, and you might never have noticed me.” We could have gone decades without ever knowing what we were to each other.

  Laughter rumbled in his chest and he pulled me closer, if that was possible. “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed you.”

  His husky words and his warm breath against my temple sent a new kind of heat through me, and I began to think about where we would go from here. Nikolas and I loved each other, and there would never be anyone else for me but him. The thought of sex still made me more than a little nervous, but I wanted to take the next step in our relationship,
to complete our bond and make him mine forever. Would it happen tonight? My stomach did a series of flips as an image of Nikolas and me together in that way filled my mind.

  “Tsk tsk, Cousin. Such naughty thoughts.”

  I gasped softly as Eldeorin appeared outside the gazebo, wearing a sly grin. My hands covered Nikolas’s arms, and I waited for him to start yelling at the faerie for his part in my vigilante activities.

  “He’s in what we call a waking dream,” Eldeorin said. “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

  “What kind of dream?” Aine had put the hellhounds in a waking dream once, and she’d said it felt exactly like real life.

  Eldeorin’s eyes gleamed. “A very good one. Not quite as interesting as what you were thinking about a minute ago, but he won’t complain as long as you’re with him.”

  My face flamed. I didn’t know if it was from imagining what Nikolas was doing in his dream, or because Eldeorin had guessed my thoughts when he arrived. “How do you know what I was thinking?”

  His soft laugh floated toward me. “I didn’t, but I do now.”

  I sighed in frustration. “Did you come here just to toy with Nikolas? He’s pretty angry at you.”

  “Right now your warrior is feeling something, but it’s definitely not anger.”

  “Eldeorin!”

  He chuckled and stepped forward until he was directly below me. “Love suits you, Cousin.”

  My ire faded. “I know.”

  “I’m happy for you. You are good together, and I can see how much he loves you.” He laid his hand on the railing. “I came to tell you I must leave for a week or two, but I will return to continue our training.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “I have been called home to assist nymph triplets who are experiencing a difficult liannan.” He smiled suggestively. “It is a messy job, but someone has to do it.”

  I scoffed. “Yes, I’m sure it’s such a burden.”

  Eldeorin laughed and backed away from the gazebo. “I’ll see you soon, Cousin.”

  “Sara? What just happened?”

  I turned in Nikolas’s arms so I was facing him. Confusion was etched across his face as he stared down at me. “Eldeorin paid us a visit. He put you in some kind of dream state.”

  Nikolas swore under his breath. “I really don’t like that faerie.”

  “Eldeorin’s a bit outrageous, but he does have a good heart.” I reached up to smooth the scowl from his face. “You’ll be happy to know that he’s gone to Faerie for a few weeks.”

  “This must be my lucky day.”

  “Best day ever.”

  He lowered his head and kissed me until my head was spinning and my legs had turned to rubber. When he pulled back and smiled at me, my stomach dipped at the heat in his gaze.

  And then his phone rang.

  I was really starting to hate that damn phone.

  He actually groaned as he pulled the phone from his pocket. “Nikolas here.” He gave me an apologetic smile as he listened to the person on the other end for a minute. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  “Duty calls,” I said as he hung up.

  “Sorry. One of our teams reported in with some intel and I need to be there. I wasn’t expecting to hear from them today.”

  I was disappointed, but I understood the importance of his work. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s your job.”

  We left the gazebo and started back to the house. When the lights of the mansion came into view, I sighed quietly, knowing our night had come to an end.

  “Do you want to come to the command center with me?” Nikolas asked when we neared the house.

  “Yes,” I said eagerly. I wasn’t ready to let him out of my sight just yet.

  He smiled as we skirted the house to head next door. Our alone time might have been cut short, but the promise in his eyes told me we were going to pick up where we’d left off. Maybe not tonight, but it was going to happen.

  Soon, whispered the voice in the back of my mind. Mine.

  I smiled to myself. Soon.

  * * *

  “This place looks so different from our last visit,” Jordan said as we walked into Blue Nyx with Nikolas and Chris the next day. Except for the two huge bouncers and a few cleaning staff, the place was deserted. It could have passed for a normal club without all the nonhuman patrons filling the dance floor.

  Chris shook his head. “I can’t believe you were here that night and I didn’t see you.”

  Jordan’s laugh echoed through the empty room. “Oh, you saw her alright. We walked right past you at the door.”

  Understanding dawned in his eyes. “The faerie glamoured you.”

  “Sara was the hottest nymph I’ve ever seen,” Jordan said slyly. “They don’t wear much, do they?”

  Nikolas’s head whipped toward us, and Chris smiled sheepishly. “I, uh...” He looked at Nikolas. “She didn’t look like herself, so it really wasn’t her body I saw...”

  “Jordan, stop messing with Chris,” I scolded loudly. “It looked nothing like me. And I could have gone a long time without bringing that up.”

  “Me too,” Nikolas and Chris muttered at the same time.

  On the second floor, Nikolas nodded to the guard outside Adele’s door before he knocked. The fact that the guard recognized him made an irrational knot of jealousy burn in my gut. Nikolas had already told me he knew Adele because she sometimes provided the Mohiri with information. There was absolutely no reason to be jealous of a gorgeous, sultry succubus who lived off the sexual energy of men.

  When Adele’s husky voice called for us to come in, I moved next to Nikolas so I entered right behind him.

  The blond succubus was lounging on her couch, wearing a long red dress and a sensual smile. “Nikolas, what a pleasant surprise! How can I be of service to you tonight?”

  Adele’s tone left little doubt about what services she wanted to provide. My Mori growled so loudly that for a second I feared the sound had come from my throat. I clenched my hands at my sides as I stepped out from behind Nikolas and stood beside him.

  Adele’s violet eyes could not hide her shock. “And Eldeorin’s little cousin? This is a surprise.”

  “Hello, Adele,” I said with forced politeness.

  A door at the other end of the office opened and a tall man with long black hair came out holding a brown leather satchel. “Adele, do you have –?” He stopped when he saw she was not alone, and his brown eyes narrowed immediately on me. “You!”

  “Nice to see you again, Orias.”

  He hugged the satchel to his chest, and I knew it held his demon. “Because of you, I have no home and no business, and every vampire in New Mexico wants me dead. You are a menace!”

  “Maybe you should be more careful about the people you do business with,” I retorted.

  Jordan came forward. “Yeah, and you shouldn’t have tied us up either.”

  Nikolas stiffened beside me, and I laid a hand on his arm. “He was going to turn us over to Tristan for the reward money.”

  Orias sat on the other couch, clutching his satchel. “And you upset my demon so much that it took me a week to get him to calm down. I wish I’d never laid eyes on you.”

  Adele, who had been listening to our exchange, spoke up. “This is the girl who killed Stefan Price? You didn’t tell me she was Fae.”

  “She’s not Fae. She’s Mohiri.” Orias huffed in irritation. “And I couldn’t tell you because she put a gag on me.”

  Nikolas gave me a questioning look, and I shrugged.

  Adele’s eyes came back to me. “But that means you are not Fae as you and Eldeorin led me to believe. What game are you playing?”

  “This is not a game to me,” I replied.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Why did you lie to me?”

  “I could ask you the same question.” I pulled three photos from my pocket and tossed them on the coffee table.

  Adele picked them up, her slender fingers almost caressing the e
dges. “Where did you get these?”

  “From a box of things my mother left behind.”

  “Your mother? What would your mother be doing with...?” Her gasp was almost inaudible. “You are Madeline’s daughter.”

  “Yes.”

  Adele recovered quickly. “You look nothing like her.”

  “I know.”

  She sank back against her cushions, still holding the photos. “Madeline’s daughter. Pardon me for staring, but in all the years I’ve known her, she never once spoke of a daughter. I knew she was married to a human for a few years, but not that there was a child.”

  “I’m not a child anymore.”

  Her eyes flicked from me to Nikolas, and she gave a knowing nod. “So it would seem.”

  Nikolas pointed to the photos in her hands. “Tell us about your history with Madeline.”

  It wasn’t a request. Adele looked down at the photos for a long moment. “The story I told you about Madeline saving my life from a vampire was true. That happened years after we met.”

  She smiled as if she was reliving the memories. “It was nineteen seventy-one and I was living in San Diego when I met Madeline at a party. We were the only nonhumans there, and we were drawn to each other’s company. We hit it off immediately and spent the next few months partying and having fun. It was the best summer of my life.

  “When I moved here, she came with me and stayed for a few years, but then she said she wanted to travel. She said she’d spent all her life in a stronghold and she wanted to see the world. She travelled for years, and she came back here between trips.

  “She surprised me when she said she was enrolling in college in Maine of all places. Madeline was more adventurous than academic, and she liked warm sunny places. It was around that time that I lost touch with her for a few years. She sent a few letters, but she stopped visiting altogether for about four years. One day she reappeared and told me she’d gotten married but it hadn’t worked out. She never said his name.”