“Hey,” I whispered.
“Good morning, my Queen.”
“Are you all right?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You’re a man.”
He laughed softly. “Tess, you always amaze me. As you so precisely pointed out last night, you don’t know men very well. Or maybe you know men, as a general rule, but you’re very bad, not to mention very slow, at figuring out a particular man. I didn’t expect to like your Carlos, nor did I want to, but I do in spite of myself. Any man who cares for his people as he obviously does—”
“I can’t believe he still had boats out two months later.”
“What is it that we’re here for, Tess?”
“I don’t want to say yet. I want to tell Carlos the whole thing, including your last visions, and see if he thinks what I think. So you can understand everything when you’re in wolf form and you remember it after? I was worried about that, if maybe brain function changed or something—”
“No, we hear, we remember. And while I did know how much you love me, it would be nice for you to tell me when I’m in human form and able to do something about it.”
“Promise. Now, get up, I’ll show you the shower and how it works. I’m surprised Carlos isn’t knocking the door down already.”
That must have been his cue, because at that exact moment, I heard the doorknob rattle, very grateful that I’d had the foresight to lock it.
“Tess!” Impatient rapping. “I can’t believe you locked me out, what’s the matter with you?”
“Stand where you are,” I said quietly to Dalph, who was standing behind me. “It’s show time.”
I walked over to the door and opened it in mid-knock. Carlos was staring directly at me, and then I saw his gaze move behind me. His eyes widened as they locked on Dalph.
“Carlos, this is my husband, Dalph. More properly, Randalph of Trusca.”
Dalph walked forward. I didn’t know if he was going to extend his hand or not; Truscans didn’t shake hands, and he didn’t, which I thought was probably a good thing as I didn’t think Carlos would be capable of movement. Dalph spoke instead.
“I apologize for any alarm my appearance might have caused you last night. And Tess and I are very grateful for your help.”
Carlos remained standing, immobile, not speaking, which was rather a novel thing to see. Then he looked back at me, and in the Ricky Ricardo accent that he could imitate to perfection but seldom used, he said, “Lucy, you gotta lotta ’splaining to do.” Then he turned on his heel and headed back down the hall.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Well,” I said, closing the door, “that went much better than I expected.”
“Be gentle with him, my Queen. He’s very shaken, and he cares much more for you than you realized, as do you for him, though I already knew that.”
“Excuse me?”
“I even told you that it would be impossible for you to be with a man you didn’t care deeply about, even love, Tess. That’s no surprise to me. You don’t like to be vulnerable, so you don’t admit to yourself that you care. And you never believed he cares as much as he does.”
“You know, you’d be a great psychiatrist if you were born here.”
“A what?”
“Never mind. And that doesn’t bother you—that he cares more for me than I knew?”
“No. I know we’re soul-mates, Tess. It bothers me that I have to be here, in his house, and make him uncomfortable. But Johnny survived a number of years. I think Carlos can last a few days.”
“What’s Johnny got to do with it?”
“Johnny was hopelessly in love with my mother. He has no idea I know. My mother never did, the four of us and our father took all her attention. My father did know, I’m sure, there are some things men just know, despite how insensitive women think us, and the fact that another man’s in love with your wife is one of them. But Johnny was a valuable man, a good friend, and having no death wish, never gave my father any reason for concern. I’m assuming, as Carlos runs the equivalent of an empire here in this world, that he’s smart enough not to have a death wish either.”
“Is that a threat?”
“I’ve been told I’m fairly intimidating. In fact, I only remember one person in my entire life who’s ever thrown wine in my face or told me they didn’t give a flying flip about my opinion. Although Dal has thrown up on me on quite a few occasions.”
The comment struck and surprised me. “You mean you actually physically took care of Dal yourself when he was a baby? When you were what, in your early twenties?”
“Whenever I could. Not as often as I’d have liked. I was a young and untried king and things were very hectic and unsettled. His mother died at his birth, you know that, and would have had no interest in him in any event, which should come as no surprise to you. But even babies know the difference between a caretaker and a parent. I certainly didn’t intend that my son should not.”
I reached up and kissed him quickly. “You are absolutely amazing. But you still don’t intimidate me.”
“Which surprises me not at all. Show me your—shower?—was it? It’s rude to keep the man waiting.”
“You’ll love it. And I’ll go ransack you some clothes.”
“From where?”
“Ramos International entertains a lot. And almost nobody realizes how casual or how hot Miami is. Trust me, we’ve got a stash of clothes.”
Dalph adored the shower. Who wouldn’t? I left him standing and luxuriating in the endless stream of hot water and pulled on shorts and a T-shirt. Then I dashed over to one of the guest rooms where I stored casual clothes and pulled out a pair of white linen pants, probably too short—but who the hell was as tall as Dalph?—and grabbed a sapphire blue silk polo shirt. The clothes I bought to keep on hand for idiots who came to Miami in light wool suits were always ones that simply came in small, medium and large, and I always kept extra and extra-extra large, too, because desk men had a tendency not to work out much. I thought Dalph would only need large pants, and I was right, but I was grateful I’d actually stocked some 3X T-shirts, even though Carlos said that was ridiculous, because nobody was that fat. I overrode his objection, because we did have some guests who were that fat. But of course, in Dalph’s case, he needed 3X to accommodate his shoulders and muscles and still have room to breathe.
“Awesome!” I exclaimed over the end result. “You look very Miami.”
“I look very shoeless. As do you, and your legs look very bare.”
“This is Miami, honey, go with the flow. Ready?”
“Remember, be gentle.”
“Why do you keep telling me that?”
“Because, Green Eyes, you’re a bitch when you’re nervous. And you’re nervous as hell. And don’t skip over what happened to your pilot like you did last night. Tell him the truth.”
“Why?”
“I’d like to see his reaction.”
“Is this a macho test or something?”
“Something like that, yes. The ability to analyze an impossible situation and accept the only solution, no matter how unpleasant. It’s a leader’s most valuable gift. I’d like to know if he has it.”
I smelled coffee as we neared the kitchen, but no food, which somewhat surprised me, and found Carlos sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on what I knew was probably his fourth or fifth cup of coffee.
“No breakfast?” I asked. Carlos was a big breakfast eater, as he was frequently in such a hurry through the day that he didn’t stop to eat.
“Rosa has the week off. I was supposed to leave for New York yesterday morning, it fell through. I was hoping you’d cook breakfast, unless you want to eat my eggs.”
“Not likely,” I said and, moving to the big walk-in refrigerator, gathered up eggs and bacon and butter. The stones were really looking after us; I couldn’t imagine what I’d have done if he’d been out of town.
“Can you maybe start talking while you cook, you think?”
Mind
ful of Dalph’s admonition, I was fully aware that he was absolutely right. I was a bitch when I was nervous and I was way past nervous. I sighed. “I’ll try. It’s just that I don’t know quite where to start, I truly don’t. Do you believe me now? I mean, about the door, and Trusca and Pria?”
Carlos gestured toward Dalph with his hand. “Duh!” Then he addressed Dalph directly. “Does that happen every night? Doesn’t it make things a little awkward?”
“Carlos!”
Dalph, however, took the question in stride. “No, just during the full moons.”
“Perfect. And you’re not telling me he learned how to speak English like that in the two months you’ve been gone, either.”
“No, of course not. His mother was American. I’m not the first person to disappear in the Triangle, you know!”
“Well, this just keeps getting better and better.”
“It all started with the mist,” I began, before the sequence of events got completely out of order, and I talked while I turned bacon and scrambled eggs. I talked right up until we actually crashed, and then attempted to comply with Dalph’s request, but it was hard. Carlos had never been a soldier and had never encountered such creatures as the Prians.
“And actually,” I continued, “Ken didn’t die in the crash, though he would have pretty quickly. His ribcage was crushed and he was bleeding from his lungs, I knew it by the color of the blood frothing out of his mouth. And Johnny checked and he told me that, too, and then Dalph checked him, and I didn’t know Dalph spoke English, you see, and there wasn’t a whole lot of time to make introductions, and anyway, Dalph asked Johnny something—how badly was he hurt, I guess—and Johnny answered, and Dalph—” I stopped, aware that I was trying so hard to convey the urgency of the situation that I was dangerously close to making no sense.
Dalph picked up for me. “A Prian border patrol was right behind me. The Prians are flesh-eaters.”
“Flesh-eaters?”
“Cannibals,” I interjected. “They eat people.”
“For real?”
“For very real.”
Dalph spoke again. “I checked his injuries myself. Moving him at all was going to kill him. Leaving him was out of the question. I snapped his neck and fired the plane. His funeral pyre.”
I looked at Carlos looking at Dalph. It must have been a guy thing and apparently, male bonding could happen under the strangest circumstances.
“Thank you. He was a good man.”
“Good men deserve no less.”
“And thank you for getting Tess out of there.”
“Now that was not as easy as it sounds. As Tess said, there was no time for explanations or introductions. She was rather—difficult to handle at that point.”
Carlos laughed. “You knocked her out, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Hey!” I protested. “How’d you figure that out so fast, like it’s just what you’d – c’mon, you’d never have knocked me out!”
“I’ve never been in a life and death situation with you. If we had been? Hell, yeah. In a heartbeat. And I can’t believe it, but I might be beginning to like this guy, Tess.”
“Laugh at Tess, go ahead. Anybody want anything else before I start talking again?”
“This is very good, Tess, I didn’t know you could cook.”
“You never asked.”
Dalph picked up his last strip of bacon. “And this, bacon is it? Is really good, what animal does it come from?”
“Pigs,” I answered, without thinking. Dalph quickly dropped the strip back onto the plate.
“Pigs?”
“It’s okay, it’s not like—pigs in this world are stock animals, Dalph, bred for food. It’s not like you’re eating a Prian!”
“Huh?” asked Carlos, a bewildered expression on his face.
“Prians aren’t really human, sorry, haven’t gotten to that part yet. They’re humanoid, but they look a lot like pigs. Yes, for really real,” I added, before he could ask. “Trust me. I’ve seen one up close and personal.” I turned back to Dalph. “And what’s the matter, anyway? Haven’t you eaten Prians before when the Tornans patrol?”
“Most certainly not! We only tear them apart.”
“I’m sure they appreciate the distinction.”
“The Tornans?” asked Carlos.
“The other shape-shifters, the night riders, Dalph’s elite.” I picked the story back up and talked and talked. Dalph occasionally clarified, and it was late in the morning by the time I finished.
“And so I called you. Don’t you feel special?”
“I’m not sure how I feel, really. It’s so incredible.”
“Johnny’s got a pet phrase for it, sums it up nicely. ‘Tess,’ he tells me, ‘you ain’t in Kansas anymore.’”
“There’s just one thing I have to ask. You’ve been gone two months and you come back married. Apparently quite happily. I’ve asked you to marry me at least once a week for the last two years!”
“Yeah, but you were jok—” I broke off when I looked at his face, at the micro-expression that flitted so briefly across it before vanishing. But it was Dalph who spoke.
“No, he wasn’t joking. He was just waiting for you to realize he wasn’t joking so he could press the issue.”
I was seldom speechless and apparently, Carlos found the moment most amusing. He broke into laughter.
“God, Tess, you’re such a ball-buster! The only way to survive you was to let you keep thinking I was the spoiled brat playing a grown-up you took me for, and a pretty damn stupid one at that!”
“I—Carlos, I’m so sorry. I’ve changed so much since I’ve been gone. I didn’t know myself very well at all, and I never knew how much that affected how well I knew anybody else.”
“And now you do?”
“Yes.”
“Because of him?”
“Yes.”
“And you love him.”
“Completely,” I answered emphatically. Let there be no question as to that point, ever.
He turned to Dalph. “And how did you get through to her in less than two months when I’ve been trying for two years?”
“Possibly because I didn’t wait two years to tell her how I really felt or make her see me as I really am. Tess doesn’t trust easily, especially men, so she doesn’t see them clearly. You can’t just sit back and expect that someone who doesn’t see clearly will see what’s really there.”
He really would have been a great psychiatrist. I could almost see Carlos’ brain turning as he processed the words.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said slowly.
“Don’t let him fool you, he didn’t come squeaky clean all at once,” I said, with a lifted eyebrow turned to Dalph. I had no intention of letting him create the impression he’d been completely honest at all times.
“Maybe I kept a few small things back to share later.”
I laughed. “Yeah, like fealty oaths really being marriage ceremonies and your mother being an English Professor—”
“You’re kidding on that one though, right? American maybe, but an English Professor?” asked Carlos.
“Have you heard the man talk? She taught at freaking Harvard, no less, and of course, being a shape-shifter’s a real small detail!”
“On occasion, a very handy one.”
“No argument from me on that. I’d just have been a lot happier knowing it was you chewing through the ropes that night than a wild wolf, that’s all!”
“It’s just not fair!” interjected Carlos.
“What’s not?”
“You’ve been over there with Truscan Kings and invading Prians and shape-shifters and Ratas and Power Stones, and I’ve been stuck over here with all the damn business details and Board Meetings! It’s just not fair! Do all you guys shape-shift?”
Actually, I wasn’t completely clear on how that worked either and waited for Dalph’s answer.
“No, it’s somewhat unpredictable. You never really
know if a child’s a Tornan until he shifts the first time, and the time of the first shift varies. Usually before the first birthday, though.”
“And is it always a he?” I asked.
“Oh, yes, now that’s always constant.”
“Naturally. Men have all the fun. Did all your brothers shift?”
“No. Brenden and I did, Madison and Gareth didn’t and thank Trusco if only one other of us changed it was Brenden, because he would have been hell to live with otherwise.”
“Johnny says ordinary men have to go out with the Tornans to tend the camp and horses, though,” I observed.
“Yes, and if he’d had to stand and watch the Tornans run free while he tended horses, we’d have had to kill him ourselves to be able to stand him.”
Enough diversion, I thought. “Okay, boys, now back to business. We were sent back for a reason. Dalph, tell Carlos your last two visions. In as much detail as you can remember.”
He complied, his voice again expressing the frustration he felt when he exclaimed, “But there’s nothing, no weapon I know of, that will do that! Explosions of fire here, but not there, all of it at the same time, all at once total flames, no wait for the fires to catch, no matter whether it’s wood or stone!”
“There’s nothing in your world that’ll do it,” Carlos said, smiling as he looked at me. “There is in this one.”
I smiled back and we spoke simultaneously.
“Plastique.”
Dalph looked from one to the other of us. “Plas—”
“Plastique. It’s an explosive compound we have. Very powerful, very stable, very versatile,” Carlos explained.
“And we can get it?”
“It’s not just used as a weapon, though it’s a very powerful one. It’s also used in mining operations. Ramos International owns several mining companies, not just in the U.S., it has some in South America and Africa, too.”
“And it will do these things I see?”
I leaned forward, smiling. “Well, let me put it this way. We can’t nuke ’em, but we can damn sure do the next best thing. Carlos—”
“I can get it here in a couple of days.”
“But how would you know the size of the charges to ask for?” I asked. “And can you get somebody to teach us how to use it?”
Miami Days and Truscan (K)nights Page 18