by S. K Munt
‘And what do you know about women and dating?’ Lincoln cracked.
‘More than you’d think. I’ve never been with one and I show no interest in them. Apparently that makes me irresistible to ninety percent of the female population.’
Lincoln laughed as they walked back in the bar, where Grace’s voice seemed to fill the room. Lincoln looked at her onstage and smiled as he pulled out a chair at a table for two and sat facing her, thinking of how self-assured she looked up there with a roomful of eyes on her. She really was beautiful, especially with the soft green spotlight beaming down on her, and her voice was out of this world. He couldn’t help but reflect on the harsher things she’d had to say to him that afternoon.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Lincoln asked as Bane sat beside him.
‘Sure.’
‘Who do you want to be king?’
Bane glanced at Lincoln, surprised, then back at the stage, frowning. ‘Tristan, of course.’
Lincoln’s heart sank. ‘Because he’s your uncle?’
‘Maybe. That would be a nice bonus.’ Bane shrugged. ‘But he’s just... he’s already a king, isn’t he? I’ve always looked up to him-everybody has. It was like he was born with this air about him, this ability to handle anything. I mean, not many guys can be dropped out of the sky and bounce back like he did, can they? In fact I was astonished when Nigara’s name was put forward first-elder son or not, Tristan and Ivyanne were much closer in age.’ He shrugged. ‘The women have always had our species by the balls. The king’s been the arm-candy, and not the ruler. But with Tristan...well I feel like he’ll be equal with her.’
Lincoln thought that over, remembering their origin tail from the whelk shell Ivyanne had pressed his ear to the night of her revelations. ‘But...this is a species created to exist without men if need be, and you guys have had a good run for so long. Why should anything need to change?’
Bane glanced at him and smiled. ‘Anna L’Court punished our sex for what her ex husband did by limiting our ability to breed our own kind with human women, and for centuries, they’ve had all the power as a result. But we’re not like human men-so why not give one of us a chance to influence things?’ He shrugged. ‘Besides, it’s not really about Tristan being a better ruler than her. Can you deny the fact that his presence seems to make her stronger and bolder?’
Lincoln sighed. ‘She said it’s an energy thing. That he uses it more.’
‘There’s that,’ Bane agreed, but there was a lift to the corner of his lips. ‘But if I know Tristan, and I think I do...he wouldn’t be using that on her as much as everyone assumes. He wants to win her heart Link-if he’d just wanted her for her body, he wouldn’t have let her up for air since the first time they, uh, deviated from the code.’
‘You think he’s holding back?’ Lincoln demanded, unable to believe that.
‘Oh I know he is. But not half as much as she is, with both of you.’
‘Her power?’
Bane nodded, screwing up his face. ‘When she’s happy and flirtatious and un self-conscious, she even sucks me in. She was laughing about something the other night and I almost leaned in and kissed her! And believe me when I say-I’m gay. Not kind of gay but really gay..with rainbow sprinkles on top. And yet, she got into my head without even trying.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘Ivyanne zeroed in on me since the moment I showed up here, to help her out, and I’ve done so without once questioning it or wondering where my allegiance lies until now-when I’m not in her pretty little web. Her magnetism is off the hook. I think she could will me back there with thought alone if she tried.’
‘She is strong.’ Lincoln admitted. ‘She gave me a taste of what she’s capable of the other day and I think if she’d handed me an axe and asked me to put it through the hood of my car, I would have done it without question.’
‘And there’s the rub.’ Bane said quietly. ‘Everyone’s worried about who’s hand they’re holding when they should be wondering if they have their own will in hand. And if they’ll be able to keep it there if they land her.’
Lincoln looked back at Grace, who was still gently crooning along to a Jewel song, thinking it was an ironic choice given his predicament with Ivyanne. ‘You don’t think I could handle being king then?’
Bane glanced at him and smiled sadly. ‘Actually, I do think you could handle it. Well. But that’s not what you asked, is it?’
Lincoln blew a raspberry. ‘This sucks.’
Bane nodded to the stage. ‘If you want to feel like a king-there’s your solution, right there, serenading you.’
Lincoln sighed. ‘So you want me with Grace too? You jumped down her throat when she broached the subject the other day.’
‘That’s a big brother thing, trying to save her reputation. And don’t get me wrong you and Ivyanne... that’s a great romance. In theory, I support it completely.’ Bane smiled up at his sister. ‘But Grace has never looked at a guy the way she looks at you, and I want to see her happy.’ He sighed, scratching idly at the sleeve tattoo of mysterious symbols on his arm. ‘I’m dreading consoling her, when Ivyanne chooses you.’
Lincoln hesitated a beat before asking: ‘Did you just say when Ivyanne chooses me?’
‘You caught that huh?’ Bane glanced at him sideways then laughed, patting his back. ‘Yes bro, I think that despite everything, or what I think is best- you’ve got this in the bag.’
‘Well.’ Lincoln was cheered by that. ‘I guess that’s something….’
‘Hey Bane!’ Adele’s voice carried over from the bar. ‘Can you change the Gold keg please?’
‘Sure!’ Bane got out of his seat and patted his shoulder. ‘Just relax and have fun. You know what they say about setting something you love free…at least if she doesn’t come back, you’ll have someone else waiting for you, right? Someone kind of incredible?’
Lincoln sighed as Bane walked away. People could spurt all of the old adages they wanted to but the last time he’d set Ivyanne free, she’d taken fourteen years to come back. He had no intention of inflicting a similar agony on Grace Londeree, or allowing her siren song to pull him off course when he was so close to a safe harbor.
*
‘Dammit!’ Tristan kicked the side of the armchair. It went flying across the room. ‘Goddamn bitch!’ He chased it and kicked it again for good measure before stomping up the stairs.
His balls were aching. His brain was fried and his heart was heavy with worry. There was a painted portrait of a younger Vana hanging halfway up the stairs, smiling her knowing smile from beneath a heavily powdered wig and he stopped and glared at it. ‘I had everything!’ He hollered at her. ‘I was fine until you beamed me up on this crazy spaceship! Now what?!’
‘Tristan!’ Someone hissed his name. He spun to the side and glared up at Sahori, who had her gun trained on him.
‘What?’ He stomped towards her.
‘Could you please put a volume control on your anger?’ She asked in her crisp albeit broken english. ‘I’m guarding the princess from an unstable person! I could have fired at you by accident!’
‘The unstable person is on the third floor!’ he countered. ‘Keep a close eye on the crazy blonde with the split personality!’ He pushed her gun to the side as he hurried past her. ‘Or put a bullet into me-I don’t care. I don’t think I could feel worse than I do right now!’
‘People always say that phrase.’ She said following him. ‘But a bullet puts things in perspective. What are you doing anyway?’
‘Checking the rooms, like I was asked.’ Tristan snapped, opening Sahori’s door and peeking inside. It was directly under the common area of Ivyanne’s suite. ‘Is your window locked?’
‘Yes. I finished these rooms. I was going to check on Ivyanne’s when I heard you rampaging.’
‘Trust me-the queen’s windows are locked up tight.’ He muttered. ‘Aint no one getting in there.’
Sahori chuckled behind him. ‘I’ve never seen you mad before-not in this way.’
‘Yeah well sorry but even I have my limits.’
‘No, I like it.’ Sahori said. ‘Dangerous men are appealing.’
Tristan whirled on her. ‘I am dangerous!’ He informed her. ‘Damn dangerous! And it’s about time people around here started remembering who the hell they’re laughing at or brushing aside or stealing from!’
Sahori’s midnight almond eyes twinkled. ‘What did she do this time?’
‘Got me all hot and bothered just so she could pour ice down my back.’ Tristan growled.
Sahori rolled her eyes. ‘Aren’t you used to that by now?’
‘Yeah but this time was... different.’ This time she would have invited me into her bed! He thought silently. If not for that freaking phone call! Tristan wanted to kick himself for daring to believe she’d actually go through with it.
‘Poor, virile Tristan…’ Sahori clucked her tongue. ‘Perhaps there is something I can do, yes?’ Her hands slid down his shirt, towards his belt buckle. ‘Something therapeutic?’
Tristan caught her tiny hands and his breath simultaneously. ‘Sorry Sahori,’ he stuttered out after a two second wrestle with his conscience. ‘But what I need to do tonight will be a little too aggressive for a virgin to handle.’
Sahori laughed. ‘Well as intriguing as that sounds- I wasn’t about to lay my purity at your feet.’ She slipped the end of his belt out of his buckle, a jet-black strand of hair falling in front of her eyes. ‘However, I recall there was something I did for you once that could take the edge off your distress.’
Tristan’s heart began to pound. ‘Are you serious?’
Sahori smiled. ‘Deadly.’
Tristan groaned at the mental picture. ‘You girls are killing me!’
‘I know.’ Sahori’s hand slipped over his buckle and pulled him back against the wall by it, her fingertips grazing him intimately. The rifle slung across her back smacked into the wall loudly as her hand delved deeper. ‘But it’ll be a sweet death, no?’
Tristan moaned as she stroked his length and rested his hands on the wall on either side of her head, closing his eyes, thinking of how good it would feel to have a woman eagerly please him.
Will it? A voice in the back of his mind taunted. Or will the guilt compound what you’re feeling right now?
Tristan growled and pulled back, taking her hand out of his pants before his body responded. ‘No! We can’t. I mean, you can’t…’ He was so light-headed that he could barely breathe. ‘You’re on duty. And you deserve better than to service me like some hand-maiden.’
Sahori pouted. ‘I’m not trying to get you to marry me. I’m just trying to help and have some fun.’
Tristan smiled at her. ‘And it would be fun. You’re a complete knock-out.’ He started re-threading the belt loop she had unfastened. ‘But the guy you made out with in the hot tub that year is gone. The thing I need the most is something only she can give me.’
‘What’s going on?!’ Ivyanne’s voice was synchronized with the sound of the door to her stairwell opening.
Tristan whipped his head to the left and flinched to see her standing there in flannel pajamas, frowning at him.
‘I heard a bang.’ Her eyes went straight to Tristan’s hands, which were still wrestling with his top button. Her head jerked straight up, her eyes narrowing.
‘I’m sorry but did I interrupt something?’ She demanded, folding her arms. The fuzzy PJ’s clashed with her irate expression.
‘No, your majesty.’ Sahori said quickly, standing up, her clear complexion highlighted by two cherry red stains on her high cheekbones. ‘I lost my balance and my gun hit the wall, that is all.’
‘You lost your balance?’ Ivyanne asked. ‘In a hallway? The girl who can walk a tightrope?’
Sahori looked at Tristan with wide eyes. ‘Tristan ah, knocked me over…’
‘I’ll bet he did.’ Ivyanne was seething.
Tristan still couldn’t find his tongue. He quickly tucked the end of his belt into place and blushed, which was out of character for him.
‘Sup guys...?’
Tristan turned back to see Lachlan step onto the landing. ‘Hey!’ He responded, flushing further. ‘I was uh... I mean-’
‘Garridan sent me up here to say that someone needs to come downstairs and patrol the yard with me-he wants us watching the water closely tonight.’ Lachlan glanced from Sahori to Tristan, then back to the Japanese girl. ‘Sahori?’ he said. ‘You keen?’
‘She’d love to.’ Ivyanne piped up. ‘I was just about to say that I’m sure her attention is required elsewhere.’
‘Yes your majesty.’ Sahori whispered. She shot Tristan a look that said: Good Luck! before scurrying off down the hallway, her posture stooped and servile once more.
Tristan watched them go, frantically trying to come up with a good spin to get him off the hook with Ivyanne before turning to face her. He had nothing.
‘So!’ Ivyanne’s voice was throbbing with ire as she sauntered towards him. ‘I suppose you were just going to tell me that you tripped and fell on a Marked daughter, huh?’
Tristan looked back at her and smiled, shoving his hands into his pockets. ‘It’s easier to get mad then burst into tears, isn’t it your majesty? To cover the jealousy with disdain?’
‘Like you cover your own with humor?’She asked, crossing her arms like a shield between them.
‘Guilty as charged. For the humor, that is. As for Sahori, nothing was going to happen and no amount of glaring from you is going to change that.’ He looked her up and down. ‘Thanks for the PJ’s visual, by the way-not sexy at all. I’ll sleep much easier now.’
Ivyanne’s mouth fell open, telling him he’d just bruised her ego-and he wondered if that was the first time in her life that she’d been told that she was less than perfect. It was a lie of course-seeing her covered from head to ankle with peach fuzz was fucking adorable. But it felt good to know that he had the power to hurt her-that she was vulnerable to him in some way still.
‘Well that makes one of us-because if you’re going to be lurking about down here, I won’t sleep a wink.’ Her gaze fell to his lips, and her eyes flashed. Tristan felt the pull immediately, and his hands lifted to touch her hair. But he balled them into fists, resisting. Knowing that she was still hot for him made him deliriously happy. But if she wanted something to happen-she needed to grovel for the cruel brush-off earlier. No way was he going to beg her for a kiss-or anything else-until she acknowledged that it was her doing the pursuing this time. He was sick of being called manipulative by the master of it!
‘I know you won’t,’ he whispered, leaning in so that only the thinnest slice of air kept hers out of reach. ‘But I also know why-and it’s got nothing to do with me lurking, does it? It’s got to do with what you caught an eyeful of today.’
Her jaw lifted-a convenient gesture of defiance that he knew was an excuse to get closer to his mouth. He almost laughed at her audacity. Ivyanne knew that she was liquifying his bones just by getting in his face-and she was waiting for him to break-to lean in and kiss her so tomorrow morning, it would be all his fault that she’d ‘slipped’.
And though every cell in his body was once again screaming to hold her, he resisted the urge, keeping his body locked down against her charms. She’d really hurt him, and she wasn’t going to make him feel bad about it because she’d walked in on Sahori trying to kiss it better!
‘Is that right?’ She whispered, her spearmint-toothpaste sweet breath invaded his senses.
‘Yep..’ Tristan closed his eyes slightly, and saw her do the same as she leaned in for the kiss she wasn’t going to get. ‘But never fear, m’lady.’ He pulled back and pointed down the hall. ‘I’ll be on the landing-as far away from your dungeon door as humanly possible. So don’t worry about strapping on the chastity belt tonight, because that screechy tone in your voice earlier killed my hard-on anyway.’ Tristan turned and waltzed towards the corridor, smiling like he’d slept with a coat hangar in his mouth.
&n
bsp; ‘Well if you’re that over me than perhaps it’s Sahori’s room you should be heading for!’ She bit back, sounding furious, but a little less sure of herself.
Tristan rolled his eyes. ‘Ivyanne if you don’t like watching girls throwing themselves at me, you better do it yourself.’ He glanced back at her indignant expression and winked. ‘Because if you keep this crap up, I might just let one of them catch me.’ He stopped and bowed dramatically on the landing. ‘Good night my queen!’
The sound of her door slamming made him chuckle. As did the furious footfalls up her private stairway as she stomped off to not sleep a wink.
14.
On Saturday night, Dallas turned to Ardhi, nodded to the sprawling and well-lit mansion to his left at the end of the woodsy street, then cut the lights and the ignition. The car rolled to a gentle stop, five meters away from the gate.
‘That’s the one.’ Dallas said, looking out the driver’s window.
‘Are you sure?’ Ardhi demanded, excited.
‘One hundred percent. You don’t forget a spread like that.’
‘I’ll say.’ Ardhi peered up at house, dumbstruck. Never in a million years would he have guessed that his Ivyanne would have picked such a place. ‘Wow.’
The mansion was bordered by dense foliage on either side, perched on the top of a generous slope. Ardhi glanced to the left of the fence, where the tree tops seemed to slant down once more. Before him, he could just make out a skinny dirt road leading down the same hill and into the bush. ‘What’s down there do you know?’ He asked.
‘Not sure. But I was on the other side of a bay-maybe this is the right hand side, leading down to mangroves?’
‘I think I know the one you’re talking about.’ Ardhi said slowly. ‘I don’t remember there being a house here though. Must be hard to see from the water.’
‘Beats the hell outta me. Tourist, remember?’ The newest merman edition glanced at him, with concerned navy blue eyes. Ardhi knew his mind was reeling from everything he’d gotten himself into. ‘So are you going to sneak in, or what?’
‘No way.’ Ardhi said. ‘I’m car sick and this area is too damn quiet for my liking.’ The hair on the back of Ardhi’s neck was already prickling from the feeling of being watched. ‘Besides, I’m not doing anything rash this time. I’d much rather make a pass from the water where I’ll feel comfortable-not in this old piece of tin.’ He motioned to the steering wheel. ‘Do a u-turn thing and get us out of here please.’