She lifted an eyebrow. “It isn’t as if you can just take your blood or hers to the local paternity clinic, now is it, Lord Green Oak?”
“Please. We both know there are paranormal labs out there with the ability to test DNA. Why didn’t you ever take her to one?”
Because as long as she didn’t, she’d always been able to cling to that thin thread of hope that she was wrong, that her beautiful, magical daughter was really a result of love and not violence. She stared into the empty fireplace and refused to speak.
“Tell me about her eyes, Elise.” It was a command, not a question.
“On her third birthday, she found one of my old photo albums and was flipping through it.” Elise rested her elbows on the arm of the chair and leaned her chin on her hands. “She spotted a picture of you and changed her eyes to match yours. Before that, they’d been pink for a while, to match her favorite stuffed animal. She’d do that—change them up to match her outfit or something else that she liked.” She did not, would not, add that Dina had taken one look at the photo and said, “Daddy.”
When Elise had explained that no, the man in the picture wasn’t Dina’s father, the little girl had shaken her head, stuck her jaw out stubbornly and said, “He will be.” Elise had always assumed it was wishful thinking as opposed to one of her daughter’s rare premonitions. That idea scared her silly, almost as much as it made her hope.
“But since then, they haven’t changed?”
“Nope. Not once. She can be a stubborn little thing.”
Aidan grunted and what might have been a hint of a smile flitted across his lips. “That, she gets from her mother.”
Probably. “We should really get back to the reception,” she said after a moment of awkward silence. “I’m sorry, Aidan. I should have told you before you saw her and leapt to conclusions.”
He shrugged. “I only have one more question. Did you have a period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve that year?”
Christmas Eve had been the last time they’d been together—right before their final fight.
Elise shook her head. The two dates were only a week apart, after all. “No. I told you, I wasn’t sure, not up until she was born. But her magic is stronger than mine, or even yours. That’s another indication of a Gravaki…or something like it.”
“We’ll talk more.” It wasn’t a question. Suddenly he looked less like the thoughtful, caring man she’d loved and more like the Faerie lord who’d been intimidating at best, even to a witch. He stood and held out a hand. “I’m still not entirely convinced.”
“Give it up, Aidan. She’s not your child.” And for almost five years, Elise had regretted that fact, even grieved over it.
She followed him out of the library and back into the bright September sunshine of the garden where the reception was in full swing. Without her Wyndewin’s enhanced hearing, she wouldn’t have caught his murmur. “We’ll see about that.”
***
Aidan, Lord Green Oak, or Aidan Greene, as he was known in this time and place, strolled up to the bar set up on the patio of his Grosse Pointe home and sighed. “Scotch, Toby. The good stuff, and make it a triple.” He forced his eyes away from Elise Sutton’s trim form, reminding himself he didn’t have the right to pull the jade picks from her hair and watch those silky black locks tumble down to her shoulders.
Tobias Bootle was a brownie who had been one of Aidan’s personal staff for hundreds of years. His dark eyes searched Aidan’s as one bushy eyebrow lifted. “Aye, Cap’n.” He pulled a bottle of thirty-five-year-old single malt out from under the bar and poured a tall glass more than half full of the dark gold liquid. “Everything square?”
Aidan shook his head. “Nothing for you to worry about, mate. Just a woman.” One of Toby’s first jobs for Aidan had been as first mate aboard the Faerie Queene, back when Aidan had been a privateer in the service of Queen Elizabeth—the first. Toby had never quite broken the habit of using “Cap’n” instead of “boss,” or even “my lord” when they were visiting Underhill.
“Aye, thought that might be the case.” The prized Scotch went back under the bar. “Better off without the lot of them, sometimes.”
“Got that right.” Aidan smiled as a red-headed sprite in a strapless ivory silk wedding gown ducked away from the crowd and slipped over to the bar. “With a few exceptions.”
“Toby, I need a glass of water about the size of an oil drum.” Meagan Kelly Thornhill leaned her elbows on the bar and grinned up at Aidan. “I don’t suppose the guests would notice if I snuck upstairs for a nap?”
Aidan shrugged as he reached down to cup her pointed chin in his hand and search her face for signs of fatigue. He’d come to love his young, half-human cousin dearly in the two months he’d known her. “It’s your wedding, sweeting. Do what you want, I’ll cover for you. Besides, don’t most of the guests know you’re pregnant? If you need to rest, go rest.”
Meagan shook her head, making her red curls tumble about her bare shoulders. “I’ll be okay. I just need to sit for five minutes and hydrate.” She plopped into a chair at a nearby table and guzzled about half the tumbler of ice water Toby had handed her.
Aidan grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the bar and sat down beside her. “Where’s Ric?”
“Over there dancing with one of my aunts,” she said fondly. Alaric of the Thorny Hills, a.k.a. Ric Thornhill, was a bard who’d been released from his service to the elven queen in return for helping foil a plot to dethrone her. Meagan laid her hand over Aidan’s on the table. “I saw you and Elise sneak away. How’d it go?” Her green eyes, so much like Aidan’s own, studied him with concern.
“Not particularly well. She claims I’m not the father.”
“Huh.” Meagan raised one copper eyebrow skeptically. “She involved with some other green-eyed Fae?”
“Did she never tell you about Adina’s father?” The two women were friends. Wouldn’t they have talked about such things? He was a trifle peeved at his cousin for not telling him about Elise’s daughter before today’s ceremony. The shock of seeing a child with his eyes had been a real blow. He didn’t think he’d quite caught his breath since.
“No.” Meagan’s hand, callused from her paintbrushes, squeezed his. “It was one thing she’d never discuss at all. Elise has never been exactly chatty. Mostly we only talk about art. Aidan, I’m so sorry. I guess I assumed you knew. Especially since Dina’s so obviously named after you.”
“Yeah, I noticed that.” That their names were anagrams was one more reason he’d been sure the girl was his.
“I should have asked Elise about it, or at least given you some warning.”
“Well, you were rather busy running from a killer and falling in love.” He smiled at her, the one good thing to come out of the last few months. He’d searched thirty years for the missing daughter of his cousin Emery of Rose. He was damn glad he’d finally found her and even happier that her lifespan would extend another thousand years or so since she was now life-bonded to a full Fae. Aidan was looking forward to getting to know her further.
“And finding a family—two families—I never knew I had.” She’d been orphaned at birth and known only her adopted parents, both of whom were now deceased. “Thank you so much for introducing me to my mother’s parents. Even though there’s so much I can’t tell them, it’s a thrill to have grandparents for the first time in my life.”
Aidan had tracked down her human mother’s family during his search for the missing half-Fae heiress. Watching her with them had made him feel like he’d accomplished something truly meaningful, maybe for the first time in hundreds of years. Definitely for the first time since he’d let Elise slip away from his life.
Meagan finished her water and Aidan refilled her glass. She wrinkled her nose at his cosseting, but she drank that as well. To Aidan’s delight, she stayed awhile, sitting next to him in comfortable silence until her new husband came up to claim her for a waltz. When she took Ric’s hand, their l
ove for each other shone like a beacon. Aidan watched them go, pleased for both his cousin and his friend, but feeling lonelier than he could ever remember being. Of course, his eyes were drawn to Adina Sutton, cute as can be in a white dress with a green sash, and flowers twined through her dark brown hair. She was being whirled around the dance floor by her uncle Desmond—the Wyndewin who hated Aidan’s guts.
Did he think Aidan had run out on his sister? That would account for it. On the other hand, as far as Aidan could tell, Desmond didn’t much care for anybody except his sister—and now his niece.
Elise’s words whirled over and over again in Aidan’s mind. She’d thought the baby could be his, but hadn’t bothered to tell him. Yet even when she was certain Adina was the result of her rape, she’d named her daughter for Aidan. Her feelings for him must have run stronger than he’d realized—maybe even as strong as his own. Had she honestly cared for Aidan, but allowed her innate shyness and reserve keep her from letting him know? All these years he’d assumed his love for her had been one-sided.
There had never been anyone who’d gotten under his skin like Elise had. Over the past couple years he’d come to accept that there never would be. The Green Oak title would pass to some distant relation on Aidan’s death, because he’d never be able to bring himself to have children with anyone else.
Over Des’s shoulder, little Adina caught Aidan’s gaze and gave him a broad, happy smile in return, making something ache inside his chest. The child was as beautiful as her mother; that was certain. She looked into his eyes as if they’d known each other forever. Once again, Aidan wondered if maybe Elise had been wrong. Could Adina be his child? One way or another, he’d have to find out.
***
Late that evening, Elise tucked Dina into her canopy bed in their Birmingham condominium. The room was decorated in pink and green, with dragons, unicorns and other fairytale creatures cluttering every surface. Of course, even as young as she was, Dina was a powerful witch. She already knew that unicorns and dragons were real—they simply weren’t in the same here and now where most people lived.
“My daddy is handsome, isn’t he?” Dina clutched her favorite stuffed Pegasus and yawned as she snuggled down into her pillows.
“Honey, I’ve told you. You don’t have a daddy, not really. Mr. Greene is only a man Mommy used to know.” Elise wished it didn’t hurt so much to hear her daughter try to claim Aidan as her father.
“Don’t worry, Mommy.” Dina leaned up to kiss Elise’s cheek, her tone more adult than seemed right coming from a child of her age. “Everything will be okay.”
“Of course it will, sweetie. As long as I have you, everything will be perfect.” After one last kiss goodnight, Elise turned off the bedside lamp and made her way to her own room across the hall. She’d already set the electronic alarm system and triggered the complex magical wards that guarded their home. Their world was secure, but damn if it wasn’t lonely. Seeing Aidan again over the last two months and finally having to talk to him about Dina had brought back so many feelings…grief, loss and worst of all, the helpless love for him she’d never quite gotten over.
Her sleep was restless, interrupted several times by troubled dreams and once by one so passionate she woke up sweating. Gods, it had been like that between them—the kind of sex symphonies were written about. She hadn’t been with anyone since Aidan and clearly she needed to do something about that.
Convinced that she wasn’t going to be able to go back to sleep, she drew on a pair of yoga pants along with her sleep shirt and decided to go downstairs for a cup of tea. With her parents being Chinese and British, tea had always been the remedy of choice in her family, for all ills, mental or physical. As she padded by Dina’s door, she couldn’t resist a peek inside, just to make sure that all was right with her precious daughter.
The sight that met her eyes left her too shocked to even scream.
The room had been trashed, with furniture overturned and shelves dumped onto the floor.
Elise’s world swam as she registered the impossible.
Despite her alarm system, despite the best wards four Wyndewin mages could devise, Dina was gone.
Chapter Two
The grandfather clock in Aidan’s study struck three. Aidan knew he should quit drinking and go to bed. Alcohol didn’t affect his system all that powerfully, so it had taken two bottles of aged Scotch for him to get even a mild buzz going. At this rate he was going to be out of the good stuff and into the lousy twelve-year-old single malt before dawn.
He’d lit a fire, more for comfort than warmth, and he gazed into the flames. Did he or did he not have a daughter? The uncertainty would plague him until he found out for sure. He’d already contacted a scientist friend, a half-blood Fae who’d agreed to run an off-the-books DNA test involving non-human subjects. Now he had to get Elise to agree and he knew that would be no easy task. She was adamant that her daughter wasn’t his.
He had to admit, he’d never heard of a Fae or halfling with eyes that changed color.
He was so lost in thought that he almost missed the shrill music of his cell phone on the table beside him. It was on the third bar of the song before he picked it up and checked the screen. The number registered as unknown, but he answered it anyway, mainly for the hope of distraction. As CEO of Underhill Industries, he always had some fire to put out, somewhere in the vast worldwide holdings the Fae maintained in the human realm. Right now, he’d welcome that kind of conflagration.
“Aidan.” The sobbing feminine voice on the other end instantly had him fully sober. “Aidan, you took her, didn’t you? Tell me you did it.”
“Elise, what the hell are you talking about?” Panic began to coil in his gut. Elise was cool to the point of iciness—she was never incoherent.
“You took her, even though she isn’t yours.” Sobs racked her usually even voice. “I woke up and she was g-g-gone.”
“Take a deep breath, leannan, and tell me what happened.” Even as he spoke, Aidan moved to his desk and pressed a button, calling his head of security. He apported in a pair of shoes and some jeans, changing swiftly out of the remainders of his tux while he kept the phone to his ear.
“Did you take her?”
The shouted accusation tore something deep in his chest. “Someone’s taken Adina? Of course it wasn’t me. I’m many things, Elise, but not a kidnapper.” How could she believe that of him? Did she hate him that much?
“Then who? Tell me that, Aidan. Who else would have a reason to steal my little girl?”
“I don’t know, dearling, but we’ll find out, I swear it. Have you called your brother yet?” The old endearments slipped out without conscious intent as he tried to soothe her.
“Des is halfway to Toronto right now.” She sniffed. “Assignment.”
“Shite.” He zipped up his jeans, toed on a pair of loafers and ’ported in the keys to his fastest vehicle right as Wallis Silverwood, recently promoted to head of security for Aidan and the portal house, stepped into the room.
Aidan nodded at Wallis. “Just a minute,” he said to Elise.
“My lord?” The younger Fae had clearly dressed in a rush. His normally impeccable attire was mismatched and half-fastened, much like Aidan’s own.
Aidan threw the other man the keys to the Ferrari twelve-cylinder. He was in no condition to drive himself. “Birmingham. Ignore speed laws and traffic signals.”
Wallis had only been with Aidan a decade or so, but he knew enough not to ask questions when his boss clearly wasn’t in the mood. He caught the keys, nodded and preceded Aidan at a rapid clip out the library’s French doors toward the garage.
***
Of course it hadn’t been Aidan.
She knew better, but honestly, she’d wanted it to be true. At least if he’d taken Elise’s baby, Dina would have been safe. Elise would have ripped him a new asshole, but he would never have hurt her child.
Elise stared down at the map and scrying crystal in her hand. Nothing.
Damn it, that meant they’d probably taken Dina Underhill, or somewhere else where Elise’s magic couldn’t penetrate. She’d have to count on Aidan and his Fae friends to help her, a fact that made her want to scream.
She dropped the heavy quartz crystal onto her glass dining room table, wincing as she heard a crack but not caring enough to check. Needing to move, she went into the living room, where she paced back and forth with her arms wrapped around herself. Inside that tight circle, she clutched a stuffed Pegasus to her chest as she waited for Aidan to arrive. The scent of Dina’s favorite cherry-vanilla soap clung to the white plush toy. They should have taken the Pegasus too. Dina wouldn’t be able to sleep without Peggy. It was an absurd thought that left tears pricking at Elise’s eyelids.
No. It wasn’t time to cry, it was time to think, damn it. If not Aidan, then who? Why had someone kidnapped Dina? Elise wasn’t poor, but she was far from rich, especially compared to many of her neighbors. Something strange was at work here, something beyond simple human greed. She wasn’t great at reading magical trails, but even she’d detected enough of something supernatural in Dina’s room that she knew calling the local police was out of the question. She should call the local head of the Wyndewin League, but that old man had never liked her, and tolerated her even less since she’d resigned.
How had anyone breached her wards? Her parents and Des had helped set them and they were damned good. The thought of the power it would take to overcome them had her shivering. And why now? It had to have something to do with the wedding today—yesterday—whatever. But what? Her thoughts kept circling back to that. Who would want to take her baby and why? Thinking about any of those things was better than considering the possibility that Dina was already—no!
Hearing a car, she raced to the front window. Surely Aidan couldn’t be here yet and she still hadn’t been able to reach Desmond. As she watched, a low-slung sports coupe squealed to a halt right in front of her townhouse-style condo unit. Ignoring the No Parking signs, two mostly dressed men scrambled out of the unfamiliar vehicle and up to Elise’s porch. As soon as they stepped into the glow of her porch light, she relaxed a bit. These were close friends of Meagan and Ric—they were here to help.
Motor City Witch Page 2