by Nora Roberts
It was jealousy and ambition that had drivenIago , she mused. He had planted “the greeneydmonster which doth mock the meat it feeds on” in Othello, then had watched it devour him.
It was jealousy and ambition that drove Kane, and so he watched as his monster devoured.
She could learn from this, she thought, of what made a man—or a god—soulless.
Shed barely started when the knock on the door interrupted.
“What now?” Grumbling to herself, she went to answer it. Her irritation only increased when the door opened on Jordan.
“This had better not become a habit.”
“Lets go for a ride.”
Her response was to slam the door, but he anticipated her, slapped a hand on it, braced it open. “Let me put that another way. Im heading up to Warriors Peak. Do you want to come?”
“What are you going up there for? Youre a bystander in this deal.”
“Thats a matter of opinion. Im going up because I have some questions. Actually, I decided to get out of Ryans place after dinner. To give the lovebirds a little space.” He leaned comfortably on the jamb as he spoke but kept that hand firm on the door. “Found myself heading out of town and up the mountain road. Figured I might as well keep going, have myself a chat withPitte and Rowena. Then I thought, You know, its just going to tick Dana off if I do that without running it by her. So I turned around and came back. Im running it by you.”
“I suppose you want points for that.”
His mouth curved. “If youre keeping score.”
“I dont see that you have anything to talk to them about.”
“Lets put this one more way. Im going, with or without you.” He straightened, let his hand drop from the door. “But if you want to come along, you can drive.”
“Big deal.”
“My car.”
The image of his gorgeous, muscular, classic T-Bird flashed into her mind. She had to make a conscious effort not to drool. “You fight dirty.”
He took his keys out of his pocket. And dangled them.
Her internal war lasted about three seconds before she snatched the keys out of his hand. “Let me get a jacket.”
* * *
WHATEVER his flaws, Jordan Hawke knew cars. The Thunderbird climbed the hills like a mountain cat, all sleek grace and muscle. It clung to curves and roared downstraightaways .
Some might think of it as a vehicle, others as a toy. But Dana knew it was a machine . A firstclass one.
Being behind the wheel wasnt just a sexy pleasure. It let Dana shift the situation as smoothly as she shifted gears. She was in charge now. The trip to the Peak might have been Jordans idea, but by God, she was driving.
The evening was brisk, and grew brisker yet as they climbed to higher elevations, but the top was down. She was glad to trade chilly fingers and the bite of the wind for the sheer joy of zipping along the roads in the open air.
The trees were at their peak, the force of colors made only more brilliant by the sheen of gold from the setting sun. Fallen leaves skipped and skittered across the road where light and shadow danced.
It was like driving into a story, she mused, where anything could happen around the next turn.
“Hows it handling for you?” Jordan asked her.
“Shes got style. And muscle.”
“I always thought the same about you.”
She slid her gaze in his direction, balefully, then focused on the road. However much fun she was having, it didnt mean she couldnt take a poke at him.
“I dont see why you need a car like this when you live in an urban environment where mass transit is not only readily available but efficient.”
“Two reasons. First, for those times when Im not in an urban environment, such as now. And second, I lusted after her.”
“Yeah.” She couldnt blame him. “Fifty-seven was the primo year for T-Birds.”
“No question. Ive got a 63 Stingray.”
Her eyes went glassy. “You do not.”
“Four-speed, 327. Fuel injection.”
She felt the long, liquid pull in her belly. “Shut up.”
“I had her up to 120.Shedve given me more, but we were just getting to know each other.” He waited a beat. “Ive got my eye on this very sweet Caddy convertible. Fifty-nine. Singlequadajetcarb .”
“I hate you.”
“Hey, a guys got to have a hobby.”
“The 63 Stingrays my fantasy car. The one Im going to have one day, when all my dreams come true.”
He smiled a little. “What color?”
“Black. Serious business black. Four-speed manualtranny . Doesnt have to be the 327, though thatd be the cream.Gotta be the convertible, though. The coupe just wont do.”
She fell silent for a few minutes, just enjoying the ride.
“Zoementioned youd fixed her car.”
“I stopped over. Timing was off, and thecarb needed a little work. Nothing major.”
She made herself say it. “It was a nice thing to do.”
“I had the time.” He shrugged a shoulder, stretched his legs out a little more. “Just figured she could use a hand with it.”
Suddenly she understood, and felt ashamed for her initial reaction when shed heard hed gone toZoes . The hardworking single mother, raising a young boy.
Just like his mother.
Of course hed gone by to help. “She really appreciated it,” Dana told him, but kept it light. “Especially since you dont make her nervous the way Brad does.”
“I dont? I think Im insulted and will now be honor-bound to work harder to make her nervous.”
“What kind of watch you got there?”
“Watch?” Baffled, he turned his wrist. “I dont know. It tells time.”
She shook her hair back and laughed. “Thats what I thought youd say. Sorry, youre never going to make her nervous.”
She slowed, reluctantly, as they approached the gates. Then she stopped, looking at the house through them as she dug her brush out of her purse. “Some place,” she commented, brushing out the knots and tangles the wind had tied into her hair. “You live in a place like this, you could have that classic Vette. Keep it in a big, heated garage like it deserves. I wonder ifPitte and Rowena drive.”
“Thats some segue.”
“No, really. Think about it. They are what they are, and theyve been around since way before anybody even thought about the combustible engine. They can do what they do, but has either of them ever taken driving lessons, stood in line at the DMV, haggled over insurance?”
She dropped the brush back in her purse, looked over at Jordan. His hair was as windblown as hers had been, yet, she noted, it didnt look unkempt. Just sexy.
“How do they live?” she continued. “We dont really know what they do, when it comes to ordinary things. Human things. Do they watch TV? Play canasta? Do they cruise the mall? What about friends? Do they have any?”
“If they do, thered be a regular turnover. Friends, being human, would have that annoying habit of dying.”
“Thats right.” She said it quietly as she looked back toward the house. “It must be lonely. Painfully lonely. All that power doesnt make them one of us. Living in that great house doesnt make it their home. Its weird, isnt it? Feeling sorry for gods.”
“No. Its intuitive. And just the kind of thing thats going to help you find the key. The more you know and understand them, the closer you come to figuring out your part of the puzzle.”
“Maybe.” Suddenly the iron gates swung open. “I guess thats our invitation.”
She drove, in the twilight, toward the great stone house. The old man shed come to think of as the caretaker hurried up to the car to open her door. “Welcome. Ill see to the car for you, miss.”
“Thanks.” She studied him, trying to get a gauge on his age. Seventy? Eighty? Three thousand and two? “I never got your name,” she said to him.
“Oh, Id beCaddock , miss.”
“Caddock. Is that Scots, Irish?”<
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“Welsh. Id be from Wales, in the original way of things, miss.”
Like Rowena, she thought. “Have you worked forPitte and Rowena long?”
“Yes, indeed.” His eyes seemed to twinkle at her. “Ive been in their service a number of years now.” He looked past her, nodded his head. “Theres a fine sight, isnt it, then?”
Dana turned, and stared at the huge buck that stood on the verge between lawn and forest. His rump seemed to glimmer white in the soft haze of twilight, and his rack shone silver.
“Traditional symbolism,” Jordan said, though he was no less struck by the bucks magnificence. “The seeker sees a white deer or hare at the start of a quest.”
“Malory saw it,” Dana murmured over the lump in her throat. “The first night we came here. But I didnt,Zoe didnt.” She walked to stand beside Jordan. “Does that mean it was already ordained that Malory would search for the first key? That it had nothing to do with the luck of the draw? That was just show?”
“Or ritual. You still had to choose to reach into the box for a disk. You decide to follow the deer, or turn away from it.”
“But is it real? Is that deer really standing over there, or are we imagining it?”
“Thats something else for you to decide.” He waited until the deer faded back into the shadows before he turned.
Both the old man and the car were gone. After the initial jolt, Jordan slid his hands into his pockets. “Youve got to admit, that is very cool.”
The entrance doors opened. Rowena stood dead center, the foyer lights spilling over her fiery hair, glinting on the long silver dress she wore. “How lovely to see you both.” She held out a hand in welcome. “I was just pining for company.”
Chapter Seven
PITTE was already in the parlor, wearing a black shirt and trousers that echoed Rowenas casual elegance.
Dana wondered if they sat around looking beautiful all the time. Something else to think about, she supposed. Like did they ever have bad hair days, indigestion, sore feet?
Or were those things too mundane for gods living in the mortal world?
“We were just enjoying the fire, and a glass of wine. Youll join us?” Rowena asked.
“Sure, thanks.” Welcoming the heat, Dana walked toward the snapping fire. “You guys hang like this every evening?
In the process of pouring wine,Pitte stopped, frowned at her. “Hang?”
“Hang out. You know, sit around in great clothes, drinking fine wine out of, what is that, Baccarat?”
“I believe it is.”Pitte finished pouring, offered the glass to Dana. “We often take an hour or so to relax together at the end of the day.”
“What about the rest of the time? Do you just putter around this place?”
“Ah. You wonder what we do to entertain ourselves.” Rowena sat, patted the cushion beside her. “I paint, as you know.Pitte spends time on our finances. He enjoys the game of money. We read. Ive enjoyed your books, Jordan.”
“Thanks.”
“Pitteenjoys films,” Rowena added with a glance of affection toward her lover. “Particularly ones where a great many things blow up in impressive explosions.”
“So you go to the movies?” Dana prompted.
“Ordinarily no. We prefer settling in at home and watching at our leisure.”
“Multiplexes,”Pitte muttered. “They call them this. Like little boxes stacked end by end. Its a pity the grand theaters have gone out of fashion.”
“Thats something youd both be up on. The changes in fashion. Thered have been a lot of that in a couple of millennia.”
Rowena lifted a brow at Dana. “Yes, indeed.”
“I know this sounds like small talk,” Dana continued, “but Im just trying to get a handle on things. It occurred to me that you know everything about me. Youve had my whole lifetime to watch. Did you watch?”
“Of course. You were of considerable interest to us from the moment you were born. We didnt intrude,” Rowena added, running the jeweled chain she wore around her neck through her fingers as she spoke. “Or interfere. I understand your interest in us now. We are more like you than you may think and less like you than you could possibly imagine. We can and do indulge in what youd call human pleasures. Food, drink, warmth, vanity. Sex. We love…” She reached up forPittes hand. “As genuinely as you. We weep and laugh. We enjoy much of what your world offers. We celebrate the generosity and resilience of the human spirit, and mourn its darker sides.”
“But while youre here, youre of neither one world nor the other. Isnt that right?” There was something about the way they touched each other, Jordan thought. As if they would wither away without that small contact. “You can live as you choose to live, but within limitations. Within the boundaries of this dimension. Even so, youre not of it. You might feel the heat, but you dont burn. You might sleep at night, but when you wake in the morning, you havent aged. The hours havent changed you. Millions of hours cant.”
“And do you see that kind of… immortality,”Pitte inquired, “as a gift?”
“No, I dont.” Jordans glance shifted toPittes face and held. “I see it as a curse. A punishment, certainly, when youre locked out of your own world and spend those millions of hours here.”
Pittesexpression didnt change, but his eyes seemed to deepen, to heat. “Then you have excellent sight.”
“I see something else clearly enough. The penalty, if Dana fails to find the key, is a year of her life. A year of Malorys andZoes as well. From your standpoint thats nothing. But its a different matter when youre human and your life is already finite.”
“Ah.”Pitte draped an arm over the mantel. “So, have you come to renegotiate our contract?”
Before Dana could speak, tell Jordan to mind his own business, he shot her a look. “No, because Danas going to find the key, so it wont be an issue.”
“You have confidence in your woman,” Rowena said.
“Im not his woman,” Dana said quickly. “Has Kane watched us, too? From the beginning of our lives?”
“I cant say,” Rowena answered, then waved an impatient hand at Danas dubious expression. “I cant. There are, as Jordan said, certain boundaries we cant cross. Something has changed—we know this because he was able to draw both Malory and Flynn into dreams and to cause Flynn harm. He wasnt able, or perhaps didnt choose, to do so before.”
“Tell them what he did to you.” It wasnt phrased as a request, and this time Danas anger was sparked. But before she could snap at Jordan, Rowena took her arm.
“Kane? What happened?”
She told them, and found that this time her voice remained steady throughout the telling. More distance, she thought, less fear.
At least there was less until she saw a flicker of fear cross Rowenas face.
She didnt care to think what it took to frighten a god.
“There wasnt any real threat, right?” Her skin was prickling, icy little ants rushing down her back. “I mean, I couldnt have drowned when I jumped into the sea, because the sea didnt actually exist.”
“But it did,”Pitte corrected. There was a grim chill to his face. A soldiers face, Dana thought, as he watched the battle from a rise and waited for the time to draw his sword.
And she was the one down in the field, she realized, waging bloody war.
“It was conjured first by your fantasy, then by your fear. That doesnt make it less than real.”
“That just doesnt make sense,” she insisted. “When he had Malory in that fantasy, when she was painting, we could see her. We all saw her, just standing there in that attic.”
“Her body, perhaps part of her consciousness—she has a strong mind—remained. The rest…” Rowena drew a breath. “The rest of what she was had traveled to the other side. And if harm had come to her. To her body,” Rowena explained, holding out one hand. “To what you can call her essence.” Then the other. “On either side, the harm would be to all of her.”
“If she cut her hand in one existence
,” Jordan said, “it would bleed in the other.”
“He could prevent it.” Obviously troubled, Rowena rose to pour more wine. “If, for instance, I wished to give you a gift, a harmless fantasy, I might send you into dreams, and watch over you to keep you from harm. But what Kane does is not harmless. He does it to tempt, and to terrorize.”
“Why didnt he just shove my head under the bathwater while I was out of it?”
“There are still limits. To maintain the illusion, he cant touch your corporeal body. And as it is your mind that forms the texture of the illusion, neither can he force you to harm yourself. Lie, yes. Deceive and frighten, even persuade, but he cant make you do anything against your will.”
“Thats how she broke back through.” It was the answer that Jordan had needed confirmed. “First, by choosing to see it as a trick, she changed the texture, as you said, of the world. Instead of paradise, nightmare.”
“Her knowledge and fear, and Kanes anger, yes,”Pitte agreed. “The fruit you dropped,” he said to Dana. “Your mind saw it then as rotten in the center. This was not your paradise but your prison.”
“And when she dived into the sea rather than let him take what she was, rather than accept the fantasy or the nightmare, she broke through both,” Jordan concluded. “So her weapon against him is staying true to herself, whatever he throws at her.”
“Simply put,”Pitte agreed.
“Too simply.” Rowena shook her head. “Hes wily and seductive. You must never underestimate him.”
“Hes already underestimated her. Hasnt he, Stretch?”
“I can handle myself.” His easy confidence went a long way toward quieting her nerves. “Whats to stop him from hitting onZoe , screwing with her while were focused on him screwing with me?”
“She is not yet an issue for him. But precautions can be taken,” Rowena mused, tapping a finger on the rim of her glass. “She can be protected, to an extent, until her time begins.”
“If it begins,”Pitte corrected.
“Hes pessimistic by nature,” Rowena smiled. “I have more faith.” She walked back to the sofa, sat on the arm with the fluid grace some women are born with. Reaching down, she took Danas face in her hands.