There was a silence.
Then, slowly, his narrow mouth slid into a grin.
19
Alone Too Long
“They move it,” she told him, leaning back on the plastic seat, and gazing at him levelly as the tram slowly filled with passengers, most of them tourists from the West.
“Pardon me?”
“They move it,” she repeated, throwing an arm over the back the same seat.
They’d just spent far too long on more than one plane.
Miraculously, she’d managed to sleep, mostly on the leg of the flight between Los Angeles airport and Singapore. The flight from Singapore to Penang, Malaysia––an island on the northern edge of that same country, on the outcropping of land shared with Singapore––was a heck of a lot shorter.
Even on that one, she managed to doze off for a few minutes.
Now, despite being jet-lagged to a ridiculous degree, she felt better.
She definitely hadn’t charged up to full power yet, but she was maybe halfway there.
More importantly, she could see the interdimensional magic field sparking and coiling around her person again. In the bathroom on the much shorter flight to Penang, she experimented with a whisper of a spell, and saw the tattoos on her arms glow pale blue.
When they started to grow brighter, she ended the chant, smiling to herself as the ripples of current continued to spark around her arms and fingers.
Her smile faded a bit when she saw herself in the bathroom mirror.
She needed a real night’s sleep.
She also needed a shower, not to mention a pile of food.
Luckily, they’d be able to deal with all of that soon.
But not before she went to visit the primary gate.
“They… move it?” the Traveler said.
As he spoke, he took the plastic seat across from hers.
He glanced out the window, looking down the steep hill at the jungle and the landing station for the tram as the tram started to move.
His eyes returned to hers.
He threw his arm over the back of the seat, mirroring her position.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve had to find it…” She paused, counting briefly in her mind. “…eleven times, so far. It ends up being quite a project when I do.”
“Eleven?”
“In eight years.”
“Eight years,” he mused, still studying her eyes.
She noticed his were violet again, so light, they looked to be made of blown glass. Despite the tropical heat, he didn’t seem to be sweating. His five o’clock shadow didn’t seem to have grown; or if it had, it hadn’t grown enough for her to notice.
Everything about him looked strangely put-together, almost perfectly so.
She felt him thinking about the implications of her words.
“Why did you bring me here, Lightbringer?” he said.
It wasn’t the question she expected.
She’d thought he’d want to know where the gate had been the other ten times. She’d thought he would ask where, precisely, they were going now, given the nature of the tram.
Also, she’d really thought he wanted to see the primary gate.
Thinking about that now, she realized she’d been sure of it.
She hadn’t really thought about that until this precise instant, however, or why that might be the case. If anyone had asked, she might have speculated curiosity, since Travelers were banned from passing through primary gates, just like all the other species.
They were generally not even told where those gates were.
There was no rule about that, of course; they were kept from using the gates by the same protective spells as the rest of the portal-hopping beings.
As a Lightbringer, Alexis had certainly never brought a Traveler to the primary gate before. She had never brought any being here.
It struck her that she’d never even talked about this kind of thing before, not with anyone apart from Lana Poole, the being who raised her, who disappeared not long after Alexis took her oath as official Lightbringer for Earth.
For the same reason, she really had no idea what a “normal” question would be about the supernatural portals. That was even more true of the primary gates, which were put in place by immortal, unknowable beings… beings even most supernaturals didn’t know existed.
Still turning over these thoughts, she focused on how to answer him.
In the end, she was too tired to think of anything but the truth.
“I don’t know,” she said, holding up a hand. “I really don’t.”
He nodded, his eyes thoughtful.
Seeing the faint smile play at his lips, she found herself frowning.
“That’s not why,” she told him.
“You are sure?”
“I’m sure you pick very strange times to obsess on sex.”
“I would be lying if I pretended I was not looking forward to when we finish this,” he said, his smile growing a touch wider. “You mentioned a hotel, yes? With people who rub? With pools, a large bed––?”
“Yes.” Glancing around them, at the other tourists on the small tram, she clicked her tongue at him, shaking her head. “Wow. And damn. Your species’ reputation is deserved.”
“Which reputation might that be?” he asked innocently.
When she only rolled her eyes, the Traveler laughed.
“Anyway, you are wrong,” he pronounced, still smiling. “The answer you gave to my question… it is wrong. Even if you think it is not. You do know why.”
“This should be illuminating,” she muttered, leaning deeper into the plastic chair, her voice dry. “Pray tell, Traveler. You have your own opinion?”
If he noticed the sarcasm in her voice, he ignored it.
He answered at once, like he’d been waiting for her to ask.
“Yes.” His pale eyes narrowed. “I do have an opinion. I am wondering if you have been left alone on this planet too long, Lightbringer.”
She blinked, not sure she heard him at first.
…then she laughed.
“You think that’s it?” She snorted, covering her face with a hand, still smiling as she tried to suppress it. “Even apart from your obviously over-inflated view of your own charms… I don’t think so, Traveler. I definitely don’t feel that’s been my problem of late.”
He smiled back, but she noticed it didn’t touch his eyes.
He’d gone back to his kingly look.
He leveled it at her openly now.
She lowered her hand, staring at him.
“You’re serious?”
“Quite,” he said, still with that trace smile. Tilting his head, he added, “I have noticed a certain… isolation with you. A well-cultivated one. One you are rather protective of… even as a part of your loathes it.”
Pausing at her silence, he let his smile grow warmer.
“It is nothing to be embarrassed about, Traveler. Truthfully, I find it quite charming. It also makes me want sex with you… as you’ve clearly noticed.”
“Isolation?” She snorted again. “I run a sex club, Cal. In fact, I own a number of them. I have an entire werewolf pack working for me. Now I have a witch coven from Los Feliz, apparently… not to mention all the irritating supernaturals that hang around Los Angeles, just to be a pain in my ass.”
Still thinking, she snorted again.
“I could do with a bit more isolation, frankly.”
Seeing his eyes shift around the enclosed space, she realized he was right.
They weren’t alone.
She wasn’t exactly being prudent, naming supernaturals out loud.
Her eyes followed his, looking over the people filling the seats of the narrow tram.
The tourists around them barely seemed to notice them, though.
They were speaking quietly among themselves, pointing out the angled windows at the view of the city as the tram slowly ascended the hill.
Following their eyes and pointing
fingers, it occurred to Alexis just how tired she must be. She’d barely noticed when the tram started moving, much less the view out the glass walls on all three sides.
She looked out those windows now, noting the heavy rain clouds over Georgetown, the most touristed part of Penang city, and where the ferry dumped passengers from the mainland.
She tried to remember when the monsoon season started, and realized they might have come right in the middle of it.
Well. It explained why the plane was only half-full.
She looked back at the Traveler, only to see him looking her over.
Watching his eyes slide down the dark jeans she wore, taking in her boots, the clingy, armless shirt on top, her bare arms now that she’d taken off her leather jacket in the eighty-degree humidity and ninety-degree heat, she found herself thinking she’d somehow proven his point, and that her clothes somehow proved it further.
“I’m not isolated,” she said, annoyed.
“You don’t even have a dog,” he pointed out.
“I have to travel a lot for work––”
“Or a cat,” he added.
“––I travel a lot,” she emphasized, frowning for real. “Are you really giving me ‘The Talk’ about how I need more ‘me’ time? Did Jules or Devin put you up to this?”
He held up his hands, smiling faintly, his eyes now glinting a little.
“Who else will, if not me?” he said, his tone disarmingly innocent.
“You’re a Traveler,” she said, incredulous. “You’re transient by your very nature.”
“And yet, I have quite a vibrant social life, Lightbringer. On several worlds.”
She felt her jaw clench.
“I have a serious job,” she informed him.
“Oh, so serious,” he agreed, smirking as he crossed one of his long legs over the other, wearing what she realized looked like a tailored colonial suit, all white apart from his belt and shoes. “Far too serious for the rest of us mere dilettantes and malingerers and mortals to comprehend. You couldn’t possibly, even for a second, let yourself contemplate a relationship, for example. Certainly not with the likes of me. Best erect those walls quickly, Lightbringer. Remind yourself how unreliable my race is. How likely I am to disappoint you.”
She stared at him.
For a long-feeling few seconds, her mind went totally blank.
Then, scowling, she looked down at his clothes.
“How is it you look like that?” she snapped, motioning up and down at the pristine suit. “After twenty hours of flights and layovers… and now two hours in a sweaty, tropical climate and thirty minutes to walk up here… how the hell are you like that? Is it some kind of bizarre, shape-shifting ability I’m unaware of?”
Pausing, she added,
“Where the hell did you even get that suit?”
His smile widened. “Should I take that as a compliment, Lightbringer?”
“Take it as a ‘bite me,’ Traveler.”
He laughed at that, throwing back his head.
Looking at him, she tried to decide if she was really annoyed.
He hadn’t exactly hit a nerve; it wasn’t like she’d never heard the “get a life” speech before… mostly from Devin and Jules.
Even so, she found herself faintly defensive.
“Don’t be,” he told her. “I only want to fuck more. Like I said, my reaction to you is no more rational, Lightbringer, than yours is to me.”
Pausing, he added,
“…I will enjoy pursuing you.”
She grunted, leaning back in her seat.
“Good luck with that.”
“With the fucking part?” he queried, smiling. “Or with the convincing you to take me seriously as a partner? Dare I say it… a possible mate?”
She blinked, thrown at his serious tone.
Then she rolled her eyes.
She was about to answer him, probably sarcastically, when she glanced to the nearby seats and realized a small Asian girl, maybe eight years-old, was watching them while her parents stared out the window, talking amongst themselves.
The child was listening avidly to her and the Traveler argue.
Probably Thai from her features, she also clearly understood at least some English.
Great. Now she was corrupting children.
Looking back at the Traveler, she scowled.
“This is hardly the time,” she informed him in a low voice. “To be telling me I need to go get laid and maybe attend a rave.”
“And I already told you,” he murmured softly, leaning over the space between them and kissing her mouth. “I fully intend to handle the first part of that sentence myself. Repeatedly. As to whether you wish to party during or afterwards… I’m open to negotiations.”
She snorted a little, in spite of herself.
Then she shivered when he kissed her again.
That time, he slid into the seat beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist and drawing her into him, pausing only to kiss her throat.
They kissed the rest of the way up the mountain.
They reached the top of Penang Hill a few minutes later, and again, Alexis realized she’d completely lost herself in him, forgetting where they were, even what they were doing here.
When she glanced at the young girl who’d been watching them before, Alexis found that same girl staring at them again.
Catching Alexis’s gaze, the girl smiled.
The girl’s parents continued to stare out the window at the island and the surrounding sea, which now sparkled from sunlight streaming through the clouds.
Pulling away from the Traveler, Alexis exhaled a near-sigh, glancing out the window. It struck her that she probably should have taken the opportunity of the eagle’s eye view to at least try and determine if anyone might have tracked them here.
When the doors of the tram began to open, she pulled herself to her feet. She headed out the opening without looking back, then waited a beat for the Traveler to catch up with her.
Then, without a word, the two of them began ascending the steps leading to the landing area at the very top of Penang Hill.
20
Penang Hill
They beat most of the tourists up the stairs.
They reached the top, and Alexis looked around, reacquainting herself with the general layout, with the buildings and restaurants, the signs and winding paths. Most of the businesses weren’t yet open, since they’d taken the first tram of the morning up here.
Without bothering to explain anything that time, either, Alexis took the path that would lead them closest to the area of the gate.
It took them back down part of the hill, and into the jungle.
Really, they could have just walked up the hill from the base, but she still found it easier coming from this direction, probably because when she initially found the new location, after the portal had last been moved, she’d taken the tram up here and tracked it down the hill.
Now she found herself using those same instincts to bring herself back.
She left the path altogether after they’d been walking about twenty minutes.
The Traveler moved soundlessly behind her.
Even so, she heard him, here and there, mostly when he muttered under his breath about the heat, or about the insects, or about the fact that she insisted on doing everything the difficult way.
She was tempted to remind him they’d flown here, directly to Penang.
If she’d really wanted to be cautious, they could have flown to Kuala Lumpur, or even Bangkok, then taken a train, and a bus, and a ferry. It would have made it at least marginally more difficult for someone to track them out here.
Truthfully, though, she suspected it wouldn’t make any difference.
Either The Others knew about this place, or they didn’t.
She was guessing they did know, that they simply couldn’t access it.
If they could, they would have corrupted it already.
At the thought, she
frowned, touching her earpiece.
“Call Jules,” she told her phone, which was in her back pocket, but should respond to the microphone in the headset.
Seconds later, the phone began to ring.
Frowning, remembering the time difference when it rang more than five times, Alexis finally hung up when that five stretched to fifteen, then to twenty-five rings.
That was unlike Jules.
Even if she’d been asleep, it was unlike her. Jules practically slept with her phone, especially when Alexis was out of town, and Alexis left her a message while they’d still been at L.A.X., waiting to board the first flight.
Being half-fae, Jules rarely slept anyway.
Something about that fae blood meant she could operate on like an hour of sleep a night, sometimes for weeks, even months at a time.
She usually didn’t operate on that little sleep… but she could, often without seeming fatigued at all. Alexis had seen it. The last big club opening, which happened to be in London, Alexis was pretty sure Jules only catnapped in her office for those last five weeks.
“How much further?” the Traveler grumbled.
When she glanced back at him, he was pressing aside long branches, scowling as he waved his way through clouds of insects that rose up under their feet. The air was wet, and getting hotter as the sun rose slowly in the sky.
Alexis could hear monkeys now, in the branches above them, chattering to one another as she and the Traveler passed beneath the canopy.
“You’re such a baby,” she told him, giving him a faint smile.
“I thought I looked too pristine,” he retorted back. “I thought it would delight you, to have me look more like…”
He trailed, as if thinking better of what he’d been about to say.
“Like me?” she finished for him, snorting as she rolled her eyes.
She pushed past some ferns and tree branches as she shifted directions on the hill.
“Don’t worry, Traveler. After this, I plan to banish myself to the hotel spa for possibly the rest of the day. Which, incidentally, was the absolutely most expensive one I could find on this floating rock…”
She quirked an eyebrow at him.
Lightbringer: An Enemies to Lovers Urban Fantasy with Demons, Portals, Witches, Renegade Gods, & Other Assorted Beasties (Light & Shadow Book 1) Page 15