Wrath: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 2

by Denise Tompkins

  He glared at me, and I took a step back at the sheer look of frigid animosity on his face. “She’s already lost to me.”

  I heard an internal crack, like a wrong step on thin ice, and wondered at it before I realized what it was. My heart was breaking. “Then you’ve betrayed more than one promise to me, Bahlin. But the biggest, the biggest by far, was your promise that you’d love me forever. Looks like it was all just to get me on my back and gain yourself the Council’s leadership. Congratulations. I hope it’s warm company on cold nights.” My chest ached. I stepped back to Hellion’s side and took his large, warm hand in mine. “Can we vote on Darius’s seat? I want to go home.”

  Hellion never corrected me or questioned where home was to me. He just rolled with the punches. “We’re waiting on the fae.”

  “We’re here,” came Kelten’s voice. The King of Faerie held his wife Gaitha’s hand as they stepped into the circle. “We hesitated to interrupt the fascinating proceedings.”

  I stiffened, and Hellion pulled me close as the fae approached. I looked around and saw they had brought only one woman with them besides the queen; the rest of their escorts were male and of the warrior variety. Queen Gaitha looked horrible—unwashed and generally unkempt. Her long, blonde hair was knotted, her clothes dirty, her fingernails ragged and dirt-filled. There were scratches on her arms and bruises on her neck. Her eyes were wild as they landed on me and she keened, scaring the shit out of me.

  “Is this your recommendation for your Council seat?” Hellion gestured toward the other woman—a petite creature with a pixie-like face, tiny hands and perfect, white teeth. Her blonde hair hung to a waist small enough to have been fashionable when boned corsets were all the rage.

  Gaitha protested with a smaller noise, but Kelten answered, “She is. This is our niece, Praen.” The king turned to face us as he spoke, and I noticed the oozing scratch marks on his face and hands. Before I could comment, Bahlin spoke.

  “Then let us vote.”

  “Any tie-breakers go to the Niteclif,” Hellion said, “as per the Law of Olde.”

  I started, but Hellion held me steady. Everyone agreed.

  The vote was fast, and both candidates were appointed without discussion. Apparently one of the biggest requirements was a willingness to serve. Good enough. I wanted out of there. I turned to Hellion to ask him to take us home, but Bahlin’s cold voice stopped me yet again.

  “There’s also the matter of leadership of the Council. I am the prophesied leader, and I will be claiming my right at our first official meeting.”

  So that’s it. You’re so naive, Niteclif. This has been all about power and nothing about love. I hadn’t thought I could get any colder inside, but I was wrong. “We’ll discuss it at the next meeting, Bahlin. Tonight is neither the right venue nor the time for it, and you know it.”

  “Fair enough, for now. But know that I will be claiming what is mine by rights, Niteclif.” Bahlin stared at me hard, eyes flashing to icy blue.

  My skin seemed to crawl all over my body and I shivered. Hellion laid his large hand at the small of my back, and his touch steadied me.

  Bahlin stepped closer and I watched him warily. “Before this meeting adjourns, I have a charge to bring to the Niteclif’s attention.”

  I realized I couldn’t ask for his help any longer, and I had a moment of sheer terror. I had nothing to work from, and I was scared I’d make some critical error. Of course, that’s what he was counting on. He was discounting the fact he was still my familiar, and that Tyr and Hellion were still available to me.

  “On the day of my attempted murder,” he began and I protested.

  “On the day you picked a fight with Hellion, which you legitimately lost,” I corrected.

  “Semantics, Madeleine. On that day, the same day a mundane was murdered by near decapitation, I saw Hellion in the Niteclif’s room with a knife wound to his bandaged hand and fresh blood around his fingernails. I allege he has intimate knowledge of the crimes. Further, he is manipulating the Niteclif to gain her affections and to unduly influence her investigations.”

  “What?” Hellion and I exploded at the same time, and chatter started among the witnesses.

  “What answer you, Niteclif?” he demanded.

  “Besides that you’re a prat?” I asked.

  “So you concede—”

  “Nothing. I concede nothing. You should have asked me about this. I would have answered you. But now all I’ll say is that your complaint is lodged, and I’ll give the accused a chance to answer.”

  Hellion began speaking almost before I finished. “I hereby swear on my life that I did not commit the crime as alleged.”

  “I can affirm his statement because I was there when he cut himself. He sliced open his hand when he healed my wounds. He did not attack those girls.”

  Bahlin shifted his stance on his walking stick and sneered. “And the girl outside the hotel?”

  “He couldn’t have done it, Bahlin. Leave it alone. I’m warning you.”

  He stumped closer to me and let loose a wicked sexy smile that had made my heart falter in my chest since the first night I’d seen him in my dreams. “Defending your lover as always, Madeleine. Good to know.” His eyes were cruel and his mouth twisted into a hard frown. It was heartbreaking, as if I’d never known this man at all. “Now I want to know his innocence or guilt regarding the last murder.”

  “He couldn’t have killed her because he was with me, all night.”

  “You never slept?” Bahlin asked, confused.

  This was going to sound bad. “No, we never slept.” The crowd snickered, and I cast a wide-reaching glare. “It was the night I believed you had been killed and I couldn’t sleep, so Hellion stayed awake with me all night and offered me compassion, not intimacy. He’s innocent of that allegation.” I had a moment of inspiration. “Can you tell me what hand was cut?”

  “His right,” Bahlin answered quickly.

  “I saw Hellion perform magic, write, eat, and scry with his left hand.”

  “No, Madeleine. You have to investigate—”

  “Unless I have firsthand knowledge pertaining to how the injury came to pass or possess firm and undeniable knowledge of a party’s innocence and/or whereabouts during the course of the crime.” How did I know this crap? Tyr. I smiled. “Isn’t that correct, Wats—”

  Bahlin’s anger was like a wildfire that was fed with every word I uttered. He raged in front of me, deadly angry, and I took a small step back, clutching my borrowed dirk. “Fine. It’s correct. But will you be investigating the murders of these women since they are likely being profiled then killed based on similarity to you?”

  I didn’t think it was my imagination that the crowd sucked in air and waited for my response. It hurt me to do it, but I had to ask, and he’d chosen the venue for persecution. “How do you know for sure they were killed because they looked like me?”

  “I’m assuming—” he began, but the doubt was cast.

  “Bahlin Drago, I will need to discuss these murders with you on a formal level.” The crowd waited. “I agree to formally investigate, but only if you agree to willingly answer any and all questions regarding the murders. Assuming you’re cleared, you’ll then act as my familiar. You’ll willingly help me and give me your very best effort, personally, at all times, until these crimes are solved.” Hellion stilled beside me. I hated to spring this on him, but I needed to secure Bahlin’s whereabouts somehow and get him to back off Hellion. Now the ball was in his court, because if he refused he looked guilty, and if he agreed there were more than fifty individuals, including Council members, to serve as witnesses.

  “Fine,” he ground out. “This has all been a misunderstanding,” he announced to the crowd, “and circumstances are being used to manipulate me.” He stepped closer and I held my ground, fine tremors making me appear to shiver as I fought not to step away from his rage. In a quiet voice filled with malice he said, “I’ll see you soon and we’ll clear this
up, all of it. It was a misunderstanding, and you know it.”

  Hellion stepped closer to me and said in an equally low voice, “We sleep in, so don’t show up too early. In fact, we’re not sure which house we’ll use tonight, so allow us to contact you in the morning.”

  I looked at Hellion and frowned. He didn’t know me well enough to announce my sleep habits. Then I realized he was trying to keep from being alone with Bahlin at any time. With me as a witness, Bahlin couldn’t bring false charges against him. Without me as a witness, anything Bahlin reported as a crime I’d have to investigate, and Bahlin could bog the system down with allegations. I’d killed two bad intentions with one well-worded promise. I’d pat myself on the back later.

  Chapter Ten

  The meeting adjourned quickly after the last confrontation. Bahlin and the blue dragons left first en masse while Darius hung around to keep us company though I was aware of him as more than a strictly conversational companion. His eyes scanned the circle, watching the night as if it had ill intent all its own.

  We waited as the fae began to leave, but it was the king and queen who interested me most. King Kelten came forward alone, leaving his wife with their niece and guards. Gaitha glared at me and, if she had been able, she would have brought me down with a look and nothing Hellion could do would cure me. She seemed to be memorizing my face, blinking long, slow blinks every few minutes.

  “Niteclif,” said Kelten. “A word, if you please.”

  I looked at Hellion, and he nodded so slightly I wondered if I’d imagined it. I was fighting to hold it together at this point. Still, I nodded to the king. “Please, go ahead, sir.”

  Kelten inclined his head and very softly said, “The deaths of our son and her uncle have left my wife scarred. She is not the same woman she once was. I would caution you to stay clear of the fae directly tied to her, at least for a while.” He wiped a sheen of sweat from his upper lip. “Should you need anything from the fae that Praen cannot provide, please contact me directly. Hellion might help you with that?” He looked at Hellion, who nodded. “Good, good. She is not well, Niteclif. I’ll do what I can for her, but…”

  The implication hung suspended between us.

  “But what?” I asked.

  Kelten shook his head and backed away, never taking his eyes from mine.

  He’s aged, I thought. Not as scary as the queen, though. Not by half.

  I looked over and found Hellion sticking his cell phone back into his pants pocket.

  Hellion hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me tight to him, leaning to kiss me gently on the temple. “We must leave, and quickly.”

  “Okay, but—”

  “Ask me anything you’d like about Chaucer after we get home,” he said, stroking a hand down my cheek.

  We were headed back to the manor house, and he didn’t want anyone to know where we were. That hadn’t worked out so well last time, but I’d play. Nodding, I said, “I’ll wait until we’re in bed, reluctantly. Will we drive?”

  “No need,” he said smiling, pleased I had picked up the subtle hints he’d dropped—Chaucer on the bookshelf, we wouldn’t be driving, where we’d shared a bed reluctantly—to let me know we’d return to Ireland. He looked over my head at Darius and said, “Tomorrow, my friend?”

  Darius smiled and nodded. “By the first hour of the night.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at him, and he had his total poker face going like only a vampire can. It said nothing.

  Hellion called his coven members together and said softly, “I’ll trust you to make breakfast. Scramble the eggs and make some toast?”

  They nodded.

  What the hell? He was hungry again?

  They stood close and, under the guise of conversation, several began to chant. Magic swelled and I clutched Hellion. Something was wrong.

  “Hang on,” he said. He barely turned and we were gone.

  I opened my eyes and recognized the room we were in. A man moved near the fireplace, and I squeaked in alarm. It took me a moment to place him. Conor, the butler at Hellion’s Irish estate, waited patiently. He looked me over quickly but carefully before he turned to Hellion.

  “Good, man, you’ve arrived,” he said, striding forward to clasp Hellion’s shoulder. “News arrived just ahead of you. The blues are gathering, Hellion.”

  I looked back and forth between the men, confused.

  “Did the coven understand my instructions well, I hope?” Hellion asked, releasing me and running his hands through his hair. He walked to the big sofa and flopped down, then immediately stood and walked to the window. Turning, he moved back to the fireplace and grabbed the poker to stir the coals in the hearth.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “The blue dragons are gathering, and I believe it’s to take you back to Bahlin by force. That’s what he meant when he said he’d see you soon, and the two of you would clear everything up. He’s claiming his rights to you as a dragon’s mate. When he took you to his den, did he commit to you?” The fire sparked merrily, the coals eating up the oxygen in the room—or so it seemed.

  I had to think about it. What had he said to me? “What’s mine is yours, from home to hearth to lair.” But it had been after the visit to his den. I said as much to Hellion, and he looked so discouraged.

  “So he proposed.”

  “Yeah.”

  He pinched the bridge of his nose, and then asked in a pained voice, “Did you accept?”

  Anxiety climbed up my back and settled, uncomfortably hot, between my shoulder blades. I shrugged, trying to dislodge it. “Yeah, but we were never bound or married or anything.”

  Conor looked between us, some strong emotion tightening his mouth and drawing the corners down. “There’s only one solution, sir, and I believe you know that, yeah?”

  Half listening, I thought back to the stone circle and the object Darius had slipped Hellion, then his strange message to his coven. I clasped my hands behind my neck and pulled, feeling the stretch in my neck and shoulders. It did nothing to alleviate the building tension. “What did Darius hand you, and what did you say to the coven? How did Conor know we’d be here?”

  Hellion looked up from where he was still squatting in front of the fire. The muscles in his thighs pushed against the denim of his jeans, and his shirt pulled tight across his shoulders as he flexed to stand. He rolled his head around his shoulders then dug a leather strap out of his pocket and tied his hair back. His hands yanked at his hair, twisting harder than necessary.

  Hellion rubbed his lips hard and then dropped his hand. “Darius handed me this.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out a gold coin. It looked familiar. “It was taken out of the neck of the first victim. A similar coin has been taken out of each additional victim’s neck. They’ve all been embedded deep enough that it took an autopsy to find it. I never thought to say it, but thank the gods Darius has a man inside the morgue to help cover up vampire killings.”

  I blanched. Another urban legend confirmed. Shit. I turned the coin over in my hands. It was heavy. And gold. I knew I’d seen it before.

  Hellion barely paused for breath. “I texted the coven while we were standing in the henge and told them we were coming here. I asked them to scramble the eggs and toast, or have conversation to mask the noise of the spell casting, or toast our leaving, and to scramble the trail we left when we dematerialized. All magic is traceable, and I wanted our path as obscured as possible. Most of them chatted while some cast spells behind us to confuse anyone trying to track our disappearance.” He looked down at me, and the intensity in his eyes gentled. “You did good discerning what was happening overall. I was proud of you.” He leaned down to kiss me, and I turned away before our lips met.

  I was feeling very vulnerable following the verbal exchange with Bahlin but was still amused. That could be their slogan, I mused. Faster than FedEx, more reliable than AT&T. Conor cleared his throat. “With all apologies, sir—”

  Hellion grunted but ste
pped back. “I know.” He looked worried. “Conor knew we were coming because one of the coven members sent a message ahead of us.”

  Drawing my attention back to the conversation, Hellion said, “Maddy, dragon law is quite different than human law. When you agreed to marry Bahlin, it sealed a contract between you.”

  “But he broke it.” I stalked to the window and looked out at the night through the living room window for the second time in twenty-four hours. My eyes were too large, my skin too pale. I watched Hellion move to the sofa and sit more gently this time. He met my eyes in the reflection and patted the seat next to him. The clock chimed one o’clock.

  I turned to go to him and squeaked in alarm at the vampire sitting in the chair opposite Hellion. Darius had arrived right on time—by the first hour of the night. I, obviously, hadn’t seen his arrival by reflection in the window. Urban legend two confirmed tonight. Double shit, I thought, coaxing my heart down from where it had lodged in my throat.

  Darius grinned. He was in total metrosexual mode, and his suave factor was through the roof as he took me in.

  Down, girl, I thought and I snorted. The men looked at me, and Hellion raised a brow. I hope he doesn’t read minds. I looked at him and thought very hard, You’re hung like a chicken. No response. Thank you, Odin.

  I crawled into the deep sofa beside Hellion but refrained from snuggling close to him.

  “Where were you in the conversation before my arrival interrupted you?” Darius asked, crossing an ankle over his knee and stretching a long arm across the back of his chair.

  “I was explaining that Bahlin broke our engagement.”

  Darius shook his head gently. “Unbelievably daft of him. Were there by any chance witnesses to his idiocy?”

  “No one was in the room with us, but his guard was outside the door.” Hellion looked so dejected that I reached up and turned his face to me. “What?”

  His skin was warm and dry, slightly flushed from the heat of the fire. “I’m afraid you’re going to be furious. Know I only tell you the truth, all right?”