“I’m sorry,” he bit out, sounding not at all apologetic.
“Me too, Edge.” She felt the need to strike out at him, to hurt him with words as he seemed so skilled. “Because you were the best piece of ass I’ve ever had. Too bad your personality isn’t as attractive as your cock.”
Turning away, she barely refrained from running back to her room.
She missed the diamond hard look that entered his eyes. Missed the telltale signs of an aggressive male picking up the gauntlet she had just thrown between them with those parting words. It was probably better that she had missed them, else she really would have broken into a run despite all her efforts not to.
Chapter Eleven
It was early—still daylight in New York City—when Emily rose from her bed. She hadn’t slept much, only a few hours, but it was better sleep than she had been getting and she was grateful for it. Most of the other Shikars on her team would probably still be asleep, synchronizing their hours to those of the region they were assigned to protect.
Therefore it came as some small surprise to Emily when she heard a soft knocking upon her door.
As soon as Emily moved to open it, the door flew open itself to reveal a tall redhead with wide flaming eyes.
“Oh my! So you’re Emily. It is so great to finally meet you, to see you in person. Wow, your eyes are so blue! Are those your real eyes or contacts? I have always wanted a pair of contacts, but The Elder won’t let me buy them. Not that I would wear them; we Shikars don’t have weak vision—not that I am saying you do but… Oh, I am just so excited to meet you!”
The woman spoke a million miles an hour and barely seemed to pause for a breath. Her tall stature and extra-full curves made Emily, for once, feel like a dowd. Emily immediately liked her, even if she was a bit overcome by the woman’s enthusiasm.
Without preamble the woman stepped in, moving immediately to a stack of romance novels on the coffee table. “Wow! The new Lora Leigh—can I read this when you are finished? I have to get rid of my books once I am through—else someone might know I have been on the surface—but now that you are here I can just say I borrowed them all from you and keep them forever. Cady and Steffy don’t read that much anymore because their husbands get all cranky when they take any time away from them. Males are such babies. Now that you are with Edge, I guess you will stop reading too.”
Emily reeled. “I’m sorry. What did you say your name was?”
The woman blushed and grew flustered. “Oh I am so sorry. I am called Agate. I make your armor and your clothes—well, some of them. Steffy helps. She does get so bored around here when Cinder goes out without her—which is not that much anymore now that she is finished with most of her training. What I would not give to train to be a warrior—but I do not have any real Caste traits strong enough for use in battle, beyond Traveling. Though I suppose I must have some talents I have yet to discover. I mean, after all, my eyes are still Shikar red and not Traveler black. Only multiple Castes keep their birth eye color. Wouldn’t it be great if I woke up one morning with a full-blown Caste like a Foil master or Incinerator? But then I have never heard of such a gift in a Shikar woman. As far as I know there are few Caste traits to be had among us, and most of the women won’t even admit to possessing them.”
“It’s good to meet you, Agate.” Emily couldn’t think of anything else to say. Not that it mattered; Agate spoke enough to fill up any real silence.
“I know I am talking a lot, but I have just been so excited about meeting you. After you emailed us and told us you were fighting the Daemons—another human warrior-woman! —I knew you would come to us, and so you have.”
Emily laughed and plunked down on her overstuffed sofa beside the quicksilver woman. “What are you talking about? What email?” Emily asked, bewildered and amused.
“Your email to the Voyeurs, silly! We women are the Voyeurs. Though, I guess I shouldn’t tell you until The Elder gives me permission. But I know he will so I will pretend he already has.”
“Wait a minute. You run the Voyeurs website?” Curiouser and curiouser.
“Oh yeah! It was Steffy’s idea, of course. She is the web savvy one and she built the site. We use it as a tool to keep tabs on what is going on with Daemon sightings here and there in the human world. It has come in quite handy since we put it up. We keep our purpose in it a secret, and pretend we are just researchers interested in the Daemons, but when humans like you email us we usually investigate the goings on. It is our job, you know.”
“No, I didn’t,” Emily said weakly. The Shikars were a surprising and complicated bunch; that much was certain.
“Oh well, not everyone knows. Only the Council, and a select few of The Elder’s closest warriors. Some of our women are even married—I did say that only Shikar women, and select ones at that, were Voyeurs, didn’t I? —and not even their husbands know. Can you believe that! It’s like we are in the F.B.A. or the C.I.I. with all of this top secret agent stuff.”
Emily laughed. “You mean the F.B.I. and C.I.A.”
“Yeah, that is what I said. F.B.I. and C.I.A. Oh! I meant to ask. Do you have any shoes? I love looking at human shoes. I have designed some footwear myself based on your Prada designer. But the only real use they have, or so Cady tells me, is in the bedroom. I am thinking about designing some sex-only shoes, you know, for the mated couples’ fun. I am not mated, thank goodness, but it is a great time consumer to design sex toys and negligees and what have you, when I am bored. I designed the Mone. You should ask Edge about it the next time you are having fun together. He’s got one—”
Emily managed, at last, to interrupt. “Does everyone know about me and Edge? Good grief, can’t a girl have one fling without the entire world knowing?”
Agate laughed. “Not everyone knows, silly. Just a few of us girls. We share most everything. Desondra is the one who originally found out. She has visions, you know. She admitted to me that after seeing you guys in that particular vision, she had to seek out her husband and it was hours before they left their bedroom.” Agate laughed and giggled like a young girl.
And Emily supposed she probably was young. With the Shikars, it was almost impossible to tell their age by their appearance, as Emily had quickly learned over the past couple of days.
“Well, I know you will want to get ready for tonight, so I’ll leave. Can I come back later? I will know when not to disturb you, I can sense when you are sleeping—you do not sleep nearly as much as you should—but when you are awake can I come for a visit?”
“Sure. But how can you know when I’m asleep—”
Agate laughed and bounced up from her seat. “Oh I know lots of things. It is just the way I am made.” She giggled. “Please don’t look so wary, I would never pry where I do not belong. That is Desondra’s job.” She laughed again and bounced towards the door. “It was so good to meet you, Emily. Will you become a Shikar like Cady and Steffy, do you think? Edge needs a strong woman like you. He is such a handful. Oh, I am very, very glad you’re here!”
Emily smiled and grabbed the discarded Lora Leigh paperback, holding it out to Agate. “Here, you can read it. I’ve already read it twice myself.”
Agate’s eyes widened and she grabbed the book as if afraid that Emily might renege on her offer. “Thank you, thank you! I absolutely cannot wait to read it.”
“Have fun.” Emily waved her off, but the mercurial Agate was already through the door.
What a fountain of information that Agate was. And what an odd way to start the day, Emily thought with a grin. Now she was as curious to learn about her new family as ever. Perhaps even more so.
* * * * *
Tryton answered his door before she even had time to knock. “I thought you might come today, Emily. Come inside.” He motioned her forward and stepped aside to allow her to enter.
“I’m not going to ask how you knew I’d be here,” she said with a smile.
“Your curiosity is written all over you whenever you don
’t think anyone is looking. And since I am the head of this ragtag family, it stands to reason you would see me as the fount of any information you might require. Have a seat, please.” He himself went to one of the overstuffed leather chairs and sank down with a sigh.
Emily sat as well. “Agate visited me. It seems you’ve got quite a sting operation going on between my world and this. I never in a million years would have thought the Shikars had a web presence.” She grinned.
“This is your world now, Emily. You’ll get used to it soon, I hope. And as for the Voyeurs—mum is the word, or so Cady would say. Only a few know of their existence, or purpose.”
“I know. Agate told me. Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at keeping quiet.”
“I’ve no doubt.” He eyed her comically. “So. I know you’ve questions. I’ll answer as I may, but any one of my people would be quick to tell you that I am the most cryptic of the bunch.”
“I’ve seen that for myself already. Actually, I just came to ask you about The Traveler.” Emily looked about nervously. “He’s not around is he?”
“No. We are alone, and none may see that which I do not wish to reveal. So don’t worry about anyone spying,” he said blithely.
Emily grinned wryly. “Well, I’ve come to learn that you can never be too sure of privacy around here.”
Tryton laughed. “So what do you wish to know?”
“Who is he? He’s so weird. So different from everybody else.”
“He is different. But then, he is very old and with age one tends to get a little…” He seemed to search for the right word.
“Eccentric,” she supplied.
“Exactly,” he responded with a smile. “He is very powerful. But also very secretive. You need have no fear. He is entirely trustworthy.”
“How did you know I was wondering about that?”
“I thought you knew better than to ask,” he teased. “But in this instance, I don’t need any hidden gifts to know. Everyone wonders about The Traveler when they first meet him. He has his secrets—we all do—but they are not withheld maliciously or with any dark purpose. He merely keeps to himself.”
“He came to me, my first night here. It made me a little…nervous,” she finally ended.
Tryton frowned. “Did he tell you why he visited you?”
“He said he was worried about me.”
“Ah. He has ever had a soft spot for humans—even more than I—not that he’d admit it. And you would seem all the more fragile to him because of your lack of psychic power, whereas Cady and Steffy came to us with their own gifts.”
“He said I reminded him of someone. A woman. What did he mean by that? Did he have a wife or something?”
Tryton was silent for a long while. “No, he has never mated. And for once, truthfully, I’m not sure I know the answer to your question. The Traveler can keep his secrets buried deep, even from me it would seem. Perhaps it would be best for you to ask him this question.”
“He would never answer me.”
“Are you sure?” Tryton pressed.
“Look, if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. It’s no big deal, I was just curious.”
Tryton nodded. “I have noticed that humans are very curious people. But I think you’re wrong about him. I think, if you asked, The Traveler would tell you much that you might wish to know about him. It appears he has been far more open with you, in speaking of this mystery woman, than he has been with anyone else.”
Emily highly doubted it, but let the subject drop. “I’ve another matter to discuss with you.”
“I have no doubt you have many more than one,” he allowed with a small twitch at the corners of his mouth.
“One will do for now,” she chuckled. “About this change from human to Shikar—”
Tryton sobered immediately. “Do not even think on it further. You are not psychic and it cannot be done for you.”
“How do you know?” she pressed.
“I just know.”
“Has anyone ever tried it?”
Tryton’s hands clenched into fists. “Of course it has been tried! Our people have not always been so reclusive. But such a thing is against the nature of our two species. It is only through chance, merest chance, that any have survived such an ordeal as the changeover from human to Shikar.”
“I just can’t believe it all has to do with the psychic mumbo jumbo everyone swears on.”
Tryton’s eyes were hard as nails, and hot as flame as he stared her down with his gaze. “Well, believe it and think no more on it. I have seen too much heartbreak over failed conversions, witnessed too many mistakes made over the eons between our two races. Attempting to change without some psychic gifts is folly. Damn your eyes, it is folly to attempt such a thing even with such gifts!”
“I never said I would attempt it. But the possibilities are amazing. To have the power of your people… It would—”
“The Shikars do have power. But it is not for the likes of you.”
Emily bristled, trying and failing not to take offense. “What if you’re wrong? What if it isn’t just psychic ability that sustains the human soul during the change? What if you’re too blind to see what’s so clearly before your face that you’ve overlooked—”
“Do you not think I know all there is to know about my race? I have lived for centuries, for hundreds of human life spans. Believe me, I know. Allow me to share something with you, little human.” He leaned forward intently, orange-yellow eyes stormy. “A long time ago, when our people were still living in the sun of your world, when your race was young and lived in our protection, there was a man who tried to do what you are suggesting.
“It was folly. But he was in love. And our kind does not love so lightly as yours. When we love it is so deep a love as to blind us to all other truths. He loved a maiden, a human maiden with all the frailty and selfish cruelties your kind can possess. Wanting to be with her, he lay with her in passion and in love. He loved her and filled her with his seed.
“No Shikar man had ever mated with a human, not until then. And it surprised us all when she was poisoned by the essence of her lover. She faded, and despite all his efforts—for this man was a great and powerful warrior—the woman died in the arms of her lover.
“In a rage of pain and despair, the man unleashed his power onto the Earth with a vengeance, destroying much that could never be regained in his sorrow. One warrior, out of love for the wounded man, came forth and tried to stop the destruction wrought from his brethren’s broken heart. But Shikar turned on Shikar, and a great battle was waged.
“All of humanity fled from Shikar in terror in the aftermath of such violence. Our kind retreated from the world entirely, and from that day to this, any unprotected sex between our races has been forbidden, to prevent such tragedy from ever happening again. Over time, there have been those who sought to test fate and the law was broken…but until Cady no human woman survived such an encounter.”
Emily was shaken at the pain the memory seemed to cause him and was ashamed that she had helped to dredge up such a dismal recollection. “What about human men?” She couldn’t help asking. Did human men fall dead in the arms of a female Shikar’s embrace, she wondered.
“Human men are safe from Shikar females. It is the semen of a Shikar male that is deadly.”
“How odd. And you have no ideas why?” she pressed.
“It is Nature’s whim, an evolutionary trait. And it is simply the way of things. Not everything can be neatly defined or explained. Seeing what you’ve seen, knowing all that you do now, can you have any doubt of that? Some things just are. We Shikar are warriors. We do what we must to protect our races from destruction. What more do we need to know than that?”
“Everything. It is by understanding ourselves and those around us that we can hope to win anything worth saving.”
Tryton eyed her darkly but said nothing, clearly tied up in his own ideology.
“You know what I think,” she continued.
“I think you’ve lived for so long you’ve become blind to new ideas. You don’t want to believe that things change and that surprises are not impossible in this world, even for your species. Especially for your species.”
“And I think you talk too much,” he said, but with a fond smile that took the sting out of his words. “You and Cady and Steffy all talk too much. It must be a human trait.”
“No. You’re just lucky with us three, that’s all,” she teased, but in her mind she wondered. Oh how she wondered at all the possibilities…
Chapter Twelve
Emily wasn’t at all surprised when it fell on her to apply Edge’s armor once again that evening. She’d known Cady was a devil, but she’d truly underestimated the woman’s perseverance as a matchmaker. This time, after Cady had painted the armor over Emily’s nude and freshly shaven body, she had simply handed the can of black gunk over with a smile.
“Edge will be waiting,” she said with a wink. “Take your time, of course. It’s early yet.”
Emily had growled, but she’d complied. Far be it from her to allow room for anyone to malign her courage…even if she was nervous as hell by the time she reached Edge’s chambers. No one needed to know but her how badly her hands shook as she twisted the handle of the door and entered.
But she almost dropped the can of armor paint when she saw Edge standing, completely nude, and waiting for her.
God, he was just as big as she remembered! “Jeez, put a towel on, will you?” she managed in a deceptively bored—if a little bit shaky—voice. It was difficult but she finally found the strength of will to tear her eyes away from his glorious cock.
Which was, of course, completely erect.
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