Not that any reason would overrule Reese's commitment to Yaahl, but she'd sleep better confirming Quinn was still one of the good guys.
She'd been the bigger person about Kizira's body and walked away empty-handed last time, but not this go-round.
Quinn watched her with an expression that said he was unwilling to let her leave until he had what he wanted. "Reese, please don't push me to do something I'd rather not."
"Let's put our cards on the table," she suggested.
"I'm in no mood for games."
"Makes two of us." She gave him a serious look to sell her point. She'd knocked aside the damn nonhuman bounty hunter who'd tried to grab her, then teleported away. Then she'd had to fight a freaking troll when she arrived in Tulsa. As much as seeing Quinn made her heart pitter-pat, time was a wastin' and she needed to get moving. "Tell you what. You start first because I was here first."
Sometimes an illogical argument was the best way to go.
He crossed his arms and eyed her with confusion.
Time kept ticking away.
She finally said, "Fine. I'll start first, but I'm trusting you to do the right thing and tell me the truth about why you're here."
He made no sound of agreement.
She banked on the fact that this man who had fought beside her against an army of demons, and stood in front of her when it looked like they were going to die, still had a core of honor a mile wide.
Brushing off her jeans from the tumble and shoving her hair off her face, she stood with her feet shoulder-width apart and hands on hips. "I'm looking for someone."
His lips parted then closed into a firm line. "Who?"
"See? You're not playing fair. You're supposed to tell me what you're doing now."
"Fine. I'm here for the same reason. Now, who are you looking for?"
"A young girl who got kidnapped."
"Why are you after her?"
Reese picked up some seriously suspicious tones from him. "If you'd just tell me--"
"You're looking for Phoedra," Quinn accused, clearly done with twenty questions.
Damn.
"Yes, but that must mean you're hunting her, too. Why?" Reese shot back at him.
"I have my reasons."
She hated this endless circle jerk. "How well do you know her?"
"That has no bearing on what I'm doing."
Her heart sank at his cold reply that sounded like business as usual. Evidently, she didn't know Quinn as well as she'd thought. If he'd at least indicated he was doing it for a friend, she could have lived with that, but nothing about his demeanor said this was personal.
Well, it was to her.
He'd just ruined the best fantasy lover she'd had in years.
Too many years.
Slamming her fist into her hand, she said, "Unbelievable. I help you get Kizira's body back and leave it with you when I had a lot on the line for delivering that body to someone who wanted to protect it. But I thought I was doing the right thing. My radar for men is so far off I can't even fathom it."
Quinn's eyebrows shot upward, but she wanted answers, dammit. On a roll, she demanded, "Who's paying you to hunt down this girl? Must be big money considering they sent the Belador Maistir. I will not let anyone mess with Phoedra so just back off and go home."
"You think I'm here to kidnap her?"
Reese offered her duh look.
Quinn snapped, "I'm not here to harm her."
"Oh, really? Then give me one reason to trust why you're here right after she's been kidnapped?"
His face lost its stern countenance. "Phoedra is my daughter."
Ah, hell.
Just ... well ... hell.
Reese's mind had been connecting dots between Kizira's ghost and Quinn being so possessive of Kizira's body, trying to show her this had been more than a quick tryst. It wasn't as though she hadn't suspected something intimate between Quinn and Kizira, but to be honest she hadn't wanted to accept that a powerful Belador had been actually having an affair with a powerful Medb. An affair based on real, deep, one-of-a-kind love.
She'd seen the evidence of his love for Kizira by the way he'd put his life in jeopardy to protect the witch's cold body.
But ... he'd had a child with her?
And he had clearly not been in Phoedra's life.
How many times am I going to allow a man to make me feel like an idiot?
Quinn crossed his arms. His eyebrows dropped low over his eyes and his voice had a chilling sound when he asked, "Did you know Phoedra was Kizira's daughter the whole time you were in Atlanta?"
"No." What happened? A minute ago she'd had the upper hand, but now Quinn was on offense, questioning her. If Phoedra really was his daughter, and she doubted he would say that if it weren't true, he might tune up his mind lock trick and dynamite Reese's head.
"Who are you working for, Reese?"
"No one."
"You show up again, with that medallion you use to access your powers, and want to convince me you answer to no one?"
"I'm here on my own. The situation with my powers is my personal business."
"You showed up in Atlanta with some kind of blood that draws demons. Phoedra's safety is more important to me than anything in this world. How am I supposed to trust what you are when all I know is that you apparently have demon blood?"
That made her sound like a preternatural skank. "I can't help what kind of blood I have, but I'm not a freaking demon, if that's what you're implying."
Her short tone must have gotten through to him. Quinn said, "I have no issue with you as long as you don't get between my child and me. Stand aside. I'm going after Phoedra."
She would not let him see how he'd hurt her. "Oh, you're going all fatherly now when you haven't been around for the past thirteen years?"
His eyes flared at that hit.
Too bad. He had no reason to treat her like some demon that would kill Phoedra when he hadn't been around at all. "You do what you want, but I'm heading out, too."
A thought crossed his face. "Do you know where Phoedra is?"
"Oh, now you want information? Really?"
He cupped his chin as if processing something. "Do you know anything about her kidnappers?"
"Why, yes, Mr. Belador Maistir. I was the one who fought them to get her back. I can identify two of her kidnappers and the van they were in when they went through what looked like a bolthole."
"It was a bolthole." He said that as a statement, not a question.
Reese recalled how Quinn had needed her help in Atlanta to find Kizira's stolen tomb. How did he know it was a bolthole, and furthermore, how had he known Tulsa was the place to find Phoedra without Reese's remote viewing help?
She glared at him and rattled off, "Yes, that's exactly how they escaped and I was there to observe it, but I'm just some lowly grunt with demon blood, so you might not want to take my word for it."
He muttered something that sounded like a curse in Russian. "If you truly care about Phoedra's safety, let's put our differences aside and share information."
She started to point out that there had been no differences until he'd treated her like a second-class citizen.
Reese scrubbed her hands over her face, trying to wash away her anger, because he had a point, damn him. "I've been here almost an hour."
"How'd you get here so quickly?"
"I have friends in low places," she shot back at him. "Anyhow, I've been covering the area around BOK Center to find the van, because I saw it go past the center."
"You used your remote viewing ability like you did in the cemetery in Atlanta?"
"Yes, but it wouldn't work as clearly because of these guys using the bolthole. It messed with my ability to see." She considered his extensive resources. "What kind of being can open one of those for escape?"
"Depends. A powerful mage or druid might be able to, but more often than not it's a gift passed through a family. Does that fit the kidnappers?"
"Not really.
They seemed below that level. If it was a family connection, why have them land here and go to a decrepit building? I would have thought they'd go right to their superior and deliver Phoedra."
Quinn said, "I agree. In that case, they might have bought or traded for a majik-infused object that would open the bolthole. If we don't find Phoedra here, I'll put someone on tracking down a trade of that kind."
Reese's heart stuttered when he said we.
Then her brain bitch-slapped the unreliable organ so she could stay on track.
"Got it," she replied. "Here's what I've covered." She told him of the half-mile long streets fanning away from the center and he gave her his progress.
He hadn't covered nearly as much area as she had, but then he'd been going out a mile.
She acknowledged, "Based on where we've both been and the fact that you went further than I did, we only have two more streets to check. If she's not there, we'll have to fan out farther."
"Agreed."
She led the way back to Denver Avenue and watched for traffic to clear out before she dropped the twenty feet to street level.
She hated to jump this far. If she broke something, healing would cost time and medallion energy she didn't want to spend. But the medallion had helped her jump up here, so maybe she wasn't as limited--
An arm hooked around her waist just as she started to leap.
She went airborne, landing softly, and stood there a moment, enjoying the feel of Quinn's body against hers.
He removed his arm before her hormones got out of hand. With a touch of his hand lightly against her back, she got moving.
As she walked, she tried to convince herself not to be nice and thank him.
Damn. She wanted to stay pissed at him, but guilt weighed too much to tote around. She quipped, "Thanks for saving my knees."
"You're welcome. I wasn't sure if you had kinetics since you didn't seem to last time."
"No, but I have more of my powers this time." She kept searching the area as she walked. The possibility that the kidnappers had parked the van inside remained a constant worry since she'd arrived.
"What are your powers?"
Should she tell him? Why not? "I have this raw energy inside me that I can wield. You probably saw when I used it on the troll back there. It's what I used to crack that energy canopy over the gorge when we were in Atlanta. I have a remote viewing ability, which you also know about, but it's not a perfect science. If I'm not distracted by something like fighting to stay alive, I can hide the pull of my blood from demons, but it takes effort to do that. Sometimes my powers work great and sometimes they just confuse me, because I never had training or enough time to become confident in wielding them. Other than when I saw you in Atlanta, I haven't used any of them in a long time."
She expected Quinn to ask again who had locked away her powers, but he surprised her by returning to Phoedra.
"About not seeing Phoedra before now, I didn't know she existed until Kizira told me as she bled out in my arms. Kizira died before she could tell me where she'd hidden our daughter. She said only that I must find her and protect her, and now some very dangerous people are hunting my child."
Reese tried to swallow the giant lump of guilt that formed instantly in her throat. She'd chastised him for being an absentee father. "Is the Medb queen hunting Phoedra?"
"Possibly, but we've had a powerful witch escape from VIPER lockdown who is looking for her as well. I have to find Phoedra first. I can't live if I let her down, too."
The pain in his voice hurt to hear.
Did Yaahl know about Quinn? Of course, he did. Why hadn't Yaahl helped Quinn find Phoedra after Kizira died?
Reese wanted to pluck a few feathers right now. She turned at the next left she could take and Quinn stepped up beside her.
She had to deal with her guilt before it ate a hole in her chest. "I'm sorry about busting on you, but I've known Phoedra for over two years and I never saw Kizira or anyone else nonhuman around her until now. I didn't know Kizira was her mother until today."
He gave her an odd look. "Who told you?"
"Someone who helped me get here." When Yaahl had offered Reese sanctuary when she was pregnant, he had required her agreement to never share anything about his existence without his permission. Holding up a hand, she said, "There are some things I can't tell you, Quinn, but this person is not a threat to Phoedra."
"Is it the same person who sent you for Kizira's body?"
"Yes, but he only wanted me to bring Kizira's body back to keep it from the Medb." Before he could prod further, she added, "I made a choice to leave Kizira's body with you and explained to him that you were the Belador Maistir and had a personal interest in protecting it from the Medb."
At the next corner, which was quick to reach since they were cutting from one long street to the next, Reese turned left again and grumbled, "If they parked the van inside the building, we may have to backtrack and look through all the windows."
"Actually, we won't."
"Why not?"
"My cousin has a different type of viewing ability. She located Phoedra and the kidnappers near BOK Center. She said to look for a two-story, pale-yellow building with boarded-up windows on the ground floor and NO TRESPASSING signs. Look up ahead on the right."
Reese paused and realized she would never have found that building without Quinn.
She understood Quinn's investment in this, but she'd made a promise to Yaahl to bring Phoedra back to him. She'd speak up for Quinn to see his daughter, but she could not let him leave with Phoedra, who didn't even know Quinn.
Thankfully, Reese had one teleportation left, which meant all she had to do was get a hand on Phoedra and she could vanish.
Quinn would hate her, but Reese could not let her growing--and unrealistic--attachment to him get in the way like last time.
Yaahl hadn't been joking when he said to return with Phoedra or don't come back. Until someone convinced her that doing anything else was in Phoedra's best interest, Reese was sticking to her plan.
Chapter 18
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Easing up to the corner of the faded yellow building, Quinn turned to Reese and whispered, "If I get eyes on one of them, I'm going to slip into his mind to search for their end game."
"Sure you want to do that?"
He always suffered a moment of mental flagellation when he entered a mind, but these beings had kidnapped a child.
His child.
They were monsters as far as he was concerned.
Reese had been present when Quinn voiced reservations about entering someone's mind without permission. Over the years, he'd struggled with the moral dilemma of practicing the equivalent of mind rape by jumping into someone's head without warning.
But he had a personal code of honor. He would take that step only when someone's life was on the line or the person whose mind he entered had been committing a serious crime.
Touching his child soared to the top of both lists.
He said very clearly, "I will crack their heads open to see what pours out if I think it will get Phoedra back safely."
She rolled her eyes. "I wasn't questioning your reason for using your mind lock. I only wanted to point out that we don't know what these three beings are or who controls opening a bolthole. What if you jump into a mind and it starts some kind of chain reaction that puts Phoedra at risk?"
He had to give Reese credit. He'd entered the mind of a Laochra Fola during a mission in Atlanta six weeks ago. Someone had planted a self-destruct spell that killed the man when his mind was breached. That mental foray had almost taken Quinn with the Laochra Fola, whose head imploded.
"Good point," Quinn said.
"See, I'm not evil after all," she quipped.
Had he treated her so badly earlier that she thought he held such low opinion of her? "I don't think you're evil, Reese."
"You also don't believe that I'm friends with Phoedra or that I'm here just to save her."
"I haven't said that, either."
"You know what, Quinn? Sometimes you say a lot with your silence." She cocked her chin to stall his next words. "Save it. We can't afford this conversation right now. If you're willing to show me some trust, then you continue down this front side of the building and I'll go around back to see what I can find out. We can meet around the corners at the other end."
He was torn between allowing her to continue on her own where something might happen to her and showing that he was capable of giving her some trust. She'd tracked Phoedra to this city and nothing Reese had done in Atlanta caused him to think she'd harm his daughter.
But it was hard to get past the fact that someone else pulled her strings. Whoever it was had sent her to Atlanta more than a month ago to get her hands on Kizira's body and now this person knew Phoedra.
That left a few holes in her story about who she was and why she had this connection to his daughter.
Quinn had no idea who the mystery man was other than being a common thread between Kizira, Reese and Phoedra.
He didn't believe for a minute that Reese had accidentally met Phoedra, which raised serious concerns about how long she'd known his child.
Tired of the battle raging in his mind and heart, he gave up when his protective side won. "I agree with the plan, but you go along this front side and I'll go to the back."
"What-ever, your lordship."
His lips twitched with a smile. He'd love to kiss that mouth into silence.
I'm officially out of my mind to be thinking about anything except getting inside this building right now.
Reese stepped away before anything else could be said. He should thank her.
Quinn moved toward the back, trying to shake off the feelings Reese dragged to the surface.
What was it about her that had kept her on his mind? She'd clearly burrowed under his skin too far to ignore.
He and Kizira had burned fast and hot for two weeks when they were both very young. He'd cared for her deeply at the time.
Who was he kidding? He'd loved her to the point of madness at first, but then she disappeared and he never saw her again for years.
When he finally did see her again, every time they crossed paths since then they'd been adversaries, and Kizira had been compelled to commit crimes against the Beladors. Wounds and the subsequent scars had built up over time, turning the passion they'd once shared into something bittersweet.
It had taken meeting Reese for him to realize a truth he'd avoided admitting to himself. Because of having no idea of his history with Kizira when Reese met him, she'd forced him to take stock of his life and stop feeding into the ugly cycle of survivor's guilt.
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