Touch the Dark

by Karen Chance

  Mircea and I had skipped over the whole refusal thing and gone straight to haggling. There was no point in mentioning that Mircea would kill me if I said no. He would do it because he’d have no choice—if he didn’t, the Consul would give someone else the job—and because he would be quick. Quicker than Jack. I didn’t like the errand they had set me, but next to an evening with the Consul’s bright-eyed boy, it was a picnic. But just because I had no other options didn’t mean I shouldn’t get as much for my services as possible. It was, after all, a seller’s market. Who else were they going to get?

  Mircea was looking as if he wondered whether acting outraged because I’d demanded the life of one of his oldest retainers would work. I rolled my eyes. “Don’t bother. Giving me Tony’s head is no big deal and you know it. He betrayed you—you have to kill him.”

  He smiled slightly. “True. But it would also solve a problem for you, would it not?”

  “But it won’t cost you anything. Isn’t your life worth a little something?”

  “What else would you like then, my beautiful Cassandra?” He stepped forward, a gleam in his eye, and I put the chair between us.

  “Don’t try it.”

  He grinned at me, unrepentant. “Then name your price.”

  “You want my help? Tell me what happened to my father.”

  Rafe gave a startled squeak and looked wide-eyed at Mircea, who sighed and shook his head in disgust. I sympathized; Rafe had always had a lousy poker face—I’d started beating him at cards by age eight—and he obviously hadn’t improved. He subsided under Mircea’s displeasure, but the damage was done. Mircea braved it out anyway, of course; I would have thought less of him otherwise. “Your father, dulceaţă? He died in a car bomb, did he not? Is that not one reason why you are upset with our Antonio?”

  “Then what did Jimmy mean? He told me not to kill him, because he knew the truth about what happened.”

  Mircea shrugged. “Since he was the ‘hit man’—is that not the phrase?—on the job, I am sure he does know details, dulceaţă. Why did you not ask him?”

  “Because Pritkin blew a hole in him before I could. But you know, don’t you?”

  Mircea smiled, and once again I saw where Tony got it. “Is that knowledge your price?”

  I looked at Rafe, and he looked back. I thought he was about to speak when Mircea’s hand descended on his shoulder. “No, no, Raphael. It would not be fair to give our Cassandra information for which she has not yet paid.” He smiled, and there was more calculation than affection in it. “Do we have a deal?”

  I glanced at Billy, who was floating near the ceiling with an impatient look on his face. He didn’t comment, so I assumed his news didn’t have any bearing on my choice. I sent him an irritated look and he disappeared, in a snit because I hadn’t dropped everything for him. Typical. I’d have preferred to find out more before agreeing to Mircea’s terms, but I didn’t have a lot of options. It’s hard to push the price too high when you’re a sure thing and the buyer knows it. I literally had no choice but to help them, so technically Mircea was being generous by offering anything. Of course, he probably wanted me doing my best on the errand, so keeping me in a good mood was worth a concession or two. Or maybe he was fond of me. No, that kind of thinking was dangerous.

  “Okay. We have a deal. Tell me.”

  “In a moment, dulceaţă. First, I believe we need to inform the Consul. Tomas, if you would be so good? She may have final instructions.” He noticed Tomas’ mulish expression. “You have my word that we will wait the attempt on your return. You will be accompanying her, will you not?”

  “Yes.” Tomas looked at me challengingly, but I didn’t object. If Rasputin did show up, it would be nice to have someone along, especially someone who had shown he could handle himself in an emergency. Even if it was only to have company when everything went to hell. Tomas started to say something else but stopped when Mircea stepped to my side and put a hand on my shoulder.

  “Now, Tomas!” Louis-César looked impatient. Tomas glared at him but he left, slamming the door behind him.

  “And we need the Tears, do we not, to be on the safe side?” Louis-César nodded and left right behind Tomas.

  “The Tears? Do I want to know?”

  “Nothing to be concerned about, I assure you.” Mircea smiled reassuringly. “The Tears of Apollo are an ancient concoction. They have been used to aid in meditative trances for centuries. They are quite safe.”

  “But why do we need them? I didn’t have them before.”

  “And you quickly ran out of energy before. They will help you, Cassandra. Remember, I have a vested interest in seeing that this goes well. I would not lie to you.” I believed that answer more than I would have a heartfelt declaration of concern for my welfare, and nodded. I’d use the damn Tears, whatever they were. Anything to up the odds.

  Mircea glanced at Raphael. “Would you be so good as to see if clothing has been arranged for Cassie? She must be tired of wearing such a bulky robe.” He gave an odd little smile. “Take your time.”

  Rafe looked uncertain—I could tell he didn’t want to leave Mircea and me alone for some reason—but he went. Mircea locked the door behind him and leaned against it, regarding me with suddenly serious eyes. “And now for the real negotiations, my Cassandra.”

  Chapter 12

  I looked at Mircea warily. “I’m not your Cassandra.”

  He began unbuttoning the remaining toggles on his shirt. “Give me a moment, dulceaţă, and we will see.” He peeled off the shirt and tossed it over the end of the couch. He wore nothing underneath.

  “What are you doing?” I sat up, my pulse leaping although he hadn’t done anything really alarming. But he stood between me and the door, and that enticing face was suddenly pretty intense.

  Mircea began removing his highly polished shoes. “I would prefer that we had more time, dulceaţă. I have long anticipated renewing our acquaintance, but did not envision quite this scenario. However”—he paused to place his shoes and socks neatly by the sofa—“I am beginning to learn that, with you, it is best to assume the unexpected.”

  I could have said the same about him. “Cut it out, Mircea. Just tell me what is going on.”

  He watched me steadily as he slowly removed the belt from the loops of his slacks. “You do not wish to be given over to the Circle, I assume?”

  “What does that have to do with you getting undressed? What is this?”

  Mircea prowled across the room—there was simply no other word for the way he moved—and knelt at my feet. He looked up at me soulfully. “Think of it as a rescue, dulceaţă. I am your knight come to save you from all those who would do you harm.”

  I choked back a laugh. “That has got to be the corniest line I ever heard.”

  Mircea put on an exaggerated look of outrage that brought a reluctant smile to my face. “You wound me! I assure you, once upon a time, as they say, that is exactly what I was.”

  I thought about it and, technically, he was right. Of course, real knights in shining armor hadn’t been quite the same as the legend. Most of them had spent more time harassing the peasants for taxes than rescuing ladies fair. “Okay. And what are you now?”

  He didn’t answer, but I noticed that his eyes had turned a glowing cinnamon amber. The only time I’d seen that before, he had been threatening Pritkin’s life, but he didn’t seem to be angry now. He reached behind his head to slide the platinum clasp out of his long, dark hair. “The Circle demands your return, dulceaţă, and by our treaty with them, we have no right to refuse. If you were a normal human, a claim by any master would be enough to hold you, but not for a powerful seer. The Pythia’s court has control over all such individuals.” His hair spread over his shoulders and back like a dark cape. The contrast between his midnight hair and the pale perfection of his skin was mesmerizing.

  He saw me admiring it, and his voice dropped to just above a whisper. “You liked my hair once, dulceaţă, don’t you remembe
r? You enjoyed braiding it as a child. I went around Antonio’s court with as many styles and ornaments as a doll.” He lifted my hands and placed them on his shoulders, under the heavy weight of that hair. It fell like a skein of silk over my hands, and I wasn’t sure which was more distracting, the feel of it or the hard muscles of his shoulders. “I did not mind you playing with me, dulceaţă.” He moved his head to press a kiss to the back of my hand. “I do not mind it now.”

  I opened my shields slightly to see whether he was imitating Tomas and trying to influence me, but there was no sign that power was being exerted. The exhilarating rush I’d felt earlier was simply not there. But then, he didn’t really need it. He rubbed his cheek languidly against my hand and I knew he could probably hear the pounding of my heart in my wrist. I swallowed. “What’s your point, Mircea?”

  His hands had moved while I was distracted, and it was a shock to feel them suddenly slide into my robe and encircle my waist. I hadn’t felt him remove the belt, but it was gone. The robe didn’t gape far, but it was enough to bare a line of flesh from my neck to my navel. I moved to close it, but Mircea lifted my hand away and pressed the palm to his lips. I felt a smooth hint of tongue as he swept it slowly over my skin, as if savoring the taste. A bolt of desire ran from his kiss down all my nerve endings, causing me to gasp.

  “Mircea…”

  “Do you know how you taste, my Cassandra?” he asked me softly. “I have never known anything like it. You go to my head like aged brandy.” He breathed deeply of the skin above my pulse. “You cannot imagine how intoxicating I find your scent.” His thumb moved slightly on my waist, up and down the center of my rib cage. It wasn’t an overly sexual touch, but I caught my breath. “Or how very good you feel.”

  “Mircea, please.”

  “Anything you want,” the great negotiator whispered, leaning in so that he spoke just above my mouth, his breath warm on my lips. His mouth ghosted over mine, gentle, barely there, and I shivered. He had said we were going to negotiate, but he wasn’t even trying to make a deal, which alone was scary. “Anything in my power to give, it is yours.” His hand moved back to the front of my robe, one finger tracing the line of exposed skin from neck to navel. Goose bumps sprung up along that path, and my breath caught.

  I tried to get angry, to find any emotion that could hold back the spine-tingling flash of pleasure. “Damn it, Mircea! You know I hate games!”

  “No games,” he promised, pushing himself between my legs, parting them with his body. The robe gaped halfway up my thighs, but I couldn’t close it with him kneeling there. I tried to shove him away, wanting some distance between us so I could think, but it was like pushing at a granite statue. “Do you want me to beg you?” he whispered, looking up at me with those glowing eyes.

  “No, I…” I looked around for Billy, but he was off sulking. Damn it!

  “I will beg,” he murmured, before I could get a sentence together. He was close enough that I could tell that he smelled as good as he looked, not like expensive cologne as I’d expected, but clean and fresh, like the air after rain. “And plead”—his hands slid into the robe to caress my calves—“willingly”—they moved up to my knees, stroking the sensitive skin behind them—“gladly”—they massaged a path up my thighs—“eagerly”—his hands stopped on my hips, thumbs kneading the flesh gently. “If it pleases you.”

  He buried his face in my stomach, and my hands moved on their own to comb through that dusky hair. I spread it out on his shoulders, while he kissed his way up my body. I fought to clear my head, but then his lips claimed mine in a searing kiss that burned all the way down to my fingertips. Then he dropped his head and began to kiss back down the way he’d come, with slow, almost worshipful motions. The feel of cool air on my breasts as he pushed the robe completely open jogged me out of the haze slightly, but it was difficult to put thoughts together while pleasure coursed through me.

  “You are beautiful, dulceaţă,” he murmured, hands ghosting over me reverently. “So soft, so perfect.” His touch felt so warm I expected it to leave imprints behind. His breath on the tender skin of my nipple was electrifying; his tongue, when it followed a moment later, was almost overwhelming, and when he began to suck, pulling deeply, pleasure burst inside me so large that it was almost pain.

  “Mircea, please…tell me what is going on!”

  In response, he suddenly swept me up into his arms and carried me to the bedroom. He waved a hand and the curtains over the windows snapped shut. He laid me gently on the bed and began unbuttoning his trousers. “The Silver Circle wants you very badly, Cassie. Antonio told them that you died in the car with your parents, and they only learned differently when your ward flared for the first time a few years ago. It was the Circle’s own ward that your mother had transferred from herself to you, and it is unmistakable. They have been hunting you ever since. As long as you remain only a rogue sybil, they have rights over you, as they do all human magic users. There is no way to dispute their claim without risking a war. Well”—he stepped out of the trousers—“almost none.”

  Mircea wearing only black silk boxers was enough to confuse my brain without learning that the most powerful magical society on earth, who happened to hate me, had the right to decide my future. “I don’t understand.”

  Mircea crawled onto the bed and I scooted back until I hit the headboard. He smiled and tugged playfully at the edge of the robe, which I’d wrapped about me protectively. “You are lovely in anything, dulceaţă, but I would prefer to dispense with this garment. Had I known this scenario would occur, I would have arranged something more appropriate.” He slid his hands slowly up my calves, kneading as he went higher. “I will make sure to correct that oversight at the first opportunity.”

  “Mircea! I want an answer!” I drew away from him and glared. After a pause, he sat back on his heels, looking rueful.

  “Why did I know it would not be so easy with you?” He sighed. “dulceaţă, it has to be one of us. You seemed to respond to me best, and I would be honored to be your choice, but if you would prefer one of the others…I would not like it, but under the circumstances, I would agree.”

  “What are you talking about?” I was getting angry that he kept ignoring me.

  “Tomas was not sent merely to guard you, Cassie. Keeping you safe was his primary function, but he was also told to ensure that the Circle’s claim could be successfully disputed.” Mircea quirked an eyebrow. “I am beginning to understand why he failed.”

  “I…What are you doing?” Mircea had run a hand through his waterfall of hair, and now he was sliding those beautifully shaped hands down his chest to glide over his nipples. His torso was hairless and perfectly sculpted, with toned muscles and a long waist. He followed the lines of his flat stomach to the low-slung border of his only remaining garment. His fingers lingered there, sliding along that insubstantial barrier teasingly, drawing my eyes to the line of dark hair that started below his navel and disappeared beneath the black silk. It was startling against the pale perfection of his skin and, except for the faint pink of his nipples, gave the only color to his upper body.

  “Doing, dulceaţă?” he asked innocently. “I am trying my best to seduce you.”

  He suddenly reached over and took my hands in his, caressing the backs with his thumbs. “I will make you an offer. I will answer one of your questions for each pleasure you allow yourself; are we agreed?”

  “What?” I stared at him. “I can’t believe you said that!”

  Mircea grinned, and suddenly, the old, teasing version was back. “You give me little choice, Cassie. You will look, and with such longing, but you will not touch. And I want your touch; I want it very much.” He moved my hands to his stomach, right below the silk border. When I just sat there, dry mouthed and startled, he sighed. “But my charms do not seem sufficient, so I offer a trade. And as a token of my good faith, I will go first. The Circle can command you as a rogue sybil, but not if you become Pythia. You are beyond their reach
then, Cassie; indeed, you will outrank them, so to speak. And Pritkin was not entirely honest. The chosen sybil, the heir to the Pythia’s power, must remain chaste during her youth, I suspect to avoid someone gaining undue influence over her. But she cannot progress to Pythia in that state. The ancient sources all agree: at Delphi, a mature, experienced woman was selected after the early years, because it was found that the power shied away from young girls.” He grinned at me again and moved my hands lower, so that I could feel the outline of him, growing firm under my touch. “No one is sure why, but the power will not pass in full to a virgin, Cassie.”

  I stared at him. “You have got to be kidding.” Of course, it did explain why everyone except Rafe was dressed like he was on his way to a Playgirl photo shoot.

  Mircea didn’t answer, just ran those talented hands behind my knees, caressing the skin lightly. Somehow he’d already figured out what that did to me. “We tried to make it easy for you. We sent Tomas, who does not usually have difficulties—how should I put it—persuading women to enjoy his charms? But you rejected him, despite everything he did to obtain your affection.” Mircea laughed shortly. “I think you have pricked his pride, dulceaţă. I am not sure that he has ever been turned down before.”

  I swallowed. “He could have forced me.”

  Mircea’s face lost its amusement. “Yes,” he agreed lightly, “and I would have taken his heart, as I made very plain before he left.” The hands on my knees slid up to my thighs, and Mircea gripped me strongly. “You are mine, Cassie. I would have gone to you myself if I had known how strong the attraction between us would be. But I must admit that, until today, I did not truly regard you as a young woman. Not to mention that I assumed you would feel uncomfortable with your ‘Uncle Mircea’ suddenly acquiring such an interest.”

  “I never called you that.” I hadn’t thought of him that way, either. Eleven is young, but not too young for a crush, and I’d had it bad. It seemed things hadn’t changed, at least not for me. I didn’t believe for a second that Mircea felt anything. It was his turn to pretend to want me, so I could continue to be used. It hurt to know for certain that Tomas’ attempts at seduction were on the Consul’s orders and that Mircea’s probably were, but it wasn’t a surprise. Where my life was concerned, I’d learned long ago that everyone wanted to use me for something.