Actually all of me did.
“I do not reverse my decisions,” Father said in his most commanding Kingly Voice as he studied me. “You will live here and you will not leave again.”
The way he demanded, and had already decided my fate, pissed me off. Heat flushed up my body and I was certain my fair skin had a slight pink tinge to it.
Mother’s gaze encouraged me to speak my mind, and I knew she’d jump in on my side if my father became too difficult.
“I’m going to list several reasons why I will not remain here,” I said as I met my father’s gaze without blinking. “I would appreciate it if you would let me finish.”
“You may have your say” Father crossed his large, muscular arms across his chest. “It will make no difference.”
I wanted to stamp my foot and scream like I used to when I was a youngling. But I kept calm.
“First of ail, I am twenty-seven, fully an adult in the eyes of the Elves for two years now.” I held my hand up to quiet Father, because he tended to scoff at the fact that I was so young compared to everyone else around here, Dark Elves who were centuries and centuries old. With the exception of Mother, who was fifty-one—but she had stopped aging when she came to live in the Realm.
“Secondly,” I continued, “I am half human, and the human half of me needs to be aboveground.”
My father looked pointedly at my mother, who had given up life aboveground to live with my father. I gritted my teeth and continued.
“The third reason is that I have a career, if you will,” I said. “It is my duty to help humans, as well as all of the Great Guardian’s Peacekeepers.”
Father scowled at the mention of the Guardian. He had his beef with her, one of which had been making me a Tracker in the Earth Otherworld.
“Number four is that I don’t belong here, Father.” I gestured toward the door. “I’m not some subservient Drow female who’s going to let one of the warriors order me around and demand sex whenever he wants it.”
My father’s face tinged a darker blue when I mentioned the demanding-sex part. Heh. No father wants to think of his daughter as having sex with any male.
“I’ll never be accepted here.” This time I raised both hands. “The women won’t talk to me because I’m a Princess and because the warriors don’t approve of me, no matter how much they all respect you.”
I was talking faster now as my anger ratcheted up. “And speaking of warriors, they can’t stand me. Especially since I can kick their asses.
“Fifth reason.” I put my hands on my hips and met my father’s glare head-on. “Only one male in this Realm can stop me from escaping, and that’s you. Unless you keep me locked up in an elemental magic-treated cell, or tied from shoulders to feet with my powers stripped, no guard could keep me from leaving.”
My father shook his head, his expression unrelenting. “No. I have made my decision.” Here we go.
This was going to be a long night.
Before my father could say anything else, my mother got to her feet and put her hands on her hips, a mirror of me. Her expression was furious.
Go, Mother!
She faced my father and spoke very clearly and sternly, but kept her voice even and at a normal volume. For a moment. “Every single one of Nyx’s points is valid and you know it, Ciar.”
Then she got wound up. If my mother’s eyes could flare angry white like mine could, she’d be shooting real sparks and the table would be on fire. “Nyx is past being of age, and you have absolutely no right insisting—no, demanding—that she stay here.”
“Kathryn—” he started, and I could tell he was trying to maintain a stern expression.
“Oh, don’t you ‘Kathryn’ me.” Mother bent closer to him. I’d never seen her so angry. Her cheeks were dark pink, her eyes narrowed, and her lips twisted into a furious expression. Her voice had ratcheted to an all-time high for her. “Nyx is my daughter, too, and in this, Ciar, you will not overrule me.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen my father, King Ciar of the Dark Elves, speechless before.
Mother whirled and started toward the bedchamber’s heavy oak door. “Nyx, come with me.”
CHAPTER 22
It’s true how the little things in life suddenly become so much more important when you’ve almost lost them.
Until you’ve almost lost life itself.
The afternoon sky was churning with clouds and the breeze was cool and rain-scented as I walked the short distance to my apartment from where my father had sent me through the transference. It was roughly thirty-six hours since I’d almost died.
I waved to Mrs. Taylor, who lived in the apartment below mine, as she drew out a cell phone from her apron pocket. She always wore an apron over a granny dress. Mrs. Taylor was a heavy chainsmoker with a face like a warped slab of wood—even though she was only about fifty Today she looked beautiful to me as she walked Terror, her Chihuahua. The little thing was a terror, and Kali hated him.
It’s also funny—not really funny, but more odd— how living in a world as sweet and pure as Otherworld didn’t take away my enjoyment of the city. I breathed in the polluted air and smiled as I passed a Starbucks. Who cared about the pollution when there were so many unique humans and paranorms, restaurants, and Nordstrom s? Yeah, shopping. How I loved the shopping in this city. As a Princess, I’m very good at spending money I shifted the Drow leather rucksack on my shoulder as the wind picked up. The weight was nothing because of my Drow strength, even with the truck-load of food Mother had the servants put together to stock my fridge. Yummy. In most cases it was always good to visit home.
This hadn’t exactly been one of them. Just about dying and having your father decide you should virtually be made a prisoner “for your own good” kind of put a damper on things.
When Father had relented (backed down from Mother), they’d wanted me to stay longer to rest and to visit. No, I’d said. I had to get to work with the other Trackers.
Three Trackers were dead. Three liaisons were missing.
Letting my thoughts turn toward being a Tracker, my stomach twisted and I just about dropped the nick-sack. I could almost feel the concrete beneath my knees as I felt like collapsing to the sidewalk because my legs didn’t want to carry me any farther. It was too painful, thinking of everything that had happened. Three of my friends—dead. So many others in danger.
My resolve pushed away the pain. I’d take care of business here at home since it was still early enough, and I’d call Rodán and speak to him about the Chance-Demon that had managed to get into the Pit. I’d tell Rodán about the scorpion shell. We’d figure this out before anyone else was murdered by the Demons.
Cars honked, a siren wailed, and cool, almost rainy air brushed my skin as I forced myself on toward my apartment. A raindrop landed on my nose and I wiped it away with the back of my hand.
According to Mother, Olivia was pissed as hell that I’d gone out without waiting for her to finish talking to Rodán. T—didn’t know how he felt. Flashes of the dead Trackers and other morbid thoughts kept repeating like an endless loop in my head, taking up most of my thoughts.
Stop thinking about it, Nyx. I did my best to shove everything Demon-related from my mind as I closed in on my apartment building. Tonight, in just hours, I’d be on the hunt, and Demons were going down.
The jeans my mother had given me were loose at my hips as I walked, and the button-up blouse felt light against my skin. Tears had sparkled in her pretty blue eyes when she hugged me good-bye and told me she loved me.
Then it was my father’s turn, and like before, I think he would’ve had tears in his eyes if he could.
After a ginormous hug that knocked the breath out of me, my gruff father had kissed the top of my head and told me in the language of the Dark Elves how much he loved me. Then he’d reluctantly used his greater earth and air powers to put me through the transference to get back to New York City. Who knew how long it would be before I’d have the power to do
the transference on my own.
In some ways it sucked being as young as I was for Drow. Twenty-seven is practically considered an infant amongst the Dark Elves, most of whom are centuries-old beings. Because of my age, I didn’t have as much elemental energy, or as much command over what powers I had. Infant, my ass.
I started to jog to my apartment as a good drizzle started. Terror yipped his little head off at something. Probably me. The rucksack bounced against my back as I bounded up the stairs.
Once I was in my apartment, the first thing I headed for was the fridge. I unloaded my goodies, then set the rucksack with the rest of its items on the kitchen table.
I smiled. Home. Freedom.
It would have taken a while to escape the Drow Realm if Mother hadn’t put Father in his place. I savored every moment of being aboveground again.
Kali was nowhere in sight, but then the blue Persian usually avoided me until she was certain I knew she was miffed that she’d been left alone too long. Mother said Olivia fed Kali while I was gone.
I reached into the rucksack and dug out my XPhone. When T had found me, ail of my weapons and my XPhone were retrieved, cleansed, and put in the rucksack. I checked the XPhone—dead, but probably just the battery. I used a sizzle of static in the air and, sure enough, that charged it. When I had enough bars of power and signal, I hit speed dial for Rodán.
“Nyx.” His voice was filled with relief when he answered. “Thank the Goddess Torin was able to save you. Are you well?”
“Very well.” I smiled. “And ready to get back to work tonight.”
“Are you certain?”
“Absolutely.”
His voice sounded a little harder. “This time you will take Torin and Olivia with you.” I sighed. “I will.”
“We found no breach in our security.” he said. “Tell me why you think there was.”
I explained to him about the Chance-Demon that had been in the Pit, his association with Caprice, and what he’d said when he almost killed me.
Rodán was silent for a moment before his words came out sharp, angry and in Drow, which is a coarse language compared to that of the Light Elves. “It is my guess that the Demon found some way to emulate one of the beings who frequent my establishment.” He inserted a few Drow curse words I’d never heard him use before. “I’ll take care of this. It will never happen again.”
“The being was disguised from me, somewhat like T,” I responded in the same tongue. “I could never place its scent, or get a feel for what type of being it was.”
Rodán made a hissing sound, definitely Drow. “Only those who were regulars prior to the Demon escape from the Ruhin Gate will be allowed in. After a thorough check of each being by Fred and my other guards.”
I told Rodán about the scorpion shell, and that the symbol we’d last come across had been part man and part horse, yes, but that it had a scorpion tail and not a fish tail.
Rodán went quiet again. “I would have liked to have known about this when you found out.”
“I made a mistake.” I pushed my hand through my hair. “I thought it could wait until the morning, when we could start researching it thoroughly.”
“Anything else?” He spoke in English now and his tone had returned to normal.
“That’s it,” I said.
“Above all else I’m glad you’re safe.” His voice held so much caring that it warmed me inside.
“We’ll meet tonight at nine with Torin and Olivia, before you track. I’ll brief you then on other developments.”
We’d just gone through enough information for now, so I was fine with waiting until tonight. There wasn’t a lot I could do at this moment, anyway, so we said good-bye, I pushed the off button, and I stared at the XPhone for a moment.
Okay. I needed to call Olivia and let her know I was back. No, wait. She was likely going to kill me for leaving her behind that night. One near-death experience was enough—I’d take my chances with her with a crowd around. Although that wouldn’t stop her. This time she wouldn’t be using rubber bands and erasers.
A knock at the door caught me off guard. The knock was loud, urgent. I hurried to the door and, through the peephole, saw Adam Boyd, his face drawn and his jaw tense.
What had happened?
I opened the door. “Adam—”
He grabbed me and kissed me fast and hard. I would have stumbled if he didn’t have such a good hold on me. His kiss was as urgent as his knock at the door, and I could taste coffee and male when we kissed. I drank in his scent, cuddled against his hard body, and sank into his embrace.
Adam broke our kiss and cupped my face in his hands. His eyes were filled with emotion as he looked me over, as if making sure ail of me was there.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” He kissed me before I could answer. “I’ve been going out of my mind.” He brushed hair away from my face, his fingers rough, not gentle, as they pushed my hair back, as if he was barely controlling some kind of power inside of him.
I smiled, partly to show him I was fine, and partly because of the way he was so concerned about me. A flutter blossomed in my chest at the depth of caring I heard in his voice. “I’m okay.”
Without looking behind him he moved us both fully into the apartment so that he could close the door. His expression told me he didn’t believe me. “When only Olivia and Torin showed up at the scene yesterday morning, I had a bad feeling in my gut!” Adam’s intensity made something more twist inside me. “Olivia told me what happened and I’ve been so goddamned worried ever since.”
“Thank you, Adam!” I reached up and kissed him, then lowered myself. “Really. I’m fine. How did you know I’m back?”
A bit of the harshness of his worry retreated, and I saw the ghost of a boyish smile. “Your neighbor with the yapper of a dog. I paid her to call me as soon as she saw you.”
“Ah.” That’s why Mrs. Taylor had pulled a cell phone out of her apron pocket when I was walking toward her.
He held me around my waist. I placed my hands on his shoulders and leaned back as we held each other’s gaze. He looked so good, his brown eyes so warm and inviting. “You missed our lunch today.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten all about it. “Are you hungry? I have a ton of food my mother sent home with me.”
Adam shook his head. “I need to hold you to make sure you don’t slip away from me again.”
I tilted my head to the side. “And how long is that?”
“As long as it takes.” He lowered his head to mine and kissed me. It was hard and urgent again. He kissed me in a way that told me how earnest he was about not wanting anything to happen to me.
It felt like Pixie dust tickled the inside of my belly as I kissed him back. I matched him stroke for stoke with my tongue and I gasped when he dragged his teeth over my lower lip.
The tickling inside my belly turned into a storm that shot straight to the place between my thighs.
Adam pulled me tight to him. His Glock rubbed against my side, but pleasure swept through me to feel his erection pressed against my belly Goddess, I wanted to feel him inside of me. That’s where he belonged, with his cock buried deep in my core, thrusting in and out until we both climaxed. I could visualize it clearly as he kissed me, and I wanted it so badly I could almost feel him taking me now.
My lips felt raw, swollen, as he drew his mouth from mine and placed kisses on my jawline before he moved his kisses to my neck. I clenched the shoulders of his leather bomber jacket as I tipped my head back, and I moaned when he kissed me all the way to the base of my throat.
“Honeysuckle,” he murmured between kisses. “Sweet. I want to taste you every time I see you.”
I wanted to tell him how good he made me feel, but all I could do was moan. Then I gasped as his mouth headed lower, to the V of my button-up shirt, where he flicked his tongue in tiny little circles over the skin between my breasts.
My nipples tingled and ached with his mouth so close to them. He
nudged aside the opening of my blouse and kissed the rise of my breast as far as the material would allow him.
Frustration had me squirming in his arms. I couldn’t take it. Too slow. I reached between us, grasped the front of my blouse with both hands, and the buttons popped off and scattered on the carpet when I ripped the opening apart.
Adam raised his head and his grin was devastating to my libido. “In a hurry?”
“Shut up,” I said, but with a smile of my own as he helped me slip off my ruined blouse. “Back to what you were doing.”
He gave a soft laugh. Then there was the matter of my bra. I was ready to rip it off, too, but he saved it by pulling the bra beneath my breasts.
My nipples are so sensitive that, when his warm mouth captured my nipple, I almost climaxed. I squirmed and arched my back, pressing my breast against his face. I swore he laughed again, but then he sucked on my other nipple and my body continued to burst with sensation after sensation.
His jacket bothered me. I couldn’t touch him the way I wanted to. I started shoving it over his shoulders so he’d get the point. He raised his head and studied me as he shrugged off his jacket, leaving him in a light blue T-shirt and jeans, his shoulder holster over his T-shirt.
I clasped my hands around his neck and held on as I drew myself up and wrapped my legs around his hips. My thigh pressed against his handgun.
His throat worked as he palmed my ass, supporting me. He sounded like he could barely speak when he said my name. “Nyx—”
I kissed him hard to show I wanted this, and then smiled as I nodded in the direction of my bedroom. “I have something I need you to investigate, Detective.”
His expression was filled with hunger. Need. Desire. “Has a crime been committed?” he said in a teasing but strained voice.
“There will be,” I said as he gripped my hips tighter. “If you don’t get me in there now. It’s called justifiable homicide.”
CHAPTER 23
Adam’s T-shirt rubbed my nipples, causing more delicious sensations to course through me as he carried me into my bedroom. I tilted my head back as I held onto him with my hands clasped behind his neck, and I moaned as he kissed the column of my throat.
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