I went right up in front of his lean, muscular body and he straightened, looking at me quizzically. It was now or never. I leaned in and…Corrigan immediately tensed and his head whipped round away from me. Aaargh.
“There you are. All the humans are down at the campsite area.” It was Beltran.
Fuck off, I screamed at him in my head. It didn’t work.
He nodded at Corrigan and bowed. “Lord Alpha, I am Beltran of the Seelie Fae.”
Corrigan gave a bow back. Despite myself, I was rather impressed by the cool show of cordiality. Beltran turned to me.
“Lord Sol Apollinarius told me that you have some photos of potential suspects.”
Corrigan frowned at me. “You didn’t tell me that.”
Irritated at the turn of events, I scowled slightly, then realised the way I was acting would just make me appear ‘prickly’ so I tried to smooth my features back into a smile. It was a struggle. “They’re just customers who’ve been visiting a weapons shop in London. It’s run by a Batibat called Wold and we think the two might be linked somehow.”
“We?” Corrigan’s eyes narrowed dangerously and a streak of gold flashed across them.
“Okay, me, I guess.”
“If you give me the photos,” said Beltran, “then I can check them against the humans who are here. Just in case.”
It was a sound idea. I nodded, before suddenly stopping and frowning. Oops. “Actually the photos are on Aubrey’s phone.”
“So find Aubrey and get it from him,” said Corrigan.
“I can’t,” I responded. “He’s, er, he’s…not here.”
Beltran shrugged. “That’s okay. You saw the photos and I assume you can remember what they looked like.”
I murmured in affirmation.
“Then come with me and you can check through all the humans yourself.”
I looked at Corrigan. He had a vaguely bored expression on his face.
“But…”
“What?”
“Well, Solus saw them too. Can’t he go instead?”
“You told him to stay by the entrance,” Corrigan reminded me. “Given that’s where your big bad dryad killer will arrive.”
Oh yeah.
“But if he’s already here, then he’ll come to check out his ward, and if Corrigan’s on his own, then…”
“I think, kitten, I can look after myself.” He was throwing the argument that I was always making to him back in my face. Fuckity fuck fuck.
I squared my shoulders. Okay. It would be better to get this done and out of the way as quickly as possible so I could get back to my original plan. I nodded at Beltran.
“Alright then,” I sighed, “lead the way.”
Beltran began gracefully gliding back in the direction that he’d arrived. I sneaked a quick peek at Corrigan. He was watching me with a bemused expression on his face.
“Are you okay?” he inquired.
No. “I’m fine,” I snapped, then immediately regretted it. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’ll be waiting here with bated breath,” he commented, with just the tiniest hint of sarcasm.
Perhaps not, but I will be, I thought sourly, then stomped frustratedly after the Fae.
*
Forcing myself to put Corrigan out of my head, and focus on the matter in hand, I stared with some degree of astonishment at the encampment. There must have been over forty people, and all of them were already busy putting up tents and getting little fires going. One man, who appeared quite a bit older than all the others, was striding around, shouting out orders.
“Don’t you dare cut down any branches!” He called out with an imperious tone. “Just use what is already on the ground and what nature has provided.”
A dread-locked girl wearing a tie-dyed skirt went past, hissing under teeth. “Idiot.”
I grinned, then sniffed the air. “What is that?”
“A most interesting mixure of patchouli, hemp and the unwashed,” stated Max from behind my shoulder. “Unpleasant, isn’t it?”
He moved on before I could answer, ostensibly to help a girl begin to hammer in pegs for her rather threadbare looking tent. It seemed to me that he was hovering around her more so that he could check out her bottom when she bent over than help. I had to bite my tongue to avoid snapping at him and drawing undue attention to us, and instead began casting around, trying to glimpse the features of all the male protestors.
There were more women than men, so it wasn’t hard to pick each one out. The vast majority had the same long dreadlocked hair, as if they were buying into some kind of pack uniform all of their own. I watched them thoughtfully. That was what it was all about, really. Feeling like you belonged somewhere and being part of a group or a family. It might be a coven of vampires, or the Ministry of Mages, or a shifter pack or even a band of hippy protestors. But what mattered was feeling connected. And I didn’t have that. Sure, there was Mrs. Alcoon, but I didn’t think that two people necessarily counted. Maybe the reason that I was always so bad-tempered wasn’t anything to do with my freaky genetics, maybe it was, as Corrigan had essentially intimated, that I was just fucking lonely. I had the weirdest sensation that the clouds in the sky were parting and a dawning ray of light was shining down on me in acknowledgement of my sudden epiphany.
The moment was somewhat ruined when a bloke went past me and farted, loudly. He looked over at Beltran and myself standing there and gave us a half-grin.
“Sorry about that,” he drawled. “It’s those damn beans we’re always eating.”
He stuck out a grubby hand. “Good to meet you. I’m Bo.”
I could feel Beltran’s superior Fae instincts recoiling from the idea of having to sully his pure Fae skin by touching this back-to-mother-nature-imbued human, so I reached out myself and shook his hand.
“Mack,” I said, by way of introduction.
“You here for the protest?”
I nodded.
“Brill,” he said. “A lot of people don’t like bats, but it’s important that every one of God’s creatures is allowed to live in peace. They do a lot of good in maintaining the balance, you know.”
I tried not to let my surprise show that the bat idea had caught on. “Yes, bats are hugely important to the eco-system,” I replied solemnly. “As are all these great trees.”
He smiled and patted me on the arm. “A fellow freedom fighter! We won’t let those council wankers bulldoze their way through here. They simply have no sense or understanding that we need to preserve these places for everyone’s futures, not just our own.” He snorted. “Holiday homes! Ridiculous!”
Naturally, I didn’t point out that it had nothing to do with the local council, and instead everything to do with some nefariously evil man hiding in the shadows. I just tried to look as serious and environmentally fighting friendly as I possibly could.
Beltran cleared his throat pointedly, in case I’d forgotten that we weren’t here simply to shoot the breeze. I tried to avoid scowling at him. I couldn’t just open every conversation with ‘did you or anyone you know crucify a tree nymph near here in order to boost your evil Machiavellian power plans?’ now, could I?
“I’m pretty new here,” I said to the guy. I gave a little laugh. “Well, very new.”
“I know!” he grinned back. “I’d have noticed you around here before otherwise.”
I ignored the opportunity for a little flirtation. I didn’t have time to mess around to get the information that I needed. Let’s face it, all I really wanted to do was to get back to Corrigan as quickly as possible. I went for the more direct route instead. “Are there any other newcomers around? Maybe we could band together.”
It stood to reason that my dryad-killer-slash-weapons-dealer hadn’t spent any time up till now hanging around with the protestors. With his ward in place, he’d have had no reason to worry about them. That meant that if he was here now, hiding in amongst the other humans, then he had to be new. And I reckoned that, like
me, any newbies would stick out like sore thumbs.
“Nah. Just Tran here, and yourself. Other than that, everyone else has been with us for months.”
I immediately stiffened at the mention of some guy named Tran, then relaxed when I realised that Bo was gesturing towards Beltran with his thumb. Oh, of course.
“It’s Beltran,” glowered the Fae.
I tried not to smirk in amused understanding at his annoyance.
A girl came up and joined us, offering me a quick smile, before focusing her attention on Bo.
“We have a problem,” she said, her features set.
He raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“We need some tree trunks for the tripods, Bo.”
“And?”
“There aren’t any.”
I was utterly confused. We were in the middle of a forest. Trees were not in short supply.
Bo, however, sighed heavily. “”We’ve been through this.”
“Yeah, but…”
“We kill a few to save a lot. You know that.”
I was even more baffled now. And I definitely didn’t like this talk of killing. “Uh, what’s going on?” I inquired, doing my very best to keep my tone light.
Bo turned back towards me. “We need to stop the bulldozers from getting here. It’s the best way to prevent any demolition from taking place. So we build tripods across the roads preventing any gas-guzzling vehicles from getting here. We send two or three people to sit on top of the tripods meaning that the bulldozers can’t pass through without knocking down them down and potentially killing them. Murder for holiday homes is not a headline that these corporate soul-sellers enjoy.”
I must have still looked puzzled, because he explained further. “We need materials to build the tripods from.”
Realisation hit me. “You need to cut down trees.”
Bo’s face looked pained. “Yes. But only the young slender ones. And it’s for the greater good.”
“I told you we should have taken scaffolding from that builder’s yard,” the girl snapped.
“Well, we didn’t,” he shot back at her. “Just pick the smaller trees on the edges of the woods. We don’t have a choice.”
“I am not a tree-killer!”
“If you don’t do this,” he said, evenly, “then all these trees will be slaughtered!”
I nudged Beltran’s arm. This didn’t seem like an argument that we ought to get ourselves involved in. Besides, we had the information we needed. Our murderer wasn’t here. The Fae nodded at me, and we both quietly slipped away, leaving Bo and the girl continuing to argue and bicker. As much as I understood her position, Bo was making sense. If these tripod things stopped vehicles from getting here, and the only thing that the tripods could be built from were trees, then the ‘greater good’ would indeed have to prevail. I’d just have to hope that the dryads saw it that way too. At least I knew their habitats were much larger and older than any of the trees the protestors would end up using. I shrugged. As he’d said, you kill a few to save a lot.
It was just a shame that thought would come back to haunt me so much later.
Chapter Nineteen
After leaving Beltran at the edge of the encampment, with strict instructions to be alert for any strangers trying to approach and inveigle their way in, I picked my way back towards Corrigan. As far as I was concerned, things were looking good. The protestors were all set up and clearly deeply involved in the business of stopping any development from even starting to get going. The evil bastard that had killed Mereia was, at least according to the Batibat, going to show up soon – and he had no reason to venture near the humans before he checked out his now defunct ward, meaning that I could kill him before he ended up hurting anyone innocent. And the Lord Alpha of the Brethren really liked me.
I gave a little skip. I just couldn’t help myself. It was amazing the way that life could turn around and give you a great big sloppy kiss on the chops right when you were least expecting it. And speaking of kisses…
“Pssst! Mack!”
I twisted my head to the left, registering the figure of Aubrey hovering at the fringes of the trees and holding aloft a large pizza box. I grinned to myself. This was just getting better and better. I jogged over to him and smiled.
“I got you the Meat Feast,” he said anxiously. “I hope it’s alright?”
I gave the ex-vamp a reassuring nod. “It’ll be perfect, Aubrey, thank you.”
The pleasure on his face was evident. Perhaps he wasn’t so bad, after all. I made myself a promise to do everything I could to be nicer to him from now on. He was trying his best to adjust to his new existence. The least I could do was to be more patient with him.
“Can you do me a favour now?” I asked, not wanting to compel him, but rather to treat him like an equal.
His eyes lit up. “Of course. What?”
“Aubrey,” I tutted, “don’t agree to anything unless you know what it’s going to be first.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said dismissively, and with an unnerving trust in me. Still, it was probably better than hysterics and tears. “What do you need?”
“Can you make sure that no-one disturbs either me or Corrigan unless it’s important? You know, unless the prick who killed the dryad shows up or there’s something dangerous around?” I wasn’t about to be interrupted again this time. I had a plan.
“I will do that, Mack, no problem. I’ll make sure that fat woman doesn’t appear either.”
Somehow I had the inkling that, thanks to the fear I’d seen on the Batibat’s face when I’d broken the ward, she was going to make sure she was as far away as she could possibly get. But I nodded my thanks at Aubrey anyway, and took the pizza box from him. The heavy scent of cheese and garlic floated up to me. I hoped Corrigan enjoyed fast food.
With a meaningful look at Aubrey, hoping that he realised that the figurative ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign was also for him, I turned away and headed back out towards where I knew the Lord Alpha was.
The sky was starting to darken, the sun dipping below the tree line and streaks of burnt orange and gold signalling the close of the day. My stomach was squirming with nervousness, but I pushed down the feelings as best I could. As sure as I was that it wouldn’t be long before we’d be interrupted by the arrival of my current nemesis, I needed to do this first. Nothing in my life had ever seemed this important – or this scary – before. Still under the cover of the few remaining trees, I stopped a few feet away from the small clearing where I knew Corrigan to be and swallowed hard, closing my eyes and clenching my teeth together. Then I forced myself to relax and stepped out.
Whatever I’d been expecting, it wasn’t that. Corrigan was sitting down on the ground, his long muscular legs spread out in front of him. Next to him was a chequered cloth, laden with gleaming silverware, two long-stemmed glasses, and a picnic basket. There was even an ice-bucket with a bottle of champagne nestled inside. When he saw me approach, he sprang lithely to his feet.
His green eyes, with hints of warm gold flickering within their depths, watched me carefully. I stared at him, my mouth dropping slightly.
“Hello, kitten.”
My tongue seemed to be clawed to the roof of my mouth. Corrigan sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Look,” he said, “I know this isn’t ideal. I’m not trying to make light of the terrible things that happened here and this isn’t a celebration. But, in view of the fact that we have to stay for now, and that you promised me dinner, I thought that maybe we could at least manage some food.”
His eyes drifted down to the pizza box in my hands, and I gave him a shy half-smile. “You beat me to it,” I said softly.
A slow lazy grin, tinged with just a hint of surprise, spread across his face. “Where did you get pizza from?”
“I had a little help from Aubrey,” I admitted. “Where did you get the posh picnic?”
“I arranged it earlier when you went off to talk to the dryads.”
We both r
emained standing there, just looking at each other. I bit my lip. Corrigan’s eyes moved to my mouth, then back up to my eyes again. Without looking away from him, I knelt down, and placed the pizza box carefully on the cloth, then stood back up again. A look of mutually surprised understanding passed between us. My heart thudded.
“Last chance to back out, kitten,” he said quietly. There was a hopeful wariness on his face.
“I told you not to call me that, my Lord.”
A predatorial smile curved its way across his mouth. I smiled back. Then we sprang at each other.
Corrigan’s lips were hot against mine as I pressed against him with an insatiable, insistent need. He tasted warm and masculine, with just a hint of toothpaste mintiness hovering in the background. He raised up one hand, twisting his fingers through my hair, while the other curved tightly round my back. I wrapped my arms around him, luxuriating in the feel of his tight trembling muscles under my skin.
His hand moved down to my bottom, squeezing it and pulling my body even closer against his, then his lips left mine and began moving down my throat, nibbling and nipping downwards. I moaned and clutched him tighter, all semblance of rational thought completely leaving me. His breath was scorching hot against my skin and, deep inside, my bloodfire matched it, swirling around with heated seductive need. Corrigan shifted his weight ever so slightly, causing both of us to stumble and fall backwards, me on top of him, with an answering crash of breaking glass as one of our feet connected with the ice-bucket and sent it flying into the champagne flutes. I laughed and half-sat up, straddling him with my legs, my hands gripping his broad shoulders. Leaning over him, I smiled down.
Blood Politics (Blood Destiny 4) Page 19
