Dark Deceiver

by Pamela Palmer

Autumn got out of the car and couldn’t move until Kade slid his warm fingers around her wrist. Angry frustration flared inside her. “I hate this. You might as well put a choke collar around my neck and attach a leash.” Her gaze rose to his. “I used to love it when you touched me. Now I hate it.”

  His eyes flinched and she thought her barb had hit its mark, but the look was gone a second later and he pulled her with him to the marina office.

  “We’re going to check your mail in case one of those stones has already arrived. Act natural.”

  “Yes, sir, master, sir,” she muttered.

  He opened the door for her and ushered her inside.

  “Good morning, Kade!”

  Autumn’s head jerked up in surprise, a chill raising her skin to gooseflesh. How in the heck did the desk guy know the Esri? Had Kade enchanted him, too?

  Kade lifted a hand in greeting, but said nothing to the man, whose name even Autumn didn’t know. “Retrieve your mail and bring it to me, including packages.”

  She silently wished that none of the sculptures had arrived yet. But when she opened Larsen’s mail slot—hers for now—she found a telltale slip of paper announcing that a package was being held for her at the front desk.

  Led as if by unseen puppet strings, she marched to the counter and retrieved a small box that was about the size of a tissue box. A quick glance at the label said the sender’s name was Robertson.

  Hells bells.

  This son had spent a considerable amount of money to overnight the sculpture for morning delivery. Poor Mr. Robertson was so anxious for this exhibit. If she managed to get out of this alive, that exhibit was going to happen if she had to tie up her boss and do it herself.

  Against her will, she took the box to Kade, afraid she was turning over another power stone to the enemy.

  “See you later!” the man behind the counter called as they left the office.

  They walked down the path to the docks, the river-scented wind whipping loose tendrils of hair into her face. The day was as gray as her mood. Was it only a week ago that she’d dreamed of walking hand in hand with this man she’d fancied herself in love with? Now here she was, she thought bitterly. Hand in hand. But their closeness had nothing to do with affection and everything to do with control. And her dream had turned into a nightmare.

  When they reached the houseboat, Kade helped her on board, then handed her the box. “Hold this and wait here.” Then he turned and went to the rail where she’d tied the lead-lined box. Out on the river, a lone sailboat bobbed as it cut through the rough water. Free.

  Beneath her, she could feel the gentle sway of the houseboat, but for once the movement didn’t unbalance her. What if she fell and the box landed in the water? Could Esri swim? She tried to fall, tried to move, but his words, no matter how casually stated, bound her. It wouldn’t matter anyway, she thought with a soft snort of resignation. He’d simply tell her to go in after it. And if she drowned trying to retrieve the thing? At least he wouldn’t be able to control her anymore.

  She watched Kade lean over the rail, the leather jacket stretched taut across his broad back. Her fingers remembered all too well the planes of that back, and the hard muscles of his arms and chest. Heat rushed through her as her body warmed and readied itself to welcome his. She tore her gaze away and forced herself to look elsewhere.

  How could she still want him, knowing what he was? She didn’t, not consciously. But her body was not so particular and her gaze wouldn’t be denied, following him as he lifted the dripping box over the rail and opened it, pulling out the stone she’d worked so hard to find.

  His expression closed, he came to her, taking the box out of her hands, then ushered her inside.

  The houseboat was as she’d left it yesterday, the blinds open, muted daylight filling the living room with a gray gloom.

  Kade set the box on the kitchen counter. “Would you like to open it?” There was no softness in his voice. No kindness. Yet his words offered a measure of consideration completely at odds with his role of evil Esri.

  He was letting her be the first to find the stones if there were any.

  “Why do you do that?” she asked, frustrated.

  “Do what?”

  “Pretend to care how I feel.”

  He turned away. “Do you want to open it or not?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then do it.” His voice remained without heat, without warmth. Without any inflection at all.

  She crossed to the kitchen, able to move freely for the first time all day. Her pulse leaped as the breath of opportunity pricked her scalp. What if he couldn’t swim? What if she could grab the stone and dive into the water before he grabbed her? Before he gave her any orders? If he couldn’t follow, she’d be free.

  But she’d never outrun him. Not unless she could figure out a way to slow him down.

  The blood began to pound in her ears as she opened the drawer to grab scissors to cut through the tape. She stared at their sharp, pointy ends. A weapon. They wouldn’t kill him. From what she knew of Esri healing powers—and the little bit she’d seen for herself—the stab would barely hurt him at all. But it might slow him down enough to give her a chance to escape.

  Her mind leaped in an excited panic from one thought to the next. She needed time to think this through.

  There was no time.

  Kade stood by the counter, watching her. She moved around behind him, gripping the scissor handles in her fist. But as she lifted the weapon, intending to aim for his heart, the boat rocked, knocking her into him. The scissors slipped from her fingers, landing with a glancing blow that sliced a painful cut along the top of her bare foot.

  “Ow, ow, ow!” Her fingers curled into the silk of Kade’s shirt as she tried to get her balance. Blood oozed from the shallow, burning cut.

  Kade’s shirt slid out of her grasp as he turned to face her. “What happened?”

  “I dropped the scissors.” And lost her one chance to stop this travesty and get away. Tears of pain and frustration swam in her eyes. She was such an idiot.

  She gasped as Kade swung her into his arms. “What are you doing?”

  “We have to stop the blood.” His voice sounded so dire, she might have laughed if she’d had any laughter left in her.

  “It’s just a cut. Not a big deal.”

  He looked at her with solemn, worried eyes. “A human cannot withstand too much blood loss.”

  She knew he was remembering Larsen. The memory jarred her. Why had he helped save Larsen? To keep from blowing his cover? Probably.

  “The human body is designed to stop the blood loss on its own if the cut isn’t too deep or the damage too extensive,” she told him. She thought of the way her fingernails had torn his cheek, and shivered. “My cut won’t heal as fast as yours, but it will heal.”

  His eyes narrowed in concentration as if he were thinking about something carefully. “You need a bandage.”

  “There’s a box of them in the bathroom medicine cabinet.” She grimaced. “I don’t go anywhere without them.”

  He set her down on the sofa and patted her hand. “Wait here.”

  Damn. She wondered if he even knew he’d given her another order. She tried to rise and couldn’t budge. With a defeated sigh, she let her head fall against the sofa back as she waited for him.

  Kade returned with the bandages and a sterile gauze pad and knelt at her feet. With big, gentle hands, he lifted her foot onto his lap and gently dabbed at the blood.

  She stared at the top of his dark head in bewilderment. “I don’t understand you.”

  His gaze lifted. “What don’t you understand?”

  “Why you’re being so gentle.”

  Emotions flickered through his eyes, but she couldn’t read them. “I’ve hurt you enough.” He bandaged the cut then rose and looked down at her, his eyes shuttered. “Does it hurt?”

  “A little.” It was hard to remember he was Esri when he was being kind like this, when he was
acting like the man she’d fallen for. “Thank you.”

  He nodded, then he went to retrieve the box and the scissors. He sat beside her and cut through the tape himself, then handed the box to her for her to open.

  As she lifted the flaps, she felt a tingling of excitement she couldn’t manage to quell. The sculpture was wrapped in Bubble Wrap. She lifted it carefully from the box and unwrapped it. In her hands she held what appeared to be a silver and green frog. Her heart leaped and then plummeted as her gaze fastened on the pair of etched stones that acted as his feet.

  “How many?” Kade asked.

  “Two.” She couldn’t see any advantage to lying.

  He thrust out his hand to her. “Let me see them.”

  She handed him the frog and watched as he turned the small rock-encrusted animal over in his hands, cradling it with surprising care. Tension pulsed from his big body, palpable and unsettling. But not frightening.

  The man was an enigma. Inhuman, certainly. Intense. But not cruel.

  “Do you see more than two?” she asked.

  “No.” Using the scissors, he carefully pried the two stones loose.

  As he set the footless sculpture on the coffee table, she reached out and touched his arm. “Kade.” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip, suddenly nervous. “Couldn’t you pretend you didn’t find these?”

  He covered her hand with his, his grip tight and unpleasant. Any kindness she’d seen in his eyes evaporated.

  “Don’t ever doubt my loyalty to my king.” His jaw clenched, throwing his cheekbones into hard relief. Making her pulse race with real fear.

  “Kade, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  He cut her off. “Pull out your phone. I’m going to tell you to call Jack.”

  Her heart lurched. “Why?” Without her consent, her hand began to dig around in her purse, searching for her phone, following his command.

  “You’re going to ask him to meet you here as soon as possible. Alone.”

  “Kade, no. Please no. You don’t need him.”

  He dropped the three Esri stones into her purse. “I do. He wears the draggon stone around his neck.”

  Her blood went cold. “Kade…” Autumn clutched at his hand. “You won’t hurt him. Please. Deep down you’re a good man. I know it.”

  His eyes turned bleak. “You’re wrong, Autumn. So very, very wrong. Now, call Jack.”

  Autumn’s hands were shaking, her mind screaming as her unwilling fingers punched Jack’s speed-dial number. Kade paced the houseboat’s small living room, his strides tense, his face as hard as granite.

  “Kade, please tell me you’re not going to hurt him.” He was setting Jack up, forcing her to call him into his trap so he could take the draggon stone.

  As he swung by the sofa where she sat, his hand snaked out to clamp around her wrist, forcing her to obey his will. “Don’t talk to me. Tell Jack you’re not sure anyone else should see this until he’s had a chance to look at it. Keep your voice calm, even and friendly.”

  No. The denial screamed in her head as the phone rang in her ear.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Jack. It’s Autumn.” It was as if she’d been locked away while another soul took over her body. While everything inside her cried out in warning, her voice was just as Kade demanded. Calm and friendly as she relayed Kade’s words.

  “I’ll swing by within the hour,” Jack said. “See you then.” The phone went silent with a click.

  He was going to walk right into a trap that she’d help set!

  A quaking started deep inside her, spreading through her body and down her limbs, driven by hopelessness and impotent fury. She wanted to beg him to reconsider. She needed to yell at him and rail at him for his betrayal and cruelty. And she couldn’t say a word because of his order.

  Kade took the phone from her hand and closed it, even as he kept a grip on her hand. “You won’t leave this boat until I tell you to.” His voice was hard, without inflection. “Go pack a suitcase with clothes and whatever else you’ll need for the rest of the week. Then sit on the bed and don’t make a sound until I come to get you.”

  When he released her hand, she rose as if pulled by a string, and moved to the small guest cabin on feet driven by a will not her own. Though her mind fought every move, she packed without thinking, without choice.

  As she tossed clothes into her duffel, fear for Jack rode her, twisting her insides until she thought she was going to be sick. If only she knew the Esri death chant, all she’d need to do was get her hands on a matchbook and Kade would be history.

  The thought chilled her. She was suddenly glad she didn’t have the chant, didn’t have to make that choice. Because as much as she hated what he was, hated what he was doing, she wasn’t sure she could destroy the man who’d stolen her heart.

  God, she was such a fool.

  When her bag was packed, she sat on the bed and listened for Jack, unable to do anything else. A plane sounded overhead, following the Potomac in its descent into Reagan National Airport. The roar of a boat engine melded with the city sounds, filling her ears as she pressed her shaking hands together in her lap.

  Tears trickled down her cheeks.

  Kade, no. Please, no.

  The seconds felt like minutes. The minutes like hours as dread formed a rock in her stomach the size of her fist. Footsteps on the dock shook her out of her trance of misery. Moments later, the boat gave a lurch that told her someone had come aboard.

  No.

  The rap of knuckles on the glass sliding door turned her blood to ice.

  No, Jack! Don’t come in. Run!

  She pressed her palms to the bed, pushing against the unnatural bonds that held her there with every scrap of power in her mind. If only she could get up! If only she could run out there and warn him herself. As she fought Kade’s terrible control, her hands began to vibrate and warm.

  Then, like a spark catching flame, the warmth turned hot and shot up her arms in a scalding spray, just as it had last night. Her mouth opened on a silent scream as the vicious flame tore through her chest, carving spirals of color through her vision. She arched her back against the pain, gasping for air as tears sliced down her cheeks.

  Voices penetrated her agony.

  “Hi, Kade. Autumn asked me to stop by.”

  “Come in, Jack.”

  Autumn heard the faint squeak of the sliding door closing. And a single, heavy thud.

  Then silence.

  Autumn’s tears slowly turned to sobs. Larsen, I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry. It’s my fault. All my fault.

  So many mistakes. So many stupid moves. How could she have been so wrong about Kade? So wrong.

  By the time Kade finally opened the door, her body had cooled, but her eyes ached, her head was throbbing and her heart lay in a broken heap in the middle of her chest. She blinked back the tears that blurred her vision and wished she hadn’t when she saw the savage twist of his mouth.

  He picked up her suitcase then grabbed her wrist with fingers vibrating with tension. “Come.” The command was quick and harsh.

  He yanked her after him and through the living room so quickly, she almost didn’t see Jack. But as they reached the door, there he was, sprawled face down, the bandages to his head and arm gone. Myrtle had probably healed him once she’d recovered from healing Larsen, but it was all for nothing. Jack’s healed arm lay at an awkward angle against his unmoving, lifeless body.

  Bitter tears rolled down her cheeks as Kade pulled her through the door. Sobs broke over her with silent pain.

  “Put your arm around me and lean into me as if you’re seeking comfort.” Though his words were brittle, Kade’s arm slid around her shoulders in a mockery of the closeness they’d once shared. They walked slowly to the car, her suitcase by Kade’s side. He’d told her to pack enough clothes to last until the next full moon and the opening of the dark gate between the worlds. As she’d packed that suitcase, the thought had gone through her head that he wou
ldn’t hurt her. He clearly didn’t intend to kill her.

  Now, with a terrible clarity, she understood why.

  She was his weapon. His lure.

  One by one, he’d order her to call her friends and ask them to meet her. One by one he’d kill them.

  When that gate opened, there would be no Sitheen left to stop Kade from leaping through with the seven stones of Esri. Their dark purpose, whatever it was, would be fulfilled.

  All she’d wanted was to matter in some way. To help the Sitheen in this fight. Now, through her foolish, romantic gullibility, she was helping to destroy them. Through her, Kade had the means to lure the Sitheen to their deaths.

  There was only one certain way to stop him.

  With bleak determination, she knew what she had to do.

  Chapter 13

  “Next!”

  After returning from the marina, Kaderil had locked Autumn in his apartment and now strode into the deli on the ground floor, the events of the past hour flaying him like a whip. His betrayal of Jack. The anguish in Autumn’s eyes. His betrayal of himself and everything he was.

  His hands clenched into fists at his sides as barely controlled fury lent a menace to his every step, his every glance.

  He pushed past the long line of patrons, shoving his way to the front of the line.

  “Hey!” A middle-aged human male in construction clothes tried to hold his ground against Kaderil’s aggression. “Who do you think you are?”

  With lightning speed, Kaderil grabbed the front of the man’s coveralls and lifted him until he was eye level, letting the full force of his fury blaze in his eyes. “Back off.”

  Fear leaped in the human’s eyes, his hands raising in quick surrender. “Yeah. Sure. Go right ahead.”

  The line behind him disappeared. Even people sitting at the tables grabbed their food and left, watching him with a fear he’d never attracted from humans. Then again, he was a seven-foot monster capable of snapping necks with ease. They had reason to be afraid.

  He shouldn’t be around others in this mood. He wouldn’t be if he hadn’t felt the need to bring food to Autumn. Though Esri enjoyed and thrived best on food, they didn’t need it to live the way humans did, and he had little in the apartment. She was his captive, bound to him until he went back through the gate. As such, he had to provide for her. Protect her. And, maybe, dim the anguish in her eyes.