by Lisa Olsen
“London, actually.”
Lee nodded, thumbs hitching into his belt loops as he leaned back against the wall. “You might want to think on taking a spot of company with ya.”
“Bring Maggie with me?”
“Sure, why not? Unless you’re expectin’ danger. In which case, I’d better get an invite myself,” he added with a lopsided grin.
“No, no danger,” I smiled – except to my calm. “That’s not a bad idea though. Maybe I will talk to Maggie about coming with. The last time I went to England, she wasn’t so keen on the idea though.”
“It’s always nice to be asked at least. I’ll leave you to your own thoughts.” Lee gave me a nod, turning to head back upstairs again, but paused with his hand on the railing. “You expect you’ll run into Rob over there?”
My easy smile turned brittle at the mention of his name, but there was no avoiding it. “Yes, I expect so.”
“You see him, tell him I ain’t gonna wait on him forever, y’hear?”
My lips pursed in confusion. “What are you waiting on?”
“After he pulled up stakes and moved on, he sent me a letter on how he’s fixin’ to become one of them silent partners in our business. As if he hadn’t already been silent for nigh onto two months now,” he snorted.
“A silent partner?” I hadn’t thought about how Rob’s departure must’ve thrown a monkey wrench into their security business. Maybe the venture was doomed from the start? It’d been six months since we’d first talked about starting the business up and it didn’t seem to be close to opening its doors anytime soon.
“Yep, and that’s all well and good, only I’ve got no idea what he had cookin’ at the time he skedaddled. I need to pick his brains over or I might end up making an even bigger ass of m’self than I have already.”
“I’m sure you’ve done no such thing, but I’ll try and get him to call you when I talk to him.”
“I’d take it as a kindness if you did,” he nodded, cheeks crinkling in a relieved smile. “Well, g’nite. Don’t you light out of here without saying goodbye, now, y’hear?”
“I won’t,” I promised, smiling back with more enthusiasm than I felt. The truth was, I wasn’t at all looking forward to climbing into bed – especially after I’d been sharing it with Rob for months.
The room looked mostly how I’d left it, only Rob’s stuff was gone, of course. Not just his clothes from the closet, but there was only one set of towels hanging in the bathroom, and the drawer he’d used in my desk was empty too. It was as if he’d never moved in with me at all, erased completely from the space.
I started digging through cupboards and drawers, looking for some shred of evidence of the time we’d shared, coming up short. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find he’d wiped his fingerprints clear from all of the surfaces – there was literally no trace that he’d ever existed.
When I caught myself sniffing his old pillow, I knew I needed a distraction, and there was one person I could turn to who’d provide it without a heaping side of drama.
Carter.
It was getting later, but not so bad I didn’t think he’d answer. The phone rang and rang, and I started to think it’d go to voicemail when the line clicked on. When he didn’t say hello, I ventured the first greeting.
“Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten me, it’s been less than twenty-four hours since I left.”
“No, I’m just surprised that you’d call.” Carter’s voice was even, with no trace of his usual teasing lilt. “To be honest, I didn’t think I’d hear from you so soon. Or, you know, ever.”
Without seeing him in front of me, I wasn’t sure if he was kidding or serious. Had he really thought I’d abandoned him for good? “So dramatic,” I sighed. “Come on, you know why I had to leave, it’s not because I care about you and the work we were doing any less. This is something I have to see to.”
“Please tell me you already saw him and kicked the shit out of him and you’re coming back.” There was too much eagerness in his voice, as if he was picturing such a confrontation in his mind’s eye.
“No, he’s not here.”
“Great, then you’re off the hook.”
“It’s not that easy and you know it, Carter.” I shook my head, searching for the right words to explain it to him. “I have to find Rob and talk things out. I should’ve done it weeks ago. There’s no moving forward without cleaning up the past.”
“Where’d you hear that one? One of those Hallmark movies?” he snorted.
“Nope, this is my own brand of wisdom.”
“Yeah, well, your wisdom sucks.”
I smiled to myself over the petulant tone, he sounded like a spoiled five year old. “That’s why I called you, Carter. There’s nothing like an overwhelming vote of support from you when I need it most. Is there anything else you want to take a shot at while I’m down on the ground? You don’t like my driving, maybe?” I added dryly, but his reply was unrepentant, almost challenging.
“You can take it.”
“Yes, I can.” I smiled again, glad I’d made the call. This was what I’d come to rely on, his ability to jostle me out of my darkest moods. “It’s too bad you can’t go to London, that’s where I’m headed.”
“That makes sense he’d turn tail and run for home.”
I ignored the dig, Carter would never be Rob’s biggest fan, and I couldn’t blame him for voicing his disapproval for the whole situation. I wasn’t thrilled about it myself. “Are you driving right now?” I changed the subject after what sounded like a large truck bled onto the line.
“Uh huh, I’m on the road to Boston.”
I checked the time. He was pushing it awfully close to dawn to be out on the open road. I’d known he probably wouldn’t stick around Chicago for long on his own, but I hadn’t expected him to move on so quickly. “That was fast. What if I’d said I was on my way back?”
“Then I’d turn the car around. Hell, I’d drive to you if you wanted me to. Say the word, sunshine, and I’m there.”
I smiled over the absolute conviction behind his light words, knowing he’d do exactly that if I asked him to. And as much as I loved having him by my side, I knew it wasn’t the right move. “It’s not safe for you here, remember? There’s a bounty on your head the size of Texas. Or do you enjoy getting shot up?”
“Oh, I dunno, the cure wasn’t all that bad the last time,” he quipped.
I didn’t need to be reminded of the time I’d given him my blood to heal the gunshot damage. It’d strengthened our bond, but I wasn’t up for a repeat performance anytime soon, so I changed the subject again. “Why Boston?”
“You marked New York off limits,” he pointed out. “Boston’s got some heavy hitters in need of curbing. Besides, there’s no rest for the wicked.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Try and find some rest before too long though. You won’t do anyone any good if you turn into a crispy critter come the dawn.”
“I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know exactly how far I can push it. Besides, the weather’s for shit out here, I’ve got an extra hour of cover, easy,” he replied with confidence.
“Still, don’t push it too late, okay? Just because I said goodbye doesn’t mean I wanted it to turn permanent.”
“Okay,” he moaned, like I’d asked him to eat a Brussels sprout soufflé, but I could tell he liked my mothering. “I swear I’ll pull over at the next exit if you promise me one thing in return.”
“If I can.”
“Save his ass if you have to, but don’t take him back. He doesn’t deserve you.”
How had we come back to Rob again? “How can I possibly make you that kind of a promise? I haven’t even seen him yet.”
“All the better. Make it now before he starts talking all – love you heaps, yeah?” Carter said with a flawless cockney accent, to my great surprise.
“Wow, you totally nailed that accent.”
“I’ve seen the original Get Carte
r with Michael Caine a hundred and twelve times. Lots of years on the road by myself, remember? Hell, if I’d known that’s all it took to impress you, I’d have talked with a limey accent this whole time.”
I couldn’t help but giggle at that, and he joined in, our laughter mingling until we lapsed into a comfortable silence. “It’s getting late. I just wanted to make sure you haven’t gone all Dark Knight on me already.”
“I promise I won’t go all bloody vigilante if you promise me you won’t turn to mush at the first sign of stubble and swagger,” he countered.
“Goodnight, Carter. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Later, sunshine. Be good.”
“Always.”
Chapter Three
The next night I was up early, helping myself to a mug of warmed blood before I went to seek out Maggie for a little girl talk. I found her in my study, arranging a pile of correspondence into neat stacks.
“Oh, I didn’t think you’d be up so early,” she said, startled when I entered the room, the lilt of her refined, British accent softening her distress. “I’ll have this mess sorted in a few minutes and then I’ll be out of your hair.”
“No rush,” I assured her, sitting on the window sill to watch her work. Her long, golden brown hair was bound into a fancy braid that fell over one shoulder. I counted at least three layers on her to chase away the chill – a product of living in a household of vampires and a werewolf who ran a few degrees hotter than humans.
“I meant to have this done last night when you first called and said you’d be stopping by. But then Gunnar wanted to decorate for the party and I couldn’t say no,” she smiled self consciously and I waved her concerns away.
“It’s not that big of a deal. You can throw it all into one pile and I’ll dig through it myself once I get on the plane.”
“You’re off already then?” Maggie wasn’t quite able to keep the note of disappointment from her voice, but her features were schooled into a polite smile.
“Actually, I thought maybe you might want to come with me,” I ventured, seeing the evidence of Lee’s advice in the way her face lit up at the suggestion.
“Do you truly mean that?”
“Of course I do,” I answered readily. “I mean, it’s not going to be a super exciting trip if I can manage it, but I’d be glad to have you along if you don’t mind leaving everything behind at the drop of a hat.”
“No, I don’t mind at all. In fact, it’ll be lovely to get away for a while. Where are we going?”
“London.” My hands came up before she could react to that. “It’s fine if that makes you change your mind, I know it’s not your favorite place to visit.”
“No, that’d be grand,” she replied, her smile never dimming. “I’d love to see a few familiar faces again.” I wanted to ask if she had a certain werewolf in mind, but she flowed right into the next question before I could open my mouth. “Why are you going there, if you don’t mind me asking? I was under the impression you were less than thrilled with Aubrey. Did something change?”
“Something changed alright, but it doesn’t have anything to do with Aubrey. I have to find Rob and that’s where he’s disappeared to.”
“I wondered about that when you came home so early last night. So Rob went home to England, did he?” From Maggie’s tone, I could tell she was tiptoeing around the subject, not sure which way to come down on at the mention of Rob.
“That’s what Laveda said. I don’t know where he’s staying, so I’m not sure how long this visit will take. Hopefully, he’ll be at one of the apartments I already know about, and if not, maybe his sister Leila will help me.”
Maggie was silent, eyes focused on the letters in her hands as she lined them up neatly with the edge of the desk blotter. “Then you’ve forgiven him?”
“No, I haven’t,” I answered instantly, the core of anger still burning bright whenever I thought about Rob. “But I need to talk to him about something important. Something I’m still processing myself, but he needs to know about.” What was unclear to me was whether or not Rob was still suffering from the curse, or if my anger had spared him its effects.
“That sounds worrisome,” she frowned, a furrow appearing on her brow.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Deciding I might as well fill her in on the particulars, I outlined the basics of the curse Jakob had laid on Carys and me, and how it’d affected Bishop and Rob, respectively. Maggie’s hazel eyes grew rounder and rounder as she listened, her jaw dropping by the time I finished talking.
“Then… it wasn’t his fault,” she gasped. “What he did with…”
I stopped her before she got any further, not willing to let it go so easily. “Maybe not the impulses he couldn’t control, but he made a conscious choice to keep me in the dark about his weakness and unusual need to feed in the first place. He’s the one who decided to be so secretive and try to handle it all on his own. If he’d been open with me about it, he never would’ve even been in that room with Bridget in the first place.”
Maggie blinked, taken aback by the venom in my voice. “Then you’re not planning on taking him back?”
“I don’t… I don’t know. I can’t think about that right now. First and foremost is to find him and tell him about the curse so he understands what’s behind the way he’s been feeling. Or felt. For all I know, he’s been fine since I walked away from that boat.”
Her voice was softer when she spoke again, coming around to my side of the desk. “He made a mistake, it’s true. But it sounds like there were reasons beyond his control pushing him to act outside of his nature.” She laid a hand on my arm when I shook my head. “I can’t stop hoping for the two of you to mend your differences and find your way back to each other again. You were good together.”
“Were we?” I hardly knew. It seemed like we’d always has something keeping us apart. First the threat of Jakob’s discovery, then his addiction to stims, and finally the curse putting a wedge between us. But even beyond those external influences, there was a core of secrecy keeping us apart from the start. Neither one of us had been blameless in that area. He’d kept his drug use and symptoms of the curse to himself, and I’d held my actions with Carter apart as well.
Maggie didn’t appear to share those doubts. “Whatever he’s done, you know he loves you. Do you still love him too?”
“I don’t know,” I answered as honestly as I could. “Part of me thinks I must, or it wouldn’t still hurt this much. If I was completely over him, it’d feel less devastating to relive every time I think about that cruise.”
“But it wasn’t all bad,” she insisted. “That was one terrible night, one choice that spiraled out of control. Maybe if you tried to remember the good times…”
“I can’t think about those good times, not yet. It’s still too fresh.” Maybe it always would be. Vampires seemed to have a heightened sense of everything. Dizzying heights of love, but the deepest depths of despair waited as well. “Maybe someday, but for the moment, I have to focus on setting Rob free of this curse.”
“And Bishop too?”
“Bishop’s another can of worms I can’t really get into at the moment.”
“Do you believe they’ll find Carys?”
“You know, I didn’t used to think so, but now I do. I believe she’s out there somewhere, or Bishop would’ve realized she’d compelled him all those years ago when she was supposed to have died. And I definitely believe Jakob won’t rest until he finds her.”
Maggie nodded at that. “I still can’t believe Jakob would curse you like that, after claiming to love you.”
“Jakob doesn’t know what love is,” I scowled, my anger sharpening. “He’s spent his entire life compelling women to love him. He wouldn’t know true love if it came in and bit him on the butt.”
“What will you do when you see Jakob again?”
“That all depends on whether or not I need him alive to break this curse,” I muttered. But that wasn’t s
omething I wanted to circulate. “First things first. I need to make arrangements to fly to London, tonight if you can swing it.”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult to manage,” Maggie replied with confidence. “Shall I go inform Gunnar and Lee of your plans, or did you want to tell them yourself?”
“Ah, you can tell them if you want. They’ll probably enjoy having the house to themselves for a while. Too bad they can’t invite anyone in on their own though, that should cramp their style for any house parties.”
Maggie’s brows drew together in confusion. “House parties? I thought you’d be taking them with you. Along with your standard security detail.”
It was my turn to stare at her in bewilderment. “Why would I do that? I figured we’d keep it simple. I don’t need the big entourage, I’m not the Elder of the West anymore.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Ah… no, I’m not,” I frowned, unsure where the miscommunication stemmed from. Maggie, more than most, knew exactly why I’d left and we’d exchanged emails about her mailing my ring of office back to Felix. “You sent him the ring, right? Or did he never get it?”
“No, he did, right enough. We’ve been working together steadily these past weeks since you’ve been gone.”
“Then why…?”
“Felix told everyone you’d gone to Europe to visit some of the other Houses.”
I gaped at her, at a loss for words at first. “Why would he do that?”
“I expect he was hoping you’d change your mind. All of us were. I didn’t think there was any harm in letting people think so, and we managed the day to day administrative tasks well enough between us.”
That explained my welcome at The Hart, the night before. “What about what happened with Rob?” Even if they’d thought I was away on House business, they had to have noticed Rob hadn’t accompanied me. Wode tìan, were they all laughing at me behind my back?
“Nobody knows,” Maggie interjected, pulling me out of my shame spiral. “Well, Gunnar and Lee have an inkling, though they don’t have the details of it. There’s speculation that you had a falling out with Rob, but no one knows why.”
