by Strong, Jory
A truth, though a misleading one. With the inked eye touched to his palm she saw a memory and knew the tracker was actually on the Harley.
Cathal’s determination poured into her like molten steel. It was all the warning she got before he said, “Given my father and uncle, you’ll understand why calling the police wasn’t a first choice when I discovered the woman I’m going to marry had been abducted.”
Silence exploded through the room like a bomb, sending shockwaves through her as well. She turned toward Eamon to gauge his reaction but his expression was the calm of a glassy sea.
Parker was the first to speak, a furious, “No fucking way, Etaín.” But she didn’t refute Cathal’s statement. Didn’t argue he was nothing like his father and uncle.
Cathal’s hand left hers to take up the pen she’d placed on the coffee table after signing her statement. He made quick work of writing his own and placing his signature on it.
“I’d like to speak with you, Etaín,” the captain said. “Alone.”
Eamon took Etaín’s hand in his. “That won’t be possible this evening. I believe we’ve concluded the necessary police business. Liam will show you out.”
With the mention of Liam’s name, Eamon glanced toward the doorway, drawing Etaín’s attention there as well, to see eyes dancing with suppressed laughter, and more.
Shhhadow walker. Assassin. The words came hissed in the same sibilant voice she’d heard in her nightmare, as if her gift now had a voice and didn’t always require the press of her palms to skin. The label given to Liam tightened her chest as shards of ice slid into her bloodstream with the question, Why would Eamon need a killer in his employ?
“Do you intend to let this man dictate what you can and can’t do, Etaín?” the captain asked, demand in his voice, but concern too, worry for her future. And at the moment she was a little concerned about it too.
Dragging her gaze from Liam she said, “No,” and was cut off from elaborating by the ring of the captain’s cellphone.
He removed it from his pocket, checking the incoming number before answering it. The caller did most of the talking. When the captain spoke again he said, “I’m with her now. Let me get back to you.”
Lowering the phone he said, “That was Oakland PD, there was an armed invasion at a biker bar. Twenty-seven dead, one survivor. He’s not expected to either regain consciousness or live. They’ve requested your help.”
“No,” Eamon answered. “I won’t allow you to put her in danger again.”
Imagined coils tightened around her chest, suffocating her. Cathal reclaimed her hand, his shock nearly overriding the fear drenching her, numbing her lips as she felt the phantom pull of a gun’s trigger. Not a bad dream, but something else. “When did it happen?”
“A little over an hour ago.”
Icy cold invaded her limbs, coming with the sense that she’d lived it real-time, not as some premonition of impending events. “Was it the bar where the Curs hang out?”
A cop face met her question. Answer enough. “Why do you ask?”
She squeezed Cathal’s hand in an unnecessary message not to mention the dream, now nightmare reality. “I was there a few days ago, doing what Parker asked me to do.”
“Then you’ll know some of the victims.” He stood, Parker doing so as well. “I’ll escort you to the hospital unless you intend to let Eamon dictate what you will or won’t do.”
“I’ll go.”
“You won’t,” Eamon said. “Think, Etaín, just how dangerous touching the dying might be to you.”
But she wasn’t worried about herself. Not as she flashed back to the scene of the slaughter and felt the phantom burn at her wrists, a tight circle of it that climbed upward into the vines on her arms. Searing heat coming with an awareness that someone nearby wore her ink—coming with the sickening dread that they all wore it, her, the killer, and Vontae—and worse, because of it, the killer she’d been in the dream had sensed Vontae.
Guilt sank gut-twisting roots inside her. Magic both attracts and repels, Eamon had told her once, and this seemed horrifying proof of it. “It doesn’t matter. I have to do this.”
Preempting further argument, she told the captain, “I’ll touch the remaining survivor. I’ll get the memories and draw them. I swear it.” The words brought with them her mother’s warning. Never make an oath you aren’t willing to pay dearly for if you break it.
“Let’s go,” the captain said.
Eamon’s hand settled around her upper arm in an unwavering restraint. “Etaín will follow shortly. I will ensure she keeps her pledge but there are matters we need to discuss first. What hospital?”
“Highland General.”
The captain’s expression when he met her eyes conveyed the message he wasn’t leaving until he heard what she wanted. It would have warmed her heart except this had everything to do with solving a crime, and had the additional benefit of getting her out of both Eamon’s and Cathal’s company.
He never contacted her just to find out how she was doing. It was always because he needed her to touch a victim. And it wasn’t any different with Parker.
Cathal ended the tense moment, siding with Eamon. “A few minutes won’t matter, Etaín.” His hand tightened on hers and she could feel his fear for her. “It might be better if you don’t walk into the hospital with your father and brother. Not after all the hype about your involvement with the Harlequin Rapist taskforce.”
He had a point there. News media speculation had her as psychic artist or bait, but so far they didn’t have her face or know she’d nearly been a victim.
“We’ll follow you,” she told the captain.
“Soon or there won’t be any point in coming to the hospital.”
“I’ve made you a promise,” Eamon said. “I’ll see that it’s kept.”
Both the captain and Parker stiffened, as if hearing more in Eamon’s words than she did. And then she stiffened too, wondering what he’d said to them before returning to the bedroom to tell her they were waiting.
The moment they left the room Eamon said, “I mean to keep you safe, from yourself if necessary and by whatever means are required. Ignorance is deadly, Etaín. You cannot remain so any longer.”
More words followed, spoken in what must be the language of magic, what water and fire would sound like if they had a voice. She felt as if some barrier was being brought down, saw it in a sudden luminescence, not surrounding Eamon but emanating from him, making him otherworldly, breathtaking in a way that was more than heart-stopping gorgeous or beautifully handsome, in a way that was beyond compelling, reminding her of tales of the shining folk, the stories her mother used to whisper to her at bedtime, or sometimes as they traveled by bus, leaving old names behind and taking up new ones.
Four
What the fuck,” Cathal murmured, but there was reluctant awe there, unwilling appreciation.
Eamon took her unresisting hand and carried it to his face, using the back of her knuckles to push the golden waves of hair aside to reveal a pointed ear tip. Her heart skipped a beat then raced wildly, denial swelling in anticipation of what came next, though it didn’t prevent him from saying, “You’re on the cusp of change, Etaín. This is what you’ll be, if you survive.”
Somehow she spoke through the throbbing pulse at the base of her throat, the words miraculously not sticking to a suddenly dry tongue in an equally dry mouth. “Guess I’d better learn the Vulcan salute then.”
“Elf, Etaín.” Said with just enough edge to dare her to face and accept the truth, to warn against denial or deflection.
And oh yeah, the temptation was there to do both of those. But she was no fool to think she could either run or escape from herself, not with all that had happened to her since meeting Eamon.
“Lord,” she said, as if tentatively picking up a pebble in a streambed lined with them.
The gesture relaxed Eamon. His expression softened. “Yes, this is my territory. Among supernaturals, you hol
d what you claim, or you lose it.”
“And I’m one of those things you claim? I think I already warned you I wouldn’t become one of your possessions.”
“Not a possession, Etaín. You’ll be my wife-consort.”
“Will I?”
“Don’t pick a fight you can’t win. And ultimately won’t want to.”
“And Cathal?”
Eamon shrugged. “A complication, in many, many ways. But if you mean, what about your human lover’s bold declaration he intends to marry you? I have no objection to it.”
“Big of you,” Cathal said, the distinct growl in his voice warning things were about to escalate.
She squeezed Cathal’s hand in a request to remain calm though her own vanished when Eamon said, “Everything changes as of now, Etaín.”
The edict scraped over nerve-endings made raw at having just experienced her father and brother’s disapproval. “We’ll see.”
“The outcome is a foregone conclusion.”
“Says Lord Eamon.”
“Yes.”
“We don’t have time for this. We need to get to the hospital.”
Liam stepped into the room as if her comment had summoned him. Seeing Eamon, his appearance changed too in a shimmer of magic. Sheer human beauty slipped away to leave him radiant and shining, breathtaking even without the pointed ear tips visible through the long braids of hair.
Eye candy. That’s what she’d thought each time she’d stepped into Aesirs and seen the men working there. Now she knew differently.
Demonstration apparently completed, Eamon reworked whatever spell he’d brought down. In a blink he looked human again. An instant later, so did Liam.
She could feel Cathal’s fierce need to escape, to step back into some semblance of normalcy. Fear trickled in, her own worry he’d change his mind and take back the no regrets. She couldn’t blame him, not with tight panic swelling inside her, this on top of the nightmare reality of the slaughter. She needed breathing room too, a chance to process this new twist despite having dealt with supernatural stuff since the call to ink at thirteen.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Eamon’s grip prevented her from standing. “Liam, my third, will accompany you without making his presence known unless it’s necessary. He’s capable of keeping you safe from threats you wouldn’t recognize.”
“From other…?” She couldn’t quite bring herself to say Elves.
“Elves are not the only supernatural beings in existence.”
It gave her pause, but she forced herself to focus on the most urgent. “What makes you think I’m in danger? I’ve lived in San Francisco since I was eight and as far as I can tell, you’re the only…person…who’s noticed me.”
Eamon’s smile made her think of the thin blade of a knife. “Because of your ill-advised promise, those answers will have to wait. Liam will accompany you to the hospital. When you have finished there, he will bring you back to the estate, where you will remain, for your own safety, until you have transitioned from changeling to full Elf and have learned what you need to know of our culture.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Refusal is not an option.”
“Fuck that, Lord Asshole,” Cathal said. “We’re out of here.”
Cathal’s fury burned hot while she wrestled with what to make of a lover turned icy dictator, though she was equally resistant to Eamon’s casual assumption of total control. She stood, Cathal rising at the same time, her eyes meeting Eamon’s, heated with an unspoken promise of absolute resistance to taking orders. “We’re leaving now.”
“Have you considered what might happen to him if you die? Or worse, and let me assure you, there are far worse things than being killed outright.”
No other emotion could be sustained in the icy encasement of fear. “Why should anything happen to him if I die?” But she had only to glance down at the arms now encircling her waist, to see the tattoos she’d placed on Cathal and feel the ever-present hum of connection to know how Eamon would answer the question.
He moved in, expression tender rather than arrogant, and because of it she didn’t try to evade his touch, or resent the possessive, assured way he once again cupped her cheek, his thumb feathering across her lips.
“I am not accustomed to explaining myself,” he said in the same soft tone he’d used earlier, in explaining his use of a spell against her.
“Get used to it, Eamon.” Rough against his soft.
“Perhaps it will be necessary to some extent.”
Not exactly a whole-hearted embracement, but then she probably couldn’t expect one from Lord Eamon at the moment, and she couldn’t let the lack sidetrack her. “What does my dying have to do with Cathal?”
“His fate is linked to yours, Etaín. With enough study, I could possibly find a way to break that bond through a means other than his death. But it wouldn’t be easily done, nor would it be without a cost. If you perish, there is a good chance you will take him with you.
“The magic chose him. I accept the choice though I wouldn’t have made the same one. It arouses me to share you. Others would not feel as I do. Most would eliminate him immediately. Many would slaughter any human who wore your ink, with or without cause.”
“You say that as if there could be cause.” The words came out as a whisper, accompanied by the desperate desire to hear Eamon say there was no justifiable cause, but even thinking it, she relived that instant of getting out of the car and with the wave of a silenced gun, directing four masked men in an assault on the bar where the Curs hung out.
Eamon shrugged. “If that’s not cause enough for concern, by royal decree those who are like you, seidic, soul seer, are supposed to be turned over to the queen. It is luxurious captivity, though a completely isolated one. It’s a prison there is no escape from, Etaín, and one Cathal would in all likelihood be permitted to share with you, until it ended in assassination.”
By someone like Liam? Perhaps even by Liam if Eamon couldn’t have her. Eamon’s attempt to stop her from helping the police after twenty-seven people had been slaughtered was a glimpse at how ruthless he could be.
“You didn’t turn me over to your queen.”
“No. Go to the hospital, Etaín. I won’t have you foresworn by further delay. When you get back, I’ll share more of what you need to know.”
“And will she be free to leave again?” Cathal asked, bringing the conversation full circle.
“Etaín needs to get control of her gift. She needs to start disassociating herself from the human world. Our lifespans are measured in centuries, not decades. Yours will be too if she survives the transition. Something for you to consider, I’ll allow you some say as to whether or not your family members are brought into my household. But they will fall under my rule, a fate your father and uncle might come to view as worse than death.”
Etaín couldn’t begin to get her head around the kind of lifespan Eamon was talking about, and didn’t have time to. She concentrated on the simple, an edict in close proximity to words like allow and my, all just another way of saying “no,” which was an answer she didn’t find acceptable.
Cutting to the chase, she said, “I’m willing to accept you’re trying to keep me safe, Eamon, but I won’t be made a prisoner. Either you give your word I can come and go as I please, or I won’t come back here after I’m finished at the hospital.”
“Have you already forgotten what nearly happened the last time you touched Parker?” Have you already forgotten what you nearly did to me? Though pride probably kept him from saying that in front of Liam.
She shivered. “I haven’t forgotten. I understand there are things I need to know. I understand I’m a danger to others. I get that, Eamon. I’m trying to be reasonable here, to find a middle ground where we can all be happy, and happy is not going to be me locked away from my friends with Cathal popping in for conjugal visits. I need space. My own apartment. Time spent with just Cathal at his house and club. Time spent
with you here and at Aesirs. You get the picture. I’m not going to let you become my jailor.”
“Nor do I wish to become your jailor, Etaín. But what I said earlier stands, I will keep you safe, from your own choices if necessary.”
“Then we’re at an impasse because I’m not coming back here until you drop the attitude.” It made her heart ache to say it. “My being in a relationship with you doesn’t give you the right to lay down rules where I’m concerned.”
“Perhaps not, but being Lord of this territory does.”
“Then we’ll leave your territory as soon as Etaín is finished at the hospital,” Cathal said. “She’s promised me a week, destination undefined, remember?”
The air around them became the frigid of Arctic waters, Eamon’s silent reminder that he was a being of power and magic. “Do you really have so little regard for her life and your own?”
“I’m willing to take my chances if Etaín is. Better that than the scenario you’re laying out.”
“I’m willing,” Etaín said. Cathal was absolutely safe from her touch, that much she was positive of. And maybe distance would help bridge the seeming impasse caused by Eamon’s concern.
Eamon’s hand tightened where it still rested against her cheek. Externally everything about him might be reminiscent of ice, but there was heat in his expression, not roaring flame but enough fire to promise all the barriers to what he wanted could and would be burned away. “One week, Etaín, starting now because you gave the oath while ignorant of what you are and will become. As I remember it, your promise to Cathal allowed for my presence, and I will be present where I can safely do so without drawing attention to you. At the end of seven days, if you’re still alive, it’ll be my will that prevails.”
“Don’t count on it.”
He shrugged, sparking her temper with the gesture. His hand left her face. “Longevity and the ability to wield magic are the reasons Elves value oaths so highly. This evening you and Cathal have used that to your own advantage, but you’ll find such a weapon is a two-edged sword. Ask Cathal what promise he gave in exchange for my use of magic to create the bond that allowed us to rescue you from the Harlequin Rapist.”
