Heart of Thorns: a Between the Worlds novel

by Morgan Daimler

  Allie looked up at him, her expression pleading and this time he did sigh. “Do not worry Commander,” he thought back to Jess, his eyes locked with Allie’s, “Allie has cut her hand and we are discussing the best way to handle treating it.”

  Obviously anticipating his response Allie immediately added, “Its nothing worth bothering Brynneth over. We can handle it.”

  Bleidd could feel Jess’s unhappiness vibrating through the connection which bound the three of them together. “I trust your judgment Bleidd. If it proves a serious injury don’t hesitate to go to Brynneth.”

  Allie made a face, clearly piqued, “You trust his judgment but not mine?”

  “My heart, your sense of proportion when it comes to your own well-being terrifies me,” Jess thought back. “I should be back home to you both in no more than another week and I prefer you be in one piece when I get there. I am trusting Bleidd to accomplish that.”

  “You may be overestimating me,” Bleidd thought back steadying Allie as she staggered towards the house. For her part she ignored them both, taking their teasing with ill-grace.

  He guided her to the stairs, her hand bleeding freely around the glass, which made him worry about how bad the damage really was. He helped her hold the arm up to try to slow the bleeding. Just as they were starting up the steps Jason came to the back door looking concerned, “Dinner’s going to get cold if you guys don’t come in soon.”

  “Sorry Jason,” Allie said, the apology reflexively popping out and making Bleidd repress another sigh. “I fell and hurt my hand. Bleidd’s going to run me over to the clinic – do you think you can keep dinner warm until we get back?”

  Jason’s dark eyes automatically ran over her form, quickly finding the blood on her hand and flowing down her arm. “Well damn Allie! I hope it’s not too bad. You want me to go with you too?”

  “No, that’s okay,” she mumbled, leaning harder on Bleidd and making him worry that she was in more pain than she would admit to. “It’s just a piece of glass. Probably some stitches in my future, but if it’s quiet at the clinic we should be in and out.”

  Jason nodded as they edged past him, frowning, his eyes now searching the area by the steps the same way they’d searched Allie’s body for the injury. Bleidd paused, the uneasy feeling suddenly returning. “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” Jason said softly, still frowning. “It’s just strange is all. I’ve cleaned up back here more times than I can count and I’ve never seen any broken glass anywhere.”

  “Well that’s my luck,” Allie “Leave it to me to find the one piece by sticking myself with it.”

  “Better your hand than your face I guess,” Jason said, his eyes still searching the yard. “But it seems a bit extreme for bad luck, even for you.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Allie rolled her eyes, pulling Bleidd reluctantly into the kitchen. He followed her without thinking, that uneasy feeling now an overwhelming sense of alarm. His eyes fixed on the bright red of Allie’s blood against the white linoleum floor where it had dripped as she walked and he felt another shiver of foreboding go through him.

  But even as every instinct screamed at him to run or fight, he still had no idea why he was feeling the way he was.

  Chapter 1 - Sunday

  She threw herself down on the bed feeling satisfied, the last remnants of her spell still swirling in the air. The hotel room was as nice as the online ad had claimed it would be but more importantly the bathroom had proven perfect to use for her spell work. She lay back smiling at the ceiling.

  The first day she’d been here had been both fruitful and frustrating; she hadn’t realized how easy it would be to track him down, in a small town where everyone knew who he was, or how difficult it would be to work magic against him. Of course she’d been warned – they’d all tried to warn her – but she’d been so sure that once she found out where he was it would be easy enough to work against him. But they’d been right, every spell she’d tried to set had slipped harmlessly aside, or dissipated, or refused to set properly. She’d been in tears, ready to give up entirely, when inspiration had struck – if she couldn’t get to him directly she could do the next best thing.

  So she’d dug out her notes on one of her mother’s hexes, something she’d called the “Murphy’s Luck Hex” which would give a person nothing but bad luck. It had seemed perfect, like poetic justice, since the entire family had nothing but bad luck because of him and his damn curse, she’d give him a taste of his own medicine. Of course the original was meant to be set on a specific person but since she already knew she couldn’t work that through his wards she would be clever and set it around his wards instead, so that everyone and everything close to him would feel the effects. True, it wouldn’t necessarily affect him, especially if he really was the heartless bastard family stories painted him as, but people around him would notice, and it should still ruin his life.

  It might just take longer.

  That was all right though. They’d already waited this long after all. And when he was really suffering she’d give him her ultimatum, and force him to set things right.

  She sat up and reached over for the hotel’s room service menu. A powerful spell made for a powerful appetite, as her mother always said, and she deserved a treat after all her hard work. She’d have a nice dinner and then move on to phase two.

  ***************

  “Well there’s at least one bit of good luck,” Allie said later as they sat side by side in the waiting room of the small town clinic’s emergency room.

  Bleidd had been staring out the window, his expression distant, and she had to fight the urge to apologize again. She could feel his emotions as a dark tangle of anger and fear that made her want to comfort him despite her own physical pain. She was pretty sure though if she said she was sorry one more time he’d actually scream so she bit back the words and waited for him to focus on her, which took longer than she’d expected. He’d been looking out the window since they’d sat down, pointedly ignoring the subtle stares from everyone else in the room. Elves weren’t an entirely unknown sight in Ashwood but they were certainly a rare one in the human-run clinic and while Allie passed easily – and intentionally – for human, Bleidd made no effort to hide his nature. His long, black hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail which made the pale, delicate curves of his ears standout prominently. And his tall lean figure radiated the Otherworldliness of all Fairy beings, despite the plain black t-shirt and jeans that were his only real effort to fit in with the people around him.

  Finally he turned to face her, his eyes narrowed slightly, already looking distinctly unamused. “Shall I guess?”

  “Please don’t,” she said hastily, afraid of what he might say. “I was going to say that it’s lucky at least it was my left hand, since I’m right handed.”

  He looked pained. “You are the eternal optimist.”

  She risked a small smile, trying to ignore the throbbing in her injured hand and wondering how long before they’d be called back to the exam room. “And that’s why you love me right?”

  To her surprise his expression changed instantly, softening into a look she rarely saw on him, his emotions following suit and turning soft and warm. She gasped at the unexpected influx of emotion, struggling to control her reflexive response, and he smiled gently. “That is only one of a thousand reasons, I could not even begin to list them all.”

  Allie felt herself smiling back at him, instinctively pulling in his emotions now so that they filled her and empowered her. Despite her injury she leaned forward and, unable to reach his mouth, began kissing his neck, drinking in his feelings as they turned in a different direction. He pushed her back reluctantly. “As much personal satisfaction as I would get from letting you have your way with me here and now, I’ve never been a fan of sadomasochism so perhaps we could wait until you don’t have a huge shard of glass in your hand?”

  She giggled, her embarrassment at her lack of self-control slipping out in nervous laugh
ter; several people in the waiting room were staring openly now. “Yeah I’m pretty sure security would kick us out anyway. Sorry, I guess I still don’t entirely have my abilities under control. Whenever you start feeling that way, and I start pulling on those feelings, it’s just so hard to stop, you have no idea.”

  “Oh, I have some idea,” he said wryly, and Allie blushed at the reminder that not so long ago he had struggled with his own addiction issues, albeit of a very different nature. “But this is certainly something to discuss with your elderly mage friend when next you see her.”

  Oh dear Gods I can just see that conversation now Allie thought forcing herself to nod in agreement, even as she fought back another nervous laugh, picturing the extremely prim mage sitting on her antique couch, back ramrod straight, white hair in a tight bun. ‘Hey Miss Amelia every time one of my boyfriends starts feeling anything contented or loving for me – or for each other actually – I start feeding on it and lose control and things get real sex-y real fast’. I think I’ll just skip that conversation, thanks. I just need to have some self-control. I can do that on my own with some effort, I don’t need an old woman telling me how to get my mind out of the gutter and keep my hands to myself.

  Bleidd was opening his mouth to say something else when the door to the exam area opened and they both turned hopefully towards it, along with every other head in the room. A younger African-American nurse walked out, and Allie irrelevantly noticed that the trendy flower clips holding back her curly brown hair and bright comic book-themed scrubs were at odds with her painfully sensible shoes. It made Allie wonder why the disparity, and she found it bothering her more than it should have. The nurse checked the list she carried and looking up from her clipboard she said “Allie McCarthy?”

  Allie stood quickly, swaying as the blood loss made her dizzy. Bleidd was behind her in an instant, supporting her shoulders. The nurse looked concerned, her brow furrowing “Does she need a wheel chair?”

  “No,” Allie said.

  “Yes,” Bleidd said at the same time. She felt his hands tightening and sliding around to her arms. “She’s lost a lot of blood.”

  “Not that much,” Allie mumbled, looking at the dishtowel wrapped around her hand, which was indeed very red at this point.

  The nurse took one look at the bloody towel and turned to get a wheel chair. Allie panicked, mortified at the idea of being wheeled anywhere. “No really, I can manage. I’m not going to pass out, I promise.”

  “Aliaine!” Bleidd said sharply and then in Elvish, his voice low, “Where is your common sense? Don’t promise something like that.”

  “But I’m not going to,” she replied in kind, but she struggled to remember how to say even that simple phrase and bit her lip, worried. Maybe I have lost more blood than I realized she looked down then glanced around the waiting room acutely aware that everyone was staring at them, either riveted by the scene itself or by the novelty of seeing an elf and hearing the foreign language conversation. Allie felt her head starting to ache and pushed past the nurse and Bleidd wobbling slightly as she limped towards the exam area. The other two were forced to follow her as she led the way through the double doors separating the waiting area from the exam area.

  The nurse edged past Allie then and gestured them into a small room off to the left. Allie managed the last few steps to the hospital bed, glad for the chance to sit.

  “Well, I’ll be your nurse tonight, my name is Hannah,” the nurse said, smiling reassuringly. “I’ll get your vitals and check everything out and then if it seems necessary we’ll have the doctor come in and take a look too.”

  “The doctor doesn’t check her automatically?” Bleidd asked, frowning.

  Hannah’s eyes darted uncertainly between the two of them before she answered, “I’m an APRN, so I’m certified to handle most cases myself. And you are?”

  “This is Bleidd. He’s my partner,” Allie said hoping that sounded better than boyfriend. “He drove me here after I fell.”

  “You fell?” Hannah flipped through the papers on her clipboard. “It says in the intake you have a cut on your hand.”

  Bleidd snorted loudly. Allie winced, “I fell and landed on some glass.”

  She held her hand out and the nurse gently peeled back the bloody towel, her eyes widening slightly when she saw the glass. “Oh dear. Well you don’t do things part way do you?”

  “I guess not,” Allie said trying not to look at her hand. She was pretty sure she’d never get the initial view from after she’d fallen out of her mind.

  “Alright. Well, let’s get your vitals and make sure everything looks stable.” The nurse quickly took Allie’s blood pressure, pulse and temperature and didn’t blink when Allie explained about her mixed ancestry and described what normal vitals were for her. Allie gave her credit for that; most medical personnel seemed unable to resist treating her like a science project because each person of mixed ancestry tended to have very different physiology.

  “Okay, the first thing we’ll need to do about this hand is stabilize it with some gauze padding, then get some x-rays to see where exactly the glass is in relation to the bones in your hand. Then we can look at the best way to remove it and get everything cleaned out. If we’re lucky it will be easy to stitch and we can get you a prescription for some antibiotics and back on your way.”

  “And if we aren’t lucky?” Bleidd asked.

  “Well, there’s a chance she’d need surgery to repair any internal damage, if it’s not a clean through and through cut,” the nurse said carefully. “But we generally try to avoid anything invasive with our Fey or mixed ancestry patients. They do better with minimal intervention, so let’s wait and see how the x-rays look and check the movement in the hand and fingers before we start to worry about needing to complicate things.”

  With a brisk but kind efficiency Hannah re-wrapped Allie’s hand in heavy gauze so that the glass was held in place. When the process was done her hand was engulfed in white but it did seem to stop the bleeding and Allie found that the pressure actually eased some of the pain.

  “Alright, now just a few quick questions, then we’ll get you over to x-ray,” Hannah said smiling.

  “Okay,” Allie said as Bleidd took up a position standing next to her with his hand resting reassuringly on her knee.

  “When was your last menstrual cycle?” Hannah asked, glancing up.

  “Ummm, about two weeks ago.”

  “Any chance you might be pregnant?” Hannah asked looking down at her forms.

  “No,” Allie responded automatically.

  “Yes,” Bleidd said, giving her an annoyed look.

  Hannah looked up, her gaze going from one to the other uncertainly. “Okay. Let’s try this. Are you sexually active?”

  “Yes, she is,” Bleidd answered for her, his eyes locking with Allie’s.

  Hannah looked at Allie. “And what birth control do you use?”

  Allie blushed crimson. Bleidd gave her an I-told-you-so look before answering for her again, “She doesn’t.”

  “Yes I do,” she said, still blushing. “I’m on the pill.”

  He gave her an annoyed look, “That is an entirely human method, you don’t even know for certain it’s completely effective for you.”

  “Of course it is, it’s been effective so far,” she said exasperated that he was being so difficult about this.

  “I…see,” Hannah said slowly, obviously unsure exactly how to react to that conversation. “Okay, well, you know what let’s just be sure before we do the x-ray, okay?”

  “I’m not pregnant,” Allie said again, then “Be sure how?”

  “Simple test, little blood draw, and we’ll know for sure in a few minutes,” Hannah said more cheerfully.

  “Oh, sure.”

  “Right, well I’ll be right back then.”

  As soon as the nurse left the room Allie hit Bleidd lightly on the side with her good hand. “Why did you do that? I’m not pregnant.”

  “
How can you be sure?” he said and she was surprised to realize he was entirely serious.

  “Because I’m not,” she shot back, flustered. “I’d know if I were. And I’m not. I take precautions. Besides since Jess has been gone for the last three weeks on assignment and the only person I’ve been with is you, if I am, it’d be yours and that would be…”

  She trailed off not sure how to say bad without actually saying bad, since she was in the final stages of setting a contract with Jess’s family to marry him and a huge portion of that rested on her having children with him. She was fairly sure that having someone else’s child would not go over well with them which was why she’d started using the birth control pill to begin with and been religious about taking it since. Once the contract was officially set and she and Jess were married things would be different but until then she was trying to be responsible and also considerate of both her lovers. How she’d deal with including Bleidd, legally and fairly, after marrying Jess was something she hadn’t quite worked out yet, but since it could take years to finalize a marriage contract she’d been doing her best not to worry too much about it. Which mostly meant ignoring the problem.

  Bleidd spoke into the silence. “Having my child would be complicated, and would best be avoided. Which I have told you over and over again. It would be far better-“

  “Oh, don’t start with that again!” she snapped cutting him off. “I am not going to sit here and have this same fight. I’m with both of you, we all agreed on that, and I’m not going to, to, I don’t know how you want to say it, privilege one over the other just because his family wants me knocked up. Which could take years. Years. You can’t sit there and pretend you want to live like that.”

  “Then you’re playing Russian roulette with your uterus,” he said, shaking his head slightly but unable to resist the joke.

  “Last time I checked I wasn’t playing alone,” she shot back, annoyed all over again that he was being like this. After all his effort to get into her bed in the first place, once he was there he had quickly turned around and tried to convince her that it would be better to avoid any sexual activity that could result in pregnancy. She’d found it absolutely maddening to repeat this same argument every week or so over the past few months as he simultaneously resisted her attempts to keep him and Jess equal, while seeming to need her reassurance that she really did want him as much as the other elf. She couldn’t decide if he was sincerely trying to be selfless or if his martyrdom in their bed was a ploy for attention, but she was entirely sick of it. “And once again, I am being careful. Until the contract is signed and Jess and I are actually married I’m staying on the pill, and I fully intend to have sex with both of you. And for all we know the contract could still take years to finalize, so this is not something we need to argue about today, or tomorrow, and until-“