Taken

by Jennifer Blackstream

  An image of my sister tried to rise in my mind, and I shook my head, turning to stare out the window. “I was scared, and sick, and…” No excuses. I took a deep breath. “I used my sister. A witch helped me use magic to bind myself to her, and I used that bond to keep myself healthy. Then one day she got the chance to leave, to make a life for herself… I panicked, and I… I tried to stop her.”

  “Tried?”

  A lump rose in my throat. “I let her go in the end.”

  I waited for him to say something, to demand more detail, but he didn’t. He turned away from me and stared out the window. Peasblossom hugged my neck, holding me while I cried, leaning my head on the door. It had been too long since I’d talked about my sister. And despite what I’d done, I did consider her my sister. My real sister, my family. It was what made what I’d done so horrible. I loved her and I’d used her anyway. Put my needs above hers. My sanity above her life.

  Flint started the car again. We drove for a long time, and I didn’t bother watching. I was so tired. So very, very tired.

  I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Flint shook me awake, and I blinked blearily out the window. I frowned. “This is my house.”

  “Yes.”

  He got out of the car and walked around to open my door. The automatic light over the garage blinked on, casting shadows over the sharp angles of Flint’s face. He didn’t look like he was kidding. Or angry.

  “Why are we here?”

  “Let’s go inside,” Flint said, holding out a hand to me.

  It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I didn’t want him in my house, but I remembered my circumstances in time to hold it in. Confusion made me slow, but I took his hand and let him lead me to the front door. Peasblossom was a comforting weight on my shoulder as I struggled to find my keys. I let us all in to the house, smiling when Majesty barreled into my legs. “Hungry, are we?” I asked.

  I heated up some food for him, ignoring the way Flint watched me do it with one eyebrow raised. I’d need to get someone to feed Majesty while I was…gone. I bit my lip. It would have to be Mother Hazel. Someone also had to calm his energy, keep working on how to figure out how to fix him. Maybe I could talk Flint into letting me bring him with me…

  “Is the cat your familiar as well?” he asked.

  “No!” Peasblossom snapped. Her voice was thick with sleep, but her annoyance was clear.

  I smiled and made her a small bed out of a dishtowel so she could rest while I gathered my things.

  “No, he’s…a patient, you might say,” I told Flint.

  Majesty paused in the middle of eating his food, his blue eyes resting on Flint. For a second, I found myself holding my breath, waiting for the feline to do something. The air shimmered with energy, with…potential. When nothing happened, I shook my head and went to the fridge. I was going to take the entire twelve-pack of Coke I’d bought with me. Surely I deserved soda, after the day I’d had?

  You’re cracking up.

  Flint didn’t look at the cat. “Well, I suppose I should be off. Get a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you again very soon.”

  I stood there clutching the twelve-pack of Coke and stared at his back as he turned to leave. “What?” I managed. “You’re leaving? I’m staying?” I fumbled to put the soda on the counter, swaying on my feet. Goddess, I was tired. Maybe I was dreaming again.

  “Yes, I’m leaving, and you’re staying here.” He stopped and turned to me, that quirk at the corner of his mouth returning. “Make no mistake, I still own you. For a year, you’re mine. But I have no desire to watch you twenty-four-seven, and if you’ll forgive my rudeness, I don’t trust you to behave yourself while I sleep.”

  The double entendre sent a wave of heat to my cheeks, and his grin widened.

  “Why did you buy me?” I asked, cursing him for his amusement. “What do you want?”

  “Well, I wanted answers,” Flint said, a trace of irritation in his tone. “But you don’t seem to have any. So we will find them together.” He stepped closer, letting his gaze travel down my body, then back up. “You are mine for a year. When I call you, you will come. When I ask you to do something, you will do it. If I manage to think of a question you can actually answer, you will answer it.”

  He took another step. “If I bring you a case, you will take it. And if I desire a kiss…”

  I tensed as he stepped into my personal space, fighting the urge to call a spell, fill his pockets with frost until he couldn’t stand.

  “It will be an interesting year, Shade,” he murmured. He stepped away, letting cold air rush between us to chill my suddenly too hot skin. “I promise you that.”

  Chapter 21

  “Shade! Shade, wake up, you’re having a nightmare!”

  My eyes flew open, and sunlight seared my retinas. It didn’t help disperse the nightmare, didn’t stop me from seeing the monsters still coming for me. I threw my arms out to the sides, slamming them down on my mattress as I fought free of the dream. I dug my fingers into the bedding, holding on to the thick comforter as if it would keep me from falling off the face of the planet. My chest rose and fell too fast, my lungs screaming in protest with every breath. My face was wet and I didn’t know if it was sweat or tears.

  “It’s okay,” Peasblossom whispered. “It’s okay.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep the sob inside. If I started crying now, I’d never stop. If I opened my mouth, the scream building inside me would escape.

  And it had friends.

  An image of the cat sith rose in my mind. I fought not to close my eyes, not wanting to risk returning to the dream that had felt like far more than a dream. The screams still echoed in my ears. Flesh still teased my paws—hands. Blood still poured down my throat, greasing the way for the chunks of flesh that followed.

  I rolled over in time to vomit into the trash can beside my bed. My braid swung forward, missing the noxious liquid by a scant half an inch. I groped for the braid to hold it out of the way, holding my head very, very still until I was certain that was all my stomach had to offer.

  “Andy will be here soon,” Peasblossom said. She hesitated. “Do you want me to call him and tell him not to come?”

  I laid my cheek on the comforter, letting myself wallow in misery for a second. Everything hurt. My body, my brain, my spirit. All of it. “No,” I rasped. “No, I need to talk to him. I want to make sure all the kids made it home safe.”

  “He told you as much in the phone message he left for you,” Peasblossom said.

  Nausea rolled in my stomach like a putrid tide, and I got up very, very slowly. “I need…details.”

  Peasblossom wisely allowed me to proceed to the bathroom without further questions. It was a tribute to how wrecked I was that she didn’t try to continue the conversation while I was in the shower, didn’t perch on the curtain rod and continue her barrage of constant, semi-helpful suggestions. Instead, she settled on the sink, waiting silently while I washed the sweat out of my hair and gargled with the water to get the bile out of my mouth.

  “Feel better?” she asked as I got out of the shower.

  I dried off then wrapped my hair in the towel. “A little.”

  She held out my toothbrush, already covered in minty blue toothpaste.

  “Thanks,” I said, ignoring the broken line of toothpaste on the counter where she’d fought to squeeze the tube.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I stared at myself in the mirror, sighing at cheeks that were too pale, dark circles under my eyes that would broadcast my rough night to the world. “Let’s just say that Arianne is surprisingly creative.”

  “You think it was Arianne?”

  I brushed my teeth, the tingling sensation of mint helping to chase away the lingering sickness. I spat then looked at Peasblossom. “You don’t?”

  The pixie stared at her feet, dragging the toe of one slipper through the toothpaste. “I don’t have to tell you t
hat nightmares can come from all sorts of things.”

  “Yes, like dream sorceresses,” I said dryly. “Don’t put your foot in that. It’s going to dry into a tacky mess.” I took the towel off my head and used it to wipe up the toothpaste. Then I hung it up and scrubbed my fingers over my wet scalp. “Occam’s razor, Peasblossom. When you make a dream sorceress angry and then you have bad dreams, it’s the sorceress.” I leaned forward and blinked at my bedraggled reflection. “I should be grateful she’s sticking to nightmares and not more dream shards.”

  “You really think Arianne is sending you nightmares every night? You think she despises you that much?”

  I crossed out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. “I dragged her onto the vampire’s radar, not to mention brought the FBI into her hotel. She has a veritable treasure trove of secrets. Yes, I think she despises me that much.”

  I chose a pair of leggings with a geometric pattern of three different shades of blue, and a black turtleneck. As I pulled the shirt over my head, I glanced at the clock and froze. “Peasblossom, it’s after noon!”

  “And?”

  I grabbed my phone and waved it at her. “You turned off my alarm?”

  “Yes.” Peasblossom crossed her arms. “You needed some sleep.”

  I marched into the kitchen, making a beeline for the mini Keurig on the counter. I opened a cupboard and found Majesty lying on top of my coffee mugs.

  “How did you get in there?” I demanded.

  The kitten cracked open one eye, then closed it, unimpressed with my demand for information. I grabbed a mug, washed it, and started the Keurig. As soon as I had that going, I went to the fridge and snagged a can of Coke.

  “You drink coffee and a soda and you’ll be having your talk with Andy through the bathroom door,” Peasblossom said.

  “I can’t remember the last time I slept this late.” I took a few gulps of the soda, relishing the burn of carbonation and the flood of processed sugar. “I hate starting the day already behind.”

  There was a knock on the door. I sighed. “Blood and bones, he’s here.”

  “You should comb your hair first,” Peasblossom suggested.

  I ran my fingers through my hair, groaning when I felt the wet tangles. “I can’t leave him standing outside while I deal with this…mess.” I resigned myself to Andy seeing me looking like a drowned rat and answered the door.

  As always, Andy was impeccably dressed. Not a hair out of place, his navy-blue suit wrinkle-free. He was even wearing sunglasses, completing the Hollywood FBI agent motif. For a split second, I thought of the scars I’d seen, the pain someone had etched into his body. Who had done that to him?

  He took in my appearance. “Are you all right?”

  I took another sip of Coke, gesturing for him to come inside. “I’m fine.”

  The sunglasses made it hard to interpret his expression, but he came inside.

  “How are the kids?” I asked.

  “Angry, at first.” He stood beside the door as I put my Coke down on the kitchen counter and pulled a hairbrush out of a drawer. “They didn’t want to leave. They hadn’t seen the ugly side yet, didn’t realize what the contracts they’d signed meant.”

  “How did you convince them?”

  “I didn’t. Grayson did.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Well played.”

  Andy nodded, his expression grim. “They needed to hear it from someone they would believe. I left them alone to talk. When I came back, they were all white as sheets, and one of the girls was crying.”

  “I wonder what he told them.”

  “You can listen to the recording if you want.”

  I stared at him. “You recorded the conversation?”

  “Yes. There’s no expectation of privacy in a police car.”

  “And you don’t feel at all guilty about eavesdropping on a private conversation?” Peasblossom asked, landing on top of his head.

  The pixie sounded pleased. Of course she would, since she routinely eavesdropped on private conversations.

  “No,” Andy said. “I care more about knowing what really happened. If I’m going to get to the truth about everything that happens in this Otherworld, I need to understand it. Candid conversation is the only way to really understand what went on there.”

  He wasn’t wrong. I took another sip of my Coke, then turned to fetch my coffee from the kitchen.

  “Tell me about your relationship with Flint.”

  The fact that I didn’t come to a dead halt when he made that demand had more to do with my natural instinct to seek coffee than any self-control on my part. I stopped at the fridge for some whole milk, then made a beeline for my second source of caffeine. I was going to need it.

  “You mean after the auction?”

  “Before and after.”

  I watched the milk turn my coffee several shades lighter. Such a pretty color. I put the Coke down and picked up the coffee, blowing on it before taking a sip.

  Too hot.

  Coke first.

  “Shade.”

  I closed my eyes, holding the can of Coke to my lips. “Okay.” I carried my two life-saving beverages to the couch in my living room, taking the seat closest to the small side table so I could let my coffee sit and cool. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything.”

  I didn’t know if he sat on the other end of the couch because he understood that a personal conversation was best had on more equal terms as opposed to one person standing over the other, or if he was merely settling in for what he anticipated would be a long conversation. Either way, I appreciated it.

  “I met Flint two months ago, when I was working my first case.”

  “The Helen Miller case?” he asked.

  For a second, I considered saying yes. But that would be dishonest. It wasn’t the missing woman who’d led me to Flint. It had been the vampire.

  “No. I looked into the Helen Miller case because Bryan thought there was something Other about it. I met Flint when someone else hired me to find something.”

  “Did you find it?”

  I stared at my can of soda, the droplets of Coke trapped in the trench that circled the can. “Yes.” I rushed to continue before Andy could ask who’d hired me, what he’d wanted to find, and how I’d found it for him. The confidentiality contract I’d signed wouldn’t let me speak of those things, but somehow, I didn’t think that answer would satisfy Andy. “Flint was one of my suspects. He wasn’t the one who’d taken the item, but he wanted to find it before its owner did. He wanted me to help him find it.”

  “Peasblossom says you kissed. Did you become romantically involved?”

  Aluminum groaned in my grip as I tightened my hand around the soda. “No. Flint’s talent is in seduction. Leannan sidhe inspire emotion, and they all have different talents. Flint’s talent, or the one he chooses to use most often, is arousal.” I was blushing, and I hated that. I took another sip of Coke. “He tried to use that ability to cloud my mind and make me tell him about the case. He failed. I got away.”

  “But you still asked for his help last night. Does that mean you trust him in some capacity?”

  “No,” I said immediately. “But I needed a way to get inside.”

  “Morgan offered you a way. You chose Flint.”

  “I don’t know Morgan. I had no reason to trust her.”

  “And less of a reason to trust Flint, so you say.”

  Something in his tone rubbed me the wrong way. I narrowed my eyes at him, suddenly irritated by his calm facade, his neat suit and carefully groomed hair. “Yes, so I say. I don’t trust Flint, not at all. But unlike Morgan, I had the means to bargain with him, the tattoo. So once we both held up our end of the bargain, we were both free and clear.”

  I took a sip of coffee.

  “Only now you’re not free and clear.”

  “Bastard,” I spat, thinking of Flint and that wretched smirk of his. “I don’t know how he planned that, but I know he did.�
� I started to say more, but stopped. I didn’t want to think about it.

  “You think he somehow planned on you offering yourself in the kids’ place? You said it was Morgan’s suggestion. Do you think they worked together?”

  “No. I saw him manipulate her during the bidding. And I saw her expression after. She was angry. Legitimately angry.” I took a swallow of coffee. “I don’t know for certain he planned this, but he certainly made everything work to his advantage.”

  Andy studied me for a minute. “When I saw you inside with him, he didn’t look like your enemy.”

  “And that is a perfect example of the lesson you need to learn about the fey—especially the sidhe.” I turned in my seat and leaned forward, meeting Andy’s gaze and willing him to listen. “More often than not, the people in the Otherworld that will hurt you the worst will be your best friend right up until the moment they stick the knife in your side. There are monsters, yes, but the scary-looking ones are usually the most honest. They’ll tell you they’re going to eat you. But the pretty ones…”

  I shook my head. “That’s why I didn’t trust Morgan. She was too friendly, too fast. She has no reason to help us, no reason to be our friend. And I have yet to meet a sidhe who did something for someone else without the expectation of getting something in return.”

  “That’s why you told me not to accept any help from her,” Andy said. “Because that would put me in her debt?”

  “But you did it anyway,” I reminded him, a hint of censure in my tone. “If Peasblossom hadn’t been there, you could have ended up in even bigger trouble than you’re in now.”

  “Seems to me I’m not the one in trouble. Flint…bought you.” He said “bought” as if he had trouble believing it had actually happened. “What exactly does that mean?”

  I cradled my coffee mug in my hands. “It means pretty much what you think it means. It’s not different from any other time in history one person has owned another.”