Both of them looked at me. I felt like punching a wall. “One of my trips to the restroom last night. A girl came in, looking for one of her friends.”
“Becky, Rebecca.” Logan touched the screen, pointing out the date beside her name. “Last night.”
“Son of a...we were right there.” I took a breath, and held my hand up to Dane. “High five, partner. You done good.”
Dane high-fived me. “We’re going to make a house call, aren’t we?”
“Oh, you bet. I’m sure Thorandryll will be thrilled to see us.”
NINE
When I’d been released from Alleryn’s clinic after the Merriven ordeal, I had learned where Thorandryll’s sidhe was located. Actually, it seemed all of the elves’ sidhes were located in the same area: an older section with well-established estates in the north/northeastern-most end of the city.
Logan volunteered his chauffeuring services. Upon our arrival, the two elves standing on the other side of the beautifully carved wooden gates opened them, allowing us entry, truck and all.
“This is freaky as hell,” I complained as we left the truck. It wasn’t snowing in Thorandryll’s pocket realm, or his sidhe. I wasn’t sure if there were a distinction between the two or not. The sky overhead was blue, with a few fluffy clouds slowly travelling across it. We left our coats in the truck, but that didn’t help me much, since I’d worn a sweater.
“You’re not allowed to go home for two whole weeks?” Dane asked. We’d had to fill him in since more than one person had told Logan to “have a nice vacation” when we’d left the clan’s building.
“That’s what she said.”
“Wow.” My partner shook his head and ambled ahead of us.
I tapped Logan’s arm. “Why did you back off after I TKed her?”
“You can take care of yourself. I shouldn’t have tried to interfere between two queens.”
“But you’ve helped me out before.”
He nodded. “Against people who weren’t clan. That’s different. We’re supposed to protect the queens against outside threats. It’s our job.”
“But not inside threats?”
Logan made a face. “It’s a respect thing. A queen isn’t much of one if she can’t handle her own problems with other clan members.”
“Oh.”
“Usually, those problems don’t result in one queen trying to physically attack another,” he said. “I had a moment of dumb, grabbing you like that. If I’d messed up what you doing, it would’ve undermined your place in the clan.”
“I see. Okay.” Internal clan politics, something else I obviously needed lessons in. Personally, I liked the idea he’d been so ready to protect me from several hundred pounds of pissed-off tiger queen. Yet, I also liked that he knew I could take care of myself in such a situation.
“I apologize for interfering. I could’ve gotten you hurt.”
“Apology accepted, but thanks for being ready to step in. My telekinesis doesn’t always work, you know.” Though it usually did, since it was my most practiced ability, being such a useful one. In fact, thinking about, I realized I couldn’t remember the last time my TK hadn’t worked. At least not without help, like Merriven’s interference.
Logan nodded. We were nearing the steps to the graceful, white stone edifice that was Thorandryll’s home. “You’re welcome. Mind doing me a favor?”
“What?”
“Don’t goad Danielle anymore. Her birth clan follows the old traditions to a T, and one of them is that queens who can’t settle things peacefully do so by physical combat.”
Yikes. “I’ve already promised Terra I wouldn’t be a jerk to Danielle again.”
“Okay.” Logan glanced at me. “Sorry.”
“You’re supposed to keep the peace in the clan, right? You’re just doing your job.” I shrugged. “I’ll try not to make your job harder than it is.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” We climbed the steps to join Dane and a dark-haired elf dressed in light gray.
“Welcome, Miss Jones. If you’ll follow me, I’ll lead you to the Prince.”
“Sure. Thank you.” It peeved me that the elves ignored Dane and Logan, but throwing a fit about it wouldn’t change anything.
The elf led us through a grand hallway, a room with a lot of seating that looked like it was meant to be used for socializing, and out a set of French doors onto a side patio.
“Miss Jones, please join me.” Thorandryll gestured to a few lounging chairs near the one he was using. His golden blonde hair was loose around his broad shoulders, and dark-lensed shades hid his icy blue eyes. He wore a pair of clingy green riding britches and tall, highly polished brown riding boots. No shirt, because it was hanging over the back of his chair.
I wondered if all elves were smooth-chested while noting that his muscles were as well-defined as Logan’s. Including his abs.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
Crap. I was staring. Embarrassment warmed my face, and I grabbed Logan’s hand to pull him over to one of the lounge chairs. “We’re investigating a series of disappearances.”
Logan waited until I sat before sitting next to me. Dane picked another chair. I tugged at the neck of my salmon pink sweater and squinted at the blue sky. Thirty degrees cooler would be nice. “Nice weather.”
“I prefer summer.” Thorandryll snapped his fingers, and the gray-suited elf who’d brought us to him stepped forward. “Shade and drinks for my guests.”
“At once, your Highness.”
Nice that he’d included the guys. While we waited, I looked around, and recognized the balcony I’d jumped off of during an earlier visit. It was a good twenty yards down the side of the house. Mansion? Palace? Architecture wasn’t a specialty of mine.
The servant brought out a crimson umbrella to shade us from the sun. A second servant—light gray clothing seemed to be the uniform for them—carried out a tray of drinks. The drinks were some sort of juice mixture over ice. I caught hints of orange and raspberry in it. “Thank you.”
“Quite welcome.” Thorandryll smiled as cool air began to flow down from the umbrella. I refused to look up. There wouldn’t be anything to see, because magic.
The elf prince took a second to call attention to his shirtless state with a lazy gesture. “Forgive my disarray. I was riding earlier, and didn’t expect visitors.”
My eyes were not behaving themselves. Silently scolding them, I took a sip of juice and moved my foot, putting my leg in contact with Logan’s. A faint smile appeared on his face, which he immediately hid by taking a drink.
“Yeah, sorry to barge in like this, but we kind of have seven missing people to find, and discovered the weirdest coincidence. There’s one thing they all have in common.”
Thorandryll laced his fingers together and rested his hands on the waist of his riding britches. The move called his abs to my attention again. Damn it. “Which is?”
“The last place they were seen, or told others they planned to visit.” I smiled. “Your club, Dreamland.”
“Interesting.”
“We thought so. Me especially, since I learned a while back that elves have a history of abducting humans. I mean, pretty ones, and wouldn’t you know it? All seven missing people are damned good-looking.”
Thorandryll chuckled. “Times have changed, Miss Jones. Since the Melding, hardly a day goes by that I don’t receive an invitation to intimacy from a few people.”
He’d said “people” and I blinked, giving that word choice some serious thought. “Men hit on you?”
“Some men do prefer their own sex.”
Before I could stop, I asked, “Do you?”
Dane choked on his drink, and I felt Logan quiver. I’d probably just broken a huge supe rule about being nosy, and really, the question wasn’t one I’d have asked a human. But it didn’t faze the elf prince. “No, but the offers are flattering.”
“Not that I care.” Boy, that was j
ust as rude as asking in the first place. “I have a hard time keeping my curiosity to myself these days. Sorry.”
“I’m certain your curiosity is a boon to your chosen profession.”
“Yeah. Anyway, missing people, your club, and history. My curiosity is on fire.”
He smiled. “I’m afraid I know nothing about the disappearances.”
Okay, if he wasn’t lying, I needed to try a different angle since Dreamland was the only connection we’d discovered between the missing. “Then I guess we’ll go to the cops and dump it on them. Mayor Wells has been keeping a close eye on cases involving supes ever since the vamps went public about those bodies. I imagine he’ll be all over the fact they went missing at a club owned by an elf prince.”
His laughter was an unexpected response. “I do enjoy the way you think, but threatening media exposure of crimes I have no part in isn’t the best leverage.”
“No? I wonder how many people will continue going to a club others have a history of disappearing from? I’m going with ‘not many’. Logan?”
“Not many is my guess too.”
I tsked a few times. “It’s a really nice club. Shame it won’t last, but I’m sure you can eat the loss, right?”
Thorandryll was still smiling. “My businesses don’t fail, Miss Jones.”
“There’s a first time for everything.” I watched him while having a sip of juice. “How expensive is it to build a new pocket realm? Can they be moved?”
His smile dimmed. “You’re more than welcome to search the club, if that is what’s behind your questions.”
“Great, but I doubt we’ll find anything on our own.”
“What is it you wish for me to do?”
“Give us a tour. Stand around looking all princely while we question your employees. Maybe one’s playing games.” I tapped my nails against my glass. “Or, if you’re lying, just confess.”
“The last time I failed to divulge all I knew to you, it proved costly.” Thorandryll removed his shades. “I swear by Danu I have no part in the disappearances of any humans in this time.”
Huh, worded like that, it sounded like he was admitting to past kidnappings. I looked at Logan, who said, “He’s telling the truth. Elves don’t swear by Danu lightly.”
“Okay.”
“However,” the elf continued. “It’s possible you may have uncovered someone using my club as a hunting ground.”
“Hunting implies killing, and the man we’ve been hired to find is alive.”
“For now.”
Sometimes, I kind of hating dealing with supes. Then again, humans could be just a blood-thirsty. “And the motive for that would be?”
“Failure of my newest business pursuit.”
His ego was amazing. “Let me get this straight: Someone’s kidnapping people to make you look bad?”
Thorandryll raised his eyebrow. “You find that unlikely?”
He had a point. After all, he was the reason Dalsarin, the last of the dark elves, had chosen Santo Trueno as Ground Zero for his world domination plan. “Honestly? Nope. I bet you’ve pissed off scads of people since you learned to talk.”
Logan’s turn to choke on a drink, and I patted him on the back, which in turn reminded me of something else in regard to the Dalsarin business. “You know, I spilled blood for you again, thanks to your buddy, Dalsarin, and Logan nearly died from one of his poisoned arrows.”
“I loaned you the use of my hunting pack when you were searching for your mother.” The elf’s gaze flicked to Logan. “And there are some we aren’t beholden to in matters of spilled blood.”
Right, because elves considered shifters nothing more than animals. “You didn’t exactly divulge everything you knew then either. You didn’t give me any heads up about the whole Cernunnos and Hunt thing.”
“Be that as it may...”
“Blood,” I said, an idea striking.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I spilled blood for you again. We’re even on that, but Logan spilled blood for you too, and I guess maybe you haven’t gotten the memo: I’m a member of his clan. A queen, which makes him one of my people because we’ve shared blood. So one of my people nearly died because of you. Doesn’t that mean that mean I technically spilled blood twice on that little jaunt?”
The tips of Thorandryll’s ears began turning red as he stared at me. His face had become an expressionless mask. I could see a wide-eyed Dane watching us from the corner of my eye. Logan, recovered from his juice misadventure, was sitting perfectly still.
Judging by their reactions, I either had a compelling argument, or had just stepped in it big time. “Well?”
“What would you have of me, Miss Jones?”
Yay! I had a debt from an elf prince in my pocket, but not an answer to his question since I hadn’t planned on bringing up the matter. “I’ll get back to you on that. Right now, I’m thinking you might want to speak to Mr. Whitehaven.”
“For what reason?” Thorandryll’s tone was frosty.
“To hire us to investigate whether or not someone’s trying to smear your name.” I smiled, more pleased with myself than I probably should’ve been.
It’s not like I managed to put an elf over a barrel every day.
“You didn’t have to do that.” Logan started the truck while Dane climbed in. Being sandwiched between them meant I didn’t instantly grow cold as we drove out of the elven summer into the Texas winter.
“No, but if you’ll remember, he has me on the hook. I have to go to dinner with him sometime, to repay him for turning me back from a dog. Turnabout’s fair play.”
Dane pulled the center seatbelt out from under his leg and handed it to me. “What are you going to ask him for?”
“Whatever Logan wants me to. He’s the one who almost died.”
Logan shook his head. “A blood debt’s a big deal, and he owes it to you.”
“Dude, don’t even argue with me over this. Instead, start thinking. When you know what you want, tell me.”
“Discord...”
I lifted my chin and stared at him. “That was an order.”
Dane snickered. Logan’s lips parted as though he were going to protest again. I silently dared him to. It was only right that he reap whatever reward I could wrangle out of Thorandryll.
“All right. Thank you,” Logan finally said.
“You’re welcome.”
Dane let a few seconds pass before asking, “Where to now?”
“Good question.” I sighed, unable to think of what to do next, other than hang out at Dreamland that night. It was too early for that, and it’d be a little bit before we learned whether Thorandryll had called the boss. “Mom’s house. I need to take a turn with the dogs, and maybe cook dinner too. We can get ready to hit the club after that.”
TEN
“Argh.” I rolled over, spitting and swiping snow off my face. “Diablo, you are in so much trouble.”
The black pit whirled around with a yip. “More where that came from!”
I laughed as snowballs rained down on him, and he raced away. “Hah! Thanks, guys.”
Logan grinned, tossing a snowball at Leglin. My hound ducked and ran, his tail held high as it waved. Dane scored a hit on Bone’s shoulder, and the white pit charged him, barking happily. They went down in a shower of snow.
I rose to my feet, only to fall again when Leglin bumped into me. “You too?”
Kyra, Tonya’s husky, leaped into the air and hit Leglin in the side with all four of her paws. He went over, thrashing snow everywhere. “Way to go, girl!”
The park had been deserted when we drove by on the way to Mom’s. Snow had left a two-feet-deep blanket on it, with drifts up to four feet. No one objected to my suggestion we take the big dogs there for some exercise.
Bone bounded up as I climbed onto all fours and swiped his tongue across my face. “Chase me!”
I did for about twenty minutes, slipping and sliding all over the place thanks to the
snow building up in the tread of my boots. The exertion quickly wore me down, and the white pit stopped to look back at me when I halted. His tongue lolled out in a laugh, right before a pair of arms closed around my waist.
My shrieks filled the air as Logan lifted me and spun around several times. When he stopped to put me down, he stepped back. I turned and swayed toward him like a drunk. “No fair, now I’m all dizzy.”
“Yeah.” He shook his head. “Little dizzy myself.”
“And I’m cold.”
“Aw, poor baby.”
“You’re mocking me. That’s not nice.” Equilibrium restored, I bent and scooped up some snow to pack.
Logan followed suit. We began circling each other, and he said, “My arms are longer.”
“Yeah? I can teleport.” I did, rising on my tiptoes to smash my snowball on top of his head. He whirled, throwing one arm around me, and shoved his handful of snow down the back of my coat.
“Holy crap, that’s cold.” I did my best to knock him over, trying to escape the freezing clumps sliding down my back.
Laughing, he leaned back to shake snow from his hair. His other arm settled around me. “Bet you’re really cold now.”
“You jerk. Some of that made it all the way down.” I wiggled, unable to hold still as icy water made a line down my panties and jeans. “Oh, my God. That is way too cold.”
“You did try to freeze my brain.” The tip of his nose brushed mine. I could see the gold flecks scattered in the dark pine green of his irises. “I say we’re even.”
He didn’t seem interested in letting go, and I’d stopped wiggling. “Not yet.”
“Oh?”
I grinned, and shoved snow I’d gathered with telekinesis down the back of his jacket. Logan’s eyes went wide before he closed them, grimacing. “Okay, it’s on, woman.”
“Aw, poor baby. Are you cold?”
He opened his eyes, looked at me, and proceeded to wipe my grin away with his lips. His weren’t cold, and suddenly, I wasn’t cold anymore either.
“Ooh, Cordi and Logan, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.”
Frost & Bothered (Discord Jones Book 4) Page 8
