Trickster’s Hunt

by Kel Carpenter

  “Yeah. I thought it was a dream.”

  The pillow muffled my voice, but I heard all three of them laugh and then the sound of something being placed on the table by my head. It smelled sweet, but floral, and I lifted my head to see Silas at my side. The guy I’d run from the day before. The guy who’d brought that awful cat here and told it to talk.

  And it had.

  Kind of.

  Shit, that had all happened. All of it. Including dry humping Rhett, who was still behind me with his hand on my stomach beneath my top and…Silas interrupted my racing thoughts.

  “Shai. Tea. Drink, and we can arrange breakfast.”

  My stomach rumbled at the mention of food and Rhett rolled away. I instantly felt cold and reached for the duvet.

  I felt it being tugged away and rolled onto my back. “What? No! Give them back!”

  “Drink the tea. We have things to do.”

  Okay, so Silas was the bossy one. He also brought the food, so I could handle that.

  I dragged myself up to a sitting position and reached for the mug. It was clear glass, so I could see the black tea inside, and picked it up carefully. It smelled divine. Like tea, a good strong brew like we had up north, but the floral scent to it was more potent now that it was directly under my nose.

  “Hibiscus,” Silas explained, heading to the bathroom. “I sweetened it.”

  I took a sip and closed my eyes. “Thank you.” The bathroom door closed in answer and I rested back my head. “This is insane.”

  I heard the low rumble of Amos’s laugh and turned my head in his direction. Opening my eyes, I saw he was still smiling. “Yes, but we can help you understand, in time. How are you feeling?”

  “Better, thanks to you three. Especially you, Rhett. I probably wouldn’t have slept as well without you there, so…yeah. Thanks.” He’d walked around my bed and paused in front of the TV when I said his name. He looked surprised to have been thanked at all.

  “I would have asked before sharing your bed, Maia, but you were in such a deep sleep—”

  I held up a hand. “It’s fine. Honestly. In the scheme of things, that was the least fucked up experience of them all.”

  “You are taking this extremely well.”

  Taking it well.

  There was no other way to take it, was there? Yeah, I could lose my shit and start screaming, but all that would do would bring a lot of people to my room asking all kinds of questions, and since the three men in the room seemed capable of disappearing and reappearing at will, I’d be carted off to bedlam without much questioning.

  I sort of laughed. “Am I? I’ve never done this before, so I’m sort of winging it.”

  “Shared your bed?” Amos cocked a disbelieving brow and smirked when I narrowed my eyes.

  “If we’re spending a lot of time together, you’re going to have to sort that out.”

  Amos snorted and rolled out of bed. “Noted. What would you like for breakfast?”

  “Full English. Are you phoning down? Order yourselves something; I’ll get it. Least I can do.”

  “Oh, you certainly will not be eating any of that food from now on. Will she, Amos?”

  Amos shook his head at Rhett’s question and glanced to the bathroom door as Silas came back into the room. “No, if we’re looking after you, we’re taking that over at the very least.”

  “What’s this?” Silas asked, flopping back on the bed opposite.

  “Breakfast. Full English, to her liking. We’ll be feeding her from now on. She has an appetite; we can better meet it.”

  I flushed. I think it was an innocent enough statement, just me being me, I twisted it. Rhett was the first to laugh as he went into the bathroom.

  Amos was so busy chuckling, it was Silas who grinned over to me and nodded at my lap as a tray landed over my thighs. “Eat. You must still be in shock.”

  I gawped at the fullest Full English breakfast I’d ever seen. It had everything, right down to the black pudding, potato scones, and a small dollop of ketchup over the yolk of the egg. It was perfection. I set to work.

  Satisfied that I was occupied, they began to discuss our situation again, offering occasional nods and glances my way. I listened as I ate. There wasn’t much I could add, and I was too hungry to stop eating and ask questions, so I banked them all as they came up.

  When my mug of tea was empty, it instantly refilled, and after about twenty minutes my plate was empty. The moment my cutlery hit the plate the tray vanished, and the tea dropped onto the bedside table. Full and relieved of the mug, I shuffled down the bed and snuggled back in.

  “What are you doing?” Silas sounded annoyed.

  “Umm, letting my stomach settle?”

  “We have research to do.”

  “No…you have research to do because you want to know shit. I have stomach settling to do because I’m stuffed. Thank you, by the way, that was perfect.”

  “You’re to stay with us for your safety. We have research to do.”

  There it was. That command in his voice, just like he’d used when he’d told me to lie back; when he ordered me to relax. I hadn’t been ready for it and felt a shiver run up my spine. He saw it, and I noticed a change in his expression.

  “Fine. Choose one of us to keep watch over you.”

  Now, call me stupid, but the way he changed tact had me curious. “Alright. You stay.”

  Rhett’s eyes widened, and Amos cleared his throat, but none of them disagreed.

  “I have questions, you seem to be in charge, so you can fill me in while they do whatever it is they’re going out to do. And it’s Friday, which means Addie is back at nine tonight. If you really are planning on watching me day and night, that second bed will probably end up a bit crowded. Are we all done with the bathroom?”

  I heard murmured conversation as I locked the door and smirked to myself. I wanted answers. I needed to understand what the hell was going on, and since Silas seemed to know more than the others, he was the one to talk to. That would be easier without the other two, I thought.

  I washed and cleaned my teeth, then pulled the sweat pants and tee shirt back on, cursing because I’d forgotten to take clothes with me into the bathroom. I left the bathroom to see the room was straightened out: beds made, curtains neatly arranged and tied back, no sign of my suitcase. Silas was standing by the balcony doors, looking out over the park.

  “Where’s my stuff?”

  “The case is in the cupboard. I thought I should tidy up since you have company this evening.”

  There was an undertone to his voice that I couldn’t make out. I mean, he couldn’t possibly be jealous of Adam coming back when he’d not been bothered at all by my sucking his mate’s face off. Unless that was it. Nah. Couldn’t have been. I’d met Amos first. Well, in that sense, anyway.

  “What’s up?”

  He turned to look at me with his brows pulled in. “I’m concerned.”

  “Yeah? You and me both. I’ll be back in a few, I just want to get dressed—”

  It was instant. The sweat pants were gone, replaced by black cropped linen trousers and a tight white cami top. No bra.

  “Thanks.”

  He inclined his head and walked toward me. “Have you any idea who could want you dead?”

  I shook my head and took a step back. “No…I…everything was fine until I arrived here. I didn’t even think the choking thing was anything to do with me until that cat said it was.”

  His advance stopped when he reached the dressing table, and I watched him turn and sit on the top. “Could I see your birthmark?”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because touching it on Monday caused me pain. Pain I’m still experiencing, and I should like to touch it again.”

  I stood there blinking. He’d been honest, at least, even if it didn’t make a bit of sense. Why would you want to touch something if you thought it was going to hurt you?

  “What sort of pain?”

  He must have heard th
e concern in my voice because he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. When he raised his head again, he smiled, I think to reassure me. “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “You saw enough, if I remember correctly.”

  “But I didn’t see.”

  I sat on the edge of the bed in front of him and unfastened my pants, tugging them down at the right hip. “It’s just a birthmark. Honestly, after nineteen years I’d know if it were anything more.”

  He hopped down from the table top and crouched before me, eyes fixed on my exposed hip. His tongue flicked out over his bottom lip and he glanced up at me. His eyes were so intense now, and I looked away uncomfortably.

  “May I?”

  I kept looking at the light switch on the wall as he ran his thumb over the raised mark. He gave a short grunt of discomfort, and I looked back down at his face. “What?”

  He tugged his shirt over his head in answer, draping it on the bed at my side before turning around. Kneeling on the floor, he placed his hands on his knees and looked in the mirror, holding my gaze. “When I touch your mark, mine burns. It’s continued to burn since Monday, and is even more uncomfortable now.”

  His mark was a tattoo, just like the one Amos had. Exactly like the one Amos had. They were identical, as far as I could tell, and looked like rough sketches of combs. I reached out to touch it and pulled back my hand.

  “Go on.”

  I looked back into the mirror. “Why?”

  “If you respond as we do, then we know they are linked.”

  “How do you respond?” I knew the answer. He’d said he was in pain.

  “Find out.” I was sure there was a hint of challenge in his voice. He was daring me to touch it. Daring me to risk pain.

  Prick wouldn’t just answer the question, would he? Not one to back down, I placed my hand on his shoulder and felt the muscles tense, but I maintained eye contact with him in the mirror. His skin was so warm and soft beneath my palm…

  “If I don’t?”

  I asked more to distract myself from the fact that I was touching his bare body. He’d touched almost every inch of me, and I’d imagined doing the same to him more than once that week. Having him there at my fingertips was almost too much to bear.

  “Then I’m clearly insane. Please, Maia, I need to know. Rhett needs to know.”

  But not Amos, I realised. He’d never touched it. He’d kissed me, yes, but hadn’t touched the mark. As I considered that, my palm slid over his shoulder and down between his shoulder blades. I felt the quiver of his muscles at the touch and allowed my fingers to trace the edge of the image etched into his perfect, golden brown skin.

  Pain flared.

  Flinching away, I pressed my hand to my hip and tried to swallow the scream that swelled in my throat. Kicking back onto the bed, I hissed at the burn and tugged at the waist band of my pants, trying to get them off.

  I needed air on it. I needed water on it. I must have kicked Silas in the spine as I scrambled back, because he growled something I didn’t hear and turned sharply to face me.

  “What is it? Maia, stop.”

  Clawing at the hook fastening at my waist, I finally managed to free myself and wriggled out of the trousers. “Fuck off! Don’t touch me! You knew it would burn like this, you prick!”

  I saw him come closer from the corner of my eye, felt the bed dip as he knelt on the mattress, but I was too busy staring at the now bright red mark on my hip. What had been a harmless little brown mark was now a glowing brand. I looked like I’d been burned.

  He made a grab for my arm, and I turned over, kicking him back. “Get off!”

  “Let me see.”

  “No! You set me up for this, you wanker!”

  His expression changed. The friendly guardian with his magical mugs of tea was gone. He looked dangerous. This was who I’d been afraid of days before. He sat back on his heels at the foot of the bed and glared at my leg as I scooted away.

  Finally off the bed, I stormed toward the bathroom. I needed water on that before it blistered. Just before I could reach the bathroom door, he gripped my upper left arm and spun me around.

  My right hand connected with his cheek. “I said don’t!”

  If I hadn’t been so pissed off, I’d probably have laughed. The look on his face was priceless. Like he didn’t expect me to defend myself.

  “You will not do that again.”

  There it was again. That command. His voice was low, his words a veiled threat, and I felt my stomach turn over.

  Fear? Yeah, who wouldn’t be a bit scared of someone they knew had a sword hidden somewhere?

  But it was something else, too. In a way, that was more terrifying than the man who was taking another step toward me, trapping me between the door I’d failed to open and his sculpted, still topless body. “Stay still.”

  He dropped to his knees, looking up at me through his floppy hair. His eyes held a warning, but no threat. If I didn’t know any better, I’d have said it was the same look he gave me when he’d made his offer, there in that same room, only days before. That was when it occurred to me I’d torn off my pants, and I wasn’t wearing anything but the almost see-through cami top and the underwear he’d provided when he’d dressed me.

  My eyes locked with his and I felt his thumb brush the white-hot patch. Then he turned me, the mark then at his eye level, and I watched as he kissed it. His soft lips brushed the seared flesh so gently I barely felt them, but they were there. I knew because the pain ebbed away, only to be replaced with a heavy ache between my legs.

  “Better?”

  I looked down at him, my tongue flicking out to wet my bottom lip and I reached for the bathroom door handle. I think I nodded before pushing it open and stepping inside, leaving him on his knees.

  19

  Rhett

  I let Amos lead the way. My head needed time to clear.

  I did not know how it had happened. I had sworn to myself I would not get involved. We knew nothing about her, and while I did trust the cat, to a point, I was unsure what to make of the tale that was unravelling.

  But when we found her dead, the loss I felt was crushing. The grief was so encompassing. I had fought to save her, but it made no sense. Why was I fighting for someone I did not know? She meant nothing to me until that moment, when the very thought of my life without her was meaningless.

  I willed her to live. I begged her to want to live so that I could cease with the futile chest compressions. There must have been just a flicker of life left. She must have heard me pleading, because I felt the familiar tug and granted her wish.

  When she had recovered, when she thanked me, when she kissed me, everything stopped.

  When I touched her hip, and felt my mark respond, everything became clear. There was nothing else in the world but her. She was everything. She would be everything. I was hers and I longed for her to be mine. If they had not returned when they had….

  I shared her bed and had slept far more soundly than I ever remembered. I awoke to the scent of her, and felt I was where I was meant to be. I had never felt that, not once since I found myself incarcerated. It was home, but it was always missing something. Someone.

  None of it made sense. It was maddening.

  Silas was in deep. He would never admit, even to himself, that she was a weakness. I wondered just how much of a weakness she was for him. She was destroying me. What was most confusing was that I expected to feel jealousy, knowing she was alone with Silas. I supposed I should have felt the same with Amos, but it was not there. For either of them. It just felt right that we were with her, as the three of us had always been together.

  That brought me back to Maia. How was she feeling? She seemed quite relaxed with the prospect when we left, but with time to think…

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Everything. The pain in my back is distracting.”

  He nodded his head and looked to cross t
he road. I followed when he stepped out, walking close behind him. We rarely went out together, not wanting to draw too much attention to ourselves, but that week had been an exception. London was our home. I felt comfortable there. I had even built a life there, had friends outside of our trio.

  Portobello road was busy, as usual, and we wound our way up to the small street that housed our little antique shop. That was not our destination, but it seemed right to check in. We each glanced through the window as we walked by, and I caught a glimpse of the cat.

  I was glad he was alright, despite his disgusting behaviour. He had guarded us, protected us when we were at our most vulnerable, and I was grateful to him for his assistance.

  That far from excused his attack on Maia, or the way he was withholding information that we so desperately needed. How could we protect her when we did not understand how, or why? What were we protecting her from?

  I preferred straight answers. I could work with those. This ridiculous guessing game was equally as dangerous as leaving her to fend for herself, and the cat knew it.

  “Who are we looking for?”

  Amos looked over his shoulder. “The pedlar.”

  “Why do you need him?”

  “He sees things.”

  “This was Silas’s grand idea? Talk to the undesirables of the city in the hope of uncovering something useful?”

  “No. He wasn’t sure where to start, so he suggested the cat. He won’t give information unless it’s on his terms, so we’ll irk him by seeing the kid. Pip will follow us now he’s seen us pass and will bring information to us.”

  “What makes you sure of that?”

  “He’s a nosy little bastard and whoever sent him won’t be pleased at last night’s events. He’ll talk.”

  I thought for a moment. The kid was a pain in the arse. I failed to see what help he could be to us in this situation. “He is only fractionally as connected as George was, you know.”

  “Of course. He’s just riding his grandfather’s name. He’s a stupid little prick who keeps all the wrong company. But, he sees things; listens to all the wrong people. He may have heard something that can help us.”