“Still,” I said, “that’s stupid, and he’s not stupid.”
“Stop trying to get out of drinking my blood, Clarke,” said Naelen, who was holding the knife up to his forearm and screwing up his face.
“Don’t,” I said, wincing.
But he did it anyway. He punched the knife into his skin and pulled it back out, and blood welled up.
I shuddered.
Naelen held out his arm to me.
I gagged again. “I can’t.” I could smell it now, and it was like pennies. It wasn’t the least bit appetizing.
“Come on, Clarke,” he said.
I seized his forearm and put it to my mouth. I tasted the salty, warm liquid. It was the most horrid thing I had ever tasted in my life, like what I imagined drinking urine would be like. I gagged again, pushing his arm away.
“Clarke,” said Naelen.
I heaved, but there was nothing in my stomach, so I didn’t throw up. My eyes watered. “No,” I said.
Everyone glared at me.
“Do you smell that?” said Logan, standing up.
“Smell what?” I said.
“It smells like smoke,” said Logan.
“We can worry about that later,” said Ambrose. “We must get the dragon slayer some strength.” He came over to me and settled down. “You must believe that you can drink it. Right now, you believe you can’t, and so you can’t.”
“That’s crap,” I said.
“Holding your nose helps with the taste,” he said.
I grimaced. But I pinched my nose closed and put my mouth to Naelen’s wound again. I got down three swallows before I had to breathe. I took a break to do that, and I realized that holding my nose was just going to prolong the process, so I put on my big girl pants and drank it. It was the worst thing I have ever drunk in my entire life.
Finally, Ambrose’s voice said softly, “That should be enough.”
And I stopped. I pushed Naelen’s arm away and struggled not to vomit.
Naelen looked down at his arm, making a face.
I ran over to the door, which was covered in a tangle of bright magic threads. I tore them apart like they were nothing, and I felt strong. I turned to everyone, yanking away compulsion threads from their bodies as I did. “Well, it seems to have worked.”
We pushed through the door, hurried down the hallway and clambered down the narrow steps out of the attic as fast as we could.
We rushed through the fourth floor wing to the top of the stairs.
That was where we saw the flames.
“I knew I smelled smoke,” said Logan.
The entire first and second floor were on fire. The flames danced against the big window as dawn overtook the sky.
“Cunningham lit the house on fire,” I said. “That’s why he left us up there. Because he’s long gone by now. Left us here, probably hoped we’d burn up in the house and die.”
Riley coughed. “How do we get out of here?”
Naelen pointed at a window and it burst open. He made a motion with one hand and swept all the shattered glass away. “I’ll float you out one at a time.”
“I can help,” said Logan, breaking another window. Then he winced and clutched his stomach.
“Hey,” I said. “How about you stick this one out, considering you had a knife in your gut a couple of hours ago?”
“I can float us down as well,” said Ambrose.
Logan sighed. But he nodded.
Once we were all safe on the ground and far away from the house, we watched as the flames overtook the wood, burning the place from the inside.
“Sorry about your house,” I said to Riley.
“Well, it was kind of a horrible place,” he said. “Gloomy. Lots of bad memories. Besides, it’s not as if I don’t have insurance.”
“Does insurance cover arson?” I said.
“If you don’t set the fire yourself,” said Naelen.
“You sure about that?” said Logan.
“Look,” said Naelen, “your insurance company gives you trouble, you call me, all right? I’ll either put pressure on them, or I’ll find you some money.”
“Thanks,” said Riley.
“Yes,” said Ambrose. “Thank you so much. For everything you’ve done for our family.”
* * *
Naelen stood at the bar on his plane, making drinks. “I don’t care how weak you say you want it, Clarke, you need a proper drink after this one.”
I was sitting in one of the leather swivel chairs, and I just shrugged.
Logan was in the other. “So, where does this leave us? Cunningham’s still out there, still has all the objects, and now he knows that Clarke can resist his magic.”
Naelen turned around, holding two drinks. “It’s my fault.” He came across the plane and handed one to me and one to Logan. “I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
“No, it was the right call to get Clarke to safety,” said Logan. “I’m the one who told you to do that.”
“But he was down for the count,” said Naelen, heading back to the bar. He got out another glass and filled it with ice. “I could have had him. Chopped off his head. Ended this. I just can’t believe I didn’t do that. What was I thinking?”
“It was a stressful situation,” I said. “We were all having trouble thinking.”
Naelen poured whiskey into his glass. “Where do you think he is?”
“He could be anywhere,” I said. “Maybe we should make a trip to Robin again, see if she could do another spell like she did before.”
Naelen surveyed both me and Logan. “Clarke, get out of the swivel chair.”
“No,” I said.
“It’s my plane,” he said.
“So?” I said. “I told you to get another swivel chair.”
He sighed. “Right, I’ll take it under advisement.” He sat down on the couch opposite us. “Well, if we’re going after him, then we’ll need to go right away, I suppose. Or else you’re going to have to drink my blood again.”
“We can’t go right now,” I said. “We’re all getting drunk.”
“We’d be better off with the scarab, anyway,” said Logan. “I say we go talk to Eden and see if she can tell us where it is.”
“You don’t think that Cunningham will just get the scarab away from us?” said Naelen. “Should we bring it to him, like delivering takeout?”
“Clarke can stand up to him,” said Logan. “As long as the blood makes you powerful enough not to pass out, that is?”
“Well, I guess we should test that.” I grimaced. “How much dragon blood am I going to have to drink?”
“Maybe we can get you some dice,” said Logan. “He said dragon flesh would work.”
I gaped at him. “Are you kidding? That stuff makes you high. And it turns you into a drake.”
“Only if you die with it in your system,” said Logan. “I bet Gina would still know where you can get some.”
I shuddered. “I’m not taking dice.” I turned to Naelen. “You’re with me on this, right? You don’t want me consuming the flesh of some poor dragon who was killed by a slayer?”
“You told me that ninety percent of the dice out there is made from rogues,” said Naelen. “You kill rouges anyway… Might as well not let it go to waste.”
I shook my head. “I do not believe the two of you.”
“It doesn’t make you high exactly, anyway,” said Logan. “It makes you feel invincible. That might not be a bad thing against Cunningham.”
“If Gina finds out I’m taking dice, she’ll never let me do it,” I said.
“Look, we’ll work all this out,” said Naelen. “I think we should go back to Sea City and take a couple days off.”
“But first go see Eden?” said Logan.
“Yes, definitely,” said Naelen. “We’ll head there now.” He got up. “I’ll have a word with the pilot.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“I gave the scarab to the Order of Rasmossen a
nd Wolffe,” said Eden.
“And what is that?” said Logan.
We were all in her living room, clutching glasses of wine. It was early evening. We’d stayed for dinner, spent our time relaxing for once. Even though Cunningham was still out there, knowing we finally had a weapon against him made us all feel better.
“They’re like, a traveling magical jail for really terrible magical criminals,” said Eden. “They actually contacted me when they heard about the trouble we were having with Cunningham. They want to take all the objects and lock them away for safekeeping.”
“You think they can be trusted?” I said.
“Apparently, they’ve recently gone through some sort of management change. I don’t know what happened exactly, but there was some corruption or something—some person named Darla Tell turned out to be a murderer and then her replacement was more of the same, but now they’ve gotten everything cleaned up, and...” She furrowed her brow. “Actually, I’m beginning to wonder why I gave it to them at all. Now that I’m explaining it, it sounds as though they don’t have their act together. It’s only that it seemed like such a good idea at the time.”
“They compelled you,” I said.
“No,” said Eden, shaking her head. “They couldn’t have. I was wearing my talisman at the time.”
“Talismans don’t always work,” said Naelen. “These people sound pretty heavy duty. And they want all the objects? Great.”
Eden rubbed the back of her neck. “It does sound sketchy now that you point it out. I don’t know what I could have been thinking.”
I sighed. “Well, if we’ve got to go up against this Order plus go up against Cunningham, I really am going to need to take dice or something, because I’d end up draining Naelen of blood.”
“What?” said Eden, who looked confused.
We stopped and explained a few things about what had happened to us. Before, we’d given her a broad strokes version. Now, we could fill in the details for her.
She listened and kept shaking her head. “What?” she kept saying.
When we were finally done, she looked a little shell shocked. “That’s absolutely crazy,” said Eden.
“You’re telling me,” said Jocelyn, entering the room. “Sorry for listening in, but I just got done putting the kids to bed, and I thought I’d come in to hang out.”
“I heard it too,” said Brian, poking his head in from the dining room. “I’ve been wiping the dining room table for ten minutes, cleaning the same spot over and over.”
Eden laughed. “Come in here, you two. Have some wine.”
Brian came in. “I’m not done with cleanup.”
“We’ll get to it later,” said Eden.
Jocelyn and Brian came into the room and poured themselves some wine and then settled in on a love seat, sitting next to each other.
“So,” said Joceyln, “you guys are poly now.”
Logan, Naelen, and I exchanged a glance.
“We’re… trying,” said Naelen. “I don’t know if we really have the hang of it yet.”
“You know, being polyamorous isn’t for everyone,” said Eden. “I got the impression the last time that you were here that you guys had been through some kind of trauma, and if you haven’t worked through all of that—”
“There’s no working through that,” said Logan.
“Logan,” said Eden, “I know you’re stoic and strong and everything, but working through issues is really important, no matter what kind of relationship you have.”
“Okay, sure,” he said. “I guess what I meant is that it’s never going to go away. We were all changed by what Cunningham made us do for all those months. So, no matter what, we’re never going to be the people we were before it happened.”
“That’s true,” said Eden. “Are you happy?”
None of us said anything.
“Wow,” said Jocelyn.
“We’re not… not happy,” I said. I peered first at Logan and then at Naelen, neither of whom were looking at me. “Are we?”
“No, we’re fine,” said Naelen, but he told the arm of the couch, not me or anyone else.
“I think we’re struggling with certain things,” said Logan.
Eden and the others looked at us expectantly.
“You want to share?” said Jocelyn. “Talking never hurts anything.”
Logan’s wings shook. “If Clarke was ever… pregnant, I just… I don’t think that can… work.”
I felt as if my stomach had just been turned inside out. He’d brought that up, had he?
Brian nodded. “Yeah, I hear you on that.”
“You do?” said Logan.
“You do?” said Eden, who looked a little confused.
“Sure,” said Brian. “I don’t know if I’ve told you this before, but I am like the least polyamorous poly out there. The only reason that I’m even doing this is because I fell in love with two women at the same time. And I’m really lucky, because they were poly before I even showed up, so it’s all been very smooth for me. Like… I couldn’t deal with either of them having someone else’s kid. No. No way.”
“You say that, Brian,” said Eden, “but I think if the situation presented itself, like if I happened to fall in love with another man, you would love me enough to allow me to have a child with him if that’s what I really wanted, because our love would end up being bigger than petty jealousies.”
“No,” said Brian, shaking his head. “It wouldn’t.”
“Brian.” Eden let out an exasperated laugh.
He shrugged. “I’m sorry. I just know myself, and that is… primal. To me, I could never, ever go there. It’s like a caveman thing. You two are mine. I know it’s not fair, and I don’t know what to do about that. I’m lucky that you two are willing to be monogamous to the relationship, because I’m not wired to be polyamorous. You are, Eden, but I don’t think everyone is.”
She sucked in air through her nose. “But you are polyamorous, Brian. You have two wives.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I know. But it’s like…” He leaned back in his seat, tapping his chin. “It’s like Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneris. Like Ellen was really gay. But Anne was straight and happened to fall in love with a woman this one time. After that relationship broke up, she went back to dating men.”
“So, you’re saying you’re a monogamous man who happened to fall in love with two women,” said Jocelyn.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” said Brian. “Okay, maybe I’m simplifying it. I don’t think labeling people is all that helpful. Like you’re more than a label—more than straight or gay or polyamorous or monogamous. But I do think for a triad with two men to work, both of them have to be polyamorous, way down in their souls. And, I mean, a lot of guys are, I think, so maybe that’s not a problem for you.”
But both Logan and Naelen were looking pale.
“Stop it, you’re scaring them,” said Eden. “They are baby polys and you are scaring the hell out of them.”
“Things can change,” said Jocelyn. “When Eden and I got together, I was not interested in a polyamorous relationship. It didn’t come naturally to me at first. I was very jealous. I still get jealous.”
“You do?” said Naelen, looking at her doubtfully.
“Oh, sure,” said Jocelyn. “I tend to deal with it by basically accepting it. I tell myself that it’s utterly natural for me to feel the way that I feel, but that I know that I’ve chosen this life, and that the good outweighs the bad by a huge margin. I mean, no one has a perfect relationship. If things aren’t easy for you guys all the time, it doesn’t mean that you’re broken or that it won’t work between you.”
“That’s true,” said Brian. “I didn’t mean to scare you guys. I will say that I’ve met the best people through the poly community. Really open minded, sweet people, who are caring and giving and very in touch with themselves and each other. Because you can’t be in a relationship like this without digging deep, you know. So, I’m glad
that my life took this turn. I feel really lucky to be part of this.”
“I do too,” said Jocelyn. “I feel like we have something amazing, the three of us.”
They all smiled at each other in that secret way people do when they’re in love.
And I could see that they were a unit in a way that me and the guys weren’t. But I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be that kind of a unit. I wasn’t sure about any of this.
I couldn’t help but thinking about the way that the guys had talked when I’d told them about the possible pregnancy that Cunningham had possibly, maybe terminated. The way it was immediately a discussion of whose baby it was—Logan’s or Naelen’s. How that seemed incredibly important to both of them.
I hated to say it, but I was inclined to think that Logan might be right. We couldn’t have a baby, not the three of us. And that meant that this relationship had an expiration date. Someday, I was going to have to end this if I wanted to start a family.
“Look,” spoke up Logan. “What we have, it’s not like what you guys have. We’re not all in love with each other. I respect Naelen. He respects me.”
“Sure,” said Naelen. “And we’re friends. Close friends. Like… brothers, even.” He leaned around me to look at Logan. “I would say that I love you like a brother even.”
Logan seemed affected by that. “Definitely,” he said in a quiet voice.
Naelen turned back to Eden. “But to be honest? If he would find someone else and would want out of the relationship, and I would get Clarke to myself, I would…” He sighed.
I bit down on my lip. Damn it. I hated hearing that. My heart went out to him.
Eden and the others were quiet.
Naelen looked at Logan again. “I don’t mean that to be hurtful or anything. Maybe I shouldn’t have said it.”
Logan pursed his lips. “I’m not… hurt. I’m just trying to figure out if I feel the same way.” He cocked his head to one side. “If, uh, if you left Clarke for another woman, she would… that would devastate her, and I can’t imagine trying to hold the pieces of her together while she grieved the loss of you, so…”
“Right,” said Naelen, nodding. “You’re right. I wouldn’t want you to do that to Clarke either.”
Ashes (The Slayer Chronicles Book 3) Page 19
