by Linda Howard
“I do.”
She could almost see his mind working as she looked into those mesmerizing dark eyes. “Then tell me where the deck is,” he said. “We’ll both feel better when it is safe in our hands.”
There was some truth to that argument. The majority of the deck was where Elijah had found it, in the corner of a closet in Zack’s house where anyone could stumble across it. The Moon, on a shelf in Elijah’s bedroom, was all but out in the open. The only card she could be positive was safe and well-guarded was the one in her bag.
But if she reunited the cards, Caine would take her home without further delay. He was an honorable man, she knew that, but his first duty was to the Emperor, not to her or Elijah.
“Not yet,” she said.
He made a sound that was just short of a growl.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I do believe that if it is necessary you will keep your word and see to Elijah, as you said you would. I’m not being purposely difficult—I do understand the importance of my return to Aeonia and I give you my word I’ll allow you to take me home when time dictates.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” He didn’t sound glad. He sounded distinctly grumpy.
She smiled at him, though she didn’t know whether or not he could see in the dark as well as she could. “You could argue with me a little and tell me that in the short time you’ve known me I haven’t been at all difficult.”
He did not smile, not exactly, but there was a small crook at the corner of his mouth as he said, “I would never lie to you.”
It was truth and a tease; she felt something relax inside her, and didn’t take offense.
She nestled more deeply into her pillow. “We could return,” she mused. “After my time here has passed, you could take me home briefly and we could come back, if necessary.”
“You can’t travel without the deck, and the Emperor has hired me to hand it over to him. My mission is to return you, and take the Alexandria Deck to him. I’m obligated to fulfill my mission. If I take you back to Aeonia, do you think the Emperor would then immediately turn the Alexandria Deck back over to you—or me—so we could return here and start the dilemma all over again?”
He could’ve lied to her, made promises he couldn’t keep, but he hadn’t. That only made her trust him more. The truth, no matter how unpalatable, was solid ground on which one could depend.
Still, she was disappointed. If he could bring her back to Seven as often as was necessary, then she wouldn’t be under the stress of a time limit for taking care of Elijah’s problem.
She sighed. “Good night,” she said, turning away and presenting her back to him, not because she was annoyed but because if she was to get any sleep she had to turn so she couldn’t see him. She must be content with the knowledge he had shared; she had all she needed.
But, oh, she wondered what he was thinking now …
Caine lay awake, his arms folded behind his head. For a minute there, he’d thought he might be able to convince her to tell him where the deck was, to let him take her home. If she had, he’d have acted immediately, taken her back, and then returned here before Elijah even knew he was missing. The kid wouldn’t be happy that Lenna was gone, but Caine figured he’d be able to settle the little guy down. How long it would take to find this Uncle Bobby was anyone’s guess, so he wanted Lenna back on Aeonia where she belonged.
No such luck.
He could have lied to her. A Hunter had no problem lying, if that would help complete the mission. But a Hunter was by default always strategic, and he knew that if he lied to her she would never forget, never forgive. In the future … well, in the future, trust could become indispensable for them, and he didn’t want to squander that.
But she’d said no, and he knew better than to try to make her change her mind. If there were a Major Arcana card with the name “Stubborn” scrolled across the top, her picture would be on it.
He finally slept some, and so did she. Luckily neither of them needed much sleep, because if he had to spend every night—naked—in the same bed with her, the results would be—
Damn satisfying.
Finally it was morning, and he could hear Elijah stirring in the living room. Caine was glad enough to leave the bed that was nothing short of a torture chamber.
Silently he left the bed, but not silently enough, because Lenna opened her eyes and got out from under the covers to pull on her clothes. Caine dressed with angry jerks, trying not to look at her and failing, because, vae, he was a man and she was a woman and she’d been made with more than a passing nod to temptation.
It was with relief that he finished dressing first, then as he was about to go into the living room, he remembered he couldn’t get very far from her and paused to wait until she was ready. He stood with his back to her, and when she said, “I’m dressed,” he simply opened the door and went into the living room.
“I’m hungry,” Elijah said, pouncing on the couch and turning on the television.
“Good morning to you, too,” Caine replied drily.
Elijah rubbed his nose. “I didn’t say good morning.”
“I know.”
“Oh. I get it.” He giggled. “I should have said it, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good! Morning!” Elijah pronounced each word with enthusiastic emphasis. “I’m! Hungry!”
Caine chuckled a little to himself. Children were quite a bit of trouble, but at the same time, they were often interesting and entertaining. He would much rather Elijah be mischievous than crying the way he had yesterday. There would be more tears, he had no doubt, but for now the novelty of being in the hotel, of being with Hunters, was taking his mind off the tragedy of losing his mother. He slept, ate, and watched cartoons. For now, that was good enough.
Life continued.
“What do you want for breakfast today?” he asked.
“Everything,” Elijah said blissfully. “Like yesterday.”
Caine got on the phone to order another huge room service breakfast, and eyed Lenna as he talked, gauging her mood. She looked as calm as always; if she was in any way disturbed, about anything, it didn’t show on the surface.
He’d thought she would put back on the clothes she’d been wearing yesterday, but instead she had on a white dress that she must have been wearing when she’d been brought to this world. Caine clenched his jaw. The woman was trying to kill him; he knew that for certain now. The dress was some soft material that floated about her body as if it were her own personal slinky cloud, and he went from half-mast to hard as a rock in what felt like a single heartbeat. There was nothing about her that was normal, nothing about her that blended in.
“You’ll need to change clothes before we go shopping,” he said, keeping his tone neutral.
She looked down at her dress, a faint frown wrinkling her brow. “Why? I’ll be getting new clothes then, won’t I?”
“You attract too much attention in that dress,” he said. Not only was it too flimsy for cold weather clothing, it exposed too much of her glowing skin.
She had looked inside his brain, and when she stopped to consider how she would appear to the citizens of Seven, she understood and gave him a brief nod.
After they ate he shooed Elijah into the bathroom to take a shower, then he and Lenna went back into the bedroom so she could change clothes. The constraints of shielding her were going to be the death of him, because there was no way he could have even a moment away from her, without risking her safety. He watched her strip out of the dress and step into the jeans she’d been wearing yesterday, and despite himself he had the traitorous thought that maybe they could wait until the last possible moment to finish this job.
She turned, her hair swayed to the side, and he saw the white tattoo on her back. Infinity. Forever. His fingers twitched from the temptation to reach out and trace that symbol with the tip of one finger. He wanted, more than he’d ever wanted anything else, to spend another night or two or three right here in this
room … with her.
Dangerous thoughts.
Chapter 11
After breakfast, Lenna and Caine had a whispered but heated exchange in the bedroom. Elijah was once again watching cartoons, with the sound on the television turned up so loud they could probably have spoken in normal voices without him being able to hear, but they didn’t take any chances.
“Why buy the boy clothes when all we have to do is go to his house to get whatever he needs?” Caine asked, not unreasonably.
“Because Uncle Bobby might be there! If he’s hunting for Elijah—and he has to be—the most logical place would be at the house.”
“I’d welcome an encounter with Uncle Bobby,” Caine said, smiling a smile that wasn’t in the least humorous.
“So would I, if Elijah wasn’t present, but we can’t leave him here alone. He’s a child—when he noticed we’re gone, he’d panic. He might run, he might do anything. If he runs, how would we find him again? What if he gets hurt? Killed?”
Caine gave her a cool look. “If Uncle Bobby was indeed there, he wouldn’t have the opportunity to hurt Elijah.” Because Caine would immediately take care of Uncle Bobby, the way he’d taken care of Nevan. Caine had no compunction against taking a life, if such an action was warranted.
“But what if the police are there, instead of Uncle Bobby? How would we explain suddenly appearing in the middle of a crime scene?” She now had a much more secure idea on how things worked here on Seven, not to mention she had been paying attention during the morning television news shows. Crime took up a lot of the programs. “If Elijah’s mother has been found, the police will definitely be there, which is a problem in itself. What if the man who assaulted us yesterday is there? He was a law officer—he showed us his badge. The other policemen would listen to him, rather than us. One or both of us would be arrested, which means we’d be separated.”
“No, we wouldn’t. Even cuffed, I can still teleport. They couldn’t hold me, and I wouldn’t leave you behind.”
“You want to disappear with dozens of police officers as witness?” she asked incredulously. The Hunters didn’t bring attention to themselves, and generally all the beings on other planes were very cautious when visiting a different world.
In truth, she didn’t want Caine in Elijah’s bedroom, not with the one card hidden there. Elijah knew where the majority of the deck was, but even he didn’t know about the Moon, which sat on a shelf along with some of his toys. What she didn’t know, however, was whether or not Caine might take the time to thoroughly search Elijah’s room.
“We can’t take him there,” she pressed, concentrating on that one reason because it was the one most likely to convince Caine not to go to the house. “He was … upset when I took him back there to look for his mother’s body. He didn’t want to go in.” That was the truth; all that she’d said was the truth, though some truths were less important than others. “Whatever his new clothing costs, I will reimburse you.”
Caine’s face darkened with more than annoyance. “I have funds here on Seven. I don’t need your aid to buy his clothing.”
Men and their pride, she thought, mentally shaking her head. At least she had successfully deflected him, for now—she thought.
Caine opened the hotel room door and placed a Do Not Disturb sign on the outside handle and closed the door again, with them still on the inside. From his pocket he pulled a small device unlike anything Lenna had ever seen before. Running the device around the outline of the door, he “sealed” it against any intruder who might be tempted to ignore the sign. That was wise, as he had an impressive cache of weapons hidden in the closet, and the simple request for privacy might not be honored. It occurred to Lenna that she could hide her own card in this protected room, but instincts warned her to keep it close. As long as it was in the red bag that hung on a strap across her body, she knew where it was and could guard it.
The suite secured, Caine gathered her and Elijah close. Lenna thought by now she would be accustomed to the rush and burn of energy as he transported them, but she still found herself breathless, still found herself clinging to his broad shoulder. Elijah was as ecstatic as usual, and scholar that she was, she wondered if teleportation affected her differently than it did a human. She must remember to ask—no, she immediately thought. She didn’t want Caine to know how he made her feel, didn’t want him to know that she was particularly vulnerable immediately after being teleported.
When they traveled in the manner of a Hunter, the three of them in a close huddle, Caine was always careful to land in a private area so no one would witness their arrival. Like her, he had to take care to remain unnoticed in this world. This time he took them to the back corner of a … garden, or at least a place where garden things were sold, though at this time of the year there wasn’t much gardening going on. She looked around and saw a large overhead sign that said Garden Center, though she wondered why its purpose needed announcing.
Inside, she could see a line of artificial trees displayed in a group. Since Christmas was past, she was surprised so many people were checking out the trees. Then she noticed that all the trees bore sale tags, so that mystery was solved. Outside, where they were, were a few straggly real trees.
“What is the name of this place?” she asked politely.
“Walmart.”
“Yay!” Elijah said, jumping in excitement. “Can I go to the toy section? Please, huh, can I?”
“After we find clothing,” Caine said firmly, taking Elijah’s hand. The little boy clung to him, his small hand disappearing in Caine’s much larger one. He looked down at Lenna. “We’ll find all that you need here. It isn’t as fine as what you’re used to, but we won’t have to go to several different stores to get everything.”
“Shopping” was an exciting concept to her, though she wisely kept that observation to herself. Thanks to reading his memories she knew what shopping was; on Aeonia, everything she wished for had simply been brought to her. Gazing around the huge store, she thought that this must be like hunting, and the fastest shopper got the best items.
They walked past the straggly trees, which looked nothing like the cheery example she had seen where Elijah lived. There were no twinkling lights, no decorations hanging from the branches to make the trees merry. Two of the trees even leaned crookedly to one side. She wanted to straighten them, place decorations on them, make them pretty.
They entered the store and Caine grabbed a shopping cart, which he pushed before him as if he had—oddly enough—done this before. Warm air replaced the cold; harsh artificial lighting replaced sunlight.
Elijah jumped on the front of the cart like a monkey, holding on and chattering nonstop about toys, something called an Xbox, food, and basically everything other than the clothing they were there to buy. Lenna’s head was on a swivel as she tried to absorb everything about this huge store, and the intricacies of “shopping.” How did people find anything? How did they know where it was? How did they even know what they wanted?
Caine glanced down at Lenna; his mouth twisted wryly, and he turned the cart into a section called Health and Beauty. “Look around and see if there’s anything you’d like to have,” he said. “I’ll stay close to you.”
“Aww,” Elijah said, pouting. “I want to—”
“Hush,” Caine said sternly. “Lenna needs things. Your turn will come, unless you keep whining, in which case you will not be getting a toy.”
Elijah opened his mouth to complain, but the expression on Caine’s face made him rethink the situation.
Lenna wanted to say that they should concentrate on clothing—their reason for being here—but Caine would say so if they were spending too much time looking so she allowed herself a bit of indulgence. She was curious about this Health and Beauty designation. How did one buy health, or beauty?
She wandered down the aisle, not picking up anything but trailing her finger across products that the advertising said were waterproof, would make her eyelashes incredibly vo
luminous—fat lashes?—small boxes of color to put on the eyes or cheeks. She stopped at a picture of lips, incredibly red and shiny pouting lips; they looked as if they had been painted. Lipstick, she read. Because of Caine’s knowledge she knew what this was, though his brain had been incredibly deficient on the fat lashes product. Lipstick, a stick for lips. She studied the packaging, and thought the name was appropriate. Then she saw one that said lip balm, and she liked the sound of that better. Balm was good. The color was a soft pink, and the flavor was bubble gum. She picked up the package, sniffed at it because she wanted to know what bubble gum smelled like. To her disappointment, no scent came through the hard shell of the packaging.
“Get it,” Caine said, a little amusement leaking into his tone. “Put it in the cart.”
She did so. Nothing else on the aisle caught her attention, but a couple of aisles over she found a lotion that she liked the smell of—Baby Powder Fresh, an alarming thought but she didn’t think they actually turned babies into powder, so she put the lotion in the cart. Then there was “bath gel,” and shampoo for her hair. Those four items were enough; she could think of nothing else she needed, other than clothing.
The detour into the Health and Beauty section took all of five minutes.
When they left there, Caine took over with the skill of a battlefield general. He’d allowed that five minutes, but after that he was ruthlessly efficient in this shopping arena. Lenna didn’t complain, because she understood why. They had so much to do, and so little time to get it all done. Under any other circumstances she would have loved to browse, to more closely examine the eclectic collection of goods that were for sale in this massive store. Housewares! Automotive! Electronics! She wanted to explore it all.
Instead, Caine wheeled the cart to the area of clothing, and she remained close at his side and watched the people they passed. The citizens of Seven were fascinating. Some were relaxed and smiling as they shopped, while others were as rushed as Caine, perhaps even more so. She caught snippets of conversation as they walked quickly down the aisles. Many of the shoppers talked about the snow, which was apparently not the norm in this area. They were alternately thrilled and annoyed by the unusual weather.
