Rogue (Relentless Book 3)

SURROUNDED BY DEMONS, I couldn’t see Nikolas when he entered the building, but I felt his presence through the bond. If I could sense him, then he was sensing me too, and he was probably as confused as hell. That was going to end in about ten seconds.

A dark raw energy filled the air, and the crowd parted like the Red Sea as Nikolas stalked toward us. Chris suddenly moved in front of me, blocking me from Nikolas’s view before he reached us.

“Chris, what the hell is going on here? And why do I feel –?”

I stepped out from behind Chris. For one endless moment, Nikolas stared at me like I was an apparition. And then his eyes darkened and his nostrils flared dangerously. I could feel the fury rolling off him, and I wasn’t the only one. Every demon in the room began to put distance between them and us.

Chris put an arm in front of me. “Take it easy, Nikolas. She’s unharmed.”

I was about to ask my cousin if he had a death wish when Nikolas growled, “Move, Chris.”

“Shit,” Chris muttered as he faced his best friend, who was a few breaths away from going into a rage. The last thing I wanted was for either of them to get hurt, so I pushed Chris’s arm down and moved in front of him. I didn’t flinch as I met Nikolas’s thunderous stare. He might get loud and scary, but he would never hurt me.

“Nikolas.”

He held out a hand. “Come here.”

I blinked at him. “Listen, I know you’re upset, but you don’t get to order me around.”

“Sara, I’m trying very hard not to lose it,” he ground out. “I need to…”

Understanding filled me and wordlessly I went to him, finding myself enfolded in his tight embrace. He wasn’t shaking like the last time I’d seen him in a rage, so I knew he was in control of his Mori at least.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded in a low voice.

I took a deep breath, which was hard to do with my body pressed against his. “I came to help Chris and Jordan.”

“Help them?”

“I didn’t think you’d get here in time. I had to come.”

Easing his hold, he looked at me. “How did you get here?” He looked around, and I knew he was searching for Eldeorin, who was probably hidden behind a glamour. “I’ll kill him.”

“No, you won’t.”

“The hell I won’t.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “He’s supposed to be teaching you, not putting you in danger.”

I pushed against him and he let me go, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t allow me to go far. “I asked him to bring me.”

“And he should have said no. You could have been killed.”

“Look around, Nikolas. Most of the demons on the floor were put there by me. The team was in more danger of being killed than I was.”

I saw the disbelief in his eyes as they flicked to the dead demons, and it hurt. “You did this?”

“Yes.” My own anger rose. “And it’s not the first time.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I’ve killed a lot of demons and vampires.” A storm brewed in his eyes, but I refused to look away. “All over the country.”

It took several seconds for my words to sink in. Nikolas’s face grew stony as he stared at the dead demons again then looked at Chris and finally me. “Iisus Khristos! Please, tell me you’re joking.”

“I wouldn’t joke about that.”

A string of Russian curses exploded from him, and the air around us seemed to thicken with his anger. I felt Chris move closer to my back as demons scattered, some hiding in stalls and most running flat out for the exits.

Nikolas closed the distance between us and grabbed my arms in a strong but painless grip. “What in God’s name were you thinking? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you out there?”

“I wasn’t alone. Eldeorin was with me every time,” I tried to explain.

“And that makes it okay?” Fury blazed in his eyes. “You’ve barely begun your training. You have no business being in any of those places.”

“You had no problem with Jordan coming here.”

“Jordan’s been training since she could hold a sword, and she can –”

“Can what? Defend herself?” I shouted as heat suffused my body. I’d expected him to be angry, but his lack of faith in me cut deeply. “I’m never going to be like Jordan or any other warrior no matter how much I train, Nikolas. But I’m strong, a lot stronger than you give me credit for. You saw what I did in Vancouver. Eldeorin was with me, but over half of those kills were mine.”

He let out another expletive. “That was you in the backyard?”

“Yes.”

“All this time.” His jaw clenched. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I knew you’d react this way. Eldeorin told me I had to learn to use my power as a weapon, and he was right. I needed this. I’ve been trying for weeks to tell you the truth, but I didn’t know how. I almost told you today, but you got the call to come here.”

When he didn’t respond, I continued. “It started out as training, but then I realized I could make a real difference.”

He let go of my arms. I’d expected him to be furious, but the look of betrayal on his face sent a sharp pain through my chest. “I can’t believe this. How could you keep this from me?”

“I didn’t want to. I hated not telling you.”

He made an angry sound and turned away from me.

“Nikolas?”

“I need a minute, Sara,” he said in a hard voice.

I felt a rift forming between us as if it had been carved with a blade, the same one that was piercing my heart. I swallowed painfully and watched him walk away from me. I’d done this. It didn’t matter that I’d hated keeping a secret from him, or that I’d had no choice in whether or not to participate in Eldeorin’s training. I should have had the guts to tell Nikolas when this all started. He would have been angry, but at least I would have been honest with him.

I flinched when the door slammed behind him.

No one spoke.

After a few minutes, Jordan came to stand beside me. “He’ll be back. He just needs to blow off some steam.”

I let out a shaky breath. “I should go and give him some time to cool down.” I looked up at Eldeorin who, for once, wasn’t wearing his cocky smile. “Will you take me home?”

He nodded, and I turned to the stairs.

Chris put up a hand to stop me. “You should stay. He’ll be back, and he’ll expect you to be here.”

“I’m the last person he wants to see right now.”

Chris shook his head. “Trust me, Sara. You are the only person Nikolas will want to see when he calms down.”

I felt Nikolas return before the door opened. Chris quietly stepped aside as Nikolas drew near. His face was still hard and his eyes were impossible to read.

“Just tell me you’re done with this.”

“Done?”

“No more rogue… vigilante … or whatever.”

I hadn’t thought about what would happen once my secret was out. Eldeorin and I hadn’t talked about how long he would train me or what would happen when he was done. At the same time, I thought of all the people out there who needed my help. “What if this is what I’m supposed to do, just like you’re supposed to be a warrior?”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“It’ll always be dangerous, Nikolas. I was there in Vancouver, remember? You and Chris put your lives in danger all the time. Soon Jordan will be a warrior and she will too. Are you going to hold her back and tell her it’s too dangerous for her?”

He swore again and raked his hands through his wet hair. “I don’t want to hold you back, but every instinct I have is telling me I need to keep you safe.”

Instinct, not feelings. That’s what this all came down to. I had no doubt that Nikolas cared for me, but his emotions, his actions, were driven by the bond, not something deeper. I’d suspected it for weeks, but I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. Maybe that was the real reason I hadn’t told him the truth. I’d been avoiding this confrontation and having to come to terms with reality.

“I understand.” I took a step back, noticing for the first time how quiet the place was. So quiet that I was sure everyone could hear my heart breaking. I wondered numbly if faeries had a cure for heartache.

“Where are you going?” Nikolas asked when I turned toward the stairs again.

The pain in my chest threatened to suffocate me, and I needed to get away before I broke down. “I’m going home. I can’t do this anymore.”

“Can’t do what?” he asked, his voice harsh.

“Love you,” I said so softly it was little more than a breath.

A hand closed over mine and tugged me around to face him. I stared at his chest as I blinked away the tears that threatened.

Nikolas’s other hand lifted my chin and forced me to look at him. His eyes locked with mine, and my breath caught at the raw longing and hope swirling in their gray depths.

“You love me?” he asked hoarsely.

Two hot tears ran down my face. “Yes.”

His mouth claimed mine with a fierce tenderness that made my heart want to explode in my chest. Nothing else existed for me in that moment but him, and my hands slid behind his head, pulling him closer. I let down the wall in my mind and my Mori crept forward, its joy melding with my own. Mine, it whispered possessively.

My knees threatened to buckle by the time he finally pulled out of the kiss. His thumbs wiped away the wetness on my cheeks. “Ya lyublyu tebya.” Before I could ask what the words meant, he framed my face with his hands and gave me a smile that was as devastating as the kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

He kissed me again, his lips gently possessing mine until I felt drugged from the essence of him. When it ended, he crushed me to him as if he feared I might disappear. I wrapped my arms around his waist to let him know I was going nowhere.

“I wasn’t sure if you…” My voice broke.

“And I didn’t think you were ready to hear it,” he replied huskily. “I was waiting for you to say something, to let me know you felt the same way.”

Nikolas loved me. My heart expanded as it absorbed this wondrous knowledge. “How… long?”

He loosened his embrace, and I tilted my face up to look at him.

His fingers grazed my cheek. “I was lost the first moment I saw you at that club in Portland. I just didn’t know it yet. Before I even knew who or what you were, I was drawn to you. At first, I told myself it was my responsibility to protect you. But the more time I spent with you, even when we were arguing, the more I knew what I felt for you was anything but duty.” His smile dimmed. “I don’t think I knew how deep my feelings were until that day you traded yourself for Nate. That ride from Portland was the longest of my life.”

I had trouble forming words. “I’m sorry I put you through that.”

“I know.” He touched the hair at the side of my face. “Your courage is one of the first things I came to love about you, and I should have known you’d do anything to protect Nate and your friends.”

“And you.”

His arm tightened around me and neither of us spoke for a long moment, until I remembered that we were in a room full of people. Heat rose in my face at the thought of having an audience for such a deeply personal moment.

“They left,” he said.

“What?”

“Chris and the others. They went outside.”

“Oh,” I breathed.

He released me and led me to a bench in the now empty building. I sat at one end, and he surprised me when he lifted me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I rested my cheek against his shoulder as he stroked my hair.

“I was so busy trying to push you away that I refused to admit I felt anything for you at first.” My fingers toyed with the front of his shirt. “I didn’t know for sure that I loved you until Thanksgiving, but I think I started to fall for you at my apartment the night of the storm.”

“Was it my mad cooking skills?”

I laughed softly. “It was the first time I saw a different side of you, and you weren’t bossing me around for once.”

“We’ve come a long way since that night.”

“Yes, but you’re still trying to boss me around.”

“And you still make me want to tie your ass to a chair to keep you out of trouble.”

“Ha, you can try.”

He sighed deeply. “Sara, I hate the idea of you out there fighting, and I doubt I’ll ever be okay with it. I don’t think any male would be okay with the woman he loves putting herself in danger.”

The woman he loves. Heat pooled in my stomach and I wanted to kiss him again. Instead I said, “Do you know what it’s like for me when you go away on a job, especially with the way things are now? I don’t sleep, and I spend every minute praying we don’t get word that you’re in trouble – or worse. It’s torture. That night we heard you were under attack in Vancouver, I almost lost it. I almost lost you. Seeing you in danger kills me.”

“I never thought about how hard that was for you,” he admitted. “I’ve spent my whole life being a warrior and not much else. Before you, I didn’t have someone waiting for me when the job was done or worrying about my safety.”

“This is new for both of us, and we’re going to have to learn to deal with it.”

“Something tells me you’re going to cope with this a lot better than I will,” he grumbled.

I reached up and touched his jaw, and when he looked down, I smiled at him. “We’ll figure it out together. Knowing us, it won’t be easy, but I’ll try if you will.”

“I’ll try, but I can’t promise to have any civil words for the faerie.”

I’d forgotten all about Eldeorin, and I had a feeling he’d left with the others.

“I’ve had a few choice words for him myself. At first I didn’t like his idea of training because he pushed me out of my comfort zone. He always had more faith in my abilities than I had, and he kept pushing until I believed in myself too. He’s been a good mentor and a friend to me, and he always has my back.”

“You like spending time with him.”

I smiled at the note of jealousy in his voice. “Sometimes, but I like being with you more.”

He tilted my face up and kissed me again. “Good answer.”

I glanced around the market, my eyes landing on the dead demons and the empty stalls. As much as I wanted to stay there in Nikolas’s arms, we needed to let the vendors get back to their businesses. “I guess we should get this mess cleaned up.”

He set me on my feet. “I’m sure Chris has already called for a cleanup crew. We should probably put one on speed dial for you.”

Before I could make a retort, Jordan’s voice rang through the building. “Hey, is it safe to come in now? We’re freezing our butts off out here.”

“All good,” I called back.

“Thank God!” She sauntered into the building and grinned at us. “Well, you two look disgustingly happy. And it’s about damn time.”

“Amen.” Chris came up behind her, smiling. “I called in a crew to help with this mess.” His gaze flicked to me. “I told them they might need extra guys.”

Nikolas chuckled, and I rolled my eyes as I left him to check out the damage. There were eleven dead demons, plus the two ranc demons I’d knocked out. There was also a lot of water, broken glass, and six of the black creatures that had been in the tank. Surprisingly, the creatures were still flopping around on the wet concrete. Resilient little buggers, whatever they were. I was going to have to reimburse the owner for destroying his tank. I hoped he wasn’t too ticked off by the mess I’d made.

Demons began to trickle back into the building, most of them vendors who had to see to their businesses. I went around and talked to some of them, assuring them we were going to take care of the damage we’d done to their market. I found the fish vendor, a droopy-eyed sheroc demon, who was only a little put out by the loss of his tank. He said it was worth it to get rid of the gulaks.

“Maybe we’ll get a few months of peace before the next ones come along,” said the apothecary, a short demon with pale skin, a long furred face, and large orange eyes. He gave a sigh of resignation. “There are always more gulak thugs waiting to move in.”

“Just tell them your talael… or whatever… is keeping an eye on things here,” Jordan said as she walked up and laid an arm across my shoulders. “She is one fricking badass warrior.”

The vendors nodded fervently.

I asked the apothecary for a piece of paper on which I wrote a number. “Call this if you guys have any more trouble with gulaks. The Mohiri will gladly help you with them.”

He held up his hands when I tried to give him the paper. “The Mohiri do not help our kind.”

“Have you ever asked them for help?”

His orange eyes blinked in confusion. “No.”

I smiled and shoved the paper into his hand. “Maybe you should.”

His furred hand gripped mine. “Thank you, talael esledur.”

“You can just call me Sara. I…” I stared down at our clasped hands. “Hey, you’re touching me!”

He yanked his hand away. “I am sorry. I did not know it was forbidden.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s just that I can’t touch demons without hurting them.” I studied his face. “Are you a demon?” I whispered.

He drew me away from the others. “I am a quellar demon, and my people are not affected by your magic.”

“You know what I am?”

He shook his head. “I am not sure. I can sense the Mori demon in you, but I saw you use Fae magic to kill those other demons. And you came here with another Fae.”

I glanced around at the other demons who were watching us curiously. “Um, do you think we could keep that between us for now?”

He smiled. “My people are also known for our discretion.”

Chris raised an eyebrow at me when Jordan and I joined him and Nikolas near the loading bay. “Giving out your number, Sara? He doesn’t seem like your type.”

“He’s not.” I looked at Nikolas, and the warmth in his eyes made my pulse quicken.

“You ready to get out of here?” he asked.

“Yes.” I glanced at the spot where Eldeorin had been standing when Nikolas arrived. “It looks like my ride left, so you’re stuck with me.”

Jordan snickered. “Something tells me he doesn’t mind one bit.”

The four of us went outside to one of the SUVs parked in front of the building. At the door of the building, the three of them stared at me when I slowed to push my way through the thick jelly-like demon ward.

On the other side, I wrinkled my nose. “Demon wards and Fae blood don’t mix.”

I was happy to let Chris and Jordan take the front seat of the SUV, and I climbed into the back with Nikolas. As soon as we were buckled in, his hand found mine, lacing our fingers together and sending a warm tingle up my arm.

Conversation centered mostly around what had happened at the demon market, with Chris and Jordan telling us how the gulaks had cornered them.

“What were you guys doing in a demon market in the first place?” I asked them.

“We discovered Adele has been sending letters to someone there,” Chris said. “We thought it was worth checking out.”

“People still send letters?”

Nikolas nodded. “People who suspect their electronic communications are being monitored.”

“And who have something to hide,” Chris added.

I met Chris’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Did you find anything?”

“We found the demon she was sending them to. He said he was paid to drop them in a mailbox. Inside the envelope was another envelope with an address and postage. Unfortunately, every time he tries to remember the address he draws a blank.”

“Some kind of memory spell?”

“Looks like it. Adele is proving to be more covert than we gave her credit for.”

I scowled at the seat in front of me. “So I’m learning. And I bet it’s Madeline she’s writing to. Turns out they have been friends for a lot longer than she let on to us.”

“How do you know that?” Nikolas asked.

“I brought a box of Madeline’s things back with me from New Hastings today and –”

“Whoa! Hold up.” Jordan turned in her seat to stare at me. “You went to Maine? Today? How the hell did that happen, and why is Nikolas not freaking out about it?”

“Eldeorin took me there and we didn’t stay long. I found a box of things belonging to Madeline that Nate had mentioned last fall. I was going to give them to Tristan, but I wanted to look through them first.”

“And you were okay with her going there?” Jordan asked Nikolas.

He shook his head. “I didn’t know until after she got back.”

“We were in the middle of discussing it when he got the call that you guys were in trouble.”

Jordan looked from Nikolas to me. “Discussing it. Riiight.”

“What did you find in the box, Sara?” Chris asked.

“Pictures of Madeline and Adele that were taken back in the seventies, and they look pretty chummy in them.”

Nikolas looked thoughtful for a moment. “That would have been just a few years after Madeline left Westhorne.”

Chris nodded. “Looks like we need to pay Adele another visit, Nikolas.”

“Not without me.” No way was I staying behind for this one.

“Or me,” Jordan added.

Nikolas looked at me, and I begged him with my eyes not to start that old argument again. Finally, he said, “We’ll go see her tomorrow.”

I smiled at him and mouthed, “Thank you.”

Dinner that night was a whole new experience for me. Sitting across the table from the man you love and knowing he loves you back, makes everything… better. I could have been eating plain bread and water and I don’t think I would have noticed. Jordan and Chris joined us, and there was more than one teasing comment when one of them had to repeat something they’d said to Nikolas or me. Normally, I’d be embarrassed, but I was too happy to care.

After dinner, I expected Nikolas to say he had to go to the command center. He surprised me by asking me to go for a walk instead. It was a clear night, and the moon cast a silvery glow across the grounds and reflected in the lake as we strolled around it. When we reached the gazebo, the little structure suddenly illuminated with thousands of tiny faerie lights, and I smiled to myself because I knew it had to be Eldeorin’s doing. My faerie friend might shy away from love, but he was a romantic at heart.

“Wow, it’s beautiful here.” I sighed happily as I stood by the rail and looked across the moon-kissed lake.

Nikolas wrapped his arms around me and tucked my head under his chin. “Are you warm enough?”

“Yes.” It was a chilly night, but between his body heat and the warmth coursing through me, I didn’t feel the cold. I was still trying to believe this was real, that we were here together and that Nikolas loved me. He had loved me all along. How blind the both of us had been. How many times one of us could have said the words, but we’d held back. We were quite the pair.

“What do you think would have happened if someone else had found me in Maine? Or if I’d been found when I was little?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, who knows when we would have met? I would have been just another orphan, and you might never have noticed me.” We could have gone decades without ever knowing what we were to each other.

Laughter rumbled in his chest and he pulled me closer, if that was possible. “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed you.”

His husky words and his warm breath against my temple sent a new kind of heat through me, and I began to think about where we would go from here. Nikolas and I loved each other, and there would never be anyone else for me but him. The thought of sex still made me more than a little nervous, but I wanted to take the next step in our relationship, to complete our bond and make him mine forever. Would it happen tonight? My stomach did a series of flips as an image of Nikolas and me together in that way filled my mind.

“Tsk tsk, Cousin. Such naughty thoughts.”

I gasped softly as Eldeorin appeared outside the gazebo, wearing a sly grin. My hands covered Nikolas’s arms, and I waited for him to start yelling at the faerie for his part in my vigilante activities.

“He’s in what we call a waking dream,” Eldeorin said. “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

“What kind of dream?” Aine had put the hellhounds in a waking dream once, and she’d said it felt exactly like real life.

Eldeorin’s eyes gleamed. “A very good one. Not quite as interesting as what you were thinking about a minute ago, but he won’t complain as long as you’re with him.”

My face flamed. I didn’t know if it was from imagining what Nikolas was doing in his dream, or because Eldeorin had guessed my thoughts when he arrived. “How do you know what I was thinking?”

His soft laugh floated toward me. “I didn’t, but I do now.”

I sighed in frustration. “Did you come here just to toy with Nikolas? He’s pretty angry at you.”

“Right now your warrior is feeling something, but it’s definitely not anger.”

“Eldeorin!”

He chuckled and stepped forward until he was directly below me. “Love suits you, Cousin.”

My ire faded. “I know.”

“I’m happy for you. You are good together, and I can see how much he loves you.” He laid his hand on the railing. “I came to tell you I must leave for a week or two, but I will return to continue our training.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I have been called home to assist nymph triplets who are experiencing a difficult liannan.” He smiled suggestively. “It is a messy job, but someone has to do it.”

I scoffed. “Yes, I’m sure it’s such a burden.”

Eldeorin laughed and backed away from the gazebo. “I’ll see you soon, Cousin.”

“Sara? What just happened?”

I turned in Nikolas’s arms so I was facing him. Confusion was etched across his face as he stared down at me. “Eldeorin paid us a visit. He put you in some kind of dream state.”

Nikolas swore under his breath. “I really don’t like that faerie.”

“Eldeorin’s a bit outrageous, but he does have a good heart.” I reached up to smooth the scowl from his face. “You’ll be happy to know that he’s gone to Faerie for a few weeks.”

“This must be my lucky day.”

“Best day ever.”

He lowered his head and kissed me until my head was spinning and my legs had turned to rubber. When he pulled back and smiled at me, my stomach dipped at the heat in his gaze.

And then his phone rang.

I was really starting to hate that damn phone.

He actually groaned as he pulled the phone from his pocket. “Nikolas here.” He gave me an apologetic smile as he listened to the person on the other end for a minute. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

“Duty calls,” I said as he hung up.

“Sorry. One of our teams reported in with some intel and I need to be there. I wasn’t expecting to hear from them today.”

I was disappointed, but I understood the importance of his work. “You don’t need to apologize. It’s your job.”

We left the gazebo and started back to the house. When the lights of the mansion came into view, I sighed quietly, knowing our night had come to an end.

“Do you want to come to the command center with me?” Nikolas asked when we neared the house.

“Yes,” I said eagerly. I wasn’t ready to let him out of my sight just yet.

He smiled as we skirted the house to head next door. Our alone time might have been cut short, but the promise in his eyes told me we were going to pick up where we’d left off. Maybe not tonight, but it was going to happen.

Soon, whispered the voice in the back of my mind. Mine.

I smiled to myself. Soon.

* * *

“This place looks so different from our last visit,” Jordan said as we walked into Blue Nyx with Nikolas and Chris the next day. Except for the two huge bouncers and a few cleaning staff, the place was deserted. It could have passed for a normal club without all the nonhuman patrons filling the dance floor.

Chris shook his head. “I can’t believe you were here that night and I didn’t see you.”

Jordan’s laugh echoed through the empty room. “Oh, you saw her alright. We walked right past you at the door.”

Understanding dawned in his eyes. “The faerie glamoured you.”

“Sara was the hottest nymph I’ve ever seen,” Jordan said slyly. “They don’t wear much, do they?”

Nikolas’s head whipped toward us, and Chris smiled sheepishly. “I, uh…” He looked at Nikolas. “She didn’t look like herself, so it really wasn’t her body I saw…”

“Jordan, stop messing with Chris,” I scolded loudly. “It looked nothing like me. And I could have gone a long time without bringing that up.”

“Me too,” Nikolas and Chris muttered at the same time.

On the second floor, Nikolas nodded to the guard outside Adele’s door before he knocked. The fact that the guard recognized him made an irrational knot of jealousy burn in my gut. Nikolas had already told me he knew Adele because she sometimes provided the Mohiri with information. There was absolutely no reason to be jealous of a gorgeous, sultry succubus who lived off the sexual energy of men.

When Adele’s husky voice called for us to come in, I moved next to Nikolas so I entered right behind him.

The blond succubus was lounging on her couch, wearing a long red dress and a sensual smile. “Nikolas, what a pleasant surprise! How can I be of service to you tonight?”

Adele’s tone left little doubt about what services she wanted to provide. My Mori growled so loudly that for a second I feared the sound had come from my throat. I clenched my hands at my sides as I stepped out from behind Nikolas and stood beside him.

Adele’s violet eyes could not hide her shock. “And Eldeorin’s little cousin? This is a surprise.”

“Hello, Adele,” I said with forced politeness.

A door at the other end of the office opened and a tall man with long black hair came out holding a brown leather satchel. “Adele, do you have –?” He stopped when he saw she was not alone, and his brown eyes narrowed immediately on me. “You!”

“Nice to see you again, Orias.”

He hugged the satchel to his chest, and I knew it held his demon. “Because of you, I have no home and no business, and every vampire in New Mexico wants me dead. You are a menace!”

“Maybe you should be more careful about the people you do business with,” I retorted.

Jordan came forward. “Yeah, and you shouldn’t have tied us up either.”

Nikolas stiffened beside me, and I laid a hand on his arm. “He was going to turn us over to Tristan for the reward money.”

Orias sat on the other couch, clutching his satchel. “And you upset my demon so much that it took me a week to get him to calm down. I wish I’d never laid eyes on you.”

Adele, who had been listening to our exchange, spoke up. “This is the girl who killed Stefan Price? You didn’t tell me she was Fae.”

“She’s not Fae. She’s Mohiri.” Orias huffed in irritation. “And I couldn’t tell you because she put a gag on me.”

Nikolas gave me a questioning look, and I shrugged.

Adele’s eyes came back to me. “But that means you are not Fae as you and Eldeorin led me to believe. What game are you playing?”

“This is not a game to me,” I replied.

Her eyes narrowed. “Why did you lie to me?”

“I could ask you the same question.” I pulled three photos from my pocket and tossed them on the coffee table.

Adele picked them up, her slender fingers almost caressing the edges. “Where did you get these?”

“From a box of things my mother left behind.”

“Your mother? What would your mother be doing with…?” Her gasp was almost inaudible. “You are Madeline’s daughter.”

“Yes.”

Adele recovered quickly. “You look nothing like her.”

“I know.”

She sank back against her cushions, still holding the photos. “Madeline’s daughter. Pardon me for staring, but in all the years I’ve known her, she never once spoke of a daughter. I knew she was married to a human for a few years, but not that there was a child.”

“I’m not a child anymore.”

Her eyes flicked from me to Nikolas, and she gave a knowing nod. “So it would seem.”

Nikolas pointed to the photos in her hands. “Tell us about your history with Madeline.”

It wasn’t a request. Adele looked down at the photos for a long moment. “The story I told you about Madeline saving my life from a vampire was true. That happened years after we met.”

She smiled as if she was reliving the memories. “It was nineteen seventy-one and I was living in San Diego when I met Madeline at a party. We were the only nonhumans there, and we were drawn to each other’s company. We hit it off immediately and spent the next few months partying and having fun. It was the best summer of my life.

“When I moved here, she came with me and stayed for a few years, but then she said she wanted to travel. She said she’d spent all her life in a stronghold and she wanted to see the world. She travelled for years, and she came back here between trips.

“She surprised me when she said she was enrolling in college in Maine of all places. Madeline was more adventurous than academic, and she liked warm sunny places. It was around that time that I lost touch with her for a few years. She sent a few letters, but she stopped visiting altogether for about four years. One day she reappeared and told me she’d gotten married but it hadn’t worked out. She never said his name.”

I swallowed the bitterness that welled up inside me. My dad had loved Madeline until the day he died, had kept her picture on his dresser and his wedding ring in his nightstand. She hadn’t even bothered to tell her best friend his name.

Adele went to a sideboard and poured herself a glass of wine. She offered us a drink and we declined.

“Madeline was different after that, quieter. Sometimes she got a sad look in her eyes, but when I questioned her she never wanted to talk about it. I figured she still cared for her human ex-husband and I left it at that. She continued to travel and return here three or four times a year, until about ten years ago. I barely see her these days.”

“What did she tell you about the Master she was running from?” I asked.

Adele’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on her wine glass. “Madeline told me she’d had a run-in with a Master, but she didn’t say more than that.”

I turned to Orias. “Were you selling Madeline glamours to hide her from the vampires?”

He nodded arrogantly. “My glamours are the best – only Fae magic is better.”

Nikolas crossed his arms over his chest. “Our sources tell us that Madeline was on her way here to Los Angeles in December, around the time Sara paid you a visit.”

“She came to see me at my home that same night,” Adele admitted. “I told her there was a faerie youngling asking after her on behalf of her daughter, and she asked me if I was joking. She left the next morning, and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

She was lying. I was tempted to go over and force the truth out of her, but I stayed where I was. She and Orias thought I was full Mohiri and I wanted to keep it that way. There was no telling what either of them would do with the information if they discovered what I really was.

Adele set her glass down on the coffee table. “This has been lovely, but I’m afraid I must beg you to excuse me. I have a lot of work to do before the club opens in a few hours.”

She knew a lot more than she was saying, and I didn’t want to leave until I knew what it was. Before I could say anything, Nikolas thanked her for her help and steered me toward the door.

“What are you doing?” I protested after the door shut behind us. “She knows exactly where Madeline is.”

“Yes, and we are the last people she is going to tell. It’s clear she and Madeline are very close, and she is not going to betray her friend.”

“But she’s our only connection to Madeline.”

Nikolas gave me an infuriatingly enigmatic smile as we descended the stairs. “I didn’t say we were giving up.”

We emerged from the club into the cool evening air and I sighed in frustration. “Adele’s probably on the phone with Madeline right now, warning her about us.”

“And that is exactly what we want her to do,” Nikolas said as we approached one of the three SUVs sitting across the street. The other two held Elijah’s team, who were along as backup. Nikolas opened the SUV door for me. Once we were all inside he said, “Are we good, Chris?”

Chris pulled a smart phone from his pocket and turned it on. A smile spread across his face. “We’re in.”

I looked over his shoulder at the phone screen where some kind of app was displaying signal bars lit up in green. At the top right corner of the screen, a blue dot appeared followed by a red one. “What is that?”

“That is the signal from the transmitter I left in Adele’s office,” he answered smugly.

Jordan frowned. “Wait. Didn’t you guys say you couldn’t bug her place because she uses warlock magic to detect them and short them out?”

Nikolas started the vehicle. “These aren’t normal transmitters. Raj loaned us one of his prototypes to test out.” He looked at the phone in Chris’s hands. “So far it appears to be working.”

I leaned in closer to Chris. “How do you know?”

Chris pointed to the signal bars. “Green means the transmitter is working and the signal is good.”

“What do the dots mean?”

“That blue dot tells us that someone is using the land line in Adele’s office. The red dot means that my receiver is recording it.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. “Recording it?”

Chris grinned and waved the phone at me. “Why don’t we see who the lovely Adele was in such a hurry to call?”