Darkness Unbound
Page 10
Tao was still paying for her medical expenses. Because of the guilt, because of the self-loathing he felt about his actions, he always would.
Ilianna stopped in front of me and undid the bottle’s cap. Sage and a peculiar sweetish smell that vaguely reminded me of licorice stung the air.
“Why was Ilianna attacked?” Tao asked as she dabbed some of the antiseptic onto the cloth and began to wipe my throat. It stung like a bitch and I had to resist the urge to jerk away. “And if you were aware of the impending attack, why didn’t you just call and tell her not to leave the house?”
“I tried, but I couldn’t get through.”
Ilianna grimaced, her gaze on my neck as she continued to wipe it with the cream. “I turned the phone off. Mom’s been hassling me to have dinner with them again.”
Tao snorted. “Another prospective stallion in the offering, I gather?”
“I guess.” She shrugged—like it wasn’t the huge hassle we all knew it was.
“You should tell them, Ilianna,” he said gently. “They love you. They’ll understand.”
It was Ilianna’s turn to snort. “All my life I’ve heard my father go on and on about how he looks forward to having lots of little foals under his feet once we come of age. And now that Kandra can’t—”
She stopped, but not before a flash of guilt ran across Tao’s expression.
“I can’t disappoint them,” Ilianna said eventually.
She couldn’t give them children, either. Not the way they expected her to—by allowing herself to be claimed and branded by a stallion and producing his offspring. And with Mirri beginning to make noises about meeting her family, the secret would be out sooner rather than later.
I shared a glance with Tao. He shrugged and grimaced. We’d both tried convincing her to out herself to her parents for years, but to little avail. Obviously, the status quo wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
Ilianna finished wiping my neck, then stepped back. “You’ll need to use this after every shower, just to ensure it doesn’t get infected. You never know what sort of germs men like that are carrying.”
A smile curved Tao’s lips, bringing his dimples to full bloom. “I think the germs they were carrying would have been the last thing on her mind at the time.”
“I guess.” She put the lotion on the table, then propped her butt besides Tao’s. “So, explain.”
I sipped some coffee and winced a little. After all these years, you’d think Tao would remember I liked my coffee sweet. The sweeter the better.
He must have seen my grimace, because he pushed away from the table with a grin and loped over to the kitchen, fetching the sugar bowl and bringing it back. He held it while I scooped three spoonfuls in, then shoved it on the table.
“It’s a long story,” I said as I stirred in the sugar.
“It’s not going to get any shorter unless you start talking,” Tao commented, the dimples flashing again.
So once again I repeated the tale of the day, from the reaper’s appearance to the attack in the parking lot, then my discussion with Riley, and finally my mad dash through traffic to get to Ilianna.
She frowned once I’d finished. “But how did they even know I’d be heading toward Mike’s office?”
“Scanner, no doubt,” Tao said. “I’ll contact Stane and see if he can grab us some scramblers. Until then, we’d better stay off our phones.”
Stane Neale was Tao’s cousin, a wolf who ran a small electronics business down in Clifton Hill. He was also something of a wiz when it came to computers—which just might come in handy if I needed information. Uncle Rhoan, as much as I loved him, obviously wasn’t about to let me investigate this, but it wasn’t in me to sit back and let others solve my problems.
Although that would obviously be the wise thing to do.
“They also placed a tracker on my bike, so it’ll be worth checking your cars before going anywhere.”
Ilianna snorted. “Like me checking is going to do any good. I wouldn’t know a tracking device if it slapped me in the face.”
I grinned. “I’ll do it. In the meantime, you’d better start preparing some repelling potions. You just might need them.”
“I always carry a bottle or two when I’m out. I just didn’t get the chance to use them this time, because you were screaming at me to run.” She crossed her arms and studied me with concern. “What are you going to do?”
“Well, first off I have a date—”
“Date?” Tao said, surprise evident in his expression. “Wasn’t it yesterday you were moaning about the dearth of eligible men in your life?”
“It was,” I agreed, “but this one stepped in to help me against the shifters who attacked Ilianna.”
“I do believe you skipped that little detail,” she said, her voice cross but a twinkle in her eyes. “What have I told you about skipping the important bits?”
“He’s tall, broad-shouldered, golden-haired, and handsome enough to tempt even you.” My grin grew as she snorted. “He’s also an Aedh.”
“Aedh? I didn’t think there were any left in the city.” Tao hesitated. “That’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? I mean, all these men after your father, and you getting rescued by an Aedh.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that.” It wasn’t like I’d actually had a whole lot of time to think during the attack. And afterward, my hormones had well and truly been in control.
Damn it, I wanted the date to be real, wanted it to be based on mutual attraction, not some subversive desire to mine information about a father I’d neither seen nor met.
But now that the seed had been planted, I couldn’t ignore it. Tonight’s date suddenly lost some of its shine, and that was a shame.
“I could be wrong,” Tao said, touching my arm lightly.
I smiled and squeezed his fingers. “You might, but you might not. It’s better that I’m alert and aware rather than lost in attraction.”
“Wolves,” Ilianna commented drily. “All hormones and no common sense.”
Tao laughed and threw an arm around her shoulder. “And you mares are positively virginal by comparison, aren’t you?”
“Hey, I never said it was a bad thing.” She pressed into his embrace a little, but her gaze was sober when it met mine. “What do you plan to do about these men?”
“Well, as it happens, I managed to get the name of the man in charge. He owns a club called the Phoenix—”
“The Phoenix?” Disgust ran across Tao’s face. “That place is a cesspool.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And you know this because?”
“Because the premises are a few doors down from Stane’s, and there are all sorts of drunken misfits coming in and out. Stane had to put grilles on the windows because the bastards kept smashing them.”
“So, it’s not the sort of place someone like me—”
“Certainly not as you are,” he said, voice stern. “And certainly not alone. I’ll come with you.”
I hesitated, then nodded. Tao knew the place, and I didn’t. And although I didn’t want to drag him any deeper into the situation, I also wasn’t stupid enough to go alone. If I called either Rhoan or Riley, they’d simply forbid it.
I wanted—needed—to do this. To do something.
“Okay. The dog shifter told me he usually gets there after eleven, so we’ll head there tonight.”
Ilianna said, “What about your date?”
I looked at her. “What about it?”
“Well, weren’t you the one going on and on about the lack of shaggable men in this city? And now that you actually have a date, you’re ditching him early to go hunt bad men with Tao? That makes no sense.” She nudged Tao with her shoulder, then added with a grin, “Not that you’re bad company or anything less than shaggable, but you’re not Mr. Long Term. Not for Risa, anyway.”
“Oh yeah? Meaning you’ve seen Mr. Long Term?”
Her eyes twinkled. “You know I can’t divulge secrets like that.”
“In other words, she’s just yanking your chain.” Tao’s voice was dry as he pushed away from the table and glanced at his watch. “I’m off to the Blue Moon tonight. What time do I need to pick you up?”
“Eleven, at a restaurant called Wintergreen.” I hesitated. “Just how amenable would Stane be to a little detective work?”
“It would make his little hacker’s heart sing with glee,” Tao answered with a smile. “Especially if the request came with a bottle of chilled Bollinger. What do you need?”
“Anything and everything he can find on Marcus Handberry, the owner of the Phoenix.”
“I’ll contact him and ask. We can drop by tonight before we head to the club.”
“Doesn’t he ever close down?”
“Nope. He lives and breathes that shop, and only sleeps when he has to. You want to inspect the cars now, or later?”
“Now.” I drained the coffee and dropped it onto the table. “I need plenty of time to sleep so I’m fresh for tonight.”
He snorted softly. “Darling girl, all you have to do is suggestively bat those gorgeous eyes his way, and the man won’t care if you have monstrous bags underneath them.”
I rose on tippy-toes and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “You do say the nicest things.”
“That’s what best buds do.” He grinned and hooked his arm through mine. “Now, shall we go find bugs?”
We did—and we did.
Three, to be exact.
One on Tao’s Ferrari, one on my Toyota, and the final one on Ilianna’s battered Jeep. Obviously, they’d had no intention of losing any of us—which made me inspect my bike again, but we didn’t find any more. Maybe they’d run out of time. Or bugs.
“I’ll replant these later,” Tao said, placing them carefully into separate plastic bags. “But they’re obviously going to be watching us, so we’ll need to think of a way to stop them from following us tonight.”
We headed back up the stairs. “Can I just note here that your friend Rocky, and his mate Kiera, are about our heights and builds? Why don’t you invite them around for a movie night?”
He grinned and dropped a kiss on my cheek. “You’re so clever sometimes, it’s scary.”
Face-shifting wasn’t as easy as shifting into an alternate form. From what Mom said, donning your wolf form—or whatever other form of animal you might be—involved little more than reaching into that place inside where the beast roamed and releasing the shackles that bound her. This was a little more complicated. Not only did you have to fully imagine all the minute details of the face you wanted to copy, but you had to hold it firm in your thoughts while the magic swirled around and through your body. Easier said than done when the magic was designed to sweep away sensation and thought.
What made it even harder was the fact that I very rarely did it.
I took several deep breaths, slowly releasing each in an effort to calm the tension running through my limbs. Then I closed my eyes and pictured Kiera’s face in my mind. The sharpness of her nose, the smattering of freckles across her cheeks, the slightly upward tilt on the edge of her golden eyes, the curl in her brown hair.
Then, freezing that image in my mind, I reached for the magic. It exploded around me, thick and fierce, as if it had been contained for far too long. It swept through me like a gale, making my muscles tremble and Kiera’s image waver. I frowned, holding fiercely to her likeness. The energy began to pulsate, burn, and change me. My skin rippled; bones restructured; hair shortened, curled, and changed color.
When the magic faded, I opened my eyes. Kiera stood before me. It was a strange sensation, staring into the mirror and not seeing me. I didn’t like it, but it was better than having those men following us again.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and ignored my wobbly legs as I headed into my walk-in wardrobe. Like everything else in this warehouse, it was oversized—but then, it had to be. Another thing I’d learned from Riley was an appreciation of really fine shoes and the clothes that matched them.
I stood in the middle of the room and studied the long line of dresses. A first date required something sexy, but not too revealing—especially given that sex wasn’t going to be on the menu tonight. I’d learned the hard way that discretion was a must when it came to catering to my earthier needs.
Everyone knew who Mom was. A lot of people also knew I was her daughter. And there were men out there—and a lot of reporters—who where willing to do or say anything to get their story.
Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them away furiously. My encounter with Jak Talbott had happened a long time ago. The hurt was gone. I was over it. Over him.
And if I kept telling myself that, maybe one day I would believe it.
But as a result, I was a werewolf who no longer visited the popular wolf clubs, who didn’t often have casual sex except in the safety of places like Franklin’s—where they catered to people who could pay for discretion—and who went on at least one date before giving in to base need.
Aunt Riley called it unnatural. I preferred to call it cautious. One broken heart was more than enough for one lifetime.
After several more minutes of indecision, I pulled out a simple, dark purple silk dress that skimmed my curves and floated gently to my knees. The stilettos were the same color, but had three-inch silver heels—a Riley Jenson specialty. My purse was also silver. When I shifted back to the real me, the effect would be sexy, but not overtly so.
Ilianna stopped in front of me and undid the bottle’s cap. Sage and a peculiar sweetish smell that vaguely reminded me of licorice stung the air.
“Why was Ilianna attacked?” Tao asked as she dabbed some of the antiseptic onto the cloth and began to wipe my throat. It stung like a bitch and I had to resist the urge to jerk away. “And if you were aware of the impending attack, why didn’t you just call and tell her not to leave the house?”
“I tried, but I couldn’t get through.”
Ilianna grimaced, her gaze on my neck as she continued to wipe it with the cream. “I turned the phone off. Mom’s been hassling me to have dinner with them again.”
Tao snorted. “Another prospective stallion in the offering, I gather?”
“I guess.” She shrugged—like it wasn’t the huge hassle we all knew it was.
“You should tell them, Ilianna,” he said gently. “They love you. They’ll understand.”
It was Ilianna’s turn to snort. “All my life I’ve heard my father go on and on about how he looks forward to having lots of little foals under his feet once we come of age. And now that Kandra can’t—”
She stopped, but not before a flash of guilt ran across Tao’s expression.
“I can’t disappoint them,” Ilianna said eventually.
She couldn’t give them children, either. Not the way they expected her to—by allowing herself to be claimed and branded by a stallion and producing his offspring. And with Mirri beginning to make noises about meeting her family, the secret would be out sooner rather than later.
I shared a glance with Tao. He shrugged and grimaced. We’d both tried convincing her to out herself to her parents for years, but to little avail. Obviously, the status quo wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
Ilianna finished wiping my neck, then stepped back. “You’ll need to use this after every shower, just to ensure it doesn’t get infected. You never know what sort of germs men like that are carrying.”
A smile curved Tao’s lips, bringing his dimples to full bloom. “I think the germs they were carrying would have been the last thing on her mind at the time.”
“I guess.” She put the lotion on the table, then propped her butt besides Tao’s. “So, explain.”
I sipped some coffee and winced a little. After all these years, you’d think Tao would remember I liked my coffee sweet. The sweeter the better.
He must have seen my grimace, because he pushed away from the table with a grin and loped over to the kitchen, fetching the sugar bowl and bringing it back. He held it while I scooped three spoonfuls in, then shoved it on the table.
“It’s a long story,” I said as I stirred in the sugar.
“It’s not going to get any shorter unless you start talking,” Tao commented, the dimples flashing again.
So once again I repeated the tale of the day, from the reaper’s appearance to the attack in the parking lot, then my discussion with Riley, and finally my mad dash through traffic to get to Ilianna.
She frowned once I’d finished. “But how did they even know I’d be heading toward Mike’s office?”
“Scanner, no doubt,” Tao said. “I’ll contact Stane and see if he can grab us some scramblers. Until then, we’d better stay off our phones.”
Stane Neale was Tao’s cousin, a wolf who ran a small electronics business down in Clifton Hill. He was also something of a wiz when it came to computers—which just might come in handy if I needed information. Uncle Rhoan, as much as I loved him, obviously wasn’t about to let me investigate this, but it wasn’t in me to sit back and let others solve my problems.
Although that would obviously be the wise thing to do.
“They also placed a tracker on my bike, so it’ll be worth checking your cars before going anywhere.”
Ilianna snorted. “Like me checking is going to do any good. I wouldn’t know a tracking device if it slapped me in the face.”
I grinned. “I’ll do it. In the meantime, you’d better start preparing some repelling potions. You just might need them.”
“I always carry a bottle or two when I’m out. I just didn’t get the chance to use them this time, because you were screaming at me to run.” She crossed her arms and studied me with concern. “What are you going to do?”
“Well, first off I have a date—”
“Date?” Tao said, surprise evident in his expression. “Wasn’t it yesterday you were moaning about the dearth of eligible men in your life?”
“It was,” I agreed, “but this one stepped in to help me against the shifters who attacked Ilianna.”
“I do believe you skipped that little detail,” she said, her voice cross but a twinkle in her eyes. “What have I told you about skipping the important bits?”
“He’s tall, broad-shouldered, golden-haired, and handsome enough to tempt even you.” My grin grew as she snorted. “He’s also an Aedh.”
“Aedh? I didn’t think there were any left in the city.” Tao hesitated. “That’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? I mean, all these men after your father, and you getting rescued by an Aedh.”
“I hadn’t really thought about that.” It wasn’t like I’d actually had a whole lot of time to think during the attack. And afterward, my hormones had well and truly been in control.
Damn it, I wanted the date to be real, wanted it to be based on mutual attraction, not some subversive desire to mine information about a father I’d neither seen nor met.
But now that the seed had been planted, I couldn’t ignore it. Tonight’s date suddenly lost some of its shine, and that was a shame.
“I could be wrong,” Tao said, touching my arm lightly.
I smiled and squeezed his fingers. “You might, but you might not. It’s better that I’m alert and aware rather than lost in attraction.”
“Wolves,” Ilianna commented drily. “All hormones and no common sense.”
Tao laughed and threw an arm around her shoulder. “And you mares are positively virginal by comparison, aren’t you?”
“Hey, I never said it was a bad thing.” She pressed into his embrace a little, but her gaze was sober when it met mine. “What do you plan to do about these men?”
“Well, as it happens, I managed to get the name of the man in charge. He owns a club called the Phoenix—”
“The Phoenix?” Disgust ran across Tao’s face. “That place is a cesspool.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And you know this because?”
“Because the premises are a few doors down from Stane’s, and there are all sorts of drunken misfits coming in and out. Stane had to put grilles on the windows because the bastards kept smashing them.”
“So, it’s not the sort of place someone like me—”
“Certainly not as you are,” he said, voice stern. “And certainly not alone. I’ll come with you.”
I hesitated, then nodded. Tao knew the place, and I didn’t. And although I didn’t want to drag him any deeper into the situation, I also wasn’t stupid enough to go alone. If I called either Rhoan or Riley, they’d simply forbid it.
I wanted—needed—to do this. To do something.
“Okay. The dog shifter told me he usually gets there after eleven, so we’ll head there tonight.”
Ilianna said, “What about your date?”
I looked at her. “What about it?”
“Well, weren’t you the one going on and on about the lack of shaggable men in this city? And now that you actually have a date, you’re ditching him early to go hunt bad men with Tao? That makes no sense.” She nudged Tao with her shoulder, then added with a grin, “Not that you’re bad company or anything less than shaggable, but you’re not Mr. Long Term. Not for Risa, anyway.”
“Oh yeah? Meaning you’ve seen Mr. Long Term?”
Her eyes twinkled. “You know I can’t divulge secrets like that.”
“In other words, she’s just yanking your chain.” Tao’s voice was dry as he pushed away from the table and glanced at his watch. “I’m off to the Blue Moon tonight. What time do I need to pick you up?”
“Eleven, at a restaurant called Wintergreen.” I hesitated. “Just how amenable would Stane be to a little detective work?”
“It would make his little hacker’s heart sing with glee,” Tao answered with a smile. “Especially if the request came with a bottle of chilled Bollinger. What do you need?”
“Anything and everything he can find on Marcus Handberry, the owner of the Phoenix.”
“I’ll contact him and ask. We can drop by tonight before we head to the club.”
“Doesn’t he ever close down?”
“Nope. He lives and breathes that shop, and only sleeps when he has to. You want to inspect the cars now, or later?”
“Now.” I drained the coffee and dropped it onto the table. “I need plenty of time to sleep so I’m fresh for tonight.”
He snorted softly. “Darling girl, all you have to do is suggestively bat those gorgeous eyes his way, and the man won’t care if you have monstrous bags underneath them.”
I rose on tippy-toes and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “You do say the nicest things.”
“That’s what best buds do.” He grinned and hooked his arm through mine. “Now, shall we go find bugs?”
We did—and we did.
Three, to be exact.
One on Tao’s Ferrari, one on my Toyota, and the final one on Ilianna’s battered Jeep. Obviously, they’d had no intention of losing any of us—which made me inspect my bike again, but we didn’t find any more. Maybe they’d run out of time. Or bugs.
“I’ll replant these later,” Tao said, placing them carefully into separate plastic bags. “But they’re obviously going to be watching us, so we’ll need to think of a way to stop them from following us tonight.”
We headed back up the stairs. “Can I just note here that your friend Rocky, and his mate Kiera, are about our heights and builds? Why don’t you invite them around for a movie night?”
He grinned and dropped a kiss on my cheek. “You’re so clever sometimes, it’s scary.”
Face-shifting wasn’t as easy as shifting into an alternate form. From what Mom said, donning your wolf form—or whatever other form of animal you might be—involved little more than reaching into that place inside where the beast roamed and releasing the shackles that bound her. This was a little more complicated. Not only did you have to fully imagine all the minute details of the face you wanted to copy, but you had to hold it firm in your thoughts while the magic swirled around and through your body. Easier said than done when the magic was designed to sweep away sensation and thought.
What made it even harder was the fact that I very rarely did it.
I took several deep breaths, slowly releasing each in an effort to calm the tension running through my limbs. Then I closed my eyes and pictured Kiera’s face in my mind. The sharpness of her nose, the smattering of freckles across her cheeks, the slightly upward tilt on the edge of her golden eyes, the curl in her brown hair.
Then, freezing that image in my mind, I reached for the magic. It exploded around me, thick and fierce, as if it had been contained for far too long. It swept through me like a gale, making my muscles tremble and Kiera’s image waver. I frowned, holding fiercely to her likeness. The energy began to pulsate, burn, and change me. My skin rippled; bones restructured; hair shortened, curled, and changed color.
When the magic faded, I opened my eyes. Kiera stood before me. It was a strange sensation, staring into the mirror and not seeing me. I didn’t like it, but it was better than having those men following us again.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead and ignored my wobbly legs as I headed into my walk-in wardrobe. Like everything else in this warehouse, it was oversized—but then, it had to be. Another thing I’d learned from Riley was an appreciation of really fine shoes and the clothes that matched them.
I stood in the middle of the room and studied the long line of dresses. A first date required something sexy, but not too revealing—especially given that sex wasn’t going to be on the menu tonight. I’d learned the hard way that discretion was a must when it came to catering to my earthier needs.
Everyone knew who Mom was. A lot of people also knew I was her daughter. And there were men out there—and a lot of reporters—who where willing to do or say anything to get their story.
Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them away furiously. My encounter with Jak Talbott had happened a long time ago. The hurt was gone. I was over it. Over him.
And if I kept telling myself that, maybe one day I would believe it.
But as a result, I was a werewolf who no longer visited the popular wolf clubs, who didn’t often have casual sex except in the safety of places like Franklin’s—where they catered to people who could pay for discretion—and who went on at least one date before giving in to base need.
Aunt Riley called it unnatural. I preferred to call it cautious. One broken heart was more than enough for one lifetime.
After several more minutes of indecision, I pulled out a simple, dark purple silk dress that skimmed my curves and floated gently to my knees. The stilettos were the same color, but had three-inch silver heels—a Riley Jenson specialty. My purse was also silver. When I shifted back to the real me, the effect would be sexy, but not overtly so.
