chapter Four
He was even more luscious in person than he had been in my dream. Tarrek wore all black again, and his eyes gleamed an unnatural green in the low light. I realized the color was eating away at the pupil in his eyes as they filled with some sort of light, glowing softly with strong emotion.
Bahlin seemed unimpressed and looked back at me, essentially dismissing Tarrek. “I didn’t know we needed a chaperone for our evening out, Maddy. My most sincere apologies.”
Tarrek’s eyebrows shot halfway up his brow. “Am I interrupting a date?”
“No,” I said at the same time Bahlin said, “Yes.” He glared at me. I glared back.
“We were discussing my role as the potential Niteclif,” I said, assuming that if the guy really was the First Prince of Faerie he would know about my great-granddad.
“Ah, yes. There are some rules you’ll need to know about from the fae side of things.” He slid into the booth next to me, and I shifted so I could see him. He leaned over to kiss my cheek.
Bahlin growled, and Tarrek stared at him, a slight wind coming off of him and stirring the long hair of both men.
“Enough,” I whispered harshly. Neither of them backed down. “E-nough,” I snapped, and both men turned to look at me. I suddenly realized I was trapped up against the wall with two supernatural creatures facing off in front of me. How did I keep managing to get myself stuck in a literal corner around the monsters?
“One thing you need to know is that we are both High Council members,” Tarrek said, turning back to stare at Bahlin. “Neither of us rule, though both of us attempt to lead.”
“That makes no sense,” I said, thinking through the little I knew of their behavior. “Is there not a leader for the Council?”
“Not per se,” Bahlin answered vaguely, returning his gaze to me. “We are supposed to rule the supernatural world as what you would consider a non-partisan governing body. It’s not a successful strategy. It’s one of the reasons there are five of us. There’s never a tied vote on anything. As we rarely agree on anything, some will vote against each other at times just for the sake of doing so. That’s really all you need to know at this point, darling.”
Tarrek looked at me and quirked an eyebrow at the easy endearment. I shrugged. It was just a word.
I thought back to what Bahlin said about my great-granddad—“he became disillusioned with the constant battles, the killings, and he wanted out.” Suddenly it made more sense. I closed my eyes, wondering if the no-aging thing would matter if I got myself killed in the proverbial line of duty. The thought of my own death seriously disturbed me, and I realized that even in my darkest moments over the last few months, I had never been to the point where I was truly ready to die.
“Madeleine?” Tarrek asked. “Are you well?”
“Maddy, Tarrek. I just go by Maddy,” I whispered. He reached out and touched my hair and the same chemistry flared between us that had occurred in my dream. He sucked in air and stroked my head, saying something in an unfamiliar language. For some reason I didn’t feel compelled to pull away from him.
“What did you say?” I asked.
“I said that you are an angel in the mist, a flower’s bloom on a starlit night, a gift from the goddess. I will trust you, my Niteclif.” He slowly removed his hand, and I felt bereft at the loss of his touch. What was wrong with me?
I shifted slightly in my seat, uncomfortable.
Bahlin stared at Tarrek for a moment before speaking. “It’s a bit early to be committing to the woman, don’t you think?” He sounded hostile.
“No. I have touched her and felt her soul. She is an angel with a brilliant mind. I will trust her,” he repeated, and it dawned on me the words might mean more than their face value.
“What does that mean, you’ll trust me?” I asked Tarrek. For some reason he was easier to address than Bahlin.
“It means that I will defer to your word as law. I will accept your rulings to be fair and just.” His eyes blazed at me for a moment, so fast I wasn’t entirely sure I’d seen it.
And then time stood still just as it had at the stones. The hair on my body stood on end, and I gripped the edge of the booth with all my strength. There was no sense of past or present; there was no noise, ambient or otherwise. I felt suspended in motion. With a sigh reminiscent of the stone circle, I felt time begin again. With stunning clarity I recalled the phrase that the stones had whispered following the pause of time—adael i ddechrau.
“What just happened?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Glory, Tarrek. Congratulations, my man,” Bahlin hissed. Turning to me, eyes glowing icy blue, Bahlin said, “He’s accepted you as the Niteclif. He’s confirmed your place. It’s begun, Maddy.”
Oh shit. It was done. I hadn’t completely resigned myself to the decision, regardless of the signs and—let’s face it—the money, but apparently I’d been set into office by another’s sworn oath of allegiance. Great.
Tarrek looked confused and then his face went completely blank with understanding. “Maddy, I’m sorry. I had no idea you hadn’t already accepted. I assumed if you were sitting with Bahlin of your own free will, you were discussing the murders.”
“Murders?” I asked weakly.
“For the love of your goddess, Tarrek, shut the hell up,” Bahlin growled.
Tarrek whipped his head toward Bahlin, a snarl on his face. What had been handsome was immediately feral, the threat more than implied. “You do not rule here, dragon. Walk softly along this path lest it open beneath your feet and swallow you whole.” His voice echoed, the candles on the table flared and Bahlin slid down in the seat, crossing his arms on his chest and appearing wholly unmoved.
“Gentlemen,” I said softly, forcing them to turn and look at me instead of each other. “Let’s not do this here. There may come a time and place where it’s appropriate, but the mundanes in this room are pleasantly ignorant as to your dual existences. Let’s keep it that way.” The last was said with steel in my voice. I had no idea I had it in me, the ability to speak like that. Cool. “Now let’s talk murder.”
Bahlin had the kitchen plate my meal and send it up to room 2210, several floors above my original room. He also made arrangements as we passed the front desk to have all of my personal stuff moved up to that room too. I felt a little weird about people packing and unpacking for me, but he assured me it would be fine. He tossed my old room key across the front desk and ordered that a new key be delivered to my new room within the hour. We barely slowed down as we passed the desk, but his orders had staff scrambling to obey.
We were waiting for the elevator car to arrive when I remembered the phrase I’d heard. I turned first to Bahlin then to Tarrek and asked, “What does adael i ddechrau mean?” The phrase was fresh enough in my mind that I thought I had the pronunciation pretty close.
Bahlin, who had been watching the descending floor numbers on the elevator’s display, turned to face me. A look of disbelief colored his face. “Where did you hear that, Maddy?”
I looked at Tarrek and found that he was watching me equally as close.
I shrugged. “I know it sounds crazy, but I heard it breathe through the stones the night I made my wish and then I heard it again tonight when Tarrek made his oath and affirmed me.”
Tarrek looked away, apparently uncomfortable.
“Sodding hell,” Bahlin sighed. “It’s truly done then.” He ran his hands through his hair again, and I realized this was something he did when he was frustrated and unsure of himself. “It’s an Old World Welsh phrase that translates literally to ‘let it begin.’” He turned in a tight circle and stepped around me, grabbing Tarrek by his suit lapels and slamming him into the elevator doors with a great thud. “Do you realize what you’ve done to her you damned faerie?”
I grabbed Bahlin’s arm just as Tarrek muttered something below his breath and Bahlin’s hands were literally thrown from Tarrek’s arms. In the rush of what must have been magic, I was flung to the floor, sliding about fifteen feet before coming to a stop.
“Damn it all to hell,” I muttered, trying to get my feet under me to stand up. “I’m already tired of this freaking weird shit.”
Bahlin glanced at his palms.
Tarrek strode to my side. “I’m so sorry, Maddy. I had no idea you’d grab hold of him at that moment.” Distress was evident in his every word. He reached out to help me up.
“Forget it, Tarrek.” I watched Bahlin approaching Tarrek from behind. “In fact, both of you forget it. Now.” I clasped Tarrek’s hand and stood, realizing belatedly that we had a small audience of hotel and restaurant patrons. “Let’s leave this alone, guys. We’ve garnered enough attention, don’t you think?” I was flushed with embarrassment.
We all returned to the elevator door at the same time it dinged to let us know our car had arrived. We all studiously ignored the imprint Tarrek’s body had left in the metal doors.
The elevator ride to the room was tense and uncomfortable. Both men were standing as far from each other as possible, with their bodies turned away from each other but heads tilted toward me. I was in the middle again, literally and figuratively. We exited the elevator and the first thing I noticed was that the doors on this floor were spaced out much farther apart than those on my original floor. We went to the end of the hall and stood outside the door of 2210. Bahlin looked at the door and I heard a familiar muffled thunk and then the door swung open.
Ah, a repeat breaking and entering performance. I’d seen this before.
Regardless, I was proud of myself for being able to walk into the room on solid legs, no shakiness here finally. I stopped inside the door in the foyer of the room. No, not a room, but rather a suite. It was huge. Not sure how to react to the opulence, I didn’t. I followed the men into the room and stopped in front of one of the two sofas. One leather monstrosity faced a huge glass window that took in a view of Big Ben and the Thames. French doors off the living room opened into a large bedroom with a king-size bed.
Totally uncomfortable, I slowly turned to Bahlin and whispered, “I can’t stay here. This is too nice.”
“Maddy,” he said, walking to me and taking my hands, “you’ve got a lot to adjust to. The least the Council can do is provide this room, which is after all only a room, so that you’re comfortable. Consider it yours as long as you’d like to stay. And room service is at your disposal, courtesy of the hotel.” He looked at me, bending down to try and catch my gaze. I lifted my face toward his, and the concern I felt must have been evident. He brushed at the bangs hanging rag-tag along my forehead. I was touched by his small comforting gesture. He seemed genuinely concerned.
Tarrek cleared his throat. Stepping away from Bahlin, I turned to look at Tarrek. “You mentioned murder. I assume it wasn’t for the conversational shock value.”
Tarrek looked at me very directly then wandered to the sofa and sat, stretching out in apparent total comfort, one arm along the back and his right ankle propped on his left knee. He looked like a GQ cover model come to life.
“I thought you’d been affirmed, so I did broach the subject, yes,” he said softly. “And again, I’m sorry for that. Would you like to wait until tomorrow to discuss this first case?”
I turned to look at Bahlin who had wandered to the wet bar and was pouring a Coke over ice. “For you.” He grinned mischievously. “Since I didn’t get my red and you’re apparently going to need the caffeine.”
I smiled back at Bahlin, and Tarrek frowned.
“Thanks, Bahlin,” I said, clinking the ice in the glass as I tipped it gently toward him. “I think I’m ready to give this a shot.” He smiled at me and went to sit on the sofa opposite Tarrek. Both men shifted, inviting me silently to sit with them. I stood there for a minute then sat on the arm of Bahlin’s sofa, but at the opposite end so I was directly across from Tarrek. It was the best I could do in a pinch. I looked at Tarrek and said, “Let’s hear it.”
He smiled. “That easily? You’ll move into a case without any further preparation?”
I shrugged. “I wouldn’t know what to do to prepare,” I said. I’m nothing if not honest. “This is going to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants experiment in which I either succeed or fail. The only thing I can ensure is that, with any action I take, one of the two outcomes is guaranteed.”
Bahlin roared with laughter while Tarrek chuckled softly.
Tarrek smiled at me. “I suppose I can’t ask for more than such frank honesty.”
I shrugged.
“There have been two murders in the last nine days,” he began. Apparently we were really going to get right to it. “First there was the far darrig, or a type of leprechaun, that was killed; his tongue and voice box were taken and the body left outside his small shanty in the Scottish Lowlands.” I set my Coke down on the coffee table, feeling slightly ill. “We’ve also lost a cú sith, or giant Highland hound. His body was found in field of heather in the Highlands but his muzzle, in its entirety, was missing. A farmer found him while walking his fences.” I felt bile rise in the back of my throat. I was swallowing repeatedly. I didn’t know if I could do this after all. “We had to alter his memory to avoid the mundane police’s involvement.”
Bahlin looked over at me and was by my side in an instant. “Maddy? Sweetheart, put your head between your knees. Slow, deep breaths.” He shot a malevolent look at Tarrek and growled, “Could yeh no’ go easy on her this first night? Have yeh no wits?”
Tarrek looked at me, head tilted to one side like a giant dark bird of prey. “I thought you said you were ready to discuss the murders.”
I shuddered, taking air in slowly as Bahlin had suggested. “I thought I was, Tarrek. I’m sorry. This is going to take some getting used to.”
“Unfortunately, Maddy, there’s no time.” Bahlin made a low, disgusted noise in his throat. “There’s not, Bahlin. Much as it pains me to see Maddy suffer, for her spirit calls to mine as if they have once known each other, there’s no time to lose. While there are two dead so far, one of mine has gone missing.”
“When?” Bahlin and I asked at the same time. I sat up despite Bahlin’s protests.
“Near as I might tell, he disappeared today. Jossel was patrolling the forest around the sithen, or our faerie mounds, and he never returned. You know we live underground?” he asked me.
I nodded, seeming to remember some of this from mythology. “Can you take me there?” I asked. “I’d like to see where he was last known to be.”
“Of course, Maddy. I’d be honored if you’d accompany me now.”
Bahlin was on his feet standing next to me before I could blink. “She’ll not be going without me, mate,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. Then he turned to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t even think about it, sweetheart. I have to eat before we go anywhere. Our little shock recovery session drained me. It will have to wait until I’m able to accompany you.”
Of course, once he commanded me not to, I had no other choice. “Really? ‘Don’t even think about it, sweetheart’?” I rose to my feet, shrugging off his hand. “Tarrek, do you have a jacket I might borrow?” My clothes hadn’t been delivered yet, so it was borrow or go without.
He took his suit jacket off and stepped around the coffee table toward me. Bahlin made a movement as if to interfere and I spun toward him, slapping my hand on his hard chest. He didn’t flinch, though he did stop mid motion.
“You will not be my keeper, do you hear me?” My voice was a dangerous indicator of my tolerance level. “I will not be fawned over and treated like an incompetent child, even if I have no idea what I’m doing. You will humor me, as I’m the Niteclif, and this is my responsibility.” I blinked, shocked at my tone of voice, my expressed intent, myself. I had no idea where it had all come from.
Bahlin stared at me as if I’d grown another head. “So you think to run off and play detective your first night out, hmm?” he asked. His tone was superficially friendly, but even brief experience had taught me that I shouldn’t take him at face value.
“And you, my fellow Council member, would do well to remember that I can protect her as well as you can from all things that she may be protected from.” Tarrek’s voice was suffused with a lethal calm. He finished stepping toward me and held out his jacket. I shrugged into it and rolled my shoulders. There was little to do about the general size. It was just too big.
Bahlin stood motionless next to me, staring at Tarrek. “I could grab a bite now, my fellow Council member.”
“Do not threaten me you vile overgrown lizard,” Tarrek snarled, clearly pissed off at being reduced to a part of the food chain. A slight wind was emanating from around him again, stirring the men’s hair in the breeze.
Bahlin laughed, though it sounded bitter, lacking any sense of amusement. “Worried about sullying that pretty outfit, Tarrek?”
I hopped up onto the coffee table and was shocked that I didn’t knock anything off, over, or out. “Let’s stop posturing for a minute, guys. Bahlin, I have to go. You know that. Eat my dinner when it gets here since I didn’t touch it. I’ll see about grabbing a burger on the way. We all know the scene is degrading by the hour, so cut the crap. Tarrek, there’s no reason to goad him. I’m taking your side in this. So both of you shut the hell up and let me do my job. A fae’s life is at stake, and that’s got to be more important than either your pride or his,” I said, glancing first at Tarrek, then at Bahlin.
Both men looked at me, then each other and, finally, away.
“You shame me, Maddy,” Tarrek said on a sigh. His voice was soft and held sorrow like the brush of a butterfly’s wings—faint, soft, barely there. “Let’s be off and see what there is to see.”
“He’s right, much as it galls me to admit it. You shame us both.” Bahlin shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’ve got to eat, and your dinner won’t be nearly enough for me to refuel. And it’s too near dawn for me to get to the sithen via the air without risking being seen. I’ll have to get some food and then grab a ride out there. I’m remiss to let you go without me, but I’ve no choice, sweetheart.” Bahlin’s voice was full of both mockery and misery. He stepped close to me and ran a hand down the back of my hair to my neck and then straightened to his full height, like a marionette whose strings had been pulled, and he grinned wickedly.
“Stay with me, Maddy. I’ll take you myself within the hour.” I stared at him, and my surroundings seemed to soften. I realized I had leaned into him and I shook my head, stepping back so quickly I stumbled. His hand shot out in a move too quick to be seen, and he stopped my fall.
“Thanks for making it easier to leave, Bahlin.” Disappointment laced my voice and lay heavy between us.
He smiled a very self-deprecating smile and shrugged. “I had to try. Be off with you then. I’ll eat and meet you there as soon as I’m able.” The last was said to me while he looked at Tarrek.
“Fine. Oh, um, what did my great-granddad do to keep notes for you?” I asked, shifting from foot to foot, uncomfortable at having to ask how this was going to work. After all, I’d just given him a warped version of the “kiss my ass I’m leaving” speech, and now I had to ask how to do part of the job.
“He had a photographic memory. Notes weren’t necessary,” Bahlin said.
Naturally, I thought, and I sighed. I was worried that someone else was about to die because of my inaptitude.
“Let’s be off, Maddy,” Tarrek said. His tone was as gentle as the hand he put under my elbow.
And I let him lead me away from Bahlin despite the blossoming dread in my chest.
Tarrek and I stepped out of the hotel lobby into the early morning air, he on his cell phone speaking softly and I taking in my surroundings. It was cool, and I was grateful for the protection of his jacket. The lights from London obscured the stars, giving the sky an eerie, artificial glow. Traffic moved by us intermittently, the tires making a whooshing sound on the wet pavement. Despite the open air, I felt somehow cocooned with Tarrek, isolated from the world.
Tarrek snapped his cell phone shut, stepped up to my side and said, “The car will be here in a moment. I’ve instructed our driver to have the heat on.”
“That’s kind of you, thanks.” I looked over at him, and he appeared surreal in his black clothes with his black hair and ethereal complexion. In the short amount of time we’d been outside, small drops of the heavy mist had collected in his hair and the streetlights gave him the look of a fallen celestial being, an angel, come to walk among mankind.
“What is it?” he asked, reaching out to touch my cheek before thinking twice and dropping his hand.
“You’re absolutely stunning.” Realizing I’d answered his question with such base honesty embarrassed me, and I turned my head away. He smiled and before he could reply, a black Mercedes sedan pulled to the curb. He stepped to the rear door and opened it for me. He nodded, motioning for me to get in. I slid into the car. The black leather was buttery soft, and the car still held that new car smell. The privacy tint on the windows so effectively prevented light from entering the car that I couldn’t see many of the interior details in the pre-dawn darkness. It reeked obviously of opulence and, less obviously, of menace.
“Impressive. Is this how you usually travel?”
Tarrek slid in after me and pulled the door shut behind him. “Only if I’m dealing with mundanes or, now, you. Faeries dislike being around so much metal. It inhibits our powers.” He settled back into the seat. “We are creatures of nature and much of our magic is tied to it. This is why we are so particular about where we build our sithens. There are certain things we look for, and certain things we avoid.”
Well that’s cryptic enough, I thought. I made a mental note to pick up several books on Celtic and Norse mythologies when I had a little free time.
Tarrek looked out the window, and I could see his face reflected softly over his shoulder. “When we travel alone we use what you might consider teleportation. It’s called waxing and waning. While it’s not tied to the cycles of the moon it is very similar. It means to appear and disappear, yes?”
I nodded, all thoughts of book shopping forgotten.
“It’s a matter of willing ourselves from one place to another.”
“Is it magic?”
He turned back to me and smiled. “Not for us.”
The car pulled away from the curb quickly, setting deeper into our seats. I buckled my seatbelt then turned to try and look out the darkly tinted windows as the driver sped through the city. It was impossible to see anything through the double darkness of night and tinted window so I turned back to look at Tarrek, and he smiled. He was so startlingly attractive it took my breath away for a minute. I stared openly, but his smile never faltered.
He shifted in his seat and put his hand over mine on the center console. That same electric spark seemed to jump between us yet again. It was more than a simple attraction, more than what I had thought of earlier as intangible chemistry.
“Why are you and Bahlin so interested in me?” I blurted out. I blushed and cursed my pale skin and big mouth for the hundred thousandth time in my life.
Tarrek tightened his hand on mine slightly, and I shifted my grip to hold his hand back. There was something about the contact that was as comforting as it was confusing. “You are beautiful,” he said, stroking his thumb over the back of my hand repeatedly. “Surely you’re used to the attention of men?”
“Um, not really to either thing—not beautiful or used to the attention.” I turned to face him, completely flustered with this conversation. “I mean, compared to you two, I’m like a third wheel on the beauty bike. Totally out of place.”
“Beauty bike?”
“It’s just a phrase. It means that a bicycle by definition has two wheels and a third is seriously unnecessary. You two are the wheels, and I’m out of place between you.”
“Oh.” He continued rubbing my hand. “I disagree. It seems impossible that you would see yourself as unattractive…” The look of concentration on his face lent me to believe he was having trouble finding the right words to convey his feelings. He looked down at our hands, then up at my face. “I sense no false emotion from you, so—”
“You can sense my emotions?” I asked a little too loudly. I saw the driver’s glance in the rearview mirror, and I gasped. His eyes were dark orange, and it wasn’t a trick of the dash light reflection. They were dark orange, as in navel. The pupil was a pinprick of red. It was disconcerting as hell, and hell was exactly what he brought to mind.
“Maddy?” I turned my wide green eyes back to him. “I realize I’ve not prepared you for this morning’s visit to the sithen, or at least the exterior mounds. Unless something goes terribly wrong, there will be no need to expose you to the dangers that lie within for a mortal. Regardless, there are undoubtedly things you’re going to see that are new to you and will cause you some…well, let’s just say that you’re likely to see things you’ve never seen before. I would encourage you strongly to avoid staring at those things that catch you off guard.” He smiled gently again then turned and said something to the driver in that same flowing language he’d used earlier. The man nodded his head and sped up. Apparently we were in a greater hurry now that we were leaving the city. “You need to prepare yourself. Most Seelie love to be stared at—”
“Seelie?” I asked.
“There are two different types of fairies—Seelie and Unseelie. The Seelie are what people often think of when they think of fairies, beautiful and ethereal, though not small and winged. They are what light mythology is made of. The Unseelie are the less traditionally appealing side of faerie, the things from which dark mythology was born. But what you will find is that not all that is beautiful is soft, and not all that is visually unpleasing is harsh. It can be just as likely that the opposite holds true.”
“So you’re telling me not to take anyone, or anything, at face value.” I gently extricated my hand from his. He looked at me, unblinking, and took his hand back from the middle of the seat.
“That’s precisely what I’m telling you,” he said, his voice sounding and feeling detached, emotionless. His eyes cooled perceptibly. “A contingent of my guard will meet us at the edge of the mound nearest where Jossel was last seen. I would encourage you to stay within my site, even with them near us.”
“I meant no offense.” I looked down at his hand in his lap and then back to his eyes. “I’m only trying to find where I fit.” I wished fervently that Bahlin had come with us.
“No offense taken.” His eyes and voice both softened. “I forget myself. It must be difficult for you, with all of the changes to your life in the last day and a half.”
I ignored that. “You never did finish explaining why you and Bahlin are so interested in me,” I said. “Not that I want to push, but it might help me understand.”
“Ah. You are persistent.” He leaned his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes. “You might have noticed that Bahlin and I don’t get along too well.”
“Nope, hadn’t observed that at all.”
He rolled his head toward me, staring without smiling before he responded. “Sarcasm? Very well. So you’ve noticed. Bahlin and I have a long history of discord between us, though it has escalated to violence several times in the last several years. We had both been forewarned that the time of the next Niteclif was near—”
Interrupting him, I asked, “By whom?”
“If you’ll give me a chance, I’ll explain. There is a wizard on the High Council who foretold of your coming, and we both have access to Seers within our individual races. The three voices all foretold the same future. The time of the Niteclif was near, you would appear through the stones, and you would be a young woman. What neither of us expected, what I didn’t expect, was that you would be so desirable.”
I snorted and crossed my arms under my breasts. Just having breasts prevented me from truly crossing my arms over my chest, but I did the best I could.
“I am sincere, Madeleine. You’ll find no falsehood in my words. When Bahlin entered your dream yesterday morning, I felt the contact because I’d been preparing to do the same.” Tarrek shifted toward me, putting his arm across the back of the seat and tugging at the end of my hair. “So when I followed his magic trail into your dream and I saw you, I was stunned.”
I thought about what he’d said about the Seelie fairies. “But you see beauty all the time. There’s nothing special about me, Tarrek.”
He reached out and pulled my hair, hard.
“Ow!” I leaned my head away from him and turned on my hip to face him, the movement partially restricted by the seatbelt.
“I’ll tolerate no disparaging remarks about your person, Maddy, not even from you.”
“Fine. Go on,” I snarled.
“You were beautiful, and I was incensed that he had made it to you before I had.”
“So I’m what? A competition between the two of you?” The words were ground out between clenched teeth. “Nice.”
“No, not…really. You are the Niteclif, and you deserve respect. But you are also a woman, and we are men, and we have both found ourselves interested in you as more than our kinds’ detective. Does this make sense?”
The answer was yes and no. Yes, I understood that they both were interested in me because I was the Niteclif, and I was the first female Niteclif at that. And no, I didn’t understand how they could both be interested in me in a personal capacity when either of them could have had any female on the planet. I cleaned up okay, but I wasn’t in their league. I’m average-plus on a great day and only average on every other. So as usual when it came to men, and especially these two, I was already conflicted. Even my newly developed skills of logic wouldn’t help me out with this one because lust shuns rational thought. I answered as honestly as I could—I stayed quiet.
Tarrek stared at me as if trying to divine a response. Finally he said, “I am better for you than he, Maddy. I am able to offer you more than Bahlin can even dream of. Dragons are selfish and manipulative, and they care little for anything beyond that which brings them pleasure in the moment. At most you will have his passing affection. Consider that before you do anything rash.”
I was quiet for a while before I turned toward him again, curiosity once more getting the best of me. “You act as if you’re sure I’ll choose one of you as a partner, lover, whatever. Why does it matter so much, Tarrek?”
“Your decision matters more than you can imagine.” He reached for me, but I shifted slightly so that I kept some distance between us. Tarrek sighed, removing his arm from the back of the seat. We rode in silence for a while, the shifting rev of the engine, the hum from the tires on the road and the sounds of our breathing the only noises.
Tarrek turned toward me as if to say something but the car began to slow and he paused, sitting up straighter. “We’re almost there.”