Darkness Bred (8 page)

 
G
et your helmet on,” Sean said to Elin. She stood beside the Ducati with her back to him and her arms crossed. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head, no.

“What is it?” He had been a fool to hope she hadn’t really noticed what Saul said about Aldo.

“You’re keeping things from me. I expect you to have your secrets—you must for your own safety. But Saul talked about this Aldo as if he expected me to know about him.”

Sean went around the bike and took Elin by the arms. He sat on the seat of the bike and held her in front of him. “I should have told you by now. I’ve tried to put the whole thing behind me. Maybe I thought it would go away if I did that.”

“But it didn’t,” she said. Her mouth was stiff. “Tell me, please.”

He didn’t want to. Stroking her upper arms, he looked away.

“We’ve talked about trusting each other, Sean. But you don’t trust me with whatever this is. Okay.” She shrugged. “Let it go.”

“I can’t,” he said, facing her again. This feeling that he was joined to her was so good, but he was afraid of hurting her somehow. “Not anymore. I’m going to lay it out. If you know me at all, you’ll believe in me—that’s not fair. We all need time to take things in.”

Elin never took her eyes from his.

“For five years the San Francisco police have believed I murdered a woman in a club there. There’s no reason for me to think they’ve stopped looking for me.”

Her features had frozen. He heard her shallow breathing.

“Aldo was the werehound who first turned me and he never stopped wanting to own me. He got me to that club and used me to kill a helpless woman.”

Her lips parted. Sean waited for her to pull away, to run away from him, but she didn’t move. “Used you to kill?” she said, very low. “How could that be?”

He didn’t want to think about it, or remember the details. Explaining aloud would be hell.

Elin had started to tremble.

“Oh, my God,” he muttered. “You’ve never been in a place like that and you’ll never go. Drunkenness, drugs used in plain sight, debauchery—I can’t describe it all. Madness all around me. That freak grabbed me and slammed my head into the woman’s face.” He felt sick. “Twice. It killed her and in all the chaos no one questioned that I was her murderer. Now Saul is saying Aldo has shown up—not here on Whidbey, but Saul has seen him.”

He had the sensation that Elin could easily collapse but he was afraid to pull her closer in case she fought him.

“When Saul asked me to see him outside Gabriel’s Place, that’s what he wanted to tell me. I may not be crazy about that vamp but he was worried about you. He wanted to warn me not to do anything to hurt you.”

“You didn’t trust me enough to tell me,” Elin said. She was very pale and she looked away repeatedly. “How do you have a lasting relationship with someone you don’t trust?”

He shook his head, miserable, furious with his own stupidity. “I’ve always trusted you. But I was afraid you could be frightened of me. Who would find it easy to talk about something like that?”

“Look at me,” Elin said. “Really look at me. Am I so scary? Didn’t anyone ever tell you things just get worse when you lie about them?”

“I didn’t lie.”

He heard her swallow and her lashes got very shiny. She blinked rapidly. “In a way you did. When you kept it from me, you were lying. How many other things have you kept from me because you think I can’t handle them?”

How could he blame her? “There may be things I haven’t mentioned because they were no big deal,” he said. “Elin, I’ve never felt close to anyone the way I do to you. You’re my everything. If you won’t stay with me…No, I’m not laying any threats on you.”

“Finish what you started, Sean.”

He let out breath on a whistle. “Hell, this is hard. I wouldn’t ever have hurt you deliberately. If you won’t stay with me, I don’t know what I’ll do, but the rest of my life will be about regretting what a fool I’ve been.”

Getting up the courage to release her, he held his arms out, inviting her to let him hold her.

She hesitated, and came to him, rested her face on his shoulder.

“Are we okay?” He heard his own voice shake.

Elin nodded. “We will be. We have to be. Do you think I could let you go?”

“I hope not.” The lump in his throat tightened. “I know you can’t, any more than I can. Let me look at you, then we have to get out of here.”

She pulled away a little, not smiling, but with love in her eyes.

“I’ve got you,” he told her. “That’s amazing. I never expected someone as wonderful as you to happen to me.”

Elin looked at his mouth, traced his lips with a forefinger. “I feel too much to put into words.” She put on her helmet. “Where are we going?” she asked and sounded as shaken as Sean figured she had to be.

He decided not to give her any choices. “Langley for something to eat. I don’t want to run into anyone we know if I can help it.” And since Saul’s announcements had just rocked the world for all the people he cared about, he had to come up with a plan.

“That was a shock in there,” Elin said. She glanced repeatedly at Saul’s house. “Did you realize what happened when I touched the Q on Rose’s neck?”

“Best not say that aloud,” Sean told her, looking in all directions. Since Saul was probably right about this beast walking among them, it was incredibly important that he not know his cover was in the process of being blown.

She looked at him from beneath thick, shadowy eyelashes. “Right. Just think how bored you’d be if you didn’t have to correct me constantly.”

Women were so difficult to understand. “What happened when you touched the mark?” he said, deciding not to rise to the bait of her last remark.

“For a long time I couldn’t take my hand away. It felt like the mark and my fingers were magnets—really strong magnets. I couldn’t let go and I felt awful, like I would faint. I heard wailing.”

He was stumped. “Yes, I noticed you were reacting but I don’t know why. How do you feel now?”

“Scared. But okay.”

“Mm,” Sean said. “You’re a tough cookie. I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep up with you.”

The sharp look she gave him suggested she didn’t realize he was joking. With his right hand beneath her jaw, he stroked her cheek with his thumb. “You aren’t a wimp, kiddo, and I like that. In fact, I might as well admit I’d rather be with you than anyone else.”

She smiled at him.

The guinea pig that popped out of her jacket and ran around her neck until she could glance between them with her darting black eyes did seem to be smiling.

“Pokey!” Elin said.

“Nosey little pig. Put her wherever you keep her and let’s go.”

Promptly, the critter darted into Elin’s jacket again.

Sean kissed her, long and lingeringly, before she moved her head slightly and whacked the bridge of his nose with her helmet.

“Ow.”

“I’m sorry.” She giggled. “That was awful. Completely spoiled the moment.”

Smiling ruefully, Sean said, “Elin, we communicated in there.” He indicated Saul’s house. “Mindspeak. Do you know what that means?”

She shook her head, no. “Not really. It never happened to me before. Not like that. When I shift, I can carry and convey messages to certain sensitives, but I’ve never had conversations. Sally always tells me stuff aloud when I’m Skillywidden. I don’t think about it. That’s how it goes.”

“But you can hear me like this?”
He probed her mind again.

The expression in her violet eyes was almost funny.
“Yes, but I’d rather talk to you if we can.”

He hauled her off her feet and swung her around. “So would I, cat woman.”

She rained blows on his shoulders, frowning furiously. “Put me down, dog man.”

He grimaced and continued to hold her feet off the ground. “I get your point. I always thought cat woman sounded cool, is all. Dog man—”

“Not so much?” she asked, and tapped his mouth. “I like it that our minds can touch.” Her gaze slid away. “What are we thinking about? We’ve got to talk to Niles and the others about what Saul told us. Now.”

Slowly, Sean let her slide to stand on the road. “I know,” he said. “That’s why Langley seemed a good idea. A chance to think through what Saul told us.” And to prepare for whatever Niles’s reaction was to Elin having heard everything.

“Niles will want to know about it quickly,” she pointed out.

He nodded, yes, and narrowed his eyes to study her. “You’re shivering. This isn’t the first time you’ve looked so cold. I didn’t think that happened to fae like you.”

Elin shrugged. “It’s probably because there’s been a lot of tension. I don’t know. It isn’t important.” He didn’t miss the distance that came into her eyes. She might say it wasn’t important that her body temperature had changed, but she wasn’t sure about it.

He wrapped her close. Whatever was causing this chill in her, he would make sure she got warmer clothes. Darkness had begun to close in and the wind picked up. The uncertainty he felt himself was deep inside and sickening. He had stopped thinking the way he was expected to think—always with the good of the Team first.

The first thing he should have done when he left Saul’s, without any question, was contact Niles.

“Can we go?” Elin said quietly.

Her leather jacket seemed useless. The wind had an icy edge and before long at least Elin would be at the mercy of whatever light came from a puny moon. “I want to put out a call for Niles,” he said. “Bear with me.”

He signaled his alpha and instantly flinched when waves of confusion came back. Sean’s breath shortened.
“What the hell’s the matter with you, Niles? This is Sean. I need to talk to you. I just left Doc Saul’s. He scared the hell out of me—or he will have if we don’t figure out a plan.”

“Wait,”
was the one-word response, followed by the channel closing.

Elin was trying to see his expression but he didn’t look at her.

The first needles of light sleet hit his exposed skin and he turned Elin’s face to his jacket. “Shouldn’t be long,” he told her. “Niles will get right back to me.” And, goddammit, if Niles messed him around much more, Sean wouldn’t be available to be reached.

“Are you still on Gulliver Lane?”

No time for niceties, huh?
“Yeah.”

“Meet us at Read It Again.”

“The bookshop?”

“Last time I checked, that’s what it was. On our way now.”

Sean locked his jaw. Without a word, he lifted Elin onto the back of his bike and slid on in front of her. They had less than the distance of a couple of blocks to go; nevertheless, he drove too fast getting to the shop. Elin got off the instant he came to a stop in front of the lighted stained-glass windows of Read It Again.

She had to feel his simmering anger.

He cut the engine and kicked on the stand. “Sorry, Elin,” he said, catching her hand. “I’m getting hell from Niles and I don’t know why. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“You don’t mean to,” she said.

“He wants to meet here. Don’t ask me why but it’s weird.”

“Could be he thinks it’s safe,” she pointed out. “We’re friends with Phoebe.”

The sleet set up a whirl like a tornado and Elin put her hands over her face.

Niles landed, Leigh clamped to his side, in a similar swirl of frozen rain. The alpha’s expression reminded Sean of the way the man looked when he went into battle. Sean was glad Elin wasn’t looking.

Leigh, her hands curled into fists against her mate’s chest, exuded fury. “I didn’t like that,” she snapped at Niles.

Immediately Elin dropped her hands from her face and stared.

“It’s okay, honey,” Niles said, still holding her against him and stroking her back. “I know what I’m doing and I needed to get here fast.”

“We’ll talk about it later,” Leigh said, and she was warning him. “In future I come by car. Or even on that mad Harley of yours.”

Sean controlled a smile. “Up to some of your flying tricks again?” he said to Niles. They weren’t supposed to fly as humans unless there was no choice.

“Get inside,” Niles said. “Elin looks frozen.”

They went toward the door and Phoebe threw it open before they reached it. “Come on in. You can have the upstairs to yourselves. You’ll find anything you need up there.” She must have been watching for them.

“Jan’s not here?” Elin said. Jan was Leigh’s twin sister.

“She doesn’t work today,” Phoebe and Leigh said together. Phoebe laughed and continued, “Business is pretty quiet at the moment.”

With a hand at Leigh’s back, Niles guided her upstairs and the other two went quickly behind.

“Just yell if you want me,” Phoebe said, juggling books in one arm. “I’ve got a couple of hours of shelving to do.”

A potbelly stove stood in the middle of the shop with hot chocolate and cider available on top. Book stacks stretched floor to ceiling and old but comfortable chairs were placed in convenient spots.

Upstairs was almost a mirror of downstairs except for a lot more disorder. Boxes and stacks of books yet to be shelved. Unsteady piles of magazines. And no stove. A dividing wall separated the open room from Phoebe’s living quarters.

Chairs were arranged in a circle at the farthest point from the stairs, immediately beneath a skylight that showed only darkness beyond. Pots of coffee, a jug of cider, mugs, and cookies waited on a tray in the middle of a scarred cherry wood table.

It was Leigh who drew Sean’s full attention. She huddled in one of the leather chairs, her arms crossed and her chin sunk on her chest. He had never seen her so colorless and pinched. But then, his alpha paced circles about the room in a manner not at all like his usual cool self. Sure, Niles had a temper, but there was something different about this.

The hard expression only softened when he looked at his mate. And then, soften it might but whatever lay beneath that expression was different, abnormally intent. His eyes, always impossible to ignore because they had the quality of blue flame, seemed to keep Leigh in their scope all the time.

“We met with Saul,” Sean said, keeping his voice level and quiet.