Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 (8 page)

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.