Circus of The Darned (6 page)

"You guys don't want to stay here?" I asked Eirik, waving my hand to indicate the dig site. "You said this was your home, right?"

"Until you summoned us.Now we follow you," Eirik answered, and sure enough, they all got in line behind him, Imogen's Viking giving her a steamy look as he did so.

"You are not going to annoy Fran in any way," Ben said stubbornly, crossing his arms over his chest.

I walked back to him and put a hand on his arm, giving his biceps a little squeeze (which, I had to admit, made me do a little inner girly squeal, but he didn't need to know that). "Remember rule number one—Fran can take care of herself. Good. So you can stop being all manly and stuff and

let me worry about me."

Ben shot me an outraged look that pretty much told me what he thought of rule number one.

"Hey, Imogen and I beat up a demon last month all by ourselves!" I stopped squeezing and whapped him on the arm. "We stopped him from killing you, too!"

"I had the situation fully in my control," he answered, his voice low like he was growling. For some reason, that just made me want to kiss him. "If you and Imogen hadn't interfered—"

"Oh, for heaven's sake, little brother," Imogen said as she strolled over to us. "This is 2006, not 1806. Fran and I are quite capable of taking care of not only ourselves, but you, as well."

"I don't need anyone to take care of me," Ben sputtered, his eyes going black as he glared at his sister.

Imogen smiled at him and kissed his cheek. He growled some more."So typical of Moravian

men. I've done my best with him, Fran, but clearly you have a lot of work ahead of you. I believe I shall drive over to the mainland and see what's happening at the local nightclub." She cast a glance over her shoulder at her friendly Viking. "If anyone would care to join me, I'd be happy to have the company."

Ben opened his mouth like he was going to forbid her, but I dug my nails into his wrist, so he

just glared at me instead.

Imogen's Viking looked first at Eirik, then at me. I realized with a bit of surprise that he was waiting for permission. "Sure," I said, waving at Imogen. "Knock yourself out.All of you. I…

er… hereby do solemnly give you permission to do whatever you want to do without asking me

first. Unless it's like something bad, then don't do it. OK?"

The Vikings scattered like pool balls, a couple of them going off with Imogen to the nearest town on the mainland, a couple heading for the main tent, the rest off to wander around the

fairgrounds. Only Eirik remained standing with Ben and me.

"Don't you want to go to town with Imogen and the others?" I asked, kind of surprised that he'd want to stay behind.

"No. My duty is to stay near my goddess in case she has need of me," he said, falling into place on my left side as Ben walked on my right. We were headed toward the lights and noise of the

Faire, which still had a few hours to go.

"I will take care of any needs Fran has," Ben said stiffly.

We are so going to have a little talk later
, I told him.

Yes. Yes, we are. It's about time we have a few things out.

I sent him a mental frown, and decided he needed to be ignored for a minute or two. "So, you guys all died together here?" I asked Eirik. "Was it… um… bad? Dying?"

"We fought and died with much honor," he said proudly. "There were twelve of us to the Norwegians' ten score. We sent three times our number toValhalla before they finished us."

"Wow. That's a lot of killing."

"We are Viking. It's what we do best," he said modestly. "There is a priestess in your group, is there not? I have seen her. She has hair the color of a crow, which stands up in unruly clumps. If I cannot rut with a goddess, a priestess would do."

"That would be Mikaela, but she has a husband," I said, sliding a quick glance toward Ben.

"There's a girl working for the Faire who doesn't have a boyfriend, though. Her name is

Desdemona. She's a personal time-travel counselor."

"Hmm."Eirik looked thoughtful.

"Fran?Where did you—oh.Hi, Benedikt. Who's that?" We'd reached the edge of the fairgrounds, keeping to the shadows as much as possible because of Ben. Soren popped out of the main tent

and stood with his hands on his hips, squinting first at Ben, then at Eirik. "Why is he dressed so funny?"

"He's a ghost, and a Viking, and I'm sure it's not funny to him," I said, making warning eyebrows at Soren. "Eirik, this is Soren. He's the son of the one of the owners of the Faire, and is a magician in training. He's also teaching me to ride. Soren, this is Eirik Redblood, leader of the Vikings who were killed over at the dig site. He's… uh… been called back accidentally."

Soren blinked twice,then nodded."A Viking ghost. OK. How long will he be here?"

"Er… we're not quite sure on that. There are eleven others, as well, although some went off with Imogen to the local disco." I wrinkled my nose as something occurred to me. "What are people in town going to think of a bunch of guys dressed in leather and leggings?" I asked Ben.

He shrugged one shoulder. "It could start a new fashion trend."

"Where is this Desdemona you speak of?" Eirik asked me, scanning the crowds wandering around the fair-grounds. Even though he stood a good head higher than everyone else, and was

dressed like ye olde Viking, no one seemed to be paying him any attention. Everyone milled

around the various booths and stalls that formed an alley, slowly drifting past us into the main tent, where the second round of magic acts were about to start.

I pointed down to the far end of the right side of booths. "See the big hourglass above the green-striped awning? That's Desdemona's booth. The second show is about to start, so most people

will gowatch that if you wanted to talk to her. Although I should warn you—she's a bit wacky

when it comes to the subject of time travel."

Soren snickered. "You just say that because she insists you're the reincarnation of Cleopatra."

Ben laughed, taking my hand and rubbing his thumb over the ring I wore, a ring that had once

belonged to his mother, but which he'd given me last month."Fran?"

"Hey, you don't have to say that in such a disbelieving tone," I said. "I could be Cleopatra!"

"I don't believe in reincarnation," he said, smiling at me.

"I don't know what this time travel is, but I like to sail. I will try it," Eirik said, and without another word he went marching off down the row toward Desdemona's booth.

"He's in for a surprise," I said, smiling.

"
Ja
.Big surprise."Soren looked up as his father and my mother walked over to us.

I flinched. Mom had a really unhappy look on her face, but all she said was, "I will speak to you later about your behavior in the circle."

"Soren, is Bruno ready?" Peter asked, cocking an eyebrow at his son. "No? Then go, the show is about to begin. Ah. Ben, you are back with us?"

"I am," Ben said, shaking Peter's hand. "I will probably be around for a while. I'm staying with Imogen, so if there is something I can do to help out, let me know."

"Iwill, thank you." Peter yelled something at one of the guys hauling in a crate containing his illusion equipment. "I must go now. I have told them a hundred times how valuable that

equipment is, but they do not listen—"

Peter hurried off to set up the second show. Mom gave me a warning look and drifted off. Ben

rubbed his chin as he looked after her. "I wonder what was going on with her invocations."

"Probably that huldra.Or the ghosts.Her invocations can go wonky if there are unsettled

elements in the area." I shrugged and smiled. "So, you're going to be here for a while thistime ?

No running off without a word to anyone?"

His thumb rubbed over my knuckles. My knees went a bit weak at the touch, but I told them to

knock off the girly stuff. "I'm sorry about that. It was unavoidable, but I regret not being able to tell you I had to leave before I was called away."

"Called away bywho ?" I asked, throwing grammar rules to the wind.

He just rubbed my fingers and didn't answer. I sighed. Just because he couldn't lie to me, didn't mean he had to keep silent whenever I asked a question he didn't want to answer. I mean really.

"I'm not going to tell anyone if you've been off doing something, you know"—I made bitey claw fingers—"vampy. You can trust me, Ben. I'm not going to give you away."

"I trust you with my life," he said, pulling my hand up to give my fingers a kiss. My stomach did a happy back-flip. "But this situation concerns someone other than me, and I am not at liberty yet to tell you about it."

I sighed again. "OK. Mom says I have to respect your privacy, although she did say a couple of snarky things about guys who run off without a word. But I trust you, too, so I'm not going to say anything more about it.For now."

He smiled and kissed my fingers again, his breath warm on my suddenly sensitive knuckles.

Who knew a hand could be so sexy?

"But… um… that brings up another subject." I bit my lip, a little embarassed. I reminded myself that there was nothing wrong with it, and blurted it out quickly, before I changed my mind. "I know that a guy normally asks this, but I'm into equal rights and stuff, so I was wondering if

you'd like to go on a date withme? A real date, not a ride on your bike like we did inHungary , but a real date date, the kind where I dress up and stuff. Maybe we could get some dinner and see a movie or something, if they have English movies here.Or whatever. If you don't want to, that's fine, too. I just thought maybe—"

He laughed and gave me a quick kiss, almost a non-kiss, just a brush of his lips. It was enough to stop me from blathering on and on, but not enough to make anyone notice us. "I would love to go on a date. Dinner and a moviesounds great. When would you like to go?"

It took me a few seconds to get over the kiss."How about on Sunday? There's just one show on Sunday nights, and we can go after the last magic act."

"Three days from now?" he asked, smiling.

"Yeah, well, I'm kind of booked until then," I said, trying to sound sophisticated. What I didn't tell him is that my stomach was turning somersaults at the idea of a real, honest-to-goddess date with him. I'd need those three days just to get myself to the point where I could go out with him without spending the entire time kissing him.Which is what I wanted to do now. Just standing

near him made me feel tingly, kind of the same way the pendant felt.

"Very well, Sunday it is." He stepped back behind the demonology booth, pulling me into the shadow with him. "Perhaps we should seal the deal with a kiss?"

"Sounds good to me," I said, leaning up against him, drinking in the wonderful leather/spicey smell that was pure Ben.

"Let's hear the name of that Welsh place again," he said, his eyes going almost golden.

I was just about to say it when Soren ran out into the main aisle, yelling my name. Soren doesn't run well because of his leg, so for him to be moving that fast had to mean something was up.

"I'm right here—what's going on?" I asked as Ben and I stepped into the aisle.

"It's Tesla," Soren said, limping toward me, a lead rope in his hand.

"Oh, no, is something wrong with him? Is he sick?" I asked, starting toward the
area
where the horses were kept.

"I don't know," Soren yelled after me as Ben and I ran toward the pasture. "He's not there. He's gone. I think he's been stolen."

Chapter Five

Soren was right. I had my doubts when he said he thought Tesla had been stolen—who'd want

an old dirty white horse? But the area where Tesla and Bruno had been hobbled was empty.

Tesla's hobble was sitting neatly on a rock, right next to the water bucket.

"Someone took this off," Ben said, fingering the open buckles. "It didn't come off on its own."

"Do you see?" Soren asked as he puffed his way up to us. "He was taken,
ja
?"

"Looks that way."I hesitated a minute, then stripped off the layers of latex and lace gloves I

wore to keep from reading everything I touched, and held out my hand for the hobble. Ben placed it across my palm, careful to keep from touching my hand. Although he was one of the

few people I didn't mind touching, I didn't want to confuse my psychometry abilities by picking up on something he was feeling rather than the person who unbuckled the hobble.

"Well?" Soren asked as I sorted through the images that came to mind as soon as my fingers closed over the leather cuff. "Who took him? Is Bruno in danger? I should tell my dad if there is a horse kidnapper around."

"I don't think this is a horsenapper," I said, focusing on hobble.

"Who touched it, Fran?" Ben asked, his voice quiet but full of concern. He knew how much Tesla meant to me.

"Ben, Soren, Peter, Karl…" Those last three made sense. They all helped take care of the horses, loading and unloading them in the horse trailer when we move to another town, so it was no

surprise that at one time or another they'd picked up the hobble. But it was a fifth person who'd touched it that worried me."…and someone else. Someone I don't know.Someone…
different
."

"Different how?"Ben asked. I handed him back the hobble and turned to scan the open field. I didn't think Tesla would be hidden away in the shadows, but I had to look anyway.

"Different as in not human."

"What?" Soren asked, his mouth hanging open. "Not human? You mean like a ghost?"

"I don't know what he is, other than he doesn't have any feeling whatsoever."

"No feelings?" Soren frowned.

"Yeah.None whatsoever.Everyone leaves some sort of residual emotion behind when they touch something, even Ben does when he tries to close off his emotions—I can feel that it's him that

touched it. But the guy who touched the hobble wasn't normal. Not human."

"Or heavily shielded," Ben said, looking thoughtful.

"There
are
people who
are
able to block themselves completely.Mages and the like."