Close Contact (6 page)

Abruptly, my reflexes took over and time slowed to a crawl. My cloak and pouch went flying as I spun, lashed out, felt my foot connect with flesh and bone.

He crumpled at a snail’s pace, the words still trapped in his throat, his body giving the appearance of a rag doll with part of the stuffing removed.

Frantically I looked around for other attackers, only to realize something odd was going on. Off to my right, the cloak and pouch were inching their way through midair, and Peri’s wings moved in slow motion on the beginning of the down stroke she’d started when she first launched herself from my shoulder.

Damn.

I inhaled a shuddering breath and shut my eyes, convinced I was imagining what my sight insisted was true.

Damn.

Slowly, I got my heart rate under control and relaxed muscles primed for action.

Damn.

Immediately, everything around me resumed its normal pace. Peri gave a squawk of surprise just as I heard the pouch hit the cobblestone.

“You went into overdrive!” Lillith’s voice was tinged with awe. “It was like you vanished.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I snapped, turning my attention to the soldier. Zin, was he dead? Had I really gone into overdrive? My heart started pounding again, and my head joined the party.

I’d never exhibited any abilities beyond what was normal for GEPs before. But then, moving at super speeds wouldn’t have done much for me on a dance floor, and nothing had ever frightened me enough to trigger an automatic reaction, either.

What else was I capable of that I’d never had occasion to discover?

Pushing the confusion away, I leaned down to check the man for a pulse. To my relief I found one. I certainly hadn’t meant to kill him. I hadn’t even meant to hurt him. It was like my body had reacted with no conscious direction from my mind.

“You! Halt!”

The voice came from the hall on the other side of the still open door, accompanied by the sound of pounding feet. Three men were charging toward me, swords drawn and murder in their eyes.

“Run!” Lillith yelled in my ear. “But don’t go into overdrive. It’s dangerous!”

I didn’t hang around to argue. Besides, I’d read Kiera Smith’s journal, too. I knew what the physical results of going into overdrive would be if I kept it up. Without stopping for my cloak or pouch, I took off along the side of the wall, only to be brought up short by an angry screech from Peri.

Whirling around, I was just in time to see her eyes go bloodred with rage as she dove at the front-runner, beating him with her wings, her small talons scratching his face.

Oh, Zin. She was trying to protect me.

“Peri,” I yelled. “Follow me!”

She shot into the air, barely avoiding a wildly swung sword, and came after me.

Once I was sure she wouldn’t attack again, I turned and kept running.

“They’re gaining,” Lillith informed me grimly. “You need to find a place to hide.”

I rounded a corner, too busy to reply, and saw a door ahead with a lamp shimmering over it. That door was my only chance. If it was locked, I was screwed.

Still on high, I grabbed the handle and wrenched. To my stunned amazement, there was a splintering reverberation and the wood tore loose from the hinges.

Holy scritch, had I done that? Maybe the wood was rotten.

“Stop gaping and
go
!” Lillith yelled at me.

The sound of feet hitting the cobblestones, mixed with loud yells, had me squeezing through the gap between the door and the frame. Once inside, I paused long enough to see that the hallways made a
T
with its stem stretching out directly in front of me. Since that was the obvious choice, I turned right, for all intents doubling back in the direction I’d come from.

Peri zipped by over my head and darted into a smaller side passage just as the yells of my pursuers were answered by others already inside. They seemed to come from all directions at once, and I slowed as I followed the dragon bird into the dimly lit corridor, trying to determine where the soldiers were located so I wouldn’t run straight into them.

“Lillith, which way?”

“I can’t see you anymore,” she wailed. “Try to find an empty room you can lock from the inside. Maybe you can hide and wait them out.”

Wonderful, just wonderful.

There were three doors along the hall and I tried each in turn. All were locked, and for a second I was tempted to try tearing one of them from its frame. Unfortunately, that would be a clear indication of where I was hiding.

The castle was like a maze, halls extending in every direction with no rhyme or reason. I chased Peri through three more turns, by now so disoriented I didn’t have a clue where I was. But I had to go to ground, and soon. The noise of the soldiers was getting closer, and it came from both behind and in front of me. Somehow, they had neatly boxed me in.

Only one more door lay between me and the next hallway, and I could hear the sound of many feet coming from just out of sight in the passage. Peri was hovering anxiously in front of the last door as though urging me through.

Taking a deep breath, I silently lunged the remaining few feet and tried the handle. Hallelujah! It opened.

Keeping one eye on the end of the hall, I slid through and held the door just wide enough for Peri to follow me inside. Gently, I eased it closed, ignoring Peri’s satisfied squeak while I looked for a lock.

There! A metal latch was positioned on a pivot in the center of the door. When swung down, it would fit perfectly into a corresponding notch on the frame.

I lowered it softly and then turned to face the room. And came to a shocked halt, my gaze locked on the naked man who was frozen in the act of stepping from a tub of bathwater.

Standing before me in all his unabridged glory, mouthwatering rivulets streaming down his bare, lusciously bronzed skin, was the one man I was supposed to avoid at all costs.

Reynard du’Marr, commander of the king’s guard.

I
pressed my back against the door, thinking faster than I’d ever thought before, while he reached for a drying cloth and wrapped it low around his hips. His piercing eyes never left me.

Peri, damn her feathered hide, had somehow led me right to him, and it was now up to me to salvage the situation.

“Please, sir,” I whispered, making sure my voice was low and quivering with terror. Which wasn’t much of a stretch in my current condition. “Can you help me? I’m new to your city and men are chasing me.”

A heavy fist hit the outside of the door, making me jump for real. Without a word, Reynard stepped forward, moved me aside, and lifted the latch to pull the door open. Its heavy panels shielded me from the man who waited on the other side and gave me a great view of Reynard’s heavily muscled bicep. I was so impressed I almost forgot to be scared.

“Commander, I’m sorry to disturb you. A Bashalde girl came this way and we’re searching the rooms for her. Have you seen her?”

“Commander?” Lillith’s voice screeched in my ear. “You promised!”

“Blame Peri,” I subvocalized. “She led me here. Now shut up so I can listen.”

“What has this girl done?” Reynard’s voice was rich and deep, with a tone that implied he was used to being obeyed without question.

“She downed Furgan, and when we discovered her leaning over his body, she fled through a damaged door into the castle.”

“Furgan is dead?”

A subtle menace filled the question, and I held my breath, fear working hot sticky fingers up my spine. The man had been alive when I’d checked. If he’d since died, I didn’t know what they’d do to me. Only one thing was clear. My mission would be over before it even started. I would have failed. That prospect sent such stark terror through me that I had to fight to keep from wilting into a puddle of quivering GEP at the commander’s feet.

“No, sir. He was regaining his wits by the time the healer arrived.”

A wave of relief washed over me. Not only wouldn’t I be executed for murder, I still had a chance to complete my job.

“I see.” There was a brief hesitation. “The girl is with me. Call off the search and remain outside my door while I question her. And send someone to convey my apologies to the king. Tell him I’ve been delayed.”

“Yes, sir.”

Reynard closed the door and turned to face me, his gaze running over my body before coming to rest on my face. “Your name, girl.”

I didn’t even think about lying. Besides, I had no clue what a typical name for a Bashalde girl would be. “Echo.”

He moved to the bed where clothing was laid out and dropped the drying cloth after making sure he was facing away from me. “Did you attack Furgan?”

It took an effort to think with my attention locked on his fine backside and my stomach doing gyrations worthy of a contortionist, but I managed. Briefly, I considered telling him the man was already unconscious when I’d come across him. But if Furgan were waking up, he’d contradict that story.

I forced my gaze to a spot over his shoulder so I could concentrate. “Yes, but not deliberately. I thought I was alone and he startled me. When I turned, I accidentally hit him. I’m not sure how I managed to knock him out.”

There was a splash from the direction of his bathing tub and I glanced over just in time to see Peri pop her head out and flip to float on her back, spread wings moving her in a lazy circle. A happy gurgle issued from her chest. Apparently her protective instincts went south when the choice was me or water.

Reynard was watching her, too, one dark brow arched as he did something to fasten the tight black pants he’d pulled on. “What manner of beast is this?”

Lillith whispered frantically in my ear, and I repeated what she was telling me. “Her name is Peri. I found her washed up, nearly dead, on a beach of the eastern sea when I was last in the area. I nursed her back to health and she’s been with me ever since.”

He reached for a silky white shirt and then held it while he studied me minutely, his face without expression. Nervous under those pale blue eyes, I shifted from foot to foot and brushed my damp palms against my skirt.

“What were you doing outside the castle?”

Again Lillith prompted me. “I was looking for an establishment called the Terpsichore. I’m to work for the owner, Marcus Kent. I was told it was near the castle, but not the exact location, and I saw no one about to ask directions of.”

Suddenly I was thankful everyone had been ordered
to stay inside tonight. Otherwise, my story wouldn’t have worked.

Slowly he pulled the shirt over his head and it slithered down his body, the hem hugging his slim hips. Abruptly, I forgot I was afraid. There should be a law against men like him wearing a shirt that clings to every ridge and muscle. Didn’t he know what it did to those of the female persuasion?

“You traveled without escort?” He put a black belt studded with blue stones the color of his eyes around his waist and buckled it.

“No!” Lillith yelled in my ear. “Remember, women on this planet don’t travel alone. He must be suspicious. Think fast and try to look sincere!”

I stopped blinking so my eyes would tear up, stepped forward, hands held out beseechingly, and improvised like crazy. “My father hired two men he mistakenly trusted to bring me here, but they left me near the mountains this morning with only the clothes on my back, and a skin of water to sustain me. Claiming to have business in another city, they pointed me in the right direction and then departed. I believe they were crooks, sir, only after my father’s coin. I could have been in danger from wild beasts, alone as I was.”

“You’re overacting,” Lillith told me. “Turn it down a couple of notches.”

Deliberately, I ignored her and let my bottom lip tremble.

To my surprise, one side of his mouth kicked up in a tiny smile, exposing one very dangerous dimple. Dangerous to my peace of mind, anyway. It was all I could do to keep from jumping him on the spot.

Especially when he crossed to me, stopping close enough that my skirt tangled against his legs. Putting a broad callused hand under my chin, he lifted my face to his gaze.
“You are a pretty one,” he murmured. Then his voice hardened. “Too pretty to be such a good liar.”

I let out a gasp of outrage and jerked away from him. “I’m not lying!” Okay, I was, but there was no way he could know it, not for sure.

Before I could blink twice, he had my skirt up and my knife in his hand, the tip pressed against my throat. “Helpless females such as you’re pretending to be do not carry such weapons,” he said. “Now, I’ll have the truth.”

Here’s the thing. I’d only completed intensive combat training a few days ago, and Alien Affairs instructors are very thorough. Because an agent’s life depends on it, they teach us to react to a threat first and think about it later. We’re drilled repeatedly, until our responses to danger are automatic. Plus, I had no practical experience to temper my reactions.

With no conscious decision on my part, my training took over and I was moving before he finished speaking. My left hand went over his arm and slammed it downward. The move shifted the knife from my throat and numbed his muscles so he loosened his grip. I caught the knife with my right hand and swung it up in an underhand arc.

The only thing that kept me from gutting him navel to breastbone was Lillith screeching in my ear and Peri slinging water everywhere as she dived at us.

Both Reynard and I stood frozen in place, staring down at the knife pressed to his stomach, him in surprise, me in horror. It’s one thing to theoretically practice killing a human during training. It’s another thing entirely to realize you’d almost done it for real, and involuntarily at that. Especially when the human in question was one I’d been lusting after not a second before.

A small sound escaped my throat and I dropped the knife like it had turned into a poisonous insect.

Reynard stooped, scooped it up, and offered it to me hilt first. “Nicely done, girl. Who taught you to fight?”

Hesitantly, I took the weapon, lifted my skirt and returned the knife to its sheath. Peri settled watchfully on my shoulder, her eyes tinged with red. The action gave me time to get my tongue working again. It also helped that Lillith was providing me with all the answers.

“My father. He was a weapons master. As his only child and a female, he made sure I could defend myself when he was no longer able to protect me.”

Moving to the one chair in the room, he sat and pulled on a pair of black knee-high boots. “He’s dead?”

“Yes. When he sickened, he made arrangements for me to come here after he was gone, to Marcus Kent. They were friends once. I left the day after my father’s burial.”

“What of your tribe? Was there no uncle or promised husband to take you in?”

“No.” I was afraid to move, to express any emotion at all, lest I give myself away again. “The Bashalde called my father
Gadjee
, so we lived alone for the most part. After my mother died, her people stopped coming, except for the two men my father occasionally hired to bring supplies. I have no other close relatives.”

He stood and went to the door, opening it to speak with the soldier waiting in the hall. “Send someone to find Marcus Kent. Tell him I need to see him immediately, and don’t mention the girl. Oh, and have someone bring food.”

Scritch. I should have realized he’d send for Kent. The man would literally be walking into a trap of my making. It was just one more thing that proved I didn’t belong in this job.

Before I could slump in defeat, Lillith whispered, “Don’t worry. I’ve been repeating everything you’ve said to Marcus and he’s been feeding me your cover story. He’s waiting
on the soldier sent to fetch him and knows exactly what to say.”

“You’ve talked to him? How?”

“He has an implant. The frequency was in the data Dr. Daniels gave me. And by the way, your father was named August. Marcus says the name will hold up if the commander decides to check it out.”

I barely caught a sigh of relief before it escaped, and then checked to make sure Reynard hadn’t noticed. He had picked up a comb and moved to stand in front of a mirror, but he was watching me in the reflection while he ran it through his hair.

Automatically, I reached for his drying cloth, folded it, and hung it on the rail at the foot of his bed, and then straightened the personal items lying on a table nearby for maximum efficiency. When that was done, I gathered the soiled clothing he’d discarded before his bath and folded them.

He was obviously dressing up for his meeting with the king. Would the people from the ship be there, too? I wanted to ask but didn’t dare. Instead I decided to take a roundabout approach and see if I could learn anything of interest.

I glanced at him over my shoulder. “I’m sorry I made you late for your meeting with the king. Will it cause you problems?”

He had given up all pretense of grooming and was still watching me in the mirror, a slight frown on his rugged face. It was only then I realized old habits had taken over and I’d been organizing his room. I forced my hands behind my back, locking my fingers together to keep them still, and faced him as he answered.

“No. The king expects his unmarried officers to join him for the evening meal once in an eightday, but my duty comes
before socializing. It won’t be the first time I’ve been delayed, and undoubtedly won’t be the last.”

“Oh. You’re dressed so finely I thought maybe tonight was a special occasion.”

He arched a dark brow and shifted to lean one shoulder against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. “We are always required to dress for the king’s meal.”

Before I could answer, there was a knock at the door and two women entered pushing wheeled carts. They were dressed in the drab, modest clothing the majority of Madrean women wore, and stared at me with open curiosity.

Silently they uncovered steaming dishes that filled the room with scents appetizing enough to make my mouth water. When they were done, the elder of the two turned to Reynard. “Will there be anything else, Commander?”

“Nothing. You may go.”

They dipped their heads and left, the soldier closing the door behind them. Once we were alone again, Reynard moved to the carts and filled a plate until it was heaping, then brought it to me, motioning me to sit on the sole chair.

He saw my surprise at such consideration and his mouth kicked up again. “You said you’d walked all day with only water to sustain you. I’d rather you didn’t pass out from hunger before Marcus arrives.”

“Thank you.” I took the food and dug in like I hadn’t eaten in a week, while Peri examined the carts and then lost interest in favor of drying her feathers on the arm of the chair. Even taking into consideration how long it had been since I’d filled my stomach, I was extraordinarily starved. If my brief foray into overdrive had caused this, I’d be wise to only use it in the direst of emergencies. After all, it wouldn’t do to drop dead from starvation in the midst of a crisis.

Suddenly I was feeling a lot more sympathetic toward
Kiera Smith. Maybe she’d had a reason to angst after all. Being a Gertz GEP was turning out to be a bit more complicated than I’d expected.

I was swallowing the last bite of roasted fowl when there was another knock on the door. This time the soldier ushered in a slim man of average height, a bit beyond middle age. His pale blond hair, pulled back into a neat queue, was liberally streaked with white, and his deeply tanned face was creased from spending time outdoors. Dark brown eyes that mirrored fatherly concern swung from the commander to me. Then he opened his arms.

“Echo, sweetheart.”

“It’s Marcus,” Lillith told me.

Promptly, I leaped to my feet and launched myself at him, the now empty plate clattering to the floor. His arms closed around me, and he rocked us gently from side to side. And I felt strangely comforted, as though I’d finally found safe shelter when the rest of my world had turned into a swirling mass of confusion.

“I was so sorry to hear about August,” he said, just loud enough for his voice to carry to Reynard. “He was a good man. I’ll miss him.”