Deceiver's Bond: Book Two of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (21 page)

“They were given to the first elders, years ago. They’re closely guarded, but just before we broke away, I managed to smuggle one out.”

I fixed him with a stare. “One? Then there are more?”

“Six when I last checked. There may be more in other vaults. I don’t know.”

“We need to get another as soon as possible. And set up another meeting.” I narrowed my eyes at Daniel’s reluctant stance. “We’re getting Vince back. And don’t even
think
about saying no to me.”

Kieran snorted. His coloring had definitely improved. In fact, his complexion was back to being almost luminous. He eyed me, one arm draped over the back of the couch.

I clasped the talisman possessively and glared down at him. “You have something to add?”

“Your determination is … admirable, although misguided. Even if you somehow managed to cross over, which is impossible without an escort, your half-breed friend will not wish to return.” He almost looked sorry, but the expression was so fleeting I might have imagined it.

“You’re wrong. Earth is his home,” I said, pointing at the floor. “His family is here, his job. These are important things to him. He won’t willingly abandon them.”
Or me
, I added in my head.

“His feelings are immaterial. They will bond. His sidhe blood will hold sway. It is the way of things.”

“Bond? What the hell does that mean?” I remembered him using the same term in regard to my ‘demon lover,’ so I knew it couldn’t be good. I almost gasped. “You mean brainwashing.”

His brows knit together. “I am not familiar with this particular human idiom.” He waved a hand, trivializing his lack of knowledge. “There is no human equivalent. You humans commit to your unions with words rather than magic,” he scoffed, “but the sidhe are a magical race. When our mate is found, we bind ourselves through magic, through what humans think of as souls.”

“Wait just a minute. You’re saying Maeve thinks Vince is her soul mate? She takes one look at him and that’s all there is to it?” I gaped at him before pointing out the obvious, “They’re complete strangers.”

He shrugged. “This is not so unusual. Even humans are known to exercise such a convenience. Many of your cultures practice something called ‘arranged marriage,’ do they not? Or, is this a thing of the past?”

My mouth tried to work, but nothing came out. Finally, I uttered, “But why? Why does she want him? You called him a half-breed, like it’s something despicable. Why would she choose to bind herself to him?”

“She believes it to be her duty.”

I’d never considered myself a violent person, but recent events had me questioning that belief. I closed my eyes, grappling with my irresistible impulse to rake my pathetically short fingernails across his arrogant face. I swayed and Michael made to grab my elbow to keep me from stumbling, but I sidled away before he could touch me.

“I don’t care what you say. I won’t abandon him. He’d do the same for me. I won’t rest until he’s back home.”

Kieran didn’t need to reply. The mixture of superiority and pity playing on his face said enough.

I preferred seeing him angry. “I just don’t get you. If we establish another gateway, you can go back home. Isn’t that what you want?”

He stood, pulling himself up to his full height. “Even if you succeed in establishing a gateway, it will not matter. Your half-breed lover is lost and, thanks to you, so am I.”

“Thanks to me? And what horrible injustice have I inflicted upon you, may I ask?”

“If not for your churlish actions, I would not be stuck here with an impossible duty.”

“Churlish—! You mean fighting you? You mean
those
churlish actions?”

“Yes,” he snarled. “If you had succumbed, like any normal human, I would be back home and you would be—” His mouth snapped shut. Whether he stopped himself before saying something tactless or blurting out a secret, I couldn’t tell.

“I’d be what?” I narrowed my eyes, searching his face. “Not pregnant, that’s for sure. We already covered that.”

He stared at me, lips curled in distaste.

Impossible duty, huh? That was something, at least. The thought of getting me pregnant disgusted him. That made us even.

“Do you want to go back home or not?” I snapped.

The muscles of his jaw twitched. With a piercing stare, he growled, “Yes.”

“Then why are you arguing? You’ve already made it perfectly clear what you think of me. I’m the scum of the earth, a thorn in your side. You’d rather die than have duty-driven sex with me. I get it, okay? Help us get one of those eggs and set up a meeting, and you won’t have to endure my company any longer than necessary.”

He continued to stare at me, obviously working over his options, before casting his grim gaze toward Michael and Daniel. After some length, he gave me a stiff-jawed nod.

I let out the breath I’d been holding. “Okay, Daniel. What about it? How soon can you get one of these?”

“Lire …” He shook his head. “You don’t understand. It’s not that easy.”

“I don’t care whether it’s easy or not, and I don’t want to hear excuses.” I jabbed my index finger at him. “You got Vince into this mess. Now, you need to help get him out.”

Daniel tensed up, but before he could respond, Michael interrupted. “You have no idea what you’re asking.”

He was right. In spite of our shared reading, I didn’t know any details about where he’d been living for the past ten years. My eyes widened at the realization. “You hid it from me.”

I wondered what else he’d managed to conceal. Had he showed me his illicit feelings in order to distract me from something else?

My instincts said he was a good guy. Based on my reading, I knew he cared about me, but now I wasn’t sure how much of that I could trust.

“For your safety,” Michael said, but the tenderness in his voice didn’t mollify me.

If I heard that lame excuse more time …  “Right. Because I’m so effing pathetic I can’t even take care of myself.”

“No,” he said, his eyes intent. “I know you, Lire. You have a tendency to act without considering the danger, especially when you’re trying to help someone you care about. If Daniel or I are ever turned, I don’t want you launching a misguided rescue mission.”

“There is no getting in undetected,” Daniel said impatiently. “The building is occupied by at least twenty-five telepaths. They live there. It’s their stronghold.” He shook his head. “Look, Vince is a great guy and I know you care about him, but I won’t risk getting turned into a mindless husk, or risk any of my people, just to get him back.” He gave me a direct look. “Maeve isn’t going to kill him.”

I clenched my fists. “No, she only kidnapped him and plans to seduce him in order to have his baby.”

He raised his eyebrows as if to say:
Seriously? Didn’t you get a look at her? Do you think he’s going to mind that much?

I didn’t know what to do with myself. Part of me wanted to slap him for having the gall to imply such a thing, even with just a facial expression. The rest of me alternated between wanting to burst into tears or storm out of the room. But I didn’t do anything that dramatic.

“So, what are you saying? I forget about him? Just move on with my life as though he never existed?”

“No. Midsummer is just over three months away,” Daniel replied. “I’ll send a message through our contact and negotiate for his release and Kieran’s return. We’ll get him back.”

When I slid my gaze to Kieran, he regarded me impassively. If I could only get into his head and know what he was thinking. I was so tired of being clueless.

“I know you want to get home. Do you have any suggestions? Anything I can do to help you? And to help get Vince back?” I tried to keep my voice matter-of-fact, but even to my own ears, I sounded desperate.

At least he had the decency to consider my question. He studied me for several seconds before  saying, “There is nothing you can do. Not without a gateway.”

He might have been regretful, but I didn’t consider his face long enough to know for sure. Forcing back the despair that chomped at my gut, I gave him a stiff nod and turned my back on the three of them. I couldn’t deal with the situation any longer. I needed the refuge of my apartment.

I walked away, feeling just as empty and hollow as the magic egg I clutched between my fingers.

I must have stumbled into my apartment in a stupor. I came to my senses with Red stroking my arm, on my knees in the middle of my living room.

My eyes burned as though I hadn’t blinked in several minutes. I took a shuddering breath, my lungs heavy and my breathing burdened by a loss I couldn’t quite fathom.

This can’t be happening.

“Please talk to me. Tell me what has affected you so.”

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to talk about it. Words had power and, in this case, I didn’t want them to be true. I didn’t want to admit Vince was gone and, because I’d forced Maeve into a corner, I’d been responsible. If I hadn’t fought them, if I’d just stayed in my goddamned stupor, she might have just fucked him and then left him behind, none of us the wiser. But no. I had to go off half-cocked. As usual. This whole clusterfuck … it was all on me.

I covered my face and wished I could zone out again. I longed to be insensible, cocooned in that emotionless trance for the next three months—until the time came to get Vince back.

Red’s soft paws scrabbled against my bent knees as he climbed onto my lap. He tugged on my right elbow. “You can tell me anything. You know that. No matter what happens or has happened. I will always be here for you.”

I thought of his parting comment and it pushed me over the edge. “Oh, Red. I didn’t make you proud. Vince has been taken away and it’s all my fault.”

I didn’t bother masking my grief. For several minutes, Red stroked my arm and murmured comforting words at my elbow.

“My dearest, you could never disappoint me. And I find it impossible to believe you have deliberately caused harm to befall Vince. Dry your eyes and tell me what has happened.”

I lowered my hands to peer at him, unable to make out the details of his face through the blur of my tears.

He pressed his paw against my arm. “Come now. Get up. Take us to the couch where we can talk.”

I levitated him to my shoulder and did as he asked. When I sat down, he took up his usual spot on the back cushion.

“I assume you met with this sidhe representative. What was her name?”

I ripped a Kleenex from the box next to the couch. “Maeve,” I replied, swiping at my eyes, “and her henchman Kieran.”

“Ah. By your demeanor, I can assume these were not the sidhe of Tolkien’s accounting?”

“Hardly.” I blew my nose. “They were both as beautiful though. No pointed ears—at least Kieran doesn’t—so he’s not from that family. And they sure as hell weren’t cordial, like the ones Tolkien supposedly met. They treated us like talking gorillas.”

“Interesting. And Vince was equally mistreated?”

“Yes and no.” I wadded my Kleenex and squeezed it into a ball. “If Daniel, Michael, and I were English-speaking primates, then Vince was their distantly related hillbilly cousin.”

Red folded his arms. Stuffed as he was, his right paw barely overlapped his left. “Tell me everything. From the moment you left this apartment.”

It took some time, but I eventually forced it all out.

Red paced along the back of the couch. “The fact that Kieran remains here tells me destroying the talisman would have stranded them both. Maeve must have elected to use some kind of escape spell, which not only destroyed the circle but also required those crossing back to be in direct contact with her. Likely, she abandoned her companion because she had no other choice.”

“Told you it was my fault.”

He dismissed my statement with a grunt. “If you had not acted, I believe you would have been taken as well. Or possibly hurt. It is pointless to blame yourself.”

“You should have seen the look on Vince’s face.” My voice came out, scarcely more than a whisper.

“No doubt you were equally besotted before Paimon awakened you. Do not torture yourself. You did your best to save him. Remember, you have something of value. You have Kieran. And you have more power than they can imagine. You have navigated the Between. If anyone can bring Vince home, it is you.”

I gave him a doubtful nod.

He gestured toward the coffee table where I had placed the talisman. “Now, let me examine that object.”

I retrieved the egg and held it in the center of my left palm for Red. He spun it around before picking it up in both arms. It was at least as tall as his torso. He rubbed his paw over the surface. “Fascinating. If I am not mistaken, it is similar to a phylactery, although instead of imprisoning an object or spirit, it is enchanted with the essence of a particular location.”

“I guess that makes sense. Once Daniel activated it, there was that strange scent in the air and distant impression of another place. But Kieran’s right. The magic, or whatever was inside, has been depleted.”

“Perhaps. But I believe it is worth holding in reserve. True, the magic has been consumed, but I sense something more. It may yet have a role to play.”