elemental 08 - elements of war (2 page)

By the time she had made the coffee, pouring it into four cups and adding cream and sugar to each person’s taste, Aira’s sense of anger began to fade. She was still irritated at her brother-in-law, but as minutes passed, Dylan’s admission of how he had been thinking when he had gone to Leigh the night before began to filter through her brain, past the rage of betrayal that had consumed her. She had to admit that she could understand Dylan’s loneliness—she had been worried about him before she and Aiden had even started to plan their wedding. Dylan would be vulnerable to the charms of someone who could understand; he was just as vulnerable as she had been when she had first met Alex. The fact that he had had the first power surge that would presage his final stage of development into a full elemental would also play a factor. Leigh was, Aira knew, newly come into her own abilities—just as Aira had only reached her full inheritance a little more than a year before. 

“Okay,” she said, sitting down and taking a long sip of her coffee. “We are going to do this the easy way unless one of you decides to start acting like an idiot.” She glanced from Leigh to Dylan. 

“We’re not going to interrogate Leigh?” Aiden asked her. 

Aira shrugged. “Not unless we have to. Aiden, Dylan’s partially bonded with her. I don’t exactly
like
that fact, but it’s not as though I can ignore it; pain to Leigh would be pain to Dylan.” 

“They aren’t fully bonded,” Aiden pointed out, glancing at his brother with an emotion that Aira readily saw as a mixture of resentment and anger. “Besides, if Dylan thinks it’s such a great idea to take up with someone spying on us…”

“Aiden, kindly shut up for a second and let me handle this; it’s my life at stake here.”

“It’s mine too!” he turned his scowl onto her. “How exactly do you think things are going to go down for me if they kill you? At best—the absolute best-case scenario—I lose my mate. How would you feel losing me? And if they’re going to kill you they’ll have to kill me too.” 

Aira sighed and set her coffee cup down. She closed her eyes for a moment. “Aiden. Which one of us has the ability to force someone to talk? Is it you or is it me?” She opened her eyes to meet Aiden’s gaze levelly.

“You,” Aiden said begrudgingly. 

“So for right now we’re going to give Dylan the benefit of the doubt and assume he doesn’t want to get us all killed.”

“That’s convenient, because I don’t,” Dylan said, smiling weakly. “Guys, if I didn’t trust Leigh you know that I would never have come out here, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have slept with her.”

“It’s not that I don’t think you trust her,” Aira said, picking up her coffee once more and taking another long sip. “It’s that I seriously question your ability to be objective right now. You said it yourself; you’re lonely, you’re coming into your full powers, you’re just as vulnerable as I was when I met Alex.” 

Dylan chewed his bottom lip and looked at Leigh, frowning slightly.

“But Alex didn’t tell you outright that he had a… conflict of interest,” he pointed out. “Leigh told me from the beginning that she was a spy.”

“Which makes you a stupid idiot for screwing around with her,” Aiden grumbled. 

“The same kind of stupid idiot who gets all heated up over a sexy air elemental who suspiciously shows up when her cousin wants to date Aira?”

“It’s not the same thing!” Aiden said. Aira sighed once more. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Dylan, you are going to explain to me why you think Leigh is trustworthy, and then we’re going to find out what Leigh is doing in this whole mess.” She glanced at the earth elemental. “You’d better already know that there’s no way you can actually keep anything from me and Aiden, even if you managed to fool Dylan.”

“She didn’t fool me!” Dylan protested. “She was honest from the beginning! She didn’t even want to be with me at first. She wanted me to wait until after everything had settled down…”

“That doesn’t exactly paint her in the most innocent light,” Aira pointed out. 

Dylan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

“The reason I think she is trustworthy is because she’s never—yet—hidden anything about her involvement. Not really. She told me about her cousins, she told me about the fact that she was a spy, and hell; she was imprisoned by them! Why would they lock her up like they did if she was on their side?” Aira shrugged. “Maybe she backed out. Maybe she has different goals. I can’t say for sure right now.”

“But she’s never lied to me about anything.”

“You’ve known her what—a week? Two?” Aira realized with a shock that she’d only been married for that long; the wedding and reception seemed a million years ago, not less than a month in the past. It hadn’t been quite two weeks since the tragedy. 

“It’s not about how long I’ve known her,” Dylan said firmly. “All three of us know that you—you and Aiden knew how things were between you long before you actually got over yourselves and got together.”

“This isn’t about Aira and me,” Aiden said. 

“He’s right. So you trust her because she hasn’t lied to you—yet.” Aira took another deep breath. “Dylan, go sit over there in the other chair.” Aira gestured to the armchair next to Aiden, several feet away from the couch where he and Leigh sat together. 

“Aira…” Dylan looked at her and then at Leigh, pressing his lips together in concern.

“Dylan, go sit in the other chair. I don’t need you to get between Leigh and me. For right now at least I have no intention of hurting her.” Aira saw Leigh reach out and touch Dylan’s arm, giving him a gentle push.

“I need to talk anyway, Dylan,” Leigh said quietly. 

CHAPTER TWO

DYLAN CRADLED HIS COFFEE CUP in his hands, not quite willing to look at Aira or Leigh as he settled in the chair to which Aira had dismissed him. He glanced at his older brother; Aiden was still looking irritated, angry even. Dylan knew that to some degree he had lost his brother’s trust—and he could even understand why. From the perspective of Aiden and Aira, Leigh was dangerous indeed. But in spite of the short time he had known her, Dylan trusted Leigh. Aira’s quip about how short it had been still bounced around in Dylan’s mind; could he be losing his discernment? He knew that Aiden and Aira had very good powers of insight—and yet they had lost their ability to see through falsehoods with Dolores and Alex. 

“I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me what you want me to know,” Aira said. Dylan looked at the woman he loved and his new sister-in-law. From his long association with Aira, he could feel her energy; she wasn’t pushing the persuasive ability she had—she was being as upfront and as non-confrontational as she could. “But if I decide that what you want me to know is not as much as I need to know, I’m going to have to use other means.” 

Leigh nodded. “I understand, Regina Sylphaea. I told Dylan last night that I wanted to tell you all a great deal.” Aira spread her hands wide and sat back in her seat. “Then hopefully everything will match up the way it should.” Leigh nodded slowly, taking a deep breath before she spoke. “When it was announced that you took Aiden as a mate—as part of the conditions to become ruler of air, my family became concerned.” Leigh glanced from Aiden to Aira, and Dylan forced himself to stay silent, in spite of his worry for what she may have to reveal to them. “I’m sure you can understand—you were both highly unstable and very powerful.” 

Aira smiled slightly and Dylan felt a rush of reassurance at his sister-in-law’s amusement. “Every single earth elemental I have ever met who hasn’t wanted to either marry me or kill me is deeply concerned about how volatile I am.”

 Leigh smiled weakly. “I was aware—at least somewhat—that some of my cousins were … less than pleased that you were allowed to take over the rule of your element. They wanted a less powerful ruler of air, someone who could be under Maralah’s control, who didn’t have the ability to change the balance of power.” Leigh shrugged. “We’ve done well as a group, since Maralah took over the rule of the element.”

“Expanded influence, a more conservative lean in the council, more unstable elementals … executed. At least air elementals.” Aira concluded.

Leigh nodded again, “When my parents maneuvered my invitation to your wedding reception, they asked me to report back to them on the strength of your bond—whether you had managed to attain some measure of stability. Some other members of my family were interested in finding weaknesses.” Leigh bit her bottom lip and Dylan remembered the feeling of her teeth grazing his skin the night before; a shiver worked through his spine. “If it makes you feel better, I told them …” she glanced at Dylan, “That I had it on good authority, and that I agreed, that there was no way to take you down while you were bonded to Aiden.”

“You’re damn right about that,” Aiden said. Dylan could feel the heat between his brother and his sister-in-law.

“I think they had been planning on attacking your hotel the night of your wedding, but they changed plans. I didn’t know exactly what they had in mind, or I would have warned Dylan. I knew that there was something—that they were planning some kind of attack, but I didn’t know when or where.” Leigh took a deep breath and exhaled. “When the call went out that they’d succeeded, I contacted the elders, to tell them who I’d known was involved. Before I could get through to someone with authority, my cousins grabbed me.”

“Why would they have grabbed you if you weren’t involved?” Dylan could feel Aira’s energy beginning to increase. The wind picked up outside of the apartment. 

“Because I knew that it was them,” Leigh said. “They had come to my parents a few weeks before the wedding for resources. My parents refused any help that could be traced back to them, but they didn’t exactly refuse any help at all.”

“And once you were abducted?” Aira raised an eyebrow.

“My parents were in no hurry to bring any power to bear to get me free. As long as I wasn’t directly harmed, they said, they had little concern. I think they were displeased with the report I had given them. And the fact that I told them I would not take any direct action against the two of you.”

“So then, your parents are involved in this conspiracy as well?” Aira glanced at Aiden, and the look they exchanged added to Dylan’s growing sense of dread.

“Not exactly,” Leigh sighed. “They’re … they have alliances among other earth elementals, and a few fire elementals as well. They aren’t directly involved. While they aren’t interested in overthrowing you themselves, they won’t move against the people willing to do it.”

“Right. Right.” Aira ran her fingers through her hair. “What else do you know?” Leigh picked at something on the jeans she was wearing. Dylan could sense her uncertainty, the anxiety she felt.

“I heard some of what was discussed in Nevada. Not all of it—they didn’t exactly trust me—but I overheard.” Leigh took a sip of her coffee. “There will be more attacks. They are determined to target air elementals to draw you out. They want to either force you to abdicate, depose you, or kill you.” 

“Sounds about par for the course,” Aira said drily. 

“I don’t know the exact moves that they’re planning to make. But I want to work with you. I have some contacts among the earth elementals who are not … they don’t like you. But they accept that you have the rule of the element, they accept that you and Aiden are bonded. That there’s nothing they can do about it now.” Leigh swallowed. “I can get you more information. As long as they stay neutral—and most of them will—they may be able to tell us more. Through me.” Aira pressed her lips together. Dylan closed his eyes. There had to be more—but Leigh would need time. 

“Give me a good reason why I should trust you,” Aira said flatly. “I appreciate how forthcoming you’ve been, but spying on me at my wedding doesn’t exactly start you off on the right foot.”

Leigh looked at Dylan and smiled faintly. “If I were just here to spy and subvert you,” she said slowly, turning to look at Aira. “Would I have bonded with Dylan?” 

“Maybe you’re not that great of a spy,” Aiden suggested, his voice dry. “The earth elementals don’t tend to be. And besides, you’re only partially bonded. You haven’t made the full bond, you’re not mates.” 

Leigh blushed. “Not for lack of trying,” she said in a low voice. “I specifically warned Dylan off when we met because I’m newly come to my elemental inheritance, and I … you know how much easier it is to bond when you’re flush with power.” Dylan saw Aira’s rueful smile and knew that his sister-in-law was too honest with herself not to admit that aspect. “But things have changed.”

“You were abducted,” Aira said. 

“That’s part of it. Another part is my parents’ refusal to help me. I had made up my mind before I was abducted … most of the way, anyhow.” 

“What can you offer us? We can get intelligence from fire and air and water elementals.” 

Leigh leaned forward. “I can offer you some shielding from their attacks. I can give you names, I can tell you weaknesses. I can help you track them. I know the kinds of magic the people in charge are using. How they’re covering their tracks.”

“Oh god, she’s a nerd like Dylan,” Aira said, smiling slightly.