Fever 4 - DreamFever (25 page)

  I inhaled his scent. He was near, a few feet away. Lust nearly buckled my knees. He
was a tireless lover. There was nothing off-limits with him.

  "Ms. Lane."

  I fisted my hands in my pockets and opened my eyes. He stood across the counter,
eyes dark, features impassive.

  "Barrons."

  "It's a Hummer."

  "Alpha?" I said hopefully.

  His obsidian gaze mocked. Would I waste my time with anything less?

  "Dani's moving in," I told him.

  "Dani's going back to the abbey."

  "Then I am, too."

  "I hear you're not welcome there."

  "I will be soon. I have plans. And I need her."

  "You need me," he said flatly. "I thought you'd have figured that out by now."

  I had. I kept getting knocked down. And I kept getting back up again, a little stronger
each time. But I still wasn't strong enough. One day I would be. Until then, Barrons was

the only one that scared all my enemies away. If IYD really would have worked on
Halloween, he definitely guaranteed me the highest odds of survival. I was done
hopping from swell to swell, trying to avoid the tidals. Right or wrong, good or bad, I'd
chosen: Barrons was my wave. But there was no way I was living alone with him. I
needed a buffer, and my buffer needed a place to live, too.

  "What's wrong with Dani staying here?"

  "She's in more danger at your side."

  "I don't think she'll go. She has a mind of her own."

  "Then figure out how to convince her it's best for both of you."

  "It might take a few days." According to the LM, I had only three, anyway. "Give me
that much, at least." Once she was here, I'd work on keeping her here. And put her to
work with her super -hearing and other senses at figuring out what was under his garage
and how to get us down there. He might be my wave, but he wasn't my surfboard.
Knowledge and usefulness were all that stood between me and the riptide.

   He studied me for a moment, then nodded tightly. "Forty-eight hours. Keep the kid
under control and out of my way. And there are new rules. One: Stay away from
Chester's. That means a ten-block radius. Two: You share all pertinent information with
me without my having to ask. Three: Keep the kid away from my garage. Four: If you
try to force yourself into my head, I will force myself into your pants."

  "Oh! That's total bullshit!"

  "Tit for tat." His gaze dropped to my breasts, and I had a sudden, much-too-detailed
memory of yanking my shirt up while he'd watched them pop out, jiggling. "Or would
that be tit for tit?"

  "There's no need to be rude."

  "I can think of endless needs to be rude."

  "Keep them to yourself."

  "Such a different tune you whistle now."

  "You sound angry, Barrons. Frustrated. What's wrong? You get a little addicted to
me?"

  His lips drew back, baring his teeth. I'd felt them on my nipples. I could almost feel
them there now.

  "We fucked, Ms. Lane. Even cockroaches fuck. They eat each other, too."

  "Same page, Barrons."

  "Same bloody word," he agreed.

  Oh, yes, here we were, working together again. All was well--or at least back to
normal--at Barrons Books and Baubles.

"I really get to live at Barrons'? With, like, Barrons?" Dani exclaimed, bounding from
foot to foot backward as we walked through Temple Bar. We were on our way to
intercept the sidhe-seers. Dani had learned that a group of several dozen, led by Kat,
was coming into the city tonight, to scout it out.

  "No," I said dryly, "with, like, the LM and his minions." "I'm living with Barrons!
Holy fecking shit! Way cool!"

  "Doesn't it bother you that we have no idea what he is or whether he's good or bad?"

  "Nope. Not a bit." Her eyes sparkled.

  I snorted. She was completely serious. I wished I could be so uncomplicated. But I
couldn't. Right and wrong, good and bad mattered to me. Blame it on my parents. They
endowed me with a massively inconvenient sense of ethics.

  "We're almost there, Mac. I hear `em dead ahead." She cocked her head, then her
eyes widened. "Aw, Ro's gonna be wicked pissed! She told `em not to fight, no matter
what! Just to suss out what's goin' down and how many are where. We gotta hurry,
Mac. It don't sound like it's goin' good!"

  I didn't have time to brace myself for the rough ride. Her hand was on my arm, and
we were gone.

Dani slammed us to a stop, directly in the middle of the fight. It was huge, messy, and
filled the street from one end of the block to the next. Dani loves the action.
Unfortunately, she forgets that the rest of us aren't as fast as she is. She arrived with her
sword drawn, perfectly at ease moving in hyperspeed mode, but it took me a moment to
fumble my spear from my shoulder holster. In that moment, I got slammed in the back
of my head so hard that I saw stars, and brackets from my MacHalo went flying in three
different directions. Snarling, I spun around and drove my spear into an Unseelie's ...
head, I think. It had three roundish things on its shoulders with dozens of slits that
spewed icy, stinging liquid as it fell.

   Then the fight became a blur of motion, of spinning, kicking, Nulling, and stabbing. I
glimpsed Kat's wide eyes, her terrified face. I had no doubt this was her first fight and it
had come out of the blue.

  Between Unseelie, I caught glimpses of other sidhe-seers. They were trying
desperately to hold their own. Most of the time, the gifts inside us are dormant, but the
presence of Fae and especially of engaging in battle slams them awake. I could see they
were in that special sidhe-seer state--stronger, faster, tougher, more resilient--but it
wasn't enough. There was too much fear in their eyes.

  Fear translates to hesitation, and hesitation kills.

   If you've ever been behind someone on an on-ramp who's trying to merge onto a
highway but is scared to do it, going too slow, stopping and starting, and growing more
uncertain by the minute, you know what I mean. There you are, hemmed in by traffic,
trapped behind rampant indecision, and you know that if they don't get their act
together and merge, you're going to end up getting hit.

   That's how the sidhe-seers were fighting. I cursed Rowena for not training them
better, for sheltering them so completely that their gifts were a hazard to their own
health and mine. Dani and I moved together, back to back, slicing and stabbing our way
through the mob of Unseelie.

   "Help me!" I heard Kat scream. I glanced wildly toward the sound. She was trapped
between two large winged things with sharp talons and teeth that looked horrifyingly
like raptors.

  I assessed, I acted.

  Later, I would puzzle over my decision. Wonder what temporary insanity had
possessed me. But I knew they couldn't touch it and she could, and I knew she was dead
otherwise, and nobody was dying on my watch if I had anything to say about it.

  "Kat!" I yelled. When she looked, I drew back my arm, tossed my spear at her, and
watched it go flying, end over end.

   Her eyes widened in astonishment. She lunged into the air, snagged the spear, landed
lightly on the balls of her feet, and took them both out in one smooth ricochet of motion,
left to right.

  It was beautiful. If I'd had a remote, I'd have hit replay a dozen times.

  And there I stood, without a weapon.

   Then I had a leathery appendage in my face that probably should have broken my
nose but didn't, and I was under attack and lost sight of Kat and my spear. I slammed
my palms into my attacker, Nulling it. While it stood, frozen, I retreated into my mind,
into that special sidhe-seer place. Without my spear, I was in deep shit and I needed
more power.

  Abruptly, the street faded and I was inside my own head, staring down into a huge
black pool. Was this the source of what made a sidhe-seer, this vast obsidian lake? I'd
never seen it before when I'd gone poking around. Was I so much stronger now that I
could see more clearly, probe more deeply?

  Power radiated from its dark depths, crackled in the air of the cave in which I stood. I
could feel something in the water, waiting in the darkness.

  What lay concealed beneath the surface knew everything, could do everything, feared
nothing. It was waiting for me. To call it forth. To use it as my birthright.

  But doubt as vast as the thing's watery habitat immobilized me.

  What if whatever I summoned from those ancient depths wasn't a part of me at all
but something else entirely?

  If it was me, I could use it.

  But if by some bizarre twist of events--and no events were too bizarre to consider in
my day-to-day existence--there was something down there that wasn't me, it could use
me.

  I didn't trust myself. No, I didn't trust that sidhe-seer place.

  Why would I? I hadn't even known it existed until a few months ago. Until I knew
more about what it was and wasn't, I wasn't calling forth any unknowns. My current
skills would have to suffice.

   I shook my head sharply and I was in the street again, with a raptor thing about to
take a bite out of me.

  I ducked.

  Its head flew to the side and its body slid to the cobbled stone, leaving Dani standing
where it had been, grinning at me. "Pull your head outta your arse, Mac."

  We moved into pattern: I Nulled, she killed.

   I don't know how long I fought without my spear. But it was long enough to give me
a taste of what I was asking of my sisters-in-arms. I cursed Rowena for sending them
into Dublin without guns, without iron bullets. I would never let them be such walking
targets.

  I kept looking for Kat but couldn't find her in the mess. Without my spear, I felt
naked, exposed. I felt wrong.

  I slammed my palms into a tall, beetle-bodied Unseelie with a thick, many-plated
carapace. It didn't freeze. I drew back my fist, and suddenly there was another hand
around mine, and when I drove it forward, Kat and I sunk the spear in its armorlike hide
together.

  As it crashed to the pavement, I glanced over my shoulder.

  Kat smiled, nodded, and let go of the spear, leaving it in my hand. Then she turned
her back to mine and moved into pattern with me, as I had with Dani.

  Although she wasn't a Null, she had a wicked uppercut, and we made a great team.
Dani paired off with another sidhe-seer, and the battle raged on.

Later, we sat on curbs, leaned against buildings, and sprawled on the sidewalks, dirty,
splattered with disgusting variations of Unseelie blood, exhilarated, and exhausted.

  "What happened?" I asked Kat. "How did you get stuck in the middle of so many of
them?"

   She flushed. "We've grown accustomed to having Dani with us, we have. She hears
what we can't. I think they must have begun following us the moment we entered the
city, drawn by our hats"--she tapped her MacHalo--"or perhaps the noise of the bus.
They gathered more as we went, biding time, looking for a tight spot to close in. If you
hadn't happened along ... well. It's glad we are that you did."

  I assessed the carnage. There were several hundred Unseelie dead in the street. "We
did good. With guns and a plan, we could do better."

  Kat nodded. "May we speak plainly?"

  I inclined my head.

  "Your differences with the Grand Mistress hurt us all."

  "Then she should wise up and see reason."

   "Her differences with you hurt us, too," Kat said pointedly. "War is no time for a
coup. Continue fighting each other and you'll end up destroying the kingdom you're
after ruling."

  There was a chorus of murmured assents in the street.

  "I'm not trying to rule. I'm just trying to help."

   "You're both trying to rule. And we're telling you both to stop. We've been talking
since you and Dani left. We want you back. We don't care if you keep the weapons. But
we're not willing to trade Rowena's guidance for yours. We want you both. If you agree
to team up, we'll help you in whatever way we can and make Rowena accept it, too.
The way we see it, neither you nor Rowena can force us to accept either one of you. But
we're willing to bet we can force you two to work together for the greater good. That is
what you both say you're after, isn't it?"

  "I'm not living at the abbey, Mac!" Dani bounded to her feet. "You said I could live
with Barrons."

   I looked from Dani to Kat, considering her words. She'd made a point, and I was
feeling a little ashamed of myself. I had made it personal with Rowena. I'd tried to
divide and conquer, and now was not the time to be dividing loyalties over anything.
We had enough problems as it was.

  My whole goal in sending Dani to the abbey today was to find out when the sidhe-
seers were coming in, so I could take them into battle, pump them up on victory, and
regain a foothold in the abbey. Kat was offering it to me, hand outstretched. Five

hundred sidhe-seers could force Rowena to cooperate with me, and all I'd have to do
was bite my tongue a lot.

      "I'm convinced, Kat. Convince Rowena."

      "But you said," Dani exploded.

   I sighed. I wanted my buffer. But Barrons had a point, too. It wasn't just about me. "I
need you where you're safest, Dani. After the Unseelie Princes took you today, I'm
afraid that's not with me."

 Sidhe-seers gasped. "You were taken by the Unseelie Princes, Dani? What? How?
Where did they take you? What happened?"

      Suddenly Dani was the center of attention. Preening, she began to tell them all about
it.

  I watched the show--Dani knew how to dazzle and loved doing it--smiling faintly,
feeling sad.

      I wasn't ready to give her up.

  Or face the rest of the night alone with Barrons. I'd rather fight another blockful of
Unseelie.

  I looked at Kat. "We'll meet you at the abbey in the morning. If the old woman
behaves, so will I. You have my word."