Heads or Tails (27 page)

Ivyanne!
Ardhi was desperately trying to computer the man’s words in his head-it was like someone had just given him half the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but he’d only seen half of the picture on the box.
He’s talking about
Ivyanne! He knows where she lives only he thinks it’s a dream!

Ardhi wet his lips. ‘Can I buy you another jug?’ He finally asked. ‘This sounds like the kind of story I’d like to hear the end of. In fact, we have a whole carton back at our place if you’d like to come with.’

Dallas grinned. ‘For free beer? Hell mate I’ll share all my stories with yah!’

Ardhi smiled. He didn’t want a story. Just an address.

*

After Ivyanne had finished washing the dishes, she reached out her palm and stared at the telephone. It flew off the cradle and slapped into her palm. She hit then hit one on the speed dial, glanced outside to make sure Tristan was still down on the dock and well out of earshot (which was easier now that the roller door at the front of the house had been bolted down) and waited impatiently for Lincoln to pick up.

He answered on the third ring. ‘Garridan?’ His voice came out as a shout. Ivyanne could hear loud music in the background.

‘No,’ Ivyanne said quickly. ‘Link, it’s me.’

‘Oh.’ Lincoln said flatly. ‘Right.’

She bit her lip, rapping her knuckles on the countertop. ‘I know Garridan called you earlier, but I wanted a chance to speak to you. Alone.’ She turned away from the window. ‘How are you?’

‘Hold on a tic... I’ve got to get away from the speaker…’

Ivyanne nodded and waited, until the background noise began to die down. ‘That sounds loud,’ she commented eventually. She could hear the strain in her own voice-she wasn’t used to having to force conversation with Lincoln.

‘It is,’ Lincoln responded finally. ‘The karaoke is mostly awful and there are only about twenty here-but they’re spending! Better than nothing, I guess.’

‘That’s great,’ Ivyanne said, her tone sounding too cheerful-forced. ‘Hopefully the bad singing will keep Ardhi and Sherri at bay as well.’

‘Well Ivyanne, as Garridan put it, seems like Ardhi’s
there
, not hanging around here.’ There was a pause. ‘Call me crazy... but you knew, didn’t you? Before I left?’

‘No.’ Ivyanne said, her cheeks heating up. He knew her so well-
Tristan
hadn’t even come to that conclusion yet! ‘But, yeah…. I would have kept it to myself until you’d gone if I
had
.’

There was a sigh. ‘Thought so. You do realize the only reason I haven’t driven back there is because I’m pretty sure I’d strangle you myself for being so foolish, right?’

Ivyanne winced. ‘You need to be at the resort,’ she said quietly. ‘You
know
you do.’

‘Yeah well... it should be
my
choice. You need to stop protecting me Ivyanne-I’m a grown man, and if memory serves me correctly, I’ve got six months on you and
unlike
you,
I
wasn’t sheltered from shit growing up. If you keep babying me, I
am
going to get pissed off.’

Ivyanne glanced down at her hands. He had a point. In many ways, Lincoln was more mature and capable than any of them. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah… I know… I’m hearing an awful lot of
that
from you lately. If you want to score yourself some
actual
points, try using a different two word sentence, hmm? Like ‘I do’ or ‘Screw me.’

Ivyanne laughed. ‘Screw
you
.’

‘You will. But not before I put you over my knee first.’ Lincoln cleared his throat. ‘Garridan didn’t say it in so many words, but Tristan’s still there, isn’t he?’

Ivyanne paused and glanced out the kitchen window, at Tristan’s back. ‘I thought he was gone so I dropped the bombshell. But he’d missed his flight and rescheduled a later one. Now, I’m stuck with him, and that’s bad for his business too. Sven’s getting swamped!’

‘I’m sure that’s exactly what Tristan’s thinking about right now,’ Lincoln said sourly, ‘how
swamped
his business partner is.’

‘I messed up,’ Ivyanne said softly. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘There those words are again. I just can’t express how much they fix
everything
.’ Lincoln’s tone dripped with sarcasm.

Ivyanne rubbed her forehead, at a loss for anything else to say. ‘If it makes you feel any better... I miss you already.’

There was a pause. ‘You do?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well I’d like to say I miss you too. But it’s relaxing to be surrounded by people who are not only happy to see me, but consider me useful for once.’

‘I guess that’s fair.’ Ivyanne managed to respond, even as stung as she was by that remark. The music in the background changed as Ivyanne digested this. A pretty voice swirled down the phone line. ‘Wow... that singer’s good.’

‘Beautiful.’ Lincoln agreed. ‘It’s Grace. Wow…’

Butterflies took flight in Ivyanne’s stomach.
I’m better!
She wanted to cry-but what was the point? The songs she could sing that he’d be able to stay conscious through were few. ‘Well, so it’s not all bad….’ She said. ‘The karaoke I mean.’

‘No, it’s not…’ Lincoln cleared his throat. ‘Hey Ivyanne, I’m going to go, kay? They need me in there.’

With twenty patrons?
Ivyanne thought, narrowing her eyes as jealousy rippled through her like the first wave of an incoming tide. Clearly all he wanted to do was shut her up so he could enjoy Grace’s serenade.
‘Oh.’ She said flatly. ‘Well... don’t let me keep you. Lord knows I chew enough of your time.’

‘I know right?’ Lincoln chuckled. ‘Okay then-see you on Monday morning.’

Ivyanne sighed. ‘Okay…I love you Link.’

‘Love ya too. Night!’

The call ended. Ivyanne stared down at the phone in her hand, trying to get her mind around what had just happened. Lincoln had gone. Lincoln had rejected her calls all night. Lincoln had ended their brief call to pay attention to another woman! It wasn’t sitting well with her at all. Was she chasing him into another girls’ arms with her indecisiveness?

The sliding door opened. ‘Hey gorgeous…’ Tristan swept in and wrapped his arms around her waist. His skin was cool from the evening air. ‘Who was that?’

‘The alien in Lincoln’s body.’ Ivyanne said shortly, replacing the phone in it’s cradle.

‘He rang?’

‘No. I rang him, to you know, apologize….’ Ivyanne glared at the phone, trying to get a handle on the new and unfamiliar emotion gurgling around in there-insecurity. She couldn’t seem to think or breathe around it.

He sounded like he’s getting so fed up with me!
She thought, feeling panicked.
What if he runs? How far away have I pushed him?

‘You should have saved that call for tomorrow…’ Tristan whispered in her ear. ‘You’re going to have a
lot
more to apologize for in the morning.’

‘Tristan knock it off!’ Ivyanne snapped, disentangling herself. ‘Can’t you see it’s not the time?’

Tristan’s hand went to her wrist. ‘Hey! What’s going on? You’ve been flirting with me all afternoon, you know. And now what? You don’t want me in your precious bubble?’

Ivyanne whirled to look into his confused toffee colored eyes. ‘No actually, I don’t.’

‘Why? Because you spoke to
him
? That’s just great!’

‘Well it is what it is.’ She said dejectedly. ‘I’m an awful, wishy-washy person, okay? So if you don’t like it then just... stay out of my hair!’ With that Ivyanne turned and stomped upstairs.

*

Lincoln’s heart was pounding as he hung up the phone, but once he pocketed it, he rested his head against the trunk of a palm tree near the pool and forced himself to breathe deeply and get a hold of himself.

You did it!
He thought.
Calm down! That’s twice in one day you’ve managed to make her sweat! This is a good thing!

Lincoln stood up and rubbed his forehead. ‘Oh boy oh boy…’ he muttered, heading back inside. ‘How am I going to pay for this?’

‘Pay for what?’ Bane appeared at the entrance to the toilet block, shaking his hands dry.

‘Giving the queen the cold shoulder.’ Lincoln said wryly. ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time and I pulled it off, but now I’m having a slight anxiety attack.’

Bane laughed. ‘What did she have to say?’

‘That she’s sorry. That she misses me, and she loves me…’ Lincoln swallowed hard. ‘Oh god... what have I
done
? I talked to her like she was a telemarketer I was trying to get off the phone!’

‘You’ve gone for the upper hand.’ Bane said matter-of-factly. ‘It’s an old, time honored trick, I believe. And it works often enough.’

‘Yeah but while I’m here with my hand in the upper, Tristan’s there with his skillful hand lord knows
where
.’

‘Yeah well, queen or not-Ivyanne’s still a girl at heart, and girls like it when the boys play hard to get, don’t they?’

‘And what do you know about women and dating?’ Lincoln cracked.

‘More than you’d think. I’ve never been with one and I show no interest in them. Apparently that makes me irresistible to ninety percent of the female population.’

Lincoln laughed as they walked back in the bar, where Grace’s voice seemed to fill the room. Lincoln looked at her onstage and smiled as he pulled out a chair at a table for two and sat facing her, thinking of how self-assured she looked up there with a roomful of eyes on her. She really was beautiful, especially with the soft green spotlight beaming down on her, and her voice was out of this world. He couldn’t help but reflect on the harsher things she’d had to say to him that afternoon.

‘Can I ask you something?’ Lincoln asked as Bane sat beside him.

‘Sure.’

‘Who do
you
want to be king?’

Bane glanced at Lincoln, surprised, then back at the stage, frowning. ‘Tristan, of course.’

Lincoln’s heart sank. ‘Because he’s your uncle?’

‘Maybe. That
would
be a nice bonus.’ Bane shrugged. ‘But he’s just... he’s
already
a king, isn’t he? I’ve always looked up to him-
every
body has. It was like he was born with this air about him, this ability to handle anything. I mean, not many guys can be dropped out of the sky and bounce back like he did, can they? In fact I was astonished when Nigara’s name was put forward first-elder son or not, Tristan and Ivyanne were much closer in age.’ He shrugged. ‘The women have always had our species by the balls. The king’s been the arm-candy, and not the ruler. But with Tristan...well I feel like he’ll be equal with her.’

Lincoln thought that over, remembering their origin tail from the whelk shell Ivyanne had pressed his ear to the night of her revelations. ‘But...this is a species created to exist without men if need be, and you guys have had a good run for so long. Why should anything need to change?’

Bane glanced at him and smiled. ‘Anna L’Court punished our sex for what her ex husband did by limiting our ability to breed our own kind with human women, and for centuries, they’ve had all the power as a result. But we’re not like human men-so why not give one of us a chance to influence things?’ He shrugged. ‘Besides, it’s not really about Tristan being a better ruler than her. Can you deny the fact that his presence seems to make her stronger and bolder?’

Lincoln sighed. ‘She said it’s an energy thing. That he uses it more.’

‘There’s that,’ Bane agreed, but there was a lift to the corner of his lips. ‘But if I know Tristan, and I think I do...he wouldn’t be using that on her as much as everyone assumes. He wants to win her heart Link-if he’d just wanted her for her body, he wouldn’t have let her up for air since the first time they, uh, deviated from the code.’

‘You think he’s holding back?’ Lincoln demanded, unable to believe that.

‘Oh I
know
he is. But not half as much as
she
is, with both of you.’

‘Her power?’

Bane nodded, screwing up his face. ‘When she’s happy and flirtatious and un self-conscious, she even sucks
me
in. She was laughing about something the other night and I almost leaned in and kissed her! And believe me when I say-I’m gay. Not
kind
of gay but
really
gay..with rainbow sprinkles on top. And yet, she got into my head without even trying.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘Ivyanne zeroed in on me since the moment I showed up here, to help her out, and I’ve done so without once questioning it or wondering where my allegiance lies until now-when I’m not in her pretty little web. Her magnetism is off the hook. I think she could will me back there with thought alone if she tried.’

‘She is strong.’ Lincoln admitted. ‘She gave me a taste of what she’s capable of the other day and I think if she’d handed me an axe and asked me to put it through the hood of my car, I would have done it without question.’