Return to the Shadows (21 page)

This she directed at Mark’s grinning
form.

“Claire is breathtaking all on her own.”

“Sure, but have you ever tried to get that
girl to hold still?” She shook her head.

“No, I can’t say that I have,” he drawled. “I
like her when she’s on the move. Then again, making her hold still
could prove to be interesting.”

“Mark!” Marta was clearly scandalized. I
groaned.

“I’ll just go downstairs now,” I said in a
rush, hurrying past Mark, only to have him to reach a hand out to
halt me before I could pass into the hallway. For the briefest of
moments, nothing else registered except for long, tanned fingers
wrapped around my arm. Not only that, but he smelled really
good—great actually. As much as my inner voice repeatedly nudged me
to move, or pull away, or just say something, I continued to stand
there, frozen in place like an idiot. Well... I shrugged. At least
I was an idiot in a thousand-dollar dress. Hey, things could have
been worse. With any luck, or rather, lack of luck, things were
going to get much worse tonight in short order. That sobering
thought had me glancing up to find Mark’s eyes still on my face,
and sparkling with amusement.

“If anyone gets to leave this room, it’s
going to be me,” Marta announced, bustling past the two of us and
shoving me into Mark in the process.

His smile deepened when I sucked in all the
breath left in my body, which coincidentally wasn’t much since I
had only stopped holding my breath about two seconds prior to being
thrust into him.

“You look great, Claire.”

The emphasis he put on my name didn’t escape
me. “It must be hard to get used to.”

“What’s that?”

“Calling me Claire instead of Annabelle.”

“Hmm.” He seemed to consider this. “It is, in
a way. It’s still a little new. It’s been over a year, but I feel
like it was only yesterday that you were Annabelle.”

“Well, I haven’t been back for that long.” I
tried to smile, wishing all the while I could kick myself for
saying anything in the first place. The subject of our parting was
still considered unstable ground. At least, that was the impression
I got. I knew it made me damn uncomfortable at least. Mark had
probably made a show of saying my true name with the express
purpose of goading me into a reaction, and a discussion about how
I’d lied about my name, and who I was, and...well, a lot of things.
Yes, he probably did it on purpose so he could blame it on me if we
argue, I thought uncharitably. Men were just like that.

“No, you haven’t been back that long. You
have, however, been gone a long time.” His eyes took on a guarded
look. “But we’ve already talked that to death, haven’t we?”

“Yes, pretty much.”

“And, like I said before, I understand why
you left. Really, at that point, what were you supposed to do? I
get that you were out of options, so to speak. Truth be told,” he
scrubbed a hand over his face, “I applaud you for acting as quickly
as you did.”

“Yes, well, Mike helped...”

“I wish you had chosen to do things a little
differently before your situation became that desperate, of
course.”

“Uh...” Here we go.

“If I had been there, things might have gone
in a different direction that day.”

“Yeah.” I set my teeth. “Straight to hell in
a whole new direction.”

“You don’t know that.”

“No, maybe I don’t. But neither do you. And
what happened to ‘we’ve already talked this to death?’”

I demanded, hands on my hips. I felt like
telling him that he was being very unattractive with all this
arguing. I was barely conscious of his scent or his nearness right
then...almost.

“Fine.” His hands came up in defeat. “You’re
right. So. How long are you planning on staying this time?”

“I don’t know,” I sputtered, feeling
defensive—and with good reason. Mark wouldn’t shut up and let it go
already. “I have no idea how long Ashley and I will be here. Which
I already told you. What’s all this about?”

“What? I’m not allowed to talk to you?” He
frowned.

“This has nothing to do with talking to me
and you know it. Er. Wait.” I clutched my head, which was beginning
to throb.

“You’re going to mess your hair up doing
that.”

“Oh, honestly!” I fumed, too mad to care what
the hell happened to my party hair.

“Okay. All right. It’s tonight,” he
confessed.

“What about it?”

“I don’t want you to do this.”

“Mark, we’ve been over this. I have to do
this. And I can do this. Jeez, I can’t believe you would think I
can’t handle myself.” I shook my head, thoroughly irritated
now.

“It’s not that, Claire. I know you’re capable
of taking care of yourself. More than capable,” he admitted. “I
think I’d rather have you at my back than some of my men.”

“Really?” My hands fell limp to my sides.
He’d rather have me beside him than trained soldiers? Personally, I
thought that was taking confidence a wee bit far....

“Yeah, well, you’re tough.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “I am. I really am.”

“But that doesn’t mean I won’t worry about
you all night long. If something happens to you—”

“Then it happens.”

“Sorry, but I can’t be so cavalier about that
possibility.”

“It’s reality.” I shrugged. “Believe me, no
one hates the thought of me ending up six feet under more than me.
But I don’t see that we have many other options tonight, do
you?”

“Sure, we can find someone else.”

“Not on your life. I’m going with you, and
that’s final. Besides, it’s too late to get anyone else and get
them ready. And that’s assuming there’s anyone else in Terlain who
is crazy enough to risk being beaten to death with Marta’s beauty
products. Which I highly doubt.”

“Yeah,” he snorted. “You know she only does
stuff like that when she’s worried, right?”

“Uh-huh, I figured as much. So. Are we done
here? I was kind of hoping I would be able to get a cup of coffee
before we leave.”

“We have to be out of here in two hours, so I
don’t see why you can’t. Just don’t let Aries or Marta see you
drinking anything that could leave a stain on that dress.”

“Thanks for the tip.” I smiled and headed
downstairs.

“Claire, wait.”

“Hmmm?” I murmured distractedly, my thoughts
otherwise occupied by the blessed caffeine I was about to
consume.

“We need to arm you.”

“What?” My eyes went wide as I took in the
small pile of straps and disk-like objects that I could only assume
were the explosives. Oh no...

“I need to get these on you first, okay?”

“I have to wear them? Oh no, see—”

“I’ve got to strap them to your legs.
Sorry.”

“Can’t I just carry them in my bag?”

“No. Your purse is likely to be the first
thing that gets searched by the guards on our way in. Standard
procedure—never carry bombs in a purse.” He made an attempt at
humor.

“Damn,” I swore, marching back into the room
and hiking up my dress.

“You won’t even know they’re there,” he
promised.

“Right.”

***

“Stop fidgeting, you look nervous.” Mark’s
whisper cut through the night, dragging me out of the black mood I
had fallen into immediately upon leaving the house.

“See now, there’s a very good reason why I
look nervous—I am.” And I wasn’t afraid to admit it.

Really, was there any reason for me not to be
shaking in my dress shoes? Saying goodbye to Ashley for what could
very well turn out to be the last time was doing a number on my
already frayed nerves. Not that she suspected we might never see
each other again after this night; at least, I didn’t think she had
any clue that all was not well this evening. Far as any of us could
tell, my little angel really thought we were all just going to a
ball, that her mother was having her first date in a very long
time. She had stood on the front porch, sandwiched between Bob and
Marta, grinning her innocent little girl smile and waving like mad,
even running to the edge of the porch when we had reached the end
of the yard and were nearly out of view to the trio chosen to stay
behind and wait for our return.

Lord, God, just let us return—preferably in
one piece, I prayed, putting one foot in front of the other. Not
that the task required much focus; the night that felt black as sin
was in fact a star-strewn landscape that seemed to stretch
endlessly before us. Even in the thickest part of the forest, the
moonlight seemed to filter through the canopy of trees overhead to
light our path. With Mark walking solidly by my side, it would have
made for an incredibly romantic scene. Except for the bombs
strapped to my thighs like garter belts gone horribly wrong, and
the fact that we were not alone by any stretch of the imagination.
Even though we couldn’t see them, I was all too aware of the
hundreds of pairs of eyes in the trees and on the ground. The
fairies would guard us every step of the way from the woods near
Bob’s house clear to Oxborough. There were soldiers on the ground
too, I knew, although I was unable to make out any of them either.
Seventy-five percent of our guard was armed, and heavily so. Aries,
armed with a wicked-looking blade, would trail us as far as
Oxborough’s border; after that, she would fall back and help
coordinate the soldiers who had been assigned to phase two of our
mission.

“Do you think this will really work?” I
whispered.

“If we can get into that party, then yes. If
not...” He shrugged without slowing our pace.

“If not?” I prompted.

“We need to get into that party, let’s just
leave it at that.”

“Damn.”

“Hey.” His hand tightened on mine. “We can do
this.”

“Right,” I nodded, smiling in the dark.
“We’re almost there, aren’t we?” I hoped so at least. Anything over
a mile in heels was insane, and I knew darn well the distance
between Grandview and Oxborough was a lot more than a mile. But
maybe we were nearing the end of our journey, since it felt like we
had been on our feet forever and a day.

“About another mile and a half.”

“Ugh,” I moaned, slumping a little.

“If you had let me carry you in the first
place, you wouldn’t be in so much pain right now, Claire,” he
pointed out.

“No, I can walk.” I hoped.

“You can take your shoes off on the way
back,” he offered, obviously trying to be helpful. “After we finish
our business, it won’t matter if your feet get dirty.”

“Remind me again why we couldn’t take the
car.” At least partway.

“Because,” he responded with considerable
patience. “Cars make noise, and we don’t want to be seen.”

“I know.” I couldn’t quell the sigh that rose
from deep within. “I’ll stop whining now.”

“You will not,” he snorted.

“Shut up, Mark.”

He acknowledged the thinly veiled threat
behind my words with a toss of his head and a chuckle, and we kept
walking. And walking. And walking some more until finally,
thankfully, we reached the edge of the forest. I could see the
cobblestone streets of the town and a large building at the end of
the street. It looked curiously like an enormous warehouse that was
lit up like an airstrip and surrounded by several smaller,
considerably less well-lit outbuildings.

“Is that it?”

“That’s it. Behold the annual masquerade
ball. Lydia owns all of those buildings.”

“They don’t look like much,” I commented,
eyes darting around, scanning every inch of our new
surroundings.

“The smaller structures probably aren’t.
Those are mostly glorified guard shacks. But the main building is
supposed to look as grand as any mansion, inside at least. You need
a minute to rest?”

“No.”

“Sit down anyway. You’re limping.”

“You’d be limping too if you had just hiked a
million miles in high heels,” I grumbled, but sat carefully on a
nearby tree stump anyway. Mark was right; it wouldn’t do at all for
me to walk into the ball with a noticeable limp, not when details
meant everything tonight. We couldn’t afford to arouse even the
slightest suspicion. Not only would we have no hope of getting past
the front door, chances were good that we’d be killed on the spot
and quietly disposed of. That wouldn’t stop the rest of our massive
team from carrying out their part of the plan, but it would up
their danger tenfold. And it wouldn’t make us any less dead. I
shuddered, jumped to my feet, and took a few test steps, sans limp.
All of a sudden, I was too keyed up to remain motionless. I wanted
to get this over with, no matter the outcome, if for no other
reason than the anticipation and the sense of doom hanging over my
head were becoming unbearable.

“We can take more time, if you need it. Not
much, of course, but we’ve got a few minutes.”

I could feel Mark’s eyes on me in the
relative gloom that seemed to hang over the town, tangible even
here at the edge. I shivered, though the night was not especially
cool. That Mark would allow me ample rest time was obvious, but
still, the desire to run was strong, and becoming more so by the
minute.

No, it was best to get in, get out, and get
the hell out of dodge.

“Let’s do this.”

Mark’s assessment of my bold statement lasted
maybe another second before he finally nodded and silently took my
clammy hand in his gloved one. A glance over my shoulder reassured
me that we weren’t alone. I would have liked to think we would have
been so brave as to undertake a mission like this even with just
the two of us; after all, right was right and evil would always be
there, waiting to be conquered by brave souls. Although I really
didn’t consider myself brave, even knowing that there was an ever
growing number of people who would have disagreed wholeheartedly
with my self-assessment.

We walked along the all but deserted
cobblestone streets of the town, and the click of my heels echoed
back at me every step of the way.