Return to the Shadows (23 page)

“Claire, wait.”

I turned back, raising one brow in
question.

“I’m proud of you, tonight, and for what you
just did, even if it ends up getting us killed and ruins our entire
mission. And...I love you.”

“You...love me? Oh no. You’re doing this now?
Oh my God, we’re going to die, aren’t we? That’s why you’re telling
me this now.”

“Hey, hey, stop that,” he chided, both arms
circling my waist until his hands rested at the small of my back.
“We’re not going to die. Okay?”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured, thoroughly unconvinced.
I kissed him anyway before we made our way down the stairs at a
steady pace. “Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“I love you too.”

Four minutes later, we were casually
strolling the wide porch that wrapped around the back of the house,
shielded from the road and from prying eyes in general. There were
very few guards posted out here, and only a smattering of other
couples were out enjoying the night air. Most were inside dancing,
and the excitement was a palpable thing now, for both Mark and
myself, and the occupants of the ball.

They were excited because the famous, or
infamous, auction was about to take place in five short
minutes.

We were nervous as hell because we were
running out of time. To the casual onlooker, I could only hope that
we looked sexually frustrated, and not like a couple of party
crashers who were up to no good.

“Oh, would you look at that moon?” Mark took
my elbow and steered us toward the south end of the porch, near the
guard shacks.

“Oh my. It’s so big and bright tonight.
Perfect for a romantic evening, don’t you think?” I gushed, resting
my head on his shoulder and sticking a disk below the waist-high
porch railing.

“Mmm,” he agreed, idly fingering the smooth
wooden rail before smiling down at me and nodding toward the double
doors that would take us back into the ballroom. “I wonder if
Lydia’s free to discuss a little business.”

“I don’t know,” I mused. “The auction starts
in a few minutes.”

“All the more reason to find her now.”

As luck would have it, she found us nearly
the instant we walked through the door.

“I trust you’re both enjoying
yourselves?”

“Oh yes,” I was quick to assure our host.
“We’re having a lovely time.”

“We were actually just coming to find you.
We’re hoping to steal you away from your guests for a moment.”

“The auction is about to start. I had hoped
to catch up to you a little earlier, but we can talk after, in my
study.”

“That’s what we were hoping to speak with you
about,” I hastily added, improvising as we made our way through the
ballroom and into a much smaller room where men gathered together
over cards and cigars.

“Oh?” She faced me, and I got the sense, once
again, that she was looking into me somehow.

“Yes, the auction is a fine tradition, of
course.” I thought fast, knowing that we would need access to the
girls who were set to be sold to the highest bidder. That was the
final phase of our plan, unless we wanted to leave them to be blown
up, which we didn’t. “But we were hoping to teach the girls a quick
little musical number,” I finished, smothering a groan. A musical
number? It sounded pathetic even to my own ears. Mark, bless him,
didn’t move a muscle, but instead put on a smile and nodded next to
me.

“A musical number?”

“A quick performance. It’s only a couple of
steps really, and very erotic. In Coztal, it’s done for good luck.”
I continued to bullshit, all the while praying my face wasn’t
turning beet red. “Many believe it brings luck and good fortune to
the auction.”

“Good fortune, hmmm...” That seemed to snag
Lydia’s attention, as I’d hoped it would.

“It certainly showcases the girls’ assets,”
Mark added with a wink.

“Yes, so if we may...”

“Oh, why not,” Lydia decreed, clapping her
hands together and motioning for us to follow. “Can you do it in
ten minutes?”

“Might we have the other girls as well?” I
pointed to the large cluster of women who were lined up along the
wall now that the dancing had come to an end. Three of the women
stared at us with fearful expressions, but to my utter relief, it
appeared that they had at least kept silent.

“Sure, why not. Go with them,” she addressed
her staff.

“We only need a few minutes,” I told her,
which was true enough. A glance at the clock told me that five
minutes was all we had left to get the girls and get out
before...bad things happened. Ignoring the cold, clammy feeling
that washed over me, I followed Mark, who followed Lydia to a
standard-sized white doorway at the rear of the house.

“The girls ready for the auction are gathered
here in the kitchen,” she told us. “I’ll go and tell our guests
that we’re in for a special performance tonight. Try not to take
too long.”

She was gone. Mark tapped his wrist once as
we pushed through the door and came face to face with what had to
be a hundred girls. The message was clear enough. We were running
out of time and would have to be quick.

The girls looked to range in age from preteen
to maybe eighteen or nineteen. Young. All wore expressions of fear
and mistrust in varying degrees. Most were holding it together
fairly well, I thought, all things considered. I had been in their
shoes and understood full well the fear and uncertainty they were
feeling right then.

“Fucking hell,” Mark swore, and I spun
around.

“Sweetheart, come here. It’s okay.” He was
down on one knee, speaking slowly and calmly to a girl half hidden
by a tall, thin brunette teenager. The child looked to be about
eight or nine. Maybe. I cringed, disgusted to the depths of my
soul. Focus on the child, I told myself. Think of her, see her,
memorize every detail of her face. Don’t think about the nameless,
faceless people in the other room. Remember what the monsters did
to Aries. What they would surely do to the child Mark was trying to
coax...to the rest of these girls, many undoubtedly stolen from
their families. It had to stop. Tonight. Now.

“Okay, ladies,” I began when the last of the
women from the parlor had filtered into the kitchen to stand with
those waiting for the auction, addressing the large crowd while
Mark picked up the skittish and terrified child. “Listen up and
listen good. There are bombs—explosives—rigged all over this
property. You all have,” I paused, “three minutes to get out and
away from this house before it blows. Does that door lead to the
backyard?” I nodded toward the back of the kitchen. Heads
nodded.

“Great. Stay quiet, everyone, and go out that
door. Run until you reach the edge of the forest. Don’t stop, don’t
look back. There will be people waiting there to help you. Run
straight back. Do not run by the guard shacks.”

“Two minutes, Claire.”

“Shit. Let’s go, people, and stay—”

The stampede of screaming girls was
deafening.

“Quiet,” I finished lamely. “Shit, damn,
hell!”

“Claire!”

“I’m sorry!” I yelled back.

“Not that! Let’s get out of here!” Mark
shouted back, shoving a heavy mobile counter that was covered in
crystal flutes toward the door, blocking, at least temporarily,
anyone from entering the kitchen.

Blue liquid spilled from the delicate stemmed
cups and sloshed over the rims of the ones that hadn’t been
overturned onto the floor. I watched for a second as though frozen
in place.

Then my mind seemed to scream
one minute
left!
in panic. We ran, following the shrieking girls into the
night, ignoring the shouts of guards that were running around the
side of the house. Aries, ever true to her word, along with the
other fairies, began to pick them off one by one from the edge of
the forest. Soldiers emerged from the dark woods and were hastily
ushering girls deeper into the forest, to safety.

We reached the trees edge just as the night
burst into flames behind us. Everyone stopped to watch as bits and
pieces of wood splintered and windows shattered. The guard shacks,
the main house...all of it gone, along with its mistress.

Aries walked toward us, stopped at the edge
of the yard, and watched it burn for a full minute before nodding
and walking away.

“Let’s get these girls back to the
shelter.”

“And the little one?” I indicated the little
girl who stared, transfixed by the flames and thick black smoke
that curled into the night.

“We should take her with us. For tonight at
least. Until we can figure out where she belongs,” he sighed,
shifting around to block the wreckage from her direct line of
sight.

“Good plan,” I nodded, slipped off my shoes,
and with a final look back at the damage we had wrought, followed
our group into the forest.

Chapter Eleven

Promises

The trek back to Grandview flew by,
literally, with the help of the fairies, and we hiked up the hill
to Bob and Marta’s in what was probably less than twenty minutes. I
pondered that as Mark, Aries, the little girl, and I took the porch
steps two at a time and entered the house. It took about that much
time to effectively put an end to Lydia’s entire operation, and to
make a serious dent in the number of guards Kahn had spent years
recruiting. It was still a lot to process, and there was no time to
dwell on it right then.

We hadn’t even had time to close the heavy
lead glass front door behind us before a small blur of purple,
sporting dark hair, flew into us and clung for all she was
worth.

“Mama! Mark!”

“Ashley, baby!” I dropped down to scoop her
up.

“Eww, you smell like smoke,” she complained,
her little nose wrinkled as she pulled away.

“Sorry.” I shrugged, unsure as to how to
explain that one. I was pretty sure telling her we just blew up a
whore house would have been a major parenting faux pas. “Are you
still glad to see me?”

“Yes!”

“Well, it’s about time!”

“Hi Marta, Bob.” Mark stood behind us,
grinning.

“I take it the night was a success?” Bob eyed
us with equal parts concern and hope.

“Yes,” Mark told the small group that
gathered around us.

“And who’s this?” Marta demanded, stepping
forward.

“We found her at the party.”

“Son of a—”

“Will you take her to the kitchen to get
something to eat?” Mark quickly spoke over Marta’s outrage.

“Of course. Give her to me. Come to Marta,”
she crooned at the cowering child. “Everything’s okay now. You’re
safe.”

“Is that my new sister?” Ashley wanted to
know.

“Ah...” I glanced up at Mark.

“Maybe,” he told my daughter with a wink.
“Would you like that?”

“Yep. You’ll be her new daddy too,
right?”

“Maybe,” he answered. “We’ll see. She might
already have a family somewhere.”

“What?” I demanded. “New daddy?”

“Uh-huh. Mark said he would be my new daddy.
Isn’t that great?”

I spun around to face him. “You told her
that?” I gritted through a smile that was for Ashley’s benefit
alone.

“It was supposed to be a secret.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Hey, Ash, Bob says you have a surprise
outside for your mom and Mark,” Aries called out from the dining
room.

“Oh, yeah—come on, guys!” The child bounded
from the room, all smiles and exuberant energy.

“Claire…”

“This isn’t over, Mark. Not by a long shot,”
I warned him. The nerve of the man to tell my child such a thing, I
fumed.

“Are you guys coming or what?” Ashley called
from the back door.

“Yes!” Mark and I answered together.

“I mean to marry you, you know.”

“Mark,” I whispered, floored at the
announcement, though maybe I shouldn’t have been. What flowed
between us was…special. It had been from day one and nothing, not
even time and distance, had really diminished that.

“Come on.” The words were soft spoken. “Let’s
go see our big surprise.”

The backyard was filled with fairies and
nymphs, and a picnic table had been set up under a cluster of trees
in the middle of the yard. They took a step back and seemed to
whisper to the trees, and in the next instant, the entire area was
bathed in soft, twinkling light.

“Look, Mama! They’re real magic fairies! Just
like Tinkerbell!”

“Ah…” I gripped Marks shoulder for support
and decided not to tackle that particular comment right then.

“Ashley, did you plan this special dinner for
us?”

“Yep, and I cooked it too. Steak and taters.
Well, Marta helped a little,” she added slyly.

“Thank you, sweetheart. You’re the best kid
in the whole world, you know that?”

“Ashley, come on inside and give the
grown-ups a little privacy. It’s time for a bedtime story,” Marta
called out from the back stoop.

“Coming! Goodnight, Mama! Goodnight, Mark!”
she yelled, racing through the grass and up the porch steps with
enthusiasm only a child could possess.

“Come on, ladies, time to get some sleep; let
these two have a moment alone,” Aries told her group.

“Wait.” I stopped them. “Why did you guys go
to so much trouble? And when?”

“We set everything up earlier this afternoon
before we left for Oxborough. We wanted the two of you to have a
real date tonight,” Aries grinned.

“Thank you, all of you.”

“Goodnight.” The others waved before
disappearing into the house, leaving Mark and me completely and
blessedly alone for the first time all day.

“Dinner?” He winked, gallantly pulling out a
chair for me.

“Yes, I’m starving,” I admitted. “I’m still
mad at you, though.”

“Are you really?”

“No,” I sighed after a moment. “You shouldn’t
have told Ashley something like that, though. You’ll get her hopes
up. And if it doesn’t work out…”