Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (14 page)

“So then you’ll do it? You’ll teach me?”

“Yes. It’s important for your safety, for everyone’s safety that the Queen of the Inbetween is ….” He paused, looking for the right word.

“A bad ass?”

“That’s not the word I would have used, but yes.”

“That’s what I want,” I said. “I don’t want to be scared anymore and I’m tired of hiding.”

“The training will be hard,” he cautioned. “You’ll need to learn to fight with fists and blades and magic if you are to protect yourself and our people.”

 “Blades?”

“Matthew will teach you. He’s the best among us with swords and knives. We won’t know who will be best suited to teach you to wield your Gifts until the magic emerges. Perhaps Bennett can teach you.”

“Will you teach me to fight? With fists, I mean. I think it should be you.”

He dropped into a rocking chair across from where I was perched on the porch railing. Smiling up at me, he said, “Why not Robbin? I imagine he’d be thrilled to show you some of his moves.”

“That won’t work,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“Why not?”

Robbin was going to think the whole idea of me protecting myself in a fight was dangerous and ridiculous. He was a hold the door, walk on the outside, that’s too heavy for you let me carry it kind of guy. I’d never thought of it before, but I suddenly realized that he liked protecting me and taking care of me too much to let me do those things for myself. Although it pained me to admit it, I said, “I don’t think he’ll see learning to fight as something I can or should do.”

“You don’t need him anyway, I’ll teach you. Just the basics to start: balance, leverage, where to hit your enemy to incapacitate him.” Without any warning, he reached out, grabbed my hand, and pulled me into his lap. “How to anticipate surprise attacks.”

He graciously waited for me to finish struggling without mentioning that I wasn’t trying very hard to get away.

“Thanks for thinking I can do this,” I said, laying my head against his chest. I sat like that for moment, letting him hold me, letting myself enjoy being held.  I had that giddy, blissful feeling that comes sometimes when everything you want is right within reach. 

 “Can you hear it?” he asked. “My whole body is humming.” I sighed and closed my eyes, listening. “When you’re near me all I can think about is taking you, making you mine. Do you feel that way too? I am asking, really asking. I want to know if this feels the same for you.”

I sat up and looked into his glowing eyes, sapphire and sunshine and sky dancing together. I tucked a lock of his hair behind his ear just so I’d have an excuse to touch him. I let my hand linger on his cheek. I tried to keep my answer light and noncommittal but it was hard not to sound breathless and whispery when I said, “It feels the same.”

 “Then why are you resisting what your whole body longs for? Give yourself to me,” he whispered.

I really, really wanted to. Badly. “It’s not real. No matter how much I think I want you, it’s magic pushing us together.”

“I think magic is supposed to be a good thing, where love is concerned.” He began to rub my back, making small circles with the tips of his fingers His eyes were the color of summer sky, wide and blue and open.

 “But if it’s magic making me feel the way I do right now…”

 “Even a powerful enchantment can only do so much; it’s possible to resist the influence entirely, if you really want to.”

I couldn’t resist Alex entirely; there I was on his lap for proof. Did that mean I didn’t want to? Maybe I was attracted to him and the enchantment only helped me to act on that attraction? I filed that away to think about later. It was too much to handle while he was playing with my hair, winding it around his finger while he spoke.

“You will love me,” he said. “Look here; you’re already sitting in my lap.”

 “But what if you can’t win me over and in the end I don’t choose you?”

 “You will,” he said simply.

I started to object but all I managed to get out of my mouth was a little squeak. He kissed me and I melted into him. I don’t know how much time passed, decades possibly, while his warm mouth moved slowly over mine, teasing and nibbling. I could have kept at it for twice as long but he slowly pulled away.

He chuckled softly. “You will.”

I didn’t know if I’d ever love him but I wanted him. That was certain. And he was right; it was silly to deny myself. Right then, I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore.

I turned so that my legs were straddling his, then I slipped my fingers into his hair and my tongue into his mouth. I kissed his neck, his ear, the hollow at the base of his throat. His hands slid into my jacket, under my shirt. I moaned as his fingers found my breasts, teasing my nipples until they were hard as pebbles.

“Please,” I whispered.

“Gods, yes,” he said as he got to his feet still holding me in his arms.

One minute we were headed for my bed and the next I was hitting the floor with a tailbone-rattling thud.

“What the hell?”

“Be still,” Alex snapped.

“You be still,” I said, rubbing my tailbone.

An unfamiliar voice asked, “Is that her?”

I stopped accessing my injuries long enough to look up. From the other side of the porch, a man was looking at me intently. “So sorry to interrupt, your Lightness.” he said cordially.

“Nicholas.” Alex’s voice was almost a snarl.

The elf he’d called Nicholas was tall and slim and pale but something about the way he stood there made me think he was also very strong. His face was beautiful in an otherworldly way, all long lines and graceful arches. His platinum blonde hair was woven in a complicated braid that hung down his back to his hips. His lips were curved into a cruel smile. He was wearing sunglasses but I knew, I just knew, that if he took them off his eyes would be small and squinty and red.

The wood creaked beneath my feet as I instinctively shifted as far away from him as possible. Alex reached back, signaling me to stay where I was. This time I didn’t argue. The assassin standing at my front door had me pretty much boxed in and I wasn’t brave – or stupid – enough to try to get around him.

The two men stood eyeing each other, both perfectly still, each entirely focused on the other. I used the time to look for something I could use as a weapon, a baseball bat or a snow shovel, anything. I was looking at a porch spindle, wondering if I could pull it off and protect myself with it when I heard Alex say, loud and clear, that he wished Nicholas would give him an excuse to attack, any excuse because he was planning to tear the dark elf apart—literally. He was going to send the king’s favorite home in pieces; he made a list of what he was going to pull off and in what order.

I grew up with boys, I know all about trash talk, psyching the other guy out or whatever, but this was another level entirely. I glanced up at Alex; his face was a calm, still mask.

Tear him apart. Scatter the pieces.

I was looking right at him. Although I’d definitely heard his voice – low and threatening but his for sure – saying horrible things about his plans for Nicholas and anyone else They were dim-witted enough to send for me, his lips did not move. I must have made some little noise because he glanced back at me. I heard him think,
I should let her kill him. She deserves to be the one to end his foul life
just as if he’d spoken aloud.

 “You are losing your touch.” My head snapped up at the sound of Nicholas’s cold voice. “Look how close I got. I could take her right now. I could be on her before you raised a hand to stop me.”

“Try it, if you like. Let’s see who ends up with the princess and who ends up dead.”

Nicholas turned to me, pushing the sunglasses up on to his head as he did. He squinted; the glare was bothering his eyes but he could see me better without the dark lenses.

“Look at her, Alexander,” he cried. “Look at her eyes! Her hair! She isn’t one of you.”

My hands went self-consciously to my hair, tugging the dark mass into a loose bun on top of my head.

Nicholas was thinking how disappointed he was that he probably wouldn’t get to kill me. He’d settle for bringing me to Daniel alive—that would have to be enough. I could hear him calculating the number of steps between us, measuring the distance in terms of seconds. He was wondering if he could make it. Thinking of the reception waiting for him at home if he returned with me. He decided it would be worth the risk.

“Alex?” I said nervously.

“She is one of us,” Alex snarled. “She’s mine.”

“I suppose that means you won’t just hand her over to me?” He didn’t wait for a response. “I’ll just have to catch her the way I did the others. It’s no bother really. It wasn’t terribly hard to do.”

This is the man who killed my sisters.
All the air went rushing out of my body.
He’s joking about killing them
.

Alex scoffed. “Three successes in thousands of attempts hardly win you bragging rights, rabbit. I would think you’d be embarrassed to call attention to how often you’ve failed. How many of They have Bennett’s boys put in the ground? A hundred, closer to two? Daniel must be very unhappy with you.”

Nicholas’ eyes narrowed. “King Daniel has great faith in my skills.”

“However misplaced,” Alex said, with a shrug.

“Let’s not bicker anymore. I have a message for your princess from Daniel.”

I got to my feet, holding my head high. “Say it then, and go.”

“You didn’t tell me she was so…spunky,” he mocked. “You’re going to be more fun than your sisters aren’t you?”

Alex snarled and moved forward but I put my hand on his shoulder, stopping him. All the anger and fear I felt was turning into something different, a fury as cold as the graves he’d left my sisters in.

“You have thirty seconds to tell me your king’s message and then I’m going to let him rip you apart.”

“I understand,” Nicholas sneered. “Straight to business then. King Daniel of the kingdom Underneath is very eager to make your acquaintance, Princess. Several times now he has prepared for your arrival only to be disappointed. He was terribly unhappy when those other girls revealed they were not you by choking to death on the dirt. What a tragic waste. And preventable too, if only you had come to him yourself.”

I tried not to show any reaction but I felt like he’d just punched me in the stomach.

“He wishes to invite you to visit him to discuss essential matters of state. He sincerely hopes there will be no more…unpleasantness between his people and yours.”

If murdering my sisters merely qualified as unpleasantness, what would all-out war look like?

“Please consider yourself a welcomed guest,” he said, bowing low before me.

“If you’re done talking, I’ll kill you now,” Alex said calmly.

Nicholas turned his eyes back to Alex. “Try.”

“Wait!” I yelled. Both men turned to me in surprise. “I have a message for your king.”

“Certainly your majesty,” he replied with mock eagerness.

Alex looked at me uncertainly. But I didn’t hesitate; I knew exactly what I wanted to say.

“You may tell him that I will come to see him one day and when I do, I will kill you both. Tell him that he hasn’t even begun to see the ‘unpleasantness’ I am capable of.”

Then they were gone and George was standing next to me. I saw Alex sprinting across the lawn, chasing a white blur I assumed was the Nicholas into the trees.

I don’t think I’d ever seen Francis so angry—which is saying something. He paced back and forth in my living room, swearing and stomping his feet. His face was turning the deep, bright red of a radish. I’m not a doctor, but he seemed dangerously close to stroking out.

Having finished yelling at George and Matthew for abandoning their posts in a time of crisis, he’d moved on to Alex. “We could have lost her today. Do you understand that? He could’ve taken her. She might have died.”