The Cursed (League of the Black Swan) (8 page)

“He wanted her for some kind of ritual,” Rio said. “Something dark—Old Magic. Are you sure she doesn’t have any magical abilities that would make her a target for this?”

Merelith rounded on her and all but pounced. “How would you know what he wanted her for?”

“She heard his thoughts,” Luke said, before Rio could think of a response.

“Or she heard what he intended for her to hear,” Merelith said bitingly. “It is no small matter to deceive a person with a trifling talent for mind reading.”

Rio clamped her jaw shut. Yelling at Luke that he had no business telling the Fae any of
hers
wouldn’t help, and Merelith would only be ruder if she knew her barbs were affecting Rio in any way.

Merelith’s expression changed subtly. Her eyes widened just the tiniest bit, but the emotion fell away from the rest of her face. “And can you read my thoughts?”

Rio held up her hands, shaking her head. “No. I can’t read High Court Fae thoughts, or those of most demons, or Luke’s, for that matter. It is, as you pointed out, a
trifling
talent. And I only got glimpses of what the kidnapper was thinking, but he has bad plans for the girl and, whether she’s your niece or not, we need to find her. He was thinking moonrise, so she’s safe for a while now, but we don’t have time to spare.”

Luke suddenly yanked one of the bar stools closer to him and collapsed onto it. “I’m glad we have a little time because our plans may need to wait until I get some rest. That venom isn’t completely out of my system.”

Merelith raised an eyebrow, and Rio explained.

“I cannot help you with the aftereffects of Grendel venom. You may rest for five hours, and then I expect you to continue to pursue your contacts and
find my niece
,” the Fae said, turning to leave. “I have ordered every member of my court over whom I have any influence at all to search. Between us, we will find her.”

“We’ll find her,” Rio said, as much to convince herself as to reassure Merelith.

The icy blonde whirled around, her hair floating as if she stood in the middle of a gale-force wind. “But I have already found
you
, so that is an interesting development, is it not?”

Before Rio could reply, Merelith had gone, the door slamming shut behind her.

Rio shook her head. “She’s not really the delicate flower that you expect of a High Court lady, is she?”

Luke laughed, but the sound was brief and underscored with pain and exhaustion. “Definitely not. Rio, I think I’m going to need your help to make it to bed.”

She glanced at him. “From anybody else, I’d think that was a line. You know that, right?”

Luke’s eyes flashed hot. “Give me a chance, later. You might be surprised.”

Choosing not to examine that too closely, Rio put her arm around his waist and together they slowly made their way down the hall to the first room on the right. She told herself that he probably didn’t even notice taking her hand, or the electric charge that jumped from his skin to hers.

She noticed enough for both of them.

“At least you’re not limping,” he said from between clenched teeth. “Who says the Fae are inbred, good-for-nothing pains in the ass?”

Rio laughed a little. “She healed my ankle completely.”

“Better that you hadn’t said thank you, though,” Luke muttered. “Who knows what she’ll feel entitled to now?”

“I’ve done my fair share of tough negotiations in my life, Luke. I was raised by nuns,” Rio said grimly.

Luke grinned, probably thinking she was kidding. Ha. If he only knew. Nuns could be scary. Especially in Bordertown.

Rio had an impression of rich colors and clean lines in the shadowed darkness of Luke’s bedroom, and then he was pitching forward onto his pillows, still clasping her hand tightly in his.

“Luke?” Rio tried to extricate her fingers, but he had her in an iron grip.

“Stay with me? Please?” he whispered. “We’re going to find Elisabeth. I promise you. But now I need to keep you safe. Need—”

She waited, but the end of the sentence never came. Whatever else he needed would have to wait until he woke up. His hold on her hand loosened a little, but not by much. It didn’t take long for Rio to consider her options and decide on the only one that made any sense.

She climbed up on the bed and curled up next to Luke, wondering at the direction her life had taken. Not quite twenty-four hours earlier, she’d woken up alone in her apartment, ready for another mundane day of delivering other people’s news. In that short space of time, she’d witnessed an abduction, staved off an attack by Grendels, demanded help from the Dark Wizard of Bordertown, and confronted a High Court Fae.

No matter what happened to her next, she could never again claim that she spent her life standing on the outside of other people’s lives and adventures. Now she just had to decide whether that was a good thing.

Luke stretched in his sleep, still holding her hand, and then rolled onto his side, pulling her against him. Every nerve ending in her body lit up like the blue flames that had danced along his fingertips earlier, and it took several minutes of listening to Luke’s slow, even breaths for her to relax. As her own exhaustion pulled her down into sleep, Rio smiled a little. Good, bad, who cared? At least this time it was
her
life that was interesting.

“Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we confront a Pict king over a Fae child,” she murmured. “Oh, Rio, what have you gotten yourself into?”

Luke, wrapped around her in a soundly sleeping embrace of heat and muscle, didn’t answer, so Rio let go of all her worries for just a little while and fell asleep in the arms of the most dangerous man in Bordertown.

Funny, how it felt so very right.

Luke woke up like he usually did—all at once, gasping for air like a drowning man breaking the surface of the ocean after going under twice. But this time, something was different. The terror was muted, and it quickly receded to a manageable thrum just under the surface of his skin. As if whatever horror had haunted his sleep for hundreds of years was confused . . . or had been defeated.

Defeated by the almost-human woman sleeping in his arms.

He resisted the urge to touch Rio’s silken hair, knowing that the slightest movement might wake her, and she’d probably jump away from him the second her eyes opened. So, instead, he stole the moment from her, luxuriating in the feel of her softness against his body and pretending she belonged there.

Next to him.

He’d followed her for a while, back when she’d invited him for coffee. After he’d instinctively recoiled from the certainty that here, finally, was a woman who would breach his defenses. He’d built those defenses carefully, damn it. Brick by brick, decade by decade—all spent avoiding entanglement with anyone he might care enough about to risk activating the curse. Killing someone in a jealousy-driven rage would certainly do it, and he’d wondered exactly what he would do to protect a woman like Rio.

Or, more to the point, what
wouldn’t
he do?

He’d learned on the third evening of stalking her nights just how bad it could have become. A man had accosted Rio at the Roadhouse, and if Miro hadn’t intervened when he had, Luke might have burned down the entire building and everyone in it. He owed the big ogre for more than Miro knew. But now—now Luke had Rio in his arms, exactly where he’d sworn she’d never be, and he knew, deep,
deep
in his soul, that he had no intention of ever letting her go. It didn’t make sense, but after centuries of living under the threat of a curse, he’d learned that nothing that mattered ever seemed to make sense at first. It just
was
.

Her courage in the face of everything she’d had to face the night before, her sense of humor—oh, yeah. Life was about to get very interesting.

“You’re smiling again,” Rio said, startling him.

“Hey. I was just about to wake you—” he began, but he let the lie fade away when she flashed an amused grin.

“No, you weren’t. You’ve been—” Rio’s amber-flecked eyes widened, and she abruptly moved away from him and sat up. “We—you—I was exhausted, and you wouldn’t let go of my hand, so I—”

He fought his instincts and won, letting her go. “Yeah. Sorry about that. Exhaustion and Grendel venom is a bad mix. I’m back to normal now.”

She stepped lightly off the bed, looking around almost frantically. “Um—”

“Through there,” he said, pointing to the bathroom door and then watching while she fled.

She could face down Grendels and a Fae princess, but pillow talk scared her. Even as it made him grin, he had to admit to himself that he was pretty much the same. Flirting, romance, and tenderness—what did he know of any of those? Not enough to attract Rio, certainly.

Not enough to attract a woman who’d been living on a deserted island for five years, either, probably.

He threw off both his self-imposed melancholy and the blanket she must have draped over him and stood up and stretched. His balance was restored, and he didn’t feel any aftereffects from the venom, thankfully. So now it was time to go find that little girl.

His bedside phone rang, and he stared at it for a beat before answering. Two rings. Three. Nobody ever called him on that line with good news. He listened to the sound of water splashing in his bathroom sink for a moment, and then he sighed and reached for the phone.

“Oliver.”

“This is Brock Dalriata. One of my associates mistakenly acquired a child yesterday, and I understand that you’re the man to help out with situations like this.” The man’s voice was low and gravelly, hinting of murky swamps and murderous intent.

Or maybe Luke just needed some damn coffee.

“Is ‘acquired a child’ code for
kidnapped
where you come from, Dalriata?” Luke snarled. “I don’t have much use for people who hurt children. Ask around Bordertown, and you’ll find out what happens to people when I don’t have much use for them.”

Dalriata laughed. “Oh, I know who you are. I also know you’ve been approached on multiple occasions about becoming the sheriff, and you’ve consistently declined, so other people’s welfare isn’t exactly the most important thing on your mind, is it? Perhaps you could spare me the righteous indignation, and let’s arrange a meeting. I don’t care to have this child in my custody a single moment longer than necessary.”

“She’s Fae,” Luke said flatly. “Call the High Court.”

Silence.

“She’s not. She’s human, or maybe a Halfling bastard, but she’s not a purebred Fae,” Dalriata said finally, the slightest hint of unease lacing his tone.

Luke closed his eyes and imagined reaching through the phone to rip the asshole’s throat out, which calmed him down enough to speak. Before he could say anything, though, the door to the bathroom opened and Rio hesitantly walked out.

“It’s the man who has Elisabeth,” he told her. “He wants to meet.”

She immediately sat on the floor and started putting on her shoes. “When and where?”

Luke repeated her question into the phone.

“My offices. Eighty-three West Hyde. Thirty minutes.”

“Let me talk to the girl,” Luke said. “Now.”

“She’s fine. I believe she’s eating breakfast. Either come now, or I’ll put her in a taxi to the Silver Palace and they can deal with her.”

Dalriata hung up, and Luke slammed the phone down.

“We’re leaving now?” Rio jumped up and pushed her hair back from her face. “Where is she?”

“No,
we’re
not leaving now,” Luke snapped. “
I’m
leaving now. I have no idea what kind of muscle this Dalriata has, but the kind of person who has Grendels
on staff
is not somebody I’m willing to let get anywhere near you.”

Rio’s eyes narrowed and she planted her fists on her hips. “Did you just say—wait. Dalriata? He’s really taking this Pictish king thing seriously, isn’t he?”

Luke shook his head, baffled.

“Dalriata? Dal Riata? Irish colony in Scotland way back when?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’re a Gaelic scholar, too?”

“Hey, I read, all right? Just because I’m a bike messenger who never made it through college doesn’t mean I’m stupid,” she said, flushing a hot red. “It was too hard to be in classrooms with all of those minds shouting at me.”