Eliana (5 page)

“It’s not a hotel, exactly.”

The man was going to drive her mad. “Then what is it, exactly?”

“It’s a retreat, of sorts. A safe place for people to come when they’re ill or injured or need to escape from the world for a while.”

“I’m not running away from anything.”

“So where are you running to?”

Her fingers curled into fists. Any more of this and she’d have an aneurism to go with her sore hip. “Look. All I want are directions to the bus stop.”

Arms crossed, Kon leaned against the back of the couch, lips curled in what looked like delight. “If you had money to buy a ticket—which you don’t—where would you go?”

“It’s none of your damn business.”

“It is, if I’m going to drive you there.”

“You’re going to drive me to South Dakota?” Immediately she wished she hadn’t said so much.
Bastard.

“If that’s what you want. It’s only about six hours.”

“Forget it.” She grasped the head of her new cane, shaped like an eagle’s head. It fit into her palm as if made especially for her.

But before she made it three steps, he gripped her upper arms. “Eliana.” He switched to Spanish, strangely accented yet melodic and smooth. “Wherever you’re trying to go, it can wait one more day. Stay here. Rest. I’ll get some room service sent up. You’re tired and far too thin.”

His touch, impossibly warm and tender, both frightened and aroused her. “Let go of me before I break your hands with my new toy.”

He released her, though he was more amused than cowed. “Stay. Talk to Doc Jensen. I’m sure she’ll find a way to help you.”

She wondered briefly what the doctor would think of her if she said she’d seen a man melting away like the Wicked Witch of the West. “I don’t have any money.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

But it did. She hated charity. If she couldn’t earn it, she didn’t want it. “There isn’t anything they can do.”

“Let them try. Please.”

Damn the man. He doesn’t give up
. She jammed the head of her cane into his chest. “No. And don’t you dare ask again. No more doctors. No more hospitals. If you’re that desperate to do something for me, bring me breakfast. Eggs, bacon, and a stack of pancakes dripping with maple syrup.” She would have preferred chorizo and eggs, but she didn’t trust Mexican food this far from the border.

“
Si
, señorita.” He bowed.

She watched him leave, too stunned to remember her determination to find the bus station.
A few more minutes can’t hurt. Besides, I’m hungry.

* * * *

Kon was on his way back to Eliana’s room, tray in hand, when Evan stopped him just outside the elevator. “Breakfast in bed for Dane?” Evan asked, but his demeanor lacked levity.

“No. For our guest. What’s wrong?”

“Come see me when you’re done. I have some news you need to hear.”

He always hated the way Evan tiptoed around delicate subjects. “Just say it. I need to get back before she disappears on me.”

“I’ll tell you. Later. In my suite.” Evan spun around and left before Kon could ask more questions.

The food that had been tantalizing moments ago now sickened his stomach. He continued toward Eliana’s room and spent the next few steps calming himself. No need for her to see anything was amiss.

She’d taken a seat at the table like a queen, haughty and determined to be waited upon. Seeing that, Kon smiled, fantasizing what it might be like to have her issuing orders of a far different nature.

“Your breakfast, señorita.” He laid out the plates and silverware and set the tray aside before sitting across from her.

“Thank you.” She ate slowly, despite the hunger Kon could sense. “If you’re driving, I want to leave today. As soon as possible.”

Kon glanced out the window. The sun had vanished, replaced by dark gray clouds. “I can’t. I have some business to take care of.”

Her dark gaze held no mercy. “Today or I’m leaving on my own.”

No doubt she’d try to. He’d have to leave word with Evan to have her watched. “Which reservation are you going to?”

She choked on a bite of pancake. “How the hell…?”

“I’m sorry. I looked in your wallet and came to a few conclusions. The children in the photo are your half siblings. Your father is Native American. You’re going to South Dakota, so I’m assuming he’s Lakota. If I may offer a suggestion—”

“I’m not listening.” She stabbed the eggs with her fork.

“There is a place much like this one in Rapid City. I have Lakota friends there. If you’re looking for your family, they’ll be able to help you.”

For a long time, she didn’t answer. Kon could see the turmoil in her face as well as her mind. He knew she hated accepting help, but going door-to-door in search of people who knew John Tall Elk was impractical. She took a sip of orange juice before answering. “I would appreciate that. Thank you.”

“Good. We’ll leave tomorrow. I promise. I’ll find you a coat and some more clothes. When you’re hungry, tell the operator, and someone will bring a tray to your room. I’ll come check on you later. Is there anything else you need for now?”

Distrust leaked from her. He supposed he couldn’t blame her for suspecting him to be a pimp or worse. Neither had she mentioned anything about her run-in with the incubus. Most likely she’d forgotten or was in denial. Either way, he wanted to be available when she was ready to talk.

Kon raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not asking for anything in return. I’m not going to hurt you. No one is. Believe me, even if you don’t trust me.”

She focused on the remaining pancakes and ignored him as he left. Kon took the elevator up a floor and went down the hall to Evan’s suite. He rapped on the door.

“Come in,” Evan said.

Kon entered. To his relief, Evan met him in the outer room instead of the bedroom. Even so, Kon was on edge. “If this is business, we ought to be doing it in your office.”

Evan looked hurt. “This is personal. I thought it would be more comfortable here.”

Comfortable for you, you mean
. A Warden was supposed to be able to trust his superior, but Kon knew Evan too well.
Personal
had too many connotations.

“Sit. Please. Something to drink?”

Kon remained standing. “It’s nine in the morning. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

Evan set a hand on Kon’s arm. He wore that look Kon hated—the one that meant,
I have bad news and please pity me for having to be the one to tell you
. “Viktor Jäger is dead.”

It took all of Kon’s will not to shove Evan away. “Where? How? No one’s told me a damn thing about my father in twenty years.” All he knew was that his father had been under house arrest and guarded by Wardens, allowed to continue his research as long as it wasn’t on living beings.

“Initial report is that he died of natural causes in California, southwest of Bakersfield. You lived there a few months.”

That
house. Kon should have guessed, but even if he had, he wouldn’t have known where to find it. He’d been drugged when he arrived and ill when he left so had no idea where he’d been. “I want to see him.”

“Too late for that. The house has already been inventoried and the body cremated.”

Shock quickly turned to anger. “The Wardens Council took me away from him, and now they think they have the right to go through my father’s things before I do? He’s the only family I have. Didn’t he leave a will?” Not that Kon necessarily wanted anything Viktor had left behind, even money, but the thought of the Wardens being so predatory galled him. “He’s my father. He fucked with my life, and it’s my right to find out what the hell he did to me.”

“I’ve thought so for years, but I wasn’t at liberty to tell you anything even if I knew. If there was a will, it hasn’t been found. I’m sorry.”

And he was. Kon could feel the sympathy and pity dripping like a leaky faucet. “Thanks for telling me. I’d better get back. Dane will be wondering where I am.”

“Let him wait. Here.” Evan grabbed a manila envelope from the table and held it out. “I wasn’t even supposed to tell you he was dead, but one of my contacts on the Warden’s Council let it slip. He also accidentally dropped these papers into the fax machine for me. Supposedly it’s everything the Wardens have collected along with the file your father kept on you.”

Kon was supposed to be grateful for such thoughtfulness.
Ask and ye shall receive
. Only now that he’d gotten the information he’d wanted for years, he wasn’t sure he cared to read it. Kon tucked the folder under his arm. “Thanks again.”

“Aren’t you going to look at it?”

“Later.” He turned to leave.

“Kon.”

Kon tightened his grip on the envelope as Evan swept his hair aside and examined his neck.

“Welts? What the hell did Dane do to you last night?”

He faced Evan. “We got carried away. That’s all. They don’t hurt any worse than a light sunburn.”

But Evan’s expression was hard. His pity changed to outright anger. “I won’t stand for it. I’ve told him before what would happen if he hurt you.”

Kon took a few breaths before answering, reminding himself that Evan was only being suspicious because his lover had died in the company of her cambion, but his overreaction to the slightest sign of potential mistreatment made him hard to deal with. “I’m his Warden. If he does anything I don’t like, I tell him and he stops. If I need your help, I’ll ask.”

“Are you sure? I mean
really
sure?”

Kon just managed to keep the exasperation from his voice. “Is there some reason you think Dane can’t control himself?”

“You’ve been so…tense lately. I can’t help but think it’s the way he treats you.” Evan dug his fingers into Kon’s shoulders. “I can help. Talk to me. It’s my job to listen.”

The weight of Evan’s hands was more disturbing than reassuring. Kon didn’t want the reminder of the nights following Evan’s lover’s death: the long watches throughout the night when Kon had shared his bed to keep him from wandering away and hurting himself. Evan hadn’t quite gotten over having to sleep alone after Dane had come into the picture. “We’re fine. Trust me. I need to get back, all right?”

He hurried out. Clutching the envelope to his chest, he wondered just how much of the file Evan had read.

Chapter Six

Dane didn’t look up from the article he was writing when Kon entered their suite. “How’s your patient this morning?”

There wasn’t an answer. Dane glanced up in time to see Kon wander zombielike into the bedroom. “Kon?” He got up to follow. Kon sat stiffly on the edge of the bed, clutching a manila envelope. His unfocused gaze worried Dane. “Darling, what’s wrong? Did that woman do something to you?”

“No. Evan did.”

Dane had never gotten along with Evan for just that reason—the Chief Warden had a tendency to push Kon’s buttons and then claim he meant well. “What did he tell you?”

“My father’s dead.”

There wasn’t a lot Dane could say to that. Kon never offered information about his childhood or his father, and Dane had learned not to ask after realizing how quickly Kon diverted the conversation. He sat beside Kon, wishing he knew what to do. “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing for you to be sorry about.” He didn’t speak for several long moments. “Evan got this file faxed over. You can read it if you want and see for yourself what a freak I am.”

A quip about how freakish Kon was in bed passed through Dane’s mind, but now wasn’t the time. When his lover was in such a dark mood, even the most kindly meant words could set him off. “I don’t need to.”

Kon shoved the envelope at him. “Read it.”

Dane shoved it back. “This is your life. Not mine. I don’t think it’s right to know things about you before you do.”

A long, pained sigh escaped from Kon. “I’ve wanted this file for twenty years. Now that I have it…”

Dane sat beside him and wrapped his arms around Kon’s trembling shoulders. “We’ll look together, all right? If it’s too much, say so, and I’ll put it away.” He extracted the envelope from Kon’s frozen fingers and withdrew a pile of papers. The first few pages were pictures, most of which were labeled
Viktor Jäger
, Kon’s father. There were numerous photographs of Viktor. The first was of a serious, dark-haired boy, the second a man sharply dressed in the black uniform of a Nazi SS Officer, and the third a corpse of a man newly deceased, wizened and wispy-haired. Dane tried to cover it up, figuring it would be too much for Kon to see, but Kon calmly took it from him.

“He’s really dead, isn’t he?” After studying the picture for a few moments, he sighed and returned it. “Every year I asked the Warden’s Council to tell me where he was. They refused. Bastards.”

Dane didn’t care much for the Warden’s Council either. They were far too fond of making up rules and regulations and claiming they were for the good of the persons involved. “Will you tell me about him?” He didn’t have much hope Kon would talk, but to his surprise, Kon did.

“He was brilliant. We’d talk for hours in two or three different languages. By the time I was fourteen, I was fluent in a half dozen and had the equivalent of a college education.” His voice was composed, but Dane knew it covered Kon’s shock. “He never stopped searching for a cure for the syndrome.”

That part of Kon’s life had never been a secret. Everyone at the enclave knew how he’d been born a cambion, the result of his Nazi father’s experiment, and affected with a deadly syndrome in which, upon reaching puberty, his demon and human halves would fight to the death. His father had given him drugs to halt puberty, which had resulted in his androgynous appearance. Two other Wardens had managed to remove the demon and save his life, but Kon had been removed from his father’s care and not allowed to communicate with him at all.

While Kon talked, Dane paged through the file and couldn’t help but wonder how much denial Kon was in. He idolized his father, but Dane hadn’t seen anything yet pointing to Viktor having any redeemable qualities. Even though much of the file was in German, Dane recognized arrest warrants and criminal profiles. Kon didn’t seem to see them.