Cassandra's Dilemma (15 page)

The car rocked as Jacob, no, not Jacob, Book slid into the driver’s seat next to her and slammed his door. She needed to think of him by his last name. She needed that distance. Hostility flared so easily between the men. He smelled different from Helcyon. He felt different to her other senses, too. Where Hels was ephemeral, transparent, and deceptively fragile, Book was solid, hard, and very tangible.

Hels was the wind. Book was the stone cliff.

What does that make me?

The car started, and warm air blasted from the fans, cooling rapidly against her fevered skin. Hels’s fingers dug into her shoulders. She lifted a battered hand to cover his, both offering and seeking comfort. It was hard to believe that just a few hours before they were tangled in the sheets of her bed in California.

She sighed. Those few stolen moments seemed so very far away.

“Where are we going?” she asked into the silence.

“Somewhere secure,” Book replied. “I am tired of the Feth Felen appearing everywhere you do, and I have yet to figure out how they are tracking you—”

“If they are tracking her,” Helcyon interrupted. “You have also been present at most of the attacks.”

“Not at my house.” Cassie frowned, squeezing Helcyon’s hand. “Agent Book was not there.” He wasn’t behind any of it. He may have an agenda, but then everyone did. She wasn’t so naïve that she didn’t understand that. Whatever his agenda was, however, it did not involve hurting her.

Cassie would stake her life on it.

“But that is an obvious location to reacquire you,
if
you are the actual target.” Despite her own ardent defense, Book didn’t appear bothered by Helcyon’s suggestion.

“It
took
you today, but it did not kill you.” Ferocity lurked in Book’s quiet tone. He was as affected by their odd connection as she was. “This means it wants you for something. Killing you isn’t the immediate goal.” The car picked up speed.

Cassie leaned back in the seat. She was so damn tired. “Is that supposed to comfort me?”

The air conditioning in the car felt chilly, but she wanted the goose bumps on her arms. With her eyes closed, she could pretend that she wasn’t blind. She could pretend that she was out for a ride with a couple of friends.

The perfumed air tasted of orchids and cinnamon mingled with sandalwood and cloves. It filled her lungs, lulling her, as though the scents could embrace her. “Stop it,” she murmured.

“Stop what?” Concern etched into Book’s voice.

“Stop trying to soothe me.” Cassie squeezed Helcyon’s hand gently before pushing it away. “I need to be focused, and you can’t make me want something else.”

Laughter erupted behind and next to her.

“What?” she demanded.

“I wasn’t trying to soothe you, Cassandra.” Helcyon belied his words with a cajoling tone of voice. “I promise you. I was—I am worried about you. You are a mess. You cannot see. You have scrapes on your hands, arms, and elbows. Your shirt is torn, as are your pants, and your hair had a spider in it.”

Cassie shot a hand up to her hair, running her fingers through the snarls as both men chuckled again. “I’m glad the two of you find this so funny.”

“Sorry,” Book muttered, contrite. “But the Elf wasn’t trying to glamour you—he can’t even if he was trying.”

“I thought that—” She hesitated finishing the thought. She didn’t want to offend Helcyon, but Silver’s warning about the dangers of meeting their gazes and their natural proclivities hummed in the back of her mind. She grabbed the door as the SUV bounced over an uneven piece of road.

“Cassandra, I would not compel you against your will, even to comfort you. The blindness would hinder that compulsion right now, anyway. Your survival instincts are fully engaged.” Helcyon leaned on the back of her seat, careful not to touch her.

“Against my will? And you’ve put me to sleep what, three times now? How was that not glamouring me against my will?”

“Healing sleep is not glamour,” the Elf protested.

Great, now I’m thinking of him as the Elf, too. Thanks, Book.
Regret colored her pique, but she waited, waited for Book to confirm or deny Helcyon’s assertions. His sigh made her feel better. It was obvious that Book didn’t want to agree with Helcyon.

“Healing sleep is necessary, and when it is, it’s not hard to nudge the mind over the precipice and take advantage of it. Magic healing can wear the body out rapidly if you don’t rest—you build up sleep toxins, and too much sleep toxin in your system and you can collapse. So healing sleep prevents that,” Book all but grumbled.

“So I can avoid the glamours but not the effects of magic?”

“No one is immune to magic.” Helcyon’s chin must have rested on the seat. His voice remained very close to her ear, yet he was not touching her anymore. “Magic exists in everyone and everything.”

“Like the Force?” Skepticism laced her tone.

“Like the Force before midi-chlorians.” Book chuckled. Cassie smiled at the sound. She enjoyed the lightening of his tone. “Magic isn’t some microscopic organism. Magic is the thread that binds the universe together. Without magic, there would be no gravity, no air, no plants, nothing to keep us all touching, feeling, and communicating.”

“So magic is like God.” The road beneath the SUV must have smoothed, because the gentle ride combined with the warm, masculine voices lulled her.

“No. God is magic, and magic is God. The gods of old were merely expressions of nature’s magic, the power inherent to our world, our plane of existence. God is a manifestation of that magic—”

Cassie yawned, rolling her head against the seat to turn her face toward Book. She may not be able to see him, but she tried to picture his facial expressions. “So magic is sentient?”

“To a point,” Helcyon interjected. “Magic can shape or be used to shape. When we believe in something, we can give that magic shape and form.”

“So you’re saying that
God
is a manifestation of our will?”

“The collective will of the people, growing in strength as faith and belief in him grows, as the power of the old gods dwindled as faith and belief in them dwindled,” Helcyon replied, calm and matter-of-fact.

“Agent Book?”

“Jacob.” His voice was husky in the quiet confines of the vehicle. The SUV was slowing down. Cassie squinted because a glimmer of light appeared in her own darkness, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. “Call me Jacob.”

“Jacob.” The name slipped from her lips like a caress. Cassie shivered. It conjured images of the man and not his badge.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Do you believe what Helcyon said about God, Jacob?”

Jacob sighed into the silence, stopping the car and putting it into park. He shut off the engine, the sound of his door opening a low thud of thunder in their personal airspace. “I have seen God, I have heard God, and I have felt God. But what I believe to be God may not be what you believe to be God.”

The door closed on any further conversation. She reached for her own seat belt, unsnapping it as the door next to her opened.

“I have her,” Helcyon said in a swift voice. His arm closed around her shoulders, tugging her from the vehicle. He shrouded her, like a comforting cloak thrown on for protection. “Do you wish to be carried?”

“Not particularly!” She did let him guide her across the gravel to a wooden walkway and then across to a stone path. She paused, smelling pines and woods, even a hint of freshly mown grass. “Where are we?” The only sounds reaching her ears were the cooling
ping
of the warm engine, the wind rustling in the trees, and a bird’s lazy cry from far overhead.

“My home in this city.” Jacob was some distance ahead of her by the sound of his voice.

“What if it follows me here?” After all, the Feth Felen had followed her home. It had destroyed the beautiful bay windows and wreaked havoc on her kitchen. She didn’t want to invite such disaster on Jacob, no matter if he was a Homeland Security agent or Wizard or whatever else.

“Cassandra.” Helcyon nudged her forward. “I do not want you out in the open.”

“But.” Cassie twisted as though to argue when steps thudded up next to her and an arm swept her legs up and cradled her body to a solid chest. “Wait!”

“Cassie, I want you safe. My home is safe. You’re going inside now, and you can argue, debate, and vote on anything you want. Inside.” Book was already striding forward, bouncing her lightly with each step, and she wrapped her arms around his neck to keep from flopping back like a fish. He ascended three steps, and the door opened. The rich, musky scent of cloves and sandalwood washed out to wrap around her.

She inhaled deeply, her body going soft and wanting as the wholly masculine scent of his home wrapped around her. A half-muttered oath startled her, and she held tight as Jacob swung around.

“Oh, did I forget to mention that it’s warded, Elf?” Jacob’s voice carried a wide grin in it. “And you’re not invited in.”

“Wizard.” The growled word barely sounded like her Helcyon.

“Ta ta now. Buh-bye.” The door slammed, closing off whatever it was that Helcyon might have said in response. They were alone, and she was in the arms of the Wizard.

“Jacob?” Her uncomfortable uncertainty echoed in his name.

“It’s better this way, Cassie. I promise. I just want you to hear me out, first. All right?”

She thought he would put her down, but he started walking and shifted her against him, cradling her closer. The scent of him drenched the air, and his heart thudded against her breast.

“I’ll listen.” Cassie wondered if she would regret the decision, but his hair tickling her fingers, his breath caressing her cheek, his heartbeat tempting her breast were more persuasive than her fear.

Chapter Ten

Jacob carried her through the house. She wished she could see it. A man’s house said a lot about his personality. Did he like dark colors? Did he like light? Was he a leather-furniture man? Or was he more likely to have a futon and some fold-up chairs?

“Jacob?” The name was a whisper on her lips. He was climbing the stairs and snuggled her more firmly to his chest. She tipped her head, hopefully looking somewhere in the vicinity of his face.

“Yes?”

“Cassie?” he prodded as they stopped climbing and he shifted sideways, presumably to slide through a door.

“I thought we were going to talk.” How he made her name sound like a smile befuddled her, and she forgot for a moment that she’d started this line of dialogue.

“Oh, we are.” Was he smiling?

She hated this blindness. She wanted to see his face, read the emotions on it. Her fingers slipped up to his hair as he stopped moving, and she explored where it touched the collar of his shirt.

“But?” she pressed.

“But what?” He settled her on a counter. The cold tile was a shock after the warmth of his body. Chilled, she leaned instinctively toward him. He nudged her thighs apart and stepped up to her, pulling her into an embrace that wrapped her back up in his delicious heat.

“But why are we upstairs?” He’d removed his jacket. She could feel the silkiness of his tie and shirt where it rubbed against her cheek. Cassie nestled against it, enjoying the swishing sensation and noise of the friction between shirt and flesh.

Jacob sucked in a breath as she found a button and lifted a hand curiously to explore it. It was in the center of his chest. But it wasn’t undone until she toyed with it. “Because we needed a shower,” he murmured. “You definitely need to get the dirt and debris out of those scrapes, and I thought after the spider incident, you’d want to wash your—”