Cassandra's Dilemma (30 page)

Michael’s frustration over her refusal to share any information about the new clients had always been somewhat extreme. She’d thought it a natural power play between them, one she’d been determined to win.

What if it had been far more sinister?

Cassie’s heart ached.

“Domoir.” She rubbed a hand to her chest, over her heart, as though trying to soothe the pain drilling into her. “We need to go to Chicago. Will you take me, please?”

The SUV shifted, neatly crossing the lanes to get onto an exit ramp. They hooked a U-turn under the bridge, and Domoir took them north. The phone jangled into the silence, and Cassie reached into the glove box and took it out. She didn’t recognize the number calling.

It was probably Jacob.

No, it was definitely Jacob.

She flipped it open.

“I am going back to Chicago.”

“Cassie.” The relief in Jacob’s tone was palpable. “Come back. We’ll go with you.”

“We?”

“The Elf and me.”

Cassie sighed, staring out the window but not really looking at the landscape.

“He has a name, Jacob.”

Silence echoed through the line.

“Fine, Helcyon and I will come with you. Just come back, Cassie. I…we’re worried about you.”

“Domoir will protect me.” Guilt flooded her at the presumption, but the SUV’s purring growl told her that he agreed.

“Domoir can only do so much.” Jacob’s tone was neutral. He wasn’t yelling or barking orders at her or taking her with such fervent passion that he left her breathless. The quiet in his voice was so much more dangerous and seductive.

“It will be enough.”

“Dammit, Cassie!” Jacob cut off, and Cassie worried the call dropped, but Helcyon’s voice took her by surprise.

“Cassandra.”

Smooth, hot fire coursed through her, warming the cold places in her soul.

“Jacob and I want to help you. We want to protect you. Let us.”

The impulse to say yes, to rush back to them and tell them everything, was overpowering. But she couldn’t. She wasn’t sure about Michael. She wasn’t positive he was the cause of all this misery. Jacob and Helcyon would kill him.

She knew that for certain.

They both carried death in their eyes.

She had to know before consigning Michael to such a fate.

“I’m sorry, Helcyon.” God, was she ever. “You both deserve so much better than this. But I can’t. I need to see this through.”

“You know who did it.” Worry filtered through the words. “Tell me who.”

“Not until I’m sure.”

Jacob interrupted them. Was she on speakerphone now? “Cassie, do not confront this guy. He’s already tried to kill you three times. You go alone, and he
will
kill you.”

“Jacob’s right, Cassandra. We will meet you in Chicago. Tell me where.” Helcyon’s voice was liquid steel cloaked in velvet. The ache in her head spread to the rest of her body.

Her will faltered.

She wanted to tell them.

She wanted to tell them badly.

“No,” she whispered. “I’ll call you. I promise.” And she hung up the phone before they could say any more.

Silence reigned, and tears slid down her cheeks. She wanted them with her. She did. But not yet.

Not until she was sure.

The radio crackled. Soft music rolled into the car, wrapping around her like a lover’s caress, whispering soft comfort. Domoir wanted her to feel better. She stroked the door lightly and turned her mind toward Chicago and Michael.

* * * *

Lightning forked through the sky, dazzling Cassie’s eyes and leaving a white blur of after burn on her retinas. Swallowing convulsively, Cassie kept walking. The rough ground tripped her feet while the wind blowing from the east yanked on her hair like a dozen tiny hands pulling her back. Rain threatened with big, fat splashes like teardrops soaking through her tank top.

Sparing a look at the dark sky, Cassie pressed on. Michael Wentworth waited for her. Thunder rumbled ominously, rocks grinding on rocks. A hard-edged stone stabbed at the soft underside of her arch, scratching it. Biting her lip at the sting of pain, it seemed all of nature was pitted against her.

The rain poured down as one solitary mass. It beckoned to her, a dark lover promising sanctuary despite the hell raining down upon her. Cassie sucked in a deep breath, buried the pain, and kept walking, bending forward at the waist as the wind tore at her hair and scratched her face with sharp sticks, razor-like leaves, and rain turned to blades.

The lightning flashed, illuminating Michael waiting for her at the lake’s edge.

Chapter Nineteen

Michael Wentworth stood with his back to the lake. If the wind or the rain bothered him, he gave no indication. Michael was a tall, lean man. Like Jacob and Helcyon, he edged over the six-foot mark. His hair was a rusty brown, shot through with gray at the temples. His deep-brown eyes always seemed a bit sad to Cassie, but in the half-darkness of the storm, they appeared cold and remote.

Five paces shy of him, she stopped. The wind shoved at her back, but she held her ground. Her rumpled T-shirt, plastered to her chest, and oversized sweatpants were in stark contrast to his midnight-black dress suit and overcoat. He was a man dressed for business, and she looked like a bag lady.

She’d practiced what she was going to say all the way into Chicago. She didn’t know how Domoir did it, but they were in the city within two hours of making the decision, crossing the distance in far less time than it had taken them to escape. She supposed it had something to do with Domoir’s Fae origins. If she survived this, she made a mental note to ask him.

“Cassie!” Michael started toward her when she stopped but halted when she held up a hand. The concern and confusion on his face appeared genuine.

But a lot of things looked like they weren’t. She’d learned that hard lesson over the last few days. It was one she never intended to forget again. Her eyes narrowed on Michael.

Her mentor.

Her partner.

Her
friend
.

“Why?” It was at the crux of everything. It was the answer she needed most. The edges around Michael’s face were fuzzy and shimmered. In those few seconds, his concern and compassion were replaced with cold calculation. If she hadn’t been watching for it, she would have missed it.

Disappointment tied a noose around her soul.

“You impress me, Cassandra. Your exposure was so brief, but you figured it out anyway.” Michael’s face hardened, the lines around his mouth growing grim. “I didn’t see you as the threat. I should have. You were the prize all along. But alas, hindsight is always twenty-twenty.”

“My family?”

“Collateral damage.” He shrugged off their deaths as though an unfortunate storm like the one pouring down on them. “I thought the death of her child would bring her to the surface, but the Danae has ever been a coldhearted bitch.”

Rage blossomed in Cassie’s stomach. Her fingers curled into the palms of her hands, and she dug her nails in. It wasn’t enough. It didn’t explain it. “But why? Why are you after the Danae? Why
my
family? Why
Billy?
He was your
friend!”

“He was a servant. He served a purpose. Your family should have been enough of a lure. You can lay that blame on the Danae bitch’s shoulders. If she’d given a damn about her child, the rest would have been unnecessary.” How had she never seen his coldness? The ruthless violence that boiled just beneath the surface, peeling away the civilized veneer she’d always associated with him. How had she never seen it?

“It’s called scotoma. The mind sees what it wants to see, Cassandra. You’ve always seen the beauty in everything. You’ve coaxed it into existence, even when it wasn’t there. I should have realized that the first day I met you. For the first time in two hundred years, I felt hope.” Michael spat the last word on the ground, letting the rain wash it away as though it fouled. “You were a beacon, a shining beacon, and where you went, the world followed. But you didn’t see it. You never saw the effect you had on others.”

Lightning split the sky. Cassie flinched away from the brightness burning her eyes. The flinch was a mistake because Michael appeared in front of her, moving with an impossible speed.

No. Not impossible.

He moved like Jacob.

Who moved like Helcyon.

One Fae and one fathered by the Fae.

“You’re a Wizard.” The revelation burned on her tongue, tasting of clean, clear truth.

Michael’s fingers bit into her arms as he hauled her forward. The smell of wet cabbage, old refuse, and acrid bile filled her lungs. If nothing else confessed the truth of Michael’s villainy, his scent roared his guilt.

“Damn, your eyes!” He stared at her, wonder mingling with fury. “In front of me all this time. In my hands. And nearly in my bed.”

The last words struck her like blows. Just a little over a year before, drunk on the success of a new launch, they’d kissed. It was a kiss of congratulations. A kiss of cheer. It turned into a surprisingly passionate demand on Michael’s part. A demand that left her cold.

She’d refused him that night.

Michael threw his head back and laughed, the inhuman sound rattling her to her bones.

“God favors fools and small children. And apparently you, Cassandra. But I know your secret now.” His voice changed, his fingers digging into her arms in a mockery of a caress. Michael jerked her forward, drowning her in the foulness of his stink. It fuzzed on her tongue, coating her throat, and suffocated her.

But that wasn’t the worst of it.

The worst of it was the evident desire pressing hard against her belly.

“Let go of me.” Cassie shoved her hands to his chest, earning a small respite from the intimate contact. Coldness numbed her fingers, tingling through her hands and dancing up her arms, like ice slithering along her body. She thought immediately of the snake burrowing into her chest, thrusting into her heart.

No!

Cassie slammed her foot down on his, but her cheap plastic shoes were no match for what she realized were steel-toe boots. Michael laughed and jerked her upward. The strength surprised her, even when it shouldn’t have. Jacob and Helcyon both carried her with no effort. The coldness slipped across her shoulders, caressing her throat and then delving down to swipe across her breasts.

“Can’t you feel it, Cassie?” Michael laughed, and it was a dark, hollow sound ringing with madness.

“Feel what?” She regretted asking the question.

Michael’s mouth seized hers, and it wasn’t with passion or affection but invasion and power. His taste filled her senses, choking her. Slime slithered down her throat, darkness bleeding into her vision, and Cassie struggled, pent-up rage fanning fires in her belly.

His laughter stabbed at her as his tongue swiped the inside of her lip. She bit down, hard, and blood burned like rusted iron. The blackness swirled into her belly, curdling her stomach. Her gorge rose, and Michael arched his head away as she lurched sideways,

She collapsed to her knees, vomiting. But Michael didn’t let her escape. Instead, his hand dug into her hair, and he pulled her face to his thigh, stroking her like a pet. Gray light filmed her vision. The water lashing at the shore called to her, and Cassie struck out for it. Michael’s hand wrenched her hair backward, holding her away from the water. Thunder rumbled over the water, lightning striking the surface and sending a geyser skyward.