Dane (33 page)

“Which is what brought you to me that first night,” he surmised, now tracing feminine folds still slippery with his leavings, and finding more of himself on the insides of her thighs.

She nodded, flushing under the effort of pretending to ignore the fact that he had begun painting moisture in soft swirls over her still-trembling clit. “Where did you find the ones you sent me that day with your payment?”

“Near the temple at the northern corner of my property. Why?”

“I‟ll have to gather some and try my hand at making the powder myself, for I will need to resume taking it tomorrow.”She encircled his wrist as his touch on her turned more carnal. “Dane!”

He leaned close and his beak of a nose nuzzled the hollow of her throat where an Else‟s scent was most intense. “I prefer you like this.

Your taste and scent as natural as the Gods intended. It makes me wild to have you again.”And then his body was covering hers and he proceeded to show her just how wild she in fact made him.

Eva woke sometime close to dawn to see him standing at the window. Something about his melancholy stance made her sit up and call to him, “Dane?”

He shook his head and turned, meeting her eyes. “No.”

She tugged the covers higher over her breast. Not Dane. But this wasn‟t Dante either. It was the other one who had come in the study that afternoon just before his leave-taking. The one with the moody gray aura.

She hadn‟t known what he was then, but now. . ”Daniel?”

He nodded, his expression intense, urgent. “Tell him. Bona Dea.

You must tell him.”

And then his demeanor and aura altered, and he was Dane again.

He ran a hand over his overnight beard, looking surprised to find himself at the window. “Damn it‟s chilly.” He slipped into the bed, his arms sliding around her.

She wrapped her own around him. “Something happened just now,”

she told him. He looked at her, alert with tension.

As she went on to explain what he‟d said, panic filled his face, a raw terror come and gone in a flash. “Bona Dea. The goddess?” he asked.

“What sort of warning is that?”

“I don‟t know. But there‟s something else. When you left me that first morning in my study, you—Daniel—mentioned her then as well. I‟m sorry I didn‟t tell you before. I didn‟t realize it was important.”

He fell on his back among the covers. “Maybe this has something to do with Luc, or maybe it‟s simply madness.”

“You are not mad!”She followed him down and kissed him then, passionless, caring kisses meant to heal. They heated somewhere along the way, and soon he was pulling her over him and filling her again with the delicious warmth of his seed.

His arms around her, Dane lay awake until dawn, afraid that if he slept again he might lose himself, his brothers, or her in his nightmares.

18

The next morning, Eva froze on the front stairs listening to Dane and his brother lock horns in the salon below. They‟d obviously been at it for some time, for Bastian seemed to know everything.

“Aligning yourself with her is too damned dangerous!”Bastian argued with a chilling certainty. “What if the Council discovers that she‟s of satyr blood and that you‟ve harbored her?”

“That won‟t happen!”Dane argued.

“Oh? Yet you discovered her secret in a matter of days! What if she falls ill at some point? Or becomes full with your child and spends her mornings retching as some women do? Fat lot of good her powders will be to her if she can‟t keep them down. You won‟t be able to hide what she is!

She could ruin your chances of finding Luc. Get you locked up again.”

“I won‟t let them shove her into a laboratory to be studied like some fucking animal!”Dane exploded. “I‟ve had enough of their doctors myself to last a lifetime.”

“You don‟t intend to keep her here?”

“I do. She won‟t need the powders forever. An Else female eventually takes on the scent of her mate. Mine will soon mask what she is.”

“You hope. How do you know that will work with her? She‟s an unprecedented phenomenon. None of the usual rules will necessarily apply.” Bastian‟s tone lowered, grew more persuasive. “The Council wants you back, Dane. Desperately. You‟re their prized Tracker. You said yourself the only way they‟ll let you stay here when they find you is if you‟ve followed their rules. Wed a human bride and breed her.”

Eva pressed a hand to her lips in dismay. Dane had come through the gate without permission? She hadn‟t known. It made his position here all the more untenable.

“I‟m going to wed Eva and damn the consequences.”

“Ninety thousand fucking hells, Dane! Don‟t be stupid about this.

I don‟t want to lose you again. No woman is worth that.” The sound of a fist striking a hard surface put the period on Bastian‟s ringing statement.

Behind her, Eva heard Mimi and Lena come skipping down the stairs. Turning, she put a finger to her lips calling for silence, then waved them ahead of her toward the kitchen. Both wore their own dresses now.

Just after dawn, Pinot had rousted Dane‟s brothers out of bed with news of all that had happened, and the three men had gone to Eva‟s townhouse in search of Odette. They hadn‟t found her, but Bastian had come here afterward, bearing a trunk of Eva‟s and the girls‟ clothing, while Sevin and Pinot continued searching for Odette.

Bathed and clothed, Eva had come downstairs just now eagerly seeking Dane, with warm memories of their night together dancing in her head. But the brothers‟ argument had doused those with a bucket of frigid reality.

She took Mimi and Lena‟s hands and the three of them finished the stairs, found a basket of muffins and tea on the kitchen sideboard, and then scampered out the back door. Bastian was right. Her presence here was a danger to Dane and his family. She would have to go, but she couldn‟t bear to think on it yet. First, she would take the girls to explore a bit in the fresh air. She would find her olives and leave it till later to formulate a plan for the future.

In the front salon, Dane grew tired of Bastian‟s coercion and sliced a hand in the air. “Enough! There is something else I need your expertise on. Maybe you can prove yourself more helpful with it than you have been thus far with your asinine orders.” Unfazed by Bastian‟s glower, he went on, “Last night I spoke to Eva in the voice of Daniel, the third personality we all met in Sevin‟s salon.”

Bastian‟s eyes sharpened. “And?”

“And I—Daniel, that is—said: Bona Dea. Tell him. Bona Dea was a goddess. I know that much. But what is the message I‟m to take from this?”

With a concerned frown, Bastian ran through what facts he knew.

“The cult of Bona Dea was vitally important in ancient Rome, but the rites associated with her worship were as much a mystery then as they are now. Her worshippers were solely female. The presence of males at her ceremonies was strictly forbidden. The women even cloaked male statuary before they began.”

“That urn in your tent in the Forum,” Dane prompted. “The man beating the girl.”

“Bona Dea was the daughter of Faunus,” said Bastian. “A man infamous for pursuing an incestuous relationship with her. Mythology has it that he beat her with sticks of myrtle and got her drunk on wine, hoping to have his way.”

“That‟s it?”asked Dane.

“Not much more is known. Does any of it mean anything to you?

Evoke any memories?”

Dane rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. “Not a damn one.”

“There are more detailed references to the cult in the texts in my office. I‟ll go and return with any news. You‟ll be here?”

“I‟ll be here. With Eva.”

Muttering something dire about obstinance and asses, Bastian headed for the door.

Meanwhile, Eva and her girls were exploring the temple that stood in the grove. With the help of Fantine‟s journal, which she‟d brought in her pocket, it had been a simple matter for Eva to locate it. For it was the one landmark her mother had managed to clearly map.

“It‟s cleaner than the house,” Lena pronounced.

“And smaller, like a little castle or a playhouse!” agreed Mimi.

Both girls were right. The temple was, in fact, a charming, gleaming white circular structure with a portico around a partially enclosed central area. But it was the trees surrounding it that Eva had come for. They had an otherworldly look—their bark like silvered satin, their branches gnarled, their olives plump and perfect.

Emptying the crumbs left from the muffins, she began filling the basket she‟d brought with olives. If they must leave Rome soon, she would need to take as many of the pits as she could with her, in order to make her powders.

The brilliant mosaic on one wall of the temple had fascinated Mimi and Lena, but Lena eventually came to sit among the roots at the base of a tree near Eva, drawing in a sketchbook Pinot had included in their trunk.

Mimi hardly noticed and was concocting a fantastical adventure in which the temple featured prominently. “This can be the palace,” she was saying. “And this is the playroom where I play because I‟m the princess and.. Look! There‟s the queen.”

“Well, aren‟t you a pretty little thing? What‟s your name?”asked a refined feminine voice.

“Princess Mimi.”

Eva whipped around, shocked to see Serafina and Gaetano. Dane had bespelled his land against intruders, yet here they stood in the temple on either side of Mimi! A tall, rectangular portion of the wall mosaic had been turned and now stood at an angle, revealing itself to be a door. And beyond it a dark tunnel yawned into a seemingly infinite darkness. Fear flared in her, for there was something sinister about mother and son now.

Her first impulse was to run to Mimi, but then she remembered Lena, who was obscured from their view by the tree trunk. “Don‟t move.

Stay quiet,” she whispered between clenched teeth, hoping Lena wouldn‟t choose this moment to turn disobedient.

“Are you really a queen?” she heard Mimi ask in her clear, innocent voice.

“Yes, how did you guess?” said Serafina.

“Come here, Mimi,” said Eva as she warily neared the trio in the temple. Pushing past Serafina, she snatched at the girl, hoping to steal her away, gather Lena, and make for the house, but Gaetano grabbed her arm in one hurtful hand and Mimi‟s in his other.

“Let go!” Mimi shrieked, abruptly sensing danger.

“Get away from her!” Eva yelled, dropping the basket she hadn‟t realized she‟d still been holding. Several olives tumbled from it onto the marble floor.

Serafina picked it up. “Good of you to do our work for us,” she said, peering at the olives Eva had collected. Nodding at her son, she tipped her chin toward the entrance to the tunnel, and though they both fought him, he dragged Eva and Mimi through the mosaic door. Once inside the cool, dim tunnel, he released Eva but blocked her escape. As if she would have left Mimi alone to face whatever fate they had in store for her!

Hefting Mimi high in his arms and away from Eva, he pulled something from his pocket and held it to her nose. Mimi‟s struggles stilled.

“What is that?” Eva demanded, punching at him. “Give her to me.

What do you want with us?”

Hoisting the now limp Mimi over one shoulder, Gaetano shook his head. “She‟s too heavy for you. I just gave her something to calm her.

We‟re not going to hurt you.” But Eva knew he lied. His gaze, which had once seemed so innocuous, now made her want to bathe it away.

She cast a quick glance beyond him through the door, which Serafina was quickly closing. No sign of Lena. Good girl. She‟d stayed hidden. Gaetano followed her gaze, suspicious. With his free hand, he lifted one of the gaslight lanterns that he and his mother must have left just inside.

“Don‟t take Mimi,” she pleaded, pulling his attention back to her.

“Let her go and take only me. I‟ll do whatever you want. Please.”

His aura leapt toward her and his eyes glinted. He still wanted her.

Maybe she could use that to her advantage. If she lived long enough.

“Don‟t try your tricks with him. He‟s loyal to his family.” Having secured the door from inside, Serafina lifted the remaining lantern. “Let‟s go.”

“Where?”

Serafina smirked. “Why, to the playroom your girl so clearly wished for.” With that, she turned and led the way, her lamp held high. Behind her, Eva felt the weight of Gaetano‟s covetous stare.

And she felt the bump of something in her pocket as well. Fantine‟s journal.

After what seemed like miles of walking, they emerged from the tunnel into a spacious circular room with a small raised platform at its center. Serafina set her lantern in a sconce near several others that already burned and set the basket of olives on a small table. Quickly, Eva pulled the drooping Mimi from her captor and sat on the platform, holding her tight on her lap and gently rocking her. Until the girl woke from her stupor, they could not attempt an escape, for Eva couldn‟t move quickly if she held her.

As her eyes grew accustomed to the brighter light here, she saw that numerous rooms branched off from the main space. Through an open door, she spied a young woman who looked about sixteen seated in a chair. Her face was placid, the vacant stare of the drugged. An elderly blind man knelt at her side. The girl moaned as some sort of cuplike device was roughly detached from her breast, leaving a thin red circlet of chafing around her breast‟s circumference. The cup was then summarily reattached to her other breast, eliciting another moan.

“Stop! What is he doing to her?” Eva started toward the scene, but then drew up short, fearing that Gaetano and Serafina might snatch Mimi away when she passed.

“That‟s our newest. Nella, a fey,” Serafina said blithely. Dane had been right, then. This woman did know about their world! “Poor dear,”