Darkness Bred (9 page)

“So you said.”

Elin drew herself up and looked as if she would say something sharp to Niles but she caught the faint shake of Sean’s head. “Why don’t you sit down,” he said and took off his jacket. “Put this over your legs, you look cold.” She did look extremely cold and he could see her shivering. Perhaps she was getting sick.

Leigh looked at Elin with an expression Niles couldn’t read. Suddenly she shifted and stood up, all determination. She dealt with the mugs, pouring cider without asking if someone would prefer coffee, and gave some to Elin. Next she put a plate of cookies into Sean’s hands and said, “Make sure everyone eats some of those. A little sugar might help around here—carbs can raise the spirits.” She looked into his face and said, “Have I told you lately that your eyes look like a tiger’s when you’ve got a lot on your mind. They glow like you’re on a hunt.”

“Yeah?” This wasn’t the time or place to get drawn into the confrontation he sensed was on Leigh’s mind. She was angry, probably made angry by the tension all around her.

“You don’t feel the cold, Elin,” Leigh said thoughtfully. “The fae don’t.”

Absolute silence followed and lasted far too long.

“Elin’s cold?” Niles said as if hearing part of the conversation for the first time. “Leigh feels the cold, too. Unless she’s in the water.” He turned up one corner of his mouth. “Would you mind waiting for us downstairs, Elin?”

“Yes, she damn well would mind,” Sean blurted out. “So would I. Where I go, she goes.”

Niles stopped in mid-pace and faced off with Sean but Leigh interrupted him. “The fae don’t feel cold,” she repeated. She hadn’t moved her gaze from Elin. “Why would you—”

“We’ll take this up again later,” Niles said to Sean.

“Why would a fae start feeling the cold?” Leigh repeated.

“I think it’s Tarhazian at work,” Elin said. “She helped me develop my talents because it suited her. I know what she’s up to. She’s changing things to see if I’ll go running to her, begging to be forgiven. Some hope. So I get cold now. I’ll get winter clothes when I get around to it.”

“We’ll get them immediately,” Sean said. He stared at her and felt his scalp tighten. “If Tarhazian thinks to punish you by removing fae talents, what are we talking about? If she takes them all?”

“I don’t want to discuss it,” Elin said. “She may just be experimenting with my body temperature and nothing else. I prefer not to talk about other personal things.”

“Like shapeshifting into an undersized cat?” Niles said. “Not much use in a fight, I’d say.”

Rounding on him, Sean had to hold back from landing a punch. “You’re in a foul mood. Save it. We’ve got enough problems here.”

“You don’t know half of it,” Niles said. He threw himself into the chair closest to Leigh’s.

Sean didn’t want to say it but he had to. “Elin, don’t shift again, okay?”

She picked a chocolate chip out of her soft cookie and paused with it on the way to her mouth. “I beg your pardon?”

“You know what he means,” Leigh said.

“Maybe she’d prefer to get stuck as a cat,” Niles said. “It might simplify her life.”

“Shut up,” Leigh said, and there was silence.

Niles shook a hand in front of his face. “I’m sorry. I take it back. I’m not myself.”

“You’re suggesting Tarhazian could take away my ability to shift,” Elin said quietly. “Perhaps she could but I was born able to shift. And as long as I can remember, I could fly.”

Niles looked a whole lot more interested in Elin. “I’m impressed—”

“I haven’t finished,” she said, cutting him off. “Skillywidden can also become invisible. There’s more, but I don’t choose to talk about it.”

A knowing glance passed between Leigh and Elin and for an instant Sean thought they were going to chuckle. They both sobered and looked in opposite directions.

“What else?” Niles said.

“It’s private,” Elin said. “Let it go, please.”

“I can’t risk something happening that could be dangerous to the Team,” Niles argued.

“Nothing about me could ever be dangerous to the Team.”

Niles’s glance at Sean suggested he thought Elin was being difficult. “You’d better let us know what else Tarhazian could do to you,” he said.

“Please,” Elin said. “There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Niles shrugged but he didn’t look convinced.

Neither was Sean. Later he would be getting any details out of her.

“Moving right along,” he said. “Unless you want to waste more time on trivial crap, we’d better try to get our minds around Saul’s announcement this afternoon.”

“Do you think it would be quicker if we asked Saul to come over?” Elin said.

“If he’d spoken to the Team in the first place, it would have been quicker. Whatever
it
is.”

“He, whoever
he
is.” Elin was busy diving for chocolate chips again. “Saul doesn’t know who this horrible person is when he’s here on Whidbey. Maybe he’s afraid he’s one of the hounds. I suppose it could be. After all—”

“Elin,” Sean said rapidly. “Niles needs the whole story, not just the end of what Saul said.”

She frowned at him, but in question, not annoyance. “Yes, of course.” Her head whipped in Leigh’s direction and the frown cleared. “Of course. It took a moment but I see it now. Why didn’t I know it as soon as you arrived. Niles has a lot on his mind and I bet he’d rather be alone with Leigh.”

Niles cleared his throat.

“A baby,” Elin said, grinning, her eyes filling with happy tears. “It’s starting to happen, Sean. Our Team is going to have another generation.”

A
n hour and a lot of terse words later, nothing was much clearer, other than confirmation that Elin’s uncanny ability to announce invisible pregnancies was accurate.

Leigh wasn’t just upset by Niles’s negative reaction to the baby, she was also afraid for all of them. Each time Sean relayed more of what he and Elin had been told by Saul, Niles’s mood grew darker, and he interrupted every few sentences. Her own fear struck deeper as Saul’s story emerged.

“Hey!” Phoebe called up the stairs. “Can I bring some fresh coffee?”

Niles tightened his lips. “In other words, she can hear every word we say up here. I didn’t think it was a good idea to come here.”

“It was my idea,” Leigh said quietly. She raised her voice. “That would be great, Phoebe. Thanks.”

“This is a good place,” Elin said. She reached out and squeezed Leigh’s hand. “But we have to be sure we aren’t overheard.”

“As far as I know, Phoebe can’t hear us,” Leigh said. “Not that I don’t trust her completely so I wouldn’t be worried if she did hear.” Elin’s cold hand worried her. She wondered if Tarhazian could do things they hadn’t even thought of. “We’re going to have to settle down, Niles. We’re in some sort of trap and we don’t know where the enemy is, or who he is when he’s among us.”

“Could just as well be a she,” Sean said. “We can’t be sure this sorcerer’s spy is a man.”

Niles looked thoughtful. “Sally has been a good friend but I wonder—”

“Sally has nothing to do with this,” Leigh snapped. “If the fae do you a favor, you’re going to owe something in return. I’m not saying anything we don’t already know and so far she hasn’t asked for a thing. But Sally has looked after Elin and we probably wouldn’t have found each other without her, Niles.”

“It’s probably only because Elin is fae,” Niles said. “One of her own kind. That’s why she’s so careful with her.”

“No,” Elin told him. “She’s my friend. Do you want me to go away? If it’ll make it easier on everyone else, I’ll go back to Two Chimneys. You want to come, Leigh? You look tired out.”

“Sally knows I’m not fae,” Leigh said, becoming exhausted by Niles’s antagonism. “She couldn’t have done more for me if I were her daughter.”

“If you and Leigh go, Elin, I’ll have to go with you,” Sean said. “We’re going in circles. Niles, should we call in the rest of the Team?”

Niles turned his back and stood quite still for what seemed minutes. “Sean,” he said. “We need to deal with some Team business. It won’t take long.”

On the way out the front door, Niles asked Phoebe to wait a bit before taking more coffee upstairs. Sean was grateful the other man made sure he sounded pleasant.

A few steps from the shop, Niles stopped and faced Sean. “We need to keep our voices down,” he said. “Not that I can feel anything that shouldn’t be around.”

“Neither can I,” Sean said, his face raised to the driving snow.

“I trust you like a brother,” Niles said softly. “You are my brother.”

Sean slapped his upper arm and held on. “The same goes for me. And the others would give their lives for us or for each other.”

“I’m…I’m scared,” Niles said, shaking his head. “Not for myself, for Leigh. Ah, hell, that means I’m scared for myself, too. I don’t expect you to understand but I’d rather be dead than without her.”

“Don’t you?” Sean said.

Niles swiped snow from his face, staring at Sean. “Maybe you do,” he said. “That’s good news and bad news. We’ve got to deal with what’s facing us right now. We’re all going to need each other more than ever. I thought about getting all of us together, too, but I want to wait until there’s some sort of plan. Then we’ll just let it slip into place without drawing attention to any change in our behavior.”

Sean felt watched. He glanced up at the building and through the windows saw the vague outlines of the two women at the top of the stairs.

“Until Leigh…until the baby comes, I want to be close to her. Does that make sense to you, Sean?”

“Couldn’t make better sense.”

“I need you to stand in for me, make decisions, more or less run things. Of course I want to be in the loop and I’ll be second-guessing you all the way, but you’d be disappointed if I didn’t.”

Sean couldn’t help smiling. “Yes, boss.” Taking on a lot of the alpha’s responsibility without actually being the alpha might be delicate.

“That’s it, then,” Niles said as if he intended to walk away at once.

“Hold it,” Sean said. “I expect to discuss decisions with you. But it won’t work if you always countermand any orders I give.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Niles sounded offended.

Sean laughed. “Wouldn’t you?”

“No. That is—no, I won’t, and if I do, you’ll let me know I’ve stepped on your toes.” He looked over his shoulder, then back at the shop. “It’ll be my fault if Leigh…if something happens to her. I know this is what we all wanted, a chance to get closer to being human again, but I’m so damn disgusted Leigh has to be the experiment.”

“She wants to be,” Sean said quietly. “She’s going to be okay. We’ve got to believe that.”

“Yeah.” Sean narrowed his eyes. “Let’s get back.”

“Here they come,” Leigh said. “I didn’t see any punches thrown, did you?”

“No. I wish they didn’t feel they have to shut us out, though.”

“They think they’re protecting us,” Leigh said although she was certain the private powwow had something to do with the baby. “These guys are big on protection.”

Niles and Sean came upstairs side by side, wearing smiles that didn’t look natural.

“Coming up,” Phoebe called out, following the men. She brought another pot of coffee and switched it with the one on the table. She worked a big bag of M&Ms out of the waistband of her jeans.

The bag didn’t make it as far as the table.

Instead of turning to leave, Phoebe slowly set the cold pot down again and shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans. Her amazingly red hair escaped the bottom of a striped woolen hat she wore pulled over her ears and exploded in billowing curls.

Leigh waited for whatever Phoebe intended to say and it was obvious the other woman was organizing her words.

“What you talked about earlier—about me. I wasn’t eavesdropping but I can’t help hearing. I hear so much it’s scary sometimes.”

“Me, too,” Leigh said automatically. She even heard small animals moving in the forest when they were far away.

“I don’t hear like that,” Elin said and she didn’t look pleased about it.

“How do you expect to get anywhere if you can’t trust a single person?” Phoebe asked Niles. “Suspicion makes you see things that aren’t there. And imagine things that aren’t true. I don’t know what all this is about. But I do know it isn’t good—it’s very dangerous. You don’t have to worry about me, though. If you think you do, lock me up or something—as long as you feed me.” She gave a lopsided grin. “Any kind of chocolate will do.”

Elin laughed and so did the others. And just as quickly they were all quiet again.

“Now you’re thinking that as charming as Phoebe is, there’s no reason for you to trust her,” Doc Saul said, his voice calm but unexpected nevertheless.

He had made one of his silent and sudden arrivals, moving toward them from the top of the stairs, his long black coat swishing.

“If you’re prepared to take my word about The One, then you should be prepared to take it for Phoebe. She has no connection to any malign forces.”

“How do you know?” Niles asked brusquely.

Saul gave him a long, hard look. “There are things we will never understand about each other. But remember that you and I have fought side by side and we trusted each other. I trust you still. You must not forget that given her association with us, Phoebe isn’t any safer than we are.”

“Agreed,” Niles said. “On both fronts. We will not abandon Phoebe.” He took Leigh’s mug and refilled it with cider. No one else accepted his offer of more. “Why didn’t you come to me, Saul? I’m the one you should have told your fantastic story to.”

“Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I should have come to you first. But you just showed why I may have chosen to speak with Sean first. You were wounded, Niles. The betrayal by one of your own—”

“Enough,” Niles said, then shook his head. “I apologize. But that isn’t a subject I want to talk about. It isn’t what makes me so cautious. We are surrounded, Saul. With this new threat you talk about, there is no room for a single mistake. Too many need our protection. I expect attempts to eliminate any of us who get in their way—that’s always been their preferred method.”

They all stopped speaking and the only sound was the sharp rattle of hail on the skylight.

Leigh knew only too well how much Niles still suffered from having one of the hounds go over to the werewolves the previous year. And, as Saul suggested, the betrayal had deeply wounded Niles.

“Every step must be cautiously taken,” Saul said. “Without wasting time on concerns about those who pose no threat.” He looked significantly at Phoebe.

Did he, Leigh wondered, already know that Niles considered Elin a threat to the Team? And it only made sense that he would see Phoebe the same way. Not that she had the kind of closeness with a hound that Elin would soon have.

“We must start at the main root of the situation,” Sean said.

“You’ve identified the main root and how to start there?” his alpha responded. “There will be a war, we both know that.”

“We don’t know any such thing,” Sean said shortly, and Leigh found it interesting to see how Elin looked at her future mate with admiration.

“You think we should wait until Saul has a whole row of dead women in his morgue?” Niles looked like a man already embattled. Leigh didn’t regret her part in that. After all, he had looked for her as a mate because he wanted a living child. And he had found her and come to love her—they were fortunate, if only he would stop expecting disaster.

He met her eyes and, after a moment, smiled at her in that sweet, deep way that melted her. She kept the smile on her face while she turned inward, away from what he’d said about choosing her over their baby. Exactly what he meant wasn’t clear, but she understood what the end result would be.

“I want to go to The Island,” Sean said.

“No!” Elin was on her feet at once. “No, Sean.”

“Can you get me there, Saul?” Sean said as if she hadn’t spoken.

“I will be the one going,” Niles said. “Once I know every detail Saul can give me. This person Saul calls The One is a risk as long as he survives.”

Sean waited until his alpha gave him complete attention. “We should be alone to discuss this,” he said. “But apparently we are not to be allowed that privilege. We have just discussed situations like this. For our arrangement to work, you must give me the power I need. Give me the power to lead.” Sean’s lean face took on a feral caste. The pupils of his eyes narrowed, and when he dropped his chin and looked up at them, Leigh’s tiger comparison was even more apt.

“No one will go unless I take you there,” Saul said. “You would not find The Island and you could not land there without The One’s blessing. I already have that.”

Both Niles and Sean folded their arms and averted their faces from Saul. Werehounds did not beg vampires.

A crash from below startled Leigh, and everyone else.

“The front door,” Phoebe said, her pale skin pure white now. “It was locked.”

Leigh noted that no mention was made of the ease with which Saul entered the building, locked door or not.

Phoebe leaped to her feet and rushed for the stairs but Sean, Niles, and Saul were faster. Saul moved her aside. “Do not come down yet.”

“We’d only get in the way,” Elin said, but Leigh made a run for it, slipped past both of the other women, and took the stairs downward two at a time. She might be pregnant but she was perfectly fit.

Elin and Phoebe weren’t far behind.

The scene just inside the bookstore took Leigh’s breath away. Cliff Ames, the cook from Gabriel’s, and Sally held a sagging woman between them. When Cliff and Sally moved farther inside, the woman’s feet dragged uselessly behind her and her head lolled forward.

Cliff picked her up and put her on a leather couch. He lifted up her legs and booted feet.

Dropping to his knees, Saul felt for a pulse in her neck, but Elin noted that he examined the skin beneath her hair all the way around. The negative shake of his head was almost imperceptible.

“It’s Molly,” Leigh said. Molly, Gabriel’s flamboyant girlfriend, was supposedly taking a break from their relationship. He told them she was in Seattle taking “a time out.”

“Where did you find her?” Elin said. She took off her coat and spread it over Molly’s legs. “Was she at Gabriel’s?”

“She called Cliff,” Sally said. “Asked him to pick her up from outside the gas station and take her somewhere safe because she was in trouble. I was with Cliff and I came along. We knew Phoebe was here and we could get Saul to come and help.”

Short and stocky, Cliff was a man of few words. He turned back to the door. “Got to get back to work. What do I tell Gabriel when he comes in?”

“Nothing,” Saul told him. “We can’t have an investigation now. The panic would get in our way. Just trust me on this, Cliff.”

Molly’s dark hair was plastered to her face and neck in wet clumps, a fake fur vest hung open over a torn black shirt and pants. The high heel of one boot was broken and hanging by a thin strip of leather.

Looking up at all of them, Saul said, “She’s dead.”