Hidden Dragons (21 page)

The arm he’d wrapped around her back tightened. “Some male hurt you?”

“No.” She considered how to explain what happened. “Outside . . . my magic wasn’t as much of an issue as it is here. I still had faerie mojo, but it was damped. I met a guy through work. I was in real estate in Manhattan, and he was buying an apartment.”

“Okay.” Rick shifted under her as if settling in to hear the tale.

“We hit it off. Damian was more outgoing than me, but we had interests in common. He was funny and smart and reasonably good looking.”

“Reasonably.”

“Okay, he was gorgeous. Especially in a suit and tie.”

Rick snorted but didn’t seem put out. “So this gorgeous guy and you had a thing.”

“We had enough of a thing that three months later we were engaged. We had rings and a date and I was shopping for wedding gowns.”

“And then?”

“And then I had a long lunch with his big sister from out of town.”

Rick moved back so he could look at her. “You didn’t like his sister?”

“Shelley was awesome,” she admitted. “All the qualities I loved in Damian, she had in spades. If I’d fallen for her instead of him, this story might have ended differently.”

“But you didn’t fall for her.”

“No.” Cass patted Rick’s chest, gathering herself to tell the rest. “Shelley loved her brother but hadn’t seen him in a while. He was the family’s black sheep. He’d stolen a chunk of money from her and her best friend, who he’d been dating and cheating on. Apparently, he was kind of a cokehead—”

She hesitated, but Rick nodded that he knew the Outsider term.

“Anyway, the family called him on his transgressions, and he took off in a huff for New York. He’d pulled his act together somewhat when I met him, but not enough to apologize or pay back what he’d stolen. According to Shelley, he blamed
them
for the estrangement.”

“And you didn’t know that side of him.”

“I didn’t have a clue. To me, Damian was Prince Charming: kind, responsible, considerate to me and everyone we met. I never saw him use drugs or even drink too much—which was what his sister spent the better part of two hours complimenting me on. She couldn’t believe how much I’d changed him. She claimed I was a miracle worker wrapped in a saint. The more credit she gave me for his transformation, the more my stomach sank.”

“You’d glamoured him,” Rick deduced.

“I’d glamoured him. Without realizing I’d done it, I’d turned him into what I wanted him to be. He didn’t love me. He loved the charge he got from my faerie half. He’d traded his old addictions for a dependence on faerie dust.” She shook her head. “At first, I didn’t want to believe it. Maybe Damian
did
love me. Maybe I’d just nudged him. As soon as I figured out how to do it safely, I de-glamoured him. That wasn’t pretty. Within a day, he reverted to being the childish prick his sister had described.”

“What did you do?”

“I broke off the engagement, but— I don’t know if it was right, but I couldn’t leave him the way he was. I re-glamoured him a little. So he wouldn’t go back to the drugs. And I tried to give him more self-confidence: the real stuff, not the obnoxiousness he used to compensate for insecurity. I think it worked. I hope it did. I didn’t see him after that.”

Cass touched the Saint Michael medal that hung around Rick’s neck. “I’m
really
glad you have this, that it’s spelled to protect you from glamour. I never want to go through that again.”

Her voice was choked, which seemed to startle him.

“You don’t have to,” he assured her.

She was embarrassed that she’d been so impassioned. If she didn’t watch what she said, he’d think she assumed
he’d
fallen in love with her.

If he was thinking this, he didn’t say. He pulled her against him and rubbed her arm gently. The warmth of the re-stoked fire radiated against her back.

“Rick,” she said. “Could I ask a favor?”

“Anything.”

Anything
didn’t really mean anything, but she continued. “Could you say a prayer for my father? That he comes out of this all right?”

“Me?”

She’d surprised him again. “You said effective prayer was your specialty in the squad. Faeries aren’t big churchgoers.”

“Sure,” he said. “I . . . I’ll say one in my head.”

She knew he would. Feeling better and unable to resist, she wriggled closer and shut her eyes.

~

Rick lay awake after Cass dropped off. What an odd duck she was sometimes: asking
him
to pray when she had so much juice she’d glamoured a human while she was still Outside. That was disconcerting when he thought about it—maybe as disconcerting as the idea that she’d almost married an Outsider. He wouldn’t have guessed a half faerie could change a whole personality. He couldn’t recall her glamouring anyone in high school. Oh, kids had been dazzled by her beauty, but that wasn’t the same thing. Cass must be good at being careful.

Her dismay over causing her fiancé to fall in fake love probably explained why she kept people at arm’s length.

He rubbed his Saint Michael medal, relieved when the subtle tingle assured him the spell was there. Of course, as uncomfortable as his feelings for Cass were, he should have known they were real. Glamoured people didn’t fear they were being stupid when they fell for their glamourers.

CASS had no real reason to wake up grumpy, but she did. Rick was gone from the bed. She hoped they weren’t having another awkward morning after. She hadn’t enjoyed the first. When she looked toward the cave mouth, where the curtain of vines hung down, she saw it was raining. She realized the pattering drops weren’t the noise that had roused her. That honor belonged to Poly playing bat and rattle with Rick’s stupid tin of rocks.

“Leave that alone,” she snapped.

The cat froze, gaping at Cass with big gold eyes. She must have decided she didn’t like Cass’s expression. A second later, she streaked off like an ogre was after her. She disappeared into the shadows at the back of the cave, where two small tunnels led who knew where.

Great
, Cass thought. Now she owed the cat an apology.

She didn’t feel better when she sat up. Her nipples pebbled in the damp cold.

“Not a morning person?” Rick suggested. He was coming in from outside. He wore an unfamiliar flannel shirt with his jeans. Though his hair and shoulders were dewed with rain, he was relatively alert looking. He gave her nakedness a glance and smiled.

“I guess not,” she said, doubly embarrassed now.

Rick gestured with the small saucepan he carried. “I’ve got water to boil for coffee. All I found to steal was instant.”

“That’s fine. I mean, thank you. Instant is great.”

He laughed, setting the pan on the metal shelving he’d rigged above the fire. “Instant is
not
great, but it does have caffeine.”

She started to ask if he’d stolen creamer but shut her mouth. She
wasn’t
a princess. She’d choke it down black if she had to.

“Sugar and non-dairy stuff is in your backpack,” he said.

“Oh thank God,” she exclaimed.

He seemed to find her amusing. “I’ve got this covered. Why don’t you get dressed and do . . . whatever.”

He’d pilfered a fresh flannel shirt for her too. Much more practical than her silk blouse, it must have belonged to a boy. Even spelled, the fit across her breasts was tight. She did “whatever” as quickly as she could in the mud and drizzle. She admitted the little lake was pretty in the mist—just disgustingly drippy.

Rick had a steaming mug ready for her when she returned. He’d put the fake cream and sugar in already. Poly sat at his feet. She threw a haughty look at Cass, as if to say:
This one is my friend now
.

Ignoring the ticked off feline, Cass propped her butt on the boulder next to Rick’s. It didn’t occur to her that he was suspiciously quiet until the coffee was inside her.

“So,” he said, turning his cup between mismatched hands. “As pleasant as last night was, I’m sure you’ve realized we can’t hole up here forever. For one thing, once we eat all the food, I’ll have to go out and hunt Bambi. For another, if it turns out we don’t have the real dragon eggs, we need a plan for finding them.”

Anger flashed through her too suddenly to hide the reaction.

“I know,” he said, his gloved hand lifting to calm her. “I’m only asking you to entertain the possibility that my gut isn’t wrong. We need to know for sure one way or another.”

“We do know,” she said hotly.

When Rick put his hand on her shoulder, she struggled not to shrug it off.

“You’re powerful, Cass,” he said much too soothingly. Maybe your dad isn’t the only one who can make you forget things. Maybe you glamoured yourself.”

“I was seven!” She set her empty mug down and crossed her arms.

“You were seven and good at hiding things. I’ve heard stories of purebloods erasing whole lifetimes of their own memories.”

“Purebloods,” she objected. “I’m only half.”

“You’ve got more juice than you knew. You’re the daughter of a dragon keeper. Maybe you were a half faerie prodigy.”

“They’re rocks!”

“Why are you so insistent?” he asked softly.

She swallowed a rude retort—but only so she wouldn’t seem more in the wrong than him. She wasn’t wrong, and she wasn’t lying. She’d have known if she was.

Rick got to his feet and looked down at her. She knew she was glaring but couldn’t stop. “I’m going to take a walk to patrol the area,” he said. “You meditate or whatever you do to pull in more mojo. Make an honest attempt to crack through any camouflage you might have put on those things.”

Telling her to be honest was a low blow. “I don’t lie.”

“Then promise to really try, and I’ll believe you.”

She clenched her jaw in refusal. He released a weary sigh. “Fine.” He turned and strode toward the cave entrance. “Do what you want. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

Immediately, she felt terrible. Naturally, she and Damian never fought. Her glamoured ex thought she’d hung the moon. Rick probably thought she’d kicked it. In that moment, she wanted to.

“Stupid waste of time,” she muttered to herself.

Almost to herself, at least. Given Rick’s sharp hearing, he likely heard every word.

The cave seemed empty and boring without him, nothing but a big hollow of rocks and dirt. Because she had to prove he was wrong, she dragged the bedrolls to the side of the fire where he’d set the cookie tin. From there she could see the entrance and the two tunnels in the back wall. Neither mice nor bears could sneak up on her.

Other creepy crawlies she didn’t know about.

“Camping blows,” she said.

This time she knew Rick was too far away to hear. Unimpressed, Poly settled in to grooming her back leg. Cass heaved a last irritated huff before arranging herself in the classic Buddha meditating pose.

Drawing up more energy was no problem. The lake and its surroundings were stuffed with it. Cass’s aura started expanding before she’d regulated her breathing much. Her mind was another matter. It resisted quieting. Her thoughts circled back to Damian and the story she’d told Rick. When she met Damian, she’d wanted so badly to be in love. Her mother had already met the man who’d become her second husband. She was happy and didn’t need Cass so much. Looking back, Cass didn’t know why she hadn’t returned to the Pocket then. She could have spent more time with her grandmother. That would have been logical.

“Crap,” she burst out as recognition hit. “That fucking bastard glamoured me to stay away.”

It was the only explanation that made sense. Cass had always been closer to her grandmother. If her human mother only had so much time on earth, Patricia Maycee had even less. By compelling Cass to choose the former, her dad had robbed his daughter of sharing her favorite person in the world’s last years.

“Damn it,” she said, tears springing to her eyes at the aching loss.

Cass guessed the cat had forgiven her. At her exclamation, Poly hopped into Cass’s lap and climbed her chest with both paws.

“That was wrong of him,” Cass said, rubbing her cheek against the cat’s. “Dad shouldn’t have made that choice for me.”

Sadly, she couldn’t work up a good fury. Wherever her dad was, he might be in grave danger. No matter what he’d done, she wanted him to be all right.

“Loving people is complicated,” she informed Poly.

Poly
mrrp
’d and offered her an ear to scratch.

Cass indulged the cat for a minute before closing her eyes again. She hadn’t promised Rick she’d try this, but she was going to. Her breathing settled, her heart rate gradually slowing. Something that was at least a relative of peace began seeping into her.

I see through illusion
, she told herself.
I call up the power of Nature, and the veil falls away
.

Energy tingled more strongly on her skin. Her fingertips were numbing, the top of her skull increasingly floaty. She barely noticed Poly clambering over her crossed ankles.

I see through illusion . . .

I call up the power of the earth
. . .

A sudden clatter and an alarmed
miaooww
snapped her eyes open. Unable to resist the allure of the forbidden cookie tin, Poly had overturned it. The rocks inside had tumbled into Rick’s campfire.

No!
Cass thought.

She was on her knees in a flash, reaching between the burning logs to rescue them. The power she’d pulled up protected her somewhat, but the flames still singed.

“Ow,” she complained as she grabbed the things. Since they were too hot to hold, she dropped them onto the bedroll.

She looked at them. They didn’t appear harmed, but they remained unadorned chunks of stone. She shook her fingers and hissed. Her skin was reddened and stinging. To jumpstart the healing process, she got up and pressed her palms to the cold wet wall near the opening. As the burning faded, her brain began to work again.

Okay
, she thought. Why had she pulled a bunch of rocks from a red-hot fire if she honestly believed that’s all they were?