Whatever It Takes (12 page)

I turned to see Sabine running through the large oak doors. If she didn’t slow down she was going to fall and hurt herself. Or at least hurt herself worse than she already was. I jogged toward her, knowing that if anyone was going to tell me what was going on it was Sabine. She may be young, but she was far more perceptive than people gave her credit for and far too loyal for her own good. Perhaps in time she would learn to temper both qualities.

She grabbed my hand when she reached me, “You ok? Come on, I want to show you my new gowns.”

Her new gowns, what was she talking about? With her hand in mine she sent me images of what she was thinking. Seems that Sabine had a lot she wanted to fill me in on. She knew that if she said anything to that effect, the men present would stop her. It was still possible that if Vicktor found out what she was up to she would be grounded for all eternity. Her self-sacrificing behavior was moving enough to keep me quiet until we got out of earshot.

She tugged me out of the room and left the men staring in our wake. They knew what she was up to and she knew they knew. But as long as they couldn’t prove it she wouldn’t be in any kind of trouble.

When we reached her room she closed and locked the door. Sabine motioned for me to sit on the bed. Then she went over to her nightstand and turned her radio on full volume. Good Lord, I knew we were trying to be top secret, but did she really have to turn the music up so loud? It wasn’t that I didn’t like my music loud; I just didn’t think Biz Markie’s ‘You Say He’s Just A Friend’ was to my liking. Note to self I needed to pull this girl into the right decade. It definitely wasn’t to my liking when my head felt like it was going to explode.

“Dara, you’re ok?” She was fussing over me worse than a mother hen.

With gentle butterfly like touches she checked over every inch of me. Sabine produced a wet washcloth from thin air and began to clean the blood from my body. She made sure I had no open wounds. I could have saved her the trouble and let her know that the doctor had already patched me up. But something in her eyes told me she had to make sure that I was alright for herself.

I stilled her hands when they came into contact with the knot on the back of my head. “I’ll heal. I’ve been through worse, I can assure you.” I gave her a reassuring smile.

Her eyes darted about the room, “We don’t have much time. I am sure that Josef will come looking for you soon.”

She was right, Josef didn’t want me to know whatever it was that I couldn’t remember and from the look the Quiet Man had given me he didn’t want me to know either. What bothered me most was that I had a right to know. In my line of work being kept in the dark could get you put in the ground. Besides that, by keeping things from me, they were practicing under the assumption that I was too fragile to know the whole truth.

“Last night, you saved me at a great expense to yourself. I can’t remember all the details.” She bit her lip as if she was trying to recall a dream from long ago.

So Sabine couldn’t remember either. Whatever she had witnessed last night the Council didn’t want her to tell me. It would seem that they had already gotten to her memories, making sure there would be no way for me to find the information I was seeking. I was going to say something about it but her next words stopped me mid thought.

“But you fought Priest and won. Not to mention you stood up to Kristoff and only came away with a few bumps.”

Only, was she kidding me? I felt like I had gone ten rounds with a Heavyweight champ. Although nothing seemed broken, every bone in my body ached. Not to mention my brain felt like it had been through the spin cycle.

I eyed Sabine, “Only! Way to lowball it kiddo!”

Sabine smiled. “It could have been worse. You know that.”

I did, didn’t I? Even if I didn’t know all the details I knew that a tango with Kristoff the Cruel never ended well. It appeared that I had not only attended the dance but won the Mirror Ball trophy as well. But now I wanted to know something else as well.

“What don’t Josef and Lord Slade want me to know?”

Sabine tucked her feet under herself as she began to tell me the events of last night. From us escaping through the Moors, to Priest spiriting her way. Sabine smiled with pride when she told me how she kicked Priest in the shin. She didn’t leave a single thing out; at least that’s what she said. But I could tell there were holes in her memory, confirming that they had been altered.

What I didn’t know was why? If Vicktor hadn’t wanted Sabine to tell me what had happened he could’ve just kept her away from me. Although with Sabine that was easier said than done because since the Moors it appeared that she was stuck to me like glue.

Everything Sabine said swirled around in my head. My memories were trying to push their way through quicksand or so it seemed. The process caused my head to pound twice as hard, yet I couldn’t stop listening to her. She had me riveted to the spot. Sabine was so excited about how I had saved her from the clutches of Priest it was contagious. I felt like a bystander living vicariously through my own experiences.

At her age she thought it was all a grand adventure. But her proudest moment was when she told me she had stared Kristoff the Cruel in the eye and not even flinched. What struck me as odd was when she said he had healed the bruise Priest had given her. Why would he heal her, Sabine was nothing to him. As a matter of fact I was surprised that Kristoff hadn’t used her to get me to do his bidding.

There was a knock on the door and Sabine jumped to her feet. She raced into her closet and came back out in a beautiful lavender gown. Then she smoothed down the fabric and answered the door, I leaned over to turn down the radio. Even though I knew it was Josef at the door and that meant my time with Sabine was coming to an end I was glad to escape the drone the bad music from the late eighties.

I heard Josef’s rumbling voice from the doorway. He was asking her if he could come in. Sabine turned to look at me, asking without words if it was ok. I nodded my assent.

“Come in.”

Sabine moved aside and held the door open for him, a shy smile on her face. Oh boy, the kid had it bad and who could blame her. One look at Josef wasn’t enough, not even for me and I was an adult; jaded from years of dating and having my heart broken. To a twelve year old he must have seemed like a knight in shining armor.

Josef moved into the room and it seemed that all the air left my lungs. He had not been hiding much from me. Sabine had told me that the doctor said I needed to remember what had happened on my own. That telling me might be too much of a shock to my system. That this time slow and steady would definitely win the race.

“Are you ready to get some rest, Dara?” Josef held his hand out to me.

I looked from it to Sabine. I didn’t think she needed to see the way I melted around Josef. She was too young to know the consequences of a weak heart. Or to see her hero act like any other lovesick fool. No, it was better to let her live in ignorant bliss, at least for now.

Sabine smiled at me and nodded her head. “She’s all done here. Thanks Dara for the advice.”

Oh, she was smooth. When Sabine came into her power she would be a force to be reckoned with. In her world that was a good thing. Anyone in the Mythos not willing or able to stand up for themselves became a victim. In my opinion, Sabine had already seen enough of that in her short life.

I stood and let Josef take my hand and lead me out of the room. Sabine giggled as she closed her door. He led me back to my bedroom, whispering all the things he was going to do to me as soon as he had me behind closed doors. I must confess Josef was a man of his word. For the rest of my three week healing process he made sure I was a well-loved woman.

Sitting on the transatlantic flight I thought back to my time in Scotland. While there, I had learned many things about myself and those I had come to care for. Things that I was sure would one day come in handy. Yet right now they were only scabs on a wound that needed to heal and only time and space could afford that.

Sabine had taught me that even the most fragile of creatures could be strong. As a matter of fact, I now knew that sometimes the most fragile beings were the fiercest when backed into a corner. I knew she would bounce back from all she had been through and I could rest easy where she was concerned, because deep inside her wee Fae body was the soul of a warrior. So thanks for the lesson kid.

Something else I’d learned was we cannot change who we are. For the better part of three weeks I’d tried to keep a promise I’d made to Josef. He’d wanted me to stop hunting Kristoff the Cruel and to give up on a promise I had made to someone else. He had demanded that I steer clear of the Nocturns and the things that go bump in the night. Josef wanted me to let him show me that there was more to life.

In a moment of weakness I had agreed, thinking that with a change of scenery I could change who I was. But it was a promise I should never have made. I knew when I made it that I probably wouldn’t be able to keep it, because no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t change who I was at heart.

There could be no different way of life for me. Believe me Josef had tried to show me one. He’d made sure I saw all the others of his clan. The way they had each become a happy family. Trying for all he was worth to prove that like the wild wolf in each of them I too could be domesticated. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep the promise I had made to him not without breaking one that was more important to me.

You see, sometimes there are things we want in life so badly we think they are exactly what we need to make us happy. Things like a home, a family and love. These things will blind us to our true destiny. Though eventually we will wake up and when we do the fall from our ivory tower will shatter us completely.

Before the fall killed me I decided to cut my losses, saying screw the fairy tale ending. Besides, who wanted to be the damsel in distress when I knew in my heart I was already the hero of my own story. Now Josef was somewhere in Scotland licking his wounds, probably pissed to high heaven. Because although we were compatible between the sheets, we weren’t when fully dressed. It was better to break things off now before we were in too deep.

Josef wanted too much too soon. He expected me to settle down and start a clan of our own. I just wasn’t willing to break the vow I had made to my grandpa’s memory.

In the end, breaking my promise to Josef taught me that blood was indeed thicker than water. Right now I had cases to solve and people to save. Once I rid the world of Kristoff the Cruel there would be time enough for happily ever afters.