Wicked Whispers (25 page)

Ivy heard Cinn cross the room and then the opening and closing of the door. She was gone.

“She’s awake, Murmur.”

Sparkle? What was she doing here? In fact, where was
here
? Ivy opened her eyes. Ugh. She closed them again. Everything hurt.

“Where are the painkillers Cinn said she left?” Ivy didn’t believe in stoic suffering when there were excellent drugs available to take it away. She managed to prop herself up against—she scanned the area—Murmur’s pillow, with minimum wincing and only one “damn.”

“Here.” Sparkle handed her a glass that looked suspiciously cloudy.

Ivy hesitated. “What’s in it?”

Sparkle laughed. “No poison. Cinn is a demigoddess. She’s inherited some of Airmid’s powers. Airmid is the goddess of healing plants. Cinn’s drink will do more for you than any pill. Drink.”

She did. For all of Sparkle’s strangeness, Ivy realized she trusted her. Amazingly, even before she finished the drink, she could feel her pain fading.

Sparkle handed her a thick pad. “Put this over your eye. Cinn whipped up some plant thing that’ll get rid of your shiner.”

Ivy obediently pressed it to her eye. She was now coherent enough to notice Murmur. His long hair, which usually fell in a shining curtain down his back, was a mass of tangles around his face. His eyes were shadowed. He didn’t approach the bed. He sat on a chair in the sitting area and watched her. His expression gave nothing away.

When he met her gaze, he nodded. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Stay here tonight. I’ve already told Kellen you’ll be with me. He doesn’t need to see you like this.” He stood.

“You told him I’d be with
you
? He’ll think—”

“He’ll think we’re doing exactly what we
did
do earlier today.” He didn’t smile. “He’s a teenager. He understands the concept of sex between consenting adults.”

She wouldn’t think about what they’d done. “Fine. At least you’re right about me not wanting him to see me like this.” Besides, she had more important things to worry about. Tirron was gone, but would her brother be safe?
Will he ever be safe again?
“I should be near Kellen, though, in case—”

Murmur held up his hand to stop her. “I asked Ganymede to stay with him. I’ll be in Bain’s room if you need anything. He’ll be busy with the fantasies for most of the night.” Then he left.

“He didn’t want to try to explain?” Lame question.

“He said you wouldn’t want to hear it.” Sparkle eyed her critically. “You look like shit.”

“Gee, that makes me feel better.” He could’ve at least
tried
to talk to her.

“He told me what happened.” Sparkle looked as though she wanted to whip out her makeup and hair products and go to work. “This is tough for me.” She bit her bottom lip.

“I guess it would be hard listening to the kind of evil they were plotting.” It was nice to have some sympathy.

“Evil plotting?” Sparkle sounded puzzled. “Oh no, I didn’t mean that. I meant it’s tough to sit here without making you look better. But if I touched your head, it would hurt.”

“Right. Looks are important.” She laced her words with all the sarcasm she could muster.

Sparkle smiled. “See, you understand. Not that you’ll be joining the Sluagh Sidhe, but if you were, they’d value you a lot more if you looked gorgeous.”

Ivy would have ground her teeth, but she didn’t want to take a chance of bringing the pain back. “Tell me what the demon said.” Yes, it was childish to refuse to say his name. But the old Murmur had been someone she cared about. Someone who she thought cared about her. This incarnation? Not so much.

“Bain planned all along to trade someone for Elizabeth. Without someone to offer in exchange, he’d have to battle the faeries. If it came to a fight, he wouldn’t have a chance alone. That’s why he chose to stay here. And he chose you because you were available and someone the faery host would accept.”

“Bastard.”

“Yes, well, we all do what works for us.”

Ivy frowned. That didn’t sound like a resounding condemnation of Bain. She didn’t say anything, though, because she wanted Sparkle to get to Murmur’s part.

“Murmur said he didn’t want to trade you.”

A little warmth crept into Ivy’s cold heart.

“He said if they traded my shiny new assistant and I found out, I’d drag Mede into it. They didn’t want to deal with Mede.”

Warming trend over.

“So Murmur convinced Bain to trade someone else.” Sparkle didn’t seem able to help herself. She reached down and came up with her purse. She rooted around in it until she found her makeup bag.

“That’s awful. You can’t allow some other innocent to take my place. You have to—” She didn’t get to voice her full outrage, because Sparkle had pulled her compact from her makeup bag and was poofing powder over Ivy’s face.

“He didn’t choose an innocent.”

Sparkle carefully replaced the compact and then went to work with the blush. When she finally made eye contact with Ivy, malicious glee shone there.

Ivy opened her mouth to spout more outrage, but stopped to think. Who would put that expression in Sparkle’s eyes?

“Ohmigod, he chose Asima.” Ivy might not like the cat, but she didn’t think she deserved to be kidnapped by faeries.

Sparkle handed her a lipstick and talked while Ivy put it on. “Asima is perfect. They won’t keep her. She’ll make their lives hell. And they can’t kill her without making an enemy of the goddess Bast. So they’ll end up dumping her, probably back in our laps.” She frowned at the thought. “Anyway, she’ll keep them happy until the trade is done. When they finally find out what they have, it’ll be too late.”

“That’s mean.”

Ivy’s comment startled Sparkle into laying down the mascara wand. “This is making the best of a bad situation. Bain should never have come up with his crazy idea to free Elizabeth in the first place.”

Ivy felt conflicted. “I think he should try to free her, but not this way.”

Sparkle shrugged. “Well, it’s done, so now we have to deal with it. If we don’t offer something or someone in trade, Elizabeth will stay with the faeries.”

Ivy was tired. She was glad that Murmur wouldn’t have traded her, no matter what his reason. But she didn’t like the idea of Asima taking her place. That was wrong. But she had no way to fix it that wouldn’t end up in either a war with the faeries or Elizabeth remaining a prisoner.

“I think I need some sleep.” A question nagged at the back of her mind.

“Sure.” Sparkle dumped Ivy’s makeup back into her purse. “At least now, if the fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night, you’ll look awesome standing in the street in your nightgown. Oh, and before you panic, I’m the one who put it on you.”

“Comforting thought.” She must really be out of it. She hadn’t even noticed the nightgown. Ivy watched Sparkle head toward the door.

“Someone will look in on you throughout the night.”

“Not the de…” Oh, what the hell. “Not Murmur.” Did she sound too wistful?

“Not Murmur.”

Sparkle opened the door.

And Ivy remembered what had been nagging at her. “Murmur said that Tirron was old. How old is old for a faery?”

Sparkle paused. “Thousands of years.”

She was almost afraid to ask the next question. “Do you think Kellen has enough faery blood to live that long?”

“He has Mab’s face. I’d say there’s a good chance.” Sparkle stepped into the hallway and closed the door quietly behind her.

Ivy turned off the bedside lamp and lay in the dark. She wouldn’t live long enough to protect Kellen. That meant she had to find someone to teach him how to protect himself, someone who knew what it meant to live for centuries. And no matter how betrayed she felt, there was only one person she’d trust with that job. Too bad she was never going to speak to him again.
Never
. She drifted off to the satisfying sound of that word in her mind.

She woke hours later—at least it felt that way—to the sureness that someone was in the room with her. Ivy lay still and cracked open one eye. Darkness. Her pounding heart eased a little as she remembered Sparkle saying someone would keep an eye on her during the night.

But there was a familiarity about the presence, a knowing. Murmur? She wanted to turn on the light and scream at him, make him tell her why he’d kept Bain’s secret from her. But then they’d fight and he’d leave. And as stupid as it made her feel, his presence comforted her. So she closed her eyes and relaxed into the warmth of having him there.

Murmur sat in his room, in the dark, staring through the narrow castle window at the shimmering reflection of the moon on the Gulf of Mexico. That was him. A shaky reflection of the real thing.

During his long existence, Ivy was the closest he’d come to feeling
this
—the “this” as yet to be named and definitely not admitted. He’d fucked everything up, though. He would drink himself into oblivion, but a smashed demon woke up in the morning wondering what city he’d turned to ashes the night before.

At least Sparkle wasn’t going to say anything to Ganymede. She had her reasons. For one thing, she was still pissed at the cat. And she was probably hoping to get another shot at working her personal magic with Ivy and him. Someone needed to tell her the game was over and she’d lost.

He turned his attention from the window to where Ivy lay sleeping. When Sparkle had told him that Zane would be watching Ivy from midnight until two, he exploded. So he was here now, torturing himself, and still seeing Sparkle’s satisfied smirk in his mind.

What would Ivy do? Leave? Not smart. Tirron wouldn’t stay in Faery, and when he emerged he’d be looking for revenge. If she did run, Murmur would make sure someone kept watch over her and Kellen. Not him, because she’d never want to see him again. He’d cancel the visit from the faery he’d asked to teach Kellen. Ivy wouldn’t allow any of the fae within a mile of her brother now.

The knock on Murmur’s door interrupted his brooding. He reached with his senses. Two people—Klepoth and… Kellen? Hell. With a muttered curse, he got to his feet and strode to the door. He yanked it open, stepped into the hallway, and closed the door softly behind him.

He glared at Kellen. “Your sister will lock you in your room forever if she finds out you were here with
him
.” He nodded at Klepoth. “Luckily for you, she’s sleeping. Where’s Ganymede? He was supposed to stay with you.”

Kellen’s expression turned stubborn. “I’m not doing anything wrong.” He glanced away. “Ganymede fell asleep with his face in the popcorn bowl.”

The cat could forget about a career as a bodyguard. Murmur glared at Klepoth. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Klepoth’s grin turned to a scowl. “Who bit you in the ass? Kellen and I were just playing a few video games, talking about stuff, and…” For the first time the other demon seemed hesitant. “I was wondering what my chances were of getting into high school.”

“What?” Murmur couldn’t have been more surprised if Klepoth had said he wanted to sing with the heavenly choir. “You’re ten freaking thousand years old.” May as well make sure Kellen knew who he was dealing with. “Why would you want to go to high school?”

Klepoth looked away, but not before Murmur saw anger and embarrassment in his eyes. Klepoth didn’t answer. He just shrugged.

“I think it’s a great idea.” Kellen jumped to Klepoth’s defense. “We could start school together here. It’s easier being the new guy if there’s someone with you. Klepoth is staying at the hotel for a while, so we could hang after school.” He shrugged. “You know, do things.”

Murmur might be slow sometimes, but he finally got it. Klepoth didn’t have a friend, had probably never had one. Like Murmur, he was beginning to want more than what his existence supplied. Kellen was his chance to fit in somewhere.

Murmur wanted to laugh at the image of Klepoth trying to blend in with the local teens, but he couldn’t. It hit too close to home.

“It might work.” Murmur put on his serious face. “If you need an adult with you when you register, let me know.”

Klepoth looked offended. “Hey, I don’t look that young.”

Kellen laughed. “Yeah, you do.”

Ivy would introduce Murmur to true hellfire and brimstone when she found out he’d approved her brother’s friendship with the demon of illusions. After the last demonstration of Klepoth’s power, he wasn’t on her favorite-people list. But did it really matter? She couldn’t hate Murmur more than she already did. Besides, he’d keep a close eye on Klepoth.

Kellen was immediately enthusiastic. “Great. Klepoth can help me find out if I have any powers.” He glanced at the demon. “Can you do that?”

“Sure. No problem.”

“Is that all?” Murmur wanted them to leave so he could concentrate on his bad temper, bad attitude, and his general crappy feeling of having lost something important.

“No, I wanted to speak to you.” Klepoth raked his fingers through his spiked hair.

A rare nervous gesture from him. Murmur raised one brow, but didn’t say anything.

“The answer is yes.” He met Murmur’s gaze. “You know, what we were talking about. I’m in.”

“The answer is
no
.” The door swung open behind Murmur, revealing Ivy doing a creditable imitation of a pissed off demoness. “Kellen, you will
not
go off with Klepoth. Do you know what he is?”

Kellen looked sullen. “He’s the demon who creates illusions.” He took a deep breath. “And he’s my friend.”

Something moved in Klepoth’s eyes, an expression Murmur had never seen there before. Murmur found it tough to believe, but the other demon looked touched.

Ivy was clearly horrified. “You’ll make new friends at school. You don’t need—”

Klepoth interrupted her. “He
does
need me. I can keep him safe.”

“Whoa, wait. I don’t need anyone to keep me safe.”

Like all human young, Kellen thought he was indestructible. Murmur could tell him that he was not, especially if the Sidhe came calling.

Klepoth smiled. “You do right now, but I’ll teach you to defend yourself.”

Kellen looked mollified.

Ivy did not.