Brush of Darkness (26 page)

“We’re still at the Judgment Hall. You had a seizure.” His face darkened with thinly suppressed anger. “Silly, stupid girl. Whatever possessed you to step between a fighting angel and an incubus?”

“I needed to stop you,” I sighed, closing my eyes again. “Roweena wasn’t going to do it, that’s for sure.”

“No. Do you want to sit up?”

I thought about it. I thought about it some more. “Not really.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “Do you remember anything from during your seizure? Anything at all?” His voice remained calm but had an undercurrent of tension.

“I’m not sure. Most of the time when I have a seizure it’s like I can see what’s going on around me, but I’m powerless to stop it, or to do anything. Like I’m watching it all happen from a distance. It makes me disconnected, I guess, but this time . . .” I shifted, my hip grinding into the floor. “I was trapped. I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. I don’t really know how to explain it.” I gazed up at him, taking in the stiff edge of his jaw. “That wasn’t just a random question, was it?”

He shook his head grimly as he pressed something into my hand. “Look,” he said. There was something terrifying in his face the way he said it.

I struggled to sit, and his arms came beneath me to raise me up. I glanced down at my wrapped fingers, unable to feel what he’d placed in them. “Feathers?” Large and scarlet, the pinions looking like spilled blood over the black leather of the gloves. “Where did they come from?”

His eyes bored into mine, unblinking. “You tell me. You brought them from the Dreaming during your seizure.”

Something clicked in the back of my mind. “They look like—”

“Sonja’s.” He glanced away from me, but I saw the ache in his eyes. “I’m sure of it. Please, Abby, I
must
know. Did
you see her? Did she say anything to you?”

I twisted the feathers between my fingers, brushing their delicate softness across my unfeeling palm. “I don’t know what I saw,” I said finally. “Everything was frozen in place. I couldn’t move, no matter how much I struggled . . . wait.” I shivered. A dark voice, whispering into the shadows . . .
Tell him . . .
“Yes, she did. She just said, ‘Tell him.’” I swallowed hard as I looked at the feathers again. “Jesus, Ion. I think I TouchStoned her.”

He froze. “How is that possible?”

“You’re asking
me
? I mean, what other explanation could there be for the feathers?”

“Did she say anything else? Anything at all?” His hands tightened on mine.

I shrugged helplessly. “Not that I remember. I’m sorry.”

Disappointment flickered in the depths of his eyes, but he contained it quickly. “It’s not your fault. It’s mine, really—all of it.”

“What are you talking about? What’s your fault?”

He waved me off. “Never mind. At least I’ve still got hope she’s alive. Do you think you’re feeling okay now? We really need to discuss this with Roweena and Robert.”

“You two worked out your lover’s quarrel?”

He flushed slightly. “Something like that,” he muttered. “Let’s just say we’re going to try to behave a bit better.”

“Do tell,” I drawled. “What changed your mind?”

“Watching you hit the floor when his elbow clocked your stubborn excuse for a head. Nothing like seeing your only connection with the missing Protectorate spill her brains out to make you realize how much of a fucktard you’re becoming.”

“Is that all?” I snorted. “Robert’s going soft.”

“It’s not all,” the incubus said softly, his hands sliding tighter against my waist. His lips brushed over my forehead.
“Abby, you were completely out of control. And that scream . . .”

“I don’t usually scream when I seize.” I frowned. “How long was I out for?”

“Two hours, after you stopped moving. The feathers showed up toward the end of your seizure. One moment you were pounding the floor with your fists and the next you started scratching at your face, only the feathers were sticking out between your fingers.”

“Crap.” I glanced down at my watch. “It’s five-thirty already. I’d forgotten how long they left me in that little room back there.”

“I’m sorry for that too. I shouldn’t have left you.”

“But you discovered the mercenary mark,” I pointed out. “That has to count for something.”

He shook his head. “No. Roweena was right. We cannot leave you alone now. As long as you’re alive, Moira still has a connection to Portsmyth and the CrossRoads. We lose that and the Fae are going to swarm all over this place like hornets on a caffeine buzz.”

“Now there’s an image I could live without. What’s Roweena going to tell them?”

“She’s going to try to give you a few days to recover, but she’s got no choice other than the truth at this point.”

“What are they going to do with me?” I rolled over onto my side, adjusting my head to rest more comfortably on his knees. “I doubt they’re just going to let me break her Contract.”

“Not a bloody chance in hell, Abby.” His gaze drifted toward the closed door. “I don’t know what to do. Are you sure you can’t leave town? Some loophole, maybe?”

I shook my head wearily. “No. It’s an ironclad deal, and I signed it. Eyes wide shut and everything. Besides, whatever else I am, oathbreaker isn’t it.”

“No, you’re not. Cranky, maybe.” He grinned slightly. “But I’d say that’s understandable under the circumstances.”

“Yeah, well, I’d rather not be in these circumstances, no offense.” I sipped at the water. “I’ve got this envelope back in my apartment with all the information regarding my mother’s estate. I’m supposed to go back home and meet with the attorney to finalize things, but I can’t. How the hell am I supposed to tell him that I’m bound by a magical geas set by a damned faery?” I let my voice go nasal, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry, Mr. Jefferies, I’d love to come by the office and finish that paperwork today, but I’ll be dead by the time I get there. Or at least horribly old.” A sigh escaped me. “It doesn’t really matter, though, does it? This is just the way it has to be. I was stupid and scared and desperate and I signed.”

“And you’ll be free at the end of the Contract?”

“That’s the theory. But honestly, I did some reading up on this Faery Contract stuff, and I don’t think I’m going to like the end of the road.” I shuddered, thinking of the Devil’s tithe. “I know Moira’s old school, but I hope like hell she’s not
that
old school. I’d rather avoid being a human sacrifice, you know?”

“One step at a time,” he said, his voice becoming thoughtful. He reached out so that his fingers rubbed the back of my neck. “Let’s just get the others back, and then we can check the specifics of your Contract.”

“I know what the specifics are. And I’m not interested in breaking it.” My lips turned up in a sad attempt at joviality. “Besides, if I break it, I don’t get my wish.”

His hand paused, lingering at the collar of my shirt. “Wish?”

“Yeah. That’s the door prize. I put up with all this bullshit for seven years and, at the end of it, I get a wish.” I held up my hand. “And please, I really don’t want to hear how I was
probably tricked, or that things never work out the way you want them to. It’s about the only thing I’ve got left going for me.”

“I won’t.” He started a gentle massage at the base of my skull. If he had any other thoughts on the matter, he didn’t voice them, but his eyes grew distant.

The skin tingled where he touched it, the waves of longing rolling down my spine. “You’re going to have to stop that,” I said wryly. “It’s going to be hard enough to try to figure out what’s going on without constantly wanting to throw myself on the bed for your pleasure.”

“I prefer up against the wall, myself.”

I snorted. His hand stroked downward to the small of my back and remained there, the heat searing across my flesh. “Brystion,” I warned, fighting the urge to rub myself against him. There were things that needed to be said. “Listen. I wanted to thank you for the other night. For saving me and Katy, I mean.”

Something sad flickered over his face. “What choice did I have?” His lip curved as he gently removed the gloves from my hands. He raised one to his mouth and kissed my fingertips with a hint of mischief. “When this is over, I’ll show you the Dreaming properly.”

“Sounds heavenly,” I said, my voice dreamy. My head still felt like it was stuffed with cotton, my words stilted and woolly on my tongue. “Just you and me and no Faery politics. And lots of sex,” I added hopefully. “The kind where there isn’t any pain or expectations. Normal stuff.”

“Pain?” There were entire volumes of meaning written into that one word, but I didn’t know how to address it.

“Mmmm. Yes. Or at least the kind that doesn’t involve the forceful taking of my blood.”

“Just how hard did you hit your head?”

“Never mind.” I closed my eyes again. “Contract gone
bad a while ago. I didn’t insist on the correct wording and the asshole decided to take more than he should have.”

“More what?” The chill in his voice almost made me shiver. I should have heeded the warning, but I pushed onward.

“Blood, of course. I Contracted with a vampire my second night in Portsmyth. I was clueless and he took advantage of that.” Ion’s fingers stiffened in my hair, the stillness in him charging like a lightning bolt. “I’m over it, so don’t go all he-man on me now.”

His fingers started their light massage again, brushing over my forehead. “What was his name?”

“I’m not that stupid. I tell you that”—I yawned, stretching slightly—“you’re going to go beat the mother-fucker’s head in. And as much as I might not mind seeing it happen, I don’t think we’re in a good spot for that. Besides, Jett doesn’t hang around the Hallows much anymore.” Crap. “Did I just say that out loud?”

“You certainly did,” he crooned, an echo of male smugness ringing through the words.

“Please don’t. I really can’t handle being responsible for one more person right now. I’m a big girl. I can live with my mistakes. Or most of them.”

“Tell me what happened, then.” The kneading dropped toward my neck, his thumbs tracing over a hard knot close to my shoulder. “All those
sordid
little details.”

“Why don’t you just go look them up in my dreams? Or my nightmares. Same thing in this case.”

“I could, but I’d rather hear it from you. Did you sleep with him?”

“Yeah, I did. Wasn’t all that great, though.” I thought about it for a moment. “Well, okay, it was probably better than a regular guy, but it was just kind of . . . empty. I’ve had one-night stands before that were more fulfilling, and some
that were less, so really, it wasn’t a big deal. By the end of the night, he signed off on the Contract and kicked me out the door and that was that.” I turned toward him, attempting to sit up.

His face shadowed over. “You don’t ever let anyone in, do you? Nothing shatters that shell—not even a Contract that probably was equivalent to rape.”

I blew out sharply. “Rape? I don’t think so. He took advantage of me for sure, but I signed the thing. It’s not on him if I didn’t read the fine print. And as for not letting it bother me—I don’t know how to answer that. I definitely had a dark moment or two after it, but let’s be honest, shall we? The last thing I remember of my mother was having her brains explode over my face. There is
nothing
that will ever compare to that in the internal darkness and angst scale. An oversexed vampire rates pretty damn low, comparatively.”

“There is that.”

“You were right, though,” I said. “About me running away. I was. I have been ever since the accident. Since I realized that I was never going to be what I wanted to be.” I tapped on my plate. “Some things can’t be undone, but that doesn’t mean I want to accept it either.”

He kissed my forehead firmly, his mouth drifting down over my nose until it captured my lips. I allowed myself to respond to it, something visceral catching hold in my chest, burning through my lungs like a tongue of flame.

“I know,” he murmured, the words muffled. “And I had no right to say it like I did.”

“It’s true, though. I crashed on Mel’s couch that night and cried myself to sleep and then just wandered around the next morning, trying to figure out where I fit in.”

“And you found Moira?”

“Yeah. I didn’t even know what I wanted to do, but she had an apartment-for-rent sign up. Something about it . . .
I just ended up in the store and she was there and I guess that was it.” I let my head drift onto his shoulder. “She was . . . kind to me, offered me the place at a reduced rent, but I don’t know. The more I think on it, I have to say there was an air of something desperate about her.” I frowned. “Whatever was going on with her, it was happening well before I ever entered the picture.” Another thought crossed my mind. “There’s one thing that confuses me about all this though. If I’m a KeyStone—and I’m assuming Moira figured it out pretty quickly, since she offered me her Contract a few hours later—why didn’t I TouchStone Jett? I mean, we had sex. If my TouchStoning is triggered by touch, shouldn’t he have bound to me too?”

Brystion’s eyes narrowed. “It’s like Roweena said. You have to be receptive to it. On some level with him, you weren’t, regardless of what level of physical intimacy you had.”

“Probably a good thing. After all, I could be TouchStoned to Robert now too, eh?”

“Hardly bears thinking about.” His mouth quirked up in a mocking grin. “But right now, I think we should get you home.”

“I suppose. I could really use something to eat too.” My belly rumbled in protest. “I didn’t get a chance to eat anything all damn day, not since your breakfast, anyway. Help me up.”

I flushed beneath the weighted look of his eyes. “There’s a good Italian place around the corner from the Pit. They deliver.” I looked around. “Where’s Phineas? We probably need to get something for him too.”

Brystion shrugged, rubbing his hand over his backside with a curious expression. “He left with Robert and Roweena. I think they were going to come up with a plan. I wouldn’t worry about him too much. He seems to be able to
take care of himself.”

“And the others? Melanie?”

“They were told to leave as soon as you hit the floor. Of course,” he snorted, “Robert threatened them with death if any of them mentioned what they saw, which means the entire town should know the story in about two hours.”