Madly and Wolfhardt (17 page)

 I waited until I saw him finish his conversation with the guard before I excused myself as well.  I wanted to catch Jackson before he came back into the room.

“Can I talk to you for just a second?” I kept my voice low.

Jackson looked back to the guard and nodded then turned toward me.  I walked several steps away from both the guard and the door.

“Something’s up.  What is it?” I asked.

 “Nothing,” he said, putting his hands on his hips like I’d seen him do before.  He was clamming up and it rankled.

“Look,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.  “Like it or not, we’re in this together.  If you’re concerned about something, I need to know what it is.”

Jackson watched me carefully for several long, tense seconds before he looked back over his shoulder.  When he was sure we weren’t being overheard, he turned back to me.

“I’d like to talk to the doctor about Aidan’s bite.  I’m not sure what we can expect since Wolfhardt’s saliva carries the curse,” he said bluntly.

I felt the blood rush from my face.  Mer were very difficult to kill, but as far as I knew, no one had ever considered what would happen to them in a case like this.  Was the curse meant only for humans?  Or was it transmitted to any creature exposed to Wolfhardt’s saliva?

“Why don’t you want Aidan to know?”

I didn’t mean for my question to sound so accusatory, but it did, even to my own ears.

“Because there’s no reason for anyone to panic until we know what we’re dealing with.  That means you are not to tell him either.  Are we clear?”

I clenched my teeth. 

“No, we are not
clear,
Jackson.  These are not the types of decisions you get to make unilaterally and then expect the rest of us to just go along with.  Aidan is my friend and I think he deserves to know what he could be facing.  That’s not something you just spring on someone
after
the fact.”

“There is no reason that—”

“Yes there is.  He is my friend and I care about him.  This could change his life forever and he is a large part of the Mer future.  He needs to know.”

“Oh,” Jackson said, looking down at me from beneath his lashes.  “Is that what this is about?”

I frowned.

“What?”

“You’re thinking about your future fiancée and how he could rule Atlas as some sort of hybrid.”

“I’m more worried about Aidan, but I have to think about Atlas.  In case you’ve forgotten, we can’t really go to my father for advice.  I have to start thinking like the princess that I am,” I defended.

“Of course.  Atlas comes first,” he agreed, though his comment seemed liberally laced with bitterness.  “Where would we be without the royals to keep us in line?”

“Jackson, you know I didn’t mean it that way.”

“I know you didn’t, Princess.  It’s just the way that it is.  Always has been, always will be.”

After he got that off his chest, Jackson let out a frustrated grunt and moved out of my way. 

“If you want to tell him, be my guest.  It’s your decision,
Princess,”
he said, inclining his head in a condescending bow.

Though his attitude set my teeth on edge, there was no denying that Jackson was as capable as he was gorgeous.   And, though I was torn between slapping him and kissing him, one thing was pretty clear—I should heed his advice.  Even though I felt like we should tell Aidan, I knew that it would be in my best interest (Aidan’s, too) to listen to him.  There was a reason that he had leapfrogged over thousands of other Sentinels to land in his current position.  I knew it would be a mistake to let myself forget that.

I swallowed the
humph
that pushed at my lips, choosing instead to play my part.

Smiling tightly, I said, “No.  I value your opinion and if you feel it’s best to wait, then we’ll wait.”

It was obvious by the look on Jackson’s face that my acquiescence had surprised him.  But still, he said nothing.

“So, what now?”

Jackson studied me for a moment before responding.

“I think we need to talk to the doctor, see if we can get some idea of what we might be dealing with.”

“And do we know where the doctor is?”

“No, but I can track him down.”

“Will you send for me when you find him?  I’d like to sit with Aidan for a while.”

Jackson’s lips thinned and he nodded, turning to walk away without another word.  I gritted my teeth in annoyance.

When I walked back in Aidan’s temporary room, he and Jersey were laughing hysterically over something.  Their joy was contagious and I found myself smiling before I even knew what they found so funny.

“What’d I miss?”

Jersey wiped at her eyes.

“Aidan’s impersonation of Jackson.  It’s dead on, Madly.  Dead on!” 

Normally, I would’ve wanted an instant replay so I could join in the merriment, but not if it involved making fun of Jackson.  Though I found him exasperating, I prickled at the idea that Aidan was making fun of him.  I mean, who did he think was going to be working tirelessly to apprehend Wolfhardt?  I wanted to smack him on the forehead and say
DUH!

I asked about Aidan’s leg to get the subject going in a different direction, and that worked out just fine.  The conversation was light until Jersey had an
Ah-ha
moment that she announced to the entire room.

“Ohmigod!  I just had a thought,” she gasped.

Aidan sat up quickly, a comically-alarmed expression on his face. 

“Are you alright?  Do you need some water?  Some Tylenol?  Should we call the doctor?”

Jersey smacked at him playfully.

“You should be thanking me, not making fun of me.”

Aidan leaned back against his mountain of pillows, still smiling.

“Oh yeah?  Why is that?”

“Because I’m about to blow your mind with my amazing powers of deduction.”

“Blow away,” he said, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

“What if,” she began, dramatically waggling her eyebrows.  “What if Mer are susceptible to Wolfhardt’s bite, like humans are?”

Aidan’s smile faded.  It was evident that the thought never crossed his mind.  As it happened, now neither Jackson nor I had any control over Aidan finding out about the possible implications of the bite.  Jersey had taken that decision right out of our hands.

“I didn’t even think about that,” he said quietly, his color becoming even paler beneath his tanned skin.

“We don’t know that that will be the case, though,” I offered comfortingly.

“We don’t know that it won’t either.”

I had no response to that.  He was right. 

“Maybe the doctor will know.  We can ask him when he makes his rounds to see you.”

Aidan just nodded, a faraway look in his eyes.

The atmosphere in the room turned morose, each of us lost in thought, lost in worry over what horrors might be in Aidan’s future.

Jersey was the first to break the silence.  She made a growling sound and said through gritted teeth, “Stupid Kellina.”

That roused Aidan out of his dark musings.

“Hey, it’s not her fault.  She can’t help who her ancestors were.”

I hid a small smile.  Aidan was getting a little taste of what I’d felt when I’d found them making fun of Jackson.  I still found it strange that the boy I’d grown up knowing I would marry had, in all likelihood, developed a tie for an unacceptable person, just as I had.

I swallowed a sigh.  There was no sense going down that road again.  I had enough trouble without borrowing more.

But still, even as I shied away from those depressing thoughts, Jackson’s face filled my mind, causing my body to react as if he were right beside me. 

I closed my eyes for just a moment, reveling in that feeling, in that reaction—the butterflies in my stomach, the flush in my face, the ever-present sense of anticipation, a growing sense of adoration.  There would come a time when all I would have of our time together would be distant memories. 

Once Aidan and I were married, I would probably never see Jackson again.  I would be under the protection of the Royal Sentinel Unit.  I equated them to the human Secret Service.  The RSU is a small group of Sentinels that will one day be assigned to shadow me virtually every second of every day. 

I wasn’t able to smother the sigh that followed that thought, nor was I able to squelch the flutter of panic that rippled through me at the thought of never seeing Jackson again. 

I pulled in a gulp of air and opened my eyes.  My heart flopped over in my chest when they collided with the sky blue eyes I couldn’t get out of my head.  Jackson was standing in the doorway, watching me.

He must’ve just arrived.  Jersey and Aidan hadn’t even noticed him yet.  Besides, my eyes hadn’t been closed for very long. 

Jackson was developing a habit of showing up as if in response to my thoughts. Too bad I couldn’t summon him at will.  I’d never spend a moment without him being somewhere nearby, somewhere I could see him, feel his soothing presence. 

I felt the corners of my mouth twitch, as just the sight of him calmed me.  Being near him now made the bleak future seem far, far away.

“Madly,” he said in his low, rough voice.

“Be right back,” I said to Jersey and Aidan as I turned to make my way to Jackson.

We walked out the door and just around the corner.

“Did you find him?”

“Yes.  Actually, he was at Transport giving report to Jessup and the High Council.”

A sinking feeling dragged at the pit of my stomach.  That in itself pretty much confirmed that the news about Aidan would not be good news.

“Is he coming here afterward?”

Jackson nodded.

“Well, we might as well let him talk to Aidan.”

“And why is that?” Jackson asked, his tone already accusing me of saying something I shouldn’t have.

“Don’t get all huffy with me.  Your sister happened to have a moment of clarity and brilliance.  She’s the one that thought of it and brought it up.  I didn’t say a word.”

Jackson sighed.

“She does have her moments, doesn’t she?”

He looked down at me, exasperation plain on his face.  But then he smiled, a genuine smile that showed a row of his perfect white teeth.  It made my bones feel soft and buttery.

I smiled in return.  I was utterly breathless and spellbound.

“Yes, she does.”

So there we stood in the hall, smiling at one another like two lovers, sharing an inside joke.

The air between us sizzled with attraction.  I knew he felt it, too.  Even if Jackson’s heart wasn’t up for grabs, I knew that he felt
something
for me.  It was there in the way his eyes heated up as he enjoyed the moment with me.

In my head, I was already committing every subtle nuance of that tiny space in time to memory—the strangely intimate bubble that seemed to surround us, the electricity that snapped between us, the mutual desire that neither of us was trying to hide.