Refuge (23 page)

Tristan nodded sadly and I regretted hurting
him, but I would not lie to him or let him harbor any false hopes
of reconciliation between Madeline and me. All she was to me now
was a means of finding the Master, and once we had him, she could
disappear again for all I cared.

Chris swirled the amber liquid in his glass.
“So, Sara, I hear you’ve actually named those two monsters of
yours. And you have them eating out of your hands, just like
Nikolas said you would.”

“Nikolas?”

“He tracked them down at one of our holding
facilities in Minneapolis and had them sent here.” Chris smiled
wryly at my look of surprise. “He said you would be upset if they
were locked away. I told him they were going to eat someone, and he
bet me you’d have them eating out of your hands in no time. You,
little cousin, cost me my favorite set of throwing knives.”

“Sorry,” I replied absently, shocked by the
news that Nikolas had found Hugo and Woolf and sent them here for
me. First, he takes off without a word and I don’t hear from him
for weeks. And now I learn that he went out of his way to do
something he knew would make me happy. I would never figure him
out.

“About the hellhounds.” Tristan leaned
forward, smiling again. “Sahir thinks it’ll be safe to let them out
for short walks with you as long as we keep everyone else away at
first.”

“Really? When can we start?”

“Tomorrow.”

I let out an excited squeal that would have
made Olivia envious.

Chris and Tristan were still laughing when
someone knocked on the door. I felt the telltale flutter before
Tristan opened the door to invite Nikolas in. I was still
embarrassed about that morning, and as much as I had argued with
Jordan about him, all her words came rushing back to me now.

Nikolas entered the apartment and stopped as
if he was surprised to see me there. His gaze lingered on me for
several seconds before it shifted to Chris and then Tristan. I
could see no sign that he was happy to see me. So much for Jordan’s
theories.

“I’ll leave so you guys can take care of
business,” I said to Tristan.

He shook his head. “No, this concerns you.
Nikolas has been investigating the kark attack.” He looked at
Nikolas. “I assume you have something for us.”

Nikolas sat on the other end of the couch,
and I immediately sensed the stiffness in his bearing even though I
was trying to look anywhere but at him. His dark mood confused me,
and I tried not to fidget when I felt his eyes on me.

“We examined Sara’s shirt. The karks
destroyed one side of it, so we focused on the scraps of fabric
left there and found traces of what looks like scarab pheromone.”
Nikolas glanced at me. “The only way Sara could have gotten it on
her clothes is if someone put it there.”

Tristan’s smile faded. “I cannot believe
anyone inside these walls would try to hurt one of our own.”

“I find it hard to believe as well, but the
evidence speaks for itself. Sahir said he found it odd there was no
pheromone spray in the crates with the shipment of eggs. It’s
likely someone took it out before he searched them.”

“Why would anyone here target Sara?” Chris
mused. He gave me a sidelong look. “Your beasties didn’t snack on
someone, did they?”

“Ha, ha,” I retorted. “It’s not like I don’t
have enemies out there.”

Tristan shook his head. “Out there, yes, but
not in here, and we’ve found nothing to indicate the vampires
believe you are still alive. Even if they did, there is no way a
Mohiri would betray one of their own people for a vampire.”

“I agree.” Nikolas’s tone was clipped but
full of conviction. “There must be another motive.” He looked at me
like he thought I was keeping something back, but I had no reason
to hide anything.

“Trainees have been known to prank each
other. They were brutal back in my day. Perhaps one of them did
this as a practical joke and it got out of hand,” Chris
suggested.

“I don’t know any of them that well, but
they’ve all been nice to me. I really can’t see one of them doing
something that could hurt me.”

Chris’s eyebrows went up. “Jordan? Nice?”

“She has her moments.”
Even if she did make me wear this stupid
top.
“I like her actually. I took her to meet Hugo and Woolf
today, and they didn’t go all growly on her so she must be
okay.”

“Jordan will make a great warrior one day,”
Nikolas commented, and I knew she would be ecstatic to hear such
praise from him. “You could learn a lot from her.”

“She is already teaching me a lot.” I
wondered what he would say if I told him that Jordan’s education
centered on what to wear to attract guys instead of how to use a
sword.

I stood and turned to Tristan. “I should get
going. I need to call Nate because I forgot to ask him yesterday if
he’s still coming for Thanksgiving.”

Tristan chuckled. “I doubt you could keep him
away. I’ve already arranged for the plane to pick him up in
Portland in two weeks.”

I thought about the small private jet that
had flown me to Boise, and I wished I could see Nate’s face when he
saw it. I never asked about finances, but the jet was evidence that
the Mohiri must have a sizeable fortune at their disposal.

“I can’t wait for you guys to meet each
other.”

He walked me to the door. “I’m looking
forward to it, too. He sounds like a nice person on the phone.”

I stopped short to stare at him. “You talked
to Nate?”

Tristan looked surprised by my reaction. “We
speak at least once a week. You didn’t know?”

“No.” Why hadn’t Nate mentioned it to me?
“What do you talk about? You don’t even know each other.”

“We are getting to know each other. He wants
to make sure you are happy here; he knows how much you miss your
friends back home. The last time we spoke he wanted to know if
you’d started dating anyone yet. Apparently, the boys back home
were not to your liking.”

I cringed inwardly. The absolute last thing I
wanted anyone – especially my uncle and my grandfather – discussing
was my nonexistent love life. “Excuse me while I go kill my
uncle.”

“I will see you tomorrow.” Tristan opened the
door, not hiding his amusement. I turned to say good-bye to the
others, only to find Nikolas standing a few feet away from us
wearing a scowl. What did he have to be annoyed about? I was the
one who was embarrassed.

“I’ll walk with you so we can talk about
tomorrow’s training,” Nikolas said. He had been cool toward me
since he arrived, and I hoped he would get over it by tomorrow. I
did not want to train with him like this.

Tristan put up a hand when Nikolas moved
toward the door. “Actually, I need to speak with you, Nikolas, if
you don’t mind.”

Nikolas looked as if he was going to refuse,
but he merely nodded instead. I was pretty sure they were going to
continue their discussion about the karks, and I was done with that
conversation. Chris was probably right about it being a prank gone
astray, and even if it turned out that Celine was behind it, I
found it hard to believe she would want to cause me serious
harm.

“I will walk my sweet little cousin out,”
Chris announced. He came up behind me to tug on my hair and laughed
when I smacked his hand away. “Just trying to make up for all the
years I missed out on.”

“Before you get any ideas, Dimples, I should
remind you my best friends are boys and I know many forms of
retaliation. I even picked up a few tricks from Remy.”

He winked as he slipped past me. “I’ve
learned to never underestimate a girl with troll friends.”

“I’ll see you later,” I said to Tristan and
Nikolas. Then I followed Chris. His apartment was two doors down,
and I said good-bye at his door to head back to my own room. Away
from Nikolas’s brooding stare, I breathed a little easier. I had
expected him to be less intense now that I was finally safe inside
a Mohiri stronghold, but if anything, his moods were more mercurial
than ever. Didn’t the guy ever loosen up and let go of the whole
warrior thing? I thought back to the night we had sat by the fire
and talked during the storm. That was probably the most relaxed I
had ever seen Nikolas. Why couldn’t he be that way again?

Gah! Two months ago I was running from
vampires and rescuing trolls, and now I was reduced to obsessing
about some guy’s moods. It figured that I had to find out I was
immortal only to start behaving like a normal teenage girl. I was
sure there was some great irony in this and someday I’d laugh at
it, but I was too annoyed with myself to look for it now.
God, do not let me
turn into one of those girls.

I was still frowning when I picked up the
phone and called Nate, who answered on the second ring.

“Is everything okay?” he asked with a note of
concern in his voice.

“Everything is great. Why?”

“Because you usually call every few days and
we talked last night. You’re sure you are okay?”

I stretched out on the bed. “I’m sure Tristan
would have told you if anything was wrong.”

There was a short pause before he cleared his
throat. “So he told you. I thought I should know what kind of
people are taking care of you out there. Your . . . grandfather
sounds like a nice, responsible person, and he cares about you very
much.”

“I’m not mad at you, Nate. I think it’s kind
of sweet actually. I just don’t know why you didn’t tell me you two
were becoming long-distance pals.”

“I didn’t want you to think I don’t trust you
or that I’m checking up on you. If you don’t want me talking to
him, I won’t.”

“No, I think it’s great that you two are
getting to know each other. Just do me one favor and please, please
don’t talk about my love life with him ever again. Do you know how
awkward it is to find out that your uncle and your grandfather have
been discussing your boyfriend situation?”

Nate laughed. “Okay, I promise no more of
that. Is there a boyfriend situation?”

“Nate!”

“You can’t blame me for trying.”

I let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “No,
there is no boyfriend. I think I made a friend, though.”

“You
think
you made a friend?”

“Well, with Jordan it’s hard to tell. She can
be a bit prickly, and she’s not really a people person.”

“Hmmm. Sounds a bit like a girl who used to
live here for a while.”

“My uncle, the comedian,” I quipped, earning
another laugh from him. “Anyway, you’ll meet her when you get here.
You
are
still
coming for Thanksgiving, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Tristan told me he’s sending the jet.
Wait’ll you see this thing; it’s like the whole rock star
treatment.”

“I can’t wait.”

“And don’t forget Oscar.” I couldn’t wait to
see him again, although the imps probably wouldn’t be as happy
about his arrival. I still needed to pick up a litter box and food
for him, and I made a note to ask Tristan if I could go shopping in
town. Terrence and Josh went into Butler Falls all the time and no
one seemed to have a problem with it.

“Don’t worry; he is at the top of my
list.”

“List? What else are you bringing?”

There was a noticeable pause before he
answered. “A box of things from your old house.”

I felt my brow crease. “What things? I have
all my dad’s stuff.”

Another pause. “These are some things your
father kept of your mother’s. I held onto them because I thought
you might want them someday.”

“I don’t,” I replied stiffly, too shocked by
his revelation to say more. I’d always assumed Madeline had taken
everything of hers when she left us. Now to find out that Nate had
kept some of her belongings all this time . . .

“I know but I thought Tristan might like to
have them. It’s just some old books and photo albums and a few
letters, but they may be of sentimental value to him.”

I started to say something not so nice and
stopped myself. I felt nothing but animosity for Madeline, but she
was still Tristan’s daughter and it was clear he cared about her. I
saw the pain he tried to hide whenever I refused to talk about her.
Madeline’s belongings meant nothing to me, but they might mean a
great deal to him.

“I’m sure he will appreciate that, Nate.”

We talked for another ten minutes, mostly
about his book. He told me that a reporter from a New York literary
magazine had contacted him yesterday about doing an interview. The
woman was coming up from New York next week to meet with him, and I
could tell Nate was pretty excited about it. He promised to tell me
all about it when he came to visit.

I hung up and started to log into my computer
when I heard a soft knock on the door. Glancing at my clock, I saw
it was after nine thirty, and I wondered who was visiting me this
late. I was surprised to find the hallway empty, except for a small
flat box on the floor in front of my door. Who would leave me a
package? I picked it up and shook it, but it didn’t make any
noise.

Closing the door, I carried the box to my
desk and lifted the top to reveal a folded sheet of heavy linen
stationary lying on top of the tissue paper that concealed the
contents of the box. I opened the note and felt a second jolt of
surprise when I saw who had penned it.

I hope you will come to love these as I do.
Desmund.

The handwriting was elegant and precise with
a slight flourish in the D at the beginning of his name, just how I
would expect an English lord to write. I sat there for a full
minute, staring at the note and marveling that Desmund had actually
sent me a gift, before I pushed aside the tissue paper to see two
CDs of Beethoven’s and Shubert’s greatest hits.

Touched by his gift, I popped in the Shubert
CD before I sat down at my computer again. My good mood lasted as
long as it took me to log into my favorite message board and see
the flurry of activity there. The vampire watchers were out in full
force tonight, exchanging stories of suspected vampire-related
disappearances all over the country. Something was up and everyone
was on edge. People went missing all the time, but vampires were
usually discreet about their involvement, taking care not to hunt
openly and attract too much attention. But according to the stories
I was reading, missing persons cases had almost doubled in Los
Angeles, Vegas, Houston, and a number of other large cities. I
chewed my lower lip as I read each disturbing post. Could vampires
really be responsible for all those disappearances? If so, why
weren’t they being more careful to hide their tracks? Weren’t they
worried at all about bringing the Mohiri down on their heads?