The Inner Circle (Return of the Ancients Book 3) (14 page)

He looked a little pale. It worried me. I was about ready to take him back to the chicken coop when Reese gasped.

“Jareth!” She giggled.

I watched, acidly noting the difference in greetings.

Batting her lashes, she practically bowed. “Come in, Jareth, please come in.”

She stood to the side and let him pass, sucking her bottom lip in some gesture that she apparently thought was cute. Grabbing his arm at the first opportunity, she asked with a coy smile, “And what can I possibly do for you?”

“We met this longtime friend of your aunt’s at the coffee shop,” I inserted quickly. “Anyhow, she mentioned there’s this notebook your aunt left behind which belonged to her, and I told her I knew you, so …”

Reese frowned at me, clearly irritated that I still existed.

“Just let Sydney look at her things,” Jareth suggested in a deep voice, folding his arms and slouching against the wall in the same way he did for all of his promotional pictures.

It worked perfectly, just like I’d wanted it to.

Reese nearly fainted, after giving him the once over, of course.

“There isn’t much,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and sending Jareth a sultry look. “But I can show Sydney the room. Wait here a minute, while I show her where it’s at.”

Squinting her eyes at me, she ordered for me to follow. “Hurry up, Sydney,” as if I were seriously slowing her down.

But then maybe I was.

“This was her room,” Reese announced curtly, opening the door of an airy and spacious room before turning to rush back to where she’d assumed Jareth would be waiting for her. But she nearly crashed right into him at the door.

Clearly disappointed that he’d followed us, Reese sent me a vicious look. Her nostrils flared a little too wide, and she suddenly reminded me of a cow.

“Charming,” Jareth muttered in a sarcastic drawl, also catching the look.

I kicked his shin. “Keep her entertained,” I hissed under my breath.

Muffling a curse, he rubbed his leg and hobbled to the nearest chair.

I knew he was exaggerating, but it gave Reese the perfect excuse to rush to his side and to coo over him. It was kind of amusing to watch Jareth get so annoyed. I felt like taking my time just to prolong his torture.

But then, I didn’t like the pale cast to his skin.

Glancing about the room, I looked for any sort of clue, but the room was practically empty.

But, there was a picture. I wandered over to a dresser, on top of which rested a small silver-framed photo of Melody sitting in her wheelchair.

Catching Jareth’s eye, I pointed to it.

With a shrug, he dismissed it as irrelevant, but I had a gut feeling that he was wrong.

I picked it up and peered closer. Melody sat hunched to one side, looking helpless and ancient with crinkly-paper skin and crooked, arthritic hands. My mind strayed back to when I’d first seen her.

I’d made the biggest mistake by helping her out then. I’d helped to rescue evil incarnate.

Jareth engaged Reese in conversation, and I took advantage of her distraction to slip the photo out of the frame. There was something written on the back in a shaky, spidery script.

It was an address in New Mexico.

Slipping the photo into my pocket, I quickly searched the dresser, but the drawers were empty.

There was nothing else to be found.

I turned back to Reese and found that she was practically climbing all over Jareth.

He looked as if he were about to scream.

“All done?” he asked me, clenching his jaw.

“All done,” I said with a nod.

Without a word, Jareth rose to his feet and stalked out of the room.

Reese ran after him.

She watched us go, outright drooling with envy as I climbed into the Bentley. I forced Jareth to wave at her, just in case we needed her help in the future. I could feel her jealous eyes boring through the back of my head as we zipped away, but I didn’t find it gratifying in the least. I just wanted to go.

“What did you find?” Jareth asked as we pulled out of her driveway.

“An address,” I said, waving the photo in his face.

He pulled the Bentley over and parked at the curb. “Simple enough to check out,” he said, grabbing the photo from my hand.

“I’m going with you,” I said, locking my fingers around his arm.

“Fine!” he growled.

We shifted.

We were standing in front of an old rundown house with various rusty car bodies cluttering the yard. The sunlight was bright, and the air pleasantly warm. I looked around but couldn’t see much other than miles of endless desert and the odd cactus here and there.

With his trion at the ready, Jareth strode onto the creaking porch and kicked the door in.

He froze.

I rushed to his side and standing on my tiptoes, peered over his shoulder into a room lined with tables stacked with paper.

But it was the tall form standing in the corner, leafing through sheets of loose paper that caught my attention.

It was Rafael.

“You’ve been spying on us this whole time,” Jareth accused, striding into the house. “And how did you get here? You can’t shift. The Queens banished your light.”

Rafael lifted a cool brow. “There are mirrors everywhere, and more than one Fae would be willing to bring me here,” he replied calmly.

“You’re lying,” Jareth retorted, tossing his head.

I hung in the doorway to collect my thoughts.

I hadn’t expected to see Rafael so soon. Just a few short hours ago, I’d clung to him. I hadn’t walked away like I knew I should.

Thinning my lips into a line, I scowled, annoyed with myself.

I had to stick to the plan. I couldn’t let him love me. I was going to have to drive a wedge between us, no matter how much my heart said otherwise.

Jareth and Rafael continued to trade barbs as I stepped inside.

“You’re not acting in the interests of the Inner Circle,” Jareth was saying.

“Oh?” Rafael’s voice was cold. “You forget that I
am
the Inner Circle.”

Jareth sent him a searing look. “And what would Melody say if she were to discover that you’re spying on her?” he asked in challenge.

Rafael tossed the papers he was holding back onto the table. “There’s nothing here anyway,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “These are merely research papers on the reptiles of the world, nothing more.”

Jareth stepped forward to inspect them himself.

Rafael turned towards me.

I quickly looked away. Was I capable of deliberately breaking his heart, even if it
was
for the greater good? Could I look into his magnetic gray eyes and tell him that I didn’t care even though it was an outright lie?

Feeling like a fool, I bolted into the next room.

“Great job, Sydney,” I muttered to myself, glancing around.

I was standing in a musty kitchen. It obviously hadn’t been used in years. A thick layer of dirt and grit covered every surface. There was a rusty sink under a window, which held only a single shard of glass in its rotting frame.

The place was creepy.

I shivered.

I was just about to return to the living room when a shadow slipped down beneath a cupboard. Frozen, I could only watch as it lengthened and grew taller, forming into the man with the black top hat.

“Look here, Sydney,” the apparition whispered, pointing to another cupboard.

His voice was clear this time, more than it had ever been before. Suddenly, a gust of wind rattled the window and blew him apart, scattering him in various directions until he was simply gone.

I stood there, shaking, trying not to be afraid and desperately reminding myself that the man in the top hat had to be good. After all, he’d warned me of imminent danger before.

But still, it was spooky to have seen him, and I couldn’t force myself to go look into the cupboard as he’d suggested.

“What are you doing, Sydney?” Jareth growled from behind me.

I licked my dry lips and pointed to the cupboard. “There,” I said. “Look in there.”

He scowled at me, and I could tell he was weighing with the temptation of brushing me off. But there must have been something in my voice that made him think twice.

Acting extremely put out, he stalked over to the cupboard and flipped it open.

Inside was a small box.

Raising a brow, he picked it up and hefted it with one hand.

“What is it?” I asked.

Jareth didn’t answer. He just set the box onto the counter and stared at it in astonishment.

Curious and feeling safer, I moved to join him just as I heard Rafael enter the kitchen as well.

I didn’t look his way, but I knew he was close. Too close.

“That’s a Bloodline Box,” Rafael stated. His deep voice sounded next to my ear.

Seeking to distract myself from his overpowering presence, I peered around Jareth’s arm and focused my eyes on the box instead.

I blinked in surprise.

The box looked like it was made of intricately carved silver, and the top was emblazoned with the same symbol that I’d seen on Marquis’ ring. The symbol glowed as if it were on fire.

“That’s Marquis’ emblem,” Jareth said in a strangled voice. “Only those of his bloodline can open that box.”

“Strange,” Rafael commented. His voice sounded distant and cold. “I haven’t touched it. How did it activate?”

There was a strained silence, a silence I didn’t quite understand.

And then Rafael spoke. “Sydney, please touch the box.”

I eyed it apprehensively a moment before gamely touching the edge with a fingertip. The metal was hot but not enough to burn. As soon as my skin made contact, the symbol faded entirely, and the box morphed into what looked like a simple block of gray-painted wood.

“Weird,” I said.

I could feel Rafael moving behind me. His chest brushed lightly against my back as his hand reached over my shoulder to touch the top of the block.

The symbol blazed to life as the box once again changed into silver.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Sydney,” Rafael murmured into my ear. “Please touch the box again.”

Trying my best to ignore Rafael’s nearness, I quickly tapped the top and as expected, the symbol immediately disappeared.

There was a longer silence this time. A long time in which I was keenly aware of Rafael’s hard-muscled chest and arms just millimeters away. In the effort to distract myself, I turned to Jareth.

“What
is
this—” I began, but my words faltered at the expression of horror on his face.

Rafael leaned forward expectantly and commanded, “Open it, Jareth!”

Jareth didn’t move. His face was white.

“Open it!” Rafael thundered again.

“You know … I can’t,” Jareth replied, but he sounded even more uncertain than he looked. “The lid must have been opened already. Or maybe it’s Sydney…” his voice trailed away into silence.

“Me?” I asked, confused. “I didn’t do anything.”

In a lightning-quick movement, Rafael gripped Jareth’s arm and twisting it back, forced his hand against the box.

As Jareth’s hand collided with the gray block of wood, the symbol sprang to life and the top of the box flew open. What looked like a handful of gray sugar-cubes flew in all directions.

Rafael gasped and Jareth choked.

I glanced at them in surprise.

“I don’t even need to see what’s on those cubes,” Rafael whispered in a hoarse voice.

Jareth stood there, frozen. Rafael looked ill. In fact, they both looked sick.

When neither one of them spoke for a bit, I said, “I really don’t get it.”

Finally, Rafael cleared his throat. “Jareth’s father must be …” he hesitated, and then mouthed, “Marquis.”

My mouth dropped open. “That would mean that you’re …
brothers?
”

Neither one of them answered me. They just stared at each other, stunned, with expressions of disbelief etched upon their faces.

Jareth choked. “No. This is some kind of trick.”

Grabbing the cubes from the box, he strode into the living room where a large, dusty mirror hung on the wall behind the tables. Flicking the cubes open, he released sparks of light and flung them into the mirror.

A jumble of images began to play, images of Melody experimenting on various animals, spraying them with Lysol. Armadillos. Coyotes. Snakes. Dinosaur bones. And then she was standing triumphantly over something, and when she drew back, I could see it was a Mesmer.

I gasped.

“
Melody
created the Mesmers,” Jareth whispered the words we were all thinking.

“This makes little sense,” Rafael said with a trace of wariness in his voice. “Why would she develop parasites for their use?”

They both fell silent as the mirror displayed Melody dressed in a white cloak, taking blood from Marquis and mixing it with various concoctions before playing what we’d seen in the Hall of Mirrors, the images of her injecting a needle with strange contents into the dark-haired Fae who had given birth to Jareth.

Jareth appeared in the mirror as an infant with scales covering his skin. Melody stood in the background nodding in satisfaction as Marquis hovered over him, laughingly calling him ‘son’.

“Then … I do carry his … blood.” Jareth swallowed, breathing hard.

Rafael seemed to be having difficulty breathing as well. “It explains … much.”

But Jareth wasn’t listening to him. “I’m an experiment,” he whispered hoarsely, pointing to the papers on the table. “But created for what purpose?”

I licked my dry lips as he began to pace, but before I could say anything, he slammed his fist on one of the tables and simply disappeared.

“Not again,” I snapped, immediately thinking of his number sequence. I was going to have to talk with Jareth. He couldn’t keep running away every time something happened that he didn’t like.

This time, Jareth didn’t respond to my summons. I supposed I couldn’t really blame him, considering what we’d just seen.

“How did you find the Bloodline Box?” Rafael’s cool voice intruded upon my thoughts.

I whirled to face him, startled.