Wrath: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 2 (6 page)

“And are you so sure of the answer?”

“Odin’s spoken. Besides, the true answer will be what’s best for all, even if it hurts initially.”

“How can you be so stoic?” I demanded.

He shrugged and beamed. “I’m Irish.”

Chapter Four

I pulled the hotel bathrobe from the closet and slipped it on. Guilt settled over me like a strand of spider’s web, swirling around me as I moved, sticky and impossible to shake off. I turned back to Hellion and found him leaning against the bathroom door, arms crossed over his still-nude, muscular chest, an intensely brooding look on his face. “I thought you managed so well because you’re Irish?” I teased.

He made a
harumphing
sound and shrugged, his emotions barely contained. “We’ve no method to speak to each other. How will I reach you?” A frown tugged at his lips, and his fingers dug into the muscles of his crossed arms.

I smiled gently. “You’ll call me on the phone like a normal man,” I said. I walked over to him and gently bumped his chest with my shoulder. “Do you have a cell phone?”

“Not with me. I rarely carry it.”

“Get one that you’ll keep on you,” I suggested. “Then we can keep in touch. I’ve got this niggling feeling about the murdered girl, and we’ve got to elect new Council members. You’ll need the phone regardless.”

“Fine.” He stared down at me, impassive. And then the sun came out in the way of his smile. “For you.” He dipped to kiss me quickly before I could object.

I backed up hard and fast, bouncing off the wall. “No more of that, Hellion.” I cinched the robe tighter against his lustful gaze and the physical response he seemed to wring from me. “I have to go.”

“So you keep saying. I’ll be out of here as soon as you close the door. Any parting wisdom from the Niteclif?” He pushed to standing and slid his hands back in his pockets, rocking slowly back and forth on the balls of his feet.

So he didn’t entirely trust me not to run out of the room screaming. I wasn’t the only cautious one. Still, my gaze ran over his body, head to toe, and I licked my lower lip. “Oh, yeah.”

He quirked an eyebrow in question, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“Put your shirt on before you leave.”

He threw back his head and laughed long and loud, the rich baritone sound pulling another genuine grin out of me as I turned and fled the room.

I walked slowly down the carpeted hallway until I got to the elevator. I didn’t want to go back to my room, but clothed in only a T-shirt, underwear and borrowed robe, I had little choice. I strongly suspected
 
my return would bring about chaos, and I was worried. Would Bahlin be able to read the guilt in my face if he was there? Because guilty I was. No, I wasn’t still formally bound to my dragon, but my heart had been his and his alone until last night when he gave it back. Now it was divided and I found myself conflicted. I was also feeling very adrift, as if I’d been cut loose from all who cared about me, from parents to friends to lover, and all I wanted was to belong, to be genuinely loved by someone. What if Hellion… No. I’d not explore that just yet.

That damned prophecy
, I grumped, kicking at the front of the robe just as the elevator car arrived with a soft
ding
. I boarded the car and did my best to ignore the stares from the elderly couple who already occupied the car.

“Floor?” asked the gentleman.

“
Hmph
,” said his octogenarian partner, taking in my bathrobe and disheveled hair.

Unable to help myself, I turned to face her when I answered. “I believe I left my other lover on twenty-two.”

He smiled and she glared at me. I glared right back. She reached around her partner and pushed the next floor button.

“But Genevieve, that’s not our flo—”

“It is now,” she hissed, and dragged him off the elevator as soon as it stopped.

I’m not usually such a snark, but her attitude had empowered the bitch in me to make an appearance. Oh well. It would give them something to talk about over dinner.

The elevator arrived at my floor and I exited to a flurry of activity. There were people rushing about, two men were posted in the hallway outside my room, and the door was propped open. I heard Bahlin bellow something along the lines of, “I don’t give a flying fuck
what
your excuse is,
find her
.” I cringed. This was going to be ugly.

Just as I was contemplating getting back on the elevator, one of the guards spotted me.

“Hold it,” he ordered.

I stumbled backward and fell into a table holding a fresh flower arrangement. It crashed to the marble elevator foyer and splintered. I sat there among the scattered flowers, water and shattered glass and watched the other guard disappear into the hotel room as the first guard closed the distance. His eyes were dragon blue, and I knew he had to be a member of the weyr.

“You are…”

I sighed. “The Niteclif.”

“I thought so. Glaaca,” he shouted, then he turned back to glare openly at me. Hellion’s words came back to me that the killer could be anyone in the weyr, and I shivered. Suddenly complete strangers looked like potential murderers.

Bahlin swung around the corner of the door and, seeing me sprawled on the floor, broke into a sprint. Clay was hot on his heels. The lesser dragon sported a massive shiner and a nasty split lip. It didn’t slow him down.

Bahlin slipped and slid through the mess and snatched me up off the ground, crushing me to his chest.

“
Oomph
.”

“Maddy, Maddy, Maddy,” he chanted into my hair, briskly rubbing my back.

“It’s a good thing I’m not still wounded, you know.” I pushed back on his chest so I could see his face.

His midnight blue eyes peered down at me and his brows drew together. “What do you mean you’re not wounded? I just saw you yesterday—”

“Right. When you dumped my ass. Put me down.” I struggled, and he set me down just outside the halo of broken glass.

“Clay explained—”

“Only because you wouldn’t give me an opportunity to do it myself.” I shoved him back and he let me. “You arrogant
ass.
Did you think to give me a minute to explain before jumping to conclusions?” I stormed away from him, the robe flapping in the breeze of my righteous fury, and I spun to storm back. “ No, you didn’t. Instead, you called off the engagement and left me to be abducted.”
And to get a personal message from a god
. My chest was heaving and my heart hurt. I knew this was unfair but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

Sensing a cataclysmic fight in the making, Clay jumped between us. “Maddy? Maddy.” He grabbed my shoulders and shook me, and Bahlin growled. “Listen. It was my fault you were taken. I wasn’t, uh, doing my job when Hellion broke into the room. Where did he take you?”

“Is no one going to ask if I’m okay?” My question was met with total silence. “Nice. Very nice you arrogant, overgrown, winged geckos. He took me to the twenty-sixth floor. You never think to check your own house first, do you?”

I wrenched myself out of Clay’s hands and stalked into my suite, intent on getting some clothes on.

“Maddy?” Clay called. “Before I forget, there’s a message for you.”

I paused, looking over my shoulder. “Yeah?”

“Gaitha, Queen of the Fae, would like to speak to you about the Council vacancy.” He looked disturbed.

“I’m sure she would.” I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. “Not today, though. I’ll send a messenger…how? How exactly does one get in touch with the fae, Clay?”

“I’ll make sure she knows you’ll be in touch.”

Bahlin followed me into the suite and turned to the other man. “Get everyone out,” Bahlin said softly but firmly. “Clay, arrange four men on the door and elevators, six men in the lobby. Someone watch the window. I need some time alone with my…” He paused.

I looked at him over my shoulder. “Your what?” He didn’t answer so I turned to face him head on. “Am I still your fiancée? Your
trékkar
?”

He scrubbed his hands hard over his face, then clutched his temples with his eyes closed. He stood that way for a lifetime before he finally opened his eyes and dropped his hands to his hips. “What do you want from me, Maddy?”

“Nothing more than you’re willing to give.”

“I just don’t know,” he admitted, staring at me intently.

“Fair enough. When I thought you wanted me, all I wanted was you in return. Now I’m not so sure either.”

“I thought you were—wait, what do you mean you’re not sure?”

I laughed but it was a bitter sound. “Don’t like the sound of that, do you? So it’s okay for you to decide you might not want to be married to me, but I don’t have the same luxury? You and your damnable prophecy, Bahlin. It’s going to ruin what would have been a good thing.”

He paled in front of me, swaying so that I thought he might actually fall down. He staggered to the sofa and sank into the cushions, all his normal grace gone. “You’ve met him, haven’t you? You’ve met the third leg of this cursed triangle.”

“We’ve known him all along, Bahlin.” My back was now to him, and my voice carried on little more than a whisper. “Think. With Tarrek gone, who is the only other male member of the Council? It’s been that simple from day one. We just didn’t see it, didn’t
want
to see it.”

“Hellion,” he snapped, leaning his head back on the sofa’s headrest. “Damn it, it’s Hellion.”

“Give the dragon a prize.”

I left Bahlin stewing on the sofa, gathered up some clothes and headed into the bathroom to grab a quick shower. The hot water sluiced over my skin but I still felt cold.
Hellion
. Just the name evoked a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. I thought back to the first time we’d met at the sithen. It had felt like, at the very least, we’d met before. But I’d dismissed the feeling, taken it for a fluke. Now I wondered if past lives were coming into play. And did I even believe in past lives? I wasn’t sure. What I was pretty sure I
did
believe in was free will versus destiny. Difficult as it was, the choice between men had to be mine. The concept of destiny seemed like a cop-out, a chance to blame every poor choice as inconsequentially preordained by the Fates. That made me, in effect, nothing more than a thread in their greater loom. No. I was Madeleine Niteclif, and I had an unchangeable history and a future of my own design.

I have choices to make
, I thought, scrubbing at my skin with a vengeance that left it glowing pink.
I am no one’s pawn, and I don’t accept destiny as an excuse
.

The dark voice in my head said,
Ah, but then how did you get
here
?

There was no easy answer.

I shut the water off and stood there dripping. The room outside was quiet. Running my hands through my hair, I shook like a dog emerging from a deep body of water. I grabbed my towel and dried off, dressed, and brushed my hair into some semblance of order. I was stalling. I didn’t want to face Bahlin. Knowing that pissed me off, and I hurled the brush across the bathroom. It hit the door with a bang and a clatter, and I heard movement in the room beyond.

“Maddy?” Bahlin’s voice was muffled through the door but the concern rang loud and clear.

I sighed. I couldn’t put this off any longer. Opening the door, I moved past him and grabbed my sneakers. “Sorry. I’m just having a small temper tantrum.”

“Your socks are in the top right dresser drawer.”

I pulled it open and, sure enough, there were my socks. Someone had kindly unpacked my belongings. Apparently I’d be here instead of living with Bahlin. One more nail in the coffin of our relationship. Good to know.

I sat on the floor to put them on, not wanting to sit next to Bahlin on the bed.

He perched on the edge of the mattress, watching my every move. “We need to discuss this.”

I hunched my shoulders at his words. Maybe I could convince myself destiny was responsible after all because I sure as hell didn’t want to tell him what had gone down in the room upstairs.

“I agree.” I finished tying my shoes and got up, walking into the living room and sinking into one of the sofas. “But not in the bedroom.”

“Uncomfortable?” he asked, menace weaving effectively through the five syllables of that one simple word.

“Maybe. Why are you being an ass when you’re the one who left me?” I fidgeted with the decorative pillows, straightening tassels and fringe. I froze. This had been a nervous habit of my mom’s. I put my hands in my lap and watched Bahlin walk to the big picture window, his back to me.

“You’re right. I did call off the engagement.” He turned to me, his face grave. “I want to take it all back, Maddy. Even the part where I killed my da and sister. But what’s done is done.”

It sounded like he meant it as a whole. The engagement was off. My guilt over Hellion eased just a bit.

“Do you believe in free will or destiny?” It was out of my mouth before I could stop myself. In for a penny and all that, I continued. “Because here’s what I think. If you believe in free will, you chose to save me at the cost of their lives. If you believe in destiny, your actions were preordained by the Fates or your goddess or whomever you hold to that higher power. So which is it?”