Page 29 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

At some point, Nathan and Sasha made it to their bedroom, leaving what they hoped was no trace of their nightly activities in the library. Wally followed them and slept at the foot of their bed until morning.

The rest of their group was already up by the time they stumbled down for breakfast the next day. There was no sign of their new changeling friend yet, but Alex promised she had more than enough chores to keep them busy while they waited.

Nathan gladly left the more Gatehouse-related work—inventory, supplies, cleaning—to the others while he and Jim checked into possible fae activity in the area that might be drawing Solrin.

Their main problem was that they didn’t know which direction he would be coming from so they didn’t know which direction to start their search, which pretty much left them with a radius all around Rushville.

After deciding on a distance for that radius, Jim and Nathan’s new problem wasn’t lack of potential hunts but an over-abundance of them.

“Maybe that’s why he’s headed here,” Jim said, after they had stumbled upon another possible sign of fae activity in a nearby town. “He could be checking into all of these strange occurrences because there’s so many suddenly in one area.”

“Or,” Nathan rocked back in his chair, “the activity is because this guy’s headed our way. He’s supposed to draw fae, right?”

Jim stared noncommittally at Sasha’s laptop then glanced at his watch.

“True, but this is all assuming he’s even coming.

” It was already almost dinner time. “The more we know the better, though. If we can figure out what he’s hunting, it might help us get an in with this guy.

Make him think we’re seals too, hunting the same fae.

You’re the one who said we should try and team up with him. Make friends .”

“And I still believe that. And hey, maybe our luck’s starting to change.

” Nathan nodded toward the main doors where a newcomer had just walked in.

He moved quickly to claim a corner table, and the other people in the bar didn’t even try to hide how much he spooked them.

As soon as Jim spotted the guy, his expression became much the same.

From what Nathan could see of the guy’s face, he was of Asian descent, which made it even more likely that this was Sonji Lorin—second generation Japanese-American, Alex had said.

But while Nathan would have expected dark hair, this guy’s shaggy locks were all over white.

Not bright the way Sasha’s old friend Lindsey’s was platinum, but duller, more natural, like he had gone prematurely grey.

There were bandages wrapped messily around his left eye, and although the way the guy hunched over a mess of papers he laid out hid most of him, Nathan could see loose ends of further bandages covering parts of his body.

He didn’t look like a threat, not imposing the way Nathan had been expecting, and yet he still felt threatening, as if there was an aura radiating off of him, saying ‘stay the fuck away’.

“Ya mind toning down the freaked out expression, Jim,” Nathan hissed, trying to act nonchalant by kicking back in his chair. “He’s facing the other direction, but I bet he can still tell you’re staring at him.”

Jim sputtered for words, half out of his chair and bug-eyed like he couldn’t get a hold of himself.

“I…I-I’m not…trying to. It’s just…I can’t explain it, Nate,” he said hushed over the tabletop, getting as low and close to Nathan as he could.

“I…I can’t…I mean I can’t…sense…” He shook his head.

“I don’t know what I sense from him, but nothing’s ever felt like this.

He’s human but I don’t…god, I don’t know. ”

“Calm down,” Nathan said, his voice a hiss again because, even though Jim was hushed, it was still louder than necessary.

“Now, what are you talking about? Are you…?” Seeing the wild look in Jim’s eyes, the way he was twitching and balancing on his chair like he wanted to leap up, snapped Nathan to attention.

“Shit,” he leaned closer over the table, “you’re not feeling that whole drawn in thing already, are you? He’s been here all of two seconds.”

The fact that Jim didn’t actually respond didn’t make Nathan feel much better.

And then suddenly there was Sasha in the doorway to the bar, having come from upstairs, staring across the room right where Nathan felt really unnerved to see the incubus’ attention go. He also noticed Alex beside Sasha, holding a rather squirmy Wally.

Pointedly, Nathan made eye contact with Alex and gave her what he hoped was an obvious ‘get the hell back upstairs’ message with his eyes.

She nodded and took Wally with her. They had already decided that keeping Wally away from this guy was an absolute necessity unless they wanted him to figure out her secret and filet her for dinner.

Nathan sort of wished he could give the same signal to Sasha, but he knew better than to think it would be that easy to keep the incubus out of harm’s way.

A moment later, Sasha was headed for their table, and doing a fine sight better at playing calm than Jim was. “So,” he said, pulling up a chair.

“Yeah,” Nathan said.

“You…okay?” Jim asked warily.

Sasha shrugged. “Kinda hard to say. I don’t really know what I’m feeling right now. I’m thinking you’re not going to like to hear this, Nate,” he whispered Nathan’s direction, “but it’s sort of like I’m suddenly real hungry, and…” His eyes flashed to the hunched over young man in the corner.

Well, Sasha was right: that was the very last thing Nathan wanted to hear.

“Please tell me it’s not so strong that you don’t know how fucking insane and hurtful to my feelings jumping that guy would be?

” he said, almost joking, but way too serious because this was serious if this whole being drawn in thing was actually strong enough to get either Jim or Sasha to reveal themselves in the middle of a bar full of seals.

Thankfully, Sasha nodded at Nathan with eyes that, although a bit bright, were steady and in control. “I’m good, Nate. It’s more like…if it weren’t for you and me, and I had just stumbled upon the guy on accident… shit . I don’t know what his power is, but I feel it.”

“Me too,” Jim said. “But I can’t get a grasp on it.”

“You feel like humping his leg too?” Nathan snarked.

Finally, a little of the wild and terrified fell from Jim’s face. “No, Nate. Whatever it is, it’s at least making me really want to succeed with getting him onto our side. What should we do? He hasn’t approached anyone. He’s obviously pretty…engrossed over there.”

“Gross being a pretty fair word…” Nathan said.

The guy’s trench coat was a little on the dusty and dirty side, his hair was neat but looked like it hadn’t been washed in a week, and his whole persona just screamed not the type you take home to dinner.

“I’m thinking direct approach is a no.” Standoffish was the nice way of saying how guarded the guy looked.

“So we go the more subtle route,” Sasha said. “Any luck on narrowing down a hunt?”

Jim and Nathan both shrugged.

“Well…we got the perfect recon then.” His smile widening, Sasha waved Alex over to their table as she returned from securing Wally upstairs.

By the time the dinner hour had come and gone, so had a lot of seals, all of whom seemed to get the same vibe as Nathan that getting anywhere near the guy in the corner was a bad idea.

It actually cleared out a lot sooner than the night before, and for a while they were worried Solrin would disappear with the rest of the crowd, but he remained.

They waited until it was late. Alex was cleaning up, and Iain and Walter were doing some cataloguing at a nearby table.

Walter had confirmed for them that Solrin was the man they were looking for, occasionally casting them and Solrin furtive glances.

As soon as Solrin packed up his things in a shoulder bag and went up to the bar, Nathan went up to the bar too.

“Hey, Al, I’ll take another beer, if ya don’t mind,” he smiled warmly at her as he took a stool. He tried to pass that smile onto Solrin, but the guy’s attention remained straight ahead.

“Alex,” the young man spoke, the first time Nathan had heard a word from him, his voice sounding scratchy and quiet, deep, “I require a room for the night. Is there one available?”

Alex regarded him the same as she did all seals—wholly cool. “Plenty to spare. Anything in particular?”

“Whatever you have.”

“I’ll grab a key for you then. I’ve made a few renovations since you were last here,” she said as she set Nathan’s filled beer in front of him and then began seeking out a key.

“Nathan could help you to your room so you don’t get turned around, if he’s feeling generous.

” She gave Nathan a look that clearly said that was as much help as she dared give him in this situation.

Nathan turned with a ready smile to toss his new friend, but that cold creepy feeling of ‘stay the fuck away’ hit him smack in the face as soon as the guy’s head pivoted slowly toward him.

He saw the visible eye for the first time and was shocked to see that it was a pale green.

He was pale all over, a little like a ghost with that grey/white hair, but young, just like Puck had said, and even a little handsome if he didn’t look so damn scary.

No one had ever made Nathan shiver with a look other than Sasha, and those shivers were entirely different. Nathan didn’t like it at all. But still, he kept his smile.

“Hey, sure thing, Al. If ya don’t mind, buddy, I can show ya up there.

” Alex set the key down between them. “And hey,” Nathan added as he noticed the number on it, “you’re right next door anyway, so why don’t I—” He had been about to scoop up the key when a vice grip clamped onto his wrist, tight enough to make him hiss. “Hey,” he said through clenched teeth.