Page 39 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Is that thing even safe?” He looked up the ladder at Solrin, who was halfway to the top by now.

Nathan tried to tell himself that after flying with Sasha, and after facing far worse fears in the Veil of all places, heights should not be something that still tripped him up.

But this barn was huge and that was a really high loft.

“I doubt we would hurt ourselves too severely if we fell,” Solrin said, which so wasn’t comforting. Of course Nathan couldn’t just let the guy go up there all alone. If he did then it was almost certain that the nach, incubus, or both would be up there. Fate was always a bitch like that.

Nathan steeled himself as he gripped the ladder and began climbing.

“So…” he talked to calm his nerves, “why the sudden interest in my love-life? Disappointed this sexy guy is taken?” He smirked to himself as he said it, even though it was a pretty ballsy thing to joke about when Solrin had the advantage of getting to the top of the ladder first.

It wasn’t an angry look that stared down at Nathan though, more incredulous as if he might, just might smile. “Why are you always trying to make me laugh?” Solrin shook his head before finishing his climb up over the top of the ladder.

“I don’t know,” Nathan shrugged, “might be nice to know if you can.”

Hearing Nathan say that seemed to spur on the very opposite reaction; Solrin immediately frowned.

“I do not have…a lover, or…family to accompany me,” he said haltingly.

“Less to laugh about, I suppose.” His gaze caught Nathan by surprise again, piecing and right on him.

Nathan thought maybe part of that look was envy.

He hated being envied.

He had just about reached the top when Solrin offered him a hand to help him climb over onto the landing.

Normally, Nathan would be all, ‘hey, I got this,’ but he was sort of thankful for the support since the ladder was wobbling.

When Solrin pulled him in, Nathan clutched the guy’s arms for a minute as that brief fear of falling passed through him.

“Sorry.” He pulled away with a grunt. “Height, flying problem. So, uhh…” he tried to speak on quickly to keep Solrin’s attention since the guy had already started to turn away, “no…family? Like at all?”

If it was possible for a frown to turn in on itself, Solrin managed it.

“Damn it. Sorry. Last question you should ever ask someone who’s part of fae business,” Nathan scolded himself.

“They are not…dead,” Solrin spoke to appease Nathan, though it clearly troubled him to speak of it at all.

“Actually, I do not know where they are. My parents. No siblings. I imagine they are back at the same home I grew up in, wasting away in their boring lives, happy to be rid of me. The feeling is mutual,” he said venomously, maybe even more pronounced than when he had spoken with venom about fae.

“So…”

“I spent most of my childhood in an asylum,” Solrin said suddenly, loudly and without shame as if he was daring Nathan to make a joke about that . “Do you think differently of me to know that?”

Nathan figured honesty was the best way to go. “Not really. Already thought you were nuts. Must be why you fit in so well with us.” He grinned, smacking Solrin’s arm playfully.

Solrin gaped, at an absolute loss for words. Nathan thought he even caught some color rising in Solrin’s cheeks, embarrassment flooding him at being so whole-heartedly included .

And why not, Nathan thought. Freaks should stick together.

“Who’d have thought?” Nathan let his grin go a little crooked. “The asexual guy can blush .” It was sort of Nathan’s motto to push beyond the point normal people would stop. And for good reason—it usually worked.

Solrin gave him a look, not a glare, a look , like he was trying so hard not to smile. “I am hardly …asexual,” he said, and it was playful, honestly playful.

“Oh really? Getting some on the side, are ya?” Nathan winked.

There was definitely the shadow of a smile now. “No lover, remember, but…occasionally,” Solrin said. “I’m afraid you are not my type.”

Nathan laughed good and loud at that. “Well thank god, coz otherwise this could get awkward.” Then, finally, for at least a couple moments, Nathan shared a smile with Solrin. He knew the guy wasn’t hopeless. No one was hopeless.

He took a deep breath as his laughter stilled, but instead of it bolstering him, Nathan nearly choked.

There was something rank in the air. “You smell that?” he said, turning to look over the loft that they hadn’t actually inspected yet.

He couldn’t see much other than old hay, a couple bushels of it, and cracked boards from where the barn was falling apart.

Solrin moved slowly in the direction of those old bundles, the only thing really obscuring them from seeing the whole loft.

His smile vanished. “It’s not here,” he said with certainty, “but something…” With swift steps Solrin moved over to the hay bales.

Nathan followed. The closer they got, the more Nathan could smell that awful stench.

He had a good idea of what they were about to find.

Of course he wasn’t exactly prepared to find pieces .

“Shit.” Nathan turned his head away, covering his mouth and nose with his arm as they peered behind the bales.

There wasn’t a dead body, more like several, but all with only a few parts left.

It was obvious that some of the parts were from older corpses, but they were all corpses, Nathan was certain.

“The nachzehrer was staying here, but has left,” Solrin said. “Strange, as you said, Nathan, for him to be up here at all and not closer to the earth. He must have been with the other creature. But why did they leave…?”

Something glinted on the ground from the sunlight streaming in through the cracks of the barn. Nathan bent down to investigate.

“What is it?” Solrin asked him.

Carefully, Nathan picked the item up between his pointer finger and thumb.

“A safety pin,” he said with a frown. “Doesn’t tell us much about where our creature or creatures went.

Maybe they just got sick of being in one place.

Maybe it wasn’t private enough. Hell, maybe some people were poking around like we are now and they just high-tailed it. ”

Solrin nodded in agreement. Nathan decided to pocket the safety pin since you never knew what might be important later on.

Then Solrin was moving, looking out of the upper doors just off the loft where the hay bales would have been brought up by pulley to be stored.

He looked out at the land beyond, the towns nearby, the scattering of so many other shacks and run-down buildings. The sun was already setting.

Nathan walked up next to him, wondering if Solrin could see something.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” he said after a while, “I’m sure of it. Somewhere close by our prey is waiting for us.” His tone was chilling and dark again like Nathan remembered from that morning.

That morning . Sometimes Nathan could hardly believe everything that could happen to them in a single day.

He preferred the more relaxed and sane version of Solrin though, so he smacked the guy on the back again and tossed him a grin. “Then let’s get going. Lots more ground to cover, right?”

To Nathan’s pleased surprise, Solrin’s mouth twitched once more into that shadow of a smile. “Are you going to need help getting down?” he asked as he moved past Nathan to the ladder.

Nathan might not have picked up on the sarcasm if he didn’t know better. “Smartass,” he called after Solrin. He didn’t get a grin in reply, just a glance, a swift look that told him he had broken through at least one barrier.

One was a start.