Page 11

Chapter Eleven

I slept terribly, but at least I had Lynx for company. How could I stay here knowing who he was? But he was my official ‘protector,’ so where was I supposed to go? Anywhere. But I wasn’t going to run away until this beast Silverton was so obsessed with was captured and brought to justice. Or killed. That would be fine, too. Did he really think it was tied to me? That thought made me shudder.

I got up early, feeling completely unrested but still wired with nervous energy as I walked inside the kitchen, looking over at the couch where I’d left the monster. There was no sign of him or the blanket I’d tucked him under. I flinched at the memory. I had to be tough, hard, strong, or he’d just push me over. I couldn’t be making things cozy for him. I was a terrifying werewolf. I needed to act like it.

I nodded firmly as I got out the flour and sugar. I wasn’t going to give him any more gentleness or care. After the third batch came out, I was feeling more comfortable in my skin.

“Mm. These look good,” Silverton said from behind me as he reached over my shoulder and grabbed a cookie.

I whirled around, holding the rolling pin, but I couldn’t hit him when he’d been injured. And his eyes were so startling, all the shades of violet and lavender, with specks of deepest purple.

He smiled and put the cookie in his mouth, the whole thing, while I sputtered in outrage and a stupid awareness of his bare chest and the brawny musculature beneath his stapled gashes. He had so many scars on his chest and shoulders, arms, more scars than I could count.

He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me against his injuries too tight, because it had to hurt, while he rested his cheek against my hair.

“What are you doing?” I gasped, trying to wriggle away from him without making his wounds worse.

“Thanks for the cookie, Delphi. It’s delicious.” He rubbed his cheek against my hair like I was some kind of pet, then picked me off my feet as he straightened and squeezed me tighter.

I kicked and dropped the rolling pin while I tried to get a good position to push against him. I couldn’t touch him without hurting him more. “Put me down! Did you have a mental break? I’m going to bite you if you don’t…”

He squeezed me tighter, and for a second I couldn’t breathe, then he put me down and gave me the sweetest smile a monster ever gave a girl. “You can bite me if you’d like. I won’t mind at all.” He raised one arm and pointed at a long line of bite marks. “It won’t be the first time.” Then he winked at me.

I stared at him, then at his arm. Yes, those were my teeth marks from so long ago when he’d held me with that arm and injected me with the other. “Oh. I didn’t…” I stumbled back, into the chair he held for me so I sat at the counter where I’d been trying to feel so in-control. I stared at him, panicked and horrified.

“It didn’t hurt,” he assured me with a slight smile.

“Of course it hurt. Why would you say that?” Was he truly mental?

He shook his head. “I should say that pain doesn’t bother me. You’re feeling guilty about it. Don’t. Your teeth are charming. You could bite me all day and it would be a delight.”

I shook my head. “Who are you? What are you? Elves aren’t that massive and brawny, and they are incredibly sensitive to pain and other things. Are you part ogre?”

His smile became slightly flirty. “Ogre? No. I’m a full-blooded elf, but I take after my father. You know how the night elves are.”

I stared at him. “Night elves?”

“You haven’t heard of them?”

“I’ve heard of them. The night court, right? You’re from the night court? That’s what someone said, that you were a night elf, but it didn’t register.” I licked my lips. The night court was supposed to be full of those bred to war, less sensitive to violence and other trauma, so they could defend their people without the usual psychological scarring.

He smiled in delight. “Yes. My father is from the night court. That’s why I left, because he executed my best friend. It’s true, she was a murderous spy, but I was young and innocent and didn’t understand that sometimes you do things you don’t want to do for the sake of the greater good.”

“Greater good? Is that how you justify the atrocities you commit?”

“Usually, but in your case, I just didn’t want to let you die.”

It was like a dagger to the chest. “Why not?”

His smile tightened. “Well, that’s what the monster wanted, for me to kill you, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Also, the world needs people like you. Pity your type dies so easily. It’s the ones like me that last the longest.”

“So that’s why you were irritated that I wasn’t some investigative reporter, because I wasn’t living up to my potential after you bothered to keep me alive?”

“It was no bother, and no, I just wanted to make sure that you were happy. If you weren’t happy as a werewolf…that would bother me.”

“So I can bite you, but I can’t be unhappy.”

“You can do what you like.” He smiled slightly. “Except for die.”

I rolled my eyes and then paused as his words registered. “Why would the monster want you to kill me?”

He studied me for a long time. “Do you remember that pretty elf at the party the night you were infected?”

I stared at him, frowning at that horribly beautiful face. I raised a hand and pointed at him. “But it was a different face.”

“Yes, it was a different face, but it was still me. I was at your school, trying to track down the origins of a potion that did some very interesting and illegal things.”

“Lynx? They have this monster on a leash that they can use for something like that?”

“Or one of the members is the monster. You were adorable. I thought from the first time I met you that you should stay far away from me and anyone else from the House of Mercy or the monsters we hunted.”

A wave of ice cold dread washed through me from my head down to my toes. “The House of Mercy? You aren’t from the House of Mercy.” They were the most terrifying secret order in the world. If you heard anything about them, they’d erase you.

“I’m actually current head of the order. You look pale. Do you need a glass of water?”

I stared at him and shook my head slowly. “You aren’t an assassin. You wouldn’t let me die. That’s the opposite of an assassin.”

“I’m currently head of the House of Mercy, so I’m not technically an assassin anymore, although I will kill a monster if it happens that way. You aren’t a monster.”

“I’m a werewolf.”

“But I took very good care to make sure that you were a nice werewolf who could control your instincts, so I’d never have to put you down. It was a lot of effort, which you know, as you were there.”

I stared at him while my heart beat faster and faster. “Are you joking?” I whispered.

“Hm? No, the more torture the werewolf experiences during transition, the more control it has afterwards. Harold transitioned poorly, but we pulled him through. He wasn’t as difficult as you, but he didn’t have any gnome blood.”

“The beast didn’t want you to kill me. He wanted you to keep me alive so that he could get rid of the evidence without your interference,” I said, heart thumping, thoughts tangling. “He’s using me, like he used Ridley. He’s using you too. If you don’t think he is, whoever he is, you’re an idiot. And you aren’t an idiot. What’s your plan? How are you going to use me to catch him? I’m in. Whatever it is. Just let me know what I need to do.”

He kissed my nose, and I pulled back, sputtering.

“What was that?”

“You’re so adorable. Don’t let people use you. Particularly me. No, this is your opportunity to use me. You have everything I have to offer, which, in all modesty, is quite an extensive list of assets. I’m your protector. Whatever you need, however personal, professional, or vengeful, I will be honored to give it to you. Including hugs.”

I blinked at him. “Hugs?”

He gave me a serious stare. “Fifteen years of not having regular hugs will drive a gnome mad. If you weren’t half elf, you wouldn’t have survived the trauma. From now on, I will take the trauma of allowing you to invade my personal space for the sake of your long-neglected mental health.”

I stared at him for another moment of not breathing, my emotions in turmoil, then scrambled to my feet. “You really are insane. Okay. I need to get to work.” I took off without my cookies, barely remembering to grab my bag before I tripped towards the front door. I’d take a bus.

“Miss Delphi,” Henrick said, stepping in front of me and gesturing to the car parked in the circle. “Allow me to drive you this morning.”

“Are you also a member of the House of Mercy?” I flinched and then stared at him, waiting for him to kill me.

His smile only grew more delighted. “Naturally. Did you have someone you wanted killed on the way to work? I’m sure we could fit it in.”

I blinked at him. “Ah. I was joking. You aren’t a member of a secret assassination order. Neither is…Cross.” That’s what the Librarian had called him. I couldn’t think of him as the civilized senator that I’d been developing such an enormous crush on. I’d actually found an assassin pretty? I’d told him that? How…I wasn’t sure what it was. Humiliating? Terrifying? Ridiculous? Did that mean Libby was also part of the secret order of assassins? I shook my head. “No one I know is. Only an idiot would tell a reporter that kind of secret.” Cross was anything other than idiotic.

“If you insist. If you change your mind, let me know.” He held open the back door, and I stood there, staring at the goblin in his tidy suit, so different from Cross’s lack of shirt and bewilderingly pretty chest. Was he really going to hug me every day? That really would be torture for him. Then again, the head of the House of Mercy could handle torture. Shudder.

Finally, I got inside the car, because there was no sense taking a bus when I was inextricably tangled with this mess. Cross had told me who he was, because he wanted me to understand exactly where I was. Which was standing in the jaws of doom, where I’d been from the moment the monster had targeted me to distract Cross. It shouldn’t have worked. If Cross was so good at doing whatever he needed to do for the greater good, then he should have pursued the monster and left me to my inevitable fate. It was a miracle that I’d survived turning, in spite of his efforts. I wasn’t a great asset to the world. Was I? Maybe he thought I’d become the next great female Alta. I shook my head because if that’s what he thought, he was an idiot. He might be insane, but he wasn’t stupid.

“Your new laptop is beside you,” Henrick said.

I glanced at the wrapped box on the bench next to me. “I never ordered one.”

“I took liberties. As the Senator’s girlfriend, it’s my privilege to take care of such things for you. Anything else you need, personal, professional…”

“Or vengeful, yes. I already heard the spiel. It makes no more sense now than it did then. I feel like I’m in a very bad dream. The senator’s girlfriend?” I made a face while my stomach churned. I hated him. He was still unnaturally attractive, but that feeling was hate. He’d tortured me so horribly. Because he didn’t want a monster to win? Because he had more ego than sense? I’d spent years with the questions gnawing at me, and now they were all as viciously demanding as ever. There was no reason that would justify his torturing me, particularly when he was a trained killer.

“I believe you have an event to attend with him this evening.”

I gritted my teeth and opened the box. Three hanks of gorgeous yarn tumbled out onto my lap. For a second I froze, before I shook my head and pulled out the laptop. I wasn’t getting distracted by yarn. I wasn’t a kitten. I turned on the new, cutting-edge laptop and accessed my files while we drove. Going through missing persons wasn’t particularly restful, but it was something to do.

He finally pulled up at the office building, and I got out before he could open the door for me. “Thank you,” I said, closing the door and hurrying inside before he could offer to kill someone for me again.

While I was settled in with my research, Mossy came up to perch on the edge of my desk. “Fairies sell things way too easily. And your cookies went fast. I had to hold back or I wouldn’t have been able to interview the whole neighborhood. By the way, no one knew anything about the kitten, but they did say Loren had a boyfriend that came over some nights.” She wiggled her brows at me.

“Loren had a boyfriend? Maybe it was an informant.”

“Handsome, tall, elvish?” Again with the brow-wiggle.

I sighed heavily. “Elves can be informants, and Loren’s part elvish.”

“Sure. You look weird. I thought you’d jump into this with both feet.”

I stared at her, then offered a slight shrug. “I wasn’t ever meant to be an investigative reporter.”

“I guess the senator’s girlfriend doesn’t need anything else interesting in her life. She can just lounge by the pool in some furry bikini and…”

“Mossy!” I glanced around to see if anyone heard her.

She sighed heavily. “One of these days, you’re going to stop hiding who you are, an investigative reporter who gets a thrill at the spray of blood and the scent of corruption.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now get out of here.”

The rest of the day I spent dragging, except at lunch, when the most expensive restaurant in town brought me a box filled with all my favorite foods. Then I was keenly embarrassed as everyone stared at me, whispering as they gave me furtive glances. Finally, Nanette called me into her office.

“What’s the story between you and the senator? You know that if you can get an exclusive out of him…” She shook her head and cut herself off. “Never mind. You’re the only reporter threats or reason won’t work on. He’s too smart to date anyone who would actually get a story out of it.”

I chewed on my bottom lip. I hated him. I absolutely did, and it would absolutely help my career, maybe help me to keep my position if the truth about the werewolf came out. I opened my mouth to say something about him, but my conscience raised my its head and I shrugged. “Sorry.”

“At least you’ll be pushed towards more political issues. Maybe you’ll start writing something more serious.”

I gave her a wan smile and left the office. I spent the rest of the day in an unpleasant daze until Mossy came up to me with a bright smile.

“Your car’s here.”

I stared at her. “I don’t have a car.”

“Come on,” she said, tugging on my arm. “He gave me fifty bucks if I can get you down there in ten minutes. You know that I’m going to earn that cash, even if I have to knock you unconscious and drag you.”

I stared at her, confused while I let her push me into the elevator. “Henrick?”

“Yep. He’s a goblin that was thrown out for bad behavior. Weird that he then became a secretary, right? He has no loyalty or respect for goblins, no ties whatsoever. He’s so cool!”

“Outcasts are cool?”

“Of course they are.”

“Particularly the ones who pay you way too much money for iffy jobs.”

“Iffy?” She shot me a look. “I may not be so incorruptible as you, someone who won’t take advantage of your closeness with a senator to get the inside scoop, even if he dumps you on your lonely butt, but I’m not iffy.”

“Sorry, Mossy. It’s not that I’m incorruptible, it’s just that…”

“Yeah? What’s your price?”

“Price?”

“Yeah. To get the inside scoop on the senator, you could command very high prices. I bet the big boss would negotiate practically anything. He’s been trying to take down Silverton for ages.”

I stared at her as we rode down the elevator in silence. Revealing that Cross was head of the House of Mercy would be quite the scoop. Of course, no one would dare to publish it. They wanted something less lethal, like the fact that he was actually a pureblood elf of the warrior variety, from the night court. That would be enough to get me national coverage. Doing a personal on his habits and tastes would be greeted with an equal amount of greediness. He was very successful at guarding his privacy, but hadn’t bothered keeping me at arms-length the second Libby had brought me to his house. Like he didn’t care what story I did about him.

I frowned. That was it. I was doing a personal on him. I’d be an idiot if I didn’t use this relationship that was forced on me by the most miserably manipulative monster I’d ever met. I mean, I was technically grateful that he’d kept me alive, but I still hated him, and I always would.

The car was there with Henrick leaning against it, looking mysterious behind his reflective glasses. He nodded at Mossy and tossed her the roll of bills, then opened the door for me.

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t buy off my work associates in the future,” I told Henrick as he opened the door for me.

“You’ll have to discuss that with my boss. He buys me off.” He pulled down his glasses so I could see him wink at me. If he worked for the House of Mercy, then Cross owned his soul and absolute loyalty. That was terrifying. I got inside without another word, but I didn’t have time to really stew when he pulled up at another building not far from my work and then got out to open the door for me.

“You’ll be spending the next few hours at the spa before you go to the event with the senator.”

“Will I?”

He shrugged. “The boss thought you might be able to use some relaxation. Actually, I suggested it because your current grooming isn’t up to the standard of most women he dates.”

I sputtered. “I beg your pardon?”

“Your brows are a little thick. You could use a cut and color, some more body in your hair, and your makeup isn’t the most flattering.”

I stared at the goblin, who must know I was a werewolf. “Do you want to die?”

His sharp teeth flashed before he gestured me towards the doors. “Enjoy yourself. Please. Also, if you ever wanted to kill me, I can recommend several…”

I walked away quickly before he could finish that sentence. I was trying to forget about the House of Mercy thing before my head exploded.

The spa was the finest in Singsong City, with fairies and elves who knew exactly how to make me forget about all the things I desperately wanted to forget.

By the time I was groomed up to Henrick’s exacting standards, I felt more human, less werewolf. Then I walked into the dressing room and stopped when I saw the rack and the blue gown in shimmering diaphanous fabric that said money and magic. There was a card pinned to one strap with my name on it.

I opened and read the message.

I apologize for Henrick. You were perfectly lovely before the spa. He uses insults to manipulate. It’s a bad habit that I will continue to try breaking. Please accept the dress as an apology. Wear it now or sell it for yarn money. Yours, Cross

That was unexpected. Oh, he was manipulating me with flattery and apologies. Wait. He could apologize for Henrick telling the truth about my grooming issues, but not for torturing me? What was wrong with him? He was the head of one of the most notoriously dangerous and slippery orders in the world. I really didn’t want to know what was wrong with him. Absolutely not. I just wanted to know what he liked for breakfast so I could write a light exposé and get more notoriety out of him. And photographs. He said I could have anything I wanted.

I took the dress off the hangar and pulled it on over my perfectly smooth skin. The fit was heavenly, and my reflection when I looked in the mirror was shockingly stunning. I looked like a voluptuous star of the night, not a reporter. I licked my lips while I considered how likely it would be for me to turn wolf or get too much notice.

It was done. Cross was my protector. And I would get my interview.

I left the spa and climbed in the car, inhaling sharply when I slid into Cross in the backseat.

He stared at me, taking up the middle of the seat and not scooting over.

“I’m going to do an exposé on you,” I said quickly and bumped him over. “Move, please. You’re going to crush the gown.”

He blinked and then moved over quickly, giving me room. “I beg your pardon.”

“That’s what you said in your letter. You said I have your resources. So I want you. The exclusive interview you never give. I want twenty-four hours of personal, one-on-one with Senator Silverton, in his mansion, probably take a trip home to Texas, photo ops of you in swimming shorts, fencing, and with your dogs. I’m going to be one of them.”

He stared at me, then narrowed his eyes. “You want to do a fake exposé of me that you’re personally directing to make me look… What exactly do you want to portray?”

“Does it make a difference? You did say I could have whatever I wanted.”

“No difference. I’m just curious if there’s something I can do to help.”

I gave him my sweetest smile. “Really? I’m going to make you look even more desirable and lovable. You’re going to have a sense of humor, and a blind old butler who you’d never force into retirement. He sits on the porch and plays with the dogs while Henrick does all his work for him. People are going to weep. And then they’ll send you packages and propositions. Wherever you go, there will be women fainting for your attention.”

“A cruel fate, but I can bear it. If you don’t mind me saying, you look particularly stunning in that color.”

I looked up at him, startled out of my planning. “Do I? That’s probably true, but I will have to try purples to bring your eyes out. Your beauty is the only one I’m interested in exploiting.”

His smile grew and his eyes twinkled. “As you like.”

I sniffed and pulled out my laptop. I had things to write before I forgot them, outlines of this exposé I was going to do of the reluctant senator. He was going to be in the spotlight until he was positively blinded by it.

“We’re here,” he said as we pulled up at the city hall. I stared at the pillars and then looked at him.

“We’re at City Hall?”

“Mm.”

“I…” I squinted as I ran over the society events calendar in my head. “Oh. This isn’t the Frederick’s Gala, it’s the fundraiser for your party. I don’t come to political events.”

“I see. In that case, we’ll go to the gala. Henrick, we’re at the wrong event.”

I put a hand on his arm while my whole soul shriveled up. “I really hate you. This is important for your senator cover.”

“It’s not a cover. I really am a senator. It was a surprising turn of events. I was in this undercover position as a gambler between various levels of political…”

I pressed my hand to his supple mouth while I tried not to listen to him. “Don’t tell me details, Cross. Don’t tell me anything.” I got out of the car like a devil was after me, and of course, he was, but he had long legs and caught up before I’d reached the main doors.

He held his arm out for me to take.

I gritted my teeth and grabbed his arm, hanging on tight and thinking about shots and angles that would get me the most bang for the buck. I was definitely doing an exposé of him. I had to do something, and I couldn’t do much to sabotage him, but I could do that. And I would.