Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

Jack? He’d found out about Jack? Fuck and double fuck. How? And what had he learned? I clenched my teeth shut. I really wanted to know. I couldn’t ask. Usuriel would want something in exchange for the information. And I had no intention of ending up in his debt. I forced back all the questions and let the silence stretch.

“He is someone to be concerned about,” Usuriel said.

“He is a criminal,” I agreed carefully. “But that doesn’t explain why you are…watching…my backyard. I can guarantee he’s not hiding there and it’s unlikely he’d try.”

“I would not be so certain. This man seems to feel some connection to you. Did he not try and take the man you share your life with?”

“He did,” I said, “but he was trying to steal from Damon’s company. He didn’t want me.” I didn’t know if that was strictly true. Yes, Jack kidnapped Damon, but we didn’t know what his ultimate goal had been. He may have wanted Damon to help him with some aspect of whatever plans he had, or he may—as Usuriel suggested—have wanted me. But without knowing how much Usuriel knew about what had happened, I wasn’t going to mention anything other than the first option.

“Even if that is true...” Usuriel’s tone suggested he didn’t think it was. “You now live with Damon. It is his territory I have been watching. And, regardless, you frequently attract trouble. Witches. Demons. A man who seeks the Greater Dark. One does not need to be Lady Morgain to know that your fate is a complicated one. And that we should all be watchful because of that.”

“I do not ‘attract’ demons,” I snapped, trying to keep my voice low. The bartender was ignoring us. Hadn’t even glanced in our direction since Usuriel had started talking. The illusion was working on her, too. Hopefully it would keep her safe.

“You can speak normally. We cannot be overhead.” Usuriel waved a hand in her direction and she still didn’t react. Her expression was faintly glazed but she moved down the bar to serve another customer, so whatever the spell was, it wasn’t preventing her from doing anything other than seeing us.

I took a sip of whiskey, trying to think. “Did you do something to her?”

“No,” Lord Usuriel said, “Merely a ward so no one can hear and a little encouragement not to look at us. Or be curious if anyone does.”

“You can’t cast Fae magic on humans, it’s against the contract.” I was on solid ground there. The Fae got to keep their doors and their realm, the Cestis kept the fact of their existence secret and, in return, the Fae weren’t supposed to use their magic on humans. No luring people into the realm with glamours or compulsions or other magical trickery. No keeping humans who wanted to leave the realm there against their will. Of course that one was harder for the Cestis to police. And, of course, most of the Fae who ventured outside the realm were capable of being very charming. Add in their beauty and you got temptation personified. So humans still followed them into the realm for other more human reasons. Like lust, curiosity, or the always classic sheer stupidity.

“I am aware.”

“I’m human,” I pointed out.

“I did not cast it on you,” he said with a smile that was somewhat chilling. “I cast it around myself. You just happen to be within the boundaries of the spell.”

Ah, that was the kind of Fae dancing around the edges of a rule I had been warned to watch for. “And is anything stopping me from removing myself from within those boundaries?”

“No. But you were the one who invited me to talk.”

“Only so I could tell you to stop spying on me. You’re wasting your time.”

“Unlike you, Maggie Lachlan, I have an ocean of time at my disposal. I could watch you for the rest of your human life and it would be a mere blink of an eye to me.”

And that wasn’t creepy at all. I stared at him, trying not to shudder. Hopefully he meant fifty or sixty human years were no time at all to an ancient Fae lord, rather than that he intended to see to it that my life was short.

“It would still be wasted because you would get to the end of my lifetime and have nothing to show for it.” I put my unfinished drink down. “Ward or no ward, you probably only have a few minutes before my bodyguard comes looking for me. And this ward may not break the rules of the contract but anything else you actively do to anyone in this place would. I assume you would prefer not to start a war with the Cestis right now, so I’m telling you again. There’s no need to watch me. I am no danger to the realm and your people.”

“Why would you object to extra protection freely offered?”

I actually laughed before I managed to choke it off. “Last time we met, you tried to stop me from removing a human?—”

“A tanai,” he interjected.

“A human,” I continued, unmoved. “You did your best to stop me removing her from your court, you sent your subjects after other humans with the apparent intent to hurt them, and you tried to invade my mind.” And he’d kissed me. Not through any desire, but because, as far as I could tell, he thought it would upset me enough to make it easier for him to break my shields and yank whatever memory he’d been seeking out of my head. “Why would I believe that you want to protect me? Any of us could have been killed.” Or all of us.

“I was annoyed at the time,” he said, as though that was a perfectly reasonable excuse for attempted murder.

“And you usually try to kill those who annoy you?” I asked, a chill traveling down my spine. My fingers flexed at my hip. I was used to being armed when I was dealing with Fae. But Decker’s had stringent security. Damon’s security team carried guns but Decker’s security only used stunners as far as I knew. No guests were allowed any weapons. No exceptions. No even for Damon Riley’s girlfriend

Damn it.

“Sometimes,” he said, in the same ‘no big deal’ tone. He paused, frowning at me, perhaps reading something of my fear in my face.

I tried to wrestle it back under control.

“One does not become Lord of a Fae realm by being eternally nice. And you cannot fight the Greater Dark with kindness. You should know this. You have known Lady Cerridwen long enough. She is no less ruthless than me.”

True, but she’d never tried to kill me. In fact, she’d actively tried to help me. So, there was a difference. If Usuriel had decided the only way to fight the Greater Dark—demons—was by becoming a monster himself, then it was all the more reason not to trust him. “Still,” I said. “You have to admit, it’s quite a leap to go from viewing me as a threat to wanting to protect me.”

“Let us say that I believe in keeping my options open.”

“Then let us say that I believe in not having your creatures in my backyard.”

“Your backyard, or Damon’s?”

“It’s our backyard,” I said, realizing it was true. I no longer thought of my house as home, but Damon’s. Huh. “And if you don’t leave us alone, I will have to bring this up with Cerridwen and the Cestis. I doubt either of them will be thrilled about you overstepping your bounds.”

He tilted his head, studying me in a way that made me think of an eagle or a shark. Something predatory and entirely emotionless about the fate of their intended prey. “Not many people are so forthright with me, Maggie Lachlan.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sorry, but you’re not my lord. I’m not tanai. I’m a witch. Cassandra gets to boss me around, not you.”

“And the Lady Cerridwen?”

“We have a mutually beneficial arrangement.” Did he know Cerridwen had kind of stalked me to begin with? Or at least magically compelled me to meet with her by booby-trapping one of Damon’s games? If he didn’t, I wasn’t going to be the one to give him ideas.

“You and I could have a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“I would have to trust you to agree to that,” I said. “If you are concerned about the things that the Lady usually handles, then I suggest you make an arrangement with her.”

“And you would work with me if I did?” he asked.

Fuck. I wanted to say no. But I wasn’t sure the choice would be mine. “If the Cestis and the Lady were satisfied it was safe, I might consider it. If it was within the terms of the contract. Which this conversation, my lord, is not. My understanding is that access through your door is still restricted.”

One side of his mouth curved upward. “So cautious.”

“Only idiots aren’t cautious when it comes to…certain things.”

Usuriel looked past me, to the stage. I risked following his gaze, twisting to see. Damon was currently running down a steep rocky hill, guns drawn, shooting at something. “And is your Damon Riley cautious?”

“He defends what is his. And you don’t get to be as successful as he is without knowing how to manage your risks. He knows his way around a contract. And so do I. Now, do you want me to call the Cestis and see what they think of your being here?”

Usuriel returned his gaze to me, toasting me with his glass, seemingly not worried at all about me telling on him.

Which worried me. I pulled out my datapad. “Shall I make the call?”

He grinned suddenly but shook his head. “Well, this has been enlightening but I think it is time for me to go.”

Enlightening? Only if your definition of enlightened was full of confusion. But if he wanted to leave, I wasn’t going to stop him.

“I wish you a swift return to the realm, my lord.”

He smirked. “I’m sure you do.”

I tracked Usuriel’s progress through the crowd, trying to keep sight of him through the heaving bodies. His head turned toward the stage at one point before he moved on.

God . I hoped he hadn’t spotted Gwen. If he was upset with me for taking her, I doubt he was happy with her for leaving.

The farther away he got the hazier he appeared. Magic swirled around him. Another fucking illusion obscuring my vision. So I couldn’t tell if he’d actually left. Bloody Fae. But the magic seemed to be receding, and he was almost at the exit, then, at least as far as I could tell, he was gone.

I watched a few seconds more, relief weakening my knees. When I was sure I could walk steadily, I made my way back to the stage. If Usuriel hadn’t left I wanted Maia and the rest of Damon’s team guarding my back. And Gwen’s.

Gwen’s attention was firmly focused on the screen above the stage. Damon and Lia were breaking into a rustic-looking building. I recognized the scene. An airfield where they had to try and steal something to fly to the nearest spaceport. Gwen’s face was tense with excitement as she followed the action. She didn’t notice me at all.

Maia, however, did, moving to her usual position beside me. She seemed relaxed. “Good, you’re back.”

I pulled her off to the side, out of Gwen’s earshot. “Were you watching me?”

“Not the whole time. Who was that guy you were talking to?”

She’d seen Usuriel. I wasn’t sure if his illusion allowed that much. But then again, it would have been strange if it made it look like I was talking to myself. And would draw attention if I vanished altogether. “What did he look like to you?”

“I don’t know, kind of an average guy. I didn’t think he was bothering you.”

Damn Usuriel was good. Maia was a witch, a strong one. If she hadn’t noticed any hint of magic, then Usuriel was very slick. Or very sneaky. But maybe she hadn’t been watching for it. As far as she knew, I was just making small talk. No reason for her to suspect magic.

Some of that must have showed on my face.

“Wait. Who was it? Was someone using an illusion?” Maia demanded, suddenly fully focused.

I didn’t want to say his name in case he was still in the club. “Let’s just say someone from another place who really shouldn’t be here . Someone I met on my trip to that other place and who doesn’t have much reason to be fond of me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You mean Lor?—?”

I made a cut-it gesture with my hand across my throat. She clenched her teeth shut before his name left her mouth, and pulled me two steps farther away from the stage.

“What do you mean he was here? He’s not supposed to be out of the other place, is he?” Her voice was almost a hiss.

“I don’t know,” I whispered back though semi-clenched teeth, trying not to let any emotion show on my face. No doubt there were people in the crowd watching me. Hopefully not Usuriel. “I don’t know how closely you have to stick to the rules when you’re as powerful as he is.”

Maia’s face went professionally calm and controlled. Which told me she wasn’t calm at all. “I have to tell Mitch.”

“Yeah, and I have to tell Cassandra.” I turned away, looking for Gwen. She was still so focused on the action, I doubted she’d even noticed I was gone, but I wanted to make sure. “Gwen didn’t see him, did she?”

Maia made a ‘maybe’ gesture with one hand. “She’s been watching the game. She might have got a glimpse of who you’re drinking with, but, if she did, she didn’t show any signs she recognized him.”

Well, that was a relief. I didn’t need her to be freaked out. I was freaked out enough for both of us. Gwen might be okay with my magic but I doubted she’d be anything resembling calm if she knew Usuriel was nearby.

“Is he still here?” Maia demanded.

I shook my head. “I invoked the contract on him, told him to go. Hopefully he did. But someone like him, well, I don’t think he feels any obligation to stick to the rules.” He’d done his best to trick us in the realm. I wasn’t going to trust him to do any differently out here.

“This is not good. Combined with your furry visitors, I don’t like it.”

“Me neither.” It was one thing to deal with a nixling or two. Another to deal with the one who’d sent them. But it was also my fault. I issued the ultimatum. “But they’re kind of the same thing. He sent the nixlings.”

“He did? Why?”

“He said he’s concerned about Jack. And no, I don’t know why that equals keeping tabs on me. I told him to leave, but there’s nothing I can do if he didn’t. Not unless he decides to show himself.” I glanced back at the stage, where Damon was running across the airfield, pursued by his competition. “How long do they have left?”

The timer in the top corner of the screen said thirty minutes but that was in-game time. I didn’t know if they were taking breaks.

“Do you want me to pull him?” Maia asked.

“No. I think you-know-who has gone. Stopping the game would be more trouble than it’s worth.” There would be a shitstorm in the gaming world if Damon pulled out of a competition bout like this for anything less than a true emergency. And as much as Usuriel was a boatload of trouble if he chose to be, currently there was nothing to indicate he was an immediate threat. I didn’t need Damon to get bad publicity because of me.

“All right.” Her voice was reluctant. “But I want you standing by the stage where we can all see you. We’ll be escorting you out the back of the building as soon as he’s done with all his obligations. No flashy exits to please the papps, okay? Everyone got enough shots of you coming in.”

That was part of the deal with Decker’s. A mini red carpet with Damon and I and various celebrities, gamers and staff from Riley Arts on the way in. Damon and I had posed. Gwen had stayed in the background with Maia.

What else had Damon signed up for? I pulled up the schedule Cat had sent me for the event. “There’s supposed to be a meet and greet after this, but that’s it unless Damon’s having drinks with Alexei after.” Alexei Decker owned the club. He owned several of the most popular game clubs in the city.

“If he did, try to get him to back out. Tell him you have a headache.”

I was hoping for hot sex tonight, so a fake headache was not my preferred plan A. But nor was telling him that Usuriel had been here. I wanted one night with no drama. Was that too much to ask for? “I’ll tell him Gwen’s tired. He’ll think she still has jet lag. But there’ll be more pictures after they’re done playing. He won’t be able to skip those.” I resisted the urge to scowl. It was going to be a long night, even if Damon did only the bare minimum.

Maia scowled for both of us. “Just try to wrap things up fast.”

“No arguments here.”

I went to stand with Gwen. She was still fully engrossed in the game; the fascinated expression on her face was familiar. Nat used to wear it when she watched gamers. Benji and Eli and the other Righteous programmers still did. So did Zee. All the people who’d made games a huge part of their lives. Gwen would fit right in.

I nudged her gently, and she blinked, half-startled, and turned to me.

“Having fun?” I asked softly, trying to sound perfectly calm.

“Yes. They make it look so easy.” Her mouth twisted a little as though she was judging her own performance against theirs and not liking the result. She’d done well when we’d played. She had a knack for puzzle solving and held her own in combat. Serenity Falls was more gunfights and spaceship encounters than hand to hand, but she’d flattened an NCP who’d tried to hit on her in a bar with a couple of well-placed punches.

I didn’t know if she could fight in real life but her avatar could handle herself. “They’ve had a lot of practice. Lia is a pro. And Damon’s, well, Damon. But hey, you have plenty of time to practice. I’m sure Damon would play against you if you asked him. He can show you plenty of tricks.”

Her face lit up. “That would be brilliant. I’ll ask him, thanks.”

“Not a problem.” I nudged her attention back toward the screen.

Damon was climbing into a rickety gyrocopter, one of the better forms of transport in the first stages of the game. He wasn’t in danger, but it still made my heart catch slightly to watch him soaring to the air in a temperamental bucket of bolts inclined to not infrequent sudden explosions in the game. I’d died that way once, and the sensation of falling toward the earth before the game cut in and removed the sensory feedback because I was dead, had been distinctly unpleasant enough to make me vow never to parachute in real life.

Fortunately Damon stayed unexploded and escaped to the next sector, the last one of the bout, involving breaking into a black-market spaceport to make off with a small planetary transit ship to get to the next stage. There were many ways to die. But Damon knew the game backward and so did Lia, based on what was unfolding on the screen.

When the game ended, Damon was fractionally ahead on points. When he logged out and disconnected from the chair, he was grinning. Lia shook his hand, and Damon bent to say something in her ear. She’d probably scored herself and her team a wild-card entry into the next tournament, judging by the ecstatic smile that spread across her face as she blinked at him as though not believing what she’d just heard.

Maia sidled up to me as Damon and Lia posed for photos. “The meet and greet is upstairs in the VIP area. We’ve done several sweeps. The guy you spoke to seems to be gone. We go straight up there and then straight down to the car, once Damon’s done, got it?”

I nodded, and Maia settled into place behind me.

“Is something wrong?” Gwen asked.

“No, they’re always on high alert in crowds like this. It’s hard to predict what Damon’s fans will do.” I touched Gwen’s wrist, trying to reassure her. Decker’s was not one of the clubs that allowed illegal drugs, but there were plenty of legal stims that could make someone cross the line from fervent fan to dangerous in the blink of an eye. “It’s nothing you have to worry about. The team are pros and they’ve got this covered.”

She looked back at Maia, Jake, and Rufus standing behind us. “Three of them doesn’t seem enough.”

“There’s more than three of them. There are others upstairs, there are guys outside, plus all the Decker’s staff. You don’t have to worry, okay? Relax and enjoy the night. It’ll be a bit of a crush upstairs, but we can just hang back and grab a drink or whatever. Damon’s the one who has to press the flesh.”

“Is it always like this? So…crazy?”

“He doesn’t do a lot of smaller events like this these days. This is only because of the lead-up to the tournament. It’s great publicity. He does the rounds at a few of the big conventions, but that’s more keynotes than meet and greets these days. That only means when he does do one, it’s crazier than ever,” I admitted. “But mostly it’s not like this. We go to business things, fundraisers and galas and many long dinners with boring speeches. At those they’re more worried about playing power games with him than getting his autograph.”

She pulled a face. “Rather you than me.”

“Well,” I said, “it does have its perks. After all, I get Damon. But, yeah, it can be a lot. But then again my life isn’t always a bed of roses for him.”

“I guess not.”

Damon was descending the stairs off the side of the stage. He came over to us and bent down to kiss me quickly. I could tell he was riding the high of the game. He didn’t often get to play for the fun of it, and even though he was probably under some pressure tonight to win, I knew he loved when he got to play with his own creations and show them off to a bunch of people who appreciated the amount of hard work and genius that went into them.

“Congratulations,” I said when he set me free.

“You can congratulate me later,” he laughed.

“Oh, I will,” I said, slipping my hand in his. “Now I think the gang’s eager to get you upstairs so you can meet all your adoring fans.”

His smile slipped for a second. Short enough that no one else would notice. He was never rude to his fans, but I knew at times dealing with crushes of people like this was overwhelming for him, too.

“It’s not that many,” he said. “I think Alexei said fifty. Just a quick hello and a picture, and the team will move them on fast. We’ll be home before you know it.”

I squeezed his arm. “We’re fine. After all, there’s free booze, and I’m sure upstairs there’ll be some of those excellent snacky things they do.”

“Alexei knows how to throw a party.”

He turned to Maia. “Right. Let’s do this.”

She tapped her earpiece and muttered something under her breath, and two more of his security team appeared through the crowd. With one of them either side of us, two in front and two behind, we moved through the crowd easily enough. Once we reached the stairs, there was no one in our path.

Upstairs, the noise level fell considerably. Can’t have the VIPs annoyed by the masses.

One end of the room was set up for the meet and greet, with a backdrop of artwork from Serenity Falls and a couple of blinding photographic lights, along with a vidstream team and a photographer. The queue of excited Righteous fans were corralled behind a red velvet rope line.

Three of the guys accompanied Damon in that direction while Maia pulled Gwen and me over to a booth toward the back of the VIP space, mostly out of sight. “You and Gwen can wait here. Someone will come to take your orders if you want anything.” She scanned the crowd, screwed up her nose. “Fifty people, a couple of minutes each should be two hours at the most.”

Two hours was hardly short, but I hoped that she was right. It was going to be midnight before we got out of here at that rate. We retreated to the booth, which was covered in soft black leather. A trio of tiny brass lanterns sat in the center of the table, casting soft light. Larger versions of them hung above us. I settled back with a sigh and tapped the nearest lantern to summon the holomenu. One of the servers arrived at the table almost immediately. Gwen ordered chili fries and a salted yuzu margarita. I stuck to club soda and some sliders. Dinner felt like a long time ago and if we were going to be stuck here for two more hours, I wanted fuel.

The food arrived and we dug in. Gwen was full of questions about Serenity Falls , and I answered them as best I could. She’d almost finished the plate of chili fries when there was a crash of glass and a loud bang and something fell from the ceiling. Gwen cried out as it hit her, and then bounced, crashing to the floor, glass spraying everywhere.