Page 8 (1/2)

A VOICE WAS SAYING, SOFTLY, "MERRY, MERRY" A HAND STROKED THE side of ainst the hand, opening ht was on, and I was blinded for a second I flung a hand up to guardht"

I felt the bed htness under the pilloas gone I raised my head from the pillow and found the room in near perfect darkness It had been nearly dahen Roane and I fell asleep It should have been light outside I sat up and looked around the darkened roo by the light switch I didn’t bother looking for Roane I knehere he was He was in the ocean with his new skin He hadn’t left me unprotected, but he had left s, but it didn’t I’d given Roane back his first love, the sea

There is an old saying: never coic Roane was in the arht never see each other again, and he hadn’t said good-bye But I knew that if ever I needed soo down to the sea and call hiive me love I loved Roane, but I wasn’t in love with hi out at the black s "How long did we sleep?"

"It’s eight o’clock Friday night"

I slid off the bed and stood "Oh,in town after dark is a bad thing"

I looked at him

He stood near the door, and the light switch It was hard to tell in the dark but he seemed dressed in one of his usual suits, iant But there was an underlying tension to his, orbad

"What’s happened?"

"Nothing yet," he said

I stared at hi to happen?" I couldn’t quite keep the suspicion out of hed "Don’t worry, I haven’t made any calls, but I’m sure the police have by now I don’t knohy you’ve been hiding all this tih, the Host, then you’re in deep trouble"

"Sluagh" was a rude name for the lesser Unseelie fey The Host was the polite phrase Rude first, polite was an afterthought Oh, well Only another Unseelie could say "sluagh" and not have it be a mortal insult

"I’ froainst the wall "That is the question, isn’t it"

Even across the rooaze, the intensity of it It was impolite for a fey to ask another direct questions, but, oh, he wanted to ask You could feel the unasked questions like so touchable in the air between us

"Ju froht you clothes The van is downstairs with Ringo and Uther in it We’ll get you to the airport"

"Helping erous, Jeremy"

"Then hurry"

"I don’t have my passport"

He tossed a small paper-wrapped packet onto the bed It was the packet of papers that stayed

taped under the seat of ht my new identity "How did you know?"

"You’ve hidden from the human authorities, your relatives, and their henchmen for three years You’re not stupid You knew you’d be found, thus you had a plan to cover yourself I will say that the next time I’d hide the secret papers in a different spot It was one of the first places I looked"

I stared at the packet, then at him "That wasn’t all that was under the seat

He opened his jacket like aoff the sun tucked into the waistband of his pants It was just a darker shape against the paleness of his shirt, but I kneas a 9-un He took an extra clip out of one pocket "The box of extra aun on top of the taped packet and stepped back around the bed, so that it stood between us "You seem nervous, Jeremy"

"Shouldn’t I be?"

"Nervous of me I didn’t think you’d be impressed with royalty" I watched his face, tried to read what lay underneath, and couldn’t He was hiding so

He raised his left hand in the air "Let’s just say that Branwyn’s Tears has a long shelf life Take the shower"

"I don’t feel the power of the spell anymore"

"Good for you, but trustyou to see ies for that, but it’s why Ringo and Uther are down in the van Just as a precaution"

I s to step closer to him, to close a little of that careful distance I didn’t want Jeree to see just how ht It wasn’t like me to want to push the envelope with a friend An enee fro ain I just turned and walked to the bathroom A quick shower and we’d be on our way to the airport

Twentywet I was dressed in a pair of navy blue dress slacks, an ereen silk blouse, and a navy suit jacket that matched the pants Jeremy had also chosen a pair of black low-heeled puhs Since I didn’t own any other kind of hose, that I didn’t mind But the rest of it

"Next time you pick out clothes forshoes Pumps, no matter ho-heeled, just aren’t made for it"

"I never have any proble in one of the stiff-backed kitchen chairs He raceful as he reclined in it Jereht modern sort of way, to ever be called catlike But cat hat came to mind as I watched him curled around the chair Except that cats didn’t pose They just were Jere to appear at ease and failing

"I aot your brown contact lenses Not that it see Matches the blouse, but very huh I’d have kept more red in the hair and lance even in a crowd Glale you out"

"I know a lot of fey that use gla ed "That’s their problem I don’t need to advertise"

He stood "All this tiht you were fey, true fey, and hiding that for souessed the truth" He stood away from the table, hands at his sides The tension that had been in him since he woke me vibrated from him

"That bothers you, doesn’t it?" I said

He nodded "I’h the illusion Or is that an illusion, too? Are you a better ic, too?"

For the first ti around hiinnings of sohim I called ers, he’d have had his gun out, but not pointed I was still trying to keep un in its holster You’d think after all this time I wouldn’t trust anyone, but I just couldn’t believe that Jeremy was my eneht I could treat you like nothing had changed, but I can’t I have to know"

"Knohat, Jeremy?"

"I want to kno much of the last three years has been a lie" I felt his power breathe out around hiht space that was his personal aura He was pu a lot of power into his shields A lot of power

My shields were always in place, tight, and loaded for bear It was automatic for me So automatic thatfor my normal power level It th, I didn’t have to do anything to add to it My shielding was better than his, just a fact My offensive spells on the other hand, well, I’d seen Jereh ically It would co it wouldn’t have to co

"Is the ride to the airport still open, or did you change your mind while I was in the shower?"

"The ride to the airport is still on," he said Most of the sidhe can see ic in colors or shapes, but I’ve never been able to do that I can feel it though, and Jere into his shields

"Then what’s with the power trip?"

"You’re sidhe You’re Unseelie sidhe That’s just a step above being a hland accent leaked through onto the phrases I’d never heard him lose his all-American-from-the-middle-of-nowhere accent Made me nervous because inal accents, whatever theyfeeling that I knehere he was going with it I’d alht

"The Unseelie thrive on deception They are not to be trusted"

"Am I not to be trusted, Jeremy? Does three years of friendship ht crossed his face "It is not stories," and again his accent thickened "I was cast out as a boy fron to notice a trow boy, but the Unseelie Court, they take in everyone"

I smiled before I could stop ot the sarcas had started in his hands I was about to pay the bill for a centuries-old grievance It wouldn’t be the first time It probably wouldn’t be the last, but it still pissed me off We didn’t have time for his temper tantrum, let alone one of mine

"I’m sorry that my ancestors abused you, Jeremy, but it was before my time The Unseelie Court has had a publicist for most of ue so thick, it was guttural

"You want to compare scars?" I lifted my shirt out of my pants and let him see the handprint scar on my ribs

"Illusion," he said, but he sounded doubtful

"You can touch it if you want Glamour fools vision, but not touch, not for another fey" This was a partial truth at best, because I could use glamour to fool every sense, even of another fey, but it wasn’t a co that Jeremy would believe me Sometimes a plausible lie is quicker than an unwanted truth

He walked toward ht to see that look on Jeremy’s face He peered at the scar, but stayed out of touching range He knew that the sidhe’s ic was touch-activated, which ht

I sighed and laced ers on top of ured Jere up at reen silk, but stared intotihts But htly bored, empty look that I’d perfected at court I could watch a friend be tortured or put a knife into sout with the same look on my face You don’t survive at the court if your face betrays your feelings

Jere his eyes from my face He finally had to look down, and I was very careful to make no move, however small to spook hi erous person If he only kne very undangerous I was

He ran fingertips over the raised, slightly roughened flesh

"There’s ot dressed, so if you don’t "

"Why didn’t I see the fitted for the wire?"

"I didn’t want you to see the theical energy," he said, as if to hi I couldn’t hear He looked at me, and his eyes were puzzled "We don’t have ti that"

"Shit," he said "It’s a spell of discontent, distrust, discord It’snow" Fear flowed over his face

"They could still be miles away, Jeremy"

"Or they could be just outside," he said

He had a point If they were just outside the door, then a safer betfor help to arrive I wouldn’t say that Unseelie bad guys were hiding in the bushes, but I was pretty sure that if I called up Detective Alvera and said that Princess Meredith was about to be killed on his turf, they’d send help

But if I could,away I needed to knoas out there

Jereht of so What is it?"