21 Shades of Night, page 143
Pop looked me up and down. “What are you getting at, Nadya? Do you want us to have trouble?”
“No, sir, but I just want to make sure we’re prepared if he decides to make a claim of some kind.”
“Mr. Caldwell and I are on good terms. He’s not filing any sort of report.”
I moved over to his desk and push aside a stack of paperwork to sit down. “What happened to him? How did he get those injuries?” I didn’t mention the fact they’d were healed by the time I saw him hours later.
“He has a dangerous job. The less you know the better.”
Dangerous. Liam had said that same word to me at his home. How did my father know about his job? “What does he do?”
Pop peeked at me over the edge of his glasses. “Nadya, you know better than this. Do not pry in affairs that don’t concern you.”
“But they do concern me! And you! When he landed in here during that storm torn up like some sort of animal attacked him. It’s crazy, Pop, why do you cover up for him all the time? Why do you let him fly in and out of here?”
“You want me to tell him not to use our airport? Our best customer?”
I shook my head. No. That was the last thing I wanted. What I wanted was to know everything about him—not push him further away.
“It’s really not fair for you to treat me like this,” I said, hopping off the desk.
“Like what?”
“A child. You want me to work and live with you. You want me to obey all your arbitrary rules. And I do. But if I question anything, you clam up and act like I have a problem. Like I’m ruining your business, even though the other day, when Liam was injured, I was the one that took care of it. I was the one who—” I cut myself short before I said, “Went to his house to check on him.” I knew better.
Pop stood and circled the desk. He took my hand and said, “Nadya, you are full of such life. I hate that you feel stifled here, but it’s the only way. The world is dangerous. I can’t lose you like I lost your mother.”
A shiver ran between our hands and again, I felt the jolt of a hazy vision. My father standing above my mother, blood dripping from a cut in the smooth skin of her neck. A man kneeled next to her. Liam Caldwell. I shook my head—terrified of the image—and snatched my hand from his.
“Nadya, are you okay? You look pale.”
“I’m fine,” I said, but bile rose in the back of my throat, and I wondered for the first time how my mother really died.
So the rumors were true, I thought, flipping the lock to the office in the hangar. I was a witch.
It was the only logical explanation, because otherwise I was crazy. As if thinking you were a witch wasn’t crazy. I sat on the couch and took a deep breath, trying to sort this out. Had I seen the past? Maybe, but how? And why now?
“This is insane,” I said to myself, but my eyes traveled to the pinkish-red blood stain on the couch. Liam had recovered from his injuries so quickly. Impossibly fast. Deep down I never believed in the witch games I’d played as a teenager, and I’d never, not once, bought into the crazy stories people whispered about my mother. But then again, rumors were often rooted in the truth.
If those visions were real, then my father and Liam were both present at the time of my mother’s death, which, clearly from the blood pouring down her neck, was not from an aneurysm as I’d been told. She’d been murdered.
Outside the office I heard Brayden order the ground guys to prep one of the planes. I thought back but no one was on the list for departure this afternoon. None of our pilots fly last minute—no one but Liam Caldwell. I crept to the door and leaned close enough to see his plane pulling out of the hangar toward the runway.
I took a moment to compose myself, hoping to get the timing right. Someone else would have to check him in and I wondered if he would be disappointed not to see me? Doubtful. If my vision of him with my father and mother held any truth then that would explain a lot about his behavior toward me.
Brayden greeted him just outside the hangar door, loud and respectfully. Everyone at the airline always approached him this way—everyone but me. He’d always been a game for me.
“Mr. Caldwell,” I said, approaching him as he walked around the airplane.
“Nayda.”
“How are you feeling? We haven’t seen you since your accident.”
“I’m fine,” he said, eyes holding mine.
“Good.” I glanced at Brayden, who carried a wrench over to the plane to adjust something. In a lower voice I said, “We need to talk.”
“I doubt that.”
“Make it happen.” He raised an eyebrow and I caught the hint of an amused smile, so I added, “Please.”
He didn’t agree. He didn’t say or react to my request at all. He simply brushed past me, and his arm grazed mine. I nearly stumbled but caught myself and watched him climb into his plane, sealing the door between us. His reply seeped into my mind, spreading out like a spider-web, a memory or a vision, I didn’t know which. I did know what he wanted and where he would meet me. He communicated that and more in one simple touch.
Now I had to wait.
Chapter 4
Liam
TWICE SHE HAD approached me directly. Twice I’d felt the connection between us. There was no denying her gift was expanding. She became more powerful each time we interacted, and it was only a matter of time before she experienced the full onslaught of our bond.
When she asked to speak with me I should have said no. Instead I said nothing, but I showed her enough, and now I stood in the dark outside her house.
She waited at the window, silhouette outlined in a warm yellow light. The curtain fluttered shut and the room fell black. Moments later she emerged at the back door, her bright blue eyes flashing beneath her blunt cut bangs.
“Get in the car,” I directed. She crossed her arms over her chest. She wore black jeans and clunky boots. If she was going for street tough it worked—except she reeked of anxiety. I sighed. “Please?”
“Are you going to murder me?” she asked, leaning into the car where I waited behind the wheel.
“No.”
Nadya’s fear smelled like churned dirt. Her nervousness a little mossy. Neither of these masked the scent of her person—her body, which gave off the aroma of something sweet and ripe. Something I’d never tasted before—but I wished too, badly.
She closed the door quietly, to keep her father from waking. At least she had an awareness to keep this secret. The car started with a low rumble, and before she could change her mind we were gone from her driveway.
We rode in silence as I took us back toward the airport. Just before the driveway I turned on a service road. The runway stretched along the waterfront, as did almost everything in this town, and I stopped the car overlooking the lake. I didn’t make a move to leave the car. It was windy and cold by the shore and Nadya looked wary, one hand clutching the door handle.
“Again, before we get started, are you going to murder me?”
I frowned. “No.”
“Rape? Assault of any kind? Because I left my dad a note and I’ll fight.”
She didn’t leave her father a note, I knew that much. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Then why are we way out here?”
“Because we aren’t supposed to be together. And what we’re going to talk about is strictly off limits. I’m not going to hurt you, but I wasn’t exaggerating when I said being with me was dangerous.”
Her wariness turned to frustration. “What’s happening to me?” she finally asked, eyes never leaving the water.
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know because the alternative is that I’m crazy. And I’m not crazy. I know I’m not. I saw you land that plane even though you were half dead and then I watched you heal in a matter of minutes. I’m having dreams and…” she looked down at her hands, twisting in the fabric of her shirt. “For lack of a better term, visions. At least one involved you.”
She only confirmed what I suspected. I’d had many roles in my life: hunter, guardian, peacekeeper…but this was one I had no experience with. I inhaled, tasting her very essence, and centered myself. What I was about to do wasn’t wrong. What we had been doing was the actual crime.
“I will tell you what you want to know,” I said. “But you have to understand that once I do, your life will change forever. You must listen to my words carefully and then you have to decide if you’ll trust me.”
“I get a choice?” She laughed darkly.
I run my hand over the steering wheel, wishing we could get out of this car. I want to get Nayda alone and show her what this is all about, not just tell her. “You can leave now and we’ll pretend this never happened. Blank slate.”
“And my visions, they would go away?”
“If I left and we never encountered on another again, I think they would taper off.”
“So this is about you.”
I pinned her with a hard, direct look. “It’s about us.”
“Okay then,” she said, adjusting herself in her seat and leaning back against the door. “Tell me. Everything.”
Chapter 5
Nayda
“ASK ME A question,” he said.
Without hesitation, I blurted, “How did you heal so quickly?”
“I’m not human. It takes a lot more to injure and kill us.”
Okay. Wow. I forced the next words out of my mouth. “Are you a witch?”
“No.”
“Am I a witch?”
He shook his head. “No, but you’re not entirely human, either.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“It means that your father is human and your mother was not. She had powers also and now that the time is right, your abilities are increasing.”
“God, what is all this tip-toeing around? You just told me I’m half-human or something. I’m not freaking out or having some sort of breakdown—even though I really, really should. I just want to know the truth.” Okay so maybe I was freaking out, just a little.
Liam leaned back in his seat and rubbed his eyes. “You and I are bound through our bloodline. We can communicate without words and your touch helped me heal. I’m here and have always been here to protect you.”
“From what? What do I need protection from? I live the most boring life ever. No real friends, no social life. Definitely no dating, even though that’s more because of my father than anything—” I paused. “What does he know?”
“He is aware of who I am.”
“And my mother?”
“Her death was a tragedy.”
“You were there,” I whispered.
“I was, and it is my biggest regret that I was unable to help her.”
“Did you kill her?”
“No, but I didn’t protect her either.”
Right then that was enough; I didn’t want to know more. It was all too much, except one thing. “Show me.”
He tilted his head. “Show you what, exactly?”
“The bond and how it works.
I thought he would say no, but to my surprise he nodded. “You have to trust me. And we’ll take this slow, because you have zero resistance built up.”
“Resistance to what?”
“I need your hand.”
I offered it to him and he linked our fingers together, cool and smooth. Immediately I was overcome by a surge of energy. “Oh,” I said, biting my lip. It spread through my limbs and down into my belly. It didn’t just feel good, it felt amazing and I wanted more. I shifted in my seat, wanting to get closer to him. If there hadn’t been the gear shift between us I think I would have crawled in his lap. My eyes landed on his mouth and I considered that if our hands felt this good touching one another, how amazing his lips would feel pressed to mine?
He tensed his jaw and jerked his head to the windshield. I dragged my eyes away from him and looked out over the water.
“Holy shit.”
Hovering over the airport was a swirling mass of clouds. Or I thought they were clouds, but really, I had no idea what that was. Streaks of red and blue churned together like a hurricane. My fingers tightened around his. “What the hell kind of storm is that? We should call my dad!”
I dropped his hand and grabbed my phone. Liam stopped me. “It’s not a storm. It’s a portal and it’s always there. Your father knows about it.”
“A portal?”
“Yes. The airport is centrally located on a millennia-old portal. It’s almost like a transportation hub that has been used since the beginning of time to move from one world to the other. Your father—or really, your mother’s family historically, has managed the portal.”
“And you fly in and out of it, in your plane?”
“Traditionally, no, but when this area became developed your mother’s family created the airline as a feasible cover.”
“So everyone coming in and out of the airport goes through the portal?”
“No. Not everyone. Most are humans. Your father monitors the non-humans carefully.”
Unable to hold back any further I asked, “And by non-human, you mean?”
He sighed and did that thing where he rubbed his jaw. That thing that I found increasingly attractive. “The common name is Sidhe.”
I frowned and looked him over, trying to figure out how this man, who looked very much like a man, wasn’t human. I glanced at my own hands and the portal over the airport and shook my head in an attempt to absorb it all.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked, taking my hand.
The rush of warmth filled my body, this time stronger than ever. I licked my lips and my mouth watered. I wanted him badly. I wanted to taste him. I swallowed back the desire and said, “I want to go through the portal.”
Chapter 6
Liam
“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
“Why?” she asked, glaring at me with the most brilliant eyes. I needed her to stop licking her lips or we were going to have a problem. A bigger problem.
“First of all my entire job is to keep you safe, and going through that portal is absolutely, positively not safe.”
“And second?”
I shifted the car in gear and backed out of my makeshift parking space. “You and I aren’t supposed to be together. Or even remotely near one another. I’ve just violated several laws and a promise to your father.” I glanced over. “I’ve put you in danger, however inevitable.”
It didn’t take long to return to her house. I stopped two houses away—far enough to thwart her father, but still a red flag if the right people were looking.
We sat in silence for a moment. I did not want her to leave and it thrilled me that she also appeared to want to stay. I knew she had further questions. Questions I was unable—or unwilling—to answer right now. Finally, she opened the door, just enough for the overhead light to turn on and bathe her in a warm glow.
“If this is so dangerous why did you tell me?”
“You can’t fight destiny, Nayda. It will happen one way or another. The day you entered my home everything clicked into gear, and being honest with you may help keep you safe.”
“What should I be afraid of?” she asked.
I shook my head. “That’s for me to worry about.”
“So I just have to place my safety in your hands? Liam, I barely know you.”
“I’ve been taking care of you my whole life—haven’t I done a good job of it so far?”
She didn’t respond; she just leaned over and, to my surprise, placed a warm kiss to my cheek. The feeling spread across my flesh and warmed the pit of my stomach. My instinctive desire was to claim her but she slipped quickly from the car. I touched the spot and the want quickly turned to something else, a feeling of sadness. Nayda had left me with more than a kiss. She’d imparted a memory—not her own, of course, but a scene she’d gleaned from her father.
Her mother, bloody and dead and me, watching over the scene. The message was clear. Nayda didn’t trust me to take care of her; after all, I’d already failed once.
* * *
“SO YOU TOLD her.”
I swept past Ms. Graves, who stood in the kitchen. She’d made a huge breakfast, high on protein, something I’ve found necessary to supplement the lack of feeding from my bond.
“Some of it, yes.”
“How did she take it?” she asked, handing me a plate and the newspaper.
“Astonishingly well.” Actually, I wasn’t surprised. Nadya had never appeared weak, just confined by the strict, over-protective rules her father had set up after her mother’s death. “If anything, I’ll have to be even more vigilant with her. She already asked to go in the portal.”
“You obviously said no.”
“Obviously.”
Ms. Graves made a tsking sound and gave me a suspicious look.
“What?” I asked her.
“How much did you…share with her?”
“I had to open her mind to show her the portal,” I replied, knowing well she wanted more information than that.
“Are you going to make me ask?”
“Ask what?” I scanned the paper, looking for any inconsistences—any potential problems.
“You’re such a brat. Did you feed on her?”
I ignored her, instead focusing on an article about a murder several days before. The police had finally identified a suspect and I squinted at the grainy photograph.
“I asked you a question,” Ms. Graves persisted.
“I heard you and I’m not answering that question.”
She sniffed. “You’re too cranky to be well fed. Would you like me to prep the feeder?”
I folded the newspaper in half and stood. “No time. Looks like I’ve got work to do.”
* * *
EQUIPPED WITH IMMENSE strength and speed, I had the responsibility of protecting other Sidhe, in particular Nadya’s family and the portal. My work came easily, and I made sure travels from one side of the portal to the next were on the level and approved. Things weren’t always so complicated but once the humans evolved, it became tricky. They claimed this dimension, unaware it was shared space. Early on, our people made arrangements, keeping a balance between worlds, but there were always those on both sides attempting to disturb the peace. Sometimes they managed to succeed in getting past me and causing destruction. Those were the Sidhe that killed Nadya’s mother. The knot in my stomach was evidence that he might be back to finish the job.
