Deceiver's Bond: Book Two of A Clairvoyant's Complicated Life (22 page)

I sat up, wiping at my nose with the tight ball of tissue. “Really?”

He nodded. “Keep it somewhere safe.”

I tightened my fingers around it, securing it in the palm of my hand. “You know I will.” I gave him a weak smile. “Thanks, Red.”

“You are strong and resourceful. What have I done, save give you a sympathetic ear?”

I hugged him to my cheek and then released him. “You’ve given me hope when I thought there was none. You’re right. Kieran is my bargaining chip. Maya and Tanu aren’t about to let him escape, not after what happened. And now they’ll be more attentive to what Daniel and Michael are doing. The question is: What should I do now? Do you think Daniel’s right? Should I just wait for him to negotiate?” I returned the talisman to the temporary safety of the coffee table. “Three months is such a long time. And I’m worried about what Kieran said … about the bonding thing.”

“There is much we do not know. I believe it would be in your interest to do some investigating of your own.”

I pulled off my ankle boots and curled my legs on the couch. “I don’t know anyone who has contact with the sidhe. Do you? I know you’ve had previous … caretakers. Is there anyone still alive from your past who can help me?”

Red was silent for a moment. “I can think of none. But you are already acquainted with one who seems to know a great deal.”

“I know … Daniel.” I sighed. “I just couldn’t stay there any longer. I had to get out.”

He patted my arm. “This is understandable and, yes, there is much he has not told you. But I do not believe Daniel has the knowledge you seek.” Red tilted his head. “No. I speak of Paimon.”

I sucked in a breath and looked away, surprised he would suggest such a thing. “I don’t know.” I thought about the demon, knitting my fingers together absently in my lap. My gloves were damp. I removed and tossed them onto the arm of the couch. “This could be just the thing it wants to suck me in.”

“You are not so weak minded. I believe if you are crafty, you may elicit information without a sacrifice. It all depends upon how you approach it. Remember—you are never without options. If it cannot, or will not, give you the information you require without a sacrifice, we will find another way.” Red peered at me confidently, arms at his sides.

Maybe he was right. So far, Paimon had done nothing to hurt me. In fact, the demon had gone out of its way to help me. I resolved not to call upon it, but if it entered my dreams again tonight, I’d see where the conversation took me.

“I’ll think about it.” There didn’t seem to be anything else to say, and I needed some time to think. I stood. “I’m going to do some on-line research. Maybe I can find something or someone who knows about the sidhe. Most of them are probably crackpots or misinformed, but you never know.”

“It cannot hurt.”

I trudged up the stairs, not bothering with the lights when I entered my small office. It suited my mood. I wanted to be alone, in the dark, and do my research without the glare of overhead incandescents to illuminate the futility of it.

Ninety minutes later, my disposition hadn’t improved, except now my stomach rumbled, reminding me that I’d eaten just half of my lunch. I got up and stretched my stiff neck, sore as much from my earlier cannonball imitation as from hunching over my computer for the past hour and a half. I wandered back downstairs. How long had Vince been gone? Two hours? No, more like three. Bitterly, I wondered if he was hungry too, or whether the beautiful Maeve would stop screwing him long enough to even allow for a meal.

I halted in my steps, midway into the kitchen, sick to my stomach.

According to what I’d just read, it was more likely the other way around. After the mere touch of her lips, he’d be unable to sate his lust for long enough to consider eating.

“I judge from your countenance you did not find anything useful,” Red said from his favorite spot next to the couch.

I shook my head, unable to speak, and practically fell into my chair at the kitchen table.

A minute later, Red ambled into the kitchen. “You found nothing?”

“Other than Maeve meaning ‘she who intoxicates,’ in Irish Gaelic, and Kieran’s name more or less translating to ‘black’—not really.” Elbows on the tabletop, I plunked my chin into my hands. “Just the stuff you’d expect, a lot of myth, folk tales, and erotic love stories. God knows why I’m surprised. The only thing that had any merit at all was Tolkien’s famous interview about the day he spent in the company of that brother and sister pair.” I sighed. “Even wikimagic.com just rehashes all the same useless crap.”

I leaned back in my chair and stared out the window. Low, gray clouds raced across the sky. Closer in, wind gusts whipped the naked branches of my patio’s dogwood trees, which wouldn’t bud out for at least another couple of months. I wondered whether Vince would be here to see them bloom.

“Do not despair. There is always hope.”

“Yeah. I guess.” I shrugged. “I thought about sending an e-mail to the people at the
Over the Rainbow Catalog
, but I couldn’t figure out how to write it without sounding like a complete lunatic.” I rolled my eyes. “To whom it may concern, a beautiful sidhe woman abducted my boyfriend. Can any of your leprechaun or brownie manufacturers tell me how to get him back?” I snorted. “Yeah, I’m sure they’d fall all over themselves in their mad rush to help me.”

I stood and shoved my chair under the table, gripping the wood back hard enough to pain my fingers and sore wrists. “What I need is for Kieran to talk to me, to cooperate, but the guy is a complete prick.”

“If you wish to elicit his aid, you must work to curb your anger. You will never gain his trust by hating him.”

I scowled. “He and his gal pal are responsible for Vince’s abduction, and right now she’s probably doing her best to boink his brains out. How else am I supposed to feel?”

“I know it is difficult, but perhaps you can start by considering Kieran’s point of view.”

I shuddered, leaning back against the kitchen table, arms folded. “Yuck. No thank you.”

“Lire,” Red scolded, using a voice I hadn’t heard since I was a child. “I know this is difficult and I do empathize, but you must stop reacting emotionally and consider the larger picture. There is ample reason to believe more than just your relationship with Vince is in peril.”

He pressed a paw to my calf. “I am not upset with you, I simply ask that you set aside your anger and grief to consider all sides. I believe this is the only way you will find your path and the solution you desperately seek.” He rubbed my leg. “I know you can do this. You are not helpless. You have power, but you cannot use it to your advantage if you are emotionally compromised.”

I snorted. “Emotionally compromised. You got that from my favorite
Star Trek
movie, didn’t you?”

He clasped his paws behind his back, forcing his tummy outward. “Perhaps. Regardless, the term is appropriate. Is it not?”

I sighed. “Yes.” I levitated him to the table and retook my seat.

“Very good. Now, let us take a moment to consider the sidhe’s point of view,” Red suggested, raising a paw. “They believe the Earth is at risk. If you knew the preservation of a cherished place depended upon your ability to create skilled warriors to defend its inhabitants from unspeakable horrors and its natural resources from utter destruction, would you refuse to help? Would you stand back and allow this treasure and all of its creatures to be consumed? Or would you, instead, find a way to perform this duty as painlessly as possible?”

“If they’re using glamour, then this duty you’re talking about is rape,” I said. “There’s no other word for it. Look at what’s happening with Vince. Right now, Maeve is probably using her power to seduce him, to make him do something he wouldn’t normally do.”

At least, I hoped disregarding a girlfriend in favor of an easy screw wasn’t in character for him, regardless of Maeve’s obvious charms. But it wasn’t like we were married. Heck, Vince and I hadn’t even gone on an official date yet, much less establish whether we were in an exclusive relationship. Calling him my boyfriend was probably overstating things. And I couldn’t silence the nasty voice in my head, which reminded me that if I hadn’t been arrested by Sheriff Lancer, he’d still be avoiding me.

I shook myself, tabling those thoughts, and added, “Kieran didn’t dispute it. That’s what she plans to do. He practically rubbed my face in it.”

“You are being disingenuous. Claiming it to be her duty is not ‘rubbing your face in it,’ unless you omitted something in your telling. In any case, I do not believe they view it in the same way we do. You told me Daniel said he never found any of the women to be unwilling participants. The sidhe probably justify their actions because they give their victims pleasure. And they use the telepaths to guarantee their children are raised in a peaceful home. Their actions promote our survival.” He pressed a paw to my arm. “Do not mistake me. I do not condone this, especially if they are using glamours, but I understand how it might seem necessary in order to serve the greater good.”

“Right. How about honesty? How about enlisting our help instead of forcing it?”

“Perhaps they considered it, but who would be around to evangelize the masses? They can no longer cross over at will, except during the twenty-four hours at midsummer and midwinter. If you were to rush out and warn people about a coming invasion, do you believe they would listen? And, if they did, what would they say?”

I slumped into my chair and thought of the ragtag individuals I occasionally saw ranting or picketing downtown. One well-known woman frequently set up her incomprehensible signs not far from Peabody’s Beans and babbled to anyone walking by. I thought of what went through my mind whenever I saw her and immediately felt guilty.

I pressed my lips together and admitted, “They’d say I was a loon.”

“Indeed.”

“God. I can’t believe this is happening.” I was sorely tempted to march upstairs, strip down to my t-shirt, and take refuge under the warmth of my down comforter. “I guess I should talk to Daniel.” I sighed. “Start with him and work myself up to Kieran.” I couldn’t help but make a face at the prospect.

“A worthy endeavor and one that is perhaps more productive than simply
Googling
.”

I smiled at the notable disdain he imparted with that final word. Red wasn’t a technophobe, far from it. He just distrusted the copious amount of baseless information that, in his opinion, seemed to permeate the web. There were times, like now, when I couldn’t argue.

Before I could rise from my chair to telephone Daniel, someone knocked on my door.

Now what?

Apparently, they figured Michael was the least likely, out of the three of them, to receive the slammed-door treatment.

Michael regarded me, hands shoved into his pockets. “Uh, hi. I was wondering if we could, you know, talk for a minute.”

They weren’t wrong. Michael was way too sweet and unassuming to work up my ire. I nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

He shifted his weight, backing up a step. “You wanna talk out here? Or somewhere else?”

Obviously, he couldn’t come inside, not without a skin-suit. “Here is fine. But if you want more privacy, I can call on the djinn again.”

He glanced at Jerome and Peter’s closed apartment door and shrugged. “No. That’s okay.”

I levitated Red to my shoulder and slipped on a pair of gloves. I made myself comfortable on the hallway floor, leaning against my apartment’s doorjamb. Michael followed my cue and sat across from me, his legs stretched out, back against the wall opposite me.

He looked around and crossed his ankles. “This reminds me of college.”

“It does a bit. Quieter though. Did you live in one of the residence halls?”

“Yeah. Weinstein.”

I realized I hadn’t told Red about the incident with Michael. And, although they knew of each other, they’d never actually met. I gestured toward Michael. “Red, this is Michael Thompson. It turns out he spent some time at NYU too.”

“Small world, indeed. It is good to finally meet you, Mr. Thompson.”

He smiled. “You too. And it’s Michael.”

I felt Red’s weight shift as he nodded his head.

Michael’s concerned gaze slid to mine. “I guess it would be stupid to ask how you’re doing.”

I shrugged. “A little.”

“You should know, Daniel’s pretty torn up about this. He had no idea things would go so badly. I’m not sure what normally happens, but he told me glamour and kidnapping has never been a part of it. Usually, the part sidhe are aware of their bloodline and receive training as they grow up. I’m not sure why Vince wasn’t made aware of his lineage, or why Maeve decided to kidnap him. Maybe Kieran can tell you.”

“Doubtful. The guy hates me and he’s a complete jerk to boot.”

“He doesn’t hate you.”

I gave him an arch look.

He blew out a short breath. “Okay, he might be an ass, but, mostly, he was just furious at being left behind.”

“Yeah. And he has the nerve to blame me for it.”

“Maybe at first, and I’m sure he’s not thrilled about getting banged up. But I think he knows it’s stupid to keep blaming you. Look, I don’t know what’s going through the dude’s mind, obviously, but he seems to be feeling pretty shitty about everything. He’s not stupid. He knows he’s stuck here for a while.” He peered at me, frowning, and added, “And, he’s … voiced some concern about you.”

“Concern.” I laughed derisively. “Right. He’s concerned I might kill him.”

“No. He says you’ve been marked by a demon. He fears it’s just a matter of time before you’re corrupted and possessed.”

“Please, not that
tainted
crap. The guy is trying to make himself appear useful, so we don’t kick him to the curb. I’m no more likely to become possessed than he is.”

He leaned toward me, lowering his voice. “That’s not true and you know it. The demon’s had your blood. I’ve seen it in your mind. I know it haunts your dreams. And you’re afraid.” He glanced at the neighboring apartment door. “I haven’t said anything because I know they’ll start jumping to conclusions, but this is nothing to be cavalier about.”