Kingdom Come (12 page)

“More than you should have been?” He was sure he did not imagine the pleased note in her voice.

He returned her smile. “Far more.”

“The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”

-William Blake

The living room was completely bare where she had been expecting to find a wreck of epic proportions. Abby wandered further into her apartment only to find the entire first floor had been cleaned out. While they were not her possessions, she still felt a little adrift at finding everything simply gone. A harsh knock on the door drew her back to the front of the apartment.

Agent Jackson stood in the doorway, letting himself in without permission. The small annoyance she felt at that faded in light of her empty home.

“Where is everything?”

His face gave nothing away, staying locked in his usual blank expression. “You are being moved.”

Like she was furniture. She scowled. “Why?”

“Security.” He glanced around. “Come with me.”

She was left with no choice as the electricity in the apartment shut off seconds later, leaving her in darkness. She grumbled under her breath, but headed for the light pouring in the open door. Jackson stood just beyond the door, waiting to pull the door closed behind her. She watched him snap a padlock on the doorknob.

“You will be living with Ms. Johnson until other arrangements can be made.”

He rapped on Candace’s door before she had a chance to argue. She stood silently as he explained the situation, watching the other woman’s face for any sign of discontent. Candace did not look at all surprised. When Agent Jackson finished his spiel, she simply stepped aside and gestured for Abby to come in.

Abby noticed, she did not extend the invitation to the agent. With a ‘goodnight’ holding the bare minimum of politeness, Candace shut the front door firmly. Abby grinned, even as she looked around. She noticed the couch was made up with a sheet and pillow and glanced at the other woman.

Candace’s brown eyes met her gaze for a moment. “I assumed this would happen. Go on.” She motioned toward the sofa.

The couch turned out to be remarkably comfortable. She would almost say it was more comfortable than the bed the agents had placed in her apartment. She shook her head at herself. Not that the apartment was ever hers. A handful of days certainly did not make it home.

After a few hours of sleep on Candace’s couch, she woke up to the smell of coffee wafting from the kitchen. She wandered toward it, still half asleep, to find Candace already dressed in a smart pantsuit and sitting at the small dining room table. She glanced up and gave her a quick once over.

“Coffee’s over there.” She went back to eating her toast.

Abby followed the smell of freshly ground coffee to the counter by the refrigerator. She filled the provided mug nearly to the rim, before adding a healthy dollop of cream and sugar. She smiled as the first sip passed her lips.

“Dunkin’ Donuts,” Candace said by way of explanation.

Abby nodded and sat across from her. “Do you always get up so early?”

Candace raised an eyebrow. “Yes.”

Abby yawned and took a larger sip of coffee. “I hope you have a lot of this.”

Candace gave her an amused look and continued to eat her toast. “There’s cereal and toast in the cabinet. Juice and milk in the fridge.”

Abby rose and helped herself to a large bowl of strawberry oatmeal, making pleased noises as she took her first bite. She looked up in time to see Candace hiding a smile behind her own coffee mug.

“Agent Jackson called.”

Abby paused with the spoon halfway to her mouth. “And?”

Candace took a sip of her black coffee and watched her silently.

“What does he want, now?” Abby asked, not trying to hide her exasperation.

The other woman’s lips twitched. “You are playing babysitter.”

Abby’s heart started beating faster. “To Ed-the prince?”

“No.”

The excitement drained out of her. “Oh. Who then?”

“Someone named Lord Caern.” Candace’s nonchalant words did not match her intense gaze.

Abby frowned. “Do you know him?”

Candace took a sip of her coffee and shook her head. “No.”

Abby was not sure why, but she knew the dark-skinned woman was hiding something. She put it out of her mind, as she considered the new assignment. Having met Caern, she had no interest in spending any length of time alone with him. She pushed her remaining oatmeal around with her spoon.

“Eat it before it congeals,” Candace said.

Abby sighed. “I don’t know what my job is, anymore.”

Candace huffed in amusement.

The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they finished their breakfast. Too soon, Candace stood from the table and placed her dishes in the dishwasher. She gave Abby an expectant look. Abby glanced at the clock and sighed. The early mornings would kill her long before her job got the chance.

She followed Candace’s example with her breakfast dishes and went over to retrieve her clothes and makeup from the closet.

“Twenty minutes,” Candace said as Abby swept past.

She locked herself in the bathroom and all but threw herself into the shower, scrubbing quickly and stumbling out a few minutes later. As she dumped her makeup on
to the counter, she glanced at herself. There were dark circles under her gray eyes and her skin was even paler than usual. She plucked the concealer from the mound of makeup.

When she finished, she had five minutes to get dressed and downstairs. She gave her hair up as a lost c
ause and threw it into a quick french braid. Hopping on one foot, she struggled into her pantyhose and tugged the pencil skirt into place. She was still slipping into her suit jacket, as she headed down the stairs.

Candace shook her head but did not comment, other than to tell her the car had arrived to take them to work. Abby dutiful followed her out of the apartment to the black sedan parked outside. She was not surprised to see Agent Jackson waiting outside when they pulled up outside the White House.

He gave Candace a dismissive glance and gestured for Abby to follow him. She did not have to wait long before he started in on her.

“Report,” he said, as soon as they entered his office.

She slowly sank into the chair across from his desk. “What do you want to know?”

“Weapons, military capabilities, population.”

She fought to keep her face blank. “I went hunting. It wasn’t a show and tell scenario.”

Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “Watch your tone, M
iss Ashley.”

“Sorry, sir,” she replied, not meaning a word of it.

He ignored her apology and settled behind his desk, pining her with a hard stare. “What weapons did you use?”

“Weapon,” she corrected. “A bow.”

“Functional?”

She could not hold back her smile. “Very.”

“Tell me about the infrastructure.”

She paused. “I only saw the capital.”

“I am aware of that.” He leaned forward over his desk to crowd her. “I asked you a question.”

“Pyramids made of clay stronger than diamonds. Small antigravity aircrafts.” She noticed Jackson’s eyes narrow at the mention of the technology and could not banish the feeling she was betraying Edric.

“Anything else?”

Her mind immediately went Edric’s miraculous healing. She shook her head. “Not that I can think of, sir.”

He stared at her for a few seconds and she was sure he suspected her. She did not dare look away. After a moment, he broke eye contact to look down at his desk. She watched him flip open a plain manila folder and begin to read. He seemed to forget her presence, until she made to stand.

“I didn’t say you could go.”

She stiffened at the words. “I thought-“

“It would be best if you
tried not to think too much, Miss Ashley,” he interrupted without looking at her.

Fuming, she sat back down and stared at him expectantly. After five minutes, he deigned to acknowledge her.

“Lord Caern is interested in learning more about humanity. You will be attending to him while he is here.”

She bristled. No, she would not. “With all due respect-“

“I suggest you do not finish that sentence, human,” a voice spoke from behind her.

She jerked her head around to look at the figure standing in the doorway. Caern was as imposing as the first time she saw him. He wore a blood red, floor length robe belted with what looked like the hide of some unfortunate animal. With his dusky green coloring it should have looked ridiculous, but it only seemed to bring out the black of his eyes and the white of his fangs.

Abby fought the urge to cringe away from him, when he casually strolled across the room to stand beside her chair. His presence seemed like a physical weight, crushing her into the seat. Her eyes drifted up to his face to see him looking at Agent Jackson.

She took advantage of his inattention to look him over closely. The hand closest to her held six fingers, the bones prominent and ending in curved claws. She swallowed hard. In opposition to his bony hands, his arms were thickly muscled and gave the impression he could do a great deal of damage.

“Miss Ashley.”

She turned her head to look at the agent. “Sir?”

His eyes flicked to Caern. “Lord Caern would like to see the city.”

No way. She stared at him incredulously. “How…”

She was no expert in human nature, but she was pretty sure people were going to panic if they saw a green guy walking down the street. She cleared her throat.

“Sir, I’m not sure that-”

Agent Jackson gestured sharply for her to be silent. “Lord Caern is capable of blending in with the population.”

She started to argue, when she noticed something strange from the corner of her eye. She slowly turned her head to see the skin of Caern’s hand smoothing out and lightening to tan. The claws thinned and shrank until they appeared like normal fingernails.

Her eyes rose up his arm to see his face. It was stranger’s face, but appeared human. His eyes had turned a pleasant sky blue. She hated it. She had to look away to keep from scowling up at him. Jackson expected her to take an obviously hostile person into the capital city disguised as a human. She ground her teeth.

“You may go,” Agent Jackson said, clearly dismissing her.

She stood without looking at either of them and stalked from the room. At that moment, she honestly could not care less about giving Caern a tour. She hoped he was not following her. Almost the second she had that thought, she heard someone clear their throat behind her. She whirled around.

“In a hurry, human?” Caern asked, derision in his tone and expression.

She narrowed her eyes. “Thought you may be eager to get started.”

He obviously did not believe her, but he followed her to the same black sedan and sat beside her quietly as the driver took them to an unknown location. She had simply told him to take them somewhere touristy. Five minutes later, the car stopped outside a building. She could see the river just past it.

“The ferry,” the driver said.

He expected her to go on a boat with Caern. She would not put it past the man to shove her overboard. Setting her face in a polite mask, she nodded to the driver when he opened the door.

“Thank you.”

She looked around while Caern exited the car. She could see the signs for three embassies from where she stood. It seemed like a bad idea to allow the man too close to a foreign government. He seemed like the type to cause trouble. She gave him a tight smile and led the way toward the river.

The wide pedestrian walkway led through a shopping mall and she could not help slowing down when they passed a seafood restaurant. The oatmeal was not going to stay with her long. She steadfastly focused straight ahead and walked over to the booth for riverboat tours, only to mentally groan. The next ferry did not leave for an hour.

“It seems we will need to occupy ourselves.”

She jumped at the sound of Caern’s voice next to her ear. It was on the tip of her tongue to scream at him to get away from her. She took a deep breath to calm herself and pasted on a polite smile.

“Would you care for an early lunch?”

He glanced around and his eyes landed on the same restaurant she had been eyeing earlier. She did not like the look in his eyes when he turned back to her.

“My appetite lies elsewhere.”

She was sure she had never disliked someone so much in her life.

“I think I’ll go grab something. Will you be here?” She walked away without waiting for him to answer.

She told herself her rude behavior was excused in this situation. She stepped in the large, brightly lit restaurant and was immediately led to a table near the window. She had just picked up her menu when Caern sat across from her. She ground her teeth.

“I changed my mind,” he said, picking up the other menu.

She could feel his eyes on her. “How nice.”

They did not speak until the waiter came by to collect their orders. Once the man left, Caern focused his full attention on her. She did not look away from the window until it became uncomfortable to ignore him any longer. She gave him a bland look.