Nicole Peeler - [Jane True 01] (35 page)

Eventually I got control of myself, and I sat back into Ryu’s arms. He
held me, still whispering a steady stream of calming nonsense into my ear. I
stood, with his help, and went over to the sink where I brushed my teeth and
splashed cold water on my face.

We curled up together on our big bed, with me clinging to Ryu I was so
scared. It had all seemed like this cool mystery before, while the names of the
deceased were just that: names printed on slips of paper. But seeing those
ears, I knew this was real. Those names represented real people—all dead—and
I’d been face-to-face with their murderer that very morning.

I’d been next on the list.

I pressed my eyes shut and I felt myself trembling. Ryu held me tightly,
gently kissing my face, whispering to me to come back to him. But if coming
back to him meant taking part in his fucked-up Court, I’d rather stay out here
in la-la land, thank you very much.

“Does it help if I tell you that you were right?” he asked, when I’d
finally stopped trembling.

I thought about that one—it was tempting. “Maybe,” I answered,
eventually.

“Well, you were right.”

I opened one eye, meeting his golden gaze. “How right was I?”

“Totally, completely, and utterly correct,” he said, mock-seriously.

As usual in my world, humor worked where nothing else could. Not that I
was capable yet of laughter.

“What are we going to
do
?” I asked, opening both eyes.

He frowned. “I have no idea,” he replied. “This is too big for either of
us, especially since we still don’t really know what is going on.” He thought.
“Let’s just get through tonight. I’ll make some discreet enquiries at dinner,
and tomorrow we can start fresh. But for tonight, I think we’ve both had
enough.”

I thoroughly agreed—I’d
definitely
had enough for one night. Or
for the rest of my life, really. I was beginning to see the downside of my
mother’s world, to say the least.

Ryu looked at his watch. “It’s two now. So we have about six hours until
dinner. Elspeth will be here around five to help you get ready.” He pressed
himself up to me. “What should we do?” he asked, his fangs leering at me.

He cannot be serious
, I thought, as he ran a hand across my
stomach up toward my northern territories.

I guess he is
. Then it occurred to me.

“I know what we can do,” I said, swinging my legs over the side of the
bed to stand.

He watched me with interest as I rummaged in my bag till I found what I
was looking for. I pulled out the pair of purple heels. “You can help me figure
out how to walk in these things,” I said, grinning.

I don’t think it was what he had in mind, but it was about all I could
handle at that point. And he turned out to be quite a dab hand at walking in
heels, which was one of those things I placed firmly under my “don’t ask”
policy.

Somehow we got through dinner that night. It was a more formal affair
than the smorgasbord from the night before, with all of us sitting down for a
proper meal. We sat with Chester, the ifrit, and a few nahuals. They kept
talking about their stock portfolios, which once I got over how bizarre that
was struck me as incredibly boring. So I smiled and nodded, concentrating on
keeping my ass covered by my short dress. Ryu asked as many questions as he
thought was safe, but didn’t seem to discover anything. As Elspeth had said, no
one knew anything about Jimmu’s recent activities.

During dinner there was also some entertainment. An Alfar singer warbled
an incredibly long and monotonous ditty that sounded like what Enya might dream
up while in a Nyquil-induced hypnogogic state. Then there were some ifrit fire
jugglers and some acrobatic nahuals that would shift shape midway through their
tumbles. Under any other circumstances I would have been riveted, but
considering what we’d learned that day I just wanted to crawl underneath my bed
and stay there till I could go home.

We begged off early, thank heavens, and snuck back to the safety of our
room. The only thing that made the otherwise nightmarish day I’d had worth it
was the look on Ryu’s face when he held up a condom and I shook my head no,
remembering Morrigan’s assurances. After we’d had gloriously infertile,
crabs-free, bareback sex—much to Ryu’s delight—and when it was time for me to
sleep, Ryu kissed me good night and got out of bed. But he didn’t leave.
Instead, he took his book and sat with his back to the door. I knew he’d stay
there like that all night, protecting me until I was awake and it was his turn
to shut down and rest. I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, but I’d been
convinced I would never get to sleep. Instead, I curled up and was out like a light,
hardly able to believe it myself.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I
n the
end, I decided to go to breakfast. Part of me wanted to stay holed up with Ryu
till he woke, but my stomach was in no way agreeing with that idea. Every time
I picked up the phone to try to call down for food, I ended up getting yelled
at by a male voice speaking what I think was Arabic. So, by that point in the
morning, I was starving. In fact, my stomach was growling so loudly that I
thought it might wake even the vampire up, and since Jimmu was supposed to be
in absentia, I figured I was fairly safe. Then again, I threatened, if my
stomach got my head chopped off, I’d never feed it again.

As I’d discovered yesterday, with Elspeth, breakfast was a haphazard
affair at the Compound. The dining tables were again set up buffet style, and
various beings came and went, either loading up a plate and sitting down at a
free table or just grabbing a pastry or piece of fruit and going about their
unearthly business.

Today when I entered the dining room, I could tell that something was
up. Groups of people were talking in low voices, and there was an obvious air
of excitement in the room. I saw Elspeth talking to a few other creatures in a
corner, and so I went over to see what was going on.

“…unbelievable that such a thing could happen,” one of the group—an
incubus—was saying.

Elspeth nodded at the speaker, and then turned to greet me. She
introduced me to the others, all of whom were Compound servants.

“What’s going on?” I asked, curiously.

Elspeth shook her head, as if in disbelief, looking at me with wide
eyes. “Oh, Jane, I don’t even know where to begin,” she said. When she didn’t
continue, I realized she was serious.

“The beginning?” I suggested, patiently.

“Right, yes.” The dryad took a deep breath. “Well, it turns out there
have been a series of murders all over the Territory and in other Territories
as well—of halflings.”

My stomach clenched, but I managed to keep my features neutral.

“None of us were aware this was happening—the Alfar were investigating
in secret. But then their investigators were
both
murdered. One of the
investigators was a halfling himself, and the other was a goblin. And when the
goblin’s manager went out to assess the situation, she was murdered as well.”
Elspeth looked very upset, and my heart went out to her.
Yeah, it’s lucky
she wasn’t there
, my brain commented sarcastically.
The charred goblins
were pretty gross.

Elspeth continued, her voice lowering. “Jarl was so concerned about what
happened that he sent out the nagas—all nine nestmates. They’ve been scouring
the territory for the murderer, even getting access to neighboring
territories.” She said this last bit with particular emphasis, and I got the
impression that it was a big deal for cross-territorial cooperation like that.
Personally, I was getting quite a good dose of astonishment myself. Ryu was
insistent that Jarl would have to know that Jimmu was the murderer, but Elspeth
was claiming that Jarl was shocked and appalled by the murders. Either Jarl was
playing the Compound or Jimmu was less dependent than everybody thought. I
prayed it was the latter.

“This morning Jarl gathered together the heads of the factions here at
the Compound and told them what had been happening. He told us about the
murders but also the good news—that the murderer has been apprehended.” My eyes
widened. Had his own nestmates discovered Jimmu’s deeds and turned on him?

“That’s why Jimmu left in such a hurry,” she continued. I nearly clapped
I was so excited.
Ryu and I are safe, and this nightmare is over
, I
thought.
Thank heavens
…

“Apparently Jimmu’s nestmates discovered the true identity of the
killer—a human—and Jimmu was sent to exact justice.”

Oh shit balls
, I thought. That was
not
how I
wanted Elspeth’s story to end.

“How could a
human
kill two goblins?” the incubus was asking, his
mustache waving hello at me. I was in such shock I barely wanted to make out
with him when he said it.

The ifrit shrugged, her halo of fire swooping dangerously close to my
own hair. I backed away a step. “We all have our vulnerabilities,” she said.
“Remember the giants.” The various beings nodded their heads somberly and I got
the impression that particular quotation was the supernatural version of
“Remember the Alamo.”

“Oh, well,” the incubus said, breaking the mood. “At least it means we
get to have a party.” He turned to beam his sex rays at me. “Did you bring your
party clothes?” he asked. I mumbled something inarticulate, moving toward him
powerlessly, but luckily Elspeth came to my aid.

“Let’s take you to the pool, Jane,” she said, glaring at the incubus.

“Pool, yes, mmm,” I burbled, as she steered my reluctant little legs
away and out toward the courtyard.

Being Elspeth, she had the good sense to grab some fruit, pastries, and
coffee on the way out. Once I’d recovered from the incubus juju I gave her a
hand, sticking the bananas in the waistband of my jeans like pistols and taking
the coffees.

We ate in the grotto. I would have preferred to have sat in an outhouse,
but since I didn’t want to get into why I was no longer a big fan of the pool,
I kept mum. Elspeth was telling me about the festivities planned for that
night, and even though the majority of my mind was wrapped up with mulling over
what she’d meant when she said that Jimmu was expected to “exact justice” for
the murders, there was still a small part of my brain that was worried about
what I was going to wear.

You are such a girl
, I criticized myself, wearily.

And you are Captain Obvious
, my brain replied,
irritatingly smug.

When I’d finished eating, I stuck a finger into the pool a couple of
times, still listening to Elspeth babble. Then I went back to where she was
sitting and we had a good chat. She wanted to know how I’d met Ryu, but I
didn’t want to inform her that either of us had anything to do with the
halfling murders. So, I just told her that we’d met in the course of one of his
investigations, but didn’t specify which. She didn’t press the issue; she just
wanted to get to the juicy bits about how we got together and stuff. I felt
like a bit of a skank, admitting that we’d barely known each other before
everything het up, but she seemed to think it was all very romantic. And
sitting there, telling her about our first date, and the night at the beach
with the picnic and stuff, I realized it
was
pretty damned sexy.

Even if you are still a hootchie
, my virtue
asserted.

You shut your pie hole
, the libido warned.

I asked Elspeth about her life at the Compound and she told me
everything, and I mean
everything
. She was a tree, after all, and she
had very little appreciation for what humans might find interesting.
Or even
half-humans, at that
, I thought. But despite her inability to edit,
Elspeth’s stories were fascinating. After all, I still knew so little about
this world that even hearing about their arguments over whether the nahuals who
preferred cat shapes should be given litter boxes or expected to use the
toilets “like everybody else” was still informative. I kept thinking about
Jonathan Swift’s famous poem about how “Celia, Celia, Celia shits!” in which
the narrator discovers proof that the love of his life—the angelic Celia—goes to
the bathroom just like everybody else. In movies or books, you never saw
Dracula leave off chasing the virginal heroine to have a wee. But here I was
learning that, just like Celia, the supernatural community does—indeed—shit. I
found it strangely comforting.