Bloodfever
Page 34

I bristled. Im not old. Whod you learn it from?
My grandmum.
Well, there you have it. I was adopted. Nobody told me anything. I had to learn it all myself and I think Im doing a bang-up job. How well would you have done on your own?
She shrugged and gave me a look that said she would have done way better than me because she was so smart and special. Oh, the cockiness of youth. How I missed mine.
So whats with the sky? I pressed. Was I the rat Id been feeling like and there were owls above my head?
She turned the page to a blank one and wrote another word. Though the ink was pink, the word slashed, dark and ominous, across the page. Hunters, it said. The chill Id nearly managed to dispel returned as an ice pick, pierced my back, and slid through my heart. Hunters were the terrifying caste of winged Unseelie whose primary purpose was to hunt and kill sidhe-seers.
She snapped the journal shut.
Theyve been spotted, she mouthed.
In Dublin? I mouthed back, horrified, glancing warily at the sky.
She nodded. Whats your name?
Mac, I said softly. Did I even want my name on the wind? Yours?
Dani. With an i. Mac what?
Lane. That was good enough for now. How strange it was to feel like you didnt quite own your last name.
Where can I find you, Mac?
I started to give her my new cell phone number, but she shook her head briskly. We stick to the old ways in times like these. Where are you staying?
I gave her the address of Barrons Books and Baubles. I work there. For Jericho Barrons. I searched her face for a sign of recognition. Hes one of us.
She gave me a strange look. You think?
I nodded and flipped the page in my journal. I wrote, Are there many of us?
Its not my place to answer your questions, she scribbled. Someone will be in touch soon.
When?
I dont know. Its up to them.
I need answers. Dani, Ive seen things. Does your council know whats going on in this city?
Her lucent eyes flared and she gave a single violent shake of her head.
I gave her an exasperated look. Well, tell your someone to hurry up. Things are getting worse, fast. I flipped my journal open again. Im a Null, I wrote. And I know about the Lord Master and the Sinsar
The journal was snatched from my hand and the page shredded before I could blink. Shed done it so smoothly and quickly that my pen was still poised in the air above a page that was no longer there, and I was still shaping the letter D.
Nothing normal could move that fast. Shed reacted with inhuman speed. I searchedthe pert, gamine face. What are you?
Same as you. Latent talents awaken in times of need, she said, watching me. You have your talents, I have mine. Every day we learn more about who we used to be and what we are again becoming.
You let me catch you, I accused. She could have outrun me in a heartbeat. Who was I kidding? This kid could probably leap small buildings.
So?
Why?
She shrugged. I wasnt supposed to, but I was curious. Rowena sent a bunch of us out to find you, to learn where you were staying. Naturally, Im the one that spotted you first. She made it sound like you were very powerful. She gave me a disdainful look. I dont see it.
Whos Rowena? I had a hunch and didnt like it.
Old woman. Silver hair. Looks fragile. Isnt.
Just as Id suspected, the old woman Id met my first night in Dublin, on the receiving end of her wrath when Id stared overlong at the first Fae Id ever seen. Later, shed stood by and done nothing when Vlane had nearly raped me in the museum, then followed me, insisting I was adopted.
Take me to her, I demanded. Id hated her for tearing my world apart with her truth. I needed more of her truth. Shed called me OConnor, mentioned someone named Patrona. Did she know where I came from? I almost couldnt let myself think the next thought; it frightened me as much as it fascinated me, felt like a betrayal of my parents, of all Id been and done for the past twenty-two years: Did I have relatives somewhere in Ireland? A cousin, an uncle, dare I think ita sister?
Rowena will choose the time, Dani said. When I scowled and opened my mouth to argue, she stepped back and raised her hands. Hey, dont get mad at me. Im just the messenger. And shell box my ears for having given you any message at all. She flashed a sudden, brilliant grin. But shell get over it. She thinks Im the cats meow. Ive got forty-seven kills.
Kills? Did she mean Fae? What was this cocky kid killing them with?
She turned to take off on feet that might as well have been winged, and I knew I had no chance of catching her. Why couldnt I have gotten superhuman speed? I could have used it dozens of times already.
Mac, she shot over her shoulder, one more thing, and if you tell Rowena I told you, Ill lie. But you need to know. There are no males among us. Never have been. Whatever your employer is, hes not one of us.
I made my way back through the Temple Bar District, with its snatches of music spilling from open windows and boisterous patrons stumbling from open pub doors.