Bloodfever
Page 78

Then when Id thought nothing else could possibly startle or surprise me, the Lord Master had taken one look at Barronsand walked away.
That worried me. A lot. If the Lord Master walked away from Barrons, how much danger was I in on a daily basis? Id been feeling invincible up until those last few moments in the cave. Until one man in the room with me had stripped away my will with mere words, and the other man in the room with me had apparently intimidated that one into leaving. Bad and badder.
I glanced across the front seat at Badder. I opened my mouth. He looked at me. I closed it.
I dont know how he continued driving, because we stared at each other for a long time. The night whizzed by, the air inside the speeding car pregnant with all the things we werent saying. We didnt even have one of our wordless conversations this time; neither of us was willing to betray a single thought or feeling.
We looked at each other like two too-intimate strangers whove woken after the lovemaking and dont know quite what to say to each other, so they say nothing at all and go their separate ways, promising, of course, that theyll call, but each time they look at the phone over the next few days, the discomfort and mild embarrassment of having taken off their clothing in front of someone they didnt really even know rises up, and the phone call never gets made.
Barrons and I had taken our skins off around each other tonight. Shared too many secrets, and none of them the important ones.
I was about to look away when he reached across the seat, touched my jaw with his long, strong, beautiful fingers, and caressed my face.
Being touched by Jericho Barrons with kindness makes you feel like you must be the most special person in the world. Its like walking up to the biggest, most savage lion in the jungle, lying down, placing your head it its mouth and, rather than taking your life, it licks you and purrs.
I turned away.
He returned his attention to the road.
We completed the drive in the same strained silence it had begun.
Hold this, said Barrons, as he turned to lock the door on the garage. He had an alarm system on it now, and punched some numbers in on the keypad.
It was nearly dawn. I could see the Shades out of the corner of my eye, down at the edge of the Dark Zone, moving as restlessly and desperately as flies stuck on flypaper.
I accepted the delicate glass ball. Eggshell thin and fragile, it was an impossible color, the ever-changing hues of Vlanes robes on the beach that day in Faery. I handled it carefully, aware of my heightened strength. Id bent the door of the Maybach when Id shut it too hard. Barrons was still pissed about it. Nobody likes a door-slammer, hed growled.
What is it? I asked.
The DJai Orb. A relic from one of the Seelie Royal Houses.
Cant be. Its not an OOP, I told him.
He looked at me.Yes, it is.
No, its not, I said. I know these things, remember?
Yes, he repeated carefully, it is.
No, its not.
For a moment I thought we were going to get into a is to/is not squabble. We glared at each other, resolute in our opinions.
Then his eyes widened as if with a startling thought. Remove the spear from the box, Ms. Lane, he snapped.
I hardly see the point, and Id really rather not. I never wanted to touch it again. I was excruciatingly aware of the Unseelie flesh inside me, and that I had no idea how profoundly eating it had changed me, and until I understood what my new limits were, I meant to studiously avoid anything capable of damaging a Fae.
Then just open it, he gritted.
I could do that, although I still didnt see the point. I slipped it from beneath my arm and lifted the lid. I looked at the spear. It took a moment to sink in.
I couldnt sense it.
At all.
In fact, I realized, I hadnt sensed it back in Mallucs boudoir. Id merely seen it, lying there in the box.
I focused on it, hard. I wasnt getting the faintest tingle. My sidhe-seer sense was dead. Not numb. Not tired. Gone. Stricken, I cried, Whats wrong with me?
You ate Fae. Do the math.
I closed my eyes. A Fae cant sense Fae OOPs.
Precisely. And do you know what that means? That means, Ms. Lane, that you can no longer find the Sinsar Dubh. Bloody hell. He turned sharply on his heel and stalked into the bookstore.
Bloody hell, I echoed. It also meant that Barrons no longer had any use for me. Nor did Vlane. For all my superhuman abilities, I suddenly wasnt so special at all.
Theres always a downside, hed warned.
This was one hell of a downside.
Id lost everything I was to become part Fae with a fatal weakness.
I stayed in bed all day Sunday, slept for most of it. The horrors Id endured had drained me. It seemed my rapid, preternatural healing had taken a toll as well. The human body wasnt meant to nearly die and regenerate. I couldnt begin to comprehend what had happened to me on a cellular level. Despite my exhaustion, the Fae inside me kept me feeling on edge, aggressive, like I was bristling with tiny soldiers inside my skin.
Fitfully, I dozed, I dreamed. They were nightmares. I was in a cold place from which there was no escape. Towering walls of ice surrounded me, hemmed me in. Creatures had carved out caverns in the stark, sheer cliffs above me, and were watching me. Somewhere there was a castle, a monstrous fortress of black ice. I could feel it drawing me, knew if I found it and entered those forbidding doors I would never be the same again.