Legacy: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 1 (21 page)

Before I could ask, Bahlin said, “The door is magically warded. It takes dragon magic to get inside. Not even Hellion will be able to snatch you from here. Unless, of course, he’s hired a dragon to retrieve you. But let’s not borrow trouble. The flat’s got two bedrooms, so you won’t be forced to endure my presence too much. Nice, hmm? Oh, and don’t touch the door or it will burn you—badly.” He walked inside leaving me to drag my bag along and do my best to get inside the door before it swung shut. Nightmares were made of things like this.

The apartment, or flat, was a rectangular shape with a small foyer that was part of the dining room. Passing through, I found the bedrooms, one on each side of the living room. Bahlin came out of the room on the left and said, “This one’s mine. You’re welcome to the other or to the couch.”

I flinched, and he said, “It’s a product of your own making, Maddy. I won’t feel guilty about what happened between us, I will not let you trivialize my feelings for you, and I will not take the blame for the way your life has turned out. Sort it out, and fast, because we have work to do. If you want to take a rest, I’ll stay awake in case you dream.” And with that he turned on the television, sank to the couch and started watching a rugby match.

I wandered back into the bedroom that he’d said was mine. It was efficient, with a single window over the bureau, the double bed shoved up against the wall near the door, and the utility bathroom was through a door across from the bed. Nothing like the opulence the hotel provided, the whole thing was trendy and modern. My stomach growled, and I realized I hadn’t eaten in forever. Two bites of steak just didn’t count. I decided I’d grab a shower and change into my own clothes before foraging for something to eat.

The shower was a single-person tiled stall almost claustrophobic in size. It was like standing in a plumbed coffin. I cleaned up as fast as I could and went out to my bedroom to put on some clothes. The TV was turned off, and I wondered where Bahlin had gone. I dug through my sparse bag of clothes and pulled out—hallelujah!—underwear, a pair of jeans and a non-see-through long-sleeved T-shirt. Digging further I found socks and a pair of Nikes. I dressed quickly and went to find Bahlin and see about something to eat. He was stretched out on the sofa, hands crossed over his stomach, the remote on the floor. It looked like he was sleeping until I got closer to him and realized there were dark shadows beneath his eyes and a sallowness to his skin that hadn’t been there before. All I could think of was poison and I literally threw myself at him, terrified. He gasped for air as I landed on him, his arms and legs coming up around me automatically to bind the movement of his attacker. He snugged me down close and hard to his body and I couldn’t breathe and I didn’t care. For a minute, for just a minute, I’d had the sheer terror of irretrievable loss again. I didn’t want to look too closely at the emotions behind the feelings I was experiencing, so I laid my head on his chest, listening to his heart thump in adrenaline-induced double-time.

“Maddy?” he asked. Then, realizing there could be danger, he flipped me over and put himself on top of me, shielding my body with his own. His eyes switched color and he scanned the room, looking for danger. He scented and found nothing, and it was only then that he began to relax. He pushed himself off of me slightly and he asked, “Maddy? What’s happened? Did you dream again? How long was I out?”

Tears were coursing down my cheeks. I shook my head and struggled to get my arms free. He let them loose, and I threw them around his waist and pulled him down to me. As angry as he was with me, his body had still offered a primal response to the threat. His erection pressed against my stomach, and I smiled a little where he couldn’t see me. Men. I hugged him hard, hiccupping a little, ashamed to have fallen apart because, for the love of his goddess, he’d been
napping
. I didn’t want to tell him the truth, but I couldn’t lie, either.

“Maddy?” he asked again, and this time the impatience was palpable in his voice.

“I came out to speak to you and you were sleeping,” I began. “You looked horrible—dark circles under your eyes, sallow skin, short breaths, no movement, and I thought…” I tilted my chin up to look at him and he looked down, his eyes still dragon blue. Maintaining eye contact was difficult, but I considered it a sort of penance for our fight. “I thought you were sick or dying, and I had a flashback to the terror I felt when I lost my parents and it just gutted me, Bay. I don’t think I could stand to lose you, not now.”

He smiled at me, his eyes flashing back to midnight blue. “You’ve not lost me,
mo chrid
. I’m angry with you, but you have a right to be angry with me too. I haven’t been totally forthcoming with you about what I knew about your Change. I probably could have influenced you more to try to stop the Change, but I didn’t want to.” He paused, rolling us to our side on the little sofa so that it was cling to each other or fall off. He rubbed his hand up and down my spine gently, laying soft kisses on my forehead. He sighed and rolled to the floor before standing up, leaving me alone on the sofa. “This isn’t going to work.”

I couldn’t school my face fast enough to hide the heartbreak I felt at his words.

“The sofa, my love, the sofa is what’s not going to work. Come with me to my bedroom.”

“Bay—”

“Cuddle time,” he said, grabbing my hand and relieving me of the responsibility of thinking through the implications of getting back into bed with him. I didn’t even want to negotiate. I wanted the solid firmness of his reality shielding me. Just for a moment I didn’t want to hunt or be hunted.

Hand in hand, we walked into his bedroom. Bahlin pushed me gently toward the bed and I went, sitting on the edge. His room was a mirror image of mine, though the bed was larger and took up more of the floor space. I missed his bed at Brylanna’s house. He moved through the room, picking up candles and holding them to his face, humming then breathing on them gently to light them. When he got to the window, he closed the shades and the curtains, dropping the room into flickering darkness. With his back to me, he pulled his shirt off over his head and I held my breath for a split second.

“Bay, I’m not ready to—”

“Sex has no part of this. We’re reconnecting, my love. Sometimes a little skin-to-skin contact is good for that, don’t you think?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Haven’t you ever fought with a lover before?”

I blushed and my heart hurt a little. I’d not had a lover passionate enough to fight with—ever. And it hurt that he had obvious experience in this type of thing.

“No, Bahlin, I’ve never had a lover I fought with.” I looked down, afraid to meet his eyes. A pair of bare feet made their way into my field of view. I couldn’t look up. He reached out and pulled me close.

“No wonder our argument affected you so, Madeleine. Hush now,” he said, and I realized I was crying again. Stupid girl hormones, they raise their damnable heads at the most inopportune times and make you feel like a wimp. I sniffed and laid my head on his chest.

“Hush,” he said again. “I’m sorry I was angry with you. You have a knack for infuriating me, and I’m scared for you and that only makes it worse because I can’t always express my fear so it bubbles over as unnecessary anger sometimes. And now I’m rambling. Truth?” he asked.

“Always.” He looked skeptical. I snaked a hand to his face and grabbed his chin, pulling his face down toward mine. “Always,” I growled, “no matter how badly it might hurt. I don’t know how to trust you otherwise.” I shook my head, and released his face. “And I don’t know how to reconcile these feelings I have for you, either. Truth. Always.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply over my head. “Okay. I don’t like how I feel about you.” I flinched. “You said truth, so here it is, Madeleine. My feelings for you are new and raw and I want to protect you from all comers, but I can’t. I can’t, and still let you do your job. It gutted me that you would consider giving up whatever is building between us to go back to your old life without a backwards glance or thought for me.” He sighed, more softly this time, and stepped away from me. “And the murders keep coming and I feel like we’re not getting anywhere on them and it concerns me.” He laid his cheek on my head, and I wrapped my arms around him.

“Truth?” I asked him.

“Always.”

“Stop calling me Madeleine.”

He laughed out loud and crushed me to him in a bear, er, dragon hug.

We cuddled together in silence for about an hour before my stomach revolted and began to growl in earnest.

“Is there any food here?” I asked.

“Probably a little, though I wouldn’t eat anything in the fridge. In fact, don’t even open it. I’m not sure what’s in there but whatever it is has likely spoiled. It’s been a while since I was here last.”

I got up and straightened my clothes and walked to the kitchen. I swear I’d heard him tell me not to open the fridge, but out of sheer force of habit it was the first place I went. I pulled it open, gasped, and slammed it shut.

“Bahlin?” I squeaked out. I turned around and slid down the face of the fridge, landing on my butt.

“I told you not to open the fridge,” he called from the bedroom, where I could hear him rustling about. “It’s probably got goddess knows what in there, and it’s too likely rank.”

I giggled, a high, unnatural sound for me. “Bay?” I breathed out.

He padded out of the bedroom, still barefoot, got one look at me and froze. I know the grin I was sporting was Hannibal Lecter-ish, but it was appropriate.

“What is it, Maddy?” He didn’t move closer to me. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Death.”

“There’s a head in your refrigerator, Bahlin.”

Chapter Eleven

I sat with my back against the refrigerator and tried desperately not to lose myself to hysterical laughter. If I started I didn’t think I’d stop for a long, long time. Bahlin had been right when he told me not to open the refrigerator door. What was inside was definitely rank. I watched him move back and away from the refrigerator and, closing his eyes, take a deep breath.

“Clever. Now that the refrigerator has been opened, I can’t smell anything but the stench of death in the air. Whoever was in the apartment must have intended it that way.” He sat on a barstool and looked at me. “Are you ready to get up yet?”

I shrugged. I was pretty sure my legs would work. What I wasn’t sure about was whether they would take me from the room at a dead run or let me stand and be rational about my find. Taking a chance, I stood.

“Good girl. This will get easier.”

“That’s partly what I’m afraid of.” I didn’t want death to get easier. I didn’t
want
this to become commonplace—where I was afraid to open a cupboard or appliance or drawer for fear of what might pop out at me. My mind and heart were racing, and I took a deep breath in an attempt to slow things down. I needed to approach this logically.

“Why don’t I smell anything?” I asked.

“The fridge kept it cold. You wouldn’t smell it unless it was taken out and warmed up, giving decomposition a chance to begin.”

“Sure. Okay.” I swallowed down the bile that was trying to rise up the back of my throat. “Did you recognize the, uh, I guess we’ll call it the head?”

“I’m willing to bet it’s Jossel.”

“And I’m betting you’re wrong.” I knew whose head it was with absolute certainty. Because I’d seen him once before and tried very hard not to stare. Death had cooled the color of his eyes, but the nose was absolutely the same.

Bahlin crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, super sleuth, tell me who it is, then.”

I glared at him, irritated at his supposed superiority. “Bulbous nose, black hair, sharp teeth and eyes a little less vibrant but still orange. It’s Maddox.”

“Well damn, you’re right.” Bahlin pushed off the stool and stalked toward me. “Move over, luv. Let’s get him out of there.”

I didn’t need to see the head to be sure. I’d tried so hard not to stare at him the one time I’d seen him alive that I knew who I’d seen. But I followed Bahlin’s directive and stepped aside. I turned to watch him and found myself looking through the dining room to the front door.

“Bay, how did the killer get inside?” I asked.

“What? Oh sodding hell, the front door wards.” He froze, his hand momentarily suspended in front of the handle to the refrigerator door.

“Didn’t you say only another dragon could get inside?”

“I did. I set the wards myself.” Clenching his fists, he turned slowly to face me. Eyes blazing with fury and taller than a normal man, he looked like an avenging angel.

“I haven’t met another dragon, have I?” I did a mental file flip, trying to remember everyone I’d been formally introduced to.

“You’ve met several. The valet, for instance, is a green dragon though he’s still a youth,” he said, voice tight with anger. “You’re not suggesting I set this up, I’m sure.”

“Never crossed my mind.” And it hadn’t. “Where was I when I met the other dragon, or dragons? And why didn’t I know it?”

“You’ve not come into your full strength. We’ve talked about this.” Bahlin spun on his heel and went for the front door, moving with the contained fury of the righteously pissed. “Several of the staff of the hotel are dragons. Though I’d swear none knew of this apartment until I left tonight and gave the address for delivery of our clothing. Even then, it would have been left with the doorman. It takes a bit of time to find out which apartment belongs to a person, particularly in a building this size. Besides that, it’s been my personal hideout several times over the years, and it has never been breached before.”

Bahlin reached the door and ran a hand swiftly across the back of it, barely above the surface. I gasped in surprise. Faint runes showed in glowing acidic green against the black color of the door. I didn’t have any idea what the runes meant, but they were complex in nature. I could tell that much simply by the intricate design of each one and the delicate way they were connected in forming the pattern I saw. Bahlin made a rough swiping motion over the door, and the images disappeared.