Darkyn - Master Of Shadows Part 3

"How well?"

"She was tidily dressed and moved with purpose. She did not weep or drag her steps. She did not take anything, and she did not look back." Will didn't like the change in his master's expression. What the b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l had that female done to make him like this? "Did you not send her down?"

"No." Robin caught a glimpse of something and moved to the bed, taking from the linens a short length of gold chain. He held it as if it were made of copper-the one metal that could wound the Kyn-and yet examined it as closely as if it were fas.h.i.+oned of priceless diamonds. Then, even stranger, he twined it about his fingers like a lock of a woman's hair. "I never bade her to go."

"You..." Will stopped as Robin's meaning sank in. "I do not understand, my lord. You never allow humans to stay the night."

"This one I did. Or should have." Robin put his hand on the bed, smoothing it over the rumpled silk sheets. "I slept with her, and she left me."

"I'm sure it was for the best. Had she remained and awoken before you-"

"You do not understand me," Robin snarled. "I fell asleep with her. With her in my arms. I slept with that woman and did not wake, did not dream. I slept as I have not since my human lifetime." The golden chain disappeared inside his fist. "How could she go like that?"

He was, Will saw, entirely besotted. Utterly enraged.

"You must have compelled her to leave before dawn," he a.s.sured his master. "She would not have departed herself, not while be spelled."

Robin made a contemptuous sound. "I begin to doubt that she was ever under my power."

If the female had been impervious to his scent and his charm..."Could she be a Brethren operative?" Will asked. "We have known them to be resistant to l'attrait. 'Tis said they are bred that way."

"Why would one of those zealots seduce me," his master countered, "much less leave me alone and sleeping in my bed, when she could kill me or have me taken?"

Will's worry eased. "True."

Robin seemed to notice something, and walked over to the bedside table. He lifted the lamp and removed a small square of paper. He unfolded it slowly and, after staring at it for some time, said, "She wrote a note."

The gingery scent of the woman still radiated from the bed, the strongest concentration of it in the room. Will went over and pulled the coverlet over the sheets to mask some of it. "You would be wise not to contact her again, my lord. A mortal who cannot be compelled is unpredictable, even dangerous."

"She does not offer me her phone number or contact information," Robin said in a blank tone. "She thanks me."

Christ Jesus, she'd used him and left. Will almost laughed at the irony of it-Robin had done the same thing to countless mortal females-until he saw the glitter in his master's eye and instead cleared his throat. "That was very, ah, polite of her."

"Am I no one to her, then? Someone she must thank in writing? For what? A mistake she never intends to repeat?" Robin crumpled the paper and tossed it away. "She used me. A mortal. A mortal used me."

"The stone-hearted b.i.t.c.h." Will busied himself with tidying the bed pillows. "Shall I track her back to her lair and offer her a sternly worded rebuke, my lord?"

His master kept speaking as if he hadn't heard him. "She did not purchase anything at the auction last night, but she did register as a bidder. She would have had to show her identification and give them a credit card. You will go to the auctioneer's office and obtain whatever information they have for her. I particularly want her full name and where she resides." He frowned. "She told me that she recently transferred here from Chicago. Once you have her full name, call Jaus and ask him to run a background check on her."

Will often performed background checks on the mortals who did business or came in regular contact with his master; it provided a measure of safety for his lord and sometimes identified potential conflicts before they could happen. But never in all the centuries of serving Robin of Locksley had he investigated one of the females he used for s.e.x. His master's habits had not changed in seven hundred years: He spent one night with a woman, pleasured her, and then never saw her again. The females he slept with simply didn't merit any sort of attention from Robin, other than now and then using l'attrait on those who became too spellbound, but only to remove their memories and a.s.sure that they would not return to bother him.

"Rob." He stepped into his path to stop his master's pacing. "It was ill-mannered of this mortal to leave in such haste, but her actions are hardly worth so much trouble. Forget this."

"No. I was not finished with her." Robin went around him, opened the closet, and ripped a s.h.i.+rt from its hanger, rending a sleeve from it in the process. He tossed the ruined garment aside before taking another.

The display of anger startled Will; he decided to choose his next words with more care.

"You know that women of this time are not like Kyn females. They have much freedom and independence, and they do as they wish. They do not respect men as we expect they should, but that is how things are in this society-"

Robin turned on him. "When have you known me to sleep the day through, from dawn to dusk? With a mortal in my bed?"

"Never."

"Just so." Robin pulled on the second s.h.i.+rt. "She did something to me, this female. I shall learn exactly what it was."

He would not allow that the b.l.o.o.d.y female had simply taken what she wanted and left satisfied. Robin had never dealt very well with resistance or rejection; both reminded him of Marian, the great love of his life, who had neither wanted nor loved him in return.

"She could not drug you or exhaust you." Will collected the torn s.h.i.+rt from the floor. "Could it be that she made you happy?"

Robin turned on him. "Do I look happy to you now?"

"Not in the least, my lord. Forgive me for suggesting otherwise." A signal came over the radio Will carried, and he answered it.

"What is it, Sylas?"

"An Italian lady has arrived to call on our lord," the other man told him. "She gives her name as Contessa Salvatora Borgiana."

Will glanced at his master, who gave him an impatient nod. "Escort her to the reception room," he told Sylas. "Our lord will meet with her shortly."

As far as Will was concerned, the interruption could not have been more timely. His master needed to forget this mortal and return his attention to more important matters. With a little luck, he would put her out of his head and forget the indignity she had caused him to suffer.

He pressed the radio's call switch before he asked Robin, "Were you expecting the contessa to call?"

"I did not know she was in America."

"She may have been driven out of Italy by the Brethren," Will said. "So many have, these last months. Shall I prepare rooms for her and her men?"

"Sylas and Bergen can attend to her needs." Robin continued dressing. "You have work to do. Go. I want to know everything you can learn about this mortal before dawn."

Reese woke to the sound of a mobile phone ringing, and reached blindly until she found it and brought it in front of her burning eyes. The display showed the time-why had Father allowed her to sleep for so long?-and a pet name: Lover boy.

She switched it on and held it to her ear. "h.e.l.lo."

"Did I wake you?" Lover boy had Will Scarlet's voice.

He is Will, you idiot. "No." She sat up, dragging the sheet to her chin. He couldn't see her, but she slept naked, and talking to him while she was bare-skinned made her feel exposed. She had to say something, greet him as if nothing had happened.

Nothing had happened. Yet. "How are you?"

"Tired. Somewhat annoyed. Very sorry for behaving like such a jacka.s.s last night." Will sounded tentative, as if he were afraid to say more, and then went on. "Reese, I want you to know that I never meant-"

"It's okay. You can make it up to me when I get to Rosethorn." She glanced at her watch; she still had enough time to prepare.

"I'll be there in a couple of hours."

"That is the other reason I called. I can't meet you there tonight. Rob is attending a gallery show in town, and I must go with him.

We will not be returning to the estate until later, likely after midnight."

He was telling her everything she needed to know, as if he knew what she intended to do. Did he know? "It sounds like a great show."

"You could meet us there," Will suggested. "Rob is escorting an old friend, but I will be on my own. We could talk about what happened last night." When she didn't reply, he added, "Or perhaps not."

"I'd love to be there," she lied. "But it's the catalog. I have so much work to do on it."

He muttered something, and then said, "So the fact that I forced myself on you has nothing to do with the manner in which you're now avoiding me."

"Yes. No. It wasn't-" She stopped and rubbed her hand over her face. "It wasn't like that. I'm not avoiding you."

"Prove it to me, sweetheart." The rough tone became soft and persuasive. "Come to the show."

Trying to think of another excuse that would not further offend him, give away her true intentions, or jeopardize the mission made her head whirl. "You'll be working, and I doubt Lord Locksley wants me distracting you from your duties."

"Hang Rob," he said flatly. "Come anyway."

"Be patient, Will. We can get together later, when we can have more time for ourselves." She would never see him again. Last night was all that they would ever have, and she'd run from him. It made this farce she was playing out into a cruel form of self- torture. "Wouldn't you rather be alone with me?"

"I've done nothing but think about that, and you," he admitted. "All day, I've had no peace. I barely slept. Reese, I know we agreed in the beginning to be friends only, and that neither of us wanted a serious affair. Somehow last night we strayed beyond that, I think."

She didn't know whether to laugh or scream. She had to know more, though. She couldn't go through with her mission if she didn't. "How do you feel about that?"

"How do I feel?" He laughed. "I want more."

"More of the same?" "More of you."

He would have her, in a sense, but he would never know-and that was probably the kindest thing she could ever do for him.

"You may change your mind before the next time you see me."

"I think not."

"Okay." She got out of bed. "As much as I'd love to chat with you, I have to go and get ready for work now. My boss wants me to stop by the office before I drive out to Rosethorn." She closed her eyes and added a flirtatious lilt to her voice. "Maybe I'll see you later."

"You will wait for me?"

Had she ever done anything else? "Always."

It took Will only a few hours, a quick trip to the auction house, and a number of phone calls to discover that the mortal female who had seduced and then so angered his master was not, in fact, whom she appeared to be.

The final revelation came down from the Darkyn suzerain of Chicago himself, Valentin Jaus.

"This woman has gone to some length to conceal her true ident.i.ty," Jaus said after relating what he had discovered about Chris Renshaw. "My people have been unable to discover any connection she might have with the Brethren, but that, too, is a possibility. Perhaps Robin should consider relocating to the country until your people can deal with her."

Will rubbed his eyes. "I do not think the suzerain will be of the same opinion, my lord."

"I would come to provide my aid directly," Jaus added, "but I have promised my sygkenis that I will not travel by plane for some time."

"I must agree with your lady, my lord." Will remembered how desperately they had searched for Jaus when his private jet had been hijacked and forced down by a Brethren agent. Robin, who had originally invited Jaus to fly to Atlanta, had blamed himself for the terrifying incident, and had not quit searching until word of Jaus's rescue had been sent. "I thank you for your a.s.sistance with this matter."

"I have never repaid your master for sending my grandfather's sword to me, Will," Jaus said. "Give Robin my compliments, and please call on me if he has further need."

After speaking with Jaus, Will left his office and went to the gallery where Chris Renshaw worked, where he fortunately encountered a mortal who provided him with the reason the woman had created a false ident.i.ty for herself.

Chris Renshaw was not an art dealer, but a federal agent.

Upon his return to the Armstrong building, Will first checked in with the guards. Robin refused to travel with more than a few men, so Will felt obliged to arrange for the most competent, experienced warriors from the jardin to accompany them when they came to the city. He found Sylas and Bergen warily attending to a small group of Italian cavalieri in one of the reception rooms on the first floor.

"Seneschal." Sylas came over to him to report. "We have divided the contessa's men into small groups and provided them with stores and beds in the barracks."

Will scanned the faces of the cavalieri sitting at the table with Bergen. "What of these men?"

"They are the contessa's bodyguards. They await their mistress." The castellan nodded toward the corridor, and Will followed him out of the room. Once out of earshot, Sylas said, "These Kyn have no lord with them. Only the lady."

"The contessa is a widow, and a recluse," Will said. "After the jardin wars, she would not permit another to take the place of her late husband. It seems she and the master are old friends."

"Old friends or not, a woman cannot control more than seventy Kyn males."

Will shrugged. "Jayr of the Realm has five times that number, and she manages well as suzeraina."

"True, but I still cannot like it. 'Tis unnatural, the way they look to her." Sylas paused, searching for words. "Will, I know many have been made to flee the Brethren in Europe, but there is something wrong here. I can feel it."

Will trusted his male instincts, but he needed more than a bad feeling. "Name what it is, and I will go to our lord with it directly."

"I wish I could." The big man sighed. "But no, they conduct themselves as they should, and I have not seen or heard anything that would mark them as a threat."

"You have been on duty too often these last weeks," Will said. "Return to the estate and your sygkenis. Send Waltham to take your place."

"I should send more than one guard, if you mean to accommodate the contessa's men here," Sylas said.

"Too many for town." Will hadn't thought about where the contessa and her men would stay while in their territory. Because the cavalieri were not familiar with the United States or the customs of the country, they would need some time and s.p.a.ce to adjust and learn how to behave before they were permitted to mingle freely with American mortals. "I expect our lord will send them to Rosethorn. You had best to prepare for that."

"I shall, as soon as I arrive." Sylas bowed and strode off down the corridor.

Will went to the private reception room where Robin was still entertaining the contessa. He stood outside and listened for a break in their conversation before he knocked and went in.

"I beg your pardon, my lord, my lady." Will bowed first to the contessa and then to Robin. "I would not intrude, my lord, but an urgent matter has arisen in regard to last night's business with the mortal female that I must relate to you at once." He could not say more than that in front of the contessa, and gave her a meaningful look.

"The contessa is an old and trusted friend," his master told him. "You may speak in front of her."

"I went to the auction office as you directed, and obtained the information you desired," he said. "The female listed a Chicago address that I verified with our friends in the north. If it existed-which it does not-it would occupy the middle of Lake Michigan."

Robin didn't appear impressed by this news. "Someone must have noted it wrong."

"I thought so as well at first," Will continued, "but the driver's license she provided was not registered with the Chicago Department of Transportation. Also, her credit card was issued by a government-managed credit union in Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., but one week ago."