Chapter 28

"Yes, we all have an idea as to that," Dyson snarled, his hands curling into fists, "Vex! The Mesmer was the only one, beside us, who knew about Dar."

"And for him Dar would make a jolly good bargaining chip," Bo nodded her agreement, her eyes pleading with Trick to concur.

That was all the wolf needed by way of an incentive to race out of the room and after the infamous Dark fae with a growled threat regarding the Mesmer and a promise regarding the fairy. Kenzi's knee-jerk reaction was to follow him but her unfortunate pray hanging onto her arm was weighing her down. Svetalana's dazed eyes were starting to clear and her mouth was rounded in a show of budding surprise at the proceedings.

"It costs me to keep her under," the succubus winced as she summoned up her energies to pour a little more of her calming influence into the dancer, "If we shove her into the cell, she'll be screaming her head off until she raises a couple of zombies. I'll get her back to where we picked her up."

"If Dyson manages to return Dar, we might need her again," the Blood King objected, tearing himself from scratching the crown of his balding head in perplexity.

"I know where to find her again," Kenzi replied confidently, "And she won't run. She would've run long ago, if she could. Come, Sveta, your services are not required today."

With that she started leading the other girl, who was putting up no resistance and smiling blissfully, towards the exit. At the top of the stairs Hale caught up with them and put a hand over Kenzi's shoulder.

"Hey, Lil Momma," the siren smiled at her, unusually self-conscious and tentative, "I know this is a shocker for all of us but while Dar is unavailable, maybe we can grab the moment and have some together time?" Kenzi's face set into an expressionless mask while a fleet-worth of confused thoughts were floating at cruising speed in her mind.

"Come on, Kenz," Hale leaned to her, his hot breath tickling her parted lips, "I miss you, I barely see you, you're somewhere else with someone else all the time – training with Bo, on a mission with Dyson," he was almost begging, "I feel like I'm useless to you, like I'm losing you."

The girl's heart constricted painfully, her sense of guilt and tenderness towards the man giving her a massive pang of conscience that prodded her into breathing a Yes! that set the siren beaming a high-wattage happy smile.

"Get the girl back and I'll be waiting for you at your place," he said huskily and his hand caressed the exposed skin of her clavicle with gentle love as she accepted the invitation with a nod and a fleeting kiss. When he made his way back downstairs Bo and Trick were engaged in a whispering match, with the brunette shifting from foot to foot in her agitation and her grand-father jangling a set of keys nervously.

"She couldn't have known about Dar, besides, what's her agenda here? She is the one majorly interested in getting me back as a succubus," Bo protested to him heatedly.

"Unless she is more interested in keeping you human and thus of no use to Odin," Trick reasoned back, "She might see it as a way of keeping you to herself."

"Who?" Hale asked loudly making them both flinch and turn to face him.

"We have another suspect here," Trick addressed his ex-Ash-protégé with a sad sigh, "Though Bo doesn't want to believe it. Aiofe. She's back and was last seen in another of my cells, next door to Dar."

"Let's go and check, then," the brunette snatched the keys from his hand, "and I'll bet you any number of washing-up duties, she's still there."

The three filed their way through another short corridor and into the back room, Bo flinging the door wide open and strutting inside with a put-on confidence to her step. The occupant of the cage sprang forward readily to greet her visitors, wide eyed and smiling.

"Bo, my baby," Aiofe cooed, acknowledging her father with a dry nod, the sole focus of her attention on her daughter.

"You see," Bo turned to the men with a victorious look and gave the lock a demonstrative tug, "She's here, the cage is locked. The suspect's cleared of all suspicion."

"Well, let's not over-generalize," the Blood King objected solemnly, "But of this one suspicion obviously she is. Maybe Dyson's right about Vex."

Aiofe pressed herself against the bars, her eyes darting from one to another, her curiosity obviously piqued. "If that is something concerning Bo, I have the right to know," she asked tilting her head like an inquisitive feline.

"No, you don't," her father snapped at her and turned round to leave. "Rights have to be earned first," he threw the words over his shoulder going out of the back room and Bo gave the other woman a quick apologetic smile. "Our nerves are a bit frayed right now and if he is mistrustful of you, I guess, it's totally understandable," she said covering for his abruptness, her own feeling on the point predominantly that of relief at finding her mother, for once, uninvolved in the ongoing foul play.

"I do understand," Aiofe bowed her head, "As our mistrust goes both ways."

"We'll talk later," Bo promised with raw emotion to her tone, "I can't let such a rare opportunity to speak to my mother be wasted. But right now there's a more pressing matter at hand."

"Well, I am not going anywhere, I'll be waiting for my sweet little girl," the succubus practically purred following Bo's progression to the door, "But could I, at least, ask for a glass of water? I am parched."

Hale, who had been following the exchange from the side lines, could not suppress the ploiteness bred into his very nature and reinforced through upbringing. "May I be of help here?" he gallantly offered, "Maybe also a bite to eat?"

Aiofe shook her head with a little smile of gratitude, "I thought Daddy was planning to starve me as well, for educational purposes. Actually, I could do with a spot of dieting. Seems like I've gained a pound or two, guess, that's the age getting to me."

"Trick would never do such a thing and you look incredible, Ma'am," Hale hurried to reply, not insincerely on both counts, and Bo chortled at his gentlemanly naivety, "She knows that, Hale. But what's Aiofe without a bit of bitching and a bit of unsubtle fishing for a compliment? Get her something to eat together with that glass of water, please."

Hale made a dash to the store room for a bottle of water and a packet of chips, casting quick glances at his watch on his way there and back and mentally cursing his irreparably good manners. He was cutting it pretty close if he was to make it to Kenzi's in time to make a few ambiance-setting adjustments, the initial idea of swinging by his place to change had to be discarded all together.

With the supplies in his hands he stomped downstairs and into the back room and set everything on the floor next to the cage. "Here you are, Ma'am," he straightened, panting a bit from his near-run across the Dal, "That should last you until Trick or Bo or Lauren get to cook something more substantial. If you are lucky, that will be the doctor. Trick is in a hissy fit and Bo is much better at kicking butt than she is at making digestible food."

"Oh, the girl needs a bit of Mummy touch. And I just can't thank you enough, young master Santiago," the succubus extended her slim elegant arm through the bars and put her red-nailed hand on the siren's exposed wrist, "Your kindness is a ray of light for me in this gloomy place."

"Not like the gloom is totally undeserved, due respect and all, Ma'am," Hale couldn't resist commenting and suddenly gave a short yelp as something scratched against his skin.

"Sorry!" Aiofe retracted her arm with a contrite smile and raised her index finger, "A ragged nail. Don't think they'll trust me with a nail-file to refresh my manicure?"

Hale scaled the stairs, a bit dizzy and confused – crazy and malicious as she clearly was he couldn't help admiring the woman's refined unperturbed confidence and aplomb. His thoughts veered from the one succubus straight to the other and he smiled in anticipation of his tryst with his girl-friend, who, right at that moment was opening her car door and hopping out into a garbage-strewn side lane a block away from the strip joint they had staked out hours ago. Kenzi went round the car and jerked open the passenger's door on the other side. "Get out, Sveta!" she ordered, in no mood for social niceties.

"What did you do to me?" the dancer grumbled, scowling, "Did you drug me or what? I certainly feel drugged, but in a funny way."

"Kinda, or maybe you had got drunk or stoned before I picked you up," Kenzi lifted a shoulder in a dismissive gesture, "I had a client for you, got you to come over, the client bailed at the last moment. That's all you need to know."

"Who were the guys at that bar?" the other girl asked, rubbing her temples with a grimace.

"They are ways out of your league, bitch," the Russian stated curtly and bent to look straight into Svetlana's face, "If you know what's good for you, and I am sure you do, you'll forget this little incident in a hurry. If you don't, the guys from the prime league know a few ways to make you forget!"

Svetlana gulped down a nervous knot in her throat and nodded her understanding. Whatever had happened to her ex-street-mate over the past years, whatever gang she was running with now, the steely glint in Kenzi's huge eyes carried conviction and, anyway, Svetlana was pretty unwilling to be bold and rebellious. She scrambled out of the car and hurried away as fast as her splitting head and tired legs would allow her.

"And Sveta," Kenzi called to her retreating back with an insuppressible spark of old sympathy, "If you really love yourself, which I mostly doubt giving your current lifestyle, run, run from this life and these people. Something better might be just round the corner."

Svetlana half-turned to give the shorter girl a derisive look, "Yeah, just look how well it worked for you. You used to be a little street thief and now you're pimping for some serious gangsters. That's your idea of better, hah?"

Feeling the sting of the verbal slap, Kenzi got into the car and started the engine. She didn't think she had done all she could for the girl, on the other hand, she didn't think she had to do all she could. She firmly closed the lid on this particular memory and switched to thinking about what had happened to Dar. Who took him and why and whether they would re-capture the troublesome fairy? And the one-million-dollar question whether she felt sorry or relieved about his disappearance? The only answer Kenzi had to that was she couldn't answer it for a billion.

She stopped the car next to their rundown residence and got out with a heavier heart than the one she had got into the car with. The fast-approaching date with her boy-friend might well prove an ordeal to test her good-will and acting skills. "I can't hurt Hale," she whispered to herself, climbing up the rickety stairs and making a slow entrance into what was loosely-termed her bedroom. Which was looking romantic and almost like a decent dwelling with the curtains drawn and in the dim light of the candles. The roses immediately filled her lungs with a heady aroma and she could almost feel the coolness of the champagne down her throat as the siren lifted the bottle out of its ice bucket in a salute. "I snatched it from my father's wine cellar," he announced with a chuckle, "Thought you would appreciate it twice as much."

"Oh, Hale," the girl sighed, full of gratitude and remorse, "You're spoiling the poor undeserving me."

"The only poor here is my heart at the sight of your beauty," the siren was at her side in a beat and hugged her gently, "and I swear I haven't rehearsed this line."

Kenzi smiled, melting in his arms, and hugged him all the way back. "You've already done your best to make this date unforgettable, guess, it's my turn," her voice dropped as she lifted her eyes to him, willing them to swirl with blue, gathering the tingling succubus electricity, but there seemed to be nothing to gather – not a spark of excitement, not a surge of chi-hunger. "I am a damned succubus," Kenzi internally chided herself, "How hard should it be for me to turn myself on for my own boy-friend?"

Her probing fingers crept inside Hale's shirt, running across his hard abs, relishing the warmness of his skin, but she knew she was still dry where it counted. Their lips connected in a tender kiss, but the fireworks refused to be flying.

"I can't get it up!" the Russian realized, "I am totally having an impotency attack!" Near-hysterical, she planted her hands on his chest and pushed him away so hard that he stumbled a step back.

"So, what's with the pilfered bubbly?" Kenzi pasted on a goofy smile and hurried to the improvised table, "Don't you want to get the girl tipsy first?"

Dazed by her sudden change of gears, Hale drew a chair for her and popped the bottle open. "Relax, darling," he winked at her conspiratorially as he was pouring the sparkling wine into the mismatched glasses he had unearthed in the girls' kitchen, "I am sure, you're in control of your powers. You won't hurt me."

"I certainly won't unless I can get this succu-machine going," Kenzi went on with her silent rant as her eyes latched hungrily onto the glass, "Booze! The solution to so many problems!"

However, after knocking back three glasses in record time, worthy of post-Soviet New Year Day celebration, Kenzi felt considerably drunker but no hornier than before, so she hurried to grab her fourth straight out of Hale's generous hand.

"Hey, I am just edgy because of this whole situation, Dar missing, Dyson's gone to find him," she murmured in self-defense under the siren's slightly surprised look.

"I am sure Dar will be found," the man reassured here and added with a wince, "And let's not talk abut Dyson."

"Sure, no Dyson!" the girl slurred and, as her hand gave a treacherous shake, knocked her glass a bit off the chartered course, that is not down her throat but down the front of her top. Hale was up in a flash, dabbing at the spill spot with a napkin. "You'd better take it off, Lil' Momma, or you'll be cold," he said with concern as his eyes raked over the girl's front part but Kenzi wrapped her arms around herself and her wet top protectively.

"No," she countered, now on the verge of panic. "I'll just throw something on for warmth," her eyes darted around the room, "like your jacket." In a hurry to put up another line of resistance between her and Hale she rushed to the chair where the siren had casually dropped his jacket and wriggled into it, shoving her arms into the sleeves.

"A bit too long but you've got a dress sense to kill, my siren," Kenzi singsonged, marginally calmed, now that she was further from naked than before, and tucked her hands into the pockets. Her fingers wrapped around a little smooth object and a chill ran down her spine as she saw pure consternation on the face of the man in front of her.

"What is it, Hale?" the girl asked, her own terror rising, as she pulled the hand out and looked at the small vial resting in her palm.

"Don't, Kenzi," the siren begged in a hoarse whisper as she unscrewed the top of the vial and a vaguely familiar ordour hit her nostrils.