Chapter 17
"Catching you at a bad time?" the old fae inquired diplomatically.
"Just following a tip-off from one of our informants," Tamsin could muster enough self-control to slightly mollify her tone, her rage-burning eyes still trained at the cozy scene across the road with Dyson and the girl hot and bothered after the lip-lock.
"So was I," Trick went on unperturbed, "And my informant says we've lost Evony."
"Don't tell me Lauren Lewis got to her first," the blonde frowned as her concern over the implications of the human muzzling one of the most powerful fae in the region overwhelmed her broken heart momentarily.
"No, it's not that bad, but Evony's dead. Someone sliced through her heart," the Blood King reported evenly, "Someone fast and strong enough to get close to her after dispatching her two guards. Someone with sharp narrow blades for weapon, if the coroner's report is anything to go on."
Tamsin choked on the words that were about to come tumbling out of her mouth, her eyes squinting as she coldly observed the couple at the table across the road – no longer kissing, but seemingly nonchalantly happy in each other's company – the girl carelessly tucking into her fries, the man watching her with a sincere smile on his recently kissed lips.
"He never looks so happy with me," the thought gave the Valkyrie a jolt and she had to pinch herself to drag her focus back to the phone conversation.
"Are you still there, Tamsin?" a little irritation peeked through the customary civility of Trick's tone, "I was telling you about the report and about the MO. You know, if I wasn't that confident that Dyson would never go against my express orders, I might even think it sounds just like him."
He waited a minute for any objections to follow but the line was silent.
"Besides, I am pretty sure he spent the last night with you," the ancient fae piled on, "So, actually, we have nothing, a passing fae with a grudge, a spurned lover, a century-old enemy – you name it. Evony was quite an old hand at arousing murderous intentions."
"He wasn't with me, I have no idea where he was last night. No alibi for hi and the MO is suspiciously close but I can see no reason for him to kill Evony, other than self-defense. But then he would report to us about this," Tamsin replied slowly, feeling the weight of her as yet untaken decision settling down on her shoulders, "You said you had an informant?"
"More of a witness actually, one of the late Morrigan's guards, Steve," Trick confirmed eagerly, "He's now in one of my cages, and you're most welcome to interrogate him to your heart's content. With the rate at which you're going through punching bags these days, this might even be cheaper."
An hour later Tamsin clattered downstairs and a key-turn later jerked the door of the cage open. The huge fae inside rose from his sitting position to his full height and looked down at the slender woman with a slight surprise plastered over his vapid features.
"First a wolf with his claws, then a blood sage with his scorching powder, now a bottle-blonde bimbo," Steve muttered to himself and was rewarded with a punch to his gut that left him winded and clutching his bruised ribs.
"First off, I am not bottle-blonde, moron," Tamsin sneered, surreptitiously shaking her over-exercised knuckles, "Born back in the day when Scandinavia was the land of natural blondes. Second off, what were you mumbling about the wolf?"
"I thought you were interested in the Morrigan," the giant wheezed unbending enough to look up at the woman and quickly revising his opinion of her under the steel gaze of her arctic green eyes.
"She's dead, I am not interested," the Valkyrie replied dismissively, "Give me the wolf and I might spare you the rest of your bones. Did he come to ask you about Evony? Was he also looking for her?"
"No," Steve answered honestly but, sadly, the truth only brought him a couple of more symmetrically splintered ribs. When he finally could uncurl and breathe again, he felt obliged to elucidate, "He wasn't looking for my … late mistress, but they met – they argued over a girl."
"Which girl?" the Valkyrie skillfully expressed annoyance, impatience and an itch to dish out a bit more with a simple rise to her brow and that spurred Steve on in his story.
"I don't know, a human girl, Evony wanted me to get her and the wolf interfered, they squared off and my mistress decided not to dirty her hands with the wolf bowels over a human and left him to it," he rattled off.
"What did she look like? The girl?" Tamsin growled the question out, her mind already churning.
"Small, tiny, skin and bone, huge eyes, dark hair, nothing much to rest your eye on," Steve sighed, "A female of my kind should be able to carry her future husband over the threshold of their house and straight to his bed before he deems her worthy to be mother of his sons."
"That's why your kind is so damned huge and so damned stupid," the Valkyrie spluttered, suddenly in need of a confidante, "So, you're telling me my lover protected a human girl before the all-powerful Dark fae at the peril of his life? You're telling me the Morrigan was interested enough in a no-name human to carve some time off her spa procedures to squabble with the wolf over her? The only reason that comes to mind is he loves her and that's precisely why Evony wanted her – to use her as leverage against Dyson. And now, in order to protect his mortal fragile love, he has gone so far as to kill the Morrigan against his own king's wishes?"
"My brother Bruce, who was the poetic type, would say that true love is more powerful than any laws or loyalties," Steve nodded eagerly, not quite following the train of thought beyond the obvious romantic plot-line.
"And I, the not poetic type, say nonsense," Tamsins snarled, her beautiful face suddenly darkening, sharp outlines of bone delineated through the pale skin. Her green eyes blacked over, her voice deepened, her featured were submerged by the skull-like shadows as she approached the enormous fae who belatedly registered the menace and started backing away until he was pressed against the bars of the cage.
"You are moron, you were born a moron, who could never distinguish truth form erratic figments of his own lame imagination," the husky genderless tone told him, "You don't know who attacked you, you don't know if there was a girl there or not, if she was human or fae, dead or alive. You displeased your mistress and now she's dead. Do you know who killed her? You don't! Cos you don't know anything, you don't even know if that wasn't you who stabbed the Dark Morrigan to death!"
"I loved my mistress," Steve shrieked, clutching at the pieces of his sanity with the last of his mind and feeling this much under-exercised tool of his failing him.
"You don't know that," Tamsin spat out contemptuously and saw with satisfaction the man slump down, wailing and clutching at his head.
"I wish I could get all I've just heard scrambled out of my own mind," the blonde told herself as she was heaving her suddenly exhausted body up the stairs, as if weighed down by the knowledge.
"I've lived through centuries of betraying cheating assholes, I'll survive this one," she gritted through her teeth before opening the door and slipping on the cool and collected mask of one awesome valkyrie.
Kenzi didn't dare pack the smallest bag, even an overnight bag was smacking of an escape attempt that any and every of the enthralled fae crawling the space of the mansion would instantly report to her sister.
The girl had to do with wrapping herself into an extra sweater, one for the road, and stuffing some cash from her emergency fund into her jacket. She reasoned that a toothbrush and any toiletries she might need could much easier be bought on the way than sneaked out of a heavily guarded house. Sneaking herself out was no mean feat either and she knew she would have to tax her imagination to come up with a legitimately-sounding pretext to get from under her sister's watchful eye for any considerable length of time.
Before she had the chance of coming up with anything half-way decent, however, Lauren herself, as if guided by a six sense, stepped into her en-suite after a peremptory knock on the door.
"I knew you have all the comings and goings monitored," the younger girl grumbled by way of a greeting, struggling to collect her scattered wits.
"Cameras, Bo's in charge of our CCTV," the doctor shrugged her shoulders as if surprised by the need to explain, "There are too many powerful creatures out to hurt us –we can't afford to be negligent. And I am not going to waste my breath asking where you've been seeing as you're back home safe and sound."
Kenzi bit down on half a dozen choice retorts she had for that particular argument as well as for the use of the word home and prepared to make her own case but her sister beat her to it.
"I thought about what you told me that night at the lab," she started cautiously, "And I know that you're right, that I should allow myself to be a bit happier, less trouble-ridden, I should spend more time with my woman, my gorgeous woman. But your words, they go both ways, I mean so should you, Kenz. After all, the man you love is right here, at your side."
"Yep, enslaved and enthralled, to be precise," the younger girl commented, almost inured to the thought.
"In the old world, you two would never have stood a chance, they would've prised you apart," Lauren crossed her arms on her chest defensively, "Actually, they did just that – they took your baby, they took your man because you were human, because you were beneath them. I gave him back to you. If I could, I would give Sasha back too but …"
"But not even you are powerful enough," Kenzi couldn't keep the bitterness out of her tone but she clamped hard on a swarm of emotions that Lauren's words evoked.
"And Hale is no longer the man I loved," she added as calmly as she could fishing for a window of opportunity, "And making love in the closely monitored conditions you've created is seriously not romantic. The backseat of my car would give more thrills."
"It's for your own protection," the doctor shook her head sternly, back to her older sister mode, "You are already taking too many liberties, sneaking outside without guard. If anyone finds out who you're, you'll have a target on your back …"
"Prancing around with a squad of fae bodyguards will make me a marked human girl much faster, Lolo," Kenzi singsonged, "When it's just my little inconspicuous me, a bag of meat of no importance, I am beneath any fae notice. Bottom line, you've caged me here, with a man I no longer have any real feelings for. I can't get out, I can't meet someone else. Not fair, Lolo. Let Kenzi out, just for a day or two. A romantic weekend at the Niagara Falls? No fae, no thralls, just me, the awe-striking wonder of nature, plenty of ice-cream and no-one around to drone on about my sickly throat. That's a Kenzi-dream these days. Pathetic, really. Pretty please?"
Lauren smiled at the glimpse of the old Kenzi – skittish, playful, charming, but had to brace herself to shake her head, "No, honey, it's too dangerous, not unless you take security with you."
"Spoilsport. You are. A major one," Kenzi rapped out the words, her cajoling quickly turning into a royal sulk, "Yeah, keep protecting me until I die of boredom and old age. You know your supposed enemies might be more fun than you."
"We'll talk again when you're feeling more reasonable," Lauren pronounced with a long-suffering sigh and, recognizing the signs of a huff of teenager proportions coming on, left the room, telling herself to try and pick a quieter moment to speak to her sister about taking the whole danger in the fae world thing more seriously.
As soon as she was alone, Kenzi dropped the sulk in the blink of her huge silver-grey eye and her face settled into a grave resolute expression. Drugging the guards, lying her way out, getting Hale to cover for her escape – she mentally marshaled resources at her disposal and didn't feel shy of using any and all of them to get out and go on the field trip with Dyson. Her goals were clear – to stick it to her haughty older sister and to further her self-assigned mission of rescuing her as well as to see the handsome wolf again, if she was totally honest with herself.