A farmer found him while walking his fences.” I felt bile rise in the back of my throat. I was swallowing repeatedly. I didn’t know if I could do this after all. “We had to alter his memory to avoid the mundane police’s involvement.”
Bahlin looked over at me and was by my side in an instant. “Maddy? Sweetheart, put your head between your knees. Slow, deep breaths.” He shot a malevolent look at Tarrek and growled, “Could yeh no’ go easy on her this first night? Have yeh no wits?”
Tarrek looked at me, head tilted to one side like a giant dark bird of prey. “I thought you said you were ready to discuss the murders.”
I shuddered, taking air in slowly as Bahlin had suggested. “I thought I was, Tarrek. I’m sorry. This is going to take some getting used to.”
“Unfortunately, Maddy, there’s no time.” Bahlin made a low, disgusted noise in his throat. “There’s not, Bahlin. Much as it pains me to see Maddy suffer, for her spirit calls to mine as if they have once known each other, there’s no time to lose. While there are two dead so far, one of mine has gone missing.”
“When?” Bahlin and I asked at the same time. I sat up despite Bahlin’s protests.
“Near as I might tell, he disappeared today. Jossel was patrolling the forest around the sithen, or our faerie mounds, and he never returned. You know we live underground?” he asked me.
I nodded, seeming to remember some of this from mythology. “Can you take me there?” I asked. “I’d like to see where he was last known to be.”
“Of course, Maddy. I’d be honored if you’d accompany me now.”
Bahlin was on his feet standing next to me before I could blink. “She’ll not be going without me, mate,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. Then he turned to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t even think about it, sweetheart. I have to eat before we go anywhere. Our little shock recovery session drained me. It will have to wait until I’m able to accompany you.”
Of course, once he commanded me not to, I had no other choice. “Really? ‘Don’t even think about it, sweetheart’?” I rose to my feet, shrugging off his hand. “Tarrek, do you have a jacket I might borrow?” My clothes hadn’t been delivered yet, so it was borrow or go without.
He took his suit jacket off and stepped around the coffee table toward me. Bahlin made a movement as if to interfere and I spun toward him, slapping my hand on his hard chest. He didn’t flinch, though he did stop mid motion.
“You will not be my keeper, do you hear me?” My voice was a dangerous indicator of my tolerance level. “I will not be fawned over and treated like an incompetent child, even if I have no idea what I’m doing. You will humor me, as I’m the Niteclif, and this is my responsibility.” I blinked, shocked at my tone of voice, my expressed intent, myself. I had no idea where it had all come from.
Bahlin stared at me as if I’d grown another head. “So you think to run off and play detective your first night out, hmm?” he asked. His tone was superficially friendly, but even brief experience had taught me that I shouldn’t take him at face value.
“And you, my fellow Council member, would do well to remember that I can protect her as well as you can from all things that she may be protected from.” Tarrek’s voice was suffused with a lethal calm. He finished stepping toward me and held out his jacket. I shrugged into it and rolled my shoulders. There was little to do about the general size. It was just too big.
Bahlin stood motionless next to me, staring at Tarrek. “I could grab a bite now, my fellow Council member.”
“Do not threaten me you vile overgrown lizard,” Tarrek snarled, clearly pissed off at being reduced to a part of the food chain. A slight wind was emanating from around him again, stirring the men’s hair in the breeze.
Bahlin laughed, though it sounded bitter, lacking any sense of amusement. “Worried about sullying that pretty outfit, Tarrek?”
I hopped up onto the coffee table and was shocked that I didn’t knock anything off, over, or out. “Let’s stop posturing for a minute, guys. Bahlin, I have to go. You know that. Eat my dinner when it gets here since I didn’t touch it. I’ll