Adric removed his quartz pendant and pulled up a chair in front of Nika.
She squared her shoulders and set her hands on her thighs. “What are you going to do?”
Her voice was calm although he knew she was afraid. Interesting. She’d been giving a good imitation of a completely cowed submissive, someone low on the dominance scale, but a fada that low would be trembling with the effort of fighting an alpha.
“You know where my cousin is,” he murmured. “Tell me, love.”
He swung his pendant in front of her face. Back and forth, slow and steady.
Nika moistened her lips. Her gaze flicked to the pendant and her right hand fisted.
She wanted his quartz, even though it wouldn’t do her any good—the tiny crystals within were aligned to his unique frequency, vibrating with him on a primal level. But with her quartz removed, her body would be craving the magical energy it was being deprived of.
He focused on his quartz. Deep within, the heart flared a fiery mix of bronze and blue that even he found mesmerizing. He dragged his gaze away and back to Nika’s face.
Back and forth.
“Tell me,” he said again. “Where’s Corban?”
On Nika’s other side, Marjani was careful to keep her gaze on the woman’s face, not the glowing quartz. At least something good had come out of this. It was the most animated he’d seen his sister in months. But then, she had even more reason to hate Corban than he did.
Back and forth.
Nika followed the movement with her eyes. The flickers in the quartz were mirrored in her pupils, twin blue flames in the black.
“Talk to me, Nika. All I want is information. Tell me what I want to know and I’ll let you live.”
Her mouth compressed, but her gaze remained on the swinging quartz.
In the Darktime, he would’ve forced the information from her and then smashed her quartz before dumping her on the streets of Baltimore—if he didn’t just slit her throat. Nika might not be the meek mouse she was pretending to be, but she was no match for a man of his strength.
But the Darktime was over, and he had little taste for hurting a woman, even one working with Corban. Of course, raiding her mind for information against her will wasn’t much better. But the clan came first.
His first question was simple. Get her to answer one question, and the next one was easier. “Where did you meet Corban?”
Her jaw clenched tight. Dislike and fear came off her in waves, a bitter, unpleasant scent. He didn’t think all that fear was for him, either. No, she was afraid of Corban, too.
Back and forth.
He repeated the question. “Where did you meet Corban?”
When she still didn’t answer, he drew deeply on his Gift. Hypnotism: his dirty little secret. Most earth fada could hypnotize others if given enough time and opportunity, but he could do it so quickly and thoroughly that it was akin to compulsion. He was sure other people suspected, but only his top people knew for sure, because if his Gift ever became general knowledge, he could lose the clan’s trust. How could his clanmates know what was true and what he’d planted in their minds?
Panic flared within Nika. He kept up the dark, steady pressure—and felt the moment her will collapsed in on itself.
Something deep inside her howled in fury, but her mouth opened. “In Iceland.” The words were slow, a little blurred.
Adric raised a brow. Iceland was the ice fae’s home territory.
“What were you doing in Iceland?”
“My alpha, he sent me to the ice fae.”
“Why?”
She shrugged, her gaze on the moving quartz. He drew more energy from it. The flickers coalesced into a vivid cobalt fire.
“Tell me, Nika.”
“I am to work for them. The ice fae, they pay the clan good money.”
“And Corban? Why was he in Iceland?”
“He works for them too.”
“Who? Who is he working for?”
She swallowed and then whispered, “The king.”
Adric considered that. He hadn’t heard from Corban since he’d disappeared soon after leaving for the Himalayas to track Sindre’s rogue female. For the first three months, Adric had kept tabs on his cousin; as alpha, his quartz was linked to everyone in the clan. But then the link had been abruptly cut. As far as everyone knew Corban had died, but Adric suspected he’d smashed his own quartz so that he could go into hiding.
It had been left to Adric to explain to King Sindre why the Baltimore fada hadn’t completed the job they’d been hired to do. The ice fae king was a tall, striking man with long blond hair and the ice-gray eyes of a predator. He’d been waiting at the entrance to Adric’s den. A clear message: the king could find him anytime, anywhere.
Adric had apologized and offered to send another tracker, but Sindre had simply scrutinized him with those frosty eyes. Adric’s hand had gone to his quartz. Ice fae fed on the energy of motion. A powerful fae like Sindre could suck the energy out of your very molecules. The only way to resist was to shield yourself—either with iron, or by putting up an energy barrier.
“Very well,” the king said at last. “I’ll find the woman myself. It seems she is too clever for even a fada tracker.”
Now Adric realized his cousin must have struck a deal with Sindre. He narrowed his eyes at Nika. “Where is Corban now?”
“He ran away.”
“Yes, but where is he staying?”
“Nowhere. We flew in last week. By now he’s already gone.” Nika surfaced enough to shoot Adric a triumphant look. “You must travel to Iceland to find him.”
Adric swore under his breath.
“Sounds like him,” Marjani muttered. “Strike and run.”
Adric shook his head. He tried to get more information from Nika, but she didn’t know much else. She did tell him which flight they’d been booked on, but Corban wasn’t stupid—he’d take another flight under a different name. Adric would send a man to check the airport anyway, but he knew it was a waste of time.
Like hell, he’d chase Corban to Iceland. That was exactly what his cousin wanted. Adric’s fingers tightened on his quartz.
Nika twitched and he focused on her again. He was going to have to bring her out of the trance soon. His own energy was being drained at a rapid rate, and if he pushed Nika any harder, he risked damaging her brain.
But first, he had another question. “What about the night fae? Why are they working with Corban?”
“The night fae?” But her eyes flickered.
“Tell me.” He threw everything he had into extracting that last bit of information, but he’d lost her. She’d thrown up a barrier he couldn’t penetrate.
“I do not know.”
It might be the truth—and it might not. Because “I don’t know” could mean anything, or nothing.
He ground his teeth. “Then who?”
But she’d regained control of her mind. She closed her mouth and refused to say anything else.
The last thing he did was erase Nika’s memory of how he’d hypnotized her. She’d remember that she’d given him information, but blame herself for being weak.
Sometimes Adric was an even bigger bastard than his cousin.
Nika’s breath sighed out. Her chin fell to her chest as she slid into a deep sleep. He grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling off the chair.
“Let’s get out of here,” he told Marjani.
“What about her?” She jerked her chin at the sleeping woman. “You’re not bringing her back to Baltimore, are you?”
“No fucking way.” Nika was hiding something, and he was damned if he’d bring her into their den, or anywhere near the clan, for that matter. “We’ll leave her on Rock Run territory. Let them deal with her.”
Dion wouldn’t hurt Nika for no reason, but he would keep her captive while he tried to figure out why Adric had left her on his land.
Marjani’s brows shot up. “I like it. And her quartz?”
“You hang onto it.” Adric handed the pendant to Marjani and lifted Nika in his arms. His scent would be all over her. The river fada would know he’d left her there deliberately—what they wouldn’t know was why.
They’d driven up in one of the clan’s jeeps. After he laid Nika on the back seat, his sister took the wheel while he put in a call to a high-ranking sentry, directing the woman to send some men to the Baltimore airport on the off-chance they could catch Corban.
Next he contacted Zuri and brought him up to date. “Corban still has friends in the clan,” he said. “If he’s hurt bad enough, there’s a chance he’ll go to ground in one of their dens. Start with his old den. I want someone we trust to visit every single one of the bastard’s friends. He’s gone too far this time. He knows damn well an attack on Jace is an attack on me. I want him, Zuri.”
“If he’s in Baltimore,” the lieutenant replied grimly, “I’ll find him.”
His last call was to Bryah, a tough young sentry itching to prove herself. He’d left her and another sentry searching Grace Harbor for Corban while he was occupied with Nika and Jace. “Find anything?” he asked.
“Only some traces of blood, sir. We followed his scent as far as the bay and then we lost him. We ran along the shore for half a mile in each direction but there was no trace of him. We crisscrossed the town after that. I can tell you he was up here for a day, maybe two. He could be hiding somewhere, but my guess is he left by boat.”
“Unless he was ’ported out,” Adric muttered. His fingers tightened around his quartz. He’d swear Corban had the DNA of a fucking weasel, the way he wriggled out of tight spots.
“You think he’s working with a fae?”
“It’s a possibility.”
“I didn’t pick up a fae’s scent.”
Adric nodded. That was useful intel, although not conclusive. “You did good,” he told Bryah. “Go back to Baltimore. Zuri could use you in the search down there.”
Marjani drove west along the Susquehanna River. Rock Run owned several thousand prime acres along the shore, including the mouth of Rock Run Creek. The river fada’s underground base followed the creek; its actual location was a closely kept secret. Adric had gotten inside once, but the sun fae had wiped his memory of the details, and he’d never been able to get past the wards again.
Adric felt the familiar clench of possessiveness. God’s cat, he wanted Rock Run’s territory for the clan. It had everything—forests for their cats and wolves and bears and deer to run free in. Fresh water to swim and fish in. An underground base that was perfect for a growing clan.
Once, he’d plotted to take Rock Run’s territory, but he’d set that plan aside. Rock Run had three times the people, and now that Dion had mated with the sun fae queen, it would be suicide to go up against them. Queen Cleia could literally incinerate a man where he stood. No, his clan was going to make the money they needed from selling the new quartz technology, and then they’d buy their own chunk of prime forestland.
And Jace Jones was crucial to that plan. He was the brains behind the smartphone project. Kill Jace, and the clan could kiss their plans for new territory goodbye—and Corban knew that as well as Adric.
They reached Rock Run’s border. The road narrowed to a strip of asphalt and gravel. To their left the terrain was thick with trees; to the right, the Susquehanna rushed by just yards away, the rising moon casting a shimmering gold trail on its wide black waters.
“Here?” asked Marjani.
When he nodded, she stopped the jeep. Nika was still unconscious. Adric set her in the grass beside the road.
Marjani followed with Nika’s quartz. “She’s stronger than she’s pretending,” she said as she unwrapped it. “You know we have to do it.”
“Fine.” He dragged a hand over his spiked-up hair. “Do it then.”
His sister’s eyes flashed the chilly sapphire of her cougar. She found a heavy rock, set the quartz on the road and smashed it into several jagged pieces.
Nika jerked and slipped further into unconsciousness.
The quartz shards sparkled like dim stars, still sharing energy with Nika. Scooping them up, Marjani walked onto the narrow beach and tossed them into the river. The last piece, she placed on Nika’s chest where she’d be sure to find it.
“She’ll be all right,” Marjani said, as if he were arguing. “That’s more than Corban allowed me.”
The sparkling pieces were carried rapidly downriver. One by one, they winked out of sight as they sank beneath the water.
A dolphin’s fin appeared upriver. A Rock Run sentry coming to investigate.
“Let’s get out of here,” Adric said, and they jogged back to the jeep.
But he glanced over his shoulder as the dolphin shifted—and felt the shock clear to his bones. It was Rosana do Rio, the only sister of the Rock Run alpha—and the woman he’d wanted for six long years.
“I’ll be right there.”
“Damn it, Ric,” Marjani growled, but he was already moving down the road.
Rosana strode onto the beach. It was too dark to see her clearly, but her image was emblazoned on his brain: a heart-shaped face, a cloud of wavy black hair, and eyes the rich blue of the ocean. Her irises turned a bright, night-glow silver, and their gazes locked.
His heart thundered in his ears. He stopped a yard away. “It’s been a while.” A year, in fact.
They’d danced at Tiago’s mate ball. She’d melted into him for that single dance, and he’d murmured in her ear, trying to entice her to come to him later. But when the dance ended, she’d pulled out of his arms, saying, “I can’t do this,” and walked rapidly away.
Now he hungrily took in her naked body. She was a man’s wet dream—slick from her swim, with high breasts and sleek thighs. Her hair tumbled in damp ringlets over her shoulders and beneath his heated gaze, her nipples beaded. But she kept her chin level and met him look for look, a proud and arrogant do Rio to her very toes.
But she wanted him. He gave a slow, deliberate inhale, letting her know he scented her need.
She glanced from him to Nika. “You’re on our territory.” Her voice was naturally husky. The woman could read a fucking menu and sound sexy.
“I brought you a gift.”
“A gift?” A delicate black eyebrow winged up.
He indicated Nika. “She attacked one of my men in Grace Harbor. I figured your brother might want to question her.”
“Grace Harbor isn’t our territory.”
He shrugged. “Close enough.” Which she knew as well as him.
Upstream, another dolphin was making a beeline for them. Adric stepped closer, fingered a wet black ringlet. “I have to go.”
He prided himself on his control. He’d never have made alpha without it. But then Rosana moistened her full lower lip and his control broke with an almost audible snap. With a growl, he speared his fingers into her hair and dragged her up against him.
She went stick straight—and then she gripped his shoulders and opened her mouth. Adric sank into her. There was no other word for it. He went deep and mindless. One hand tangled in her hair while the other smoothed over her firm ass, urged her up against his aching cock. His tongue sought hers and they tasted each other. One slow, sweet kiss.
His heart slammed against his rib cage. His head swam with her scent—fresh water and green grass layered over something that was all woman…a fragrance that could only be Rosana do Rio.
A furious snarl sounded from the river. A young, hard-driving tenente named Davi rose from the water, his gaze lethal.
Adric raised his head and resolutely set Rosana from him.
Behind him, Marjani had backed up the jeep. She shoved open the passenger-side door. “Get in, you ass.”
He ignored her to touch Rosana’s cheek. One last stroke of her downy skin.
Her throat worked. She captured his hand—and set it firmly against his chest. “Goodbye, Lord Adric.”
“Rosana—” He was close to begging…and he’d never begged a woman in his life.
Davi strode toward them. “What the fuck’s going on?”
“It’s all right.” Rosana slapped a palm on the tenente’s chest. “Go,” she told Adric.
His cougar gnashed its teeth at seeing her touch another man. But Marjani was right. Rosana do Rio wasn’t for him—and not just because he was alpha of an earth fada clan and she was a river fada. No, there were other, darker reasons he couldn’t allow himself to take Rosana.
With a mocking salute to Davi, he hopped into the jeep. The Rock Run man growled and started toward them, but Marjani slammed her foot on the gas pedal and they sped off in a hail of gravel.
His sister shook her head. “God’s cat, Ric. You have to get over this obsession with her.”
“I don’t want her.” It was a lie, and his stomach lurched in response. “Not for more than a fuck,” he amended.
Marjani snorted and he scowled at her. They drove in silence until she reached the main road. Then her eyes creased with amusement. “Dion’s going to go insane trying to figure out why we left Nika here.”
It wasn’t a smile, but it was the closest she’d come in a long while. Adric blew out a breath—and wrenched his mind away from the sexy Rock Run female.
“And then he’ll give up,” he said, “and have his mate ’port her back to Iceland or wherever the hell she’s from.”
“Either way, she’ll be taken care of. Smart.”
“Exactly.” Adric smirked and tapped his quartz. “Zuri? Any news?”