Chapter 16

I looked around at the remains of the orgy. Isaak was covered in blood oozing from deep claw marks and bites, and was half sitting up, groggily touching his chest. Micah was still out. David, who had left off shaking Luis, and had given him a couple of hard slaps, turned to face Ben. “He’s drugged. He won’t come out of it for a while. I don’t know what they used on him, but it’s effectively stripped him of his will.”

I was filled with contrition. “I’m sorry I messed up the tyro,” I said, leaning into Ben. I feel horrible. Did I ruin everything?

No. To my surprise, there was laughter in his mind. On the contrary, I think you progressed us quite a bit.

How so?

We now know that there is someone else working with the Agrippans. Who is this de Marco? You seemed to know him.

I’ll tell you about him later.

“You didn’t mess it up. Luis is safe, and although Ben has been outed, I believe that we should be able to learn what we wish to know from Luis once we can counteract the drugs he’s been given. I might have wished for things to turn out a little differently, but no, you didn’t ruin anything. On the contrary, I have much to thank you for, although Ben looks ready to hang me up by my intestines for letting you get involved.”

“Not your intestines. Your balls,” Ben answered with a dark look.

I nudged his side with my elbow. He made a big show of sighing. “When I was young, I used to dream of the day when I had a Beloved who would allow me to take care of her as I was born to do. I never imagined she’d be a woman who spurned that which I had to offer. You may stop looking daggers at me, Francesca. I know perfectly well that you are able to take care of yourself.”

“Just as I know you can’t help being overly protective. What are we going to do about them?” I nodded toward the two men.

“I’m sure David has plans for them.” Ben lifted his head, his body language tense for a moment before he smiled and relaxed when Diego emerged from the trees.

“Oh, yes,” David said, a note in his voice sounding remarkably like the low rumble of a lion. I edged closer to Ben. “I have plans.” He said something to Diego in whatever language it was that therions spoke to each other, then tossed Ben a set of keys. “Take Fran home. We won’t need you any more tonight.”

Ben lifted an eyebrow. “Not even for the . . . interrogation?”

“You’re not going to torture them!” I gasped.

“Torture? No.” David shook his head.

“They will have to be questioned, though,” Ben said.

“And they are bound to resist,” Diego added, smiling as he nudged the still unconscious Micah.

David hauled Isaak to his feet and looped a nylon hand restraint around the latter’s wrists. Isaak was aware enough to protest, but not to put up much of a fight. “Torture implies violence for no particular reason other than to cause pain. Our violence against Isaak and Micah will be for a completely different reason.”

Isaak understood that well enough. His eyes widened and he started stammering out excuses as David, with a cheery wave at us, hauled him down the slope to the parking lot. Diego cuffed Isaak, and since he still wasn’t conscious, simply grabbed his feet and hauled him naked after David.

I winced as Diego purposely dragged Isaak over a prickly looking bush. “I really don’t want to know what they’re going to do, do I?”

“No.” Ben took my hand and led me on a diagonal line from the path the two shape-shifters had taken. “But David will not harm them if they tell him what they know. He’s not a vindictive person.” He stopped for a moment, making a little face. “Well, not normally.”

David’s car was parked a half mile away, hidden behind a ramshackle shed that was obviously used to store farm equipment. As we drove back to the Faire, I mused over what I’d seen.

Ben suddenly interrupted the silence that had filled David’s car. “Francesca, I do not like this silent treatment. I know you are angry at me for what you saw, although in my defense, I would like to point out that you wouldn’t have seen it if you hadn’t insisted on spying on the tyro. I know you are angry about it, however, and I’d much prefer that you yell at me now rather than seething quietly.”

I laughed at the outrageous picture he drew. “Since when have I ever seethed quietly?”

“You’re not angry?” He shot me a quick look before negotiating a busy intersection in the middle of Brustwarze.

“Oh, I’m furious. But at Naomi, not you.” I laughed again at the confused expression on his adorable face. “Ben, I’m well aware that you did everything humanly possible to keep from participating in the orgy. I don’t like the fact that Naomi was all over your private parts with a familiarity that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, but I do recognize the difference between her helping herself and you egging her on. You may rest your mind that I am not sitting here seething quietly, not that I think I could even if I wanted to. I’m not the quiet anger sort of person.”

“I didn’t remember you being so, but thought that, too, had changed.”

I slid him a hesitant glance. He smiled. No, I do not want you to change any more than you have. You more than please me the way you are, nonseething abilities and all. Did you mean what you said?

Absolutely. I honestly don’t know how to seethe.

His lips thinned for a few seconds. You know what I mean. You said you were my Beloved, twice, before others. The first time I understand you were simply trying to establish your hold on me with Naomi. But you said the same thing to de Marco.

“Your hearing is entirely too good,” I told him, smiling to myself.

“I felt that!”

I looked down at where my hand rested possessively on his thigh, immediately pulling it into my own lap. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just . . . er . . . like to feel the muscles in your thigh move when you drive. I didn’t mean to bother you when you’re trying to concentrate.”

“It’s not bothering me at all.” He placed my hand back on his leg, then shifted uncomfortably. I couldn’t help but glance at his crotch when he gave a little wry laugh. “Not in the sense you mean. I was referring to the smug smile you tried to hide from me. You did mean it, didn’t you?”

Inner Fran urged me to spill everything to him, every thought, every emotion, every intention, but I have not lived with her my entire life without having some ability to ignore her desires. Instead of yielding to her demands, I looked long and hard at what it would mean to say yes. My lifetime would be measured in centuries, not decades. My life would be bound to Ben’s in ways that right now I had only the vaguest of understanding. It would be acknowledging that yes, in this case fate was right, and that rankled. I had fought so long and hard to make my own decisions and not do what people felt I should that it smacked of surrender to give in.

On the other hand, who’s to say I didn’t just decide that fate was right, and agreed to go along with it? There was the issue of Ben, too. I wanted him as in love with me as I was with him.

Ben waited patiently while I sorted through my thoughts, never once trying to touch me either mentally or physically. He was just there, a warm and comfortable presence who seemed to merge so well with me. I had a mental picture of the yin and yang symbol, with the two of us fitting together in a way that left us individuals, and yet greater as a sum total.

Did I mean what I said to de Marco?

Ben glanced at me, his expression wary.

Yes, I meant it. But I’m only one half of the equation, Ben. I think you need to make absolutely sure that your feelings—

I banged against the door as Ben jerked the wheel of the car and slammed on the brakes, the squeal of tires on cobblestones causing several people in the parade we’d almost plowed into to turn around and glare at us.

“Are you hurt?”

I was still shaking the stars from my eyes when Ben was out of the car and at my side, unbuckling the seat belt, running his hands quickly over my and shoulder. “No, not hurt, just kind of surprised. What on earth is going on?”

He closed my door and went around to the driver’s side, backing up the car until he parked in front of a bakery. “I believe this is the Running of the Brunhildes. Francesca, I must have you.”

“You must?”

“Yes. Right now.” His jaw tightened, and I was immediately aware of a burning red need pulsing deep inside him.

“I thought you couldn’t,” I said, panting just a little at the instant arousal that inflamed my body at the thought of him touching me. Tasting me.

“I think Naomi trying to kill me is a sign that I can finally do what I’ve wanted to do for the last five years.”

“Have sex in the middle of a parade?” I asked, looking around at the crowd packing the sidewalks in order to watch a race of people dressed in metal breastplates, winged helmets, and knee-length blond braids. The crowd cheered as a group of Brunhildes raced past, skirts hiked up, braids a-flying, each one bearing a fiery torch.

“Have sex with you in the middle of a parade,” he corrected, turning first in one direction, then another. “Why aren’t there any hotels in this damned town?”

“I don’t know.” I almost sobbed with the overwhelming need to have him feed from me. His compulsion to do so fed my desire, leaving my entire being tight and wanting and desperate for release. I looked around frantically, needing to be alone with him so he could feed, so we could complete all those things we’d started so many years ago.

Ben snarled something rude at the world in general. I didn’t argue, just followed when he took my hand and wove his way through the throngs, avoiding a thundering herd of Brunhildes, moving in and out of the crowds, his eyes constantly searching for a potential spot.

“Whoever heard of a town without hotels?” I said, shivering when a fresh wave of desire washed from Ben to me. If I was desperate, he was nigh on frantic. We darted here and there, looking for a hotel, but it was slow going through the mass of people. It was as if the entire town had turned out to watch the race. “I’m seriously going to complain to the tourist board about this!”