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Delilah gasped as he handed the dagger back to her. “What—what… oh, great gods. What did you do? I can feel her so much more—she’s…” With a soft awe in her voice, she whispered, “She’s beautiful. I’ve never heard her sing before.”
Carter cocked his head to one side. “I didn’t realize you had one of the daggers of Luciél.”
“Luciél? And… this is one of a matched set of three that our father gave us.” Delilah glanced over at Camille, who pulled out her own dagger and presented it to Carter.
Carter stroked the metal and smiled softly. “Your dagger is still sleeping. I cannot waken it, just make it more aware once it has chosen to rise and shine. The third, I assume, would be Menolly’s?”
I nodded. “I can’t touch it, though. Obviously.”
“The daggers of Luciél belonged to three Fae sisters—they were full Fae, make no mistake about that. And they ruled one of the barrow mounds Earthside before the Great Divide. They were warrior women and great lovers. Not much is known about them, save for bits and pieces in song and legend. They stood together, bound by blood and honor, and I believe… they died together during a great battle.” He stared at Delilah and Camille’s daggers, a somber look on his face. “You bear the weapons of warrior women. Do not disgrace your legacy.”
“I wonder if Father knew what these were. I don’t know where he got them, but one day he brought them home and said they were for us. Many years back when we were just starting out with the YIA.” Camille hung her head. “I doubt we’ll ever know now… how much he understood of their nature.”
I cleared my throat, not wanting to let the mood fall into a melancholy state. “We have work to do. We can reminisce later.”
And so, fueled by cookies and pot after pot of tea, we spent the next hour planning out our strategy. It felt odd, having an actual plan of action, and part of me wondered how much our luck relied on our haphazard and chaotic nature. Well, we were going to find out. That much was for sure.
By the time we headed out for the Farantino Building, it was six twenty. We were cutting it close. We had an hour and forty minutes until Lowestar decided to play Keymaster-Gatekeeper; only this was real and not Ghostbusters.
The plans had shown that the way in was via a secret passage located in a broom closet. It could also be reached from a passage in Lowestar’s office. The broom closet was our likelier target, given that the daemon probably kept his office highly warded. I had visions of bombs destroying the building if we barged in without an expert.
I’d suggested bringing Daniel in on this, but Camille and Delilah nixed the idea immediately as too dangerous for him. He was, after all, FBH. And they also refused to call Chase to tell him about our plans.
“He’s risking enough with his regular job, now that he has Astrid. With Sharah gone, he’s the only guardian that baby has and we’re not about to put him in any form of danger if we can help it.”
For someone who didn’t want kids, Camille sure had a protective nature toward them. But then again, she’d been our protector when Delilah and I were little, and she’d never grown out of it. I had the feeling she never would.
“Okay, but I have to tell Nerissa where we’re going. And Hanna and Trillian and Roz need to know, too.”
They agreed with that, so while we were on the way over, I called home. I got hold of Roz and asked him to get Nerissa for me. When she came on the phone, my heart leapt at her voice.
“We’re on our way in to try to stop Lowestar, love.” I told her what had gone down at Carter’s. “We don’t have a choice. It’s move tonight or risk him succeeding. We have no idea whether he can actually manage this, but we don’t dare take a chance that he can.”
Her voice was shaky. “I understand and I’ll tell Trillian and Roz. Promise me you’ll be careful? Promise me you won’t do anything stupid?”
I didn’t want her to cry. I didn’t want to scare her. I was about to tell her to man up, but then, I realized that maybe she was scared because she loved me. Maybe she needed to feel what she was feeling and not repress her fear.
I sought for something that would tell her I loved her. Words alone just weren’t enough at times. And then I knew. “Honey?”
I could imagine her perfect pink lips mouthing the word yes as she spoke softly into the phone.
“I’m wearing the beads. I had Camille braid them into my hair. I love them—they’re perfect. And so are you.” And then before I could stop myself, I choked on my words, and dashed away the threat of a tear, stoically ignoring the looks Smoky and Morio were giving me. Camille didn’t glance over her shoulder, though I knew she was listening.
Nerissa started to cry then and I felt both helpless and a little gratified. “I am not perfect, and neither are you. You don’t listen to me, and you try to protect me when I don’t need protecting. You turn yourself off—you shut down when I cry or get upset. But I still love you, damn it. Even though you put me on a pedestal, which you know I hate, I love you!”
I bit my lip, my fangs descending as I tried to find the right words to defuse the situation. But then I realized I was doing it again. I was shutting down, falling back on logic, sidestepping her emotion.
“I know. I’m sorry. I do that. I really do. I’ll try to do better—but you have to understand how hard this is for me. I spent years cultivating my self-control, and I’m afraid that if I lose that, if so much as a crack appears, I won’t be able to control my predator!” Again I glared at Morio. And Smoky, who was looking over his shoulder at me.
Nerissa paused… I could hear her heart through the phone, it was beating so loud. She cleared her throat. “I never knew that you were afraid of that. I didn’t know… I thought you just were uncomfortable expressing emotion.”
“Only because I’m afraid that if I let myself go, I’ll… really let myself go and then I’ll hurt somebody. And if I hurt you, I’d never, ever forgive myself. Listen, love, I have to go. We’re almost at the Farantino Building. Tell Trillian and Roz what we’re up to, and we’ll talk when I get home.”
She laughed, just a little, but it was enough. “Be careful, you beautiful, sexy vamp you. You’re my wife. And you’re the only woman in the world for me.”
I could hear the relief in her voice. “And you… you’re my heart’s desire. I’ll see you later. Don’t wait up.”
“Right. That’s a good one.” And then she hung up and I leaned back. At least I had cleared the air. Now we could start to work on strengthening our relationship.
