The Others: On The Prowl Part 4

"Thank you," Saskia repeated, and squeezed warmly. "I knew there was something I liked about you the minute I met you. I would dearly love to be able to consider you a friend."

Corinne grinned and squeezed back. "Oh, sweetie, with a fiance who acted like yours did last night, I'm honor bound as a woman to be your friend. We have to stick together against the idiocy of the testosterone-poisoned half of the world. Now let's get back to what your knucklehead did last night. Did he really walk out in the middle of the night without telling you a thing about where he was going?"

Saskia nodded. "When I asked what was going on, he told me he didn't have time for me."

The human woman's expression turned furious. "Oh, no, he didn't," she hissed, her eyes narrowing into angry slits. "You need to tell me everything. Word for word. Right now."

So, Saskia did. Her explanation did little to calm her new friend, though. Corinne's feelings for Nicolas's shabby treatment were stamped all over her face, the anger sending their waitress scampering to deliver their refills with speed never before seen south of midtown. When Saskia got to the part where her fiance had literally rolled off her naked body at the point of no return, Corinne almost choked on her coffee.

"Wait just a second," the human snapped, setting her mug down with an ominous thunk. "Let me see if I got this straight. Are you telling me that not only did the man leave you in the middle of the night after a phone call where you heard him ask if one of your party guests was dead, but he did it before you even managed to have the s.e.x every single member of your family and community expects you to have as a matter of fricking civic duty?"

Saskia squirmed. When she heard it laid out like that, she felt almost as if she should be defending her fiance, no matter what a louse he'd acted like. "I doubt he thought of it quite like that-"

Corinne cut her off with an impatient gesture. "I doubt he thought at all. Clearly, he didn't think about how you would feel to be abandoned on what amounts to your wedding night without so much as a word of explanation. And it doesn't sound to me like he even thought about the fact that common courtesy might require him to ... oh, I don't know ... make sure you knew he wasn't lying dead in a ditch somewhere this morning!"

The woman cut herself off, closed her eyes, and drew in a deep, slow breath. Saskia watched in fascination.

"Sorry about that," Corinne said after a controlled exhalation. "I didn't actually intend to channel the spirit of my mother just then, especially not since she's alive and well and perfectly capable of saying the same thing herself. Which she would, if she heard about this, I can promise you."

"Um, thanks."

"No problem." Corinne fortified herself with a gulp of coffee before continuing. "All right, so setting aside the fact that your man is the hands-down winner of this week's award for Idiot MaleEpic Screwup Category, I suppose that for once, my inside sources on the Council of Others will be used for a higher purpose. It almost makes me feel n.o.ble. Usually, I'm just there for the gossip."

"What are your inside sources? Your mate?"

"G.o.d, no. Thankfully, the Fae don't sit on the Council, so we get to avoid all that messy political c.r.a.p. Luc doesn't really have the patience for it, anyway. He's a fighter, not a lover. No, two of my best friends are married to Council members. They always know what's going on, even when their husbands aren't supposed to tell them about it."

Saskia marveled at that. She couldn't imagine a relationship like that, where the male confided everything in his mate, but it sounded like something she wanted. If she was going to try to build a new kind of mating with Nicolas, that was the sort of ideal that would be worth working toward.

"Missy and Reggie," Corinne continued. "Missy is the kindergarten teacher I told you about. Too sweet for her own good, but basically irresistible. You two ought to get along like a house on fire. I think you've got a lot in common. Missy's husband is head of the local werewolf pack."

"Melissa and Graham Winters?" The names clicked into place, opening up Saskia's mental database of people she needed to know. "They're your friends?"

"Yup. Well, Missy is. I think Graham looks at me more as an annoying but amusing accessory in his wife's wardrobe. He's okay, though. He worships Missy, and that's the important part."

"And Reggie?"

"Regina, actually. She's the best source. Graham is on the Council, but Reggie's husband was the head of it for, like, two decades or more. Which is nothing to a vampire, I suppose, but it did give him pretty uncanny instincts for what's going on under the surface there."

Regina. Married to a vampire. A vampire who had led the Council for an unusually long period of time. The facts lined up like symbols on a slot machine.

"Regina and Dmitri Vidme."

"Hey, you're good." The human looked impressed. "I have trouble remembering the names of all my cousins. How do you do that with people you've never even met?"

Saskia shrugged. "It's my job."

"Huh. I must have missed that section of the want ads."

That earned a smile. "Or you didn't get the Tiguri edition of the newspaper. I mentioned we kinda dig on tradition, right? Part of that includes some pretty intensive protocol training, at least for women in the prominent families. Girls are raised to become ... political hostesses, I guess. Remembering names and faces is like a 101 course."

"I'd ask you to teach me your tricks, but then people might start expecting me to remember them, and really that's just more trouble than it's worth." She pushed aside her empty mug. "So anyway, back to the subject at hand. The Council. According to Reggie, the Council called an emergency meeting last night because someone-currently unidentified-attacked Rafe last night after he left your party. Tried to kill him, from what I hear."

Shock pressed Saskia back in her seat. "Rafe? Rafael De Santos? But I spoke with him last night just before he left. Why would someone want to kill him?"

Corinne lifted an eyebrow. "I've wanted to do it a time or two. I'm just not the sort to get the Council into a lather. Rafe's a great guy, don't get me wrong, but he can be an arrogant p.r.i.c.k sometimes. And the head of the Council is never the most popular guy in town. Council decisions are always offending one group or another. I don't think anyone was surprised that someone would want to kill Rafe, just that they managed to get close enough to him to try."

"Was he hurt?"

"Not from what Reggie told me. She said the only thing he hurt was his pride. The guy jumped him from behind, took him totally off guard."

"The guy? So they know who did it?"

Corinne shook her head. "A figure of speech. I mean, who else would attack Rafe but a man? The only woman who might be big enough to take him would have to be half giant, right? I mean, the dude looks like a useless, elegant cover model, but I've seen him get p.i.s.sed. It's not pretty. And not something any of the women I know would want to go up against. Including the shifters."

Saskia conceded the point. "Then they don't know the ident.i.ty of his attacker."

"Not yet, but I think it's pretty clear they have their suspicions."

Another good point, one that Saskia had been trying to avoid. "You mean they suspect my Nicolas."

Corinne shrugged, but her gaze remained glued on her friend's face. "It seems like a pretty logical a.s.sumption, given the timing of the phone call you got last night and the mood you said he was in when he left. What I want to know is, why?"

"Why would being accused of attempted murder make Nicolas angry?"

"No, why would anyone think that a newly engaged Tiguri with every reason to look forward to a ... ahem ... satisfying night with his new mate would rather be out jumping someone else?"

Saskia groaned. The answer to that question was even more complicated than the traditional Tiguri mating customs. How could she boil it down so the human would understand it without giving her a full-fledged lesson in the history of the Others?

"Has anyone mentioned to you just why the Tiguri and our marriages have become such a hot topic of conversation recently?"

"Not really. I guess I just a.s.sumed it was like when a new kid shows up at school one day. People just get curious."

Saskia had heard worse a.n.a.logies, but ...

"Think of it less like a new kid just showed up at school and more like you just met your new neighbor and found out he was Genghis Khan."

Corinne blinked. "You plan to sack the city, ma.s.sacre any resistance, enslave the survivors, and dine atop the b.l.o.o.d.y corpses?"

"Not me personally, but I think that's what the Council believes is my family's ultimate goal. Mine and Nicolas's."

"That's one heck of an a.s.sumption," Corinne mused. "Have you given them any reason to believe that's what you guys are after?"

"I don't think they need a reason." Briefly she outlined the history between the Tiguri and the larger Other population. "So, naturally, the Lupines tend to be the most suspicious, but most other shifters are a little wary of us. The vampires just work around us, and magic users generally could care less. Unless they're trying to get their hands on little bits of us to use in their spells."

"Considering how powerful the Silverbacks are in the city, I'd say you're not going to find yourself making coffee for the Welcome Wagon." Corinne shook her head. "Are your families really sure moving here is worth it?"

Saskia laughed, completely unamused. "Are you suggesting they might have asked me first?"

"You know, I don't understand you at all," Corinne said, leaning back in her chair and eyeing Saskia curiously. "I like you, but I don't understand you. You're clearly intelligent, you're well educated-I overheard you talking to that NYU professor last night about some Renaissance painter I've never even heard of. You're beautiful and not even remotely airheaded...."

"But?"

"But you don't seem to have any problem letting your father or your fiance tell you how to run your life. It just baffles me."

"There are days when it baffles me, too."

"No, seriously."

"Seriously," Saskia agreed. "In general, I have no problem with tradition. I like the sense of continuity and safety in knowing what's expected of everyone around me. And no one has ever forced me to do anything I really didn't want to do. My parents love me. Sure, they raised me with certain rules and expectations, but they never tried to take away my sense of self or denied me anything I really wanted."

"But your fiance sure did."

It took Saskia a minute and a glance at the mischief in the other woman's eyes to catch her meaning. When she did, she flushed predictably. "Well, yes, I suppose so, but I know where he sleeps now. He can't avoid me forever."

Corinne laughed. "True." She glanced at her watch. "Hopefully, he can stop avoiding you any minute now. Missy and Reggie told me that come h.e.l.l or high water, the Council would be adjourning by ten. Even Others need to sleep eventually. With any luck, your man is already on his way home."

"Really? Just like that?" Saskia sat up and reached for her purse. "They won't try to hold him, or anything, will they? Has he been officially accused of the attack?"

"I seriously doubt it. If they had any proof he was involved, I doubt they'd have issued a polite summons to ask him to come to them. They would have shown up on your doorstep and dragged him away in chains."

"The summons wasn't all that polite, remember?"

Corinne stood and left cash on the table to pay for their coffee, waving away Saskia's attempt to take care of it. "This is on me. Trust me, though, for the Council, that summons was as polite as it gets. Those folks don't mess around."

Saskia feared she was right.

Four.

Saskia hurried home from the cafe, tapping her foot impatiently until the cabbie turned up his radio to drown her out. Thankfully, the music also covered up the sounds of her growling every time they got stuck at a red light. By the time they pulled to a stop outside Nicolas's building, she was so anxious to get upstairs that she threw enough money at the man to pay for a dozen trips just so she wouldn't have to wait while he counted. She positively ran past the doorman, not even pausing to acknowledge his greeting as she pushed impatiently at the elevator b.u.t.ton and all but danced in place while she waited for it to arrive.

She darted into the car the minute the doors opened and got a look at the way the doorman frowned at her with the phone to his ear while she stabbed at the "doors close" b.u.t.ton. Less than thirty seconds later, the doors opened again, disgorging her into the lobby of Nicolas's private floor. The door to the apartment swung open even as she fumbled in her purse for the key she'd snagged from the hook in the kitchen.

"Just where in h.e.l.l have you been, woman?" Nicolas roared at her, the force of the demand literally backing her up a step.

Saskia froze, her eyes widening. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, where the h.e.l.l have you been?" he repeated, reaching out to grasp her arm and pull her into the apartment. The door snapped shut behind him with a tone of finality, and suddenly Saskia found herself standing in the barely familiar living room wringing her purse in her hands while the fiance she'd spent the morning worrying and obsessing over glared at her like an accused criminal.

Wasn't that an ironic about-face?

"Well?" he prompted, crossing his arms over his chest and staring down at her from his intimidating height.

The female inside her urged her to open her mouth and confess, apologize, mollify her mate, but Saskia bit back the urge. She hadn't done anything wrong. If Nicolas hadn't wanted her to leave the apartment, then he should have told her that last night before he left. Even better, he should have stayed put himself. Then she would have had no reason to try to pry information about her own fiance out of a near stranger.

"Saskia..." The low growl was a warning.

She drew back her shoulders and mustered a glare of her own. "I went out for coffee, if you must know."

"If I must know?" he repeated and prowled a step closer. "Oh, believe me, little tigress, I definitely must know. But why did you need to go out for coffee? I searched the entire apartment for you when I got back. I saw the pot of coffee you brewed, and your used cup in the sink. Was there something wrong with the coffee you made here?"

He had dropped his arms and stepped forward until he loomed over her, clearly trying to bully her into feeling guilty. Well, Saskia wouldn't have it. Deliberately, she turned her back on him and stepped away, heading toward the bedroom as if she hadn't a care in the world. She heard him curse as he followed her, and laid a hand against her stomach to try to calm the b.u.t.terflies that cavorted inside.

"There was nothing wrong with the coffee in the kitchen," she said, setting her purse down on the low table in the sitting area of the huge suite. After taking a fortifying breath, she turned to face him and lifted her chin defiantly. "But I like company when I drink it, and since I didn't know when you might be back, I went out to get some."

The muscle in the side of Nicolas's jaw clenched so tight, Saskia thought it might burst right through the skin. His eyes darkened to a shade of green that reminded her of dense, dimly lit forests, and when he spoke she didn't think he managed to separate his teeth by so much as a millimeter.

"We announced our engagement last night and you went out this morning to have coffee with another man?" he asked, his voice so deep and low, Saskia had to strain to hear it. That, more than anything, sent a chill of apprehension shivering through her.

When the words finally registered, she gasped with indignation. "What? No! Of course I didn't meet another man. What sort of person do you think I am?"

Her mate's nostrils flared and she saw his hands clench into fists at his sides.

"I don't know, Saskia. Why don't you explain it to me."

It wasn't a suggestion.

"I had coffee with a friend. A female friend," she clarified hastily when she saw his lips draw back to reveal the beginnings of fangs where his canines would normally be. "Like I said, I didn't know when you'd be home."

She hated that she sounded defensive, but that was how she felt. Actually, she felt so many things at that moment, she couldn't begin to separate them all. Anger over his disappearing act, indignation at his accusations, relief that he had returned home safely. Frustration with his typical ther att.i.tude.

A stirring of unwilling arousal.

Saskia swallowed a curse and hoped he was too distracted by his own emotions to detect that last bit in her scent. For him to know she still wanted him after the way he'd treated her last night and this morning would be the final blow to her self-respect.

"And it never occurred to you to wait for me?" he rumbled. "That it might concern me to come home and find you gone? That I might fear something had happened to you?"

"Apparently not," she snapped, fisting her hands on her hips and stifling the urge to scream in frustration. "Just like it apparently never occurred to you that I might worry when you left. In the middle of the night. Without a single word about where you were going or why you had to leave or when you might be back. Looks like we're both thoughtless rudesbys."

Nicolas stilled in mid-prowl, his breath coming out in a hiss. "What? Is that what this was about? About getting even? Were you trying to punish me for not stopping to answer all your questions last night? I told you, I didn't have time to explain. I needed to hurry. But somehow you decided that gave you the right to disappear like a spoiled brat playing hooky instead of waiting for me to come home?" He stalked toward her again, herding her backward until she had to dart sideways to keep from being trapped against the wall. "Because if that's what this was, I need to tell you, it's completely unacceptable."

Saskia felt her jaw drop and her eyes widen until she felt sure she resembled nothing so much as a goldfish in an oxygen-poor fishbowl. "Unacceptable?!" she sputtered.

"Unacceptable," he repeated, following her around the side of an armchair and toward the other end of the room. The end occupied most noticeably by the enormous carved walnut bed. "When I tell my mate to wait for me, I expect to return to find her where I left her. I do not expect to find her missing with no explanation about where she's gone or when she'll be back. Not that a note would have saved your a.s.s in this case," he mused, his eyes glinting dangerously, "but it might have kept me from spending quite so much time planning your punishment."

Punishment???

That was it. Saskia reached the end of her rope and snapped free with a howl of indignation. She launched herself at her fiance with the ferocity of a raging fury, all fiery eyes and snapping teeth. How dare he tell her she needed to be punished when he wouldn't even acknowledge his own rude, arrogant, inconsiderate, and downright mean behavior from the night before? Oh, he was going to regret that, from the b.a.l.l.s up, if Saskia had anything to say about it.

He caught her attacking form in his huge, powerful hands, but he clearly hadn't expected her to be quite so strong. That's what blind outrage could do for a girl. He had to struggle to keep her at arm's length, and even then avoiding her kicking feet and striking knees presented an altogether different challenge. Saskia heard him curse and hoped she was. .h.i.tting something vital. She knew she hadn't gotten at his groin yet, but just give her a chance; she was determined.

"G.o.ddammit, Sa.s.s! What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?" he bellowed, finally giving up on holding her away from him and twisting to tumble them both to the bed, where he could pin her more effectively with the weight of his body. "Would you calm down?"