“Okay,” I say, biting my lip again. It draws his gaze to my mouth. “I’ll tell you, but you have to keep it secret. It could be dangerous if the wrong person found out about me.”
He grins and grips my thigh in a gesture meant to be supportive and comforting, but his thoughts say, Oh, honey, I am the wrong person, you just don’t know it.
And then I get images of past rituals. I see him sacrifice a water sprite—a young woman, looking so sickly and helpless, drugged by a dark magic roofie—and he takes her life force by drinking her blood. I want to be sick. I want to kill this jerk.
Nick must see the change in me, because suddenly he’s right there, grabbing Elijah’s hand and taking it off my thigh. I don’t want to know how hard he’s crunching it, but Elijah’s face flushes red and he winces, flexing his hand when Nick finally lets him go. Nick leans in close to him as he hauls me to my feet and says, “Get your own. This one is mine.”
It’s the perfect line, because it challenges Elijah, who is obviously prideful; it clarifies that I am indeed an underworlder; and most importantly, it tells Elijah that Nick only wants me because I’m an underworlder. For these reasons, I don’t kick Nick in the balls for treating me like a possession.
Nick pulls me away from Elijah, but not far enough that he can’t still hear us. “Baby,” he admonishes me quietly, “what are you doing? You can’t tell people what you are. The sidhe are so powerful, especially the Summer Court. You’re fey royalty, baby. People would kill you to get your power.”
Nice. Now I don’t have to come up with a type of fey on my own. Nick’s just given me the perfect cover story. I love that he’s right in sync with me on this mission. He’s the perfect partner. “But Nicky,” I whine. “He’s the leader of that group you want to join. We want him to trust us. I thought if he knew I’m an underworlder, maybe he’d let you in.”
“But we don’t know him yet. We’re just checking them out, remember? We don’t know if we can trust them.”
“Don’t forget I’m powerful, Nicky,” I say in full-on girly pout mode now. “I can take care of myself.”
Nick smiles at me and caresses my cheek. He lets his fingertips linger near the corner of my mouth. I’d be shocked by the move if it weren’t for the thoughts he’s sending me. It’s startling to hear him talking directly to me with his mind. He’s the first person who’s ever done that. You’re a hell of an actress, Spitfire. Too good. I didn’t like the way he was looking at you. Let’s just lie low for a bit. Let them chase us now.
I nod to let him know his message was received, and he lowers his fingers. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s go mingle with sorority girls.”
I snort, but we go find a couple of girls in Alpha Gamma Delta T-shirts and start learning about sorority life.
Nick and I kill about an hour chatting with sorority girls and having drinks. Nick even talks me into a dance. The entire time, members of Elijah’s brotherhood keep a close eye on us and start seemingly random friendly conversations with us. We can always tell when it’s one of them, and I’m pretty sure we’ve met all eleven of them now. They’re vetting Nick pretty hard, so I think they’ve decided they believe I’m sidhe, and now they’re just trying to find out if Nick would be willing to play along with their sick game.
They’ve managed to separate us, but we’re still in each other’s sight. Hooptie guy and a couple of his brothers have Nick cornered in the kitchen, where he went with them to get more drinks. The second I was left alone, Elijah reappeared, and now we’re sitting on the same couch as before. He’s got his arm around the back of the couch behind me and is leaning in very close.
He might be trying to seduce me, but his intentions are a lot more nefarious, because from the moment he came over to me, my intuition kicked in, sending tingles up my spine. Elijah means me harm. The feeling that I’m in danger isn’t too bad, so he must not mean to do anything to me tonight. My guess is that he’s decided to let Nick into his brotherhood, and he plans to have Nick sacrifice me on Tuesday during the blood moon. Every instinct I have is screaming at me to get the hell out of here, but I force myself to keep playing my part. We’re so close. We’re going to get Shandra and the others back.
“So you said you met Xavier at Underworld?” Elijah says. “Is he the one who told you about us?”
Xavier is a great out, considering he isn’t here and won’t be showing up to contradict me. I bob my head in a nod. “He wasn’t just spilling your secrets, of course. He met Nicky. See, there aren’t usually any humans in Underworld. Most humans don’t even know the underworld exists, so Nicky can’t ever talk about the things he’s learned with anyone. When I saw Xavier there, I got a little excited and told him Nicky was human, too. They hit it off right away.
“That’s when he told Nicky about your brotherhood. He said he thought there might be one spot left, and he’d rather Nicky join than some guy named Noah. He said he’d ask you about it, but then he ended up in the hospital. When he called to tell us about this party tonight, he said he didn’t get the chance to talk to you about Nicky yet, but that we should come and meet you guys anyway.”
Elijah sighs. “Not that I don’t like both you and your boyfriend, but Xavier still should have been more secretive about us. That’s one of the rules when joining; you don’t tell people about us.”
“Oh, I know all about that. Rule number one in the underworld is don’t tell humans about the underworld.”
Elijah gives me a wry smile. “Then how is it that your boyfriend knows all about it?”
I look away and try to blush. Who knows if it worked? But the feigned shyness does have the desired effect. Elijah moves his arm from the back of the couch to officially around me, letting his hand fall on my shoulder. His thoughts are a little jumbled. He’s attracted to me, and interested in my power, but he’s still suspicious. The fact that I feel human to him is keeping him wary. He doesn’t like how much I know about him. He doesn’t think Xavier would have blabbed about the brotherhood. He was a solid recruit. He’s also a little wary of Nick still. Nick is too perfect of a candidate. Elijah is concerned about the coincidence that he found us right when he was so desperate for one last member of his circle. He doesn’t like coincidences. He’s not quite ready to trust us yet.
“What are you doing dating a human anyway?” he asks in a soft voice. “Aren’t you supposed to keep to your own kind?”
“I’m sidhe,” I say in the demurest voice I’m capable of. “I’m part of the Summer Court. But I don’t like to stay there much. The sidhe are so emotionless and aloof. It gets boring.” And…I look up at him through my eyelashes. “Humans are a lot more fun. I don’t normally tell them my secrets, but Nicky is special. He’s so persuasive. I’ve really fallen hard for him.” I glance around us as if to make sure no one is listening, then whisper, “He wants me to petition the Summer King to turn him fey. He says he loves me and wants to be with me forever. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen when the humans are intriguing enough. I think Nicky has a chance. He’d make such a handsome faerie, don’t you think? He’s so strong and good-looking already, I can’t imagine him with the power of my people inside him as well.”
There. Let Elijah chew on that. He drops his arm from around me so that he can lean back. He looks me over with a very considering stare. When I frown at him, he forces a smile. “You’re a very interesting woman, Nora. And, if you don’t mind my saying so, the most beautiful one I’ve ever met.”
I giggle and swat his arm lightly. “Thank you for the compliment, but don’t let Nicky hear you say that. He wasn’t happy earlier. He thought you might be trying to steal me from him.”
Elijah leans in, and his eyes flash with intensity. “And what if I am?”
I allow my eyes to grow big, then I giggle again and shake my head once. “Then I’d say you have your work cut out for you. I’m devoted to Nicky. He’s so strong.”