Dark Solace (5 page)

“Sar, the Harvesters are still out there,”
Theo answered, hanging up the phone. “I’m not going to take the
chance that they might hurt you or Devon. We have to go back until
I settle with them.”

Since I couldn’t say anything to the
contrary, I nodded. “Sorry. I forgot.”

“Come lie next to me?” Theo asked
tenderly.

I lay down beside him, and hugged him,
wondering if I should bring up Devlin.

“I love you. You make me so happy, Sar.”

Probably not the time to mention Dev. “You
make me happy, too. Your scent always comforts me—”

“What do you mean, my scent?” Theo said,
pulling back and then grimacing as his fresh stitches
tightened.

“I’ve never told you before that you smell of
prairie grass, pine forest, and wide blue skies? I must have, in
all our time together.”

Theo gave me a peculiar smile. “You never
said it, Sar. I would’ve remembered.”

“Well, you do,” I assured, snuggling into
him. “And I like that. I liked it from the first time I smelled
your jacket, that day after I first dreamed of you.”

“I remembered how surprised I was, when I saw
you had it in your bedroom,” Theo said tenderly. “I remember
wishing I had something of yours to smell when I thought of
you.”

“How do I smell to you?” I asked
hesitantly.

“You smell good,” Theo said, inhaling deeply.
“You smell of femaleness, warmth, and softness.”

“All females must smell like that,” I said,
rolling my eyes.

“But your scent carries something extra,”
Theo said. “Something like sunlight, and green things, maybe. I
can’t give it words. But when I smell you, I think of how good the
sun feels on me when I’m walking outside on a summer day.”

Danial and Devlin had always said I tasted of
summer. Maybe that was why. Or maybe I smelled of summer because
whatever was in my blood had that odd aspect. “Interesting to
know.”

“I love your scent,” Theo continued. “It was
hard to get used to the bit of vampire smell that’s mixed in now,
but I don’t notice it anymore, really—”

“How do vampires smell?” I asked. “You make
it sound like its bad. But they don’t smell bad to me.”

“Not bad, really,” Theo said, backpedaling.
“A little like fall, like damp earth—”

Something sounded familiar. What?

“—
and blood, usually. Almost always,
vampires smell of blood.”

I didn’t remember anyone smelling like blood
lately. Maybe it was nothing. I kissed Theo and held him close.
“Get some rest. There will be time enough tomorrow for
talking.”

* * * *

The next afternoon, after we had returned to
Danial’s, I reluctantly told Theo that I had decided to go to
Devlin that night to ask for his protection. Even with what he had
said to me the previous night, Theo immediately got upset.

“Why tonight?” he protested, flopping down on
Danial’s couch. “I know you don’t really want to go. I can smell it
on you, like you’re fighting with yourself.”

He was right. I’d have to fix that before
seeing Devlin, unless I wanted to blow my deal with Lash to hell.
“Because you were right last night; we need him. And I’ve put it
off long enough.”

“I don’t want you to go back to him,” Theo
said, drawing me down into his lap. “It’s been great sleeping with
you every night, and not having you leave every week.” He paused.
“But I get that you have to. You need to be there for Venus,
too.”

I wanted to squirm, I was so guilty. I had to
get out of here now before Danial came out from his bedroom to join
our discussion. My great vampire detective/lover wouldn’t be put
off by a few well-told lies. “I’ll be back as soon as I can—”

“Just call, if it’s going to be more than
overnight,” Theo interrupted, picking Devon up and hugging him.
“We’ll worry, otherwise. Won’t we?”

Calling out an affirmation, I transferred a
few necessary overnight items into a bag. When I loaded it into one
of Danial’s SUV’s, I also pocketed the transmitter from Theo’s
glove compartment. I’d give it back to Lash that night.

* * * *

I left early, stopping off at my old house
first. Warren hadn’t come back yet, but he was due any time.

I quickly went inside and got my invisible
box. It should read: It no longer contained Dev’s choker, only his
poetry. Did Devlin still have the choker I’d thrown at him the
night I discovered he and Catherine? I’d find out shortly.

I read the poetry quickly, hoping to feel
some loving spark kindle for Devlin. But the words just sounded
false to me, and I wondered how I could have ever believed
them.

I’d have to get Dev to give me his blood.
Once he did, I’d be in thrall to him again. If I couldn’t get out
of this, it was better to get it over with.

* * * *

I arrived at Hayden around three in the
afternoon. Lash answered the gate intercom, and let me inside. He
was waiting in the garage when I drove my truck in and parked.

I got out, and handed him the transmitter.
“Do you need to search me?”

He put it in his own truck, and then faced
me. “I’d say yes even if I trusted you,” he hissed, baring one
fang. “And I do. Assume the position.”

He searched me, then my bag. “Follow me to
Titus.”

When we reached Titus in his basement lab, he
turned to leave. “Wait for me,” I called.

Lash stopped, turning to look at me
curiously.

Titus raised his eyebrows. “She’s clean,” he
rumbled, then cast baleful eyes to Lash. “Watch yourself,
snake.”

Lash hissed at him, baring fang, then started
walking. “Mind your own shit. Move, Sar.”

What was that about? I gave Titus a smile,
then hurried after Lash.

He was waiting in the kitchen. “What do you
want with me?” he hissed, leaning back against the counter. “I have
things to do.”

“Serena’s not here, is she?” I asked. “And
neither is Dev?”

“Serena’s out shopping. Robin and she go
every week, and have lunch in town. They are getting to be good
friends.”

Was I supposed to feel jealous that she
had another friend besides me now? Jerk.
“And Dev?”

“Dev is with Venus. Titus is heading back
there shortly. He’ll be home about eight or nine.”

I had known I’d have hours to kill. Just not
this many. “That’s six hours.”

“I told you not to come until dusk,” Lash
hissed. “You’ll have to amuse yourself, I’m afraid.”

“So you’re just going to let me wander around
by myself?” I said, folding my arms. “You’ve never done that
before.”

“You always liked to work,” Lash said,
tilting his head. “Your filing downstairs is just as you left it.
Dev said over and over in the last few months that you would come
back and finish it. Now might be a time to get started. You’re safe
enough down there. You don’t need me.”

Crazy as it sounded, I didn’t want to be
alone with my thoughts. I wanted to have someone to talk to. I was
dreading dealing with Devlin. But at least filing would occupy me.
“I’ll go work on it,” I answered, defeated. “You’re right, there is
still a lot to do—”

“Do you want to see the gardens, before you
do?” Lash hissed suddenly. “You still do owe me a walk.”

“That would be nice,” I said with relief.
“Lead the way.”

The gardens were beautiful. Lash had taken my
suggestions, all of them. Being so late in the summer, most of the
flowers were up and blooming, though the early ones like the tulips
and pansies had faded. But I’d chosen carefully to ensure there
would be some flowers blooming all summer. The white and red roses
were still going strong. I picked one, and stuck it in the coil of
my hair, its long thorns helping to anchor it. I also picked some
flocks and bee balm for the kitchen table.

“Do you like everything?” Lash hissed
hesitantly. “Your notes were easy enough to follow.”

“They’re beautiful,” I said earnestly. “You
did a good job.”

Lash didn’t reply.

As we walked back to the house, I noticed six
large trees down near the forest edge, along with many smaller
ones. Some had fallen over a ditch, and broken a small stone bridge
that crossed it, sending some of the stones into the depression.
While two of the trees had been down some time, the other four
looked new, their visible inner bark a bright orange brown
color.

“What happened?” I asked. “Attack?”

“Storm,” Lash hissed. “Back two weeks ago, we
had close to tornado-force winds.” He pointed. “See there? The side
of the house is damaged also, though not badly. We are going to
have to erect scaffolding out here to fix it.”

“You need a spider,” I said
knowledgeably.

Lash gave me a strange look. “Titus could
probably make a regular one huge, but I don’t think—”

“I’m talking about a type of one man
support,” I said, trying not to laugh. “It’s called a spider. You
lower down a guy, and he works on the wall. It’s better than a
traditional scaffold, because you can lower it and raise it easily.
It mounts to the roof, so it would be easy to put one up. It would
save you a lot of time.”

Lash stopped walking, considering me with
tilted head. “How is it you know about this?” he hissed.

“I worked construction before I met Danial
and retired into luxury,” I teased. “I wasn’t always just a pretty
face.”

“That may be, but you aren’t physically
strong enough,” Lash hissed, looking me over. “Construction is a
man’s job. Why would anyone hire you?”

That irked me. “I didn’t build anything,” I
said defensively. “I checked sites for violations sometimes. To do
that, I had to know some of the terminology, and what was best to
use for different jobs.”

Lash looked at me, incredulous. “You’re
pulling my tail.”

Now I was pissed off. “It was just an idea,”
I replied, then turned to go. “But don’t take my advice, jerk. Go
figure it out for yourself—”

Lash reached out and grabbed my arm. “Do you
have pictures of this, so I can see what you’re talking about?”

“No, but I could find you some on the
Internet,” I offered frostily. “If you are nice.”

“I’m always nice,” Lash hissed, grinning. “At
least to you.”

I didn’t think so, but kept that to myself.
“I’ll find you some when I go inside. There must be another
computer at Hayden besides Dev’s laptop, right?”

Lash nodded. “Devlin has another one in his
study. I’ll take you there.”

I hadn’t even known Devlin had a study.
“Okay.”

Lash led me down to the basement. Only this
time, instead of turning left, he turned right towards the dungeon
side. The first door in that hall was huge, made of oak. He opened
it. “After you.”

I walked in, looking around. Devlin’s study
was larger than I expected. The walls were all bookshelves to the
ceiling. It was surprising to know he read this much. As expected,
one huge section was all poetry. The others were varied, from
Samurai Tactics, U.S. military strategy, and Torture Practices of
the Sudan to How to Make Friends and Influence People, 101 days of
Sodom, and Justine.

“The computer is there,” Lash said quietly,
breaking my thoughts.

I turned it on, and booted it up. Soon, I was
printing him out pictures of the scaffolding I had described to
him.

“This might save us a lot of time,” Lash
hissed, studying the sheets. “I’ll see if I can’t rent one of these
instead of building wooden scaffolding. It’s a waste of
lumber.”

“You talk like you’ve worked construction,
too,” I said, looking over at him curiously.

“Like you, I wasn’t always what I am now,”
Lash replied. “I did construction in my youth.” He cracked a smile.
“But unlike you, I did build things.”

An ideal job if you were a snake in Florida.
Lash would have been out in the sun all day, and he was certainly
strong enough. “I’m glad to help out,” I said, flicking off the
computer. “If you need help with those trees, I can bring my
chainsaw. One more blade cutting can make a huge difference.”

Lash looked at me like I had to be joking. It
was also obvious that he didn’t think I would be much benefit. “If
you want to help, we are doing it this coming Friday. It’s supposed
to be clear that day. The equipment is being delivered the day
before.”

“I’ll come,” I affirmed, standing up. “But
now I’d better start on my filing.” Heading into the records room,
I began looking through the last non-white box.

Lash leaned against the door and watched me.
It had been a while since he had done that, but it was familiar
enough that I didn’t worry about it. I was surprised, though, after
his admission that watching me wasn’t necessary.

When I finished the last box, I thought about
starting on the white boxes, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Instead I leaned on the open drawer, running my fingers aimlessly
down the files I’d marked. I didn’t want to file anything else. I
wanted to go curl up somewhere. I really, really didn’t want to
face Devlin.

There was a furtive movement behind me. I
turned around fast, startled to find myself looking straight into
Lash’s flat eyes. To my surprise, he wasn’t as tall as Danial, or
Devlin, or even Theo; he was just over my own height. I’d never
noticed that before.

“Sar, come have dinner,” Lash offered,
something close to affection in his tone. “Devlin will be home
soon, and you should eat something. He will not be letting you
leave the bed, once you say you want him back.”

“I thought you wanted me to work,” I said
shortly, trying not to shudder at his words. “I thought—”

Lash reached out and hugged me, making me
freeze. “You don’t have to eat with me,” he hissed hesitantly. “But
you should eat something. Your body is still recovering from giving
life.”

I smelled his scent again, autumn leaves,
leather, and musk. And earth, under them all. “Want to take me for
sushi?” I said softly. “I haven’t been, since that day with
you.”