Under the Moon (34 page)

“There are more important things.”

She pulled up next to the Charger, which looked forlorn in its forward cant. “You could have died. I’d rather lose my abilities than lose you.” Before the weight of her words could settle, she continued. “Marley may be working with him, or she could just be incredibly stupid. And she’s my sister.” Quinn held up a hand and closed her eyes for a second, the truth of the relationship coming home to her. “I don’t have to like her or condone anything she’s done. But I would never forgive myself if we left her and something happened.”

Nick took a deep breath. Quinn knew he understood. Family was what drove him, wasn’t it? And he’d dedicated his life to keeping others safe. He had to get that this was what she was trying to do now.

“All right. I’ll consider it. After we hear the rest of what she has to say, we’ll discuss our next move.”

“Thank you.” She nodded toward his car. “If I get that out of there, will you be able to drive it up?”

“Yeah, sure. Leg’s fine now.”

In three seconds, the car had risen up a few feet, spun on its rear wheels, and settled onto the gravel at the end of the drive. “I’ll see you there.”

Nick growled at her, but he switched cars and followed her up the drive to the house. Sam came out as they climbed the steps, and he stopped them on the porch.

“I’ve talked to Marley a little. All her guests have left except the one couple we met earlier. They’re going on an overnight trip and will be gone within the hour.”

“So she’s been preparing for this,” Quinn observed. “That woman said the inn was booked, but this means she hasn’t been taking new guests.”

Sam scowled. “So is she part of it, or did this guy manipulate her into getting you here? You know, let her know her sister was his main target. Those kidnappers were hers. She said they were under orders to keep you safe but not tell you anything.” He peered into the bag and sniffed. “You got sausage?”

“With peppers.” Quinn nudged Sam with her elbow. “What else did you find out?”

“Not much. She wanted to wait for you. Says she’s worried about what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

“It’s best if I meet him at my peak power. I know that’s his best time to leech me,” she said before Nick could open his mouth, “but it’s also when I’m strongest, and he’s not taking me by surprise like he did the others. I’m going to be a bitch to leech, and he might be cocky after the first ones were so easy. Plus, if Marley’s telling the truth, she’s vulnerable. If he comes here and I’m gone, he might do something major.”

“Like what, killing Marley in rage?” Sam asked.

She nodded and repeated to him what she’d told Nick. “If she’s part of this, we’re better off keeping her with us, where we can see her. If she’s not, she has all her power sources here, arranged for effectiveness. She knows the house and property, and if she’s sorry for what she’s done, she’ll be an asset in a fight.”

Nick clenched his jaw and tapped the foot of his bad leg. “I’ll go for it. But I’m front line, and there are no arguments about that.”

“Of course. Let’s go eat.”

Chapter Thirteen

But the goddess didn’t believe her grandmother. The man was handsome and charming, and he’d even saved the goddess from falling into the pond. The first time he whispered her name and kissed her fingers, she fell in love. When he lamented that they could never be together because of her gifts and his lack, she eagerly bestowed upon him a portion of her ability. Thus began their tragedy.

—“The Goddess and the Leech,” from
Tales of the Descendants of Asgard

…

They carried the food inside, where an older woman was now helping Marley form cinnamon rolls from the dough she’d worked with earlier.

“You’re back!” Marley cried. “Quinn, this is my assistant manager, Fran. Fran, my sister.”

Quinn stepped forward and shook the woman’s hand, then had to wipe sticky dough off her fingers with a towel. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Same, I suppose.”

“Fran,” Marley scolded.

“It’s okay.” Quinn studied her. “I’ve been told she’s protective.”

Fran glared at Sam, who held his hands up at his sides in an innocent gesture.

“Are you in the business?” Nick asked, moving next to Quinn and snitching a bit of dough.

“What business?” Fran lifted her chin and looked down her nose at Nick, though he was a good six inches taller than she was. With her salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a clipped loop at the back of her neck and silver half-spectacles sitting on her nose, their chain dangling, she looked like a librarian. But something in her demeanor said she could kick all of their asses.

“Protection business.”

“None of yours.” She went back to rolling out the dough.

Nick mouthed, “She’s in the business,” to Quinn and filched another bit of dough.

“The food’s getting cold.” Quinn returned to the table and set out the grinders. Marley carried sealed bottles of water to the table and passed them around.

“You don’t trust me yet,” she said in response to Quinn’s inquiring glance. “I know this is a minor thing…”

“It’s fine. Thank you.”

Nick didn’t look convinced, but by now, Quinn was too tired of the strain of suspicion to care.

“Okay, Marley. Spill.”

Marley swallowed hard, her eyes darting everywhere but at Quinn. “I have to go back a ways.”

“To Anson.”

“Yes.” She grimaced at her sandwich and set it on the paper wrapper with only a few bites gone. “You met our father, right?”

Quinn nodded.

“He told you I collect misfits or something like that?”

Fran grunted, and Marley patted her hand almost absently.

“He did.”

“I don’t consider them misfits. But there’s something about all of us that doesn’t fit into society. Or
the
Society. A few years ago, I got tired of the politics and attitude of the goddesses in charge.”

Quinn hid her annoyance and automatic need to defend her peers.

Marley continued. “Someone somewhere told someone else that I’d started this inn way up here, a getaway, and she came to work for me as a maid. She said she couldn’t find a job anywhere else because of a felony conviction when she was seventeen and tried as an adult. She was an excellent employee, and she worked here for years before she decided to head south for college. She told some friends about me, who told other people, and soon I had a steady stream of workers and friends who were quirky in some way.” She glanced at Fran. “The Protectorate didn’t like the idea of so much in and out and sent Fran up here. She quit the official Protectorate a while ago but does the job anyway.”

“I knew it,” Nick muttered. When Fran glared at him, he grinned and crunched a potato chip.

“Anson?” Sam prompted.

“He came here three years ago, wanting to be my assistant.”

Sam flinched. He looked at Quinn out of the corner of his eye, then back at Marley as if nothing had happened. Quinn wondered if he was reacting to the job title or something else.

“At the time I had a lull in active business but was going crazy trying to take and organize bookings, as well as the people who wanted appointments for goddess work. So I hired him. He was like a sponge, soaking up everything I taught him. He learned all he could about goddess history and ability, and he was whiz on the computer.”

“How old is he?” Sam asked, his voice rough.

“Twenty-eight.”

Sam closed his eyes, then pushed his chair back and walked out of the room. Quinn started to get up, but Nick put his hand on her thigh. “I’ll go.” He gave a chin-jerk to Marley. “You listen.”

“So he’s younger than you are,” Quinn said. “But you guys fell in love?”

Marley seemed to shrink down into her shoulders. “We did. Or, I thought we did. We were having very passionate sex because I get so…you know, whenever I use a lot of power.”

Boy, did she know. This was the first time she’d heard of anyone else suffering from it and wondered if it was a family trait. The similarities to Sam and herself creeped her out. She was glad that Sam had left the room, almost gladder that Nick had, though they hadn’t gone far. Low voices drifted to her from down the hall.

“It grew from there. Last spring he proposed, and in July—” Marley swallowed hard. “In July, I did the stupidest thing in the world. I wanted him to be like me. We shared everything but that, and I knew he felt inferior because of it. I had to even the field or I was afraid that over time, it would kill our relationship.”

How could she be so stupid? “So you just ignored everything we’ve been taught about leeches?”

Tears filled Marley’s oddly pale eyes. “He said it wasn’t true, that he’d done research and it was lies told to keep men from taking power from us. He told me how to focus power through a big quartz geode into him. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. He sucked it right up and started moving things around. He found a rash on someone’s leg and healed it in seconds. He was giddy with his abilities. That was the happiest night of my life.” She swiped her fingers across her cheeks. “The next day, he was gone, and so was my geode.”

Quinn understood how devastating that betrayal had to have been, but Marley’s gullibility was hard to believe. “When did you hear about Tanda and Chloe?” she asked.

“A few days after Chloe was leeched. It was like being stabbed in the heart. I was already feeling used, and then to learn he might have done
this
. Someone I loved, that I thought I knew everything about. I called the Society, then went down to Boston to meet with them. I—” She faltered for the first time. “I told them about you. I’d talked to Anson about you and about how I wished I hadn’t been so cowardly and had a relationship with you.” She heaved a sigh. “And I told him how powerful you are, except you don’t have constant access. I think he decided that if he leeched other goddesses and then you, he could have your level of power, or more, all the time.”

Everything fell into place. “So that’s why the Society margin-alized me.”

“They don’t trust me now and probably extended it to you.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Part of Quinn wanted to comfort Marley, but the rest of her held a futile fury. The two canceled each other out, leaving her with nothing to say.

Sam and Nick walked into the room, both looking grim. Quinn repeated what Marley had told her.

Nick scowled at Marley. “You used the present tense.”

She sniffed and frowned at him. “What?”

“You said Anson
is
your fiancé.”

“Oh.” Her face reddened. “No matter what I hear, a part of me doesn’t want it to be true. I love him.” Her shoulders lifted in a hunch. “We still don’t have proof…” Her voice grew faint and trailed off. No one bothered to point out how foolish that was.

“So now you get to the part about flipping Sam’s car,” Nick said.

Marley rested her head on her hands, elbows propped on the table. “I didn’t know what to do. I knew you were a target, but I was even more scared to contact you when I found out. Tanda and Chloe are your friends, and your protector’s the famous Nick Jarrett.”

Nick smirked.

“I called Under the Moon, and the woman who answered said you were out of town indefinitely. So I flew to Ohio and traced your path. Then I projected where you might be going, found a place to watch, and set it up.”

“To kill me,” Sam accused.

“No! To deter you.” She shook her head. “I hoped if it seemed someone was trying to hurt you, you’d back off.”

“But…”

“But you didn’t. One of my friends is a top-level hacker. He piggybacked on all your research, and it was obvious you weren’t going to stop. So I sent some of my staff to get Quinn and bring you back here so we could talk. And you’d be safe.”

“You don’t believe I would have been safe from Anson here alone with you, do you?” Quinn asked.

Grief filled Marley’s eyes. “I didn’t know what else to do.”