“Darcy!”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“He’s one of your secret liaison deputies for a start. Injured under your watch.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’s fine. Last I heard he’s holed up on his boat, recuperating, probably taking some me time, reassessing his life choices and all that crap. All I’m saying is, if you’re not fastenough to get out of the way of a flying fairy figurine fired from a makeshift cannon, cobbled together by a seven month old, then maybe it’s time to get out of the espionage game.”
Nico was on his boat? No wonder the family had been asking after his whereabouts. She’d thought they’d been making sly digs, trying to get all the dirt on her and Nico, but her family had been genuinely enquiring after his well-being. “You’re the one who press ganged the two of us into the spy game in the first place. Don’t you feel any remorse? Any responsibility?”
Sighing, Darcy searched deeply for the corresponding emotions Gigi was enquiring after, but came up blank. “No.”
“He could be in serious pain. Maybe there’s permanent damage.”
“I’m sure he’s fine. It was just a little bit of blood loss, and a corresponding dip in blood pressure. It wasn’t like he died on the table or anything.” All true, Darcy had read the surgical transcripts. The surgeon had had to request more gauze and Nico’s blood pressure had dropped two minor points at one stage. But see, the best way to manipulate people, Darcy had always found, was to use the truth, and kind of suggest that she was lying her ass off.
Nico had almost died on the operating table? Suddenly Gigi felt faint, quickly taking a big gulp of whiskey, yikes, at least the burn helped negate the sudden queasiness assailing her.
“I really don’t know why you’re acting all… hyper about it. You guys only partnered up to help identify more deities involved in this world ending plot. That fake relationship you used as cover was only pretence, wasn’t it?” Tap. Tap. Darcy kept slowly methodically tapping the side of her glass.
“Yes. Yes. Of course it was.”
“Although, I presume the fucking was real.”
Gigi tried her very best not to wince. Of course Darcy knew about her and Nico hooking up. She’d been there in Florence,knew they’d shared a bed. Thankfully, Darcy wasn’t a gossip, mainly because she didn’t care. “I really don’t want to talk about it.” There, that should end that conversation, new topic please.
“I can’t tell you how relieved I am. Usually when one of you lot is heart-broken then—”
“I’m not heart-broken!” Okay, that came out a little high-pitched and defensive. “I’m not.”
“Cool.” Darcy shrugged her shoulders infinitesimally, looking nothing but disinterested, that finger of hers though, tap, tap against the side of her glass.
Crap, knowing Darcy she was testing out some type of new torture technique. Gigi would not mention it… she wouldn’t. “And will you stop tapping that bloody glass in time with Nico’s heartbeat.”
Ceasing the tapping, Darcy made the effort to scowl slightly, and the award goes to. “Nico’s heartbeat? Why in the hell would I be tapping that out? This is my annoying tight assed honey of a meld mate’s heartbeat. Slow and steady, except when he’s being mauled by our female relatives and having his t-shirt ripped off.”
“Oh, well…” Gigi didn’t know what to say, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.
“Do you hear Nico’s heartbeat?”
“No. Yes. Maybe.” Did she? Even now? Frantically taking another gulp of whiskey. That soft rhythmic beat. It was so ridiculous, but it was like she heard that reassuring thud, thud, via her soul. So stupid.
Hold on, maybe the beat had nothing to do with Nico. Maybe somehow Hathor had gotten her hooks in, despite saying Gigi was impervious to her machinations. “Have I been cursed?”
“Yes. Finally. That’s the word. Cursed. Thank you. Being in love, so sappy. Falling in love, gah, gag me with a chopstick.Cursed by love. I am so using that.” Darcy placed her still pretty much full glass down on a nearby coffee table and made as ifto get to her feet. “Well, that’s everything, you’re all caught up. What’s with that look on your face?” Easing back down, her reluctance wasn’t fake. “You knew you were in love with him, right?”
“Yes.” The word barely above a whisper. “But I don’t know what to do about it? He doesn’t even believe in love. And I’m not going to keep sleeping with him, when I’m in love and he’s not. That’s just sad, right?”
“See, and that’s why Hathor couldn’t touch you. You know what you deserve, and you won’t settle for anything less. Go you. And you definitely don’t want to be with such a blatant liar.”
“Liar?”
“Doesn’t believe in love? Please, if anyone is a card carrying member of the beating bleeding heart brigade, it’s Nico Yanez. I mean, you don’t drag your mentally unbalanced brother around for ten years trying to find a cure for him if you aren’t capable of love. Or travel back in time five hundred years in search of your kid sister, risking everything. Sure, he had a bad break-up. But whose ex hasn’t turned out to be a half hybrid jaguar creature in service to a human sacrificing power hungry asshole? Been there, have the commemorative t-shirt.”
“It was a little more than a bad break up. She killed his parents and everyone else on that boat, they were his family.”
“And he snapped her neck. In many circles they call that closure. He didn’t get all sappy and sobby over it. Even better, he didn’t become a manwhore and hold all women accountable for the actions of one. Okay, it’s a little weird he hasn’t dated since. But I think I’d be a little wary and picky too if my last love turned out to be a lying, conniving, half human, who’d thrown in with a Cabal of Deities to rule the Earth and enslave all the survivors.”
Sometimes when Darcy spoke, it was better to tune her out, otherwise nightmares would be pretty much guaranteed. “He has major trust issues.”
