“I’m sure he’s here,” I said over my shoulder.“Somewhere.”
He’d better be, and he’d better have brought back-up. I did not want to take on a pissed-off Nathan by myself.I’d trained with the man; I was intimately acquainted with how good a fighter he was. He’d kicked my ass on a regular basis. Sometimes with one hand literally behind his back. Nothing made you realize how weak you actually were than a grinning vampire who ties his own hand behind his back and then kicks your ass anyway.
I glanced around, searching the shadows. No evidence that anyone but Nathan and I were out here.
“Enough,” Nathan barked, coming to a stop.
I glanced back, my eyes wide, fear jumping into my throat.
He didn’t move toward me, just glanced at the looming trees around us with a deep suspicion in his face.“What is this, Aileen?”
“What do you mean?” I made myself ask, even as I fought the urge to back away. Running would be useless and an admission of guilt. Nathan could outpace me in moments, anyway.
“You’re stalling.” His posture became threatening and he advanced on me, his expression tight.“Why have you lured me here?”
I backed away, the danger I was in suddenly very real. I resisted the impulse to go for one of the blades on me, silver all of them. The Fae had insisted no iron be brought to the celebration, and like the good little hosts we were we’d listened.
“Nathan, I need you to stay calm,” I said, reaching for that calmness myself.
He cocked his head, breathing hard through his nose.“You know,I’m beginning to think that some of the enforcers might be compromised. I didn’t think you’d be the same.”
I went still.“It’s not me thatI’m worried about.”
He jerked, his forehead wrinkling, the thought that he might be under a compulsion never having occurred to him.“You’re spouting nonsense.”
I stepped to the side, away from the tree at my back, giving myself room to run if I needed to.
“Am I? Think. Why did you want to see Liam?” I asked, putting a little more distance between us.
Thought flew behind his eyes.“I need to talk to him.”
“About what? Do you even know?” My voice was soft.
He stared into the distance, his expression haunted.
“Nathan, were you ever alone with Niamh?”
He rubbed his forehead again, shaking his head back and forth.“I’m an enforcer. It’s not strange to want to speak to my commander.”
I nodded. He was right. It wasn’t, but the severity of the need, the shaking in his hands when he was denied that opportunity, was.
For a split second, it looked likeI’d gotten through to him, that I might have broken through the bonds the compulsion laid on him. He lifted his head, a monster looking out of his eyes—the element that made him Nathan, absent.
His expression turned feral.“He’s not coming, is he?”
He didn’t wait for an answer, his lips drawing back as his fangs dropped down.
I palmed a silver blade, holding it in front of me.“Don’t make me use this.”
“I’m right here, Nathan,” Liam said, stepping out of the trees.
Nathan’s advance halted, his head swinging toward Liam.
The thought that had been niggling at the back of my mind since I first intercepted Nathan crystalized. All this time Nathan had been focused on Liam. Not Thomas. If the geas was driving him to kill Thomas or even Niall, then why was he so focused on finding Liam.
Unless the other two weren’t the targets.
“Liam, wait,” I shouted.
