“My chin is bruised because I hit the ground a bit too hard escaping an explosion. As for Eljin, we’re in the process of dealing with the matter, but it would be handy if we knew more about him. Mathi’s lost access to the IIT system, and I don’t want to involve Sgott. Not yet, anyway.”
“What did he do, Bethany?”
I hesitated. “No retaliation. Promise that.”
His eyes gleamed dangerously. “I can’t and won’t promise that. I can, however, promise I won’t do anything until we know who he works for. Good enough?”
“Good enough.”
“Then what did he do?”
“He’s been drugging me for information.”
The surge of his anger was so damn fierce that for a moment I couldn’t breathe.
“How?” he growled. “Through food? Alcohol?”
“Uncertain.” I hesitated. “Darby said it was a combination of Devil’s Breath, which causes sleepiness and memory loss, and Damiana, which increases sexual interest and desire.”
“So, the bastard was fucking the hell out of you and then memory scanning?”
“It would appear so.” I paused but couldn’t help mischievously adding, if only to ease the fierce blanket of his anger, “But at least it wasgoodfucking. I would have been even more pissed had it been bad.”
He didnotlook amused. “I take it, given he’s obviously still alive, you have not mentioned this to Lugh yet?”
“No. But I did tell Mathi, and he currently has a friend doing a background search on both Eljin and the woman he went to London to see—Eljin claims it was his sister, but I’m not entirely convinced right now.”
“The Eljin in that photo had no sisters,” Cynwrig said.
Meaning he and Treasahaddone some research before they’d handed it to me. “Yeah, but he’s also a lot older. We thought it possible our Eljin was a grandson or something.”
“No, because the older man died without issue.”
“Huh.” I picked up the cheese knife, cut a triangle of the brie, then popped it on a cracker and munched on it contemplatively. “Is he a relation of some kind?”
“Not as far as we could ascertain after a thorough search through the birth records. No other Eljin appears in the older man’s family tree. Ours appears to have manifested some three years ago, and much of his work history has been manufactured.”
I frowned. “How is that possible? Rogan would have done a thorough background on him before employing him at the museum.”
“Rogan might have had his own reasons for not doing a complete background.”
True enough, I supposed, given the man was hellbent on retrieving the claws, whatever the cost. I took another drink. “If you knew all this, why not tell me sooner?”
He hesitated. “In truth, while I suspected he was not who he said he was, there was no evidence of criminal behavior or ill intent toward you.”
“You still could have mentioned it.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Would you have believed me? Or would you have thought it nothing more than the ramblings of a jealous man?”
“Do Myrkálfar even do jealousy?”
“Touch our women, and we do far more than mere jealousy.”
That came out darkly menacing, and I couldn’t help but grin. “I feel the need to remind you that I am not a possession, and will probably never be yours—at least in the way that statement intended.”
“And I concur with the first part of that statement.”
I took another drink and wondered what the hell he was planning. He wasdefinitelyplanning something—a change of Myrkálfar law, perhaps, that would allow him to marry as he wished? And yet, if that were the case, why ask for Geitha’s Tears to be retrieved, given the goddess’s artifact was the one responsible for partner choosing? Why not let it stay lost?
