Page 44 of Sidhe
“I do not require assistance, thank you,” Solrin said with ice in his words,realice because Nathan shivered again. “And I do not believe I gave you any permission totouch. My things.” With that, Solrin shoved Nathan’s hand aside and snatched up the key. “Thank you, Alex,” he said to her, and then he was leaving the bar, bag over his shoulder again, with one last warning look thrown at Nathan that honestly made him feel like he could choke on his own tongue.
Nathan watched Solrin walk out of the bar, saw Jim and Sasha turn to him from their table with ‘what the hell’ looks, and furiously whipped back toward Alex. “Well that went smoothly,” he grumbled, downing a gulp of the beer he was really happy he ordered.
With a huff, Alex went back to wiping down the counter. “Tried to tell you,” she said. “Solrin’s polite, damn near gentlemanly even. But he’d just as soon kill you for getting too close as he would look at you, so you better mind where you step. I don’t know how you’re going to get close to him, if it’s even possible, but charm and a smile isn’t going to cut it.”
“Yeah,” Nathan scoffed, “I think I got that.”
Alex raised an eyebrow at him and moved on down the bar.
On the plus side, Jim and Sasha were fairly certain they’d discovered which nearby hunt Solrin was interested in, since it was right in the town of Rushville itself, and they had something of a plan for the next morning on how they might pique his interest to team up with them. Assuming they even managed to get him to listen to them for longer than a second.
When everyone started upstairs to call it a night, Nathan ducked into the downstairs bathroom, saying he’d be right up. He mainly wanted a moment to silently berate himself for starting off on the worst foot possible.
Once he was done, Nathan left the bathroom and walked through the now dark lower level of the Gatehouse for the stairs.
“So…Nathan. Back to fucking your incubus, I see.”
Nathan froze, one foot raised ready to begin trekking up the steps.
“Oh, what’s wrong, Nathan?” said a smooth, confidentfemalevoice from behind him, taunting him without even trying. “Aren’t you pleased to see me again?”
Panic clutched Nathan’s chest so hard he couldn’t breathe, could barely turn to see for himself that yes, it was Malak, red-haired, yellow on black-eyed Malak standing before him. It was if the past few days hadn’t even happened, and Nathan was right back to feeling that old desperation he had felt when Malak came for him in the car.
He wanted to back up, but behind him was the steps and somehow he knew that being taller than Malak wasn’t going to make him feel any better about being in her/his/whatever’s presence again.
“That’s so sweet, Nathan, to know that I still have such a…powerful effect on you,” Malak grinned at him, wearing that slinky black dress Nathan remembered so well.
“Wh-What do you want?” he asked, hating how his voice shook. “You can’t touch me,” he tried to say assuredly, thinking of Dave. And Oberon. And Gwen. “Wearing your chick suit, huh? But it’s not really yours, I learned. Just a little trick to piss off your ex. Right?”
To Nathan’s great pleasure, Malak’s smug smile dropped. “Hmph,” she huffed, hand on her slender hip. “So, I was right to think they’d contact you. No matter.” And just like that the chick suit was gone, leaving Nathan once again in the presence of the male version, the one that looked so much like Oberon except with trimmer hair, cruelty in every look, and that black suit and red tie that he adjusted even though it was already perfect. “Fine then. No need for pretense.”
Nathan quickly circled around the dark sidhe and away from the stairs, giving him more room if he needed to run. “So, you can’t see when the other side comes to us. Not so all-knowing, after all.”
“I can see enough,” Malak said sharply. “I don’t need to see everything to know what you’re plotting here. You’re trying to get to him first, aren’t you? That…darling young man with the quick reflexes,” he glanced up the stairs. “And why not, I suppose. Youshouldmake nice. He’s going to be such a marvelous General for you. Like your brother will be too.”
“Not gonna happen,” Nathan said, standing his ground, “not for either of them. Coz you can try whatever the fuck you want,but you can’t have them or me. I’m free of that curse you left behind.”
“Oh?” Malak said, poised, standing right in front of Nathan, barely a few feet away. “I think we both know it isn’t quite so simple. You said I can’t…touch you?” He tilted his head, taking a step closer. “Really? You think that…?”
“Stop,” Nathan said, wanting to step back but not wanting to give Malak the satisfaction.
Malak grinned. “You’re feeling pretty good right now. Confident. Empowered. The light side’s warrior. Oh yes, it’s a nice parlor trick, that blissful feeling. But it isn’t permanent. You didn’t really think it would last, did you, your…miraculous recovery?” Another step closer. “You see, Nathan, we both know that there is still a part of me in you.Deep…and tightly wound…right where it matters.” Malak’s hand came up fast and pressed to Nathan’s chest over his heart—where his mark had been.
Nathan flinched, expecting pain, surprised but not yet relieved when there wasn’t any.
“You know that’s why that good feeling is fading, Nathan,” Malak said, his voice softening, his body too close, his eyes shimmering red on black as he grinned. “Why don’t we coax a little of that darkness back out again…hmm?”
Then he pressed, just the slightest bit harder against Nathan’s chest, and that’s all it took. There was the pain Nathan had been waiting for. And darkness. And every horrible feeling of grief and madness he had thought Dave stripped him free of.
He wasn’t safe. He wasn’t free.
He was back in the Veil.
Chapter 16
WhenNathanfirstsurfacedfrom the Veil, he had spent days trying to shake off the feeling that he had never actually left. He’d been pushed to the brink, until finally he’d nearly been consumed by Malak right in the backseat of his car.
But then there was a diner, a place to rest, and mourn, and free his soul of the plague Malak had left him with. There was Dave, and even though Nathan hadn’t known at first to think of the man as anything but a kind ear, that man/Spirit Guide/God, whatever he was, was what finally reached inside of him to pluck the darkness out.
