Page 103 of Changeling
Eventually, Sasha appeared with a wave of his arm from the distant trees. “Nothing for me,” he said when he reached them.
Jim hadn’t discovered anything either.
“We should check the front quick before we make a move,” Sasha said. “I’ll go. Just there and back.”
Nathan reached for Sasha before the incubus could dash away—he didn’t miss how Sasha flinched at his touch. “Hey, be careful, okay?”
“Yeah.” Sasha took off without looking back at him.
“Geez,” Nathan hissed when he had gone. “What is it with him lately?”
Jim turned to stare at Nathan with an open gape. “Seriously? Nate, he’s been off around you ever since we met Malak. He almost initiated you that night. Then you had to take it back. Then he had to hear you say it was an accident, that you didn’t mean it, that you don’t want to be with him any—”
“Hey, I never—!” Nathan nearly shouted, so angry he couldn’t get his words out. He lowered his voice back to a cautious whisper. “I never said that. I said I didn’t want to be an incubus. And it wasn’t just to appease that asshole, Malak, either. I don’tknowif I want to be an incubus, okay? I got caught up in themoment. I meant that when I said it. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with him.”
The fierce expression melted from Jim’s face as he looked at what must have been the anguished one on Nathan’s. “But he doesn’t know that, Nate. You can see it every time you look at him. Have you even been sleeping together?”
“Hey,” Nathan grimaced. “That’s…that’s none of your—”
“I mean sleep, Nate. In the same bed. You’ve had a separate room from me since Pittsburgh, but they always have two beds. My guess is you guys have been using both of them. And not in a kinky way,” he tried to add humorously.
Nathan cringed. “It just…sorta happened. That night…when none of us could sleep and we just stayed up not knowing what to say or what the hell we were gonna do…I thought it was gonna be okay after that. But Sasha got all quiet and…and then at the next hotel when I was getting into bed, he just sat down on the other one and gave me this god damn bleeding heart smile.” Nathan shook his head. They had been moving so fast, rushing into so many hunts to get through as many sidhe as fast as they could; he had tried not to think about it.
“And you still haven’t said anything to him? Nate,” Jim said more tenderly, his hand reaching to Nathan’s shoulder with gentle fingers. “I don’t know for sure how Sasha is feeling or what’s going through his head. But he needs you right now, especially when we’re getting so close to ending this. You love him, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. I just…I…”
“I know we don’t have time for romantic getaways or the several dozen long talks you two deserve, but you’ve gotta at least hold yourselves together until we’re through this. We’re moving too slowly as it is.”
“Dude,” Nathan scoffed, “over a dozen sidhe in two weeks is a frickin’ record. We’re practically blowing through this with youleading us to these guys. And if we get this group tonight, who knows how many we can tick off the list.”
Jim shook his head. “It’s not enough. We slow down even a little, have one bad week and…” He didn’t need to finish. “That’s why tonight is important, Nathan. The sidhe I sense here…it’s like a coven of them hiding out. Fifteen or more.”
“I know.”
“Then as soon as we’re done tonight…talk to him. Okay?”
Sasha was already heading back to them, swift and low to the ground as he dashed across the grass and mud. For now, Nathan pushed thoughts of their strained relationship from his mind, but resolved to listen to Jim and do as he’d asked once they were safely back at the motel.
The doors to the barn were closed and there were no new sidhe in sight. It was time to get a look inside. Together, the three of them reached the back of the barn and climbed up the soaking wet and rotted hay stacks to get a look through one of the broken barn windows.
“Jesus,” Nathan whispered in exclamation. “Sorry to knock your powers down a peg, Jim, but this is twice as many as we were thinking.”
“Twenty-five,” Sasha said, eyes trained on the gathering through the window.
Nathan all but rolled his eyes. “Thanks for that, Rain Man, but you miss my point. We gotta abort this thing. There’s too many for you, Jim. And Sasha and I cannot pick up that much slack.”
“What are they doing?” Sasha asked absently, clearly not paying attention to what Nathan had said. “They’re all just standing around.”
“With that one sidhe in the center,” Jim added, indicating a dark-haired young man standing on a platform in the middle of the barn with the other sidhe around him.
All of their eyes were open, revealing their slit pupils, but the young man in the center had his eyes closed. Some of the sidhe had revealed their true forms but many remained in the guise of normal humans. The barn was large and mostly empty other than the sidhe. There didn’t seem to be a visible source for all that strange light, ghostly and blue.
“They must be performing some kind of ritual,” Jim said.
“Hey,” Nathan growled out low in his throat. “Either of you care to listen to the voice of reason over here? We need to go. This is over our heads. I know we figured we’d hit the jackpot when Ula told us about this gathering, but we don’t even know what’s going on.”
That should have been enough sound reasoning to convince the usually logical guys of their trio, but when they turned to look at Nathan with frightening symmetry and determined expressions, Nathan already knew he was screwed.
