"So what do we do now?" Finn asked as we said a polite good-bye to the ghosts, gathered up our things, and climbed the slight hill to the overlook area where all the cars were parked.
"We'll just add the guy who attacked Clare to our list of things to investigate. In the meantime, I don't think it would be smart of you to go anywhere on your own, just in case this man decides to shoot you again. Or worse."
"Nothing can be worse than shooting an innocent gown," Clare said, smoothing a hand down the fabric she held tenderly in her arms.
"I will be happy to act as a bodyguard," Finn said, giving Clare a look that was unmistakable. I glanced from him to Paen, but my would-be lover was clearly thinking of other things.
"Oooh," Clare said, momentarily distracted by Finn's lascivious look. "That would be fun. I've never had a bodyguard before."
"You can't go out in daylight," I pointed out, not wanting to interfere with what could be a budding romance, but obliged to make sure Clare was protected during the day.
"I can. I just have to have protection. How do you think we came here earlier today?" Finn glanced at his watch. It was now the second hour of deep night (better known as one in the morning). "Or rather, yesterday."
"You can go out during the day?" I asked Paen. "I thought Dark Ones couldn't? Or is that just a vampire old wive's tale?"
"It's partially true," Finn answered for him. "My brothers and I can tolerate a lot more than Paen, but even he can go out if he has enough protection from direct sunlight."
"How can you tolerate more than Paen?" I asked, distracted by the idea of vampires who could walk in daylight.
"Finn—" Paen said warningly.
His brother ignored him. "We all, the three of us, are Moravians. Paen is a Dark One. That means we have souls, but he doesn't. Our parents weren't Joined when he was born."
"Huh?" I asked, more confused than ever. "Joined?"
"That's enough, Finn," Paen said, stepping over a low chain barrier at the edge of the overlook.
"Joining is the procedure a Dark One undertakes with his Beloved, the woman who can salvage his soul and make him whole again. Mum was Dad's Beloved, but due to a war, they didn't complete the Joining until after Paen was born."
"They don't want to hear about our family history," Paen said, striding over to his car. "There are more important things to be discussed, like what steps are to be taken next in the search for our statue."
"I don't know, I'm kind of interested in hearing about this," I said, smiling at Paen. He glowered back at me.
Finn looked from his brother to me, a smile growing slowly on his lips. "Sorry, Paen. I didn't realize you don't want me telling Sam about Beloveds. No doubt she wouldn't be interested if I told her how there is one woman who can save you, a woman who completes you and makes you whole again. I won't explain about the seven steps to Joining, because that would probably just bore her. Nor will I go into the fact that a Beloved knows she is such by the fact that she is marked by a Dark One, and that the marking usually takes the form of a strong psychic connection."
"God damn it, Finn, just shut up!" Paen exploded.
My jaw dropped a little. A strong psychic connection? Something like being able to mind-talk?
No. Ignore him. He's a fool and he doesn't know what he's talking about.
You answered me, I thought at him, oddly pleased by the touch of his mind against mine. It felt… right.
Paen frowned at me, but said nothing else.
Chicken. "All right," I said aloud. "Finn, if you want to volunteer to be Clare's bodyguard, that would do a lot to relieve my mind. As for what steps we're going to take next to find your statue…"
I closed my eyes for a moment to think. I was never at my brightest in deep night, and after the drain of speaking with ghosts—and sharing my vision with Paen—I was left limp and exhausted, sapped of the energy needed to make a decision.
"You will go home and get some rest," Paen said authoritatively.
"I beg your pardon?" I asked, looking at him in surprise.
His eyes glittered like shadowed mercury. "You're exhausted, and at the end of your strength. You will go home and rest."
"You seem to misunderstand the basic client-investigator relationship," I told him, straightening my shoulders in an attempt to look chock-full of vigor. "I'm the one who makes the game plans. That's what you're paying me for."
"I am your employer. I have paid you to work for me," Paen said. "That entitles me to give orders."
"In your dreams!" I said, too tired to come up with a snappier comeback.
"Sam doesn't look tired to me," Finn said, eyeing me, standing next to Clare's car a few feet away. "She looks pretty good, as a matter of fact. How do you know she's tired, Paen? Do you have some special insight into Sam's feelings? Something you would instinctively know about, oh, say, a Beloved?"
We all looked at Paen. He glared back at us. "I will take Sam home. Finn, you do the same with Clare. In the morning, we will plan out a new strategy for locating both the statue and the man who attacked Clare."
"Wait a minute," I protested, dropping the intriguing idea of a Beloved. "You are not the boss here—I am. And I already have a plan for locating your statue."
"Really?" Paen asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "What would that be?"
"To start with, we will do the same thing we have been doing for another client—I'll check with the antique network and see if anyone has an interest in black monkey statues. Since you can't tell us much about it, Clare is going to do a little research into just what the statue looks like, and its provenance. Once we have a little more information on the statue itself, I can pull out the big guns."
Clare gasped in horror, and instinctively reached for a wildflower growing at the side of the overlook.
"And what would your big guns consist of?" Paen asked, his eyes so dark they looked like a stormy sky.
I took a deep breath. "I'm going to scry."
"No." The almost inaudible whimper slipped between Clare's lips as she stuffed petal after petal into her mouth.
Paen frowned. "What's wrong with Samantha saying?" he asked Clare.
Her eyes got huge as she looked at me with wordless pleading.
"It won't be like that," I told her. "Stop frightening the clients!"
"I'm not frightened," Paen said. "I am, however, a bit confused. I thought scrying was a standard divination technique?"
"It is."
"Then what's the big deal with you doing it?" Finn asked.
"I'm not actually a Diviner," I explained to him. "I studied as one for a while, but I… er… left the Order."
Paen's eyes narrowed. "You left them because you realized you were not meant to be a Diviner?"
"Something like that," I said, giving Clare a look that was meant to keep her quiet. It didn't work, of course. No one can shut a faery up when she's determined to blab.
"Sam was kicked out of the Diviners' Order after she scryed," Clare said, swallowing the last of the petals. "She was part of a scrying circle, and she lost control."
"It's not as bad as she's making it sound," I told Paen, more than a little mortified to have my dirty laundry aired in such a manner.
"How can you lose control scrying?" Finn asked at the same time Paen asked Clare, "What happened?"
"She opened a temporal rift that sucked in two Diviners," she answered, meeting my potent glare with a haughty look. "They should know, Sam! You're dangerous when you scry!"
"A temporal rift?" Paen looked at me as if I was wearing my underwear on my head.