 
# Someday My Count Will Come

## C. Gockel

#### C. Gockel
**Someday My Count Will Come**

© 2018 by C. Gockel

* * *

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author, subject "Attention: Permissions," at the email address below:

cgockel.publishing@gmail.com

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# About Someday My Count Will Come

Dare is an ancient Night Elf keeping secrets from his own kind and seeking a Night Elf that has gone renegade. Penny is only twenty-four, seeking her lost sister, and hiding a secret as well. To save themselves, and save Dare's people, they might have to risk letting their secrets go.

# Time Line

_Someday My Count_ will come was written as a standalone short story for the Vampires of the Caribbean collection. It can be read as a complete standalone, but for readers of the I Bring the Fire series who are interested to know, it starts out before _Wolves_.

### Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Epilogue

Also by C. Gockel

Contact Information

# Chapter One

"Is he awake?" Dare asks, striding down the hallway of his keep.

Amethyst, his dwarven housekeeper, shakes her head, her enormous, glowing eyes red-rimmed. "No, Count. I cannot rouse him," she says, and hurries past Dare in the other direction.

Cursing under his breath, Dare enters his ward's chambers and finds Enit lying in bed on top of the blankets. The boy had never bothered to take off his clothes from the night before.

Grabbing the boy's shoulders, Dare gives him a shake. "Enit, wake up!"

The boy's eyes don't even flutter. Only a few centuries old, with a face androgynous with youth, Enit looks so much like his mother, it makes Dare's heart hurt.

"Don't do this to me, Enit!" Dare murmurs, giving him another shake.

Enit's head lolls, but his eyes don't open.

Heart seizing, Dare slaps him across the face and sees the boy's eyelashes flutter. "Enit! Stay with me!" Dare says.

Behind him is the rush of tiny feet. "Count, I've got some blood for him," Amethyst says, offering Dare a silver chalice. The horse blood within is warm and has barely begun to congeal.

"Oh, when will this curse on the Night Elves end?" Amethyst murmurs.

Dare swallows. "Thank you, Amethyst, you are a true gem," he says, giving her a nod.

Blushing, his housekeeper curtsies. "I best be off, Count. There's a messenger coming. He's been spotted from the wall."

"You are excused," Dare says, turning back to Enit.

Enit's head is rolling back and forth, as though he has a fever, but Dare knows it's not that. Slipping his hand to his belt, Dare retrieves a dagger... and then he hesitates. The curse can only lift when Odin changes his law, and the All Father has not ruled on Dare's petition. If Odin does not rule in the Night Elves' favor they will die. Maybe letting Enit slip away is kinder.

Dare closes his eyes. The All Father is just, surely he will agree with Dare that an exception must be made? Slitting his wrist, Dare lets the blood run into the chalice.

Enit groans, and blinks his eyes. "Uncle?"

Pulling his wrist away from the chalice, Dare offers his blood to the boy. Enit is not his nephew, but calls him uncle anyway. There are so few Night Elves left... they need to consider each other family.

Taking the chalice in shaky hands, Enit sips, and the tremor in his limbs decreases.

"Why is your blood capable of rejuvenating us?" Enit asks.

"Because I'm old as dirt," Dare replies wearily. He feels his age more and more. The only thing that keeps him going some days is his responsibility to Enit, and the families near his estate.

Meeting Dare's eyes above the chalice, Enit says, "Mother was older than you by a century."

But Enit's mother, Eirween, hadn't been sent to Earth to retrieve Night Elves that broke Odin's law. It isn't Dare's blood that is sustaining Enit; it's the human blood still flowing in Dare's veins, and that won't last forever. How long has it been since Gretta died?

"Count! Count!" Amethyst pants as she rushes back into the chamber. "The messenger! It is Angharad! She comes all the way from Asgard!"

At mention of Asgard, Realm Eternal, and home to Odin, All Father, King of the Realms, Dare commands Enit, "Drink it all," and dashes from the room.

Minutes later he is in the courtyard just in time to hear the clatter of hooves. Blakkr, his niece's favorite nightmare, streaks through the portcullis. The animal looks for the most part like an ordinary horse, but her eyes glow faintly red, and her sharp, pointed canines glint in the low light. His niece Angharad is upon the creature's back, long curly dark locks windswept, her cheeks very pale, even for a Night Elf.

"Uncle," Angharad cries, "Odin sends a message with Loki!"

Dare's eyes go wide. "His fool?"

Nodding, Angharad jumps from the saddle. "Odin has a quest for you on Midgard. I overheard Loki muttering about it before he was dispatched."

At the mention of Midgard **—** Earth in that realm's own parlance **—** Dare finds himself licking his lips, and his heart rate quickening. Inwardly he curses himself. If he is going to Earth, it _may_ mean that a Night Elf is terrorizing humans, and even if the Night Elf's presence there is innocent, it will still be Dare's job to bring him or her before the All Father.

"Loki rides Sleipnir," Angharad says.

"Sleipnir?" Dare says with a start. "How did you get here before him?" Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged steed, is the fastest horse in the Nine Realms; even a nightmare is no match.

Angharad gives a disgusted sounding snort. "Loki's very drunk... he'd fallen off when we passed him on the road."

One of Dare's eyebrows hike. "You passed an agent of the All Father in distress and did not give aid?"

Angharad shrugs. "He didn't sound distressed. He was snoring quite comfortably." Looking pointedly at the sky, she says, "No moon, no stars, and misty. I do so miss our weather when I am in Asgard."

Dare contains the urge to shake her. Abandoning a servant of Odin on the road is tantamount to treason. "Ruthenium!" he calls instead.

"Preparing your weapons, Count," the Captain of his meager guard answers.

"My Earth **—** Midgardian **—** weapons," Dare clarifies.

"Aye, sir!"

"I wish you could take me," Angharad says.

Dare's attention returns to his niece. For the first time, he notices that her lips are pale. The skin on her cheekbones is peeling—sunburn perhaps from her time in Asgard—or something else. She looks better than Enit and ninety percent of his people. Still, she needs to go to Earth, or the "curse" will lead her into the final sleep.

"Don't be silly," Dare lies. "It's very dull." If she goes to Earth without Odin's permission she will be in violation of the All Father's law.

"Here are your weapons, Count," says Ruthenium, holding a nondescript leather satchel in one hand. It conceals a Colt M1911 pistol and ammunition. The M1 Garand rifle Ruthenium holds in his other hand is not so easy to disguise.

Dare catches Angharad's sharp intake of breath. "What is that?" she whispers.

"Nothing interesting," he says, knowing she'd find it immensely so. "Just have to blend in with the natives and they're primitive." He thinks of Schrödinger's lectures during his and Gretta's sojourn in Oxford, and how much Gretta had taught him about biology. Humans aren't more primitive; their technology just can't rely on magic.

Her eyes narrow at him, but a gust of air, the whinny of a horse, and the clop of what sounds like the hooves of two enormous draft horses makes everyone, including Blakkr, turn. Dare's vision is immediately blinded by light. Screwing his eyes shut, he throws up his arm to protect himself.

"Uncle?" whispers Angharad.

Dare blinks at the ground. There is no bright, searing light. He wonders what caused him to have such a terrible vision.

Lifting his head, he knows. Astride the enormous dappled gray, eight-legged Sleipnir is Loki. The ginger-haired man has rounded ears and might pass for human, but he is originally from the realm of Jotunheim and a magical creature. At the moment he is unshaven and his eyes are half-closed. But what is most striking about Loki is his aura. All magical creatures have an aura. The more powerful the creature, usually the more dramatic the aura. Loki's magical aura is roaring like a bonfire. Flickering blue, orange, and yellow, it leaps all the way to the top of the keep's walls.

Dare takes a step back in shock. He's encountered Loki on very few occasions in Asgard, but never before had he noticed Loki's magic being so powerful. He glances around him; the others seem not to have noticed. Angharad is young, and more interested in nightmares than magic, and Ruthenium and Amethyst are dwarves, the least magically sensitive of all the magical hominids. Blakkr raises her head and whinnies at Sleipnir; perhaps the nightmare would normally notice, but Sleipnir's presence seems to have distracted her.

In the saddle, Loki belches and thumps his chest.

Dare draws back at the stink, Angharad throws a hand to her mouth, and Blakrr pulls at her reins.

"And the Light Elves say he is The Destroyer," Angharad whispers. "What a disgrace."

Dare blinks. The Light Elves call Loki the Destroyer? That a fool should have a title so grand should be preposterous... He feels his skin prickle, and a tiny knot of worry in his gut. Leaning dangerously in his saddle, Loki intones, "Count Darerick Razvano Noapt... whatever. You are commanded by the All Father to come with me at once to put an end to a scourge of a vampire—"

"Night Elf," Dare retorts.

Putting a hand to his chest, Loki amends, "The scourge of a blood sucking two-legged leech that has embedded its fangs in the innocent people of Earth."

Sleipnir whinnies, and it sounds suspiciously like a laugh.

Dare stands straighter. "Tell me, Loki. Has Odin ruled on my petition yet?"

Loki shrugs. "I'm sure he'll get to it. But at the moment mortals may be dying... it would hardly help your petition if mortals were to die at the hands... " He chuckles. "... or _fangs_ of a Night Elf."

Dare swallows. "Of course not, nor would I wish that. I will prepare my mount. We shall need to go through the World Gate to Switzerland so I may prepare for my finances—"

Throwing up a finger, Loki interrupts, "No! We are going directly to the scene of vampiric incursion! We leave at once! Hop aboard Sleipnir." Magic whips around the king's fool and a shriek sounds from the corner of the courtyard. "Fire in the rose bushes!" shouts Amethyst. Dare's eyes go wide—Loki has set fire to a _wet_ rose bush?

"I need to prepare," Dare insists.

"You need to obey the law of Odin," Loki smirks.

Dare closes his eyes and takes a breath. Odin's council is considering his petition. He can't let a Night Elf loose on Earth hinder those deliberations.

Opening his eyes, he unclenches his fists and climbs aboard the giant steed.

"Orlando?" Dare asks.

"Yes, do keep up," Loki says astride Sleipnir in front of Dare. The horse has slowed to a careful walk. They are passing through a place in the rocky, wooded foothills to the west of Dare's lands. "Why is Odin sending you, and not me?" Loki waves a flask with such abandon that Dare grabs Loki's belt to keep him from falling off.

"I can't imagine," says Dare.

Loki sniffs. "You're lying. I hate people who lie to me. And two-legged parasites who lie to me as well."

Bristling, Dare retorts, "I prefer to think of us as symbiotes."

"I'm sure you do," Loki replies. "Really, why won't Odin send me to Earth? It's the only interesting place, you know. The only place where things really change."

"Do you think it could be because you're a raving alcoholic?" Dare suggests, containing the urge to gag at the smell of alcohol leaching from Loki's pores.

"Nah, that's not it." Drawing Sleipnir to a halt, Loki says, "We need to get off here, the World Tree branch is close by."

They haven't gone ten paces when Loki stops and says, "I'm forgetting something... I know I am. You're to go to Orlando..."

"In Florida." Dare winces. It's probably sunny there, and warm places usually have snakes... and spiders.

Spinning clumsily, Loki blinks at him. "Lovely weather in early spring, which it is there by the way. Sunshine, warm even at night, you won't need a sweater. Think of it as a vacation."

"I'm a Night Elf," Dare says flatly.

"Vampire," Loki says.

"A vacation for me would be Moscow in December," Dare mutters.

Loki stares at him a moment, and then gives a crooked grin. "I suppose so." He snorts, and then snaps his fingers. A spark jumps into the undergrowth and Dare stamps it out.

Seemingly oblivious, Loki continues, "You're to go to a place called The Cove."

Dare's brow furrows, remembering his geography. "Orlando is not near water. How could there be a cove?"

Loki shrugs and begins walking again. "You'll go there, find the vampire violating the humans, kill or apprehend him or her, and bring them to Odin for justice."

Dare's stomach constricts at that. He hopes that the Night Elf is just waylaid—that he or she accidentally tripped through a World Gate, found themselves on Earth, and fell in love. It would happen easily enough. Humans are... enchanting.

Loki taps his chin. "There might be more than one blood sucker on Earth."

Dare starts. "How many Night Elves are there?"

Loki shrugs. "Maybe more than one, but never fear, Odin has great faith in you for some reason."

"That's terribly reassuring," Dare says.

Loki cackles, and then sighs. "I wish Odin would send me to Earth. I could kill the oversized two-legged ticks without remorse."

"You don't know their motives," Dare protests.

Loki seems not to have heard or not to care. Still leading Sleipnir, Loki continues, "There needs to be change in Asgard... in all the realms. Change is good, you know. Without change everything is boring." Loki almost slips on a stone. "Life is meaningless when it's _boring_."

The tunic Dare wears is already soaked through, but he finds his skin heating. Loki lives in Asgard, and partakes of the immortality-bestowing apples of Idunn. He will never grow old or die unless he suffers an accident. Dare's people are supposed to be immortal, just like the Light Elves, but they suffer The Curse, and he's watched too many slip away in the last few centuries.

"You idealize change because you don't have to deal with the consequences," Dare says, thinking of his people's move from Midgard to Alfheim. It was supposed to make them stronger, more independent. "With change comes death. But you'd know nothing of that."

Dare sees Loki's shoulders stiffen. For another fifteen paces, Loki says nothing, but he steps with all the subtlety of an angry dragon. Dare thanks the Norns that it's raining, the pitter-patter of drops muffling their footfalls.

Ahead he sees a break in the trees and hears someone shout, "Halt!"

Tipping back his flask, Loki keeps walking, his pace becoming faster and more sure. The trees part and Dare sees a low stone wall with a wrought iron gate. Atop the wall, a man holds a crossbow loaded with a bolt with a glowing tip. Dare can feel its magic from across the clearing.

Spinning to Dare, Loki snarls, "Never say I don't understand death."

"One more step closer and I'll shoot," the man on the roof declares. Dare can see the point of his ears. He also sees the glint of fangs. The man is either angry, frightened, peckish... or all three.

Spinning back to the fortress, Loki throws his flask into the air. The archer looses the bolt—it pierces the flask midair, and both burst into flame.

In front of Dare, Loki's back and neck muscles tense, and his magic rises around him as though he is a human torch. He drops the reins and Sleipnir rears backward and dashes into the trees. Loki lets loose a blood-curdling scream, his magic rises up around him, and Dare swears he sees Loki's skin turn blue. The plume of magic rising around Loki turns into a vortex, and it blasts through the gate.

Dare sees light, throws up his arm, hears a boom, and the next moment he is flung backward. He lands on wet earth, thankfully missing any stones. Loki is beside him. Gasping for breath, Dare sits up and sees the small fortification is rubble.

Leaning on his elbows, Loki whispers, "They must have been storing gunpowder in there. Humans have that... it's..."

"I know what gunpowder is," Dare says, springing to his feet. The fires in front of him continue to burn, despite the rain. He thrusts his hand into his satchel, and his hand clasps a very un-human object, a magic stone. Letting its power rush through him, he closes his eyes, and _feels_ what is happening. In his mind's eye, he sees clouds of energy clumped in groups of three split and turn into flame. It is not his magical training that informs him what is happening; it is his time in Oxford among humans. Loki's magic is rendering water molecules asunder, and then exciting the hydrogen and oxygen, making them combust. The stone warm in his hand, Dare focuses, reaches to the molecules, imagines them bound together, calmer, and unchanging.

Wind howls, the rain picks up, and he feels the heat of the flames lessen.

Exhaling, he opens his eyes and finds the fire beaten back to embers by his magic and the rain. For a moment he wavers on his feet. The stone is a power reservoir—his own magic is weakening. On Earth, Nourished by Gretta's blood, he wouldn't have needed its power at all.

"Impressive."

He looks over his shoulder. Loki is walking toward him. His skin no longer appears blue. Perhaps it was Dare's imagination.

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," Dare mutters, knowing that Loki means the display of magic.

"Liar," says Loki.

Dare's eyes narrow at him. Loki is still well in his cups; no one will believe him if he repeats this story. Dare doesn't like his magical abilities well known, especially among his own kind.

Clutching the stone tighter for strength, Dare sets out to the ruined wall, Loki following. From within the rubble, he can tell the fortress was just a few dozen meters in diameter. He feels for life, and finds none. Walking the circumference, he finds three smoldering corpses and feels bile rising in his throat.

"The gate is there," Loki says, indicating rubble that might have been a building. "I'll let you through."

"You've done enough damage," Dare hisses. "I'll take it from here."

Loki shakes his head. "They shouldn't have been storing gunpowder."

Dare has more than a passing familiarity with gunpowder. There was none here.

"Go, Loki," Dare says.

"Are you sure you don't need help?" Loki asks, producing another flask from his cloak.

"I'm sure I don't _want_ your help," Dare replies. He steps toward the gate and squeezes the stone tighter. He hardly has any energy left, in the stone, or in himself, but Loki is waiting. What damage could that man do on Earth where the inhabitants have so little defense from magic?

Loki gives Dare a manic, sharp-toothed grin, and spreads his hands. "I'm right here if you need me."

Dare has to do this, and he has to do this now, without Loki. Taking a deep breath, turning the stone in his hands, he concentrates on pulling back the veil of space and time between Alfheim's land of the Night Elves and Earth.

There is rainbow light, and then white light and heat so bright he bends in pain. Unbloody Helheim, of course it would be daylight. He takes a deep breath of air that is hot and humid, sees what might be the shadows of trees, and hears someone say, "There was no scheduled arrival."

"Hit him!"

And then everything goes white.

_Too sick. Can't make it._

Scowling at the text from Veronica, Penny wobbles on one high heel and tries to itch her calf with the other.

_Next weekend?_

Penny frowns, and tugs at the bottom of her borrowed skirt, cursing as her nails tear the hose. Her feet already hurt. Some people like getting dressed up like this? Ugh.

_Don't go without me!_ Veronica writes. _It could be dangerous._

Penny blows her bangs out of her eyes. No, she's doing this tonight. It took her forever to get her nerve up.

_Don't worry. Get better._ Penny texts back to Veronica.

The line outside the club edges forward, and Penny moves with it. She's surrounded by girls in skimpy outfits, and a few guys dolled up nearly as much as the girls. As far as she can tell, she's the only person in this line alone. She looks across the street. A blinking sign advertises, "Guns! Guns! Guns! Pawn and Guns!" She swears that once you get past the spires of the theme parks, there is a pawn and gun shop on every block in Orlando. She believes in the second amendment, but it seems a bit much.

She notices she's had a call routed to voicemail, and clicks. It was her mom. Maybe it is the monumental nature of what she's about to do, but Penny finds herself listening to the message.

_Come home, Penelope. You're going to go to Hell just like your sister if you don't._ Disconnecting, Penny sighs. No, she's going to a different hell than Chantilly.

"IDs!" a man bellows.

The girls in front of her giggle, and Penny ducks her head and starts rummaging in her clutch. Stupid, skimpy dress with no pockets. Someone bumps into her, and Penny pitches forward. Flailing at the air, she has sudden certainty that she's going to belly flop. She's had the same certainty when she's been thrown from a horse, but it's not sawdust beneath her or mud, it's pavement, and her body is all wrong and ...

Large, cool hands catch her, and she finds herself staring at a pair of men's boots. Regaining her feet, she rights herself, looks up, and finds herself staring at a man she is sure must be a movie star that she should know, but doesn't. He has a square jaw, a perfectly straight nose, full lips, longish golden hair that curls around his temples, and blue eyes that she'd swear are glowing in the low light. The Cove is obviously so named to feed off of the popularity of a certain pirate theme park exhibit, because he's dressed in an open shirt and leather pants that look pirate-y, or medieval, or something. Her brow furrows as her eyes travel from his clothes back to his face. Forget movie star, she'd say he's a Greek statue come to life.

He smirks. "ID please?"

Penny blinks. "Oh, right."

She holds up the ID. No wonder the girls were giggly. He's just too beautiful to be a bouncer, or to even be believed.

He looks down at her ID, and then back to Penny. "You alone?" he asks.

What would a cool, sexy, confident party girl say right now? "Uh..."

His eyes graze her neck. He's way too close, and she hopes she doesn't smell too much like horse. That would disqualify her from the cool girl club. Can you be turned away at the door for being uncool? Of course you can, and part of her hopes she is.

His eyebrow lifts, and he gazes deep into her eyes. Has she smudged her mascara? He's obviously judging her. Oh, wait, she was supposed to answer his question. "Uhhhhh..."

Inclining his head toward the door, the man whose picture is probably beside the dictionary definition of "statuesque" says, "Go ahead in."

She blinks at him. "No cover?"

He winks. "No."

Penny feels a shiver race down her spine at the same time she feels her resolve increasing. No way someone like her, with borrowed clothes and falling over in her heels, gets in without paying—something nefarious is definitely afoot. Trying not to trip again, she heads beneath the blinking neon light into the darkness and the thrum of music beyond.

A few seconds later she enters the club proper. The music is loud, there's a packed dance floor with booths along three sides, and a bar directly ahead. It's dark, and there are disco balls and lights. Above the bar she sees mirrors.

It looks normal... it was probably coincidence that this was the last place her sister was seen. Her eyes fall on the bartender. He looks a lot like the bouncer... pirate-y get-up, too good looking, and if he's not the bouncer's brother, he's his cousin. Her eyes skim the crowd, and she sees a few more people like that who are obviously bouncers standing by a hallway. As she watches, a few girls try to go down it and the bouncers point them toward a restroom sign a few meters away.

Penny takes a deep breath. The hallway with the bouncers, that's where she has to go, obviously. She bites her lip. Had Chantilly gone down that hallway and never come back? Her nails bite into her palms.

Looking around, she sees a woman in a black sheath dress with puffy pirate sleeves heading purposefully in her direction, a tray above her head. With long legs, a mane of thick curly hair, a flawless face, and preternatural grace, she has to be the sister of the bouncers and bartender. She's also too gorgeous to be staring as intently as she is at Penny. Licking her lips, Penny turns away, pretending not to have noticed. Stepping out of her damn heels, she slips through the throng in her stocking feet, swaying to the music, moving from one guy to the next, trying to keep her eyes on the guarded hallway, and politely declining offers of drinks.

It's probably after 1 a.m. when a fight breaks out. It's so ferocious that the music stops, and the two guys guarding the hallway step in to break it up. A throng forms a tight circle around the combatants and the bouncers, hooting and hollering. Checking over her shoulder to make sure no one is looking, Penny bolts down the hallway, shoes in hand.

The hallway is almost pitch black, and she feels a stab of fear. What is she doing? This is a job for the police. She grits her teeth. The police were here and found nothing. If she gets caught, she'll just say she was looking for the bathroom... and that will work great if the proprietor of The Cove is innocent like the police say.

The music in the main area comes on again. Penny feels her way along the wall. Her fingers trip on a doorknob. Pausing, Penny peers over her shoulder and sees the backs of the guards. She could probably be as loud as an elephant and they wouldn't hear her. The music is nearly deafening and she knows her ears are going to feel like they're stuffed with cotton later. She tests the handle, and it gives. With one more backward glance, she slips through the surprisingly heavy door.

The first thing she notices is that her feet are on thick, plush carpeting. The next thing she notices is the comparative quiet—the door must be soundproof. This hallway is nearly as dark as the last. There is only a faint red glow emanating from an open doorway on her left. She can just make out another door across the hall.

From the red room she hears laughter, the clink of glasses, and sighs. The air is heavy with incense, but she can't smell marijuana, or the burnt sugary smell of heroin—she's never tried it, but Chantilly had—Penny's never forgotten the smell. She creeps up to the doorway and peers in. There are couples making out on ridiculously opulent chairs and a low divan. She sees wine glasses, but no signs of open drug use. Her shoulders fall. She'd hoped there would be a drug den back here, and that she could just call the cops and there'd be a raid.

Scanning the two dozen or so people in the room, she lets out a breath. Her eyes pause on a girl who has ginger hair and whiter than white skin just like Chantilly and Penny. The girl tilts her neck back, and the guy next to her, who's probably related to the bouncer outside, leans in and starts giving her what looks like the hickey to end all hickies. The girl smiles, and pushes his hair back behind an ear with her fingers. Penny's mouth gapes. Does he have pointed ears? She backs up and wipes her eyes. Must be the smoke from the incense. She sighs. There's no sign of Chantilly there. She has to keep searching. Turning to the other door, she tries the doorknob, but it's locked. Biting her lower lip, she unsnaps her clutch and finds her ID.

She hesitates for a moment.

What is she trying to find?

_Anything._ She's trying to find _anything_ that will help her find her sister.

Slipping the card between the door and the frame, she feels it catch and the lock give. Moments later, she steps into the darkness beyond and immediately falls—but not far. Her hands land on something soft. For a moment she is disorientated, but then she realizes she's on a staircase covered with the same plush carpeting as the hallway. Her eyes adjusting, Penny sees a faint light above, and crawls to the top on her hands and knees. On the landing is an open door. She peeks in and her breath catches. It's an office... but it looks like an office from, well, she doesn't know, a palace maybe? The dark wooden desk is heavy and enormous, with inlays of gold. The wooden chairs have velvety-looking backs and seats and look like thrones. All the rest of the furniture is similarly antique looking and the whole place is dimly lit by an enormous crystal chandelier. Only three things look remotely modern: the window to the club which Penny guesses is the "mirror" above the bar; a softly humming juice machine like the kind that you see in Mexican restaurants mixing horchata—only this one is filled with some sort of red punch; and a computer on the desk.

Penny heads for the computer and sits down at the chair. She's greeted by an enormous Windows XP icon, and of course she doesn't know the password. What is she doing?

She blinks. What are they doing? They've obviously got money... but they've got Windows XP like her granny?

She quickly opens the top right drawer on the desk and sees exactly what she'd expect from her gran, a tiny scrap of paper with a password on it. Also, some keys—one looks like it is for a building, the other looks like it is maybe for a car. She's never stolen anything in her life, has no idea what they're for, but in for a penny, Penny, in for a pound, right? Glancing up to make sure she's alone, she slips the keys into her bra since the damn dress doesn't have pockets. That done, she enters the code from the paper into the computer and... bingo.

... She's staring at a QuickBooks panel, and the company is one she recognizes. LifeBlood blood bank; it's not far from here. Her brow furrows. The owners of The Cove have diversified into blood banks? She doesn't have a business degree, or any degree, but that doesn't sound very synergistic.

Hearing a creak, she ducks under the desk. Heart beating loud in her ears, Penny is about to chide herself for being paranoid, when from beneath the desk she sees a portion of the wall open. Brown boots, and the cuffs of men's pirate-y trousers come into view. She hears a man saying, "So, Count, you thought you'd just drop in and we'd crawl on our bellies to surrender to Odin?"

Odin? The name of some gang leader maybe?

The shoes pause, and their wearer turns. Penny doesn't breathe or even dare blink.

From the other room, another man says tiredly, "I'd rather hoped I'd find you'd stumbled through the Veil accidentally. The All Father is forgiving, Prince."

"So forgiving of him to outlaw us obtaining the nourishment we need!" snaps the first speaker, Prince, Penny guesses.

The shoes start to move in the direction of the fruit-punch horchata machine. Penny hears a glass clink and the sound of it being filled.

The prince taunts, "Look at you, the mighty Count Darerick, so tired you can barely raise your head..."

"I seem to have spent a bit too much time in the sun," the person she supposes is Darerick responds.

There is a dark chuckle, and the shoes retreat to the other room, but their owner doesn't bother to close the wall panel behind him.

"Smell that? You want it, I know you do, mighty Count." The prince's whisper echoes into the office.

Penny hears laughter, some words in another language, and her heart that had been beating so loudly seems to stop. How many people are in there? Her fingernails dig into the carpet, and she tries to keep calm. "Fear is fine," her dad used to say. "Panic isn't." Penny grits her teeth. It was always in the back of her mind that her sister had been captured by a serial killer, but serial killers are loners, and this is a gang so that's hope... isn't it?

"You will not bond me..." Darerick's voice sounds strained.

"Oh, no, this is the blood of no fewer than thirty five donors. You won't bond," Prince hisses.

Penny's mouth drops open. Wait. What? Blood? Bond?

"I... will... not... drink," Darerick responds, sounding like he is in pain.

"Of course you will," says Prince. His laughter is echoed by the other voices in the room, and then Prince barks something in another language. Penny hears scuffling, a sound like chair legs screeching across the floor, thuds, and cries of pain. Her nails dig even deeper into the carpeting. And then footsteps approach the desk. She sees six pairs of men's shoes and one pair of velvety high heels. Conversation in another language buzzes around the room, and Penny hears the words, "Split Oak." She wonders if they mean the park not too far away.

A pair of shoes walk around the desk so that someone's toes are right next to Penny's tummy. Every hair on the back of her neck rises.

"Speak in English," Prince commands, and the buzz of conversation dies. "You need to practice."

"Yes, Prince Aurel," someone answers and Penny blinks. Like a real prince?

"I don't want to kill him," Prince Aurel says. "You saw him, so high and mighty. I want to bring him down."

The woman says, "Why make it difficult, Prince?"

"Silence!"

The woman protests, "I—"

The prince cuts her off. "Do you smell that?"

The room goes quiet except for some tentative sniffs that would have been almost funny, if Penny wasn't scared out of her mind.

"It smells familiar," someone says.

"Yeah... I can't place it, though..."

"Like that junkie who got over bled a few months back."

Putting a hand to her mouth, Penny stifles a gasp. Junkie?

"You got rid of the body though, didn't you?"

"Of course I did! Fed it to the gators just like the other ones."

Penny swallows, and her hands start to shake.

"Doesn't smell like a corpse, smells fresh. Mmmmmm..."

Prince slides the chair by the desk away, and the next thing Penny knows, he is sitting on his heels. His face is in shadow but his eyes glow slightly.

"Well, hello, what have we here?" Prince asks, reaching toward her jaw.

Penny bites his hand as hard as she can. He screams and jerks away, and Penny takes the opportunity to dart out from under the desk.

"Get her!" the prince screams.

"Yes, sire!" someone shouts, but Penny can't see the speaker. She's too busy swinging the business end of one of her borrowed heels at another guy. Someone grabs her from behind. She aims a heel at his shin, misses, and gets a chuckle. "Feisty."

"Stop kicking, girl, we don't want to hurt you," someone says.

"Much," says Feisty.

Penny's heel connects with Fiesty's shin, and he says, "That's enough!" She is slammed hard on the desk, and her arms are wrenched behind her back. Someone else presses her head to the side, and she hisses in pain.

"She bit me!" the prince says.

"And she's heard too much," says the woman, coming into Penny's line of vision. She looks to be about Penny's own twenty-four, but there is a hardness to her face that seems like it belongs on an older person. She has long, thick, dark hair, and too-perfect features. She's got olive skin, and thick dark hair pulled back from her face, exposing pointy ears... she's so gorgeous it hurts, and Penny has to look away. They've all got those too-perfect features... and where their ears aren't hidden, they're all pointy. Before she can think about it, she's shocked by something warm and slimy on her neck. Shuddering in disgust, she hears someone smack their lips.

"She tastes like that junkie girl we drained," Lip Smacker says, and Penny struggles to kick him.

"Her name is Chantilly."

The words don't come from her. Penny's mouth drops open and her eyes go to the speaker. He's got light brown hair, and his eyes glow faintly as he stares at Penny. She feels like he's looking through her. His shoulders slump. "I... I mean... her name was Chantilly."

Penny's heart sinks to her stomach. Her body goes cold, and she stops her struggling, the talk of junkie and alligators connecting in her mind. "She's dead?" Penny whispers. Her voice rises to a scream. "You have to tell me, please!"

The man's eyes focus on hers, and for a moment it is as though they are the only two people in the room. She sees his mouth open, and words start to form on his lips.

Lip Smacker snorts. "Rayne, you _naiva_ , you bonded with it?"

The one who must be Rayne steps back, but his eyes stay riveted on Penny.

"I'm..." Rayne murmurs.

"Enough of this!" says Aurel, walking between Rayne and Penny.

"We could share her," says the woman, approaching the desk, and Penny hears a sort of strangled sound from Rayne.

Aurel's fingers twitch into fists; she can see blood where she bit him. He's standing so close that Penny can't see his face. She spits in his direction and a hand gets slapped over her mouth.

The prince leans down. He's blonde and blue-eyed, square jawed, and straight out of Disney except for the pointed ears. He smiles and Penny's eyes go wide and she tries to draw back. He has _fangs._

The prince tips his head and licks his lips. "No, I have a better idea."

# Chapter Two

Dare is dreaming of Loki.

"Fire takes care of everything," the fool says, standing among the corpses of Dare's kinsmen. Dare's skin is too hot... from sunburn, but in his dream it's because he's on fire. Dare wants to wake up, but he can't. Is this what The Curse really is, not endless sleep, but an endless dream? What a daymare.

He's surrounded by magic he can't reach or use in the dream. That's another carry over from the waking world. The building is a magical object, like the magic stone in his confiscated satchel. It is in the floors, and in the walls. He suspects it is in the electrical wiring. The prince must be using it to power some sort of illusion—probably something to hide the full-extent of his activities from the magical eyes of Odin's spies.

That the prince hasn't bothered to throw Dare in a cell without magical wiring says that he doesn't believe Dare can utilize it, and Dare's done a good job disguising his abilities. That would be more comforting if he wasn't too weak to reach the magic, but he's too exhausted to even reach consciousness.

... And then in the dream he smells a human.

Dare wakes, and instantly regrets it. His skin is on fire—they must have left him in the sun for a while and then flipped him over—he hurts _everywhere_. He hears a creak, a slam, a scuffle, and knows a human woman is very close. He couldn't move if he wanted to, but his mouth waters obscenely, his fangs descend, his body shudders, and he can't restrain a hiss of pain.

"Who's there?" a young female voice asks.

Dare lets loose a long breath.

"Are you okay?" she whispers.

Somewhere water drips. A tiny little part of him whispers, _"Ask her to come closer."_

He's been schooling that part of himself for the better part of three thousand years. "I've been better," he says instead.

"They're vampires," she whispers.

He hears an echo of the water dripping. His hand itches to reach in her direction. He claws at his trousers instead to give his fingers something to do.

"There's no handle on the door," she says. "I have these stupid keys, and can't use them."

There is a soft thud, and he can tell she's sitting down by the sound of her breathing.

He sees light behind his eyes, and he must drift off, because for a moment he doesn't hurt, but then she says, "They killed my sister." And he is instantly on alert and in pain again. A part of his brain notices the lack of inflection in her voice, and he knows she is in shock and very vulnerable.

He swallows, trying to ignore the throbbing under his skin. His eyes slip closed. "I'm sorry," he whispers, because he is. He misses siblings and he knows the sharp edge of grief when it is new, and the dull ache when it is old.

He hears her sharp intake of breath, and her body shifting. "Let me help you."

"Don't!" he cries, even as his hand reaches toward her, his nails scratching on the smooth stone floor.

"Why?"

His nails drag along the stone. "I'm one of them." He winces from the pain in his burned skin.

A droplet of water falls somewhere... is it close, or far?

"You're a vampire?"

"I'm a Night Elf!" he retorts hotly, his tongue catching on his fangs, making his voice sound thick to his own ears.

"You're the one they were beating up in the other room," she says. "Odin sent you... like the real Norse God, Odin?"

Drip. Drip. Drip. Her pulse beats in time. Thump. Thump. Thump.

"He's not a god. None of us are gods," Dare hears himself whisper.

"You're here to take them away." Her voice cracks. "Does that mean you'd kill them if you had to?"

He's too tired to lie. "Yes."

"Why did they throw me in with you?"

"So I'd attack you... so they could shame me... but don't worry."

The world behind his eyes is brightening.

"Everything hurts," he murmurs.

And then everything is light and he dreams of screams and blood spilling over his tongue.

The vampire's head is on her lap, and Penny holds her wrist to his mouth. Her fingers are sore from scratching at the door. Her arms hurt from hanging from the ledge beneath the cell's single, high, glass block window, and her throat is raw from screaming. She accepts she is going to die, but she won't go out without a fight. This is how she is fighting back. She is giving her blood to the vampire that is the enemy of Chantilly's killers. Her life for vengeance for Chantilly and her both. She rocks gently; it seemed like a fair trade when she decided to do this... but nothing is happening.

After the first pinch it hasn't hurt, but the vampire's eyes are still closed, and his lips are gently sucking, but nothing more. Chantilly had books where the vampire bit you and you orgasmed instantly; that most definitely did not happen. Penny had expected, had _wanted_ him to turn into an unholy terror. This isn't what she needs.

Giving a cry of frustration, she's about to tear away when the man's eyelashes flutter, and he pulls the wrist away from his mouth himself.

"Don't stop," Penny says, feeling hope rising in her chest. "I don't care if I die."

He frowns. "But I care."

She shakes her head and yanks her wrist from his grasp. "No, you can't. You have to kill them!" The next minute she finds herself pounding on his chest, and tears spilling from her eyes.

He grabs her hands, and whispers, "Shh... Shh... you're in shock."

"You promised!" she says, even though he hadn't really. She tries to rip her wrists away, but his grip is firm.

"I will help you," he whispers. She sits back on her heels, and feels herself becoming calm.

"Good," he whispers, and then grimaces. "I need a moment to fix this sunburn." He closes his eyes, and it's more than a minute. Penny bites her lip, and thinks of getting up. And then his eyes snap open again. "They're not here..." he whispers. Meeting her eyes, he says, "I need you to tell me about yourself and how you got here. Starting with your name."

"Penny, my name is Penny," she hears herself say.

"My name is—"

"Count Darerick something," Penny says, trying to hurry this along. "I heard them say it when they were torturing you."

"Call me Dare... And there were no spiders dangled in front of my nose, so I'd hardly call it torture, Penny." He shudders.

He's afraid of spiders? She feels her hopes falling fast. "Can you turn into mist and slip through the door?" she asks.

"No."

"Or into a bat?"

He squirms a bit and grimaces again.

She feels her face get hot. "You're not afraid of bats, too, are you?"

One of his eyes open. "No, bats are adorable. I'm just in pain."

Penny gulps. He's not going to be much of a help.

His head lifts. "Someone is coming."

Penny doesn't hear anything. Her eyes widen. "So you have super senses at least," she whispers.

He whispers back, "No, I just have pointy ears."

Before Penny can respond, the door opens. It's too dark to see well, but the shadow is large and male. He takes a menacing step, promptly trips, and belly flops on the floor.

"Prince Rayne, mind the cracks in the cement, Your Highness," Dare whispers, his voice raspy and choked, although it hadn't been so moments before.

"Be quiet, Count," Rayne replies, and Penny remembers him as the one who knew Chantilly's name. "Girl," he says. "Come quickly. I am going to save you."

"But—" says Penny.

Scrambling to his feet, Rayne grabs her arm and pulls her away from Dare. "Stay back, Count!"

Penny opens her mouth to protest, but Dare says, "Go with Prince Rayne, Penny," and gives her a tiny nod. Penny's protest melts away, and she lets Rayne lead her across the cell. She's still barefoot, and she can't help but notice that the floor is cold, but completely smooth.

Moments later, they're outside the door in a hall dimly lit by far-off lights, and Rayne's locking up the cell. Penny hears the lock click, and it's like she snaps out of a fog. "No, don't leave him there!"

Not looking at her, Rayne drags her along the hallway. "Look, I can get you out of here. Everyone knows I was... with your sister. They'll forgive me for letting you go, but not if I let that nuisance, busy-body escape."

Twisting her wrist, Penny snaps it out of his grip. "If you loved Chantilly, why did you kill her?"

Stopping in his tracks, Rayne turns and finally _looks_ at her. Even in the low light she can see his eyes are wide and desperate. "I didn't kill her. I loved her."

Penny's mouth falls open. It's terrible, but she believes him.

He grabs her by the upper arm, his fingers digging into her skin, and Penny knows she'll have bruises. "I have to get you out of here," he says.

"You _let_ them kill her," Penny says as he drags her past a stairwell.

He spins again. "No, I didn't _let_ them. But they knew I was... in love with her, so they killed her." His grip on her arm softens. "I'm... I'm... sorry. It hurts."

There is a noise from the stairwell, and Rayne looks up in alarm. "Hurry." He doubles his speed, and moments later, they're at an emergency door. Rayne pushes against it, but it doesn't budge. The footsteps on the stairs are louder. Rayne curses, lets her go, and pushes again.

From the stairwell, a voice says, "That's enough, Prince Rayne."

Penny looks back and sees the vampire who'd been the bouncer last night. He has a pistol in his hand, and it's aimed at her head, not Rayne's. Her eyes drop to a ring of keys, snapped to his belt.

"Nor, I just can't let her be drained," Rayne says. "I can't."

Penny holds her breath, hoping that Nor will look at Rayne for just a moment so she can duck and plow into him. She may not get those keys, but she's going out fighting, dammit.

Nor's cold eyes never leave her. Gazing down the barrel of the pistol, he says, "If you'd just taken precautions, you wouldn't be cursed with this bloody sentimentality. She was only human, Rayne... like this one."

Another voice rises in the hall. "Oh, dear, what's going on here?"

Penny blinks. It's Dare's voice, though she can't see him in the gloom.

Nor spins fast. "Take another step closer and I'll shoot you!"

"Shoot me?" says Dare, emerging from the shadows. "Whatever is that thing in your hand? It looks terribly primitive."

"It's a pistol, Dare!" Penny cries.

"To the Norns with this," Nor says. There is a click from the pistol. Rayne and Penny gasp at once, but no shot rings out.

With shaking hands and arms, Nor brings the barrel of the pistol to his face and peers down it, both eyes wide. "What the fuck?" he says.

There is a crack, and Penny and Rayne pull back as blood, bone, and gore splatter against them.

Willing herself not to puke, Penny glances to where Nor had been standing, and sees Dare standing over Nor's body. Dare's wearing a pirate getup like the rest of the vampires—and now the top is stained and bloody. He's holding the pistol in one hand and keys in the other.

Slipping the keys in one pocket, Dare turns the pistol over, gazing at it studiously. His finger slips onto the trigger, as though he's testing it, the business end pointed at...

"Don't shoot Rayne!" Penny says, surprising herself.

"Dare wasn't going to shoot me," Rayne says dismissively. Upstairs there is the sound of shouts and running feet.

For an instant, Dare's eyes meet hers, but he lowers the pistol and reaches into the pocket and retrieves the keys. "If you allow me, Your Majesty," he says, stepping between Penny and Rayne. The door is open seconds later, revealing a cement stairwell to the ground level.

"I'm not going with you," Rayne says. Penny stops in the doorway, and looks back at him.

"My prince," says Dare, his words clipped. "Aurel is going to believe you killed Nor and let Penny and me escape. I strongly suggest you reconsider."

"I hear people coming," Penny says, looking down the hallway. Her eyes go to the side of the door and see a fire alarm and above it a sprinkler system. Struck with inspiration, she pulls down on the handle. No water comes from the sprinkler, but a wail rises in the building. Dare and Rayne both scream, clutching their ears.

"Come on!" Penny shouts, running out the door and up the stairwell into the parking lot behind The Cove.

"What did you do?" shouts Rayne, hot on her heels

She hears a slam, and looks over her shoulder to see Dare sprinting up the stairs. The emergency exit is closed behind him, and she hears pounding on the door from the other side. Catching up to Penny and Rayne, he says, "Good thinking, Penny! Do you happen to have access to a vehicle?"

"Yes!" Penny says.

"They have your keys in your handbag!" Rayne shouts, but Penny ignores him. She races over the ground, gravel biting into her feet. She finds her car just where she left it. The driver's side has no window at the moment, so she doesn't bother to lock it.

"We can't ride in this!" shouts Rayne, looking down in disgust at her white, 1990s era, Peugeot 309.

Penny's feet hurt, the memory of Nor's head exploding will make her throw up if she thinks about it, she's tired, wrung out, and her sister is dead. She doesn't argue.

"It's unlocked," Penny tells Dare. "Don't get in, get ready to push!"

Dare goes around the passenger side without asking questions, and Penny jumps into the driver's side. She reaches underneath the seat, rips off the duct tape there, tears the spare key off the tape, and jams the key into the ignition. Slipping the engine into neutral, she pumps twice with her foot, gives the engine a try... and gets nothing.

Rayne slides into the back seat and slams the door. "They're coming. Why do you keep a key in the car? Don't you worry about it being stolen?"

"They'd never be able to start it," Penny says, jumping out of the car.

"What?" screams Rayne.

She ignores him and shouts to Dare, "Push now!"

He doesn't ask questions, just helps her get the Peugeot moving. Grimacing with the effort, she hears the crowd behind her milling around the building, and shouts of, "What happened?" and "Did you see a fire?" Somewhere in the distance, she hears the scream of a fire engine. She and Dare have just gotten the car rolling when Rayne shouts, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! We surrender."

Penny looks up and sees the business end of a rifle held by a vampire not twenty feet in front of them. Without shutting the door she shouts, "Get in!" Jumping into the moving car, she gives the ignition another try as Dare slides into the seat beside her. The engine turns over, and she hits the gas. The vampire with the rifle doesn't so much leap as soar out of the way, as though he's been yanked by strings.

In the back, she hears Rayne chanting, "Norns save me!"

In the passenger seat, Dare drops his head to the dash, panting for breath.

Penny guns the engine as they leave the parking lot.

She's just breathing a sigh of relief, feeling like she's in the clear when Rayne shouts from the back seat, "How are you not sunburned, Count?"

Penny glances over at Dare. "He's still a little pink," she observes. And in some places she can see his skin peeling, like at the end of burn when fresh new skin comes up from beneath.

"You should not be able to move! I saw you earlier. You were a scarlet basilisk!" Rayne protests.

"I think Your Majesty overestimated the severity of my burns," Dare mumbles.

She hears Rayne inhale, as though he's about to speak—or shout—he seems to be in that kind of mood, but Dare cuts him off. "Your Majesty has been too wise and too prudent to ever get a sunburn... you don't know how to judge how severe they are. It was minor."

Penny remembers Dare laying on the cold smooth cement floor and whispering, "... I hurt," and blinks. Also, by the way they're talking, she can't figure out if Dare and Rayne are on the same side. Her hand tightens on the stick shift. Somehow she feels that Dare is on her side.

"They were ordered to roll you over a few times..." Rayne mutters.

Nodding, Dare says, "It's so hard to get good help these days."

"Still... even with a minor burn, you shouldn't be as well as you are now..." Leaning forward so fast the tiny car rocks, he shouts between the seats, "Did you drink from her?"

Dare doesn't respond.

"Yes," Penny says, hand on the stick, thinking that she just might like to punch Rayne in the nose. "Stop shouting!"

"He's not strong enough to compel you to split your vein, woman! Why did you let him do that?"

"Because I wanted to make him strong enough to kill you!" Penny retorts.

There is an instant of blessed silence. And then Rayne falls back in the seat and bursts out laughing. "Dare? Kill me? Kill anyone? He probably couldn't even kill a chicken."

Penny glances over at Dare. For an instant, she sees his eyes on her. She remembers asking if he'd kill the other vampires if he had to, and she remembers the answer. "Yes."

"You picked the wrong Night Elf to align yourself with, human," Rayne cackles.

Penny tightens her hand on the steering wheel, and silently wills Rayne's head to explode. It doesn't, and she's glad, because she thinks he did try to save her, and did love her sister, even if he's a coward. She blinks, remembering how he'd even been unable to open the emergency exit. Dare had known how... and that makes her think of another thing...

"How did you get out of the cell?" she asks Dare.

Rayne leans forward again. "Yes, how did you get out?"

"I think, Your Highness, that the door didn't lock, because it swung open just minutes after you left," says Dare. "Human technology, it's befuddling."

Penny's left eyebrow does a little dance she can't control. Her eyes slide to Dare. He's holding the pistol with two hands, the barrel pointed at the floorboard in a perfect grip if she remembers her dad's shooting lessons right.

"That's true," says Rayne. "They're too primitive to use magic. Blast that door, I thought I locked it." Leaning toward her, Rayne demands, "Where are we going?"

Penny's hands shake on the wheel and stick. She hadn't thought beyond escape.

"Where do you want to go, Penny?" Dare asks.

They're heading south on 441 toward Gatorland. Penny feels herself go cold. "I want to see where they left Chantilly."

"We only have an hour and a half before dawn," Rayne protests.

"I want to see where they took her," Penny says, her voice hitching, her hands shaking more.

Rayne starts to protest. "But—"

"Let's take her there," says Dare in a slow, measured voice. "We owe her that."

They whiz past Gatorland.

"We owe you that," says Rayne, his words equally slow and measured.

Dare lets out a long, deep sigh and seems to sink a bit.

"Head toward Split Oak," says Rayne.

"It isn't right," Dare hears Rayne say outside the car.

Dare's managed to pull himself up into a sitting position, but he is exhausted and his skin itches from his healing burn. Without Penny's blood, he'd be close to dead. Her blood had given him the strength to touch the magic thrumming through the building. That magic had healed the worst of his burn. That in turn had allowed him to soothe the shock that had probably incited Penny's blood gift, and to compel her to go with Rayne. The magic in the building had given him the strength to magically probe the premises for other prisoners and to open the cell door and to force Nor to shoot himself. But that magical reservoir hadn't been available to him when he'd thrown the man guarding the driveway through the air. Also, he really shouldn't have used compulsion to make Rayne reveal Penny's sister's resting place. But Dare had _felt_ Penny's hurt in her shaking hands, and he _had_ to.

"The Veil... World Gate... Fairy Path, whatever you want to call it, is near the split oak," Rayne continues. They're just a few steps from the car, on the driver's side. "You should come to my world, Alfheim."

Seconds later, Dare finds himself looking over the car, pistol firmly in his hand, but still pointed at the ground. He glares at Rayne, not remembering opening the door, or standing.

"I'm not going with you," Penny hisses, her back to Dare. He notices that her shoulders are wide for her wiry frame, and her strawberry blonde hair is falling out of a bun. She has freckles on her back. He feels a twisting in his stomach, and a heaviness in his heart that he hasn't felt in a long time. It's hopeful and painful in equal measure.

Rayne sighs, and Dare tears his gaze from Penny. "Count, relax... I don't want her blood... I can't do that... not again."

Dare finds his frame softening, remembering after Gretta died, Jonathan, Pieter, and Portia. Each time it hurt enough to make him think, _Never again._ His eyes slide to Penny, the thought of losing her _someday_ already hurts.

"You can't protect her, Dare," the prince says, and Dare's eyes snap back to him. The prince's lip curls. "I don't know why I'm justifying myself to the likes of you. You should come back to Alfheim, too. You're nothing against twenty-three vampires!"

Dare's fingers tighten on the pistol. Twenty-three? That will be difficult.

"I'm not going," Penny declares.

The prince growls, "I'm trying to save your tragically short, dreary, mortal life. Dare is weak, he can't protect you."

He reaches toward her, and Dare aims the pistol across the roof of the car. "Stop."

The prince steps back from Penny.

"You wouldn't shoot me, Dare," Rayne says. "I am your Prince!" Raising his hand, palm to Dare, fingers splayed wide, Rayne says, "You will put the gun down."

Dare leans heavily on the car. The prince is trying to compel him, and Dare feels suddenly weary.

"Don't put the gun down!" Penny roars.

And Dare's head ticks, the weight on his chest lightens, and he raises the pistol. "I'm sorry, My Prince. You know how it is, blood is thicker than water and all that."

Rayne looks between him and Penny. "How much did you drink?" he asks, his voice incredulous. Dare didn't drink _that_ much, but the prince doesn't know that, and he's already backing across the parking area toward a well-worn trail.

"I will be sure to tell Odin that you helped rescue Penny and me from your brother," Dare calls out.

"You'll be dead!" Rayne retorts. Spinning on his heels, he takes off into the trees. Dare marks the direction—the World Gate must be that way.

"Well, that went well," he says as the prince vanishes from sight. The trees are towering and thin, and between them he sees growing brightness on the horizon. The air is hot, humid, and thick with the sound of insects and birds.

Penny turns back to Dare. "The sun is rising soon."

Her makeup is smudged, her hair in disarray, and she has dark circles under her eyes. She is artless, and were she a Night Elf, he wouldn't find her beautiful. But she is a human, and what's more, she has given him blood. Looking at her, his skin heats, his blood moves, and he has to struggle not to lick his lips—and it isn't just blood he wants. It is exhilarating that blood still does this to him after so long and terrifying, too. _Blood lies_ is a saying among the Night Elves.

Dare leans against the car. "You want to see your sister's resting place," he says. Another saying is, _blood compels._

"He told me where it is; I can come back anytime. You're going to die," she says, opening the car door. "Help me get it started."

She is brave and generous. Sometimes _blood is true._

# Chapter Three

"How soon until we get there?" Dare asks, snapping Penny from a memory of the last time she'd seen Chantilly.

For someone who had been a-okay with her hiking out to Lake Hart to see her sister's final resting place, Dare is very nervous about the sunrise.

"Another twenty minutes," Penny says.

He looks into the back. "This car doesn't even have a proper boot."

"What?" Penny asks.

"A boot," says Dare. "You know, the place where you typically stash Night Elves when you're ferrying them about?"

Penny's brow furrows. "Do you mean the trunk?"

Dare smooths back his hair. "That might be the right word in this time and place, yes."

"I took off the board thingy between the seat and the back windshield that hid the _boot_ ," Penny answers distractedly. "I don't need someone jimmying the lock to the trunk and the damn thing flapping open when I drive."

Her mind drifts back to that last meeting, Chantilly had—

"You don't have a bumbershoot?" Dare says.

Penny sits up with a start. "What?"

"A thing for keeping the rain and sun off you," Dare says, miming with his hands.

Penny blinks. "If you mean umbrella—"

Rubbing his jaw, Dare looks befuddled. "You don't say bumbershoot anymore? But it was such a common thing to say... "

Penny's eyes widen. "I have sunscreen in the glove box!"

Dare snorts. "Red Vet Pet doesn't work... as a redhead, you should know that."

Penny grasps the steering wheel hard. She has no idea what he is talking about but... "The stuff in the glove box does sure as hell work. That is micro-milled zinc, titanium oxide, full-spectrum, sunburn blocking magic, and it's waterproof, too."

"Is not," says Dare, but he takes out the tube. "There's no hocus pocus in this," he mutters, sniffing at it.

"It's better than nothing!" Penny says exasperatedly. She wants to get home and then think about what she's going to do. Rayne had promised Dare would be killed; by extension, she's pretty sure that means her. The other vamps have her ID, but it's from West Virginia, and isn't going to help them. Her phone though was a cheap thing she got a convenience store, and it doesn't even have a security code. She thinks back through her few contacts, and who among them have her address. Will they give her away?

Rubbing sunscreen onto his hands, Dare says, "So, I don't know what sort of myths humans now believe about Night Elves—"

"We believe that you're vampires," Penny says, eyes on the road, somewhat irritated by having her thoughts interrupted. Again.

"—but _Night Elve_ s can't read minds. Or at least, I can't."

So there are some that _could_ read minds. She glances over at Dare. He's found the cheap pair of sunglasses she'd put in the glove box and put them on. They look much better on him than her. On him they look like something out of the Ralph Lauren eyewear collection, not something she'd picked up for a buck from CVS.

She downshifts, and guns the engine through an intersection. The morning is humid, warm, and ominous.

"I'm worried about the other vampires finding their way to my home," Penny admits.

"I wouldn't worry about any visits during the day," Dare says, putting the sunscreen back in the glove box, where he's also stashed the pistol. He slumps back in the seat. "If they come at night, we'll deal with it."

He sounds exhausted, but not afraid. Rayne had said Dare is weak...

Meditatively palming the top of the stick, she glances over at the vampire in the passenger seat. He's leaning back, and even with the glasses on she can tell his eyes are closed. He certainly doesn't look dangerous. But Odin wouldn't send a weakling... would he?

Dare doesn't wake up even when she pulls up to her trailer and kills the motor. She can hear the horses in the barn, and the door of the main house slam. "Hey," Penny says.

Dare doesn't move. His head is tilted back, and his lips are slightly parted. Weirdly, she can't see his fangs at the moment.

"Hey!" she smacks him across the thigh, and somewhere in her brain it registers that she just smacked a vampire, but she isn't afraid of Dare.

Dare starts and looks across the lawn. "That's your home?"

"Yep," says Penny.

"Oh, no," Dare whispers.

Stung by his words, she snaps, "Yep, it's a trailer, and while I'm at it, I'm also from West Virginia. Get over it, Count, or hit the road." Sure, it's only a trailer on cinder blocks, but she keeps it clean, and it doesn't leak, or have more bugs than you'd expect in Orlando. It's shaded by pretty trees—except that dead one—and she keeps the area around it clear of junk. It's kind of picturesque, actually.

Dare rolls his head toward her, and his eyes narrow. "I am concerned about the sunlight." For the first time ever, his voice drips venom, and it startles her.

Penny looks out across the lawn. In the moments since she turned her head, sunlight has dappled the grass between the drive and her trailer.

"I could go get a blanket," she suggests, feeling bad about being defensive.

"No," Dare says, dipping his chin. "I think it's better if I make a run for it."

"I'll go first and open the door," Penny suggests.

Dare nods and she sees his Adam's apple bob. She can't help notice how striking his profile is... he can probably get any woman he wants. Shaking her head, she hops from the car, runs across the lawn, retrieves the spare key from under a rock, and unlocks the door.

Turning around, she sees Dare sprinting toward her. He passes through one strip of sunlight, and then another, and then at the third, he comes to a stop. Lifting the hand without a pistol in it, he holds it before his eyes as though expecting something terrible to happen.

Penny hops off the stoop and runs toward him, her heart seizing up. "Don't turn into a pile of ash on me, Dare!" The urgency in her voice surprises her; she decides to examine it later.

"Beat me daddy eight to the bar!" he murmurs as she approaches, and she half expects to see smoke rising from his fingers.

"Beat you?" says Penny.

"Your sunscreen works," he says, sunlight haloing his dark curls. "Even in the 1940s there was nothing like this. It's only been what? Seventy or so odd years?"

Penny hears Todd's truck start, and realizes she and Dare both are splattered with blood, and Todd will see them when he goes past them on the main drive. "Come on. We have to get inside."

Dare's hand drops, and he gets a little wobbly. Penny throws an arm around his waist, and he leans heavily against her. "Yes, all the magic and the sun, and not enough... " He trails off.

Not enough blood, Penny's brain finishes, helping him toward the stoop. He hadn't taken a lot; she hadn't even been dizzy when he finished. He's not going to say it, because he's too _nice_.

As she helps him stumble up the stoop, he pitches forward. Penny thinks he's going to fall over, but then realizes he's just eyeing the space between the ground and the trailer bottom. Straightening, he says, "There are probably snakes under there," and shudders.

"Yes," she admits.

"Well, that's a real corker," he mutters.

They go inside and before she can say a word, Dare pulls away from her and dives onto the ancient couch in her living room. Penny goes over and kneels beside him. His eyes are closed and his breathing is gentle. She has a lot of questions to ask: where vampires come from, how can they be killed besides a bullet up the nose, and what their other weaknesses are. But that is all going to have to wait. She feels the pressure of exhaustion behind her eyes. Going to her room, she takes off her clothes, puts on the t-shirt and shorts she usually sleeps in, and almost goes to bed... but then she thinks about all her phone contacts and sends out an email to all of them instead. _Had my phone stolen last night by a real creeper! If he asks for my address, don't give it!_

Afterward, she still can't sleep. At nine, she gets up and starts pacing and thinks of going out to help with the horses, even though she told Emma and Todd she was taking the day off.

She stops by Dare, dead to the world... or undead to the world... or... whatever. He doesn't look very vampiric __ clutching one of the dingy throw pillows. He looks young and vulnerable—and who knows, maybe for a vampire he is young? Maybe he was turned in the 1940s or something, and that's why he uses the slang, and why he is so tall—weren't people before that really short? He's not supposed to be vulnerable. He's supposed to be wicked and powerful and have a thirst to kill his enemies, or _her_ enemies.

She remembers his stance when he aimed the gun at Rayne across the car. She's not an expert... but he'd looked professional. Her eyes narrow. Which is really strange since he seemed to not know what a gun was when Nor had first confronted him, or when he'd studied the weapon after Nor shot himself. And how exactly had Nor shot himself? He didn't seem like the type to look down the barrel and pull the trigger. Also, she was sure Rayne had locked the door to the cell, and the floor had not been cracked.

She stares down at Dare, irritated by all that she doesn't know, all she needs to do, and his ability to sleep. She should go to Chantilly's resting place now, but she's so keyed up that she knows she shouldn't drive, and she's not sure she should leave Dare here... or leave him at all. That's what happens in horror movies: people split up and then they die. In most horror movies the vampire is the horror, and those _other_ vampires are horrors, but not bumbling Rayne, and not Dare. Dare is maybe not bumbling, but he is afraid of spiders... and possibly snakes.

She bites her lip, and her hands ball into fists. He can't sleep peacefully, he can't be afraid, and he has to be strong.

Dare wakes up to the smell of blood. Before he knows what is happening, the blood is at his lips. "Drink. You have to be strong."

His eyes slide to the side. Penny is kneeling beside him, her bleeding wrist close to his lips. He knows, dimly in the back of his mind, that she's still in shock, and he should push her away—not just for her sake, but his own. The a willing donor's blood occupies a unique and terrible place in the soul somewhere between addiction and love. But he's tired, he does need to be strong, and it's been too long. He throws out an arm, pulls her on top of him, and drinks deep.

When he is done, she is lying across his chest, her head turned to the side. He can see her eyes, gazing at nothing. He wants her... if she looked at him, he'd kiss her. With one hand he strokes her hair, completely undoing the binding. His other hand skims along her spine. Everywhere their bodies touch he feels heat and electricity; he wants to shift her weight so it is on him just _so_... but then he notices the vacancy in her eyes.

"What is it—" He almost calls her 'Love.'

"I can't sleep," she says, her voice inflectionless.

For a moment, it's Dare who is in shock. But then he releases a long breath and lets the heat he feels disperse into the atmosphere. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her tight. "Yes, you can. You're safe."

He doesn't use magic, but her eyes slip closed.

# Chapter Four

Penny wakes up on the couch alone. After Dare finished drinking, she'd somehow managed to fall asleep, and at some point she'd found herself on her side, Dare's body pressed behind hers. She'd never imagined herself spooning with a vampire, but she'd felt safe and she'd slept without nightmares... she wonders where he has gone.

"Penny, you have no food, and thanks to Loki's refusal to allow me to prepare for this journey, I have no money," Dare complains from her kitchen, and for some reason she finds herself smiling.

A minute later, Dare's sitting down on the trunk that passes for a coffee table in front of her, a plate of toast in one hand and a glass of juice in the other. He's wearing a different shirt. She blinks and realizes it's probably an undershirt. It's cream colored and thinner than what he was wearing last night, and made of what she thinks is maybe linen. He's silhouetted by the light peeking beneath the shade, and she can see the outline of his body through it. He's tall and rangy, with broad shoulders, and a trim waist. She knows guys that bulk up think women want muscles on top of muscles, but from all she's seen, Dare is what most girls want. What had Chantilly called it? "Otter bod," or some such. Penny feels herself flush, wondering if he's catching her staring.

"My tunic was gory," he says. "But I didn't want to put it in the washing machine and wake you up."

Yep. She's been busted. "You know what a washing machine is?" she asks, to take the focus off her checking him out.

"The 1940s weren't so very primitive," says Dare. "Did you think we relied on a rock in a river?"

Penny snorts, and he holds out the plate. "Eat... and then you must tell me everything you know about Prince Aurel's little operation."

"No, you've got to tell me some things," Penny says, balancing the plate on her knees.

Dare's head tilts. "Such as?"

"Will I become a vampire?"

"Night Elf," Dare says, and she swears his pointed ears twitch. "No, we're a species. We're born this way, just like humans..."

Her eyebrow dances. "Yeah, you're just like us."

He looks away. "We're not so different. The myths of extreme strength and speed are largely false. We have a nutritional requirement that is... unique. We live long if..." He trails off.

"If you drink human blood," Penny guesses.

Dare meets her eyes, and there's something angry there, but there shouldn't be. Humans are the ones being eaten—or drunk, or whatever. Her skin gets hot. "So are there like... hundreds of you, thousands, preying on us? Hidden government conspiracies and covens and—"

"No." Holding her gaze, Dare gives her a tight smile. "There are not thousands of us, even in Alfheim, our homeworld."

Penny's brain spins a little at "homeworld," but he's a vampire, and another planet doesn't seem like quite that big a stretch at the moment.

Dare continues. "The twenty-three Night Elves here under the sway of Prince Aurel are the only ones on Earth."

"But if you need our blood to survive..."

Dare looks down. "We drink all kinds of blood—horse, sheep, cow, and the occasional wolf or dragon if we're feeling adventurous. The young vampires in my realm have never had any from humans."

"Prince Aurel said you need it, though," Penny protests.

Dare massages his temples. "Why did he have to try and impress me by speaking English?"

"Is that true?" Penny demands.

Dare doesn't even look at her.

"It is, isn't it?" Penny sits straighter. "Why aren't there more of you here?" Her country went to war for oil that they could have gotten other places for slightly more money... why weren't the vampires, or Night Elves, or whatever, pouring through what Rayne had called the Veil or World Gate to come here?

He gives a tight smile. "It is against Odin's law for any magical being to live on Earth. It is to keep us from taking advantage of humans. Odin has considerably more warriors than there are Night Elves so... "

"And you're okay with this?"

Dare crosses his arms over his chest. "I am against Night Elves like Aurel using humans against their will, and against other magical creatures doing the same. It was a problem in your ancient times. Magical beings—elves, Asgardians, Vanir, and Jotunn—would set themselves up as gods. Without Odin's law, they would do so again."

Penny tilts her head. Yep, Dare's lawful good, but she doesn't like the idea that humans are helpless. "Not if we can shoot them with guns," she says defiantly.

His lips quirk. "Against many of us that would work quite well. Most magical beings don't develop their magical abilities and would be easy enough to manage."

" _Most_ magical beings?" Penny says.

A knock sounds before Dare can answer. Penny stands, but Dare is already up and across the room, hand on the doorknob, ear pressed to the door. "It's a human man," he says.

There's another knock and then Penny hears a familiar man's voice. "Penny, it's me! Are you there?"

Dare looks to her, his eyes glowing a bit in the low light, one of his eyebrows arched. There's something cat-like about him, and he's not bumbling like Rayne at all.

"It's all right. Let him in," Penny says.

Dare opens the door, and Todd, one of Penny's employers, and the owner of the trailer, gapes up at him. "Oh," he says. He looks quickly to Penny. "Penny, are you alright?"

Todd is in his late 50s, gray haired, soft around the middle, and is perpetually red cheeked. Penny doesn't think he'd be even a match for Rayne, and she has no idea what he'd do if she wasn't "alright."

"I'm fine," she says. "This is my friend Dare. Dare, this is—"

"Just call me Todd!" Todd says, holding out a hand with a grin.

Dare takes it with a bemused smile. Todd looks Dare up and down and Penny realizes she has no excuse for Dare's odd clothing—though fortunately his pointed ears are covered by his curls.

"You must work at the park!" Todd says, stepping back.

"Yep, he's from a magic kingdom, all right!" Penny exclaims nervously. Dare looks at her in alarm, but then the look of betrayal on his face morphs into a look of confusion when Todd asks, "Are you a pirate or a prince?"

"Prince!" says Penny at the same moment Dare says, "Pirate!"

Which makes Penny scowl at him. He is so not a pirate, Count Afraid of Spiders.

"Errr..." says Todd.

Dare bows theatrically. "I am the Prince of Pirates, at your service."

"Ha, ha! You're good!" Todd laughs. "Must be that new ride everyone's talking about."

He turns to Penny. "Emma and I were about to ask you up to the house."

The cat-like Dare who'd just been at the door is suddenly back. In a cool business-like voice, he says, "Why?"

At that single word, Todd stares up at Dare, eyes glazed. "Someone left messages on our business line asking for Penny's address."

"Did you give it to them?" Penny asks, alarmed.

Straightening, Todd says, "Oh, no, we'd never do that."

"I'm sure I'll be fine, then," says Penny.

Todd coughs nervously. "Penny, anyone who knows the business number can Google it, get our address, and our address is—"

Penny puts a hand to her chest. "My address."

Todd nods gravely. "Emma's calling the cops, but I don't think there is much they can do at this point. We thought you might want to come up to our place—"

Penny bites her lip. They're always asking her to come over to dinner, and she always says no. It would be too terribly awkward. "That's so nice of you, but—"

"—to have dinner, and maybe spend the night," Todd finishes.

"We'd love dinner!" Dare exclaims.

Grinning, Todd says, "Well, we're about to put it on the table."

Dare beams. "We'll just get our shoes!"

Todd beams right back. "Great! Well, I'd better head on up. See you in a few." Just before Dare closes the door, Todd looks back at Penny, does a sort of sideways winky-wink thing in Dare's direction, and gives Penny the thumbs up.

Oh, no. She has the feeling "terribly awkward" has just multiplied by two.

"But I had to say yes," Dare says, heading up the hill to the abode of Todd and Emma. It's just past sunset, but not too bright. Or maybe it is just human blood, and a human who is smart, courageous and generous is altering his view of the world, tinging it in welcome shadow. "Todd smelled delicious."

Penny's eyes go wide.

"Not like that," Dare says, and he can't resist putting a hand on the small of her back. "One human is enough for me."

She doesn't pull away, but crosses her arms over her chest. He gets the feeling he's making her uncomfortable, not comforting her. He drops his hand, and the movement physically hurts. So different from when she nestled in his arms. He wants to believe that it's grief that separates them, but feels that there is something more that hangs over her, maybe more than one thing. She'd been defensive about her home, clean and comfortable as it is, and had defensively mentioned the region she hails from. Are either or both a signal of belonging to a lower class? Norns know, that can be stress inducing.

Trying to lift her mood, he adds, "He smells like ghee, spices and naan bread. Blood has hardly any calories. I'm hungry for _food,_ Penny. " It's true, but he is more worried about her. She has found out that magical beings exist and that her sister is dead in a single night, that combined with whatever other demons she is fighting... She needs to eat, even if she doesn't know it. He could compel her with magic, of course, but she'd figure it out eventually... like she'll eventually realize he used compulsion to make her go quietly with Rayne.

"But they're... they're... Christians," Penny sputters. "And not like my mom, they actually go to church, and not just on Sundays!"

Maybe it's a difficult parental relationship that dogs her? They don't have time for such a discussion though. They're not five paces from the house, and Dare can smell the rich aromas of Indian food. "Crosses and Holy Water don't hurt me," he says. Neither would Jesus, but that could lead to an awkward discussion of his age, and he doesn't like being a name dropper either.

"Maybe I'm thinking of myself, not you," Penny huffs.

Before he can ask what she means, Todd opens the door with a smile. "Come on in!"

Dare steps aside and lets Penny go first. She doesn't so much walk past him as scurry. Had standing back broken some new rule of etiquette?

"I'm sorry for what finally brought you up here, Penny, but I'm glad you came up to the house," Todd says with a gentle smile that goes all the way to his eyes.

"Um," says Penny, her arms tightening around herself, and Dare wonders about her discomfort.

"Your home is beautiful," Dare says, to divert Todd's attention, even though with large windows, it actually looks like it would be terribly bright in the daytime. It was the right thing to say because Todd beams and explains how he designed and built the house himself while he and his family lived in the trailer Penny now occupies.

Dare's eyes slide to Penny. She's looking at a photograph hanging on the wall. Her brow is furrowed and she looks confused. Todd looks over at Penny, too, and a wide range of emotions play over his face so fast Dare can't place them all.

"Oh, that's my brother, Tom, he lives out in San Francisco. Don't get to see him hardly enough." There's something defensive in Todd's voice, or maybe it's protective. Of who?

To take the edge off things, Dare points at another picture of three teenagers holding hammers, wearing light cotton shirts emblazoned with the words, "Habitat for Humanity."

"Are these your children?" he asks.

Todd loosens up immediately. "Yep, those are them. They're all off at college now. Don't get to see them nearly enough now either."

"Mmmm..." Dare's eyes slide to a framed biblical quote, Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest," and then to the picture that had so confounded Penny. In the photo, Todd has his arm around a man who looks to be a slightly younger version of himself. The other man is wrapped in a rainbow flag. Dare doesn't understand what could possibly be troubling about the picture.

He instinctively moves closer to Penny, but she's gazing out of the foyer. He hears light footsteps coming from the direction of her gaze and a woman steps into the room. Penny immediately looks down, but Todd brightens and holds up his arms. "My wife Emma! Emma, this is Dare. He's a magical pirate-prince."

Emma laughs, and it's a beautiful, light musical sound. "I didn't know you were allowed to wear your costumes out of the park!"

Pretending he knows what they're talking about, Dare bows, but steals a surreptitious look at Emma. To Night Elves, their own host always looks _perfect._ Love, sex, food... all wrapped up in a single package... no one could be more desirable than Penny to Dare at the moment. With all that he feels for her, he does recognize that Emma is striking. She has olive skin, delicate facial features, and the creases around her eyes seem to accent their sparkle. Her dark brown hair is thick with a few bold streaks of gray. Emma isn't terribly tall, but she is trim and even the simple movement of stepping into the room shows off strength and health. She smiles at her husband and then at Penny and Dare. "Follow me. It's on the table."

"Thank you for cooking for us," Penny says, ducking her head and hustling past her.

"I only set the table! Todd does all the cooking." Emma laughs, and Dare can't help but smile. He knows this couple—well, not _them—_ but they are a type he's seen from ancient Greece, to Svartalfheim, to World War II Germany, and England: the exceptionally beautiful woman who marries a man who is a little stout, but a great cook. Also, Dare is certain that within seconds Todd will display a jovial sense of humor.

He glances over at the man expectantly, and Todd jerks a thumb at the picture of his brother wrapped in the rainbow flag. "My brother got the gay gene, but somehow I got the cooking and interior decorating genes."

Dare is sure it is humorous, but he doesn't understand what he's talking about. Todd seems like a happy person, so he doesn't know how he couldn't have gotten the "gay" gene as well. Dare smiles and sticks to something safe. "It's hard to live apart from family."

"Yes, it is!" Todd agrees as they step into a dining room table laden with a tempting array of different dishes. Before he can ask about Dare's family, Dare turns the conversation to Emma and Todd's children. They don't just talk about their biological children, they talk about Penny—how she's wonderful with the animals in their boarding stable, and how they're worried about her living alone.

Throughout dinner it becomes more and more apparent that the older couple wants to adopt her. He senses they feel the same sort of responsibility toward her that he feels toward Enit. There is haze around Penny in Dare's vision caused by the bond of blood between them, or as Gretta would probably more accurately say, his judgment is impaired by a chemical cocktail mixed up by Penny's blood. The other adults' gaze helps him see her for what she is: a child in need of protection. He sees how uncomfortable in her own skin she is, and realizes Penny would be a terrible consort. In the shifting tides of inter-realm politics she'd sink him—and herself. And he notices she hardly looks at Todd, and looks at Emma while Emma isn't looking at her, blushing as the other woman catches her gaze.

Dare realizes he'd be a horrible consort for Penny as well.

As Dare and Penny finally leave Emma and Todd's place, Penny gives a sigh of relief. She'd never thought they'd get away. Dare had seemed so happy and comfortable with them. Emma and Todd had been on a trip to Europe and seen the cathedrals—Dare had some funny stories from the construction of said cathedrals—it had almost been like he'd been there. Which makes her wonder. "How old are you exactly?"

"Don't you know it's not polite to ask a gentleman his age, Penny?" Dare's words are light, but his tone is sharp, and in contrast to the breezy way he responded to Todd and Emma just minutes before.

"Excuse me." He sighs. "We've had a lovely breakfast—"

Her brow scrunches at that description. It's 8 p.m.... but maybe to a vampire, dinner is breakfast?

"—but we need to get to work. Tell me how you got to be at the club last night."

So Penny tells him, wandering in the direction of the stables instead of her trailer, just because the night is beautiful, and she likes to walk. She gets to the part about the red room, and the couples making out, and whispers in shock, "Do you think the humans there escaped last night alive?"

Dare shakes his head. "I'm sure they are fine."

"But Hickey Man wasn't giving that girl a hickey, he was sucking her blood!"

"No, he wasn't," Dare replies. "Aurel is against one-on-one bonding." Which she guesses means drinking from someone alone. She bites her lip; she will not examine why Dare might say bonding instead of just "drinking alone."

"Then what were they doing?" Penny asks. They're standing by the fence to the pasture now.

Dare stares at her.

"What?" Penny exclaims.

He lifts an eyebrow. "Penny, you know how reproduction works, don't you?"

Penny's face heats. "Oh."

Dare says, "Humans are attractive to us for more than blood."

Penny swallows, not really wanting to think of the implications of that. He's not put any uncomfortable moves on her though... she decides not thinking about it is perfectly appropriate.

Dare looks away. "Keep going with the story."

Penny nods and continues, walking aimlessly back toward the trailer. She can just make out the back of her home through the trees, and is about to describe how she knew something was really wrong because of Windows XP on the computer, when Dare puts a hand out and says, "Do you hear that?"

Penny cocks her head but only hears the sound of insects. Her eyes slide to Dare. He is motionless, his head bowed and eyes closed. He shudders, and a loud crack splits the night. There is a thud, a man's scream from the direction of her trailer, and then another crack and a crash that she swears reverberates through the ground. In the barn she hears the horses whinny fearfully. Emma's and Todd's door slams open, and Todd shouts, "What was that?"

Dare releases a long breath.

"I don't know!" Penny responds as Todd barrels past with a shotgun.

Emma is there a moment later. "Maybe you two should stay back." She puts her hand on Penny's shoulder and Penny bolts.

"Penny," says Dare.

From the front of her trailer, Todd cries out, "Emma, call 911."

# Chapter Five

"We found your stolen phone on the guy," says a police officer. "And an unregistered weapon. Can't say I'm going to lose sleep over this."

"It's just so strange," says Emma, huddling under Todd's protective arm.

"Yeah, strange," says Penny. The dead tree by her home had inexplicably dropped on a vampire. Amazingly, one of its branches had pierced its heart. The police don't know he's a vampire; all they'd noticed was that the corpse had "funny ears."

A policeman steps out of her trailer. "Thanks for showing me your ID."

Dare exits just behind him. "No, problem, officer."

Penny's brow furrows. Dare has no ID.

"We're going to clear out now," the officer says. He nods at Penny. "We gotta keep the phone for evidence."

"Of course," Penny responds, wrapping her arms around herself.

As soon as the cars and the ambulance are gone, Todd says, "Penny, if you want to stay with us tonight... "

"It's okay," she says. "Dare can stay over."

Instead of looking suspicious that an unmarried man and an unmarried woman might be cohabitating for the night, Todd looks relieved. "Okay, then... see you in the morning."

As soon as they're out of earshot, Dare whispers, "I still don't know how a window can be in a computer... was the computer really small enough to fit on a desk?"

"Yes, it was small enough! I have a computer in my home too, Dare."

"I didn't see it."

"It was on my counter," Penny replies.

"All I saw was a plastic book."

"That was my computer," Penny groans.

His eyes get comically wide. "No!"

Penny rolls back on her heels. "You look a lot more shocked by that than you were by the fact that there was a dead guy on my lawn."

For a moment, his face goes completely expressionless, and then he shrugs. "Last time I was here I found myself in London during the Blitz. I've seen worse... and frankly, couldn't have happened to a more deserving vampire."

Penny frowns. "I thought you don't like that term."

Dare looks away. "It fits him." His tone is light, although the words are heavy.

Penny feels a shiver. "Did Nor deserve it?"

Dare shrugs again. "Accidents happen?"

"Yeah..." she says, her voice hushed. And that vampire probably participated in Chantilly's death too. She shakes her head. "Look, the important thing is, they had their..." She figures Dare won't understand QuickBooks and says, "... accounting books open, and I could see that they run a blood bank."

"A blood bank," Dare says, his tone changing again.

"Yeah, that's when—"

"I know what it means. We must go there, now! There may be humans in danger."

Penny's eyes widen. "The keys I found, I wonder..."

Dare says, "Grab them. I'll be pushing the car."

A few minutes later, they're driving down Orange Blossom Boulevard, and Penny's having second thoughts. "Are you sure this is more important than the club?"

"The essence we need starts degrading as soon as blood leaves the body," Dare says. "The blood they tried to give me was fresh. They weren't harvesting it at the club... I... I know... but it must be somewhere close by."

"But Hickey Man... and my sister!"

Dare wipes his eyes. "I'm not engaging in podsnappery here, Penny."

"What?" One of Penny's eyebrows dances.

"Not everything that goes on at the club is... innocuous... but more people are at risk at the blood bank." He drops his hand. "Though we will have to think of those romantic human partners at the club when we take on Aurel, and get them out somehow beforehand."

Penny bites her lip. "I wonder if the fire alarm would work again... would they pay attention to it after the false alarm last night?" She blinks. "I bet the sprinklers would work."

"Sprinklers?" Dare asks.

"Yeah, the building had some. They're heat activated. Most public places have them. They shut down fires pretty fast."

"What do they look like?" Dare asks.

"Silver nozzley things in the walls near the ceiling," Penny says, trying to explain.

"I remember seeing them when I... "

"Yeah, there was one by our exit," Penny says.

Dare inclines his head. "Yes, right, of course."

Against her better judgment, Penny goes to the blood bank first. But when they pull into the mini-mall where LifeBlood is located, Dare says, "This can't be it. It's too far from the club."

"It's only a few miles," Penny says, parking the car.

"It's too far," Dare says again.

"So should we leave?" Penny asks.

"No," says Dare, already stepping out. "Let's back slang it." He shuts the door before she can ask what that means. Cutting the engine, she runs to catch up with him. They don't go to the front door, but walk around the block of buildings—which she supposes it what "back slang it" means. When they reach LifeBlood's backdoor, Dare holds out his hand, like he's going to try the knob, but Penny cries, "Wait, let me try the key!" She looks around and can't see any cameras, so holding the key with a Kleenex, she slips it into the keyhole, and turns. The lock gives and they enter. A light flickers above Penny and she finds herself in a garage. There's a narrow little van parked to her left that has the LifeBlood logo emblazoned on its side. Dare charges past it, murmuring, "No one is here."

Penny looks down at the second key on the key ring. It does look like it belongs to a vehicle. Shaking her head, she skips to keep up with Dare.

The room just past the garage is lined with blood horchata mixers on either side. Dare stops and stares at them dumbly. Penny passes him and checks out the rest of the place. There's a waiting room, a room that is obviously for collecting donations, a receptionist area, and bathrooms... absolutely nothing nefarious.

"No one is here," Dare whispers.

Penny finds her skin heating. "Looks like they just pump it and dump it in these machines." Using a Kleenex to hide her fingerprints, she opens a cabinet. It has a whole shelf full of shot glasses. Taking one out, she says, "I'm guessing that most blood banks don't keep these around, at least without alcohol."

"I expected there would be prisoners..." Dare says, as though he'd not heard her.

"No, they probably just advertise like everyone else," Penny says. "Offer juice and cookies and the reward of knowing you've done a good deed. If they're not completely legit, they might offer an enticement under the table... money... or drugs." Had Chantilly been lured here for money or drugs—or had she gone to the club hoping to score some? Had the bouncer let her in because she was alone?

Going over to one of the machines, she pulls the handle of one of the mixers, and the glass in her hand fills with warm liquid. She takes it over to Dare. "Is this nutritionally sufficient?"

Dare stares down at the glass. "This is an abomination."

"Does it have everything in it that you need?" Penny asks again. Something dark is starting to churn in her mind.

"Yes... no..."

"Take a sip and find out!" Penny demands, and somewhere in the back of her mind it occurs to her that she's almost shouting.

Dare starts to shake, and she shoves it at him. "Take it."

And Dare does takes it, but his hand is trembling.

"Sip it!" Penny says, and now she realizes she is shouting, and she's not sure why.

Dare tips back the glass, his eyes slide shut, and then he downs it. Lowering it, he says, "It is... it works."

"Then why did they kill my sister?" Penny roars. Waving her hand at the mixing machines, tears rise in her eyes. "If they have this!"

Dare at her, mouth agape. "This is wrong!"

"Killing people is better?" Penny snaps, tears spilling from her eyes, her mouth tasting like steel.

Somewhere she hears a far-off rattling noise, but she's too keyed up to focus on it.

"We don't have to kill," Dare exclaims.

"They killed my sister!" Penny shouts.

Dare lifts his arms and shouts back at her, "Without the bond, the power differential is all wrong!"

There is the sound of shattering glass. Ducking instinctively, Penny sees red, feels warm wetness, pinpricks on her sides and arms, and gives a cry of pain. She hears water splash, blinks, and realizes it isn't water... it's blood, all over the floor, Dare, and her. She hears the sound of her own panting.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Dare murmurs.

Penny straightens and looks around in shock. It seems half the horchata machines in the room have exploded.

Dare steps toward her and Penny backs up instinctively. "I don't want to go to jail," Penny says. It's weird, but it's the first thing she thinks.

Dare shakes his head. "My word, I will never let that happen to you."

Penny looks around the room. "We have to get out of here." She walks to the edge of the pooling blood and slips off her shoes, picking them up behind her. "Can you hide our footprints?" she asks Dare.

"Yes," he says.

Walking toward the garage, she says, "My tissues are all bloody; I don't have anything to hide my prints."

Penny isn't precisely shocked when the regular-old-not-automatic door opens in front of her all by itself, or when they walk by a security guard and Dare holds up a hand and says, "You will remember nothing," and the guard just nods and walks off.

Dare's fangs have descended and they refuse to retreat.

Penny pulls out of the parking lot without a word, as though he had compelled her to silence, but he hasn't. In the distant the horizon, the sun is rising. "Your arm is bleeding; it might need stitches," he says, his voice thick from his fangs.

She doesn't even look down.

"I can fix it for you," he offers.

"Sure," she says, eyes straight on the road.

He is surprised she's taken him up on the offer. But then he is surprised by how little she cares that her kind is having their blood systematically harvested. Reaching over, he lets his thumb hover over the cut, closes his eyes, imagines the healing layers of dermis, presses down, and feels her flesh mend together.

"Thanks," she says as he pulls away. He presses his thumb to his lips without thinking, and then can't stop himself from licking the pad clean, looking guiltily at her as he does. She doesn't look up.

Penny breaks her silence in a rush of words so fast, Dare isn't sure he catches them all.

"Most Night Elves aren't strong and can't open doors or compel people to forget them, or make them shoot themselves, or drop trees on them... " She glances at her arm. "... Or fix them... are they?"

"Most can't do those things."

"Aurel?"

"He is one of the more powerful Night Elves." She doesn't ask if _he_ is more powerful than Aurel.

"Are most Night Elves..." She licks her lips. "Like vampires... like... Aurel?"

"No, they aren't."

Penny shifts her hands on the steering wheel. "Are you going to take care of Aurel... and the rest of them?"

"Yes."

"Good," Penny says.

He holds his breath, waiting for her to ask the question he really expects, but it doesn't come.

"It's getting close to dawn," Penny says. "I think we should go home and get cleaned up before we get stopped by the cops or..." Her brow furrows. "I guess it doesn't matter. You could just... "

Outside, the blocks of scattered buildings are starting to give way to trees.

"We should return to your home," Dare says, because the sun is coming up, and because he can't ask Odin to let him stay. It won't be good for either of them—but he doesn't want to leave, either.

Penny doesn't ask him questions.

It's a very quiet morning when they reach her home. They take turns cleaning up and Penny ushers Dare into a spare room with a bed slightly larger than the couch. He pretends to sleep.

Sometime after dawn Penny surprises him, coming in and offering him her wrist.

"I don't need this," he whispers.

"But I need to sleep!" Penny half-cries.

Blood bonds might lie, but nothing could keep him from pulling her into his arms at that moment. When he wakes up, him beneath a sheet, her on top, she surprises him again.

# Chapter Six

Penny feels Dare wake up, he moves beside her, and she feels the musty mattress that has probably not been used since Emma and Todd's kids slept in it shift. Before he can get up, she throws a hand over his arm that's around her waist.

"You should take the horchata machine blood with you... back to Alfheim."

"What?" he asks, sleepily, warm breath on her neck.

She doesn't look at him; she just keeps her eyes focused on the window where early afternoon light is seeping in. She has a feeling that if she looks at him, she'll see that look, that I-am-going-to-kiss-you look. A part of her is curious. She's never had sex before, but she'd thought at some point she might "find some asshole to do the deed" just to say she's done it, but Dare is no asshole. She really likes him... but just likes him. Even she can admit he's beautiful, but it would just be a curiosity thing for her. She's heard that guys don't mind that sort of thing, but she would mind if their situations were reversed, and she can't do it. Curled in a ball, still not looking at him, she says, "I mean the blood machine, mixers...they must be oxygenating it and circulating it in a way that keeps it fresh. You should take it with you."

She swears she can hear his ears twitching and his teeth grinding. She remembers him saying, "Without the blood bond the power differential would be too great." She has a horrible suspicion she knows what the blood bond is, but is afraid to ask. Taking his hand, threading their fingers together, she whispers, "If other Night Elves are lawful good like you, but weaker, you have to take it."

He goes too still. In a chiding voice he asks, "Lawful good?"

... and Penny finds herself explaining Dungeons & Dragons and ethical and moral alignment.

Dare sighs. "Lawful good... well, I do like to think of myself as a defender of the dark, but I don't know if it is possible for anyone to always be good. There's a bit of brightness in us all."

It takes Penny a moment to realizes that to a Night Elf, "dark" might be "good" and "brightness" might be "evil." But ... "I think you're trying to distract me. Dare, if human technology can help you save your people, you have to use it... and we don't mind giving blood, we give to each other!"

"But without the bond, my species could treat yours like sheep," Dare whispers.

"No," Penny says. "Because you didn't. When we were in prison, you didn't try to bite me." She swallows. "Dare... Aurel may be bad, but the technology he's created might be good. Like... like... Hitler cracking down on smoking... or something. You have to use it. Sometimes good ideas come from bad people."

"Loki... Human technology..." Dare whispers, and his body gets very still. "New ideas..."

Penny rolls over. He's staring off into space, but then his eyes snap to hers. "I need your cheaters... also is your sunscreen really waterproof?"

"Yes... but what are cheaters?"

"The dark glasses?" Dare says, miming putting them on.

"Sunglasses," Penny says. "Sure." She doesn't move, and Dare doesn't move either. He's staring at her far too intently. She really likes him and doesn't want to say goodbye, but the way he's looking at her... he's going to kiss her and...

Sighing, Dare leans forward. He does kiss her, but only on her forehead. It's kind of perfect.

Pulling away, he says, "If I'm going to take on Aurel and make it look like an accident, I need to get going. Early to bed and early to rise, and all that."

Penny squints at the clock. For a Night Elf "early to rise" is apparently 4 p.m..

It's only when they're in the car, zipping down the highway, that Penny asks him, "So what are you going to do, exactly?"

When he tells her, she doesn't even pull over, she just stops in the middle of the highway. Granted, it's in the middle of nowhere and there are no other cars.

"You're going to what?!" she shouts.

# Chapter Seven

Penny drives the car up the access alley to The Cove so Dare can "back slang it".

"Did you use compulsion to make me do this?" she asks, disturbed that she's letting him do this.

"No, I did not use compulsion," Dare says, his voice defensive. "I've only ever used compulsion in your presence when I thought you were in danger. It was instinctual and—"

"I'm kidding."

He meets her gaze—or she thinks he does. He's wearing her "cheaters." Nodding, he puts his hand on the door handle.

"I'm just worried about you," she says.

He smiles like he's really incredibly pleased she said that. It makes her heart hurt a little.

"Don't be," he says.

"You never know," she says. "They might have spiders."

Dare chuckles. "Would you believe, they've never discovered my one true weakness?"

Penny knows that isn't his only weakness.

With that, he walks to the backdoor of the club, his shoulders slouching a little more with each step. When he reaches the door, he looks in her direction, and she remembers his one order to her. "Don't be seen. Wait for me out of sight."

Penny nods, drives over to the pawn and gun shop across the street, parks, and lets the engine idle. She can't see Dare, but she imagines the plan unfolding exactly as he'd told her.

_"I'll walk up to the door, knock, and surrender."_

_"They'll let you in?" Penny had asked incredulously. "Won't they think it's a trick?"_

_"It doesn't matter if they do," Dare says. "You may have noticed, Penny, that my brethren don't think highly of me. My most dangerous talent is that I am... well, rather non-threatening."_

_And that was so true, but... "Will it be enough?" Penny had demanded._

_"I have no idea if it would be, normally, but you see I also have something else going for me. I have their prejudice working in my favor. A count is not an inherited title; it is bestowed."_

_"But they gave you the title, so obviously you must have done something that earned their respect!" Penny had protested._

_"They didn't bestow the title on me willingly," Dare responded._

_"Well, who did bestow your title?" Penny asked._

"Well, if it isn't Odin's lackey," Aurel says.

"Ah, well, hello, Prince Aurel, we meet again, Your Highness," Dare says, holding his hands above his head, not feigning the dread in his voice. Normally, with most Night Elves on Earth, it is a case of a Night Elf bonding, and merely wanting to remain with his or her lover; they can be reasoned with. Sometimes, accommodations can even be made.

"Nothing else in his boots," someone says. Dare had stuffed Nor's pistol in it—a ridiculous thing to do in normal circumstances—but he wanted to be sure his boots were off for this—it puts his skin closer to contact with the magical wiring. Also, he didn't want what he's sure is an unregistered weapon found on Penny.

"So, Rayne got your burn patched up," Prince Aurel hisses. "That traitor."

Shrugging, Dare hangs his head. He's found he often doesn't have to make excuses for the "accidents" that he triggers. His enemies make up explanations for themselves.

"And the idiot came back," Desmelda says. She is the Night Elf that Penny described in the most detail—and Dare had recognized her from that description alone. Dare had met her when he'd been called to the Night Court after his sojourn on Earth in the forties. Desmelda, young by Night Elf standards, had listened with rapt attention as he had described human technology and quizzed him beyond his capability to respond on everything from biology to physics and air-conditioning to atom bombs. Low-born, she'd only been a handmaiden of a lesser lady at the time. He can see how she'd be tempted to serve Aurel.

Dare shrugs again. "I have to do my job."

"No, you don't," Aurel says. "You can join us. You can be strong _and_ unbonded. You can live forever as is your birthright!"

"You've been killing humans," Dare says, and he hears a few of the Night Elves shift on their feet. They're uncomfortable with that... the dead were probably like Chantilly, accidentally bonded. Aurel could not abide by blood bonds; they would be threats to his control.

"They were only humans," says Aurel.

"But we don't have to keep killing!" someone says. "They give willingly at—"

"Silence," says Aurel.

Dare sighs at the almost-mention of the blood bank. It had disgusted him, but he had envisioned something even more sinister than what they found at LifeBlood. Historically, to avoid bonding, a group of Night Elves would feast simultaneously on hosts. Dare has never been sure if it is a matter of quantity of blood consumed that prevented the bond, or if there was some other biological process at work. It might be, as Gretta had hypothesized, purely psychological. She'd likened the mass feedings to gang rapes that stripped love from an otherwise intimate act.

"Humans have died," Dare says, not lifting his head. "They are sentient humanoids and deserve to be treated as such."

He hears some laughs around the room, but also some intakes of breath. Some feel guilty; some know what they did is wrong.

"Rubbish," says Aurel, and Dare can hear the laughter in his voice.

Dare's ears tremble with rage, but he tells himself it is good if Aurel is amused—he'll let Dare keep talking.

Dare takes a deep breath, and when he speaks, his voice quavers. "Even if you can not bring yourselves to respect humans, you must know that there are too few of us to battle the All Father's forces."

"He's too busy with the unrest in Svartalfheim to care, Dare," says Aurel, his voice still bemused.

Still holding his hands above his head, Dare's fingers bite into his palms. Aurel is right. Odin's people are overwhelmed, and probably can't come... or at least not until other humans die. That makes his choice here more stark.

He tries to reach them once more. "Even if he is, there are over seven billion humans." Penny had given him the number when he'd run his plan by her. He can hardly believe it himself. "If we abuse their goodwill, they'll destroy us."

Aurel laughs. "They're malleable! A few words here and there—"

Dare lifts his eyes to Desmelda. "Desmelda, I know that you created the blood horchata machines and are using computers." He knows because Prince Aurel is powerful, but too inflexible, impatient, and arrogant to stoop to learning the intricacies of human technology. Desmelda is low-born, young, and her magic is but a flicker, but she is smart and _curious_.

"Blood horchata machines?" Aurel says with a laugh. "What are you talking about?"

Desmelda understands; he can see it in how she takes a step back. Dare presses her. "You know you cannot continue this way. You wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to safely harvest blood if you didn't know that killing would lead to our destruction."

"This isn't fun to me anymore," Aurel exclaims. "I think it's time to come up with an entertaining way to kill you, Dare. Maybe we should drain him like we did the humans?"

Dare feels cold fear grip his heart. "Surrender to me, face Odin's judgment, and you may live."

Aurel breaks out into cackles. "Oh, this is getting entertaining again."

Dare meets the eyes of the others. He recognizes them, even if he doesn't know their names. "Please," he says. Some shake their heads **—** they're afraid to stand against Aurel. None are powerful enough to use compulsion to make a security guard forget about them, or convince a police officer that a scrap of paper is a valid source of identification, or maybe they're afraid to lose access to blood while they await the results of Dare's petition to Odin. But others just laugh.

The cold grip of fear turns to terror, and Dare begs them, "Do it because it is the right thing! Do it because there are so few of us!"

"You've let Odin's appointment of your Countship go to your head," Aurel exclaims, stepping closer to Dare. "Draining will be such a good way to kill you, and so fitting since you identify so much with the humans." He reaches out toward Dare's chin, and Dare takes a step back in dread.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Aurel says.

Dare feels his stomach constrict... he's being left no choice.

From behind Dare comes the sound of footsteps, and the four guards from below enter the office. "We cleared the human stragglers from below, Prince Aurel."

The prince turns away. "What?"

"On your orders, Your Highness," the leader of the guard says.

"I didn't order that!" cries Aurel.

"Prince Aurel!" Desmelda exclaims.

Dare spins toward her. Her eyes are wide and on him. "It's Dare," she whispers. "Dare compelled the guard."

And it's too late. What he feared most now must happen. If they realize how threatening he is, their guard will rise, and he'll be doomed. They'll kill him, probably Penny next, Todd and Emma for good measure, and even his family spread through the realms will not be safe. Flexing his toes in the thick carpeting, Dare feels the magic flowing through the building flowing into him. What he has to do he wouldn't normally be able to manage, but the magic in the prince's lair and Penny's blood give him power. Dare imagines the molecules in the metal of the sprinklers starting to dance.

"Nonsense," says Aurel. "Dare is weak, he has no aura—"

The sprinklers cut on, showering cold water through the room, soaking everyone except Dare instantly, and then they just keep spraying.

"What is this?" Aurel exclaims.

"He did it," Desmelda shrieks, stepping back. "I know it... I know it!"

"Impossible!" shouts Aurel.

Dare's aura is invisible. Dare closes his eyes and imagines the water molecules splitting. He feels a sort of snap within him as the molecules break apart, and then he sets the hydrogen and oxygen atoms spilling into the room on fire.

Engine running, Penny fights the urge to drive over to The Cove as the fire engines pull up.

_"If I set the building on fire, Penny, those loyal to Prince Aurel will believe it was faulty wiring that killed his followers." Dare had frowned. "And I can destroy all of them at once without any more humans dying."_

She swallows. She doesn't see anyone exiting the building. Dare had said it was better to attack during daylight.

_"I'm sure they have discovered the magic of sunscreen, but I'm also sure they won't have slept with it on. If they leave the building without me, they'll burn."_

The lock on the passenger side door pops up. Dare is suddenly _just there_ in the seat beside her, shutting the door, eyes glazed and unfocused.

He's alone, and despite herself she feels terrible for him.

_"I have to give them the opportunity to surrender to me, Penny," he'd told her. "They all deserve trial; for all we know, some of them may be held against their will. Most probably can't speak English outside the building's magical sphere, and few would be able to get home without Rayne or Aurel."_

"They're all... " she says.

"They're all dead." Dare says flatly. "I shot Aurel a few times just to be safe."

Penny puts them into drive, hardly believing it's over.

They've passed the strip malls, pawnshops, and used car lots when Dare says, "Aurel almost touched me. I wonder... if I had let him... would he have realized..."

Penny's mind supplies the rest of the words. Dare had said that most magical creatures can't see his aura... but occasionally one has a talent for sensing truth, or just interacts with magic in a different way, and they realize instantly what he is capable of. What he is capable of, he'd told her when she'd tried to talk him out of his plan, is telekinesis, astral projection, fire, ice, healing, compulsion, strength, speed. But his greatest talent he said over and over is not being perceived as threatening.

Now Dare is asking if Aurel had touched him, would the prince have realized he was outgunned... or out hocus-pocused, or whatever. "No," Penny says. "He's an ass and he just would have killed you." She suspects that Dare knows that at some level, but maybe it is a characteristic of lawful goodness to always question one's motives?

They pass an intersection and then another.

Dare puts his hands down, and looks to the east. "It's time for me to go home."

Penny's hands tighten on the wheel. "Are you sure—"

"It's not good for either of us for me to stay," Dare says, his voice tired. Penny feels her chest tighten and her eyes prickle, but she drives to Split Oak.

As soon as she cuts the engine, Dare is out of the car. She follows him through the tall trees. They walk only to the tune of birds, insects, and their own footsteps until they reach a place on the trail between two particularly large trees not far from the split oak that gives the area its name.

Dare stops in his tracks a few paces ahead of her. "It's here."

"I'm sorry," Penny whispers. "I'm sorry I made you bond with me." She has to say it before he disappears... or whatever. He hasn't said it, but she knows he's not coming back. Her eyes get hot. "I didn't know."

She doesn't see Dare move, but he is suddenly there, his arms around her, his chin on the top of her head.

"I'm so sorry." She sniffs and puts her arms around him. He's really tall, and he's strong. She wonders if this is what it would feel like to have a big brother.

"I'm not," Dare says. "I would have died if you hadn't saved me."

"But it hurts you, I know it does," Penny says. "I've been in your situation and it... it..."

"Shh..." Dare rocks her.

But Penny blubbers on, "And I like you, you're funny, and great, and it's just... just... just..."

Dare sighs. "I'm a count." He pulls back, meets her eyes, and gently takes her chin. "And not a countess."

The tears in Penny's eyes spill over. It's not something she's very good at admitting to herself. She'd been told her whole life that people who love Jesus aren't like her. Chantilly had guessed it, and hadn't judged her. Her mother... well, she doesn't feel safe telling her mother. Who knows what her dad would have said if he was still alive?

Dare wipes her tears away with the pad of his thumb. "I will be alright. It's not the first time I've been rejected by a human."

Penny sniffs. "I can't imagine a normal girl not... " She bites her lip and waves her hand. "... with you."

"First," Dare says, wiping away another tear. "You're not abnormal. Second, who says they were girls?"

Penny's mouth drops open.

Dare shrugs. "Elves are notoriously open anyway and Night Elves have to survive. Our evolution favors those who can be attracted to all humans."

Penny rubs her elbow. She wishes she could be that way. She'd probably run off with Dare in a heartbeat. She's two-thirds in love with him, her mind and her heart... it's just her body getting in the way, and she really hates it.

They stare at each other a moment longer and then Dare folds her in his arms again. "But it is hard to let you go. I want to ask you back to Alfheim with me... to protect you and be your Count, even if I can't be your lover." He chuckles sadly. "It would be terrible for you. You wouldn't be able to travel without an escort, you'd be virtually a prisoner, and for some reason, humans find the weather in my land depressing."

And okay, maybe it's good she's not three-thirds in love with him. That does sound like a trap. "Lots of clouds and fog," Penny guesses with a sniff.

"Precisely. Quite lovely."

He rocks her slowly, and she wishes more than anything that he could stay. They could be besties, hang out, watch movies, check out girls together... well, maybe Dare would check out more than girls.

"Emma," Dare says, and Penny goes completely still, "is a wonderful person."

Penny feels herself get defensive. "Wonderful" is too small a word for Emma. She's beautiful, sexy, kind, talented—

"So is Todd," Dare adds.

Penny mutters, "I guess." She knows it's true, though.

Dare murmurs, "She wants to love you as she can... and so does Todd. They won't think less of you for what you are, and when someone new comes into your life, it will be easier for you to let them love you... and you must. You have to make family where you can."

Penny can't imagine finding another woman as wonderful anytime soon, but he is right that they probably won't turn her away for being gay. She'd thought that because they were Christians they would be like her mom, but they're not. She swallows. "Okay," she whispers and squeezes Dare tighter. She wishes he could stay. Dare could take all her problems and turn them inside out and make them right... and if he wanted a nip every now and then, she wouldn't mind. She wants to say all that, but has a feeling that it would just make saying goodbye that much harder, and she'd probably trip up and start to bawl. Instead she says, "I think you'll always be my count."

Dare squeezes her very tight. "Thank you."

At last they pull apart. Gulping, Penny looks up at him and says, "What happens now?"

Dare touches her cheek. "Typically, I kiss you and you forget everything."

Her skin heats, and her vision, already blurry with tears, gets even blurrier. "What? That's not fair! Whose rule is that? I can't forget you!" Knowing Dare helped her. It made her feel brave and good... maybe because he's so good and loves her.

Before she can stop it, Dare ducks in and kisses her anyway. Penny is too shocked to move, and also, she has to admit, it's a great kiss. She wishes she could hit the pause button and take notes, so that later when she kisses the woman of her dreams she'll have the same technique.

He pulls away, and Penny blinks up at him quizzically. He's still Dare the Night Elf, and they still spent the last two nights together.

Dare winks at her and backs away.

Penny does her best to frown. "Who are you?" she lies.

Dare stands between two tall trees and says, "Go home."

"Don't follow me, creeper!" she shouts, heading back to her car. She turns back to look once, but Dare's already gone.

She gets to her car, and stops before she opens the door. The problem with lawful people—according to Dungeons & Dragons anyway—is they don't always fight back when the laws are bad, and can't change unless they're forced too. Dare is wise and good... but he's also _wrong_.

# Epilogue

Penny walks along the trail at Split Oak, swinging her flashlight back and forth, trying to keep from stepping on a snake. "Come on, Dare, I can't wait forever with a stolen van!" She bites her lip. She's been here an hour and Dare hasn't shown up. The LifeBlood blood van looks out of place in the recreation area parking lot... especially at 4 a.m..

"Dare!"

Over the thrumming noise of insects, she hears hoofbeats and turns around, and there is a dark shadow. Penny raises her flashlight and a black horse with glowing red eyes rears and whinnies in surprise. Atop the creature is Dare; he doesn't lose his seat... of course he would be a good rider. Also, Penny supposes that good Night Elves probably ride on black horses... or whatever the horse-like creature is. He swings off the mount. "I heard you," he says. He says it in a kind of funny voice, or maybe she's misreading him.

"I have—" Penny starts to explain.

"The van from LifeBlood," he finishes, calming his mount that's stamping its feet, plastering its ears back and glaring at Penny. Dare shakes his head and scowls. "Loki left me a magic mirror that he should have given me _before_ I came to Earth. It was able to tell me about your... adventure."

"You have to take the horchata machines... and the van," Penny says. To save his people... and also to keep her out of jail. She went to LifeBlood yesterday. She walked in the back way, claiming it was open. She gave blood so that her fingerprints will be all over the place and if she goofed anywhere, it will be really easy to explain away. Having the van in her possession would be more difficult to explain to the police.

He nods at her. "I heard you, and I do need to take it. You're right."

"Okay," she says, surprised that went so easily. But he is good, and he does want to save people... that must be what's swaying him. Or maybe he figures she'll just keep trying this sort of thing again and again until he relents, and he promised he'd never let her go to jail. She's forcing him to change. She gulps and rolls on her feet. "It's good to see you again." Which is a big reason she might do this sort of thing again.

"And you," he says with a smile, and he may not be her type, but he looks practically angelic when he smiles.

Penny bites her lip. "I hope I don't get you in trouble with Odin, though."

Dare shakes his head. "Odin has bigger things to deal with. Loki has left him." A dark look crosses his face—or an unhappy look—maybe in a Night Elf that's a bright look? "But let's not worry about that now." He holds out his arms and Penny steps into the hug. He's letting her love him as she can, she realizes. He is so lawful good.

As he pats her back, she eyes the black horse-like creature hopefully. "I um... was wondering... if you could somehow magic me home?"

"I'm sorry, I cannot." She can hear the frown in his voice.

Penny's shoulders fall. She didn't just want a ride, she also wanted a little more time with him. Also, she's not sure if Uber comes all the way out here. She could call Todd and Emma, but that would be awkward... she doesn't think she'd be able to concoct a lie to cover being at the park at 4 a.m.

Very gently he says, "I have to lead the dwarf team that will get the van through the Veil." He scowls at the ground. "And clean up any sign of your presence here."

"Dwarf team?" Penny asks.

Dare steps back, raises a hand, and just beyond him a man and a woman, not much over five feet tall, with broad shoulders appear. Their height makes them look more human than fictional accounts of dwarves, but their wide faces, with glowing eyes make them appear almost alien. Penny's lip purse... she guesses they are alien, and so is Dare, too.

They march toward Dare and two more pairs of dwarves emerge from thin air behind them. They look at her curiously, nod, and then speak in another language. Night Elvish or Dwarfish? Dare says something in that same language, and points them toward the parking area. One of them takes his mount by the reigns, and then all of them march toward the van. Dare signals again, and another rider emerges on the trail upon a black mare with glowing red eyes. Penny blinks. The rider is a woman, and she could be Dare's little sister. She has the same curly dark brown hair, a delicate nose, brown almond-shaped eyes, bow-shaped lips, and pointed ears. Penny feels herself flush.

"Penny," Dare says, "This is my niece, Angharad. Angharad, this is Penny. Penny needs a ride home."

"Oh," says Angharad, her eyes getting very wide at sight of Penny. "I... um... nice to meet you."

"No one is a better rider than her, and only Sleipnir is faster than Blakkr," says Dare.

The mare whinnies at her name and shakes her head. Knowing a request for attention from a horse when she hears it, Penny puts her hand on the creature's nose, and Blakkr snuffles approvingly. In the saddle, Angharad nods gravely at Penny. "It would be my pleasure... I mean an honor... of course I can take you home."

Feeling herself flush again, Penny blinks up at Angharad, and back to Dare.

"I trust you," he says with a lifted eyebrow. Penny's lip part... if Dare could fall for her... it occurs to her that seducing a Night Elf might be as easy as shooting a fish in a barrel. Penny won't take advantage of it.

She nods back at him, and then bites her lip. Dare's people need more than just one shipment of the horchata machines if they're going to survive. Dare has to find a way to get more blood donations for his people, and lead them into the future... he may have to show his true strength to do it. She has to convince him of it.

Dare's eyes widen slightly. "You are right, we need to change," he whispers. "You will see more of me... of Angharad, too... I promise."

Penny wonders if telepathy really is one of his powers, or if he's just thinking of their conversation earlier.

"Leg up?" Dare says before she can ask. Inclining his head toward Blakkr, he laces his fingers together.

"Thanks," says Penny, stepping onto his hand and mounting behind Angharad.

"Put your arms around my waist," Angharad says. "Blakkr's gait is smooth, but very swift."

Penny does, and she can't help but think that it feels incredibly right.

Her brain does a little jog... Dare said he and Angharad will be here on Earth a lot. She's being set up; she's sure of it. True, Dare doesn't want Penny to bond Angharad to her right this very moment, that would be cruel, but he's telling her it isn't wrong if she gets to _know_ his niece... and from there...

Angharad barely touches her heels to the horse's flanks, and Blakkr heads down the trail. Penny doesn't look back this time.

Awkwardly clearing her throat, Angharad says, "So my uncle says you like horses?"

Penny smiles. "Yes, very much."

### ~FIN~

Everyone needs a Dare! But Dare certainly needs a someone special of his own to take care of him. I wrote a story about Dare finding his true love. It's called _Magic After Midnight_. Click here for more information.

Want to know more about what mischief Loki got into? _Wolves,_ the first book in my USA TODAY bestselling I Bring the Fire series is free.

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# Also by C. Gockel

### I Bring the Fire

Sometimes the hero is the wrong guy at the right time. Sometimes the hero is drunk. An urban fantasy featuring Loki, Norse God of Mischief and Chaos

Suggested reading order:

_Wolves (free ebook)_

_Monsters_

_Chaos_

_In the Balance_

_Fates_

_The Slip: A Short Story (mostly) from Sleipnir's Point of Smell_

_Warriors_

_Ragnarok_

_The Fire Bringers_

_Soul Marked_

_Magic After Midnight_

_Someday My Count Will Come_

_Magic After Midnight: the Original Short Story_

_Atomic: a Short Story from Sigyn's Point of View_

_Rush: A Short Story starring everyone's favorite SEAL_

_Take My Monsters: A Short Story and Norse inspired retelling the Ballad of Tam Lin_

### The Archangel Project

Commander Noa Sato doesn't believe in aliens. She's wrong. A sci-fi series.

_Archangel Down (free ebook)_

_Noa's Ark_

_Heretic_

_Carl Sagan's Hunt for Intelligent Life in the Universe: A Short Story (free ebook)_

_Starship Waking_

### Other Works

_Murphy's Star: a Sci-fi Short Story_

_Friendly Fire: a Sci-fi Short Story_

_Let There Be Light: a Sci-fi Short Story_

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# Contact Information

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