Which reminded me… Should I wear my hair up? Or down? I sighed, betrayed by my vanity at a time when I most needed to be strong and cynical. I decided I’d let Elspeth choose, and went to get in the shower. If I was going to my death that evening, I could at least go out looking my best. Which means you should wear underpants, I thought. I looked at the beautifully flimsy dress hanging in the closet.

Nah.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Even I had to admit that I looked pretty hot. But Ryu, he was almost out of this world. “Gee whillikers,” I breathed, when he came in to the sitting room where I sat, waiting. He was wearing the most beautiful tux I’d ever seen—not that I’d seen many—and he looked gorgeous. We just stood there, looking at one another for a few seconds.

“You look fantastic, Jane,” he said, finally. I stood up and gave him a little twirl. How could I not look fantastic in this dress? Even Elspeth had been impressed when I’d taken it out of the closet.

My hair was, once again, up in a little twist. As for the boobs, those had been taken care of the old-fashioned way. When I explained to Elspeth my concerns—that I couldn’t wear any of the bras I had with me and going commando was not an option—she’d said that would be no problem. I’d thought she was going to do some magic—a spell to keep everything in place and perky. But no: To my horror, she’d pulled a roll of duct tape out of her little bag.

“All is fair in love and fashion,” she said, the tape ripping ominously as she unrolled a piece. So, underneath my dress I was trussed up like a heating duct, but nobody had to know that except for me. And the emergency medical team that I planned on calling to get the shit off.

Ryu and I fussed over each other for a few more minutes, and then I took his arm and we went down to dinner. I was very careful to pick up my feet so I didn’t trip over anything, and Ryu wasn’t taking any chances either. He had his other hand wrapped over mine like a vice, which I appreciated. Balletic grace and I were not on speaking terms.

The hall was beautifully decorated that evening—bedecked with flowers and other natural elements. Instead of using the dining room, tables were set up in the main hall on either side of the central aisle. The main dais had also been elevated, and the thrones replaced with a head table. Underneath that dais was a new secondary dais, which was empty and meant to be a stage, I figured.

Ryu had planned our entrance to be fashionably late, of course, and the room was quite crowded when we arrived. Over the three days we’d been in the Compound, it had slowly grown from mostly empty on Thursday to what looked to be about full capacity on Saturday. Obviously the weekend was the time for the supes to hit their Court, and I wondered how often they had these kinds of parties. Ryu rolled his eyes when I asked him.

“They somehow find an excuse to have something like this just about every weekend,” he said. “The Alfar have the resources, and everyone else gets bored, so it’s something to do. As you’ve noticed, the Compound is as much a family home—albeit a dysfunctional family home—as it is a seat of power. The servants who live here are less employees and more inhabitants who make sure that the upper echelon are properly taken care of. The Alfar, in turn, keep everyone safe and they circulate their power about—feeding the land, the pools, and all that. Even the air we breathe is charged, for those who have access to air elementals. But all of this also means the Compound has to be out of the way, away from humans and the excitement of human life. So the beings that live here year-round come up with stuff to lure the city types in on weekends. Of course, it is also the seat of power, so anyone who has any important Territorial business to conduct tends to do it here. But no matter what the occasion, everybody likes a party.”

As befitting the circumstances, all and sundry in attendance looked resplendent. There were lots of designer clothes flashing about, but also a lot of stuff that looked like costumes from some kind of sci-fi or fantasy movie. Except some of the costumes, I realized, were actually shape-shifter tricks. One woman had a luxuriant feather bikini, like a Las Vegas showgirl, but a closer look revealed that the feathers were actually growing from her flesh. A few other people appeared to be hybrids: There was a cat-woman and cat-man couple, who I don’t think were wearing costumes, and I spotted what looked like a minotaur in a corner. Ryu nodded when I asked him if that was a nahual.

“They like to play with their appearance,” he said. I was getting an insight into human mythology that just about blew me away. Archetypes my foot; humans had just been the victims of tricky shape-shifters. The likes of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell were in trouble.

Ryu and I wandered about, him conversing with various beings while I smiled and tried not to stare. He seemed to know everyone and was treated with quite a bit of deference by many. Nyx had seemed to be making fun of him when she called him an “investigator,” but I got the impression that he was actually well respected.

Speak of the devil, I sighed, as a familiar form came toward us.

“Cousin,” Nyx greeted Ryu, ignoring me.

“Nyx,” Ryu said. She was wearing a tight white sheath dress that left nothing, and I mean nothing, to the imagination. If she’d had any pubic hairs, I could have counted them. I also noticed that she had a very befuddled looking man standing behind her. He was huge—bulging with muscles but presenting to the world a slack-jawed expression that emitted a zero on the personality scale. He was dressed in a suit, but it didn’t look like it fit him very well. And then I noticed his neck.

What I’d first thought were love bites were actually just bites. All over his neck raw looking wounds glistened angrily in the low light of the hall. He’s human, I realized. Nyx just gave a whole new meaning to the expression BYOB.

“I see you brought your own dinner, as well.” Nyx’s voice echoed my own thoughts, and then I registered that she was talking about me. Ryu’s jaw clenched and I squeezed his hand. After the provocations I’d endured in my life, Nyx was no more annoying than a mosquito buzzing around my face. If I could ignore her, so could he.

Ryu’s voice oozed contempt. “You never cease to impress me with your refinement, cousin,” he said. “Remember to leave this one alive; I wouldn’t want to have to run you in for improperly disposing of your garbage. Again.”

Nyx smiled sweetly. “That was just an accident, Ryu. Can I help it if I’m simply too much for them? But this one looks strong, doesn’t he? He should go the distance.” She shrugged, as if to indicate it didn’t really bother her if he didn’t. “And then I’ll put him back where I got him, with only a few nightmares to remind him of our time together.” She gave me a predatory look. “No harm, no foul,” she sneered, her tone rubbing my nose in her words.

I watched in horror as a flicker of what looked like fear crept over the big man’s features, before a sweep of Nyx’s hand over his eyes ironed out his expression so that it was as bland and lifeless as before. I turned to Ryu but he hadn’t noticed the man’s discomfiture.

Ryu shook his head and gave Nyx a mocking little salute, before leading me away. When we were out of earshot I stopped him. “You’ve got to do something for that man,” I said. “He shouldn’t be here, not with her. Did you see his neck?” I finished, my hands going to my own throat.

Ryu sneered. “She likes to leave them unhealed, so that they freak out when they wake up. It causes no amount of trouble for the rest of us, but nothing we do can stop her. For some reason she has Morrigan’s favor and she’s allowed her little games.” Ryu was angry, but I could tell that he was more irritated that Nyx got special consideration rather than that she had enslaved some poor human who she was clearly abusing.

“Ryu,” I said, trying to keep calm. “What about the man?”

He looked down at me, as if suddenly realizing what I was talking about. “Oh, he’ll be fine. She doesn’t dare kill this one, not after what happened the last time. And he must have gone to her willingly enough to begin with, otherwise she couldn’t have enthralled him so thoroughly.”

“So he was asking for it?” I said, contemptuously. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Look, Jane, it doesn’t make me any happier to see him like that than it does you. You know I don’t do things the way that Nyx does. I find her… predilections equally distasteful.” I sensed a but coming.

“But,” he continued, affirming my suspicions. “I have no authority to tell her how to conduct her affairs. As long as she doesn’t bring undue attention to our community, my hands are tied.”

I closed my eyes, trying to get my emotions under control. I was so angry I could spit, but I didn’t know who pissed me off more. Obviously, Nyx’s behavior made her a strong contender, but I wasn’t having sex with Nyx. Hearing the man who—just hours ago—had made love to me talk about the murder of some human as an inconvenience to his own kind made my skin crawl.

Ryu took my hand to kiss my palm, and for the first time in our short relationship feeling the touch of his lips did nothing for me.