Chapter Two

“She’s right, you know,” Nick said with a smirk.  “We are in the bedroom a lot.”

Alison scowled as she drained her bottle. “Would you prefer we stopped?”

“Absolutely not,” he said as he threw his hands in the air.  When she got up to get another beer from the refrigerator, he asked, “What’s got you all worked up to the point you’ll be drunk by noon?   It can’t be Heloise showing up like that.  It’s got to be more.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Alison mused as she opened her beer and tossed the cap toward the trash can that’s lid was stuck in the open position. She was unaccustomed to drinking that much so fast and her vision was already blurred. The cap missed the trash can and skidded across the floor. “Maybe it is your ex-fiancé showing up out of the blue.  Maybe I don’t like arrogant beauty queens sauntering through my garden and then snuggling in the arms of my honey.”

“She’s not a beauty queen,” he said.

“You know what I mean,” she hissed.  “Don’t make light of this.  If the shoe was on the other foot, you’d be plenty angry.”

Nick thought for a moment and nodded. “True.”

 “So?” she asked.

“So?” he asked right back at her.

“Okay,” she scowled. “I’m getting tipsy, but I’m not drunk and I’m definitely not speaking gibberish.  If you plan on playing games with me, you can leave right now.  Otherwise, you can tell me why you felt the need to grab her when she was walking away and pull her into your arms.”

“You did see,” he sighed.  When she folded her arms and leaned against the counter, he heaved another sigh.  “If you were watching, then you saw that, in the beginning, I shunned her.  It wasn’t until she told me that her mother passed away that I held her to comfort her.  Losing a fellow shadow walker in death is not a common occurrence.  Having it be a loved one makes it doubly worse.   She told me as she was leaving.  I couldn’t be that cold and cruel.”

Alison considered what she’d do if she was in his position and she agreed that he did the right thing.  Even so, she wasn’t about to let him off the hook that easily. “Why didn’t she tell you right away? What else did she want?”

“She’s been assigned this area by the council,” he said.

“What?  Is she a soldier, like you?” Alison asked with a voice that hinted of desperation.  The mere thought of trying to compete with a tall, sleek, beauty who was also a warrior was almost crushing.

Nick smiled, “I promise you that you have nothing to worry about.  I am head over heels in love with you, baby.”

Alison’s shoulder’s slumped with dismay.  “So, she’s a super model and a soldier.  What else?”

“She’s never modeled and she’s not a soldier,” he corrected her.  “She’s more of an intelligence agent.  She makes friends with mundanes who are suspected of being part of any hatchet group out to destroy us.  She infiltrates the suspected groups to get the intel.”

“Why was she sent here?” Alison asked.

Nick looked at her as if she had four heads.  “After Martin’s kidnapping, what you went through, and with Wilma barely cold in the ground, you need to ask?”  He eyed her for a moment. “What’s really bothering you?”

“I don’t like her, and I don’t believe she came here just to play spy.  Most of all, I don’t think that’s what you two talked about,” Alison pouted.

“What do I have to say to stop this jealousy?” he asked with exasperation.

“The truth,” she replied.

“I’m telling you the truth.  She’s been sent here by your grandfather,” he said.

“What else?” she demanded.  “Surely it wasn’t necessary for her to come to see you.  I doubt that was part of her orders.”

He looked away and then said with resignation, “She heard a rumor that you and Martin can be bonded if you chose,” he said. “She came to see if that was happening.”

“How long ago did you break it off with her?” she asked.

Nick thought for a moment.  “It has to be seventy-five years.  Maybe one-hundred.  I’ve lost track.”

 “You’ve had nothing to do with her since then?” she asked suspiciously, remembering Arthur’s lies.

Nick threw his arms in the air and said with the utmost sincerity, “I swear, this is the first I’ve seen her since we broke it off.”

“Who was the guy you caught her with?” Alison asked.

Nick looked away.  It was clear he didn’t want to talk about it.

“Does is still hurt you?” she asked.  “Did she mean that much to you?”

“It hurts, but not the way you think,” Nick said.  With a heavy heart, he explained, “The man I caught her with was a very good friend of mine.  I trusted him explicitly. It still hurts to think he’d deceive me like that.”

“So, you hurt from his actions, not hers?” Alison asked incredulously. “You were engaged.”

“I didn’t love her,” Nick admitted. “It was more to stop her pestering me than anything else.  I was comfortable with Heloise, but I never loved her.”

“So, is she gone now?  Or, will I have to contend with more of her sniffing around?” she asked vehemently.

Nick scowled.  “This isn’t about her, is it?” When Alison looked away he said.  “Why don’t you tell me what it is about.”

They spent the next few hours discussing Alison’s former lover, Arthur; his secret rendezvous with Sarah; and the impact it had on Alison’s self-esteem.  Nick was compassionate and understanding of her feelings, which eased much of her angst. Her continued drinking completed the task. 

They finished their conversation with a lover’s kiss that led them to the bedroom for more of what Alison referred to as shadow land preparation.