Page 16 of Marked By Moonlight
I was totally at a loss. “You’ve met him. You know what he’s done for me and my family.”
Clement stared right at me, telling me to do the kind of deep thinking that had never occurred to me before Marius, Roux, Bene, and Henrik had spilled the beans. Was he onto Gordon too?
I’d long since concluded that I had to confront Gordon myself…soon. Now, I vowed to make that my priority…if Clem didn’t arrest me first.
He sure didn’t look too cheery — a bad sign. But that was par for the course with Clem, except in his moments of gazing yearningly into a shared future I had no interest in.
Briefly, it occurred to me that I could — maybe even should — reconsider. I could evict my guests and pretend I’d never met Marius. I could take up with Clem and live a quiet, normal life in Auberre. Well, normal apart from the wolf-shifter thing.
All rather appealing, I had to admit. He and I could wander the countryside at night and howl love ballads at the moon. We could have beautiful children and live happily ever after with our own little pack/family.
That that was a handy way to make my legal woes disappear also occurred to me, I was ashamed to realize. But as quickly as the thought came to me, I shoved it away and prepared to tell Clem the truth.
I gulped, gathering my nerves, then spoke.
“More tea?” I said, copping out withdistractioninstead of the plain truth.
He gave me a pointed look, then held out his cup.
“You are something, Mina Durant. You’re really something.”
“And you, Officer Dulaire, had a question for me,” I reminded him.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and my nerves jittered. This was it.
He opened his mouth…and promptly closed it again. But my ancestors’ powers reached out of the past and channeled into me at exactly that moment, and I read his mind as clearly as a bell.
What do you see in that dragon shifter anyway?he thought, more hurt than angry.What can he offer you that I can’t?
My heart bled. Unrequited love was a bitch, which made me… Well, the bitch. No matter how nice I tried to be, I would forever inflict pain on this man. A good man. Far better than me.
I gulped and touched his hand. “My grandmother always used to say,Everything works out for the best.”
Clement grimaced. “But it doesn’t, Mina. Not in my world.”
I stilled, picturing the cases he’d had to investigate. Murders. Rapes. Horrible injuries and terrible injustices. Crimes he must have witnessed every week, if not in Auberre, then in his previous post in Marseille.
But another image formed amid those heartbreaking scenes. A peaceful, countryside scene where a happy couple stood, wearing crowns of flowers. Other people cheered and threw more flowers. A wedding, I surmised. In a place very much like Auberrre…
I closed my eyes, grasping for more details, but the more I chased, the more they eluded me, until they were gone for good.
I stared into my teacup. Had I just glimpsed the future — Clem’s future? — or the past? And who was that woman? Not me, I felt sure. Who, then?
“Some thingsdowork out for the best,” I whispered.
Clem pinched his lips. “I want them to. Believe me. I just don’t think hoping will get me there.”
“Neither do I. But the best we can do is do what’s right. For each of us, I mean.”
He looked sadder than ever. I gestured to the pastries.
“Time for these?”
A corner of his mouth quirked, and I saw a sprinkle of hope in his dark, canine eyes. “Good idea.”
I raised my teacup in a toast, eager to lighten the mood. “To Madame Martin.”
He chuckled and touched his cup to mine. “To hopeless romantics.”
