Free The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2) by Carmen Caine, Madison Adler Page B

lingering a moment on my hands glued to Rafael's arm. And for the briefest of moments, her piercing eyes held the most disturbing of expressions. But then she tilted her head at Jareth and asked without preamble, "What is it?"
    “Nothing. My mistake,” Jareth replied curtly, snapping his mouth shut.
    Rafael stepped around him to give Melody a formal bow. “He wasn’t aware the Protectors had arrived, my mentor,” he inserted smoothly.
    There it was again. They were both lying to her.
    I wondered what was really going on. With the level of distaste they carried for one another, it was more than strange that they’d keep covering for each other like that.
    Perhaps I wasn’t the only one who found her creepy.
    “Al is quite creative. He dabbles in surveillance and shouldn’t be underestimated,” Rafael was saying to the two Fae Protectors with their horned cats. “His equipment is rudimentary but effective. Be certain he doesn’t capture your image.”
    “Yes, my prince,” the light-haired guard smacked his arm diagonally across his chest in a kind of salute.
    The dark swarthy guard faced Jareth, apparently awaiting orders.
    But Jareth scarcely spared him a glance. He was staring at Mrs. Patton’s yard across the street. Every muscle in his body was as taut as a bowstring.
    It clearly had something to do with the Mesmers, and it was all I could do to keep from shaking him and demanding right then and there that he tell us what was going on.
    Only Rafael had the presence of mind to send the Protectors away. “You both may go.” He bowed politely, dismissing them with a wave of his hand.
    They bowed in respect and with their big cats padding silently behind them, melted back into the shadows, leaving Melody standing alone on the porch.
    She didn’t waste any time. “You must return to Avalon at once, Rafael,” she announced brusquely. “The Queens would speak with you.”
    “Now isn’t the time.” He shook his head.
    Her eyes widened dangerously. “There are those who may read traitorous motives into that choice, my prince.”
    Rafael was quiet only a moment before murmuring, “So be it.”
    At that, Jareth wrenched his gaze from Mrs. Patton’s yard to eye Rafael in dark satisfaction. “How far you’ve fallen, Rafael,” he observed in a tone plainly meant to be sarcastic but strangely lacking in his usual venom.
    We stared at him in surprise, but further conversation was cut short as the garage door began to creak and grind open.
    Immediately, Melody returned to the shadows as Rafael pulled me back into the house and Jareth followed, closing the front door behind him with a click.
    We returned to the kitchen just in time to hear Grace demand from the family room, “Hey, where’s my Coke?”
    Reaching for the glasses on the counter, I shouted back, “Be right there!”
    But Grace wasn’t done. “You guys are sure taking a looooong time in there!” And with her voice adopting an ornery, teasing edge, she added in an even louder shout, “Whatcha you doin’? Kissing ?”
    I jerked, knocking a glass of ice off the counter, but Rafael caught it with a deft flick of his wrist before it hit the floor.
    Silently, he handed it back to me with his face wiped of all expression.
    Quickly, I averted my eyes and concentrating on the glasses, willed my cheeks not to blush.
    “Better behave yourself in there!” Grace yelled again.
    “Don’t be ri-ridiculous!” I retorted, stumbling a little over the words as I turned to Jareth and thrust two glasses of Coke with half-melted ice into his hands. “Make yourself useful and give those to Grace and Betty!” I ordered.
    I expected a derisive response, but he surprised me by simply walking away towards the family room. As he disappeared behind Betty’s mound of Ebay boxes, I frowned and turned to Rafael. “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “He’s not acting normal.”
    But Rafael just stood there, staring at me with his enigmatic gray eyes in a way that