Free rogue shifter 05 - caught between by gayle parness Page B

best puppy dog eyes.
    "Depends on how you answer a few questions."
    "Fire away." He shrugged, looking as if he couldn't care less whether I sent him packing or not, but my cheetah senses didn't lie. He was tense with worry, desperate to stay. I needed to find out why.
    "Privately." Taking my hand, we were on the terrace before I could blink.
    He dusted off a chair and made a show of bowing. "My lady." I sat down and motioned for him to sit in the chair opposite mine. When he'd settled himself, his eyes met mine with a more calculating interest.
    "You can't lie to me, correct?"
    One corner of his mouth curled up. "I must speak the truth while I am your guest."
    "Why did you want me to meet Marie and bring her to Garrett?"
    "You were worried about your mate. It was a distraction that would affect your training. I decided it would be best to eliminate it."
    "Cold, Isaiah."
    He looked me over. "I'm not one of your fuzzy fae friends. It's best if you understand from the start that I'm here to do a job, not to gain your friendship. I'll train you until you learn all that you can, or you send me back. I will not break the bargain. Some of the training will not be easy, as I'm sure you recall from our previous sessions." While I'd been a prisoner of Lord Kennet, Isaiah had taught me in excruciating steps, how to travel the ley lines. I shuddered remembering the agony of those hours.
    "What did Marie mean, when she said I could call on her?"
    "She's offering her services. A shade with Marie's clarity of will can become your familiar, a kind of spiritual assistant."
    "A slave?"
    "No, no. Ask her again if she would be willing to come if you need her. She can refuse to help you, but if she agrees, Marie can get information by contacting other shades, perhaps helping you find people or things, or she can offer up whatever knowledge she has on a particular subject. Think of her as another source. If she agrees, you should be able to call her whenever you wish."
    "But this is only her shade, you said her soul has moved on. Can't this part join up with the rest of her?"
    "Unfortunately, no. Don't look so sad. She's been released from the villa so she's free to travel where she wishes. However, without someone with your skills, she cannot communicate in your world, therefore she will most likely want to stay close to you. I have several familiars myself. Your grandmother has hundreds."
    "Did Grandmother send you?"
    He hesitated, then spoke slowly, picking out his words very carefully. "The archdemon, Bassilissa Naberia of the Alter Level, your grandmother, felt that the timing was perfect for your training to begin, so I accepted her advice as being sound, and returned Kennet to Caelen." He rubbed behind his left ear, where his birthmark lay, in a kind of nervous gesture.
    Maybe he'd been coerced. "Did she force you to return him before you were ready?"
    He turned away from me and looked out at the ocean. "There was much to be accounted for between him and me. Many years of servitude."
    So that was a yes. I dropped that subject, but couldn't stop worrying about my grandmother and her arrangements . "What does she have planned for me?"
    "I cannot begin to comprehend her will."
    "Oh really?" I wasn't buying his BS.
    "You only need know that she is equal in power to the Fae Queen of the High Sidhe. They are eternally at war, one striving to create and balance according to her design, the other unmake and encourage the chaos that suits her best." His voice dropped in tone.  "Make no mistake, they are both fearsome creatures, their motives and abilities beyond most being's comprehension."  He shrugged again and smiled pleasantly. "Who am I but a simple demon, sadly unable to understand such gods and their machinations?"
    "But she holds you in some esteem, I think, which makes you more powerful than you let on. Exactly who or what are you to her?"
    "An assistant. A mere speck of dust in her universe."
    I shook my head, thinking back to my meeting