Warrior (Relentless #4)(212)

The locks disengaged, and the door opened an inch.

“I’m sorry but you have the wrong address,” said a female voice I didn’t recognize. “My name is Claire and I have no children.”

“Now that really hurts,” Sara replied with thinly veiled sarcasm.

The woman started to shut the door. “I don’t know who you are, but I’m calling the police if you don’t leave.”

Sara put a hand on the door and leaned in. “Before you do that, I think you should know I can see through glamours…even Orias’s.”

There was a sharp inhale before the door shut. A few seconds later, it opened fully to reveal a tall, thirtysomething brunette wearing blue pants and a cream-colored top. If I didn’t know better, I would never guess she was Madeline.

“Come in,” she said stiffly.

She locked the door after we entered and led us into a living room with large windows overlooking the Strip. Sara and I sat on a leather couch while Madeline took the chair.

She studied Sara for a moment before she spoke. “You look like Daniel.”

“I know,” Sara said, unsmiling. I tried to imagine what she was feeling, but her face was almost expressionless.

Madeline looked at me. “It’s been a long time, Nikolas.”

I smiled. “It has. I’d say you look well, but I can’t see past the glamour.”

She frowned and looked at Sara again. “And how is it that you can? Did Orias give you something to see past it? Did he tell you where I was? I know Adele would never betray me.”

Sara shook her head. “Orias and I are not exactly on the best of terms, and Adele didn’t give you up. She is amazingly loyal to you.”

“Then how did you find me? How can you see me now?” Madeline demanded.

“Some very resourceful friends of mine found you for me. As for how I can see you, that’s irrelevant.” She stared intently at her mother. “You know the identity of a Master and we want to know who he is.”

Madeline shook her head, and Sara’s voice grew hard.

“He had my dad killed. Your husband. He’s spent the last six months trying to kill me and everyone I love. I know family means nothing to you, but you must have felt something for my dad once upon a time.”

Madeline blanched. “You know nothing about what I felt for him.”

Sara’s hands clenched tightly in her lap. I wanted to reach over and offer the comfort of my touch, but I stayed where I was. She needed to do this her own way.

“You’re right. I don’t. I don’t know how you can love someone and hurt them so completely. I don’t know how you can stand back while they are murdered and let the one responsible walk free so he can destroy other families. I have no idea what a person who does something like that is feeling. So why don’t you enlighten me?”

For a moment, Madeline looked like she was at a loss for words. “I know you are angry because I left you –”

Sara’s angry laugh cut her off. “I don’t even remember you. My dad gave me all the love I needed until they took him from me. You have the information I need to find them, and that is the only reason I’m here now.”

No one spoke for a long moment.

“I loved him,” Madeline said softly.

“What?”

“Your father. I met him in college. I knew he was human and it could never work between us, but he was… He had a way of making you feel like you were the only person in his world.”

She cleared her throat delicately. “I should not have married him, but I was in love, and I couldn’t think of leaving him. I knew it wouldn’t be long before he realized I was different, so a month before our wedding, I told him what I was.”

“He knew what you were?” Sara asked in surprise.

Madeline had to have loved Sara’s father deeply to expose herself to him like that. The Madeline I’d known had always been too shallow for those kinds of feelings. But then, love had a way of changing a person. I knew that firsthand.

“I told him I was Mohiri, but not about my Mori because I didn’t think he could cope with that,” Madeline said. “It was a struggle for him to learn about the real world, but he said what I was didn’t matter to him. Even when I said I would not age, he wanted me to stay. So we got married. Those two years were the happiest of my life.”

She looked almost regretful for what she was about to say next.

“I was content with just the two of us, but Daniel wanted a child. He talked about how wonderful it would be, and I loved him so much that I let myself believe it was what I wanted, too. The day you were born, he was the happiest I’d ever seen him. I thought that would be enough for me to be happy too, but I was wrong. I loved my daughter – you, but being a mother wasn’t something I had ever wanted. I did it for two years, and then I couldn’t handle it anymore.”

I could stay quiet no longer. “You left your child with a human who had no idea what would happen to her when her Mori emerged.”

Madeline flinched at my harsh tone. “I could sense no Mori in her. I thought she was human like her father.”

She looked at Sara, her eyes sad. “I came back sometimes to see how the two of you were doing, but neither of you knew it. If I’d seen a sign that you were different, I would have gone to your father. You looked happy together.”