Malice in Wonderland (8 page)

Sitting
next to
Knight
was a
woman I also didn't recognize.
It took me a second or two to place her heritage, but then it hit me over the head like an anvil. She was a nymph. Nymphs shared the same lineage as fairies
—
they
even had the same pointy ears. And just like my own kind, nymphs were also associated with nature, mainly streams and rivers. But there were also land nymphs and this woman was of the land variety
—
I
could tell by
the brown roots
of her hair (the rest of her hair was aqua blue)
. Water nymphs were either blond or
redheads
.
Nymphs were defin
itely magically inclined but usually only when they were in the natural environment because they had to draw their power from
natural resources.
Nymphs and fairies alike were always famed for our youth, vitality and good looks, and this woman didn't contradict that reputation. She was young--in her
mid to late
twenties, if I had to guess--and
very pretty with her mahogany brown eyes and short, bobbed hair
.  The only thing that distracted from her nymph mold
was her striking aqua hair
.
Interesting.

“No problem. We waited for you both,” Christina answered, seemingly not in the least fazed.  She cleared her throat and smiled at everyone around the table.

“Who’s the new addition?" the
Drow
asked while glaring at me as if I were rude and should have already introduced myself. I returned his glare, finding him less than endearing.

“
Dulcie
, why don’t you do your own honors?” Christina said with her eyebrows raised in a rendition of "good luck."

I nodded, getting her gist, and took a deep breath as I glanced around the table. All eyes were on me and the only friendly ones belonged to
Dia
, Knight, and Christina. “I’m
Dulcie
... O’Neil.”

The nymph sucked in the air so loudly, she sounded like she was choking, while the
Drow
said nothing. But his silence definitely wasn't an indication of his disinterest. Instead, his cheeks were well on their way to turning a deep shade of crimson and the tips of his ears already resembled a third degree burn. No one said a word, though, so I just leaned back into my seat and waited for someone to speak, presumably after they made the connection between Melchior and me.

“
Seriously?" the nymph started, dragging her angry eyes from Christina to me. "
Christina, you didn’t tell us about this
."
Once her gaze
settled on me,
she
appeared to get even angrier
and maybe I was just imagining it but it seemed her hair turned a darker shade of
teal.

“This is an abomination!" the
Drow
yelled out at last. He slammed his bony fist into the top of the table for emphasis
, his
skeletal
fingers so rickety, I half wondered
if they might shatter
. "She is our enemy!"

"Hey, don't soil your panties," I started, holding my hands
up
in mock surrender. "I'm not working for my father."

“
What the hell?
I thought we agreed to discuss this, Christina?" the nymph barked out
, clearly uninterested in whatever I had to say
.
She refused to remove her
furious
and condemning
gaze, just continued glaring at me as i
f she thought I might melt into my seat, and drip through the floorboards toward certain escape.

"Y'all are overreacting,"
Dia
started, shaking her head as she held out her manicured hands in a mock display of surrender. I glanced at Knight and found him leaning back into his seat with a smile on his sumptuous lips as if he were enjoying himself ... the bastard.

"She's ... she's
his
daughter!" the
Drow
shrieked in response to
Dia's
comment, his mouth hanging open and his lips shivering with outrage.

“First o
f all,” I started, standing up when
I decided I'd had enough. I smacked both my palms onto the table and leaned over, alternately staring at the
Drow
and the nymph. “I’m sitting right here so I’d appreciate it if you called me by my name. And, speaking of my name, which seems to offend you so much, I’m related to my father in name only.”

“You worked for your father,” the nymph piped up accusatorily.

“
Caressa
confirmed
Dulcie’s
innocence,” Christina said in a tone that brooked no arguments. Her lips were pressed in a straight line, which matched the line of her eyebrows. “
Caressa’s
word is good enough for me.”

“It’s good enough for me, too,”
Dia
said in a steely voice. "I can vouch for
Dulcie's
credibility."

“It should be good enough for all of you,” Knight said, finally coming to my defense. And it was about damn time. He leaned forward and eyed the two naysayers coldly. His eyes were narrowed and his jaw was tight, giving him a daunting appearance by anyone’s count. “I’ve worked with
Dulcie
and I know her well. She’s an absolute asset to our mission.”

“The Loki’s got that right,”
Dia
said in a stern voice, nodding her head in a most diva-like manner. “Anyone who’s
gotta
problem with my girl’s
gotta
problem with me.” Then she held her chin up and crossed her arms against her ample chest. "And trust me when I say that you don't
wanta
have a problem with me."

"Amen to that," Knight said with a flirty smile in
Dia's
direction.

“Thanks, D,” I whispered and glanced at her with a grin. Yep, it was definitely a good thing to have
Dia
Diva Robinson in my corner. I relaxed and sat back in my seat.

“I got your back,”
Dia
whispered in response as she winked, offering the same wink to Knight only this time there was something sexy about it. Sigh.

"Anything else you want to say?" Knight asked, spearing the
Drow
and the nymph with his ferocious stare.

"We should have been consulted," the
Drow
grumbled, but dropped his eyes once Knight's gaze landed on him. It was pretty obvious that Knight intimidated everyone.

"Sometimes, I don't have time to consult all of you. Sometimes, decisions have to be made," Christina responded defensively after pausing for a few seconds. "Anyway, we're moving on from this now," she finished with a glance at the
Drow
. "
Dulcie
, this is Fagan. He's in charge of The Resistance soldiers."

"Pleased to meet you," I said with a wide and artificial smile. He grumbled something unintelligible, refusing to
so
much as look at me. I glanced up at Christina and shrugged but she seemed uninterested. Instead, she faced the nymph who was sitting beside her.

"And this is
Erica
Comacho
. She's in charge of the relocation efforts and the safety of all our people."

I smiled at
Erica and
was surpris
ed when she nodded in response
and offered me a succinct
smile
, mumbling
: "
C'est
la vie."

Christina glanced down at Dia. "And you are well acquainted with our diva, I see?"

I
laughed,
amused that
Dia's
diva-
bility
seemed to follow her wherever she went, like a shadow, only way cooler. "I am."

"
Dia
is in charge of recruiting any magically sentient creatures to our cause so we can utilize their abilities," Christina continued. It was a good role for
Dia
to play because as a
S
omnogobelinus
, or sleep goblin, she was magically sentient herself, being able to invade people's dreams.

"And what are you in charge of?" I reluctantly asked Knight with a frown. We'd made the rounds and he was the only one left and it was glaringly evident that he was waiting for me to ask him that exact question.

"Knight is second in command," Christina responded, granting him a proud smile. "I don't know what I would do without him."

I couldn't say I enjoyed knowing Knight was teacher's pet—mainly because it just gave him another reason to be so damned smug all the time. "Looks like a good team you've got assembled here," I said, returning my attention to Christina.

"It's better now," she responded with another broad smile. "We're happy to have you on board."

Well that seemed to be debatable, but I wasn't in the mood to argue. "Thanks," I managed.

“Now that introductions are done, we’ve got lots to discuss," Christina continued, referring to a notebook sitting on the table in front of her. It was covered in scribble. She faced the nymph.
"Erica, any word on the portals?”

Erica nodded
.
“Yeah, everything is still secure. There haven’t been any breaches.”

Christina nodded and seemed pleased with the information. “Have there been any recent attempts?”

“At Miller’s
Crossing
there was a small uprising by a group of O’Neil supporters who somehow managed to slip under our radar." Erica dropped her eyes to her fidgeting hands and didn't seem especially happy to be the bearer of this news.

"What were they attempting?" Knight asked, spearing her with his disappointed expression.

"They were trying to break through our portal so they could return to the Netherworld,"
Erica answered
. Seeing the raised eyebrows and frowns around the table, she quickly added, "
Anyway, t
he uprising was
stopped
almost immediately.”

“Was anyone killed or injured?” Christina persisted, the look of someone concerned.

Erica shook
her head. “No one was killed. The worst injury was a b
roken arm. Other than that, we took the bad dudes
into custody and
they're
now in prison at Compound Five." She cleared her throat and added. "
That was the only incident where any portals were threatened; and
o
ur response was swift
and successful
and...
basically
awesome
.”
She definitely had some sort of So Cal girl flair about her.

"Good job. Please extend my kudos to those involved," Christina said with a nod, apparently pleased with the information.
“Any reports on attempts to break through the portals from the Netherworld side?”

Erica shook
her head.
“None.
The Netherworld seems to have gone quiet,
like worryingly so
. In the first day of the portal closures, there were attempts to break through
constantly
, but in the last day or so, everything has been
pretty
silent.” She paused and glanced down at her fingernails, sighing. "
I'm pretty sure it's something to worry about
."

Christina nodded and picking up her pencil, bobbed it against her lips as she apparently contemplated it. “We need to make our demands soon,” she said after a protracted silence. “Melchior’s up to something.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded at last, finally feeling like I was caught up sufficiently to where I should involve myself in the conversation.

“We’re in the process of deciding how to move forward with the Netherworld, in terms of how we want to divorce ourselves from it,” Knight answered. “We need to formally declare war on the Netherworld, but in order to do that, we have to demand Melchior step down as Head of the Netherworld.”

"We don't want to invade without due reason," Christina added. "We want it to be known that we were forced into this position, rather than go on the offensive."

“And it’s not something as simple as a phone call to Melchior,”
Dia
continued, as if reading my expression.

“It must be a formal request that every
Netherworlder
can see, so they know what's coming their way,” Christina finished before facing the others again. “And I’ve decided the best way to move forward with it is with
The
Netherworlder
Today
.”