Mike Shevdon - Sixty-One Nails

"Have faith, Niall, and all will be well."

I deliberately took her comment in the wider sense. "I can't help feeling it won't be that easy. In the dream, Raffmir's sister was looking for me"

She allowed the change of subject. "What do you remember?"

"It seemed more real then. There was a clearing in a forest of evergreens. It was unnaturally cold, frost on the ground with a crystal sky. She was waiting for me in the clearing, ringed around with thorns. She said something. What was it?" I cupped my face in my hands, trying to recall her words. "She called me Little Brother. That was it. 'They told me I had dreamed you.' That's what she said."

"Did she say any more?"

"She kept asking me where I was, who I was with, who I was talking to."

"Did you tell her?"

"No. I don't think so. She started fading, dissolving. I thought she was vanishing, but she didn't. She drifted in towards me and I was so cold."

"She was feeding off your life-energy."

"She can do that?"

"The older ones can. They can feed off the dreams of unguarded sleepers. That's how they survive."

"Can she do it again?"

"Maybe. It's harder for her now you have a connection with me. That's the other reason to be mine. If you're mine then no other can have you, and you don't want to be hers."

The memory of the dream soured my stomach and killed my appetite and I put the knife and fork down, unable to finish the plateful.

"Are you going to eat that sausage?"

"No, I've had enough."

She swiped it from my plate and devoured it.

"After all, I could be eating for two. Kidding, kidding." She laughed at my distraught expression, but underneath her laughter was an edge of mischief that said it really, truly might be true.

"Will you know if you are pregnant?" I asked her, brushing her teasing aside.

"After a while, of course. But I don't expect it will happen straight away, so you're quite safe really, though perhaps…"

"What?"

"You remember the stone Megan gave you?"

"Yes? What happened to it?"

"I think she thought we were together then, when you first met her. It's curious really. Do you remember it warmed when I touched you?"

"It did until last night, when it went cold."

"It responds to fertility. It was telling you there was the potential for life, that we are compatible."

"What do you mean, compatible."

"Fey fertility is complicated. Not all the Feyre are compatible with each other and only some combinations produce children. Not always the ones you expect, either."

"So what happened to the stone? Does that mean you're…"

"Quite the opposite. I had to get you back from her. Once she'd got her hooks into you I'd never get you free. I made a sacrifice. The stone helped to focus it."

"What kind of sacrifice?"

"The potential for one life in return for another," she stated, challenging me to criticise her decision.

"You gave her a life? You sacrificed an unborn child?"

"All sex is life, Niall. I gave her the potential for new life to distract her from you long enough get you free. Otherwise you'd still be lying up there, shivering and dying."

"At what price?" I asked her. I was grateful that she'd freed me from that dark glade, but the price was unthinkable.

"It wasn't a life, only the raw potential for one. I wouldn't give her a new life, even if it meant losing yours."

I wasn't sure whether I was reassured by that or not. What had we sacrificed? What price had we paid? Did she know? I didn't know what to say. I was torn between gratitude for getting me away from that chilling embrace and the shock and revulsion at how it had been achieved.

"Why did it have to be that? Isn't there another way?"

"A life for a life, Niall; nothing else is strong enough. The only way was to tempt her away with something stronger, something sweeter, and I was betting she hadn't been laid in a long, long time. It looks like I was right."

"So it wasn't a child? We hadn't, you know, conceived."

"I told you. It's very unlikely I would be pregnant this soon, no matter what happened. If it was that easy for us to have children, there would be a lot more of us."

"And you're not pregnant then. Not if the sacrifice worked."

"I only gave her the first time, Niall, to get you back. The second and third times were for me, and for us. I didn't want it to be for her alone. I want you for me. I want our child."

There was a raw need there, coupled with a desire that scared me a little, while at the same time making my trousers too tight. It was flattering to be wanted that much, but her determination made me wonder whether it was me she wanted, or the child I could give her.

Her words rang true, though, and I knew she meant them. Setting aside her desire for a child, she wanted me and was prepared to fight to keep me. And I wanted her. She was unlike any women I had ever met, and not just because she was part Fey. Her wry humour, her resourcefulness, her warmth, all had me thinking about words I hadn't used in a long time, words that had been poisoned for me by the breakdown of my marriage.

"I want you too," I said, which was less than I could have said, but the unspoken words were still too hard, too loaded with other feelings, to let free.

Hesitantly, she smiled, perhaps understanding.

"I could do with a shower before we leave," she suggested as she licked the grease from her fingertips. "I didn't want to wake you, before. And then we have an appointment to keep."

We went back up to the room together. I put our things ready on the bed while she showered and was sat waiting to go, but then she emerged clean, naked and smelling delicious and it was another three-quarters of an hour before we were both dressed again.

She waited at the door to the stairs while I collected the bag and then kissed me warmly at the door.

"Mine," she repeated.

"I wish you'd stop saying that," I told her.

"'Tis truth."

She skipped lightly down, leaving me to negotiate the narrow stairway. When I reached the lounge bar she was waiting for me and talking to the landlord while he set up the pub for lunchtime opening.

"I hope you've enjoyed your stay. As I say, we don't normally do guests."

"Very much," Blackbird assured him. "It's a fine place you run here. I would recommend it."

I settled our account with some of my remaining cash, thanking him for his hospitality. Then we stepped out into the breezy sunshine to walk back down the lane.

As we came to the edge of the village, there was a payphone next to a children's playing field that I hadn't noticed in the dark. I asked Blackbird for a moment of privacy and she nodded and left me to make my call, taking herself to the middle of the field and lying on the mown grass, looking up at the clouds.

I fed coins into the machine and then dialled Katherine's mobile number. The number rang for four or five times and then picked up.

"Hello?" It was Katherine's voice.

"Hi Kath, it's Niall."

"Yes?"

"Are you both OK?"

"Who is this?"

"I told you, it's Niall."

The phone went dead and returned to the dialling tone.

I kicked myself for not remembering our code-phrase and re-dialled.

"Hello?" Katherine answered more cautiously

"Katherine, how is the dog?"

"Niall, it is you. Why didn't you say?"

"I'm sorry, I forgot. You did the right thing, though, to put the phone down."

"We're being very cautious. We had a strange call yesterday and I've been screening them ever since."

"What do you mean, strange?"

"It was on Alex's mobile. She had it with her even though it wasn't enabled for international. She knew she wouldn't be able to call anyone, but she was hoping to be able to text her friends."

"Who called her?"