****
That night, Lush knocked lightly on Zefyre’s back door the way he used to when they had been more than just colleagues, and the memory made him irritable. She opened the door and gestured silently for him to enter. She quickly shut and locked the door behind him, and without a word, walked into her living room. The house was dark, and he might have felt disoriented if he hadn’t been there in the dark so many times before. Zefyre’s house was large and simply styled in the old Elfish tradition. She had never been happy living in the capitol city, mixed in with all the other races, so she modeled her home to resemble the one she had left back in Kyhael.
A few candles flickered around the living room, and Zefyre sat down on her flat uncomfortable couch and motioned for him to take the chair opposite. Lush’s irritation ratcheted up, and he dropped into the seat with a huff. She was trying to manipulate him, and the fact that she could only made him surlier. He wasn’t going to let her dictate this…meeting or whatever it was. He knew she was about to play hostess and offer him refreshment or something; he was in no mood for pleasantries.
“So, what do you want, Zef?” he asked aggressively.
She raised one eyebrow and gave him a look a mother might give to her naughty child. “Would you like something to…” she began.
“No!” he snapped.
She tisked at him and gave him a small sneer.
“You asked me to come here, now what do you want?”
“I want in-depth details about the new weapons the Ogres are designing.”
His face wrinkled up into a what the hell expression. “You have details on the weapons the Ogres are making. Or were you daydreaming through the last council meeting?”
“Oh no, I was paying attention," she said. "Paying enough attention to know that the information at the meeting was patchy and more a dance of misdirection. I want to know what is really going on in the bowels of the Onyx Castle.”
Lush leaned back in his chair and gave her a momentary piercing look before shrugging nonchalantly.
Zefyre’s eyes flashed at him, and he felt a little surge of pleasure that he had angered her.
“Don’t feign ignorance. I know you are in Queen Christiana’s pocket.”
Lush smiled. “And why shouldn’t I be? It’s warm and comfortable in her pocket.”
Zefyre merely hissed at him.
His smile broadened. “Jealous?”
Zefyre let her face go blank, turned her head to the side and yawned theatrically.
“You’ve turned into some sort of traitor, haven’t you?” he asked.
She didn’t respond.
“I should report you.”
Zefyre threw her head back and laughed heartily at him. “Don’t waste words with stupidity. You know you can’t threaten me. I’ll win any blackmail game you want to play, and you know it. Now tell me what I want to know.”
Lush crossed his arms over his chest. “Everyone’s entitled to have secrets,” he said dismissively.
They looked at each other like two hostile opponents over a chessboard. Lush could give her the information she wanted without feeling too guilty. He wanted to know what she was up to and feeding her intelligence made them partners. He smiled suggestively at her. She wouldn’t get what she wanted without a little give and take. “All this is just a ruse, isn’t it Zef?”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded.
He gave her a very hot stare. “You know what I’m talking about.”
She returned his heat with ice. “That’s over, Lush.”
He ignored her rebuff. “So you want to know about the new weapons. Anything else?”
“I want to know if Forest and Syrus were stopped.”
Lush stood up. “I’ll tell you anything and everything you want to know, but not in here.”
“Huh?”
Lush jerked his head towards her bedroom.
“No. I told you that’s over.”
He chuckled deep in his throat. “Now who’s being stupid? You can’t really expect me to tell you secrets in bed without first getting into bed.”