by Lauren Dane
“Not just like that. Not really. I’ve been out of sorts for a while and then yesterday the other partners kicked me out of the firm. I’ve got an attorney fighting it, but really, to be honest, it’s going to be about how much money they throw at me to go away. My life here is . . . well, it’s not what it was before. And I think I can make a difference with Owen.”
“I think you can too. But I worry. That’s a lot of exposure to be on television as an official Other spokesperson.” AJ shrugged.
“I lived a long time not really hiding that I was a witch, but not necessarily waving a banner about it either. That got me nowhere. No, that’s not true. It got me slapped and humiliated by my partners and watching, horrified, as humans like PURITY have set out to destroy me and mine. What’s left of us anyway. I’m mad, AJ. I’m mad and sick and tired.”
He blew out a breath. “I’ve been talking to Mom about moving someplace with a clan. The witches in clan territories are more organized. Safer. Owen is as big as it gets in the States.”
“Yeah, together with Gennessee, they control from northern Mexico up to British Columbia. I’ve never been to Seattle, but I researched it a bit. Wetter than here, but less snow. I don’t know. I guess I feel like it’s my time to do something right and meaningful. I don’t want all these deaths to mean nothing. Or worse, to have people like Carlo Powers use that to do us more harm.”
Rosa threw up the evil eye. “Pig.”
“Yes. That interview last night, my goodness. I should send him a thank-you note for that last push into this decision.”
Rosa grabbed her attention and held her gaze. “You have so much potential. Your gifts are strong. Use them to put that creature in his place. This is a good choice for you. I’ll miss you. Who knows, maybe AJ will convince me at last and we’ll come out there too. You were meant for greatness. I know this.”
Molly knew that coming here would make her feel better. Knew Rosa would say exactly what she needed to hear.
“If I do move, I’m going to miss you guys so much.”
AJ snorted. “Sweetness, you’re going to be too busy saving our world to miss us.”
* * *
GAGE looked up when Meriel knocked on his door.
“Hey there. What’s up?”
“I just had an interesting call from a witch who lives in Chicago. She’s some PR whiz.” Meriel held up a sheaf of papers. “I’ve got her résumé and some assorted information about what she’s done. Television, radio, other media and all that stuff. She called to offer her services. And if what I’m seeing here is on the up-and-up, she’s exactly what we need right now.”
“You want me to run a background check?”
“Indeed. Can you rush this? I’d like to get this wrapped up so we can get her out here and on the job. I mean, I’ll interview her first, obviously. But I spoke to her on the phone for about half an hour. I like what I see so far. She’s charming but no nonsense.”
Gage held back a smile. Of course Meriel would like that. She was the same. But he’d run a thorough check because he’d had enough being taken advantage of. Their clan wouldn’t be hurt by anyone if he could help it.
“I’m on it now.”
Meriel paused. “Are you all right?”
He looked up from the papers he’d been given. “I could ask you the same question.”
“My answer would be no. How about yours?”
He snorted. “No. Not really. This isn’t the way I’d imagined finally revealing ourselves.”
“Three weeks. Dozens of funerals. And I’ve got to deal with all this stupid stuff and it makes me crazy. I want to scream at the interviewer, hey asshole, I lost my mother, what is your problem?”
Gage ached for her. Hell for everyone he knew.
“Yeah. I hear you. I hope this PR lady works out because it’d make me a hell of lot more comfortable if you weren’t the one out there all the time.”
Meriel’s smile was slightly sad. “I’d be lying if I denied the appeal of being out of the spotlight on this. Right now with all this stuff going on, our legal stuff is overwhelming. We’re working with the ACLU and some other human rights groups to deal with all the employment and housing discrimination stuff. But I’d prefer to be out there fighting that fight too instead of dealing with asshat news reporters.”
“We don’t have to talk to them, you know. Fuck what they want.”
Meriel shrugged. “We don’t have to, no. But this issue isn’t going away. In fact it’s getting worse. We need to control the message or we’re screwed.”
He sighed. “All right. I’m going to get on this. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Background checks were pretty rote by that point. He knew back doors into the nationwide system and into several major city and state databases. It didn’t take him long to begin to build a folder on Ms. Ryan.
Molly Ryan was an interesting woman. If she was what she claimed to be, she’d be a boon to Owen. Graduated top of her class in every class he could find. Intelligent, clearly. Raised by a single mother who happened to be an economics professor at the University of Chicago. No arrest records. No record of who her father was either.
That part burned in his gut. What kind of man just walked away? Did he know, Gage wondered? Maybe the mother never told him.
He paged through the links she’d sent and those he’d dug up on his own. Awards. He was able to get her financials. She made a lot of money. Saved it. Donated regularly to several charities. Mentored college students. Maybe she hated kittens or something.
It appeared that she’d lost several people she was close to in the aftermath of the Magister.
Hadn’t they all?
She’d also been outed in a spectacular fashion by the PURITY people just several days before. That filled him with rage. These PURITY people were garbage. They didn’t care who they hurt.
By the time he left many hours later, his respect of Molly Ryan had grown immensely. If everything else panned out overnight and she came out and Meriel and Dominic liked her, she’d be a great asset.
Chapter 4
MOLLY had gotten off the plane, headed to the hotel and channel surfed for three hours before finally getting herself relaxed enough to get to sleep. Things were so . . . she didn’t know how to describe it. Anxious maybe. She wanted to get started on something. Hated not doing anything.
Still, when she woke up and her breakfast showed up, she began to focus and get ready. Having a purpose was something she found soothing. Doing her hair and makeup, getting dressed—it had felt as if she was putting on armor.
The walk from the hotel was as quick as the instructions she’d looked up online had said. Seattle’s downtown core made sense. Molly liked it. Loved all the little coffee shops and bakeries. Loved the hustle and bustle of commuters as they landed and began to stream toward office buildings.
There was a protest and a counter-protest outside the Federal Building. But plenty of police presence kept it out of riot territory. At least during the time she’d walked past. A lot of angry faces and hateful signs, as she’d seen elsewhere. That part made her sad. But it hadn’t made her fearful. And the counter-protest had been sizable. Larger than the anti-Other protest. That had cheered her.
The air was clean and her magick lay in her belly, so easily called. Not something she’d experienced in the middle of a city before. Maybe it was about the ground here being held by a clan so long. She didn’t know. Didn’t know a lot of things about this part of her identity.
That put her off balance a little. She liked being in control. Knowledge meant control. But at the same time, she found herself eager to learn.
The building the Owen offices were in had heightened security around it. Molly hadn’t expected that. But she supposed, once they became known, they’d be a target. It also indicated that Owen had plenty of money to do that. She hoped that was a sign of stability.
She could feel the wards. Something she’d never actually experienced before. But t
hey seemed to recognize her magick. She’d ponder that later when she had the time to do so.
She walked through two separate security checkpoints. One with a metal detector. Her bag had been searched and before they let her in the building they called up and made sure she truly did have an appointment. She’d also been told that there were spells cast to dampen the ability of other witches to use their magick while on Owen property. The guard had said it by rote, not asking if she was a witch or not.
The one who searched her last had her wait while he called yet another to escort her inside. Her escort was armed and no-nonsense and used a key to get them up to the clan’s reception floor, leaving her at check in.
“Ms. Ryan, someone should be with you shortly. Can I get you something to drink while you wait?” The receptionist smiled her way. It was a business smile. A little wary at the edges. Remote.
“I had a latte already. I’m afraid if I drink any more coffee I’ll start bouncing off the walls.” Molly smiled, genuine and warm.
The receptionist relaxed, as Molly had intended. “I hear you. Meriel loves her coffee extra strong, so you probably would get a big jolt.”
“Always a plus in a job interview.” She looked out the wall of windows, over the city, and wondered if she’d be living there when this interview was over.
* * *
BY the time Meriel’s assistant came to collect her, Molly had made a friend in the receptionist, Kelly. Kelly had given her a few tips. Nothing that would be considered oversharing, but it was helpful all the same.
The assistant pushed a door open after tapping on it. Everyone inside the room stood.
The power there stirred her own, calling to her magick. Molly put a hand on her belly a moment before stepping in totally.
“Please, Molly, do come in.” A red-haired witch, no doubt Meriel Owen, moved in her direction, holding a hand out. Molly took it, liking the strong, efficient shake.
“Thank you. I’m Molly Ryan. It’s very nice to meet you.”
“Meriel Owen, and the pleasure is ours.” She indicated the others in the room. “This is Dominic Bright. He’s my husband and my bond-mate.” A bond-mate was what Full Council witches had. Their sort of magickal other half and the person whose magick unlocked their full potential.
There were other introductions but Molly really sort of forgot them once Meriel pointed out the blond male with the wide shoulders and the wary gaze.
“Gage Garrity. He and Lark run the Hunter team together.”
When he turned to focus on her, Molly’s knees went a little weak. For long moments she was surprised at herself. She didn’t get weak-kneed over most anything and certainly not a man.
But as men went, the one looking her over with nearly amber eyes was a fine, fine specimen. Broad-shouldered. His shirt stretched over his upper body, only highlighting the power that lay beneath. She was sure he’d have a narrow waist and flat belly. She didn’t need to see him standing to know that. She also bet he had a nice butt.
Still, he probably called women babe and peed on the seat.
Meriel clearly wielded the power in the room, but she did it well. She leaned toward Molly, her fingers clasped loosely on the table. “So we’ve checked you out and know your background and experience. I’m not exaggerating to say we’re all very impressed. But our number one question is why? You didn’t really do your work for Others in the past. Why now?”
Molly looked around the table, meeting eyes with each and every witch there. It was a fair question and she wanted them to know what had changed for her. “I was raised in a human home. I didn’t even know I was a witch until I was thirteen. In middle school one of my teachers, Rosa Falco, noticed and spoke to me after class. When she realized I had no idea what she was talking about, she met with my mother.”
Molly held back a shrug and continued. “She and my mother came to an agreement. In the end, the Falcos became my second family. Rosa taught me how to use and control my magick. I spent many weekends at their home, went camping with them, learned how to embrace the other side of myself.”
“But you never belonged to the coven there?” Dominic Bright wasn’t accusatory in this, but it was clear he wanted to know why.
“No, I didn’t. The Falcos did—do. I went to some coven events. I finished high school, then college and then I started working for a PR firm. I worked eighty hours a week. My leftover time was for sleeping and eating. I didn’t feel it was necessary to join the coven. I’m a witch. I’m not ashamed of it. Neither did I feel like I had to wear it on my shirt like a button. It was a part of me, but it wasn’t my banner.”
Dominic nodded and she got the feeling her answer was what he was looking for.
“So why now then?”
“I got a call in the middle of the night. It was Rosa telling me her husband, the man I thought of as my father, had simply disappeared. And Emma, her oldest daughter and my sister, had also disappeared. It was some sort of creature or being and it had taken them. Over those first days we knew of others who’d been taken. So many.
“And then the backlash began. I’m trying to help Rosa and her son get through this and suddenly these bigots are showing up at my mother’s office. My biological mother, I mean. She’s a professor, though I expect you know that. Anyway, they know about me and they want her to resign. She kicked them out. But it was the beginning. They showed up at my office too. They knew about me. They’d dug around and because I’d never really hidden it, they had pictures of me at events with the Falcos and other witches. They threatened me with it. I assured them they didn’t know me at all.”
“You figured they’d leave you alone?” Gage’s tone told her what he thought of that reaction.
“I figured they were attempting to blackmail me. I don’t give in to terrorist threats. I don’t give in to blackmail. I’m a witch; I never tried to hide it and I wasn’t going to. My mistake was in believing my clients, people I’d worked with for years and years and had saved multiple times, would stand behind me. I believed the other partners in the firm I’d created would back me up. I made the money, after all. These clients were mine.”
Gage watched her as the change came over her features. Just a brief glimpse. Pain. So much for them all. “And you were wrong.”
She nodded. “I was wrong. I was outed on PURITY’s Know Your Enemy show. They have a show now.” She shook her head. “My clients all began to give in to the pressure and leave. And then they began to go around me to the other partners.”
Molly sat back, her back straight, her gaze clear. “As I sat there, the people I’d helped support, some of them my friends, wanted me to slink away in shame because of what I was—well, I realized it was time to push back. And then I was at my mother’s house and I saw Powers on television and my mom said something like how Others needed a good PR campaign and I realized yes, yes, we did.”
Meriel nodded. “And we do.”
Molly spoke again. “You do a fine job, first let me say that. As I said on the phone with you, you’re smart and well spoken and you clearly know what you’re talking about.”
Meriel’s smile widened. “Thank you. But I know my niche. I know what I’m good at. Before this mess I’d have been fine. But with the fever pitch now, well, we need a professional to get the message out there.”
“It’s a full-time job and you have far more things to do than just dealing with media. The biggest task will be to keep your message on target. There will be all sorts of side tangents to get sucked into. It’s human nature. And before you know it, your three to five minutes are up and you didn’t make your point.”
Meriel nodded, frowning. “Yes. Frustrating.”
“Media people know how to do this. They do it every day. Most of the time to keep people on task, but as you saw with the reporter interviewing you, sometimes they do it to knock you off message because they have an agenda. It takes someone who knows how to avoid those traps to get a message out.”
“And you think yo
u can do a better job? Even though you grew up as a human and didn’t have much to do with our world?” One of the other members of the Full Council, Sami Ellis, asked. It was clear the woman had her doubts about Molly. Sami could be very intimidating so he supposed they’d see just what Molly Ryan was made of. “What makes you think an interloper can tell our story better than we can?”
Gage was impressed by the way Molly simply turned that perceptive gaze toward Sami. The question was rude; he caught sight of Meriel bristling. But Molly kept her cool and he added a few more points to his estimation of her.
“Interloper? That’s an interesting phrase. You mean because my father walked out and never bothered to tell the person he was sleeping with that he was a witch? Is that my fault too? You’ll have to excuse my sore spot on this point, but I’m trying to do what’s right. Not only for me, but for my people. If your clan is just PURITY with a different face, I’ll just take my services elsewhere. Because I have no need to prove my racial purity to anyone. I have lived in the human world. My mother and grandparents are human. I am not ashamed of that. Nor would I ever allow anyone to make me feel that way.”
Gage caught Dom’s eyebrow as it rose for a brief instant and then settled back into place. He smiled then.
“I can’t guarantee this will be easy. It hasn’t been for any of us. But I can guarantee one thing and that is we won’t be engaging in any sort of purity tests. I grew up outside a clan too.” Dominic looked toward Sami before he cast his gaze back to Molly. “And now I run one. You’re a witch and you’re offering your services, which we all know are highly desirable and effective. We’d like to offer you a position here.”
“Not just as the head of our public relations campaign, but as a member of Clan Owen,” Meriel added. “We’ve checked you out. You’re everything you claim and more. We need you on our side.”
Molly kept her gaze on Sami, which Gage found himself fascinated by. This was a full-council witch. Most people would have left it alone. But Molly Ryan was clearly not most people.