by Lauren Dane
“Today we have passed the Domestic Safety Act through committee and it will go to a full vote on the floor. Keep in mind that these monsters have had their own murdered for daring to speak out against their ways.”
Faine looked over at Helena, who looked positively murderous indeed.
There was a general uproar in the press, people yelling questions.
“I know because several of these patriotic men and women have disappeared. They were helping me and our cause and they are all gone today. They admitted what sort of monsters they are, told me all sorts of things. Things I’ll be exposing to you all over the course of the next few days. But suffice it to say there is a lot these monsters have not been telling us, despite their claims of honesty and openness.”
“That bastard!” Molly exploded from her chair and then, unable to pace because of the cast, sat back down. “We haven’t been honest? He had spies in our ranks and it’s our fault? Rita, get all my contacts on the line. We need to respond. I need to get on all the networks to combat this.”
“We need to be ready for them to expose the existence of the Veil. Of demons and Fae and Lycians.” Meriel sipped her coffee. “But unless they have actual proof, we don’t respond to anything. And what sort of proof can they have? Hearsay?” Meriel shrugged. “I don’t give a damn about what someone, who conveniently isn’t around, said about something he or she heard. How can we trust the word of people who won’t appear on camera?”
Helena smirked.
“And we don’t know a thing about any disappearing Others. Not unless there are groups of mages out there again, kidnapping them to satisfy their dangerous addictions.”
People always underestimated witches, but they were just as hardcore as the rest of the Others when it was necessary. Meriel was a vicious, canny woman and he admired that a great deal. This was high-stakes politics and she was absolutely a player. Marlon Hayes thought he’d shake the Others up with this, but he had no idea what was in store for him.
“I need to get back to Los Angeles to get people trained down there and manage the movement of our people into the enclave communities.” Helena stood.
“Keep us updated. I’ll contact Rebecca now. I’m sure she’s seen this mess already.” Meriel was gone in moments.
Lark hugged her sister. “Please be safe.”
“I’ll do my best. You too.”
Faine clasped his brother’s forearm and then hugged him. “Watch over your woman.”
Simon nodded. “You too. And be sure to eat plenty of protein because watching over a Jaansen takes a lot of fortitude.”
“I heard that,” Lark called out from where she stood with her sister.
Simon waggled his brows her way and she rolled her eyes and turned back to Helena.
“Keep checking in. I’ll let you know what we get out of these prisoners.”
Helena nodded. “I’ll go straight to the one we’ve got in holding. The wolves said we could keep him at Gennessee. It’s safer there anyway.”
“Love you.” Lark hugged Helena one last time.
“Love you too.”
Faine barely restrained himself from taking her hand but did allow a brief touch of her lower back as he guided her from the room.
Their bags were already in the car and they headed off to the airport. They didn’t have Mia to fly them this time, but they had engaged the services of another witch who’d handle the air travel for the time being.
They loaded in and Faine sat, patting the seat next to him. “You may as well relax for the next few hours. There’s nothing you can do while we’re in the air. Sleep. I have a feeling you’ll need it.”
“I have work to do.” She pulled out one of her dusty spellbooks. “There’s some old-school arcane magicks in this. We lost our ability to work this sort of magick generations ago. Like a muscle you don’t use, we got flabby. But with this power boost after the Magister, I think some of us can. And we’re going to need every weapon we can get.”
“Why do you think there’s this power boost?”
She looked up at him after she got strapped in. “I’ve thought on it a lot. Heard all sorts of theories. I think it’s that when the Magister left, all the unused magick from the Others that disappeared bled out and we soaked it up. We lost nearly half of our population worldwide. Yes, the mages stole some and the Magister too. But we generate magick by using it. There’s magick in the air and the earth. Less people to use it means more for each of us. That’s my best guess anyway. Morbid though it might be.”
He sighed. “A good enough guess.” He leaned back and closed his eyes. He didn’t need to sleep, but the quiet time to think and work things out would be welcome. There was a lot to piece through. Plus, he rarely got the chance to simply be still with her when she wasn’t bleeding or being shot at.
She put her head on his shoulder and he opened his eyes, taking in the sight. Possession roared through him. Satisfaction that she’d turned to him with a simple show of affection.
His beast pressed against the man’s flesh, flexing its claws before subsiding. Just another way she was different than any other who came before. His beast approved mightily.
There were others on the plane and she’d touched him that way. He held back a smile, settling for a kiss on the top of her head, breathing her in.
“Thank you.”
She sat back in her own seat so she could look up into his face.
“What for, Alamah?”
She smiled. “You’ve set aside your life to help with all this. You could live in Lycia and no one would try to kill you. No one would discriminate against you for being what you are.”
He chuckled at that. “Things are not as perfect in Lycia as you might imagine. We go to war. There are dominance battles all the time. I came to you covered in battle scars, remember?”
She smiled. “Well, I guess that’s true. But I . . . thank you for being there when I needed you. You’ve given me so much great advice. You’ve been someone I could turn to.”
“It is my pleasure to be there when you needed me. As for setting aside my life? Pah. This is my life. Here with you.”
“Lucky me,” she murmured, but it wasn’t sarcastic. He squeezed her hand before she went back to her book.
• • •
BY the time they’d landed Helena knew the news cycle would have begun to spin like a giant tornado. Being with Molly while they were all on the road together had taught her that much.
She turned on the news as they drove from the small airport back to the Gennessee offices. She wanted to ask Faine when they were alone why they couldn’t just use trips through the Veil to cut through all this plane travel. There was a time she actually liked to fly.
But even with private planes, which she had to admit kicked ass, it was still hours she couldn’t do stuff. Then again, it was hours she couldn’t do stuff, and she so rarely got downtime she supposed she should appreciate it.
She didn’t though. She needed to be making calls and dealing with email and all that stuff.
“Brief me,” she said to her father, who’d picked them up.
“We’ve taken the havens and are transforming some of them into guarded enclaves for the witches and Others who live outside major cities. That was a very good idea.” He winked at her and she smiled, warmed by the praise.
“I have them sometimes.”
“There are four currently operating in the Los Angeles metro area. But that’s not enough, obviously. We’ve connected with the Weres. Some of them have huge swaths of private land already. They’ve hooked up with some developers about turning some of that land into mini subdivisions that would include schools, retail, that sort of thing. Oh, and networking hubs so people can work remotely without having to leave to go in to offices. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. It’s a boom business for developers now, which is a good thing to come out of the bad, I suppose. Rebecca is looking into buying three apartment buildings on the same block in San Diego. The Va
mpires have offered up some property as well.”
“Really? Well, that’s interesting.” The Vampires weren’t much for playing well with anyone else.
“Franco likes Lark. I think she drew blood at their first meeting.”
Helena laughed. “She did. I guess Simon nearly blew a gasket when she went into their nest and popped someone before they’d even gotten inside the front door.”
Faine groaned under his breath.
“So we’ve got a short-term solution for most of our people. There will be those who won’t want to leave their current homes.”
Helena nodded. “I know. It won’t be mandatory. But we can’t offer protection to everyone. It’s an option. People can take it or not. It’s not an option or a solution for every Other.” She accepted that. There was already one in Pasadena. A small subdivision had just finished the first houses. The developers were connected to the ones who created the one Faine lived in, so the new owners were all Others of one type or another. She had looked at a two-bedroom cottage-style that fit in quite nicely with the architecture in that part of the city. Maybe it was time to pull that trigger.
“Evan has been working to get a schedule up and in place to patrol each of these enclaves. The Gennessee wants you to get some law enforcement structure in place with courts and that sort of thing. If we’re stepping totally out of human law enforcement it’s going to be more complicated than what we’ve been doing so far.”
She’d already drawn up a preliminary plan the night before so she’d be sure to stop in to see Rebecca first thing and drop it off.
“I don’t see any way around it. I wish I did. If they’re not going to help us, we have to help ourselves, and that means building our own structure. Maybe I’m wrong.”
“Stop it now.” Her father’s voice was terse enough to snag her attention and make her turn to him, mouth open.
Faine leaned forward but she held her finger up to stay him.
“Stop what?”
“Now isn’t the time to second-guess yourself. You’re in charge for a reason, Helena, and it’s not because I’m your father. You’re not wrong. You’re doing what you need to to keep people safe in this new world. We can’t afford to sit around and wish things were different. They aren’t. You know that more than most anyone. You have seen things most of us haven’t. Your decisions are good and sound and you have to stop this ridiculous guilt tripping over Indio and you have to do it right now.”
Faine sat back as she thought of what to say.
“Chris Stevenson was one of their spies. He was one of my people and I had no idea he was betraying us. That’s not good decision making.”
“He is, yes. And he’s been questioned by me. He has a gambling problem. He owes a great deal of money in Las Vegas. The mages had been watching for just such a weakness and they sought him out. Once he’d helped them the first time, they used that against him. And then when the haven in Indio was taken they had him for good. No turning back when your actions cause the death of twenty-two people. He wasn’t evil. But his weakness is more than a flaw.” Her father shrugged. “This is more than a mistake. This is bone-deep selfishness that brought him to his knees and still he said nothing. Still he gambled and kept himself in debt and he continued to betray our people. That hasn’t got one thing to do with your decisions.”
“I should have known he had a gambling problem!”
“Do you remember two years ago when you suggested to Rebecca that all Clan employees have their financials checked routinely?”
She blew out a breath. “Yes. She said it was an invasion of privacy.”
“And if she’d allowed it, at least for the hunter corps and those with access to sensitive data, it would have caught all his debt. But she said no. You tried once more and she said no again. Give yourself some credit. You can’t doubt yourself. Not now of all times. I believe in you. Lark believes in you. Thousands of people are relying on you because they believe in you too. You will make mistakes. Hell, I made them too. More than you. I walk with a limp because I underestimated werewolves. You’re not omnipotent. But you’re damned good at this. Let yourself believe it.”
Chapter 17
“ARE you still upset that I went to Lycia to see my brother and father without telling you?”
Helena gathered her things as she planned to head home for a few hours’ sleep, a hot meal and a shower. Probably not in that order.
Distracted, she looked up at Faine, who took up the entire doorway of her office. “What?”
“Are you still upset that I went to my father without telling you?” He took her weapons bag and she was tired enough to let him.
“I understand why you did it.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.” He tried to take her keys and she shot him a look, keeping them.
“What exactly is it you want to know? You don’t give a crap if I’m annoyed you went to Lycia without telling me. You would do it again in a heartbeat because you believe it was the right thing to do.”
The business part of the office was normally quiet, but not so much that night. Gennessee ran an array of successful businesses, including construction, which was getting a considerable bump now that they were moving forward with several enclaves for Others statewide. People pored over plans, talking on the phone, tapping away on keyboards in order to fast-track everything.
The hunter area of the office was also humming with activity. Her people looking at maps, giving orders, coming and going for their assignments.
“Helena.”
She paused at Nikola’s desk. “Yes?”
The hunter handed her a file. “We’ve assigned three teams each to the three existing enclaves. They’ll work in shifts of eight hours each.”
“No one alone. Every patrol needs to work in teams of two or more. Have you spoken with the Alpha of South Bay?” The werewolves had stepped up in a way she hadn’t figured they would. They were doing it, so she wasn’t going to complain about how it happened, only be grateful it had. She needed to send Cade Warden a fruit basket or something to thank him for lighting a fire over there.
“I did. There’ll be at least one Were on each team in the patrol. The cats are less organized out this way, but Gibson de La Vega tells me someone will be in touch to arrange to get their people trained with us.”
“All right. Good work. Keep me updated.”
Gennessee had a hunter squad made up of sixty-five witches in Southern California ranging from the Mexican border to Valencia. She also ran a central California squad made up of twenty-five that patrolled the central valley out to San Francisco. Owen and Gennessee ran a united squad from Weed up through Oregon.
Those squads went out every single night to patrol the land around the places Clan witches lived. Helena was changing that along with Lark. They needed to pull the patrols in, no longer so worried about rogue witches or wolves and now necessarily putting focus on protecting their people from rogue humans.
She moved toward the garage again, Faine at her side.
“I do care.”
“What?”
“You’re very distracted.”
She turned to him at the car. “Really? Am I? Shocking when I have so little to do just now.”
“Sarcasm. Unusual.”
“Are you trying to poke me until we get into a fight?”
“You should let me drive.”
“Why is that? You have a car here, don’t you? Why are you riding with me anyway?”
One of those brows went up. “You’re staying at my house.”
“I am? And what makes you think that?”
“Would you like to continue this in the car? Or out here in the open?”
She jammed her key into the lock and got in, tossing her stuff into the backseat. She popped the trunk so he could stow the weapons.
“Now.” He stood in the driver’s side door, clearly waiting for her to move aside. She started the engine instead.
“Time’s a wastin’.�
�� She put it into gear and he heaved a put-upon sigh and walked around, getting in on the other side.
“My car isn’t here. I had it taken back to my house. We should stop at your place on the way so you can bring stuff to my place that would make you comfortable.”
“You live across the city. I live five minutes from here.”
“I live in an enclave and you’re trying to convince your people it’s the safest thing. Shouldn’t you be a good example?”
“You don’t even believe that. You’re just saying it to make a point.”
“I do believe you’d be safest at my home, actually. And it’s not me who is trying to pick a fight.”
“Puhleeze.” She drove to her place, annoyed that he was right about being a good example. “I like my apartment.”
“No, you don’t. You have pictures on shelves, but none on the walls. The walls are all still white. You haven’t painted anything. You sleep there, but you don’t live there.”
“Suddenly you’re an expert on how I live?”
“I know you better than you want to admit.”
That much was true.
“I haven’t had much time.”
“You’ve lived there for a year and a half. You’re a nester, I can tell. You have not nested there. Feel free to nest in my home all you want. Since we’ll be living together I want you to feel at home.”
“You totally are trying to start a fight.” She pulled into her spot and noted the graffiti. “Great.”
He didn’t say anything, but she knew he added it to the reasons to stay with Faine category in his head.
Her place was fine. The building was well lit and her neighbors were an assortment of artists and other types that seemed to love having endless potlucks and building-wide block parties every few weekends. After the revelation—as the media had dubbed the day when the world realized there actually were witches and Vampires—she’d been stopped and hugged more than once by her neighbors.
But Faine was right. She hadn’t really settled into her place. The house she’d shared with Lark had been a home, but this apartment was a place to sleep and eat. She just kept putting finding a house to buy into the after this settles category. Along with getting back to dating and going to the dentist.