by Lauren Dane
“I know.” He sighed. “But it scares the hell out of me. I hate the thought of you in danger.”
“Toshio, I can shift into a wolf with razor-sharp teeth and claws. I’m good.”
“A silver bullet can kill you.”
“Yes. But none of us is immortal. How you live is important. Your grandmother told me about how freaked out she was when she went into labor with your uncle. She nearly bled to death and there were no doctors around and people were dying in the camps from infections and complications from health conditions easily treated in the outside world. She said she was so mad at the world, but she had her kids and her parents to worry about. And your grandfather was off getting shot at and fighting the war in the Pacific. She had no choice but to live and so she did. I have no choice but to live. So my nieces and nephews can enjoy the freedoms I grew up with.”
So one day, when he asked her to marry him, she could say yes and know their children would have a place in the world. He was that sure about Delilah Sperry.
“So you should put your money where your mouth is.”
Surprised, she smiled. “Oh yeah? About what?”
“You promised me once I got into bed with you my life would change. I want you, Delilah. So badly it’s an ache in my belly.”
They’d fooled around enough that he knew she had a beautiful body and knew how to use it. He knew what she looked like when she climaxed, knew what it felt like to orgasm at her hands and her mouth. They had amazing sexual chemistry but had been taking it slow.
Suddenly it felt like slow was the last thing he wanted.
She put her fork down. “We need to talk about that.”
Uh oh.
“All right. Let’s talk.”
She licked her lips. “I . . .This thing between us isn’t just fun for me. It’s far, far more.”
“Well, good. Me too. Are you worried I’m going to get you into bed and walk away? Because I can tell you right now, once we get into bed I’m not going anywhere.”
She blushed and he felt better.
“Werewolves mate for life. Did you know that?”
“I think I did, yes.”
“Well, so how it works is when two wolves or a wolf and a suitable partner, um, have sex, the exchange of bodily fluids is part of what sets off the chain reaction that sets off the mate bond. And there are other things, complicated things, that I don’t know if you’re ready for. We could use condoms, but every time we’re intimate sexually, the bond between us strengthens for me.”
He wasn’t surprised at all, now that he thought about it. He was intensely attracted to her. From what he understood about werewolves and mates, it was a for-life thing. And that didn’t freak him out at all. “Are you saying I’m your mate?”
“Yes. Speaking for myself only because I can’t speak for you, but yes, you’re it for me. If nothing happens between us, eventually I’d find someone else. It’s not a situation of one person only on earth or anything. But each time we’re together sexually, it becomes clearer to me that you’re my mate. And I don’t think you’re ready for all that will entail.”
He snorted. “Delilah, I was just thinking about our children. I’ve been fascinated by you from the first time we met.”
She smiled. “Well, that’s good. Generally, nature isn’t so cruel as to put a person in our lives who we could mate with but who hates us. At the same time, this is forever. Right now, we are both involved in some major stuff. Things are insane. Violent. We’re on the verge of war between humans and Others. I want you to take this step with me, you have no idea how much. But I want you to do it knowingly. After you meet my family and understand my culture. A culture you’ll be part of if for no other reason than your being my mate. This is so much more than sex. This will change everything, and while I am so down to having sex with you, so much you have no idea. I just . . . it’s more for me and I want to take the time to be sure you know what you’re getting into. Do you understand?”
He blew out a breath. “I’m not afraid to commit to you. But . . . I do understand what you’re saying. Though I still want to sex you up in the worst way.”
She laughed. “Meet my family first. And come to a Pack meeting in Chicago. And I’ll explain all of what it means to be my mate. Once all this has calmed. Then, if you’re still on board you can sex me up all you want. Wherever you want. However many times you want.”
• • •
MEI NiaAine was astonishingly beautiful. Helena found it hard to stop looking at her until she finally just spoke. “I wanted to thank you for helping me with this. I know the Fae have been trying to keep out of this issue.”
Mei was even more beautiful when she smiled, and Helena could see why human folklore referred to the Fae as the Fair Folk.
“Thank you, Helena. Cardinian and his family have been there for me more often than I can ever repay, so I’m always pleased to help when I can be of service to Leviathan. What we need to do with this travel spell is to visualize the space. Can you do that?”
“I haven’t been inside Hayes’ office, but I’ve been in the hall just outside. If we can get there, I can pop a lock quickly and get in. As for PURITY, Faine has been.”
Faine nodded. “I’ve got a mental snapshot of the layout of the building. And of the outside of Carlo Powers’ town house as well. I’ve not been inside, but I’ve done surveillance outside.”
“All right.” She took Helena’s hand and Jayce, her other husband, took her free hand and Faine’s as well. “Lower your shielding and I’ll look. Just visualize that hallway with as much detail as you can.”
She did and when she opened her eyes again at Mei’s squeeze of her hand, she was standing in the hall outside Marlon Hayes’ office.
It was after midnight, but a busy enough legislative time that she knew there were others around. “You might want to keep an eye out and also use a shielding spell if you can. If not, I can cast one.”
“I’ve got that handled.” Jayce took care of it and with a few murmured words, Helena got Hayes’ door open and they quickly moved inside and closed it behind them.
They stood back while she did her work, but while she was there, Faine looked through drawers and papers while she copied data onto a few memory sticks.
“There are some clumsy spells here. Nothing major. I’ve gone around them rather than getting rid of them. That way there’s no indicator anyone was here. A mage cast them so they’re third-rate.” She curled her lip as she gathered up the data sticks.
Faine grinned at her. “You’re sexy when you’re full of derision.”
Jayce chuckled. “You and your brothers seem to share a love of the same type of female.” He tipped his head toward Mei, who shook her head.
They then moved to PURITY’s headquarters. Because they didn’t know if anyone would be inside, they chose a spot down the block. Faine had them stay while he and Jayce moved closer.
They returned shortly. “Looks like the lights are off in the downstairs, but one is on upstairs.”
“You all stay here. I can cast a don’t-look spell and get in and out quickly.”
Faine snorted. “I think not. I’m better at stealth than you are. And I’ve been inside to check them out once before. I know where everything is.”
“Yes, but I know if any trap spells have been cast.”
“Good goddess, you two are so much like Card and Mei it’s sort of scary.” Jayce sighed. “You’re both right. Mei and I can easily hide the four of us from detection so I’m going to suggest we travel into the first floor and we’ll take it from there.”
Which is how Helena found herself standing in the front entry to PURITY’s DC headquarters. The hatred emanated from the walls. She’d heard witches talk about such things and had been close enough to Carlo Powers and some of the others from PURITY that she’d felt their personal hatred toward her and the rest of Others, but this was as if the whole place overflowed with negative power.
Faine bristled as they moved
carefully through. Someone was on a phone call but the main reception area was empty and the lights were off. There were no spells of any kind but she figured there’d be cameras. Before they’d arrived, Jayce had done something to shield them from any camera view.
Helena then sent a magickal bomb of sorts out that would overload the closed circuit cameras and any security for about ten minutes. More than enough time. She hoped that phone call wouldn’t have any trouble though.
“I’ll keep an eye on the door,” Mei murmured and headed out.
Helena used the data sticks and Faine searched the drawers and they repeated the process on the two other offices downstairs.
“He just got off his call. No one else is here.”
Helena moved to a spot just outside the door and used a sleep spell. It would last for about ten minutes. Once he was out, she’d give him a suggestion that he had done something to mess up the security and cameras and caused a short. He’d want to cover up his stupidity so he’d keep it all to himself and no one would know there was ever an issue.
It turned out her sleeper was one of Powers’ sons, his top goon.
She wished she could put him in a tree outside so when he woke up he’d fall and break something. But she reined it in. It would be better this way. No one would suspect anyone was ever there.
Helena did the spell and planted the suggestion before she also cast a surveillance spell keyed to certain phrases as she and Faine did a search and gathered data from all the computers on the second floor.
“I can get into his head.” Helena looked Greg Powers over. “It’s moderately dangerous. But I won’t kill him.”
“I don’t care if you do or not.” Faine shrugged as he took out Greg’s phone and removed the SIM card. “This could be helpful.”
She got to her knees in front of Greg’s body. “If he starts to wake up, don’t panic, I’ll take care of him.”
Using the spell she and Lark had perfected over the years, she dove into his head, riffling through his memories, not bothering to be subtle. He wouldn’t know why he had a headache but she didn’t care anyway.
And what she saw chilled her to the bone. So much that it was difficult to leave without doing some real damage. He didn’t deserve to live.
But she didn’t want to deal with the added weight on her soul of killing when she didn’t have to. She had enough death in her future and some in her past. It was better to only do it when she had to.
Sometimes being the better person sucked.
She pulled free and noted they had only a minute or so until the security and cameras kicked back on.
“I was getting ready to shake you.” Faine helped her stand. “Can we get out of here?”
“Yes, let’s go. Back home, we don’t need to go to Powers’ house. It’s not worth the risk and I’m pretty sure we’ve got more than enough information.”
They ended up back in Faine’s living room. “What did you see?” Faine asked.
“They have plans to attack Rebecca’s house. They know where she lives. Thank goodness she went to the enclave earlier. I think we need to call the cops though and give them a heads up. Or rather, I’ll call Agent Anderson at the task force because the issue of how I came by the information won’t be as big a deal. PURITY is using enough explosives to injure people on the whole block. And they know where Meriel is. One of their spies from Owen got them access to a directory. That’s how they knew where to find Lark and Simon’s house. They have a list of all the top-ranking witches. One of the mages has told them they need one of these witches to do the spell to open a portal. What the mage told them isn’t possible, so that’s something at least. But they’re willing to kill however many, and whoever they have to. Carlo Powers is obsessed with the Magister. He thinks he can control it.”
Faine scrubbed his hands over his face. “Fuck.”
“Yes. The plus is that they really have no way of bringing the Magister back. But they have no hesitation at all in killing or harming anyone to try it. I need to get all this data to our IT people. They can get in and see what we can find. And I need to get this info to Lark and the others so they can make sure all clan leadership is away from known addresses.”
“We can drop it somewhere if you like,” Mei offered.
Helena thanked them. She made a call, told the IT people to be at the offices to get all the data off those sticks. She wrote a note, shoved it and the sticks in an envelope and handed it to Mei. “Thank you so much. You’ve saved lives by helping us tonight. Gennessee won’t forget that.”
“That’s what family does.” Mei hugged her. “Now you need to rest or get some protein in you. You used a lot of magick to get into his head back there.”
Faine narrowed his eyes at her but waited until they’d left before he turned her way again. “I know you need to make calls. I’m going to make some food and you will eat it without complaint or I will call your mother.”
“You fight dirty.” She liked it.
“Don’t forget it.”
She smiled as she grabbed her phone. “I won’t. Thank you.” She dialed the number Anderson had instructed her to use in urgent situations.
“Anderson.” He’d clearly been awake.
“I’d say I was sorry for waking you up, but I think I should be sorry you’re not sleeping at nearly two your time. It’s Helena Jaansen and I have bad news for you.”
“Riots and bad news from my favorite witch too. Busy night in America.”
Shit, she’d forgotten about the riots. She didn’t know if something even worse had happened while they were gone so she turned on the TV with the sound off and plunged ahead with the reason for the call.
“I’ve come by some information that PURITY has plans to kidnap Rebecca Gennessee. I’ve heard this info twice. I know Senator Sato called you regarding the first source.”
“We’ve got people on her location. Well, outside her location. Nothing amiss has happened.”
“We moved her, as you know. But there’s more. They’re planning to use enough explosives to level her house and probably her side of the street for a block or so.”
“What?” His tone sharpened and she knew what was coming so she headed it off.
“I can’t tell you how I know. Only that I do. Greg Powers is behind a plan to kidnap Rebecca, Meriel or possibly other powerful witches to aid his father in bringing back the Magister. They know the locations of these witches because they are in possession of a directory of sorts.”
“Like my middle schooler has?”
“Probably. Look, before this mess we were just a bunch of people with magick. We had potlucks and ran businesses. None of this war or spying stuff happened. PURITY brought all this on. We just like to eat casseroles and gossip.”
He snorted. “Spare me. I’ve seen you fight. You didn’t just learn that yesterday.”
“No. I’ve been trained my entire life to do this job and still, I’ve never blown up anyone’s home. I’ve never assaulted a child or started a riot. The bald facts are that humans have pushed this situation to the brink. We’ve done nothing but react to what you’ve done to us.”
“I apologize. I’m not trying to offend. I know. But not all of us are these PURITY assholes.”
“I know that. Which is why I called the FBI instead of handling this threat on my own.” She let that hang for a moment. She would handle it if he didn’t, and she wouldn’t leave a body. Just because she didn’t kill Greg Powers a few minutes before didn’t mean she wouldn’t later on if the situation merited it.
She was giving Anderson—and humans in general—a chance to make things right.
“I’ve already got people on the clan leadership in the major cities. Are the explosives planted now?”
“I don’t know. I just know it’s part of their plan. Her house and property are warded pretty well. But if they were bringing the explosives, or if they’d planted some under the house in the sewers or next door . . .”
“I’ll send t
eams over to check things out. So, this story about spies for Hayes disappearing.”
“Dunno what you mean. I’ll talk to you later. Thanks.” She hung up before he could say anything else. In the kitchen Faine was making bacon and eggs. Her head hurt and she normally would have gotten a bloody nose for using that spell to get into Powers’ head. But in the post-Magister world, bloody noses from overuse of magick seemed far rarer.
She watched the destruction on television as she called Lark and filled her in.
Chapter 26
HE found her dabbing her eyes and staring at the television. Her sadness hit him and he realized he’d assumed it was his own and had been ignoring it as he’d been cooking.
“Hey.” He handed her a plate and let her get herself together. But he settled next to her, needing that contact.
“So happy first day bound to me. How’s that working out for you?” She ate a piece of bacon. “Thanks, by the way. You’re a really good cook as well as the other services you provide.”
Her smile made him feel a little better. “As it happens, though the day has been challenging, being bound to you has been quite lovely. Unexpected, I suppose, because no one can really express just what it feels like to be so connected to someone you love. What about you?”
“I’m not quite sure what I’ve done to deserve you, to be honest. I used to be calm. Like every day. I didn’t cry when I watched television unless it was Steel Magnolias. Being around you reminds me that I used to be that.”
“You resent me for it?”
“Huh? No! Why would you think that? Can’t you feel me? Or whatever?”
Her confusion was sort of adorable, but he figured telling her that would be a bad thing at that moment. “So tell me what you mean.”
“No. I’m sick of thinking about it and talking about it.”
“You’re a difficult woman.” He grinned and when she turned, annoyed, she saw it and rolled her eyes.
“I’m too tired for you to poke at.”