Chaos Burning

by Lauren Dane

  He kissed the back of her knee and she sucked in a breath and stopped speaking for long moments as she watched him kiss his way up her inner thigh.

  “You’re everything I used to think I’d never want in a man. You have more hair stuff than I do. You take as long to dress too. You’re gorgeous. Every time we go anywhere it’s like people do a double take wondering why on earth you’re into me.”

  He growled at the very idea and she smiled, her fingers drifting over his shoulder.

  “You’re giant. And you’re bossy. And you like to try to tell me what to do.”

  She opened to him, the gorgeous heart of her as he took a lick and her eyes blurred a little.

  “But as I’m your key and you’re my lock and all, I’m keeping you.”

  He grabbed her hips and pulled her closer, holding her in place while he tasted every part of her.

  She made a little squeal when he dragged his teeth ever so gently over her clit and then punched the mattress, arching to get more.

  When she flew apart, he held her, his fingers splayed over her hips, taking more, pushing her up and up and up some more until she hit a second climax.

  That’s when he moved up her body and slid into her as she still fluttered all around him.

  “Good to know you’re keeping me. As I have no plans to go anyway.” He pulled nearly all the way out and pressed back in, enjoying the way her eyes went half-mast and her lips parted. “You need a male like me. You’d run over anyone else. All those pretty boys you’ve wasted your life with before. Pah.”

  She laughed, throwing her arms around him. “Pah. Grrr. They never would have thrown me over a shoulder and hauled me from work. Just sayin’.”

  “Which is why I’m buried balls deep inside your body and they’re crying salty emo tears that you’re mine.”

  She nipped his shoulder and then shivered when he shifted, changing his angle and got in even deeper.

  “Mmm, well, they never brought this much game. I’ll say that.” The teasing light was back in her eyes as her magick surged and mingled with his. They were back on track. Back in synch. And it felt good and right.

  “More,” she urged with a roll of her hips.

  He’d held on as long as he thought he could. Her taste still on his lips, her body so tight and wet as it wrapped around him. But that demand unleashed his control and he went to his arms, locking his elbows to get some purchase and balance as he sped his pace.

  Need. Every time he thought of her. Touched her. She brought it out in ways he’d never fully understand but he accepted anyway. And when he came, it was with her name on his lips, lips that brushed over hers.

  OVER the next three days twenty-five more Others had been taken. Everyone was on board then. The big cat shifters were on the rampage and had teamed up with the wolves. Shifter patrols had interrupted an attempted snatching the night before and had torn the three mages to shreds.

  Less cleanup, she’d responded, and moved on.

  She’d been in a meeting with Gage and Rose, his tech friend who hacked the phone she’d brought back from the house they’d been holding Nell in, when the door slammed open.

  Quinn stood there and the look on his face had Lark on her feet before she could form words.

  “They’ve taken an entire haven.”

  “Where?”

  “Gennessee. I’m sorry, Lark.”

  She was on her phone before he’d finished speaking. Her sister answered on the second ring.

  “Tell me.”

  “They hit the safe house out in Indio. We had twenty-two witches out there. Five of them were children.”

  She had to sit down because the room seemed to tilt.

  “What can Owen do to help?”

  “You’re really seriously going to stay there?”

  “Yes. We can’t run the crew together anymore. You know it. And right now we’re better, stronger, with the two of us running teams and holding the West Coast against this thing.”

  Helena sighed, the anguish clear in the sound. Lark could go back, but what of Owen? Her father and Helena were fine without her. Better off most likely. She was definitely better off up there.

  But those witches out in the desert were hers too and the pain of it lanced through her gut.

  “Did you send your people to havens?”

  “No.”

  She didn’t want to rub salt in her sister’s face over it. But they’d disagreed and moved on.

  “They’re discussing it now. Whether or not to call everyone back. What do you think?”

  She’d already gone over contingency plans when she thought over whether or not to send her own witches to the havens and that shared sense of mission she’d always had with her sister clicked into place.

  “I think they’d be on the road, exposed as they went streaming back to a really big territory. Which might make them safer if they could blend in. But this enemy seems to find them no matter where they are. You can’t protect them all when they’re scattered over six hundred miles. In the havens at least for now they’re together. You can send a hunter to each one and the hunter can organize them all into a better defense force. We’re not entirely powerless against them. We have magick; they don’t. I think you should leave them in the havens and send backup. I don’t think it protects them better to bring them back.”

  “That’s what I think.” She heard the shaky breath her sister let out and wished she was there, close enough to hug. “I should have sent hunters to all of them at the very start. We did to some of the bigger havens where there were a lot of kids and elderly. I should have known.”

  “Hold on one moment.” She looked to Gage. “I need to take this in private. They lost the Indio haven. All the witches there are gone, including the children. They’re discussing whether or not to bring them back now. They’ll let us know when a decision is made.”

  Gage nodded. “Go on.”

  She left the room and headed to her office.

  “You didn’t know, Helena. You did what you thought was best.”

  “You didn’t make that choice.”

  There was so much recrimination in that sentence. Lark knew Helena blamed herself. “No, I didn’t. But not because it was so clear-cut. It was on the margins. I went one way, you did the other. I could have easily been the wrong one. And the truth is, I can’t say yours was a worse choice. The options aren’t that great to start with. We’re doing what we have to to survive.”

  “I miss you, Lark. I’m scared I’m going to mess this up even more.”

  She laughed, but not with a great deal of humor. “Girl, me too. Makes me yearn for the days back when my biggest problem was a bunch of rogue werewolves making me track them and kick their ass.”

  “Just…” Helena didn’t speak for a long time. “This is accelerating. I can feel it.”

  “Yes.” The disappearances kept coming. They weren’t even holding it back at this point. Just doing their best to triage it. The Magister was gaining power and beginning to break through.

  Helena continued, “Things are coming to a head and I don’t want to go there until I’ve told you I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you in person, but then you left and I thought I’d tell you when you got back but since you’ve been gone you’ve met your one and only and have taken on a new clan. So much has happened for you and I haven’t been there and now maybe I’ll never see you again.” Her sister’s voice broke and pulled her own tears to her eyes and the well of sadness she’d had over this broken thing between them overflowed and she covered her eyes with a hand and made herself keep going.

  If it all ended and she never got to hug her sister again, she at least needed to say what she should have said a long time ago.

  “I’m sorry. Sorry that I was part of such a sad time in your life. Maybe I shouldn’t have told you. I didn’t want you to get hurt. I just was so offended on your behalf.”

  Helena was crying in earnest at this point. “No. You were right to tell me. I told you
then I appreciated it and I’m saying it now. He wasn’t for me. I knew it before he proposed. But I didn’t want to see it. Didn’t want to fail, I guess, and did in such an incredibly spectacular fashion. Afterward, each time I saw you I’d remember how horribly I’d messed up.”

  “How could you think standing up for yourself and kicking a cheater to the curb is you failing? You literally kicked him to the curb.” A laugh broke through the tears.

  “I totally did. But I made a big moat around myself and I left you on the wrong side. I’m sorry.”

  “I love you, Helena. You’re my big sister and I’ve missed you so much.”

  “We need to survive this, okay? Promise me. Because I need to meet this Simon guy and you and I need to go snowboarding. And Mom can stop pestering me to make up with you. Are you really going to move to Seattle?”

  “I’ve spent a lot of the last six weeks or so really thinking about my future. And then they offered me the job here. And then Simon. I… I can be who I need to be here. I can run this team my way. I… it’s selfish of me, I know, but I don’t have to be in anyone’s shadow here. I can build a life here. With this clan. With Simon. Here is where I’m meant to be.”

  “All right. What about Nell though?”

  “I don’t know if or when she’s coming back. This thing, well, it threw her life totally out of balance and she’s got a baby on the way and a super-protective, freaked-out human husband who doesn’t want her to do this job anymore. But if she came back I’d still have a place here. I don’t have to be the boss of everything. I’d like to beef up the investigative arm of the hunter team. But when we, you know, make the world safe again and beat the bad guy you come up here. Simon tells me there’s a lot of great skiing up here.”

  “I have to go. They’re calling me back into the meeting. I love you, Lark. Watch your ass and stay alive.”

  “You too. Tell Mom and Dad I love them.”

  Chapter 31

  SIMON found her in her office, her face buried in her hands, weeping. There was nothing else but her as he rushed inside. “What is it?”

  “Gennessee lost an entire haven. A smaller one, but all the witches there are gone. And I worked things out with Helena.”

  He hugged her. “I’m glad you did. You two needed it. I’m sorry about the haven though.” He handed her a handkerchief.

  “I love that you carry handkerchiefs. It’s so old-school guy. But it makes me nervous to use them because they’re so snowy white and I know my eyeliner and mascara are going to ruin them”

  “I’ve got fifty of them. It’s not like I can’t spare one to dry your tears.”

  “You need to understand I don’t cry all the time. Lately I have, I know. But I don’t normally.”

  “I’ll excuse it this one time.”

  “Okay, so yes, it’s silly of me and all. But still.”

  He stood and pulled her up into a hug. “I’ve come to take you to dinner before we head out on patrol.”

  “We?” She stepped back and looked him up and down. “You’re dressed like a commando and you still have handkerchiefs. We’re an odd couple, Simon. Just know that.”

  “I may have to admit that I like the bright pink in your hair. That’s a start isn’t it?”

  “Are those Gucci cargo pants?”

  “No.” They were Dolce & Gabbana, but she didn’t need to know that.

  “So you’re dressed in designer black ops gear to do a patrol with me?” She circled him.

  “Yes. Things are dangerous. More than ever. I’m not willing to let you go out there alone. It’s not forever or anything so don’t panic. Just until we deal with the Magister.”

  “Gage’s buddy got all sorts of stuff from that phone. The mage I killed on the stairs loved to text. Who he was texting to we don’t know yet. Part of it is encrypted. But it was to whoever was giving him info on locations of witches for him to grab.” She walked toward the door, pausing to grab her coat and holster her weapons. “By the way. I like working with you as my partner. We work well together. Plus your ass looks insane in those pants.”

  Outside, she paused and took a deep breath.

  “It’s coming soon,” she murmured to Simon.

  “Yes. The Fae have closed the way to tir na nOg.” The Weres had sent many of their own to their version of havens as well and many older vampires had sent their human staff away for their protection.

  They walked down Fourth Avenue and took a left down Cherry. This end of downtown bustled during the day with all the downtown business. But it was eleven at night and it was far quieter until they got closer to First. Pioneer Square was bustling with humans barhopping.

  Existence had decided to hold its breath and she could feel the tension in the air. The number of those disappearing had risen to epic proportions. If the Magister was drawing that much power, she had no idea if they could stop it at all.

  “Look at the sky. Northwest.” He pointed and she nearly goggled at the sight.

  “Do you think?”

  A large gray cloud billowed against the dark. Churning. “Don’t look at it.” She grabbed Simon’s arm. “We have to go to the office.”

  They ran and she was glad she’d changed into her Docs. The ground was wet and slippery as they headed up the steep blocks they’d just come down. Her phone was out and she was barking orders as she went.

  “Freight elevator,” she barked, pointing as they headed down a hall behind the security desk. She never trusted the main elevators and made it a point to take the freight ones whenever she could.

  “What’s going on?” Meriel picked up.

  “It’s happening, I think.” They rode up as she explained what they’d seen to Meriel.

  “Okay, I’ll get my mother.”

  “I’m stopping at the office. I need to get my weapons and alert all my people. I’ll be at your house as fast as I can. Don’t go with anyone but me, Meriel.”

  She’d had the hunter who’d talked behind her back transferred from the hunter crew. They’d been watching him in the days since but he hadn’t done anything untoward that they could find.

  But there was something off and she listened to her gut.

  In the office she yelled out orders as the hunters in the office snapped to it.

  Quinn handed her a shotgun. “I know this will be useless against the Magister, but not so much against his minions.”

  “Kill them all.”

  Simon growled his approval and Gage came running up.

  “Lark, Rose got through part of the encryption. You were right. They had people on the inside. A vampire and it looks like more than one witch.”

  “Owen witches?”

  “She’s working on it. She can’t tell yet. Just that it’s clearly info only someone with intimate knowledge of our process and governance would have. Some of it regards other places. I’ve had Craig under round-the-clock surveillance. He’s not going anywhere. Once we get the proof we’ll move.”

  “Have Rose notify the clans in those areas that they’ve got a leak. Gage, you’re with me. We’re headed to get Meriel.”

  He gave quick orders to Rose over the phone as they headed to Simon’s car, which he’d had brought around.

  Simon drove as they worked.

  She called Helena and then Arel and they agreed to notify the other hunters they’d been working with. The phone tree had gone nationwide and Lark hoped it would be enough.

  “I’ll be right back.” She used her compact to look at the cloud, which now seemed to take up most of the sky.

  Meriel and Edwina waited for her inside the house with Dominic and several of the guards she’d assigned them. Edwina’s magickal bond-mate, Ron, was there, as well as her husband and Meriel’s father, Abe. A lot of full-council magick in that space. The five most powerful witches in the clan were in the room. If their combined efforts couldn’t take the Magister out, they were fucked anyway.

  “I’ve had the remaining full-council witches place themselves around t
he city to fortify our wards and protect our people as best they can.” Meriel smoothed the front of her blouse down, looking elegant and calm, even as the world might be ending. “My father will help with protection spells once we get there. Edwina and I will do the spell while Ron and Dominic anchor us.”

  Thank goodness Meriel was as clever as she was.

  Edwina looked back to Lark after she’d been staring out the window. “It’s Discovery Park. It has to be. That’s the biggest open space in that area unless it’s coming straight from the sound.”

  “Discovery Park it is. Let’s go.”

  SHE had Gage inform them about the leak as she used her laptop to try to figure out some possible approaches to the park. While she did that, she managed to get her nervousness under control.

  Simon was a rock through the whole thing. She reached out to squeeze his hand.

  “If we survive this, I want this leak found and taken care of,” Meriel said quietly as they got out of the car.

  They’d parked down the hill from the park and would head up on foot to try to keep the element of surprise.

  The storm was huge but strangely no humans had come out. It wasn’t on the news either. Simon had wagered it was something paranormal so only Others could see it. Which she counted as a blessing. It would be far harder to deal with the situation if there’d been a bunch of freaked-out humans and cops all around.

  “It’s bigger than it was before.” Edwina examined it through the mirror she and Meriel held.

  “It’s breaking through. You can feel it.” The hair on the back of Lark’s arms stood on end. She felt strangely calm as they walked toward what could very well be their death.

  “Gage, I want you, Quinn and Ginger on Meriel, Dominic and Edwina. Take four men with you. The rest with me. We’ll have to approach and clear a path for them to get into place. Don’t waste your time trying to hurt them. Kill them. If they can’t get into place to work this spell we’re FUBAR. Use the special ammo when you can.”

  Before they moved, Simon hugged her and kissed her senseless. “You will not die. We will have children and you will poke at me and make me laugh at inappropriate times for the rest of our lives. Do you understand?”