by Jasmine Walt
“Thank goodness for coven policy. If they didn’t keep tabs on the skein, we’d have no record of the aberrations,” Drake explained.
Well, this was new. “What’s the skein?”
Drake topped off his teacup. “Hmm . . . I think the best way to describe it would be to imagine it as a cosmic ball of yarn made from material that’s the essence of magic. Every witch is linked to it. Each coven monitors the skein and makes a note of the witch bloods and aberrations born into it.”
Ajitah placed his glass of juice on the coffee table. “But they don’t intervene or help these witches master their power?”
Drake winced and shook his head. “To be honest, witch bloods have always been a gray area where the covens are concerned. They’re accepted into covens only if at least one of their parents is a full witch. The ones born to humans—the aberrations, as we call them—are a mystery of magic that even the elders don’t understand. I guess that scares them. So they keep tabs, and they monitor, but that’s it. This intervention is only happening because tampering with a witch, even an aberration, could affect the skein as a whole. And it must be protected at all costs. We’re nothing without it.”
I hadn’t realized how complex the witch world was. It raised the question of motive . . . something we hadn’t really discussed yet. “Whoever is taking the witches wants something from them. From what you just told me about this skein, I’m thinking it might be access to magic.”
“What? Like forcing the witch bloods to use their magic?” Ajitah asked.
Drake pursed his lips in thought.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but aside from all the other stuff they have in common, the most pertinent factor is their access to this skein. I mean, I didn’t know what it was, but our kidnapper probably does.”
Ajitah sat forward and reached for the biscuit tin between us. He picked a jammy dodger and offered the tin around. We always brainstormed best while snacking. The crunch of biscuit filled the thoughtful silence.
Ajitah brushed crumbs off his shirt. “Okay. So if the culprit is after magic, then it would make sense to go for witch bloods who were aberrations, ones who wouldn’t know what was happening until it was too late. Ones who could easily be manipulated because they wouldn’t understand what the skein was, or its importance.” He pressed his lips together and shook his head. “But then . . . why bother taking the witch bloods who are part of the coven?”
“And how did they identify the aberrations?” Drake threw up his hands. “It just seems like we’re creating more questions.”
My head was starting to spin with the circular arguments, and we still had the biggest question mark of all to figure out—where our vamp who used to be a witch blood was. If we could locate him, we’d likely find his mystery friend.
I reached across the table and shut the case file. “Look, the coven witch bloods were last seen at Moon and Star. It’s our only solid lead, so I think we should just start there.”
“Maybe someone will recognize our aberrations?” Ajitah said.
“Yes.” I turned to Ajitah. “There was no indication that the families of the aberrations knew what they were. But that doesn’t mean the aberrations themselves don’t realize, or at least sense something. Maybe that something brought them to the Magic District? And if they were drawn there, then we could have another link.”
Drake gathered up the files. “I’ll make copies of the photographs. Should be back in an hour.”
For the first time since our kiss, Ajitah and I were alone. The kids were still outside, and Eamon was out on his case. I locked eyes with Ajitah. His pupils dilated, drawing me in.
He reached out to run a finger across my bottom lip. “Crumb.” His voice was a low thrum.
I flicked out my tongue to moisten my lips, and he stood and held out his hand. His fingers were warm and strong, slipping between mine and tugging me from the room and up the stairs. I wanted him in my bed, the scent of him on my sheets. I was throbbing, burning for him. He shut the door before turning to me, his eyes full of need. Reaching over his shoulder, he grabbed the collar at the back of his shirt and pulled it over his head, shrugging it off and standing before me bare-chested and fucking fabulous. I grabbed the hem of my T-shirt and yanked it over my head. Thank God I was wearing one of my nicest bras.
We stood face to face, chests heaving. He and I reached for each other at the same time. My hands grappled with his belt buckle while his hands fumbled with my jean buttons. But both refused to budge. I gently pushed him back and undid my own jeans, tugging them off until I was naked save for my underwear. I looked up to find him standing there in his boxers. And then we were kissing—mouth-melding, soul-sucking kisses. Our bodies pressed together in the promise of ecstasy to come. I wasn’t sure how we got to the bed, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was his body covering mine, his hands running over my fevered skin, and his mouth, oh, fuck, his mouth. I arched my back as he swirled his tongue around my nipple through the lace fabric of my bra, and then he was sucking on me, his hips pushing my thighs apart. I was so ready, so—
“Dad! Dad!”
The thunder of tiny feet up the stairs had us going into freeze frame. The sound moved away toward the east wing, but they’d be back.
Ajitah released my nipple and raised his head to lock eyes with me.
“Shit.”
And then he was rolling off me, and we were scrambling to throw on our clothes just as the boys, realizing we weren’t in the east wing, headed toward my room.
Crap! I tugged on my jeans and did up the button just as tiny fists hammered on my door. The handle began to turn.
“Hey, boys.” I stepped outside, closing the door on Ajitah.
“Malina, where’s Dad?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’m sure he’s about.”
“We want to make a tower,” Danny said. “A huge one that reaches the ceiling. Dad always makes the best foundation.”
“Well, how about I come help you guys get started? I bet your dad will be along in no time.” I gently steered them down the corridor and away from my room. They wouldn’t have known what we’d been about to do, but it still felt wrong for them to catch us in my room. I wasn’t ready to let the boys know we were officially seeing each other.
Ajitah joined us five minutes later and took over the tower-base building. I didn’t meet his eyes. I couldn’t. The heat was still there, simmering under the surface, and my libido was an angry beast needing a distraction, or an icy shower.
I knew just the thing.
9
The pool gleamed, smooth and inviting, under the light streaming in from the domed-glass ceiling. Tiles cool beneath my bare feet, sun warm on my shoulders, I stripped down to my bathing suit—an old one I didn’t really mind burning to cinder. My clothes went on the bench behind me. It was all about positive mental attitude. I shook out my limbs, closed my eyes, and focused on the power inside me. Where are you?
I coasted, my mind searching for the otherworldly entity that had taken over my will in the Underground. Yeah, this little exercise would work wonders to calm my libido. How many attempts would this be now? My fifth? Sixth? So far, I’d been unsuccessful in replicating the abilities I’d manifested that night, but persistence was my new middle name. Drake still asserted it had been a one-time deal, but I didn’t buy it. There was more to this ability, something I was desperate to figure out.
This time would be different.
This time, I would master the damn power.
I visualized that night, the moment the Daughter of Chaos had set Garuda on me. My throat tightened as his hands materialized around it . . . as the pressure built. My lungs screamed, straining as I struggled for breath, and my eyes burned with the inevitability of it all. This was my end . . . the moment the power had arisen. I waited for the awareness. Waited for the surge of energy that had taken over my mind and body to make itself known to me. My temples began to throb; my jaw ached with holding on to that memory, that s
pecific pinnacle moment. Was that a tingle in my fingers? A lick of heat in my chest?
“Malina? The boys are asking for you.” Drake’s voice shattered any illusion of progress.
I sighed and opened my arms. Gah, who was I kidding? “Why can’t I do this? Why can’t I control it?” I turned to face him. He was dressed in his swimming trunks with a towel slung over his shoulder. “What if she does come back? What if something worse comes? I need to be able to bring the badass.”
Drake snorted. “Trust me, that fiery naga thing you did? That’s not a hellhound thing. As for shooting hellfire from your palms? That will come when you need it. When you’re the gatekeeper.”
“Yeah, but the fact I used it once means it’s there within reach, right?”
“Or it means you were given a one-time access. A get-out-of-death-free card.”
I rubbed my temples to diffuse the dull ache of failure.
“Look, you got skills, Malina, even without all the hellhound shit. You know how to think outside the box, and you can kick ass. Plus, you got us—Ajitah and me. What more do you need?”
Yeah, he was right. Pushing it wouldn’t make it happen. I’d tried hard enough to know. “I best help tuck the boys in. What time are we headed out?”
“Around ten-thirty. It doesn’t get busy ’til around half past eleven.”
I grabbed my clothes off the bench. “Cool, see you in a bit. Enjoy your swim.”
A splash accompanied my exit.
“Malina!” Danny bounced up and down on his bed in his superhero pajamas. “Can we have a story?”
He looked so cute and earnest, but I really wasn’t in a storytelling mood. All I wanted to do was take a power nap before we had to go out.
Ajitah stepped in. “Of course she will; doesn’t she always?”
Whoa, had he just spoken for me? No, no. Ah, there was that lick of heat. Unwanted and yet telling. Why’d he have to go and do that?
I plastered a smile on my face and spoke directly to the boys. “I’d love to, chickadees, but my brain is fried. I have to go out on a case later, and I could really do with a quick nap. I promise I’ll make it up to you tomorrow night, okay?”
“Aw.” Adam pouted.
“Can we just nap, too, and then get up and play?” Jimmy asked.
I chuckled. “Nope, you guys have a ton of growing to do, and sleep helps you grow.”
Danny bounced up and down. “That’s okay. Dad can read us one.”
I looked to Ajitah, who nodded curtly, his lips pressed together. Was he pissed I’d turned the boys down? I exhaled, suddenly too weary to dwell. I needed a few z’s.
After kissing them all goodnight, I headed for my room and my bed.
The half-hour nap turned into an hour and a half. Lucky for me, I was a wizard at getting ready for a night out. I had my face and outfit on in less than thirty minutes. A soft knock on my door and Ajitah entered. His scent hit me first, sharper and stronger after a shower. It was a fresh male fragrance that tugged at my core. Tonight, he was dressed in dark jeans and a long-sleeved V-neck made from soft material. It exposed the muscles of his chest, clung to his pecs, stretched across his shoulders, and hugged his biceps. Ajitah’s hair was loose, tucked behind his ears, dark, glossy, and totally touchable. His pale eyes darkened as he took his time raking over me from head to toe, then back again, lingering on all the right spots.
Drake had said show skin, so I was showing it, but in the classiest way possible, with a sequined V-neck halter top that left my back completely bare. I’d pulled my hair into a twist at the top of my head to expose more skin. My kill marks were covered with makeup, and I’d encased my ass and legs in figure-hugging dark blue denim. I’d finished off the ensemble with deep purple, five-inch heels.
“You look . . .” He exhaled heavily.
“So do you.”
“I sincerely doubt that.” He took a step closer, but I held out a hand, pressing my palm to the warm, bare skin of his chest. I needed to clarify something first.
“Were you pissed earlier when I turned the boys down?”
His brow crinkled slightly. “What? No. Why would you think that?”
“Um, your facial expression.”
He pressed his lips together. “Ah. Well, I don’t know what my face looked like at the time, but I can tell you what I was thinking.”
I cocked my head.
“I was thinking what an idiot I was for pushing my boys on you, and that I was a dick for being presumptuous about how much time you wanted to spend with them.” He lowered his gaze. “This thing we have, you and me—it’s so new, and I don’t want to mess it up. The boys are my responsibility, not yours. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d want to tell them a story.”
Now I felt like a dick for making such a big deal out of the whole thing. “I love the boys. That’s not gonna change, whatever happens between us. And if this . . . if us works, then yeah, they may become my responsibility, too. One day.”
He ran an index finger down the side of my face. “I wish we didn’t have to go out.” He leaned in, his breath warm on my cheek, his scent in my head.
I took a step toward him. My breasts brushed against his chest, and an aching throb flared to life in my abdomen.
“Guys, we need to go,” Drake said in a singsong voice from outside the door.
Ajitah closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose, and I couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled up my throat.
“You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say the fates don’t want us to get it on.”
Ajitah grabbed my ass and pulled me hard against him, claiming my mouth in a kiss that knocked the sense from me and turned me into a whimpering mess. He gently released me and took a step back toward the door.
“I make my own fate, and I get what I want. And I want you. All of you.”
My throat was too tight to speak, so I just nodded.
He opened the door. “Let’s get this over with so I can come back and show you just how badly I want you.”
10
Camden Town had been named the Magic District a couple of decades ago when the abundance of bars, clubs, and eateries—accessible only to witches—had opened. In truth, the phenomenon was restricted to the center of Camden Town. Aside from the bars and clubs, there were also places where a human could get a taste of magic in the form of a variety of black-market sensory stimulants. The covens denied any knowledge of these substances that provided the human user with a magic-laced high, but I imagined the profit from such endeavors would be pretty lucrative. Someone, somewhere, was getting rich, and my hunch said the money went straight back into the covens.
We crossed the brightly lit road by an eatery wreathed in the aroma of cinnamon and freshly ground coffee and passed under twinkling lights strung up from post to post. Voices filled the air, interspersed with laughter. My stomach grumbled, even though I’d eaten less than half an hour ago. This hellhound business was turning me into a real glutton. The Moon and Star came into view; it was a three-story red brick building with blacked-out, barred windows and a huge Vegas-worthy neon sign. A bouncer as large as a mini tank stood at the entrance, his arms deceptively loose at his sides. The Inter-Entity Pact clearly stated that supernaturals could not be discriminated against, but the same courtesy didn’t apply to humans. A glass-covered poster on the wall beside the entrance clearly stated: No Humans Without an Escort.
It didn’t stop humans from trying to get in, though. Gaggles of girls dressed in skimpy outfits loitered outside the club as we approached. Probably hoping some witch would take a shine to them and invite them in as a guest. We stepped into the queue just as an altercation broke out up ahead. I stepped to my left slightly, still in line but able to get a better look. One of the girls from the group was arguing with a tall, slender man by the entrance. He wasn’t dressed in the bouncer uniform, so I could only assume he was a patron.
“You used me,” the girl said, her voice trembling. “You said I was special.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but she insisted she was your guest. I thought maybe her name not being on the list had been an oversight.”
The man waved his hand dismissively toward the bouncer, his dark eyes glittering in the light of the bright club sign. He strolled out toward the group of girls and leaned in slightly, his dark hair falling over his left eye like a curtain. “You were special . . . last night. But tonight, I have a taste for something a little different. Go home, Emily.”
“Emma. My name is Emma.”
“Really? Emily suits you better.”
A sob caught in her throat, and she turned into the arms of her indignant friend.
“Fuck you, Banner,” the bristling friend said. “You’re nothing but a dickhead who just happens to have magic. A self-important, trumped-up tosser with no real charisma. Bet you couldn’t even get it up without a spell.”
Emma sobbed harder, and the girls stepped closer as if to shield her.
Banner’s brows shot up. “See, now that’s what I’m talking about. A little fire. A little self-respect.” He cocked his head. “Someone to challenge my bad-boy persona, to dig deep and find the vulnerable center, the true man underneath all this bluster.” He reached out a hand toward the girl. “Will you be that woman?”
Oh man, this was the cheesiest shit I’d ever seen. Did he seriously think any self-respecting female with half a brain would fall for that shit? Beside me, Drake groaned. I glanced at him to see him shaking his head; he was watching the scene, too. In fact, everyone around us was watching.
The girl, who a moment ago had been incensed on her friend’s behalf, blinked as if coming out of a trance. Her brow furrowed, and she gently extricated herself from her distraught friend.
Emma stared into her face. “Jenny?”
Jenny winced. “You can be a little needy. I mean, you get clingy. It’s kinda off-putting.”
Emma shook her head and turned on Banner. “What did you do? What have you done to her?”