by Lenore Wolfe
Chapter Six
Jo
Jo couldn’t help but worry as she got ready to go out the next morning. What if she wasn’t allowed to leave the house either? But when she called for a car, no one stopped her. Apparently, her cousin didn’t see her as a threat.
She took the cab to a store in case she’d been followed, then took another to the newspaper office that put out that ad. She didn’t have time to wait. When she got there, the young man readily pointed her in the direction of Second Chances, a little tavern on the edge of town.
Twenty minutes later, Jo entered the dark interior. Glancing around at the hand carved bar tops, she quickly caught the eye of the tavern owner.
“You look much too young to be in here,” he pointed out.
She nodded and set the paper in front of him, open to the ad. “I need your help,” she whispered.
He glanced at the ad, then at her. “You wait here,” he said.
She watched as he crossed the room to talk to two scary looking guys. One of them stood, coming over to her. Glancing around, she couldn’t help but wonder why his presence didn’t scare off all the customers. Couldn’t they see he wasn’t human?
“Follow me,” he said.
She did. But she didn’t like it. She liked it even less when he took her to sit beside the other scary looking guy.
She swallowed, sitting beside him.
“What’s the matter?” the first one asked.
She glanced at him. “I’m wondering what keeps his customers from running, screaming from this tavern.”
The first one grinned. “We’re glamoured,” he said, as if it explained everything.
She raised her brows. “Then, why can I see what you are?”
He glanced at her, a curious look in his eyes. “Don’t you know?”
That was the second time someone said that to her, in as many days. It was beginning to piss her off. “What don’t I know, now?”
“You see us because you’re Fae,” he said bluntly.
She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“You’re Jaguar,” the other one said.
She swallowed. Well, now. That explained a lot. “And what does that make you?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.
“Vampire,” he said. “Names, Dracon.”
“Holy, hell,” she said.
“Not exactly,” he said.
“So, what brings you here,” the first one said.
“And you are?” she asked.
“Justice,” he said.
She nodded. “I came to find you,” she said. “The paper said I’d find you here.”
“And, so you’ve found me,” he said almost gently. “But why are you looking for me.”
She swallowed again. “My cousin is a—jaguar. He seems to think you’ve been hunting him for many years—and I think I’m in danger.”
Dracon’s brown arch as he glanced at Justice. Did they already know?
“And who’s your cousin?” Justice asked.
“Daniel,” she said.
“Well, now,” the tavern owner said, coming behind Justice.
Justice didn’t say anything for a long moment. By the time he did, she’d begun to squirm.
“You need her to go back in,” the tavern owner said before Justice said whatever he’d intended to say.
She shook her head.
“He’s glamoured,” Justice said quietly. “And we’ve been after him a long, long time. He—kills humans.”
She glanced at Dracon. Not sure why, she tore her gaze away.
“He’s why Jes thought you kept killing,” he pointed out to Justice.
Justice nodded. “So, I have a personal reason for wanting to make sure he doesn’t slip through our fingers again.”
“You can’t expect this young woman to put her life at any further risk,” Dracon said.
Sighing, Justice nodded. “You’re right, of course.”
“He’s holding Jaguar People like slaves,” Jo said. “I have to go back in.”
Justice stared at her with deep, hypnotic eyes. “You would do that?”
She nodded. “I promised Misty I would.”
He gave her a ghost of a smile.
“I don’t like it,” Dracon said in that quiet way Jo was already beginning to associate with him.
Every of these men were dangerous. But something about Dracon made him more so. She suppressed another shiver. She’d lost her mind to work with them. But what choice did she have? The man waiting back at the house—wouldn’t wait long. He’d already made that clear.
Justice looked up. “We must hurry. Mira has come ahead of the rest of them, and I want you to meet both her and Jes, so they can prepare you.”
Chapter Seven
Jo
Jo was sure she’d lost her mind. She couldn’t imagine what she’d been thinking—agreeing to return here. When Jes, and Mira, told her she’d be able to keep a constant mental link with them, she didn’t think this was what they’d had in mind.
The sisters had worked with her to make that link, but the moment she entered the house, something happened to it. And at that moment, when she stood inside Daniel’s home, she began to come to her senses.
It took her twenty minutes to leave the door. She kept wanting to run back outside. Maybe her overwhelming fear interfered with her connection to Mira. But what if it was the glamour?
When she finally did get herself to leave the door, she entered the dining room where she had the bad luck to run straight into Daniel. Which only reemphasized why she should have gone straight back outside in the first place.
“You’ve been out for a long time,” he said. “I didn’t want to limit your activities, but you know I’m glamoured, here. Do you see my problem?”
Jo winced, staring at his face. Where was the smiling, engaging man she’d first met? She couldn’t imagine liking him now. He smiled then, alright, his eyes glittering with menace. This was so much worse than anything she could have imagined.
Every second she spent here, she sensed Mira less—except for small blips. Very small blips. Somehow Jo didn’t
Chapter Eight
Conrad
Conrad picked up a glass and buffed it with the soft cloth in his hand. He held it to the light, beneath the upper shelf showing on the glass below. Satisfied, he set it down, adjusting it slightly, so it stood in perfect alignment with the others. He grunted, approving what he saw. The soft light above the glass shelves, lining the shelves behind the bar of the tavern, shown on his work.
Conrad didn’t have too much glass in the tavern. It didn’t survive well in a fight. Not that he tolerated brawls in his tavern. Still, he enjoyed the little glass he’d installed into the bar-back. He had an affinity with the beautiful dark mahogany wood of the bar and tables. But the little glass he’d allowed, he guarded fiercely. And heaven help the man who broke any of it.
His keen perception felt his new visitor, even before he heard the click of the back door. A friend, then. For only a friend could possibly get past Conrad’s particular form of an alarm system. When no one appeared for several long moments, Conrad smiled. So, he had a rare visitor. He couldn’t be more pleased. Only Lucius, or an enemy trying to sneak by, could bring the beast from rest in the middle of the day. But even he couldn’t pick up the silent tread of Lucius before he appeared soundlessly from the dark interior of the storeroom.
Lucius had to duck to go under the door. He straightened and stood there, looking at Conrad. A large man, Conrad stood at six feet himself, but Lucius still held at least five inches over him. And Lucius always had to turn sideways, to get his shoulders through to come through that door.
He wore his long, white hair, shot through with silver, pulled up on both sides and tied in the back. He wore three thick, silver hoops in each ear, each hoop progressively larger than the other. He wore an impressive white and silver outfit, even to Conrad. The pants were barely showing because of the split tunic hanging
past his knees. It looked somewhat like something a Samurai warrior might have worn, except for the color. But no matter how impressive he appeared, no one would have missed that he looked like he came straight out of a futuristic movie—or that Lucius was not human. He remained cloaked in glamour, to all who didn’t know him, so when they saw him, they saw only what they were ready to see.
“I see Beast is as fat and lazy as ever,” Lucius said. “You spoil him. When it is time for war, he will be content to lie there and watch you do all the fighting.”
Conrad grinned at him. Both men knew Beast longed for the fight. “He misses you,” Conrad said. “And Gargoyle Mansion.” He saw Lucius lip curl at the name.
Lucius came forward and took a seat at the bar. The bar stool creaked beneath his weight. “I have asked Mira not to call it that,” he complained. “Now, she will have everyone calling it that.”
Conrad set a glass on the bar and took out a bottle of aged whiskey, pouring him a drink. “I see she hasn’t broken you of wearing those outfits,” Conrad teased. “Too bad the humans can’t see you.” He laughed, shaking his head. “That would be something I sure wouldn’t want to miss. You would scare them to death.”
Lucius actually looked wounded.
“I’m sorry old man,” Conrad put the emphasis on the old because Lucius was, in fact, thousands of years old. “But you look like a warrior. And not any warrior—but one who could take on a whole legion of armies on his own. How would you expect them to react?”
Lucius smiled. And even to Conrad, his smile took on a feral gleam. “Good,” he said. “Because there is one who can see me. And I hear he is on his way here—even as we speak.”
Conrad stared at him. He stepped close and leaned over the bar toward Lucius, his voice nearly a whisper, “Please don’t tell me you are talking about Constantine.”
Lucius went still as stone. He gave Conrad a dark look. “You know that for him—even the walls have ears.”
Conrad inclined his head at this. “But Justice only recently returned,” he said in a growl. “His walls are pretty damned accurate.” He turned a glass over for himself, and this time, he poured them both a drink. “At least I know why you’re here. Did your men come with you?”
Lucius nodded. “Some of them. Do we know where Dracon stands?”
“He’s always stood with Justice—even when he’d have liked to torn up the world as we know it, and even when Justice himself treads carefully with that one.
Lucius took a sip of his whiskey. “I would too.”
Conrad nodded, now. No one would want Dracon for an enemy—except, maybe, Constantine. But then, Constantine chose to come—even with Dracon—even with Lucius—and even with Justice himself….
Lucius peered at him. No one could keep that one from coming, he said from inside his head.
Conrad glared at him. “You know I hate it when you and Dracon do that.” He grouched. “Where are your men now?”
“Waiting or my word.”
“Conrad stepped to the register and pulled open a hidden drawer underneath. Turning he tossed a set of keys at him for his place out back. “Take beast with you or he’ll never forgive me,” he said.
Lucius nodded his thanks and stood. “I’ll get the men settled and bring Micah, Roman and Caesar back in an hour.”
Conrad grinned. “I look forward to it.”
“Get Justice to join us,” Lucius said, destroying any notion Conrad might have held of them getting drunk, for old time sake, and with that he slipped quietly out the back.
When Justice walked in, an hour later, Conrad knew immediately something was wrong. “The new girl?” he asked as he watched him sit across from him at the bar.
Justice nodded. “Her cousin might actually be able to prevent her from contacting us.”
Conrad frowned, setting down the glass he’d been holding. “Mira can’t sense her?”
Shaking his head, Justice looked away. “Only for sketchy moments.”
“That’s not good,” Conrad said, pointing out the obvious. He looked toward the back door. “By the way, Lucius is at my place.”
Justice glanced up. “That might be good,” he said, standing back up. “We could get Roman to take us through one of his doorways the next time Mira gets a glimpse of Jo.”
Conrad nodded.
“Yeah,” Justice said. “That might work.”
Chapter Nine
Jo
Jo knew she shouldn’t leave her room. She knew, but something drove her. The only thing she could think of, right now, was how much she wanted to leave this house. She needed to get outside. She needed to get away from here.
She had to.
She made her way down the stairs, creeping across the landing, toward the front of the house. She made her way down the second set of stairs, thinking she’d nearly made it, but there she met a dark and feral looking male jaguar.
Jo bit off the scream, filling her throat, turning to run back the way she came. She skid, falling at the top of the landing, banging her shin. Scrambling to her feet, she turned to find the jaguar standing right behind her.
All the tiny hairs on her body swept on end, as she slowly backed away, not taking her eyes off the menacing, red eyes of the jaguar.
Jo screamed—her scream filling the hallway and bringing several servants from varying directions. And with them, her cousin, Katherine.
In a flash, Katherine shapeshifted. Jo blinked. She couldn’t grasp what she’d seen. She turned to stare at the larger, more menacing jaguar. She couldn’t grasp that this was her cousin, Daniel.
Now, she faced two of them. Well, it only took one to die.
Seeing the jaguars, the servants backed away. The female jaguar crouched, coming across the floor. Jo closed her eyes, sinking back to the floor.
This was it. This was how it would end for her.
She opened her eyes in time to see the female snarl. Katherine sprang and Jo strangled on a scream, but in the next instant, the jaguar pounced over her, and engaged the much larger male.
New alarm snaked through her body. Her cousin was trying to save her. And there was no way she could win. They circled, then the male tore into her cousin.
She didn’t stand a chance! She’d be killed.
Jo closed her eyes, concentrating on Mira. She felt the witch come through with more power than she ever imagined. The next thing she knew, several of them stepped into the room through some hidden doorway. She scrambled to her feet, as Justice took a running leap, shapeshifted, and tore into the jaguar. The female backed off, limping severely.
Mira ran to her. Turning, she yelled at Roman. “Take her back through the doorway. Get her to Amar.”
Jo stared, as the two jaguars fought. She could hardly tell the difference between them, except Daniel held a much darker menace to him. He broke free now, and tore down the hallway. Justice immediately tearing off after him.
Mira grabbed her arm. “Come with me,” she said.
Shaking, Jo nodded. She couldn’t have said anything else. She was shaking so bad, she could barely stand.
Mira led her through Roman’s doorway. Jo was too shocked by what she’d seen to take in what she walked through. One minute, she was standing in her cousin’s house—and the next, she stood in the courtyard of the Alliance.
Mira took her into one of the massive buildings, then led her to an equally, overly large, bedroom, having her lay on the bed. An old woman, Mira called Amar, brought her something to drink, and within minutes, Jo fell asleep.
Later that evening, Mira shook her awake. Groggy, Jo sat up, getting slowly to her feet.
Smiling, Mira put her hand on her arm. “Do you feel better?”
Jo nodded. “I think so,” she said.
Mira shook her head. “That was too close. Justice shouldn’t have let you go back into Daniel’s house.”
Jo shook her head. “I insisted. I promised, Misty.”
Mira nodded. “Are you up for being shown around yo
ur new home?”
Grinning with relief, Jo nodded. “Where is Katherine? How is she?” she asked her.
Laughing, Mira grabbed her hand. “She is well. Amar healed her. Right now, she is looking around. She seems to feel like she has come home.”
Jo stared at her, then followed her out into the hallway. She couldn’t imagine Katherine showing excitement for anything. Jo stared around her in amazement. She would have never believed any place could be like this. She gazed at the beautiful rock walls of the large rooms, decorated in large, ornate furniture and huge mirrors. How did they hide such a place?
She couldn’t imagine how glamour could hide all of this.
Seeing, Katherine, Mira led Jo across the Great Room to greet her.
Jo searched her cousin for any injury. “So, it’s true,” she said, looking into her cousin’s face. “You are well?”
Her cousin’s dark eyes were alight with some unnamed emotion, but she only nodded.
“I hear he escaped,” Jo said, turning to a safer topic.
Katherine seemed to relax at that and she nodded. “But at least we got Misty and the others out.”
Jo’s brow shot up. That was more emotion than she’d heard out of her cousin’s mouth in the entire time she’d known her. And to show the captives such compassion….
Mira nodded. “I can’t believe he managed to keep all those people captive like this—and for all this time.”
“Well—he won’t anymore,” Katherine said with menace.
Jo stared at her. Katherine came forward, hugging her fiercely.
“We’re free,” Katherine said to her. “We’re finally free.”
Chapter Ten
Jo
Jo scooted into the booth next to Katherine. Justice and Dracon had brought them back to Second Chances. She wasn’t sure why. Sitting there, fidgeting, she kept glancing at her cousin. She couldn’t get over that she sat here, and with her. If someone asked her a week ago, if she thought her cousin would save her life—she would have said no.
Yet, Katherine had done that.
What a difference a week makes. She’d gained her cousin, and however tenuous their relationship remained, she wasn’t completely alone.