Song of Midnight Embers

by Dana Marie Bell

  “He was the one who left the heater out of your cell.”

  Again, he’d spoken nonchalantly, and if she didn’t see the flash of rage cross his face before he smoothed it away, she’d think he was a psychopath. “Then I’m the one who should—”

  “No.” Greer stood and took his mostly empty plate back into the kitchen. “You’ll never see them again.”

  “I can take care of myself, Greer.” Mollie also stood, no longer hungry at all. “Want to test that out?”

  He eyed her for a moment before smiling at her. She was beginning to suspect that cheery expression. “Nope. You’re bad-ass, no need to prove it to me.”

  “Then trust me if you don’t want to listen to the others.” She put her hand on his arm, and he froze, the plate halfway in the sink. “Let it go. Let Noah deal with the wolf, and Lore with Arlene. We have a lot more to worry about than two people who thought they were protecting their friends and loved ones, like finding out more about what Bernadette was up to.”

  His muscles bunched under her hands. “They almost killed you.”

  “I know. And I’m willing to let that go. You need to be, too.”

  He took a deep breath, shivering as he relaxed under her touch. “I’ll try.”

  “Good.” She took his plate and bumped him out of the way with her hip. “You cooked, I’ve got dish duty.”

  “Works for me.” He sat at the breakfast bar and watched her, his gaze following her every move. “Lore told me that Bree had some files on her computer that are suspect. Files that point toward her involvement with the Van Helsings.”

  Mollie nodded. “I’m betting she’d been sending them the results of the blood tests. The real results, anyway.” She scraped away the food and began washing, wishing for a moment that Greer had a dishwasher. Something to bring up on another day, when she was ready to truly move in with him. Only when it was certain it was what he wanted would she bring it up. They’d been dancing around the subject, but as desperately as she wanted him, she didn’t want to mess things up by pushing too hard. “What we need to know is the real reason why.”

  “You don’t buy the whole ‘I wanted to be beta’ thing?” Greer was studying the granite countertop like it held the answer to life, the universe and everything. “Kate wanted power over Dragos. Is it so difficult to think another of us would fall for the power to be beta over all the wolves in the United States?”

  Kate had been the real beginning of their problems. She’d made a deal with the devil, literally, when she’d accepted the help of the Van Helsings. She’d given up their people in return for a bond with a demon, one that allowed her to overcome Dragos’s strength of will. She’d made him her lover, using her hold over him to slowly take over the town. It wasn’t until Mina’s entrance into Dragos’s life that they’d been able to stop her dead in her tracks. Kate had died, her demonic bond exposed, and Dragos had claimed Mina as his blood wife, his sotiei.

  It was possible Bree had been the same, but there had been no indication of a demonic presence when Mollie had confronted Bernadette. “She fought with just her wolf, not with outside magic.”

  “So, not like Kate.” Greer looked up. “No demonic manifestations, just a power-hungry bitch who wanted more than she deserved.”

  “Why send the results to the Van Helsings? What would they give her if...?” Mollie blinked. “Fuck me stupid.”

  “Yes, please.” Greer stood, holding out his arms.

  “Hold that thought, Greer.” She dropped the sponge and quickly rinsed off the dish she’d been cleaning, trying to ignore the way his gaze heated up. She couldn’t believe she’d just said that. “Think about it. How do you make someone burn without touching his or her surroundings?”

  “Fire magic.” Greer put his arms down, but his passionate expression was beginning to turn grim. “And if that fire magic isn’t from a fire elemental...”

  “Or a mage with fire magic...”

  Greer began to curse in a steady stream. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He picked up the phone and began dialing. “You get the other elementals. I need to warn Noah, Mina, Ash and Dragos.”

  “Get them to call the other leaders. I don’t know how much time we have, but if they can do this, who else can they target?” Mollie ran into Greer’s bedroom and grabbed her cell phone from her dirty pants. She quickly dialed Rock, the leader of the earth elementals. “Rock, we’ve got problems. Grab the others and come to the Throne asap.”

  “Got it.” Rock didn’t waste time, something she was glad of as she called Selena. “I don’t know if Ash spoke to you, but I think we might have some more demonic problems to deal with than we thought.”

  “We’re on our way.” There was a soft thump. “Sorry, Ash.”

  “Huh?” Mollie heard Ash groaning in the background. “Did I interrupt something?”

  “A night-time flying lesson, nothing serious. Ash lost his balance and landed on his... Ahem. We’ll be there in about ten minutes.”

  As Mollie continued to make phone calls, rallying the troops, she wandered back into Greer’s living room. “As far as I can tell, everyone is on their way.”

  Greer collapsed onto the sofa with a weary sigh. “We need to figure out how we’re going to stop this one, and I don’t even have a clue where to start.”

  “We start with us, with Maggie’s Grove and those who are willing to fight for her.” Mollie put her hands on her hips, ready to battle the Van Helsings by herself if need be.

  “Down, warrior princess.” Greer laughed and patted the sofa. “I meant, we need to talk to the witches and see if they’ve gotten any closer to figuring out what type of demon we might be dealing with.”

  Mollie sat gingerly next to him. “Sorry. It’s just...” The thought of Greer going up in flames was horrifying. What if it happened when Mollie wasn’t there to protect him? “Sorry.”

  She started when he brushed her hair off her forehead and pressed a soft kiss to it. “Now you know how I feel.”

  She stared at him, well aware what he was referencing. “I’m glad you didn’t go to kick wolfy asses. This is different from what they did. They were protecting pack. This...this fucking demonic asshat—”

  Before she could finish, Mina’s voice could be heard outside their apartment. “Time to go up and tell them my theory.”

  He stood and stretched, then held out his hand for her. “Let’s give them hell.”

  “You’re a lot more bloodthirsty than people give you credit for, aren’t you?” She took his hand and let him lead her to the front door.

  “You have no idea.” He opened the door and greeted Mina, Ash, Dragos and Selena. The sun had to be down if the mayor was awake. “We’ve got a lot to go over, so let’s head up.”

  “Did you call Amara and Parker?” Dragos led the way, opening the entrance to their homes easily. He’d been living there for the most part since mating Mina, but he spent his working hours back at his mansion with Eddy.

  “I did.” Selena was next, thanking Dragos for helping her out. “They’re on their way.”

  “Good.”

  Mollie and Greer were the last to emerge, but so far the dryads and their mates were the first ones within the Throne.

  Greer closed the passageway as Mina closed her eyes. Mollie could feel Mina’s power spread throughout the Throne, a gentle light pouring from the leaves. It was just enough for a night-time meeting inside the sacred circle, the foundation of Maggie’s Grove.

  “Here they come,” Greer whispered softly as he wrapped his arms around her waist. She snuggled back against him, his warmth seeping into her. “You ready?”

  It truly amazed her the way Greer and the others seemed to know who was within the forest and who was not. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “For what it’s worth, I think you’re right.” Greer
watched as Gideon, the first to arrive and the local coven leader, landed within the circle and greeted Selena. “And I’m pretty sure he’ll agree with you.”

  “Ash?” Selena called out. “Where’s the broom closet?”

  Ash grunted and stalked toward Gideon, who was laughing silently. “Here, princess. Let’s put your broom by my tree.”

  Greer chuckled as Ash tossed it toward the tree.

  Gideon’s hand shot out, and the broom slapped back into it. “Thanks, that’s okay. I think I can manage.” Gideon walked past Greer and touched the oak throne, shocking Mollie when the throne slid aside to reveal their homes. “Where’s the broom closet again, Selena?”

  No one answered as the coven leader sauntered down the stairs. Mollie looked at Greer in surprise. “I thought you said no one knew about the secret entrance.”

  Greer’s embrace tightened, almost knocking the wind out of her. “They don’t.”

  She smiled as Gideon walked back up the steps, winking at her. The throne slid back into place without a sound. How the fuck had he known the secret? Was he from the original coven that had performed the spells that created the Oak Palace? Gideon was an enigma, one she was still trying to figure out. “You might want to rethink that.”

  Greer gave her his best, most shark-like smile. “I’ll make a note of it.”

  * * *

  “I want something made perfectly clear.” Gideon spoke sternly, his back ram-rod straight. “Web’s not a suspect.”

  Greer watched as Gideon paced in front of them, his hands clasped behind his back. The man had truly become the coven leader since taking over after Mel died. Hell, even the white witches, reluctant to follow someone of the black, were starting to come around.

  Some of that had to do with Selena backing him so fiercely, but a lot of it had to do with the man himself. Gideon was a force of nature. Even the Throne acknowledged his presence, granting him a gift usually reserved for mates by giving him access to their home.

  Case in point, one of the great oak’s leaves fell, landing on Gideon’s head. Instead of tossing it off as most would do, Gideon reached up and plucked the leaf off, carefully holding it in the palm of his hand until a stray breeze blew it away.

  “Web and Inigo were among the first to discover something was up with the blood samples. They brought their concerns to me, their coven leader. I was the one who told them to investigate. They were working under my orders.” Gideon stared at the leaf as it landed at his feet.

  “So you knew something was wrong and didn’t say anything.” Greer was getting so tired of finding out that everyone else seemed to know what was going on except him.

  Gideon winced. “I didn’t realize that Mollie and Carter had been dragged into the investigation by Dr. Douglas.”

  “That was me. It was my call.” Mollie glanced around, and Greer noticed the chilly looks Mollie was receiving from most of the others. “I wanted to keep it a secret, because we didn’t know who might be guilty. The fewer who were in the loop, the better. And as Tyrone Douglas is one of my elementals, he was forced to obey me.” She tilted her chin up defiantly. “None of it was supposed to hurt Greer.”

  Forced, Greer’s lily-white ass. No doubt the formidable Dr. T had been amused as hell.

  “So you put one of my wolves in danger without speaking to me about it?” Noah was snarling again. If he kept that up, he’d find out exactly how far Greer could throw him.

  “Yes.” Mollie stood her ground, even as Noah approached her with a menacing glare. “I needed an alibi, and Carter provided one. He was invaluable to my investigation.”

  That wasn’t what she’d told Greer. From the way she stood, her hands twitching, her gaze barely resting on Noah’s face, he could tell she was lying her ass off. “Don’t let my mate fool you. Carter was the one who chose not to tell you, Noah.”

  Noah blinked, immediately backing down. “I see.”

  “No, you don’t.” Mollie ran her fingers through her hair and glared at Greer. “He didn’t want to add any stress to what you were already going through, and he was acting as one of your enforcers, checking out problems that would affect the pack. Until we had proof of wrongdoing, there wasn’t anything we could bring to anyone, not even Dragos.”

  “Bernadette. Tell me what you found.” Noah’s expression was openly pained. The fact that he was showing emotion at all told Greer that the alpha had accepted Mollie and Greer’s story as true. If he hadn’t, his expression would have been at best stoic, at worst still angry.

  Greer had come to know Noah well in the time they spent trying to heal Iva. Noah was upset that Carter had kept this from him, nothing more.

  So Mollie filled Noah in on what she’d discovered. “Bree was either tampering with or stealing the blood samples of those who’d been infected during the kidnappings. We don’t know who she gave them to, or why she tampered with some and stole others, but maybe the files Lore found will tell us that.”

  At that point, Lore stood. He was still in his brown-and-tan uniform, the eagle-and-star badge prominently displayed on his chest. He’d made it quite clear he was there not only as the head of the psychics but as an officer of the law. “So far most of what we’ve found points to Lily Wulfenbach as the contact between the Van Helsings and Bree.”

  Stunned silence as each of them absorbed the implications of Lily being in cahoots with the bad guys.

  “Bullshit,” Noah and Frisco echoed.

  “For one, why would the Van Helsings kill Lily if she was giving them information?” Frisco flicked his finger, shooting water at Noah when the alpha snarled. “Down, boy. I think Lily was a patsy for Bree, not an informer.”

  Noah wiped his face, grunting in annoyance at Frisco’s antics. “Asshole.”

  Frisco blew him a kiss, laughing and ducking when Noah swung at him. “Lily was loyal to the pack and the elementals. No way she would have anything to do with the Van Helsings.”

  “I thought the same of Bree, and look where we are now.” Noah shrugged. “I’m just saying, someone we think was one hundred percent ours may not be.”

  Selena tapped her fingers on the roots of Ash’s tree, where she was sitting cradled by her mate. She had her glasses on, and a T-shirt that read Trust Me, I’m The Doctor with an image of the Tardis on it. “A demon’s blandishments can be a difficult thing to dismiss, especially if it’s making an effort to woo you to its side. If it tried to woo Lily and failed, it could explain her death.”

  “How would it get to her in the first place?” Noah moved, sitting back under Iva’s tree.

  “Good question.” Greer jumped, startling Mollie, until he was standing in the branches of his tree. He always felt better, more in control, when he was up above everything. “Gideon?”

  Gideon kicked at a rock. “Damn it. The wards are all firmly in place. Nothing should be able to get through that doesn’t belong here.”

  “Could it have ridden in on the back of someone else?” Greer sat down, his feet dangling over Mollie’s head. “If someone has moved here since the trouble started...”

  He waited to see who would pick up his train of thought first. It didn’t surprise him when it was Mollie. “Would the town’s wards have picked up on that?”

  “Maybe, maybe not.” Gideon stroked his chin. “It’s possible the presence of the demon was small enough to avoid detection.”

  “Then we need to go through a list of anyone who’s moved here recently and inspect them.” Greer glanced toward Dragos with an apologetic expression. “That includes the boys staying at your mansion.”

  Dragos nodded. The sons of Van Helsings, the boys would be the first on the suspect list. It would be best to eliminate them before anyone else.

  Greer was almost certain the boys weren’t the source of the contamination. While one of them was a budding witch, he�
�d been invaluable in saving the people of Maggie’s Grove. But Greer had also thought Bree was loyal. Better to be safe than sorry. And that meant investigating a bunch of teenagers. “It’s also possible that when we exorcised Selena, not all of the demonic shadow disappeared.”

  Selena grimaced. “After Ash defeated it, I thought it was gone forever. It should have taken much longer to rebuild a shadow.”

  “Could the blood be the key again?” Greer’s thoughts were practically tripping over themselves as idea after idea popped into his head. “Could it be riding in on the blood samples themselves?”

  Silence as each of them absorbed the impact of that thought.

  “That means it could have been here all along.” Dragos said something in his native language, his tone harsh and fierce. “We’d be fighting an enemy that never dies.”

  “I want to know if what Bernadette told Mollie was the truth or not.” Noah glanced at Mollie, but his expression remained concerned rather than becoming angry. “If she had Lily killed in order to become my beta, it’s possible the threat no longer exists.”

  “Or the demon is strong enough to punch through the wards,” Greer added.

  “No. I highly doubt that.” Gideon sighed wearily and settled on one of the great oak’s roots. “Even if the wards were weak, the demon would still need a way to target his victim, either through another person or through some far-viewing device.”

  “Like a webcam?” Greer tilted his head. “Lily was killed in an alley. Were there any security cameras back there?”

  “No. We checked for those first, hoping to get a visual on a suspect.” Lore settled next to Gideon. “And there was no camera view from the street light.”

  “So no possibility it was done that way.” Greer rocked back and forth, his mind racing with possibilities. “All right. Crystal ball?”

  Selena answered his question, her tone certain of her facts. “Some witches use them, but I don’t know if a demon can.”

  “They could use a mirror.” Gideon shared a glance with Selena, one that had Greer sitting up, apprehension taking root inside him.