by Danica Avet
Lucian sipped his brandy and thought. “What do you want me to say, Malachi? I had no idea any of this was going on. When you left, I was training for Council. When you came back on leave, you were a stranger. Bianca never gave any sign she was enamored of you,” Lucian told his half-brother boldly. Now, thinking back on the entire mess, Lucian could see Bianca had played them against each other, except Lucian hadn’t wanted to play. He’d just taken what Bianca so readily offered and went his own way.
He winced. No wonder Ruby was pissed at him.
“She wasn’t enamored,” Malachi mumbled. “But I wanted her anyway until I saw her come out of your room before I quit the Guild. You’d already been given the firstborn’s portion, even though I was older. Then you took the girl I planned on marrying.” He laughed a bit with genuine amusement. “Of course, if I had known what a bitch Bianca turned out to be, I wouldn’t have bothered mulling over that one for long.”
“Why are you pinning your crimes on Bianca?” Lucian asked quietly and without inflection.
“I’m not pinning anything on her that she hasn’t done. She’s quite clever, you know. Very cold and evil, but clever. You know, this whole thing was her plan. All very well-thought out, if I may say so myself.”
Lucian kicked Malachi’s foot to get his attention. “What plan?”
Malachi waved his hand and took another taste of his brandy. “World domination, of course. Did you know her parents were both killed during a witch trial? Bianca saw it happen but managed to get away somehow. She hates the humans. When she heard I had abandoned the Guild, she came to see me. She had a plan to make the humans pay for thinking they were at the top of the food chain and showing the Veilerians the half-breeds aren’t trash. Of course, that was the only part that mattered to me.
“Then she told me how she was planning to get on Council. You knew she was having an affair with Spenser, right? And that’s why she was originally chosen over you?” When Lucian did nothing but look at him, Malachi shrugged. “Anyway, she gave me information on where I could cause the most trouble with the least amount of casualties since I had a ‘weak stomach.’ I dealt mostly in acquisitions and little skirmishes. Bianca was in charge of the bloodier fights.”
“If she was part of those fights, how come no one knew?” Lucian demanded unwilling to believe he could’ve been so wrong.
“She has her own personal guard, and they took care of the dirty work while she diverted Council’s attention to my little escapades. By the time the little stuff was sorted and Council could investigate, no one was left alive from the big battles,” he answered, his voice terse.
“Her own guards?” Lucian asked quietly, the story dominating his mind. He’d thought some of the attacks had seemed erratic and unlike Malachi’s usual antics.
Malachi waved his hand again. “She’s got about twelve devoted followers. Mostly witches with a grudge, but they’re former lovers who believe all her crap. Quite an appetite she has, eh? Did she ever do that thing with her hips—”
Lucian cut off Malachi’s commentary on Bianca’s sexual skills. “Why does she want me to kill you now? What’s changed?”
Pouting at having his story interrupted, Malachi studied Lucian closely. “I’m a loose end. She’s planning to marry you, give up her seat on Council, and become the next Chieftain.”
“The only way she could do that is to…” Lucian’s words were cut off as he realized what Bianca had planned.
Malachi nodded. “Kill the Chieftain,” he finished solemnly.
* * * *
Ruby and Bretina skulked along the passageway. It was several minutes before Isola and Rosetta joined them, both of them bruised, but with Rosetta in possession of her wig again. They appeared to be on good terms and were quite relaxed considering they were helping the Chieftain steal away from Council.
“So who are we gonna kill for this affront, Chieftain?” Isola, who liked to be called Izzy, asked, her voice as perky as a cheerleader’s.
“Kill?” Ruby asked uncertainly. She wanted to kill Bianca, but that might have had more to do with jealousy and extreme dislike than with honor.
“Well, yeah,” answered Rosetta, her broad shoulders brushing either side of the passage. “You hafta kill someone, or everyone’ll think they can lock you away.”
Their logic was so simple it made sense, and Ruby found herself seeking out her grandmother for guidance. Bretina was ahead of the line, occasionally peering back at Ruby with warm assurance.
“They’re right. You can’t let them go unpunished. We might be more civilized than the human world in some ways, but in this you can’t afford to be weak. They abused your good faith, and they need to pay,” she said in firm tones. She stopped walking and gave a signal for them to stop.
Ruby prided herself on her silence as they listened hard to their surroundings. She was also proud she hadn’t made a fool of herself when Bretina talked about killing someone so easily. She shouldn’t have been so surprised that this was their answer to her problems. After the fight with the demons, it was obvious practicality and survivalist instincts ruled the Amazon world.
Part of her agreed with Bretina and the other two wholeheartedly. It demanded blood be spilled. No one kept an Amazon against her will and got away with it. No one, not even the man her whole body longed to be with again. He would pay. Maybe not in blood, but he would pay, her soul decreed.
But who deserved of death, or at the very least, a severe spanking? Her immediate thought was Bianca and Council. She hadn’t put up much of a fight to get away from them. The true culprit behind her incarceration was Ruby, but the catalyst for her being there was Lucian. There was no way she’d condone his death.
The other councilors, even though they worked in concert with Bianca, hadn’t seemed to be doing anything more than what they thought was at the best interest of the people they served. They weren’t an option.
“Hey, Chief? You mind getting your butt in gear?” Izzy’s loud whisper sounded in Ruby’s ear, making her jump.
Looking around, Ruby saw Bretina had disappeared and the other two were waiting for her to follow. “Sorry,” she whispered with a hot blush and hurried after her grandmother.
Ruby could sense Izzy’s shrug behind her before she heard her speak. “S’okay. There’s a lot to think about. I mean, not just who you’re going to kill, but how.”
“Yeah, you could challenge them to a duel, but that might suck if they’re a magic user. Are they a magic user?” Rosetta said from the rear.
Ruby shrugged, not wanting to clue them in on whom she’d chosen.
“But she could always commission an amulet of protection if they’re a magic user,” Izzy said as though such things were common.
“No, that wouldn’t work. Remember when Morganna tried to fight that mage? She had one of those amulets on, but the sneaky witch she bought it from actually cursed it.”
“Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. She ended up bald ʼcause she didn’t duck that fireball he launched. No, an amulet won’t work,” Izzy commiserated sadly.
“She’ll just have to ambush them. She’s got the skills. She just needs to be quick enough to snap the magic user’s little neck before they can get a spell off.”
“Yeah, that’s the best thing to do, but what if it isn’t a magic user? Or gods forbid, what if it’s an incubus!” Izzy whispered with a mixture of awe, disgust, and lust.
The combination was enough to make Ruby glance back at the young Amazon who was standing stock still in the passageway. “An incubus?” Ruby asked curiously. She’d read a little about them, but they seemed so exotic she thought they existed on another plain.
“Oh, yes,” Izzy and Rosetta breathed together.
Rosetta was the first to snap out of it, shoving Izzy along. “Get your panties out of the gutter, Izzy,” she scolded. To Ruby, she said, “Izzy has this thing about incubi. She met one a few years ago, and he made quite an impression.”
Looking at Rosetta’s bemu
sed face, Ruby was certain Izzy wasn’t the only one who’d been fascinated by the incubus. “What was his name?” she asked and quickened her pace. She could almost smell freedom.
Bretina was further ahead scouting the passageway, though she made sure Ruby wasn’t far behind before darting forward again.
“Fallon,” Izzy whispered so softly Ruby almost didn’t hear her. “His name was Fallon and…oh my god!”
Ruby spun around, immediately falling into a defensive posture. A man had appeared in the passageway with them, his large body blocking Izzy from view. In the shadows of the passage, he seemed massive and harsh, but when Bretina jogged back with a torch, Ruby caught her breath.
He was magnificent. Hair so blond it appeared white was arranged in attractive disarray around a square face with bold eyebrows, a strong Roman nose, full, inviting lips, and nearly silver eyes. With deeply tanned skin, his body reminded Ruby of a swimmer with its wide shoulders and trim waist, all tucked into a faded T-shirt that looked so soft, Ruby wanted to touch it. His long legs and drool-worthy backside were encased in jeans that looked just as soft, and Ruby couldn’t help but notice the worn parts were on his backside and right over his groin.
Comparing him to Lucian wasn’t right because they were so completely different, but Ruby wondered if her reaction to him would’ve been different if she’d met him first. Her body recognized he was a prime male, but her mind and soul were completely unattached, unlike Izzy and Rosetta.
“Damn,” Bretina breathed next to her, her whispered curse drawing the man’s attention.
Those silver eyes flicked over all the women until finally resting on Ruby with recognition. “You’re the Chieftain,” he said softly, his voice deep and soothing with a deep Cajun accent.
Bretina, Izzy, and Rosetta all shuddered at the sound, and though Ruby understood the appeal, she was immune. “You’re…Fallon?” she hazarded a guess.
He inclined his head, his hair brushing the ceiling. He glanced at the other women. “You’re mated, Chieftain,” he said approvingly. He smiled and Ruby’s heart stuttered a bit proving she wasn’t completely immune to his innate charms. “You must warn la petite fille not to say my name out loud if she doesn’t wish to be visited.”
Ruby nodded solemnly, watching as he pressed a gentle kiss to Izzy’s forehead. He was very tender with the young woman, whispering something against her skin. Ruby squinted, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Small motes of light seemed to fly from Izzy’s skin into Fallon. They danced over his face for several minutes before being absorbed into his body. He repeated the procedure with Bretina and Rosetta. He showed no discomfort over a man dressed like a woman, so Ruby figured this was nothing new for him.
When all three women were attended to in this manner, they blinked their eyes and seemed to return to themselves, though their faces still held lust and awe. Fallon bowed low, shooting a wink at Ruby before he disappeared again.
“Oy,” Izzy said in a soft exhale. “That man…” She shivered.
Rosetta slapped her on the back of the head. “I can’t believe you!” she ranted when Izzy turned around in outrage. “You invited an incubus in the middle of a rescue operation!”
Bretina stepped up, her hand chopping down between them. “Quiet. We need to get Ruby out of here, now.”
Izzy bowed her head in embarrassment, but she looked up as they began moving again. This time, Ruby stuck close to Bretina. She wanted out of the mansion. There were so many things to think on.
“You weren’t affected by the incubus,” her grandmother said quietly.
“No,” Ruby replied, just as softly. Something told her this probably wasn’t a good thing.
“You’re mated to that vampire, the one who caught you in the swamp,” Bretina said, her voice proving she knew her words were true, but hoping they weren’t.
Ruby bit her lip and looked away from her grandmother’s searching eyes. “It doesn’t matter, Ma-maw,” she answered, automatically slipping into the speech of her childhood. “I have to kill his intended bride and, somehow, I don’t think that’ll make for a happy ending.”
She saw the surprise in Bretina’s eyes but wouldn’t give her anymore information. Ruby kept quiet and just followed the path that wound behind the keep walls. Freedom, when it came, wasn’t where she expected it to be.
They emerged in a closet filled with weapons. Bretina explained she had known about this secret because of a raid she’d participated in a hundred years before. The Council hadn’t owned the property then. It had just belonged to a single councilor and when he went rogue, the Amazons were hired to help the Guardian Elite.
The closet was off of a small hallway Bretina told her had once led to a private terrace, which is where they crept, their tall bodies hugged tight to the walls. The seemingly short hallway took an eternity to traverse. Ruby only had eyes for the door leading out, leading to freedom, and it took forever to reach it.
Once outside, they ducked low to the ground, four dark shadows slipping across an immense lawn with too few bushes and trees to use for shelter. There was no time for speaking, no time for looking back. They were close to being discovered, and Ruby knew if she was stopped, Bianca would carry through her threat there on the lawn rather than in the privacy of her cell.
What seemed like hours later, they slipped into thick trees that lined the northern side of the property. A fence had been concealed in the dense foliage, but it was quickly and easily scaled, then they were off. Adrenaline spiking through their veins, they sped through the woods in absolute silence, their feet seeming to never touch the ground. Even Rosetta, her body heavier than the others, managed to be silent as they ran northwest.
Bretina finally stopped, her eyes searching out the undergrowth before she began clearing branches from a vehicle they had hidden. Ruby helped them move thick limbs, uncovering a large black SUV. Without further ado, Izzy hopped behind the wheel with Rosetta calling shotgun and Ruby and Bretina piling in the backseat. The minute the vehicle started, the silence they’d been operating under was instantly shattered by Missy Elliot encouraging men to “Work It.” The music was loud, it was throbbing, and Ruby closed her eyes, losing herself in the beat.
Spewing dirt and leaving an ugly rut in the forest floor, Izzy floored the SUV, their escape complete with dramatic fishtailing until Rosetta slapped the back of her head again.
Chapter Twenty-Four
When Lucian left Malachi in one piece, he thought that was enough of a repayment for all the hell his childhood friend had put him through. It did not entitle his newly found half-brother to tag along in the hopes of “teaching that crazy witch a thing or two and maybe stealing a kiss from the Chieftain.” The last bit had encouraged Lucian to wrap his hands around Malachi’s neck and squeeze.
It had been a good wrestle. Malachi wasn’t as big as Lucian was, but he was wily, and it wasn’t long before they were pounding each other with fists, both of them grinning maniacally. The noise drew the attention of one of Malachi’s demons, who’d stood in absolute shock for several minutes before he ran from the room shrieking.
The hilarity of the demon’s reaction depleted Lucian of his bloodlust and they had called a halt to their impromptu fight.
“Your lovely mate is in trouble, Luc,” Malachi said, serenely mopping up the blood from his busted nose. “What’re you going to do?”
Lucian ran a hand over his aching jaw and thought about it. “I think she’s safe enough at the council house with all of the GE’s there. Bianca wouldn’t dare attack or hurt her with the rest of Council there,” he acceded, using the acronym for the Guardian Elite guards. “I don’t want her caught in the crossfire.”
“I can remove her and keep her here,” Malachi began, raising his hands in surrender when Lucian growled. “Hold on a minute, bro. She would be completely safe with me and even though most of my demons here are lower levels, they could provide some protection for her.”
Lucian glared, looking for fla
ws in the plan. He didn’t like the idea of his mate with his lothario-wannabe half-brother, but leaving her where Bianca could get to her wasn’t really an option either. Lucian didn’t think Bianca would harm Ruby, no matter Malachi’s assessment. He’d known Bianca for so long it didn’t seem possible for her to be so completely different from how she’d presented herself. He was almost convinced Bianca would surrender when she was confronted with the allegations, but even his firm belief wasn’t enough to ease his fears for his mate.
“Okay, but swear to me you won’t try to seduce her, Malachi, or so help me, I’ll string you up by your balls.”
Malachi shuddered dramatically. “You always were bloodthirsty, man. Such lovely imagery. Have you ever thought of writing? I’ve heard there’s a shortage in children’s books. I can just see it now, See Johnny Castrated by Lucian Ravenswaay.”
Lucian couldn’t help but chuckle at the image, but he still kicked Malachi in the leg to remind him of his promise.
“Fine, fine. I won’t seduce our lovely new Chieftain without her permission.” Another swift kick had him amending. “Okay! I won’t seduce her at all. Now stop kicking me, dammit.”
Ignoring Malachi’s grumbles, Lucian made his way to his feet and offered his brother a hand up. “I’m sorry our mother was so cold to you, Malachi. I had no idea about your circumstances.”
Malachi shrugged, clearly uncomfortable with Lucian’s apology. “Eh, what doesn’t kill you and all that shit. Besides, if you had known I was your older brother, you probably would’ve worshipped the ground I walked on,” Malachi said, pausing significantly. “Do you want to start now?”
Lucian punched his shoulder, laughing loudly. “I would’ve been more inclined to kick your ass. Bernard would’ve worshipped the ground you walked on.”
Malachi nodded with a soft smile. “Bernard was a good kid. I was sorry about what happened, but I couldn’t return…well, after everything that happened.” A grimace crossed his face, making Lucian wonder what it might’ve been like to have Malachi’s support during Bernard’s passing. “I’d already begun gathering allies for this, and Bianca assured me that you hated my very existence.”