by Dianna Love
Reese had been a shaky young woman back then. She’d asked for protection.
And that’s exactly what Yáahl had given her. No more.
He hadn’t lifted a finger to save her child, who’d died before he ever drew a breath.
Yáahl claimed he did not have the right to choose a person’s destiny.
To this day, she did not accept that excuse.
She barely remembered those months after the birth when she’d thrashed around, blaming the raven god and everyone else she could think of for losing her baby.
Finally she had to grow up and accept that the fault was all hers.
Her mother had warned Reese about her demonic paternal genetics.
At nineteen, Reese had been foolish, in love and with stars in her eyes.
Until she wasn’t, when the man she loved had offered to pay to deal with it. As though the person growing inside her was not his child, but an it.
She’d never met her own father.
Correction—the man whose blood she carried, since that’s all he was to her. But that blood acted as a magnet for demons and cursed her children to die upon birth.
Those two men had taught her all she needed to know about love. It didn’t exist. Since then, she’d decided to live in the moment. To take what she could from life.
Shutting her eyes, she gave in to the grief tightening her chest. Fighting it never helped. The pain would hit her at the most unexpected times. When it did, she opened her heart to allow it space, because the memory of her baby lived there.
The agony washed over her until slowly, it eased until she could think again.
Blinking, she wiped the hint of dampness off her cheeks, took a deep breath and forced her mind back to unanswered questions.
How long had Yáahl been toying with her?
It sounded as if Kizira had gone to him with her child once Phoedra was born, unlike Reese who had shown up pregnant and asking for sanctuary.
Why would someone as powerful as Kizira need anyone’s help when she’d been next in line behind the Medb queen?
At least, that had been the case according to the darknet.
Reese snorted with a sarcastic chuckle, because everyone knew if something was on the internet it had to be true, right?
If only the internet had all the answers, like why Kizira had hidden her child.
Had she feared the Medb would figure out her child was part Belador?
That made the most sense.
Yáahl had to have known where Phoedra was during her entire life, which meant he also knew that Reese had moved in next door to Phoedra and Donella.
He’d probably orchestrated that.
What about Donella? Who was she in all of this or ... what type of being was she?
“Have you solved the problems of the universe yet?” Quinn asked, causing her to jump. “My apologies. Did I startle you? Or is that reaction the sign of a guilty mind?”
“It’s the sign you’re annoying me when I’m deep in thought,” she snapped, but there was no heat to her words.
She leaned back and dropped a blank mask over her face to hide just how close Quinn had come with his question.
When she took him in from bottom to top, she forgave him for catching her off guard.
Her gaze climbed up his snug jeans and deep green pullover, pausing to appreciate the muscles shaping all that. Water drops clung to a few tips of his still-damp blond hair. He couldn’t have done more than rinse the dirt out in the sink, but he managed to look refreshed and clean.
She drew in a breath and teased her senses with a scent her body apparently remembered from six weeks ago. She’d been chest-to-back against him in a tree with demons coming at them from all sides.
She silently shook her head at how easily he distracted her. That scent was starting to cook her brain now. Add that to the muscles playing beneath his pullover every time he moved and she lost a few more chips of gray matter. She crossed her arms in case her nipples decided to give away just how much she enjoyed the scenery.
Her body showed little regard for her sanity any time Quinn was close. She’d have to be on top of her game to stay out of trouble around him, because he would be the kind of trouble that could get her in over her head.
Quinn swung around, providing an optimum view of his backside before he sat down. Of course, that butt ranked ridiculously high on her sexy-man derriere scale.
When he dropped down beside her, he swung an arm along the top of the sofa behind her head.
Every cell in her body took notice.
The nerves along the side of her body closest to him paid even more attention due to the heat rolling off of him.
“Reese?”
“Hmm?”
“Stop looking at me that way unless you want to end up horizontal on this couch.”
Her eyes flew wide open. She looked up to see that, yes, she’d been busted for ogling.
If there was a penalty, she hoped it involved getting naked.
Too far, imagination, way too far.
Shifting around to sit more upright, she realized what he’d said and backed up mentally.
Did that mean Quinn wanted to get horizontal with her?
And how was this helping her rein in her overactive sex drive, which had clawed its way back to life after meeting him in Atlanta?
His gaze hadn’t moved from hers.
She searched for something to say. “What time is it?”
He gave her a look that said he knew where her mind had been and it had nothing to do with time. But he said, “Around midnight. We’ll arrive at two in the morning local time. I’ve been thinking about New Orleans.”
She thanked the stars that he had something to talk about that would shake her mind loose from visuals of naked Quinn with naked Reese.
She tried not to sound breathless when she said, “What about New Orleans?”
“I did some research while you were cleaning up. One of my resources confirmed the name of the person to help us there.”
“Really?” She sat up, looking him straight in the eyes. “You know him? Who?”
“I know of him. He’s called the Keith. He’s a major kingpin in the preternatural world in NOLA. His family was among the first French to settle in Louisiana, but their ancestors go back to the fourteenth century in Europe. It’s the family of Inchkeith wizards.”
“Never heard of them.”
“They’re not all wizards, but the majority of the males carry that power and are trained to wield it.”
“What kind of name is Inchkeith?”
“It’s not their actual name. It has to do with the Island of Inchkeith, which is in a firth in Scotland.”
“What’s a firth?”
“A narrow sea inlet. There’s an interesting history involved. Back during the Scottish Wars of Independence it was used as a strategic military location as well as a place to quarantine those with disease. King James IV was known for his strange experimentations and for working with an alchemist, and his men either revered or feared him.”
Reese shook her head. “How is that related?”
“Listen and you’ll find out.”
Her glare affected him not one bit. He went on. “One of the king’s most loyal generals had a son whose mother did not survive childbirth. This son caught syphilis while in the military and was sent to the island to be put under quarantine until he healed.”
Reese snorted. “How’d that work out for him?”
Quinn gave her a droll glance.
She pantomimed zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key.
“As if,” he muttered, then shifted, moving closer to her side.
Moving away would interrupt his story again.
That would be rude.
She didn’t want to be rude, right? Made sense to her.
He said, “Anyhow, this next part is known only among our kind. The general knew his son would not survive, because doctors then had no way to cure that disease. Bein
g one of the king’s more open-minded followers, this general was willing to try less-traditional methods. He searched everywhere for a witch who could help him, and found one in France where rumors indicated that she was part Fae and part witch. He offered her anything to save his only child.”
“Bad move.” Reese slapped a hand over her mouth, but Quinn’s smile quirked, then he shook his head and continued.
“The witch said she’d try, and if she succeeded that she wanted a child by the general.”
“See?” Reese said. “That’s why you don’t make a deal with a witch.”
“Hush. The general had no intention of impregnating the witch, but he agreed and took her to the island. He put her and his son in a private space. She spent ten days working her majik, which the general later said was horrifying. At the end of it, she declared his son healed and stronger than his father would ever be. When the general took his son and the witch back to the mainland, he told her he’d pay any amount she wished, but he did not want to have more children.”
Reese lifted her eyebrows to say what else?
Quinn finally smiled at her, full-on, and the world became a happy place. He said, “The son left the military without notice, tarnishing the general’s reputation, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The general soon discovered the witch had transferred syphilis from his son to him. It had to be the witch, and she’d used majik to do it, according to his diary, because he hadn’t been with a woman in almost a year. As the story goes, the witch had drawn power from the island, which she used to save the son—”
“That’s the reason for the Inchkeith name,” Reese interrupted. He rolled his eyes and she said, “Oh, sorry, Mr. Grimm, please finish your fairy tale.”
“Anyway, then she charmed the general’s son into following her home to France where he gave her many gifted children.”
“Can I talk now?”
“Would it matter if I said no?”
“Not a bit.” She laughed. “So this NOLA wizard has Fae blood?”
“Possibly. If he does, he won’t admit it to us.”
“But he will help us, right?”
For the first time since driving to the Tulsa airport and lifting off, Quinn’s confidence seemed to slip. “That will depend upon whether I can convince him to agree to see us. It’s a little complicated getting in to meet with the Keith.”
Chapter 20
Bloody hell. Quinn frowned as he peered out the cabin window as the Learjet parked after landing at New Orleans Lakefront Airport. This put them closer to downtown than if they’d flown into the major international hub.
Rain pounded the exterior from a nonstop downpour. A weather front was moving across New Orleans, which could take only so much water at any given time since the city was actually below sea level.
Quinn lifted a rain poncho he’d retrieved from the flight attendant and offered Reese a hand to stand. “Go time.”
“I’m ready.” She popped up from the sofa, eyes alert. Everything about her said she was on edge, but obviously, nothing would hold her back.
“We’ll likely be drenched even with umbrellas.” Lifting the clear poncho above her head, he straightened it until the plastic covered enough to satisfy him. This was a change.
He’d spent most of the flight thinking about pulling clothes off of Reese. If she knew that, she’d probably unleash her demon energy on him.
She stepped away. “Thank you. You’ll make Phoedra a great dad.”
Considering how he’d failed her so far, he shouldn’t welcome that vote of confidence, but he did. “I owe it to Kizira to do my best.”
Reese’s face fell for a second, then she gave him an empty smile. “Yes, you do.” Then she got busy gathering up the magazine she’d been reading and returning it to the end table.
What had he said to draw that odd reaction?
He’d spent too much time watching Reese, and not enough of that time looking closely. But the woman could sigh and pull his attention away from everything except her bright blue eyes and sweet mouth.
She’d entered the bathroom a roughed-up ragamuffin and stepped out looking too perfect for what she’d been through. Every time she turned her head, the light would catch on red highlights in her brown hair as it flared in soft waves around her face. It was damn distracting.
Now his gaze traced over the perfect shape of her mouth. He itched to run his fingers along those soft cheeks and that lovely figure, clearly evident even in a blouse and jeans that were a bit too large.
Quinn pinched the bridge of his nose. If he kept taking stock of her natural assets, and there were plenty, his own jeans wouldn’t fit.
As it was, he’d have to stand here a minute or he’d give away the direction of his thoughts the second her gaze landed on his straining zipper.
Reese had intrigued him from their first meeting, but once she left, he’d never expected to see her again. Quinn rarely found himself caught unprepared, but this intense attraction had thrown him off his game.
The fact remained, he’d been caught up in his own issues, and failed to really listen to her or to look beyond the surface.
Unacceptable.
“What’s wrong, Quinn?”
“Nothing.” Lie. Nothing other than me standing here lusting after you like a sailor on his first shore leave.
He had no business thinking of Reese that way.
If he were being honest, he’d tell Reese how much he’d missed her once she vanished in Atlanta, but he still didn’t even know who she really was. He’d been angry when she’d looked at him with disappointment and pointed out that Phoedra had never met him, but what else was she to think at that moment?
Reese could have brushed him off and still blamed him for being a deadbeat dog, getting Kizira pregnant, then failing to accept his part in Phoedra’s birth, but Reese had accepted his explanation. She’d believed what he said.
That trust meant something to him.
And she thought he should be with Phoedra even though Kizira had hidden his child from him.
That kind of support made him feel like he could be the father Phoedra deserved.
And someone Reese would not run from again.
Still, now that he’d started paying more attention, he’d caught disappointment hovering in Reese’s face.
He would get to the bottom of that soon.
Rain that had been battering the fuselage settled down to a steady shower by the time they were close to deplaning. Quinn had requested a car to be waiting with their packed luggage in the trunk. He spotted a black limo on the tarmac with lights on and wipers flipping back and forth. Nice to see something would go right.
When he looked around for Reese, she had moved to an open spot in the cabin. He watched as she did a couple of quick stretches, punches and calf kicks. Was she practicing a form of personal defense?
He’d like to stand here for hours enjoying that view of her backside, but they needed to head out. “What are you doing?”
Jumping around and landing in a stance with her hands up, she replied, “Making sure I can move in this outfit.”
“You’re not fighting anyone.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do at this moment. We’re only going to a hotel.”
She stood all the way up. “What happened to seeing the ...” She looked past him at the cockpit area and finished, “The you-know-who person we’re here to see.”
“I told you I have to arrange a meeting first and I can’t do that until I’m in his hotel.”
“Can’t you just tell him what’s at stake and get in to see him right away?”
“If I could, I would be taking a helicopter instead of ground transportation.” With a casual glance at the flight attendant, he suggested, “Let’s continue this conversation in the car.”
She nodded and let it go until their flight attendant had produced a huge umbrella and walked them over to the limo. Once inside and with the privacy window raised, Reese started in. �
��I don’t understand. Why do we have to waste time checking in?”
Quinn would have thrown everything under the sun at the wizard if he believed it would shave even ten minutes of waiting, but he knew better. “He lives here in New Orleans, but on a different realm. He deals with no one unless they are in his hotel first.”
“It’s a portal to his realm?”
“Yes.” Quinn left it at that because explaining more would take too much time. It was a complicated affair, working with the Keith. “If I enter sounding desperate, the Keith might make me wait days instead of hours to meet him. It all depends upon what he feels will place him in the most favorable negotiating position once we meet.”
She pushed her hands into her hair, muttering, “The Keith, the Keith.” Glancing at Quinn she asked, “Is that his only name? The Keith?”
“Yes.”
“Why? That sounds ridiculous.”
“It’s a sign of respect and something that has been passed down from the old clans in Scotland. For example, the laird of the MacDonald clan would be called the Macdonald. See?”
“Good grief. How does New Orleans contain his ego?” Reese must not have wanted a reply, because she then asked, “Why would he be a jerk about just helping you find Phoedra?”
“Because this isn’t his problem and he owes me no favors. If anything, I’ll end up owing him a favor no matter what I pay, and it won’t be one that can be resolved with cash. But first he has to determine if I’m worthy of his aid. I’ve had business dealings in Europe with some of his family, but I’ve never met the Keith in person and I’ve heard stories about how he runs the Louisiana preternatural community.”
“Is he a member of VIPER?”
“No. When the VIPER coalition formed, they spread far and wide, but they had to make allowances for those who were already in place and considered grandfathered in. As long as no conflict arises, VIPER and these isolated independent groups keep the equivalent of a gentleman’s agreement. Basically they don’t bother each other.”
She shoved her elbow on the door support and leaned her head against her hand. “Does anyone have all this hierarchy and political division crap written down somewhere?”