by Eva Chase
“Why’s that?” I said. “What’s going on?” I had only pleasant memories of Landry, but he’d never called to chat with me before.
“Oh, it’s nothing terribly urgent, I merely— I just arrived in Portland for the week, and I dropped in on your father here. I hadn’t realized you’d fallen out so badly. You’ve banned him from the family estate?”
My hand clenched around the phone. How dare my father bring other people into this conflict when he knew I couldn’t properly accuse him of the things he’d done. “There are good reasons for that,” I said, my voice tight.
“I have trouble imagining you going to those lengths otherwise,” Landry said. “But in case there was any room for reconciliation… I’ve never seen him like this, Rose. He’s a shadow of the man he was. If you can find it in your heart to even attempt to discuss the matter with him…”
“We’ve already discussed it at length,” I said, only barely keeping myself from outright snapping. Landry didn’t have any idea what I’d been through, the way Dad had talked to me during our last real conversation when he’d tried to justify enslaving my magic so I’d be forced into some sort of service with those demons… But right then I hated my former teacher for making me remember it, for buying into Dad’s wounded act. “I don’t want to talk about it with anyone anymore.”
“All right, all right. Just a concerned friend of the family, you know.”
“I know. I was actually in the middle of something. We’d better leave it at that.”
“Well, all right,” Landry said, and then I was hanging up.
I sagged against the wall beside the phone table and let out my breath. My stomach was twice as knotted as it’d been before.
Even if I’d wanted to follow the spirit of the oath as well as the letter, to live and let live and not care what happened beyond the walls of the estate, the Frankfords and my father and the rest of them clearly had no intention of letting me have that peace.
Chapter Five
Damon
“I didn’t like the idea of Kyler getting within ten miles of the place, and he’s already out there,” Rose said, sweeping a strand of her smooth black hair away from her face as she paced the room that had once been her father’s office. The bunch of us had taken over the place while we hacked away at the prize we’d stolen—not that the contents of that hard drive had given us much prize-worthy stuff so far. “The last thing I want is you putting yourself anywhere near Frankford territory too.”
As if going out there would be even half as much danger as she’d already put herself in to protect the rest of us. I couldn’t say I was unhappy to still be breathing after she’d given in to the Frankford’s threats and traded that awful oath for my and Kyler’s lives, but there were a lot of nights when I couldn’t sleep because my brain was too busy running scenarios where I somehow managed to break free and save the day myself.
This plan wasn’t quite that epic, but it was something I could contribute that the other guys couldn’t.
“It wouldn’t be me putting myself out there, though,” I said. “That’s the point. I’ve been working with guys from this one gang for years. I know how to work them. I can get them to scope out the property for us, no sweat. And there’s no reason the Frankfords would think those guys have anything to do with you.”
“You don’t think they could trace the gang guys back to you?” Rose asked. She propped herself against the edge of the desk, looking weary.
The sight of her, under strain all over again, jabbed me right in the heart. I stepped closer to her, cupping her face and leaning close. “Even if they do, which I don’t think is very likely, so what? There’s nothing in the oath about just looking at the place. I’ll tell them hands off.” I ran my thumb lightly over her cheek. “Let me do this for you, angel.”
“I don’t like getting more people involved in this mess,” she said, but she leaned into my touch.
“They won’t get that involved. I know to keep them at arm’s length. Hell, I can’t tell them anything they’re not supposed to know, right? After what that girl told you, it sounds like we need to pull out all the stops. Get this done, take those bastards down, now.”
“Yeah.” She sighed and tipped her head toward me. I met her kiss, soaking in the gentle heat of her mouth. I still didn’t know what I’d done so right to have a woman like her in my life, but now that I did, anyone who wanted to hurt her would have to go through me first.
“All right,” Rose said when she’d eased back. “Keep it vague, and tell them whatever you need to say to make sure they don’t get too close and raise any alarms with the Frankfords. The less they know about what we’re doing, the better.”
I saluted her. “Message received.”
It wasn’t hard to arrange a quick meet-up with my contact in Silvio’s bunch, even though I hadn’t been going out for the usual merchandise-sorting stints I’d used to schedule my weeks around, back when I’d been eager to make good with the big boss. I had larger priorities now. But I’d put in a lot of time over the years, and say what you want about small-time criminals, this group at least respected that kind of loyalty.
Markus and I were squeezed into a little booth in a bar that Silvio’s people liked at the edge of the town. Silvio was friends with the owner or something. The place always smelled a little sour and I didn’t love the metal music they liked to play, but the screeching guitars and the loud voices of the usual clientele covered up any criminally inclined conversations.
I downed the last of my beer and bent over the table toward the other guy.
“The property doesn’t look like much,” I said. “But you’ll be able to tell they’re storing something big there from all the security around the place. They’re trying to keep it under the radar by not building up the house or anything too fancy.”
“But you know what they’ve got stashed there?” Markus said.
“I do,” I said. “Got a tip, figured Silvio would appreciate being in on it. I can’t pull it off by myself anyway. But I want in. There are a couple things I know that you’ll need to pull off the score.”
“Sure, sure.” Markus waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea that they wouldn’t include me. His eyes had gone round in his broad face. “Absolutely Silvio is going to be glad you passed this on. But he’s going to want more details before we actually go in.”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll lay the whole thing out once we’re good to go. I’ll know what timing we’ll want to aim for when I hear back about their current set-up. Just make sure you don’t catch their notice, like I said. We let them know we’re interested, and they might move that stash before we get our chance.”
“Not a problem. I’ll be in touch when we’ve had a chance to scope out the place. Keep an open line.” Markus clasped my hand with a brisk shake and a grin. Oh, yeah, I had him eating out of my hand with this story. Maybe we’d even be able to use Silvio’s bunch to help us break back onto the Frankford’s property with their special cliff.
The memory of that demonic face peering through the glowing portal in the cave made my stomach twist. I was not looking forward to facing that thing again. The first time had been enough to curdle all my insides. Whatever exactly that monster was, it didn’t belong on this plane of existence. The horror that had run through every inch of my body had convinced me of that in an instant.
The sooner we shut down the Frankfords’ associates and got the honest people from the Assembly on the case sealing up that hole, the happier I’d be.
A couple minutes after Markus had taken off, I headed out of the bar too. The evening air outside was hot, but not as stuffy as back there with all those half-drunk bodies crammed together. Maybe being around Rose was giving me a bit of a taste for the finer side of life.
I could swing by my mother’s place with just a little detour on the way back to my crappy basement apartment. Give her an update on the job I was getting more committed to now. The apprenticeship Seth had set me
up with, courtesy of an electrician who sometimes worked with his dad’s reno business, was going better than I’d let myself hope. My new boss was a lot more boring than Silvio, but I also never had to worry he’d point a gun at my head. Boring had its upsides.
Besides, who wouldn’t want to figure out how to get an entire building’s power under your control? It was work that paid well… and that might come in handy somewhere down the line if our current plans to mess with the Frankfords didn’t work out.
Mom hadn’t been able to hide how overjoyed she’d been when I’d told her about the gig. She’d never made any comments about the other ways I’d earned money over the years, but I couldn’t think of many mothers who’d have outright approved of the habits I’d fallen into.
I’d helped keep her afloat after Rose’s dad had kicked her to the curb without severance or even a reference. Made sure her apartment was at least a little less crappy than mine. Until Rose had come back to town, my mother had been the only person in this world I’d still given a damn about.
Going up the steps to her second-floor apartment, hearing the creak of the sagging wood, made me more depressed than usual. It was still a crappy place. Once I settled into this new job and we got rid of the witching threat hanging over us, maybe I could help her out more than I had before. Kick some extra cash toward a down payment on a nicer place. See if I could pull some strings to find her a better job than the one she had cleaning houses for that harassing jerk of a boss.
She was pretty much always home in the evenings. I rapped my knuckles against the door. “Mom? It’s me.”
It took longer than I expected before I heard the shuffle of her feet on the other side. Mom eased the door open. Her eyes had gotten a little sunken over the years, her dark brown hair strung with gray, but normally she brightened when she saw me. Today she gave me a look that was almost dour.
She stepped back to let me in, and I came inside with a frown. “Is everything okay? That asshole didn’t try anything on you again, did he?”
“What?” she said, with honest surprise. “No. No, I just didn’t expect to see you coming around here.”
I stopped by the kitchen doorway, resting my hand on the counter. Her dinner dishes were already in the sink, rinsed, so I hadn’t interrupted her meal. “Why wouldn’t you expect me? I’ve been dropping in all the time since I stopped living with you. I mean, if you want me to start calling first, I can do that, you just always said—”
“No,” she said. “I mean I thought you were too busy with that slut of yours.”
My head snapped around. For a second I could only stare at her. I didn’t think I’d ever heard my mother use that word, and I’d hung out with women in the past who openly embraced the label.
“Excuse me?” I said, my tongue stumbling.
“The Hallowell girl,” Mom said, her dark eyes narrowing. “I know you’ve been seeing her. Everyone knows. And not just you. All sorts of young men she’s luring into her home, isn’t she? After what her family did to me… And now she’s stealing you too, at least until she decides to spit you back out.”
I groped for more words. “Mom—why are you talking like this?”
“Because I can’t stand to see you turn into some kind of… of degenerate. You deserve better, Damon. You deserve to be better. I can hardly stand to look at you, knowing you’ve gone along with whatever whorish scheme she’s caught you up in.” She drew in a breath that sounded like a sob.
“Mom.” Emotions wrenched through me, tearing me between fury that she’d talk that way about the love of my life and horror that I’d somehow disappointed and disgusted her so much. I grasped her shoulder. “It’s not like that. I swear—”
Mom wrenched away from me and backed up to the table. “Don’t touch me. Not with those hands that’ve been all over that whore. There’s always been something wrong about that family. I should have known. I should have said something from the start.”
“There’s nothing to say,” I said firmly, barely keeping my anger in check. “You can’t talk about Rose that way. You have no idea— She’s the kindest, strongest woman I know, Mom. There are no schemes. I care about her. I go out to see her. Anything else that happens is none of your business anyway.”
“Of course you’d say that,” she mumbled. “Of course. Get out. I don’t want to see you, not when I know you’re probably going running back to her the moment you leave.”
“Mom.”
“Go!” She pointed toward the door, her shoulders shaking.
God help me, what the hell was I supposed to do? I wavered and then went, catching the door a second before I slammed it. My pulse thumped through my veins like the steps rattling under my feet on the way down. I marched off toward my apartment, but that beat didn’t settle. Queasiness pooled in my gut.
What the fuck had gotten into my mom? What had she heard to make her turn on Rose like that? How could she talk like that to me?
I sure as hell wasn’t going to Rose with all this rage rushing through me. No, I’d prefer she saw as little as possible of this side of me.
And when I found out who was spreading this poison about her, I was looking forward to smashing their head in.
Chapter Six
Rose
“Wow,” Jin said as he stepped into the magicking room. His feet whispered over the polished hardwood floor. A glow from the skylight overhead streamed over us, and a whiff of the tangy incense used in one of my most recent magickings hung in the air. “This place definitely has atmosphere.”
“I thought you’d appreciate that,” I said with a smile.
“So, this is where the magic happens?” He turned, taking in the whole space. The room was empty other than the supply cabinet at the far end. “Literally?”
“Well, you know I can cast spells pretty much anywhere,” I said. “But this room is the ideal environment. The walls are insulated so no outside sounds can distract me—and so anything I say won’t carry out where the unsparked staff can hear. The colors are all neutral so I can focus on my internal purpose. And the floor is built for ease of movement while I’m moving through the forms. There’s a smaller private one that’s technically mine now as head of the family, but this is where I did most of my practicing growing up. I thought it’d be better to have the extra space.”
“All those blank walls make me want to get painting,” Jin said with a wink. “But I can see why you’d prefer them like this. I’m never going to be able to do any magicking, though, right? It’s only ever the women, even in your witching families.”
I nodded. “But there are joint forms for couples—they’re supposed to help open the mind and emotions, to encourage an even deeper trust, so that the energy we create between us is even stronger. I figured… The Frankfords and their faction are so powerful. We know they’ve been using those demons to give them even more power.” Though the files weren’t completely clear on how the effects worked.
“So, the stronger your magic is, the better,” Jin said. “Makes sense. How has it gone with the other guys?”
He asked the question so nonchalantly, taking it for granted that I’d tried this with at least a couple of my other consorts before him, that my heart pinched. Had I acted as if I relied on the others more than him?
“It hasn’t,” I said. “This is my first try. It seemed like you’d probably pick up the movements faster than anyone else—I saw how you danced at my little birthday celebration.”
He turned to me with that slow flirty smile that always made my insides melt. “It’s an honor to be the first, then, Briar Rose. Shall we dance?”
Suddenly I felt awkward. “I’ve never actually done this with anyone before. I mean, they’re adapted from the single-person forms, and I read everything I could find on the dual forms in the library, but it’s not quite the same…”
Jin took my hand and squeezed it. “We’ll figure it out. Gotta start somewhere. How do we begin?”
My heart settled a little. Of cou
rse this would be okay. Jin didn’t care if I looked a little silly. “The first form is the simplest. What do you say we go through it slowly and then chain it all together in a smoother flow once we have the hang of it?”
“Ready when you are.”
The room might have been designed to minimize distractions, but there wasn’t much that could have been more distracting than moving Jin through this sort-of dance. My fingers skimmed up and down his forearms as I showed him how to place his arms: around my waist now, across my shoulders next, his hand on my side, my hip, the small of my back. I leaned into him and then tugged him into me, supporting each other’s weight in a symbolic way, and a totally non-symbolic heat kindled between us.
Jin’s lips grazed the side of my neck as he bowed his head next to mine at the end of the form. I curled my fingers into my palms, fighting the urge to grab his jaw and pull those lips right to mine.
“You’re picking it up fast,” I said, knowing I sounded breathless. “Just like I figured.”
“You know me well,” Jin said with that same flirty smile. “I think I’ve got the shape of it down. Should we try speeding things up?”
“Let’s,” I said. An eager flush tickled over my skin.
We slipped around each other, bending and swaying and spinning together, like an expanded version of the forms I used on my own. After the first few movements, as those movements flowed together seamlessly now, I almost felt as if I had two sets of limbs, two torsos, moving in perfect symmetry. Jin and I hadn’t done anything really intimate yet, but the spark of my magic flickered up in my chest, quivering eagerly. Each time our bodies connected, the warmth between us grew a little more.
“I can feel it,” Jin murmured. “That’s… That’s amazing. Like we really are linked together with this sort of harmony…”