“Of course.” I nodded, watching the two walk away. I kept my eyes on Marica even as I leaned over to murmur into Tasmyn’s ear. “Do you trust her?”
“Hell, no.” She answered without a second’s hesitation. “She’s still bat-shit crazy. But she’s on target about the powers. She’s a talented witch. Quite possibly, her power is second only to yours.”
A flush of embarrassed pleasure suffused my cheeks. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do. I’ve heard about some of the things you’ve accomplished, Nell, and I’ve seen others firsthand. You’re a powerful, talented and intelligent witch.” She shrugged. “I’m in awe.”
“You have just as much power as I do, Tasmyn.” I turned to face her fully, wanting her to feel my words. “But you’re still afraid of it. You wait until anger or passion makes it flow, and then it’s hard to control.” I thought about it for a moment. “And it also gives you an out, doesn’t it? You can blame it on the emotion. You don’t have to take responsibility for whatever might happen.”
She jerked back away from me, as though I’d physically struck her. “No, that’s not . . .” Her voice died, and she bit down on her lip. “Is that what I do?”
Now I felt a tiny bit guilty for calling her out. “I thought you’d been working with the head doctor from King. Isn’t she supposed to be helping you with this kind of stuff?”
“Yes . . . in theory. When I was seeing her regularly, she helped me come to terms with how my parents had discouraged me from using my gifts, and we talked about not seeing my abilities as negative or as something to be hidden. But then my life began to take me in a different direction, away from that part of me, and I stopped seeing her as often. I’ve known all along that my power is still within me, but maybe I’ve been kidding myself these past few years, fooling myself into believing that I’m normal.”
“What we can do doesn’t make us abnormal, Tasmyn. It means that we’re extraordinary. You and I, we’re like two sides of the same coin. We both possess these abilities, but we handle them in ways that are diametrically opposed. I was raised to embrace what I could do. It was the family legacy. You were encouraged to ignore and hide your power.” I smiled a little. “I needed to learn to dial it back and handle my gifts wisely. You need to let go a little.”
“I’m afraid that there’s no such thing as a little. What if I open that door and it doesn’t close again? What if I lose control?” Real panic lay under her voice.
“There’s a way to find that happy medium. Try to . . . have fun.” I leaned closer to her. “Play with it. Sometimes, when I’m out by myself, I move stuff with my mind. Or I play with the fountains down town—change the direction, making the water dance. It doesn’t hurt anyone, and it reminds me that I can do things that are positive, not just to stave off evil.”
“And no one notices?” Tas sounded dubious.
“People see what they expect to see. And I’m not stupid about it. I’m subtle.” I grinned. “Well, subtle for me, anyway.”
Tasmyn touched my arm. “I’ll try it. I really appreciate your advice, Nell. Thank you.” She paused before adding, “Is it just me, or is it completely surreal that we’re here, you and I, having a conversation like old friends? It makes me wonder how things might have been different between us if we’d met under other circumstances.”
I tilted my head. “You mean, maybe if it hadn’t been for Marica, we’d have become friends that first day in chemistry?”
“Maybe.”
“From that very first class when we met, I could tell that she was interested in you—and I’d already realized that she wasn’t paying as much attention to me, even before that. Do you think it was just her interference that made us mortal enemies?”
“I think it’s possible.”
I considered that briefly and then shook my head. “Nope. Sorry, Tas, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve hated you right off the bat anyway. You came in with your happy and intact family, and your perfect life—”
“Hey, my life wasn’t perfect, and neither was I. I didn’t act that way.” She stood with her hands on her hips.
“Maybe not, but at that point, I wouldn’t have been able to see it any other way. Plus, you were such a goody two shoes. I was a bad girl.” I shot her a faux glower.
Tasmyn laughed. “Okay, okay, you were bad, I was good, and we would’ve hated each other no matter what. But we aren’t those girls anymore, and we don’t have to keep being mortal enemies, right?” She lifted one eyebrow.
I shook my head. “I haven’t thought of you that way in a long time. As far as I’m concerned, the past is behind us.” Glancing across the room to where Rafe was huddled with Seamus and Joss, I said, “I want to check in with the time travelers. I’ll catch up with you later.”
As I made my way toward Rafe, he caught my eye and winked. It hit me all over again that this man, this sexy, handsome and gifted guy, belonged to me, and I was his. Not only that, I was actually on my way to becoming friends with the girl I’d tried to kill back in high school.
Who ever said change was impossible?
The Hive
“Mallory.” Ben Ryan descended the wide staircase into the grand foyer of the Pacific Heights mansion. He extended his arms, held her hands, and kissed both of her cheeks in the continental fashion. “So glad you made it.”
“Of course.” The young woman grimaced, glancing around at the shining marble that dominated the entrance hall. Her dull brown hair hung limply around her shoulders. Mallory Jones had always made blending in a point of pride, and she did it well.
But here, in these surroundings, she was uncomfortable. Out of place. She looked up at Ben, frowning.
“Is this really necessary? All this . . . opulence?”
He laughed. “Dear girl, necessary isn’t the point. We’re on the cusp of the biggest hour of our lives, the day that will be the culmination of all the hard work we’ve done. We should be as comfortable as we possibly can be.” He paused and then added, “And once the ritual is complete and the world is ours, this will be a decent place from which to rule, until something better comes along.”
Mallory wrinkled her nose as though she smelled something foul. “I prefer the camps and the forests. It’s more conducive to the work we must do.”
“Speak for yourself.” Alyse Brador Massler stood in the doorway of the sitting room, leaning against the jamb. “I happen to agree with Ben. Why should we rough it when we’re all about to be the saviors—and leaders—of this world?”
“I’m not going to argue with you. There’s no time.” Mallory hefted the duffel bag she carried more firmly onto her shoulder. “Point me to my room so I can stow this, and then we need to have a chat. I have news.”
“Dawson!” Ben called, and a man in a black suit stepped out of the rear hallway. “Take Ms. Jones’ bag to her suite, please. And then see that we aren’t disturbed.”
The butler approached Mallory much as he might’ve walked toward a stray dog. With a sneer of distaste on his mouth, he lifted the bag from her and turned to climb the steps, holding her duffel away from his body as though it might have bugs.
“Come in here.” Alyse stood aside for the others to enter. “Tell us, Mallory. What is it that you know?”
Mallory dropped onto a pristine white loveseat as Ben closed the door. “I know that the damned vessel got away from us and made it to the Carruthers agents. She’s with them as we speak.”
“Fuck.” Ben bit out the word. “We need her. She’s required for the ritual. We’re not going to make the same mistake a second time.”
“I keep telling you, Ben, your translator screwed that up. The vessel is optimum for the blood sacrifice, but she isn’t essential. We can consecrate a new one. It’s the date that was the problem before.” Alyse laughed derisively. “How on earth did you make that error? Fifty years off? Who does that?”
“It was a faulty astrological chart,” he growled. “I’ve told you time and again. It wasn’
t my fault. Plus, back in those days, we didn’t have much material to work with. Donald Parcy and his band of bumbling peace-mongers weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Everything’s different now.”
“So you say.” Mallory rolled her eyes. “I can tell you that I’ve done my part. The drones are in place and ready to go. All of the Nephilim understand the plans. They’re not waiting for any signal this time; they’ll all move on that day.”
“But you didn’t get the vessel, which was also part of your mission.” Ben crossed his arms over his chest. “And even if we can use someone else for the blood sacrifice, you’ve still handed a potentially valuable weapon over to our enemy. We don’t know exactly how the vessel works, but Carruthers may—and that could be disastrous. We don’t know where their agents are, although at least some of them are in the vicinity of San Francisco, as demonstrated by an interesting encounter the other night. Alyse pulled off a coup. She took out their necroloquitar.”
Mallory raised her eyebrows. “Did you, now? Good for you. What about your daughter? I thought you were going to turn her and bring her to our side.” She considered for a moment. “Come to think of it, your daughter might make an excellent sacrifice. She fits the criteria.”
“Hardly. We won’t waste her talents that way.” Alyse shrugged. “No, she didn’t come over yet, but it’s only a matter of time. She’s a Brador at heart. She seeks the power, and the power will seek us.”
“Perhaps. This is twice now that she’s turned you down, isn’t it?” Mallory’s smile was thin.
“Third time’s the charm.” Alysa was unfazed. “Is there any word from the others? We need them here, too, as we begin our final arrangements.”
“As far as I know, both Diego and Liesel plan to be with us well before the big day. I saw Diego on the east coast last month. He’s been busy recruiting others for the cause. He also visited some of the drone camps and, uh, transformed some leaders to make them more effective for us. He’s been quite helpful.” Mallory sniffed and shook her head. “Just what have you been up to, Ben, while the rest of us have been working our asses off?”
“Preparations and plans, my dear.” Ben spoke expansively. “And everything is moving as planned. The loss of the vessel is a blow, but one from which we can recover. I’ll begin looking into replacements. And we can discuss the wisdom of an attack on Carruthers prior to the ritual. It would have been helpful if we’d pinned down their location after the dust-up Alyse had with her daughter and the death broker, but we weren’t able to follow them. I suspect some sort of cloaking spell.”
“If we wait, we won’t need to find them. They’ll have to come out on the day of the ritual, if they have any hope of stopping us.” Alyse laughed again. “As if they could.”
“Being too cocky is never a good idea,” Mallory shot back. “Underestimating a formidable enemy isn’t wise, either. Carruthers may be small and somewhat new to the game, but their agents have managed to destroy one of our camps and circumvent our previous plans to lay the destruction groundwork. They have three very powerful witches working with them now. We need to be cautious about them.”
“Three?” Ben frowned. “I know about Alyse’s daughter and the girl from King, but who’s the third?”
“They brought back the Romanian witch.” Mallory glanced behind her, as though she expected to see Marica Lacusta there. “Linking those three together will make them extremely powerful. More powerful than me.”
Ben blinked. “The crazy one? Why would you worry about her? They won’t be able to control her. I’ve heard stories, and that one’s explosive and unpredictable. We might even be able to use her for our own goals. I imagine she’d be easily brought around.”
“That’s a wonderful idea, Ben. When you figure out where she and the rest of the Carruthers team are holed up, you can waltz right in there and present your case. Good luck.” Mallory had raised sarcasm to a fine art.
“There will come an opportunity. We just have to keep our eyes open.” He looked down at his gleaming silver watch. “Damn. I have an appointment uptown. You ladies relax and catch up. I’ll rejoin you for dinner.”
He stood up and hurried from the room, leaving Mallory and Alyse watching him go, identical expressions of bemusement on their faces.
“What a jackass he can be.” Alyse snorted.
“True. But he’s the only demon we have just now, and until the rest of his family crosses over, we have to play the game by his rules.”
A slow, sardonic smile stretched Alyse’s lips.
“For now. But our time is coming.”
Save Tomorrow
Now I see fire, inside the mountain
I see fire, burning the trees
And I see fire, hollowing souls
And I see fire, blood in the breeze
“Into the Fire” Lyrics by Ed Sheeran
Rafe
“I used to think I was in relatively good shape. You know, I’m young. I work out . . . occasionally. I think I look good. But holy cat balls. I hurt all the fuck over. My bruises have abrasions. And today, I came damn close to manipulating Cillian’s mind to make him think I was winning hand-to-hand combat.” My voice was muffled against the pillow because I’d fallen into bed, naked, after my shower, and now I was pretty sure I couldn’t move again.
“You should have done that. You’re all training to fight using everything you’ve got, not just your para powers, but your physical strength as well. Manipulating Cill would’ve been a good mix of that.” Nell sounded so reasonable and sensible, her voice carrying in it a note of indulgent amusement, that I kind of wanted to flip her off . . . if I could’ve moved any of my fingers.
I settled instead for exhaling long, hoping she understood that it was a sigh of frustration. “Yeah. Maybe. Still felt like it would’ve been cheating.”
“I guess. Your definition of that is much stricter than mine is.” She was sitting up against the pillows, some sort of ancient text in her hand, her hair flowing down over the snow-white skin of her shoulders. She was wearing a nightgown, which was odd, I thought; she usually slept in one of my T-shirts, which dwarfed her small body, or in nothing at all. What she had on now was simple white cotton that looked almost innocent and virginal, but on my woman . . . damn, it was sexy. Unfortunately, doing anything about that would require me moving, and as I’d already determined, that wasn’t going to happen.
I was just about to make a joke along those lines, when Nell spoke again. “Rafe.”
“Hmmmm?” I raised one eyebrow, which was the extent of my expressive abilities at this point. “I’m sorry, beautiful. I don’t think I have it in me to roll over, let alone to do you justice tonight. Maybe if you could get me onto my back . . .”
“That’s not what I was going to say.” She sounded a little tense, a tad keyed-up, and I wondered if she was reading something that made her nervous. On the other hand, she’d been more than a bit on edge since the run-in with her mother on the night Julia had died, and I couldn’t blame her. Still, a long time ago I’d learned that when dealing with Nell Massler, the key was to wait for her to open up to me. Trying to force the issue never worked. I expected that she was finally ready to discuss how she was dealing with the aftermath of that disastrous mission.
“Okay. Well, what is it you were going to say? Didn’t mean to make a joke when you needed to have a serious discussion.”
“Not so much a discussion as a . . . proposition. Or maybe more accurately, a proposal.” Nell rose up on her knees and turned to face me, her eyes never leaving mine. Her teeth sank into her lower lip for a moment, and I saw her throat move as she swallowed. “Rafe, I want to get married. Specifically, I want to marry you. I want to . . . say yes to all those times you’ve proposed to me.”
If she’d told me that she wanted to grow feathers and fly to the sun, I wouldn’t have been as shocked as I was in that moment. I’d been begging Nell to marry me since we’d returned to Harper Creek from our first mission together, th
e one where she’d saved my life and then nursed me back to health in a small isolated cabin in Tennessee. We’d always lived together from that time on, but I wanted more. I wanted that assurance that she was mine forever and that nothing would ever tear us apart. Each time I’d asked, though, Nell had turned me down. She often said that we didn’t need any piece of paper to define what we were to each other. She loved me, of that I was sure. But in her experience, marriage was filled with the struggle for power and marked with pain and anger. Her parents’ union had been disastrous on its best day, as I understood it.
My view was a little more positive. My parents had been happy for as long as my dad was alive, I thought. But after his death, when my mother had fallen apart and ended up married to my jerk of a stepfather, I’d wondered more than once how she could have lived with him after she’d had such a different experience with my father.
Of course, I’d also had the example of my grandparents, who were undoubtedly devoted to each other. They had what I wanted for Nell and me: a marriage of equals, where each partner supported and celebrated the gifts of the other. I’d pointed this out to Nell more than once, but she’d claimed that Gram and Gramps were an anomaly, not the norm.
But now here she sat next to me, her expression a beautiful mingle of earnest desire and uncertain shyness, as if she were afraid that I’d turn her down. As if that was even a possibility.
With the last vestige of my waning strength, I used my screaming arms to push myself up and shift so that I was facing Nell, rising to my knees despite the agony in my muscles. Framing her beautiful face with both of my hands, I kissed her gently and then slid my fingers down her arms to clasp hers.
“Nell Massler, I would marry you every day of the rest of my life. I love you, and being your husband is the biggest dream I’ve ever dared to want. So tell me now that you’ll marry me. Be my wife. Let’s find our happily-ever-after every day for as long as we live.”
She smiled, and her eyes filled up with tears. “Thank you, Rafe. Yes, I want to marry you. And I want to do it tomorrow. I want to be married before you go back in time. In case . . . if anything happens during this next week, I want to know that no matter what, I’m your wife. That we officially belong together. Does that sound insane? Is it crazy?”
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