“Such as?”
Oh crap. “I dunno, like proms and football games. First dates. First kisses. Girlfriends. That kind of stuff.”
“You seem to forget I’ve been living on the streets. There are no proms, football games, girlfriends where I’ve been.” Bitterness etched her words, cutting into me too as she glanced at a silent Ling Mai. “This is the first chance I’ve been offered in a pretty crappy life.” She turned back to me, determination steeling each word. “I’m grabbing my chance with both hands, with or without your help. Or your permission.”
“Okay.” I held my hands in front of me. “I deserve that. You’re right and I’m wrong.” At her hesitant smile I added, “But don’t expect to hear me say that again. Got it?”
She jumped forward and wrapped me in a hug. I could see Herc’s grin over her shoulder as I wondered how to protect her without her knowing I was protecting her. I hadn’t done anything so far, except embroil her in a boatload of trouble.
I pulled back, bracing both her shoulders with my hands. “You’ve got to promise me one thing.”
“What?” Wariness slipped back in her voice and in her eyes. If she could just hold on to those hard won lessons she’d already learned, she just might survive.
“Don’t go taking any chances, any risks until you’re fully trained. You got me?”
She gave me a two-handed salute. “Yes, Momma.”
I gave her a one-finger salute in return. “I soooooo am not your momma.”
“Oh, Lord have mercy, who’s claiming you?” Jaylene laughed as she walked through the door.
“Love you too.” I smiled back, aware how the tension eased from my shoulders.
Then Mandy and New Girl walked in.
Well some moments lasted only a few seconds.
Stone was the last person arriving, or so I thought, until one more tap sounded on the door.
I looked at Kelly who shrugged, then her eyes widened as she faced the door and saw who was entering.
I turned in my seat, not sure who I expected.
It sure as hell wasn’t my brother and father.
Chapter Forty-eight
Oh, no Ling Mai wasn’t. She so wasn’t going to pull my family deeper into this mess. Not until we had a chance to sort out a few things amongst ourselves. Which wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon. Not until I lost the huge lump of anger choking me.
Ling Mai played gracious hostess, looking at the group as she announced, “This is Jeb Noziak, and his son, Van.”
There were a few hellos and head nods even as all eyes snapped from my family to me like a stinging rubber band.
“You know about this?” Kelly leaned forward to ask as Mandy gave a small snicker. Obviously her family had no skeletons in their closets.
I stood, answering Kelly’s question, as well as the unspoken ones from the group in the same breath. “I don’t think this is such a good idea.” I looked at Ling Mai. A look that screamed–oh, no, you don’t. Fat lot of good it did.
Van waltzed up to me and slung his arm around my shoulder. “Nice to see you again too, little sis. You ran off in such a snit earlier you didn’t get to hear a few things you needed to hear.”
That took the cake. All the cake as I glared up at him. Not an easy feat as my head was smooched in the crook of his arm. “I don’t do snits and you, or more specifically, dear Dad here, are responsible for Bran being taken prisoner by a crazy slime ball who wants to gut him in the process of unleashing terror on the world. That’s all I needed to hear.”
“Bran knew what he was walking into,” my father said smoothly, as he walked away from the door and stood amongst the circle of us sitting on chairs and the room’s single gigantean couch.
His words stopped me in my tracks. “What do you mean, he knew?”
Dad didn’t answer me directly but instead glanced at Ling Mai. Why was I feeling more and more like I was the last person in on the must-know crap swirling around? Maybe because I was.
I pushed Van’s arm off me. Was it only hours ago I was so very happy to see him alive? I’d forgotten what a pain in the backside he could be.
He smiled as if he knew exactly what I was thinking, leaned in and gave me a hug, whispering, “Love ya too, Alex.”
Then he skipped backwards and grabbed a seat next to Kelly who scooted over to make room for him.
In my next life, I was going to be nice like Kelly because I sure wasn’t feeling the love right now. I turned back to my dad. “I asked what you meant about Bran knowing.”
“He knew there was a good chance he’d be apprehended by the Council if he contacted me, and he still chose to do so.”
I was beginning to hate that word. Choose. Chose. Choices. Bull-puckey! As if any of us chose anything. Crap happens and then you shovel as fast as you can.
“So you’re saying Bran walked eyes open into an ambush?” I knew the warlock was smarter than that.
“To save you, yes.”
Oh, fuddelbuckets. He so didn’t say that.
But when I heard Kelly’s sigh I knew he had. She was a dyed-in-the-fluffy-cotton romantic.
“I didn’t ask him to,” I said with a high breathless sound to my voice I couldn’t control.
“Bran knew that unless Padraig found an alternative to using you he’d keep coming after you,” Van added, like this whole mess made perfect sense.
It didn’t.
“And he let himself be taken?” New Girl asked. I was with her. Go figure.
“Part of a larger plan,” my father said, stepping near Ling Mai who inclined her head, adding, “We need every resource we can get to outwit Padraig.”
“What exactly is this Padraig?” Kelly asked, saving me the trouble.
“A druid.” Van was the one who answered, looking directly at her with a smile I hadn’t seen on his face since high school and his first over-his head crush.
“I thought druids were tree huggers,” New Girl piped in, turning everyone’s attention to her, except mine as Van leaned in to ask Kelly a question. I saw her blush, dip her head and whisper something back that had Van’s brows arch. He said something else that had Kelly pausing then giving him an I-dare-you smile, so unlike her I wanted to jump up and pull them apart. Van was way too experienced for sweet Kels. She didn’t realize there was a place inside him that might never heal.
A cough dragged my attention back to the group and my dad looking at me like he’d just asked a question.
Obviously he had by everyone’s expectant glances as I said, “Sorry. You said something?”
“I asked if you wanted to add anything about druids,” he repeated, his look saying he too had been watching Van interacting with Kelly. Which Dad probably took as a good sign. Sort of like watching someone awake from a dormant state.
“Druids?” I’d only met one once before who’d tried to rape me when I was thirteen. “Nasty, arrogant pricks who think the world still deserves to bow down and kiss their feet. Egos a million miles wide, dominant personalities, sneaky rat-bastards.” I looked around at the stunned expressions. “I think that about covers what I know.”
“Jeez.” Jaylene whistled. “Tell us what you really think girlfriend.”
“I’m sure Fraulein Fassbinder will love to add your insights to her grimoire,” Ling Mai interceded, a small smile dancing around her mouth before shifting to her all-business-all-the-time mode. “Now that we have an idea of who we’re facing, let’s get back on target here.”
“Is this when the rest of us expendable pawns are going to be let in on this almighty plan?” I asked, and yes, you could’ve cut my snark with an axe.
Dad gave me that stink-eye I recognized from childhood. But I wasn’t a kid anymore and my cutting glance at him said as much.
So instead of answering me directly he glanced to Ling Mai. At her nod, he pulled up a chair and sat down. “Looks like we’re all ready to hear the plan now.”
Why did that not make me feel much better?
Chapter Forty-nine
There were okay plans, might-work plans, and then oh-hell-no plans. After thirty minutes of my father’s patient laying out of each step of our let’s-save-Bran-while-stopping-a-determined demon plan, a demon who’d been looking for a way back to Earth, for three thousand years, we were way deep into the oh-hell-no plan.
I hadn’t said a word. Not because I didn’t have a few doubts, more than a few, but because I didn’t want another public smack down. I was still reeling from the last one. But when Dad described Sabina’s assistance in this cockamamie scheme I rose to my feet.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I said, spearing both Ling Mai and him with my gaze. “Sabina’s too young and too inexperienced to be involved today. End of story.”
“Not your choice,” Sabina jumped to her own feet.
Choice. If I heard that phrase one more time, I was going to take off heads.
“You said you would wait until you were properly and fully trained.” I stabbed a finger in her direction, not caring if she sassed me by calling me momma, g-ma or great g-ma. “You are not going to get hurt because of me.”
Kelly reached up to touch Sabina’s hand, then looked at me, before speaking, “Alex, it’s going to take all of our abilities and all of our help to stop this de … this really bad guy. Sabina wants to help. How can you deny her that?”
Et-tu, Kelly?
So much for thinking my best friend had my back. Kelly of all people, I expected to understand. I saw the look Van cast her, a quizzical glance that at least reassured me I wasn’t the only one caught broadsided by Kelly’s comments.
I looked to the room at large. “She’s a kid, guys. Since when do we put kids at risk? Isn’t that what we’re fighting for? To protect the Sabinas of the world?”
Vaughn glanced away, obviously not comfortable with my words, but it was Mandy who eyed me. “What about you?” she said, for once not jabbing me with her tone but simply asking a question.
“I don’t know what you mean. Am I going to fight? Hell, yes. But risk Sabina? Doesn’t make sense.”
“I’m asking what you would do if you were Sabina’s age and knew you might be able to help, even in a small way, to stop this Zaradian? Would you fight or be willing to sit on the sidelines?”
That was not fair. “She’s not me.” I glanced at where Sabina still stood, a small smile playing about her lips. “She has no training as a witch and no training as an agent, and no idea what she’s getting herself into. “
“Neither did you at her age.” Mandy kept that calm, even, tone and expression I wanted to wipe from her face. Not because she was being unreasonable, for once, but because she had a point. A frustratingly valid point.
“Fudge a bunny,” I mumbled, sinking back to my chair.
“Is that anatomically possible?” Kelly asked, earning a few snorts, including one from Van who had to duck his head until he could bring himself back under control.
“Doesn’t mean I’m happy with the situation,” I said specifically to my dad, Ling Mai and Sabina.
“Then we’re back to business as usual,” Mandy inserted.
I gave her an I’ll-get-you-and-soon glance which she ignored.
When I held my tongue, which I could, every now and then, my dad looked around. “Then we’re clear about what we’ll be doing?”
He looked at each person and only when they nodded did he slap his hands on his knees and stand. “Good. Then let’s get started.”
Chapter Fifty
“You sure this is the place?” I asked Van in the early hours the next morning, dawn slowly creeping over the horizon. We, along with Sabina who I was not going to let out of my sight, were hunkered down in a freshly turned bed of dirt beneath mid-sized bushes, sculpted laurel and holly trees. At least that’s what Sabina called them. I only knew they weren’t lodge pole pines, which is what grew everywhere in southern Idaho. Where trees grew that was.
We were in one of those cul de sac streets that seemed to appear by magic in Paris. One step, you’re in the twenty-first century, or thereabouts, turn a corner and you step backwards, several centuries.
What might have been a nice-sized estate house sat back from the cobblestone road at the end of a circular drive. A stable or carriage house was to our right while large stonewalls encircled the entire property. While it was still dark, we crept to our present location within the walled area, our backs to the stable.
I’d cast a cloaking spell so the three of us could enter relatively undetected and added an ad hoc binding spell to alter our scents. If a Were inhaled downwind all he would smell was a mulch-like aroma. Neither spell would help if a Were drew too close, which is why we used every tree and brush we could to creep closer to the house.
Since Van hadn’t answered my original question I jostled his arm with my elbow.
He gave me a what-now glance, which I answered with a few jerks of my head toward the house. Guess he was used to a different level of military signals from his background. Tough, I wanted some reassurances and as there were no Weres around Van could darn well tell me what I wanted to know.
“Right place? How are you sure?” I whispered, not being a total idiot.
Van waited a few heartbeats, either to try my patience or listen with his shifter hearing for any threats. I was just getting ready to slug him when he leaned closer. “Bran didn’t just cover his scent with yours he swapped scents with you.” What the—?
I found my tongue at last. “So Padraig ended up at Dad’s, thinking I was there because Bran had my scent?”
Van nodded.
“Then what?”
“When you huffed off Dad went after you to make sure no one followed you and I tracked Bran by your scent.”
Bran and my family had been hanging around the convoluted Ling Mai way too much. I scratched my head, trying to figure out who smelled like whom.
Van continued, “I lost Bran when they entered a car, but we have someone working with the Weres.”
“Willie?” I whispered, knowing of only one Were who’d do such a thing.
“Yeah, he’s helping, but there’s someone else.”
That threw me. “Who?”
“You know him as Frank.”
Of course. One of Bran’s oldest friends and a MI-6 British agent. I’d met him initially as a gay manager called Franco who made me break out in hives he was so in-your-face-high-maintenance. Last time I’d seen him he was François Dupris, a suave and debonair Frenchman about Paris. It was hard to know who the real Frank was but what I did know is he was a Didi shifter, a rare creature who could change into more than one shape. Unfortunately, Frank’s shifter shape was any breed within the dog family. He once shifted into a killer poodle who could flaunt a rhinestone collar like he was born to it.
“You sure he’s working with Padraig?” I couldn’t see Frank rubbing shoulders with Were thugs. Not without a lifetime supply of Lysol and hand sanitizer.
“He’s been undercover for several months. Notified us yesterday where Bran was taken.”
Would wonders never cease? Not about the notifying part but about Frank being where you needed him when you needed him.
Good news? I felt much more reassured that we were in the right place. Bad news? We were at the right place with psychotic Padraig, and who knew how many Weres.
Van nudged my shoulder, his gaze steady on mine as I turned to look at him. “What?”
“You know, you could give Dad a little bit of a break. He’s not the bad guy here.”
“You tell me that after spending a few months in prison because Dad allowed it to happen.”
“No, he let human justice take its course. You killed a man. You were paying the price.”
Talk about a hard and fast strike.
“He wasn’t a man. He was a rogue Were who was trying to kill our brother.” I did the finger gesture, linking him to me as if he needed to know whose brother I was talking about. “And technically I didn’t kill him, a death demon ripped him a
part.”
“A death demon you summoned.”
“Whose side are you on?” I couldn’t believe we were having this conversation right now. “Which of your siblings came looking for your sorry ass? Oh, yeah, that would be me. Who put her life on the line for you less than a week ago? Hello, me again. Who—”
And there I stopped, because we both knew what I was going to say next. Who ended up getting shifter blood and abilities because of him?
“I didn’t mean—” he started, but I waved him off.
The timing sucked. He didn’t know what he had been doing. Now he’d have to live with the guilt forever and I’d have to live with one more freaky ability that I had no idea how it worked.
I hadn’t even started dealing with the ramifications of the shifter blood mingling with mine. Could I change? How would it impact my ability to use magic? To be a shaman? Eventually, to have children as a side effect of any being created to change body shape wreaked havoc on a woman’s ability to incubate a child for nine months. Were women could not have children at all. A few shifter women had, but either they, or the baby, had not survived the stress of childbirth.
Too many issues to deal with now. Not with Bran’s life on the line and a demon knocking on the door. Then there was this whole trusting Dad’s plan issue. Once screwed, twice wary. I might be foolhardy but I wasn’t stupid.
“Psst, guys, look.” Sabina whispered on the other side of Van. Thank heavens for small witches who knew when to shift the subject.
I followed her jabbing finger to watch a fancy town car turn into the driveway. Since most French cars leaned toward the small and compact, this one looked stretch-limo long, though it was only an average bigger American car.
“The show is beginning,” Van murmured, hunkering deeper into the dirt.
I swallowed against the fear rumbling inside of me as the car crept along the drive, tires crunching over the gravel before it slowed, then came to a halt in front of the main entrance. That’s when my dad stepped from it, tugging his shirt cuffs down as he gave a casual, assessing glance around. Knowing where the team members were secreted, ready for his part in the mission.
INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Page 20