“Hello?” she panted.
“Katrina?” The female voice was definitely not McAllister. “Are you all right? You sound…winded.”
“Miranda? Oh, yes, I’m fine…banged my foot getting to the phone. How are you?”
“I’m fine, dear. I’m in the city for an auction and thought I might stop out at your place on the way back home and see you. It’s been ages.”
And it could be several more ages as far as Kat was concerned. Then it occurred to her that Miranda was the one person who might know the truth about her mother. Finding out how much her mother had kept hidden from her was still a dull ache that she had temporarily pushed to the back of her mind. Miranda was her mother’s only living family; if anyone might have the answers, it would be her.
“Actually, Miranda, I’m in the city myself. I’ve been staying with a…friend for a few days. Maybe we could meet somewhere for coffee? In fact, I’d like to talk to you about something.”
“Oh really? Like what?”
“Like the fact that my mother was a witch.” Kat would have sworn the woman stopped breathing.
“I see,” she replied carefully. “Well, I suppose you were bound to find out sooner or later. Lilly never understood that some things are an obligation, not a choice.”
“Of course,” replied Kat, implying that she understood the somewhat cryptic remark although, of course, she didn’t. Miranda indicated that the items she was waiting for were going on the block within the next five minutes and then she would be free. She named a place and time. Kat glanced at her watch. It was now a little after eleven. She didn’t know what time to expect McAllister, but the coffee shop Miranda suggested was helpfully only a block or two away. She could meet Miranda for coffee and be back before he ever knew she was gone. Her stomach did a funny little flip when she contemplated his reaction to her leaving the apartment after he’d specifically told her not to. But the chances were good that he would be tied up for most of the day and she would be back before he ever knew she’d left. By then she’d be parked behind her computer and he would see how ridiculously overprotective he was being. It was the middle of the day and there were people everywhere. Oh, he’d be pissed, all right, but he would get over it once he saw that she was fine. There was no reason she shouldn’t be perfectly safe for an hour or so. She needed to know more about her mother and why she had kept her in the dark. The one person she had believed in completely had lied to her for her entire life, by omission, at least. It might be easier to accept if she could understand why.
In case McAllister returned before she did, Kat left a note telling him that she was meeting Miranda and the name of the coffee shop and propped it against a small brass lamp on the table inside the front door. After she tugged a pair of socks over her still smarting toes, she slipped her feet into her tennis shoes and stuffed her phone into her back pocket. She pulled a couple of crumpled bills out of her wallet, pulled on her vest, and threw open the door. She almost knocked herself unconscious as she barreled headfirst into a broad back that was as solid and unforgiving as granite. Galen, the bald giant with the shuriken tattoos, was standing right outside. She’d completely forgotten that Kassian had said he would be leaving a guard; she should have realized McAllister would never have left her unprotected. He turned slowly, crossing his arms over his massive chest, and cocked a brow as the corners of his lips turned up.
“Going somewhere?” If he wasn’t so big and scary, Kat realized he was actually quite an attractive man. Assuming you could get past the big and scary. Her head barely reached his nipple line and his black tee strained across a chest nearly as wide as the doorway. But he had a beautiful smile, and with his shockingly green eyes twinkling in amusement, he wasn’t quite as intimidating as he might otherwise have been.
“Um, yes, I am actually,” Kat smiled back trying unsuccessfully to edge around him. “I’m, uh, meeting my cousin for coffee down the street. She’s in town for the day and I haven’t seen her in ages. I won’t be long.”
“You’re right about that,” he grinned. “You won’t be long at all. Go back inside.”
“Look, Galen, right? This is important. It’s about my mother. I really have to go. McAllister doesn’t have to know. Trust me, my lips are sealed.” She smiled conspiratorially.
“Nope.” He widened his stance slightly to take up even more room in the doorway. “I have my orders. You are to be guarded at all times when you aren’t with Mac or Luca. I like my head right where it is.”
“For heaven’s sake, you’re twice the size of either of them! You don’t mean to tell me that you’re afraid of McAllister?” She was hoping to shame him into letting her pass.
“You’ve obviously never seen either of them in a fight.” The inked giant laughed, not rising to the bait. “Besides, it has very little to do with fear and everything to do with respect. I gave my word I would keep you safe until Mac returns, and that’s exactly what I plan to do.” He reached for Kat’s shoulders and spun her around to face back into the apartment. “In you go.”
Kat’s mind was spinning. She needed to get to that coffee shop. Miranda was the only one who could answer her questions and she wanted to talk to her face to face. She’d never been able to read Miranda well, so she wanted to be able to at least observe her and allow her empathy a chance to assess her reactions. She felt the amusement rolling off of the big man at her frustration and she became more incensed. She peered around Galen at the elevator and knew she could never reach it before he stopped her. Dammit! She wasn’t a helpless child and they all needed to stop treating her as though she was. She needed to get to that elevator! She pictured herself standing inside waving merrily to Galen as he tried to catch her. The blue white flash caught her completely by surprise, but not nearly as much as finding herself actually in the elevator with the doors sliding closed as Galen roared and started toward her. Funny, he didn’t seem all that amused now.
Kat burst out laughing as the elevator began to descend. She’d done it! She’d managed to snap, crackle, pop without even knowing how. And it couldn’t have happened at a better time! She knew Galen couldn’t risk fading into the lobby of the building, but she guessed that he would probably pop himself into the stairwell on the ground floor and be standing in front of the elevator doors when they slid open. She laughed again, picturing the look on his face, but quickly sobered when she realized it was nothing compared to the look that McAllister would be wearing if she didn’t get back to the apartment before he did. She had no doubt that Galen would be reporting her little stunt, but she might be able to mitigate McAllister’s anger if she could explain herself first. She got off of the elevator on the third floor, and pressed the button for the tenth, sending the elevator back up. She jogged lightly down the stairs, carefully bypassing the lobby and heading straight for the basement. She planned to leave via the parking garage while Galen cooled his heels waiting for the elevator in the lobby.
Kat was momentarily blinded by the bright, mid-day sun as she emerged from the relative darkness of the underground edifice and didn’t notice the large man lounging against the building next to the front door underneath the burgundy fabric awning until he reached out and grabbed her arm. She squeaked in alarm, her heart climbing into her throat, until she realized that the man tugging her into the shadows was Galen. Then her heart sank. She had been so close.
He held her upper arm firmly in one large hand and reached for the door with the other.
“Nice try,” he growled. She felt the waves of annoyance; he definitely was no longer amused. Kat dug in her heels and looked up, way up, at the frowning Earthbound.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know how I did that, honest. But I really need to talk to my cousin, and I don’t want to invite her here. The less she knows about my life, the better I like it. What if you go with me?” Kat tried a tentative smile and batted her eyelashes. “It’s only down the street. That way, you’d still be guarding me like you promised McAllister, and I c
ould maybe get the answers I need. I won’t be long, and if you sense one little thing that seems off and say we need to go, I will get right up and leave with you. I promise.”
Kat held her breath and tried to sort through the waves of indecision he was throwing off and gauge which way he was going to go. He didn’t like the idea; of that much she was certain. She dropped her shields and let him read her, finally convincing him she really meant what she said.
“Look, I’m really not trying to give you any trouble, Galen. If McAllister or Luca were here I would ask them to take me, but they aren’t and I have no idea how long they’ll be tied up. Miranda is only here for a short time, so it’s now or never. I can’t feel her over the phone so I’d really like to talk to her face to face.”
Galen blew out a long, slow breath and loosened his hold, though he didn’t release her right away. “So, it’s true, you really are an empath?” he asked.
Kat nodded. “I am. And if it makes you feel any better, I picked up on the presence of evil before even Kassian did, twice now, in fact, so between the two of us, we’ll definitely feel if something wicked this way comes and we can hightail it out of there,” she coaxed.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “This is against my better judgment, and if I say move, you move, got it?”
“Got it,” she replied in relief as he let go of her arm and turned to walk beside her toward the coffee shop. “I really appreciate it.”
“Yeah, well you should,” he groused. “I’m gonna get my ass chewed off for this.”
“Not if we get back first,” Kat laughed. “Then it will be a moot point.”
The tattooed giant rolled his eyes comically and pulled her arm through his, keeping her close. Kat assumed the heavy jolt of resignation that hit her meant that he didn’t exactly agree.
They reached the coffee shop in record time, Kat practically running to keep up with Galen’s long strides and too winded by the effort to carry on a conversation even if she’d been so inclined. The place was small, dimly lit, and already crowded this close to lunchtime. The air was thick with the rich scent of freshly ground coffee and a background chorus of conversation, clinking glass, and cutlery. Kat carefully opened herself to the cacophony of thoughts and emotions swirling around her and sensed no evil, only the usual discordance of sensation that she typically felt in a crowd. Galen appeared alert, but unruffled so she guessed he hadn’t picked up on anything concerning either. From the doorway, she noticed Miranda at a small booth in the back, waving her in.
“Maybe you should wait here,” she whispered to Galen. “I have a feeling she won’t be very talkative if you’re hanging over my shoulder like a big, hulking Guardian Angel.”
“I don’t like it,” he hissed back.
“You’re less than twenty feet away, what could possibly happen? Anyway, if anyone or anything tries to come at me, you’ll feel them, plus they’ll have to walk right past you to do it, right?”
“I guess, but I still don’t like it. Make this quick, huh? I’ll feel a hell of a lot better when we’re outta here.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can…thanks, Galen.” She offered him her most charming smile.
“You feel one twitch of uneasiness, you get to me pronto, got it?”
“Got it.”
Galen leaned against the wall near the doorway, his eyes vigilantly scanning the crowd as people came and went and milled around inside. Kat weaved her way through the crushing throng standing around the counter waiting for tables, to the booth where Miranda waited. The older woman stood and hugged Kat awkwardly on arrival and then slid back into her seat.
“I hope you don’t mind, I already ordered for you since it was so busy and I don’t have much time.” She pushed a heavy mug of steaming coffee in Kat’s direction. She followed that with a small, aluminum pitcher of cream and a couple of sugar packets. “I wasn’t sure how you take it.”
“Black is fine, thanks,” Kat smiled, taking a large sip. “So, how have you been, Miranda.”
“Oh, you know.” Miranda waved a hand airily. “Same old thing, different day. With the holidays coming up, business at the shop has been pretty brisk, so when I saw the listing for this auction, I thought it was a good chance to replenish some stock and get a chance to see you at the same time. It’s been ages.”
“Yeah, I guess it has,” Kat allowed, taking another hefty sip of the fresh, dark brew. It was a darker roast than she would have ordered for herself, and had far more bitterness than she preferred, but she had to admit that if Miranda hadn’t ordered, they probably would have waited forever to be served in the standing room only crowd and the hot liquid warmed and soothed her after the brisk, cold walk from the apartment. Miranda was nervous. Kat could feel the anxiety swirling like an opaque cloud all around her, but even without the benefit of her empathic abilities, it didn’t escape her notice that her cousin was perspiring rather profusely and was careful to avoid meeting her eyes. She glanced toward the door and saw that Galen was manfully struggling to maintain his surveillance while pretending to be polite to a blonde, in a short skirt and stilettoes, who had practically attached herself to his side. He did not look happy and with a frown in Kat’s direction, he stepped back into the small vestibule to give himself some breathing space. The new position put Kat out of his direct line of vision, but he was still between her and the front door.
“Look, Miranda,” Kat gulped half of the cup and set it back on the table decisively. “I know you don’t have much time and frankly, neither do I. Why don’t we get to the point? Why didn’t my mother tell me that she was a witch? And after she was gone, why didn’t you?”
Miranda opened her mouth to speak, but as Kat stared, her cousin’s face became cloudy and contorted. Her lips moved, but Kat couldn’t understand the words and the room felt like it was closing in on her at an alarming rate. She felt heavy and weightless at the same time and she fought the overwhelming nausea that rose up to choke her as everything around her began to spin. Too late, she realized the coffee owed its bitterness to more than a dark roast. She wanted to scream, but her voice was snagged in her throat and her mind felt thick, like concrete setting. She wanted to wave her arms to get Galen’s attention, but her movements were dulled and her body felt slow and heavy as if trapped in the cold, black water of a bottomless well, numb and drowning. Miranda towered over her, her lips still mouthing words that Kat couldn’t decipher. Kat tried in vain to reach for Miranda’s throat as the witch came closer.
“Bitch,” she hissed viciously as everything went dark.
Chapter 14
Smoke hung heavy in the early afternoon air, blocking the watery winter sun, and the choking scent of charred wood and blackened steel was thick enough to make Kassian’s eyes water. Burnt and curled paper scraps skittered along the ground in the chill breeze toward the water’s edge like a frightened flock of small, black birds. The fire was finally out, though the fire department would be on site for hours yet, soaking down the skeletal remains to preclude another flare-up, while the fire marshal poked through the ruins searching for a cause. Thankfully, none of the warehouse workers had perished thanks to Luca and Alec’s ability to scan and locate them and then direct the thoughts of the rescuers to the right locations to ensure they would be found. None of the injuries that did occur appeared to be serious and Kassian was thankful it hadn’t been worse. He surveyed the devastated area with a practiced eye. Insurance would cover the building and contents; there was nothing that was irreplaceable from a material standpoint. The body of Jacques’s latest victim was another matter, and as he expected would happen sooner or later, a man in a rumpled polyester suit and an equally disreputable looking taupe trench coat detached himself from the knot of investigators gathered around the remains with cameras flashing and pencils scribbling. He ducked awkwardly under the yellow crime-taped border, and headed in Kassian’s direction, scratching his head and doing an impressively uncanny impersonation of Columbo. Kassian waited patiently as the man ap
proached; the policeman was broadcasting his thoughts loud and clear and Kassian knew exactly what to expect. The disheveled man flashed a badge in one hand while sticking out the other in a faux friendly greeting.
“Mr. McAllister? Detective Frank Barnes, Homicide,” he offered. Kassian clasped the outstretched hand in a firm, but brief grip after running his palm down the side of his jeans in a futile attempt to remove the worst of the soot.
“Detective,” he returned easily, “what can I do for you?”
Barnes scanned the smoldering ruins through narrowed eyes. “I assume you’re well insured?”
“Of course.”
“Well, thank God everyone managed to get out.” He paused. “Funny how these murdered women keep turning up in your vicinity though, isn’t it?” Barnes asked as casually as though he was inquiring about Kassian’s opinion on the chance of snow.
“It is disturbing,” Kassian replied in an equally mild voice. Two of the three recent murders might be perceived as pointing toward a connection to Kassian. There was little to no chance of his actually being held accountable for them, but it could be damned inconvenient, which he was sure was part of Rapier’s plan. He hadn’t intended on moving back to Europe for several years yet, and now there was Kat to consider. He nearly gasped aloud as that thought occurred to him. He’d never bothered to consult with anyone regarding his actions and decisions; it was a completely foreign concept. Just one of the many things he hadn’t stopped to consider. He had no idea how she would feel about relocating every few decades. In fact, he had no real idea how she felt about a lot of things. He pushed the concern aside; he knew the important things, and as for the rest, they had all the time in the world to learn about one another.
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