Wild Darkness bbm-4

by Lauren Dane

  His beast pressed against the man’s flesh, flexing its claws before subsiding. Just another way she was different than any other who came before. His beast approved mightily.

  There were others on the plane and she’d touched him that way. He held back a smile, settling for a kiss on the top of her head, breathing her in.

  “Thank you.”

  She sat back in her own seat so she could look up into his face.

  “What for, Alamah?”

  She smiled. “You’ve set aside your life to help with all this. You could live in Lycia and no one would try to kill you. No one would discriminate against you for being what you are.”

  He chuckled at that. “Things are not as perfect in Lycia as you might imagine. We go to war. There are dominance battles all the time. I came to you covered in battle scars, remember?”

  She smiled. “Well, I guess that’s true. But I . . . thank you for being there when I needed you. You’ve given me so much great advice. You’ve been someone I could turn to.”

  “It is my pleasure to be there when you needed me. As for setting aside my life? Pah. This is my life. Here with you.”

  “Lucky me,” she murmured, but it wasn’t sarcastic. He squeezed her hand before she went back to her book.

  * * *

  BY the time they’d landed Helena knew the news cycle would have begun to spin like a giant tornado. Being with Molly while they were all on the road together had taught her that much.

  She turned on the news as they drove from the small airport back to the Gennessee offices. She wanted to ask Faine when they were alone why they couldn’t just use trips through the Veil to cut through all this plane travel. There was a time she actually liked to fly.

  But even with private planes, which she had to admit kicked ass, it was still hours she couldn’t do stuff. Then again, it was hours she couldn’t do stuff, and she so rarely got downtime she supposed she should appreciate it.

  She didn’t though. She needed to be making calls and dealing with email and all that stuff.

  “Brief me,” she said to her father, who’d picked them up.

  “We’ve taken the havens and are transforming some of them into guarded enclaves for the witches and Others who live outside major cities. That was a very good idea.” He winked at her and she smiled, warmed by the praise.

  “I have them sometimes.”

  “There are four currently operating in the Los Angeles metro area. But that’s not enough, obviously. We’ve connected with the Weres. Some of them have huge swaths of private land already. They’ve hooked up with some developers about turning some of that land into mini subdivisions that would include schools, retail, that sort of thing. Oh, and networking hubs so people can work remotely without having to leave to go in to offices. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. It’s a boom business for developers now, which is a good thing to come out of the bad, I suppose. Rebecca is looking into buying three apartment buildings on the same block in San Diego. The Vampires have offered up some property as well.”

  “Really? Well, that’s interesting.” The Vampires weren’t much for playing well with anyone else.

  “Franco likes Lark. I think she drew blood at their first meeting.”

  Helena laughed. “She did. I guess Simon nearly blew a gasket when she went into their nest and popped someone before they’d even gotten inside the front door.”

  Faine groaned under his breath.

  “So we’ve got a short-term solution for most of our people. There will be those who won’t want to leave their current homes.”

  Helena nodded. “I know. It won’t be mandatory. But we can’t offer protection to everyone. It’s an option. People can take it or not. It’s not an option or a solution for every Other.” She accepted that. There was already one in Pasadena. A small subdivision had just finished the first houses. The developers were connected to the ones who created the one Faine lived in, so the new owners were all Others of one type or another. She had looked at a two-bedroom cottage-style that fit in quite nicely with the architecture in that part of the city. Maybe it was time to pull that trigger.

  “Evan has been working to get a schedule up and in place to patrol each of these enclaves. The Gennessee wants you to get some law enforcement structure in place with courts and that sort of thing. If we’re stepping totally out of human law enforcement it’s going to be more complicated than what we’ve been doing so far.”

  She’d already drawn up a preliminary plan the night before so she’d be sure to stop in to see Rebecca first thing and drop it off.

  “I don’t see any way around it. I wish I did. If they’re not going to help us, we have to help ourselves, and that means building our own structure. Maybe I’m wrong.”

  “Stop it now.” Her father’s voice was terse enough to snag her attention and make her turn to him, mouth open.

  Faine leaned forward but she held her finger up to stay him.

  “Stop what?”

  “Now isn’t the time to second-guess yourself. You’re in charge for a reason, Helena, and it’s not because I’m your father. You’re not wrong. You’re doing what you need to to keep people safe in this new world. We can’t afford to sit around and wish things were different. They aren’t. You know that more than most anyone. You have seen things most of us haven’t. Your decisions are good and sound and you have to stop this ridiculous guilt tripping over Indio and you have to do it right now.”

  Faine sat back as she thought of what to say.

  “Chris Stevenson was one of their spies. He was one of my people and I had no idea he was betraying us. That’s not good decision making.”

  “He is, yes. And he’s been questioned by me. He has a gambling problem. He owes a great deal of money in Las Vegas. The mages had been watching for just such a weakness and they sought him out. Once he’d helped them the first time, they used that against him. And then when the haven in Indio was taken they had him for good. No turning back when your actions cause the death of twenty-two people. He wasn’t evil. But his weakness is more than a flaw.” Her father shrugged. “This is more than a mistake. This is bone-deep selfishness that brought him to his knees and still he said nothing. Still he gambled and kept himself in debt and he continued to betray our people. That hasn’t got one thing to do with your decisions.”

  “I should have known he had a gambling problem!”

  “Do you remember two years ago when you suggested to Rebecca that all Clan employees have their financials checked routinely?”

  She blew out a breath. “Yes. She said it was an invasion of privacy.”

  “And if she’d allowed it, at least for the hunter corps and those with access to sensitive data, it would have caught all his debt. But she said no. You tried once more and she said no again. Give yourself some credit. You can’t doubt yourself. Not now of all times. I believe in you. Lark believes in you. Thousands of people are relying on you because they believe in you too. You will make mistakes. Hell, I made them too. More than you. I walk with a limp because I underestimated werewolves. You’re not omnipotent. But you’re damned good at this. Let yourself believe it.”

  Chapter 17

  “ARE you still upset that I went to Lycia to see my brother and father without telling you?”

  Helena gathered her things as she planned to head home for a few hours’ sleep, a hot meal and a shower. Probably not in that order.

  Distracted, she looked up at Faine, who took up the entire doorway of her office. “What?”

  “Are you still upset that I went to my father without telling you?” He took her weapons bag and she was tired enough to let him.

  “I understand why you did it.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.” He tried to take her keys and she shot him a look, keeping them.

  “What exactly is it you want to know? You don’t give a crap if I’m annoyed you went to Lycia without telling me. You would do it again in a heartbeat because you believe it was the ri
ght thing to do.”

  The business part of the office was normally quiet, but not so much that night. Gennessee ran an array of successful businesses, including construction, which was getting a considerable bump now that they were moving forward with several enclaves for Others statewide. People pored over plans, talking on the phone, tapping away on keyboards in order to fast-track everything.

  The hunter area of the office was also humming with activity. Her people looking at maps, giving orders, coming and going for their assignments.

  “Helena.”

  She paused at Nikola’s desk. “Yes?”

  The hunter handed her a file. “We’ve assigned three teams each to the three existing enclaves. They’ll work in shifts of eight hours each.”

  “No one alone. Every patrol needs to work in teams of two or more. Have you spoken with the Alpha of South Bay?” The werewolves had stepped up in a way she hadn’t figured they would. They were doing it, so she wasn’t going to complain about how it happened, only be grateful it had. She needed to send Cade Warden a fruit basket or something to thank him for lighting a fire over there.

  “I did. There’ll be at least one Were on each team in the patrol. The cats are less organized out this way, but Gibson de La Vega tells me someone will be in touch to arrange to get their people trained with us.”

  “All right. Good work. Keep me updated.”

  Gennessee had a hunter squad made up of sixty-five witches in Southern California ranging from the Mexican border to Valencia. She also ran a central California squad made up of twenty-five that patrolled the central valley out to San Francisco. Owen and Gennessee ran a united squad from Weed up through Oregon.

  Those squads went out every single night to patrol the land around the places Clan witches lived. Helena was changing that along with Lark. They needed to pull the patrols in, no longer so worried about rogue witches or wolves and now necessarily putting focus on protecting their people from rogue humans.

  She moved toward the garage again, Faine at her side.

  “I do care.”

  “What?”

  “You’re very distracted.”

  She turned to him at the car. “Really? Am I? Shocking when I have so little to do just now.”

  “Sarcasm. Unusual.”

  “Are you trying to poke me until we get into a fight?”

  “You should let me drive.”

  “Why is that? You have a car here, don’t you? Why are you riding with me anyway?”

  One of those brows went up. “You’re staying at my house.”

  “I am? And what makes you think that?”

  “Would you like to continue this in the car? Or out here in the open?”

  She jammed her key into the lock and got in, tossing her stuff into the backseat. She popped the trunk so he could stow the weapons.

  “Now.” He stood in the driver’s side door, clearly waiting for her to move aside. She started the engine instead.

  “Time’s a wastin’.” She put it into gear and he heaved a put-upon sigh and walked around, getting in on the other side.

  “My car isn’t here. I had it taken back to my house. We should stop at your place on the way so you can bring stuff to my place that would make you comfortable.”

  “You live across the city. I live five minutes from here.”

  “I live in an enclave and you’re trying to convince your people it’s the safest thing. Shouldn’t you be a good example?”

  “You don’t even believe that. You’re just saying it to make a point.”

  “I do believe you’d be safest at my home, actually. And it’s not me who is trying to pick a fight.”

  “Puhleeze.” She drove to her place, annoyed that he was right about being a good example. “I like my apartment.”

  “No, you don’t. You have pictures on shelves, but none on the walls. The walls are all still white. You haven’t painted anything. You sleep there, but you don’t live there.”

  “Suddenly you’re an expert on how I live?”

  “I know you better than you want to admit.”

  That much was true.

  “I haven’t had much time.”

  “You’ve lived there for a year and a half. You’re a nester, I can tell. You have not nested there. Feel free to nest in my home all you want. Since we’ll be living together I want you to feel at home.”

  “You totally are trying to start a fight.” She pulled into her spot and noted the graffiti. “Great.”

  He didn’t say anything, but she knew he added it to the reasons to stay with Faine category in his head.

  Her place was fine. The building was well lit and her neighbors were an assortment of artists and other types that seemed to love having endless potlucks and building-wide block parties every few weekends. After the revelation—as the media had dubbed the day when the world realized there actually were witches and Vampires—she’d been stopped and hugged more than once by her neighbors.

  But Faine was right. She hadn’t really settled into her place. The house she’d shared with Lark had been a home, but this apartment was a place to sleep and eat. She just kept putting finding a house to buy into the after this settles category. Along with getting back to dating and going to the dentist.

  She would be setting a good example by moving into an enclave. She would be safer and, damn it, she would be with him and that made her happier than she ever expected to be.

  She pulled out a big suitcase and he gave her a look. “What? You win. Happy?”

  In two steps he was on her, pulling her close, crushing his mouth against hers. Her spine loosened as she held on. His taste thundered like her pulse. He took over, the scent of his skin, the feel of his muscles as they bunched and shifted like the predator he was, she greedily took him in. Even as she knew somewhere in the back of her head that he was being a bossypants.

  When he finished and she struggled to regain her composure, he set her back. “I am happy, but this is not a game where you lose and I win. I want you with me in my den. It’s my nature to want my woman in my home where I can keep her safest. I want to be with you because I like to be with you and it makes having lots of sex with you easier if you’re within reach whenever the mood strikes.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “You’re grumpy because your world is falling apart and you’re doing your best to build a new future.”

  “I’m grumpy because you are pushy and bossy and you take over when you should back off.”

  He grinned for a moment. “Alamah, you knew I was bossy and pushy when you let me get you naked.”

  He was so right she should be embarrassed. “You have other attributes that seem to blind me temporarily to your overbearing nature.”

  He laughed. “Thank goodness then. Come on. Pack up. Shall I grab the books on your shelves so you can study them at my house?”

  “Fine.”

  She moved into the bathroom to gather her toiletries. And to get some space. He clouded her judgment with his . . . well, his gorgeousness and his ability to be really good at everything and the way he just let her be bitchy and kissed it out of her when he got a mind to.

  Lord, she was in such trouble.

  She tried to be annoyed that she’d have to drive so far to get to the office, but when she licked her lips she tasted him again and it fled.

  Her clothes went into a garment bag. She only wore a few different pairs of shoes to work, but she brought many others to his place because one never knew when she might want to wear some pretty heels after all.

  If he claimed to want to be with her, he needed to understand she had a lot of clothes. And shoes. And bags. And books too.

  He’d clearly run some boxes down to the car while she had pulled her stuff together in the other room because her shelves were a lot more bare when she came out.

  “I took the liberty of grabbing the teas and your teapot and some of the stuff in your fridge so it won’t spoil. Will you allow me to drive home? I know al
l the back ways and you can make calls if you need to.”

  “See? How hard is it to ask instead of giving an imperious now and frowning at me?”

  “We both have to adjust, no?” He kissed her again and took her suitcase and garment bag when she was hormone addled.

  “You can drive if you’ll point the car through the In-N-Out drive-through on the way.”

  “I can do that.”

  He walked out, wearing a smile and when he wasn’t looking, she gave one too.

  * * *

  “THERE are two full closets. I’ll give you the one here in the master and take the one in the other bedroom.” He brought her suitcases into the house.

  She shoved a few more fries into her face. “I can take the other closet. There’s no sense in you moving everything.”

  “I want you to feel at home here. A safe place.”

  He was so sweet she couldn’t resist moving to him and kissing him. “Sorry about the salt.”

  He licked his lips. “Somehow you can make salt sexy.”

  She moved into the room she’d slept in just a week before. A week. Jeez. So much had happened in that time.

  The closet was gigantic with racks for shoes and bags and lots of space to hang things. Even without the utterly beautiful male standing a few feet away looking adorably uncertain, she’d live there for this dream of a closet.

  “This is a fabulous closet. I’ll take it.”

  He smiled and it warmed her. Man, she was in big trouble.

  “Why don’t you look at the one in our bedroom first? Then you can decide.”

  “I’m going to eat this Double-Double with cheese and suck down my milkshake first. Then I’ll look.”

  He put the box he’d been holding down on the bed and followed her out. “I’ll get plates. Sit.”

  “Okay then. Thanks.”

  He brought plates and she put all the food out and they sat in companionable silence for some time as they ate.

  Once they’d finished and cleaned up—he dried and she washed—they’d brought the rest of her things into the house.