Heart of Darkness

by Lauren Dane

  “Why does everyone judge her? You don’t even know her.”

  “Fuck you, Dom. Neither do you. And that’s a fact. What I know is as much as what you know. It’s as much as what Meriel knows. Tom knows even more. You’re the only one who looks at all this evidence and decides to just ignore the facts. That’s not you, man. Think about this woman.”

  “She’s my mother.”

  “So what? Huh? She gave birth to you and then abandoned you a time or two, oh and then maybe was even stealing your life force to get high. Brava. We know she’s turned. We know there’s no cure once you turn. She’s a turned witch who will kidnap, torture and maybe even kill, most likely kill, to get her fix. She is not whoever she was when she met your dad. She is not even a witch anymore. Her ties to her own magick are dead. She’s cut herself off from her gifts. When even nature won’t recognize you, you are not a cat people want at Thanksgiving dinner.”

  Dominic chewed his bottom lip a moment.

  “You’re my brother as assuredly as any of the ones back home who turn furry and have claws. I can’t allow you to lie to yourself. She can’t either. Meriel is exactly what you need. She won’t take your shit and she’d take a bullet for you. Don’t go fucking that up for some junkie who means you nothing but heartache. Don’t be dumb and lose everything real and good for this dream of yours.”

  Shit.

  MERIEL’S phone buzzed and a text from Dominic came onto her screen.

  I want to hear your voice. Can I call you?

  She smiled.

  Yes please

  Moments later the phone rang and she picked up. “Hey there.”

  “Hey there yourself. I miss you. I’m an asshole too. I’m sorry.”

  “I know you’re having a hard time with all this. I understand that. And I understand that you’re feeling exposed and raw and that maybe a lot of what you’d thought was your past was all just made up.

  “And I’m sorry. I’m sorry it happened to you. I’m sorry you’re hurting. But you wouldn’t let me in. You were so open with me at Tom’s but when we got back you dropped me at my apartment and went home. You made an excuse the next night too. I brought you dinner and you wouldn’t even look at me. You owe it to me to look me in the eye if you don’t want me around. It’s not fair for you to hurt me to get me to leave.” That had been the worst part.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I am. I was a dick. And I was scared and all off balance and I shoved you back even when I knew you would make it better. That you would help me find a way to give it all some meaning, so that it made sense somehow. And I knew I’d hurt your feelings when you left and I didn’t come after you, even when I knew you were upset. I came to you yesterday morning and you were gone. I miss you. I need you to help me make sense.”

  Meriel wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and tried not to sniffle where he could hear it. “You didn’t come after me. I wanted you to and you didn’t.” That’s when the tears leaked from her voice and she cringed, not wanting to make him feel bad.

  She heard his intake of breath. “I’m sorry. God. I’m sorry. I hurt you and it was totally my being a dick. I’ll come for you. Always from now on I will come for you.”

  She believed it. “You’d better. And how are you then?”

  “I haven’t slept much. I talked to Nell about some information that came up about my mother, Gloria, whatever. Simon yelled at me, but I think he set me straight. I guess I’m lucky to have a friend who’ll totally take me to school.”

  “He did? What for?” Good heavens, did they regularly get into fistfights? For fun? “I can’t believe that gets me hot.”

  He paused for a moment and then laughed. “God, I’ve missed you. We talked about the whole thing with my family. He just reminded me of who I was. I want to talk to you about all this face-to-face.”

  “I’ll be home tomorrow morning. Eleven thirty. You can pick me up from the airport. Call Gage and tell him.”

  By the time they hung up she felt a lot better.

  HE was there where the gates dumped passengers. A huge bouquet of red roses in one hand. He looked so good she sighed.

  Many women paused as they passed him, taking a long look, trying to get his attention but he had nothing for any of them. He looked at no one and nothing but Meriel. And when she reached him, he put his free arm around her and hauled her up to her toes to receive the kind of kiss she’d missed so very much.

  “You’re back.”

  She nodded.

  “Are you free for the day or do I have to share you with work?”

  “I’m all yours.”

  “Yeah. I’m a lucky guy that way.”

  She took the bouquet and buried her face in the silk of the blooms, breathing in deep. He had no idea but she loved getting flowers.

  He got her settled in the car and she relaxed for probably the first time since he’d dropped her at her door on Sunday night.

  “So I talked with Nell earlier today.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, me too.” In the time since they’d learned about Gloria Ochoa’s existence, Meriel had come to believe that the only way to exorcise her from Dominic’s mind and heart was to find her and get rid of her. Nell had suggested, and Meriel agreed, that Gloria would probably be amenable to a cash inducement. But the next in line and the part of her that was Dominic’s woman was pretty sure there was only one way to deal with Gloria. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but it if did, Gloria would deserve it. Besides, Nell was only tossing that out because Meriel had demanded some nonlethal remedies as well as the numerous violence-filled ones.

  Nell had found someone who might just be Gloria. She’d been living in Canada for several years, but had recently shown up in Michigan. Coincidentally, they’d recently gotten a report of a witch in Detroit who’d been attacked and drained. Someone had approached mid-attack and they’d left the witch for dead. It was a silly thing, but Meriel was totally sure Gloria also had something to do with the recent attacks in Seattle.

  “You think she’s part of the attack.” He said it flatly, totally able to read her.

  “Yes. I do. And the ones here as well. I have no reason to believe anything else. Given her history, it’s clear to me that if she’s in the same place as an attack against a witch or the site of some sort of ugly ritual, she’s part of it. I’m sorry for that. But I can’t pretend it’s not true. Even to make you happy.”

  He was quiet awhile as he drove. “I don’t want to write her off entirely.”

  She was quiet, just listening to him process as the miles passed.

  “Simon didn’t actually punch me in the face. He just threatened to,” he said suddenly.

  “I know. He told me.” She didn’t want to keep that communication between them secret. Dominic needed to know that he had people around him who cared enough to make him upset if that’s what it took to get him to face the truth.

  “He was right. You’re right.”

  She took his hand and he squeezed. “I’m sorry I’m right. I wish I wasn’t.”

  “Yeah well, me too. Nell yelled at me.”

  That was a surprise. Nell hadn’t mentioned it. “She did? I didn’t know.”

  “She told me I made you cry.”

  “She had no right.”

  “Don’t get mad. She was right to make me see what a dick I was being. I just wanted to believe she wanted me. Not Nell,” he added quickly, “my mother.”

  Meriel wanted to laugh at that, but he was so sad. “I want you. Tom wants you. Edwina is charmed silly by you. My dad thinks you’re wonderful. If Nell yelled at you, it means she likes you, just sayin’. I know this is hard. But this is about what she’s missing. Not what you’re lacking. She had a gorgeous little boy and she hurt you. What she is repudiates all of what we are. What we stand for. And that people like her are joining with humans who want to erase us from the face of the earth makes it even worse. She’s a threat to me and mine. You’re mine. I won’t let her hurt you again. Are we clear on th
at?”

  He sighed. “I don’t know how you manage to always say what I need to hear, but thank you. However, I don’t want you going to meet her on your own. If this is her and you manage to track her down, let Nell and her people take care of this.”

  Meriel said nothing.

  This was personal. This woman had used and abused Dominic. She’d left a swath of pain in her wake and that had to be answered. Meriel wanted this bitch to understand just what she was dealing with and that was best done face-to-face.

  “Meriel, I can hear the gears turning in your head.”

  “Dominic, I need to confess something to you.”

  “Do you? Crap, Meriel, are you going to tell me you have to? I really think you don’t need to go there.”

  She raised one brow and waited until he got himself calm again. “I’m aware that many believe I’m too mellow to run a clan. I’m efficient, yes; they trust my brain and even my magick. But they don’t know if I’m tough enough. Mainly because really, unless I started going Godzilla and tearing cities apart, how can I outdo my mother in that department?”

  He laughed.

  “In any case, in general, I prefer to avoid conflict when I can. Not because I’m afraid of it or because I’m too weak to fight back. But because conflict eats up your time. It is exhaustive in terms of energy you have to expend to be involved in it. More if you mean to win, and I’d never do it if I didn’t mean to win. I’d rather spend my time on other things and in general, most people aren’t worth that much of my time and energy.

  “But sometimes, well, sometimes we need to show and not tell. If you get my meaning. This woman has harmed the people I love. The people I’m honor bound to protect. I will be involved in whatever it takes to eradicate any threat she may pose.”

  He was silent a long time as they approached her building.

  “I agree, that we are honor bound to protect Owen witches.” He touched her face. “And each other.”

  “I can hear the unspoken but at the end of that sentence.” He took her bags and escorted her upstairs.

  “Before we continue this discussion, let’s try something. I learned something in San Francisco. Use your othersight.” She took his hand and opened her own. “You can see how everything here has an energy signature. Plants look a certain way, inanimate things like benches or walls have that flat, opaque feel.”

  He nodded.

  “Just beneath that there’s another kind of signature. But I didn’t know what to even look for until one of the witches I met day before yesterday showed me something.”

  Meriel drew the sigils in the air. This sort of magick was older than spoken spellwork and varied all across the world. The witch in San Francisco had learned it while she’d been in Tibet.

  “Do you see how it all works together?” she asked Dominic, indicating the symbols she’d drawn in the air.

  “It’s like calculus. Holy shit, this is beautiful and really old.” He looked at it and added something and then adjusted a symbol earlier on in the spell. Their intent made it real and suddenly the hallway to her apartment exploded into a wash of colors. Of ebbs and flows of the kinds of energies lining the place.

  “How did you know how to do that?” Whatever he’d done to adjust the spell, it made everything else fade into the background, enabling her to focus on these energy swirls.

  “I aced calculus.” He shrugged. “You told me to let my gut have its say. It seemed right to fix it the way I did.”

  “That was awesome.”

  Surprise washed over his face. He dipped to kiss her. “Thank you.”

  “So you can get a general idea of what this hallway looks like. Lots of that sort of soft wash of blue there. Humans obviously. But you can see deeper now. Now you can see the sorts of energies they expel. Weres have that vibrant green, but it’s got this sort of verdant feel on this level. Vampires are red, obviously. But you can see if they’re using darker energies and hurting people. With witches …” She paused and saw it.

  “Witches are the brilliant blue. You can see a lot of it near my door. But mages, or anyone who uses unnatural energies has a sort of sickly gray smudge.” Just like the one in the hallway ahead.

  His mouth flattened into a hard line and he grabbed her upper arm, marching her back toward the elevators. “We’re leaving.”

  “No, we’re not. You can see that it didn’t get close to my door. My wards are holding just fine. We just know someone who’s doing something bad has been here. We don’t know enough to panic.”

  She moved to her front door and unlocked it.

  He went inside first and she followed closing up behind herself. “We’re fine in here. No one has been inside since I left. I need to tell Nell, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they know where I am.”

  “Oh, so a random mage was just walking down your hallway and stopped near your door. Just because.”

  She called Nell, who gave a similar lecture.

  “Go stay at Dominic’s or come here, but you need to move to a place where you’re defended better.”

  “I’m just fine here.”

  “Shut up. Put Dominic on the phone.”

  “No.”

  “I can hear the entire conversation anyway, Meriel. I already had an appointment for us to look at an apartment in my building and one across the street. I planned to grovel and then suggest it. This obviously pushes my timeline forward. Let’s get some of your bags. We can come back tomorrow and get more.”

  “Pushy much?”

  “You know it. Don’t test me on this. I’ll bring this to the quorum if I have to. You should let me keep you safe. Plus my building is close to the office and it’s close to Heart of Darkness. We can be together and you can be taken care of.”

  “How do you know I’m safer anywhere else?”

  “What I know,” Nell barked into her ear, “is that you’ve got a mage lurking around your hallway. If Dominic doesn’t have one, that makes his place safer. Plus you’ll draw even better being so close to the font. You won’t win this one so let it go. Anyway, his place is closer to mine.”

  “She’s right.” Dominic raised a brow as he shoved her clothes into a bag.

  “Hey! You’re going to wrinkle that.”

  “Yell at me later. I want up and out of here. I have a bad feeling.”

  Chapter 22

  HE stalked her as she walked through his place. She sent him the side-eye but he wasn’t deterred. He liked having her in his apartment. Which was sort of funny given that he’d never, ever seriously considered living with a woman. Now though? This woman? He wanted her with him all the time.

  She would be safer, no doubt. He’d be around. She’d be closer to her job and he wouldn’t have to run back and forth across the lake to see her.

  “You’re making me nervous.”

  “No, I’m not. Very little makes you nervous.” He smiled and she huffed and went back to putting her clothes away.

  “I missed you when you were gone.”

  She must have gotten a pedicure when she was in San Francisco. Her toes were different. A deep, dark red. Like every other part of her, her feet were sexy.

  She looked up at him, suspicion on her face. “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Why you gotta be this way?” He added a little bit of a purr, just for her.

  “What way is that?”

  “How was San Francisco?”

  “Useful.”

  “Are you going to remain prickly so that I have no other choice but to seduce a good mood back into you?”

  “You’re pretty bold for a guy who’s still in the doghouse.”

  He stood and moved to her. “But you know my general feelings about being challenged.”

  She held a hand out, trying not to smile but failing. “Stop that. I have to unpack and do laundry.”

  He shook his head. “Your clothes are already in the washing machine. Laundry—check. Your stuff is hanging in the closet—check.”

  “Are you in charge of
my schedule now?”

  “Or maybe you need your own stress relief. Orgasms are good for you. And maybe, maybe I’ll do it just because I can.” He got closer and she moved around the bed.

  “Maybe you’ll be bloody by the end.”

  He shook his head. “Maybe. But that’s part of the fun of fucking you, Meriel Owen. A man needs to be kept on his toes. You never let me slack.”

  Her smile broke free and she threw a pillow at him. “I have stuff to do.”

  “Yes, yes, you do.”

  He pounced, bringing her to the bed with him. Laughing, he rained small, sweet kisses across her forehead and the bridge of her nose. “How can I want you so much?”

  “Because I’m fabulous?”

  “Well, yes. Certainly your body is fabulous. You’re gorgeous. You’re tight and hot and wet every time I get near you.” He slid his palm down her belly, stopping to cup her sex.

  Her soft gasp echoed through his system. Pounding at him like the blood in his veins.

  “It’s more than that. I can’t quite believe you’re mine.” He eased her shirt open, exposing one of those pretty bras she favored. “And I’m greedy for you.” Deftly, he popped the catch between her breasts and freed them. “For these.”

  He pressed a kiss between her breasts as he unbuttoned and unzipped the pants, easing them down.

  “You’re astoundingly good at getting my clothes off.”

  “It’s my favorite pastime. Well, my second favorite.” He leered and meant it.

  “Who am I to stand between a boy and his favorite sport?”

  But she gave as good as she got. Rearing up, she pulled his shirt off and kissed over his chest, rubbing her cheek against him like a cat.

  And then her hand was down his pants and she was gripping his cock, a definite look of challenge on her face.

  “Show me what you got, then.”

  His pants were off, followed by his boxers. As much as he loved the way she looked partially clothed and disheveled, he preferred naked. So off came her shirt and bra, the pants and a pair of teeny red panties.