Heart of Darkness
Page 29
“I have been here for ten of your years.”
“I bet your house has very clean lines. Nothing fussy. You don’t have knickknacks and I bet you fold your shorts.”
“I don’t follow.”
She sighed. “You’re a very spare guy. I mean you don’t have any fuss about you. You don’t use four words when three will do. It’s an admirable trait. One I do not possess. I bet you don’t leave your clothes on your bedroom floor or have stacks of magazines anywhere.”
“Tell you what. I’ll make you a steak at my house. You can see for yourself.”
He caught her grin.
There was an odd sound and they both looked around. And then she cursed and dug into her coat pocket. Hubba Hubba, Hubba Hubba. That’s what it kept saying.
“Clever,” she said as she answered the call. “Oh yes, I’ll totally take you back now. What do you want?”
Much like a shifter, he had excellent hearing, so the other end of the call was audible.
“Why you gotta give me such a hard time?”
“I’m working. And hanging up now.”
“I forgot to tell you. I put a new grip on your Sig. I think the balance should be better. And you should take me back.”
“Thanks for the tip on the Sig.” She disconnected.
“What did he do?” Simon asked.
She laughed. “You assume he’s the one who messed up.”
“If it had been you, he wouldn’t be the one begging to be taken back.” He had enough experience with such events. Enough that he’d ceased having anything more than flings.
“I’ll tell you, but only if you have some vodka at your house to go with the steak.”
“I have whiskey and some tequila. Will that do? I own a bar; it’s not as if I can’t stop to get vodka.”
“You’re very accommodating for a guy who just met me less than an hour ago.”
He liked taking care of people. And he was intrigued by Lark Jaansen and her colorful contradictions. She pleased his senses. In an entirely platonic way, of course. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be nailing her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t interesting to man and wolf.
“You’re one of Meriel’s. She’s the woman of a man who is like my own brother.”
He got off the freeway.
“To answer your question, whiskey is fine. Or tequila. Thank you.”
His phone rang this time and when he answered, Meriel’s voice sounded over the speaker.
“Is Lark with you?”
“Yes, of course.” He turned his attention to Lark as he took the steep turn on the drive up to his house. “I thought you said you called Meriel?”
“I texted her to say I had arrived and was with you.”
“Texting is not calling. She’s here with me, Meriel. I’m going to feed her. She’s a little thin. And give her a drink. I’ll be sure she gets back safely. Tomorrow all you witchy types will have your war talks and all that jazz. Let the girl have a good steak and a decent night’s sleep.”
“Gage is going to pick you up first thing, Lark,” Meriel said. “We’ll get you a car as well. Our old place is warded up tight. No worries at all on that front. No one will breach your security there.”
“Good to know about the warding. I expected nothing less. As for Gage, yes, I spoke with him before I left L.A. I’m good. I promise I can take care of myself, Meriel. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. Appreciate the use of your place, by the way,”
“We’re climbing the hill to my place,” Simon interrupted. “Cell service is going to get sketchy. Talk to you later.” He hung up and Lark laughed again.
“World-class skills, Meriel Owen. I’ve yet to meet a cannier witch when it comes to politics. She constantly pisses people off and yet they always listen to her. Take her seriously. Clearly you’re like she is. Just because I’ve never met a Lycian before doesn’t mean I can’t see you’re clearly a superior specimen. I mean, top of the food chain in Lycian speak or whatever. Why aren’t you back home ruling the pack?”
“I’m the third son. My oldest brother already leads the pack in my father’s name. My next youngest brother is his right-hand man.”
“Ah, so like you have the heir, and then the spare, and what about you?”
“There are corollaries. I’ve got eleven brothers and four sisters. We each found our place and path. Mine led me here.”
She leaned forward, gripping the dashboard, getting her fingerprints everywhere, he was sure. “Holy crap. Simon, is that your house?”
Pride warmed him as she gawked at the grounds and the edifice of the house through the windshield.
“They’ve been building it for three years. Just finished everything a month ago.”
“You could totally play basketball in here.” She got out once he’d closed the garage door.
“I have a basketball court. Do you play?” He motioned toward the doors that led to the breezeway between the house and garage.
“Of course you do. Oh, my weapons are in my suitcase. I shouldn’t leave them out here. They’re kitted for taking down things far worse than a deer.”
The wolf inside him responded to Lark immediately because she was like him. A warrior to her essence.
“We can talk weapons while I get the steaks started.” He grabbed her bags from the trunk. “Come on.” He indicated the door to the breezeway. “Rest assured that this ground is safe.” He bowed his head and she realized he meant it. He took it as a matter of pride and responsibility that anyone on his land would receive safe passage. It was old-school honor.
“Thank you. This place is amazing. I’d like to be outside for a little while. Would you mind?”
“Let’s drop this in the house and I’ll take you to the gardens.”
As she let him lead her to the main house, she couldn’t help but admire everything she saw. The house sat on a large lot with a view from every window.
And she understood why he wanted to let her be in the gardens. He took her to the heart of his house and she felt the deep well of his connection to the land beneath them.
He put her bags down in an entryway.
“She likes you here. The earth,” she added, following her senses through his house, looking up at the soaring ceilings and walls of glass. It was just as clean and elegant as she’d imagined it would be. But with a surprising warmth and masculinity.
“Meriel says this too. It’s reassuring to hear it from another person I suppose. Welcome to my home, Lark Jaansen.” He bowed courtly.
“Thank you for having me here. This is beautiful.” She turned in a circle when he took her to his living space. “I was right.” She smiled at him.
“Should I be flattered?” He flipped a switch and the walls of windows opened up to a deck with a view that had her moving outside before she’d known to do it.
“Yes. It’s not serial-killer scary-neat. It’s clean and simple. You’ve created a place where nature is totally inherent to the overall design of the house.”
Three levels of decking and entertainment areas sprawled down the slope of the land.
“I wanted to occupy the land and still respect the shape and sense of wildness.”
Her breath caught as she stepped from her shoes and pulled her socks off. The intensity of connection to the well of magick at her feet shocked through her system. The font clicked into place as it accepted her, as the land at her feet recognized her as Owen through her connection to Gennessee. Their foremothers were the same and their magick still flowed strong here.
She breathed in deep, simply letting the energy hum through her system. “This is stunning, Simon. Truly.” She continued to meander and he steered her around one path and directed her back up toward the house.
“You’re not wearing shoes; that path is for shoes. Would you like a drink?”
“Yes, thank you.” She looked out over the mountainside and to the world below. “It’s crazy to me when I visit. Such a riot of nature here in this place. And yet just ten minutes down this m
ountain and you’re back into the buttoned-up control of a city. At home it’s different. My magick isn’t stronger or weaker, really, it’s just that the ways I access my magick are different. So much light, the salt of the ocean, the energy of all that humanity hums through the concrete.”
She followed him back inside and toward the large, open kitchen that shared the heart of the house.
“And here it’s as if I breathe the magick in through my pores.”
“Would you permit me to choose the drink?”
She shrugged. “Sure, why not?”
He went to a bar and studied it for long moments before he pulled a bottle out. She leaned against the counter and watched as he pulled two black stones from the freezer and put them in glasses. He poured the amber liquid—scotch; she could scent the oak of it—over the stones and then once again with the second glass.
“One of my brothers has a boutique whiskey distillery. Try.”
She breathed in the scent of the whiskey before she took a sip. The smoke of it danced across her tongue.
He didn’t pester her to ask what she thought. Instead he moved to the sink to roll up his sleeves and wash his hands.
“I like it. I’m not normally a whiskey drinker. But for this I’d make an exception. Can I help?”
He paused to look her over. “There are tomatoes over there on the counter. Fresh mozzarella in the fridge.”
She moved to wash her hands. “Do you have balsamic and olive oil?”
He snorted at her audacity. “Do I look like a man who wouldn’t have olive oil and balsamic?”
“I notice you’re less terse. Is it the whiskey?”
He laughed, putting the steaks on the grill on his center island as she cored and seeded tomatoes.
“I’ll let you know after the next glass.”
Chapter 2
“SO we’ve seen a distinct reduction in overall crime in our community since we’ve instituted this system of tactical units.”
Edwina Owen looked Lark over, one brow up. “Your hunters use human firearms and weaponry. That’s a complicated matter and raises the chances of discovery by human authorities when we obtain the necessary licenses.”
“It does indeed bring us into more contact with the human authorities. But Clan Gennessee can’t afford to lag behind what criminals of all sorts use to commit crimes. We have a higher concentration of incursion into our community by outside groups. Drugs and organized crime are on the rise. I can use magick, of course, and I do. But everyone gets depleted and a bullet does the trick in a pinch.”
Lark addressed the full governance council of Clan Owen. Nell and Gage were there as well, representing the hunter corps.
“And now the mages are working with turned witches and human separatists. They use guns. The human organized criminals we found last year had been working with witches to run a brisk business in prostitution and drugs. They use guns too. They use guns and explosives and they’ll hit a crowded street party filled with children just as easily as choose a military target.”
Meriel looked to Nell. “What do you think?”
“She’s right, and you’ll bear the scar that underlines her point.”
Meriel touched the place on her side where she’d been shot only two months before by mages.
Point made, Nell continued. “We found explosives in that warehouse. Homemade timers. Several small frag bombs. These people want to hurt us, kill us, take everything they can from us and they’re not only going to use magick. In fact, they won’t because we’re superior at it.”
Lark nodded. In total agreement.
“This isn’t Los Angeles.” Edwina wasn’t going to make this easy.
Lark shrugged. “No. It isn’t. You have a fairly decent relationship with your local wolf pack. Ours can be contentious at times. The largest vampire population in the United States is concentrated in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Overall your crime rate is lower. And yet your leader was shot in an attack by mages. Here on Owen land.”
“And this wouldn’t have happened on your watch?” Edwina Owen, who until only recently had held the seat of Clan Owen, was clearly insulted.
“It is not Gennessee’s intention to insult you. Your land is different. The challenges you face are different.” She looked to Nell, who, thank goodness, understood exactly why Lark was there.
“What I am saying is that I have a tactical team trained specifically to deal with hostage situations. Our job gets bigger each year. There was a time when all hunters did was round up witches who broke the rules of the clan. Seven months ago one of our witches had thrown in with a group running a meth lab. Oh true love. I had to send in a team to clean that up. Because I’d made connections with the local authorities, I was also able to get them involved to clean up the biohazard the lab had created.”
“My sister has less problems with being discovered by humans than I do.”
Meriel had warned her to be prepared for such an attack, and so she was. She stood her ground. Gennessee had nothing to apologize for.
“With all due respect, Ms. Owen, that doesn’t make it any less likely to happen. Being discovered will happen eventually. It’s not dependent on whether or not you believe in doing it. You tie the hands of your hunters when they’re not trained as they should be. They’re your best defense against external threats. Now we’re being hunted for our magick. We can be predators, or we can be prey. I know which I plan to be.”
Meriel gave her a discreet thumbs-up.
“If I may speak?” Nell stood and, even with the swell of her growing belly, continued to look entirely capable.
“Yes, please do.” Meriel motioned to Nell to continue.
“I’ve been quite open about my support for the idea of expanding our hunter teams to specialty units. I do believe that we’d have been far better able to meet the threat those mages posed us two months ago during that showdown if we’d had teams like Gennessee. We aren’t just sage-burning kitten-huggers. We face threats darker and larger than ever before.”
Meriel leaned back and looked them both over. Edwina stayed silent. Meriel had taken the reins of leadership of Clan Owen just a few months prior, but the changes had already begun.
That had to be hard on mother and daughter both.
“What is your sense of next steps then, Nell?” Meriel asked.
“With the permission of the governance council, I would like to set up some special teams. Get them up and running, get people trained. Lark has offered to help with this project. And in addition, Lark and I, in conjunction with Arel from Rodas Clan and several other hunter team leaders across the United States and Canada, would like to set up one large unified team to deal with the threat the mages pose. We’ve got a turned witch on the loose who’s working with the mages. And that’s just the one we know about. There are others. There will continue to be others.”
Dominic Bright, Meriel’s bond-mate and soon-to-be-husband, sighed. “Nell and Lark are right.”
“Make it happen. Keep me apprised. Lark, I’d like it if you could help not only the hunters here, but our rank and file membership.”
“I’m under orders to share and help as I can.” Which was sort of true.
Berkley titles by Lauren Dane
HEART OF DARKNESS
NEVER ENOUGH
THREE TO TANGO
(with Emma Holly, Megan Hart, and Bethany Kane)
MESMERIZED
INSIDE OUT
INSATIABLE
COMING UNDONE
LAID BARE
RELENTLESS
UNDERCOVER
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10<
br />
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Berkley titles by Lauren Dane