"Me, too," Evalle agreed, glad to feel harmony return. "I know a place just east of the park that's open all night."
"Works for me," Adrianna agreed. "I have my car here. I can drop you at Storm's SUV."
When they reached Adrianna's Lexus sedan, she slid into the driver's seat as Storm held the front passenger door for Evalle.
Adrianna murmured, "What's up with him?"
Evalle whispered, "Think he's tired. He ran all the way here from South Georgia in his jaguar form."
Once Evalle and Storm transferred to his truck, Storm drove silently as Adrianna followed them to the Metro Cafe Diner, which stayed open twenty-four-seven. Evalle's mouth started watering as soon as she entered the cafe. She slid into one of the red vinyl booths with Storm on her right and Adrianna across from them.
Vintage rock played softly in the background, entertaining a dozen customers enjoying late-night meals. A little quiet for a Saturday night, but it was close to midnight at a diner in a peaceful suburb. Not some party club in downtown Atlanta. Two young men sat at the bar nursing beers and thumbing their smart phones. They'd paused long enough to scope out Adrianna and Evalle until Storm had unloaded his alpha stare in their direction.
The men decided to stick to safer entertainment on the internet.
Adrianna requested hot tea, but Storm and Evalle made up for her meager request with their food orders. Between shifting from human form to jaguar and racing back to Atlanta on four legs, Storm must have burned a ton of calories. Evalle hadn't eaten a decent meal since he'd left, mainly because she'd been eating her own food.
Grabbing a meal now took the pressure off of her cooking at home.
Score.
With the waitress out of the way, Adrianna leaned forward and said, "Give me a moment and I'll create a privacy spell that will allow the waitress to pass through when she returns."
Storm's fingers covered Evalle's hand, warming her from the soul out again. Maybe he was only tired, as she'd told Adrianna.
Adrianna leaned back, closed her eyes and murmured a soft chant. When she sat forward again, she asked, "Can you free up some time very soon?"
"I can, but Evalle doesn't need to help," Storm answered before Evalle had a chance to speak.
She gritted her teeth and said, "We both made commitments to Adrianna. We're both paying up. End of discussion."
A flash of anger rushed off of Storm. Too bad.
He had to get past this uber-protective mode he was in. Had she known becoming his mate was going to flip a switch and throw him into overdrive when it came to her safety, she wouldn't have ...
Okay, she still would have become his mate.
Regardless, they lived in a dangerous world, and Adrianna had come through more than once on tight timelines. Evalle would not put her off any longer if Adrianna had something pressing.
Plus, Evalle had wanted to know Adrianna's secrets for a long time. No Sterling witch joined VIPER just for the exercise.
Evalle said, "We should be able to get a couple days off after the last few weeks of nonstop work for VIPER. What do you need us to do?"
Storm said nothing, but he did lean in to listen.
Adrianna drew herself up, shoulders back like a polite child waiting to recite English homework. "I came to VIPER for a reason. They needed a dark witch and I needed to find someone powerful enough to help me, but also a being I could trust to not betray me. That limits the field greatly. I didn't expect to find two, but it will give us a better chance of succeeding."
Evalle had heard some of the Beladors speculating about Adrianna's reason for joining up, but no one ever had real knowledge. The witch kept to herself and had been judicious in making friends, but she'd clearly decided that Evalle and Storm deserved her confidence.
Not a bad bet since Adrianna had held Evalle's confidence more than once.
Other than the occasional half smile, Adrianna rarely expressed emotion. She might appear to be a petite, even fragile, woman, but Evalle had seen the uber-feminine blonde pull out a can of witch whoopass and the sight had been impressive.
After fighting a yawn, Evalle wanted this moved along faster. "I think the three of us have proven we can trust each other, so what is it you need us to do?"
"Help me reach my sister who is being held captive by another witch."
Storm leaned in, intent now. "Is the goddess over the Medb coven holding your sister?"
"No."
She felt relief rush off of Storm as he leaned back. "From what Evalle told me, you took on the witch doctor who had me trapped in Mitnal. With that kind of juice, why do you need our help?"
"Because my sister, Ragan, and I are twins. Ragan is the more powerful twin. The witch holding her is drawing Ragan's power and will soon be more powerful than any other single witch--maybe even any other group of witches--if she isn't stopped."
Evalle asked, "What will it take to rescue Ragan?"
"To steal her from a realm protected by ancient guardians who were once living members of a powerful coven."
Chapter 7
Storm sat forward, staring at Adrianna. He had no idea who really lived inside that body and mind if she thought he'd go along with taking Evalle into another hostile realm. "Are you serious?"
Evalle's jaw had dropped. "Is it even possible to get to her?"
Reaching both hands behind her head in a moment of what looked like exasperation, Adrianna grabbed her blond hair and wrapped it into a quick knot of some kind at the base of her neck. When she brought her hands back to the table and folded them together, she took a deep breath.
Storm felt frustration flow out of Adrianna like water, then she said, "If this was easy I'd have done it alone by now. If I allow that witch to continue cooking my sister's majik, Ragan will end up a shadow, unable to die or to cross the veil to rest even if she could die."
"I'm in, but that's ... insane," Evalle said, voice falling off in disbelief.
Adrianna said, "I understand, but-"
"No," Storm growled. "I'll go with Adrianna."
"No!" Evalle crossed her arms and turned those gorgeous eyes on him that, even through the dark lenses of her glasses, dared him to dare her. "We both agreed to help. We both owe her. It sounds like it's going to take everything we can throw at this witch to stop her and save Ragan."
Storm leaned toward Evalle until they were nose to nose. "You don't even know what you're going up against."
"I rarely know what I'm up against. What makes this any different?"
He had no argument for that, but neither was he giving in. "I'm the one with witch blood and majik."
"Actually," Adrianna said, interrupting, "I was thinking I'd take Evalle with me so you could stand guard, Storm."
Taking a second to keep from blasting Adrianna, Storm took another approach. He'd drive the conversation toward better planning. "From what Evalle told me, you took on a witch doctor who was an evil piece of work supercharged by a demon king, and you won. That's pretty damn powerful. Why not bring in more witches to help?"
Adrianna rubbed her temple and said, "For one thing, the witches I've gotten to know since coming here are white witches who are not about to get involved in anything they'd see as dark majik. Number two is that if they do get involved, they'll probably end up dying."
"Well that's encouraging," Evalle interjected.
Adrianna shoved a quick flash of attitude back at Evalle, but continued in that disturbingly calm tone. "I'm not saying that getting Ragan back doesn't come with danger, but these witches have no idea what they'd be up against and frankly, after watching them try to form a council, I doubt they could agree on anything soon enough to be of use to me."
Evalle snapped her fingers. "Oh, yeah, you never finished telling me about that. Something with Rowan and Nicole, right?"
"That's because you weren't listening."
"I am now," Evalle answered dryly.
"I don't know anything about a council," Storm admitted.
Adrian
na acknowledged his comment with a tilt of her head. "There have been no major covens, white or dark, in this region for a long time. Only small, independent groups, though some of those are powerful. Now that the Medb is dumping a constant flow of dark witches into Atlanta, all the small covens and solitary white witches are banding together to form a council under the pretext of policing their own." She gave a snarky chuckle. "Let's say they're trying to band together. The truth is they want to concentrate their power, which is not a bad idea for defense if the Medb attempt to undermine the white witch community, but now Rowan and her peers are bugging me about getting involved."
Evalle waved her hand at that. "But why would they want a Sterling witch? And, for that matter, why aren't you calling in big guns from your own coven?"
"Because I'm not aligned with the Sterlings either," Adrianna admitted softly. She met Storm's eyes as she finally answered, "Bottom line is that I don't have any other witches to call in." Her throat worked in a hard swallow, and he sensed a wave of grief wash over her, then as quickly as he'd felt it, the emotion was gone. "And by next week it may not matter."
"Why?"
"Because of what we have to do."
Tired of dancing around a topic that sent his blood pressure boiling every time the idea of Evalle being involved came up, Storm asked, "And what exactly is that?"
Adrianna's sigh carried a weight that sagged her shoulders. "Let me start from the beginning and explain everything first. As I said, my sister Ragan is being held in another realm. A parallel universe that was created by the ancestors of the witch who took her captive." Adrianna paused, sliding her intense blue eyes to Storm when she admitted, "I would do this alone if I could, but there is too much at stake to risk failure."
Storm studied her a moment. "What's at stake besides your sister?"
"The supernatural powers within this world. Freedom. Humanity. Take your pick."
"All the powers?" Evalle asked.
"Yes. Anyone with nonhuman powers would be at risk, depending on their vulnerability."
Storm asked, "What witch could be that threatening?"
"One who can wield Witchlock."
Storm took a moment, searching for any memory. "Never heard of it."
Evalle lifted her shoulders, indicating she hadn't either.
Adrianna placed her hands on the table top, stacking them neatly again. Storm got the feeling she was drawing power in some way to soothe herself. "Few have heard of it. Witchlock originated in the ninth century Current Era, and was practiced in secret until the thirteenth century, then the coven where it originated disappeared.
"Later, major covens such as the Sterlings, the Medb, the Diamond Bright Truth and Viaje de la Luz all assumed that any descendants who possessed remnants of Witchlock power had become a nonissue after so many decades."
"Whoa." Evalle lifted a hand. "The Medb and Sterlings are dark witches, and you know I'm not slighting you because you're a Sterling."
"I know."
"But the Diamond Bright Truth and Viaje de la Luz are not dark witches. So what's the tie between all this?"
Adrianna explained, "Most of the world believes that there are only light and dark witches, because few contemporary covens are even aware of a third group known as KievRus. That name came from the Kievan Rus area that Ukraine and Russia consider the first East Slavic state."
Evalle yawned. "Aren't Sterlings from that area?"
"Sterling blood can be traced back to medieval Scotland, which was inhabited by the Norse-Gaels-"
"Vikings?"
"Basically, yes, but the Sterlings eventually migrated to Ukraine, which is now their home even though many live in different parts of the world."
Storm noted how Adrianna talked of the Sterlings as if she had not been born one. Something was seriously off between her and her coven.
"Got it." Evalle yawned again, sounding as beat as she looked.
Storm would call a halt to this and suggest they meet after everyone had some rest, but there was no way he'd get Evalle to let go of this tale when they were finally going to find out so much about Adrianna.
His earlier irritation had evaporated once he had Evalle safe and close beside him. Normally he could control his temper around her, but not when she constantly put herself first in danger and last in value. He was slowly changing that, helping her understand that she mattered, but since he'd mated with her, all he could think about was just how precious a gift he had, and how he'd never survive losing her. The thought of anything happening to her was ... he couldn't even consider it.
Still, the possibility had been at the forefront of his mind the whole time he'd been gone.
Then he'd come home to find her one slip from plummeting to her death.
Drawing in a calming breath, he put his arm around Evalle's shoulders and pulled her to him. She smiled up in response and his heart took note, beating like a war drum.
Adrianna made a noise in her throat, which drew a grin from Evalle. The witch said, "Are you two still with me?"
Storm said, "Yes." Then he ticked off a condensed version. "A third player in the world of witches, apparently neither white nor dark, which originated in the ninth century in Kievan Rus. What makes this coven different from others?"
"KievRus originally formed with the idea of being an objective force for the people, which meant doing whatever they felt necessary to protect the masses from oppressive rulers and other threats, whether that involved using white or dark majik. Instead of sacrificing a human or an animal to power the origin, the two who started all this each gave of their own blood and created a spell that bonded their blood with all of the elements, but especially that of the air."
Evalle lifted her head from where she'd propped it on her hand. "Why air?"
"Because, of all the elements, air can affect water, fire and earth."
"Okay, so what has all that got to do with your sister or you?"
"I'm getting to that. I'm trying to give you as short a story as possible, but this happened over many centuries and you need to understand what we'll be up against. The bottom line is that the empire known as Kievan Rus had a population of both Slavic and Scandinavian people. It was founded by Vikings ... depending on which history you follow. But let's say mine is correct."
"What if it's not?" Evalle asked with a bit of taunt.
"Let me make this simple. It. Is. Correct."
Evalle snorted at Adrianna's rare show of temper and Storm couldn't stop his chuckle.
Adrianna shot them both a glare and said, "During the time the Slavics and Vikings coexisted, a secret coven of powerful beings grew from those two who gave their blood. One of the original blood donors was a woman who called herself Heide and was loosely described as a descendant of an immortal Norse sorceress named Gullveig. Heide might have been part fae as well. She married Volkov and he was believed to be a shaman from Ukraine, but today we'd call him a witch."
"That'd be a scary mix," Evalle said. "So they started a coven, right?"
Adrianna nodded.
"Is it still around?"
"The KievRus coven was believed wiped out when the Mongols invaded Kievan Rus."
Storm thought a moment. "Are you talking about the Khan witch hunts?"
"No. Those events were quite public and the Mongols did not fear going after those witches because the public was aware of them.
"Over the years, just to protect their identities and location, the KievRus coven fed rumors to convince the general public they were only a myth. But one witch got a burr up her backside, probably because she was not powerful enough to ever hold a position of leadership. She betrayed them."
"Got it."
Adrianna continued, "Mongol soldiers were sent covertly to behead the coven members, and the soldiers returned after being gone for four months, claiming to have killed the entire coven. But they did not bring back even one head, nor could they recall the path of their journey. Things were quiet, so everyone believed they'd been succes
sful. They weren't, but the coven lost its leader--the one who wielded Witchlock--and at that point they truly became more myth than reality. They took what was left of their group and went underground."
Adrianna looked introspective for a moment before going on. "Fast forward to the late twentieth century. Two decades ago, rumors circulated that the KievRus coven was active again. Across all this time, elders in the Sterling coven have refused to dismiss an ancient foretelling that a leader would arise to once again wield the power."
Storm asked, "They haven't had another to wield Witchlock in all this time?"
"Not until now. The new leader has arisen, and the time approaches when she will come into power. She's called Veronika, and she's a direct descendant of Heide. Publicly, the KievRus refused to involve themselves in the world or its politics. But many Sterling elders suspect that the KievRus have always had a hand in directing world events from wherever they hid during each century, and that their majik has ultimately influenced many changes in the mortal world. Now Veronika is in position to take control."
"You've met her?"
"Yes. As I mentioned, the Sterling family line has Norse origins just as KievRus do. Veronika and some of the Sterling coven share blood."
Storm leaned forward. "I hope I'm wrong about where you're going with this."
Adrianna glanced at Storm, then back at Evalle before she answered.
"When Veronika's family surfaced again twenty years ago, they stated that the new leader had been born, and offered to allow the Sterlings to continue to exist without threat from Veronika once she came into power if the Sterlings would hand over blood in exchange when the time came to pay up."
Storm breathed a soft curse. Sometimes it sucks to be right.
"Your people sacrificed someone in their own coven to Veronika?" Evalle asked, clearly appalled.
"Blood wasn't actually shed, but an agreement was struck and blood was handed over," Adrianna explained. "When Veronika came to collect, she demanded the most powerful of our next generation. That is my sister, Ragan. Veronika locked her into a timeless stasis so Veronika could draw on Ragan to form the power nucleus for the rebirth of Witchlock." Adrianna paused, then added, "At least, I originally thought the stasis was timeless."
Evalle sat forward again, obviously thinking it through. "Why would they do that? Hand over their most powerful resource to another coven when that leader hadn't come into power yet?"
Witchlock Page 5