She didn’t know what to do, but she vowed to find out and to take back what was hers, even if it meant losing her own life in the process. Whatever was out there causing that much damage was no small ordeal. She might have thrown in the towel during Warden and Milan’s fight, but she’d be damned if she’d let her entire city-wide brood of Loups be slaughtered. They were her responsibility, just like they’d been her mother’s and her mother’s mother’s. She wasn’t about to let this go without a fight.
She closed her eyes for a moment and saw Whiskers’s innocent face. It took all she had to keep her tears from running anew.
As they bounced along the highway in the battered pickup, she felt a searing heartache for all she left burned and buried behind her. Now she was heading back to a city that most people thought existed for one big, continuous party.
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
Chapter 6
“We’re going to have to change the time we have lunch. This simply will not work. They give me indigestion,” Vanessa Crane said. She crinkled her nose at the three gentlemen who sat four tables away from them in the Bon Appétit Café.
She sat with the other two Elders of the Circle of Sisters, Arabella Matthews and Taka Burnside. They lunched at their usual table at the front window, where they could watch the pedestrians go by.
Arabella, who was spearing a grilled shrimp from her Caesar salad and drinking tea sweetened with marmalade and sugar, turned her head slightly to have a look at what had Vanessa so flustered. She frowned. “They’re just eating like we are. Why do you let them bother you so much?”
Taka, who was munching her way through a cheeseburger with curly fries and enjoying a Diet Coke said, “We can’t change the time we eat. You know that we have to be here at 11:45 a.m. If we come later or earlier, I’ll get indigestion. I have to eat at this time, and we have to come here. They can go and eat somewhere else if something has to change. I’ll go tell them myself if I have to.”
Arabella, head Elder of the Circle of Sisters, said, “Don’t be ridiculous, Taka. Let’s enjoy our lunch, and they’ll be gone soon enough.”
The café was packed with people, everyone chatting in cheerful, low tones with forks clanking against china plates, glasses tinkling against one another and waitresses buzzing about tending to customers. The small establishment was decorated in blues and silver with white linen tablecloths. Whether you chose a cheeseburger or a filet mignon from the menu, the food was always served on china and crystal. Evette exuded class when it came to serving her customers, which was why the café was always so full.
Despite the cheerfulness of the place and the beautiful day radiating through the window, Vanessa kept the sneer on her face as she took a bite of her crab cake and roasted green beans. Every few seconds, she’d throw a look over at the three men and wrinkle her nose.
Arabella shook her head. They had so much more to worry about than the three sorcerers sitting nearby. But once Vanessa got something stuck in her head, there was no reasoning with her.
At sixty-five, she was the same age as Arabella. Today, she wore a black polyester pantsuit printed with red and yellow flowers and pink slippers. It was the only type of shoe she ever wore. She was a constant worrier and often forgetful. She wore her auburn-dyed hair in a chin-length sweep-over, had an aquiline nose, brown eyes and always wore wine-red lipstick. Vanessa loved costume jewelry and a lot of it. Her ears weren’t pierced, so she had black-and-white baubles, the same size and color of her necklace, clamped to her earlobes.
Taka, on the other hand, wore an electric blue over-shirt on top of a black blouse along with a string of pearls and a turquoise necklace. Her earrings were turquoise, as well, but the size of broaches. She was a week shy of sixty-nine, had snow-white hair that she wore in a tousled pixie cut, blue eyes and a snub nose.
Arabella had chosen to dress a little more conservatively for lunch. She wore a light pink silk blouse and white linen pants, which, when eating at Bon Appétit, wasn’t always a great idea, especially when sitting beside Vanessa and Taka. Something was bound to be spilled. She had to work at enjoying her salad and ignoring Vanessa’s constant smirks at the sorcerers.
Vanessa called them “the three amigos.” Regardless, they were the only real sorcerers in New Orleans.
The trio included Trey Cottle, who looked to be in his late sixties or early seventies, and was someone Arabella absolutely abhorred. He had a bulbous beak, wore thick, black glasses, had a bald head save for a three-inch wrap of hair around the back of it, and sniffled every few seconds. It wasn’t his looks that bothered Arabella as it was what he stood for. Arrogance. He used his sorcery for personal gain. He owned the law firm of Cottle and Black, was part owner of a casino, and he drank like a fish. No matter the time of day, you could always count on Trey having a bourbon close at hand.
Across from Trey sat his law partner, Shandor Black. Shandor looked to be in his midsixties, had a hawk nose, wore wire-rimmed glasses and had a badly wrinkled face with thin lips that held a perpetual scowl. He was well-groomed in a new brown suit, but no matter what Shandor wore, it didn’t change his face.
Arabella didn’t care for Shandor either, but for different reasons. Just two weeks ago at the café, Arabella had noticed him eyeing Evette like she’d been a juicy, four-inch ribeye. What a letch. And even worse, he was Trey’s yes-man. Had his nose so far up his partner’s butt, Arabella didn’t know how he breathed.
Beside Shandor sat Gunner Stern, a handsome gentleman who looked to be near seventy years old. He had a Greek nose, a wide forehead due to a severely receding hairline, a well-trimmed mustache and was always well dressed and well spoken. His bright blue eyes always seemed to sparkle, and the crow’s-feet around his eyes gave testament to a man who smiled often.
He glanced over suddenly and caught Arabella staring at him. She blushed and he smiled. She returned the smile and quickly looked away. She didn’t have any idea why Gunner hung around Trey and Shandor. He owned his own art gallery, which did quite a brisk business. Maybe it was simply because the three men were sorcerers and like attracted like. For lunch and breakfast anyway.
“We have business to discuss,” Arabella said and took a sip of her marmalade tea. She leaned toward Taka and Vanessa. “The Triads are in trouble,” she said, keeping her voice low.
“Again?” Vanessa said. “Who’d they piss off now?”
“Not that kind of trouble,” Arabella said. “We’re talking serious. Very serious.”
Taka’s mouth dropped open, revealing chewed-up curly fries.
“For heaven’s sake, close your mouth,” Arabella told her.
“What happened?” Vanessa asked, then looked about conspiratorially. “Should we be talking about this here? Someone might overhear, like those nosey sorcerers. They’d love to know some of our sisters are in trouble. They’d revel in it.”
“I don’t have specifics. Picked it up this morning during meditation and wanted to give both of you a heads-up.”
“Why didn’t you tell us then?” Vanessa asked.
“You’ve known me long enough to know the answer to that,” Arabella said.
“’Cause she wanted to make sure, that’s why,” Taka said, a bit too loudly. “But if they’re in trouble, why aren’t we doing something about it?”
Arabella shushed her, then leaned in closer. “Because they have to come to us, you know that. You both know how this works. We can’t interfere in their business and control every move they make. They have to stand on their own feet. We can’t intercede until they come to us.”
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Taka said suddenly and got up from the table, clutching her purse to her chest. Arabella watched as she wove her way through the tables to get to the back of the café.
“Surely there has to be some kind of dispensation if the matt
er is serious like you said,” Vanessa whispered.
“There isn’t.”
Vanessa shoveled more crab cake into her mouth, her brow furrowing deeper. “Did they kill or kidnap somebody?”
“Oh, please. Now you’re starting to sound like Taka,” Arabella snipped. “I didn’t sense anything like that. All that feels certain is that we need to be prepared to help as best we can.”
What Arabella didn’t tell Vanessa was that she felt the Triads would indeed be coming soon, and she dreaded the hour. Something big was about to go down. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she knew the situation was dire. As high-strung as Vanessa and Taka were, she wasn’t about to share that bit of information with them until the triplets arrived.
“My word, look,” Vanessa said. “Here come the three amigos.” Abruptly, she sat up straight. She took the linen napkin from her lap and dabbed the corners of her mouth with it.
Arabella threw a side glance to her right and spotted Trey, Shandor and Gunner getting up from their table and heading over to the cashier’s podium. Mid-route, however, Trey turned on his heel with Shandor following closely in step and walked right up to the Elders’ table.
“How lovely to see you again, Arabella,” Trey said. “Vanessa.”
“Hello, Mr. Cottle,” Arabella said briskly. “Mr. Black, Mr. Stern.” She smiled when Gunner nodded at her with a grin.
“So wonderful to see you, Arabella,” Gunner said. “I must say, you look quite lovely today.”
Arabella felt her cheeks flush. “Thank you.”
“We don’t want to interrupt your meal,” Trey said. “But we saw you sitting here and didn’t want to be rude and not at least say hello.” He turned to his brown-noser. “Shandor, why don’t you go ahead and take care of the bill?”
Shandor, with his perpetual scowl, simply nodded and left to do as he was told.
“You know,” Trey said to Arabella, “since my office is so close to the café, we eat here often. And more times than not, we see the three of you here. The six of us should schedule a lunch date. Catch up on old times and all the new things happening in the city since Katrina. You know, we do have some things in common. We may be on opposite sides of an odd fence, but we both water the same type of lawns.”
Vanessa grabbed Arabella’s hand under the table, her signal for, Don’t you dare say yes!
Arabella worked up a smile, knowing Trey to be a snake in the grass. She needed a second to come up with a polite excuse. Chances were if she had caught wind of the fact that the Triads were in trouble and something was about to go down, so had Trey. The reason for his invitation was obvious. He wanted to milk them for more information.
“We’ll see what we can manage,” Arabella finally said. “Thank you for stopping by. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Trey grinned, and it came across as a sneer. “We hope you can manage something soon,” he said. “Have a nice day, ladies.” Then he turned and walked away in his black slacks, white dress shirt and pink tie.
Gunner didn’t follow Trey right away. He stayed behind and held out a hand to Arabella. She took it without thinking and enjoyed the warmth and strength that exuded from his palm.
He shook Arabella’s hand gently, holding her gaze. “Hopefully we’ll be seeing you again soon.” He released her hand and nodded at Vanessa. “Good day, Miss Vanessa.” He smiled, then walked away.
The front door had just started to close behind the men when Arabella spotted Taka waddling back to their table. The timing couldn’t have been better. Taka often had trouble holding her tongue, and there was no way of knowing what she might have said with the sorcerers around, especially considering the issue with the Triads.
“He’s sweet on you,” Vanessa said with a smirk.
Arabella frowned. “Who?”
“Gunner, of course. I saw the way he looked at you and shook your hand.”
“Don’t be silly, and hush, Taka’s coming.”
“The hand towels,” Taka said, when she reached the table, still clutching her purse to her chest. “There’s a shortage of hand towels in the ladies’ restroom. That would upset Evette greatly if she knew. We should alert someone.”
“Let’s finish our meal,” Arabella said. “Then we’ll let Margaret know about the towels and ask her if she’s seen Evette.” She said that more to console Taka than anything. She knew Evette wasn’t here. She was somewhere with her sisters at this very moment. Arabella could almost feel them roiling in whatever chaos they’d clashed with.
Arabella went back to her meal, eating slowly. She wasn’t looking forward to the Triads’ visit.
Not at all.
Chapter 7
After parking the pickup under a lean-to near the ferry dock, Nikoli killed the engine and turned to Viv. She sat at the far end of the bench seat with her head back and eyes closed. Dusk had pushed against the sun, causing shadows to play over her face. He wanted to touch her cheek, soothe the weariness on her face, the worry lines from her brow.
The first time Nikoli had seen Viv back at the Triads’ home, when she’d yanked her front door open obviously madder than a hornet, he’d gone numb. When she’d shot out of sight, Lucien had asked her sisters if Viv was all right, given the blood splattered in her hair and on her clothes. For some reason, Nikoli had instinctively known it wasn’t her blood.
In fact, all he’d really seen were her large, cobalt blue eyes, heart-shaped face with high cheekbones, and full lips and small nose, all of it orchestrated over a flawless, olive complexion. When they were offered entrance into the house, Nikoli had caught sight of Viv bolting up the stairs, long, slender legs clad in blood-stained jeans. A Bombay cat with gold eyes had followed at her heels.
Viv looked a lot like her sisters, but they were not identical triplets. All three had black hair and the same basic facial features, but the color of their eyes varied greatly. While Viv’s were heart-stopping cobalt, Gilly’s were as black as a moonless night sky and Evee’s the color of well-polished copper.
When he first caught sight of Viv, Nikoli had felt the air charge with an electrifying energy. His heart began to beat so hard he feared his cousins might hear it slamming against the inside of his chest. Vivienne François was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever seen.
During the time they’d spoken in the sitting room, despite the severity of the conversation, Nikoli had caught Viv’s scent. Lilac with an earthy undertone and latent sexuality that seemed ready to explode at any moment.
Not only was she beautiful, but he admired her mind, her wit, her confidence and determination. It took extreme willpower to keep his mind on business whenever she was near.
When they’d met up with Jaco again at the North compound, Nikoli had stayed near, on alert for more Cartesians, while Viv tended to business.
Jaco had told Viv that he’d spoken to Aaron, her West pack leader, and filled him in on what had occurred at the North compound. He also gave her a head count of the remaining Loup Garou as she’d requested.
She told him to put his second in command in charge of his pack and then have Aaron do the same. She wanted Jaco and Aaron to return to the North compound and, using protective gloves that she’d pulled out of her pickup, they were to repair the fence and gate surrounding the compound.
Nikoli knew Loups to be fast and strong, so it made sense for her to issue the command. The gloves made sense as well, for a Loup couldn’t tolerate silver. It shocked their hearts into arrhythmia or, depending on the degree of contact, stopped their hearts altogether.
Nikoli shifted ever so slightly, and Viv opened her eyes and sat upright in the truck.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” Nikoli said.
“Wasn’t sleeping,” she said, staring out of the windshield. “Worried about leaving the Loups.”
“Having Aaron bring his troop to the North compound was a smart idea,” Nikoli said.
“Tell Jaco that,” she said with a shake of her head. “He wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.”
When Viv had told Jaco to have Aaron bring his pack to the North compound so all her Loups in the city would be in one place, Jaco had argued vehemently against it. So much so that for a moment, Nikoli thought he’d physically attack Viv. But she’d held her own. Even when Jaco told her, “Why do you want us to bring all the Loups here when you couldn’t even protect the ones who were here?”
“I thought you were going to punch him,” Nikoli said.
“Wanted to,” Viv said, then turned to him. “Why the hell are you here, Nikoli? You and your cousins claim you came here to help, yet a large group of my Loups were slaughtered. What kind of help is that?”
Before he could respond, Viv opened her door and jumped out of the truck. He had to hurry to reach her before she took off on the small ferry without him.
As the engine hummed and water lapped against the sides of the ferry, Nikoli stepped closer to her. Viv turned away from him, which sent an odd, sharp pain through Nikoli’s heart. “I was in your home when the attack happened. As well trained as we are, there was no way for me or my cousins to pick up their scent and prevent the attack.”
She whirled about to face him, and they were nearly nose to nose. Nikoli gritted his teeth to keep himself in check. Despite the circumstances and the fury on her face, he had an overwhelming urge to kiss her.
“According to your story, the four of you were summoned here. Scent or no scent, shouldn’t that have given you a clue that an attack was imminent?”
Reluctantly, Nikoli took a step back to make room for her anger. “What would you have had me do? Go right to the compound without talking to you and your sisters first?”
“To save my Loups, yes!” This time she stepped toward him, and he saw tears trickling down her cheeks. “Look, buddy, if this is the best you and your cousins have to offer, you can get yourself right back to the airport. We don’t need you.”
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