His Witch To Keep (Keepers of the Veil)

by Zoe Forward

  He shrugged.

  “That’s it. That’s fucking it. You will answer one of my questions or I’m jumping out of this car right now.” She popped up the lock and opened the door of the moving car.

  He reached across her lap and yanked the door shut. “I might’ve followed you here once. It’s not hard to watch someone else enter a code. Pretty low-tech, in my opinion, for security.”

  “Why didn’t you share this information with your OLM boss?”

  He glanced at her, hesitation in his gaze. “My loyalty has never been to the OLM.”

  “What do you mean? Why do you work for them, then?”

  “We will discuss why, just not right now. Eli is dying.” He pulled in front of the elevator. “Wait here. Let me get Eli in the elevator first.” He lifted Eli out of the backseat.

  “I don’t need help.” She opened her door.

  “Please, don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

  Her exit wasn’t the smooth hop she’d envisioned. An onlooker would think her drunk with the amount of door clutching and pulling required to get her on two feet. Oh, my, it was a long walk to the elevator. One step away from the car and her head swirled with vertigo.

  Alexi caught her before she went down. “Damn it. I told you to wait.” He carried her to the elevator. Before he put her down, he frowned and gazed down at her, his expression unreadable.

  Hurt and scared, she realized she didn’t trust anyone other than him to keep her safe and help her with Liz’s kidnappers. The druids were compromised. There was at least one mole that had broken into her house. She might have major personal issues with Alexi, but he’d protect her. He might even help her, if she let him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his chest again. “Don’t leave me.”

  “You need your healer.”

  She looked up at him.

  His eyes darted to the ceiling. “I can’t follow you up there…for so many reasons.”

  She cupped the back of his head, pulling his lips to hers. The minute his warm, soft lips touched her, she groaned. So right. Her tongue tickled along the seam of his lips until he opened. She stroked her tongue against his.

  He stumbled to lean against the wall of the elevator and growled in response. Abruptly, he pulled away.

  She moaned complaint and tried to pull his head back to her. “Please.”

  “Get healed first. Then call me. But only call if you are ready to tell me who threatens you and you’ll listen to me in order to resolve the situation. You need to go.”

  She buried her head in his neck, silently begging him not to leave her.

  He pulled her tight against him. Hoarsely, he said, “I need for you to do this, ragana. To take care of yourself. One more minute with you here and I…might not let you go. You need to hurry. Your druid is not long for this world bleeding like that.”

  “I’ll go, but you have to tell me one truth about yourself. Prove I can trust you. That me voluntarily coming to you for help won’t end up being about you dictating and me not knowing what the hell is going on.”

  His face softened. “All right, mano ragana. One truth.”

  My witch. Didn’t that just send shivers down her back. “What are you? I know you’re not druid.”

  He hung his head. “I’ve never told anyone. It’s not that I don’t trust you with this information. I’m not supposed to.”

  She touched his cheek, a silent plea for him to share.

  He whispered on an exhale, “I’m a death reaper.” The force of the emotion in his eyes stole her breath. She didn’t know what the title meant, although it sounded terrifying. Yet he’d given her a small piece of himself, a piece he’d never shared with anyone else.

  “Thank you.” She nodded and pushed away from him in a signal for him to put her down, although every instinct in her screamed not to leave him.

  He gently placed her on the floor. His face scrunched up into a pained expression. “Do not mention me to Bryce. I might have threatened him a bit in the past. He doesn’t care for me very much.”

  He made a call me sign next to his ear as the elevator doors slammed shut.

  No. Come back. Her finger paused a millimeter from pressing the door-open button. Her gaze slid to Eli. He needed healing now. She owed him so much for protecting her now and in the past. For believing in her. She tapped the button for the top floor, and her legs buckled. She landed into a sit beside him. Her mind swirled and she blinked at the double vision of the number pad. Blood loss and adrenaline aftermath. Had to stay awake.

  As the elevator powered upward, she whispered to Eli, “Don’t die. Hang in there.”

  She brushed the hair off his face and leaned down to kiss his forehead. “Thank you.”

  When the metal doors slid open on the top floor, she stared at Bryce’s entry door across the hallway and willed herself to move, but couldn’t summon enough strength.

  She texted Matt: In elevator. Need help.

  Her head fell back against the mirrored walls as the elevator doors slammed shut. The car remained on the upper level.

  Seconds later the elevator doors opened. Matt, Eli’s mirror image minus his large facial scar, glowered at the two of them. Equally muscled, tall and handsome, Matt was a force, especially now that he not only CEOed an international tech-weaponry corporation, but also because he’d been promoted to druid leader a few months ago. “Damn it,” Matt announced after scanning the two of them.

  She struggled to a stand, waving off his help. Pain shot down her side when she moved, although she refused to vocalize the agony. She waved at Eli. “I can make it on my own. He needs you much more than me.”

  Her side sizzled with pain with each step of her trek into the penthouse. She touched along her side, discovering she’d been hit not just in her arm. How hadn’t she noticed?

  “Help him first.” She pointed at Eli as she gripped the edge of the sofa for balance. “He’s in worse shape.”

  “No. You first.” Matt said.

  Bryce’s solid, heavily muscled six-foot-plus frame appeared next to her. His familiar bullheaded expression meant he was about to get tough. She’d locked horns with him—the recently retired head druid—over her security more times than she could count. He said, “Matt’s right. You are our priority.”

  She glared up at Bryce, wanting to argue, but was too weak to do much more than stare. The only coherent thought passing through her brain was to ask him about Alexi. Alexi said he and Bryce had a run-in. Why hadn’t Bryce mentioned that ever? How egotistical to think that run-in might’ve been about her.

  “Sit.” Bryce ordered.

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to get blood all over this. Got a towel or something to throw over it?”

  Matt’s wife, Kat, appeared with a bath towel. Once the sofa was appropriately draped, Kat glanced between her and Bryce, no doubt picking up her mental ponderings, as was her skill as a Pleiades witch. “You okay?”

  She nodded and squeezed her hand as she accepted Kat’s help to sit. “I’ll make it.” She requested of Matt, “Please, help Eli first.”

  Matt crossed his arms. “The longer you delay, the longer Eli waits.”

  “Fine.” She shrugged out of her leather jacket then fell back against the sofa.

  Matt asked, “Where are you hurt?”

  “Right arm. Bullet. Think it went through. I also think there’s one in my right side.”

  He put a hand against her arm and closed his eyes. A dizzying wave of heat and energy swept through her. Her right arm burned for an instant, then all pain disappeared. The same happened on her side.

  Matt stumbled toward Eli, who’d been slumped into a nearby chair. He caught his balance on the side of the chair. Kat awkwardly hugged him, maneuvering her eight-months-pregnant belly around, and whispered to Matt. They made such a perfect couple. She was feisty and smart to Matt’s broody dominance.

  Serenity ran her hand over her now healed arm. “Matt, you’re almost as good a
t this as Eli.”

  “What?” Bryce and Matt said in unison.

  She rolled her eyes. “Seriously? He kept his healing thing a secret from you guys, too? You boys have got to learn to share with each other a bit more. Too much secrecy.” Her gaze shot to Bryce. “Can we speak? In private, while Matt works on Eli?”

  Bryce’s gaze met Matt’s. “Matt’s in charge now, Serenity. You should talk to him about things.”

  “This has nothing to do with druids or Pleiades. I need to speak with you about something else. Something I think only you know about. But I want our discussion to be confidential.” She glared at Matt. “I like you, Matt, but this is between Bryce and me. Can you handle that?”

  Matt frowned a definite no but nodded.

  She snagged her jacket and followed Bryce into his sumptuous office. Surprisingly, everything registered pain free. No more light-headedness.

  He whipped behind his desk to click something on his computer.

  “Poker again?” She bit her lip but then lost her battle against laughter.

  “Bloody hell,” he said in his thick Scottish accent and rolled his eyes. “I’ll never live down that fucking moment, will I?”

  “Ever the potty mouth,” she said with a smile and a head shake. Even though Bryce might be a pain in the ass about her security, he’d always been a provider for her parentless family. “That poker moment last year was just so not you. You even admitted you were an addict.”

  “I was not playing online right now. I quit that shit. I was in the middle of a Skype call.” He pulled her into a hug and kissed her cheek. She caught the concern in his gaze as he stepped away. “I’m glad you’re safe. You’re as reckless and stubborn as ever with your need to do it all on your own. You know we’re here for you.”

  She shrugged.

  He took a deep breath and waved toward several stuffed chairs arranged for intimate talking. “Water?”

  She nodded.

  He rested an unopened bottled water on the end table next to her. “What do you want to talk about?”

  Her phone dinged with an incoming text. Her heart rate picked up. Elation surged through her. She dug her phone out of her jacket pocket and perched on the edge of one of the plush chairs.

  Dangerous Guy: Status update. Reply now.

  She bit her lip against a smile. She texted: Fine.

  Dangerous Guy: They can’t protect you.

  She chuckled and replied: They want to try.

  She waited for a reply but got none. Damn. She glanced up.

  Bryce stood stone still, studying her with a double eyebrow raise. “Who was that?”

  “Personal.” She crossed her arms.

  His eyes widened into a silent really?

  “None of your business.”

  Bryce sat across from her. “You just got your ass almost annihilated and your sister is missing, likely kidnapped, but you have time for whatever that was, which I bet has to do with a man?”

  “Maybe it was about this mess.”

  “Right.” He drew the word into two syllables, conveying his disbelief. “What do you want to talk about in private?”

  “There’s a traitor among us. It’s got to be druid. No one knows this much about us…about me, unless it’s one of you guys. Someone got into my house and planted a lot of bugs and cameras. They threatened to kill Liz if I messed with them. Now they know I’m no longer working alone. I don’t know if they’ll kill Liz out of spite. I don’t even know why they have Liz or what they want. I only know that they sent me on two insane missions that make no sense.”

  “Shit.”

  “Exactly.” They stared at each other in silence.

  “So what was that text about?”

  She shifted, suddenly hot, and shoved the cell back into her jacket pocket. “Alexi Jovec.”

  Bryce’s eyes widened. “You fucking with me?”

  “No.”

  “No one in the entire world can find him, much less communicate with him. Yet you can text him?”

  “If it wasn’t for him, both our asses would’ve been dead in that parking deck. Now I need to know what you know about him. What are his capabilities? Is he a warlock or sorcerer or something?”

  He twisted the top off a mineral water and sipped while gazing at her. “I’ve only met the scary motherfucker once. He ambushed me one night. He was waiting in my bedroom. My bedroom. How the hell he got through my physical guards and that security system without even raising an alert…” He shook his head. “He’s like a bloody ghost. The bastard threatened me in order to get info on you. He didn’t even pull a weapon. He just sat there in the corner of my bedroom calm as a Buddhist monk and told me what he’d do to me if I didn’t cooperate. I fully believed he could but wasn’t convinced he would.”

  That sounded like Alexi. “What did he want to know? How long ago was this?”

  “Six or seven years ago. He wanted to know what the OLM did to you. This was long before he went to work for them.” He scrunched up his face. “I don’t think he’s playing for their team, though. Did you know he helped Eli escape when they captured him a few months ago?”

  Alexi freed Eli? Her perception of Alexi realigned itself in her brain. He really might not be loyal to the OLM. Then what was he doing with them?

  “I didn’t give him any information about you, by the way.” He smiled. “That pissed him off. The fucker knocked me out and disappeared.” His face flushed. “I didn’t even see him move. Shit, he’s… I recommend you avoid him. He’s dangerous. I think he decided to get his own answers, and where better than to infiltrate the OLM? But the real question is why he’s fixated on you. And apparently not in a small way. This is years of fixation. Years.”

  She’d always had trouble believing Alexi planned to trap and torture her for the OLM. He’d never indicated he hated witches and had had far too many opportunities to kidnap her. Working for them struck her as top-level hypocrisy, but maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t on their team. They probably didn’t even know what he was. “Why do you think he was asking about me?”

  A strange expression passed over his face, one she couldn’t interpret. He clasped his hands and leaned forward with a penetrating gaze. “I think you should tell me. The creature that is Alexi Jovec did not volunteer to explain the whys behind his interrogation.”

  “Do you know what he is?”

  “I had to do some research to find that out. He’s a death reaper.”

  She pretended surprise. “What exactly is that?”

  “I find it strangely coincidental he’s the product of another Greek gods drama like you Pleiades ladies.”

  “He’s a Greek god descendant? A human with supernatural skills?”

  He shrugged. “I think so. Apparently death reapers are the physical hand of Hades to usher evil souls to hell. They’re rumored to be his human descendants, like you ladies are descended from Pleiades goddesses. After he ambushed me I consulted with a witch in eastern Europe, not a witch related to you. An Obeah witch.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “They practice a kind of dark magic from West Africa. That woman forced me eat a toad and pay her a hefty sum to get this information. The toad was pickled and absolutely foul. I won’t even tell you what it did to my digestive tract.” He shuddered. “She told me there might be one or two death reapers in the world. No one is entirely certain on the number. They work in the shadows and live a long life.” He leaned back on a deep exhale. “I don’t know if any of that is true. Never could confirm it.”

  “Hades? The god of the underworld who married Persephone? That god?” she asked.

  “Tell me why Jovec is focused on you. Does he plan to kill you? If so, we’ll figure out a way to take him out first. Your soul definitely isn’t evil enough for Hades to send him after you.”

  She shook her head. “He doesn’t plan to kill me. He…” She met his gaze, her decision made not to provide further explanation.

  Bryce said, “Did he trul
y help you today?”

  She nodded.

  “He’s not the one for you, Serenity. No previous Pleiad has ever been matched to a man who is not druid. It’s not possible. Death reapers are not allowed a family. They walk their path alone. That is part of their duty, at least according to the witch.”

  Something deep and dark uncurled itself in her chest. It screamed denial of that edict. It wanted to attack whoever decreed such in order, and to do whatever necessary to make it be possible. This was bad. She forced a deep breath and ignored the ongoing surge of aggression. Alexi’s life must be long and lonely, if his sole directive forced him to kill. No friends. No children. He wasn’t a creature. He was a man. A passionate and overprotective asshole, but just a guy forced into solitude.

  Had to stay objective. This was confirmation he couldn’t be her destined. Now she needed help to break the inadvertent bond she’d forged with him more than ever. But she also needed his help with her sister. What a mess.

  Sister first. Afterward, she’d deal with Alexi.

  She rose. “If you’d excuse me, I need to use the restroom.”

  As she rose, Bryce asked, “Tell me that creature isn’t your destined.”

  She froze. “He’s a man, not an animal or a creature. Like me, he was screwed by the gods into becoming something I doubt he would’ve chosen had he been given an option. Even so, I am well aware he cannot be my destined. Don’t worry.”

  “Does he threaten you or protect you?” He had risen to follow her to the door.

  She glanced back to him. “Protect.”

  “How often has he protected you?” Bryce asked.

  Her hand on the doorknob, her head sagged. “Many times.”

  “Oh, hell,” he cursed. “Did you sleep with him?”

  She scowled and yanked open the door.

  Matt massaged his forehead and stepped into her path. “This is the last straw, Serenity. You’re not leaving without an escort. You are not doing this crazy shit anymore. We must assume your house is compromised. Eli told me about Liz earlier. We’ll get your sister out of wherever she may be, but you will not deal with this any longer. You’ll go to a safe place until we figure out why someone’s so focused on you.” He blew out a long sigh. “I’ll bet it’s your past in MI6. That job choice was a bad idea. Eli was right.”