“Chocolate-mint cake with mint buttercream,” I said, shaking my head a second time but letting it go. “Tingle in a Cup.”
“Mmm,” Drake said. “Chocolate and mint …”
Practically pressing against my shoulder as she watched Drake savor the first bite of his cupcake, Peggy groaned quietly. She presumably thought it impossible for anyone to hear her.
I gave her a quelling look.
The telepath snapped up to her full height — she was actually taller than me by an inch — as if I’d caught her stealing cookies. Then, attempting to cover her ogling of Drake, she offered the tray of mini-cupcakes to Kett with a pert smile. “Cupcake?”
The vampire didn’t even condescend to look at her.
Warner reached over, plucked a miniature Chill in a Cup off the tray, unwrapped it, and tossed it into his mouth without looking away from me. “Try the humans, fledgling.”
Peggy nodded, scrambling away from us.
“You’re blocking my way to my woman, Drake,” Warner said.
He was being deliberately incendiary by calling me his ‘woman,’ so I gave him the glare he was practically begging for. At the same time, my insides went all mushy in reaction to being so blatantly and brashly claimed.
Drake stepped aside, mowing through his cupcake while following Peggy into the bakery seating area.
Warner moved forward, brushing a chaste kiss across my lips in deference to the bakery being a place of business. Of course, he clandestinely managed to grab a handful of my ass at the same time.
“How was skiing?” I asked, finding that I also needed to remind myself I was at work.
“Invigorating.” Warner purred the word. Deliberately.
As he’d undoubtedly intended, my reaction twisted through my belly — along with another tantalizing taste of his magic. Ignoring the desire to wrap myself around him, I laughed quietly, reaching over to touch Kett’s shoulder in greeting. “Jasmine’s still upstairs.”
“I know,” the vampire said coolly.
“Well, you don’t have to be such an ass about it. I was being polite.”
Warner stifled a laugh.
“Thank you for babysitting, dowser,” Kett said stiffly. Then he drifted across the bakery toward the fireplace.
I glanced at Warner, casting my voice low. “Did something happen?”
“There was a brief moment where Drake appeared to be badly hurt.”
I frowned, not connecting Kett’s current mood to Drake deciding to ski off a cliff. Without even knowing the particulars, I was certain it had been a deliberate choice on the fledgling guardian’s part. He and Kandy had been watching extreme skiing videos the previous evening on YouTube. “And?”
Warner laughed under his breath. “You have to ask? How would you have reacted? If the vampire had shown up with Drake over his shoulder?”
I would have been seriously pissed. Completely irrationally, of course, because I knew how futile it was to try to keep tabs on the young dragon, and blaming Kett or Warner for Drake’s actions would have been ridiculous. And … if Jasmine had gotten hurt under my watch, I would have felt just as responsible.
I met Warner’s gaze, a little sadly. “I don’t like it when Kett’s unhappy.”
Warner kissed me lightly. “You don’t like it when anyone is unhappy.”
“True.”
“But the vampire is fine. Possibly as happy as he can be. Happier here with you, with us. Rather than the alternative.”
I nodded doubtfully. After the engagement party, I had thought that Kett and Jasmine might return to New England with Wisteria and Declan, but they’d remained in Vancouver. As far as I was aware, Whistler was the farthest the executioner of the Conclave had traveled from the city since then.
“We’re going to shower, and then we will join you for closing,” Warner said. “I’m thinking a bittersweet hot chocolate, a Lust in a Cup, and a seat by the fire might be a delightful way to end your day.”
Yeah, he was deliberately trying to distract me with the mention of chocolate. And it worked. I lifted up on my tiptoes and kissed him properly — allowing myself more than just a taste of his black-forest-cake-infused magic, propriety be damned. But even as I did, the memory of my morning intruded on my thoughts.
“Oh, and an elf paid us a visit.”
Warner went absolutely still, waiting for me to elaborate.
“I didn’t kill her,” I said, a little belligerently. Honestly, you killed one deranged, immortality-seeking dragon, then an elf who’d tried to murder two of your loved ones, and you totally got labeled. “I had two fledglings with me. And a bakery to open. She’s skilled in masking her magic. And masterful at illusions.”
“She just walked into the bakery and confronted you?”
“No. She drew me away from the bakery, apparently to show me an elaborate illusion of a throne room. But she got a little testy when I ripped through her magic, then she disappeared into the crowd on the far side of Whistler Way.”
“Disappeared, as in within another illusion?”
“That’s what I was thinking.” I glanced around, slightly concerned about being overheard, but the few customers nearby seemed enthralled with the cupcakes. Which was a good thing for multiple reasons, including a successful launch for the bakery. “But I couldn’t taste her magic. Not until she actually cast the full illusion.”
Warner nodded thoughtfully.
“Do you think that’s how they’ve been hiding in Vancouver for the last three months? I was beginning to think they’d fled immediately, which would have made total sense. Especially after we took out the warrior in the park.”
“We?” Warner playfully mocked my implying that he and Kandy had played a part in the elf’s demise.
“You both wounded him to begin with.”
He grunted, not completely agreeing. But not arguing either.
“Maybe she’s returned for some reason. Or she only got as far as Whistler and decided to stay here?”
“Elves don’t set up house. No …” Warner swept his gaze across the front windows, taking in the still-bustling marketplace beyond. “They’ve been biding their time.”
I didn’t bother repeating the questions we’d been asking each other for months. Namely, why would the elves have chosen to stick around? What could they possibly have been waiting for? “None of the chronicles I read mentioned anything about elves wielding illusionist magic.”
“No, they didn’t. And I haven’t encountered anything like that either.” Warner, along with my father and Haoxin, had been dealing with minor incursions from demons and elves ever since Shailaja attacked Pulou, almost a year ago now. The treasure keeper had been injured so badly that anything personally sealed by him — prisons, dimensional pockets, and doorways alike — had been compromised. But those incursions had lessened recently. Warner hadn’t been called away in over three weeks.
“You haven’t seen another elf since the one in the park, right?”
Warner shook his head, snagging another mini-cupcake off Peggy’s tray as she crossed back around the display case, then started helping the next customer in line.
“So they’re in hiding?”
“Or we’ve established appropriate boundaries.”
Appropriate boundaries … meaning we slaughtered any being that threatened our dimension. Granted, that was the job of the guardians, but … well, I was glad it wasn’t my destiny. No, my destiny was to wield the instruments of assassination. And, honestly, I still had no idea what that really meant in the long term.
Warner gently brushed his fingers through my curls, smiling softly. “I’ll be right back.”
I laughed. “After you shower? Or after you hunt the elf?”
“What do you think?” He grinned. Kissing me briefly — almost bruisingly — he turned back toward the door without another word.
Kett appeared at his side, his expression suddenly almost joyful. It was more than an easy guess that the executioner had overheard
every word of our conversation. And he had been seriously peeved that I had done away with the elf in the park without at least getting the chance to lay eyes on him. The vampire had even gone so far as to suggest that we utilize Peggy and Gabby — a telepath backed by an amplifier — to form a mind link, so that he could see the event directly in my memory. Purely for research purposes, of course. But even before I could protest, Kandy had gotten all prickly about using any of her so-called misfits in such a way.
Warner and Kett, two of the most dangerous Adepts I knew, exchanged a look. Then they stalked side by side from the bakery. Drake appeared behind them, following closely as they exited. Once outside, they split off in different directions, intent on tracking an elf who was probably long gone.
I brushed my fingers along the invisible knife sheathed at my hip. And for a painful but thankfully brief moment, I had to force myself to stay behind. I would remain in the comforting coziness of the bakery instead of charging out into the evening cold. And my regret wasn’t for fear of the elf hurting anyone. Rather, it was because I wouldn’t be there if they got into a tussle. I wouldn’t be testing my strength, wielding the weapons that were both my destiny and my doom — and which were literally hanging around my neck.
As I turned back into the kitchen to collect the final tray of mini-cupcakes, I wondered — and not for the first time — whether holding myself back, holding my instincts at bay, would always be a struggle. Or would I eventually come to some sort of understanding with the instruments — and all the destructive potential that came with them?
Preceded by her bitter-dark-chocolate magic, Kandy shouldered her way through the crowd that had descended on the bakery as the sun fully set and the majority of the ski lifts stopped running for the night. I glanced up from the box I was packing for a happily exhausted, sandy-haired woman with two off-the-wall-excited children. She had asked me if I had anything with an extra kick to it — meaning alcohol, which I didn’t use in my baking. But I’d winked at her as I nestled a Sin in a Cup — spiced cake with a generous swirl of kick-ass mocha buttercream — among her other more child-appropriate selections.
Audrey and Lara paused to one side of the entrance as Kandy slipped around the display counter and sidled up to me. Audrey was outfitted in sleek cream-colored skiwear, while Lara was swathed head to toe in purple, as usual. Though there weren’t any wards on the bakery, there was still a certain protocol when entering the territory of another Adept. So even though we’d greeted each other formally in the apartments above the bakery the previous night, I smiled invitingly at the beta of the West Coast North American Pack. Audrey nodded back but remained by the door.
“Have you kept us some treats, dowser?” Kandy was already scanning the cupcakes in the display case. “Or should I make Lara stand in line?” My werewolf BFF was wearing neon-green ski wear, including a headband that covered her ears but forced her green-dyed hair to flop over its edges like a mop. I could feel the potent magic of the rune-scribed gold cuffs she always wore, currently tucked away underneath her ski jacket.
I laughed. “I’ve kept some. Warner, Drake, and Kett are showering. Assuming they’re back from tracking the elf.”
“Elf, huh?”
I nodded.
“Interesting. But since you don’t currently appear to be under attack, let’s circle back to that.” Kandy was never easily distracted from being controlled by her appetite first and foremost, so she returned to her most pressing concern. “And hot chocolate?”
“You have to ask?”
She laughed huskily. Then, pressing her lips to my ear, she whispered, “I brought champagne for Bryn. Ask her to stay?”
I nodded, smiling at my friend’s thoughtfulness.
“So … elf?” Kandy kept her voice low, but her anticipation at possibly being able to settle a three-month-old score was more than obvious. “He have swords and such?”
“She was female, I think.” I smiled at my customer, passing her boxed-up cupcakes over to Peggy to ring through the register. “Showed up this morning, flashing pretty magic. Illusions. No sword that I saw. She ran off.”
“Illusions, huh?” Kandy scoffed. “All the easier to smell her.”
“My, my, what big teeth you have,” I murmured playfully.
Kandy chuckled darkly. “You know it, babe.”
Clearing her throat pissily, Maia deliberately stretched her arm in front of Kandy, reaching for a Blitzen in a Cup. There were only two of the seasonal eggnog-buttercream-topped mocha cupcakes remaining. I’d have to make a note of that for Bryn, and add another half-dozen to her daily baking list.
“Employees only,” the skinwalker said snottily to the werewolf.
Kandy snapped her teeth about an inch from Maia’s neck. “Move me yourself, little birdie.”
Maia jutted out her chin, then looked pointedly at the long line twining through the bakery seating and toward the door.
Kandy laughed, then toyed teasingly with one of Maia’s long braids. “Fortunately for you, it sounds like I’ve got bigger game to play with. Maybe next time.”
Kandy was gone before Maia could offer up a rebuke, crossing toward the two werewolves still standing sentry by the door.
Stifling a smile, I grabbed another box, returning my attention to the next customer in line while folding it.
But I didn’t miss the anticipatory grin that spread across Audrey’s face as Kandy informed her that a possible elf hunt was in progress. A gleam of green rolled across Lara’s eyes as she glanced my way and waved.
Though I had no doubt that Gran and Warner would have preferred to keep this new information only within the Godfrey coven and among the dragons, Kandy had previously made a heavily edited report to the pack about our confrontation with the warrior elf. She was, after all, obliged to protect the pack — both as an enforcer and simply because it was the right thing to do. She hadn’t mentioned the prison or the guardian connection, but she had included the possibility that two more elves were at large. Desmond, the pack alpha, had once sneeringly suggested that elves were nothing more than myth — though the werecat had also put the guardian dragons in that same category at the time. Kandy and I both believed that the pack deserved to know that elves were actually real. And potentially deadly.
Letting in another blast of cold air, the werewolves stepped into the cobblestone street to join the hunt. A moment later, they were swept from my sight within the still-teeming crowd.
3
Three werewolves, two dragons, two vampires, a telepath, a skinwalker, and Bryn lounged around the sleek gas fireplace at the far end of the bakery. Plus me, of course. Two empty bottles of champagne and a white china platter dusted with cake crumbs had been abandoned on a low table nestled between the couch and a close grouping of chairs.
I was pretty sure that Bryn was asleep. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have minded snuggling up to Warner and napping myself. The werewolves were busily plotting something nefarious — judging by their chortling — in the corner by the window. Hopefully not my bachelorette party.
Though before that became an issue, I still had to get through the bridal shower my mother was hosting the following afternoon.
To the disappointment of more than half of the gathered Adepts, the elf hadn’t made another appearance. Even the three werewolves hadn’t been able to pick up any trace of her magic. All the hunters had showed up just as the bakery closed, Warner settling on the couch, thoughtfully quiet. But Kandy, Lara, and Drake had happily drowned their sorrows in chocolate and cupcakes while exuberantly trading outrageous tales of their skiing exploits.
Jasmine had been coaxed out of the upstairs apartment, but as always, she was more interested in communing with her laptop than in conversing. With her eyes perpetually glued to the low-lit screen, her long, dark-blond curls formed a barrier between her and the rest of the bakery’s occupants. But at least she’d decided to join us. I knew what being surrounded by this much magic was like for a person who felt out of place
— and I didn’t have to worry about accidentally biting anyone if I got overwhelmed. Unless stabbing someone with my jade knife counted as an equally inappropriate reaction. If so — been there, done that.
At a table next to the fledgling vampire, Drake and Kett were engaged in a chess game. Judging by Drake’s increasingly determined grunting, I was fairly certain the executioner was beating him handily.
Snow had begun falling in earnest about an hour earlier. It was accumulating so quickly that the windows were already edged with tiny drifts, and the cobblestones had been completely covered despite the foot traffic that had remained steady throughout the evening. If we were going to get back to Vancouver, I was going to have to leave the last of the cleaning to Bryn and Maia. Conveniently, though, the Whistler bakery was going to be closed Sundays and Mondays for the immediate future, so they wouldn’t have to polish every surface that night.
Warner shifted off the couch to settle on the coffee table in front of me, grabbing my calf and shucking off my sneaker. He began to massage my foot with the focus he usually reserved for gutting demons … or for sex.
I stifled a pleased groan, but there were way too many people in the room — including an actual telepath — for me to let my thoughts wander. Though Peggy seemed otherwise occupied, engaged as she was in some interaction with Maia that included a lot of references to their phones and taking pictures of each other. The telepath had spent the entire evening studiously avoiding any and all conversation that included Drake. A smart move on her part for multiple reasons, including the fact that Drake appeared to be more intrigued by magic than people. As such, if Peggy misread his intentions, it might easily lead to her having her heart broken.
With the lone exception of my mother and father — who had created me in the mix — dragons didn’t seem to have relationships with anyone but other dragons. Assuming they even had those kinds of relationships at all. I expected that had a lot to do with simply being stronger, faster, and more powerful than every other type of Adept — and the fact that unbalanced relationships didn’t have much longevity. Even an eighteen-year-old dragon thought of future plans in terms of decades, not years or months.
Misfits, Gemstones, and Other Shattered Magic (Dowser 8) Page 3