“Yeah,” she admitted, “I thought of that, too.” She wrapped her arms around herself in a futile attempt to stave off the cold swamping her.
Funny, but over the last couple of weeks, she’d actually adapted to the chill of the tunnels. Acclimated to the taste of dampness flavoring every breath. She hadn’t been really cold in days. She was now.
“You can’t go to her.”
She snapped a look up at him. “You said that already. God, Finn. Give me a minute here, okay?”
“I know what this is doing to you,” he said, pulling her in tight and closing his big arms around her. “If I could change it I would. But my first priority is your safety, Deidre. Something’s not right with this and until we discover who’s behind the lies, then I don’t want you anywhere near the White House.”
He might be used to giving orders, but Deidre wasn’t as accustomed to taking them. She knew he was only looking out for her, but she was a damn adult. Not to mention a powerful witch. She could take care of herself and she didn’t appreciate being told what the hell to do. Or maybe it was just that her insides were jumping with fear and worry for her mother.
She clung to him, relishing the warmth and safety he offered, but even as she held him, Deidre knew she wouldn’t be able to let this go. Someone had lied to her mother about that video. What if they planned to do more than lying to the president? Deidre couldn’t live with herself if she found out too late that her mom had been in danger and she’d done nothing to help. She had to see her mother—whether Finn approved or not.
Chapter 36
A few hours later, Finn and Joe were ready to do some recon for their next raid. One of Joe’s friends had told him about an execution planned for the following week in Alexandria, Virginia. The internment camp there was getting crowded, so the theory was to dispose of the troublemaking witches and it was a win-win for everyone.
The WLF would be making another raid to save those doomed witches and they needed the intel they could get only from an up-close-and-personal visit to the site. Of course, finding the Artifact was still the most important thing to Finn and Deidre both. But until they did that, there were women to protect.
“Do you want to come with us?” Finn asked as he strapped on his knives and sword.
“No,” Deidre answered, but smiled. Even discounting his unreasonable protective streak, they’d come a long way if he was willing to include her on a recon mission. “I’m going to help Tracy inventory the medical supplies. We’re running low on just about everything.”
“Right.” He nodded, came to her and kissed her as if her lips meant his life. When he finally let her go, he looked down into her eyes and said, “I know you’re still thinking about the video and your mother. We’ll figure this out, Dee. Together. Meanwhile tomorrow we’ll go topside so you can at least call her again.”
“Okay, thanks. Now, go do your job and don’t worry about it.”
He stared at her for a long minute and Deidre forced herself to maintain her smile. Wouldn’t do for him to suddenly decide that Joe could do the recon without him. Deidre just needed an hour or so. She’d be back long before Finn. “Just go with Joe. Tell me all about it when you get back.”
He nodded, shrugged into his black coat, then with one last kiss, flashed out of the tunnels.
The minute Finn was gone, she grabbed her own jacket and pulled it on, then yanked the note she’d written to Finn out of the pocket and laid it on the bed. Then she ran from her chamber and hurried down the tunnel in the opposite direction of Tracy and the inventory she’d lied to Finn about. Deidre made one brief stop at the supply room where they kept everything they might need on missions—not to mention the extra clothes and bedding they needed for the witches they rescued.
Back in the tunnels, she ran, her boot steps pounding out a frantic rhythm that matched her heartbeat. She knew her way around now and her main concern was to get as far away from everyone else down here as possible before she could chance using one of the exits.
She knew this was a risk. But Deidre couldn’t get the image of her mother out of her mind. Cora didn’t look well. She had lost weight and frankly, the loss of control that had allowed a tear to be seen by the world was so unlike her mother that Deidre was terrified for her. Then there was the chance that whoever was lying to Cora was also a danger to her.
Deidre really did hate going behind Finn’s back, but she had to make sure her mother was all right. Besides, if there were a traitor in the White House and he pulled three dozen guns on her—Deidre would disarm him and still be back before Finn. Back in time to tear up the note she had left for him—just in case. She wasn’t a complete idiot after all and in case something went wrong that she couldn’t handle, Deidre wanted Finn to know where she was.
Deidre stepped into the real world near the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Fourteenth Street in Pershing Park. Thankfully the tunnel entrances were well concealed. Deidre went topside behind a cluster of winter bare trees very near the now quiet waterfall. The adjacent pond was frozen over and a couple dozen people were out skating on what was the city’s favorite ice rink every winter. She watched them for a second or two and felt just a little envious of the skaters. Then she remembered why she was there. Everyone was so busy having a good time, no one noticed the woman in black sneaking farther away from the crowd.
When she was sure she was alone, she pulled the cell phone she’d snatched from the supply room out of her pocket, and made a call.
A man answered, and she whispered, “Darius, it’s Deidre. I need to see my mother.”
“We’ve got her.” Shea stood outside Egan’s room in Haven. It was small, but comfortable with a bed, a couple of chairs and plenty of books. Oh, and the magical barrier across the entrance, preventing him from leaving the room.
He had finally stopped pacing and shouting the night before, but he looked, well, terrible. Shea couldn’t blame him, but she didn’t blame the other Eternals for wanting to keep an eye on him, either. Though he was getting control of his raging emotions and fury, he still didn’t look quite . . . sane.
Egan stalked toward the doorway and came up short when he hit the charmed barrier Shea, Mairi and Teresa had constructed to keep him confined. A sizzle of sound and a burst of light when he hit it told Shea their spell was still working fine.
“You found Kellyn?” His voice sounded scratchy and raw and no wonder, after days of shouting.
“We did.” Shea turned to watch the others approach. Torin walked up beside her with Rune, Teresa, Damyn and Mairi right behind them. “It took everything we had, but we found her. With all of our power combined, we were able to peek past whatever spell or charm it was that was hiding her. Finally.”
“Where is the traitorous bitch?” He slapped both hands to the doorjamb and leaned as close as he dared without coming up against that wall of magic.
“She’s in Washington, DC,” Teresa said.
He pulled in a breath that swelled his huge chest to massive proportions. “Then let me out of here and I’ll go find her.”
“There’s more, Egan.” Rune spoke up next and his voice sounded grim.
“I don’t need more,” the Eternal with the raging eyes insisted. “I just want to find the bitch and make her pay for what she did to me.”
“And what about the Awakening?” Mairi asked.
“What about it?” His hostile gaze snapped to hers. “You think I want to Mate with her? After what she did to me?” Egan’s voice got louder and rougher. His dark skin flushed with rage again and his closed fists beat against the wall beside the barrier. “I was down there for months. Cold. Hungry. Alone. Couldn’t use magic. Couldn’t escape. You expect me to forgive her for that?”
“Yeah, about that,” Teresa told him, with a glance at her sister-witches. “It wasn’t exactly Kellyn who trapped you in that c
age. There’s more going on than you know.”
Egan’s gaze narrowed as she talked and with every word, his pale gray eyes darkened until they were the color of storm clouds about to explode with lightning.
Darius sneaked her into the White House and hustled her upstairs to the residence quarters. Leave it to Darius to know how to get her into her mother’s quarters without being seen. Truth be told, Deidre had never liked Darius much. She found him a little creepy. But tonight, she was glad for the help.
She stepped into the green room, her mother’s favorite parlor on the second floor. Deidre knew it well. Pale green walls, silk-covered furniture and an oil portrait of George Washington. Deidre walked forward, then stopped dead. Cora wasn’t alone, damn it. A young, pretty woman with spiky black hair and eyes almost as dark sat in one of the French provincial chairs. Damn it. She had wanted a few private minutes with her mother.
“Deidre, thank God,” Cora said, pushing up from the sofa to face her. “Where in the hell have you been?”
“It’s a long story, Mom,” she said with a sidelong glance at the other woman. “And one I’d rather tell you in private.”
Cora waved her hand. “Don’t be foolish. Kellyn is . . . a friend. She has every right to be here.”
Deidre’s spidey sense started tingling with the voltage of an electric chair. Something was seriously wrong here. Her mother wasn’t weeping and worried. In fact, Cora looked more annoyed than anything else. Kellyn was watching Deidre as if she were a bug under a microscope and Darius . . . had just locked the door.
Holy crap, what had she walked into? Was Cora in trouble? Was Deidre? “Mom,” she said, inching farther from Darius while keeping a wary eye on Kellyn, “I just wanted you to know I was okay, but I can’t stay.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” Cora shook her head and sneered at her. “Now, take off your shirt.”
“What?” Deidre looked from her mother to the other two people in the room and back again. Was it her imagination or did her mother look suddenly . . . different?
“You heard me, Deidre.” Cora’s voice was crisp, impatient. “Take off your shirt before I have Darius do it for you.”
Fear exploded inside her and Deidre knew she was in deep shit. Something was happening here and she didn’t know what. She never should have come here without at least telling Finn. Because now she was on her own. “What’s this about?”
“Oh for chrissakes,” Kellyn muttered. She stomped across the room on needle-thin high heels and before Deidre could blink, had ripped the front of her T-shirt open, tearing the bra beneath it as well. She was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked.
Deidre’s Mating tattoo was displayed and Kellyn applauded.
Shocked and acting purely on instinct, Deidre pulled back her right arm and punched Kellyn dead in the face. The other woman staggered back, stunned for a second before coming at her again.
“Kellyn, that’s enough.”
She whipped her head around to glare at Cora. “The bitch hit me.”
“Watch who you’re calling bitch, bitch.” Deidre grabbed the edges of her torn shirt together, hiding the marks on her skin. Too late, of course. Bag open, cat gone.
“It doesn’t matter,” Cora said, a pleased glint in her eye. “All that matters is she’s finally Mated.” Shaking her head, she looked her daughter up and down and then waved Darius closer to Deidre. “My gods, I thought this day would never get here. I have waited your entire, pedestrian life for this moment.”
Deidre’s breaths came short and sharp. She had slipped into the Twilight Zone without even realizing it. She tried to keep an eye on all three of the people in the room, but frankly, it was her mother that had her riveted. This was Cora Sterling as Deidre had never seen her before. She was a stranger with the light of fanaticism in her eyes.
“Mom . . .”
Cora shuddered. “All I want to hear from you is the location of the Artifact, Deidre.”
“The—” Another shock in a series of them.
“Artifact.” Cora rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know about it and I want it. Now.”
Deidre’s brain raced to compute all of this new and startling information. Her mother knew she was a witch? Knew about the Artifact? The tattoo? How?
“Swear to the gods, if she doesn’t start talking, I’m going to beat the living shit out of her,” Kellyn said idly.
Deidre shot another look at the woman and this time, her dark eyes were completely black. No iris. No white. No pupil. Just unrelieved black, like the tar pits she’d seen once as a child. And Kellyn’s eyes looked just as flat and treacherous.
“You’ll have your chance,” Cora told the woman. “Darius, tie Deidre up. Can’t have her slipping away.”
“I don’t think so, Darius,” Deidre said and flung out one hand. She snatched his gun from his hip and whipped it through the air to point at her mother. God, how had this happened? She was holding a gun on her own mother. With magic.
“I’m out of here,” Deidre said. She had to get to Finn. Have him help her figure out what was wrong with her mom. Find a way to save her.
“How much more of an idiot can you possibly be?” Cora said with a smirk that said she wasn’t worried in the least about that gun. “You can’t get out of here, Deidre. Every guard and Secret Service agent on the premises has been aware of you from the moment Darius escorted you inside.”
Deidre flushed. She really was an idiot. She had thought she would be safe coming to see her mother. The woman who had always protected her. The woman who had cried on national TV over her daughter. But the woman Deidre was facing now was not the mother she knew. And fear crept up her spine in icy spike heels.
Her only hope was that Finn would get back to their chamber early, find her note and come after her. Finn, she screamed his name in her mind and knew that it wouldn’t do any good. She hadn’t once picked up a stray thought from him, so why would he be able to hear her silent cries?
“Have you realized yet you have very few options?” Cora studied her. “Tell me where the Artifact is, Deidre. Now.”
In a burst of brilliant light and the color of living flame, Finn flashed into the room and pulled Deidre in tight to him. His steely eyes swept over the three people in the room and Deidre took her first easy breath in an hour.
Cora didn’t take long to recover. “Eternal, this changes nothing.”
“It gets her away from you,” he ground out, keeping one eye on Darius. Deidre wanted to tell him that she thought Kellyn was the real danger there, but didn’t have the time.
“I’m done playing nice,” Cora told him, batting aside the gun still hanging in the air. “Deidre, you give me that damned Artifact or I swear to your god, I will kill every witch in this country.”
Finn was through talking. He called up the flames and flashed himself and Deidre to the tunnel entrance in Pershing Park. They didn’t speak until they were safely belowground and when they were, Deidre threw herself at him. “Oh my God, Finn. What was that? My mother was—I can’t believe this.”
She burrowed in closer, grateful to be alive and back with Finn. Terror still crouched inside her, but with his arms around her, it was bearable. “How did you find me?”
“We got back early. Saw your note. Thank Belen, I can track you through the power of the Mating tattoo,” he admitted, making Deidre more glad than ever that they had actually begun the Mating.
Then Finn scowled down at her. “What the hell were you thinking? Why would you risk yourself like that?”
She stilled. Was he really worried about her? Or was he more concerned that she stay alive to complete their task? “I should have thought. With the Awakening here and the Artifact still to find . . .”
“Fuck the Artifact and the Awakening,” he murmured, holding her tighter, closer, his arms flexing
around her until she could hardly breathe. “I told you. Give me a choice between the world and you and I’ll choose you every time.”
Deidre sagged into him. He did care for her. Did want her. And he’d just saved her from— “I’m sorry. I really am,” she said, tipping her head back to look up at him. “I thought she was in danger. I had to see my mother, Finn, and I knew you wouldn’t go for it.”
“Damn right.”
“Yeah, well,” she said, pushing away from him and tugging at the edges of her shirt. “As it turns out, you were right.”
“This was almost worth it just to hear you say that,” he muttered and yanked off his coat. Draping it over her shoulders, he asked, “What the hell happened?”
Deidre pulled his coat around her, grateful for the warmth of his body that still clung to the supple leather. “I don’t know. My mother was . . . different. I’ve never seen her like that. And the other woman? Her name was Kellyn and she had black eyes, Finn. Completely black. She was stronger than she should have been, too. Ripped my shirt and bra in two just to get a look at the Mating tattoo.”
“Kellyn.” He muttered a curse so vile, Deidre blinked. “She’s supposedly an Awakened witch. She trapped her Eternal in a cage at the bottom of the sea.”
“Okay.” Deidre swallowed hard and felt jittery with the rush of adrenaline that was still pumping through her system.
“Dee, there’s something else.”
The wary tone in his voice should have given her a warning, but nothing could have prepared her for what he said next. “Your mother. I’m not sure she’s human.”
Chapter 37
“Are you crazy? Of course she’s human. She’s my mother.”
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