by Bianca D'Arc
There were two splashes and her brothers appeared at her side. She pointed to where Billings thrashed against the current she had created and Jim smiled. Rick started swimming toward Billings while Jim motioned for her to rise to the surface. His gestures told her they would take care of Billings.
Glad to be rid of the duty and certain her brothers would know what to do with the man, Trisha followed her heart to the surface…and Steve. She swam upward, right into his waiting arms, and she’d never felt anything better than his embrace.
“Are we clear? I saw your brothers go in,” he asked, even as he held her tight.
“They’re taking care of Billings. I held him in a current, but Jim and Rick are better at that kind of thing than I am. They do it for a living. I’m just an amateur.”
“You’re amazing, Trisha.” His words touched her deeply.
“I love you, Steve.”
She kissed him with so much emotion little swirls of energy filled the water around them, cocooning them in a safe, protected circle where nothing could come between them. They were alone in the universe—and the entire Las Vegas Strip.
When Steve released her finally, after long, pleasurable, emotion-filled moments, Trisha suddenly realized that while the vampires were shielding them from human view, there was a whole contingent of Others—shapeshifters, vampires and their allies—who could, and did, see them. Many curious stares were focused on her.
She ducked a little behind Steve, but it didn’t help all that much. There were still a lot of interested eyes on them.
“Um… I think we should probably get out of here.” She could feel the heat of a blush in her cheeks.
“Can you do that wave thing like your brothers?” he asked, almost daring her.
“Yes, but…it’s a little showy. And everybody’s watching.” Her gaze darted toward the onlookers, then she looked downward, self-conscious. But Steve placed one finger under her chin and coaxed her to raise her gaze to meet his.
“All the more reason to show off a little. Shifter society is all about hierarchy. Since you can’t shift, you need to earn the Clan’s respect in another way. You’ve gone a long way toward doing that here tonight, so why not finish strong?” His gaze dared her to give it a try and she’d always loved a dare.
“Okay. Just hang on, and I’ll have us on the sidewalk in a jiff.” She held his hand tight.
With her free hand, she made a tiny wave in the water at her side and put some of her power behind it until it grew to a towering height that lifted them up and over the railing. It deposited them on their feet on the sidewalk and then she sent the water back into the lake, thanking it for its assistance with a thought.
If every other magical creature on the Strip hadn’t been watching before, they certainly were now. Keeping Steve’s words about hierarchy in mind, she kept her chin up and her head held high. She looked over at him and saw the wide grin on his face even as he scanned the crowd, making sure they were safe.
He was such a good man. Such a fierce protector. A great lover. And the best friend she thought she’d ever have. Even after such a short time together, she knew in her heart they were on the same wavelength. They’d shared a lot in a compressed time, but even more than that, she knew him for the match to her soul she’d hoped—but never quite dared believe—she’d find.
Steve was it for her. Her man. Her mate.
After tonight, any tiny remaining doubt had been laid to rest.
With a quick burst of her magic, she dried them both, sending the moisture back into the lake. Just that short contact with the lake water told her something she had expected but had hoped wouldn’t happen. She shuddered.
“What?” Steve asked, sensitive to her moods. He’d probably felt her shiver through their joined hands.
“Billings is dead. He refused to be subdued, and in the struggle the water claimed him.”
The look in Steve’s eyes held both compassion and a determined sort of satisfaction. “I’m not sorry the threat he posed to you is at an end, but it would have been good to be able to question him.” Steve would have said more, but his brother Mag walked over, accompanied by a distinguished-looking man and a gorgeous, fragile female.
“I’m Miranda.” The woman reached out first, introducing herself to Trisha. “Your power is impressive.”
“Indeed,” the older man added, nodding in a very old-world way. “I suggest we move off the street. My people have strong influence over humans, but we cannot be sure there are not Others watching our every move.”
He made a gesture and Trisha started walking, surrounded by the small group. They headed for the hotel they’d been in earlier and nobody spoke until they were inside. Trisha kept looking over at Miranda and Mag. They seemed cozy and Mag’s attention to the other woman’s frailty was almost touching to see. Yet she sensed some reserve surrounded the couple. Some kind of unspoken or unresolved feelings that kept them on edge around each other.
Trisha was also fascinated by the idea that the woman and the older man were vampires. She’d never thought such creatures were real. Her father had done a good job of closing her off from even the possibility of magic other than her own. She felt kind of stupid now, of course. But all her life, her father had been her guide, her teacher, her rock. Now though, she saw him as a man. A powerful man, of course, but still a man who occasionally made bad decisions.
Keeping her in the dark for so long was probably his worst idea ever, and it would take time before she was willing to forgive him for that one. Of course, she had Steve now. And although she knew she could lean on his strength, he also gave her freedom to be who she was and use her abilities. He’d given her wings.
And she would always love him for that. That and so much more.
When they arrived at the suite of rooms they had used before, near the top of the high-rise hotel, there was already a crowd gathered and more arrived with every elevator. Magnus and his friend Miranda talked quietly with Trisha and Steve, introducing the older man as the Master vampire of the area. He was formal at first but then invited her to call him Tony, which judging by the raised eyebrows all around was something of a surprise.
She was standing, talking with Tony about what his people had done to obscure the action on the street when her family arrived. Her father walked right up to her and swept her into a giant hug, which was rare for him. He usually wasn’t one to show emotion or affection easily. The slight tremble in his strong arms spoke volumes to her about how worried he’d been.
“You did good, munchkin,” he whispered to her before letting her go.
She went from her dad to her brothers, as one by one they all gave her hugs and pats on the back. They looked at her with new respect—something that hadn’t been there before. Maybe she’d finally been able to prove her mettle to them. Just as she’d proved it to herself.
When they finally let her go, she made the introductions as her newly arrived brothers said hello to those who had been in on the operation from the beginning. Grif frowned when he shook hands with Jim and Rick. Trisha understood his concern. Her father had been highhanded as usual, keeping secrets and men in reserve from the rest of the operation. His methods weren’t always aboveboard, but they always got results.
“Shall we do the debriefing here?” her father asked in his command voice, leaving little choice. But all eyes turned to Grif. He was the Alpha in charge here—not her dad—for a change.
“Might as well. We probably won’t all be gathered together like this for a while.” Grif led the way to the large table that filled one corner of the giant suite.
The inlaid wooden table could be used for dining or as a conference table. It would just fit all the players in tonight’s action, with some people perched on the credenza behind it and others dragging chairs from other parts of the suite over, to be within earshot. Looking around, she realized there had to be at least thirty people in the room and a few more coming in from the balcony. She frowned, trying to understand wh
at so many people had been doing on the balcony all this time.
Steve must’ve seen her confusion. He dipped his head near her ear and whispered. “Raptors. They were acting as air support.”
Bird shifters. Well, that was pretty cool. And yet another facet of this magical world she hadn’t known existed.
When everyone had settled, Grif, sitting at the head of the table, began to speak. “I’d like to personally thank everyone who assisted here tonight. Master Antoinne, please pass my thanks and the gratitude of the Redstone Clan on to your people. We could not have done this without their assistance.” Grif indicated the Master vampire with a respectful nod of his head. “Perhaps you could start the debrief by telling us how much damage control we may need to do in the coming days?”
“Certainly,” Tony replied, his cultured and rich voice spilling out into the room. The man oozed elegance but with a deadly edge. “The elders of my forces were engaged in active illusion while the younger and less adept with such things were set to watch. We had only three instances where otherwise normal humans noticed some of the action. Each was intercepted and evaluated. Two were bespelled into forgetfulness. The other is still with one of my operatives. It is a woman. Her mind is resistant.” Tony gave a slight frown. “I will go have a look at her as soon as we’re done here and see what I might be able to do to mitigate the problem. Maybe one of your people would like to accompany me? The snowcat or his mate, perhaps?”
Both Slade and Kate nodded from the other side of the table. “We’d be glad to assist. The more we can hide what happened here tonight, the better for all of us.”
Tony nodded. “Other than the three humans, only agents of the enemy saw what happened. All of those are accounted for—either dead or awaiting our questioning. They have been taken to a remote location and will remain under guard there until we are ready to talk to them.”
“I’ll need to take a look at them too,” Kate put in. “To see if any of them bear the Venifucus tattoos. Slade and I can see them where most beings can’t.”
“Your assistance in this matter would be most helpful, Priestess. Thank you.” Tony sat down with only a slight flourish and everyone’s attention turned back to Grif.
“Containment was my immediate concern. It sounds like your people have a good handle on that, Tony. Next, I’d like to discuss parameters. Admiral Morrow.” Grif turned to Trisha’s father with a very stern expression. “While I appreciate your reputation for strategy and experience, I will not allow you to operate within my realm of influence again unless I have your assurance that all your assets will be disclosed up front. Keeping your sons in reserve is something I can understand, but it caused confusion for my people and nearly caused your sons to come under attack before we realized what was going on.”
“I’d have liked to see them try,” Jim whispered. He’d always been a wiseass and every shifter in the room had to have heard his snide comment. It was obvious they had—they all bristled.
“We were above you, moron,” a man seated on the credenza behind them said. “Ever seen an eagle dive on salmon?”
Jim turned in his seat, giving the guy who’d spoken a hard look. “Redstones are cougars.”
Every shifter in the room made a scoffing sound.
“My family is cougar, that’s true,” Grif said slowly, as if speaking to a child—a stupid child, at that. “But Redstone Construction—which essentially is the Clan—encompasses shifters of all kinds. Raptors especially like to walk the iron. You escaped being clawed by the skin of your teeth.”
Understanding dawned on Jim’s face. Rick also looked a little taken aback, though he was always harder to read.
“My apologies, Alpha,” her father finally replied. He’d given every shifter in the room a quick, evaluating glance. If she was any judge of her father’s expressions, he was impressed. “I didn’t have time to brief them fully.”
Trisha was surprised. It wasn’t often that her father admitted he might have made a mistake.
“Now that’s out of the way.” Grif took back control of the debrief. “What did you do with Billings?”
“He refused to stop struggling and drowned,” Rick reported.
“His body is in the back of a van Slade pointed us toward before we came up,” Jim added. Everyone’s attention turned to Slade.
“One of Tony’s people took him out to where they’re keeping the prisoners. We need to examine him for tattoos before we dispose of the body,” Slade put in.
Grif nodded, seemingly satisfied with the results. “We need to know how deeply involved he was with the Venifucus, if at all possible. I don’t like how active they’ve been in our area in the past few months. We’ve struck a blow against them here tonight, but there have to be more of them out there plotting against us. I want to know all we can about them before we have to face them again.”
There were nods all around as the shifters and vamps agreed with the Alpha’s words.
“All right. Anything else we need to discuss before we all go our separate ways?” Grif asked. Nobody came forward, and the overall feeling in the room was one of relief, satisfaction and fatigue. It was late and people wanted to go about their normal lives. Trisha could get behind that idea. Big time.
“Then thanks again and let’s disperse a few at a time. You know the drill.” Grif rose and went to talk with Kate and Slade for a moment as some of his people stopped briefly to say goodbye as they headed out.
Trisha watched a few of the men she thought had to be bird shifters head toward the balcony. Through the tinted window, she could just make out the movements as they discarded their clothing, folded it and put it in a big satchel. One of the others took the satchel and came back into the room. He was still carrying it as he left the suite. Apparently he was going to take the birdmen’s clothes back home while they shifted and flew.
She couldn’t really see them shapeshift in the dark and through tinted glass, but she was able to make out large feathered wings as they launched, one by one, from the balcony railing. Steve squeezed her hand as he rose and she stood up automatically, following his lead. She was still fascinated by the idea of people being able to turn into birds and fly away, but her father was standing in front of her and she knew she had to focus.
“When are you coming home, Trisha?” her father asked.
Taken aback, Trisha didn’t know what to say. “We still have another few days here in Vegas,” she temporized. “And Steve and I need to discuss a few things.”
She felt his hand tighten on hers and she knew she’d said the right thing. He was remaining suspiciously silent, letting her handle her family, and she was grateful for it. She needed to assert herself with the men in her family. If she didn’t do it now, she never would. And that was no way to start a new life.
She’d changed on a fundamental level tonight. She’d finally stood on her own. She’d faced her fears. She’d faced danger. And she’d learned things about herself and her abilities. Things that would never be forgotten now they were out in the open. She couldn’t go back to being the biddable little sister or daughter who let the big, strong men of her family take care of everything.
“I see.” Her father frowned a little, but for once, she didn’t let his apparent disapproval affect her decisions.
She was her own woman now. She had proved it to herself—and to anyone who had been watching. If her dad needed time to figure that out, she’d give it to him. He was her dad, after all, but he would no longer control every aspect of her life. Those days were over.
“I’m glad you do.” She stepped forward and hugged him. “I love you, Daddy. I always will. But I’m not a little girl anymore. I’ve grown up.”
She stepped back and her brother Rick stepped in to defuse the moment. “You can say that again. Trish, you did great tonight. I didn’t even realize you knew half those tricks. You’re a force to be reckoned with, sis.” He gave her a quick hug that made her laugh and stepped back. And just like that, the tense
moment had passed.
“Are you going to stay for a while?” she asked.
She didn’t see a lot of her brothers nowadays. They were always off saving one part of the world or another. She worried for them, but she knew they had skills she couldn’t even imagine. As long as they were in or near water, they would be okay.
“I think we’ll probably be in Las Vegas until your friends are on the plane home.” Rick winked at her and she was very aware of the way he’d phrased his words.
If things worked out as she hoped they would, she wouldn’t be on the plane with her friends. She’d be staying right here with Steve. But they hadn’t talked logistics yet, and she knew they had some things to work out before she knew where she’d be headed in the next few days.
“I just got a call from the Pack house. Your friends are waking up. Everybody seems fine, if a little confused. I’m heading over there now.” Kate stopped for a moment to talk before heading out of the suite with Slade.
Trisha looked over at Steve and he nodded. She didn’t even need to say the words. She knew that he knew what was on her mind.
“We’ll come too. What are we going to tell them?”
“Maybe some kind of bug? What do you think, Doc?” Slade asked Trisha as he slung one arm around his mate’s shoulders.
“That could work. Maybe.” Trisha frowned, thinking about what she could plausibly tell her human friends about why they’d been unconscious for so long.
“We could reinforce whatever story you come up with using a touch of magic. Your fey friend might even be of some help there,” Kate mused. “I’ll call ahead and tell Lynda to meet us in the front room before we go up so we can coordinate.”
Trisha nodded. She hated lying to her friends, but she also needed to protect everyone—the shifters, the vampires, everyone in the Redstone Clan and her human friends too. The less her friends knew about what had really happened here in Vegas, the better for everyone. This time, that saying about what happened in Vegas was definitely true.