by Jami Gray
Jamie frowned. “Do you want me to come with you?”
She gave him a small smile. “I’ll be fine, Jamie. Once you and Fahd are done, go home. We can talk more tomorrow.”
Jamie’s mouth pressed into a tight line and his hands curled into fists. “I don’t like this. Where’s Darius?”
Her patience rapidly fading under his continued questions, she snapped, “Gone.”
He blinked. “Excuse me?”
Exasperated, she threw up her hands. “I didn’t kill him. He left.”
“Before or after whatever redecorated your living room?” Fahd asked softly.
Interesting. She didn’t mistake Fahd’s shifting suspicions for caring. Demons never took kindly to outsiders. “After.”
“Was this attack aimed at you or at him?”
Curious to unravel Fahd’s thinking, she asked, “Why couldn’t it be both?”
“Both?” He frowned. “No, that doesn’t make sense. You alone would be difficult to defeat. The two of you, together?” He shook his head. “What did they send? A Bound?”
“Please,” Jamie scoffed. “If that was the case, there wouldn’t be a room left to clean up.” He and Fahd shared a look. “When are you expecting him back?”
“If I’m truly blessed, when Hell freezes over.” She cocked her head, studying the two demons before her. Niggling whispers circled her thoughts. How close was the one behind her headaches? Could they be standing in front of her? “Why the sudden interest in his social calendar?”
This time it was Fahd who answered. “With an individual such as him in our territory, we would rather be overly cautious than caught unawares.”
As much as she wanted to pursue this conversation, another waited for her. “He’s busy checking on the well-being of our visiting Councilman.”
Jamie smirked. “Must suck to be a babysitter. Wonder what his hourly rate is?”
The snide twist in Jamie’s tone rubbed her the wrong way. “I dare you to ask.”
Jamie’s smirk died a quick death, but the red rings around his eyes began to glitter. “Might be fun.”
She smiled. “Let me know. I’d love to watch.”
Resentment chased arrogance and left behind a frustrated male ego. “Maybe I’d surprise you.”
Teasing really wasn’t nice, but what crawled under her skin wasn’t feeling nice toward anyone tonight. “Maybe, maybe not.” Unwilling to indulge her nature, she turned and left Fahd and Jamie without another word. It was safer that way.
Natasha stepped into her library to find Raine and Carys already seated. Raine was on the small reading sofa, while Carys laid claim to the nearest of two plush reading chairs standing on either side. Gavin perused the bookcases stretched along the walls, where shelf after shelf held multi-hued bindings.
Natasha headed for the chair framed by the moonlit window, leaving Gavin to close the door behind her. “Jamie and Fahd should be finished shortly,” she said.
Gavin crossed the room. “Something’s happened with the investigation of Mulcahy’s death.”
Tension tightened her stomach, but Natasha forced her body to relax into the overstuffed chair. “Something you don’t want to share with Darius.”
“Unless you’re entirely certain he’s not behind our latest string of disasters.”
“No,” she murmured, allowing her doubts voice. “Not entirely. What happened?”
“Axel Kayzer is missing.”
The unexpected name startled her, but she put two and two together. “The Wraith you assigned to track down Dmitri’s movements?”
Gavin settled next to Raine on the small reading sofa and gave a short nod. “He was following up on a few names linked to Vidis’s brother. He’s gone dark.”
Natasha tucked her feet under her. “Who was Axel tracking?”
“We don’t know exactly,” Raine hedged.
Gavin stretched out his legs, crossing them at the ankle. “Last time he checked in he mentioned he had a couple of possibilities, but was having a hard time finding them credible. He planned on digging a little more before he shared the names. He indicated that if he shared them and they turned out to be false leads, the fallout could be catastrophic.”
“He must have given you some indication of who they were.” Carys reclined deeper into the chair opposite Natasha. “I find it hard to believe that if there was even the smallest chance the leads could pan out, he wouldn’t have given them to you.”
Natasha agreed. “He may not have given you specific names, but I have no doubt the two of you have ideas of who he was following.”
Gavin and Raine shared a long look, then Gavin took a deep breath. “We have it narrowed down to three: Leopold DiMarcco, Corwin Westbrooke, and Zayn Aimeric.”
Each name was a power in their own right and each brought serious complications. Those complications made Natasha’s demonic nature sit up in eager anticipation. “You do realize that, with those three, calling the fallout catastrophic is putting it mildly.” She drummed her nails against the fabric-covered armrest, arranging and rearranging the newest pieces of the puzzle.
“Information on DiMarcco and Westbrooke has been hard to come by,” Raine said.
“Understandable,” Carys murmured, sharing a knowing glance with Natasha. “But Natasha is right. If any of those names is behind this mess, we better have solid proof of their involvement or there will be no more Northwest Kyn.”
“It won’t matter if we have proof or not.” Natasha forced her voice around the ball of sick certainty growing in her gut as the pieces began to click. “If they are behind this, we have only one chance at survival.” One very, slim, very dangerous chance, especially if she put the pieces together wrong.
Carys’s face remained grimly composed even as her skin paled. She flicked her fingers.
Magic singed Natasha’s skin causing her to hiss. “What are you doing, Carys?”
“Silencing spell,” the woman answered, her gaze fierce. “You want to speak about taking out the members of the Council, you best ensure there are no ears nearby. Especially considering who is sleeping under your roof.”
“Or those currently on cleanup duty in your living room,” Raine said.
Reaching for her dwindling patience, Natasha refrained from splintering the uncomfortable magic. Instead, she reinforced it with a barrier of her own. Carys was correct to be cautious, because their upcoming discussion could not be overheard. “Why those three?” Natasha directed her question to Gavin.
“All three are European based Kyn, yet in the last year, they’ve made several trips to the States.”
“That’s not unusual, Gavin.” Time to play devil’s advocate. “As the oldest member and reigning leader of the Council, Leopold DiMarcco may reside in Europe, but his business interests stretch over various countries, including America. Corwin Westbrooke isn’t Council, but he is the key liaison between the European Kyn and their human governments. Politics or business could draw him our way. As for Zayn, between the Southwest Alpha’s disagreement with Vidis and Ryan’s death, the Council has every right to send in a representative to evaluate us. That they chose him is not surprising. That he brought Darius with him, also understandable as he serves as a bodyguard and evaluator. You’ll need more than a series of easily explained trips to lay at their door.”
“It’s not the trips, so much as who they met on those trips and the timing.” Raine leaned forward. “Did you know that Westbrooke met with head of Talbot Foundation, Jonah Talbot, in late August, a month before Talbot approached Mulcahy to find out who was behind the deaths of his employees? Why? What interest would the European Kyn liaison have with the son of the man rumored to have experimented on Kyn?” Those eerie silver eyes focused on her with unblinking intensity. “Then in January, DiMarcco met with a hush-hush sub-committee in Washington, DC. According to the information we found, that committee was attended by key military figures, including one General Matthew Cawley. The same man who was working with Dr. Lawson under Talbot’s n
ose to create a super soldier based upon Kyn genetics.”
“And who did Zayn meet?” Natasha asked.
Raine hadn’t lumped him in with DiMarcco and Westbrooke. Why? Natasha had her own suspicions, but best to wait and see what they found first.
Gavin shared a look with Raine then answered. “He covers his tracks better than others. We found signs of a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, around early June of last year, and another to Denver a couple weeks into December. No indication of who he was meeting or why he picked those places.”
“Aimeric wasn’t alone. He had a shadow, the same one who followed him here.” Raine took over. “We have no idea how long they’ve been in town, but they only made themselves known after Mulcahy’s death. Who’s to say our problems didn’t start because of their presence.” Her lips lifted into a feral grin. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Neither did Natasha. But, there were things these two didn’t know. “We need proof.”
Raine stiffened, but Gavin’s touch on her arm kept in her place. He looked at Natasha. “What kind of proof?”
“The infallible kind,” Carys answered, drawing everyone’s attention. “The kind that when presented to the other Council members can’t be argued with or twisted.” Although she remained coolly composed, the green of her eyes had deepened, something old and calculating swirling in their depths. “Identifying the one behind Ryan’s death would be a grand start. Looking to the Council for our prey is tricky. They don’t like to see too much power in one individual’s hands, especially since they spend so much time trying to snatch it out of each other’s grasp.”
Raine’s smile was sharp and nasty. “They must have hated it when Mulcahy created the Wraiths and Northwest Kyn, then.”
Natasha found Raine’s vindictive pride amusing. “The Council’s relief when Ryan left to head west was short lived. They were not pleased when they realized what he was building here. But Ryan is the only one I’ve ever known who’s held multiple positions of power at one time.”
“The Wraith’s captaincy and Head of Fey House,” Gavin said.
“And Taliesin,” Carys added. “You hold those three positions, and you hold the majority of political power of the Kyn in America.”
“And the Council would definitely not like that,” Gavin mused. He turned to Natasha. “Is that why you set your sights on the captaincy?”
She gave him a serene smile. “I never said I wanted it. I only provided alternate options for consideration.”
Raine muttered something that sounded very close to “Manipulative bitch,” but Natasha chose to ignore it.
“Yet you still managed to gain one out of the three,” came Gavin’s dry rejoinder.
“True, but I have my hands full with my own house and Taliesin’s CEO position.” She slid a mocking glance at Carys. “I’ve never envied Carys her position.”
Cary’s quiet laugh would have had sent chills skittering over a lesser woman’s skin. “Had you asked earlier, I may have given it to you. There were those under my roof who felt older, more experienced individuals should be sitting in my place.” Anger glittered in the sea-glass green of her eyes, and her smile held a cutting edge. “However, Ryan was no one’s fool. He made it quite clear who he expected to follow in his footsteps. Something I took great pains to remind them of earlier tonight.” She met Natasha’s gaze and a dark satisfaction crawled behind the beauty. “He wasn’t one to leave things to chance.”
“A leader never does,” Natasha murmured, recalling all the late night discussions with Ryan. The hundreds of “what-if” conversations and solutions they’d shared, the goals and dreams they’d held of what the Northwest Kyn would be.
All of it coalesced into a quiet clarity. If she was to lead the Northwest Kyn, it was time to ensure Ryan’s legacy wasn’t torn apart by petty aspirants and jealous, power-hungry ghouls.
Carys inclined her head, losing some of that feral rage.
“We’re getting off track,” Raine growled. “Let’s get back to these trips of Aimeric’s. Just because his trips aligned with Mulcahy’s doesn’t mean they met.”
Carys clear her throat. “As much as I’d love to pin this on Councilman Aimeric or Mr. Abazi, I think we can remove them from our list.” She looked to Natasha, a shared knowledge flaring to life.
“Agreed.” Natasha knew where Carys was headed. Her fingers slowed their dance against the chair’s armrest.
“Why?” Gavin spoke over Raine’s growl, going so far as to put a restraining arm around her shoulders.
Natasha let Carys take over the conversation. Better Gavin and Raine hear it from Ryan’s successor, than from her. They wouldn’t trust her. Wisely, so.
“Ryan has been grooming me as his replacement for a while now,” Carys explained. “The last few years, he turned more and more of the House matters over to me. It left him able to concentrate on Taliesin and his other interests.”
“However, there was one aspect he refused to hand over, Council meetings.” A small tightening around her mouth indicated Ryan’s decision had not set well with her. Still, heir apparent or not, you did not argue with your head of house. “The Council meets twice a year, Midsummer in June and Winter Solstice in December. Ryan took numerous trips within the last year, some documented, some not.”
Raine straightened in her seat. “Are you telling us those two were meeting with Mulcahy? Before the Council meetings?”
Carys’s smile was serene and full of secrets. “As I said before, when it came to Council matters, Ryan was completely hands on. While I can’t confirm who he met, what I can attest to is that two of those undocumented trips coincide with the dates in question.”
“Son of a bitch.” Raine ran a hand through her hair, loosening black strands from the long braid. Veiled thoughts swam behind her composed expression, changing the gray of her eyes to mercury silver. As her hand dropped to rest on Gavin’s thigh, she turned to Natasha. “Before Abazi showed up, we thought Aimeric was the one in the Order. However, Abazi is the one wearing an Order ring, not Aimeric. How do we know which one to trust?”
“Order?” Trepidation turned Carys’s question sharp. “For goddess’s sake, Natasha, is Darius with the Order?”
Natasha raised her hand to halt Carys’s outrage. “Yes.” She lowered her hand and turned her attention to Raine. “Darius.”
Raine’s lip curled at her answer. “I told you before, Natasha, you put too much stock in a supposed friendship.”
“And I told you, his connection to the Order could supersede even the Council. I still believe that.”
“Why?” Raine pushed. “What do you know that we don’t?”
How to explain the secrets gathering strength in her mind, even now after the blood-tie she shared with Darius remained nothing more than a remembered taste. “Nothing worth sharing just yet, but it shouldn’t take me much to get the information we need. Darius and Zayn are connected. It’s just a matter of figuring out how. Until then, we are best served approaching Darius first.”
Amusement lightened Gavin’s eyes, edging the darkness back a bit. “You think you can get Darius to spill his guts?”
She arched an eyebrow.
He snorted. “Natasha, I realize you believe most men are more malleable than clay, but Darius isn’t one of them. You’re treading dangerous ground going up against him.”
A little miffed at Gavin’s statement, Natasha sharpened her voice. “Are you insinuating I’m just another beautiful face?”
This time, a true laugh escaped the man watching her. “I would never dare say that, but you may have met your match with him.”
“I don’t know,” Raine said. “My money’s on Natasha.”
“I’m with Raine,” Carys chimed in. “Males too often underestimate the predatory nature of females.”
Darius didn’t strike Natasha as one of those males. “Darius is no one’s fool. His reaction to Ryan’s death is not faked. Something tells me he allows the Council
to believe they have sway over his actions, so long as it benefits him.”
Carys frowned. “Ryan’s death, planned or not, brought Darius and Zayn to our door, and that benefits the Council. If our leaders are proven unable to control the escalating situation the Council can justify sweeping in and taking over. They would claim it’s in everyone’s best interest.”
Natasha considered her words. “It would make perfect sense if you’re a politician, not a warrior.”
“Which rules out Abazi.” Raine’s hand flexed against Gavin’s thigh. “But not Aimeric.”
He looked down at her, a subtle intensity in their exchange. Silence trickled in, and Natasha let Gavin think. She could practically hear his brain speed through the information at his disposal. Finally, he lifted his head, and brought his attention back to Natasha. “Darius says he’s here to evaluate the Wraiths and find out who killed Mulcahy. So why not use that to our advantage?”
“By what? Giving him Zayn’s name as our prime suspect? It’s obvious the two must work together. What would that accomplish?”
“Nothing, which is why we don’t give him any names. It’s too dangerous. We know the Council is splitting. We have no idea if the Order is following suit. Until we can be sure who falls on which side, we need to pick our way carefully. If Darius wants the truth, it wouldn’t take much for him to uncover the same three names we have. Especially if we tell him Axel went missing because he was sniffing around something big.”
“You think he’ll believe you have no idea of who Axel was following?”
“Doesn’t matter if he does or doesn’t, he can’t prove it. Regardless, it’ll be enough to rattle some cages and maybe uncover both his and Zayn’s agenda.”
And this was why Ryan had chosen Gavin as his successor for the Wraiths. The warrior came with razor-sharp intelligence and well-honed instincts. Instincts Natasha now counted on. “That’s a hell of a balancing act, Gavin.”
“My footing’s good.” He sat up and leaned forward, studying her. “It’ll confirm if you’re right about those two being connected. If neither Darius nor Zayn have anything to do with Mulcahy’s death, it will take us down to two, very tricky names.”