Zeke laughed. “Okay, I can take a hint. He met with three more men. They’re definitely minions.”
Jael glanced sharply at Zeke. “They work for the Spider Mage.”
“Nerux?” That was an old name, but with mages sometimes the old ones came back.
“Maybe. He’d be hundreds of years old, though. The magic has probably changed bodies a few times since we last saw him. What did you hear?”
“That’s just it. I could hear them all when they were talking to others, but when they spoke to each other I couldn’t hear a word they said.” Zeke shrugged and tipped his chin at four men exiting the bar. “There they are.”
Jael stared at the man who’d dared touch Viktoria and his friends as they walked down the street. Each of them clasped their right wrists with their left hands and flickered out of view.
“Can you track them?” Zeke murmured.
Jael opened the door and slid from the car, reaching over his shoulder to draw a sword. The men came back into view. He nodded at Zeke. “I’ll follow them on foot and meet you back here.”
Zeke nodded and got out of the car. “I’ll go back in. See if I can hear anything else about them.”
Unlike his Dragă, these guys made it easy, so sure no one could see them they took no precautions, not even to glance behind them as they strode down the sidewalk. Jael kept to shadows anyway.
Ten minutes later the hilts of his swords heated, alerting him to wards. Jael stopped, but the trio kept moving straight ahead, crossed a street and entered an apartment complex on the next block.
Jael circled the area, testing the wards as he had at Viktoria’s home. The ten-story apartment building took up an entire block, and the wards extended a block beyond it as a buffer. They weren’t as strong as Viktoria’s, but they layered one type of magic forced into proximity with another. There were obvious weak spots where two magics didn’t meld well. Jael had sensed this kind of spell work before, when stolen magic was twisted into purposes it wasn’t meant for.
He kept track of the openings, but didn’t try to force his way in. The amount of protections, and the sheer number of people he could see moving through windows told him he couldn’t take this place on his own. Not yet, anyway. Maybe not everyone living in the apartments was involved with mages. But he couldn’t ignore the possibility every single one of them was. They were too far away to see if their skin bore sigils. He needed reinforcements.
A pang of worry tangled itself inside him. His Dragă. One of these men had targeted her tonight. Touched her. He’d been so distracted by Viktoria and her game, he hadn’t asked her what that man wanted. And now a spider was at her house.
Those men used magic and knew spells, that was apparent. Jael hadn’t been able to put his hands on his swords while she’d had him leashed like her pet, hadn’t been able to see if they’d marked her with magic in some way. These men could be part of the ring that kidnapped Ember and Musette. Was Viktoria next?
Rage like he hadn’t felt in thirty-five hundred years surged, and his fists tightened around his sword hilts. He would kill them all. He took a step forward, ready to tear the wards apart. A pulse of magic from each blade responded, converting his rage into a cold fury that turned blind instinct to kill into calculated thought to hunt. He fought back the rage and made himself think. To hunt, he needed to know more about his prey.
He sprinted back to the bar. He needed information, and he knew a mage he could get it from... slowly.
TUESDAY,
DECEMBER 10
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
VIKTORIA
VIKTORIA YAWNED AND relaxed as Lurky moved away from her house. He carried some protection in his swords that made him resistant to magic. She’d used a lot more of her power than expected to keep him bound to her bed, and on the other side of her wards when he wanted back in. Not only that, her magic liked him.
And that wasn’t the only problem. Or the biggest one.
Vampires in Port Storm. Thirteen of them. All here long before she moved to the area a couple hundred years ago. And Soră wanted twelve more sisters. The math wasn’t difficult, nor did it take rocket science to figure out the vampires wouldn’t be leaving after living here so long.
There were undoubtedly more Other Worlders, and she did not like the drama supernaturals inevitably caused. She only had as much freedom as she did because she didn’t attract attention. In insulating herself to avoid trouble, perhaps she’d gone too far. If she’d been more aware of Other Worlders, maybe she could have prevented these mages from hurting Ember and Musette.
Thomax, the man at the showing, had been no friend, but he had been looking for Musette, and something had been off about him.
Mages who drained magic from witches would be in for a surprise if they came after her. Lurky had called her a witch, but she was Goddess-born. Her power was innate. She didn’t channel it from outside herself like a witch who manipulated her environment for energy.
Port Storm was a powerful place. As much as she liked it here, though, she might have to leave. When her sisters were freed, this wouldn’t be a safe place. After she found out if Ember and Musette were truly safe and aware of what they were dealing with. If they wanted to, they could come with her.
Rising from the bed, she went into the bathroom and took a hot shower as she mulled over what she needed to do. The first thing on her list — stay away from vampires. Lurky represented a dangerous temptation she couldn’t allow herself to give in to. Not when she was so close to getting everything she’d ever wanted.
Well, almost. More than anything, she wanted to know what it felt like to be loved. Not for her looks, or as a symbol of conquest, a prized possession, or a coveted trophy to be put on a shelf and shown off by a man who loved what she represented, but not who she was. What would it be like to be cared for?
She’d hurried the sex with Lurky as much as she could, trying to make it feel good, but business-like. He’d given her some of the answers she wanted, she’d given him some of what he wanted. Now, safely out of his reach, she allowed herself to imagine what it would have felt like to have him touch her.
His hand on her ankle when he’d dragged her down the bed had been cool, but the heated sensations running under her skin had been anything but. His fingers were strong, his skin rough from years of handling his swords. She had no doubt his hands always knew what they were doing, and did it well.
But he hadn’t needed to touch her to make her hot and ache. He’d done that the entire night with just his eyes. When he focused on her, she felt it, even when she wasn’t looking at him. The times his black eyes had turned blacker, and the predator in him had looked out at her made her want to run. Not in fear, but in anticipation of what would happen when he caught her.
He would have bitten her. That was an absolute truth, just as she knew she wanted him to. His fangs should have frightened her, but she’d bet he knew how to use them for a lot more than feeding. Would he trace them over her skin, the sharp points making her anticipate when he would strike? When he did, would it be a sharp thrust or a slow penetration?
And his muscles. So many muscles under that olive-hued skin. She imagined laying back, letting him do all the work instead — his arms rigid as he caged her in and held himself over her, the power in his thighs and back as he surged against her with her legs wrapped around him, the hypnotic sight of all those ridges on his stomach bunching and flexing as he took her with the single-mindedness he would dedicate to making sure they were both sated. She’d come tonight as she’d used him, but when he brought her to orgasm —
Viktoria’s hand flew from between her legs to twist the hot water faucet. She screamed as cold water poured from the shower head onto her overheated body. Shivering, she lectured herself — Lurky, no matter how tempting, was a vampire. Vampires coveted. Vampires enthralled. Vampires could not love. A man, especially a vampire, would ruin everything. This close to her goal, she couldn’t even let herself imagine Lurky having a place in
her life. No, she couldn’t even picture him while she touched herself.
She hadn’t come so near her freedom only to lose the chance to her overactive libido pining for a creature of darkness who would never appreciate her.
Focus. Make sure your friends are okay, then take a vacation or leave this place.
There wasn’t anything she could do for Musette if the problem was she couldn’t wake up, but Dream probably could.
Viktoria dried off, put on warm silver pajamas with tiny cutouts of clouds, and climbed into bed.
How could Viktoria spin that if her mother asked? It wasn’t a favor and wouldn’t help her in any way. In fact, it was inconvenient, highly troublesome even, because she wanted to get out of town and had to stay around for this now. It could even be seen as Viktoria doing the rescuing.
I will live in the human world for a thousand and one years, without accepting help or needing to be rescued.
Her pillow took an undeserved thumping. She’d regretted that poorly worded bargain with her mother more than once. And the stakes were high. If she held up her end of the bargain, she was free to live as she liked, and her sisters could make their own deals to be free. If she lost, she lost everything, and had to return to Pohjola. Forever.
Depending on her mood, Louhi maintained a loose interpretation of what help was, and her winds were always watching. Viktoria almost lost her freedom forever when someone carried groceries for her.
She gave her poor pillow one more thump and tried to relax, thinking of her sister to guide her dream as she drifted off to sleep.
Lurky appeared instead, invading what should have been a safe space with his tempting, predatory presence.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JAEL
JAEL STALKED THROUGH the compound, took the stairs to the top floor in the north wing and entered Karov’s domain — a land of nerd where he communed with his gadgets.
The first room acted as a buffer in case Stryx and his penchant for destroying technology ventured into the area. A single sacrificial computer sat on a desk. Posters under glass dotted the walls in between shelves holding unopened toys.
Waving at the camera, Jael made his way farther in. The true sanctum, lit by nothing but a slew of computer screens filled with either indecipherable languages or games in progress because the windows were permanently shuttered on the inside, and temperature controlled to keep all the machines happy, was where the real work got done.
Arcade games bleeped and blooped as Jael wound through bean bag chairs, robots of all shapes and sizes, and devices in various stages of assembly scattered on long tables.
The Ninja sat in front of a bank of monitors showing images of the ocean and interior rooms, some flooded. Several underwater cameras had the attention of a creature with a slew of tentacles. “Back off, you four-hundred percent overgrown octopus,” Karov muttered.
Jael slouched into a beanbag. “Problem?”
“Nothing a good sushi knife couldn’t fix.” Karov spun around in his chair. “Stryx and Ember are finishing up at the island and heading home. They’ll be here in a few hours if you want to be part of the welcoming committee.”
A tightness in Jael’s chest eased with the knowledge he hadn’t chosen incorrectly when he went to Viktoria. “I do. In the meantime, I need to know everything about an apartment complex downtown.” He listed the address. “The Spider Mage is in there somewhere.”
“More likely under it.” Karov rattled one of his keyboards as he typed.
Jael nodded. “True. I saw four men working for the mage going inside, but couldn’t follow. The building is full of people and warded. So are the streets for the surrounding block. We need to figure out what we’re up against before we go in. One of the mage’s acolytes was at the gallery tonight. He was interested in Ember until he saw Stryx, then he focused on Viktoria. There’s a spider at her house.”
“I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Thanks.” A bone-deep weariness dragged at Jael. He stifled the urge to yawn. This wasn’t like him. He’d trained to go without sleep for days. Something felt... coerced about this lethargy.
Karov returned to his screens, grumbling about the four-hundred percent overgrown tentacles messing with his cameras.
Jael took his leave, fighting against exhaustion and refusing to give in where he could be found vulnerable on the floor. When he entered the cave he used for sleeping, the lure of slumber pulled even harder, tugging his eyelids down. Some sort of magic. It had to be.
His swords hummed a quiet lullaby in his mind, not worried about whatever was happening. The traitors. Did that mean Viktoria was doing this somehow? The blades liked her. He collapsed facedown onto his bed.
This magic, whatever it was, swept aside the looming ever-present nightmares waiting to torment him like they were nothing more than pesky gnats, and carried him through an assortment of dreams in a dizzying visual kaleidoscope.
The horizon changed from night to day, land to sea, indoors and outside, sending his stomach into rolling knots. Carried too fast to get his feet under him, he reached out, attempting to grab someone or something streaking past and slow his unintentional journey. Instead, his progress sped up in retaliation with a muffled, annoyed feminine hymph, everything blurring into a motion sickness inducing lurch.
Everything came to an abrupt halt, and he stumbled to regain his balance, bracing a hand on a familiar black fireplace. Even if he hadn’t recognized that, his thudding heart knew where he’d ended up.
Viktoria’s throaty sound of pleasure spun him away from the fireplace to the bed. One long, pale leg wrapped around the waist of a muscled body covered to the hips by her black bedding.
A stab of infuriated jealousy had him reaching for his swords, but the hilts faded beneath his hands. The blades appeared on the back of the man in bed with Viktoria.
Oh. She dreamed of him.
Satisfaction, primal and all male, filled him. Then he filled her as he became the man moving over Viktoria and thrust deep.
Jael held her wrists pinned above her head in one hand, the other pressed her thigh to the bed, opening her for him. He pulled back and watched their joining as he surged forward.
His Dragă made another throaty sound, and he lowered his head, covering her mouth with his to swallow her noises. Their tongues tangled. Her skin glowed. Hot vanilla drowned his senses. He gave her more of his weight, holding her down with his bigger body. The tips of her full breasts hardened against his chest.
He tore his mouth away from hers to trail kisses along her jaw and down her throat. Dream or not, his fangs ached, full of venom.
“Do it, Lurky.”
Jael growled. Even here, she had to use that damned nickname. But he didn’t need the invitation twice, no matter what name she called him.
The sharp points of his fangs penetrated the soft skin of her throat. Flooding her blood with venom woke the vampire inside him, and he took her hard, slamming himself into her. She clenched her inner muscles around him. He groaned as he swallowed a mouthful of her blood.
Viktoria arched. The scent of vanilla spiked. Everything in him felt too tight as he pounded into his woman. He sucked hard at the bite on her neck. Her pleasure sweetened the taste of her blood and he thrust a final time, emptying himself inside her.
Sated, he relaxed, letting his body press Viktoria into the mattress. Lazily, he licked at the wound, healing the marks of his fangs. His heart calmed, and he savored the happiness only available to him in a dream like this.
A baby wailed.
His Dragă tugged her wrists free and pushed on his shoulders. “Go. She only ever wants you at sunrise.”
What the fuck?
Stunned, he allowed Viktoria to roll him onto his back.
The baby’s cries grew louder.
“She’s as stubborn as you. Go on.” His Dragă gave him another shove, harder this time. She meant business.
Jael sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed
, groping for the pants he knew he’d find there. He pulled them on and stood to zip them. His feet trudged across the snow-covered room and he opened the door, glancing over his shoulder.
Viktoria smiled at him, looking disheveled and thoroughly fucked.
“Hurry back,” she murmured in that sultry voice of hers.
He bit back a groan and followed the cries, entering another bedroom and stopping short at the sight of the baby in the cradle. His black eyes and Viktoria’s silvery hair. Little arms reached for him.
Memories of another girl collided with the present and he wanted to run, but his body moved forward to pick up the baby, who quieted at once, taking comfort from the monster holding her. She didn’t know everything he touched died.
His heart beat faster, swelling in his chest.
The baby gurgled and nestled into his hands. Jael left the room and walked down the corridor to the stairs, past twelve portraits of blonde, blue-eyed women. On the first floor, framed photographs of him and Viktoria watched from the walls and tables.
He smiled in some of them. When had that ever happened? In a few he stood in the sun with her. Pictures of the baby he carried and two more children... he knelt and squinted at them. Sons?
Dual war cries tore through the air, and twin apparitions wearing red capes thudded into his chest and back. Small boys, with Viktoria’s eyes and his dark hair and skin, scrambled over his shoulders. Tiny, nimble hands stripped him of his swords and the boys fell to the floor, giggling.
Jael’s heart seized in his chest and he froze, afraid of dropping the infant in his hands, as the older children slashed at each other.
“Those swords are a bad influence on the twins.” Viktoria brushed by him like her kids weren’t playing with sharp tools of death. She didn’t look thoroughly fucked anymore. Long hair swept up in a fancy hairdo, wearing a dress... half a dress, he amended as he caught sight of her naked back. He supposed he should be glad she wore more than strings.
Viktoria's Shadow: Jael Page 6