“Most shifters don’t consider selkies kin,” Sue said in a distant voice. “We tend to avoid them.”
“Without their pelts,” I recalled from Linus’s lessons, “they’re fully human.”
“Yes.” She traced a finger around the glass’s lip. “Their magic is bound to their other form.”
That made sense, but habit or not, I wasn’t thrilled to learn of the bar’s existence.
Examining the room, the remaining customers, I asked, “How did you stumble across this place?”
“Selkies look after their own.” She stared at the bottles behind the counter. “Why are you here?”
“You and I need to chat.” I pushed away her drink. “In private.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” She didn’t so much as blink. “You can leave now.”
This hollowed-out shell was an exact replica of mine, down to the edge of violence greedy for an outlet.
“Okay.” I got to my feet. “I was going to tell you we found what you lost, but maybe you don’t care.”
Sue moved fast.
I don’t mean fast for a mom or an ex-potentate.
I mean, the woman moved.
I hadn’t finished my step back before she was on her feet, her hand at my throat.
“What did you say?” She searched my face, her eyes clear. “What have you done?”
“Let’s go someplace quiet,” I said, allowing Ambrose to make an appearance. “Then we’ll talk.”
The appearance of my “wraith” startled her into releasing me. That, or the menace rolling off him in a direct threat to her continued existence if she didn’t let go of his host.
“Okay.” She tossed a handful of bills on the counter. “Your place?”
Given the likelihood we weren’t the only ones surveilling her, I was happy to agree. “Why not?”
Before we left, I bought a bottle of water and carried it out to Midas, whose face was puffy.
“Tilt your head back.” I unscrewed the cap. “Let’s get this crap off you.”
Impatient, Sue popped up at my elbow. “We need—”
“—to ensure my mate isn’t in agony from his attempt to do something good for you? Why, yes. We do.”
That snapped her mouth shut, but she fumed, the alcohol I smelled on her crumbling her polite façade.
I poured the water over his face, concentrating on his eyes, flushing the worst off him. It soaked him in the process, and those clothes would be bagged and sent to HQ for examination. I wanted to know what the bar was pumping in that could deter a shifter. In Atlanta, given its large gwyllgi population, I feared the answer was an aerosol bronze derivative, which affected gwyllgi as bad as or worse than silver hurt wargs.
From the corner of my eye, I watched Ambrose circling her, ensuring she knew he was there.
The way she shied from him convinced me she had little experience with wraiths, and therefore wouldn’t think twice about the oddities of mine.
Thank the goddess for small mercies.
Once I had done all I could do for Midas, I took his hand and linked our fingers. The lovey-dovey move was insurance he wouldn’t stumble or fall during our trip back to the Faraday. Alphas, and betas, weren’t allowed to show weakness. Any dominant would prey on a gwyllgi in a position of authority if their inner beast doubted that person’s strength. It wasn’t personal. It was instinctual.
And it could get Midas killed one day.
Sue better hope that day was not today.
Eight
The ride back to the Faraday passed in a blink, and I tipped the driver to keep him around until he and his car could be sterilized. The last thing we wanted was to spread our bad luck around to anyone else who might be sensitive to whatever we had been exposed to in that bar.
One of the big problems with potential bronze contamination was containment. If you lived in a building staffed by gwyllgi, with a healthy number of gwyllgi residents, you had nowhere to clean up or get treatment that wouldn’t jeopardize your neighbors.
Home was out. The infirmary was out. Our friends’ houses were out. The den was out. It was all out.
That was why, when the pack purchased the Faraday from its previous owners after the final battle with the witchborn fae, Tisdale had a decontamination suite built into the parking deck under the building, where few people had access.
Hank spotted our arrival, but I waved him off, and he took the hint.
Though I bet he was on the phone with Tisdale within seconds, which meant Midas’s phone would be ringing shortly.
The trip down the sidewalk to the parking garage was brutal, but Midas kept his expression schooled in a blank mask Linus would envy. Slow but steady, we managed to give the appearance of a casual stroll rather than the frantic hobble I would have preferred until we reached the shiny new chamber.
Recalling the training the OPA and pack enforcers had received on its operation, I shoved him through the door, trusting him to handle himself while I kept an eye on Sue, who I had forgotten until now, though it went against everything in me to leave him fumbling around and in pain on his own.
A red light flashed when the chamber activated, and the band clenching my chest eased a fraction.
Part of me, the darker bits I wished I could blame on Ambrose, wanted to collect on that pain from Sue. I wanted to rip her down the middle for hurting him. I understood her reasons. I would have done the same in her place. But with the mating bond thrown open wide, I had trouble controlling the gwyllgi territoriality that leaked into me from Midas.
With a ten-minute wait ahead of us, I dialed Abbott, hating to yank him out of his bed. “Hello, friend.”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes.”
A sleepy rasp edged his voice. “What’s wrong?”
His relief wasn’t imagined as I explained I wasn’t the patient.
Rude, if you asked me. I wasn’t that bad of a patient.
Fiiine.
I was a total nightmare, which explained why he was sleeping so lightly in the first place. Probably dreaming about me being shattered into puzzle-size pieces he had to fit together after the gauntlet.
That might also explain why he hung up on me.
“I’m sorry Midas got hurt.” Sue made herself small. “I didn’t expect you to come looking for me.”
“I didn’t expect what I found.” I slid her a glance. “I didn’t know about that bar.”
It bothered me as much as Midas getting hurt that others could be too.
“Your stance on shifters is well known,” she murmured. “I would be surprised if anyone told you.”
Until it hit someone hard enough their allergy got them dead and their family started asking questions.
“My stance on shifters is the same stance I have on every faction.”
“You’re mated to a gwyllgi.” A bite entered her voice. “You’re not impartial, no matter what you tell yourself.”
“I never claimed to be impartial. The pack is my family now, and its well-being is important to me. But so is the health and safety of every citizen in Atlanta. Necromancers have money and power to hide behind. Vampires have necromancers to hide behind. Fae hide period. Shifters can’t hide in their numbers, and they’re often treated like animals rather than people.” I sized her up, this person mated to a shifter who could pass for human, who could be human when he chose. “All factions are aggressive, territorial, and dangerous. That includes humans. I don’t want to elevate shifters above everyone else. I just want to give them a hand up to level ground. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
“We heard about you.” She leaned against a concrete pillar. “Sean said it was all propaganda to normalize the union of a necromancer and a gwyllgi prince within her purview, but it’s not, is it?”
The way she phrased it, after turning it over in her head, I had to ask, “Did Phoenix know about your husband?”
She caught my drift, and her features pinched to a painful degree. “No.”
“You
presented him as a human,” I guessed, then wondered, “Was that why you stepped down?”
Not motherhood itself, but her inability to hide her children’s true natures long term.
“Yes,” she rasped. “I loved my job, but retirement was best for us all.”
I awarded points for caring enough about her kids not to bind them in lies as she had their father.
The parking deck had fresh wards, also courtesy of Tisdale, so light conversation was acceptable. The nitty-gritty would have to wait until we all finished our turns in decontamination.
A green light flashed above the door, and I gestured to Sue. “Instructions are printed on the wall.”
The chamber had a separate entrance and exit. You entered through the garage and got spat into an office Tisdale had transformed into a bare-bones exam room. Midas would already be with Abbott. He could keep an eye on Sue until I made it through. By going last, I made sure she couldn’t slip out again.
While waiting on the light to blink, I texted everyone updates and reported the anti-shifter bar. Sentinels would have to handle the case. They were all Low Society necromancers, like me, so they weren’t at risk.
On the good-news front, Bishop informed me the tactical witch coven had arrived at Lake Lanier.
There were definite benefits to having a skilled local coven willing to accept contract work.
A sharp trill of sound jerked my attention to the burner phone I had borrowed from Remy.
The unknown number on the caller ID set my pulse jumping. “Whitaker.”
“If you want your friend to live,” a smoky voice rasped, “you’ll fail the gauntlet.”
“Fail?” I must not have heard him right. “Do you mean bow out?”
“You will enter the gauntlet, and you will fail, or Neely Torres will die.”
The caller hung up, and there was no point wasting time to track the call, but I would ask Reece to try.
Flunk the gauntlet? Why enter in the first place if that was their price? What did it accomplish?
Except, perhaps, to give Sue an opportunity to showcase her skills while ensuring I was no competition.
The light turned green, and I stepped in and stripped off my clothes. I took a shower, scrubbed until my skin was pink and sore, and washed my hair until the pressure of my nails on my scalp made me wince. I strolled into the futuristic drying tube, which resembled the one from Home Sweet UFO, except technology wasn’t to thank for the insta-dry. This was one hundred percent magic, and it wasn’t a luxury or a splurge. The nullification spell designed to void any remaining bronze particles worked best on clean, dry skin.
Bronze-free, I entered the last nook to fish out a tee and sweats in my size from the wall of marked cubbies. There were flip-flops too, but those suckers killed my toes. I would rather go barefoot.
Exiting the chamber, I crammed myself into the exam room, which hadn’t been designed to hold four.
“Well?” I swept my gaze over Midas. “How is he?”
“I gave him an antihistamine shot and prescribed some oral medications.” Abbott passed me a pill bottle and a printed sheet of instructions. “He breathed in a large quantity of particulates, and it’s difficult for the decontamination chamber to get rid of what’s inside the body.”
“I’m fine.” Midas sat on the table, also barefoot. “I’ve had worse.”
The only one of us to choose flip-flops, Sue sat with her legs crossed under her on Abbott’s stool.
“What I’m hearing is that you’re on light duty.” I brought his hand to my mouth and kissed his knuckles. “I’m not taking chances with you.”
“As glad as it makes my heart to hear you say you’re not taking chances—” Abbott began, “—Midas is clear for duty.”
“What?” I whirled on him. “If it was me in that bed, you’d chain me to it for a week.”
“You would have limped in with a lung in one hand and a bad attitude in the other.”
“Abbott,” I gasped, choking on a laugh. “I thought we were friends.”
“We are friends, but you’re a terrible patient. You take care of everyone better than you do yourself.”
“How is it I don’t have a scratch on me, but I still get the lecture?”
Abbott cleared his throat and jerked his chin in Sue’s direction.
Sue, who was allowing tears to fall unchecked down her face.
“We should go.” I took the hint then hesitated. “Thanks, Abbott.” I kissed his cheek. “For everything.”
He touched the spot with his fingers. “Even the lectures?”
“Especially those.” I winked at him. “Those mean you kept me alive long enough to harp about it.”
Hating I couldn’t wrap an arm around Midas to help him to the elevators, I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood to keep the irritation in check. This was payback, however unintentional, for the times when Midas was forced to deal with me handling things my own way.
Welcome to Mating 101.
Our relationship was all about the give and the take. It sucked to be on the receiving end sometimes, like now, but it was worth it all in those moments when Midas respected my wishes and had my back. I had to believe the same was true for him. He clenched his jaw and let me do my thing when he didn’t want to, and I owed him support now, even when the required posturing set my teeth on edge.
“Come on.” I handed Sue a fistful of tissues from a nearby dispenser. “Let’s go have our talk.”
Blotting her face, she blew her nose and followed us meekly up to our floor and into our apartment.
I indicated she could take a seat, but she couldn’t hold still long enough to accept the offer.
“My team has located your family.” I perched on the arm of the couch. “I’ll tell you what we know in exchange for everything you can tell us about when, how, and who took them.”
A sob hitching her chest, Sue shut her eyes, whispered a quick prayer, then pulled herself together.
“Okay.” Her tissues crumpled in her fist. “That’s fair.”
Midas sat beside me, giving Sue room to pace without the intimidation factor.
“I worked nights, only part-time, at a para-owned bookstore.” She swallowed. “I left after the kids went to bed and was home in time to drive them to school the next morning.”
Fresh tears trickled over her cheeks, and I gave her a minute to pull herself together. “What happened?”
“A vampire came in searching for a title we didn’t carry. I told him about a shop down the block and wished him a good night.” Her breath released in a shudder. “He nodded his thanks, but he didn’t go. He went to the magazines and helped himself to one on cars.”
Back and forth and back and forth, she paced the floor until I was tempted to tie her to a chair.
The vampire link fit with what we knew about Neely’s kidnappers and linked both cases.
“He waited until I went on break. I didn’t go far. Just to the coffee shop inside the store. I got a tea, and when I sat down, he invited himself to join me.” She rubbed a hand over her mouth. “He said he recognized me. Asked if I used to be the POP. I said yes. It happens, sometimes, that people want to talk about my time in office or think they can give me a message to pass along to the current POP.”
Midas’s knee bounced until I rested my hand on his thigh, but I could sympathize.
“Once he verified my identity, he stood and left. I thought…” She shut her eyes. “I thought that was it.”
“You were in the public eye for years,” I interjected. “Why would he have trouble identifying you?”
“The public eye blinks often in a dozen years. The new POP rose to prominence, and I was forgotten.”
Replaced.
For all that she didn’t say it out loud, I heard it loud and clear.
As much of a force for positive change as Linus had been during his tenure as the POA, I couldn’t imagine him ever being forgotten. I didn’t care much about whatever legacy I left behi
nd, only that it was a good one, but Linus? He deserved to be remembered for his innovations.
Maybe I could talk the team into pooling our money and having a street named after him.
Grim Street.
Reaper Row.
Black Cloak Circle.
Buttkicker Boulevard.
“I assume the vampire came back,” Midas said, redirecting our conversation.
“Yes.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “He was waiting for me outside the next night when I got off work. He told me I could cooperate, or I could be made to cooperate. I blew him off.” Her voice hitched then. “I told him it was the policy of our office not to negotiate with…” She clamped a hand over her mouth, but her sobs broke free. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” I hopped up, grabbed her a water from the kitchen, and moistened a dishcloth for her. “Here.” I rubbed her shoulder while she wiped her face. “I would have done the same thing.”
“I’m not the POP. I have no office. I don’t know what came over me, why I said what I did.”
“Habit,” I answered for her. “Procedure is drummed into our heads for years before we become official. Stress and his previous mention of your appointment triggered a preprogrammed response. That’s not your fault. It’s reflex.”
From what I had seen, potentates didn’t retire. Not really. Not forever. Idleness wasn’t in our natures.
Even Linus was trading Atlanta for Savannah. Not in any official capacity, but as a wingman for his wife.
“I drove straight home. I could tell something was wrong. The lights were off. All of them. Sean always leaves one on for me.” She blew her nose. “I ran inside and searched for my family. They were gone. All of them.” Her sorrow transformed into fury. “A vampire was waiting for me in the master bedroom with my husband’s pelt in his hands.”
After trading her new tissues for her used ones, I prompted her. “What did the vampire want?”
“He explained what was expected of me. That I had to go to Atlanta, pretend nothing was wrong, and enter the gauntlet for consideration as the POA.” She drew taller. “He said if I won the appointment, my family would be safely returned to me.”
The Epilogues: Part I: Badge of Honor (The Potentate of Atlanta Book 6) Page 9