by Renee George
"You're getting blotchy."
"Damn right, I am," I hissed. I took a slow breath and counted the Goddess's virtues. "I'm okay. I can do this."
"Well, at least we know Marlow Marshall is a member, and we have a description of her partner. That's two down."
"Only twenty more to go. I know Shirley said our teams couldn't help us investigate, and that we are not to engage a takedown on our own, but I think Drag and Time Bomb should get set up somewhere close enough to back us up if we need it."
Monty grinned. "Cas and Brit are in a three-bedroom townhouse at the Ocean Reef Resort. It's two miles west of this one. A quick run for them. I'll let them know to expect two more guests."
"Three-bedroom, huh?" I knew Cas and Brit were married. "You expected me to keep my team on, didn't you?"
"You're a smart leader."
"You mean predictable."
"I don't mean that at all," Monty said. "I predicted you'd turn the mission down."
He predicted I'd turn it down? More like he'd wished I'd turned it down. I drew my shoulders back. "And here I am, ready to do my job. Bet on it."
"I am," Monty said. He gestured to the throng of guests milling around the ballroom. "Let's see if we can discover more of our masked marks."
"It was dark. I only recognized Marlow because of her breath mint and braid, and her guy because of his eyes. Other than the blonde with the golden hair, who, if I had to guess is the leader--she just had that air about her--I don't remember much detail about the others. I spent too much time figuring out the masks."
"The masks were a big clue. I'm not sure I would've put six and six together and come up with a zodiac. Are you a Virgo?"
"No, but Pepper is. August twenty-ninth. My glamour incorporates everything about her. Even her birthdate. When's your birthday?"
"September the seventh." He shook his head. "I'd wondered why she chose me."
"I'm sure it had nothing to do with you being powerful, from old magic, and extremely handsome."
He turned, pulled me close, then kissed the tip of my nose. "A show for our audience," he explained. Then he pressed his forehead to mine. "You think I'm extremely handsome, huh?"
I averted my gaze so that he wouldn't glimpse my desire for him. And that's when I spotted her. "The golden blonde," I told him. "Three o'clock."
He looked in the direction I indicated. On the dance floor, a woman with delicate bone structure danced with a man who towered over her by at least a foot. "You think that's her? The woman in the Aries mask?"
I nodded. Her hair had a distinct buttery color that I hadn't seen in any other guests. "Let's move out on the dance floor for a closer look. If I can hear her talk, we will know for sure."
"You'll have to drop your mute spell."
"Release," I said.
"I think it's time I danced with my bride," Monty declared.
I giggled appropriately as I let him lead me to the center of the dance floor. Monty, who had surprised me with his agility in a fight, surprised me again, by being just as agile when it came to a waltz. He moved us into position with masterful ease.
I couldn't distinguish her voice among the chatter around us. "We need to be closer," I whispered.
"Hold on," Monty said.
With a backward twirl, I collided into the golden blonde and her date.
"Excuse me," she exclaimed. Then she locked eyes with me. "Pepper." She smiled. Yep. Voice recognized. She was definitely Aries. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting your husband, yet." The blonde purred as she examined Monty from head to toe.
"Introduce me to your friend, babe," Monty said.
"With pleasure." The problem was, the blonde hadn't been in Pepper's known associates' file. Crap.
Luckily, or unlucky, as the case may be, I was rescued by an unexpected source. "Don't mind Libby," her partner said, and for the first time since we'd danced over, I got a good look at him.
"Doyle," I said, too stunned to say more.
"My Goddess, Pepper," Libby said. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
I am Pepper Rain, I reminded myself. I am not Gigi Wise. Not tonight. "I'm fine," I said. "I think my blood sugar might be a little low."
"Let's get you something to eat," Monty said with real concern.
As we walked toward the buffet, he asked, "Are you okay?"
I nodded, then shook my head. Goddess help me. We'd found the leader of the cult, and her partner was my ex-boyfriend Doyle Drake.
Chapter Five
"You mean, Doyle of the romance-movies-hating-bon-bon-eating conversation. That Doyle?" Monty asked when we were standing in front of a jumbo cocktail shrimp tower.
"Yeah," I said. I couldn't believe I was looking at the same guy who told me I was too intense. Like being a member of a human-killing cult is just a trip to the day spa. I put two shrimps and a spoonful of sauce on a plate, feeling a little out of sorts. "What the hell is he doing here? Doyle never had any interest in black magic. He hated my job."
"Is that why you broke up?"
"Yes, mostly." I set the plate down. "I don't even like shrimp."
"Why don't we head up to the suite? We can regroup in private."
The implication that I needed to regroup raised my hackles. "I can do my job."
"Of that, I've no doubt," he said quickly.
"I should work Doyle. I don't know how well Pepper knows him, but I think I can manipulate some names out of him."
"Maybe you know him too well," Monty said. "You might blow your cover."
"I won't."
Monty's brows lowered, and his eyes darkened. It was the first crack I'd seen in his composure. "Fine. Just remember that you're not in this alone. If you burn yourself, you burn me too. You might not like me, but in this, we're partners."
"You need to trust me."
"That goes both ways," he said. He took a step to leave.
I reached out and grabbed his cuff. "Where are you going?"
"To mingle, see what I can dig up while you go flirt with Drake. Find me in fifteen minutes." The crease between his eyes told me he was unhappy. "We'll compare notes."
I shrugged. "Fifteen minutes. Sounds good." I gave him a cocked and loaded look. "Better be careful though or people might think the honeymoon is over before it's even started."
I took a step away from the buffet toward the dance floor, but Monty spun me back toward him, dipped me in his arms.
"You're absolutely right," he said, then pressed his firm yet soft lips to mine, kissing me in a way that dared me to reciprocate. I yielded, giving into the growing heat inside me, and parted my lips, inviting the slip of his velvet tongue to play with mine. His hands roamed my back, kneading the stress from my muscles while at the same time adding so much more tension to my body. It took everything I had not to throw my leg up over his hip.
When we finally came up for air, the guests exploded into applause. I glanced around, still dazed at all the jubilant faces. Brazenly, Monty gave my ass a pat as he walked away and said, "See you soon, dear."
I would have chased him down to punch him, but my gelatin legs refused to move. Traitors. Just my luck, though. I didn't have to go far to talk with Doyle because he worked his way over to the shrimp cocktail station on his own.
"Hi, Pepper," he said. "You look beautiful."
"Doyle." His sandy blond hair was thick and wavy, just the way I remembered it. I had a sense memory of running my fingers through it when he would kiss me. The way he looked at me now was too much like the way he looked at me when we were dating, only I wasn't supposed to be me right now. I worried Monty was right. What if I forgot for even a single moment that I was Pepper Rain and let something slip that blew our hard-earned cover? "Are you enjoying the celebration?"
"Immensely," he said. He took my hand and brought my knuckles to his lips. "We could up the party a notch by taking it somewhere private."
I snatched my hand back. This really was a sex cult.
He glanced ar
ound guiltily before relief touched his eyes. "Libby is occupied with your new husband. Neither of them is paying any attention to us."
Hmmm. Doyle was worried about his wife catching us, which probably meant, Doyle and Pepper were having a secret affair. He was playing a dangerous game. I had a feeling anyone who disrupted the power of this cult might find themselves on the wrong side of a sacrifice. "Since it's my wedding night, we should probably be a little more careful."
"I still don't know how you managed to pull Montrose Abadose into our constelatio." He wiggled his brows. "Which rhymes with fellatio," he said covertly.
Gross. I chuckled and batted my eyelashes because he seemed to expect it. He rewarded me with a lewd smile. Yuck. I can't believe I thought this guy was charming at one point.
"I never thought Monty would join our group. Especially after the way he distanced himself from his mother after her downfall. You are a miracle worker."
Melba Montrose had been practicing the darkest of magics, and she hadn't been above manipulating her son, and in the end, trying to dispose of him, to get what she wanted. It almost made me thankful to have been given up at birth.
"He had to distance himself," I said. "It was the only way to avoid sitting in a cell next to her. She was stupid. Monty is smart."
"You almost sound like you actually love him," Doyle said.
I blinked, recalling myself and who I was pretending to be. I sneered at Doyle. "I admire him," I corrected. "There's a difference."
Doyle smirked. "Of course."
It was time to shift the conversation if possible. "When will we..." I left the statement open and waited for him to fill in the blanks.
"Tomorrow night." He gave me a wary look. "And we shall celebrate the glory."
"Celebrate the glory," I said. "That's right. Sorry. Bride brain."
His expression soured. "I need to be alone with you, Pepper." He trailed a fingertip down my shoulder. "I hate that you'll be with Abadose tonight. Why couldn't we both have been born on the same sign."
I shrugged him off. "Bad luck, I guess." I tried to look sad and not disgusted. "Will we be meeting beforehand?"
He narrowed his gaze at me. "We'll take dinner in the Flamingo Room. You set up the itinerary. Are you feeling unwell?"
"Jet lag," I said hurriedly.
"I don't know why you insist on taking human modes of transportation, dearest. Not a witch of your caliber."
I'd known the answer to this one. Monty had reported that he'd asked her the same question once while she was trying to recruit him. "I have too many ties to the human world, fans, and business contacts who recognize me on the streets. If I show up in England an hour after being seen in New York, questions are asked."
"I sometimes forget you're a superstar, even outside our witch circles. I can't believe how many humans willingly volunteered to be part of the ritual because they adore you."
I winced and forced it into a smile. "It's a gift and a curse." Something else I'd heard Pepper say in an Entertainment Tonight interview when asked about what it was like to have over four million subscribers on her CelebriToob channel.
He nodded, but I could tell he thought something was wrong. I had to think quick if I wanted to allay his suspicions. I ran his lapel between my thumb and forefinger. "Why don't you find me tomorrow and I'll kiss that cute little freckle behind your ear, and I'll do that thing you like so much..."
His eyes brightened as all his misgiving drained from his brain, along with the blood, to another less intellectual part of his anatomy. "It's a date," he said.
I gagged when he walked away and wondered if my fifteen minutes were up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the six-foot black woman with the rainbow-colored hair duck out onto one of the many balconies, and so, I followed her. Unlike when the Divinus Paradiso zapped us into an illusion of a moonlit beach, I ended up with a view that took my breath away. The whooshing sound of waves, the salty ocean spray, and the moonlight rippling on the bay surface helped me to get centered.
The militant woman leaned against the railing and took a deep breath. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" she asked.
"Sure," I said noncommittally. Was this unusual woman a friend of the groom or the bride? Did she know Pepper? If so, she wasn't in any of the files. Why hadn't I bothered to ask myself all these questions before I impulsively followed her outside?
"It was a beautiful wedding."
"Yep." I was on a roll. A shiver ran along my bare skin.
The woman turned and stared at me, her silver eyes glinting as she studied me. "Are you cold, Gigi?" She gave me a slow blink as a smile formed on her lips. "I mean, Pepper."
"Nothing to hear," I said quickly. "Who are you?"
"Don't worry your witchy head. I am not here to out you."
I moved in closer, my hand flaming orange with defensive magic. "Tell me who you are, or I'll burn your short and curlies."
"What is it with you witches and my pubes?" She tapped her chin and gave me a look of haughty amusement. "Your magic won't work on me."
"Oh yeah." I took another step, a ball of energy building in my palm. "Do you really want to take that chance?"
She clapped her hands. "Yes, please. I love chance. Chance makes my job so much easier. He and Destiny don't always get along, mind you."
"I'm baffled."
"It seems to be another affliction of your kind."
"You keep saying that. If my kind is witch, what is your kind? You're definitely not human." My wedding band had silver in it, so I slapped my hand down on her arm. Nothing happened. "Not a vampire."
Her eyes, like the start of a bad novel, went all dark and stormy.
The salty breeze whipped around my head, sucking my hair straight up into a tropical vortex. "What's happening?"
"Hands off," she said in a booming voice that made my bones quake.
Sheee-it. I hastily retracted my hand and looked around to see if anyone else had heard. No one came running, so my silence shield had held. Thank the Goddess.
"Don't thank her," the woman said. "It's fate that led you here and only fate will determine what's next."
The wind died down, and my hair dropped against my shoulders. I smoothed it down. "And let me guess, you're Fate?"
I was being sarcastic, so when she said, "As a matter of fact, I am." She curtsied. "At your service." Then she laughed. "Not really. Technically, you are at my service."
"First, if you're Fate, prove it." I sucked my teeth. "And even if you are Fate, what makes you think I'd be at your service."
"Who do you think brought this scenario to the Council? Me. Fate. That's who. I even requested you specifically."
"Why?"
"Destiny, of course. She can be a real bitch if she doesn't get her way."
I'd never been more confused. Like ever. "If you’re Fate and your sister is Destiny, then what's the point of all this. Can't you all just snap your fingers and make things work out the way you want?"
"Sure, if it wasn't for Chance, or, I don't know, Free Will. You earthly creatures tend to fight against me at every turn. You don't like the idea of predetermination. That's where Chance and Free Will comes in." She shook her head and chuckled. "For a while, Free Will had a hey-day encouraging folks to streak about naked. The seventies were definitely his decade. You can only imagine all the Free Willy jokes we made at his expense when that killer whale movie released in the nineties."
"What about Chance?"
"Destiny's always had a soft spot for him?" She sighed. "And that's why we're here now."
"Did I fall and hit my head?" I looked over my shoulder. The party was going strong, but not a single person glanced in our direction. "Are you doing that?"
"It's a gift." She raised a brow. "I like your little silence trick. That's pretty nifty."
"Not as nifty as being able to hide in a crowded room."
She swept her cotton-candy hair over her shoulder. "True. I have a knack for being unseen like you have a knack for being
unheard."
Obvious, but okay. "So, what is it that I'm supposed to do?"
She put her finger to her lips. "Choose fate." She shrugged. "Or not. Either way, you must stop the Divinus Paradiso from calling forth the power source."
"Why? What's at stake?"
"Nothing and everything but time," Fate said. She took my hand and dragged a finger across my palm. "The fate of all witches is in your hand. Only you can prevent the extinction of your species in this twist of..." She smiled. "Well, you get it."
"I really don't." I was even more confused than when we'd started the conversation.
"Fate, Destiny, Chance, and Free Will. All will play their part in time. Will you?" Her hair floated around her like rainbow clouds, and without an explanation, she vanished.
"Release," I said. I knew I should tell Monty about Fate, but would he even believe me? I'd lived it, but I was struggling to believe it myself. My feet hurt, my head hurt, holding onto this glamour was making my skin hurt, and all I really wanted to do was kick off my shoes, shower away the day, and watch anything on TV but a rom-com. After, I would tell him. But first, I had to find him.
I went back into the ballroom and searched for Monty. I spotted him twirling Marlow, the witch who had wanted to share him earlier, around on the dance floor. I'll admit, the sight of him smiling at her, and her laughing every time he opened his mouth made me feel a little rage-y. I made a bee-line for their position, and when I was in touching distance. I tapped Marlow and said, "I hate to interrupt this magical moment, but I'm invoking a bride's right to take her husband to bed."
Chapter Six
"Nothing to hear," I invoked as soon as we made it to our room. I didn't know if the other cult members had bugged the place. Probably not, but better not to take a chance.
Chance. Ugh. And Fate, and Destiny, and Free Will. My head still spun from the earlier encounter.
The honeymoon suite on the tenth floor had a separate living room area, a large balcony with a private pool, the master bedroom had a six-foot by two-foot see-through aquarium floor. It must have taken some kind of miracle of engineering not to have it crash through the rooms below, in front of a king-sized bed and a twelve foot walk-down hot tub surrounded by mirrors on the walls and the ceiling above. My favorite part of the whole cliché nightmare was the two private bathrooms with showers, one for her and one for him. At least, we didn't have to share a toilet. That would be too much like a real marriage.