by Lauren Dane
In the bouquet were some of the herbs and flowers she’d use in spellcraft. “This is very thoughtful.”
He held up the book. “This is for the next part. When we talk about why I stopped you in the middle of the desert last night.”
Lorraine stood at the entrance to the eat-in kitchen. “I’ll serve you on the terrace. It’s still shaded and pleasant.” She took a look at the bouquet in Genevieve’s arms and then her gaze tracked back to Darius. “I’ll take those and put them in water.”
“Darius, this is Lorraine. She’s my cook, assistant, caretaker and tries to keep me out of trouble.”
He bowed to Lorraine far more deeply than he had to Genevieve. Lorraine arched a brow and Genevieve shrugged. She found him charming too.
“Come, let’s go outside.” Genevieve opened the French doors and headed out, Darius in her wake.
“This is very nice,” he said as they settled at the table outside. “I don’t get much time or experience inside these hotels.”
“The Conclave owns it, which is very useful in my case because I like to travel so I nearly always have a place to stay depending on the city.”
Lorraine brought out several platters of food. Darius kept standing to help until Lorraine told Genevieve to calm her visitor down before he got in her way.
The grin Darius tried to hide told Genevieve he spoke French and understood. The next time she came out, he stayed seated and thanked her instead.
“No one can hear us,” Genevieve told him when all the food had been delivered and they started to eat.
“Last night you awakened something.”
Genevieve had considered, for quite a while, just how much and what she’d reveal to Darius.
The Dust Devils weren’t rivals to any other group of paranormals. They were their own power and mostly, the rest of them just left the Devils alone. Genevieve saw the intelligence in that decision. She did the same until she met Darius and then he sort of made himself at home in her head.
“Last night, Rowan and I were on an investigation that led us to a witch and her land out in the middle of nowhere. When I was dealing with her—the witch I mean—I was able to use the magics that had collected. Those magics were unusual to me, but seemed to quicken at my intent. They obeyed me. And not her. Though she insinuated she’d used those magics and seemed put out they’d abandoned her.”
“We were aware of this witch you speak of. She had warded her land to keep us out. Which leads me to believe she’s in league with our enemies.”
“Who would that be? Your enemies?”
“Let’s get back to that in a bit. This witch you defeated, you killed her, yes?”
Genevieve shrugged. “She was in violation of the Conclave’s laws and of the Treaty. Rowan was there, she saw it all. If I hadn’t killed this witch, Rowan certainly would have.”
“She needed killing. I’m not here to question your rights to kill her. I’m here about the way you awakened our land and it came to your call.”
“And that’s what makes me a salt witch then?”
“The way I understand it, there are veins of salt and the ability to use those, or use magic around them without hindrance, makes you a salt witch. And as it happens, my Trick would very much like a salt witch as part of our group.”
“I have a job already. I’m not a witch for hire.”
He laughed and damn him, she was charmed. “I meant no offense. A salt witch in our ranks merely means we can pull in more power, more magic and store it without too much effort. It means we are no longer hungry.”
“I know very little about how the Dust Devils work.” As much as she hated to admit it.
He looked her over for several long moments. “We don’t like to give too much away,” he said at last.
“But you want me to join with you? Without me knowing what it is I’m doing and who I’m doing it with? I’m far too old for decisions like that. Moreover, I have loyalties and allegiances. I cannot join with anyone else without knowing it would not harm the ones I’m already sworn to protect.”
He put the book on the table. “What I’m about to tell you cannot be shared.”
Could she make that promise without knowing whatever it was he was about to say?
Her gut warmed. Her magic had risen the moment she answered the door and it liked him very much. That was a good sign. An omen she didn’t need to ignore.
Genevieve nodded.
“We are chaos demigods. Much like the Wild Hunt. We gather our power in various ways. I won’t go into how other Tricks work because that’s not my secret to share. But I can tell you the Trick here in Las Vegas rides, taking all the anger, frantic worry, sadness, greed and sex from the air. This is what nourishes us and keeps us strong and able to hold the lands we possess.”
“The Wild Hunt. Are you Fae?”
He paused. “Once we were. Millennia ago. We are something else now. Something more. Something changed from all our time here in this universe.”
“A moment. I’d like to show you something.” Genevieve went inside to grab the spells she’d taken from Patrizia’s house. She handed them to Darius when she went back out.
He looked and his features changed a little. Not so much fear, but...trepidation perhaps. “Where did this come from?”
“Tell me the rest of your story and then I will tell you mine.”
He put the spells on the table. “Each Trick has its own way to gather that power and magic. The harder it is to gather what the Trick needs, the smaller the Trick is and the harder it has to fight to hold territory. We have a buffet here. And we have to fight off interlopers from time to time. The stronger the Trick, the greater the chance that Trick has a priestess. A witch who fits between the Trick and the magic. Helps filter the power and enables the Trick to store it longer. The priestess is a key to many doors we cannot unlock without her. We can be strong without her. We are strong. With you, we’d be stronger. With you, we’d be safer.”
“Why are you so sure it’s me? Why haven’t you had one of these priestesses before?”
“We’ve had priestesses on and off. The last one passed from this world a century ago. But this region has only grown richer with magic because of Las Vegas. We have fed and strengthened without a priestess. It is our way to wait for the right moment.”
His gaze seemed to laser straight to her soul. “You are the right moment, Genevieve. The way the earth responded to you last night was only a conclusion of what you started that sunrise. I know you saw me watching you that day. Why did you choose that spot?”
“I just followed my gut.” Exactly to where the magic seemed to want her to be.
“To the tip of a vein of power. Where the breeze carries salt from the flats and Salton Sea here. That should have numbed your power, even if only slightly. But it did not. It greeted you. Surrounded you and welcomed you. I knew then. And then last night the whole Trick felt you. We drove to that spot and waited. And there you were not twenty minutes later. You are meant to be here right now. With me. With my Trick.”
“As I said, I have a job. I have allegiances and responsibilities I do not wish to give up.”
He reached out and took her hand. So much power and potential flowed between them that she gaped at him, openmouthed.
“You feel it too. This is right. You do not have to give up your position within the Conclave. We don’t need that from you.”
“And my work with Rowan? Because I rather enjoy it and don’t want to let that go. Won’t. She is my friend.”
He sucked in a breath. “You can’t work against the Trick.”
“Unless she is, I wouldn’t be. And I don’t think it’s a secret that she has no plans to. She’s wary of your power. Respectful of it. She serves balance, Darius. As do I.”
“Chaos serves the balance as well. We are all on the same side.”
>
“What all would you need of me?”
“For you to settle here in Las Vegas. The Trick has real estate if you’re looking for a place to live. If not, wherever you’ll be, as long as it’s on our territorial earth, is fine. There’s a salary. You may come and go as you need to. We understand that you’re serving your brethren via the Senate. We have no wish to hinder that. We can hold our own against enemies but are not in the business of making more enemies. But our enemies are yours. And yours are ours. There are rituals you will need to preside over. I can teach them to you. This book,” he patted it, “belongs to the priestess. It’s got our history in it, along with spells and traditions important to maintaining a healthy Trick.”
There was so much clarity within her at that moment she knew this was the step she was supposed to take.
But she wasn’t a fool. “I cannot, in good conscience, say yes or no without more information and involvement. There are many unknowns here. And I’m in the middle of an investigation. I need to finish that before I take on any new responsibilities.”
“You may have your probationary period, Genevieve. Sixty days?”
“If I’m done with this by then, sure.”
He took her hand between his and shook. “We are in agreement then. Tell me about these spells.” He indicated the papers.
“The witch I killed last night, these were hers. She was writing siphon spells for the Blood Front. Who was selling them to a Vampire sorcerer. Most of that power was being sent somewhere else. To power someone, or something else. We don’t know why. We don’t know who, though I’m fairly sure we’re dealing with a Faerie. And her magic—Patrizia’s—has elements I can’t identify though they seem familiar in some sense.”
“This here and here is Faerie magic.” He pointed to the parts of the spell that’d been bothering her.
She blew out a breath. “Was this witch Fae then? I killed her and it wasn’t all that hard. Her magic was all stolen. She was bloated with it, in fact. But it didn’t stay. It leaked from her even as she performed a working. Or tried.”
“Whatever spells she used to steal her own magic, she couldn’t have used this for herself,” Darius said. “This magic would only draw the power to the Fae. And if she’d been Fae, you’d most likely be dead.”
Cold dread settled in her bones. “What do you mean? I’m not minor power.”
“No you aren’t. You’re a major power. So bright you can most likely be seen for miles away. And when you fully join with my Trick, you’re going to be able to use our power as well as your own. You’ll be able to draw on the combined magics that hold the Trick together. Remember, I said you’re our key. You’re the stable conduit and we’re the chaotic element. Put those together and it’s power on a much greater level.
“The Fae? They never made adjustments to live here in the modern human world, surrounded by cold iron that would weaken them. Keeping to Faerie, the Fae and their magic has never been weakened or lost like the magics of so many of us. If that witch had been Fae, she’d have been able to defeat you. So let us be grateful she was not.”
“But this is Fae magic you said. And, well, let’s just say I’m in possession of some information that someone had a prophecy dream with salt and iron in it.”
“Many forces are coming to bear here. There’ll be a feast for my Trick by the time this is done. Just because I haven’t had dealings with the Fae in some time does not mean they’re gone from the world. They visit here sometimes. To seek information usually. Sometimes ingredients for their spellwork that they can’t get on the other side of the Veil. Occasionally they take humans. Their numbers grow smaller. They take humans to breed on.”
Genevieve curled her lip. “Are you telling me they’re stealing women to force them to bear children?”
“And men. It does not happen all that often. But humans throw things away all the time. Sometimes they throw people away. You know that as I do. You see them living on the streets here in Las Vegas. Such humans are not missed.” He raised a shoulder.
“That’s not okay.”
“It’s what it is. Whether it is okay or not isn’t part of the equation. You know this, Genevieve.”
She waved it away. “Okay. Table that. For now because I’m trying to take one big insurmountable problem at a time. Right now I think we’re figuring out the Fae are involved with this whole conspiracy. And given what I know and what you’ve told me about them, chances are they’re at or near the top. Ugh. Let’s be real, it has to be some Fae person at the head of all these siphon spells. But why? If they’re so powerful why steal power from others who have far less than they do?”
“I believe that is the most important question. Why steal this power?”
Genevieve blew out a breath. “I need to talk to Rowan. We need to find more information about the Fae. See if we can figure out who this might be.”
Darius said, “We don’t take sides.”
Before she could tell him to fuck off, he lifted a hand to stay her and continued.
“But this isn’t an outside situation. You’re one of us now. Our land woke up to your touch. You have brought new energy and life into my Trick. We do not have archives in the way you might imagine. But we have avenues to seek information. I will use them and let you know what I find.”
“That would be very useful.” Genevieve knew they weren’t quite Fae, but still, saying thank you to a powerful being was tricky at best. No one wanted debts they didn’t mean to incur.
“Will you come to the bar soon? Not necessarily tonight, but soon? I would like for you to meet the rest of the Trick.”
“All right.”
“This ground is safe for you to be in,” he said, standing. “Some of the Trick will be watching at all times. If you have need of assistance, call my name.”
She walked him to the door. He paused to call out to Lorraine a quick compliment in French for the food. Lorraine grunted, but it was a good grunt.
“She comes with me,” Genevieve told Darius. “Lorraine is my family and she will be wherever I am.”
Darius nodded. “Understood.”
He took her hand and turned it over, palm facing up. Mesmerized, she stood very still as he traced a fingertip over the lines. Breathed out a near moan when he brought that hand to his mouth and planted a kiss against her wrist and then the tips of her fingers.
He cut his gaze to her face, lingering on her mouth a moment. “This is understood too, is it not?”
“I understand that this chemistry and attraction exists. But the rest is not something I understand. It seems very large and unknowable.”
His grin sent a shiver of delight over her skin.
“We’ll figure it out. Remember, call my name and I’ll come.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rowan whistled at the end of the retelling of Genevieve’s afternoon. “You’ve had a busy day.”
“It was something else. I’ve lived a long time and nothing like this has ever happened to me. It’s amazing and terrifying all at once. I don’t want to belong to anyone or anything. It feels like this is dangerously close.”
“It sounds more like you’d belong to them and they belong to you. The freedom he offers sounds good. If you can trust that promise and I think you can. Not that I’d put lying and manipulation out of the running, but the Devils seem to take pride in their independence and their connection to their Trick.”
“I don’t know enough about them!” Genevieve said.
“You do. You will. You’ll keep learning and if you find something you can’t live with, you walk away. But what if this is exactly where you’re supposed to be? You said yourself you didn’t know much about salt witches and here you are, one of them. Now you can learn all sorts of new stuff. And be stronger. You’ll just have to be careful to keep your position as priestess separate from whatever you get going with Dar
ius.”
“Like you keep Clive separate from your job as Hunter?”
“I do though!” Rowan told her friend. “It’s not always easy. Mainly because Clive is up in my business and tries to protect me from having to think or make decisions. So annoying. But it’s protectiveness because he loves me. On the other hand, he does not try to tell me how to be a Hunter. He especially doesn’t tell me how to be a Vessel. Mainly because he’s scared of Brigid I think. But that’s the heart of it, right? Clive and I are both alpha personalities. So there’s a lot of push and pull. But he respects my abilities. And my path. And I think Darius is most definitely an alpha personality and you are too, even if you pretend not to be until you want people to know. Make your limits super clear. When he rolls over them, smack him in the nose with a newspaper. Metaphorically of course. Next time he’ll do it more carefully.”
“He seems like he’d be a lot of trouble and a lot of work.”
“In my experience, those are the best kind of partners.”
“First things first. Figure out if I really actually want to be their priestess. Then I can think about Darius and what there might be between us. Before those things, we have a Faerie to look for.”
“I’m going to call the Keep. See if Theo or one of his people might have any information about the Fae we might find helpful.”
Rowan put her feet up while she waited for the call to connect. It was past sundown there so she’d at least get hold of someone who could help.
Nadir, one of Theo’s Five and the only one who spoke in public as the voice of The First, answered.
“Tell me everything you know about the Fae and I’ll send you some Fran’s caramels,” Rowan said.
“Bribery at its finest,” Nadir said. “The Fae. Hm. Let’s see.”
As it happened, Nadir knew quite a bit more than Rowan had expected and half an hour later, right before she was ready to hang up, she hit Nadir up for her opinion of the mixed Hunter teams.
“I can certainly see the use in such a thing. Though, to be honest, I am not entirely sure the Nation would support it in its current form with the Hunter Corp. as the organization heading it all up. Even if it would make your father happy to know you were always going out with a team.”