by Kyle, Celia
She allowed that to sink in for a minute before peering at Malone over the top of the stack of papers. “What am I missing, counselor? Isn’t there any other evidence besides the eyewitnesses?”
He sneered at her. “You have the brief.”
“So, no. No other evidence. No forensics, no DNA, nothing.” She slapped the papers to the desk with finality. “Moving on. Prosecutor Falkov, do you think you’re competent to try this case?”
He snorted. “What are you blathering about?”
“Isn’t it true that this case was assigned to you, despite your impending separation from the prosecutor’s office due to gross negligence and generally being a jackass?”
Okay, calling him a jackass might have been pushing too far, but she’d blame it on the truthspell later.
Malone’s head looked like it might pop clean off at any moment. “I demand this woman be removed from the courtroom at once! I’m not on trial here, her beloved is. I won’t be questioned by a nestling who isn’t even two centuries old!”
“In fact,” Alena continued before the Triune could agree, “the details and method to try this case were given to you along with strict instructions not to deviate from the strategy. Isn’t that true? Your office didn’t trust you to win the case without their direct intervention.”
Alena glanced at a woman sitting behind Malone’s shoulder in the spectator’s section. “I notice your superior joined you in court today, presumably to monitor your performance. Isn’t it true that if you lose this case, you will be summarily dismissed?”
Malone gaped at her. “W-where are you getting this information? No one knows—”
The woman behind him poked him in the back of the head to shut him up.
Alena taunted him with a saccharine smile. “I know this whole facade must be tormenting you, Malone. To prosecute a man you know to be innocent must make it hard to sleep at night.”
“I-I think he’s innocent!” Malone shouted and then blinked as he realized what he’d just said.
Snickers erupted all around the court as he tried to cover his tracks.
“I mean, I don’t! I don’t think…” He grimaced in pain and held a hand to his head. “I don’t think…Ow!”
“That would be the effect of the truthspell,” Kelly explained. “Try to lie and you’re in for a world of hurt.”
Alena turned smoothly toward the Triune. “Your Honors, Prosecutor Malone himself admits that Luca Ravenna is innocent. In light of the court’s refusal to hear my client’s testimony, I demand this admission be accepted as proof of the collusion between Clan Falkov and the prosecutor’s office to frame my client.”
The court erupted in a cacophony of whispers and gasps over this stunning new development.
“Disloyalty to one’s clan is never rewarded, Ms. Falkov,” her uncle said, voice chilly.
“Is that a threat?” Luca asked from the witness box, half-standing and ready to attack. “She is my beloved. Ravenna will respond if she is harmed.”
“I’m certain that isn’t what Stefan intended,” Judge Holloway said hurriedly, doing her best to diffuse the situation.
Judge Soren snorted.
“Judge Falkov is a respected elder of my clan,” Alena said. “I’m sure he wasn’t threatening me. However, Malone’s admission proves this trumped-up case is meant to punish my client simply because he’s a high-ranking Soldier in a rival clan. It also makes me wonder…” She rubbed her chin as if she was musing over a puzzle. “If Malone knew Luca was innocent of these charges, I have to wonder if he also knows who committed this crime.”
Judge Soren’s dark eyes sparkled as she leaned forward eagerly. “I’d like to know the answer to that question too. If true, I resent the Falkovs wasting my time by bringing their trans-clan politics into the courtroom.”
Alena appreciated the werewolf’s impatience with this sham of a trial.
“Answer the question,” the wolf demanded of Malone. “Do you know who is guilty of the crime of which Luca Ravenna stands accused?”
Chapter Eight
The crowd gathered in the courtroom held its collective breath as they all waited for the prosecutor’s answer. Luca could smell their excitement over this new development that might just keep him out of the dungeon.
If his beloved hadn’t come to him, the Falkovs would have succeeded in convicting him. Of course, they hadn’t counted on one of their own throwing a wrench into an otherwise well-laid, if underhanded, plan.
The shifter judge glared at Malone, her eyes yellow with her quickly growing temper. “Answer, damn you!”
Malone sputtered. “I-I have a d-duty to the c-court to—”
Before he could stammer out whatever half-truth he had planned, Judge Soren leaped over the bench and cleared the distance between them in a heartbeat, her robes flying in the breeze created from the power of her jump.
She grabbed Malone around the neck, lifting him and shaking the slug like a rag doll. Luca’s lip curled up in disgust. As a vampire, Malone Falkov should have been faster than any werewolf, but his inherent weakness allowed a shifter to capture him. Pathetic.
Luca sniffed and turned his attention to something infinitely more interesting to him. His beloved. She watched with a satisfied gleam in her eyes as the wolf judge held Malone a foot off the floor, his legs dangling limply.
Madre di Dio, she was hot.
Malone choked, his fangs finally unsheathing, but by then Judge Soren’s lips were pulled back from her own impressive grill, the growl emanating from her chest one of true anger. A fine layer of black fur had sprouted over her arms, cheeks and neck. She hadn’t been joking about being offended by the Falkovs’ schemes.
“Lourdes, unhand him!” Stefan demanded, rising from his seat.
Judge Holloway flung out a hand toward him, intoning a rapid enchantment and freezing him in place.
“I’m so sorry, Stefan,” she babbled, uncomfortable yet determined. “But attacking a fellow judge will only make things worse. You’ll stay right there and behave. Won’t you? Please?”
Alena took the opportunity to turn to her friend. “Kelly?”
Luca glanced at the blonde witch sharply and realized some of the oppressive irritation of her prickling magic had eased. She was tiring. Alena needed to finish her questioning soon because they would not allow another truthspell to be cast.
“I’ll unstrangle you when you answer my question,” Judge Soren snarled. “I’ve asked nicely twice now. Next time I ask, I won’t be so sweet and patient.”
“Perhaps he finds it difficult to speak, Lourdes,” Judge Holloway ventured.
“Vampires don’t need air.”
“They do need tracheas to speak, though.”
The judge frowned and then slowly lowered Malone to the floor while keeping her slightly furry hand in place. “Try to run or attack, I will eat you. Now, answer the question.”
“It was just an assignment!” Malone coughed out.
The Falkov judge snarled at the prosecutor through nearly paralyzed lips. “Say…nothing!”
Judge Soren glanced back at Stefan and then her gaze burrowed into Malone. “The frozen dude or the bitch with her hand around your neck? Pick your poison, counselor.”
“Ungh!” Judge Falkov grunted as he worked hard to turn his head a fraction of an inch toward the witch judge, “Release… me.”
“Oh, well, I just don’t think that would be in everyone’s best interests, Stefan,” Aya simpered, her cheeks reddening with the stress of conflict. “I’d be happy to discuss your feelings about this after the trial.”
Alena took a determined step closer to the prosecution table. Luca recognized her expression. She was going in for the kill. This one metaphorical, sadly.
“Who assigned you to this case?” she asked coolly.
Malone clamped his lips shut. The wolf’s half-extended claws bit into his neck, drawing blood and a squeak of pain. Impressive, considering how little air he had to work with.
> “No… I… My… boss,” he said through gritted teeth, as if it pained him. It probably did since the truthspell caused intense pain to anyone who tried to lie under its influence.
The woman sitting behind Malone shifted uncomfortably under the court’s sudden scrutiny. Now that Malone was cooperating, the wolf loosened her grip a little more, though her hand stayed in place.
“The case was already prepared,” he continued, now that he was on a roll. “Gretchen said I just had to try it that it was a slam-dunk.”
Luca stared hard at Irina’s ashen face, committing it to memory. Rare for him not to already know all the players among his clan’s enemies. He was slipping, thus his current situation. Luca clicked his teeth. That would be remedied, of course.
“I only found out it was a frame job two days ago. Stefan came to my office—”
The judge in question hissed at the prosecutor, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.
“He told me the prosecutor’s office would reconsider firing me if I won the case and didn’t ask questions.”
“What questions would those be?” Judge Soren asked, her voice deathly calm.
Luca’s esteem for her rose. The werewolf kept her back to Stefan and didn’t flinch. He would remember in the future that there was more to her than a bad temper and a yen for licking herself.
“Guards!” Stefan Falkov managed.
“I’m sorry, Stefan, but they’re sworn to remain neutral,” Judge Holloway said, wincing at the fury in the frozen vampire’s eyes.
If Luca took himself out of the tableau, the proceedings would be highly entertaining. But something was missing… He snapped his fingers. “Popcorn!”
Alena seemed less than amused as she continued questioning Malone. “Did Judge Falkov actually tell you Luca was innocent?”
“Of course not,” the soon-to-be-ex-prosecutor exclaimed, with the nerve to sound indignant. “Didn’t have to. I’m not an idiot. We’ve been trying to find a way to take out Luca Ravenna for years!”
The crowd erupted again, this time shocked at the moron’s admission of collusion. Hope glimmered in his beloved’s chest, leaking into his own psyche. Even Kelly Holloway laughed out loud at the revelation.
The prickles from her spell loosened their grip on Luca’s skin and then halted and clung on for dear life. Her magic was fading quickly, along with her energy. Alena felt it too.
“The Falkovs and Ravennas have feuded for centuries. This was all a ruse to take out their top Solider. Wasn’t it, Malone?”
“Yes!”
“So you know Luca Ravenna to be innocent of the crime for which he’s been accused. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes!”
“And you know exactly who actually committed said crime. Don’t you?”
“Yes!”
Alena turned on her heel and approached the bench, stopping just a foot away from her great-uncle twice removed. “Exactly who committed this crime, Judge Falkov?”
The vampire bared his teeth at Alena, which Luca couldn’t stand for, silver chains or not. He lunged for the judge but was stopped short by his bonds. His beloved shot him a warning look and then returned her attention to the silent judge.
“Who are you protecting?”
Stefan’s lips worked, as if they were trying to move of their own accord and he was forcing them closed, but the pain from what remained of the truthspell proved too much for him. Weakling.
“Boris… Falkov.”
No amount of gavel pounding by Judge Holloway could subdue the uproar. She finally gave up and waited for the shock to subside on its own. Alena wasn’t so patient. With the younger witch’s spell fading fast, she didn’t have much more time to use its effects.
“Your Honors,” she shouted over the chaos, drawing everyone’s attention. “It has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Luca Ravenna is innocent of the crime that has brought us here today. I move that all charges against my client be summarily dismissed with prejudice and he be released from custody immediately.”
Judge Holloway looked to Judge Soren for guidance, but her hands were still full of prosecutorial scum. At their hesitation, Alena smiled.
“My client has already agreed to waive his right to seek damages for slander and wrongful prosecution once all charges are dropped.”
Luca opened his mouth and then thought better of his future domestic bliss and closed it. There were other ways to repay Clan Falkov for their little plot—later, when Alena was firmly out of their clutches and nestled in the bosom of Ravenna.
“I suppose we’d better take a vote,” Judge Holloway said nervously, clearly not accustomed to taking charge. “All in favor of dismissing the charges against the accused, with prejudice, say ‘aye.’”
Kelly’s spell had almost fully dissipated, but Luca was certain it was strong enough to force the judges to vote truthfully, though he now believed Soren and Holloway would have done the right thing regardless. Falkov, not so much.
“Aye,” Judge Soren growled into Malone’s face.
“Um, can you let me go now?” he pleaded.
She didn’t seem inclined at first, but finally gave him a hard shove. Still, she remained close by, glowering at him for wasting her time. And possibly for trying to frame an innocent man.
“Aye, of course,” Judge Holloway added, giving Luca an apologetic smile. “Stefan? What say you?”
The vampire’s teeth were bared as he tried to fight against his vote, but he finally hissed out a half-hearted, “Aye.”
“Finally!” Kelly slumped and gripped the defense table for support before lowering herself into a chair. The last remnants of her spell vanished, releasing everyone in the court from its grip.
“Someone care for the witch,” Luca said from his place in the witness box.
The guard next to him started and then rushed to Kelly. Luca waited until he was satisfied they were bringing the witch refreshment and turned his attention back to Alena.
She stood in front of his box, hands gripping the edge so hard her knuckles had turned white. Fire blazed in her eyes. “Unbind him.”
Luca forced himself to remain still while another guard released him, but his gaze never wavered from his beloved. Though it seemed like hours, moments later he stood before her, holding himself back from taking her right there in front of the whole world.
“Well done, tesoro. Well done.”
Tears sparkled in her eyes as she grinned up at him, twining her fingers with his. He saw the moment her brain started working again. She turned to the Triune and dipped her head in gratitude.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’ll take care of the paperwork immediately.”
“Girl, I think you deserve to take off the rest of the night,” Lourdes Soren said as she swaggered back to the dais. “First of all, I think your beloved has other plans for your first night together. Secondly, I’m fairly certain you’ll be getting a call from your clan elders sooner rather than later.”
Understanding dawned in Alena’s eyes but then she shook it away. “As much as I’d love to blow off work, Your Honor, I really want to make sure everything to do with Luca’s case is handled… correctly.”
“Luca,” the judge said with a meaningful look.
His hand tightened around Alena’s. He didn’t need to be told to protect his beloved. She would not be returning to her clan until they had received assurances no vengeance would be sought for her part in foiling their plot against him. She might be a warrior in spirit, but she didn’t have his centuries of training. He would rectify that, teach her to defend herself in a fight, but at this moment it was his job to keep her safe.
“My beloved,” he murmured, pulling her into his body, unable to resist the urge any longer. “I have waited for you for centuries and I’m not too proud to beg you to take the evening off to spend with me.”
Luca lowered his head, capturing her lips in a kiss. Thought was swept away on a tide of heat as their bond
pulsed and strengthened. She moaned against his mouth, her lithe body pressing against his and her fingers twining through his hair. He gripped her hips and his mouth devoured her whole, the sweet honey of her tongue causing his fangs to slide from their sheaths.
She was his. He was hers. Now and forever.
When they finally broke apart, Alena swayed on her feet and clutched at him for support. Pressing her fingers against her swollen lips, she giggled like a nestling and then faced the smirking wolf.
“I, uh, I think I’ll take the evening off.”
* * *
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* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from book 2 in the Real Men of Othercross series, Vampire Claim…
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The baby wanted lunch.
There was no other reason for the ravenous hunger that wrapped around Iris Holloway’s spine and squeezed. Not only did Baby need an influx of calories and nutrients, but she also kicked her mama for good measure—to get Iris’s attention, just in case she’d forgotten there was a mini-me floating around in there.
Iris winced, shifting slightly in her seat in an attempt to dislodge the wriggling bladder-squasher into a more comfortable position—one that didn’t threaten a spontaneous golden shower. That would be more than just a little embarrassing, especially since as an Arcane Sentinel she needed to maintain some semblance of dignity, even when flagrantly pregnant.
Aggravatingly pregnant.
Get-out-of-my-stomach-already pregnant.
“Do you understand the charges against you?” Iris spoke to Kelly Holloway, the young witch who stood before her for judgment.
Kelly grinned and saluted. Iris suppressed a sigh. The brazen young witch only had a year left as a ward of the Holloway coven before coming into her own at age twenty-five, and she clearly thought she could charm her way out of this predicament.