Текст книги "Heart of Darkness"
Автор книги: Lauren Dane
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Текущая страница: 13 (всего у книги 17 страниц)
Chapter 22
HE stalked her as she walked through his place. She sent him the side-eye but he wasn’t deterred. He liked having her in his apartment. Which was sort of funny given that he’d never, ever seriously considered living with a woman. Now though? This woman? He wanted her with him all the time.
She would be safer, no doubt. He’d be around. She’d be closer to her job and he wouldn’t have to run back and forth across the lake to see her.
“You’re making me nervous.”
“No, I’m not. Very little makes you nervous.” He smiled and she huffed and went back to putting her clothes away.
“I missed you when you were gone.”
She must have gotten a pedicure when she was in San Francisco. Her toes were different. A deep, dark red. Like every other part of her, her feet were sexy.
She looked up at him, suspicion on her face. “Mmm-hmm.”
“Why you gotta be this way?” He added a little bit of a purr, just for her.
“What way is that?”
“How was San Francisco?”
“Useful.”
“Are you going to remain prickly so that I have no other choice but to seduce a good mood back into you?”
“You’re pretty bold for a guy who’s still in the doghouse.”
He stood and moved to her. “But you know my general feelings about being challenged.”
She held a hand out, trying not to smile but failing. “Stop that. I have to unpack and do laundry.”
He shook his head. “Your clothes are already in the washing machine. Laundry – check. Your stuff is hanging in the closet – check.”
“Are you in charge of my schedule now?”
“Or maybe you need your own stress relief. Orgasms are good for you. And maybe, maybe I’ll do it just because I can.” He got closer and she moved around the bed.
“Maybe you’ll be bloody by the end.”
He shook his head. “Maybe. But that’s part of the fun of fucking you, Meriel Owen. A man needs to be kept on his toes. You never let me slack.”
Her smile broke free and she threw a pillow at him. “I have stuff to do.”
“Yes, yes, you do.”
He pounced, bringing her to the bed with him. Laughing, he rained small, sweet kisses across her forehead and the bridge of her nose. “How can I want you so much?”
“Because I’m fabulous?”
“Well, yes. Certainly your body is fabulous. You’re gorgeous. You’re tight and hot and wet every time I get near you.” He slid his palm down her belly, stopping to cup her sex.
Her soft gasp echoed through his system. Pounding at him like the blood in his veins.
“It’s more than that. I can’t quite believe you’re mine.” He eased her shirt open, exposing one of those pretty bras she favored. “And I’m greedy for you.” Deftly, he popped the catch between her breasts and freed them. “For these.”
He pressed a kiss between her breasts as he unbuttoned and unzipped the pants, easing them down.
“You’re astoundingly good at getting my clothes off.”
“It’s my favorite pastime. Well, my second favorite.” He leered and meant it.
“Who am I to stand between a boy and his favorite sport?”
But she gave as good as she got. Rearing up, she pulled his shirt off and kissed over his chest, rubbing her cheek against him like a cat.
And then her hand was down his pants and she was gripping his cock, a definite look of challenge on her face.
“Show me what you got, then.”
His pants were off, followed by his boxers. As much as he loved the way she looked partially clothed and disheveled, he preferred naked. So off came her shirt and bra, the pants and a pair of teeny red panties.
“I’ve got a witch naked in my bed. A pretty flush on her skin. Nipples hard and dark.” To underline this, he bent and licked across one and then the other until she yanked on his hair to get his attention.
“Yes, mistress?” he teased.
She grabbed him again, thrusting a few times to underline her urgency.
They hadn’t been together since Sunday morning. He’d missed this thing between them – the urgency to take her and to feel the trembling of her muscles as he made her come, the easy familiarity they’d had since the first time he touched her.
He’d run from that and it hadn’t worked. He didn’t feel better without her. He missed her and her voice. The way she was so orderly and in charge but once it was just Meriel and Dominic, she’d softened and given herself to him. To them.
Why he’d ever imagined running from her would fix the ache in his heart he didn’t know. She made everything better. Even as she laid him bare and saw him down to the bone, she accepted him.
This intimacy they had drove him to possess her, to touch and kiss every part of her skin he could. The sweetness of her lips drew him back time and again. He wanted to take it slow, give her pleasure for the entire afternoon.
She writhed as he slid himself against her. But before he could get any further, she wrapped her legs around him and rolled over, straddling him. “You’re going too slow. I need you now.”
He didn’t ask where she got the condom she held up. It was one of his; she’d probably found it in his nightstand. It didn’t matter, only that she had it and wanted to use it.
“Will you miss your lady parts buffet now that I’m around and would naturally cut anyone who tried to show you her bits?”
And he put her on her back again, kissing down her belly until he ended up where he wanted. “These are the only bits I want.” He breathed over her, smiling again when she stuttered a breath.
Her taste wended through him. Drove him. He wanted more. Always wanted more. Loved the way her inner-thigh muscles bunched and strained under his palm where he held her open to him. Loved the way she arched to get more. Loved the way she exploded all because of him. He brought her pleasure and she knew who did it.
It made him smug. Made him feel like a king.
Even better, while she was still catching her breath from her orgasm to slide in deep, to catch the surprised gaze as her lids flew open, and then her eyes blurred with pleasure.
MERIEL had zero plans to move. She lay there on his bed, his body wrapped around her as he caught his breath.
“It’s been far too long since I’ve been this tingly and slightly sore.”
She didn’t open her eyes, but she didn’t need to be looking at him to know he laughed.
“I’ve neglected you, terribly. I apologize. For what it’s worth, I’ve been untingly and not sore at all since Sunday too. Though I did get a little sore after I worked out this whole week. But that’s not the same.” He pulled the comforter up and over them. “Not that same as having you make me tingly and sore.”
“All right, that’s pretty good.”
She turned and opened her eyes to look at him.
“Tell me about San Francisco.” He kissed her forehead.
“It was dramatic, as it tends to be when we all get together. I have an official report to make tomorrow for the council. This mage issue was one we were not alone in bringing up. Several other clans and covens have had problems. We traded some ideas. We’ll be doing a lot of cross-training over the next year I think. Nell’s already on this with some of the other hunters or lawkeepers for the smaller groups. I learned that nifty othersight trick. I’ll need to send out the changes you made. I think you really amped up the spell and cut out the background interference.”
“I should have gone too. I’m sorry.”
“You have a business to run, Dominic. You can’t come to all these meetings. I have them all the time. It’s part of my job. But I would like it if you’d help with something.”
“You know you only have to ask and I’ll do it.”
“You’re full of shit. I ask you to do all sorts of things and you do your own thing anyway.”
“I love when you’re vulgar. How about this – what I mean is, professionally. Ask and if it’s not something I think is dumb like letting you continue to live in a place the mages know about and have stalked you in – I’ll do it.”
“You already had appointments set up to look at apartments. Don’t pretend you didn’t jump on this to get what you wanted.”
He laughed. “Of course I did. Do you think I’d merit a woman like you if I was easily led or if I didn’t take full advantage of every situation to get my way?” One of his brows rose and she snorted.
“Don’t snort, Meriel, my love. You’re naked in my bed, still mussed from my attentions.” He winked. “Exhibit A.”
“I’m truly afraid of what our children will be like.”
“Yeah, me too. But you can handle me just fine. You’ll be great. They’ll adore you like I do.”
She rolled her eyes but snuggled into him. “I’m afraid this mage thing isn’t going to go away without a lot of work and most likely more people hurt and killed.”
And his mother was a part of it. Meriel had spoken to Nell about this and with Sadira Rodas, the leader of Rodas Clan. Sadira had told Meriel what they’d discovered when they were able to capture some of these mages, was that they’d been part of an organized movement to hunt and use witches for their magick.
And as they’d suspected, there were several witches helping the mages. Mainly by giving them information, critical information that only a witch could help them with. Where witches would likely congregate, what practice path they used so they could defend against anything a witch threw their way. And now it appeared they knew about the hierarchy in clans and were targeting council witches to steal magick from.
Now that their secrets had been exposed, it put them all at greater risk. This was a threat to their entire race. She could not shake the gut feeling that Gloria Ochoa was involved. They had a lot of circumstantial evidence on this fact already. It was really only a matter of time before they knew for certain.
“Having bands of roving mages out to stalk and kidnap us sounds like a plot from a novel. Humans have to deal with this fear. I guess I should too. But I hate the idea of it! I hate that these mages are hunting us like animals and will use us up and toss us to the side. I can’t abide it.”
He smirked. “Of course you can’t. We’ll do what we can.”
“Will you help me with this?”
“With what, baby?”
“I need to reach out to witches who aren’t in clans, unaffiliated witches, coven witches, outclan, all that. I have some ideas, but my mother has charged me with this and I’m already getting started. I’d like you with me, helping me.”
He nodded. “Of course. I have some ideas too. You and I can make a difference. Tell me what you need and when you need it, I’m in. You know, your mother told me yesterday that this issue would make your place in Owen history. She’s proud of you.”
“She hated this stuff just six months ago. Told me it had nothing to do with our world, that if the mongrels wanted to kill each other, they would.”
“Edwina can admit when she’s wrong. She believes in the strength of the clan.”
“So do I.” Meriel sat and grabbed her shirt. “But we’re targets too. The rep from Rodas has interrogated these mages. They have more info than any of us and what was shared was enough to convince me that if we don’t work together and strengthen ourselves, it’ll be open season on us.”
“Mages can be taken out. Your mother showed me a great new spell. It’s a feedback spell. You can probably do it while multitasking about forty-five other things. But I think if it’s used at the right time during a mage attack, it can cascade into the mage, draining him until there’s nothing. At the very least it should give the witch being attacked some time to get out of there.”
“She’s never taught me that spell.” But she was flattered, nonetheless, that he thought she was so competent.
“Really? Well, it’s handy. She probably thinks you already know it. I’ll show it to you.”
This was entirely possible. “Nell’s mother was the hunter before Nell. Within Owen, it’s almost always been a Hunter. Yes, that’s Nell’s real family name. Back then you know you were named what you did a lot. Smith, Baker, all that. So it’s been a Hunter or a Garrity. That’s Gage’s family by the way, only his mother is a healer and it’s his father who was in our hunter team until just three years ago. Anyway, I’m tangenting. Nell’s mother taught me all my defensive magick. Though I’ve certainly learned a lot from my mother too. I’d love for you to show it to me.”
“Is it all right with you?” He pulled on his boxers and jeans but stayed shirtless and she stared for long moments at him. Big. Imposing. Those wide shoulders of his leading down to a flat belly and a narrower waist. A waist showcased even better with low-slung jeans hanging from them.
“You’re going to end up right back in bed if you keep looking at me that way.”
She laughed and walked from the room.
“To answer your question,” she said as she began to make a pot of coffee, “I like that you’re learning from Edwina. She’s hands down the finest spellcaster I’ve ever seen. It’s good to learn from her. She never takes shortcuts, which means you’ll learn how to do everything the long way. And it’s easy to change a long spell to adjust it for all sorts of uses. But learning her way, you get the mechanics of the spell, which is important.”
“And she likes me. She didn’t want to at first. But she does now.” He grinned.
“She does. But I can understand that very well. I like you too. You’re very charming.”
“So glad you think so. I’m clearly going to have to buy more coffee if we’ll be living together.” He hopped up on a stool to watch her, pleased and smug.
Oh, back to that. “Why do you want to look at the other places?”
“The one here is on a higher floor and has a private elevator. Keycards only. So it’s less access. Safer. And the view will be better. And it’s bigger. A three bedroom. That way you can work from home and we’ll still have a spare room for people to stay if they like. Simon does from time to time, for instance.”
“Well, I’d actually just meant why you wanted to jump to actually renting a new place when we both have apartments already. But I think the point about a bigger place with better views and the safety issue makes sense.”
“I think it’s silly to pretend to take this slow at this point. Don’t you?”
“Have you ever lived with anyone before?”
“Other guys as roommates. Not a woman. I always figured it would happen when I found the right woman. And look. I was right.”
She’d never admit it to him, but his utter self-assuredness was so attractive.
“I’m bitchy. I hate it when you leave beard hairs in my sink. I need space and time when I work. I work a lot. Edwina will stop by to check in because that’s what she does. Nell will be over all the time too. I’ll fill your fridge with goat cheese and salami. I drink coffee all day long and I’m not going to hide my tampons when the dot comes calling.”
He laughed. “Is this supposed to deter me? You think I haven’t ever seen a tampon before? I like Nell and William so her being here won’t bug me. I’ll ignore the goat cheese and remind you occasionally that salami is bad for you and that you drink too much coffee. I want you with me, Meriel. Tampons and coffee habit included.”
He moved her. With just the smallest things, he made her feel desired and understood. Maybe this moving in thing could work. Her current lease was up in a month anyway. They’d sent her a note about signing a new agreement and she hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“Let me get dressed and we’ll go look at the other place.”
“I’ll watch.”
Chapter 23
MERIEL laid it all out for the governing council. The deaths, the disappearances, the intelligence they’d gathered.
She went item by item and laid it all out carefully. Knowing it was important to give them a sense of just how serious the entire situation was.
“To cap – we’ve got an organized group of Other-hating human separatists working with mages whose numbers also include turned witches. These mages are taking intel the witches give them and then they both manipulate the bigot humans to help them find us and kidnap us. There are incidents all over North America and it’s not hard to imagine the numbers being far higher than we think now because plenty of people just up and leave town. If they were loners, who’d notice that they left and call the cops? And even then, we may not note this as an attack against a witch because that’s not how any of the victims are being classified by the authorities.”
“How many of these people are out there? What’s the threat to us, really?” Sami asked.
It was a fair question. “There’s no real reason to believe they’re a contagion. Most witches don’t turn. Most mages wouldn’t be stupid enough to join with the very humans who’d turn on them if they knew their true nature. This isn’t a DEFCON One sort of situation. Not yet.”
“Weak prey is attractive prey.” Dominic spoke up, looking ever so handsome in a three-piece pinstripe suit that made Meriel want to lick him. Well, to be fair, she just liked to lick him in general. But the suit worked.
“Are you saying we’re prey?” Meriel knew it was Sami who had to be convinced. She came from a very long line of full-council witches. Being very powerful, she had little idea of what it felt like to be attacked or in fear. She believed in Clan Owen and thought any witch who chose to live outside a clan was foolhardy.
She was also intelligent and if Meriel could hit the right notes with her and win her support it would go a long way with others who might be sitting on the fence.
“So what’s your plan then?” Abe asked, cutting through the chatter and urging everyone to stay on track.
“I’ve been working on opening up some diplomatic relations of a sort, with other groups of witches. It is my belief that having guests come here to learn defensive magickal techniques and having our witches go to other clan territories will help bring us all together.”
“We have standards; I don’t see why we should lower them simply to protect witches who’ve rejected what we are.” Sami shrugged.
“I don’t think it lowers our standards to combine forces against an enemy who has been hunting us. I’m not suggesting we break the clan. I’m suggesting we stop pretending other witches don’t exist if they cast bones instead of working spells in other ways. I don’t see how that can do anything but strengthen us.”
“Why should we help anyone outside a clan?”
Meriel looked around the table and then back to Sami. “For me, the answer is very simple. But you’ll have to ask and answer that yourself. We were born with these gifts. We are powerful and united. A clan makes us even stronger. The very land we tread on protects us. This is important. It’s why I don’t fear for our witches the same way I do for others. But I think ignoring our brothers and sisters outside the clans is a repudiation of what we stand for just as certainly as those who mean us harm. And I think it’s a bad idea to let them develop a taste for our magick any more than they have. I’m not willing to accept the constant threat of these mages showing up to harm our people.”
Dominic nodded. “I grew up outside a clan. This isn’t a secret. I’ve learned more about my magick since I’ve been with Meriel than in my entire life before I met her. Meriel didn’t make me join. She shared her knowledge with me and brought me into this clan because of that. I saw the value. I saw the importance of what she was doing. And if you turn your back on outclan witches, you’re only underlining that clans only care for themselves and would coerce instead of seek those new members who join freely. Show them how you are. Open your doors, let them get training, listen to what they might teach you and everyone is safer. It doesn’t degrade what you are to lead. It’s part of why Owen holds so much power. Isn’t it? I think the real question, Sami, is why shouldn’t we help all witches by offering to teach them?”
“If I may speak.” Nell stood, waiting for permission to say anything else.
Edwina granted it.
“Gage just returned from Rhode Island where he was given access to all files about these mages who were caught as well as taught several defensive magicks that would do everything from repel an attack to striking down a foe. We benefit from that already, don’t we? Meriel and her committee have arranged training courses on a monthly basis. Gage has taught me these spells, and yes, one of them includes blood, but it’s the caster’s blood and it’s not mandatory to learn if this is a problem for any witch personally. In turn I’ve already taught my entire staff. They’ll be teachers now.”
Meriel nodded. “We can teach and be taught. We can keep ourselves safe but also offer that safety to others. And if they come to us, that makes us stronger. If they decide to create a clan of their own, this also makes us all stronger. Even if they continue along alone, we’ve made them safer and they’ll remember that.”
Nell smoothly came back into the discussion. “Training of all Owen witches has begun. Gennessee will be sending some of their people as well. I met with Lark this week. She’s already putting a plan in place.”
Edwina took notes for a few moments and looked up again. “We’ll be seeing this training go live when?”
“As Nell touched on, we’ve begun training already with our own witches. The first two classes filled up within a day. The training isn’t overly difficult. It’s just old-school defensive arts we haven’t used in a very long time. We can do this pretty quickly and pretty efficiently and then, if it works like I hope, I’d propose that we begin teaching our youth as part of their catechism. If we make this a normal part of our array of spellwork, we won’t need all these workshops on more than occasional level. As you know, we’re giving workshops for our investigative and lawkeeping staff. Essentially most of us will have more tools for defense in a relatively short time. And it’ll be part of our system, which makes it automatic.
“Just to be totally up front, it’s my aim to equip all our witches from the earliest ages to defend and repel an attack by these mages. We either live in fear or learn how to deal with the threats ourselves. If we do it enough, they’ll leave most of us alone. That won’t protect everyone, but it’s easier to protect a smaller group.”
The council took a vote and unanimously decided to support the trainings and the cross-training with other groups on a trial basis. Meriel would be in charge of making sure nothing any outsider was exposed to was of a clan-only nature.
“I’ve another matter,” Dominic spoke as Meriel was putting her cap back on her pen.
“Yes?” Edwina made a continue motion with her hand.
“Some of you may have heard that my biological mother may be involved with some of these mages. I wanted you to feel free to ask me any questions you might have to address anything you might be bothered by.”
Of course if anyone gave him any trouble, she’d take care of that right away. Not that she was biased or protective or anything.
A few people asked but thankfully no one accused or seemed to view him with suspicion. Probably in large part because Edwina had so publically thrown her support behind Dominic. Meriel would never forget that.
As the meeting had adjourned, Nell stopped Meriel. “I think I found her.”
“I should call her myself.” Dominic groused.
Meriel took a deep breath and looked to Nell. Nell had found a phone number that may or may not belong to Gloria Ochoa. Between what Rodas told them and her own investigative work, Nell had compiled quite the dossier on the woman.
“Don’t look at me.” Nell shrugged.
“I should call her myself,” he repeated. “This is my mother.”
“Do you still hold out hope she’s innocent in all this?” Meriel tried to keep the question neutral.
“No. I don’t. I think she’s part of it. How much I don’t know, but it looks pretty damning for her.”
“Why don’t you call her on your own? I mean, you can do it here and now, but as Dominic her son.” Nell sipped her tea.
“Because I’m not just speaking as her son. This is my clan too. Shit.” He burst from his chair and began to pace. “I don’t need my woman to do my dirty work.”
Meriel only looked at him, letting him get it all out.
“Why don’t we go home? Hm? You have to be at Heart of Darkness in a few hours. You haven’t had dinner yet.”
He paused and sighed, knowing she was soothing him but not caring. “You’re coddling me.”
She shrugged.
“All right. Call her. You call her now and we’ll go home. I’ll call her too if I decide to.”
Meriel waited for him to change his mind but he didn’t.
She dialed the number and got the voice mail. Logically, she knew it wasn’t necessarily Gloria. But she didn’t need that. Her magick was going off in her belly like sparks.
When the brief message ended, Meriel began to speak. “I’m calling for Gloria Ochoa. My name is Meriel Owen and I believe you and I have a little problem. It seems you might be under the misapprehension that you’re allowed to come onto our earth and harm my family. This is, of course, untrue. In fact, I’d like to have a discussion with you about these issues.” She gave her number for callback and hung up.
Nell snorted. “I know it was foolish to hope she’d have a voice mail recording that identified her as Gloria Ochoa. You did well. If it’s her, she’ll call back. She’ll use this number and I have an awesome new spell to work with the trace program. It unravels confusion spells. Arel, the hunter at Rodas, showed Gage. It’s awesome.”
Meriel nodded. “Good.”
“You didn’t tell her you and I were bonded,” Dominic pointed out.
“I don’t know if she knows you’re dead or alive and I have no plans to aid her in figuring it out.”
“You don’t think she’s going to stay away, anyway. Do you?”
“No. I think your mother knows you’re alive. And I think it was her in my building.”
It was Nell’s turn to explode from her chair. “What? What? Why didn’t you tell me this before? How do you know?”
“William will kill me if you get all worked up and you go home to him all grouchy. Sit down. When we used that spell to boost our othersight in my building yesterday, it stripped back some of the other things we see in regular othersight. I can see Dominic’s energy right now. Yours too and the baby. In addition to marking you as witches, there are marks, you know what I mean. Little things that identify the person. I missed it when we were there yesterday since everyone got so excited. But when I went back over there today I used normal othersight at first, just without thinking. And the smudge in my hallway had a lot of the same markers Dominic has. What are the odds it’s not her? It’s just a feeling.”
“That’s not just a feeling. You have some reason to feel it.” Nell ran her fingers through her hair, making it stand on end. Automatically, Meriel reached out to pat it down and the two women paused to grin at each other.
“If you two ever feel the need to kiss, you know just to get on with the friend thing, you should feel free.” Dominic winked and Meriel laughed. “As for the other? I think Nell’s right. It could be a coincidence. But how many coincidences can there be before we just accept what’s going on? Also, I’m really pissed you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t connect it right away. It wasn’t until about half an hour ago that it clicked. It was bothering me, but I didn’t know why. Sometimes I do that, you know. My brain sort of takes over thinking about stuff in the background and I don’t notice until the lightbulb moment. And I still don’t know. Not for sure.”
“If that’s her, she’ll call back. Especially if that was her in your building. She’ll have to, just to rub your nose in it. I say we don’t need to mention the Dominic-is-your-son thing unless she already knows. Why should we expose Dom to that if he doesn’t have to be? Also, it might make her worse.”
Meriel liked that Nell was protective of Dominic, that they’d all made friends. It would have sucked if one of them hadn’t liked the other’s man.
“Well, you guys go on. I’ve got your building on our watch list. My staff does a drive-by several times a day. Sometimes at random they’ll go in and check things out. Now that we’ve got this new othersight Meriel learned, we’ll add that. It should help a lot. And of course you’ll still be accompanied by a guard when you’re at work and out and about.”
Meriel hugged Nell before kissing her cheek. “You doing all right?”
“So far so good. No morning sickness for a week or two. I sleep a lot but that’s okay. When I wake up, William is there with a cup of tea and some snuggles. He takes care of me.” She blushed, shrugging.
“Of course he does. Why don’t we all go out together? We’ll walk you to your car.”
Dominic held two elbows out, Meriel took one and Nell the other.
