Chaos Burning (13 page)

“Blood magick can be misused. Or be dark magick.”

“Yes, if the blood comes from sacrifice or any other unwilling situation. Intent counts for a great deal when it comes to magick, Simon. The blood was freely given. My intent was pure—to protect and defend. The spell knew me, and the earth at my feet boosted my power. There’s nothing dark about that. Just because some assholes do bad things doesn’t mean everyone who uses blood in a rite is the same.”

“I like it when you lecture me. It makes me feel like a wayward boy about to be disciplined.”

Her breath caught and her heart sped. Simon thanked his amplified senses. This female might try to blow off how he affected her, but her heartbeat couldn’t lie to him.

“You are really incorrigible.” She sniffed but he caught the ghost of a smile on her mouth.

“I am. My second-mother used to say that I’d know I met
the right female when she was not only capable of keeping me in line, but that I’d let her. She’s going to like you.”

“You’re taking me home to meet your parents? I haven’t even let you get to second base yet.”

He laughed again. It felt good that she didn’t take him seriously. That she wasn’t afraid or bewitched by him. She’d need that to handle a Lycian male; he hadn’t been lying when he told her about what his mother had said.

He needed to stop thinking along those lines for the moment and focus on the situation.

“Talk to me about warding. My car is warded, the house, all our buildings. I guess I assumed they’d all sound like a car alarm or something. But those outside the apartment had been tripped. Shouldn’t it have made a noise?”

“There are all kinds of wards. The ones on your car are protective in nature. So the ward is like a big vault around your car. The spell keeps anyone with negative intent from the space around it and from putting any spells on it. I also keyed it back to me. So if it’s breached again, I’ll know.”

“You did what? Did I tell you you could do something like that? No. Undo that now.” He would not have her in danger on his behalf like that.

She had the audacity to snort. “You keep thinking you’re in charge of me and I’m puzzled, Simon.”

“How so?”

“Don’t snarl at me. You’re an intelligent man. You know how to soothe women. Heaven knows I’ve seen you do it dozens of times. But you try to handle me as if that would ever work. You know it can’t work, Simon. You know you’re not the boss of me in any way.”

He barked a laugh, even as annoyance rose that she didn’t just give in already.

“Now, back to what I was saying about wards. Many wards do make a noise. Either a psychic alarm to someone, like the one on your car now. Or in some cases, yes, like a car alarm. The ones at the apartment are protection and magick-nullifying wards. I’ll talk to Meriel about whether or not she had some sort of alarm built into it. If she didn’t hear it, that means
someone with a hell of a lot of skill managed to break the spell. That would be very, very bad.” She sighed heavily.

He remained quiet, letting her work it through.

“Meriel and Dominic’s magick together makes some of the most brilliant and complicated spellwork I’ve ever seen. I’ve known Meriel most of my life. She’s always been strong, but now that she’s ascended to her bond with Dominic she’s a force of nature. That something could manage to get through the outer wardings before it was halted means they’re working with a being far more powerful than any mage or turned witch ever could be.”

“You’re working this all out. I have confidence that you will handle this threat.”

Funny that something as silly as a compliment could relax her, but somehow knowing he had faith in her abilities made things better. And he didn’t bug her as she thought over things.

She liked the way he drove. Self-assured, like most things he did. He didn’t hot-rod around, but the car was powerful and beautiful and it sang with her magick, which made her feel better about him when she wouldn’t be around. They’d need to go through the parking garage at the Owen building and probably around everyone’s houses too.

Things had gotten ten shades of worse and it was time to dig in and start acting like they were at war. If she was going to take over the hunter squad, she’d do it fully, but she’d do it only after she looked into Nell’s eyes when she said it was all right. It was Nell’s place and she didn’t want to step on toes, especially in such a tenuous time.

And, she supposed, she needed that last bit before she let go of Gennessee. Coming up for a month or two wasn’t the same as agreeing to run a squad for what could be more than six months.

“You can borrow my car.”

“Huh?” She had been thinking so hard she’d missed that they were nearly at Nell’s place.

“I live a ways from town. You can’t always wait for me to give you a ride. I have another car; you can use it while you’re at my place.”

If he just asked, or offered instead of stating stuff, she could be appreciative and accept. He was so bossy! “I never agreed to that. Plus I can rent a car. Owen or Gennessee will pay for it.”

“You don’t need to agree to it. It’s common sense and doesn’t require agreement. And a rental car won’t be as safe as my car. It’s silly to cost the clan money when I’m all too happy to loan you something.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’d argue over just about anything?” And probably win.

“Don’t pout. You know I’m right.”

“I don’t want you exposed to all this danger. It’s unnecessary. I can stay at a hotel. Or any number of other places.”

His back got up as he sat, poker straight and narrowed his gaze as if the windshield had insulted him. “Do you imagine I’d run from danger?”

“Don’t get all growly with me, mister.” She turned in her seat. “Why would I say that? God. You know what I mean but you’re deliberately taking offense. And being bossy, might I add. I don’t think you’re a coward. I want to protect you! Is that so bad?”

“It wouldn’t be if I was just a man. Or even a run-of-the-mill shifter. But I’m not. I am the third son of the most powerful living Lycian. I earned my first marks before I was six years old. I am a warrior and I do not need to be protected. I do the protecting.”

She sighed. A little horrified that part of her responded like
yankee doo dah
when he acted that way. A lot warm inside that he was so big and in charge. A smidge annoyed that he was such a grumpy baby and picked fights because he couldn’t bear being told no.

He said nothing else as he parked the car and they headed inside where Gage, Meriel and Dominic already waited.

“Sit down and eat.” William, Nell’s husband, motioned them toward the table where platters heaped with food covered most of the tabletop.

“Didn’t expect to see you this morning.” Dominic looked to Simon and the two men raised brows at each other.

Lark rolled her eyes and grabbed some eggs and thanked Meriel for the mug of coffee she put at Lark’s left hand.

“The hallway outside your place had been breached this morning.”

The talking ceased immediately. Nell leaned in closer. “Say what?”

“They didn’t trip the two most internal layers of warding, but they managed to get past the others. Mage energy. A turned witch too.”

“Those wards should have triggered an alarm spell.” Meriel turned to Dominic, who shook his head.

“Something a lot smarter and more powerful than a mage or turned witch is giving them help. There’s no other way to explain how anyone could have gotten through those wards without triggering the alarm.” Lark looked over the jam, trying to decide which would be better. “They’d been around Simon’s car but couldn’t get close enough. I warded it with a blood rite.”

“Smart.” Gage rubbed his hands over his face.

Nell took a bite of toast and thought awhile. “Well, given what you found out last night, we should move forward with the suspicion that these mages have some powerful being in their camp now. So, what’s the plan then?” she asked Lark at last. The look on her face was steady. There were no negative energies coming from her, at least not about Lark.

“I think we need to create a threat awareness process for the clan. We need to be on heightened alert right now. Keep a buddy system up so no one goes missing. I want the wards on everyone’s home and place of business checked and double-checked. That’s some basic stuff.”

“It’ll also give the witches in the clan clear evidence of what we’re doing for them. To protect them. And give them the tools to protect themselves better as well. Our self-defense classes are full in minutes.” Meriel sat back.

“Then let’s get more witches teaching them. I’m going to talk with Helena, see if anything else is going on down her way. And Arel from Rodas. The East Coast witches have been under threat longer than we have. He might have something useful to add.”

“And he’s not a chore to look at.”

When her husband snorted, Nell shrugged. “I’m not dead. A girl can look at a man like Arel and appreciate what a
masterpiece he is. Even when she’s got her own masterpiece at home.” She winked and William shook his head before stealing a kiss.

“You totally speak truth about Arel.” She grinned and Simon snorted. “I need to meet with Sheila and Gia Kelly to talk about whatever they’ve found on the Magister.” She could use the name here in this place. The house was tightly warded, even down to the very foundations.

“Edwina is working on it as well. There’s not much out there. Not more than stories and old fables. Do you think it’s the Magister who was in the hallway with them? That it was him, it, whatever, who broke our wards?”

Lark looked over to Meriel. Keeping Edwina busy was a plus. And she knew her stuff so that was important too. “Good on your mother. She’s a top-notch historian. As for the hallway? I don’t know. My mother read me and my sister
Feminist Fairy Tales
every night. We grew up being taught how to use guns and knives; my reality was scary enough so we didn’t hear the boogeyman stories like some did. I don’t know enough about the Magister to say yes or no to that. But clearly something strong has been aiding them. What we do know is that whatever the Magister is, it’s been regarded as exceptionally bad. So bad there are scary stories made up about it. That’s enough to freak me out and keep us extra cautious as we find out more.”

“Whatever it is, I’ve found over my life that anything that causes people to get pale and anxious simply at the mention of a name is something to be carefully regarded and feared.” Simon forked up some eggs.

“Yes, that. When will the autopsies be finished?”

Gage spoke again. “Some of it by this afternoon I’m told. But other things take longer. Even with magickal boosts it takes time to get back toxicology reports.”

“What about the other one?” They’d brought in three prisoners.

“He’s under extra watch.”

“We need to move him altogether. Where else do we have that would do?”

“He should be safe in the cells. We’ve redoubled the warding now.” Gage sipped his coffee.

“We thought the same thing last night and two of the prisoners are dead. I didn’t kill them. So who did? Chances are it’s someone connected to the turned witches or worse. Which means they have a way in. And if they could do it once, why not again? And if we move him, they may not be able to find him this time.”

“We’ve got another place, a building in South Seattle we own and use for storage and various other stuff. Used to have offices there, but they’re all empty now. We can convert one of the interior file rooms to a cell.” Meriel got her phone out and began to give orders as Lark planned on her own.

Chapter 11

“I’LL
get down there and begin the warding. Gage, I need a list of your top five people. We need to get them working in teams. And I think it might be a good time to bring on more hunters. Nell, I’ll keep you in the loop but you need to focus on one thing just now and that’s staying healthy.”

“I hear that.” William leaned down to kiss his wife’s head. Nell grimaced.

“This is important and I’m not there. It’s killing me.”

“I know. I know it’s hard. But there are things that take precedence over this stuff and having a safe and healthy pregnancy is at the top of the list.” Meriel took Nell’s hand and squeezed it. “Take care of gestating and we’ll do the rest.”

“I promise not to break your hunter team.” Lark winked and Nell laughed.

“Not even a worry.”

“My top five would be Lori, Teodor, Ginger, Quinn and Mike. All have been on the team for at least five years. Four of them at least eight years. Longtime members of the clan.
Families involved in governance, et cetera. What do you need them for?”

It was time to really lead, so she did. “I want to make a special team for this. I’ll take three of those five and have them each pick a partner if they don’t already have one. I want them out on the streets investigating. I want to step up the weapons training. I’ve seen a lot of smart witches too dependent on their spellcraft. Sometimes your energy gets depleted, or you’re outmatched skillwise. What then? It’s not enough that you can shoot energy from across a room, I want those hunters trained to kick ass too.”

“Nell’s been saying the same for two years. Meriel has been trying to get it done.”

“This isn’t an attack on the way things have been. I want to say that up front. I don’t mention any of this to make people defensive. But if I’m in charge, things need to change and change quickly because this threat…” She rubbed her belly, the tension roiling. “This is something I don’t think any of us could have predicted. We don’t even know the details really and yet I have the feeling it will be very, very bad. If we’re not ready, we’re going to get mowed over. The very idea of that offends me.

“Lastly, the team has twenty hunters. I think it should have at least twice that much. Then we can have people on patrol in sweeps from the outer edges of our territory inward. This would get us in everyone’s general area at least once a week.”

Nell nodded.

Dominic spoke, “We agree. This is why we brought you up here. Get us trained. Help us deal with this. Take what you need. The problems of the past are not impediments now.” He meant Edwina’s reluctance to open their world up to dealing with other, non-clan witches and other paranormals.