Summoned Chaos (9 page)

“Maybe I should just go to bed,” I grumbled.

“That’s a very good idea,” someone whispered in my ear.

I emitted a scream that rivaled a boy-band groupie. I spun around in terror, swiping my blade upward. Something deflected it, knocking me slightly off balance. I stumbled, then reached for the electricity once again.

An open palm struck me across the face, ringing my bell and forcing me to drop my hold on the electrons.

Before I could recover, strong arms yanked me forward. I had a glimpse of black and pink before tender, hungry lips clamped down on mine. Sparks exploded across my Awesome Area and the circuits of my brain overloaded. The familiar scent of honey and strawberries filled my nostrils, driving my heart rate even higher. I pressed back into the kiss. I was lost in the swirling, misty haze of raw passion that was finally broken when the woman pulled away. Bright, green eyes sparkled while her lips spread into a wide grin.

“Hey, stud,” Quinn said and attacked my mouth once again.

Chapter Seven

Pillow Talk

We came up for air sometime later, each gasping for breath and in need of water. I filled a glass in the bathroom sink while Quinn sat up, twisted her blouse around, and tried to pat down her hair. She smiled as I re-entered the room.

“Wow. Apparently we really missed each other this past month.”

Man, I enjoyed the sound of her light, British accent. The woman could read lines of code from a website and I’d get warm all over.

“And whose fault is that?” I eyed her, fighting the desire to tackle her once again. Instead, I took a huge swig of water and offered the rest to her.

She took several large gulps. “I know and I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I lied. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

That last part was certainly true. As much as I hated her disappearing act, it was almost worth it when we did finally get back together.

“Speaking of which,” I continued, “why are you here? And how the heck did you break in?”

“Oh,
now
you’re asking?”

I shrugged. “I was somewhat distracted earlier.”

“That’s my superpower,” she said. “Anyway, getting inside wasn’t too difficult. The lock to your sliding glass door is pretty basic.”

“But my barriers—”

“Are impressive. I do, however, know a thing or two about sliding through shadows unseen. Either by crowds of reporters or by powerful spells.”

The Fawkeses, like the Shifters, were one of those families with bloodlines that extended back to the early days of recorded Skilled life, long before the formation of the Delwinn Council. And, also like the Shifters, they’d passed along tons of family secrets over the years—including certain spells that were deemed dark magic. One of these was a practice called Shadow Dancing, a form of manipulating shadows to conceal the person from sight. Not many people knew the particulars about it since its existence was stamped out of history during some of our darkest days, but Quinn’s family still maintained the knowledge.

For Quinn, however, it was like holding a live grenade. She could get in a lot of trouble for practicing it, since it was banned by the Council. As such, she rarely used it and hardly ever mentioned it by name.

Still, hot potato or not, the spell was pretty effective. She’d successfully hidden from a Hunter and Warlock team pursuing her months ago and, apparently, from the news-hungry media hounds outside my door. Considering the sudden crush of attention at my doorstep, I considered begging her once again to teach me her ways.

“How long were you inside?” I asked, wanting to shift the conversation away from the laws she was breaking.

“Since before you got home. I was waiting for you, but wound up passing out on your bed. I didn’t wake up until you flushed the toilet.”

I blinked at her in surprise. The Skilled had an amazing ability to “sense” each other’s power. Most of us learned early in our training to dampen our magical signatures, but there was always a small trace. It was like a scent or aura unique to the individual. Everyone processed the information differently, but to me, the signature came across as colors and temperatures.

Only the truly powerful of our kind, the ones that either wound up as Elders or senior officials, were strong enough to completely mask their magical presence. I’d seen Quinn in action before, when she wasn’t suppressing her aura, and she burned white-hot. The fact that she could not only fully hide her magical signature, but do so even while asleep gave me pause.

I peered at her. “I’m surprised I sensed you at all. You’re not getting sloppy, are you?”

“Hey, I was just waking up. Cut me some slack.” Then she set the glass on the nightstand and held out her hand to me. I allowed her to pull me back down onto the bed. She pressed herself up against me. We were silent for a while, just enjoying the comfort and warmth of each other. Eventually I was aware of her wiping her cheeks.

“It’s been a lonely few weeks,” she murmured.

“For both of us,” I whispered, trying to ignore the grisly images of the attack at HQ that sprang to mind.

“The good news is I was able to find some more of Daddy’s files.”

“And?” I tried not to get too excited.

“It’s all gibberish to me. Lots of scribbles that don’t seem connected. I’m not sure if they’ll help, but I made you a copy.”

“I’ll take anything I can get my hands on. So is that what you’ve been doing the past few weeks, cleaning out storage lockers and filing cabinets?”

“That, and doing some training.”

My ears perked up. “Oh? What kind?”

“The kind I don’t want to talk about yet,” she said in a tone that left no room for debate. “Anyway, I was worried about you after our conversation the other day. Then I heard about the attack at HQ and just... I wanted to make sure you were alright. After all, you mentioned you needed me.”

I ran a hand over her shoulder, tears stinging my eyes. “Thank you.”

She pulled away. “What’s wrong?”

I cleared my throat, then told her everything about the attack at HQ. My shock at the suddenness of it, my fear for Mick when he was hurt, my awe of Elsa. I even muscled through the part about enjoying the beating I gave the Mimic.

She listened patiently, allowing me to unload everything. When I finally ran out of steam, she pulled me close. The warmth from her touch soothed the ache in my chest.

Sitting there, listening to the beat of her heart, I realized
how
much I missed her. She was funny and kind, passionate and stubborn. We laughed a lot and had, on occasion, cried. I could be vulnerable around her. It should have been unnerving, but instead I found it calming.

We deserved more moments like this.

“You’ve been under a lot of stress lately,” she said quietly. “Ever since the incident at your folks’ place, you’ve had more eyes on you. There’s a lot of pressure to perform, especially now that you’re working for the Delwinn Council. It doesn’t help that you tend to bottle your emotions. Maybe you just reached your breaking point. You really should release your frustrations more often.”

“I can think of better options for that.”

She batted me lightly on the back of the head. “That’s not what I meant, smart-ass.”

I chuckled, then fell silent.

“Scared you, did it?” There was no mistaking the concern in her voice.

I nodded.

“Have you thought about seeing a professional?”

“No,” I admitted, examining my hand. The scars tingled slightly, dredging up memories of the flaming claws that had ripped through the flesh and ligaments. “And before you lecture me, I know it’s stupid to feel this way, but I’m just reluctant to see a shrink.”

“I get it. It’s awkward to pour your heart out to a complete stranger, but trust me, talking to the right person can help more than you think.”

There was a torrent of emotions on her face. It was a reminder that there was still a lot I didn’t know about her past.

But I wanted to...if she’d let me.

“Is this the voice of experience talking?” I asked.

Quinn blew out a breath. “I was very young when my father went to prison and I had a hard time understanding what was happening. The confusion and hurt really did a number on me, but didn’t manifest itself until a few years later when I started acting out. Mom took me to see someone, which helped a lot. When I lost her as well, I needed a safe place and wound up in therapy for another year.”

“You never mentioned this before.”

“Because it wasn’t relevant, not because I’m ashamed of it. Our emotions may provide an extra boost to our Skill, but they can just as easily eat us from the inside out if we’re not careful. I’m not saying you need to talk to someone today, but just promise me you’ll keep an open mind about it.”

If it were anyone else, I’d have brushed off the suggestion. Heck, I’d nearly bitten Elder Devon’s head off when he mentioned it. But Quinn had shared something very personal with me. These glimpses into her past were so rare and precious that I refused to risk cutting myself off from them.

Not to mention, she was one of the strongest, most confident people I knew and if she had needed therapy to deal with her awful past, maybe I didn’t need to be so stubborn about mine.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll consider it. But no promises.”

She smiled. “Good.”

A loud beeping noise from outside ruined the mood. Quinn extricated herself from my arms and trotted over to the window. I enjoyed the view as she peeked through the blinds.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“There’s a huge van trying to back into position. Apparently space is becoming a premium down there.” She turned around. “This must be annoying.”

“Being the Council’s latest poster children for the Reformation? Yes. Apparently the PR folks want to parade me and Elsa Klein around like trophies. The Normal ambassador is even going to give us a pony tomorrow evening.”

“A pony?”

I shrugged. “Or a Ferrari, or a medal, or maybe just a swat on the ass with a hearty ‘good game.’ Whatever she’s doing at this dinner, the Council is taking full advantage of the positive media attention. We’re even making the late-night talk show tour next week.”

“You agreed to this? Mr. I-Hate-The-Council?”

I laughed. “Yes, but only after they agreed to my terms. Arbent will be reinstated and the Council will grant me full Wizarding access to the Research Library.”

“Which means you can finally get to the secured files.”

I nodded. “Maybe now I can figure out what was going on at HQ twenty years ago and who was protecting Quaos recently.”

I felt the stab of guilt. All my efforts to find clues, to prove there was a link between her father’s betrayal and Quaos, was little solace to someone like Quinn. All she really cared about was that her father would continue running until either the Council killed him or the death sentence was lifted. Of course, given he’d been screwed over by them repeatedly, I was willing to bet he’d never choose to come back into the fold no matter what the Council said.

“Do you think your new set of permissions will actually help you find what you’re searching for?” she asked.

I shrugged. “It certainly can’t hurt. Of course, my plans may have to wait until Elsa and I complete our little PR tour,” I added with a grimace.

“You’d rather be researching.” It wasn’t a question.

“I’d rather be doing anything else. Researching, rift repair, learning to macramé.”

Quinn placed a hand on mine. “It’s okay for you to take a break every once in a while.”

A heaviness settled into my chest. “I know. I just hate the thought that my team is going to be on the front lines doing something productive while I’m gallivanting around the country.”

“You’re still repairing a rift, Marcus,” she said. “Only this is one that has existed for generations.”

“True, but it’s a lot harder to bridge the gap between Normals and the Skilled than it is to stitch reality back together.”

“Maybe so, but if anyone has to do it, I’m glad it’s you.”

My insides warmed. We fell into silence once again.

“I’ve missed this,” she whispered, leaning her head on my shoulder.

“Me too. Cuddling with my sword just isn’t the same.”

She pulled back with a grin. “Is that a euphemism, Mr. Shifter?”

“
Now
it is,” I said. She snickered, but my smile slowly faded as I finally screwed up the courage to say what had been on my mind for weeks. “Listen, I’ve been wanting to talk with you for a while, but the phone is never good for this sort of thing.”

Her face fell. “Dammit.”

My heart stopped, then restarted at double its normal pace. “It’s nothing bad, I just wanted to talk about us. You know, have the You’re-My-Shmoopsie-Bosom-So-Let’s-Have-Liquid-Hot-Monkey-Sex-Only-With-Each-Other talk. Uh, those are Steve’s words, not mine.”

Her eyebrows ticked up. “You’ve been talking to Steve about us?”

My ears burned with embarrassment. “Not details or anything, but, you know, guy stuff. Man-to-man talk.”

“That’s...kind of sweet, actually.”

I felt a huge rush of relief.

“But I’m not sure now is the right time for us to get into titles or anything.” Her voice tightened almost as much as her shoulders.

The relief was immediately replaced with tension. “Why not?”

Quinn bit her lower lip. “Things are difficult for me. Between the Council staying on my case about my father and your newfound fame, I think we’re going in separate directions.”

The bottom fell out of my heart. “Wait, are you saying we need a break?”

She shook her head. “Of course not. It’s just that we both have a lot on our emotional plates and I don’t want us to feel guilty for being unable to fulfill promises we made before either of us was ready. The spotlight that you’ve been pushed into doesn’t help.”

“Because there’s too much attention?”

“Yes. The less people hounding me right now, the better.”