Throne of Oak (Maggie's Grove) (21 page)

Dragos watched as Blake and Cody fussed over Peter, relaxing even further as all three of them turned to Eddy for guidance. When his Renfield suggested a trip to the kitchen for some ice cream and explanations Dragos decided to leave their education up to him.

If anyone could teach the boys that there was nothing in Maggie’s Grove for them to fear, it was Eddy. He would probably gather some of his friends together and introduce the former Van Helsings to them, allowing them to form their own opinions on how things were done here. He’d be able to show them they were just normal teenagers with a few extra...bits and pieces. It would have the added bonus of keeping the kids occupied and out of harm’s way.

Of course, that also meant Dragos would be coming home to an absolutely filthy kitchen, but it would be worth it.

Maybe.

“Do we need to tuck the children into bed with a glass of water and a night-night story? No? Good. Let’s go.” Ash strode toward the front door, unwilling or unable to wait any longer.

“
Amara and I are already here.
”

Suddenly Dragos was just as eager to leave as Ash. “
Stay hidden until we arrive.
”

She didn’t respond, but he could sense her impatience. If he didn’t get there quickly she would go into Kate’s house with only Amara as backup.

“
I
mean it
,
Mina.
Stay out of Kate’s house.
”

“
Fine
,
Dragos.
I’ll wait for you.
”

“
Thank you
, dragostea mea
.
” He focused once more on his friends. “Let’s go, gentlemen.”

Parker rubbed his hands together gleefully. “Ah. Nothing like a little arse kicking to liven up an evening.”

“Parker.”

“What?”

Dragos bit back a groan. Why
did
Parker have to come with him again?

Chapter Fifteen

Mina desperately wanted to pace in front of Kate’s house, but she’d given her word and she’d abide by it. So there she sat, her ass parked on the cold, hard concrete of the curb two doors down from Kate, hoping like hell the witch came outside just so she could take her head off again for making her get a numb butt.

“They’ll be here any moment.” Amara, her red curls pulled back in a poof-ball of a ponytail, jiggled her leg impatiently. They’d both dressed in all black like some idiot ninja wannabes. She’d barely managed to talk Amara out of putting black crud under her eyes.

God
,
the men are going to tease the hell out of us over this.

“I’m worried about the lack of movement inside Kate’s house.” They’d each taken turns creeping toward Kate’s front windows. The lights were on, but nobody seemed to be home.

“You think she ran?”

Mina bit her lip.

“Shit.”

“The fight we had should have killed her.” Or whatever she’d been communicating with had...

Gods. That didn’t bear thinking on. Kate was a pain in the ass on a good day. If what Mina suspected was true, she could be ten times worse now.

“She might have figured out a way around it. If she ran to the Van Helsings we might never get our hands on her.”

That was exactly what Mina was hoping hadn’t happened. “And in revenge she might tell them how to get past the defenses.” Mina ran her hands through her hair. “I’m not sure, but I think she was in league with a demon.”

“What?” Amara’s jaw went slack. “No way.”

“Way. There was something odd about her, like there was someone
with
her... No,
part of her
, in my nightmares, watching.” She bit her lip. “I haven’t told Dragos yet. If she did make some sort of pact with a demon, we’ve got huge problems on our hands.” It had been centuries since a Queen had been forced to deal with a demon. Mina would have to research the older parts of the palace under the Throne. Some of the tomes hidden there might have a clue as to whether or not the demon had died with Kate, or if it had been freed by it.

Gods, she hoped it was dead.

Dead was good.

“Are you certain it was a demon and not someone with psychic powers, using theirs to bolster Kate’s?”

“Nope, not at all. The only thing I’m sure of is she wasn’t alone with me in my head.”

“Shit. So it could be any number of creatures that could join with someone like that. Even a ghost.” Amara’s hair began to flicker with leaves as bark crawled up her hands. “How do you permanently kill a possessed witch?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

Mina and Amara exchanged a worried look. They stood and headed for Kate’s house. “They’re late.”

“So they are.” Mina had a good idea what Amara was going to do. The hamadryad was far more suited to breaking and entering than Mina. Her abilities would protect her from quite a few things that would pulverize Mina.

“I swear, honey, I stumbled into the door and it just broke.” Amara shrugged and smiled sweetly, but her eyes were glowing with green light.

“And since I was leaning against it at the time, I just fell into the house. Honestly.”

As one, the two women stalked up to Kate’s door. Amara didn’t even pause, lifting her foot and kicking the door down. She hit it so hard she sent it flying down the hall and into Kate’s living room. It smacked right into a sofa table, knocking over a vase and sending it crashing to the floor. The vase shattered, shards of porcelain scattering so far they almost hit the doorway.

Amara shrugged. “Oops.” Mina started to step into the house but found herself staring at Amara’s back. “I go first. Duh.”

Mina rolled her eyes, but Amara was right. It was her job to protect Mina, and that meant stepping into the house—and the possible line of fire—before her.

Everything was eerily quiet. There was a stillness to Kate’s home that shouldn’t be there, as if something vital were missing. Mina shuddered as a chill settled into her bones. “She’s either gone or dead.”

“You feel it too?” Bark covered Amara’s hands as phantom leaves appeared around her head in a pale green halo.

“Yeah.” Mina walked slowly toward the living room. Whatever the wrongness was, it wasn’t centered there. Everything was pristine—the witch’s house just as cold and elegant as Kate had been. If the woman ever kicked off her high heels at the end of a long day she carried them into another room, because not even dust dared to mar the perfect picture.

“Mina, look at this.”

Mina walked over to Kate’s white marble fireplace and swore. Over it, in pride of place, was a large picture of Kate and Dragos, probably taken years before Mina had stepped into the town hall and met her destiny. Dragos had his arm around the witch, a fond smile gracing his face as he stared down at the top of her head. Kate, younger than she was now, gazed up at him lovingly.

It was obvious the two had been a couple and, no matter how badly Mina wanted to deny it, at least one of them had been in love. “Do you think my mating of Dragos is what drove her over the edge?”

Amara immediately shook her head. “Iva went missing about three weeks before Terri got here, remember? Besides, neither of you knew you were his
sotiei
until that day in the town hall, when he totally ignored Kate to drool over you.”

Mina relaxed. “I knew he was mine when I was nine years old.” She’d forgotten that for a moment, too caught up in the visible love Kate had once had for Dragos. If Mina lost him to someone else it would drive
her
insane, so maybe she should cut Kate some slack.

Nah.
If what she suspected was right,
nothing
would justify Kate’s betrayal.
Nothing
. Kate had double-crossed them all long before Dragos saw Mina. Her mating had nothing to do with it. “So why
did
she bring in Van Helsings?”

“Greed? Anger? Who knows. But most crimes have three key elements. Means, motive and opportunity.”

“You’ve been watching
Law and Order
reruns again, haven’t you?”

Amara shrugged. “Doesn’t make me less right.”

“We know what the motive was. Kate told me she wanted the Van Helsings to deal with her enemies, and I’m thinking pave the way to power for her.”

“But the means and opportunity? How did she contact them, and when?”

“I highly doubt she used magic to contact them.”

“Agreed.” Amara glanced around the room. “We need her computer.”

They strode out of the living room toward the back. The house itself was modest—a simple two bedroom—but the finishes were lavish, with granite countertops, a marble fireplace and exotic hardwood floors. “I think we should check her bedroom first.” The feeling of
wrongness
was coming most strongly from there. Mina needed to see what was in that room before she went any further.

Amara nodded and once again took the point, leading the way to Kate’s closed bedroom door. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Amara cracked open the door. “I don’t think Kate will be a problem anymore.”

“What?” Mina couldn’t see past Amara until the hamadryad nudged the door wider.

Kate sat on the bed, her hair carefully done up, her makeup flawless. Her silk charmeuse suit was unwrinkled. The heels she normally wore were tucked neatly under the damask-covered chair.

Her blue eyes were hooded, blank and unseeing. She breathed, but no one was home. “Oh fuck.” Mina closed her eyes. “Shit fuck hell.” Whether it was soul death or mind death, only Selena would be able to tell.

But Kate’s body lived.

The demon might still be able to get into Maggie’s Grove through her.

“You had no choice.” Mina found herself wrapped in Amara’s embrace. “Kate would have done this to you in a heartbeat.”

Mina jerked. Of course! “
That
was her plan.”

“Huh?”

“Keeping my body alive would have kept Dragos from going completely feral. My scent would be there to soothe his beast, my blood still would have pumped to feed him, but no one would have been home.”

“And since our good mayor isn’t into necrophilia, Kate’s attempts to get him back into her bed would have succeeded.”

“She’d have what she wanted. A willing Dragos, money and power. And if she did join with some kind of incorporeal being, it would have had power over the forest once it took over my mind. The exchange was willing, Amara. Kate allowed something to use her—meaning this...this was planned all along. They used what Terri did to me, to weaken me through fear.” Mina pulled away from Amara, her anger at Kate once more roused.

“Is Kate soul dead?” Amara’s voice was getting rumbly, her hamadryad nature responding to a threat that was no longer there.

“I don’t know. Only another witch would be able to tell.” Mina wasn’t certain she wanted to find out, either. If Kate’s soul was indeed dead, the witch would no longer be a part of the great wheel, would never be reborn. All that she was and could have been would be forever lost.

While part of her mourned that loss, another was grateful that she’d been the one to survive.

“Mina?” The concern in Dragos’s voice had her hurrying from the room. Mina barely got out of the doorway before she was swept into Dragos’s arms.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Amara receiving the same treatment from an anxious Parker. “Sweetness!”

“I’m fine, Parker,” Amara soothed her vampire.

Dragos hugged her tightly, his fear and relief pouring into her through their bond. She relaxed into his hold, hoping he’d feel she was all right. “We’re okay, Dragos, I swear.”

He growled low in his throat, the sound more dragon than vampire. “We saw the broken door and thought...” He squeezed her tighter.

“Can’t. Breathe.” She sucked in a deep breath as he barely loosened his hold. “Kate’s dead. Sort of.”

He relaxed further. “Good.”

“Not good. I don’t know if I killed her soul or not.”

“We could find out if you wish.” He sounded indifferent, his attention already returned to her. Kate was forgotten as he strode out of the bedroom with Mina in his arms and back into the living room, his shoes crunching the porcelain bits under his feet.

She shook her head. “Is it bad that I don’t feel too bad?”

“I heard the theory you and Amara came up with. No, I can’t find it in me to feel sorry for her. Whatever happened to Kate, she brought on herself.”

“Karma being a bitch.”

“Exactly.” He settled her on the couch. “Sit. Stay.”

She rolled her eyes. “Woof.” Dragos strode out of the living room toward the bedrooms, leaving her sitting on her rival’s sofa, staring at a loving portrait of Dragos and Kate together. “Blech.”

Mina grinned as Parker carried Amara into the room and set her right next to Mina. “Stay. There’s a good girl.” Amara stuck her tongue out at Parker, who leered at her. “I wouldn’t do that unless you plan on using it, sweetness.”

Amara glared and he chuckled, leaving the two women alone on the sofa.

Amara broke the silence first. “So. That picture.”

“Does it bug you as much as it bugs me?” Mina doubted it. She
really
loathed that picture. The last thing she wanted was to stare at the reminder that Dragos had been in a relationship when they’d met. It might be petty, but it was the truth, and Mina owned up to it.

Amara stood. “I never was good at obeying.” She ripped the picture from the wall and broke it in half. “Oops— What’s that?”

“A cliche.” Mina grinned as she stared at the wall safe. “My my, Kate. I wonder what you were hiding in there.”

“Shall we find out?” Amara’s fake British accent was atrocious. Parker would pee himself laughing if he heard her.

“Let’s.” She gestured for Amara to take the lead. “If you wouldn’t mind.”

“Not at all.” Amara grabbed hold of the dial and yanked, pulling the mechanism clear of the door. “Give me a sec.”

It took the hamadrayd more than “a sec” to get the thick metal door off the safe, but she managed it. When Mina peered inside the safe, all she saw were scattered documents and the occasional bit of jewelry. “We can go through this while the men check her computer.”

“If Kate was smart, she deleted files off her computer. She wouldn’t want to be caught red-handed.”

“You think she used snail mail?” Mina wouldn’t be surprised to find Kate had gone that route. For one thing, it would be much harder to trace her activities.

“Or phone calls—either one. It’s too easy to recover data from a computer these days, even things you delete.” Amara began pulling out papers a fistful at a time, handing them to Mina who put them on the coffee table in a haphazard pile.

When Amara was done she rubbed her hands together. “Let’s see what we’ve got.”

Mina picked up the first pile of papers and began to flip through it. “Hmm. We have... The deed to the house, house insurance, blah blah blah, car deed, blah... Oh, what do we have here?” She dropped the papers she’d already sifted through to the floor. “The return address is H. Carpenter.”

Amara blinked. “No one would be that stupid.”

“Apparently, someone would. Or they thought they wouldn’t get caught.”

“He might have thought it would be impossible for us to get through his defenses even if we discovered Kate’s involvement.”

“Or he thought the demon would keep Kate safe.”

Amara snorted. “Not even a Van Helsing would willingly work with a demon.”

“I never thought Kate would, either.”

They exchanged a worried look just as Dragos’s voice broke the silence. “Mina, I need you here.” Dragos’s voice rang out from the back of the house.

“What is it?” Mina and Amara ran toward Kate’s office, the witch’s correspondence still in their hands.

Three men stood around Kate’s computer. Hell, she’d been so busy dealing with Dragos and Kate she hadn’t even seen Ash enter the home, let alone head for the office.

Then again, Ash was a sneaky son of a bitch, and if he’d planned on questioning or killing Kate he wouldn’t have stopped for anything. From the grim smile on Ash’s face, they’d found something. “Tell me.”