On the fourth floor, the teams entered—one team by elevator, the other by stairs. Sienna urged Carleigh, who’d teamed with her, to hang back while she crept into the quiet and empty corridor. The silence was too eerie, and she had to assume one of the minions in the parking lot had gotten off a mayday call.
She headed down the hall, deciding to try a novel approach. The ring leader would be hiding like the pussy he was, so his strongest man would likely be in the penthouse suite playing the role of lord and master. Scorpions could be tricky, but she didn’t mind a little game before she shed some blood.
Sienna felt Tas coming up behind her and turned. She pointed to the stairwell and Tas nodded. She stopped and waited as Tas went back to get Peta and Carleigh.
“I’ll take the penthouse,” Sienna murmured low. “Tas, cover my ass. You two, cover our asses.”
Peta and Carleigh nodded and trailed them as they closed in on the penthouse suite. Sienna knocked on the door.
“Come on out, Maxie,” she called. “Settle this like the man you are.” She smirked and Tas grinned.
Tas pointed and Sienna jerked away from the door just in time to miss taking a bullet to the chest. She and Tas shifted. The game was on. A hole was blown in the wall where she’d been standing moments ago and Tas crawled into the room just as gunfire came out of nowhere in the hall. Sienna waited for the shooter to blast the wall out, but he didn’t so she waited and Peta strode down the hall, shifting as she did so. She took the room where the second blast had come from and Sienna crawled into the room Tas had gone into to find the ladybug destroying the scorpion with cruel efficiency even though he was muscle bound.
She worked her way past the fight, the grunts and the sound of flesh and claws meeting. She entered the bathroom of the room next door and heard voices. Max and his right hand no doubt.
“It won’t take them long,” one of the men said. “So, we better get going.”
“I just hate to leave without the spear and the wand.”
“We’ll go into the city and come back when things die down,” the second speaker said. He was golden-skinned with spiky black hair. “She warned you that goddamned spider was dangerous.”
“I can’t wait,” Max murmured. “If she doesn’t let her guard down within the next three weeks, I’ll lose my half my family if I do.”
“I understand.” The dark-haired man’s voice was tight. “We have to go now, though, if we’re getting out.”
She heard the faint shuffle of noise and crawled beneath the door. Seconds later it opened and a loud grunt followed. Carleigh must be kicking ass out in the hall.
She shifted quickly and shot a web from the heel of her hand to slam the door and keep the man inside from opening it back. The black-haired man jerked around and surprise shone in his eyes for all of five seconds before it faded, and he stared at her contemptuously.
“I guess you think you’ve beaten me,” he said coldly, crossing his arms over his chest.
Sienna shrugged and caught the movement from the window out of the corner of her eye. She shifted as the gun went off.
“Where the fuck!”
“Get out, Max!” the man by the window yelled. “I’ll deal with her.”
Sienna crawled up the pants leg of the shifter standing near the window. Scorpions had so little loyalty, but the leader wouldn’t go charging his dumb ass out the door into the middle of a fight.
“Take this.” The black-haired man held out a gun and the red-head took it and raced from the room. She waited until the door had closed and the red-headed man turned to the window to climb off him and shift.
“Hello, Max.”
Max jerked around and stared at her coldly though he couldn’t hide the surprise in his eyes. “You’re a smart little bitch aren’t you?”
She shrugged. “I can count to ten. So, how much did you have to pay Lima and Draden to betray Maggie?” she asked.
“Draden is a pussy,” he said. “His cop cousin was a little better, but Lima, now that’s a real woman. I paid her a million up front. She handed over a picture of the spear. The curator claimed it was lost, but Lima happened upon a picture of a child wearing it. She told me the child was Checkwing’s child and that the child had been sickly with allergies and she’d had the chicken pox, but was mysteriously healed.”
“And you decided to come and get the spear to save your pathetic race,” she murmured. “How hero like.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a sneer of a smile. “And I’m not going back without it or the wand,” he told her. “If the child had the spear then I’m sure she still does and she likely knows where the companion piece, the wand of fire is.”
Sienna laughed. “Flawed logic.”
He shrugged. “Lima agrees with me. In fact, she told me last night, she knew where the spear was and she’d get it this morning.”
Damn it! Lima was probably at the house.
He laughed again. “Yeah, she’s going to kill your toy, and I hope she makes it hurt.”
Sienna laughed again. “Men.” She rolled her eyes and then took a step toward him.
He fired at her and Sienna stared him down. The bullet whizzed by and lodged in the wall next to the door. “That was only a warning. We’re waiting here for Lima, and I want you alive, but I will kill you if you force my hand.”
“Too bad,” she said, hands hanging loosely at her sides. She turned them so the heels were aimed at him and fired webs. The first missed but the second slammed into the hand with the gun, and she shifted as he struggled to pull his hand from against the wall.
“Damn it!” He snapped.
“I don’t give warnings.” She pounced on him, her spider arms moving quickly to slap him as he quickly jerked out of reach. She shifted into her microform, and he let out a growl. She shifted back into her human form and he gasped, finding her right in his face. Sienna slammed his head against the window behind him. “Bastard. Maggie didn’t have the stones.”
“Lying—” She silenced him by drawing her claw across his throat, cutting deep. Warm blood ran from the wound.
“Normally, I’d let you run, but knowing what I know—”
He pulled his hand from the wall and hit her in the mouth with the gun. Sienna stumbled back and fell over something on the floor and he aimed at her. She rolled out of the way and came up firing. The silk hit him like a stone and he grunted, stumbling.
She did a full shift, remaining in human-size spider form. Four black eyes peered at him. She moved quickly, arms pulling a leg from beneath him. He aimed still and one arm snaked around his wrist while another curled around his neck. She snapped his neck with a quick jerk before pulling the head completely from his body, spraying blood.
The door burst open behind her, and she jerked around. “Freaking messy as usual,” the sheriff muttered.
She shifted to her human form and gave him a cool stare. “You’re late.”
He blew out a harsh breath. “So where are the crystals?”
“Maggie never had them.” She shrugged. “She only let them think she did. She brought back some healing crystals for the spa.”
“What?” He gazed at the blood on the wall, brows snapped down. “All this shit over nothing?”
She shook her head. “I hope you have someone who can dispute that.”
“I still have Lima,” he said.
“You have her in custody?” she asked carefully. She hoped, but she wasn’t counting on it.
“No, she’s under guard at her home, and Draden is with her.”
“Well, you better stop them before they get away,” she muttered coolly and strode from the room.
* * * *
Sienna climbed up the side of the Victorian fifteen minutes later in her microspider form. She could feel the danger as she scurried along the shingles. She hadn’t been able to reach Kami before she left the hotel, so she assumed Lima was indeed inside the house and probably had been all morning.
She crawled down to a window, knowing she’
d have to break one to get in. She headed to the master bedroom where she found the screen had been eaten away to make room for a butterfly or two. The window hadn’t been left open.
She couldn’t do magic in spider form, so she shifted and sent a web up to the roof to hold onto while she used a spell to cut a hole in the window glass. Once it was done, she shifted back and used one spider arm to knock the small circle completely free of the pane. Casting a web over the broken glass, Sienna climbed onto it to avoid getting cut and then climbed down to the window ledge.
“Damn it!” The whisper was a harsh exclamation with rage dripping from each word.
Kallie’s cocoon was protecting her right now. Lima would have to shift to destroy it before she could get to Kallie.
Sienna crawled down the wall and spied Kami in a cocoon, but there was a dead male nearby. Rage moved through her like the chill of a winter wind.
Lima jerked around, sensing her, and Sienna shifted and rolled across the floor to avoid the spell Lima threw at her. She fired a web at her and Lima used magic to block it. With her other hand, Lima threw a spell at Sienna that sliced across the palm of her hand as she brought it up to block.
“I’m not leaving here without that goddamned spear,” Lima told her. “Even if Max is dead that doesn’t change anything. I was going to kill him anyway.”
“You found a buyer that would pay you more?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I got a look at a page of Maggie’s research a month before the trip to Peru, and I knew she still had that spear. It will make the person who wears it immortal, and I certainly wasn’t going to allow her to keep it.”
“So, you killed her for it.”
“Course I did,” she said with a shrug. “I had to. I tried to convince her to allow me to see it, but then I realized Kallie was probably still wearing it as a necklace.”
“What about the wand? Why didn’t you just take that?” Sienna asked.
She shrugged. “Maggie was so secretive while we were there. She found something in Brazil. We went there to talk to some old leather-faced geezer,” she muttered in distaste. “I wasn’t allowed in the house to hear what he said, but Maggie was shaken when she came out. Then, we went back to Peru, to the Cradle of Gold.”
“Choquequirao.”
“Umm-hmm, and Maggie found something there that she wouldn’t let me see. I knew it was the wand, but the stupid bitch refused to give it to me that night. I told her I’d be content to take the wand and leave her and Kallie and the spear alone.”
“She said no.”
She nodded smiling tightly. “So, I tried to get her to tell me where it was, but she laughed and fought back. I had no choice but to kill her. Now, I’m going to kill you and torture Kallie until she tells me where the spear and the wand are.”
“Where’s the necromancer who has Maggie’s body?”
“Dead. I killed his dumbass last night while we were fucking.” She shrugged. “I planned to do the same to the scorpion. He was a good lay and so arrogant that I was going to get a kick out of watching the life flow out of him right before he came.” She snorted. “You know the son of a bitch actually ordered me to kill one of his soldiers. The woman who attacked you.”
“Did you?”
“No. She left.” Her fingers moved on the trigger. “She was smarter than you.”
Sienna shifted to her microform and Lima growled and threw magic at her. The spell that would have paralyzed her narrowly missed one of her eight legs as she cast a web at Lima who shifted as well.
The butterfly came at her, claws scraping viciously across her leg and then her back. Sienna tried to web her, but the tiger butterfly was quick and avoided her web and landed on Sienna’s back.
Pain ricocheted through her from the claws digging into her back. Sienna shook her off and curled a leg around her. The butterfly bit her and the venom stung. Sienna screeched. The butterfly growled and pinned two of her long legs to the floor. Sienna struggled as the venom burned through her. It wouldn’t kill her but it would leave a nasty bruise.
Lima bit her shoulder and Sienna struggled even harder knowing that another bite would incapacitate her, leaving Kallie defenseless. She used two of her legs to capture one of Lima’s wings and pulled hard, causing the butterfly to growl. She lashed her with a leg and dislodged her.
Sienna watched, waiting for the butterfly’s next move. Lima flew at her and Sienna fired silk at her that sent her to the carpeted floor. Sienna leaped forward and landed on her. She bit down on a claw and tore it from the butterfly. Lima let out a high-pitched squeal of pain and Sienna sank her fangs into her before she could shift.
Lima squealed again and Sienna bit her again even as she curled two legs around Lima’s cocooning body. They snaked around her neck and snapped it. The cocoon ceased forming and the butterfly became a human woman whose blood seeped into the carpet where her head lay separated from body.
“Remind me never to piss you off,” Kami said weakly.
Sienna shifted and gave her an amused look. “This room will seriously need an exorcism.”
Kami laughed. “I’m sorry. I got him but I didn’t see her. She hit me with a paralyzing spell and then knocked me out.”
“It’s all good.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sienna took a quick shower before heading into the sitting room after checking on Kallie. She was still out, but her cocoon was starting to fade.
“How is it possible that she’s cocooned?” Jasmine asked.
She gave her mother a smile. Everyone else was gone, but her family remained. Her father was lounging on the sofa next to her mother, her older brother, Ben, had taken a chair, and MJ was holding up a wall while her younger brother, Patrick, had taken up residence next to the fireplace.
“Some of the crystals Maggie brought back,” Sienna said. “They facilitated the healing.” Not even her family could know yet.
Her father’s expression was curious, but her mother shook her head in disbelief. “That shouldn’t have helped.”
“A scorpion stung her!” MJ snapped, glaring at her accusingly. “What is going on? The truth?”
“The truth is Maggie never had what they killed her for,” she said with a shrug of regret. “The crystals she did bring back were for healing, but not the ones they wanted. Maggie left me a note that I just found last night. She wanted me to know the spear was forever unavailable to anyone. Has been for years.”
“She was selling artifacts?” Ben asked.
“No.” She shook her head.
Her father got to his feet and Sienna turned to see Kallie walk into the room. “We’ll discuss this in a few days,” he said. “You can take as much time as you need off.”
“Yeah, do that,” Patrick said with a grin.
“Forget it, twerp,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Thanks, Dad. Kallie and I will come over for dinner soon.”
“I guess she’ll have a ring on her finger,” Ben said with a nod to Kallie. “You look pale. I hope you feel better soon.”
“Thanks.” Kallie went to stand at Sienna’s side and Sienna drew her against her.
“Kallie is my mate,” she said coolly, her gaze going to her parents. “If you can’t accept her, then I won’t come around , and we’ll quit the coven.”
“You can’t quit the coven,” her mother said, distressed.
“I’ll do what I have to, Mother,” Sienna said. “I won’t have you and those old biddies making the woman I love feel bad because she is who she is. You don’t get to me. I know who I am, and I’m proud of it. I’m proud of Kallie, too.” She looked down into Kallie’s eyes and saw warmth and love. “I love you, sweetheart.”
“She’s jealous as freaking hell,” MJ muttered.
“And mine,” Sienna said with a smile for Kallie. “All mine, darlin’.”
“I’m out,” Ben muttered, making a face. “Just send me an invite to the shindig which I know there’s gonna be one cause butterflies roll that
way.”
“A big one,” Sienna said and Kallie nodded.
“Very big.” Kallie smiled.
“Well, congrats.” Ben crossed the room and gave them both a hug before leaving. Patrick and MJ followed suit, leaving her parents behind.
“Oh, hell.” Kemp muttered and shook his head. “I guess I have no choice but to man-up and be the good father-in-law.” He went to give Kallie a hug. “Kallie, you’re going to make beautiful grandbabies for us.”
Kallie beamed and tears filled her eyes. “I hope so.”
He grunted and kissed her forehead. “If this knucklehead gives you any trouble, let me know. I’ll whip her back in line.”
Kallie nodded, tears falling onto her cheeks. She hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”
“Well, I’m sure you two will explain things to us when you come over,” Jasmine said. “I’ll be civil, but I’ll need some time to adjust.”
“Of course, Mother.” Sienna kissed her cheek. “Love you both. Thanks for being here.”
“Where else would we have been with your mate unprotected?” Kemp asked. “Love you, too, Sienna. Kallie.” He cupped her cheek and gave her a little smile before leaving the room.
“I love you both, but right now I don’t like either one of you,” Jasmine said and followed her husband from the room.
“I’ll lock up.” Sienna did just that and headed back to the sitting room. Kallie was staring out into the backyard. She went to wrap her arms around her waist and kiss her neck.
“The spear corrected the mutation in me?”
“I think so,” Sienna agreed. “I hoped it would. I would have gone feral if you’d died.”
Kallie put her hands on Sienna’s. “I was scared, too,” she murmured. “I didn’t want to leave you.”
“I’m so in love with you,” Sienna said. “I hope you can learn to trust me completely.”
“Dizzy said no one was coming to rescue me,” she said, leaning her head against Sienna’s shoulder. “I was so disappointed that you weren’t coming, but I realized that as much as you love me, there might come a day when you wouldn’t be able to save me. And you did and I was dying anyway, but you were there. That was all that mattered. You were there.”
Training an Unruly Submissive Page 15
