by Petra Landon
This very lack of blame on her part spurred him on to explain himself.
“Neither Sienna nor you should have been in the Registry archives. The wizards in that particular Registry were potentially suspect and I knew that. I apologize for placing you in the position of defending yourself.”
“No, please. You have nothing to apologize for” Tasia protested. “You have more than lived up to the bargain we made, Alpha.”
“Have I?” he said almost whimsically for him, puzzling Tasia immensely. “We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.”
Tasia opened her mouth to object again but he surprised her once more.
“Remember, Big Eyes, I might be a difficult guy to deal with but one thing I am is fair” he reminded her pointedly.
Tasia flushed vividly at this evidence of his awareness of her assessment of him for Sienna.
Dammit, he’d been listening in to my conversation with Sienna. Or the parts about him anyway!
Hawk had assured her that Shifters learnt to shove white noise, what they called random conversations and sounds they could hear around them constantly, into the background. A kind of filter, if you will, which helped them screen out most of the inane chatter that was of no interest to them. In the modern world where Shifters no longer had the luxury of living away from humans anymore, they’d go mad with the constant voices in their head unless they learnt to adapt.
“I thought that Shifters chose to filter out most of the chatter around them” she stuttered sheepishly. “That’s what Hawk said.”
“Not all” he replied blandly. “We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t choose to listen in on the interesting bits.”
The door opened to allow Sienna and Jason in, interrupting their conversation, much to Tasia’s relief. She shot a last glance at the Alpha only to catch him watching her with an air of puzzlement. Sienna shot her an inquiring look as she took a seat beside her. Before Tasia could respond, the door opened again as Duncan and Hawk strode in.
“Tasia has figured out why Bianchi wants Sienna” Raoul stated baldly without further delay. “The locket around Sienna’s neck is where Lady Bethesda stashed her power” he explained succinctly.
There was an instant of stunned silence before the room erupted with questions. Even Duncan seemed caught by surprise at the revelation.
“Sinotar’s Scepter” he murmured in amazement at the same time that Sienna stuttered in confusion. “My locket” she said clutching it in her palm. “But how?”
“I saw him dart glances at the locket when he was talking to you, Sienna” Tasia explained. “It was like he couldn’t look away from it. I just remembered it now in the room when we were talking. I kind of assumed that it was an artifact that drew him so irresistibly until you told me otherwise.”
“No” Sienna shook her head, rubbing the piece of colored glass in her hand gently. “It’s just something my Da gave me - of sentimental value to me, but absolutely worthless to anyone else.”
“Do you remember your Da giving this to you, Sienna?” it was Jason who asked the question.
“Yes, I mean, I’ve always known that he gave it to me before he left for Chicago” she answered, confusion and puzzlement writ large on her face.
“But do you recall him actually giving you the locket?”
“No, I don’t” she replied after a few moments of reflection. “How very strange! I’m sure that he gave it to me. I’ve always known that he did but I can’t actually recall the act.”
“Would you mind if I took a closer look at it?” Jason inquired, holding out his hand.
“Not at all” Sienna made to unclasp the thin chain that held the locket around her neck.
Jason exchanged a look with the Alpha.
“This is a piece of luck. Good job, Tasia!”
Sienna gave a sharp cry before beginning to topple slowly off her chair. The Shifters reacted with their lightning fast reflexes. Hawk, the closest to her, reached her first and helped Tasia hold her up.
“What happened?” Jason asked in concern as Sienna blinked up at him dazedly.
“I don’t know” she shook her head, her expression a mix of confusion and bewilderment. “I felt this sharp pain in my head. Then suddenly everything went black.”
She shook her head again, the cynosure of all eyes in the room.
“I’m fine now” she reiterated at the concern she observed. “Could you help me with the chain, Tasia?”
“Of course.”
As Tasia bent to the task, Sienna gave another cry of pain before slumping forward again.
“It’s the locket” Duncan realized it first. “It won’t allow her to take it off.”
“What kind of magic is this?” Hawk breathed, not having ever experienced anything quite like this before.
“Vampire” Duncan and Jason answered together, sharing a knowing glance.
Unbeknownst to the others, the news shocked Tasia the most for she was particularly sensitive to Blutsauger magic. The power from the locket was so strong that it had dwarfed the magic emanating from the chain that held it in place, she realized suddenly.
“So it was Bianchi who placed it around her neck for safekeeping” the Alpha remarked.
“And gave her a false memory of it being her Da’s gift. He also made sure to add a failsafe, just in case. She’d feel pain any time she tried to take the chain off” Jason agreed, his voice reverberating with an underlying fury. It drew Sienna’s attention to him. She had never seen this kind of cold fury in him.
“Typical Undead magic” he added bitterly. The Undead loved playing with the minds of lesser beings, usually humans. But Sienna was not without power! She might’ve chosen to live a life without exercising it but he knew how much magic flowed through her veins.
“But how? I mean, when did he have the opportunity?” Hawk asked.
“Had to have happened when she was much younger” Jason was confident. “Sienna has a lot of inherent power in her. There’s no way any vampire could work this kind of magic on an adult Magick with her power. She’d have detected it and overpowered him easily to prevent it.”
“I haven’t practiced my craft in a long time, Jason” Sienna pointed out gently.
“It doesn’t matter, Sienna. The magic that flows in your blood would never have allowed him to successfully implant either a false memory or a failsafe that triggers pain in you. Not without your knowledge.”
“I’ve only met Bianchi once before this evening” she reminded them. “When he accompanied my mother to our home.”
“How old were you when he visited your home?”
“Almost seven.”
“That sounds about right. Not old enough for your magic to have matured yet.”
“That visit took place after her raid at The Vault, correct?” the Alpha verified.
“Yes” Jason answered.
“The timing sounds about right then.”
“It all makes sense now. I’ve been wondering recently why my mother came to pay us a visit that last time” Sienna remarked, her voice very even. “I hoped that perhaps it was because she knew that she might not see us ever again.”
Tasia put her hand on Sienna’s arm to give it a gentle squeeze. Sienna smiled gratefully at her, missing the look that Jason shot her.
“Do you remember anything from that visit, Sienna? Anything that might shed a clue about this?” Duncan asked as Jason remained silent.
Sienna thought back to that night. There had been something. Something she’d realized on the plane ride here when recounting that night to her new friends.
“There was something strange that night” she acknowledged slowly. “I never noted it myself until I was recounting the story for you the other day on the flight over. I remember looking through the stairs down into the hallway to see Bianchi. He looks up at me and greets me. My next memory is of my Da walking out into the hallway to find Bianchi beside me. It’s what got him so furious. I have no memory of coming down the stairs or wh
y I was standing next to Bianchi. I mean, children forget some things and remember other details. But I thought it odd that I remember the entire incident so very vividly but somehow seem to have completely forgotten that one detail.”
“That would certainly provide him ample opportunity to place it around your neck.”
“So what do we do now?” Hawk asked.
“Nothing” Jason said firmly. “The magic is not very powerful but it is tricky to counteract. Let me try to figure out how to do it without causing Sienna any pain. Then we can attempt to separate the locket from her.”
“In the meantime, we must ensure that Bianchi doesn’t get any opportunities to take the locket off you. I’m afraid that means you’ll need to stay close, Sienna.”
Sienna nodded. She’d guessed as much. At least they knew now what Bianchi wanted with her – that was a relief.
“Why didn’t he take it off her when he had the chance?”
“He probably wanted to do it in the presence of my mother” Sienna replied expressionlessly.
“So” Duncan drawled out. “We’ve finally caught a big break. This calls for a celebration.”
“It certainly does” Raoul agreed. “Let’s organize something once we’re back in San Francisco. Hmm, Hawk?”
“Absolutely, Alph” Hawk responded enthusiastically. “I’ll get on it the moment we’re back home.”
His enthusiasm succeeded in bringing a wan smile to Sienna’s face.
“We take off in the afternoon tomorrow, as soon as LaRue is back from the Registry.”
Jason approached Sienna as the room emptied of people.
“Can I see you in my room for a few minutes, Sienna? I need to take a closer look at the locket.”
“Sure” Sienna followed him out of the room leaving behind the Alpha and Duncan.
“Whatever her game plan is, I think it’s a safe bet that Lady Bethesda can do nothing without retrieving her locket to regain her power” Duncan pointed out.
“I agree.”
“This will buy us some time to figure the rest of the puzzle out.”
“It certainly will” Raoul agreed. “And it’s the witchling who put it together for us.”
“She sensed the power from the locket, hmm?” Duncan remarked shrewdly.
Raoul nodded.
“You know what strikes me, Raoul. All the big breaks in this investigation have been because of Tasia. She helped us figure out the break-in at The Vault and now this. We certainly got lucky the day she met Hawk” Duncan remarked with an eye on his thoughtful protégé. “Oh, you’d have figured most of this stuff out eventually, Raoul. But you’ve got to admit that she saved us a lot of time.”
“The thought has struck me.”
“What’s niggling in the back of your mind then, my boy? Something is” he added confidently as Raoul shot him a dark look.
“She apologized to me today for breaking the terms of our deal. When the leeches came at her, she had no choice but to use her power.”
“Aah” Duncan murmured sagely.
“What does that mean?” Raoul demanded.
“That the Shifter who prides himself on his thick skin and phenomenal control is feeling a sense of guilt.”
Raoul sighed. “I messed up, Duncan. I was so focused on getting the hell out of Carter’s turf that I let Jason talk me into allowing both the wizards to help him search through the Registry archives while they held me captive in their gilded cage.”
“And does Tasia see it the same way?” Duncan inquired wisely.
“No.”
“Then let it go. For what it’s worth, neither Jason nor you need feel guilty for this. No harm was done and in the end, some good may even have come out of the misadventure. We have Lady Bethesda’s magic horcrux in our possession. It is quite a prize in this game we play.”
“Horcrux” Raoul laughed aloud in genuine amusement. “You surprise me all the time, old friend.”
“Not so old that I can’t enjoy Harry Potter, my boy” Duncan said equably.
“Changing our minds about wizards yet?” Duncan asked the Alpha once his amusement had subsided.
“Not really. For every Tasia Armstrong, there are ten Andersons.”
“What about our resident Guardian?”
“What about him?”
“You can trust him, Raoul. Use him to get information that the wizards will not share with you or even their First Wizard. He’s a Guardian and that carries a lot of influence in their world.”
Raoul looked taken aback. “Is this your gut talking?” he asked slowly.
“A little but mostly my own observations. That lad will never allow any harm to come to Sienna. As long as Sienna is opposed to what her mother stands for, LaRue is our man. He will help us in any way he can to get the answers she’s looking for.”
Raoul merely stared at his mentor in response, his expression skeptical. “LaRue has a personal reason to go after Lady Bethesda, so yeah, he’ll help us investigate the past. But we’re still Shifters …” he paused.
“He agreed to be our guest at the Lair at Sienna’s urging” Duncan pointed out. “Which Guardian do you know would agree to accept the hospitality of Shifters, especially that of an Alpha whose name is currently anathema amongst his fellow Guardians! He’s bound to catch hell from the other Guardians over this.”
Raoul studied his friend silently. He had wondered the same question - why had LaRue accepted his invitation to stay at the Lair.
“Mark my words, Raoul. The Guardian cares for the wizard he guards, a lot more than he’d care to admit.”
In response, Raoul stared mutely at his friend, for once lost for words, his astonishment written over his face.
“Love is a very powerful emotion, my boy! Never underestimate it.”
Chapter 19
A secret comes tumbling out
As conversation flowed easily around her, Tasia glanced surreptitiously at the Alpha. She was glad to be going home, she realized. When had she started thinking of her room at the Lair as home anyway! Strange the path her life had taken. These people, who had been strangers a few weeks ago, were now the people she worked with, lived amongst and trusted the most. She glanced around the spacious main cabin of the airplane. Jason LaRue chatted easily with Luis Beltran, other Shifters adding to their conversation every now and then. Duncan seemed immersed in a book although he conversed readily with anyone who engaged him. Hawk sat beside her, bantering with Sienna and her. Even the usually dismissive Elisabetta had decided to join them, holding back her barbs at Hawk with determined effort. Only the Alpha sat alone, supremely content to be isolated in this sea of good-natured bonhomie. The atmosphere on this flight home was markedly different from the one to Chicago. Then there had been little cliques of people who kept to themselves unless called upon to co-operate with the others. Now everyone mingled, more at ease with each other. A few days cloistered together, on their guard against a psychotic Alpha, had been successful in lowering walls. And last night’s confrontation with the vampires had done the rest. Nothing like a good crisis or shared danger to bring people together, she mused. The Shifters seemed finally open to treating Sienna and Jason as part of their team. Even the astonishing news of the two wizards setting up residence at the San Francisco Lair had elicited more surprise than disapproval.
Only the Alpha seemed above the fray. Pulling out his laptop right after take-off, he’d immersed himself in work, giving off a general air of impenetrability. His Shifters, used to his ways, seemed to take this in their stride. Shifters, Tasia knew, were not social animals by any means but their Alpha certainly took it to another level.
“Does your twin live at the Lair?” Sienna asked Hawk.
“No, we share an apartment together. Shifters rarely live at the Lair. At least our Lair” he corrected himself. “It’s more like a place for the Pack to congregate in. Our Lair is like a throwback to earlier times when a Pack would use their Lair like a fortress to barricade themselves in when
the need arose.”
“I see” Sienna murmured thoughtfully. “So it’s usually kind of quiet then?”
“It’s livelier during the day because of the offices on the lowest floor but it’s certainly quiet at night. Right, Tasia?”
Tasia nodded absently, distracted by the spectacle of Elisabetta approaching the Alpha. The beautiful Were-Alpha strode up confidently to take a seat across from him. At first, the Alpha ignored her to focus on his laptop. But eventually, he set the laptop aside to respond to her politely when she made a comment.
“Ambitious” Hawk whispered wickedly into her ear.
Sienna, who had caught the mischief in Hawk’s eyes but not his actual comment, turned around to look at what had snagged Tasia’s attention.
“Very ambitious” Hawk remarked again, this time in a voice audible to Sienna.
Tasia made haste to avert her gaze from the duo only to note, from the corner of her eyes, the narrow-eyed and suspicious glance that Elisabetta flashed at Hawk. Hawk made sure to keep his eyes on Sienna, pretending to not catch the look the female Shifter directed at him. Satisfied that Hawk’s comment had not been directed at her, Elisabetta ignored him to continue her conversation with the Alpha.
“You think?” mouthed Sienna, directing her query at Hawk, her blue eyes sparkling with curiosity. “Do tell” she encouraged.
“Very futile though, poor child” Hawk shook his head mournfully causing both ladies to break out into a fit of giggles.
Tasia directed an affectionate glance at her friend. Hawk was a gem, she mused silently. A subtle aura of impenetrable sadness seemed to cling to Sienna today. Tasia had observed Jason’s concerned glances directed at his charge, especially when Sienna fingered the locket around her neck absent-mindedly. Something she seemed to do rather often today. It had not escaped Tasia’s attention how Hawk had set out to divert Sienna, engaging her with a steady stream of casual conversation. And Sienna seemed lighter after that last burst of laughter Hawk had managed to elicit with his dig at Elisabetta. Tasia made a mental note to ask Hawk what he had against the female Shifter at the earliest opportunity.
