by Riley Storm
Then it roared.
Haley jumped backward, forgetting that one of her arms was through the bar, and it brought her to an abrupt halt, pain lancing up to her shoulder briefly.
“That’s enough,” Kincaid growled, his voice filling the chamber. “Stop trying to scare her, you asshole.”
The bear went through the same sickening shift she’d seen Kincaid do at the warehouse. A moment later, Kvoss stood in front of them, completely naked. Haley didn’t even have to fight to keep her eyes averted. He wasn’t attractive at all, his figure didn’t beckon her eyes to roam over it. Not the way Kincaid’s did.
“She cowers in fear,” Kvoss rasped.
“No shit,” Kincaid rumbled. “You came through a secret door as a nearly two-ton black bear. What the hell did you expect?”
“I said fear,” Kvoss repeated. “Not surprise. Not shock. She is afraid because it is me. Not because of what she sees.”
The Assassin looked at her, and Haley shied away. He was right. She was terrified of him.
“What’s your point?” Kincaid was trying to protect her, but she knew he was weak. They had beaten him savagely, and it would be days before he was well again, no matter how strong he made his voice sound.
“She knows about us.”
Kincaid snorted. “You just gave it away yourself, you idiot. I’m sure plenty of the others will be intrigued to know that you just shifted in front of a human.”
“She already knew,” Kvoss repeated. Looking at him through the corner of her eyes, she saw a grin spread across his face, sending fresh tremors through her body. Then he walked away, the stone door grinding closed behind him.
The instant it shut, she tried to pull away from Kincaid, to retreat across her cell. She didn’t belong here. She should have been back at the office, behind a desk, doing exactly as she’d done for years on end. Shapeshifters and traitors, secret wars and all this clandestine stuff, this was not her.
“No,” Kincaid said firmly. “Haley, stay with me.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” She tugged on her arm again, but he wasn’t letting go.
“You’re panicking. You need to listen to me.”
“Look what happened the last time I listened to you!” she shouted, gesturing at the cell with her free hand. “I got a five-star stay in a private jail that shouldn’t exist, and now my life is in mortal danger from that psychopath.”
“Haley!”
She was losing her composure. Warm tears tracked down her face as she spilled them at last, the tension of the past few days breaking over the dam of her will. She shook.
Kincaid pulled gently on her arm and she could no longer resist. She shuffled back up to the bars until she was pressed right against them. Kincaid’s other arm, large and muscular, came through another opening and wrapped around her, pulling her into the best hug they could manage with four inches of steel bar between them.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said quietly, repeating it over and over again as his palm rubbed the center of her back. “I promise. It’s going to be okay.”
“This is your fault,” she said through the sobs. “All of these problems are your fault. You made me break the rules. That’s what it is. I’m not a rule breaker, Kincaid! I don’t do that. This is why. It always ends like this, I know it does!” Tears came again.
Kincaid’s hand slid up her back, down her shoulder and cupped her chin, lifting it until he was staring directly into his face through the opening in the bars.
Then he kissed her. It was awkward, trying to fit their faces through the cool metal, but the bars were built for shifters, and her head fit most of the way through. The instant his lips brushed hers, she forgot about the awkwardness of the moment, of sharing their first kiss through a jail cell divider. It didn’t matter, because in that moment, she suddenly knew everything was going to be okay, just like he’d said.
Kincaid started to pull back. Instinctively, she leaned forward, wanting to hold on to the moment a few seconds longer, but the hard, unyielding steel prevented her. Slowly, she opened her eyes, trying not to wallow in the disappointment that it was over just like that.
He was still right there, a paltry few inches from her own face, his eyes scanning her. “It’s going to be okay,” he told her. “And it’s okay to be scared. This is all new for you, it’s a big change to the world you thought you knew. But I want you to know, we’re going to make it.”
Haley did her best to clamp down her skepticism when she spoke, but even so, much of it slipped through. “How do you plan on doing that? We’re trapped in a jail cell and they just beat the shit out of you,” she stated bluntly.
“This?” Kincaid said, gesturing at his body. “Just an exotic massage. Nothing to worry about. I can heal up pretty quickly. You might be surprised.”
She nodded. “Okay. And getting us out of here?”
Kincaid seemed to wilt a little. “I’m working on that still.” He sighed. “It would have been so much easier if I could have just spoken to the Queen. If I could have told her.”
He nearly jumped when a voice spoke from the shadows outside the cells. “If you could have told her what?”
22
Haley squeaked in surprise as Kaelyn emerged, standing just on the other side of the cell, the dim light just barely illuminating her hard features.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed, unable to remain quiet.
The Queen glanced at Kincaid, and Haley saw something go unspoken between the two of them. A question, from Kaelyn to Kincaid, a question about her, about Haley. What, though? What was it? She tried to analyze the Queen’s expression but it was too obscure, Kaelyn’s face already returning to neutral as she awaited the answer.
“She knows enough, it’s fine,” Kincaid said at last.
“What’s fine?” Haley interjected, not content to let this be a two-way conversation where she was only informed of half of it.
“I know well enough what’s going on,” Kaelyn said. “Enough to know that Kincaid here is innocent of any wrongdoing.”
“Good! Well, why don’t you wave your wand, use your power and get us out of here?” Haley was still smarting from the way the Queen had treated her in the Throne Room earlier, letting her be dragged off and tossed into a jail cell like a common criminal.
“I can’t,” Kaelyn said softly. “I’ve been on your side all along, but I must act the part, my dear Haley. I must appear to be neutral. Things are far more complicated than you can understand, my position not nearly as unassailable as I, or you, would like to believe. There are those in my own House who move against me. Who plot in the shadows. Some do it for their own gain, seeking to supplant me or to put their puppet in my place. That is normal politics. I can handle those.”
She looked away, and Haley sensed a burning shame replacing the bitter anger she’d sensed until then.
“It’s the traitors you can’t handle,” she said softly.
“I would show you how well I can handle them,” Kaelyn growled. “If we could determine who they are.”
“Well, Kvoss certainly seems like a likely place to start. Or am I the only one who seems to think that?”
“No. Kvoss is loyal,” Kincaid said.
“Loyal?” Haley gasped. “Look at what he did to you? How can you call that loyal?”
“Because it is,” Kaelyn finished. “He is doing what he believes is right. To Kvoss, Kincaid here is the traitor. The evidence all points to it, even if Kvoss isn’t sure how the evidence ended up in his hands.”
“So, he’s covering for someone?” Haley said, looking back and forth, trying to understand how they could believe this.
“No. He said it was sent to him via an anonymous email. But as you already know, it does exist, even if Kincaid had nothing to do with it. No,” Kaelyn said. “Kvoss is loyal to the House, his only fault is being less than imaginative in some scenarios. Send him out to do his job, and he’s creative to a fault. This, unfortunately, is not his
job, and he doesn’t believe in complicated plots like this.”
“Right. So, you can’t side with us, you have no clue who is behind it, and you have two loyal men fighting with each other over it.” Haley thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “That about sums up your position, doesn’t it?”
Kaelyn, to her credit, looked somewhat chagrined. “Yes. Unfortunately, I must play along and act according to the politics of the situation, even if I would much rather strong-arm my way through it. I just recently forced my Title Holders to accept a newcomer and bulldozed my way into that, in a way. Now I must act with more tact. I am sorry, Haley.”
She sniffed. “There seems to be a lot of that going on lately.”
The Queen’s eyes flicked between her and Kincaid. “Maybe that’s a good thing. Perhaps now, the two of you can finally make a team and get this solved. Before the House devolves into more combat and division and more people are killed.”
Haley opened her mouth to ask what the hell Kaelyn meant by more people killed, but the window was gone. Judging by the look on her face, the Queen was back, and it was time to get down to business. Personal talk would have to wait.
She made a mental note to ask that question, along with asking just what that look between her and Kincaid had been all about.
“What do you know?” the Queen asked.
“Not much,” Kincaid answered for both of them. “We went to the location of the business that deposited the money into my account. Got jumped by a full-blood Canim, which was a bit of a surprise.”
The Queen smiled. “I would imagine. We shall put that company under further surveillance. If a full-blood is hanging around, that means it’s more important than we thought.”
“That was my thought as well,” Kincaid agreed. “Unfortunately, he got away after shifting in full view of Haley. I did not expect that. Otherwise, the place was a dead end.”
The Queen seemed disappointed. “That’s all you have?”
“Not quite. I had Haley pull Krawll’s records after she suggested that if someone wanted to get rid of me, why wouldn’t they just try to kill me. I hadn’t considered Krawll as being in league with Canis when he tried to kill me during the challenge, but it certainly made sense.”
“Go on,” the Queen urged, looking at Haley now.
Haley spoke up. “I found three transfers of a million dollars into Krawll’s accounts in the few days before.”
“That doesn’t seem unusual.”
She laughed. “That’s what Kincaid told me. The irregularity, though, was where it was from. A little family restaurant. We went and checked it out.”
Kincaid picked up the story. “There was nothing out of place about it, except there was no way in hell it makes enough money to have that much spare cash lying around. It’s a front for someone, but I don’t know who. We didn’t come across anything while there.”
“What restaurant?” the Queen asked. “Was it on the list of known Canis fronts?”
“No,” Haley said. “I checked for those in Krawll’s account first, then moved on to anything odd, which is how I found the payments. It was just called ‘Family Restaurant’, over on the corner of Story and Fox Trail.”
Haley was about to keep speaking when she saw the Queen frown. “What is it?” she asked instead.
“I think I know that restaurant. Baby Blue signage. On the corner, with a pharmacy on one side, and a little pizza joint on the other?”
Haley nodded slowly.
“Yes,” Kincaid said.
“I’ve been there,” Kaelyn said softly. “They make good food. I had no idea it was a front. I guess the old owners sold it then and they changed the name.”
Kincaid spoke up first. “The old owners?”
“It did look newly renovated,” Haley agreed. “Remember we thought that there was a lot of empty space on the sign, and it was definitely freshly painted inside.”
The Queen nodded in agreement. “Yes, it must have been. The old place was called Girard’s Family Restaurant.”
Beside her, Kincaid stiffened. Haley turned to look at him. “What is it?” she asked, stunned by the look on his face.
“I know that name.”
23
All at once, a whole lot of things started to make sense. There was still a lot that was missing, but Kincaid finally had something to go on.
“What do you mean?” Haley and Kaelyn asked at the same time. “You know the restaurant?”
“What? No, never heard of it until today,” he said, turning his attention to his Queen. “Not the restaurant at least. But don’t you see?”
Both she and Haley were staring at him, bewildered. Neither of them had made the connection. But he had.
“All this time, I couldn’t figure out why. Why did Canis want me gone so bad? I’ve been in Europe for a decade, my Queen. I like to think I’ve been doing a good job there, but I certainly haven’t been in open conflict with Canis. Truthfully, we had a bit of an unspoken accord over there to just avoid one another.”
“Yes, we know that,” Kaelyn replied.
“Well, I think I finally have a motive. I don’t know how it relates to Canis. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe someone is using them as well to get back to me. But I have it at last. I know why they’re after me. Whoever they are.”
“Well, tell us already!” Haley exclaimed. “Stop being all mysterious.”
He glanced at the Queen of High House Ursa. This wasn’t his decision right now. It was hers. “It has to do with my last mission in Europe.”
The Queen didn’t hesitate. “I suppose we may as well tell her about that side as well. I suspect she’s going to become more involved over the next little while.”
There was something in her voice, in the way she was hinting at the future. Kincaid couldn’t quite pick it up, but he was positive it was directed at him. The confusion must have shown because Kaelyn smiled briefly.
“What? Tell me about what side?” Haley asked, tugging on his shoulder through the bars.
“The magic side,” the Queen supplied when Kincaid couldn’t find his voice.
He was still trying to figure out just what the Queen had meant by Haley becoming more involved. How could she possibly know that? How much more could she get involved than she already was?
“Wait a honkin’ minute here,” Haley yelped. “Did you say magic? Like what, card tricks and stuff?”
Kincaid shook his head. “No. Like real magic. Mages and staffs and spells.”
“Rigghhht,” Haley said, scoffing at his explanation. “This is all some sort of practical joke, isn’t it? Magic, shifters. I’m on a tv show or something, right? Cause let me tell you, this has gone on too long, and I want out, okay? I’m done. It’s over.”
“It’s no joke, Haley,” the Queen said, also speaking quietly. “It’s quite serious, in fact.”
Haley was rubbing her temple with her free hand. Kincaid still had a firm grip on the other, and he gave it another squeeze now, trying to help her, to let her know he was there as support no matter what.
“Alright. So, magic. Shapeshifters. Little green men from Mars?”
Kincaid coughed to cover his surprise, and to prevent him from saying something he shouldn’t. “Ah, no. To my knowledge, little green men from Mars do not actually exist.” It was a roundabout way of answering the question, but he didn’t want to speak a lie.
“Well, that’s something,” she said, head bent over.
Risking a quick glance at his Queen, he caught the relief in her eyes as well, before they all returned to the subject at hand.
“What do mages have to do with this?” Haley asked, at last, looking up. “Because why wouldn’t this get any more complicated.”
“Well, for starters, you should know that magic users and shifters, they mostly do not get along. At all. There are very few crossovers as well. We tend to stick to our own.”
Kincaid wasn’t sure how best to phrase what he had to say next, and his pause gave Haley
a chance to speak up.
“Right. I’m starting to realize that you don’t like to admit the truth. How badly do you not get along?”
The Queen spoke up now, relieving Kincaid of his decision of how much to reveal. “We were at war for nearly fifteen hundred years.”
“Oh,” Haley said in a slightly strangled voice. “Okay. Is that all?”
“We won,” Kincaid said. “Sanctions were imposed on the magic users, and we now enforce those. If a mage gets too powerful or practices spells that are forbidden, they are...”
“You kill them,” Haley said dully. “That’s what you’re saying. You hunt them down.”
“Yes.”
“My last mission in Europe before I was recalled, Kvoss and I hunted down a mage. A particularly powerful one who had come to our attention, though we didn’t realize at the time just how strong he’d become.”
“Right. What the hell does that have to do with a little restaurant all the way back here?”
“The mages name was Samuel. Samuel Girard,” he said quietly.
Haley sat upright. “Girard? Like the restaurant?” She whistled. “That’s a hell of a coincidence.”
“I don’t believe it to be one at all,” he said.
“Nor I,” Kaelyn agreed. “This smacks of revenge, and now we know why. Though we are still lacking who.”
“Could it be the Canis still?” Haley asked as the room fell into silence.
“It could be. We need to figure out how it ties together. The idea of any of the Canim working with magic users is…”
“Unsettling,” the Queen finished. “You must go find out more. Unravel the mystery, the two of you. Together. Before it tears us apart even more.”
Kincaid looked at Haley, but she was staring at the Queen.
“It’s going to be difficult. We’re trapped in prison cells after all.”
The Queen shrugged, and as she did, something clattered to the ground and bounced into his cell.
A key.
Kincaid stared. Kaelyn was taking a major risk with this, one he wasn’t entirely sure she could afford. If it was discovered that she’d aided them in their escape, he doubted that even the most ruthless of her tactics could keep her in power. Her enemies would see her ousted for conspiring with known traitors.
