“That’s where my doubts come from, the conflict I’m sure you’re scenting. I’d love to spend some time and get to know you, see where it goes.”
My whole body was zinging, and I was wondering if I’d be able to sleep at all without working out all that… delicious tension. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t take me long at all to find sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
That night I had the same nightmare, a replay of my past. Manhattan burning, at the end of a cross-country hunt from Seattle that I’d been on the wrong end of. Was it any wonder I hated Nephilim, so much? They were all sadistic smugly self-righteous bastards. Literal bastards.
Though, I suppose I was one too. A bastard that is.
I drew in a gasp as I woke. The sun was shining around the edges of the closed curtains, and the clock showed just five minutes until seven o’clock. I also froze, because there was a heater at my back. It only took me a minute to realize Vic was still sleeping, his steady breaths against my hair and neck. His arm was like steel around me in the spooning position, and there was something very hard and large pushing between my ass cheeks.
Heat and embarrassment flooded my body as I blushed. I managed to wiggle my way out from under his arm, before he woke up, and before I did something stupid like grind my ass back against him. I’d stopped my body from doing it, but it was a close thing.
I bit my lip as I stole a look at his sleeping face, and I called myself a fool. It was just chemistry, could I already care for him that much? I hardly knew him.
I grabbed my bag and headed into the bathroom. I picked out a pair of black jeans, my black boots, and a light pink blouse. It was the best I could do with what I had with me in my mound. I’d have to go shopping, or just move a few things back from the closet to my bag, for unseen emergencies like this.
My mound. I laughed when I got under the hot spray. I had a damned house in my bag, so I hadn’t had to share a bed with Vic last night. I couldn’t bring myself to regret it though, nothing had happened, and while a little frustrating we had cleared the air and intimated our hopes and intentions. No promises, but at least I knew neither of us was just looking for a tumble, we both wanted more.
Assuming I could take him at face value. I thought I could, given our high emotions last night, if all he wanted was in my pants, he would’ve hit on me. Of that I had no doubt, shifters were dogs after all, and hardly shy about nudity or casual sex. That he’d controlled himself spoke volumes toward his respect for me, and what he truly wanted.
Yes, he wanted to ravish me, which I liked the idea of, but he also wanted to know me, take care of me, protect me, while I had his back too.
I snorted again under the hot spray, it hadn’t even occurred to me to sleep in my mound. What did that say about me? The shower felt good, and despite it all including less than six hours of sleep, I felt well-rested. After the shower, I dried my hair, and got dressed. The permanent glamour enchantment on my necklace took care of the light makeup, I never touched the stuff.
I grinned when I went out, and Vic handed me a hot coffee as he went into the bathroom to take his shower. It was just about a perfect morning, coffee was life. Then I remembered we were wanted criminals on the run, and there was no doubt a kill on sight order on all of us. Well, life was full of little problems.
It wasn’t quite eight yet when we made it downstairs. There were seven of us, John was still in his room for the daytime. That must’ve been hard for him, knowing either his mate would have it all worked out while he slept, or he’d wake up to a world with her no longer in it. I pushed the negative thoughts out of my head, as Vic and I joined the others.
We’d barely said good morning, when Stan and his group joined us. I felt a little sick at the look that idiot Kevin gave me as he sat down, but I wasn’t going to let the creepy bobcat shifter ruin my good mood. I did send him a snub signal though, moving closer to Vic, but I doubt he picked it up, or would care. He seemed to enjoy the fact he disgusted me.
Business was ignored for the moment, as we all ordered breakfast.
Stan waited for the server to walk away, then said, “Are we all doing this? It might be more prudent for just us three to go? It would be less intimidating than eleven of us walking into the place. Even with their protective wards, they might feel threatened if we show up with that many.”
I didn’t like that idea at all, and I wondered if I was insane because of it. If the leaders failed, I could just hop a bus and disappear to another city.
Sally replied, “We might need their help to get in, or in the worst case, try to fight our way out. I have no wish to leave my interests behind. It’s worth risking my life to maintain my life here, but I won’t just throw it away either.”
Abby sighed, “Maybe to get in, but once we reach the council chambers, we won’t leave alive if they wish otherwise.”
Vic said, “I’m going, and I don’t imagine any shifter at this table would say otherwise.”
There was a murmur of agreement from the others, shifters could be very protective of their pack, and on the edges of society their groups were a kind of pack. Outside of the leaders, and myself, everyone at the table was shifter too, though a couple of them were half-breeds.
As for myself, I wanted to go. Part of that was to protect Vic and Abby, part of it was petty spite to see Serin’s plans go up in smoke and see him get at least some comeuppance. Part of it was probably foolish pride. I supposed there was also a part of me that wouldn’t mind seeing a council eat crow, given how us outsiders were treated.
Of course, If it all got rather desperate, I could escape whenever I wanted, as long as I had my bag. My mound had a second entrance and exit, the primary one actually which didn’t move and was anchored outside of Seattle. The bag was my portable doorway to my mound. It’d hurt to lose it, cut it loose and let the magic unravel, but it was replaceable.
“I’m going.”
Vic growled.
“I’m the best one to knock out shifter day guards safely and more importantly, quietly. We’ll just have to avoid the Nephilim, and there aren’t all that many of those. There’ll be witches too probably, but more shifters than anything else, with the vamps sleeping.”
Stan nodded, “Alright, we all go. I’d suggest taking the east entrance. Going in the main doors facing south, or the northern exit, both lead to the central security checkpoint. It’ll also be the most heavily guarded, and they’ll be a higher chance of random people arriving or leaving that could make it worse. Like those Nephilim Kyra mentioned.
“The difficulty in that, is to access the building’s east or west entrance, or the eastern stairwell when we get inside, we’ll need an access card. Only employees in the building can use those doors, and not walk through security which is mostly concerned about visitors. We can also be sure as soon as we breach that door that all hell will break loose when we cross the wards. It’ll be a race to get up the stairs, down the hallway, and into the council room before they can converge on us.”
The waiter came back with steaming plates of breakfast foods, and the conversation paused while we all dug in and I got a second cup of coffee in me.
Then we started to plan in earnest.
The council had the eighth floor in a federally owned hi-rise office building. The outside looked like white rough stone, with windows that were recessed almost a full foot. There was no other law enforcement in the building as far as we knew, it was all bureaucratic government departments.
The very beginning of our plan went quite smoothly, but only because there was very little to go wrong. Stan kept us hidden by glamour invisibility, and we simply walked up to the eastern entrance and waited off to the side. It was only about ten minutes later when a lone shifter walked toward the doors from the parking lot.
I waited for him to get his security badge out, then shot him in the back.
Vic raced forward, caught him, and pulled him off to the side. We grabbed the badge, swiped it, and went into the buildi
ng. That’s where the plan went more than a little wrong for the first time. The wards were not gentle, like Abby’s. It felt like walking through acid gelatin that was sentient and in a bad mood, and it attacked my protections.
My glamour enchantment which hid my third nature made it, but only because it was tied to my mound and was powered by souls. The rest of my protections as a weak earth witch were stripped, my whole body felt raw and violated, and I felt shaky.
In hindsight, the wards on the east and west entrance must have been a lot more powerful, than the ones on the south and north where strangers and visitors were expected to enter. Perhaps the team of shifters there would’ve been a better opponent. We just hadn’t foreseen this possibility.
Sure, my magic was weak, much weaker than the three leaders who were two powerful witches and a strong fae. But at least I’d had them, and it’d been enough to get by the nasty wards, if barely.
Shifters didn’t have magic at all outside of shifting, at least not protective magic. So, Kevin and Vic were laid out on the floor since the wards had knocked them out. The other shifters, three under Sally and the other two under Stan stopped and stood growling in frustration outside.
So much for our plans, but Stan was quick on his feet.
Stan said, “Run, meet at the hotel later. We don’t have time to magic you past, we need to move before they do and pin us down.”
He ran for the inner doors, while Vic and Kevin were dragged back out by their feet and tossed over shoulders. The shifters made tracks, and then we were four, just me and the three leaders. The entrance to the stairwell wasn’t more than fifteen feet from the doors, and we made it inside while the security shifters ran down the long hallway toward us.
The door itself was thick, heavy, a fire door which was reinforced by steel. As soon as it closed, a quick spell by me fouled the lock, which should slow down our pursuers. Then I took the stairs three at a time in an effort to catch up with Abby, Sally, and Stan.
I couldn’t help the petty smirk that settled on my face, at the frustrated banging below. My heart was beating fast, my respiration steady but heavy as we raced up the stairs toward the eighth floor. The plan of course called for the shifters to shield us, while I knocked out the attacking shifters. Without something to slow them down, we could be easily overwhelmed if there were enough of them.
I was on their heels by the third floor.
Stan said, “I can’t cloak us again as expected, the wards are interfering.”
Yeah, the council members were entitled and power hungry, looked down on us, but unfortunately, they weren’t stupid or negligent. Power tended to make people paranoid of losing it, after all. They wouldn’t want anyone sneaking around, so I suspected all stealthy spells wouldn’t work at all in here.
Stan smirked back at us without stopping, “But I can do this.”
He wavered for a moment, like he wasn’t a solid being, but then a grinning Serin stared back at us including an illusory sword on his hip. The three of us didn’t look much different, but we did appear to be wearing security uniforms.
The door opened above us on the eighth floor, when we’d reached the sixth. Stan didn’t even hesitate as we kept running.
The six shifters racing down the stairs stopped, obviously startled at our appearance.
Stan barked before they could talk, “They must’ve got off at another floor. Stay here, we can’t risk the council’s safety, kill on sight. I need to make sure the other stairwells are secure as well.”
We ran right past them, it was a little surreal, they should’ve either recognized the rest of us, or not recognized us as people they worked with. Surely, they knew all the guards. I suspected he’d used an advanced version of glamour that was far past my power and ability to wield, not just an illusion but an alteration of perception based on the guards’ minds and memories. It would make the guards see what they expected to see, perhaps they saw the guards’ faces which we’d left locked out of the stairwell on the first floor?
It also wasn’t like I could ask, so I’d live with the mystery, but I was almost positive that’s what Stan had done.
I made do with what I had, and using my mind and intelligence, cleverness, and potions in tranquilizer guns made me a match for any shifter or vampire. As long as I had my bag, and my weapons at hand. It even gave me a slight chance against a witch. Sure, I couldn’t face a Nephilim with my witch or fae side, but neither could full-blooded fae and witches. At least, not one on one, or even four on one in most cases.
Point was, every once in a while, I felt a little envy at the depth and richness of power of full bloods. Frustration too, because of my third race, which was a match for just about anything, but I couldn’t use those powers. I’d be signing my own death warrant, and I’d be forever running and looking over my shoulder. Save imminent death, it wasn’t worth the risk.
My fingers itched to grab my tranquilizer knockout pistol until we were past them, then I let out the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. That hadn’t been part of the plan at all, and I was glad of Stan’s mental nimbleness to adjust. Our original plan called for our shifters to block, while I shot them all. Which really, was a better plan, because we were leaving conscious enemies behind us.
We left the stairwell at the eight floor, which was buzzing with activity. We took the hallway down, and we walked right past several more shifters until we reached the main hallway intersection in the middle of the building. The council chambers were straight north.
That’s when Stan made a mistake, I think.
Stan as Serin said in that arrogant commanding voice, “We lost them somewhere on the floors below us, make sure all the stairs and elevators are covered, not just the eastern one, I’m going to report our status.”
The mistake of course, was Serin was an arrogant ass to us third class citizens of the supernatural world in the warehouse fight club, and was probably arrogant to his underlings in his hunter teams, but would he really be an arrogant ass to the two witches radiating great power right outside the council chambers?
By their reactions, I guessed not, they probably held great rank in the council hierarchy. They looked at him like he’d lost his mind, then they noticed us, and their faces grew alarmed. Which of course, told me I was right about him using advanced glamour. It wouldn’t work on the witches, their minds were safely behind their protection spells, which meant their perception of us was true.
To Stan’s credit, he didn’t hesitate, once again fast on his feet. He lunged forward and dumped both witches on their asses. They were totally fine, protected, but it would jar them enough they wouldn’t be able to start casting for a second or two.
I hadn’t been caught napping either, and I had pulled out my pistol and shot the two closest shifters who were also the ones still in our way, before the witches could give orders to attack us. I spun and ran backwards down the hall toward the council chamber’s doors, all while desperately shooting the shifters that were racing for us from the hallway, all the ones we’d passed right by.
Three of them went down with the five shots I had, and I had to hip toss the fourth one against the wall before I managed to reload. Shifters were tough, and good fighters, but they always seemed to underestimate me for some reason and go for a straight tackle. I shot two more before we reached the end of the hallway.
I screamed when we hit the door. If the outer wards on the eastern door were bad, then the inner wards were torturous. Of course, it didn’t help that I hadn’t had time to recast even my light protections. I only just managed to drop my pistol in the bag while in so much pain. It was more like my hand muscles twitched violently as I let it fall in.
I fell backwards writhing in pain, and the world went dark.
Still alive, was my first thought on regaining consciousness. My head felt like a hangover after a week-long bender, not that I’d ever done that, but I could imagine. I felt some small amount of alarm, as I realized I couldn’t feel the shoulder strap of
my bag on my shoulder. I felt completely naked in that moment, and my heart started to accelerate.
I always had my bag with me.
A moment of worse panic hit me, until I felt the glamour enchantment still active, they hadn’t taken my necklace. Of course they hadn’t, I’d have never woken up if they had taken it off, and seen what I truly was.
My eyes opened. The room we were in was rather small, with rude benches and a cement floor. The walls were metal, with silver, iron, and crystals threaded through it. To stop shifters or vampires, fae, or witches from escaping, respectively. We were in a detention room. I imagined the reinforced metal itself would prevent a Nephilim from breaking out too.
I groaned, I really missed my bag, I could use a healing potion.
“What happened?”
Abby asked, “Are you okay?”
I nodded, “I think so, I could use a hangover remedy, but still alive. Those wards were nasty.”
Abby replied, “They rendered us vulnerable, as we expected, but we managed not to pass out. We surrendered, and we told them what’s been going on the last few months. That Serin had plotted the cold-blooded murder of every outsider in Chicago to hide the truth of his corruption and misdeeds, and then we answered a whole lot of questions. We also gave them the limited evidence we brought with us, the ledger listing the bribes. The Nephilim with a council seat, Grant, didn’t believe a word of it, or perhaps he simply didn’t care and thought they should be above the rules, but the rest of the council had varied reactions.”
“So, we’re still alive.”
Sally laughed, “Your grasp of the situation is profound.”
I blushed, it was a bit obvious of a statement, but my head was pounding like a broken drum, that the drummer was still beating. A pulsating, throbbing, and stabbing pain.
Abby said, “They put us here for their deliberations once they’d gotten all the information they needed or wanted. Probably didn’t want us to see and hear them argue. Regardless, it’s been about thirty minutes since you passed out, who knows how long they’ll take to decide what to do with us, and what if anything to do with Serin.”
Hexes and Hellfire: Kyra Bell: Book One Page 11
