by Jamie Magee
Talon needed something like this now to take his town back. Something that would make all mortals see choir boys when his crew rolled down the road. If he could pull it off, Akan would be hard pressed to play the public against them at the present. In the long run, it would give their prey no reason to fear until it was too late.
It wasn’t the kind of spell that was quick to concoct. Temple had to brew the shit after he did whatever mojo he did to it. The idle time had not been a blessing to Talon, he paced back and forth as his mind kept cartwheeling him back into the battle with Ambrosia. The last fucking place he needed to be was in the past. His head needed to be gung ho on the future.
Akan was a threat, the worst kind, the kind that Talon had underestimated. It was already put on the table that he knew far too much about Voyagers, or at the very least, was in tight with Jade. No one needed that kind of power. Not when it could mean undoing where Talon was right then in his life. It may be a fucked transition period, but his was time. There was no way he was ready to unlive battles he’d won. All the hell was worth it if it meant being free of Ambrosia, and having Adair and Little Dove in his sights at all times.
There was other shit he still had to deal with, sure. But he had his balance well enough.
Mathis was arguing the dead had risen or some shit. It was possible, especially with Talley and Mia on this side of the dirt now. But it was also possible Akan had gone back in time and pulled some switch on the Sons. Then again, both things could be going on at once.
Akan had to die, the sooner the better. The safety of everyone Talon held dear was at stake.
Once they had the spelled hooch in hand, Talon sent Temple and Taurus to give it a test run a few miles down the road. He was just about ready to wrestle with his own misgivings about his new senses when the boys came back with guilty grins. “We’re good,” Temple had said. “Mortals will never see us a threat. You sure you want it that way?”
It was a tricky play considering how out of order the streets were. “It’s not how you appear, but what you do that matters. We know we’re a threat. That is good enough for now.”
“Rumors are fast,” Taurus said as a short warning. It would only take the Sons pushing one wannabe ‘made man’ back on the street to get the rumor mill turning. They’d have to watch out for the innocent looking ones.
“You’re right. So am I.” It was good for the thugs to fear the Sons, but not good for the everyday person to. In the end, they held the popular vote when it came to maintaining the masses.
The next stop was the Boneyard, of course, and then once the guys were properly mojo’d Talon had lists of shit that needed to be handled. The storm of the Sons was about to roar into town, ready or not.
Talon had picked up on Scorpio a good ten miles back, so he had plenty of time to play out how he wanted to work this. It was the misgivings of those outside watching Talon move back into his spot that decided his path. The streets were not the only places appearances matter. The Sons had taken a sacred oath to uphold the Clubs laws. They’d also taken a silent one to honor him.
Talon wasn’t ready to push their loyalty and could easily sense Scorpio wasn’t either.
Talon slowly dismounted his bike and riding gear all the while smirking at Scorpio as he stood before the others. “There he is,” Talon said as he approached. When Scorpio held his arms out, and the men hugged, slapping each other on the back, a noticeable calm fell over the Boneyard.
Talon gave a nod at Temple to get to work.
“What do you have there?” Scorpio asked as they both started to walk toward the first bay, just outside of the shop’s office.
“Hooch, you need a shot of it if you want to leave the lot.”
Scorpio eyed the musty mason jars Taurus and Temple were unloading from their riding bags.
“That bad out there?”
“Did you come through town?” Talon asked even though he was pretty damn sure he already knew how Scorpio had gotten there. “All eyes are on us, half of them are on the wrong side.”
“Any more arrests?”
“No, and they can’t seem to find the ones they do have.”
Scorpio’s knowing look landed on Talon. “The coven has a take on this.”
“Yeah, they said the game piece was off the board. Akan has to die to get my people back.” He nodded at Temple. “Thank God Temple showed up. We are short on witches ‘round here.”
“You leaning toward the craft lately?” Scorpio asked, keeping up the idle chatter in front of the other immortals that were starting to gather in the garage bays.
They would get the first round, what was left would go to the mortals Talon needed on the streets. Everyone else was shit outta luck until Temple got his vibe back. Apparently, witchy shit needs time to recharge for the spells to work right.
“I’m leaning toward the fact the men are stir crazy, and the streets are worse. We are losing our grip fighting all this paranormal shit.”
“We lose the paranormal, we lose the world,” Scorpio warned a bit darkly.
Talon eased his dark stare over him. “True enough, but the way I see it, the end of days has been here since I was born. Shit takes time, gotta make a livin’ till then.”
All eyes shifted to Scorpio, looking for a reason to doubt him and side with Reveca on the notion he was a threat. They didn’t want the reason, but would take if it meant having Talon back at the helm.
Scorpio’s grin grew slowly. “Better not be forgetting my take out there.”
“We’re getting everyone’s,” Talon said raising his shot glass full of hooch.
The bay doors were raised, and standing before Talon were fifty immortals. More were noticeably missing. Shade and Thrash helped shape this legion of men, just as much as Reveca had done over the years. Even before today, Dust’s strong silence was a source of balance they all needed. No matter where anyone stood with one another, they all felt the blows of loss as one.
“We’ve been struck,” Talon said as Temple made his rounds speaking over each warrior and the shot in their hands. Grumbles were heard from every direction.
“It’s true,” Talon went on. “We became complacent, old men.”
More roars of disapproval.
“We were blinded by mortal games,” Talon said as he walked back and forth before the mass of males meeting each of their rapt stares.
“In doing so, we have lost two battles at once.”
“It ain’t over,” someone shouted.
“It takes honor to accept a loss,” Talon pointed out sternly as he pointed at the men. “It takes self-control to stand up and fight back with reason and stealth and not anger or revenge.”
Talon was quiet as he took in their emotions. “You’re enraged on so many different levels right now. That is how we make mistakes. That is how we stay lying in our ashes instead of rising from them.”
It was hard to not smirk when he felt their emotions begin to shift just a bit.
“We must win the people, control the crime and overtake Akan. It all must happen at once if we want to bring our brothers home, and the witches we have sworn to protect as our own.”
“Ready, roll with it, what’s what,” and other random words came from the crowd.
“This,” Talon said raising his shot glass, “Will make you seem as innocent as rain to all mortals.” He cocked his head to the side. “A threat they never see comin’ if they are riding our books for their gain. It won’t do shit for the Rogues but take the people off the table as a weapon they can use against us.” Talon looked at his glass. “Two fortnights until it fades and your ugly mugs are front and center. If we need more, if our work is left undone, so be it. If not, you’re stuck with the man in the mirror.”
They laughed the way he wanted them to. Talon lifted his glass and took the first shot, the others were seconds behind him. The random burns against each other had just started to circulate when all their phones went off at once. “Dinner is ready.”
Talon and Scorpio shared a curious stare.
“No one, and I mean fucking no one,” Talon said to the crowd, “takes a swing unless you are ordered. I don’t care if they are here to cut off your dicks. Keep your mouth shut.”
As the bay doors started to lift again, some went out front while others vanished out back all going through the common drills of making sure what needed to be out of sight was.
Talon and Scorpio were on a different level focusing on the approaching cruisers and unmarked cars.
“They’re terrified,” Talon said.
Scorpio’s grin wasn’t for the lawmen about to piss their pants. It was because Talon was openly using his gifts.
“He shouldn’t be,” Talon said under his breath as he saw Mathis step out of an unmarked car. He had left things right with the lawman. Talon made no promises and Mathis gave no request, but it was understood.
The uniforms, ten in all, stood by their cars with their hands on their weapons.
With all the commotion, Talon was having a hard time focusing on what he wanted to. He was defensive. He felt trouble barreling down the highway, the kind of trouble that could make this bad, really bad.
“What is this?” he asked with a cool smile. Most of the guys were looking busy leaving. Only Talon and Scorpio stood unmoving before the lawmen. Steele, Thames, and Echo were close by leaning on their bikes. Knight was standing before Judge in the distance as a reminder no matter what the fight was, Judge’s priority was his girls above all.
“We have a warrant,” Mathis said sliding his stare to the pissant of a suit next him. “The assistant district attorney is tired of Reveca and her lawyer ignoring him. She’s needed for questioning.”
Talon grinned cunningly. “You have a warrant for her, you mean.”
“Where is she?” Mathis asked.
“Can’t say.”
“Is she shining someone else’s lollipop?” The short fuck eyeing Talon like he was a nuisance, not a violent killer. Yep. The potion was working.
The roar of bikes thundered into the lot distracting Talon from his ‘kill this fucker’ plots and plans. He’d heard the bike, yes. He’d sensed Saige, yes—so said his Mr. Chubby downstairs. But in no universe did Saige on a bike make sense. Talon had never even seen her sit astride a horse. Hell, he was still getting used to the idea of her in pants. Anything that revealed even so much as an outline of that female’s goods was breaking news.
Talon had questioned if Saige had let the world at large see that her form was not only back, but also just as alluring as ever. Rumors were one thing, seeing it with your own eyes was another. The noticeable shock followed by lust-filled sentiments cleared the mystery up. This was Saige’s reveal party. Only no one was sure who the fuck they were staring down.
Saige backed Reveca’s bike in next to Talon’s like she’d done so a million times before. Her long legs were not only bare, but dark as hell, sculpting every lean muscle. Legs that went on for days, right up until they met her short white cut off shorts. The stud lined belt she was wearing went down into a V framing her lush hips.
Her sharp curves lead up to her small, bare, tan waist. Talon swallowed as he clenched his fists looking for control. Saige’s cut off shirt lifted all the way to just below her perfect mounds when she reached to remove her helmet. Miles of long, thick blonde hair fell around her well-toned shoulders and arms, smaller strands licked her neck, and ducked into her cleavage.
It was wrong to envy locks of hair, but Talon did. There was no hiding the lust in his stare. When he saw Saige reach for something in her bag and whispered words move across her lips, he felt like a groom on his wedding night. Like it or not, he was getting something. There was the slimmest of chances she was cursing the law, but as soon as he clearly read the silent words and felt her anticipation slam into him, he knew he had never been more right.
Saige only had thirty or so feet before she got to Talon and the others but she made every step work for her. The open sensuality, powerful glances and slightest upturn of her lip was a total mind fuck for Talon. This was a fantasy of his, two in one. Life didn’t get this good. Not on this side of any kind of heaven. So why the hell did he not like it?
He struggled to find Saige’s stare, to ensure himself the girl he knew was in there, still everything that destroyed him so long ago. Her honor, pride, selflessness, her courage to do what had to be done even when she didn’t want to. He was searching the innocence and loyal nature that made up the soul of the girl he saw across the room lifetimes ago.
When he couldn’t take it anymore, he moved to take a step forward, but just as quickly Scorpio’s voice sounded like a bullhorn in his mind. Wait, wait it out.
The blatant reality that Scorpio was in his fucking head talking to him distracted Talon long enough for Talon to check himself. When his eyes landed on Saige again he didn’t see her morphing into her sister, he saw her emotions, the ones that were the same as they always had been. Except for the fact that Talon getting a double dose of her in one day hadn’t happened in hundreds of years. She made it a point to never be near him when he was in his prime. Weak and dying, yep, she’d show up and nurse him back around, and then demand he get back in Reveca’s bed.
Fucking shit was long overdue to end. Holding onto the rant and vow in his mind that it would end, he watched Saige work the crowd as she moved forward.
Saige eyed Mathis like he was an old friend, then greeted two of the officers by name, asking about their kids before she finally made it to Talon. The whispered words across her lips were gone, but Talon was positive she was still chanting that same spell in her head. He could hear the pulse of her soul, see the slightest blush across her sun-kissed chest, he could taste the anticipation spilling out of her essence. Yep, she was warding him away somethin’ fierce and he’d be damned if he didn’t soak up this opportunity.
“They’ve been lookin’ for you, babe,” he said playing along. “Forget to pay a ticket or some shit?”
“You are wanted for questioning,” the little fuck in the suit piped up.
“I have nothing left to say,” Saige said as she crossed her arms. Talon sauntered up to her and slid his arm around her waist then let it fall to the cleft of her ass. In his world, he wasn’t demeaning her, he was claiming her as his and daring any fucker to challenge him on the matter.
It wasn’t the shock of the lawmen that had Talon teeming with pride. It was the surge of hope that swarmed through his Boneyard. The kind of hope you have when you wake and realize the hell you were fighting was only a bad dream, and you’re safe and sound.
Scorpio’s emotions rang above all the others in disbelief.
“You heard my woman. Nothin’ to say.”
“We need to clear this up at the station,” Mathis said with a grunt. In a quieter tone, he said to Saige, “It won’t take long, I promise.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Talon said pulling Saige tighter against him, smiling smugly when she fit like a glove against him, with no sense of restraint or urge to run in sight.
Saige lifted her hand, then moved from Talon and paced before the lawmen like they were prey, the same way her sister was known for doing. “I’m not a pet to be beckoned at will. I’ve told you what I know, and what I saw. Clearly, trauma and time have taken a toll, there is nothing new to add.”
“But plenty to recount,” the short fuck said. “Is that your clever way of telling us that you did not see Blackwater perish in the same fire you barely escaped?”
“You know what I know.”
“We know what you want us to. This can go one of two ways Miss Beauregard, either you held Blackwater at gunpoint and forced him to confess to crimes he did not commit, and then failed to murder him properly. Or you purposely staged his murder. Like an accomplice would do.”
“Blackwater is rotting in hell,” Saige said. “Until I see him with my own eyes I will believe nothing less.”
“Put her in the car,” the short ass said.
Before one lawman made a move, Talon had pulled Saige to him again. Smoothly, she turned in his arms and reached her hand for his face slowly caressing it as she rose to the tips of her toes and pressed her lips to his in a slow promising brush of a kiss. Before she turned to face the others, she held up folded papers as she stared at Talon. The fire in her eyes, the ease she had with him then was nearly enough to force him to forget they were not alone.
Talon was long overdue to take this female the way she deserved to be taken. He had imagined ten ways and surfaces he could land her on until he realized Saige was speaking again.
“Your phones will surely ring at any moment. The mayor, senator, oh, and the governor are strongly concerned about the upheaval in this city. Even more concerned that you are harassing a victim of a closed case. This is a restraining order. All of you are breaking the law and trespassing. Though I’d love to sit through your bullshit court cases and watch your names smeared across the globe, I’d rather put it all behind me if it’s all the same to you.”
One by one, phones began to ring.
“This isn’t over,” the short one said.
“Nice doing business with you, Crawford,” Saige said coolly.
“Listen here you little bitch. I’ll be back for you with bells on.”
Talon lunged, but Saige caught him, and then pressed herself against the front of his body as her eyes locked with his. Lost in the moment, his arms fell around her, pulling her as closely as he could to him. Like the lover he wanted her to be, his lips brushed against her neck as his hands fell to her ass and his glare landed on the retreating lawmen.
Chapter Three
There are some things you are sure will always happen, at least in your lifetime. The sun will rise, the rain will fall, the fire will burn, and water will quench. A child will cry and men will die. Life is unyielding in its hold on a forevermore existence. These simple laws that would give anyone security, no matter how fucked up their world may be at any given moment.
