by Jamie Magee
“No, I can’t,” he said, moving closer.
“Talon, this is my space,” she said, moving back. She was trying to break the energy connection they had, the feel of him. How at one time he was her only source of balance and strength.
When he came close her energy remembered, dared to reach for his familiar comfort. One she didn’t want to feel, not yet anyway, not until she figured out his elusive motives for ripping her apart. If she declared he had a good reason, then she could find a way to trust him again, be his friend.
“Talley is back,” Talon rasped.
Reveca squinted sure she didn’t hear him right. “What is that? Some kind of fucked joke?” Reveca asked, feeling nauseous.
Talley was the only non-Rouge immortal she’d had to take down and till this day it still didn’t sit right with her.
“No, he attacked Adair last night. If Judge and Thames weren’t there he could have killed her. Knight is working through the files the lawmen have, the surveillance, getting a list of witnesses we need to help remember differently.”
Reveca held her breath for an instant. Adair was exactly who she felt knocking on her mystical door moments before. “How can he be back, Talon?” Reveca asked, losing all the anger and strife in her voice and sounding like her old self once more. The sound of it nearly ripped Talon in two, made him miss their friendship all the more, how they could come to each other with anything.
“I don’t know, babe,” he said in a low tone, remembering how destroyed Reveca was years ago. “Judge said he was the same as when we laid him down…clearly possessed by something.”
Talon let her digest the news for a second then spoke again. “Judge had a vision, that’s why he was there, why he stopped it. He chased Talley, fought him. Before he could handle him—” he paused. “Miah showed up.”
“Do what?”
“You heard me. The boys are in Church trying to link this up, figure it out, but we need you. This is clearly right up your alley.”
“What does that mean?” Reveca asked, falling right back into her cold stance. Enraged that Talon apparently had aversions to witches all of the sudden.
Talon jerked his head away, furious that he couldn’t say anything to her without her twisting it. “Judge wants Adair’s memory wiped again to put this under the rug as fast as possible. He thinks we are ‘bout to go to war and wants her safe and oblivious.”
“Fuck him,” Reveca said, charging forward. Talon caught her by the arm, but she jerked it away. “No.” Reveca said in a glacial tone. “I needed you to have my back that night and you were diplomatic. And because you were that girl has lived two notches above poverty since then, her craft stalled.”
“She lived in poverty because she’s stubborn.”
“All the best people are,” Reveca retorted. Her glare inched over him. “Are you ever going to tell me why?”
“Why what?” Talon spat.
“Why she was your burden to bear, why you abandoned her when she needed you the most?”
Talon winced, feeling the raw burn of those words. “You don’t want to know, remember? It’s on your ‘do later’ list.”
Reveca swallowed noticeably, refusing to see the obvious.
Talon pushed the conversation onward. “I backed you when you wanted to halt on a well laid plan to lay Miah down—for all we know we were fooled then. Zale could have faked Miah’s death—we both know he cursed Talley. We didn’t deal with this shit the first go ‘round the right way, now we got drama we don’t need.”
Reveca’s mind was riveted. Zale had always been a brilliant fuck, long sighted to say the least, but even this twisted turn of events was more than she’d be willing to outright give him credit for.
“Where is Adair?” Reveca asked, knowing that until Talley was stripped of the curse on his soul Adair would be at risk.
Talon narrowed his eyes on her. “She’s missing.”
Doubt that, Reveca thought to herself, knowing Adair was aiming herself right at the Boneyard. “What do you mean missing?”
“That’s what Mathis said. He’s out front.”
“Why?”
“He wants to question Judge. He was seen around the area. Judge is too tuned up right now to talk to any lawman. I need you to stall Mathis until we can get this in line. I’m ‘bout to send men out to find her.”
“Don’t bother. She’s on her way here.” Ignoring her, his shocked slash relieved expression she went on. “You mean figure out why we have two dead men risen?” Reveca asked, her tone dripping in sarcasm. This was not something that could be handled, or figured out in one meeting of Church.
“Talley shot the girl with Adair. We have murder, two dead men. No one knows where Talley is right now. Miah took him.”
“He took Talley?”
“That’s what the boys said. They vanished slowly in a grey mass.”
Reveca lifted her brow.
“That make sense to you?” Talon asked, reading her as perfectly as he always had.
“Balance,” she said under her breath.
“You want to elaborate, tell me who to kill, how to kill them, who I need to protect?”
“So black and white,” she muttered as she shook her head. That’s how Talon saw everything, even after his transition and his long life. “Balance. If evil is raised vengeance will be, too.”
Talon’s stare told her he wasn’t following. “They’re going to kill each other? That doesn’t make sense. They both died on the wrong side of good.”
“That didn’t stop you from wanting to kill Miah the moment he fucked up.”
Talon nearly turned red with rage as he pulled his shoulders back. “Simple rules, Reveca. We don’t harm the innocent. Rules you put in place that Miah broke. Not to mention the fact that if it wasn’t for Miah throwing his mortal life down to save Zale, I would have long ago ended Zale—ended him before he fucked with Talley and Adair.”
“And if you had listened to me we could have fixed Talley back then and Adair would still be here. Instead, Judge has a little less humanity in him, the dead are walking the streets of NOLA, and Adair is not skilled enough to defend herself.” She lifted her chin. “Outta my way, I got shit to handle.”
When she stepped outside she found Bastion with his arms crossed, looking up at his childhood home.
“You’re welcome,” Reveca said.
Bastion arched a brow at her. “You think you’re laying a curfew on me now, moms?”
“You keep giving me that lip and I will.”
“She’s going to be pissed, she likes seclusion,” Bastion said with a smirk. The house was now in the middle of the field just back from Reveca’s home facing the lot, front row seats to all the action.
“Yeah, well, she can take that up with me,” Reveca said as she moved past him. Everyone made it a point to talk to Bastion as if his mother was on vacation when in all honesty it didn’t seem like the woman was going to make her way out of the pages anytime soon. The drug Black had slowed down, but production had not stopped.
Reveca kept an even stroll as she made her way to the lot. She didn’t get very far. Mathis Tubbs was on her path just before the manor.
“Was that here before?” he asked, looking up at Evanthe’s home.
Reveca smiled sweetly and ignored his question. “I thought I told you that I’d had enough of you lawmen. I could’ve sworn you told me it was all over, to take a vacation.”
Mathis shook his head and smiled boyishly. Reveca still blew his mind. He didn’t get her, this mysticism that surrounded her, the knowing glint in her stare that was just waiting for him to figure something out.
“Apparently bad guys don’t take those things they call vacations.”
“I’m getting flashbacks to Blackwater showing up over here trying to accuse my Club of every crime he could.”
Looking somewhat confused, Mathis glanced back toward the lot. “I just wanted to check in on Adair Vallet.”
He started to turn to m
ake his way to the lot, but Reveca gripped his arm to stop him. One look in his eyes told her he’d been spelled. Someone was toying with his thoughts, altering the legit impression he had made on his own. The imprint was light, something Mathis would overcome easily if one idea told him something was amiss.
Judge was standing in the front lot, the others were close to him. Thames and Knight were right at his side whispering to him, trying to tell him to chill. But Judge’s stare was locked on the brownstone home as if it were a spaceship.
“Talon mentioned you were looking for her,” Reveca said carefully.
“Uh, yeah. I am. She was discharged, and her boss said she came here…” Mathis squinted his dark eyes, searching for a thought, fighting the spell, “…to be with her boyfriend. Apparently he found her last night, called for help and all—the officer said he gave a statement that he didn’t see anything.”
Reveca nearly smiled. She was impressed at how well the spell on him was holding, and now she was doubting Adair Vallet’s skill level had been halted as tragically as Reveca had assumed. Boyfriend. Reveca was also questioning if Adair’s memory blocks were down, why she would put that idea in Mathis’s mind if she was still blind to her past. “Business partner,” Reveca corrected. She hated Jade Carrey. “Terrifying night, or so I was told.”
Seriousness came over Mathis. “I’m worried Adair is in danger. It’s obvious she’s caught between two warring gangs. Her client surely paid the price already.”
Reveca glared playful up at him.
“I don’t think your MC is guilty of anything. They simply got there too late last night. If Adair is not here though, that means she’s out there in danger. No matter what side of this tiff she’s on I don’t want her to get hurt. I understand she’s a respected citizen.”
Reveca glanced back to Talon, who was on the porch, not sure what part of this story she was missing, why Mathis assumed this had to do with some tiff the Pentacle Sons had with another gang.
When she looked back to Mathis she said, “I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about. Tiff?”
Mathis’s gaze slowly moved over Reveca seeing truth. “Adair is affiliated with one of your boys.”
“Judge,” Reveca said with a sly smile, feeling the daggers of stares landing on her from the lot. They were all trying to figure out her play, why she was twisting Adair further into this instead of covering the mess up, denying what Mathis assumed.
Mathis nodded once. “And we have reason to believe the Devil’s Den had a part in last night’s events.”
“Where did you get that reason from?” Reveca asked, hoping Mathis didn’t sense everyone in the lot tensing at once.
“A vehicle that belongs to them was seen in the area, circumstantial now, but I’ve been doing this for a long time, Reveca,” Mathis said, squinting his eyes closed briefly, clearly trying to align his thoughts.
Right then everyone’s attention turned to the driveway. A scooter that sounded like it was on its last breath was pulling in, with none other than Adair Vallet driving it, looking just as determined as Reveca remembered her to be.
***
Adair’s heart was racing. She felt like she was breaking every law, committing every sin by being at the Boneyard. The stares of the bikers in the front lot made her feel stripped, wide open, and she hated it.
Before she got off her ride Mystic ran to her. The other men started to gather around close, the dark blond one that might as well be a walking God was in the lead, looking twice as pissed and confused as the others.
“Um,” she said, glancing to the distance, to the source of power she felt in the air, seeing Reveca talking to a detective who was glancing her way.
For a second, Adair lost her focus. She knew that house. She’d dreamed of it, almost nightly. She shook off the thought when she saw the officer moving toward her.
There was only one way to back up the spell she had placed on Mathis—act like an Ol ‘lady.
Seductively, Adair dismounted her bike and walked toward the biker she had seen at a distance for years, the one that drove her mad with want and confusion.
Her heart thundered as she spoke. “You want the law to go away—follow my lead.”
Adair rose to her tiptoes and reached her lips for his.
Judge hesitated at first but once he felt the flesh of her lips against his, it was like no time had passed.
Once she kissed him, she owned him.
His arms went around her, and he pulled her against his body and devoured her lips with a visceral claim.
Whistles were heard all around them; one would have thought they had just said ‘I do.’
Judge’s head was spinning. He didn’t get was why she was there, or what she remembered.
He knew he was fucked, though, because he had no idea how he was going to stick to his claim she needed to be oblivious again, at least until the backlash was cleared up.
Adair pulled away, gasping for breath, feeling an indescribable rush. Way too much déjà vu was slamming into her.
Before she could say anything, before Judge could, Adair heard her name quietly spoken from behind the wall of bikers. Her heart leaped at the sound of it. She pushed through the men and found her way to Gwinn.
“Oh my God! I knew it!” Adair said, nearly picking up Gwinn. “I was so worried about you!”
Gwinn was squeezing the life out of Adair, crying. They were happy tears. She remembered her, and doing so did nothing but empower Gwinn. She didn’t feel seventeen and lost anymore. It wasn’t all clear but it was getting there. For the first time her mind had opened a memory that wasn’t full of a horror she never wanted to live again.
Reveca halted Mathis as he went to speak to Adair. Like the others she was completely dumbfounded by what she had seen—Gwinn knowing someone from the Sons’ past.
Right then Reveca knew she wasn’t letting Adair Vallet out of her sight ever again.
She also knew if her suspicions were right, she needed all the natural talent she could muster to fight this hell that was on the horizon.
Episode Two
Chapter One
Inside Church all the Sons in the life were seated around the table, each with a homicidal scowl across their face. Judge’s was the worst.
Not having a direction, a goal, clarity—it sucked. At least that’s how the Sons felt. They were over this bullshit in more ways than one.
Reveca had never been this distant, not even during her and Talon’s most heated breaks. In the past—even when they lived in separate states, separate countries even—they both threw themselves into the MC and made sure that all the I’s were dotted all the T’s were crossed. They were fiercely protective of what they had built no matter what was going on between them.
Their latest split couldn’t have come at a worse time. The lack of communication was causing the Sons to gamble with their battles—go in with nothing more than a hope and a prayer. The last showdown with Blackwater could’ve been flawed. Even though they worked out every step before Reveca made her deal with Crass—a deal the Sons still were not completely clear on—she didn’t stress her points the way she always had in the past. It was dumb luck they were able to get Cashton on the truck with Reveca and the others, fate that Bastion had taught Thrash the one spell he needed to get Holden there.
None of them cared to push their luck any further and that was exactly what Reveca was forcing them to do with her past and current lack of communication.
The only direction she’d given with the script business was to remain in the hands of the other chapters until Internal Affairs was done with their investigation—basically, until they stopped riding the MC’s ass.
Her direction took the boys off the road—which they hated. They didn’t care to be at the garage constantly. They wanted to run their business and hunt down the makers of the drug Black. They wanted to deliver their vengeance to the Devil’s Den who had started this bullshit.
And that was before the
current hell was sprung upon them. The one time Judge and Thames needed to find Talon and Reveca they couldn’t. They handled it just the same, though. They’d called Rush home. They had Knight hacking into files of the lawmen, getting their take on the night before. Now, they were ready to strike out and clean this mess up. Their issue? The pres and his ex Ol’ Lady, their reigning queen, had yet to give the go ahead.
Talon managed to finally arrive five minutes before the law did, and as predicted, took the dilemma to Reveca who was apparently moving out of the home she had shared with the Sons for ages—which burned them all.
What did Reveca do? Told the lawmen that Adair was Judge’s Ol’ Lady, linking them to the murder of the girl who was with Adair—then she pulled the lawman, Adair, and Gwinn into her new house at the Boneyard. That was hours ago, so once again they were at a standstill—not knowing how they were to sway these witnesses to remember the night before. And they sure as hell didn’t know how to find the risen dead men.
“I should be in there,” Judge said. “What the fuck am I supposed to say when Mathis comes out and starts asking me questions?”
“Looked like Adair had her memory back—she knows enough to play it cool,” Thrash said. He had been answering all the questions the Sons laid on the table.
Talon was leaned back on his throne with his eyes closed. No break between him and Reveca had ever been easy, for the obvious reasons, but there was another reason that made it all the harder—one he had not told a soul about. Without her sexual energy rushing through him, he was weakened dramatically—like an addict coming off a constant high.
He only had a few ways to balance out. One was a mortal girl, but he knew that was never a stellar idea. He had less and less control each time he tried. He was too powerful and too untrained at having to rein himself in.
His other option was finding the rush in his haunting Zen states, the ones where he felt death calling him, pulling him somewhere deep into the unknown.
