by Anya Bast
“If I knew that my life would be all kittens and sunshine.” Micah threw the remains of a fry back onto the plate, his voice turning sour. “Instead it’s all daaeman blood and warlock guts. I’m sifting through it all now.” He speared Thomas with a look of disdain. “It would have been nicer to have a tidier site to investigate. Acidic blood melted a lot of the evidence.” Thomas coolly looked away from Micah to Theo. “We’ll be staying here in Louisville for a while until we can get a handle on what’s going on. We’ve got Claire and Micah analyzing the building and have sent for more witches from Chicago to guard the place if Stefan returns. I want you to go with Mira and Jack back up to Chicago. We have reason to believe that Stefan might be there. Jack and Mira are your backup if Bai shows up prematurely.” Thomas paused and seemed to choose his next words carefully. “But it seems clear that Bai won’t come for Sarafina until Stefan’s plan, whatever that is, plays out.” “And when that happens, we’ll be ready for him.” Theo growled out.
“When the Ytrayi Cae came here to collect Claire, he offered us an alliance,” Micah ventured, his gaze on Thomas.
“Yes, and I refused him, said there was no reason for one and there never would be.” Thomas passed a hand over his face. “Rue told me he hoped I never regretted those words. With so many Atrika Earthside. .” “You regret your words now,” Micah finished.
Thomas sighed. “The Cae of the Ytrayi obviously doesn’t know what’s going on since he hasn’t contacted us. There’s no way he wouldn’t show if he believed Claire might come to harm.” “And there’s no way to contact him,” Theo added.
“You know as well as I do that it’s impossible to open a portal from this side.” Thomas shook his head. “Somehow the Duskoff managed it, but short of killing seven witches in an intricate blood magick spell, it’s unfeasible. And it’s not like we have an interdimensional telephone.” “So we find a way to defend ourselves against the impending threat,” said Micah.
“Or we take the offensive,” Theo asserted. “And attack them first.” Thomas met Theo’s gaze and smiled. “Or we take the offensive. You reading my mind now, Theo?” “Yeah, well, first we need to find Stefan,” Micah said. “I’ll bet anyone in the room five hundred bucks he’s gone underground again.” Thomas smiled bitterly. “Bet you five hundred bucks Mira has heard him whispering.”
TWENTY-FOUR
THE BLACK CAULDRON WAS A POSH LITTLE NIGHTCLUB in a bad part of town. Frequented by witches, it fairly teemed with pulsing elemental power. Sarafina stopped a half block away, feeling the thrum of the music shaking the building on its foundation.
Mira stopped, too, swaying against the brick wall of a storefront in a way that Sarafina now recognized meant she’d caught something on the air. A whisper, a murmur, something leading her to Stefan. It had been happening a lot lately.
Jack caught her by an elbow and kept her from falling over. “Did you hear something?” Mira nodded. “Stefan’s in there, all right, but there are two Atrika with him.” She glanced at Sarafina. “Not Bai, but that doesn’t mean he might not show up.” Sarafina swallowed down a cold surge of fear at the possibility. “I know. It’s okay.” “I don’t like this,” said Jack. “It’s too fucking easy. Why isn’t Stefan taking more care not to let you hear him?” Theo shifted beside her. “Because it’s a setup.” Mira shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think Stefan’s confident, cocky. I don’t think he feels like he needs to shield his conversation from air magick anymore.” “He’s cocky because he has an army of Atrika to call on.” Theo growled. “Since Kentucky, we all know that. There’s no reason for him to be coy or careful anymore. He has no secrets left to guard now.” “He might have an army of Atrika, but we have an army of witches,” Mira answered. “Maybe Stefan will become overconfident and we can take advantage of that.” Theo just grunted in response.
It was pretty clear to everyone that Stefan had the upper hand. It was nice that Mira could be so optimistic, though. They needed that.
Annie, an earth witch, was standing by the entrance. “The others are all ready.” Jack was in charge here in Chicago while Thomas was still in Kentucky. He had ordered a group of Coven witches to enter the building earlier. Now they were mingling with the magickal and non-magickal patrons of the club.
“Good.” Jack nodded. “If our suspicions turn out to be true, one of us will send a text message. That will be your cue.” They weren’t going in there without all their bases covered. There was a plan in place.
Annie, a diminutive brunette, smiled. “We’ll be ready. I hope we get to kick some warlock ass tonight.” She turned and reentered the club.
“Shall we?” Sarafina asked, moving toward the building.
They entered the building and were immediately enveloped in darkness. The beat of the trance music pounded in their ears and the club seethed and pulsed with dancing bodies and roving colored spotlights.
Theo pulled Sarafina close to him, up against his body to make sure she didn’t become separated from him in the crush. Sarafina remembered the story about Isabelle and Erasmus Boyle in this very club. Thomas had lost sight of her for only a second and Boyle had snagged her and dragged her out to the alley at the back of the building. Clearly, Theo didn’t want the equivalent to happen to her with Bai.
Sarafina wanted to tell him that she could take care of herself, but that would be a lie. Everyone needed help when dealing with the Atrika. Everyone, even the most powerful witch, needed someone watching their back. She was glad she had Theo to do that for her, and she would watch over him as well.
Anyway, she enjoyed the press of his body against hers.
Mira moved toward the back of the club and the four of them moved with her, since she had the best idea where to find the warlock. The best-case scenario would be to somehow draw the Atrika bodyguards away and take Stefan back to Gribben if they could.
Sarafina let her hand stray to her back pocket, where she had a syringe full of Ketamine, a drug to render Stefan witless, alongside two syringes of hard-to-make and very rare liquid copper for the Atrika.
She had two syringes of the liquid copper since Bai was after her; but because the ingredients for the magickal spell that kept the copper in an injectable form were hard to come by, she was the only witch who carried the weapon.
If they were lucky, the Ketamine would make Stefan docile enough to bring back to Gribben. The trick, of course, would be getting it into him before he torched the place.
Theo and Jack wore copper swords sheathed to their back under long black coats that were a bit out of place in the warm club. They were weapons of last resort, since pulling copper blades on demons in the middle of a club where there were non-magickals was not the best scenario.
The team from the Coven walked to the back of the club and saw Stefan at a table in the back with a redheaded bimbo crawling all over him. Two Atrika stood nearby.
So, it was true, Stefan was living it up without a care. He felt that confident in his plans. Well, maybe it was time they broke up the party.
Sarafina and Jack approached Stefan first. Sarafina fisted a thread of power loosely in her hand, ready to throw if she needed it.
“Hey, Stefan,” Sarafina said, one hand on her hip. She was wearing a pair of tight leather pants that had made Theo slobber earlier that evening.
Stefan grinned at her. “Hello, Sarafina. Are you looking for Bai? I can call him for you, if you like.” He didn’t seem surprised at all to see them.
Theo stepped up close behind her and she placed a staying hand on his chest. Behind Stefan, the two daaeman also moved a bit closer to protect their charge.
“Enjoying a night on the town?” Sarafina answered.
He motioned to the two hulking Atrika behind him. “Why not? It’s not like you can do anything to me here in a public place. Not while I have such muscle to defend me. I have an image to uphold, after all.” He pulled the redhead close to him. She smiled and simpered up at Sarafina. “There are paparazzi everywhere. You ca
n do nothing.” He wasn’t lying. The photographers lounged along the bar, one eye always on Stefan. Anywhere Stefan went, so did the photo hunters. To the non-magickal world, Stefan was a God among men. He sneezed, and his snot made first-page news.
Sarafina raised an eyebrow. “Think what you will. I’m glad you’re having fun, Stefan. That’s good. You should take advantage of the time you have left.” Stefan rolled his eyes. “Did you come here to talk trash? Shall we unzip our pants and compare our cocks? I guarantee mine is bigger.” The redhead giggled. Mindless twit.
“I think Isabelle would disagree,” Jack answered with a grin. Isabelle was the only one of them who had firsthand — literally — experience with the size of Stefan’s equipment.
Stefan’s face shuttered, and he took a long drink of his cocktail. “Do you have a reason for tracking me down? Didn’t you get enough of me in Kentucky?” Sarafina stalked over to Stefan, yanked his chair out, and leaned in close. Her anger had flared at the insolent look in his eyes and the practiced boredom in his voice. His bodyguards moved in, but Stefan waved them away with a cocky smile on his face.
“Let’s stop playing games, shall we?” Sarafina said. “Tell us what spell you’re trying to cast.” Stefan laughed. “How delusional. Do you think I’d actually tell you? Do you think you intimidate me?” Sarafina moved around Stefan’s chair so that the warlock faced her, then she slammed her foot between his legs. Leaning down close to his ear, she announced, “I haven’t even tried yet.” “Oh, ho! Sarafina!” Stefan purred with a saucy smile. “I did not realize you were so attracted to me. If I had known we could have had a quickie in the limo.” “Shut up.”
An explosion sent a wave of all four elements through the club, making the patrons scream and scatter. Things were going according to plan.
Mira had eased away once they’d found Stefan and joined Annie and a few Coven witches of the three other elements in another part of the club. Together, the witches were creating a diversion. All four elements used at once made a magickal signature a lot like Claire’s. Knowing how much the Atrika hated Claire, they figured it would draw off Stefan’s muscle. They’d been right. Stefan’s daaeman guards jumped in less than a fraction of a second to investigate, leaving Stefan alone and unguarded.
Not quite vulnerable, though. They had to act fast, before Stefan realized what was going on.
The second the magickal explosion occurred and the Atrika lit out, Sarafina had yanked the Ketamine syringe from her pocket and slammed it into Stefan’s chest. A moment after she’d shot the drug into him, she pulled fire from her seat and shot it through her foot, dangerously close to Stefan’s family jewels. He yelped and backed away, succeeding only in tipping his chair backward and landing on his ass.
Jack and Theo were on him in a moment, yanking him up and slamming him against the tabletop while the club went frantic around them.
Theo had cast a spell on the paparazzi’s cameras when the initial magickal explosion had gone off, preventing them from taking pictures. They’d all been too busy fleeing or dodging elemental magick to try, anyway.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Stefan,” said Sarafina, “I didn’t mean to make you relive bad times.” “You’re a fucking—” Stefan’s eyelids dropped. “A fucking—merde, you’ll never get away with this.” Jack leaned down into Stefan’s face with a feral grin. “Looks like we just did, warlock.”
“SLEEPING LIKE A BABY,” SAID MIRA WITH A HARD little smile, staring down at Stefan who remained passed out and sprawled on one of the uncomfortable prison beds in Gribben.
Theo curled his lip, looking down at the warlock.
Because of the ambush and diversion they’d created, magickal firefights had broken out all over the Black Cauldron. In the explosion of chaos, non-magickals and witches alike had run for cover.
Since the Atrika had been occupied searching for a non-existent Claire, Theo had just picked Stefan up, slung him over his shoulder, and walked him out of the club. In the commotion, it had been easy as pie.
No one was sure how all the magick was going to be explained away, but desperate times called for desperate measures. In any case, humans had a tendency to find answers for even the most bizarre of occurrences. They’d done it to explain Sarafina’s mother’s death, and they’d do it for this, too.
“He’ll be out for the night,” said Jack. “Mira and I will be here when he wakes to question him. We’ll have to hurry, since we don’t know how long it will take for his horde of Atrika to figure out what happened.” “We’ll wait with you,” Sarafina replied.
Jack shook his head. “There’s no sense in all of us being miserable. Come back in the morning and we’ll question him together.” “What if the Atrika show up before then and find you all alone?” Jack shook his head. “We won’t be. Thomas, Isabelle, Claire, and Adam are all due back momentarily. This will be the first place they come, don’t worry. Go get some rest. I know you’ve been on guard and not sleeping well. Claire and I know how that is. Get the hell out of Gribben for a while, and we’ll call you if we need you.” “Do we look that poorly rested?” Sarafina asked.
“Yes,” said Mira with a gentle smile. “Go sleep a little.” Theo didn’t have a problem with the idea of getting away from Gribben. The place was awful. With powerful spells etched into the very mortar, it was the one place on Earth that was completely magickless. No witch or warlock once having passed its threshold could access their power. It was akin to being stripped and raped. Theo lost his breath every time he came through the doors. Here he felt bare and raw, heavy and oddly plain. Melba toast. That’s how Thomas described it. Dry, flavorless, easily breakable.
Gribben was the Coven’s prison, where they kept all warlocks and offending witches before they were tried and sentenced. Some were inmates for life. For any witch of great power, it was a potent punishment. The stronger the witch, the worse Gribben felt.
The last time Stefan had been housed here, he’d become suicidal. But an Atrika had broken him out, and if the Atrika could figure out where the Coven had taken him, Theo had no doubt they’d break him out again. Their gamble right now was getting as much information from Stefan as they could before that happened.
He took Sarafina’s hand and led her out of the cell. “If you guys insist, I’m not arguing,” he said as they left.
Theo only started to feel alive again by the time they reached his apartment. Once through the door, Sarafina kicked off her shoes with a heavy sigh. Neither of them had been sleeping well.
He scooped her into his arms before she could draw another breath. Ignoring her yelp of surprise, he carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed.
She rose up on her elbows and crooked a knee. Giving him a come-hither look, she murmured, “Does capturing warlocks excite you, Theo?” He let his gaze wander down over her tight leather pants and the creamy exposed skin at her midriff where her filmy red shirt had ridden up. Where Sarafina was concerned, he was always excited.
“Sleep,” he said gruffly, turning away. “You’re exhausted. I’ll stay up and keep a lookout.” “Oh, Theo. .” Sarafina purred. The sound of a zipper being undone and leather brushing over satiny smooth skin met his ears. He knew the feel of that skin against his lips, tongue, and hands.
Drawing a deep breath for strength, he turned. She lay in only the low-cut club top and a pair of skimpy blue silk panties.
He wanted to take them off with his teeth.
She tipped her head to the side a little. “Don’t you think we need to unwind a little before we sleep? We deserve to celebrate after what we just did. Annie gave me a birth control charm when we got back to Chicago, by the way. We’re totally safe now.” He traced the curve of her thigh with his gaze. “Don’t tease me, Sarafina. You need to sleep so you’re ready for a fight later. There will be one; it’s just a question of when.” She pulled her shirt off and dropped it to the floor along with her bra. Her small pert breasts were topped with luscious hard red nipples — like little suckable
berries. “Are you absolutely sure?” Theo lingered for a moment, staring at her, then stalked across the floor to loom over her. She relaxed back into the pillows, the look of a vixen on her face. Sarafina was a woman who knew she was beautiful and she knew exactly how to use her beauty to greatest effect. It was part of what made her so dangerous.
He leaned down, bracketing her with his arms on either side of her body. Her facial muscles relaxed a little as she realized she’d won the battle and now would reap the spoils.
Theo leaned in and captured her full red lips against his, sliding over them torturously slowly, just the way he knew drove her crazy. He flicked his tongue into her mouth and allowed it to brush her tongue while he moved one hand between her perfect thighs to press against the warm, damp silk covering her sex. He found her clit and stroked it beneath the material until it grew engorged and ultrasensitive.
Sarafina shifted and moaned under him, her arms seeking to twine around him and draw him down onto the mattress with her. He caught her lower lip and dragged it slowly between his teeth. She shivered and moved her hips, seeking more contact.
Instead, he drew away and kissed her forehead. “Two can play that diabolical game, baby,” he murmured a moment before he backed away far enough that she couldn’t draw him to her. “Sleep now.” She protested, but he ignored her. He only sank down into a chair in the corner of the room and watched her glare at him.
Sarafina grabbed her boxer shorts and T-shirt from a nearby chair and slipped them on. “You’re evil.” He smiled. “Maybe a little. Sleep now and I’ll be even more evil later.”
