by Susan Conley
“I guess you didn’t have any more luck than I did when I tried to find out what all they know?” Cart said when he returned.
“Nope.” Mona pushed her empty plate away, feeling a lot better. Too many days had passed since she’d had a decent meal. She stood and stretched. Her legs were still sore, would be for a while she guessed, but she could walk.
“Let’s see if tag teaming them works.” Cart took her elbow and helped her across the room.
Tania and Nic were already heading out. Cart and Mona intercepted them at the door.
“I’ve got some not good news,” Tania said, after stopping to wait in the hall, just past the door to the meeting room. “Apparently salamanders have been moving into the Were tribes.”
“Salamanders?” Mona said trying to remember what she knew. Her new font of information didn’t supply anything. “Aren’t they harbingers of death and destruction?”
“That is how they used to be viewed,” Tania said. “They actually are natural healers, with an uncanny sense of where they’ll be needed next.”
“So yeah,” Cart said, “they do foretell bad things, but they don’t bring it with them.”
“They’ve been known to be wrong,” Tania pointed out.
“No, not true, cuz. We’ve been able to avert disaster so they weren’t needed, but the potential is always there.”
She graciously bowed her head.
“They can be useful as an intelligence point, but they didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know,” Nic said, shrugging off their importance. Good thing he didn’t see Tania’s expression, because she was clearly floored by his remark. “Why were you two wanting us?”
“We’re heading back to the complex tomorrow,” Cart said. Not that he’d asked her. “We’ll be looking to see if the collapse is linked to everything else. Will you join us?”
“I’ll be there. Not sure about how useful Nic will be, it is magic,” Tania pointed out.
“I’ll be there,” Nic said, eyes narrowed and jaw ticking.
“But it’s a magic place, there’s not much you can do,” Tania said, a bit of worry and annoyance in her voice.
Oh! Tania was trying to keep Nic out of a dangerous area. Like that was going to work.
“I’m going. Randall said to stick with you, I’m sticking with you.”
“Good,” Cart said. “We’ll meet you outside the complex at noon.”
“See you there,” Nic said. He turned and headed out.
A split second later Tania followed, body rigid and posture straight, clearly very mad at him.
“Glad I’m not in his shoes,” Cart said. He popped open the door to the meeting room, glanced around, then pulled her further down the hall. “What the hell were you doing? Do you realize you were unreachable for a whole week? Anything could have happened.”
Mona yanked her arm out of his grasp. “I was doing my job. Besides which, your crew knew where I was.”
“Knowing didn’t help. We need you to stick around. You’re important.”
Mona wanted to believe it was her, not the job, that was important. A thought struck her.
“How did you know I was unreachable?”
“I broke my own rule and had an imp go look for you.” He grimaced and ruffled his hand through his hair. “Are you really okay? Tiff and Emetaly told me some of the incidents you ran into on the way up. And I have no doubt that you glossed over how bad the drive back here was.”
Mona relaxed against the wall for a brief moment then gently pushed herself straight, needing to be strong for this. “Did they tell you Randall named me Warder before. . .before. . .”
Her last words came out as a sob. Dammit, she didn’t want to cry!
Cart tucked her into his shoulder and rubbed his chin on her head while she bawled.
“And here I am, being an asshole. Sorry, I just—” He took a deep breath. “I just wouldn’t handle it well if something happened to you while I wasn’t around. Yes, I know I said I couldn’t handle being together, but some things aren’t going to change, and the need to protect you seems to be one of them.”
He rubbed her back and held her close. “I think Smythe knew it was his time,” Cart said after her initial burst had quieted. “He made the transfer spell, right? He lived an extraordinarily long time, Mona. He surely knew the risks of what he was doing.”
Mona sniffed and nodded.
“I think Tania thinks his Ward died,” she said.
“I think she’s right. Although. . .” Cart hesitated before continuing on. “That may have happened a while ago.”
“Why do you say that?” She stepped back and looked into his eyes, puzzled at the idea.
“My first thought when I saw him was he looked like a man living on borrowed time. The idea stuck with me.” He shrugged. “I’ve learned to pay attention when that happens.”
He looked down at Mona and stepped back, as awkward as she’d ever seen him.
“I, uh, need to get back and make sure they’re staying on track. And I need talk to you about what happened with Herrick, but that’ll wait until later. We need to talk, too, but first we’re going to have to deal with whatever geas the Puck put on us.”
He took another quick breath, likely to add to the list of things he’d been saving up to tell her. Mona flapped her hands at him, shooing him away.
“Go. I’ll join you in a minute.”
He nodded then ducked away.
Exhaustion clawing at her like a hungry pup, she sat down in the first chair she found in the room. Eventually most of the group stopped by a second time, checking she was okay and catching her up with happenings.
She was going to miss them when they were gone.
After the third time she jerked awake because her chin bumped into her chest, she made herself get up.
“Cart, I need to go,” she announced to the suddenly spinning room.
In short order she found herself bundled up and put in a car.
“Backlash—”
“Over-exerted—”
Words swirled around her as she snuggled into the seat belt webbing and drifted off to sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Mona tucked the duvet under her chin, comfy, cozy, and warm. A part of her didn’t want to have to get out of the warm cocoon she was in. Another, more insistent part, told her she needed to get up now.
She was in the protector’s station, her bag on the rocking chair in the corner. Cart was nowhere in sight. Rubbing her sleepy eyes, she got out of bed just as Cart entered the room.
“Shower, I need a shower,” she said.
“Damn, and I wanted to wake you up.”
He shut the door behind him and reached out for her shoulders. Mona stepped back. They weren’t going back to status quo without a discussion.
“Too late now, I have things to do, places to be.” She ignored his crestfallen look. “What time is it, and how long before we need to leave?”
He stepped back and put his hands in his pockets. “It’s seven-thirty, I’d suggest leaving at nine-thirty, no later than ten.”
“Good time for a shower. Then we’ll talk. Is there an update on Raine?”
“Nurse Ferguson already called to let us know there’s been no change.”
Nodding, Mona grabbed her bag. It’d be important to find the right person to raise the orphaned child. Wait, was the baby her charge? No, that didn’t make sense. Raine had no folk blood, so her child couldn’t be the ward. She headed to the door then stopped. She didn’t know where to go. Turning around, she saw Cart leaning against the wall, arms now crossed over his large chest, smile on his face.
“Okay, fine, where are the showers?”
He crossed over to her, wrapped his hands on either side of her face, tucked his fingers into her hair, and pulled her flush to his taut body.
There was a reason, something she’d learned yesterday, why she shouldn’t let him do this, but she couldn’t think of anything but the warmth in his eyes
and the smile quirking one side of his mouth.
And the heat of his body searing her from shoulder to toe.
“Good morning, Mona,” he said, between the kisses he scattered across her face. He pulled back, his eyes churning amber. “Are you feeling better this morning?”
Unable to stop herself, she slid her free hand up his chest and twined her fingers around the curls at the nape of his neck.
“Much better, but I really, really want a shower, Cart. More than anything.”
“Anything?” He pressed her against the door.
“Anything,” she managed to get out without sounding too breathy.
“Can I have a rain check then?”
“You think if we don’t have sex now, you can get a voucher to have sex later?” Mona asked. “I don’t think so. You need to earn it.”
Especially after he said he couldn’t handle how she did her job. He must have seen something in her face because he stepped back.
“I’ll remember that.”
“Shower? Now, please?”
With a very audible and visible sigh he let go of her. “One day, we’ll have all the time in the world, and rain check or not, I’m keeping you in bed.”
Mona didn’t have much to say to that. She’d suddenly remembered why being with Cart was a bad idea. A really, really bad idea, no matter what the Puck thought. Images and memories from Smythe about the relationship between Warders and their wards crowded her thoughts. The transfer from him was still there, but at a remove, and not as intrusive as it had been yesterday.
Cart took her hand and led her through the labyrinth of corridors. He didn’t seem to notice her silence or distraction.
“I’ll come back in, what? Thirty minutes?”
Mona thought over everything she’d need to do.
“Thirty-five.” She needed a little time alone, time to figure out how the hell to undo what she’d already done.
“Gotcha.”
She ducked in the locker room. The room smelled of disinfectant and chlorine, and very faintly of wet dog. Mona found a bench and set her things down on it.
Cart.
Shit.
Mona closed her eyes and replayed what she’d learned from Abner.
An ethereal woman, one with the small bone structure of a European elf, a lot like the Maven, stood before her. Smythe labeled the woman “mate.”
He also labeled her “ward.”
And Mona could see why, the taint of evil magic was so deeply embedded in the woman she could almost see the imprint on her bones.
There were other memories of Warders, each mated to their ward. Each caring and loving them in private, keeping the world safe from them, and them safe from the world.
That was the bond others missed. Yes, a Warder guarded the Folk from their ward, but they guarded their ward from being used or killed by Folk seeing only their evil just as much.
Which meant either Cart was going to turn evil, which didn’t match up with what she’d been told and now knew about Wards being born with evil, or he wasn’t her mate. Nor, as she’d hoped, her Seele, the deeply bonded soul mate only those with enough elf blood experienced.
Okay, okay, why then did Randall seem to think they needed to be together?
“Puck!” She practically growled. Damn, but she’d been hanging around Weres too much.
Randall appeared, sitting on the bench next to her. Except when she’d stayed with him, she’d never seen him so casually dressed. Trousers, shirt, knit vest, he looked like he was slumming with Gene Kelly. With his shoulders hunching over and one leg bouncing so hard the bench threatened to vibrate, Mona knew he was ill at ease.
“Hi, Warder,” he said. “I can’t tell you much.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?” she asked, making the same point Cart had days ago.
“Too fine a line,” he waved off her question. He stood and paced the short length of the bench and back again. Lecture mode. She’d seen him do this many times before. “It’s not like I haven’t been dropping hints all over the place. There are big events going on here. If I say any more than that, my ass is going to be in a sling and I won’t be able to help you at all.”
“You’ve been helping? Really? ‘Cause those cryptic messages and the dire vagueness? Not helpful.”
He stopped and stared at her, arms akimbo. “I could just leave, I don’t need this crap.”
“Sorry, I just. . .” Mona scrubbed her face with her hands.
“Look, I’ll let you ask me one direct question. If I can answer it I will. But you only get one.”
Just one? But she had so many. She needed to find out about wards and Warders and the faces she saw when she jumped and Cart and imps and that evil, evil taint she’d seen on the spells.
Randall had crossed his arms over his barrel chest. The tapping of his toe echoed in the metal filled room.
She needed another resource that wasn’t Smythe’s tome.
“Is there a resource or book that isn’t Smythe’s where I can find out more information on Folk magic, particularly Warders and their wards?”
“Sorry, there’s not a book.”
“So there is some other resource?” At his sly grin she asked, “Someone I know?”
“Do you mean know or know?” He waggled bushy eyebrows. “Because there’s knowing and there’s knowing. On second thought, that’s a second question, I’m out of here.”
With an audible pop he disappeared.
Showoff.
The person had to be Cart. Of course. The one person she didn’t want to be asking.
She chose a locker near the showers and was dried, dressed, and waiting by the time he showed up.
“Food’s next on the agenda,” he told her. “I’ve got the crew waiting in the kitchen.”
The mention of food made her stomach feel like a hollow pit. The kitchen and being around other Weres sounded good to her. Once in the kitchen, her anxiety about Cart hit her full force. Mona slipped on an apron and started on breakfast. She cracked up eggs for French toast as the group talked about the meeting from the previous night. Apparently she’d missed Nic’s recruitment speech, urging youngsters to grow up and be protectors. They crew was impressed.
As she started cooking everything up the discussion turned to leads and trying to figure out what the numbers meant.
“Do we have contacts up in Canada? The stronger the magic user,” Mona said, “the greater the distance he can cover. And this guy seems like he’d be able to cover a great distance.”
Mona had to turn her back to monitor the large griddle, so she only heard the chatter of excitement her comment caused and didn’t see their faces.
Finished, she picked up her plate of hot toast and warm syrup, piled some fruit on top, and went to join them at the folding tables they’d dragged in from somewhere. The rest of the crew hastily stood and lined up to serve themselves from the platter on the stove.
“Once you’re done we’ll head out,” Cart said as she sat. “We’ve got all the equipment ready.”
In less than twenty minutes the half a dozen protectors going with them piled into an oversized SUV leaving Mona and Cart with the jeep they’d used the first day.
“So, how was New York?” she asked once they were settled in.
“Good. Nice to see the gang. There’s only a handful of family. Less than a dozen of us go out on a run. And it is a run. Half of us stay human and ‘run’ through the park with the ‘dogs’ for an hour or so, then we switch.”
“Oh, I keep meaning to ask you what happened with the guy who jumped from the bar.” The bar! “Shit! I missed my shifts this week.”
“Don’t worry, Menlo covered for you.”
“What?” Menlo? Although, now that she thought about it she could see him handling the bartending with his usual self effacing efficiency.
“That’s how he put himself through grad school before he joined the force.”
“Grad school?” Was it typical for people to go to college
or more before becoming a protector? She had no idea.
“He has a PhD in psychology. In regards to your other question, Leonardo is doing fine. He’s in New York now. We gave him a couple of options, and he seemed most interested in working in the archives, but it’ll be a bit before we find the right fit.”
“And Averill’s doing okay?”
“I’ve sent Hyram over to train her. We’ve been butting heads, he wants more responsibility so I thought I’d see how he does. Now you tell me—what happened to Herrick?”
Mona did. Knowing Cart wanted to know what happened as well as the reactions of those around, she went into detail, including the fact that he’d called her a bitch.
Judging from Cart’s flushed face and white knuckles on the steering wheel, it was probably a good thing Herrick was gone.
“You need to calm down, Cart,” she said, a little uncomfortable with his rage.
“Can’t help it, everyone in the family is overprotective.” He groaned. “Which reminds me. My mother’s likely to show up soon, since I happened to mention you when I was back home. I can tell you right now, she won’t like you.”
“Mention me?”
“Yes, she jokingly asked if a woman had put me in my foul mood and I said yes. In her opinion, you have a huge strike against you already. She not going to be happy that you’re gorgeous.”
Mona felt the heat of her blush sear her cheeks.
“And smart,” Cart continued. “Not to mention you don’t live in New York City, which is worse than everything else combined. I didn’t even mention you’re a Warder.”
He’d given her an entre to ask about Warders and where they’d live and if he might change, but Mona couldn’t bring herself to ask.
His grin was positively gleeful. “Actually, didn’t tell her because your position means she can’t use hers to intimidate you.”
“Her position?”
“She’s a Titania too, like Tania.”
“But not a Maven.”
“Hell no, too much responsibility and work.” Only a slight touch of irritation tinged his voice.
“So she’s a tad overprotective of her already grown son?”
“She’s not the worst of my family you’ll meet, but if you can handle her, you can handle the rest.”
