The Wicked

by Cheyenne McCray

  “But they’re not,” Copper stated emphatically. “Not only did they help us fight Ceithlenn, but they’re a part of you and you are not evil. So don’t even go there.”

  Galia still had an undecided expression on her face, but to Rhiannon’s surprise everyone else seemed to accept it with no problem. They talked a little more about how—according to the Great Guardian—the Shadows would likely help battle the demons and Ceithlenn if Rhiannon freed them.

  Rhiannon’s friends and Coven sisters were emphatic in the fact that they felt Rhiannon should allow the Shadows out. If the Great Guardian told her the Shadows would help, Silver remarked, then they would help.

  By the time the Coven finished discussing the subject, Rhiannon’s heart had lightened. She should have trusted her Coven sisters all along.

  The witches helped Cassia straighten up the kitchen and helped her make more food for the D’Danann. The way Cassia managed to keep up with the warriors’ appetites was beyond magical.

  Rhiannon’s Coven sisters insisted that she leave and get some rest since she’d had a long day. Even though she was tired, she argued, but lost when Keir steered her out of the kitchen. Galia stayed behind with the other witches.

  When Rhiannon and Keir reached her second-floor apartment, she used a brief flare of her magic to unlock the door and let them inside. A pair of lamps brightened the room as soon as she flipped the switch by the door. The rooms normally looked so cheerful to her and made her feel better sometimes when she was down, but did nothing to change the way she felt right now as her thoughts turned to her father again.

  Spirit appeared out of nowhere and started rubbing himself against her jeans and gave meows that told her he sensed her pain and was trying to support her. And that he was hungry.

  “Sorry, guy.” She dropped her duffel on one of her kitchen table chairs as she eased out of Keir’s hold. “I’ll get something for you to eat, Spirit.”

  She made her way to the kitchenette side of the apartment. Her arms ached—for some reason her whole body ached—as she drew a can of tuna out of a cabinet and a can opener and a spoon from a drawer. After she finished plopping the tuna into a bright blue bowl, she set it down at her feet. Spirit mewled, his gaze fixing on hers, before he turned his attention to the tuna and began eating it.

  Rhiannon looked at Keir and gestured toward the fridge. “I’m not up to entertaining right now so you’ll have to fend for yourself.”

  After dropping his pack on the floor with a thump, he shrugged out of his long coat and laid it over the back of a chair. Instead of heading for the fridge, he came up to her and surprised her by taking her into his arms.

  He pressed her head against his chest with one hand while wrapping his other arm around her waist. At first Rhiannon felt stiff, the disappointment and pain of the day almost too much to bear. But then she allowed herself to sink into him, to enjoy the feel of being in his embrace and letting him comfort her.

  “One thing after another.” Rhiannon’s voice was tight as she spoke. “First the Chieftains, and now my—the Drow King—telling us that he won’t help us either. Who do we have left to go to?”

  Keir pressed his lips to her hair and just held her close.

  “I didn’t know what to expect when I met my father.” Rhiannon swallowed, hard. “I didn’t expect it to hurt so much. Especially when he said no.” The backs of her eyes stung. “It feels like he abandoned me as a child, and he’s abandoning me now.”

  “I believe he hurts, as well,” Keir said, his voice soft and low. “I believe he reacted from that pain.”

  “Damn it, Keir.” Rhiannon drew away from his embrace. “He’s the one who left me. I’ve done nothing to him.”

  “I know, a stór.” He grasped her upper shoulders and massaged them as she looked up at him. “His decision regarding helping our cause was impulsive. He did not give time for thought.”

  “Because I rejected him,” Rhiannon said and rubbed her hand over her eyes. “He expected me to just forgive and forget and to embrace being part Drow. Well, it wasn’t that easy!”

  But now that she’d talked it over with her Coven sisters, could she find it in her heart to accept who her father was? Could she forgive him and ask his forgiveness for the way she acted? Could she accept that part of her that was Drow?

  Rhiannon took a deep breath. “I didn’t even ask you how you felt about meeting your mother.”

  A pang gripped Keir’s chest as he let his hands slide away from Rhiannon’s shoulders. His thoughts turned back to the blonde woman with the beautiful grayish blue eyes.

  Keaira. His mother’s name was Keaira.

  “I am not certain how I feel.” He stared over Rhiannon’s head at the brightly colored kitchen wall. “If what Keaira says is true, then she had no choice. I do not doubt her words, as there is no love lost between my father and me. He is powerfully controlling, and he treats concubines like cast-off towels.”

  Free Mystwalkers. His mother, forced to stay away from him. His father being the dark curtain between him and the other half of Keir’s heritage.

  One myth he had heard time and again, was that a man or woman should never kiss a Mystwalker. Fuck them, yes, kiss them, no. Legend had it the Mystwalker kiss could be deadly, yet his father had taken a Mystwalker as a bed partner.

  Keir brought his thoughts to the present, and to Rhiannon, who had pressed herself into his arms again.

  “It must have been hard for you, too,” she was saying. “Yet you did what I couldn’t. You accepted your mother and I rejected my father.”

  “I do not think it is as simple as that.” Keir cradled Rhiannon’s face. “Let us speak of this no more tonight.” Rhiannon sighed again, this time a deep, heavy sigh. “You are tired and need rest.”

  She nodded and he pressed his lips to her forehead. He brushed her hair from her face before taking her hand and leading her to her bedroom. Her hand felt small in his and her body had been so soft in his embrace.

  No matter what might be happening around them, her mere presence made him want her in every sense of the word with a fierce ache in his heart and in his loins.

  When they reached the bedroom, Rhiannon switched on a pair of lamps to either side of the bed. She let go of his hand and began stripping out of her clothing, starting by kicking off her shoes and tugging off her socks.

  With fascination he watched her pull her T-shirt over her head and toss it aside. It had ruffled her hair and he held back a smile at how adorable she looked.

  Golden light from the bedside lamps highlighted her mussed auburn hair. The sprinkling of freckles across her nose made him want to kiss each and every one of them.

  To his surprise his entire body trembled as she finished undressing, his need for her was so great.

  When she reached him she tilted her face and studied him, her eyes searching his as if asking a question he did not know the answer to.

  It took great pains not to take her now, like this.

  He toed off each boot and they thumped on the wood flooring as he kicked them out of the way. He shrugged out of his tunic and tossed it aside.

  While she watched, she moistened her lips and brought her gaze to his hands as he undid the ties on his breeches, pushed them down to his feet, and stepped out of them and toward her.

  They were now so close he could feel the heat of her body join with his. His nostrils flared at the clean citrus smell of her skin.

  She melded her body to his, wrapped her arms around his neck, and brought her lips to his. Keir groaned as he pressed against her belly and her tongue darted into his mouth.

  Her kiss was filled with sweetness and a sense of longing. He returned her kiss, keeping his slow and deliberate.

  Rather than taking her now, he guided her to the bed and they lay face to face. He trapped her upper leg with his thigh. He enjoyed holding her like this, and loved how it felt to have her in his arms.

  “I need this,” she whispered. “I need to feel a part of somet
hing special and that I’m wanted.”

  A powerful need to protect her from all that could hurt her gripped him. He wanted to make her happy in every way that mattered.

  “You are more than wanted.” He stroked her hair. “You are my treasure. You have friends—your coven sisters love you, too.”

  A smile was on her lips as she fell asleep. Keir stroked her hair, wondering if she ever dreamed of him.

  31

  Late the following afternoon, Rhiannon fixed sandwiches for herself and Keir in her kitchenette. The bright colors in her apartment almost always had a calming effect on her. Her sanctuary was something in her life that remained constant and made her feel good.

  Sometimes it was the small things that mattered when one’s world was falling apart.

  She felt little sense of accomplishment as she and Keir fixed a late lunch. All morning, the leaders of the D’Danann, the PSF, and all of the witches—not to mention Galia—had met in the common room.

  For several hours they had discussed their best battle strategies. No matter the sheer size of the goddess’s army of demons and other creatures, they had to figure out a way to strike first, and strike hard.

  A big problem was that they knew some Fomorii had infiltrated areas of law enforcement, which caused some serious problems—like who could they trust? If they asked for help, and it happened to be a Fomorii that had taken over a human’s body, they’d tip their hand.

  Rhiannon sighed as she drew a pitcher of iced herbal tea out of the refrigerator. The team was also beginning to worry that the witches’ additional magical wardings weren’t going to hold up much longer against Ceithlenn.

  If the goddess became strong enough, all hell could break loose. Ceithlenn could attack again—worse than when the demons had been transported through all the prior wardings and battled the witches.

  Through their divinations, the witches knew Ceithlenn had used a great deal of power to transport that host of demons. It had sucked out her magical strength, leaving her weak until she was able to steal the souls of more humans.

  Would she waste that soul-sucking power on attacking the headquarters of those who battled her? Or would she concentrate on bringing Balor to this world?

  Rhiannon and the rest of the team were betting on Balor.

  As she and Keir set the table with the mountain of sandwiches—most of which Keir would eat—Rhiannon couldn’t help but churn over what the team had finally decided. The witches, D’Danann, and PSF officers needed to find a way to attack all of the demons in their lair beneath Alcatraz.

  The team couldn’t trust anyone in the city. They were going to need help from Otherworld to do it.

  Keir and Hawk actually agreed on this point. Strange, but true. Representatives for the witches and D’Danann needed to go back to Otherworld and see what weapons the Mystwalkers could provide, to see if the Drow would change their minds and fight with them.

  Rhiannon managed to smile at Keir as they started to sit down at the table.

  Her smile vanished as intense pain made her head feel like it was going to explode. It was like worms crawled beneath her skin.

  Something was going to happen today.

  Something horribly, horribly wrong.

  A vision hit Rhiannon hard and fast before she could take her seat at the table.

  She stumbled backward and landed on one hip on the hard floor. The vision spun through her head as if she were on a merry-go-round.

  Vaguely she heard Keir calling her name and felt his heat as he moved close.

  Her eyesight swam and her heart pounded as if it would come out of her chest. She held her hands between her breasts and struggled to breathe.

  Keir’s voice was urgent, concerned. “What is wrong?”

  Rhiannon’s heart continued to pound beneath her hands as she held them tighter against her chest. Her eyes were wide and dry and she couldn’t blink. She saw only the images in front of her and couldn’t answer him.

  Keir murmured soft words in Gaelic, and Rhiannon slowly came back to the present.

  “I had a vision,” she managed to get out.

  He held her closer. “What did you see?”

  Rhiannon took a deep breath. “Something really bad.”

  “Tell me.” Concern edged Keir’s voice.

  Rhiannon took another deep breath and then another. Some of the images were vivid in her mind while others were hazy.

  “Ceithlenn.” A very familiar shard of pain jabbed her mind. “There were so many people around her.” Rhiannon squeezed her eyes shut, trying to get a better grasp on the vision.

  “It was all a blur but there were thousands of people,” she went on. “I couldn’t tell if they were near or far. They wavered in and out. But I saw bright colors—pennants or banners. From what little I could hear, people were shouting and cheering.”

  Keir wrapped his other arm around her so that she was surrounded in his embrace.

  “The goddess spread her arms and wings wide.” Rhiannon’s scars burned like crazy and she rubbed them with her fingertips. “Souls started shooting toward her like pale missiles. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Some like white puffs of clouds and others as dark as thunderheads.”

  Rhiannon tried to fight down a sense of rising panic. “The goddess sucked them all into her body. They came to her so easily—all she did was utter a command and it was done.”

  Her voice shook. “And the corpses.” Tears burned behind her closed eyelids. “Dead. Everyone was dead. Bodies littered the ground all around her, as far as I could see with my vision eyes. But I couldn’t tell where she was, or how many people.”

  Keir’s body tensed next to hers, steel beneath hard flesh, and she opened her eyes. “We had best tell the others,” he said.

  Rhiannon’s eyesight swam but she finally regained her focus.

  “When do you believe this will happen?” Keir gripped her upper arms and started to stand.

  “Today.” A sense of panic kept Rhiannon’s heart beating fast. “I don’t think we have much time. But I have no idea where it’s going to happen.”

  “I will summon my brethren through our mind-link, and they will gather the others.” Keir said.

  Only a moment later he said, “It is done.”

  When Rhiannon and Keir reached the apartments’ common room for the second time that day, most of the witches had arrived, along with Galia, as well as representatives of the D’Danann.

  Several of those present asked Rhiannon what was going on, but she said she’d explain when everyone else arrived.

  It took a while before Jake and a few of his key PSF officers jogged into the room. A few minutes later, Sydney followed by Hannah made it back to the apartment buildings from their homes.

  Cassia was the only person not in the room when Rhiannon was prepared to speak, and she wondered where the half-Elvin witch was.

  “I had a vision.” As Rhiannon spoke, she stroked Spirit, who was nestled in her lap. “It was a vision subject to interpretation, but I believe what I saw will happen today. It is what will come to pass unless we find a way to prevent it.”

  She took a deep breath. “It happened in a huge crowd. I couldn’t tell if the people were right beside her, or far away. But there were thousands of them.”

  “Crowds.” Jake frowned. “The SFPD has got its hands full with the Giants playing their first exhibition game of the season.”

  Jake glanced at his watch. “Starts around sixty to ninety minutes from now. If that’s it, we don’t have much time. We’ve got to figure out what the hell we’re going to do.”

  “That’s got to be it,” Mackenzie said.

  “It’s a weekend.” Sydney frowned as her eyes met Rhiannon’s. “Attendance is going to be high at the game.”

  Rhiannon gripped Spirit’s fur and he gave her a warning sound that she ignored. “There were so very many people.”

  Silver rubbed the snake bracelet on her wrist. “Did you see any demons with Ceithlenn?”

&
nbsp; Rhiannon shook her head and shuddered at hearing the C-word. “Just the goddess. But that doesn’t mean the Fomorii won’t be there.”

  “It will be a tactical nightmare.” Jake braced his hands on the back of a chair. “I’ll get with the SFPD chief of police, along with other areas of law enforcement. But—shit. It’s like what we talked about this morning. Who the hell do we trust?”

  “Can the event be canceled? A terrorist threat or something?” Alyssa piped up from the corner.

  “I can try.” Jake glanced at his watch. “But it’s already loading up with spectators. What we don’t need is mass hysteria.”

  A flash of the vision came back to Rhiannon. “My gut tells me it is the game.”

  Silver spoke up. “My senses agree. It’s the perfect venue to steal a massive amount of souls.”

  Most of those in the room nodded in agreement.

  As Jake took his cell phone out of its holster, he said, “I’ll have every available PSF officer guarding the field before the game starts.” He punched in a couple of numbers and brought the phone to his ear. “Providing we can’t cancel the game and evacuate.”

  Everyone was quiet as he tried several phone numbers and was shot down each time. His face was grim as he punched the off button at the end of the fifth call. “We are so screwed,” he said. “They’ve got us by the balls. And now they’ll know we’re on to them.”

  “Dear Anu,” Rhiannon said as she held Spirit closer to her. “What if we can’t stop the goddess?”

  Jake’s muscles flexed as he crossed his chest with his arms. “We’ll see what we can come up with to use against the bitch. We have equipment available for outside use that we weren’t able to take advantage of in the penthouse.”

  “Wait.” Rhiannon held her hand up. “We were lucky at the penthouse. The goddess could have taken the souls of the PSF officers and witches if I hadn’t thrown up the shield. Maybe even the D’Danann. What if she does it at the game?”

  “Shit,” Jake said again and shook his head. “Goddamnit.”