by JL Madore
“Kobi thought you might join us.”
Now it was Cowboy’s turn to blush. “Well, if I’d known that was an option, I would’ve been tempted to take you up on it. Somehow, though, I think I’m better standing my ground. Not sure Castian would take kindly to the two of us tag-teaming his precious niece. Especially in his current mood. I’m still waiting to see what happens to the demon here.”
Kobi rolled his eyes. “Have you assholes got a pool going? What skin have you got in the game?”
Cowboy pulled a hand-rolled cigarette from his vest pocket and lit up. “Got a C-note on you getting your nuts twisted in a vice. Sorry, man.”
“I think you underestimate my uncle. Castian doesn’t judge. He’s supportive and wants me to be happy.”
“No offense, sweetheart, but I think it’s you who might be underestimating the big guy. Tell us, how have your past beaus survived to tell the tale?”
I thought about that. The handful of lovers I’d had in the past never amounted to anything serious. Just as things began to develop into something deeper, something always seemed to come up—a change of heart, a relocation, death. “Oh dear. You think that was him?”
Cowboy snorted and smacked Kobi on the shoulder. “It’s been nice knowing you, my brother. Keep your head down and your guard up.”
I took Kobi’s hand in mine and squeezed his fingers. “I’ll speak with him. You’ll be fine.”
“I’m not worried,” Kobi said, though it was the first time I’d heard a lie in his voice. “Cowboy’s just fucking with us. Why are you here anyway, shithead?”
“Oh, right. Savage is back. He spent the night at Suzie’s and overheard Shavandra in a convo with some stud at the bar. When the guy wanted to hook up with her this weekend, she said she was game but come Sunday, her boss had a big project in the works, and she’d be busy.”
“What kind of project?” I asked.
“Didn’t say. Whatever it is, we’ve only got four days to figure it out.”
“And you think it has to do with my mother?”
“No idea, that’s all I got. We’re riding the fences until something else knocks on the gate. When it does, I’ll be sure to let you know.” Cowboy touched the brim of his hat and left the two of us to ourselves.
“That’s not good enough.” I paced the hallway. I had never experienced such helplessness, even monitoring life from the Veil. “I can’t do nothing while my mother is gone for days. Abbey is under the control of a madwoman. She was just starting to come back to us.”
Kobi nodded. “I get that it’s hard, but what can we do? If Castian can’t find them with his powers and the resources at his disposal, what chance do we have?”
I thought about that and smiled. “How do you feel about breaking a few laws and pissing people off?”
Kobi laughed. “Sounds like the perfect date. I’m in.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“So, this is where the magic happens, is it, Lacy?” Kobi swiped a finger through Zinnia’s seeing bowl and eyed the Hall of Destiny as if he might be in danger of catching some hideous disease by simply breathing the air. “Four sisters determining the fate of the realms. An ethereal Z-quadrangle weighing and measuring the worth of free will. Then callously voiding it and watching the chaos ensue.”
I rolled my eyes and settled onto my stool before my loom. “Really? Z-quadrangle? And you were here this morning.”
“I was on duty then. I didn’t take it all in. All the hard and shiny. All the glittering pretense. All the marble-carved breasts and penises.”
I called the first tapestry, ignoring my lover stroking the polished genitalia of the statuary. “Are you helping me find my mother or not?”
“Of course. What can I do?”
“Give me the names of any realm members who might know something. I can’t call Abaddon’s tapestry, but maybe I can find out what’s going on from someone else’s viewpoint.”
“Only realm members? So, we couldn’t creep your duplicitous, slimeball father?”
“No. I only have access to—”
“How dare you.” Zora stormed in from the antechamber, a hurricane of swirling silk. “You aren’t man enough to speak his name, let alone cast judgment.”
Kobi smiled wide. “Technically, I didn’t speak his name. The judgment thing—yeah I totally did that.”
“You have no right to be here. I command you to get out!” She pointed to the exit and stomped her slipper on the marble tile to punctuate her point.
“Relax,” I said. “We’re just here to—”
“You have no more right to be here than him,” she sputtered, an unattractive flush blotching her cheeks. “Leave, or I’ll call someone from the Council to have you removed.”
Kobi burst into a churning black mist and grew in height and mass. A massive, winged demon with swirling scarlet eyes consumed the two-story temple. His leathery tail swished as his skin exhaled smoke. “Try it, bitch. I’ll swallow you whole and shit out your bones.”
I would have enjoyed Zora’s terror if I didn’t pity her so.
“Kobi, right or wrong, I’d rather you don’t eat my sister. I’m sure, if we ask nicely, she’ll help us find Aunt Abbey and my mother. After all, if Castian gets his wife back, he might forgive them their part in Scourge invading his home and our father betraying him.”
“I’d rather eat her,” Kobi said, dragging his tongue across his ebony lips. “I’d be the hero of the realm taking out one of the Fates.”
“You’re already a hero of the realm, and she’s too bony and sour for good eating, aren’t you, Zora?”
Zora swallowed, her head bobbing. “Y-yes.”
“Change back, babe. It’ll be easier for her to concentrate on how she can help us if you aren’t looming large.”
With that, Kobi’s demon beast swirled into a funnel of black smoke, and the man appeared in his place. “As you wish, milady. Now, put us to work. What do you need.”
Hours later, I sent the last of the frames back, no closer to finding my mother. Wherever they were hiding, Shavandra hadn’t been there, and neither had anyone else Kobi could think of. Kobi poured me a glass of sparkling punch from the butler’s stand and brought it to me.
“Anything else you and your twisted sisters could try?”
I shook my head and regretted it. I’d been staring at strands and reading threads so long my head might literally explode. “Nothing that I can think of. I guess we’re back to Cowboy’s suggestion to wait and see what happens.”
I accepted the drink and the two headache tablets he offered. “What if Abaddon tries to drain my mother’s powers? Or they try to excise Abbey’s soul? It’s killing me that we know something is looming and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Kobi frowned and knelt before me. He brushed the hair from my face and frowned. “There’s still the Hell Hound idea. I know Reign killed it, but I’m sure we can get it to track your mother’s energy.”
“And if we went that route, how would we do it and when?”
“Tonight is the full moon and our best chance to slip into Hell unnoticed.”
“Tonight? Like right now?”
Kobi nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“And who are you thinking?”
“Me and Aust,” he said, straightening. He scrubbed his hands against his leather pants and started to pace. “I’ll handle the Hell. He’ll handle the Hound. At least, I’m hoping his gift translates. Hard to know with creatures of purgatory.”
“What about me?”
Kobi turned, distracted by the plans calculating in his mind. “What about you?”
“I’m coming too.”
“Yeah, right. I don’t think so.”
I stood, fists clenched at my sides. “I do think so. No one goes on my behalf while I wait not knowing if the two of you are being tortured or killed. If I don’t go, no one does.”
He stepped close and pulled me against his chest. He cupped my chin in his hands and kissed my
nose. “Zo. You coming is not an option. Hell is unlike your worst nightmare. It’s not the place for you to assert your newfound independence.”
“I’m immortal.”
“In the Fae realms, yes. You have no idea what the venom of a Kishi bite or the curse of a Horseman could do to you.”
“I accept that risk. I can take care of myself and who knows, my powers might help.”
“Look, Zo, this isn’t a woman thing or a warrior thing—”
I reached forward and closed my fingers around the rings in his nipples. When he moved to draw back, I gripped harder and met his gaze. “I go, or no one does. End of discussion. I’ll march straight into Reign’s office and have you recalled the moment you try to leave me behind.”
“You can’t Flash. Maybe I leave you here?”
“I’m one of the few who has a direct line of communication with Castian. How do you think he’ll feel when I tell him you’re disobeying Reign’s orders and where you’ve gone?”
“Nice try. You’re no snitch.”
“How far would you go to keep me safe?”
He scowled and stared at me a long while. “No wonder Bruin was mental when he and Mika first started up. He tried to leave her behind once too—stranded her in a mountainside cave. She nearly killed herself by scaling a rock face.”
I tightened my grip and smiled. “Women. Can’t live with them, can’t leave them behind.”
Kobi glowered at me with impressive focus. He was silent so long, I wondered if he’d scratch the whole idea rather than take me. “You’ll have to follow orders. I’m serious. Anything I say, you do, no questions.”
“Sir, yes sir.”
The flash of scarlet in his gaze signaled the moment I’d won, and his aggression turned sexual.
I stroked the front of his leathers and gripped the bulge.
“Interesting choice of talking stick, Lacy.”
His length pulsed and thickened in my grasp. “I got your attention.”
“True dat.” The light in his eyes glowed with sinful delight. “I guess we need to find Aust and get this party started.”
“Well, tonight’s the full moon. He’s supposed to go on the Were-run with Bree and the others. If he’s not at the Dens, he soon will be.”
Kobi and I nodded to the guards on the outer plateau of the Dens’ entrance and headed to the living room to find Aust. My demon had grown quiet—not that he was mine in any way—but I didn’t know if his mood was a result of the possible consequences of bedding Castian’s niece, or if he was thinking about the night ahead. Maybe it was neither, and I didn’t know him well enough to guess.
Bruin, Cowboy, Bree, and a dozen other Weres milled about the main rooms, drinking and readying for the full-moon run. Were energy raised the hair on my arms, a palpable prime power emanating from each of them as their base animals struggled to take control from their hosts.
Kobi joined Bruin behind the bar and poured us two whiskeys on ice. Bree swiveled her stool toward me and lowered the bottle from her lips. “I heard about your mom, Zo. Try not to lose your mind. Reign and the boys are the best. They’ll find her.”
I sipped at the amber liquid and watched the way Bruin and Kobi spoke together. Bruin knew him and loved him for who he was, I could tell. They had an easiness about them I hoped maybe we two could achieve in time.
Bree leaned close. “You’re really hooked on him, eh?”
I shrugged. “Hooked is probably overstating things, but he’s definitely an interest. He’s sweet, generous, a solid guy.”
Bree stared at her bottle, chasing condensation with her thumb. “We are talking about Kobi, right? The depraved, sex-obsessed, self-centered, pessimistic, smartass of Haven?”
I finished my drink and swished the ice around the bottom of the tumbler. If Bree only saw what Kobi projected, that was her loss. I saw more. Much more.
Cowboy sidled up to the bar beside me, and Bruin came over with two more beers for his buddy. Kobi poured me another half glass and winked. “Everything okay here, ladies? What’s got the two of you whispering over here?”
Bree emptied her bottle of beer and took one of Cowboy’s. “Feminism. World peace. Global economics.”
Bruin laughed. “You can just say it’s none of our business.”
“How’s Mika feeling?” I asked.
Cowboy tilted his drink back, laughing as he swallowed.
Bruin cleared his throat. “Ah, good. She’s good. She’s enjoying a bubble bath and retiring for the night. Thanks to you two, we had an unexpectedly busy afternoon. She’s worn out.”
Cowboy extended his beer toward his Alpha, and they clinked bottles.
“Aust,” Kobi said, lifting his chin toward the entrance. “Glad you’re back, my man.”
Bree met him before he made it half way across the room. She kissed his cheek and handed him her beer. “Are you ready to run? It’s going to be a beautiful night to tear up the grounds.”
Aust pulled the leather tie from his hair and let his blond waves fall to his shoulders. “I am, and it shall be.”
Kobi stepped behind me and wrapped a heavy arm around my waist. “Yeah, about that. We’re here to break up the band. Abaddon’s got big plans Sunday night and, Aust, we need you, buddy, if you’re still game to help find Shalana.”
Aust cast a glance to Bree and then back to Kobi. “To run that pick-up errand, discussed in the war room today?”
Kobi nodded. “Yeah. The window is closing fast. We’re in ‘now or not at all’ territory.”
“Hey, losers,” Cowboy said, a scowl marring his handsome face. “What’s with the speaking in code? Bruin and I were at the same meeting. That particular errand got shut down.”
Aust strode over to Bree. “I must needs go with Kobi and Zophia tonight instead of joining the run. If there is even a chance to retrieve Shalana from her captors, I must aid them.”
Bree leaned against the bar. “Will you be back for any of it? I’ll wait, and we can go out later.”
Aust shook his head. “Your coyote will only hold that against me. No. There is a fair bit of travel in our task. I cannot say when we might return. You join Bruin, Cowboy, and the others for your run and enjoy yourself.”
“Sorry to kidnap your date for the night,” Kobi said. “We promise to take good care of him.”
My heart went out to Bree. She and Aust had been on the verge of this incredible relationship for months. If not for her coyote self, they might even be mated by now.
“About this errand,” Bruin said, his hard gaze locked on Kobi. “The Wolf and I should come too.”
Cowboy cursed. “You have any idea how much shit this will stir up?”
“The smaller the group, the better the chance to get in and out unnoticed,” Kobi said. “And probably a shit ton.”
“What the hell are you talking about,” Bree asked. “And why am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Bruin said. “They’re not going—”
“—to admit anything.” Kobi held up his hands to his friends. “Plausible deniability and all that, boys. Now unknot your silk panties and wish us well, because we are going.”
Bree pulled Aust to the side, her worry and anger filling the air in equal measure. “Don’t go. I want you here to run as planned. You can’t come next month during the Equinox Summit, and I can’t take two more months of this.”
Aust brushed her cheek with his finger. “I must needs go. Shalana bestowed upon me all I have and will be. I can do no other than make every attempt to aid her when she needs me.”
“You could be killed. Kobi’s a demon and a warrior. Zophia’s immortal. You’re just . . .”
Kobi cursed as Bruin and Cowboy growled.
“Just what, Bree?” Aust paled and gripped her shoulders. “Speak your heart’s truth. Is it only your coyote who thinks me weak and unworthy?”
“I’ve never said that.”
“I have every bit the warrior
’s heart and honor inside me that any male of worth on this mountain possesses.”
“I know that,” she said, looking to the others in the room. “I do. Aust is amazing, gifted, and strong. I never meant to imply otherwise, or for any of you to think less of him. I love him. I’m just worried.”
Bruin laid a hand on Bree’s shoulder and nodded. “We know, Coyote Girl. Take your man into the hall so that you can send him off properly. We’ll give you a few minutes to set things straight.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I studied the writhing bodies carved and suspended on the bow of the ship. Their hair twisted and twined with wild sea plants as their frozen gowns billowed in a nonexistent breeze. The wood of the rail grew warm in my grip, and I forced myself not to glance into the darkness below.
Kobi, in his demon form, flew above. Ebony scales melted into the endless night, leaving only the glow of two scarlet eyes visible. The heavy whisper of his wings drowned out by the knock and buckle of the hull colliding with the rocky surface.
I gripped the rail tighter. No water held us buoyant as we sliced our way through the cloying mist. Our waterway was composed of spirits of the damned. Desperate, hollow eyes glowed eerily green against the darkness of the abyss below, while mouths stretched in silent torturous screams.
Aust tapped a stone against the rail. “Fash not. It shall all be over soon.”
That was my greatest fear.
I shivered and stared off to the menacing shoreline. Hell’s Gates loomed large against the desolate backdrop, reaching pointed spires toward swirling scarlet eddies in the sky. “I’m sorry, Aust.”
“Whyever for?”
“Aside from disrupting things with Bree, I’m putting you at risk. If she were aware, my mother would be furious. I think maybe this is a mistake and we should turn back.”
For the first time since I’d known him, Aust scowled at me. “Nothing Bree said was because of you. If you think it is, you give yourself more power than you possess.”
“All right. Then I’m sorry you’re hurting. May I say that?”
Aust swung his arm, throwing the stone well beyond our visibility in the mists. “As for turning back, what would Shalana endure to ensure safety for you or one of her wildlife children?”
