Riding the Veil (Veils Book 1)

by Claudy Conn

  “Do you? Any idea who it could be, Henry?” Niall asked, suspicion lining his heart. Would Henry tell him this hoping to throw him off? No. Not Henry. They had a long-time friendship. He refused to believe it was Henry.

  “Not exactly, but something is worrying me. I have to give it more thought. Don’t want to throw suspicion on an innocent.”

  Niall put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Thank you, Henry. Yes, we will deal with it quietly.”

  “Aren’t you coming?”

  “No…in fact, you better lift the cloaking, as where I am going, I need to be seen, lest they discover me and think I am spying.”

  Henry laughed and flicked his wrist.

  “Henry…tell me something. You are a warlock of the earth—not immortal. I have a way for you to gain immortality, yet you have always turned me down. I want to keep you safe. I want you always at my side…will you not reconsider? Yours is a friendship…I have valued.”

  “Tempting, Niall. I too appreciate our friendship, but such a thing goes against my core beliefs. A man is born to live and do what he can to make a decent life, and die when it is his time,” Henry said.

  “Henry…?” Niall said. His friend had turned thirty-five and they had been friends since Henry was twenty. “Please think about all the good you could do with your magic if you could live on and help those who need you.”

  Henry frowned. “There is that…yet I don’t think I should play with fate.”

  “We’ll leave it for now, but I will return to this subject, ‘old friend’,” Niall said, and watched Henry step into the portal.

  He closed the portal to his headquarters and opened another smaller one to a very different place. For a moment, he thought about how he would be received. He and Apollo had bumped heads for a very long time, but his relationship with Retaal was too distant to know just what kind of reaction his sudden appearance would elicit.

  Niall was sure Retaal had secured Jacie’s safety. He had visited her loft just before ACE had arrived, and found her closet a mess. The residue of a potent Cuma remained, as well as her delicious scent of pine and vanilla.

  Would Retaal work with him?

  He knew Retaal was a hard-liner who didn’t believe in grays. He saw most things in black and white. Would that make him short-sighted?

  At any rate, Niall was at an impasse. He needed the help of someone he could trust, and whatever Retaal’s philosophy about humans was at the moment, he knew that he could trust Apollo’s son with this matter.

  He was out of choices. Retaal, he was sure, was out of choices. The ACE unit was torturing the supernaturals and Cumas in the Dank and it had to stop! Celine had refused to let down the wards again for him. She was not even communicating with her own coven witch, Aya.

  Niall stepped into the portal, still wondering if Retaal would blame him…as he should, for Dog’s capture. After all, the traitor was one of his own.

  * * * * *

  Jacie and Ret’s journey from Shelter Island to Retaal’s underground headquarters took only a moment. As they stepped out of their shift, hand in hand, Jacie found herself facing a room full of Cumas, with a force of power that pulsated in the air. This world was made up of humans. They gave off a life force, which made the Cumas’ mana seem all the more potent.

  Her eyebrow went up and she looked at Ret for reassurance. He gave it to her with a smile, and she held on tight to his hand.

  One Cuma, a huge male in what looked like clothing worn during Woodstock, a shock of shaggy brown hair, and knives strapped to each of his leather bound legs, shouted out as he approached, “Ret! Damn you, we have been worried sick. You said you were coming right back.”

  “I am sorry, Polo…we got sidetracked.” They shook one another’s shoulders for a moment, in the age old show of friendship, before Retaal added, “One of our shifters was outed, captured, and he and his mate tortured. We freed them and sent them to Apollo. Clean up afterwards,” Ret grinned, “took time.”

  “Yeah?” Polo said, and made a point of staring at Jacie with a broad grin. “I’ll bet it did.”

  She laughed under his scrutiny and decided she liked his soft brown eyes.

  He stuck out his hand. “Hi. I’m Polo, Ret’s my right hand man.”

  “Oh, is he?” Jacie smiled, looking from Ret to Polo.

  Polo laughed under Retaal’s scrutiny. “Well, there is one thing for sure. He can’t do without me.”

  Ret raised a brow at him but grinned.

  “And I am…”

  “Oh, we know, you are Jacie, the immortal witch. Heard quite a bit about you,” Polo said, and winked.

  A luscious auburn haired woman in blue spandex came forward and met Jacie’s gaze with steely dark eyes. No warmth lit there and no friendly greeting. Instead, the woman slid up against Ret and touched his bicep before she fluttered her dark, very dark long lashes, making Jacie think, Who does that anymore?

  “I’m glad you’re back, darling. My bed was lonely and cold without you in it last night.”

  Jacie, standing at Ret’s side, her hand in his, stiffened. Last night? Why? Was he a regular in the woman’s bed?

  “Ah, Shoula,” he returned absently. He pulled Jacie along, but she tugged her hand out of his.

  “What was she saying, Ret? You and her…?”

  “Not now, baby,” he answered irritably.

  “Not now? Oh, I see…sure, not now,” Jacie snapped, and took a step away.

  All at once everyone paused, apparently ready for trouble, as each member of Ret’s team took a stance facing the area at Jacie’s back.

  Jacie felt the tension and wondered if they thought she and Ret were about to have a smack-down. She pulled a face and all at once felt the aura of huge power behind her.

  A dark portal opened and a large, muscular Cuma, with platinum layered waves of hair, dressed in black leathers, jumped nimbly, and for his size, even gracefully out of the portal and into the room.

  As he landed nearly on top of Jacie, she was sent tumbling backwards, but not before he caught her with his long reach. He held her close and neatly in his arms and his green eyes flashed a greeting, as did his genuinely warm smile. “Jacie, sweetheart. I have missed you.”

  She laughed at his audaciousness. “Niall! What are you doing here?”

  He bent his head and whispered in her ear, “I came for you, and the least you can do is reward me with a kiss.”

  Jacie pushed against him, but she needn’t have bothered, as Retaal had Niall’s arm in his grip and sent his fellow Cuma backwards and away.

  “Ret!” Jacie objected.

  Retaal stalked Niall, who laughed and put his hands up, but his voice was low and a warning. “Easy, Retaal…easy.”

  The room was deadly silent, and Jacie saw from Polo’s clenched fists that they were not pleased about Niall’s intrusion and cavalier behavior.

  A primal growl escaped Ret’s throat as he went face to face with Niall. “You don’t get to touch her. Understand?”

  Niall raised a brow. “Isn’t that a decision for Jacie to make?”

  Jacie jumped between them, her outstretched arms keeping each at bay. “Damn straight it is my decision to make. Right now, however, we don’t have time for this sort of thing.” She eyed Niall. “What is it? Why are you here?”

  Niall grinned at her. “See that? Right to the point without wasting time. I need you, pretty witch…I need you so very dearly. Think how we could accomplish so much together.”

  Ret bristled again and Jacie immediately cut in, “Stop the crap and tell us why you are here.”

  Retaal laughed out loud.

  Niall put a hand to his heart. “You hurt me to the quick…all right, all right. I am here because we need to free our own in the Lower Planet. Somehow, our plan went awry and we are back to square one.” He eyed Jacie. “Celine, your godmother, dropped the wards to let us in and out…but Crawly was warned by a traitor…I strongly believe is on my team. Jacie, I need you to ferret the traito
r out, and find a way to get to Celine.”

  The room buzzed with Retaal’s members all talking at once. Everyone seemed to be offering one another very strong pros and cons.

  Ret put up his hand and the room fell silent. “We can’t work together, Niall. You would kill every human in their prison system to get our brethren free, and we…”

  “Yeah, yeah, but I think we can agree on a few things. They…our own, are being tortured worse, now that you have escaped, than ever before. I have a witch, Aya, in my circle, who is a lesser witch in Celine’s coven. She escaped the ACE raid and came to me for help. So, there is that. She managed to telepathically get a message through to Celine, thus, the wards were temporarily undone for us. But they knew we were coming. Celine has not responded to Aya, and we can only guess that she is in a worse predicament than she was. I can try and do this on my own, with Aya’s help, but it would be risky, and I think your help would reduce that risk.”

  Jacie found this reasonable and responded immediately. “I can’t remember all the words that would allow me to contact Celine…yet. I am working on it. However, you need to know they are controlling the supernaturals and the Cumas with oxygen deprivation. They keep the airflow at the very lowest setting possible.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she noted Retaal’s irritation. She discounted it. Niall was on their side.

  Niall’s brow went up. “Clever devils.”

  “So, you have a traitor on your team,” Retaal said roughly. “I have no intention of working with you while a spy in your midst reports everything we do to ACE.”

  “Yes, but how do we know the spy isn’t one of yours?” Niall taunted.

  The room broke out in angry exclamations and agreement with Retaal. Retaal put up his hand once more, and hissed angrily before he answered low and hard, “Because none of mine knew that we had a shifter working undercover in the ACE unit. That’s why. Only Apollo, Jacie, and I knew that!”

  Again, a low hum of remarks buzzed through the open room.

  Niall waited for this to quiet and took up a chair to straddle it backwards as he leaned his chin onto the chair back and said, “Yes. I know that. I knew, of course, but did not share the information with my team.”

  “Your team came into contact with us when you entered the Dank, Niall. Any supernatural would have known I was a witch and Dog was a shifter.”

  He eyed her and nodded. “There is that. I have listened in without their knowing…to conversations I would love to forget, but nothing any of my team has said to one another has led to a conclusion as to who our traitor could be.”

  “Well, you are going about it quite the wrong way,” Jacie said.

  He grinned at her. “And you have a way you think might work?”

  “I am a witch, I always have a way that might work,” she teased.

  Chuckles went around the room, but as Jacie smiled, she noted Shoula was not smiling, not at all. Oh yeah, something was up with that one.

  Shoula had hatred written all over her face and in her body movements. Just how close had Retaal and this woman been?

  “And how would you go about ferreting out the traitor on my team?” Niall asked, genuinely hopeful.

  “Scanning each without their knowing,” she said. “You see, everyone gives off a scent when afraid, when angry, in pain, in love, in lust, and…in guilt. When you break a rule, even though you get away with it, your mind plays tricks on you that affect your body. You will still feel fear of getting caught, and perhaps some guilt. The residue of those combined emotions is strong. I can scan your team, one at a time, without their knowing and give you a likely suspect. It is not infallible. Someone who has committed a minor infraction could give off this scent, but I think it wouldn’t be as strong as someone who has been spying for the humans.” Jacie shrugged. “Worth a try.”

  Retaal took her in his arms and twirled with her. “Jacie, you are a wonder.”

  She was still annoyed with him. He had blown her off and that was so unlike his behavior when they had been alone. His earlier words didn’t match his present actions.

  Also, he had not even mentioned that he’d had a relationship with a female on his team and given her a heads up. He could have, and then she wouldn’t have been taken by surprise. But he hadn’t…why? She coldly pulled away from him, noting confusion flicker in his eyes.

  She took a step back from him and said, “However, there is always the chance that a powerful supernatural on your team could detect my magic and put up a shield. I shall try and cloak what I am doing, but as this is new to me…” she said, and shrugged.

  “You mean, someone might know? I don’t like that,” Retaal said. “Puts you directly in danger. If you are discovered, whoever it is will want to silence you.”

  Niall interjected, “I’ll be there.”

  “As will I,” Retaal snapped. “And I still don’t like it.”

  “Can’t have you there, my friend,” Niall said quietly.

  “Not your friend. So tell me, why you would think I wouldn’t be there?” Retaal’s face was stony.

  Jacie started to speak but held her tongue.

  Niall said, “Because I want to team up with you and yours to free our Cumas. Can’t allow the mole in my group to know my plans, just in case Jacie doesn’t ferret him out.”

  “Him?” Jacie said. “Why do you think the spy is a ‘him’? Could be one of your female members.”

  “Yes, could be…?” Niall said reflectively. “If only I could figure out what motivation would drive one of my own to betray us.”

  “Sometimes it is a simple thing, like revenge, sometimes it is the desire for power,” Jacie said.

  Niall looked momentarily puzzled. “Every single member of my team wants revenge, so that isn’t a help. Power? I don’t know anyone on my team that wants power.”

  “Who hates the humans to the point it affects their performance? Think on that. Who has ever expressed a desire for more independence?”

  “We’ll start with that,” Niall said, gravely troubled. “But the truth is, no one stands out.”

  “Someone on your team…” Retaal started irritably.

  “Yes, I know, someone on my team betrayed us and I can’t visualize who that might be!” Niall interrupted on a shout.

  “Yes, no…I am not certain,” Niall said. “I always believed Bethra would die first before betraying any of us,” Niall’s voice was adamant.

  “Come on, let’s visit your headquarters and have a friendly chat…with your team. You can tell them I am thinking of joining the rebels.” Jacie turned to Retaal. “You can’t join us because as Niall said, it would look suspicious. We want them at relative ease so I can do my thing.”

  Retaal was thrown into a frenzy of annoyance. Jacie noted this and took his hand. “I won’t be long.”

  “I don’t like this. We need to talk…”

  This supremely irritated her. Oh, she thought. When she wanted to talk, he walked away. Now, he needs to talk. Ha! She knew this was a childish reaction, but she gave way to it before she could stop herself.

  “Do we? We need to talk? Well…what did you say to me earlier when I wanted to talk? Oh yes, I remember—later.” Her chin indicated Shoula standing aside and watching them. “You’ll have pleasant company until I get back, won’t you?” She turned to Niall, who had been interested and watched them, his curiosity evident. “Do you shift us or do you want to make another grand entrance with a portal?”

  He laughed. “Caught that, did you?”

  She smiled, and he gave her his bent arm. “Here we go, my dear.”

  “Right, because we can’t waste any more time. I have to get up with Celine, and then I have a termite army to set to work.”

  He laughed out loud. “Ah, Jacie love.”

  She gave him a smile and turned towards Retaal, who stood angry and silent, and the last thing she saw as Niall shifted them was Shoula intimately stroking Retaal’s arm.

  ~ Twelve ~

&nb
sp; JACIE LOOKED AROUND NIALL’S HEADQUARTERS, which upon first impression looked much like Retaal’s. A large and open room that seemed to span forty feet in length.

  He led her to a huge conference table sat squarely in the middle.

  A large and modern kitchen was housed at the far end, where a wide hallway took an L-shape turn to where Jacie assumed were the sleeping quarters.

  She realized that the Cumas and supernaturals had gathered before them and that all eyes were on her. Their sudden arrival, or rather she was, of course, unexpected.

  Niall stood for a moment before he said, “That’s right, you may well wonder who I have brought into our fold.” He turned to Jacie. “You probably won’t remember names until you interact with my team members, so we’ll dispense with that amenity and move on to why you are here.”

  He waited for his team to digest this before he gave them a warm smile, as though to calm their concerns.

  Jacie saw at once that some of them were suspicious, while others were merely curious.

  Niall touched her elbow and began, “Jacie is the immortal witch Apollo raised after her parents were killed by humans about ten years ago. I know that all of you are familiar with that story, and there is no need to belabor the fact that Jacie’s many powers are in her DNA. However, what you may not know is that Apollo thought enough of her to share some of his most intimate magic with her, and she acquired the abilities he chose to give her with ease.” He paused and allowed this to sink in before continuing, “I had the privilege of a meeting with her and tried to convince her to join us. She declined, however, her partner, as you all know, a wolf shifter and his mate were brutally tortured by the unit she infiltrated. She is now free to join us, and I thought we might work out a compromise.”

  “What kind of a compromise?” a tall and lanky male demigod wanted to know.

  “Jason,” Niall said in way of an introduction as he turned to Jacie, “is one of my best. We have had more missions together than I can count. His family was taken by surprise during the Purge. His mother was a human and for the crime of mating with a Cuma, she was burned at the stake. His power over the minerals and metals in the earth is a great asset. Would you like to answer him, Jacie, or shall I?”