by Lauren Dane
A gift of her inner life and the weight of that settled. Not crushing. Anchoring.
She’d been sort of tattered when they’d arrived. Her spine hunched, the tension rolling from her in waves. But when she came back to him, settling next to him on the bench, that was gone. Her ragged spaces seemed to have filled in. Her aura was brilliant, sunny yellow, the blue of the sky at summer.
She stretched. “This garden is fantastic. Whoever tends it does so with love. Every leaf seems to vibrate with it.”
“You can feel things like that?”
“Not always. But living things most especially. My mother says we get it through her. Lark is much the same, though she’s got this crazy affinity with birds. We’ve always loved being outdoors. There’s so much ambient magick in a garden. If it’s tended by someone who truly loves the work, the magick seems to leap to you when you call for it. The energy, the life force of the plant life fills in all your empty spots. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Seems to me you’re doing just fine.”
“I have a lot of plants in my apartment, but at the house I used to share with Lark, we had an inner courtyard like this and it was full of plants. After crazy shifts we’d often just sit out there and have a glass of wine, letting all the bad business wisp away. My mother is a big gardener. She loves it. All the stuff from her teas comes from her gardens at their house. I guess we do get it from her, though I’m not that gifted with green things. She’s special that way.”
He smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?” She clearly had no idea.
“For letting me share in this with you. This private side of yourself.”
“Oh. Well. I figured you’d find something restorative out here too. Shifters have that connection with nature as well. Different, but it’s there.”
He snorted. “I’m not a shifter.”
She turned, a mischievous grin on her lips, and his heart lightened.
“You’re human and you shift into a wolf.”
“You enjoy poking at me, don’t you?”
She raised a brow, but said nothing else and he chuckled.
“I’m Lycian. I am a beast who wears a man’s skin sometimes. And other times I wear fur. But I am always who I am, no matter the skin I wear. I do not need the moon or the tides. If I bit you, you’d bleed, but you wouldn’t be infected.”
“Did I insult you?” Her levity was gone, her question genuine.
He snorted a laugh and took her hand, squeezing it a moment. “No. We’re related in a distant manner, to shifters. But we are not the same.”
“Thank you for educating me. There’s so much I don’t know about everything out there in the universe. I thought I did until the Magister. Not knowing things makes me nervous.”
“There’s so much out there. Miraculous things.”
“I envy you that knowledge.”
“I can share it with you. If you like. I already said we’d go to Lycia when there’s a lull of a few days. There are other places. Beyond the Veil, I mean. I can part it, we can travel so you can see it all.”
“I’d really like that.”
And so he’d make it happen.
Her stomach growled. “Shall we go in and eat?”
He leaned in close. “After.”
“After?”
He reached out, cupping the back of her neck as he brushed his lips over hers. He’d intended a brief kiss, but she opened, sighing into him. Once that breath entered his system there was nothing brief about it.
He sank into her mouth, sliding his tongue over her juicy bottom lip and then inside, tasting the sweetness of her, the spice of her magick as it rose against him, twining around his.
Loam and fur, sun-dappled leaves and the lap of a lake against the shore filled him. Her magick, snowflakes and pomegranate slid around it. They were opposites and yet complementary.
Something clicked in him. An utter surety that he’d felt rarely enough that he trusted it to his toes.
He took her hand, squeezing it as he pulled away.
She nipped his bottom lip and he was back for more, deepening, his tongue dancing with hers. The sounds of the night all around them began to filter through the heat of their kiss. Of traffic on the street, voices just inside the house, the merrily running water just a few feet away.
When he broke the kiss, it was only because he knew there would be more.
Laughter sounded from inside and she smiled. “Let’s go in.”
He stood and she took his outstretched hand, letting him pull her up.
Chapter 7
“SO, you want to talk about anything?” Molly tried to hide her smile when she sidled up to Helena as they both filled their plates at breakfast.
“You scare me. It’s so early and you’re so perky. I do, however, covet that blouse.”
Molly preened a little. “It’s so nice to be around someone else who loves clothes as much as I do. Also? Fifty percent off. Sale rack. It was missing a button, but I can sew enough for that.”
“Nice score. The color is good on you.” It was true, Molly’s coloring worked well with the deep blue of the silk.
“Thanks. One of these days I’m going to take you shopping with me so you can show me all the places I can find clothes with enough pockets to hide weapons.”
Helena laughed. “You have Gage. You don’t need to hide weapons.”
“He does come in handy.” Molly blushed. “I have no idea how you manage to look like you’ve walked out of an ad for designer clothes when I know you’ve got guns and knives on your person, and you’ll still be able to run and kick people in the face.”
They moved to the table and sipped coffee.
“It’s a gift.” Helena winked. “It is hard to find pants cut right for ease of face-kicking though. The thing is, magick is easier to use, I don’t need special clothes for it and it’s free. Unfortunately, when I’m doing four things at once, a nice face kick clears the decks for me to do other things and not run my power down. Plus? It’s really satisfying to kick a jackwagon in the face.”
“What’s going on between you and Faine? I’m sorry for my bluntness.” Molly’s laugh told Helena she was no such thing. “He’s going to be lumbering down here with Gage any minute and I want to hear all the details.”
Helena hoped she wasn’t blushing. “Nothing really. I mean.” She looked toward the door and, finding the hallway empty, she leaned closer to Molly and kept her voice down. “He kissed me. A few times now. I like him. He’s ridiculously easy to look at, he’s got fists the size of giant hams, his butt is spectacular and he doesn’t try to do my job or treat me like a fragile flower. But, it’s just a kiss or three. We don’t have a lot of time to make it anything else, and that’s okay because he kisses pretty damned well.”
“I figured Tosh would make a move.”
“You’re the second person who’s said that to me lately. He is a lovely man, handsome, powerful, he knows how to wear a suit and I bet he knows his way around a lady’s business. But it’s not me he’s into. It’s Delilah. He gets a dreamy look on his face when he’s looking at her and thinks no one notices. Hello. My job to notice things.” Tosh really was cute, the way he crushed on Delilah.
“He’s always looking at your boobs. I just figured . . .”
Helena barked a laugh. “He’s a dude, Molly. Plus, if I do say so myself, I have great boobs. But when Delilah talks he watches her mouth. He likes to touch her a lot and he finds any excuse he can to seek her opinion and to sit next to her. Boobs are one thing—he looks at yours too, though he’s at least pretty wily and I figured no one noticed. But when a dude can’t stop looking at a woman’s mouth that’s a whole different level of interest.”
Molly’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Oh my goddess, you’re totally right! I’ve noted that he seems to listen to her well and now that you mention it, he does look at her mouth. Ha! I’m going to rub Gage’s face in this so much!”
Helena laughed a
s she ate her bacon. “He used to get that line between his brows every time you and Tosh would talk. And then he’d be all, ‘Oh, we’re just casual, it’s not a big deal’ about you.”
Molly rolled her eyes. “Lucky for him he’s gotten past that point now.”
“He is lucky. You’re a good catch. You smooth him out when he gets ragged.”
“Thank you. He’s . . . well, I never expected him.”
Helena figured that’s how it always worked. “It’s always the ones you do expect who fuck you over. You have your list—and I know you did, because we’re alike that way—so you get the guy who is 9 of 10 on that list and you feel so accomplished. And he turns out to be wrong for you in every way.”
“You lucked out. I mean, I don’t know the whole story. But the broken engagement.”
Helena liked Molly a great deal. They were alike in temperament, which helped just then when she decided to share.
“He hit on my sister. He was a fool and so was I for never seeing it. He was so perfect on the outside. He had a great job. He drove a great car. He was handsome, but not too handsome. His family was a great family. He stood up when my mother came into a room. My judgment is flawed, clearly, because I didn’t see past any of it to who he really was.”
Molly waved that away. “You were what? Twenty?”
“Twenty-three. I’d known him for years.” He’d made her feel pretty.
“We all make mistakes. I’m sure Lark made him sorry he hit on her, and you did the right thing by breaking up right away.”
“I’m assuming you heard the whole story.”
“No, I mean, I knew he hit on Lark and she told you and you broke things off and things were tense between you two for a while. But that’s really it.”
“Things weren’t tense because I blamed her. I would never, ever have believed she’d betray me like that. He was mistaken in any attempt to claim that. I should thank him though because once he tried that it made it even easier to cart him to the curb and leave him there. He was a dick. Is a dick. I doubt he’s changed.” She chewed her bottom lip.
“You don’t have to say more. But if you want to, I’m here. I like you, Helena. I consider you a friend and I’d like you to confide in me, but I understand it’s hard.”
“My judgment is bad. That’s really it. Later, once he was gone and I looked back, I could see it all so clearly. All the stuff he did that was crappy. But I missed it during the relationship. Or maybe I ignored it. Either way?” Helena shrugged. “It was pretty obvious. I didn’t care that he looked at other women. He’s a dude, they all do. Most of them just do it well enough that we don’t notice too much.”
“That’s respect.”
“Exactly. I look too, for heaven’s sake. But my sister. My. Sister. Lark never in a million years would do that to me. No matter what. I never doubted that. It just, it sucked that he’d try to betray me in any sense, but with the person I was closest to in the world. Hell, maybe I was jealous that he preferred her to me.”
Molly sniffed. “He did it to hurt you. He chose her because it would hurt you if you found out. Yes, Lark is lovely and I quite enjoy her. But he didn’t hit on her because he preferred her; he hit on her because he could, because he liked the thrill of the potential to get caught. And, I’d wager, he figured that even if she turned him down she’d never tell because Lark didn’t want to hurt you.”
Helena paused, thinking that over. “I guess I hadn’t thought of it that way.” She smiled, buttering her toast. “He seriously misjudged her if that was the case. She gave him a black eye and then she dragged him, by the ear mind you, to me and told me what he’d done. She was so outraged.”
“He’s clearly lucky to be walking without a permanent limp.”
She smiled at Molly. “He is.”
“Things are better now. Well, not like in the big picture, which seems to be full of bombings and shootings and that sort of thing. But Lark and I are close again. I’ve missed that. She’s in Seattle though. But maybe . . . maybe it’s better that way.” Maybe Lark needed to be in a place where she could make her own decisions, which were clearly better than Helena’s choices anyway.
“She misses you a great deal. And I know what you mean about things being better, some things anyway.”
“Gage.”
Molly nodded. “Yes. We had some rocky moments. But in the end, he comes to me. He accepts his feelings and he’s at my side. I’m glad to have that. Especially now when things seem so dark. But back to Faine. Things are moving in a good direction. I like that because he’s a sweetheart and you deserve someone like him.”
“Well, don’t go registering us at department stores or anything. Just a kiss. Things are way too busy for anything else, and to be totally honest with you, I don’t know if I’m cut out for a relationship.”
Molly thought this was hilarious. “Not a kiss. Kisses. Which is different. Also, he’s not some twenty-four-year-old human. Lycians, like all alpha males”—she snorted—“they don’t play around like that. He’s four hundred. He and Simon, males like them, they know what they want and they will stop at nothing until it happens. He’s not smitten with you. Not only smitten anyway. He wants you. He watches you work and it’s clear he approves. I say ride that train because you need it.”
Helena guffawed. “You’re sort of dirty.”
Molly winked. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Ha. It’ll be our secret.”
Shortly after that they heard footsteps down the back stairs.
“Thanks for listening.”
Molly shrugged. “I can say the same. It’s what friends do. Also? Can’t wait to see the looks on their faces as they realize we’ve been talking and they don’t know about what.”
“My respect for you grows every time I see you.” Helena winked and went back to her breakfast as Faine and Gage entered the room.
* * *
TOSH didn’t see much more than Helena’s back and Faine to her right. Big dude, and so not like any shifter he’d ever seen. Then again, it wasn’t like he had a huge amount of experience with shifters.
Speaking of . . .
He looked to his left and caught Delilah’s profile. “You all right?”
The crowd all around them surged, but he trusted his people and Helena’s magick to hold it all back. When things were tense like this, he could sense Delilah’s otherness. The wildness in her eyes, just beneath her skin. It made him a little sweaty. In a good way.
But just then she was angry.
“I don’t spend ninety hours a week working for my constituents to have people call me names. Oh sure, we’re supposed to have thick skins, but how much deeper can these assholes dig, huh?”
He wanted to brush the hair away from her forehead, wanted to ease her stress. God knew there was enough to go around just then. Raised voices buffeted them from all sides, though he was pleased to note it wasn’t all negative. But Marlon knew how to pack a hearing room, he’d been doing it for years, and stupid, fearful people were easily manipulated.
Helena held a hand up, bringing them all to a stop. So serious, his friend. All business as she spoke to the capitol police officer who was at the side door where they’d entered the room. He nodded and Faine went first, two other guards followed and then Helena waved them forward.
“Remember the days when the worst thing about a hearing with Marlon Hayes was having to listen to his asshattery for an hour?”
Delilah giggled a moment and touched his shoulder. “Thanks for that. I needed the laugh.”
They moved to their seats at the dais and Helena settled a few rows higher with several other aides and guards. She’d gone into some sort of watchfulness, still, seemingly calm and relaxed, but he knew better.
“Funny how he doesn’t need bodyguards.” Tosh lifted his chin in Senator Hayes’ direction as the smarmy bastard glad-handed his way over. He shot a glare toward Molly, who was, this time, sitting on the panel with the rest of the experts.
&
nbsp; “If he keeps pushing this agenda, he will. I’ve spoken with a lot of my people back home. Things are getting worse. If he pushes, he’s going to get way more than he bargained for. They keep underestimating people they themselves refer to as monsters. Which is a tactical error of epic proportions.” Delilah moved to her seat, just a row behind, and pulled her notes out.
It was and he knew it. The Others were done waiting around to be protected by their government and law enforcement. They were done being patient, and people like Marlon Hayes were too caught up in the power politics of appealing to the hateful fringe that they lost sight of what was really going on.
Toshio feared for everyone. For humans most of all, because they were afraid and he understood that fear. Understood, too, that witches like Molly Ryan were attempting to keep communication open between humans and Others to alleviate the fear.
Sadly, he also understood that it was humans like Hayes who were too eager to label that attempt at openness as some sort of manipulation. In the end, if humans didn’t reject the hateful assurances of Marlon Hayes and PURITY that they only had to corral the Others and detain them, treat them like animals and the problem would disappear—if they didn’t see it for the lie it was, it would be to their detriment.
There was no way. The humans could pass all the laws they wanted, but if they tried to enact them . . . well, there’d be open civil war with an enemy they could have easily kept as an ally. An enemy far more powerful than even hysteria pushers like Hayes could understand.
He blew out a breath and paid attention as the hearing was called to order.
* * *
HELENA kept an eye on the room as she listened to the hearing start up.
“This bill isn’t about harming the nonhumans, as they’ve preached to you. This bill is about protecting natural-born Americans. Real Americans who are human. You saw what they did with their little speech threatening us all. This bill doesn’t call to kill anyone. It will assure us all that these abominations are no longer allowed to live among us and hide their real agenda.”
