Heart of Darkness

by Lauren Dane

  “Just to be totally up front, it’s my aim to equip all our witches from the earliest ages to defend and repel an attack by these mages. We either live in fear or learn how to deal with the threats ourselves. If we do it enough, they’ll leave most of us alone. That won’t protect everyone, but it’s easier to protect a smaller group.”

  The council took a vote and unanimously decided to support the trainings and the cross-training with other groups on a trial basis. Meriel would be in charge of making sure nothing any outsider was exposed to was of a clan-only nature.

  “I’ve another matter,” Dominic spoke as Meriel was putting her cap back on her pen.

  “Yes?” Edwina made a continue motion with her hand.

  “Some of you may have heard that my biological mother may be involved with some of these mages. I wanted you to feel free to ask me any questions you might have to address anything you might be bothered by.”

  Of course if anyone gave him any trouble, she’d take care of that right away. Not that she was biased or protective or anything.

  A few people asked but thankfully no one accused or seemed to view him with suspicion. Probably in large part because Edwina had so publically thrown her support behind Dominic. Meriel would never forget that.

  As the meeting had adjourned, Nell stopped Meriel. “I think I found her.”

  “I should call her myself.” Dominic groused.

  Meriel took a deep breath and looked to Nell. Nell had found a phone number that may or may not belong to Gloria Ochoa. Between what Rodas told them and her own investigative work, Nell had compiled quite the dossier on the woman.

  “Don’t look at me.” Nell shrugged.

  “I should call her myself,” he repeated. “This is my mother.”

  “Do you still hold out hope she’s innocent in all this?” Meriel tried to keep the question neutral.

  “No. I don’t. I think she’s part of it. How much I don’t know, but it looks pretty damning for her.”

  “Why don’t you call her on your own? I mean, you can do it here and now, but as Dominic her son.” Nell sipped her tea.

  “Because I’m not just speaking as her son. This is my clan too. Shit.” He burst from his chair and began to pace. “I don’t need my woman to do my dirty work.”

  Meriel only looked at him, letting him get it all out.

  “Why don’t we go home? Hm? You have to be at Heart of Darkness in a few hours. You haven’t had dinner yet.”

  He paused and sighed, knowing she was soothing him but not caring. “You’re coddling me.”

  She shrugged.

  “All right. Call her. You call her now and we’ll go home. I’ll call her too if I decide to.”

  Meriel waited for him to change his mind but he didn’t.

  She dialed the number and got the voice mail. Logically, she knew it wasn’t necessarily Gloria. But she didn’t need that. Her magick was going off in her belly like sparks.

  When the brief message ended, Meriel began to speak. “I’m calling for Gloria Ochoa. My name is Meriel Owen and I believe you and I have a little problem. It seems you might be under the misapprehension that you’re allowed to come onto our earth and harm my family. This is, of course, untrue. In fact, I’d like to have a discussion with you about these issues.” She gave her number for callback and hung up.

  Nell snorted. “I know it was foolish to hope she’d have a voice mail recording that identified her as Gloria Ochoa. You did well. If it’s her, she’ll call back. She’ll use this number and I have an awesome new spell to work with the trace program. It unravels confusion spells. Arel, the hunter at Rodas, showed Gage. It’s awesome.”

  Meriel nodded. “Good.”

  “You didn’t tell her you and I were bonded,” Dominic pointed out.

  “I don’t know if she knows you’re dead or alive and I have no plans to aid her in figuring it out.”

  “You don’t think she’s going to stay away, anyway. Do you?”

  “No. I think your mother knows you’re alive. And I think it was her in my building.”

  It was Nell’s turn to explode from her chair. “What? What? Why didn’t you tell me this before? How do you know?”

  “William will kill me if you get all worked up and you go home to him all grouchy. Sit down. When we used that spell to boost our othersight in my building yesterday, it stripped back some of the other things we see in regular othersight. I can see Dominic’s energy right now. Yours too and the baby. In addition to marking you as witches, there are marks, you know what I mean. Little things that identify the person. I missed it when we were there yesterday since everyone got so excited. But when I went back over there today I used normal othersight at first, just without thinking. And the smudge in my hallway had a lot of the same markers Dominic has. What are the odds it’s not her? It’s just a feeling.”

  “That’s not just a feeling. You have some reason to feel it.” Nell ran her fingers through her hair, making it stand on end. Automatically, Meriel reached out to pat it down and the two women paused to grin at each other.

  “If you two ever feel the need to kiss, you know just to get on with the friend thing, you should feel free.” Dominic winked and Meriel laughed. “As for the other? I think Nell’s right. It could be a coincidence. But how many coincidences can there be before we just accept what’s going on? Also, I’m really pissed you didn’t tell me.”

  “I didn’t connect it right away. It wasn’t until about half an hour ago that it clicked. It was bothering me, but I didn’t know why. Sometimes I do that, you know. My brain sort of takes over thinking about stuff in the background and I don’t notice until the lightbulb moment. And I still don’t know. Not for sure.”

  “If that’s her, she’ll call back. Especially if that was her in your building. She’ll have to, just to rub your nose in it. I say we don’t need to mention the Dominic-is-your-son thing unless she already knows. Why should we expose Dom to that if he doesn’t have to be? Also, it might make her worse.”

  Meriel liked that Nell was protective of Dominic, that they’d all made friends. It would have sucked if one of them hadn’t liked the other’s man.

  “Well, you guys go on. I’ve got your building on our watch list. My staff does a drive-by several times a day. Sometimes at random they’ll go in and check things out. Now that we’ve got this new othersight Meriel learned, we’ll add that. It should help a lot. And of course you’ll still be accompanied by a guard when you’re at work and out and about.”

  Meriel hugged Nell before kissing her cheek. “You doing all right?”

  “So far so good. No morning sickness for a week or two. I sleep a lot but that’s okay. When I wake up, William is there with a cup of tea and some snuggles. He takes care of me.” She blushed, shrugging.

  “Of course he does. Why don’t we all go out together? We’ll walk you to your car.”

  Dominic held two elbows out, Meriel took one and Nell the other.

  Chapter 24

  DOMINIC watched the bar. Something wasn’t right and it didn’t set well with him. It was most likely all this business with his mother had put him on edge. Simon prowled around keeping the women entertained. Which was nice as obviously he couldn’t anymore, even if he wanted to. Meriel was not the kind of woman who’d find it cute that he let anyone rub up on him. She’d probably maim him for it.

  He grinned.

  She’d taken to stopping in on the weekend nights and hanging out with him. He knew she wasn’t much for club hopping and she was also an early riser, but it pleased him that she made room in her life for him and what made him happy too. He liked seeing her at his table with her laptop. Yes, she even did work there. Or enjoyed a drink with Simon or their friends.

  He just liked that she wanted to be with him and that she did it in a way that felt natural. He was lucky. Despite all the nonsense with the mages, he was lucky to have this woman in his life.

  Dominic examined the wards again and then opened up his ot
hersight to take the room in. So much magick here. Others packed the place nightly. It was more than a nightclub; it had turned into a sort of general hangout and meeting place. He liked that too. Profits were up and he didn’t have the stress of thinking about what the clan would do when they found him lifting from their font. He was proud. Heart of Darkness felt like his in a way it hadn’t until then.

  He didn’t need the extra help now. Between him and Meriel, the warding was fine-tuned and powerful. He had no need to borrow magick now that he knew how to use his own. Admittedly he got a kick out of that.

  The place continued to fill up as the evening wore on. There were the usual problems. He had to threaten a table of Weres to behave or be barred.

  It was a waste of his time to have to stalk around to keep people in line. He gave them this place and they couldn’t just act like they had some sense?

  “Why is it so hot in here? Fix that,” he barked at one of the servers, who scampered off to take care of it.

  He slugged back a few drinks and then switched to water. His head hurt. He needed more sleep. But he wanted to be with Meriel when he could. There were always others who’d take up her time if he didn’t claim it. Always someone who couldn’t seem to do it themselves so Meriel had to do it. Like she was their mother. Stupid.

  Dominic made a move to go back to his office but Simon hailed him with a wave.

  “There a problem?”

  “It’s hot. The DJ is fucking things up with this crap. I know I told him I didn’t want trance back here. Gets the vampires all worked up. Plus it annoys me. Don’t know why I have to say things a hundred times to get it taken care of.”

  Simon looked at him closely. “Wards holding up?”

  “Far as I can see. I used othersight and everything looks okay there too. We’ve got some pissed-off Weres near the bar, but I already told them they’d be barred if they didn’t keep it together. I can’t have all this fighting here. That’s worse than worrying over this mage bullshit. Last thing I need are bar fights back here.”

  “You’re on edge. I trust that. Something doesn’t feel right.”

  And then she walked in, scanning the room until she found him. Her smile made his head feel a little better. But he didn’t like the way men always looked at her.

  “She’s a pretty woman, you know that? Fresh and lovely. Always smells good. That witchy—”

  “Do you think I want to hear you wax rhapsodic about my woman’s smell?”

  “Whatever. She smells good whether I tell you that or not.”

  “Simon!” She approached and patted Simon’s arm. “I love that suit. You’re looking very handsome.”

  “Me?”

  Meriel turned to him. “You’re handsome too.”

  He pulled her to his body and kissed her. He wanted everyone to see it and know she was spoken for.

  Simon cocked his head. “Hey, I need to talk to you two. Office?”

  Once the door was closed Simon turned, his arms crossed. “Someone is fucking with you.”

  Meriel nodded. “I agree.”

  “What?”

  “You’re on edge. Prowling around like a shifter. You’re hyperaggressive. The magick is pouring off you.”

  Dominic only felt rage. “What the fuck? You saying I’m so weak I’d be manipulated by some spell?”

  Meriel looked him up and down. “I can feel it. Through the bond. It has to be outside the club because I’d feel it if it was happening in here. The wards would sound with that kind of spell.”

  “You too?”

  With an indignant sniff, she turned, kicked her shoes off and her hands began to dance as she spoke under her breath. Magick filled the room, made his own rise in response to join hers. That’s when it felt like she grabbed a string and unraveled him. His stomach went into freefall and he held back a gag.

  And then things got really weird.

  She raised her voice, this time speaking aloud as she wove the spell. She tapped the font and shoved it all into Dominic so that he gagged with it. He held a hand out but she didn’t stop. Instead she took it and squeezed.

  Latin, yes, she was speaking Latin. He realized this as he warred to keep his consciousness and failed several times.

  And then she was on her knees and his ears popped and he could hear clearly again.

  He saw the red. “Blood?” He tried to stand, but dizziness made him stumble. Simon braced him and eased him into a chair.

  “It’s not yours. It’s Meriel’s.”

  His gaze shot to her and he found her pressing one of his handkerchiefs against her arm. “Did I hurt you?” He wanted to vomit.

  Concern filled her eyes then and she came to him, kneeling and taking his hand. “No. Do you think you ever could? Really?”

  “I don’t know. Baby, Christ, what happened?”

  “It was a possession spell. Someone was riding in your consciousness and trying to affect your behavior.”

  “Something was in me? And cut you?”

  “I needed the blood to cast it out. It was ugly and powerful and not mage magic. It was darker than that.”

  “You cut yourself for me? How could you do that? You are not to put yourself in danger like that.”

  She waved it away. “I’ll do what I need to and you can’t stop me from protecting what’s mine. Anyway, it’s locked out. My blood mixed with the spell. The way is blocked.”

  “How can this have happened? I thought my magick was locked, that you can’t be possessed … like demon possessed? Is that what the Latin was? Meriel, did you fucking exorcise me?” Sickness clawed at his insides.

  “In a manner of speaking, yes. See what I mean about how we can learn from other kinds of practitioners?”

  “Faith as magick?” Simon asked, handing her a bottle of water and then one to Dominic.

  “Negative energy, no matter what you want to call it, can be affected by belief. The words hold power. I gave them intent.”

  “But I can’t be demon possessed. I’ve done a lot of bad shit, but never dark magicks. Ever.”

  Her face washed into a blank mask and he knew it before she even spoke. “If someone is of your blood, they can do it if they’re close enough. Siblings. Parents.”

  “You’re telling me my mother just called a fucking demon into me? Like the guys who watch my front doors here?”

  “No, not a demon. More precisely, I’m saying your mother was the bridge to let a very dark energy ride into you. It’s not like you think. Your head won’t go round three hundred and sixty degrees or anything. No levitating. But this dark chaos she let in can eat away at your foundations. At your boundaries and filters. Over time she could use you to be violent or other such things. She used her flesh-and-blood connection with you to let it in.”

  “Get it out of me. Now. Or take me to the middle of the forest and leave me. I can’t be around you if I can’t trust myself.”

  He felt unclean. What sort of people had he come from?

  “Let’s go home. I’m going to ask Gage’s mother to come over. She’s a healer of sorts and can help you flush the darkness out.”

  “No. Are you listening to me? Simon, take her to her parents’ house right now.”

  “She can’t get in again.” Meriel got in his face, his shirt gripped in her hand. “Listen to me, Dominic. She can’t. Nothing and no one else can. I’m there now. I cut off that bond to her. I cut it off and cauterized it and then I put my own energy there. She can’t get in. You’re not going to go anywhere but home with me.”

  “How do you know?” God, he couldn’t bear it, couldn’t bear to think on hurting her. How could she ever trust him again? Would she be scared of him forever?

  “Because it’s my spell and your mother is a punk-ass bitch in the magick department. Oh, that’s right.” Meriel was pissed off, he realized. Not upset with him, not afraid of him at all. But murderously pissed off at Gloria Ochoa.

  Simon eased back and sat on the corner of the desk as they settled in to
watch Meriel.

  “I got her number. She’s a fucking amateur wearing a costume of a powerful witch. She will not get in because you are mine and that is that. She can’t best me. Not ever. I am badass, Dominic. I know most people don’t know it, but you better believe it. I will tear her apart when I find her. You can bet on that. I. Am. Not. Having. This.”

  He exhaled long and hard and took her in.

  Magnificent.

  Glorious.

  Righteous.

  “I am stupid in love with you.” He moved to her, putting his arms around her. Their magick flared and flowed into the room again. It felt good to be back in synch.

  Her rage faded as she smiled sort of crookedly at him. “You love me?”

  “Ah, I should go now.” Simon stood.

  Startled into remembering Simon’s presence, she straightened. “We’re going to go home.” Meriel pulled her phone out and called Gage’s mother about coming over.

  The way she gave orders was ruthlessly precise. She was putting a plan together. She might wear novelty socks and know all the words to Grease, but she did things with a purpose. Gloria had issued a challenge. And Meriel would answer that. But she’d do so only after she had considered every option and mapped out every single factor. His woman would understand and be prepared to beat every possible attack.

  “You all right?” Simon asked.

  “Yeah. I just … she made it okay. It was like I was far away and then she was there pulling me back to shore. Watching her right now, I’m just struck by how truly lucky I am.”

  “She’s right, you know. Gloria can’t get in again. You were out of it for a while when Meriel was doing the spell. I’ve never seen magick like that. She reflected what your mother was putting out to keep the bridge open and then she stole it. Like yanked it out of her. Whipcrack. And it’s over. Epic witchery. I am impressed as hell.”