by Kaye Draper
I grinned. "Who said we were going to get hot and heavy?"
He rolled his eyes, pulling away. "I've met you and your mates. Gods, all you lot do is fuck. And argue."
I laughed. "You're just jealous. Or maybe you're afraid you can't keep up, since you're so ancient and all."
He took my hand and pulled me to my feet to go up on deck and join the others. "Ha." Then his voice grew serious again. "I'm not into all that orgy stuff," he said as he turned away.
I was going to rib him about it, but I saw the tension in his shoulders. Uh-oh. Seemed like our mage didn't want to be part of the group. I sighed. I couldn't figure him out. One minute he was kissing me like he was the other half of my soul. The next minute he was implying he had no interest in sex.
It was his loss, but if he didn't want that kind of relationship, we'd make it work. Whatever he needed to feel like he belonged.
Chapter 14
The trip home was pretty uneventful, thank the Gods. No more pirates. Maybe the disappearance of an entire ship full of the assholes had scared the others away.
Kaimana got even more visitors as we chugged along toward the African coast. It seemed word had gotten out about the appearance of the mythical kraken, and all the sea folk wanted to see the majestic creature for themselves. I watched this whole thing with my guard up. But thankfully, Kai's ego didn't get any bigger and we all survived the attention.
The siren-rejects were the most annoying thing we had to deal with. I had stupidly hoped that once we got them to the mainland, they wouldn't be my problem anymore. But, as usual, I was wrong. The kids all started to open up and get a bit of their confidence back over the week that we were on the water. I had encouraged them to make themselves at home, to ask for what they needed. To basically stop being fucking doormats because they were entitled to be alive, no matter what the other sirens had drilled into their heads.
So, I had only myself to blame.
I crossed my arms and stared down at the siren boy who had become their spokesperson and ringleader. My eyelid was starting to twitch, and the nausea was lifting its ugly head to remind me we hadn't vomited in a while.
"You can't leave us here," the boy demanded. Okay, so he was probably an adult. He couldn't be much younger than Hisashi. But the guy had lived a sheltered existence. They all had. Which made this even harder. They kind of just expected the older adults to make all their life decisions. They were panicking now that I was trying to set them free.
The guy tossed a mop of sleek, curly brown hair out of his vivid turquoise eyes and glared at me, the others standing nervously behind him. "We don't have anywhere to go," he said again. "And we don't want to stay here.” He cast an adoring glance at Kai, who was currently on the other side of the deck looking out at the approaching African coast, pretending this wasn't all her fault. "We go where the kraken goes."
I rolled my eyes. "The kraken is going back to bum-fuck Michigan. You guys would be bored out of your minds there. Besides, I can't fucking put you on an airplane when you don't fucking exist. You have to have paperwork—ID, passports, fucking birth certificates."
He gave me a mutinous look that would have been cute if I didn't want to strangle him. Why the fuck had I encouraged this stubborn streak? I think I preferred it when they were all docile and helpless.
"And what do we do here in this place without those things?" he asked softly. "Would you have us saved from death just so we can go beg on the streets?"
Kai pushed away from the railing and came to join us. "We're almost there," she said calmly, as if she hadn't just interrupted an epic staring match between me and turquoise-eyes.
I scowled. My gryphon sensibilities were not happy about just ditching the kids on the first land mass we came to and flying off into the sunset. The guy was right, their lack of identities would be a big problem. Though, probably not as much of a problem as they would be in some other countries. Still, what were the chances of these kids making good lives for themselves here with such a handicap, and no life experience? I huffed.
Kai patted my shoulder and gave me a stupid, know-it-all look. "We all know you aren't really going to just leave them here."
I growled.
Turquoise-eyes pressed his lips together, suppressing a smirk. Asshole.
"What the hell am I supposed to do, Kai? We can't take them on the plane in our suitcases," I grumbled.
Kai rolled her eyes. "What are friends for?"
I bared my teeth at her. "I am not friends with that asshole and I'm not asking him for another favor."
She raised a black brow at me, dark blue eyes sparkling, that know-it-all look never leaving her lush lips. "Sure."
I gritted my teeth together. Then I stomped off to find Orion. Fucking pain in my ass pride. Damned gryphon valor. Life would have been so much easier if I was born a vampire, or a ghoul, or something.
Orion smiled at me when I entered the pilothouse. "Hello, Gesa. Excited to be back on land soon?"
I glared at the incubus.
He just smiled back at me. "Was there something you needed?"
I closed my eyes. He knew what I wanted. He just wanted to hear me ask. "Can you and your…employer get those kids back to Michigan?"
He gave me a fond look. "I'm sure Mr. White wouldn't mind if I used his resources to help out a friend in need."
I shook my head. "He's going to want a favor in return."
Orion kept smiling. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind the offer."
"Oh, I'm sure he fucking wouldn't," I grumbled. Every time White helped me out, I ended up owing him something that got me into even deeper shit.
Orion laughed and patted me on the shoulder. "Oh, stop growling, Miss Lionheart. I'll keep the outcasts here with me and we'll make our way back however we must. By the time we get to the states, I'm sure everything will be sorted out and we'll find their lost passports and ID. So frustrating when these little mix-ups occur with paperwork, don't you agree?"
I let out a massive breath. "I hate demons."
He only kept smiling. "We're quite fond of you too, Gesa. And…our kind don't make friends easily."
I shook my head. "Gee, I wonder why," I said in my most sarcastic tone. Fucking demons.
His expression softened, and he opened his mouth to say something more, but I held out a hand to stop him. "Sorry. Gotta go puke."
I left the pilothouse to the smooth sound of incubus laughter.
Hisashi found me heaving my guts out over the railing. He rubbed comforting circles on my back with a big hand and brushed my hair back from my sweaty face. "It's going to be pretty hard to explain when you get home on dry land and you're still puking," he said calmly.
I rested my forehead against the cool metal railing and stared at my feet, trying to catch my breath. "I don't know what you're talking about," I said, swallowing hard against another wave of sickness.
My fox just patted my back. "Okay."
Con joined us at the rail and gave me a sympathetic look. "Should I make you some more ginger tea? Or are you going to tough it out?" He tucked my hair behind my ear, and I couldn't look at him when he added, "We're almost there. Once you're back on dry land, I'm sure you'll feel better."
Hisashi moved his hand up to the back of my neck, squeezing the tight muscles there before moving away. "I'll go make sure Oisin's done packing up. If we don't watch it, him and Kai will have us all in the water before they miss their chance."
I huffed a laugh. Although, it was kind of crappy that we hadn't had a chance to find a beach somewhere and let the kraken enjoy her element. I made a promise to myself to book some sort of ridiculous beach getaway for all of us when we got home and got this whole mage thing settled.
I straightened and refused to let myself look over my shoulder to watch Hisashi walk away. He knew, Godsdamn it. And I really wasn't ready to have that fucking conversation.
Chapter 15
I had never been so happy to see the dusty old bookstore in my life. I stretched
my arms over my head, easing stiff muscles from being cramped into an airplane, then a taxi, for days on end. The tingle of the protective wards on the apartment felt like a greeting from an excited puppy. Home. We were finally fucking home.
"Move your rear end, gryphon," Halstad's gravelly voice bitched from behind me.
I stepped out of the doorway to let the others in. Turning, I met the mage's mismatched eyes. "Welcome home, crabby-ass."
He gave me an indecipherable look and trudged through the bookshop toward the stairs. I sighed. This was his home now, no matter how much he grumbled about it being impossible for us to get him away from the guild's clutches.
Oisin wrapped his slender arms around me from behind, resting his head on my back. "I don't know what he's complaining about. It's a beautiful rear. You can put it in my way anytime you want," he purred as he rubbed against my ass. "How about a nice nap after all that travel?"
I snorted. "That would be great, if I thought you actually meant we'd be napping."
The fae laughed. "There would be naps after."
Kai wormed her way into our hug, wrapping her leach-like arms around us both. "No, we all need a nice relaxing bath first. Then naps."
I groaned.
Hisashi ruffled Oisin's hair, then paused to give me a kiss before dragging Con toward the stairs. "You're all idiots. What we need is Con in a real kitchen. Pasta. Cookies. Real coffee. Those little tarts…."
My stomach rumbled in approval. The nausea was still there, but it was better since getting off the boat. And I was hungry as fuck.
Con laughed and let Hisashi drag him up the stairs. "Fine. But I swear, you are cleaning up when Oisin manages to turn my nice, clean kitchen into a porno set."
I shook my head at the idiots and followed them upstairs.
I would love nothing more than to eat Con's food, soak in the bath with Kai, fuck my pride senseless, then sleep for a couple of days. But the truth was, we didn't have time to rest yet.
"Con, if you wouldn't mind, food sounds great. I'm going to go call my sister. Oisin and Hisashi, you've got calls to make too." I turned to Kai, my entire being full of dread over what I was about to unleash. "And Kai…I need you to pick out clothes for us. Something intimidating. We're going to go destroy a guild."
Kai grinned and clapped her hands together, clasping them to her cleavage. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" I knew she wasn't talking about the clothes.
Sometimes I worried about her.
A couple of hours—and one tense conversation with my family—later and we stood at the entrance to the mage guild. Not the courthouse where they conducted business, but at the actual area guild house about two hours west of Ontonagon. It was pretty impressive for such an out of the way location. Made me wonder if the guild and their mages were more present than I thought they were in both supe and human society. The place looked like a cross between the capitol building and a gothic orphanage.
I curled a lip in disgust as I stared up at the archway that proclaimed the place an artisan's guild. Right. If by art you meant business, war, and power over others.
We were met at the doors by a pair of guards—mages, of course—wearing slick uniforms and covered in crisscrossed bands containing charms and potions. "Do you have an appointment?" one of them asked in a gruff voice.
I smiled. "Yep. One that's way overdue."
Halstad crossed his arms and glared at the mages, a little of his own power flaring. "Just get the fuck out of the way, Smith. You know the assholes in charge are going to want to know why I'm here. Y'all are just asking for an ass whoopin'."
I snorted. So, maybe Kai wasn't wrong when she said Halstad and I were a lot alike. No need to play nice. It would be fun to kick these fuckers' asses. My gryphon would revel in it.
Hisashi joined us, and I could sense how badly he wanted to roll his eyes at me and Halstad. "I think what our friend means is that this is a political envoy. Please let whoever is home know that ambassadors from nearly all the major U.S. clans have arrived and wish to speak with them on an urgent matter."
Oisin waved a hand at them. "Off you go, scurry."
The mages hesitated a beat, but they weren't strong enough to resist Oisin's compulsion, and he'd caught them off guard. They both hurried off to do his bidding.
"Shall we?" Oisin asked, holding out an arm to me in a courtly gesture.
I chuckled and took his arm, even if it was ridiculous for the tiny, delicate creature to be escorting a hulking, leather-clad brute like me. "Lead on."
Halstad stomped off into the political goth orphanage, his long black Vanhelsing duster swirling, and we followed along. He led us past a few spluttering mages and staff and into a room that looked like a cross between a boardroom and a library. Old texts lined the walls, and a bunch of stuffy-looking wooden chairs with caster wheels surrounded a dented, scarred wooden table with runes carved into it.
"Research room," he muttered. "Table's spelled to withstand failed spells and shit."
I plopped down in a wheelie chair and spun around. "It smells in here."
Halstad shrugged. "The magic tomes. A lot of them are made from some pretty gross shit. Skin and scales and monster hide."
I remembered the gremlin skin book we'd found at the bookstore a while back and shuddered. "Ugh. Don't make me puke." Not that it took much these days.
It wasn't long before the lady I'd met at the petition hearing swept in, looking beyond pissed off. The Judge Judy wanna-be looked like she'd just been sucking on a lemon. She was followed by a few more humans and several mages. One of the mages was older than the rest, and his eyes landed on Halstad with a look like a constipated rhino.
"Hey there," I said to the head bitch. "Great to see you again. Thanks for inviting us."
She stood at the head of the table and glared. "I didn't."
I grinned. "Oh, but you kinda did. When you lied to me before? That was an open invitation for me to come back and kick your pruney ass, lady."
She bristled at that but didn't reply. Instead, she leveled her eyes on Halstad, who'd taken up a seat at the other end of the table. "Why are you here?"
He smiled at her, slow and wide. It was more of a threat than a grin. The mage could bare his teeth as well as any of the shifters in my pride. "You mean since the guild kidnapped me before my contract was up and shipped me half-way around the world?" He laughed, short and gruff. "I'm here so you can sever my mage bind."
She huffed. "Sever your bind? Are you insane? The guild would never give up an asset like you, Halstad, even if you are a complete pain in our collective asses."
The mage who'd been glaring at Halstad all this time stepped forward. "Boy, did you forget what happened the last time you tried this shit?"
Halstad drummed his square fingers on the table. "No, Rogers, I didn’t forget. Which is why my new friends here came along for moral support." He gestured at the rest of us.
I leaned forward, placing my forearms on the table. "We want his bind severed. He's coming with us, as a free man."
The woman scoffed. "I can't believe you are wasting my time with this, Miss Lionheart. Honestly, how embarrassing for you."
I growled. "The mage is my mate. He's coming with me. If the shifter community finds out you attempted to separate a shifter from their mate, you'll have hell to pay. You know how shifters feel about interfering with this."
The lady turned back to us, her entire posture rigid. I saw her look to the mages around her, as if she was considering ordering them to attack. I raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't, bitch. Not unless you want to start a war."
She pulled out the chair closest to her and sat stiffly. "I'm afraid your intimidation techniques will not work, Miss Lionheart. If word ever got out that this flimsy excuse was enough to break the mage bind, every mage in the guild would suddenly declare themselves mated to a shifter."
Hisashi brushed his silk robes aside and sat beside me, letting his spirit power swirl around him. He was wearing traditiona
l dress, and the blue rune burned into one side of his scalp was glowing. He focused his silver eyes on the woman, letting his glamour fall to reveal his half-shifted form. Gods, my fox was glorious—ethereal, and just a bit creepy.
"I don't think you quite understand your position, ma'am," the nine-tail said in his deep, soothing voice. "The mage belongs to us. Mates are a gift from the Old Gods. By withholding him, you would anger not only the gryphons, but the kitsune, and all the other shifters."
She swallowed. "We will not bow to threats from a bunch of beasts."
I let a low growl rumble in my chest. Fucking humans. I mean, I had no beef with them most of the time, but the ones like her…they'd discriminate against anyone for the right price.
Oisin came to stand behind me and Hisashi, placing a graceful hand on each of our shoulders. He was decked out like modern royalty in a tailored suit dripping with embroidery, gems glittering at his ears, neck, and hair. He was the vision of fae excess, and his hard emerald eyes glinted as he looked down on the gathered guild members like a bunch of bugs. "In case you forget," he said softly, "I also belong to this pride. I'm afraid the fae won't take kindly to the guild withholding a concubine from their king. It's a matter of honor, you see. One just does not interfere with consorts."
The woman clenched her teeth together so hard I heard them grinding.
The mage at her side—the High Mage, I guessed—seethed. "You think you can simply command the mage guild because you have a couple of self-important whores at your beck and call, gryphon?"
I grinned. "You don't know the half of it, asshole." I gestured at Kai. "Have you ever met a kraken, High Mage?"
I gestured at Con, standing quiet but defiant at Kai's side. "Oh, and let's not forget how dicey it is to offend witches. You just never know what kind of fallout that will cause—and it's so subtle too. You'd never know what was happening until it was too late. Hard to even prove some little accident or illness wasn't just a coincidence."
