Lore vs. The Summoning

by Anya Breton

  A guilty blush coated my cheeks at being caught scrutinizing the painting. I hoped he wouldn't be able to see my flush from his distance. Discreetly I glanced back at him while considering many responses to his question. He was dressed in a pair of fine black trousers, a matching double-breasted waistcoat that held a shadow striped pattern, a black and silver striped tie and crisp white undershirt. Over his arm he carried the jacket that most certainly finished the three-piece suit.

  His hair was shorter tonight, falling only a few inches below his shoulders, and it was silky straight. He was trying on an auburn-tinged maple color. The narrow nose of the previous night was gone in favor of something more fitting the oval face he was sporting. There was a gentle rounding of his chin instead of the square-jaws he'd been experimenting with recently. I thought this one might be his best yet because of the delectable dimple at its center. But as always, his silver irises shone brightest.

  In the end I looked away so I could answer his question with the truth and not sound breathless. "I wasn't able to find out who the men last night were working for so I came to pick your brain about demon summoning."

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Aiden gesture to one of the cream colored damask sofas. "Won't you sit?"

  "No," I said a little too sharply before softening my voice and following up with, "Thank you."

  In a soft, urging voice he said, "Please, I insist."

  "I might bleed on it. I'll stand."

  "You aren't bleeding."

  Damn it. I forgot who was talking to. With a firm shake of my head I replied, "I'd really rather stand."

  "Very well then." He began to cross the room toward me, voice even without a hint of ire. "We shall stand."

  His shiny leather shoes made noise as he walked, something they hadn't done minutes earlier when he'd appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Had he floated above the ground to pull that off?

  "You've a great interest in the Battle of the Boyne?" He asked in his amused voice once he'd cut the distance between us in half.

  "Is that what this is?" I replied dully while staring at the painting to avoid staring at him.

  "It is." He'd come to rest mere inches away from me. I could clearly see him in my peripheral vision as we both stood gazing at the broad painting.

  A shrug was all the answer I could manage. His proximity was messing with my ability to think. That sweet scent of his, rather like a warm cinnamon roll with delectable icing, drew entirely naughty thoughts of what he'd taste like.

  His maple hair slid to the side when his head tilted toward me. "Why would you bleed on my couch? Were you hurt last night after I left you?"

  "I was hurt last night before you did," I pointed out rather than give him a straight answer.

  "You weren't bleeding then."

  "They had guns and one of them was a shifter," was the response I gave.

  "You shouldn't have gone back inside. There was no need." His voice went sharp as if he were angry. I couldn't recall him ever becoming upset in the past.

  "Sure there was," I answered as lightly as I could manage. "I got kidnappers off the streets of Boston. Speaking of which, did those girls make it home safely?"

  "Is that the true reason behind your visit, Miss Denham? Have you come to search my abode for cages?"

  "You can't blame me for thinking it," I said with a quick, mildly defensive tone.

  "What have I done to deserve so egregious an insult twice in as many days?"

  The wounded tone of voice made me glance at him to see if it were feigned. Instead of the usual half-hooded bedroom eyes I was coming to equate with him, his eyelids were folded all the way back. The slight twist of his lips to the left and the crinkling of the soft skin above his nose completed his expression. He looked legitimately irritated.

  "Nothing," I admitted in all seriousness with my shoulders slumping just a hint. My attention resumed on the painting. "I'm sorry."

  Aiden's head inclined slightly. "You are forgiven." But his irritation hadn't faded.

  I decided to steer this conversation onto a safer path. "The women were being held, alive, in cages. Would there be a need for five women in a demon summoning?"

  "There is always a need of a sacrifice in an evocation or summoning of a powerful entity. Some practitioners choose trinkets, plants, or animals." He looked off to the corner of the room as if in thought before adding, "Yes, it is entirely possible they were being kept alive for that purpose."

  "Then they'll need to find five more women before they can do this."

  "More than likely."

  I exhaled in relief. "So I have a little bit of time to work with."

  Aiden remained still as he pulverized what little relief I'd found. "In a city this size it would be little trouble to find five women who wouldn't be missed. It could be accomplished in a single night."

  My eyes narrowed into fine slivers directed at the painting. I took a step away before I realized what I was doing.

  In a soft voice that was somehow more menacing he declared, "I should really like to know what I've done to earn such suspicion. Are there rumors of me in the Underground I'm not privy to?"

  Did that mean there were rumors he was privy to?

  I shrugged in an effort to come off as unaffected by his irritation as much as to shake off the unease that was building in my shoulders. "I'm suspicious of everything. It's nothing personal."

  "You're suspicious of even the Prime?"

  A glance over at him showed me nothing had changed on his face. His eyebrows were still crinkled inward and his ordinarily luscious lips were quite thin.

  My body turned to face him fully. "What prompted that question?"

  He turned slowly to face me as well. "You met with the Prime before you came here."

  It wasn't said as a question so I didn't respond to it. I wouldn't have known what to say anyway. The sun had still been out when I'd met Gray at the steakhouse so it couldn't have been Aiden himself spying on me.

  "Are you suspicious of him as well?" Aiden asked again.

  "I've known Gray for nine years." I tossed my hair over my shoulder, a defensive gesture that matched my tone. "He's earned the right to be at least somewhat above suspicion."

  "Perseverance is what it takes?"

  "It helps that Gray is a good man," I said rather than give a straight answer.

  "And you believe I am not," Aiden deducted.

  I didn't like being pushed into a corner so I reacted badly, which equated to speaking my mind instead of giving cryptic responses. "You are a vampire, a member of the Senate, in essence royalty among the most ruthless creatures in the country. You live in the lap of luxury with your mansion," I gestured around the room to the broad canvases and then at him, "expensive suits and servants when much of the city is struggling to keep a job. And you can't seem to decide on what face you're going to wear on any given day. How in the world do you expect anyone to trust you when these are the things you put forth?"

  The vampire held my defiant gaze for what seemed like ages. In reality I suspected it was only about ten seconds. Then he gave the barest of nods. Another span passed before either of us spoke.

  I was the one who broke the silence. "A shapeshifter named Chet was the ringleader of the group last night. His death was why I met with the Prime today. Chet was manipulating at least one person, Michael, the werewolf mailman for the Dungeon. Chet had Michael luring those women and bringing them in on the understanding that they wouldn't kill his captive sister if he did their bidding. Unfortunately I wasn't able to learn the identity of the real mastermind. That is all of the information I have for you."

  "We appreciate all that you've done for us, Miss Denham," he said in a stiff voice. "And we'll understand if you wish to cease our agreement due to the danger involved in this matter."

  My chin lifted a hint. "I didn't make any agreement with you, Mr. Bruce."

  His lips quirked as if threatening to spread into a smile. "Of course you didn't, Miss Denha
m."

  I shook my head because I didn't understand him at all. It should be refreshing to meet a man whose reactions I couldn't predict, but it wasn't. It made me feel insecure and unsafe.

  "Right," I said flatly rather like the Alpha had done this morning. "Well, you have a good night...or day, or whatever it is."

  "And you as well, Miss Denham. I'll see you out." He waved his arm toward the door.

  "I think I can handle that much, thanks."

  Aiden bowed his head. "Very well." And then he left me there in front of the painting of the Battle of the Boyne.

  I shook my head, perplexed. But he had left me alone in his house. I could, in theory, wander the place. Maybe that was why he'd done it. Maybe he wanted me to know he hadn't kept a kidnap victim. I needed to get the hell out of there before I gave in to the wish to wander his home.

  I stepped onto the stone porch and contemplated what to do now that I had no leads. I needed to talk to the werewolf Michael. And I was going to have to go through the Alpha to do it. It would be another wonderful night in Boston.

  CHAPTER TEN

  A pair of footsteps fell into place behind me after I'd hopped onto the sidewalk in front of the row house I claimed as home. The instinctual part of me knew those weren't benign steps. Someone was following me. I was so not in the mood for this.

  I whirled around, half expecting to find vampires standing there, instead, I found two werewolves. Dominick held his wolf by the collar just inside the cone of light the streetlamp cast behind me cast. Their respective poses accounted for the slight dragging I'd heard on the part of one of them.

  "We gotta talk," the Alpha announced.

  Even though they were just the two people I needed to speak with, the fact that they were near my personal residence made me sigh in irritation. "Okay, I'll meet you someplace public."

  Dominick quickly shook his head of messy hair. "We gotta talk in private."

  "I suppose you think I'm going to let you..."

  Rather than wait for me to finish speaking, Dominick marched Michael toward the row house's door.

  "I miss the days of slobbering monsters," I muttered under my breath. "Oh wait, these guys probably slobber too."

  "I don't slobber," Dominick said gruffly when I wedged beside them to get to the exterior doorknob.

  I couldn't muster the effort to feel embarrassed that he'd heard me. The Alpha would get a nice big chunk of my mind for bringing his wolf to my home. I'd probably have to move now because the mailman would surely tell whomever he was working for where I resided. I liked my apartment. It was close to work. Maybe I'd make the Alpha pay some sort of restitution for this.

  Restitution ideas were at the forefront of my thoughts as I unlocked my apartment door. The guys followed me inside. Dominick maneuvered Michael onto the soiled towels on my sofa. The wolf made a disgusted face at the blood and popped up only to be shoved down again by the firm hand on his shoulder.

  "You can sit in her blood. She earned it cleanin' up after your mess," Dominick snarled at him in a very uncharitable voice.

  The Alpha lifted his head once he was certain Michael wasn't going to stand. His mahogany eyes went up and down the length of me. I folded my arms in front of my chest beneath the obvious leering.

  "You're lookin'...better, Laura," he said in a neutral tone. "How are those gunshot wounds?"

  "They aren't bleeding anymore," I admitted quickly before jumping to the next, far more important matter. "What do you want?"

  The Alpha blinked at me for a moment before responding. "Someone tried to set Michael on fire when I was talkin' to him earlier."

  "Someone did set me on fire," Michael grumbled petulantly.

  "They set your condo on fire," the Alpha corrected with a mere glance down.

  I tapped my fingers against my arm impatiently. "And why is this my problem?"

  It was Michael who answered with a snapping tone worthy of the sulkiest teenager. "They set my condo on fire because they know I sent you."

  "And who is they?"

  "I don't know."

  My teeth set because the Alpha didn't budge. That meant Michael hadn't lied to me. I'd really hoped he knew something, anything that could help me track down who was the power behind the attacks, the kidnappings and the demon summoning.

  "Michael needs a place to stay," the Alpha informed me while I silently lamented my lack of information, "And as punishment for shootin' him six times, you're gonna take him in."

  "Oh, am I?" I drawled in a deceptively calm voice. Inside I silently raged against his presumption.

  The Alpha continued, heedless to my anger, "And for his punishment for gettin' you into the mess with the kidnapped women, he's gonna be your live-in servant when he isn't on the clock at the post office."

  "I like my hired help to have an IQ higher than their age." And Michael didn't look a day over thirty.

  Michael shot a glare at me that told me he'd understood the insult.

  I ignored it to fix his Alpha with a dark look. "You realize I'm only going to shoot him six more times if you force him on me like this." I shook my head in disgust. My hand went out toward the door. "And he's going to run off to whoever he's really working for to tell them exactly where I live. Thanks a load for putting my ass in more danger than it already was."

  "Michael's sister called him last night," Dominick said instead of commenting on my threat. "She said she'd been in Cancun with a man she'd met last week and that she was sorry to worry him."

  What the hell was going on? Had Michael been duped or had his sister really been kidnapped? I didn't know what story to believe now.

  "So we went to see her." He swatted Michael across the head, I assumed to get him to talk.

  Michael gave his Alpha a dirty look before he relayed the information he was most certainly meant to give. "She was thin, looked like she'd lost twenty pounds. And she looked exhausted. I checked the house out for luggage. There wasn't any. Her suitcases were still in storage. But she believed what she'd said." In other words, they weren't able to sense lies on her.

  What if there was another explanation for this? I couldn't help but ask, "Did she say what the guy looked like? Or what his name was?"

  "She said his name was Bruce."

  I breathed in relief. "She must have been one of the ones I released last night." I bet I could guess which one she was. "A vampire helped the women I freed home. He must have altered their memory of the incident to keep them from blabbing to the cops about me."

  Michael shot his feet, gestured angrily and stared daggers at my head. "You let a vampire near my sister?"

  To which I shot back, "You let your sister get kidnapped?"

  "Which vampire?" Dominick's voice lingered on the three syllables for far longer than was required.

  There seemed no reason to hide the truth from them so I easily replied, "Aiden Bruce."

  His eyebrows immediately jumped upward. "Bruce? That the Senate delegate from New York?"

  I nodded reluctantly because I was uneasy with my association with the guy.

  The Alpha's eyes crinkled suspiciously. "What was a senator doing helpin' you out?"

  "You'd have to ask him," I answered with a shrug.

  My flippant answer must have pissed the Alpha off because his expression darkened to match Michael's. "So you didn't ask him to mind rape those women to keep your hide squeaky clean?"

  Mind rape, now that was a little on the crude side, wasn't it? But I suppose if I'd learned Aiden had messed with my memory, crude words would be the mildest of things I'd toss out. The way that Dominick glowered at me put me on the defensive. "I didn't ask him to do anything at all. I work alone. Remember? Speaking of..." My voice trailed off while my brain formed an idea. I focused on Michael, "If you were responsible for luring women in, who lured your sister?"

  "Thanks to the vampire, we'll never know," Dominick snapped.

  "He altered the memory. Maybe he can get it back," I said in a hopeful voice that w
asn't at all like me. What I hadn't taken into account was that I'd have to see Aiden again so soon. I really needed to get a phone number for him so I could stop seeing him in person. Our discussions would be far less dangerous conducted over the phone.

  Michael shook his head so violently that I thought it might fall off his neck. "I'm not lettin' a vampire near my sister again."

  "If you don't, you risk her getting taken again," I pointed out sensibly.

  "Not if she stays here too," Michael replied with a malicious smile.

  That was the worst idea I'd ever heard. "And she'll be my what? Stylist?" I snorted in disgust. "I've got a better idea." I pointed at the wolf and then toward the door. "How about you stay with her, keep her safe? You can handle one little kidnapper, can't you?"

  "Michael hasn't been a werewolf for long," Dominick reminded me.

  Backed into a corner once more, I let them have it. "I don't care if he was infected yesterday! I'm not letting them stay here. I don't deserve any of this shit. Your wolf got in with the wrong crowd." I jabbed an angry finger at the guy. "As far as I'm concerned that is your problem, Alpha."

  "Dominick," he snapped.

  "I don't you know well enough to call you that," I snapped right back, daring him to get angry.

  "You need information to track these people down for your investigation," the Alpha began. I didn't like the path he was going down because I knew I couldn't argue with it. "And we need to track them down to make sure Michael and his sister are safe. So as much as we all dislike it, this is how it has to be. We're gonna bring Michelle here and you're gonna convince the senator to join us."

  There was no way in hell that I was inviting Aiden Bruce to my apartment. In the first place I wouldn't even know how to go about asking him. I'd already insulted him once tonight and he had to have more important things to do than bother with me. "Has it occurred to you that maybe the senator has -- I don't know -- Senate business that will keep him too busy to do your bidding?"