Priest smirked at the smart-ass remark, but it was Alek who sauntered across the threshold without waiting for an invite. “We figured it might take a village to pry your asses out of your love nest, so we came in full force.”
Katy rolled her eyes, but her grin said there was some truth to her brother’s statement. “I held them off as long as I could. I swear.”
“It’s okay,” Elise said coming up behind Tate. She wrapped an arm around his waist like she’d welcomed people into their home a hundred times before. “We were just about to put a few of the casseroles in. I don’t know if it’s enough to feed everyone, but we can give it a go.”
Priest shook his head, waited for Jade to file through the door, then waved Kateri ahead of him. “No need. We won’t be long.”
The words were polite and delivered with a casualness on the surface, but Priest wasn’t the type to pay a social call for no reason, and he sure didn’t do it with a small army in tow. “No notice and no plans to hang around. Either you were worried I was holding Elise hostage, or something’s wrong. I’m going with the latter.”
Jade pulled out one of the two chairs at the tiny kitchen table and cocked an eyebrow at Priest as if to say I told you so.
Priest ignored it with the same stoic demeanor he’d used to keep them in line for years and steered Kateri to the chair opposite Jade. As soon as she was settled, he leaned a hip to the kitchen counter behind him and crossed his arms. “Tell me again about the car you saw Saturday night.”
A ghostlike touch drifted down the back of his neck. His coyote felt it, too, lifting its head from the easy slumber he’d enjoyed since his run with Elise’s eagle this morning. “Either black or a midnight blue. Two-door. I could have sworn it was a Honda, but I could have bungled that detail when the front end demolished my left hip.”
“Which part of the car hit you?” This from Alek who’d taken up eyeballing the picturesque view out the cabin’s wide back window.
The sun spearing through the back window dimmed and the tiny stretch of seconds when he’d leapt across the road overlaid the present.
Blinding headlights. A shadowed form behind the wheel. His companion stretched nearly perpendicular to the car’s front end. Then the excruciating impact. “Driver’s side. Right at the corner of the bumper.”
“And you said it was a woman behind the wheel?” Alek asked.
“No doubt about it. The height and build were right, and the perfume was hard to miss.” Tate focused on Priest. “Where was Vanessa?”
“It wasn’t her,” Jade said. “No one outside our immediate family knows what happened to you and I talked with a few of her friends. They all say she was with them the same time you got hit.”
“Jade’s right. It wasn’t Vanessa, but we’ve zeroed in on whoever it was,” Priest said. “We’ve had teams out since Sunday combing the town and lake properties. One of the women on Garrett’s team found a dark blue Honda Civic with Wyoming plates at an old motel about eight miles from here.”
“There’s an impressive dent on the driver’s side right where you said you got hit, too.” Alek grinned and dipped his head toward Tate’s hip. “Healer for a mate or not, I’m not sure how the hell you’re up and walking.”
“Who is she?” Tate said to Alek, then shifted his attention back to Priest. “And what the hell was she doing at Elise’s house?”
“Don’t know yet,” Priest said. “Garrett called all of an hour ago and has three people with eyes on the place in case whoever it is decides to move, but we figured it was time to clue you in. We’re using clan connections to see if we can find someone with an inside track to the guest list.”
“Or we could just go knock on the door and talk to whoever’s inside.”
At Elise’s suggestion, the room got crazy quiet. Everyone, that was, except for Jade who snickered and pilfered a chocolate chip cookie from a bakery run they’d made yesterday afternoon. “Now there’s a novel idea. Cut right to the chase and avoid all the cloak-and-dagger.” Jade bit into her cookie and smirked at Katy. “I so love having more women in the house. Lots less nonsense to wade through.”
Katy fought a smile by rolling her lips together and ducking her head.
“What?” Elise said peering up at him. “You’re all making an assumption whoever this person is was there for some nefarious reason.”
Alek turned from the peaceful view of the lake, his tone as lethal as Tate had ever heard it. “Draven slaughtered my parents.”
At Alek’s dark tone, Tate braced himself between Alek and Elise, his low growl overloud in the small cabin.
Alek didn’t care. Just kept pacing toward them. “He’s possessed the man who’s probably our sorcerer primo and killed God only knows how many others. You really want to walk up to an unknown person without a clue as to who we’re dealing with?”
“Alek.”
One word from Priest and Alek stopped in his tracks, but his eyes stayed locked on Elise.
Moving in behind him, Elise smoothed her hand down Tate’s arm. A soft and delicate touch, but behind it lay a strength to match her words. “We breed whatever we bring to the table. Suspicion equates more suspicion. Distrust builds more distrust. Maybe what we need more of is tackling our foes and our unknowns head-on rather than circling around and waiting for the right moment to pounce.”
Alek’s nostrils flared and his lips flatlined.
Tate braced, ready to intercept.
“She has a point.” As low and off-handedly delivered as Priest’s words were, they ripped the rug out from under Alek’s anger, open shock replacing his menacing scowl in a heartbeat.
“Are you serious?” Alek said.
For a beat, Priest didn’t move. Didn’t say a word. Just stared at Alek with that unrelenting look that had let Tate and Jade know with utter certainty they’d not just pushed a limit, but seriously cross it. “I’ve got two primos. If we’re lucky when this is all over, I’ll have two more and we’ll get back to the business of tending to our magic the way the Keeper intended. Every opinion and viewpoint they bring me has merit. I won’t discredit their place as primo without weighing every one of them.” He shifted his attention to Elise. “Now, tell me why you think the direct approach makes more sense.”
“Well, for starters, Tate found them on your property. If whoever it was had something to do with Draven, could they have done that? I mean, I know the wards are supposed to keep us off your brother’s radar, but if your magic made the wards, wouldn’t you sense if someone functioning under his control crossed inside their influence? It’s the same magic you use on your tattoos and you use them to locate people all the time.”
Kateri smiled.
Jade nodded and dug out another cookie.
Priest uncrossed his arms, braced his hands on the counter’s edge and cocked his head, considering. “The wards are an extension of me, yes, but we don’t know the extent of what my brother can do either. It could be his spirit inside another body hides him from my magic.” He paused, checked Alek as if to get a read on how he was holding up, then refocused on Elise. “What else?”
Elise shrugged. “Whoever it is isn’t exactly hiding. If Draven was smart enough to hide his plans to steal every primo’s magic as long as he did, he’s smart enough not to leave a hit-and-run vehicle out in the open. Plus, this is a woman we’re talking about. Have any of you considered it’s someone who needs our help as opposed to someone out to hurt us?”
Priest’s eyes narrowed in a second. “What makes you think that?”
Elise straightened and blinked her eyes over and over again. Almost as if the question had startled her out of a daydream. “I have no idea. It was just there.” She glanced up at Tate then refocused on Priest. “I get being cautious, but taking a defensive stance doesn’t feel right.”
“It’s instinct.” Tate moved in tight behind her and cupped
her shoulders. “A healer’s intuition might be different from a warrior’s, but it’s no less valid.” He looked to Alek. “Healers focus on people. Not threats. If her gut tells her to tackle it this way there’s a reason for it. One we’d be smart to pay attention to.”
For the first time since the topic had come up, Alek seemed to reconsider his original approach. “You really think this isn’t someone under Draven’s control?”
Elise let out an ironic chuckle and shook her head. “I have no idea. I don’t even think I understand what’s driving my thoughts. I just know when you said you’d found a car and started talking about covert ways to get information, everything in me balked.” She looked to Priest and covered one of Tate’s hands at her shoulder, the tiny squeeze behind the contact as if she sought his strength to lend to her words. “If we need to take precautions, then fine—take them. But if Draven’s using his magic to possess people and looking for our seer primo, then aren’t we better served to meet whoever’s in that motel room face-to-face?”
The room grew silent.
Priest studied Elise. Then Alek. Then shifted his thoughtful gaze to the forest and lake outside the window. Only after a solid thirty seconds, did he push away from the counter and guide Kateri to her feet. “Alek, keep eyes on the motel for now and work out whatever plan you think’s appropriate for contingencies. Tate, get your mate fed and things wrapped up here.” He motioned Jade to the door ahead of them, then paused a beat to give Tate and Elise his undivided attention. “You’ve got an hour to meet us at the main house and then we’re knocking on our stranger’s door.”
Chapter Nineteen
Having an alpha male for a mate was tricky business. Alone and left to their own devices at the cabin, Elise hadn’t just appreciated his protectiveness and attentive nature, she’d wallowed in it. Embraced every subtle action that showed his desire to look out for her. Moving boxes for her wherever she wanted them. Keeping himself between her and the street when they’d made a bakery run one morning. Sleeping curled around her after he’d worked her body through each amazing release and waking her up with long leisurely kisses and coffee in bed. It had been perfect. An ideal time away from the world.
But sitting beside her in the back seat of Priest’s black Tahoe and faced with the prospect of putting her anywhere near danger, he was as riled up as a sleep deprived grizzly.
Or an irritated coyote.
Apparently, they could be just as testy.
The drone of tires against the asphalt filled the SUV’s interior and the thick trees that lined the winding country roads swept past the thickly tinted windows. Seated in the front passenger’s seat, Katy maintained a peaceful, yet focused demeanor, while Priest looked like he was ready for battle. Probably more of the same alpha overload Tate was battling. Though, to his credit, he hadn’t balked about Katy’s insistence on coming with them. At least not publicly.
Beside her, Tate scowled out the front windshield. Unlike the last few days, his long blond hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and tension rode his shoulders hard. If it weren’t for the way his arm was protectively draped along the seat back behind her or the hand on her thigh, she’d have sworn he was mad at something she’d said or done.
She covered his hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze and lowered her voice only for him. Though, knowing how powerful Priest was, he could probably hear her blood flowing in her veins if he wanted. “You know this is the right thing to do.”
His expression softened in a blink and he turned his intense amber eyes on her. “I don’t doubt it for a second. I trust your judgment.”
“Then you have to know it’s the right thing for me to be here when we knock on that door. What kind of person would I be if I gave a recommendation like that and wasn’t here when people acted on it?”
He didn’t growl, but the look on his face said he wanted to. Badly. His jaw worked just a fraction side to side as though wrangling his words into something that wouldn’t backfire on him. “You’re not just my mate. You’re a prima. I get that. I respect it. But I need you to understand that any kind of threat to you—whether your position calls for it or not—isn’t something I’ll ever take to easily. It doesn’t have anything to do with trusting your judgment. Or your skills. It’s who I am. What any decent male would be when it came to keeping his mate safe.”
A Volán male, maybe. And even then, she had a feeling Tate was far beyond decent expectations. She skimmed her fingers along his jawline, the soft brush of his beard reminding her all too clearly how it felt with each kiss. Against her belly and her thighs when he tended to her with his mouth. “I understand. And I’ll try not to put you in this position if I can avoid it.”
He cupped the back of her head and pulled her to him, guiding her deeper into the crook of his arm so his arms and his scent surrounded her.
The SUV slowed and turned only moments later.
To his credit, Tate only hesitated in letting her push herself away from his torso for two or three seconds. “You think Alek’s going to keep to the plan?” he said to Priest.
The plan being the four of them approaching as two couples in what they hoped would come across as nonthreatening so they could start out with a decent dialogue as to what the stranger had been doing on Priest’s property.
Almost at an idle in the parking lot, Priest scanned the old motel outside his driver’s-side window. The once crimson painted siding was muted with age, and the gray asphalt shingles had to be the lowest and most unappealing commercial grade available, but overall the upkeep to the place was decent. There were even flower boxes hung outside the motel office windows planted with yellow and purple pansies.
Done with his examination, his eyes shifted to the rearview mirror and the trees on the opposite side of the road behind them where Alek and his men sat watching. “Unless you or I give him a reason to come in fighting, he’ll hold his ground.” He inched the truck farther into the parking lot toward the Honda Civic parked in front of the third door from the end. “I think between Elise’s logic and the fact that they haven’t seen anyone come in or out of the room since they found the car, he’s realizing Elise might have a point.”
“What name was the room registered under again?” Elise asked.
“Terri Smith,” Kateri answered with a dry chuckle. “What do you bet it’s a bogus name?”
“The plates on the car tie back to a rental under the same name, so we’ve got nothing to track there either.” Priest pulled into the spot beside the Civic, killed the engine and twisted for an eye-to-eye view of Tate. “I know this goes without saying, but if you tweak to anything, your only responsibility is Elise. Not strategy. Not hunting. Not other people getting hurt. Nothing. Alek and Garrett can handle whatever else happens.”
“Yeah, that’s not gonna be a problem.”
Priest huffed out a short chuckle and nodded to Elise. “Okay. Time to see if your gut’s right.”
At nearly seven o’clock at night, the sun was well into its descent, casting all of the parking lot and the walkway along the long building in shadows. She’d caught all kinds of flak from Tate for picking a hunter green fitted V-neck tee since it left his mark so prominently displayed, but with the cooling evening air whipping around her, she was a little chagrined she’d won the battle and made it out of the house without something a little warmer. Her skinny jeans had been a point of contention, too. Though, once she’d proven the fabric was stretchy enough to let her handle whatever self-defense maneuvers were called for, he’d conceded, cupped her behind and heartily approved her wearing them whenever she wanted.
Priest took the lead while Katy and Elise walked side by side behind him and Tate followed at the rear. Rather than knock as soon as they reached the door, Priest crowded close enough anyone watching from a distance couldn’t see his action and splayed his big hand about sternum height against the black door.
“Wh
at’s he doing?” Elise whispered to Katy.
Her eyes stayed locked on Priest when she answered, as if she were at the ready to take action at a moment’s notice. “The darkness in Priest recognizes Draven. It’s what he felt the day we first met you. What told him there was someone watching us from the bayou. If Draven or anyone possessed by him is in that room, he ought to be able to sense it.”
Stepping back from the door, Priest met Kateri’s eyes and shook his head. “Nothing.”
Tate’s hand cupped Elise’s shoulder and squeezed, though whether it was a subtle encouragement or him positioning to shove her out of the line of fire, she couldn’t be sure.
Priest knocked.
Behind them, a big truck rumbled down the street, the equipment trailer it pulled behind it loaded down with lawn mowers and other yard tools rattling loud against the evening’s peaceful quiet.
Then nothing.
Not a single movement behind the door.
He knocked again, this time cocking his head as though listening at a whole different level.
“She’s in there.” Tate’s voice was low enough only to reach Priest, but the certainty in his statement was unmistakable. “It’s the same scent as Saturday night. Not as strong, but it’s there.”
An idea sparked. Or an instinct. “Can I try?”
Tate’s hand on her shoulder tightened.
Priest shared a look with him that she could have sworn conveyed an entire man-to-man conversation in all of two seconds. He refocused on Elise, dipped his head and stepped back. “Do what you need to do, but Tate goes in first. Understand?”
Oh, she understood. She’d had a crash course in Tate’s safety demands in the time since he’d finally accepted she wasn’t going to stay cloistered at Priest’s house and wait for an update. Still, she nodded and moved in closer to the door. She lifted her hand to knock, but stopped mid-motion and flattened her hand against the door’s surface as Priest had done.
Panic.
Terror.
Exhaustion.
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