by Joey W. Hill
Ben looked toward the not-so-distant French Quarter, the buildings on Canal Street. He remembered standing in hip deep water on that main thoroughfare after Katrina had passed. While the I-10 overpass had loomed in the background, on the street itself only the windows and roofs of the cars had been visible over the water. Businesses had been swamped, debris floating everywhere. Despite the inadvisability of it, a handful of people had been making their way through the water on foot, or in boats, with the same stunned looks on their faces. All while the sun beamed down cheerily as if nothing had happened. The air had been so temporarily clean and soft, the way it was right after a catastrophic storm. Right before humidity and bugs set in with a vengeance.
Well, if he didn’t survive this, he wouldn’t have to deal with that. The real upside was he wouldn’t have to endure Peter and Lucas’s ribbing for the rest of his life. Which was exactly what would happen if they heard he’d stood on top of the Aquarium and used a kid’s bedtime story to placate something spawned from his seed and an evil witch’s doom fantasy.
The others might be convinced not to talk about it, but Marcie would tell. Corporate secrets couldn’t be tortured out of her, but the Doms in their unique family circle could get her to spill in a heartbeat. His beloved sub, who trusted them the way she trusted him.
Because they deserved that trust, and he was fucking glad they weren’t going to be in the middle of this. Truth, he’d be glad to tell them all about it when this was over and done. And it was going to be done. The bad guys, or gal, in this case, wasn’t winning. Elagra’s winning days were over tonight, one way or another.
He knew the main objective, but taking Elagra out the way he should have done years ago was going to be right on the heels of it in priority order. He just wanted it to be before Marcie had to engage her.
Across from him, Mikhael, Derek and Ruby had point on the long, flat expanse that paralleled the railway side of the Aquarium. It provided them a closer than bird’s-eye view of the water and docks.
Marcie was on the riverside roof, the smaller section adjacent to the Aquarium’s impressive cylindrical roof feature. The insulating concrete structure of glass had been installed during the post-Katrina re-roofing. The slanted glass top faced the water. The position put her and Raina, standing a few feet away from her, in the best position to view the cluster of mall and Warehouse District buildings. That was the direction from which they had determined Elagra would most likely come, if she made her presence known.
He knew what their job was, and he didn’t like it. As he’d said from the beginning, he didn’t want Marcie anywhere near Elagra.
At least Matt and the guys had done their job. Ben didn’t see any cluelessly curious random New Orleans natives or tourists wandering the docks. But as he looked at the vastness of the Mississippi, he wished there’d been some way in hell to evacuate the whole waterfront along the train tracks. Ley lines, plate movement and storm surge—it could all go very bad. The witches and Guardians might know more about this, but Ben was feeling the burden of protecting the people of his city. It mattered to the Guardians, no doubt, but it couldn’t be as personal for them.
But he couldn’t fault their diligence. They’d been up here for about an hour, waiting, watching, and their alertness had never flagged. He was just about to wander over to Mikhael and see what he was thinking about the current status of things, when that status changed.
He saw it in the sudden stiffening of both Guardians, like Rottweilers suddenly scenting danger. Ruby, too, had become tight as a drawn bow. She turned her attention skyward.
Normal nighttime darkness on the New Orleans waterfront was punctuated by the radiance of city and dock lights. As he followed her gaze heavenward, he saw the clouds moving in. The stars were disappearing in that cover, like when a storm was looming, but that darkness was closing in faster than seemed natural. And it wasn’t staying up in the sky.
The streetlights and building lights dimmed as if there were fog, but there wasn’t. Then they started to wink out. Several near the train tracks popped, with an explosion of sparks that was swallowed by the dark like fireflies by a bat.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw…nothing. No colorful entrance signs to Harrah’s. No city lights. The thickening air had a heaviness to it that made drawing a breath an effort.
He might have wondered if the smoke-and-mirrors magic Ruby and Derek were casting and the evacuation would be enough to keep every straggler off their periphery. But with that odd blanket of darkness, and the feel of an impending storm in the air, he suspected any sane person was going to head for shelter. And he had a strong feeling that even wilder weather was coming.
A flicker, and a dim, silvery light coated the roof at their feet, throwing up enough illumination to make out the silhouettes of the others, their intent faces. Derek’s doing, apparently, as he lifted back to his shoulder the staff he’d stretched out and swept over the area.
Raina and Marcie were standing shoulder to shoulder over on the other portion of the roof. Raina was saying something to his brat, gesturing down toward the warehouses.
As Derek and Mikhael drew closer to him, he assumed to confer about the latest development, Ben shook his head. “Tell me again how this thing about to be born isn’t a bad guy?”
A few feet away, Ruby had her hands on her hips, her head tipped back, eyes half closed. Unexpectedly, her lips curved, though her expression remained intent, on guard.
“Birth is a very focused business, Ben,” she said. “During labor, everything else disappears. It’s a communication, between the mother, her body, and the child. Wondrous, violent, but ultimately natural.”
He raised his brows. “You think that’s what this is?”
“Somewhat. It feels like it.” She nodded to Derek and Mikhael, both watching her closely. But then her attention snapped back up to the sky, as did theirs.
Even Ben felt it, a sharp change in the nature of the energy. Ruby’s lips tightened, her hazel eyes flashing. “Then there are those who are determined to disrupt what is natural,” she said.
Ben sucked in a startled breath as a cold wind cut through the normal humidity. The thick cloud cover far above was breaking into pieces against a grey sky. And it wasn’t behaving like clouds. It split as precisely as a coke addict creating lines on a table. Those lines morphed, grew wings and shapes that were way too humanoid.
Mikhael’s eyes narrowed. Derek shifted his staff to his other hand. “Servants of an Underworld demon,” he growled. “Elagra is strong, but she does not have this kind of power.”
“No,” Mikhael answered. “She bartered for the aid of something far more powerful than herself. She’ll likely pay for that mistake with her soul.”
Derek grunted. “They’re not corporeal yet. Whatever’s controlling them likely won’t let them fully materialize and unleash them until the birth. This is going to be a harder fight than we anticipated.”
That didn’t sound good. But since Ben was getting antsy, standing around with nothing to fight, he figured the impending action would fix that.
Mikhael’s gaze flickered over the set of Ben’s shoulders, the curl of his fingers into near fists. The Dark Guardian pointed to the river. “That is your job. This will be ours.”
“Fuck that. I’m not standing around waiting with my hands in my pockets while you guys fight…whatever that is.”
Derek braced himself on his staff. “Exactly. How would you fight the mist, the magic in the air? It was as you told Matt. Everyone in your business dealings has a role, correct? If one man tried to do another’s job, your own job would not get done.”
“That was a private conversation,” Ben said, since it was the only thing he could say to what he knew was annoyingly correct.
“Sue me, lawyer,” Derek said, curling his lip.
“I was wondering how long before the lawyer trashing would start,” Ben retorted.
Ruby touched his shoulder. He saw Raina and Marcie had joined them
as well, the new developments in the sky apparently requiring a full group review.
Ruby nodded to the river. “It’s never easy to stand by while others fight, but handling that will save New Orleans. You’re the one who can connect with her.”
“At least, that is our hope,” Mikhael put in. Just to add a seed of doubt and another boatload of pressure on what Ben was already feeling.
“If you can’t connect with her, it’s unlikely anyone else can,” Ruby added, giving him an even look. He hadn’t accepted that bullshit father stuff Ramona had talked about, but Ruby was a practical woman, so no matter how grudgingly, he had to give her opinion more credit.
Ben’s attention went to Marcie. She had that look on her face she got when she was thinking thoughts that shoveled way beneath everything else and found the root of it. Usually something revelationary. And yes, he meant it that way, though revolutionary sometimes applied, too.
But she didn’t necessarily feel comfortable sharing it with everyone else. As she stepped closer to him and glanced toward Raina, the message was received. Raina withdrew to a discreet distance, and continued to watch the warehouse side. Mikhael and Derek moved back across the roof with Ruby.
Ben held out a hand to his wife. “What is it, brat?”
She came, lacing her fingers in his. As she did, she tilted her head up in that way she did that made him feel tall and strong and the center of her universe, capable of handling anything. He’d take an immeasurable amount of pain and aggravation to live up to it.
She bit her lip, worrying it as her shrewd eyes assessed the sky. “Raina told me that when energies like this are swirling around, you follow what your gut tells you, even if there’s no context for it.” Her eyes lowered to meet his. “My gut wanted to tell you something, though it’s going to sound kind of weird and disjointed.”
“Well, the rest of this has made so much sense. Let’s live on the wild side.”
She smiled faintly, though her gaze remained serious, and boring into his with an exceptional intensity. He tightened his fingers on hers. “Tell me.”
“When you’re being really tough and strict with me…that’s when I feel safest. And I think Bonnie is a really pretty name for a girl. The Scottish word for pretty. It tells her that she’s wanted.”
“Marcie, I’m not really buying into the whole parent-kid thing. If she’d snatched a lock of my hair, or used a scrap of my clothing, no one would have come up with that crazy thought. I was just an ingredient.”
“I don’t think you really believe that. But even if you do, I think there’s a reason they’re putting you at the center of this, to reach out to her. You know what it’s like.”
“What what’s like?”
She took a breath. “The hardest part about what my parents were and weren’t. So caught up in the disaster of their own lives, it wouldn’t have mattered to them if we were there or not. We were just debris, orbiting around them. Don’t underestimate how important it is, letting someone know you see them, that they matter. That they’re more than some crazy bitch’s plan to ruin everyone else’s day.”
She gazed up at him with her deep earth-colored eyes and soft mouth, her hair wisping around her face from the wind, pieces blown free from her functional ponytail. He tucked a strand back behind her ear. “Got it.”
Then his gaze moved behind her, and coldness cut through him again, but this time it wasn’t from a wind.
He’d seen her even before his companions, probably because he had a connection to her as well. A detestable one.
There were a few lights still illuminating the docks. He could see Elagra, standing on a warehouse rooftop a few buildings away. She no longer wore the cotton dress she’d worn below ground. She wore a thin shift, and that bone yellow paint covered her face, her torso and limbs, marked with symbols and splashes of what looked like mud, or dried blood. She had a thick necklace of what he expected were feathers and animal parts around her neck. Her dreadlocks were down, heavy ropes against her painted flesh.
As she stared across the expanse between them with her dead large eyes, that wind started to move and swirl, picking up a low moan. It reminded him of things that had happened below ground too goddamn long ago to affect him now, but it still did, bringing the fear back, the confusing mix of what love was, and what it sure the fuck wasn’t.
Like Marcie had just said.
Even at this distance, he knew Elagra’s gaze was challenging, malevolent, with that empty darkness he knew far too well. Whatever she was here to do, it was not going to help the situation. But when she only stood there, watching them, Ben figured it out pretty quick. What was holding her back was what they were all waiting for.
As Derek had said about those things in the sky, until the creature, monster, force of nature, whatever it was, started to be born, no one could execute their plan of action. If Elagra attacked them now, tried to get them out of the way, and it turned bloody and violent, her creation might get spooked, caught in the crossfire, what have you. They were like two opposing squadrons posted outside a labor delivery room.
Marcie glanced over her shoulder, followed the direction of his gaze. Her hand landed on his forearm, gripped. “She’s not as smart as she thinks she is. She should have waited until things got started to reveal herself.”
“But she knows her presence is a disrupting effect,” Raina said, drawing closer to them again. She nodded to Marcie. “Time for us to go.”
He didn’t think, just reacted. He clamped his hand around Marcie’s wrist, holding her in place.
Yeah, they’d talked about this. He’d said no then. He wanted Marcie at his side. No, correct that. Where he wanted her was not here at all, but since he couldn’t have that, he wanted her close.
“Ben,” Marcie said softly, resting her hand on his chest.
“No,” he said.
Raina was giving him the fisheye. She could kiss his ass. Ruby, apparently reading the sudden tension, had approached. Raina tossed her that annoyed look. “If his attention is going to be split if she is in danger, then it’s best for her to stay with him.”
Damn straight. Fine by him.
“That’s not true, and he knows it.” Instead of arguing with him, Marcie lifted up on her toes, brushed her lips over his set jaw. She pulled back, only a couple inches, her fingers curling into his shirt, her body leaning into his. “You know what’s funny? You’ve always made me feel safe. Always. Even when I’m away from you.”
She tightened her grip on his shirt, tattooed her fists lightly against him, once, then twice. “I’ve got this, Master.”
When he put his forehead to hers, she shifted her grip to his face, her slim fingers in his hair. “It’s no easier for me not to be the one watching your back,” she said. “But I’m pretty sure these guys have fought a lot worse things. I think we need to trust that they’ve given us the right roles to play in this.”
He could point out that Mikhael and Derek had just said this fight might get a lot uglier than anticipated. He could make a lot of arguments. Instead, he sighed, slid his arm around her. He cupped her skull, digging his fingers into her hair. “You will be in one piece when you return to me,” he said darkly. “And you will pay for every bruise and scratch you put on my property.”
He meant it, with every savage cell that made up the fucked-up, twisted darkness of the heart which was all hers.
“Deal,” she whispered, and met his mouth with eager lips. She was usually gentle, his demands being the initiating force that drove her into mindless passion. But this time she kissed him with the wildness of the wind building around them, the simmering violence that waited for them all, and the fierce love she’d believed in so much she’d gone after his heart with the single-minded purpose of a rabid terrier.
She had soft lips, a giving mouth and tongue that could stroke, plunge and tease him in ways that had him growling into her mouth. He wanted to take over, thrust deep as he held her so close he felt her from breast to hip, hi
s cock pressed into the heated cradle between her thighs.
Even in a moment like this, she’d be wet for her Master. He could take her right here, and she could handle every inch of him, with writhing moans and the bite of her nails into his flesh, if he didn’t tie her hands. It was always a tough decision. He loved bearing those marks as much as he loved to make her helpless.
She drew away far too soon. He still held her hand and brought it to his lips, brushing a kiss to her palm and then biting the heel of it, sharply enough she drew in a breath. “You remember your promise to me.”
“Always, Master.” Her eyes were alight with love and desire, and a focused purpose that made her basically the hottest woman he’d ever seen.
She turned to Raina. Raina gave them both a studied look, but nodded. Then the two women were on the move. The way Marcie drew her gun and checked it told him she knew her job, and he was going to have to trust Raina to watch out for her. Which he still fucking hated.
As they reached the stairwell, he made himself turn away, but only after the door closed behind them. With an act of will, he tuned back into what Derek, Ruby and Mikhael were doing. They were still watching the sky, which had filled up with even more clumps of those shadow creatures. It was starting to look like an alarmingly much bigger army.
The only good thing about Marcie leaving was it made his erection deflate some, though maybe whipping out his monster-sized dick would scare away those demonic-looking clouds. Game over, and they could all go home. If the guys had been here, he fully expected Peter would have made that suggestion.
Ben drew closer to join in on the conversation. Derek had pushed back the brim of his hat and now tossed comment at Mikhael. “If you can take the six on the left, I’ll take the three hundred on the right.”
The dry humor was unexpected from the Light Guardian, especially to Ben. However, Mikhael flashed his teeth, suggesting it was not an unusual side of Derek, right before a fight. “I was going suggest you could go have yourself a snack while I took care of all of them.”
