A Fire in the Heart

by L. J. LaBarthe

  Liam came back in then and gave Baxter a sweet smile that made Baxter’s heart lurch in his chest. God, he was so amazing. He was so handsome and so sweet, so kind. And a crack shot with a gun and a powerful Necromancer, too. Baxter loved the man, all of him, the soldier and the magician as well.

  “I’m just going to take a quick shower,” Liam said. “The trunk’s open, so if you want to start packing our gear….”

  “On it, boss,” Baxter said with a salute.

  “Thanks.” Liam disappeared into the bathroom, and Baxter busied himself with packing up their belongings.

  There wasn’t much to pack, and so it only took him ten minutes until everything was in the trunk of Liam’s car. Baxter closed it down, and it slammed with a loud metallic clang that made all the birdlife in nearby trees take wing, screeching in protest.

  “I hear ya,” Baxter muttered to them. He would never, ever understand the fascination for cars or trucks or motorcycles or boats or planes that some people had.

  He’d just finished putting away the bed linens, storing them in one of the cupboards in the cabin, when Liam, fully dressed and with damp hair, came to join him.

  “Wow, you finished everything?” Liam looked around. “That was fast!”

  “Military training’s good for packing and cleaning in record time,” Baxter said. “So, we ready to head back?”

  “I think so, yeah. I’d like to know what we’re doing about this Transom group of people and when we can take them down.”

  “And by taking them down, you mean sending them to Germany for trial,” Baxter said, leading the way out of the cabin.

  “Yeah. But….” Liam paused, and Baxter turned to face him, pausing as well, holding the key to the cabin door at the lock. “I don’t think I’ll be able to keep myself from punching whoever the fucker was who hurt Jessica-Mae.”

  “Oh.” Baxter turned back to the door and locked it carefully. Then he pocketed the key and went to join his lover by the car. “Babe, I don’t think anyone would blame you there, but do you really think any of those people who worked in that hell hole of a mountain are still alive? ’Cause I get the feeling they’re mostly long dead, either eaten by their own nightmare creations or by wildlife driven mad by what they were doing. I honestly don’t think they’ll still be in the land of the living, you know? And you can’t really punch a ghost. Can you?”

  Liam smiled at the last question. “I don’t know, I haven’t tried. I’d be willing to test it with that fucker, though.”

  “I know, babe. Let’s just see what our next mission is. If we have a mission, even. We’re two down, you know.”

  “Shit, yeah.” Liam shook his head and moved around to unlock the car. “I don’t mean to be a downer, but what if Danny dies?”

  Baxter sighed. “Lily will follow.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah.”

  Liam opened the car door and slid inside, leaning across to open the passenger side, and Baxter got in, closing the door behind him with a loud thud. “Has that happened before? Mated pairs going out like this? Shit, I don’t know how to say it.” Liam looked embarrassed.

  “I know what you mean. I don’t personally know any, but there have been a few mated pair Venatores who died like that, one being so badly injured they couldn’t recover and the mate following them into death. Particularly during the war. Which reminds me, actually—there’s a part of my memory that I can’t seem to get to, which sounds weird, but it’s like there are memories I can’t remember. Do you know what could do that?”

  Liam quirked an eyebrow at him. “You were having some serious issues with some particularly bad memories of the war, and we asked Raphael if he could help. He said yes and blocked them so that they wouldn’t trouble you anymore. They’re still there, but they’re not reachable.”

  “Oh.” Baxter turned that over for a few moments. “They were that bad?”

  “Baby, I thought you were going to kill yourself to stop the pain of them,” Liam said in a very soft voice.

  Baxter bit his lip, shocked to the core at that statement. “Goddamn. I’m sorry, babe.”

  “It’s not your fault!” Liam turned to gaze at him, his expression one of intense belief in what he was saying. “That damn war fucked up most of us, some more than others, and some in more subtle ways than others. Raph said you might have times where you wonder why you can’t remember things, so I knew that’d happen. It’s a million times better than you remembering all that pain.”

  Baxter stared at him for a long moment. “Wow. They must have been pretty terrible.”

  “They were.”

  “Okay, I won’t pick at it, then, like it’s some sort of scab on my brain.”

  Liam gave him a small smile. “That’s for the best, I think.”

  “Well, this has gotten serious fast,” Baxter said, running a hand through his hair. “Let’s go home and see the pack and your brother.”

  “Good idea.” Liam started the car, and Baxter fastened his seat belt. And then they were off, driving away from the idyllic peace and sanctuary of the forest cabin, back toward Salem, Oregon, and the frenetic pace of life in the center of operations of Archangel Michael’s Venatores.

  “SHOULD WE have gone to Portland?” Liam wondered as they drove down the street that led to the house where the Venatores lived.

  “Maybe. I want to check in here first, just in case.” Baxter shifted in his seat. He resisted the urge to bite his fingernails, nervousness welling up inside him. There was a growing sense of doom, too, and he had the awful feeling that the news regarding Danny wasn’t going to be good.

  Liam drove the rest of the way in silence, and Baxter gazed out the window, willing his heart to stop pounding so loudly. As Liam pulled into the parking lot, Baxter jumped out of the car before it finished moving and jogged around the back of the large house to the door that led to the entrance lobby.

  He almost collided with Angelique as he careened around the corner of the house. She caught him by the shoulders and gave him a little shake. “Easy there, soldier,” she said.

  “Angelique, sorry.” Baxter shook his head. “How’s Danny?”

  Her expression fell. “The same.”

  “Seriously? Raph hasn’t tried his mojo?”

  “Yeah, everyone’s tried their mojos, even the damn Archdemons, but nothing is getting that boy out of his coma.” Angelique let go of him and rubbed her eyes. She looked exhausted, Baxter realized, and there were worry lines at the corners of her eyes. “They’re talking drastic measures now, either God or Lucifer intervening.”

  “Holy shit.”

  “Right? God, Bax.” Angelique let out a loud sigh and looked away. “I don’t know what we’ll do without him and Lily.”

  Baxter bit his lip. “I don’t want to think about it.”

  She turned back to him and gave him a weary smile. “That’s how I feel. So I’ve been working.”

  “You don’t have your heat coming up, do you?” Baxter asked. He couldn’t think of a worse time for it to hit.

  “No, thank Christ. Not for another two months. Riley’s contained, his just hit two days ago.”

  Baxter grunted. “Poor bastard.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “So what intel do you have so far? And aren’t we supposed to report to Ondrass’s skyscraper demon lair in Portland?”

  Angelique shrugged. “He’s with Lily, along with Adramelek, Lix Tetrax, Markus, and Melcherisa. They seem pretty invested in her well-being, which is… well, weird, but I’m not going to question it. If they keep her from suiciding, I will kiss them. But me and Dec, and Riley too, until a few days ago, we’ve been hitting the books and the web, calling our contacts, that sort of thing. We don’t really have a lot to go on.”

  Baxter frowned, thinking. “Do we have a location of where their offices might be? Somewhere we can go and stake out?”

  Angelique regarded him thoughtfully. “You know, I thought getting regular sex from a su
perhot giant might have dulled your wits, Sugarpuff, but it appears not. That’s a damn good idea. Let’s go see what Dec’s found out, and with you and Liam helping, we can dig up stuff while Riley rides out the last five days. Then we can all go on a stakeout.”

  Baxter grinned at her. “It’ll be good. Something for us to do apart from worry, and we can actually work on the job at the same time.”

  “Yeah, it’s a damn good suggestion. Hey, Liam.”

  Liam had joined them, and Baxter hadn’t even noticed. “Hey, Jelly. So what’s this about a stakeout?”

  She filled him in as Baxter looked around the backyard. Nothing had changed while he’d been gone—the lawns were still slightly overgrown, the plants still flowered as if they were blessed with good health. Which they probably were, considering Michael liked to fuss over them and the touch of his power probably encouraged them to grow more than they otherwise would. The trees were still tall and stately, ancient oaks and pines, a few fruit trees scattered between them, and grew among the pieces of well-loved playground equipment for the children of those Venatores who had married and had kids. The sprawling deck—covered with the wooden veranda roof and sporting a mixture of chairs and a few tables, a large bucket that was full of empty beer bottles, and a tarp-covered barbeque in one corner—looked as it had the day that Baxter and Liam had left for the cabin. All in all, home looked just the same—and Baxter was glad.

  “Come inside,” Angelique was saying, and Baxter turned back to her. “We’ll fill you in on what we’ve found so far, although it isn’t much.”

  “Maybe we should go into Salem tonight for dinner,” Baxter suggested. “Just get out of here for a bit, go and have a good steak and some beers.”

  “That’s another good idea. Damn, Sugarpuff, you angling to become my second beta?” Angelique smiled at him, and Baxter grinned back.

  “Nah, I’m happy being kappa. I’ll be even happier when Danny’s back as my buddy.”

  “Amen,” Angelique said. She turned on her heel and led the way back into the house, Baxter and Liam following close behind.

  In her apartment, Declan was sprawled on the floor, poring over a sheaf of paper and a laptop. Beside him was a notepad, and he’d been in the middle of writing something when they entered. He looked up, a frown furrowing his brow, and then his face broke into a huge grin and he leapt to his feet.

  “You’re back!”

  “Hey, bro.” Liam moved to hug his brother, and they pounded each other’s backs in welcome. Baxter grinned at Angelique, and she rolled her eyes, then returned the grin.

  “How’s things?” Declan asked.

  “Good. I hear you and Angelique have been working hard.”

  “And Riley too, when he’s not zonked-out after a night of heat stress. Shifter heat stress.”

  “That must be so frustrating, seeing as he’s not mated.”

  “I’ve been told it is.” Declan sat back down. “We’ve done a lot of digging around about Transom Corp. and its new and stupid name of TCC Corp., and Jelly’s been in touch with the witch and the hacker down in Australia.”

  “Minnie and Max,” she supplied as Baxter looked at her in confusion.

  “Oh, right,” he said.

  “Yeah, those guys. They know their stuff, that’s for sure. Anyway, we’ve been able to coordinate our intel and work with a ton of maps, and I think we’ve got a fair idea of the state the main offices are in.”

  “Not Oregon, like we thought they might be,” Angelique said, sitting down beside Declan.

  Liam and Baxter sat down as well. “Where?” Baxter asked, crossing his legs beneath himself.

  “How do you do that?” Liam asked, looking at Baxter’s legs. “Are your bones made of rubber?”

  Baxter laughed. “Buddhist, remember? I meditate and do yoga. The lotus position isn’t that hard.”

  Liam’s expression had grown sly. “Oh yeah? Well, well, well.”

  “Bro, you just got back from a week of fucking, haven’t you had enough for a while?” Declan demanded.

  “Fuck no. Besides, if I asked you that question, you’d throw a bottle at my head and call me an idiot who needed to get laid.”

  “Fair point. Moving on from Baxter’s bendy bones,” Declan said, and Baxter laughed at the description, “we think we might need to go to Maine.”

  “Maine?” Liam repeated.

  “That’s a surprise,” Baxter said. “I mean, Maine’s a gorgeous state, but… why is a multicorp out there?”

  “No clue, dude.” Declan shook his head. “We’re still researching.”

  “Well, four heads are better than two, so we’ll give you a hand,” Liam said. “What have you got so far?”

  Declan handed over his notebook, and Liam began to flip through it.

  “When we go stake them out,” Angelique said, “I’ll call Michael as we’re traveling. That way he can yell, but he can’t order us to back out.”

  “Do you think he would? I mean, all things considered, he’s a soldier, and he’d understand the reason for doing what we’re doing,” Baxter said.

  “Maybe. But Danny got hurt on the last mission, and he sent us on that, so he’s probably still so guilt-ridden that he won’t be thinking clearly. I do not envy Gabe, dealing with that,” she added. “It’d be hell to deal with.”

  “Mike’s a good guy, but he is pretty high-strung,” Declan agreed. “Maybe we should call Uriel and let him know instead.”

  “Call them both,” Angelique said. “Then Uriel can tell Michael to calm down.”

  Baxter nodded. “I think that’s a good plan. Michael might not like it, but Uriel’s less likely to mince words and just say it.”

  “Uriel, the Archangel of Bluntness,” Declan said.

  “Dec,” Liam said then, “why are you looking at satellite images of Bangor?”

  “Because I think that’s where the main offices are. Bangor’s a good spot. It’s a market town, a distribution center, and a transport hub. If they’re going to be anywhere in Maine, I think it’ll be here. It’s a good town to do business in.”

  “If you’re a sane business, not dedicated to cutting off Earth from everyone because you’re an isolationist, sure,” Angelique said, in a tone of voice that suggested to Baxter that the two of them had had this argument several times already. “I still think they’ll be in New York.”

  “Too big, too busy. I think they’ll want to be somewhere quiet, where anything new that comes along will be noticed really fast,” Declan said.

  “Okay, but we’ve got a few days to really make sure,” Baxter said. “We can’t do anything until Riley’s heat is over.”

  “Speaking of that,” Liam said, “why is he contained? I mean, why do any of you do that? Most shifters don’t, do they?”

  “Depends.” Angelique shrugged. “There are drugs you can take that block it, but Michael’s never been fond of those. The history of Venatores shows that he prefers that things go the way nature intended. I don’t know how other shifters in other places manage it. I guess they take the drugs or go into the wilderness or something like that.”

  “I spoke to Anna.” It was Riley, and they all looked at him as he entered the room. He looked tired, Baxter thought, and he could empathize. Heat without a mate wasn’t fun at all; he knew it well.

  “What did she say?” Angelique asked.

  “She said she can give me the shot to suppress the heat. We do have the drugs here; they’re to be used only in times of extreme emergency, and I think this qualifies. Do you?”

  Angelique nodded. “Yeah, I do. How do you feel about it, though?”

  “I think….” Riley took a deep breath. “I think I’ll need to be of use. I don’t want to hold you guys back like I have the last few days. So I’ll get Anna to give me the shot and we should be able to go wherever it is we’re going in twenty-four hours.”

  “Okay.” Angelique shot Declan a quick look. “Dec here thinks we’re going to Maine.”

  Riley
blinked at her. “Maine?”

  “Yep.”

  “Why?”

  Angelique clapped Declan’s shoulder. “Dec can explain it while I go and get us pizza.” She got to her feet and stretched. “I’ll be back in an hour. Don’t burn the place down while I’m gone.”

  They laughed at that, and Riley smiled shyly. Baxter gestured to him to come and join them on the floor.

  “Sit down, Riley.”

  “Okay.” He did so, and as Angelique left the apartment, Riley took another deep breath and looked at Declan. “What did you find out?”

  4

  “I DISLIKE waiting,” Michael said to Gabriel.

  They were in the gardens of Raphael’s clinic, sitting beneath a secluded, shady arbor, waiting to hear how Israfel’s experiment with music had gone. Gabriel held Michael’s hands in his own, feeling how tense his lover was and wishing he could do more to help Michael feel better than simply sit beside him.

  “Me too,” Gabriel said.

  “Yet there is nothing else to do. I cannot focus on anything until we know for certain whether this has worked or not.” Michael pulled his hands from Gabriel’s and ran them through his short-cropped black hair. “Raphael will not permit us to enter Danny’s room at this time, and so we are banished to the gardens.”

  “We ain’t the only ones,” Gabriel said. “Lily is too.”

  “Yes, and she is not dealing with this well at all. I understand that Markus remains with her while the rest of the Archdemons attend to other matters. Yet I fear that if I go to her, it would serve no good purpose.”

  “How can you say that?”

  Michael turned to him and gave him a small, sad smile that tugged at Gabriel’s heartstrings. “We are both grieving and worrying. I fear that in our shared grief and concern, we would be rendered useless by emotions.”