James Barton Sinclair leaned forward in his chair. “Daniel, we are all very supportive of your role in the WA and it has been a key position of strategy for this Council for the past many years. We can certainly appreciate your position and the personal sacrifice you have made in getting where you are. It appears to me that we need an event that will further cement your position in this organisation, one that cannot be made with emotion and one that is made solely with the interests of the greater good. I confess there was a time when I believed Quinn to be of the same opinion but he appears to have grown a conscience, something which ultimately may lead us to a path down which we do not want to travel.”
Quinn’s fists clenched and unclenched on the table and Daniel sensed the imminent danger in the man’s body language as he listened to James’ dissertation. He knew Quinn was not upset at what was being said about him but rather about the direction that the conversation was taking.
Barton Sinclair looked around the table, obviously relishing the attention of the Council. “As Grand Master, there may be certain decisions that need to be made that are unpalatable and frankly, inhuman. But this position demands such decisions be made and one cannot ignore one’s duty for the sake of humanity. Some lives need to be sacrificed for the many. There are others around this table that feel the same way.” His lips curled in a sneer. “And as Justin Leichner is not here tonight to support Quinn as usual, we may be able to speak more freely on this issue.”
“Are you saying you think Quinn should sanction these witch killings to secure my place in the WA?” Daniel’s voice was conversational but inside he was burning with fury at what Barton Sinclair was trying to do. Valensia was regarding Barton Sinclair with eyes that were acid with dislike.
“You’re his inside man, so his to do with as he sees fit.” James voice hardened. “I know what I would do if my key man’s position in the WA was threatened.”
Quinn stood up slowly, his hands drawn into tight fists and his face black with fury. “I’d be interested to hear what Valensia has to say about that, James.” He gestured in the witch’s direction.
She watched Quinn, then James with flinty eyes. At the expression on her face Barton Sinclair blanched. Valensia regarded him with scorn as she rose to Quinn’s challenge. “You’d like to tell me, the Regina of the Praetorium, that as well as Warlocks, you intend having some of my people killed to protect a man, a human, who is working with the Consortium of Warlocks?”
“That will never fucking happen,” Daniel said hotly. “I would die rather than see others die for me. Barton Sinclair, you are a pompous, arrogant and dangerous arsehole.” He turned to his nephew in frustration. “Quinn, how can you let him say these things—”
Quinn waved an imperious hand, cutting him off. “Daniel, calm down. I have no intention of letting James put any of his misguided ideas into play. Neither will Valensia, I assure you. It’s not something either of us would condone for a millisecond.”
“And you know her so well, you bedded her. You know her inside out,” James said with a sneer. He looked around the room, pleased with his own wittiness.
A pulse throbbed in Quinn’s throat and Daniel thought things were definitely going to get nasty. His own throat was choked with anger.
Valensia stood up, her gaze on James deadly, her fingers flexing.
Daniel wondered if she too could throw energy bolts like Quinn. He had visions of the whole room going up in flames with Barton Sinclair acting as the torch.
She and Quinn shared a fierce glance and then, slowly, she sat back down and stared at James with dislike. Her fingers tapped a secret tune on the table.
“I shall ignore that last comment and not rip your fucking jowly throat out.” Quinn’s voice was deadly. He looked around the room. “Are there any others in this room that feel we should protect Daniel’s position by killing innocent people just to keep him in there?”
There were some glances around the room as the men looked at each other, then slowly, a few of them raised their hands, Barton Sinclair and his lapdog Troy Cavanaugh being two of the six currently with their hands in the air.
“By my reckoning, that’s less than half of the current Council voting for this option.”
Barton Sinclair looked around in confusion and Quinn imagined he thought he’d bullied more people into supporting him and that those people had now changed their minds, leaving him high and dry.
“Six out of a council of fourteen. I know what Justin Leichner and Frederick Mulbarton would say and it probably wouldn’t be very complimentary to you, James. And you know what? You’re right. Some time ago I might have given credence to such a notion. I doubt I would have done it but I would have thought about it. But I have changed for the better, I hope. And there is no way on this earth that I would fucking agree to killing innocent people so Daniel can retain his position. We have a union with the witches now, a powerful ally. We will either find some other way to keep Daniel in there, or else I will remove him and we will live with the consequences. I will not lose Daniel. If he feels threatened, he needs to leave immediately. I will not lose another family member or another good man to this war we fight, if I can help it.”
Quinn’s voice was fierce and Daniel’s throat constricted at the emotion in Quinn’s voice. “And I will not have men in this Council who think we should. Those of you who put up your hands can leave this room and not come back.” The Grand Master’s tone was harsh.
The men who had supported Barton Sinclair looked around in confusion, meeting the steely gazes of those who had not.
Valensia smiled and licked her lips as she watched Quinn. Daniel swallowed at that look. She might know she didn’t have a chance with Quinn, but by God, she still wanted him. He wished a woman would look at him that way. Power and strength obviously turned her on. He’d have to remember that.
“I mean fucking now. Get up and leave.” Quinn leaned forward on the table, his tone leaving no room for doubt what would happen if they didn’t. The men slowly stood up, filing quietly out of the door
Barton Sinclair was the last to leave. His eyes were full of hate. “You can’t do this, Fairmont,” he snarled. “There are rules and regulations and you cannot simply throw us out because we disagree with you. You’re a fucking dictator.”
“I’m not asking you to leave because you disagree with me,” Quinn said quietly. “I’m asking you to leave because you sicken me with your ideology. It has no place in this room. If that makes me a dictator, so be it. I can live with myself. But I couldn’t live with the thought that I have men like you around this table who think that destroying lives is the answer to everything.”
He stared flatly at the other man and Daniel noticed for the first time that Quinn’s eyes were pure black. Barton Sinclair seemed to notice as well as he stepped back with an expression of fear on his face before he turned and strode out of the room. Quinn watched him go.
Daniel laid a hand on his arm. “Quinn, sit down. Take a breath.”
“In a minute, Daniel. Let me finish this up.” Quinn looked around the room at the other men still seated. “Some of you may not agree with what I’ve just done. But I can’t afford to have men like that in positions of trust on this council.”
He looked at Daniel. “Daniel, I want you out of the WA. If I know Barton Sinclair, this will piss him off to the point where he’ll do anything to get back at me. He knows one way to do that will be to harm you. I want you out of there. We’ll figure out how to do that without tipping the WA off.”
He looked at the silent room full of expectant faces. “For those of you who are still on this Council, thank you for your support. I think it’s late enough now to call it a night. I’ll be in touch with each one of you in the next few days and let you know where we’re going from here. Thank you, gentlemen. And lady.”
The men stood up quietly, most of them shaking Quinn’s hand as they left, others simply nodding at him in agreement. Valensia glided over to Quinn and observed him
with keen eyes. Then she nodded haughtily and walked out of the room. Finally it was quiet and Quinn sat down, passing a trembling hand over his darkened eyes.
“Hell, that was intense. Not only did I piss the queen of the witches off, I pissed off six of some of the most influential Warlocks in the country. Never let it be said that I do things in halves.”
Daniel chuckled quietly. “You’ve always had a tendency to do things in the most unorthodox way. It what makes you a great Grand Master and an even better leader.”
Daniel reached down and grasped Quinn’s shoulder tightly, feeling the tenseness in the younger man.
“Go on home; get to Cade. Let him take some of that tension out of your body, son. And what the hell is all that stuff with your eyes? It looks bloody scary.” He grinned.
Quinn smiled back at him. “It’s a stress thing but I’m getting used to it. And Taliesin has been extremely vocal tonight. He’s driving me crazy. The things he wants to do to Barton Sinclair I can’t even repeat. I wouldn’t mind doing some of them to the bastard myself except I’ll end up in jail.” He groaned softly. “I need to make nice with Valensia as well, I suppose, on my faux pas. She’s unforgiving and she’ll make my life a bloody misery.” He glanced at his uncle with a faint smirk. “If you intend taking on Valensia, you’ll need big balls. Believe me, I know and I meant it when I said be careful what you wish for.”
“I’m a grown man and my balls are big enough, I hope.”
Quinn stood up and stretched. “Time to get home. We’ll talk tomorrow and make a plan to get you out that keeps you safe. There must be a way.”
Daniel nodded sombrely. “I can’t say I’ll be unhappy to leave, it’s just how we do it that’s the problem.” He turned to leave the room then turned around. “You did well, tonight, I’m very proud of you. Your father would have loved to see you throw that jackass out on his ear.”
He left Quinn in the room and made his way down to the lobby. He’d get a taxi home, bugger the trains. There was a definite sense of relief that he was getting out of the Witchunters Alliance. It would give him more time to devote to the resistance group, which was his main passion. Daniel knew things were going to get a little tougher over the coming weeks, not least of which was calling Valensia for that drink she’d promised. He’d play that one out, see how it went. After all, he was only human.
Chapter 30
Quinn got home just before eleven p.m. and tried to walk quietly into the bedroom so as not to disturb Cade. He undressed, leaving his clothes spread across the floor as he crept into bed.
His body felt as if he’d been in a boxing ring with a sumo wrestler, tense with knotted muscles. He turned over to sleep and started as a pair of warm hands slid up his back and made their way to his shoulders. He moaned as Cade kneaded them, his strong hands finding the knots and working them out.
He felt the heat of his lover’s hands on his skin and groaned softly. “God, I need that.”
“Bad meeting then?” Cade’s mouth brushed his back and Quinn’s groin surged at the breath on his skin and the touch of his tongue as he ran it across his shoulders.
“I’ve had better. I managed to really upset Valensia and had to get rid of six council members who now hate me and have no doubt vowed vengeance. So yes, not a particularly good evening.”
“What did you say to Valensia to make her so mad?”
“It was a misunderstanding, a miscommunication. I’ll call her tomorrow and apologise.”
“You have to apologise? What the hell did you say to the woman?” Cade was sitting up in bed now and Quinn felt his eyes boring into the back of his head. He wished, once again, that he’d kept his mouth shut. This whole thing about relationship transparency was about to get him into trouble once again.
“I made an assumption about something I thought she was doing and she got royally pissed. It was a Consortium thing, and in hindsight, I was wrong, hence the apology.”
He wasn’t going to tell Cade the full story as that would invite far too much commentary and questions about why he’d gotten horny in the first place when she hadn’t apparently even been trying. Quinn still wasn’t sure himself what had happened. He imagined it was his heightened senses wreaking havoc since Cade’s return. He’d have to watch that.
“I see. Was it Barton Sinclair you kicked off the Council?”
“Yes, he and five others. They supported an idea I couldn’t in all honesty give credence to. They wanted me to sanction more actual witch killings to secure Daniel’s position. Just let deaths happen for the greater good. I couldn’t do that.”
“You made the right decision. I’m really proud of you for getting rid of those smarmy bastards. Barton Sinclair is an absolute prick.”
Quinn chuckled at Cade’s words, closing his eyes in satisfaction as eager hands slowly slid down his side, caressing the scar on his hip and moving down over his backside, to the tops of his thighs.
“Cade?”
“Um-hm?”
“Are you going to take advantage of me? Because I’m pretty tense in one particular area and I really need it relaxed.”
Cade laughed softly as he leaned over him, his hands sliding around to his erection and touching him teasingly. Cade’s tongue teased Quinn’s ear and he grew even harder. His groin flooded with heat and his breath quickened.
“I think I might manage to do something about it,” Cade murmured, his voice sultry as he pushed Cade onto his back and stared down at him with hooded eyes. Quinn closed his eyes as his fiancé proceeded to take care of his tension problem.
*****
The following morning Quinn sat bare-chested in his jeans, looking out at the early morning mist rolling over the heath as he dialled the number he wanted.
Daniel answered, sounding quite put out. “Quinn, it’s eight o’clock on a Saturday morning, for God’s sake,” the older man grumbled. “What’s so important it couldn’t wait until a more civilised hour?”
Quinn chuckled. “I was thinking about how we’re going to get you out of the Witchhunters Alliance without raising suspicions about you. I was in the shower and I had an epiphany.”
“Bully for you,” Daniel grunted. “I hope it didn’t hurt. You should be more careful.”
Quinn shook his head in amusement. “I’m trying to be serious. Will you hear me out please?”
Daniel sighed loudly.
Quinn smiled. “Right, you grumpy bugger. Here’s my suggestion. We turn the whole thing on its head and tell the Witchhunters Alliance that for the last two years, whilst you’ve been busy trying to infiltrate RAW for them, you’ve finally got them to really trust you. So you’re moving on. You’re going to leave the Alliance and get yourself ensconced in RAW and report back on them to the Alliance. We can feed them disinformation and the occasional genuine scrap to keep them happy. That way if that tosser Barton Sinclair decides to spill the beans on you—and he will, have no doubts about that—it looks like it all fits together.”
His voice was grim with his next words. “James will have no compunction making you the sacrificial lamb so he can gain kudos with his followers and show everyone how tough he is. He’ll do anything to get back at me, even if it means losing a valuable resource within the WA. The bastard will cut his nose off to spite his face; he’s that kind of man. This is all about keeping you safe.”
This is a good plan. I like it. Taliesin’s tone was approving.
Daniel was quiet on the other end of the phone. When he spoke he sounded a little confused. “So, let me get this straight. These past few years I’ve been running RAW under the covers but was assigned to the WA as a ‘double agent’ to drip feed them false info on the resistance and the Consortium and any other bloody organisation they hated. I then reported back to RAW on what the WA is doing so we were forewarned. Now you’re suggesting I tell them I’ve finally fully ‘infiltrated’ RAW and I need to be more visible there, hence me leaving the WA. To them, I’ll be working in RAW knowingly and feeding them, the W
A, bits of info from the inside.”
“Eureka,” Quinn said drily. “As Professor Higgins so eloquently said, ‘By George, you’ve got it.’”
“Hell, you’re bloody scary.” Daniel’s voice was impressed but Quinn could also hear a faint trace of something else—fear? “That must be the most Machiavellian bloody plan I’ve ever heard. And you came up with it in the shower?”
“It works. It means that if James lets slip you’ve been involved with RAW, then you can counteract it by saying, of course I bloody well was, and now I’ve finally got where I wanted to be. Full time inside RAW, in a pretty senior position. It is risky and it will take a really good acting performance from you to pull it off, to both discredit James and make the WA think he’s got the wrong end of the stick, but you can do it. This way, you get back where you truly belong, the WA think they’ve got a prominent insider in the resistance and you can keep RAW going without the distraction of playing the double agent in their camp. Instead you’re a treble agent in your own.”
Daniel groaned. “I don’t even want to go down figuring out how the treble agent thing works in your head. It was bad enough when I was a double.”
Quinn laughed softly. “It sounded logical at the time, but I think even I’d have a job explaining it now. What do you think? Can you pull it off?”
“I can.” Daniel’s voice was firm. “If it gets me out of WA without too much suspicion and lets me fight them from within my own organisation, I’m all for it.” He went quiet.
Quinn knew what he was thinking. “I’m hoping that with us feeding them what they think is much more valuable information on RAW directly and keeping them distracted, you won’t get too involved too much anymore in sanctioning some of the killings the WA want to do. But you’ll still have to have your finger on the pulse inside there for a little while. We have to know when these things are happening so we can protect the witches and Warlocks they’re targeting.
Double Alchemy: Climax Page 26
