Nikodemus was going to want to talk to them.
CHAPTER 33
Fuck anyone who looked at him sideways for taking oaths from former magehelds who were fit for the decision. Nobody dared a second look. Who else was around to take oaths anyway? Nikodemus and Addison were busy rebuilding wards and Durian was out backtracking the trail the mages had taken getting here. If any of the surviving mages were stupid enough to stay where they could be found, they were going down with no questions asked.
That left him to take oaths from kin who needed the connection. He was free to do so. He wanted to. Winters and Vahid would be safer if he were stronger, and if they had other sworn to hang with.
When he was finished with his initial roundup of newly freed demons, he ended up in the driveway, staring at the house. Winters was inside, and he was thinking about going to her juiced with new sworn and seeing what that did for them. If it involved the two of them naked again, that was awesome. If all they got was a few minutes in private, that was also awesome. There were matters to settle between them.
He put his hands on his hips and stared at the window and kept up the dirty thoughts about doing her when he wasn’t human. His phone pinged. A text from Winters.
Stop it.
He texted back. SorryNotSorry. Then What ru wearing?
The office where she ran Nikodemus’s empire was on the third floor. She had a room there with a couch that folded out so she could crash when she was too tired or too busy to go home.
Behave.
He could go talk to her. Find out whether she wanted to test the couch with him. But then he saw Carson go inside, and he didn’t feel like talking to Carson right now. If he went inside, she’d give him a hard time about Winters. Nicer than Xia had been, but the same basic story. You’ll hurt her. You don’t deserve her. All true things.
He texted her again. 30 min I’m finding you.
:)
This time he walked the grounds to make sure they’d found the remains of all the magehelds who had not survived. Addison was still with Nikodemus. So were his bodyguards, which was exactly right where they should be. The situation might not be over. Those fucking thirteen dead mages might be only the first wave. No way should Nikodemus be unattended for any amount of time.
A newly freed demon too disoriented to decide what to do lay on the ground by the low fence between the cliff and the yard. Kynan got him back on track and gave him his options and the rules.
“Go to the house.” Kynan pointed so he’d know which way that was. Harsh was supposed to be rounding up medical staff to take back to the compound, but now he was busy dealing with kin who’d been so badly fucked over by the mages they weren’t healing normally. Most of the worst off had come out of the breeding program, so they had no experience with freedom and an incomplete understanding of their abilities or their rank in Nikodemus’s hierarchy. Like this one, for example. “Ask for Addison or Telos. Tell them Kynan Aijan said someone needs to take a look at you.”
The demon took the hand Kynan offered and stood. They remained hand-in-hand for several seconds until the demon had gathered himself enough to head for the house. That left Kynan with the dead, those who had been recently living and those who whispered to him of sorrow. Seven demons lay in close proximity, all with their hearts cut out. The perverted magic the mages had called on here had fed the psychic link they’d created. When one sacrifice died, another took its place. Seven fucking times.
He knelt beside each of the dead and sent the lingering magic home with full acknowledgment of the horror their enslaved lives had been. Vengeance did not right these wrongs. But right now it helped to know that most of the mages responsible had not survived.
He made another sweep of the grounds to be sure he hadn’t missed any. So many magekind and kin had been here that attempting to follow a given track to its terminus was like untying a thousand tiny, jumbled, knots. He didn’t find more bodies or come across any more dazed-to-stupidity newly-freed. Good.
On his way back to the house, he texted Winters again.
On my way.
In the driveway, three more former magehelds crouched between the cars. One was borderline coherent, but the other two were a mess. All three were freaked because Leonidas was there, and he was magekind. In their fucked-up state, they’d made the psychically shared mistake of thinking three of them could take the mage. Not hardly.
By the time Kynan got to them, Leonidas had all three on their asses. Pathetically easy to do. “Barely past their first manifestation,” the mage said.
Kynan addressed the one he figured was most likely to make sense of anything said to him. He pointed at Leonidas. “You couldn’t figure out you’re in over your head with this one?”
The other demon snarled.
Kynan hunkered down and bared his teeth with a hiss. That got the attention of all three. He embraced the joy of his freedom. No holding back, no worrying about those damn bonds with Winters. He was free, he had sworn of his own, and Winters was upstairs waiting for him.
“You don’t know enough to show me respect. I get that.” He opened himself to the demon, and if he’d ever been normal kin, he’d have known right then to show respect.
One of the others broke down completely. He thumped that one on the forehead with the heel of his hand. No reaction to his psychic push. The other one wasn’t coherent enough to bother. “How many magehelds did you count, Leonidas?”
“One hundred and eighty-five.”
Same count. He stood. “Sixty-one alive when we terminated the last of the mages.”
Leonidas shot his cuffs. The mage had tried once and only once to persuade Kynan to invest in some bespoke suits. They’d come to an understanding about what Kynan considered acceptable attire. It wasn’t bespoke anything. Leonidas wasn’t going to ask again. “You find that significant, warlord?”
“I do when fifty-three of them are like this or worse. Fifty-three.”
“That many?”
He was reminded of the oddness of the first mageheld he and Maddy had encountered. “They were killing some of them to sustain their psychic link.”
Leonidas blanched.
“Most of these guys are newbies. They don’t know shit about their magic or how to use it. Did those assholes really want these guys in a fight? Were they that confident the numbers would overcome Nikodemus?”
“Nikodemus was not here, and his strongest were dealing with Sessani.”
He stood and looked at Leonidas. “They had six hours to come up with a better plan.”
The quiet stretched out. Leonidas spent the time straightening his suit coat and then his tie. “Is it true Maddy is your sworn now?”
Kynan appreciated how careful the mage was being. A month ago, hell—two weeks ago—he wouldn’t have given a shit how careful the mage was being. “She is.”
“You have taken more sworn today.”
“That’s right.”
Leonidas smiled slowly. “It’s about time, warlord.”
His phone pinged again. So did Leonidas’s. They both checked. Nikodemus wanted his people with him pronto. “I’ll be there as soon as I’ve settled the fucking new guys.”
They were nearby, his new sworn, waiting for him to give them initial direction. He rounded up the last of them, got them oriented, and found out that not one of them had a home to go to or money they could access. Two or three were powerful enough to be interesting. The rest? He couldn’t be sure. He left his living sworn to chill with Vahid and the others who weren’t cleared for meeting with Nikodemus.
Winters was by the door waiting for him. He took her hand in his and kissed her once and didn’t give a damn that everybody was looking. He draped an arm over her shoulder and walked in. “Fucking mages,” he said to break the silence.
That brought out a few grim smiles, but no one laughed. Carson cocked an eyebrow at him. He pretended not to notice. He still cared for her, and he always would, but she really was better off with Nikodem
us. Just like Addison was better off with Harsh, and he was better off with Winters.
“Six mages?” Telos arched one eyebrow at him as he handed Kynan a glass of beer. “Sheth went to Healdsburg the other day and scored some Pliny the Elder.”
“Thanks.” He accepted the glass and turned. “Maddy?”
“I might try some of yours in a bit.”
“Now that everyone’s here.” Nikodemus took the center of the room. “Update for anyone who needs it. Sessani’s operation has been terminated.” He gave a nod in Kynan’s direction. “She didn’t survive. Cleanup is ongoing. The mages who were here directing the attack are also dead. Thanks, Maddy and Kynan, for taking care of that. Neat trick there at the end. Later, I want to talk about how you did that.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “We freed most of the magehelds.” He turned slowly, taking in his gathered kin.
“Motherfuckers,” someone in the back said. Palla.
“Yeah.” Nikodemus didn’t look happy. “She was definitely working with the Russians planning most of this already. The two upstairs were really helpful thanks to Tau.”
“They still alive?” Kynan asked.
Tau smiled, and it wasn’t nice to see. “No.”
Nikodemus nodded at him again. “Glad you’re taking on sworn. It’s about time.”
He shrugged.
Nikodemus looked around. “That’s the good news.”
Nobody said anything.
“There will be more attacks like this. The Russians had company in this little venture. They don’t want peace, and they aren’t interested in leaving me alone, either. Short version, they don’t believe it’s in their interests to have demonkind, magekind, and humans getting along. There’s going to be a continued no-holds-barred opposition to what we’re doing here.” He regarded Kynan with a long, steady stare. “That’s why I need you back at the compound, warlord. ASAP.”
Kynan nodded once.
“Take as many of your sworn as you want. Harsh is in charge of medical operations. His word on any issues of health and personal safety are final. You’re security. And, sorry about this, Maddy, but I need you here, working on the legal integration of the women and children and finding the boys Sessani sent away.”
“What about the girls?”
“Them too.”
So. Really, he could take all but one of his sworn back to Hayfork. The one he most wanted with him was the one he had to leave behind. Mostly he didn’t think that was a coincidence.
CHAPTER 34
Kynan walked into the Tiburon house and stayed by the front door for several minutes. Maddy was in her upstairs office. He’d been up north for over a month, dismantling the booby traps in the compound and making it safer for use while keeping the location more or less off the human radar. Those damn pot growers were a bigger menace than the magekind who wandered in thinking they could take over.
Not hardly.
The work been constant. If he hadn’t been working through the nastiness Sessani had left behind—traps and poison everywhere, a cache of over a hundred talismans that required careful handling—he’d been dealing with former magehelds who’d recovered enough to require help staying safe and on the right side of the rules. Then one of the adult males had manifested. That was a disaster narrowly averted. He’d taken that one’s oath, too.
Even though he’d talked with Winters every day, they discussed mostly business. In fact, there was so much business, and she often sounded so tired when he called, that he rarely kept her long. They texted an endless stream of smiley faces, too. Other than that, they were back in their old habit of not talking about what was going on. Sometimes he thought, what the hell, it didn’t matter. She was his, and that wasn’t going to change. Most of the time he remembered that humans were a funny lot about relationships and that Maddy had never, in all the time he’d known her, been with anyone long enough to call it a relationship, let alone dating.
He went to the kitchen, grabbed two bottles of whatever microbrew was in front, and headed upstairs. After so many years without any living sworn, he hadn’t expected to fall so easily into his pre-Magellan habits. The sworn who lived in him had reacted well, all things considered. Now, the locus of his power was settled as if there had never been a time when he had to fight for his sanity. His existence was sharper and brighter now: sight, touch, taste, feel, hearing. His magic had an edge he hadn’t been free to hone in centuries.
When he got to Maddy’s office, he didn’t bother knocking. A shiver of magic slid through him. He could take oaths from a hundred kin before they matched the amp he got from her.
She was on her feet beside her desk when he walked in. While he closed the door, she bowed her head, three fingers to her forehead, then passed a hand over her face. She looked tense. Exhausted and on edge. The bonds between them came alive. Not her oath of fealty to him, but the others. The private bonds between the two of them. “Winters.” But no. That wasn’t right. “Maddy.”
His plan had been to observe some of the older customs with her, formalities that would keep him from going off track. That idea went out the window the minute he set eyes on her. He put both beers on her desk. As she was opening her mouth to thank him or maybe tell him to get the fuck out, he leaned in and kissed her and didn’t hold anything back. Definitely not a hey how are you nice to see you again kiss. More like, he couldn’t believe how badly he wanted her on her back.
She slid her arms around his shoulders and returned the kiss. He let his hands wander, and she was doing the same. He pulled back enough to ask, “Let me in?”
Her breath whooshed out. “I need a minute.”
“Sure.” He kept her close and ran his hands along either side of her spine. He needed the contact. Craved it, and she seemed to get that because she stayed close. “I wanted you with me up north. If there were anyone here I could have used for Tau’s little trick, I would have come a lot sooner.”
“I’ve been busy here.” She reached for one of the bottles and opened it.
He didn’t like the way she was keeping an emotional distance. He grabbed the other beer and headed for the couch along one side of the wall. The room felt close, claustrophobic, and he was sorry that he’d shut the door, except not really.
She stared at her beer for a while, then curled her fingers around it. “Thanks for bringing this.”
He tipped his bottle toward her in a silent toast. They both drank. Seemed like what he wanted, and what she wanted ended with them in different places. He told himself humans came at these things from a perspective the demonkind didn’t necessarily have. The two of them had a history that complicated everything way beyond normal. She needed patience from him more than anything else.
“It’s been wicked crazy here.” She leaned back and across her desk to close her laptop. “Same for you up north, I guess.”
“Yeah.” He took a drink. “Vahid’s doing great, though. When we’re done up there, he’d be good at working with your newbies.”
“I can always use the help.”
“Whatever happened to that mage, Salvador? Anything?”
“He’s working with Rasmus Kessler.”
“You sure that’s safe?”
She shrugged. “They’re both sworn, and Nikodemus and Leonidas keep a close eye on Rasmus. He’s improved a lot in the last few weeks.”
Kynan held out his hand. She didn’t move or respond, and things got awkward. “Maddy,” he said. “I need you.”
She rubbed her face again. “Kynan.”
“You’re here.” He touched the area where his physical heart beat. “And here.” He touched his forehead. Patience, sure, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t tell her what he felt. “And I need you. That’s not warlord to sworn. That’s me to you.” He sat forward, forearms on his knees. Figuring out what a human meant was harder without a connection, but over the years, he’d learned to study more than their faces and words. He’d done that with Carson when Magellan was alive. He had a template of
how to read a human without having access. Maddy was tired, but she wasn’t lying to him or being anything but careful about her words. “You’re working too hard.”
“So are you.” She shook her head. “Lately, I feel like there aren’t enough naps in the world.”
“I have no problem working for Nikodemus, either of us, but it’s time we stopped being apart so much.”
“Agreed.” She stood up. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” Their bonds pulled at him, twisted him up. They weren’t meant to be ignored, and too much time had passed without him being able to just let the two of them be. He turned enough to hook one leg over the arm of the couch. He watched her from over the top of his beer. He’d had his hands in that dark, silky hair, and his mouth and hands on her warm, soft, human skin, and his dick inside her and her magic all wrapped up with his. He wanted her again, he wanted Maddy open to him, agreeing to more of the kind of sex they’d been having. He wanted her to want him.
“Stop it.”
“Stop what?” He straightened again, baffled this time. She was smiling. Definitely smiling. Why was she smiling?
“Looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“That.” She waved a hand in his direction. “Like you’re thinking about sex.”
He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back. “Honey, I can’t stop thinking about you and sex. I’m getting desperate here.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“I am. I am completely ashamed.” He got to his feet. “I can’t stop thinking about us.” He put down his beer. “We combust in bed.”
She ran her fingers through her hair. “Some things are more important than sex.”
“Like what?”
Another smile curved her mouth. “To be honest, right now I feel like I need some help figuring out what’s more important than that.”
He put a hand on her cheek, and she closed her eyes, fingers curled lightly around his wrist. He gave her a psychic tap. “Let me help you with that.”
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