Black as Midnight

by Mary Martel

  The person who had tapped their knuckles against the window stood off to the side, just out of sight from me. I could lean back between the two front seats to check out the back passenger window, but didn't want to draw any more attention to myself and make a target out of me. So, I sat there and I waited and they didn't make me wait long but I knew, if it were the hunters then I was pretty sure Tyson and I were as good as dead.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I stood beside Tyson next to the Suburban. We were on the far side of the shop and, hopefully, hidden from view from the people moving around inside. I'd taken the call off of speaker but hadn't ended it before sticking it in one of the front pockets of my hoodie. I still wasn't willing to disconnect from Quinton, even when I knew he'd be here in just a few short minutes. I also didn't hang up because I wanted him to know what was going on and that it wasn't safe for him to bring Rain here with him.

  A man I had only seen twice before—the second time he didn’t know about—stood before Tyson and I. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was glaring at us like we were his naughty children he'd just caught doing something he'd forbidden us from, multiple times. Now we were in for a lecture and maybe even a time out.

  I watched him nervously, warily, as I waited for him to speak. Or yell, I wouldn't be surprised if he yelled instead, he looked about ready to blow.

  The reason he made me so nervous was because he was a member of the Council and I think we all knew by now that they set me on edge.

  His name was Daniel. He was either in his early forties or was older and aged well. He had a broad forehead and a wide nose. Not a man I'd ever call attractive in the sense he was beautiful. But there was one thing I had to give him, because it actually was beautiful and that was his hair. He had dark, thick brown hair that was roped into a heavy braid that fell all the way down to the middle of his back. His hair was a thing to envy, and even if he wasn't a man you'd originally want to take a second look at, that hair would catch you by surprise at the last minute he walked past you and you'd have to take an extra peek over your shoulder at him just to check it out.

  Out of the Council members he'd been the one I'd disliked the most. Probably because his eyes weren't mean and cruel like most of the rest of them.

  That is to say I'd disliked him the least until I had seen that glorious braid slither around down his back while he and his Council buddies were giving it dirty to Annabell in some weird Council tries to knock up the female witch gang bang that I could have died happy never even knowing about, let alone having seen it.

  Odd, I know, because one would think that after all the years I had spent living with Vivian I would have been desensitized to watching other people have sex, but as it turns out that just wasn't the case.

  Maybe Quinton was right, maybe I was a prude. Please, don't let anyone tell him I said that.

  Tyson cleared his throat and bravely looked Daniel in the eyes, and said, "This is private property. What are you doing on it?"

  I choked as I turned to gape at him. That's how he wanted to lead into this talk?

  "You own the land across the street, Young Alexander," Daniel drawled. "If you want to talk about trespassing on your private property then perhaps we should go across the street and have this conversation."

  "I don't think that's a wise idea," I rushed out, and shrunk back when Daniel turned his hostile gaze on me.

  "Tell me, Ariel," he started in a casual tone that was at odds with the look on his face. "Why is it you think it's not a wise idea to go across the street to your shop? Why have you two been parked out here for almost ten minutes and not gotten out of your vehicle?"

  I scratched at the side of my neck, nervously.

  "Well," I said, "technically it's Marcus's vehicle and not ours."

  Tyson snickered from beside me and I jerked my elbow toward him, nailing him in the ribs.

  Instead of getting angry with me, Daniel glared at Tyson and leaned in to snarl, "You think any of this is funny? You're out here with one of our only females, one that's only recently been brought to our attention, and you want to stand here laughing when there are witch hunters across the street pilfering your store, a store I might add, that she spends most of her time working at. Tell me, young Alexander, what part of this scenario here do you find amusing?"

  Well, when he put it like that I could understand why he seemed to be so angry and upset with us.

  Still...

  "How do you know they're witch hunters?" I asked in a quiet voice. He'd sounded so sure of himself. "What are you doing here, Daniel?"

  "Girl," Tyson said in a voice full of warning. He wanted me to be careful here while talking to this Council member. He and I both knew what could happen to me for treating them so poorly. However, I was starting to believe, probably foolishly, that the Council wouldn't hurt me for asking questions or even being slightly snotty toward them. Heck, half the time Adrian found it amusing when I talked back to him. The other half he did get angry, though, so I knew not to push my luck too far.

  A terrible thought struck me and had me gripping the front of my hoody, my fingers digging into the material to keep myself from reaching out and clutching the front of Daniel's sweater.

  "Are you following me?" I whispered in a voice full of horror.

  I hadn't noticed anyone following me, but half the time I was too busy rushing from place to place and I didn't always pay enough attention to the world around me.

  What if they'd been watching me in the shop and had seen me with Rain? There was no hiding the fact he was my father, we looked too much alike to try and hide it from anyone. What would they do if they found Rain with me? What would happen to him?

  I shuddered at the surge of fear that roared through me.

  Daniel eyed me warily. "Of course I'm not following you. We would never do such a thing to you. However, that doesn't mean we don't expect reports from Quinton on your progress and welfare because we certainly do. He just doesn't report in as often as he should, and we've been forced to take matters into our own hands if we wanted to know how you've been doing. Today, I came by to check in and make sure you got Adrian's messages about when Marcus's dinner party is, because you haven't responded to him. He might not have gotten so angry if when he tried to get into contact with both your new guards, they had actually gotten back to him. Since they did not, he was going to come out here and see you himself and if you weren't here he was going to stop by the cottage. I didn't think these were wise decisions given his temperament, so I offered to go in his stead. I showed up here and you can imagine my surprise when I see witch hunters pull up and break in. Now, the thing I want to know here, is why don't you seem surprised to see them?"

  Ohhhhh boy.

  "They attacked Dash's the other night." Quinton's voice came from the front of the Suburban.

  I jerked at hearing him, surprised because I hadn't heard him approach or a car pull up. I'd been too engrossed in the conversation with Daniel. We were lucky the hunters hadn't seen us and decided to attack, because we all would have been sitting ducks in our stupidity.

  That didn't stop me from running straight for Quinton. I hit him head on, causing him to stagger back a step on his silver cowboy boots. I wrapped my arms around his middle and squeezed. His arms came up around my shoulders and he held me tightly to him. I probably should have been embarrassed by my actions but didn't have it in me. Quinton made me feel safe and I wasn't interested in hiding it from anyone anymore, least of all Quinton.

  I shoved my face in his neck, my mouth going to his ear, and I whispered urgently, "Rain?"

  He kissed my cheek softly and whispered as his lips ghosted over my skin, "He's fine, baby. Don't worry about him."

  I nodded as I tried to step back. I didn't make it anywhere because Quinton refused to let me go. Not that I was complaining, I was just surprised by it because we were in front of a Council member. Then again, he probably had never expected me to literally throw myself at him either, and
probably didn't want to let go out of fear it'd never happen again. I wasn't opposed to PDA, I just wasn't usually the person to instigate it.

  Quinton's palms glided down my back until his hands were resting on my waist. He picked me up and carried me back over to where his nephew stood with his back against the borrowed SUV. He sat me back down on my feet beside Tyson and squeezed my waist tightly before letting me go. He turned his back on me and stepped over until he stood directly in front of me, blocking me almost entirely from Daniel's sharp gaze.

  I almost rolled my eyes at the ridiculous, overprotective move, but didn't because it was pure Quinton and there was a large part of me that loved this about him.

  Tyson reached out and laced his fingers through mine. I squeezed his hand in gratitude and directed a small smile, not appropriate for this situation, his way. He missed out on it because his eyes were focused straight ahead and on the Council member.

  "I find it odd," Quinton continued in a quiet, but lethal voice, "that it's you who showed up here to visit our girl when it seems to be Adrian who's obsessed with her."

  I groaned inwardly. This was not the way things needed to be going down right now. If he wanted to give people a hard time for being obsessed with me, then I thought he should have waited until we sat down for their absurd dinner party. At least then we'd know we had something worth talking about, because Quinton wasn't the only person who had a problem with the Council being obsessed with me or the only person I figured would have something to say on the subject.

  I squeezed Ty's hand before letting it go and stepping around Quinton. I didn't get far before an arm covered in bright orange and yellow flames shooting up from its wrist wrapped around my middle and I was pulled backward. My back ended up pressed to his front and he wrapped both his arms around my middle. Normally, I'd get angry at this super alpha male gesture, but I was just going to be thankful today that he didn't shove me back behind him once again in order to keep me out of sight and out of harm’s way.

  "Can we focus on what's important here?" I asked in a small, tired voice. "And that being what's going on across the street."

  "Very reasonable," Daniel said approvingly, and I felt the unfriendly vibes coming off of the two Alexander men standing behind me. "I need both of you Alexanders to take this young female home and keep her safe, at least until it's time for you to bring her to the motel for our dinner party."

  I flinched away from him and back into Quinton's warm body. The way he'd worded that hadn't exactly given me the warm fuzzies, but it had set off my creeper alarms. After growing up around the men Vivian had liked to fornicate with, my creeper alarm was damn good, there'd been plenty of times and instances to perfect it.

  Just what did Daniel think would be happening after this dinner party? I wasn't sure I wanted to know and now I really wasn't sure I wanted to go. I mean, I really hadn't before, but now I might actually pretend to have the flu so I could skip out on it for real.

  "I'll not be leaving with Ariel," Quinton growled in a dark voice full of gravel. "Though, I do agree with you that I think she should be leaving and nowhere around the hunters."

  Even though I was terrified of the hunters, I really didn't want to leave any of my people here with them without me. I was no longer completely useless to them. Hadn't I proved that at Dash's cottage when I put out the fire? I had magic and I now knew how to use it, the thought of them forcing me to sit on the sidelines simply because I was female filled me with resentment.

  I jerked out of Quinton's arms and turned to glare at him. He didn't glare angrily back like I would have expected him to. Oh no, instead he had this soft, sweet look on his face while he looked down on me. His eyes were filled with understanding and I had never wanted more to hit him than I did in that moment. He might understand me, but he had no intentions of indulging me. Instead, I'd be sent home like a child he wanted to protect, an innocent who could not defend themselves.

  "Get out of my way," I whispered angrily at both Quinton and Tyson.

  Neither responded so I shoved them aside and out of my way. I ripped open the passenger side door and climbed up into the passenger seat of the borrowed Suburban. I didn't slam the door shut behind me because even I didn't want to draw attention to our little outside huddle, I wouldn't do that to the ones I loved. The members of the Council could all get fucked because, as far as I was concerned, they were on their own.

  The door clicked shut quietly and I slid over the supple leather seats until I was in the driver’s seat once again and back behind the wheel. The SUV was still running and it surprised me because I had forgotten in all that had gone on that I had not turned it off, so we would have a quick getaway car if need be.

  I hit the button on the door panel that locked all the doors and, without looking, felt the three males standing beside the right side of the vehicle turn and stare at me, assessing my motives.

  I pulled my cell phone out of my hoodie pocket and tapped it with a finger until the screen lit up for me. I hit the red circle button that ended the call that had still been engaged to Quinton. I'd honestly forgotten he was still on the line, I'd figured he'd have ended the call when he got here and to me.

  I pulled up my contacts and hit go on Rain's name. I knew he liked to coddle me as well, but he'd never lie to me and would tell me what he knew was going on around here.

  He answered on the first ring.

  "Baby girl," he said. "Tell me you're alright."

  His words filled me with warmth. Rain was a damn good father and my happiness and welfare always came before his own or, really, anybody’s.

  "Where are you?" I barked into the phone.

  Chapter Twenty

  Neither Quinton or Tyson had looked impressed when I'd pulled away from the curb and left them there exposed to the street. Guess they should have thought better about things when they had talked about me leaving. I'd given them exactly what they had wanted, just not how they'd wanted it.

  Whatever.

  You couldn't be a winner when it came to everything.

  I met Rain about a block away. He was in my Range Rover and parked in a parking lot in front of a building that looked empty and abandoned. Garbage was liberally strewn throughout the lot, making the place look like a dump even though the building itself sadly looked like a newer build.

  I'd honestly never once taken notice of the area around the shop and paid much attention to the neighborhood it was in.

  When I parked the black Suburban in the parking spot beside my black Range Rover, I put the SUV in park and shut it down. There was no point in leaving the thing running when we weren't in need of a quick getaway this time, or so I hoped.

  I didn't hit the key fob on the ring to lock the doors as I got out. There was no point since I was just going to the vehicle parked in the spot right beside it. If we left I would lock it up, I didn't want anything to happen to Marcus's vehicle he'd so kindly loaned me. Neither did I want anything to happen to the expensive vehicle he'd given me, but I opened the passenger side door and got in all the same.

  Rain was seated behind the wheel. Both Simon and Trenton were in the backseat, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for them. I loved my Rover dearly but I wasn't well over six feet tall and forced to stuff all that and my muscles into the backseat. I knew I would like my Rover a whole lot less if it were me stuffed back there with my legs cramped in too small a space for them.

  "Where are the others?" I asked, as I closed the passenger side door behind me. "The rest of my coven, I mean."

  Rain turned in his seat to look me directly in the eye.

  "Dash rode with Damien and Julian in their silver SUV. Your Salt and Pepper twins took their truck. Quinton had driven your Range Rover, but when he realized the Council had arrived on the scene he parked here and ran the rest of the way. Anybody else I'm missing?"

  I shook my head, but I was stuck on the fact my father had just told me Quinton had been the one to drive my Range Rover with these three. To the be
st of my knowledge, none of them had keys to my Rover. Though, I had thought many times about making a set for Rain because I still had no idea how he got around to places and whether or not he had a car. I had never gotten around to it though.

  Then it hit me… Trenton had stolen my keys and refused to give them back. That jerk.

  "Good," Rain said, and he looked down back at his cell phone in his hands. He held it up for me to see along with the two brothers in the back seat.

  There were several tiny squares on the screen, all of them aimed either inside the shop or outside of it.

  I spotted the place the SUV had been parked at before I'd driven off and it thankfully was just an empty curb now before an empty lot. The Alexander's and the Council member were nowhere to be seen. Another glance through the squares on Rain's phone told me they weren't anywhere to be seen. None of my coven members were, neither were any of the other Council members, if there even were any other Council members on site.

  My cell in my hoodie pocket chimed and I pulled it out. I had a text from Quinton and I opened it to read it.

  Quinton: The rest of the guys are here as well as several members of the Council.

  I frowned down at my phone. Was that supposed to make me feel better? It didn't. It just succeeded in making me feel even more afraid than I already was. Not afraid for myself, but afraid for the people I loved. Like we could trust the Council to help take care of my boys and keep them safe. I would have rolled my eyes if I wasn't so upset about the whole thing. And terrified. It wasn't something I would have admitted in front of the rest of my coven, that I was scared out of my mind for them, to lose them, and maybe I wouldn't have admitted it aloud to anyone.

  My phone chimed again and I looked back down at it.

  Quinton: Rain should meet you back up at my house. Your new bodyguards will be with him and have guaranteed me they'll take good care of you. Text me when you're home and safe.