Double Alchemy: Climax (34 page)

“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.

“If we don’t, Barton Sinclair will have won and the body count will be far more than just taking the decision to let one get killed every now and then. Valensia and I already had a plan to get someone else in there to replace you—another human. We’ve been working on it for a while. But whilst we knew we might have to replace you at some stage, I had no idea how to do it without them getting suspicious. Now I do.” Quinn chuckled. “If you remember I said at the meeting I intended you working with the Praetorium a little more closely. And I didn’t mean the fact she gave you her card and invited you for a drink.”

Quinn, Daniel should be very careful. He does not know Valensia like you and I.

I know, Withinner. But he wants to do this own way. He can be as stubborn as I am.

“Enough already about that,” Daniel said in exasperation. “So this other human—they’ll take over what I was doing?”

“Yes. Valensia’s pretty convinced they’ll be able to do it, and to be honest, it takes the responsibility off my shoulders and puts it on hers. I can’t say I’ll miss it either. So it’s all coming together.”

He sighed heavily. “I had a feeling I’d need to get you out of there as soon as I could the way the Council meetings were going, with Barton Sinclair getting more aggressive. It was only a matter of time before I lost my rag and kicked him out. I knew when that happened you’d be in danger because James is a vindictive bastard. So I asked Valensia a while ago for her help in grooming a new candidate to take your place. One James wouldn’t know anything about. I just didn’t have the time to arrange it myself.”

Daniel snorted. “I don’t want to see inside your head. It must look like Spaghetti Junction in there with all these threads, plans and political plots. I don’t envy you the job at all.”

I can confirm that your head is not a good place to be,
Taliesin chuckled.

Shut up, sorcerer. I wouldn’t say yours is any better, you supercilious bastard.

“You definitely don’t want to see inside my head.” Quinn gazed across the heath, his eyes unfocused, his face bleak. “It’s a pretty scary place to be, even for me.”

He brought his attention back to the present. “I’ll be calling Valensia later to eat humble pie and apologise for my misunderstanding yesterday. I’ll let her know all this then. If she’s still talking to me. I’ll let you know how that one goes.”

Daniel chuckled. “Good luck with that one. It was nice knowing you. I’ll catch up with you later then. I may as well get up now, seeing as how some rude bastard woke me up.”

The call disconnected and Quinn shook his head in amusement. He looked at his watch. Eight-thirty. Early enough to call Valensia, who would be up by now. Quinn heard Cade moving around in the bedroom and he went through to finish dressing.

Cade raised an eyebrow. “Warlock business done then? Are you ready for our morning walk on the heath? I might even get in a swim.” He bustled around, filling his swim bag with clothing and his swimming trunks.

Quinn nodded. “Yes, just give me a minute. I need to go to my study and call Valensia. I have an apology to make so she’ll talk to me again.” His face grew serious. “I also have some plans to make in getting Daniel out from the Alliance. What with me giving Barton Sinclair the boot yesterday, life will become a lot more difficult for him, I’d bet on it.” He heaved a sigh. “You carry on. I’ll be down in a jiffy.”

Fifteen minutes later Quinn rubbed his eyes tiredly.

Christ, at least that was over.

He wandered down to where an exasperated Cade stood, swim bag slung over shoulder, glaring at him impatiently. “Finally! I thought you were going to be all bloody day talking to that woman. How did it go anyway?”

Quinn sighed. “She was icy and scathing and I had to eat a lot of humble pie. I explained I thought that perhaps my senses were just heightened thanks to you. You do play havoc with them since you got your Fey on.” Cade smirked and Quinn grinned at him. “She finally put it to rest and she seems to like the idea I had for Daniel to get out of the position he’s in. So it all ended well enough.”

The door bell rung and both men looked at it in surprise.

“Expecting anyone?” Quinn asked as Cade went to answer the door.

Cade shook his head as he opened the door. “Nope. I—Ooof!” A large figure barrelled into the entrance, clasping Cade in a firm embrace, knocking him backward.

“Cade, baby. I was in the neighbourhood and thought I’d pop in to talk about the plans for the Scotland trip.”

The smiling face of Cooper Evans seared itself into Quinn’s mind like an unwelcome disease. His hands unclenched from battle mode as Quinn realised the threat was not that extreme and he scowled as Cade stepped back and untangled himself from the younger man’s clutching limbs.

“Fucks sake, Coop, how many times have I told you not to bloody do that? Remember we talked about boundaries at work?” Cade’s voice was censuring but he grinned. “I was just on my way out with Quinn.”

Cooper shrugged and brandished his leather satchel. “Cade, we leave in a week’s time for Crieff and we still have things to sort out. And work is just too damn busy to actually get anything done. So I thought I’d surprise you.”

“You’ve certainly surprised
me
,” Quinn muttered drily.

Cade flicked a wary look at him. “Let me sort this out with Coop and then we can maybe take that walk. I’m sure this won’t take too long.” He cast an apologetic look at Quinn.

Quinn shrugged. “Fine with me. I’ll take myself off to the study and catch up on some work. You boys have fun.” He turned and walked up the stairs.

*****

Cade watched his fiancé ascend the staircase and sighed. Quinn was still a little twitchy about him going away to Scotland with Cooper. He turned to Cooper, who was looking at him unabashedly.

“Cooper, you just have to stop bloody tackling me like that. You’ll make my life a misery with Quinn. You know what’s he’s like.”

“Oh, phooey.” The younger man’s eyes twinkled. “It’s just a bit of fun. Monogamy was never meant to be in the gay man’s repertoire, Cade. I don’t think I’ve ever been exclusive in my life. I’m still enjoying the fact that the menu out there offers a lot of choice. Just the other day, I went off with the leather daddy—”

“Cooper, I really don’t need to hear that,” Cade exclaimed. “Hell, you have no shame. Come on into the kitchen. We can sit there and you can tell me what was so important you had to swing by.”

Half an hour later, sitting on stools at the kitchen island and drinking coffee, Cade finally managed to finalise most of Cooper’s outstanding preparations for the trip. Cade was rather excited about the whole thing. Four weeks of research, digging, exploring and getting passionate about his subject of the Picts was manna from heaven. And while he knew he’d miss Quinn, the fact that he could travel up and see him at any time using his Withinner was a warm thought that meant really, they’d probably be apart very little. Quinn could be needy when it came to his regular routine of lusty sex and intimacy with Cade.

Thinking about that, Cade smiled and turned to face Cooper to let him know he’d overstayed his welcome. Instead, what he got was a pair of hard, moist, eager lips pressed against his, wet tongue seeking entrance and hands already creeping down to his crotch to palm him roughly. Cade was so taken aback he let the man’s mouth plunder his longer than he normally would have allowed until finally coming to his senses and pushing away the hungry lips and hands assaulting his body.

He propelled himself off the stool to stand further away. “Jesus, Cooper, what the fuck are you playing at?”

Cooper laughed and flipped his hands in a “
comme ci, comme ça
” gesture. But it was the loud inhuman growl from the kitchen door that made Cade look up in trepidation.

Quinn’s thunderous face glowered like a dark storm. The most disturbing sight, though, was the image of Quinn’s fingertips with blue sparks spitting from them. Cade knew exactly what that meant and it was an indication of Quinn’s fury. He was manifesting Warlock traits in front of a human. In desperation for the situation not to get any worse and end up with a work colleague fried on the kitchen floor, Cade stood between Quinn and Cooper, flapping his hand at Quinn behind his back to calm down.

He addressed his grinning friend. “Cooper, I think you need to leave. Those boundaries we spoke about before? You just bloody crossed them. I suggest you take that libido of yours and go and find another leather daddy to quench it.”

Cooper shrugged as he stepped from the stool and picked up his satchel with a laconic gesture, stuffing the papers from the kitchen table back into it.

“Hey, Cade, you’re damned irresistible, what can I say? And you really do taste good.”

He turned his back to fasten his satchel now perched on the table and Cade took the opportunity to move to Quinn and grasp his hands. Quinn stared at him, his eyes like flint.

“Quinn, Coop is leaving. Can you stand aside so he can go? Please? This whole ‘bastion of the door’ thing is starting to freak me out.”

“I’d suggest he leave quickly before I deck him one,” Quinn’s voice was deathly quiet. “And there is no fucking way you’re going with him to bloody Scotland.”

Cade’s ire at being summarily commanded flared. “Quinn, we’ll talk about this. Don’t blow a stupid, opportunistic kiss out of proportion. Cooper was just being an arsehole. And he won’t get the opportunity to do it again, I can assure you.”

“No, because I’m going to seal his lips shut and do the same to his dick—”

Cade reached up and placed a hand over Quinn’s mouth. “Cooper, can I suggest you leave the fuck now before my fiancé does something he’ll regret? I’ll see you Monday at work. And believe me, we will talk about this stupid stunt. I thought you understood my position.”

Cooper picked up his satchel and threw it over his shoulder as he moved toward the door. “Fine, Cade. Jeez, I just bloody kissed you, it’s not like we fucked or anything.” He smiled wickedly at an ever-tensing Quinn as Cade pulled his lover out of the doorway to allow Cooper exit. “I’m sorry, Quinn. I agree I messed up. I won’t do it again. It’s just that Cade has these amazing lips—”

“Cooper, leave. Now. You can see yourself out.” Cade’s fierce words spurned Cooper to action, and with a chuckle he waved an airy goodbye as he departed for the front door.

“See you Monday, Cade. I hope you’re still going to be able to make our play date. Daddy seems pretty uptight about the whole thing.” He disappeared and Cade closed his eyes in despair at the parting words. Trust Cooper to add fuel to the fire calling Quinn “Daddy.” The part of him that wasn’t trying to stop a Warlock King frying one of his friends into a blazing flesh ball was quite amused at the whole thing. But Cooper’s irreverent attitude was going to cause all kinds of hurt for them both, from the look on Quinn’s face.

“Quinn, Cooper was just being an idiot. Hell, he’s just a kid really. Cut him some slack.”

“Has he kissed you before? Groped you like he was doing here, in my own house?” Quinn’s snarl was low.

Cade’s hackles rose. “No, he hasn’t. And I thought this was ‘our’ house? You’re overreacting to this, Quinn. Just let it go.”

Quinn’s face darkened. “Let it go? That’s the man you’re planning on spending four weeks with on an ‘archaeological’ trip.” He snorted. “At least that’s what you tell me. He seemed pretty familiar with your lips.”

Cade stared at Quinn in disbelief. “Quinn, you do so
not
want to go there.” Anger rose in him like a steady tide of darkness taking him over. “I’ll let that slide. This time.”

He turned away and began banging coffee cups into the dishwasher. The air was heavy with tension as Cade tried to keep his temper at Quinn’s unfair words at bay.

Since when have I ever given him any reason to suspect I’d cheat on him? The arrogant bastard.

He’d just finished loading the machine, something that was usually Quinn’s chore, when Quinn spoke.

“Cade?” His fiancé’s voice was quiet, hesitant. Cade ignored it as he switched on the dishwasher. “I’m sorry.” Warm hands brushed against the back of Cade’s hair. “I was wrong to say that. I know you’d never do anything with Cooper. I was just angry, seeing him touch you like that. You’re right. I overreacted.”

Cade turned around to see Quinn’s face shadowed, his tawny eyes dark.

He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “Uh-huh. Just a tad. Honestly, for a man in charge of a world of bloody Warlocks and witches, fighting magyckal battles and not afraid of anything, you’re damn insecure when it comes to me.”

Quinn acquiesced with a nod of his head and a faint smile. “I won’t argue with that. You’re my one weakness, my Kryptonite.”

Cade heard the vulnerability in Quinn’s voice and a warmth suffused his body that Quinn felt that way about him. He walked over to Quinn and wrapped his arms around his waist, kissing him softly on the side of the neck.

“Quinn, what’s going on with you? You’ve been a little at odds for the last few days. Is there something you want to tell me?”

Quinn’s hands cupped his arse and drew him nearer as he nuzzled his ear. “There was something I wanted to talk to you about but I just haven’t known how to broach the subject yet.”

Cade took Quinn’s hand and led him into the lounge. He sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to him. “Spill it. Tell me what has you so damned stressed out that you can’t talk to me about it.”