Authors: Caris Roane
Finally, Regan inclined her head, gesturing up the hall. “Come. Let’s look to what must be accomplished tonight. One day you’ll have great peace about your wife. You’ll see. For now, let’s talk war strategy.”
~
Those at least were words Zane could understand and appreciate. Emily’s need for freedom at the expense of her safety still made no sense to him. And he resented her stubbornness about venturing into the countryside, at night, by herself, to paint her landscapes.
As he walked beside Olivia, he could see something was troubling her, maybe the issue Regan had prevented her from bringing up. It was so strange to be carrying around within his mind a lifetime of her memories.
He’d understood from the beginning she’d been hurt in her childhood. But seeing her pain, a suffering endured from year-to-year, twisted his heart. She’d been teased badly at school for her fur and no one had been there to mentor her strong shifter nature. Her mother had been a good woman, a good parent, but as a human, she hadn’t understood her daughter’s needs.
At the same time, Olivia’s courage in the face of how different she was from other children at school had forged her character. She was strong and independent and he admired the hell out of her.
Regan led them to a small library and from her desk withdrew several pieces of copier paper, taping them together quickly. Using a pencil, she drew a quick sketch of the general lay-out of Margetta’s camp.
She glanced at Olivia. “Does this look right to you? I’m drawing from your memories.”
“Yes. This is exactly how I remember the camp.”
Zane picked through the recently shared images of Olivia’s life as well and found the ones where she had bounded over the spell wall in order to rescue him from his captor’s tent.
He slowed the images down and took a good long look at the camp, frame by frame. He kept viewing as Olivia glided her way through the shrieking wraith-pairs to the well-guarded tent where he’d been held captive.
He saw himself face down on the tent floor, just as Olivia would have seen him. He repressed a shudder at the cuts and blood over his back from the whipping he’d endured. Margetta hadn’t held back.
He watched as Olivia approached him, sniffing, then stretching out near him to lick his face in small gentle swipes. His chest expanded at the sight, warming up.
The rest became his own memories, and of waking up to Olivia in her shifted form. He recalled now he’d been more than relieved to see her.
He glanced at her while she and Regan talked about the spell. He never wanted to go through losing another woman again, or failing in a relationship because he could be so damn controlling, or so busy with work he ignored her needs.
If he bonded with Olivia, would he be any different with her than he had been with Emily?
He was tempted. Badly. She was definitely his kind of woman. His fae wife had been a vulnerable artist type and had grown increasingly discontent living with him as the years wore on.
They’d had so many fights over the final two years of their marriage. It seemed all he had to do was come home from a night of battling and the quarreling would start. By the time he’d found her blood all over the kitchen, the love had long since disappeared.
But the whole thing had left him feeling as though he’d failed Emily in every possible way.
Would Olivia be safe if he completed the bond with her? Would he know how to be a good husband to her?
“Zane, are you listening?” Regan asked.
Shit, what had he missed? “Absolutely. Well, actually, no.”
Regan smiled. “It’s okay. Most of this was for Olivia. But let me reiterate the most important point; I’m not sure how long it will take for me to figure out how to break down Margetta’s spell so I can disperse it, but I’m thinking at least a half hour. I’ll also have to hunt for the point of origin at the campsite where Margetta stood to enact the spell. Once I’ve found what I’m looking for, it may still take me a bit more time. Nothing about this is an exact science.”
“But you can do it?” he asked.
“There’s no doubt in my mind. And I’ll work as fast as I can.”
Olivia frowned. “What about Margetta? If she’s at the camp, won’t she know what’s going on and try to interfere?” She glanced from Zane to Regan.
Regan, who had been leaning over the makeshift map, rose, frowning. “It is the most significant part of the equation. I won’t be able to do anything if she’s present.”
Zane smiled. “Then we’ll need to find a way to keep her occupied.”
He tapped on Regan’s telepathic frequency, not to keep the exchange hidden from Olivia, but to establish a connection with Regan. She must have understood his intention because she allowed him entrance. He said,
We’ll communicate like this throughout the mission. Agreed?
Of course.
Though a pure fae, Regan wasn’t a deeply sensitive woman like Emily. Regan was very old and had a backbone of iron. She’d played an important role in the development of Swanicott over the centuries, especially her part in building up the Fae Guild. But he’d always thought there was more to the woman than met the eye and considerably more than just her spell-casting fae nature. Who she was or who she might become given the opportunity, remained to be seen.
With communication established and a general plan in place, he left the room to get on his cell and conference-call Chase and Sawyer. They needed to hatch a scheme to lure Margetta away from the camp while Regan worked on the spell.
“Margetta will want Olivia out of the picture, right?” Chase asked.
Zane dug in his heels immediately. “I don’t like where this is headed.”
“Hear me out. From what you told me about events at the Elf Lords Hideaway, Margetta has a means of tracking Olivia. Why not let her give chase? Show her a few of Olivia’s footprints, or whatever it is Margetta can detect when Olivia is cloaked, then steadily lead her away from the camp.”
Zane sighed. The problem with the plan was that it would work. But he hated the idea of letting Margetta get anywhere near Olivia again.
“There’s something else we could try as well,” Sawyer said. “I have several pure-wraith friends who would be happy to work against Margetta. I know they’d leave the Wraith Colony for a chance to do some damage to the Ancient Fae’s army. For every hot-blooded youth who takes off for the mainland in hopes of adventure, a wraith family grieves. You may not believe this, but no one wants Margetta out of commission more than the wraiths in your island colony.”
Zane had to think the idea over. He and his Vampire Guard had battled the Invictus heavily in his realm and he couldn’t easily set aside his distrust for wraiths generally. Even with what he’d learned in Ashleaf Realm, that all the species of the Nine Realms came from wraith stock, he still had a hard time forgiving the species. If Margetta hadn’t been able to subvert a great number of the wraith population, there would be no Invictus army to battle.
But right now, he had an opportunity to do some serious damage to Margetta’s entire operation. “Just give me a sec.”
He thought about the camp and how long it had no doubt been there, causing so much terror and unhappiness in his realm. He didn’t want to use Olivia in this way because he’d be putting her in danger.
On the other hand, he knew Olivia would be game.
What rose within him, however, was a renewed commitment to do whatever it took to burn the camp to the fucking ground.
He asked Olivia what she thought and he was right. Her green eyes glinted with excitement. “Let’s do it.”
He lifted his phone back up to his ear. “Sawyer, your plan is dead on. Contact the colony and have them send their most-trusted wraiths to Helms Watch since it’s the farthest distance from Margetta’s camp. Then Olivia and I will start leading the Ancient Fae in your direction.” He then took a moment to share Luther’s involvement.
Chase murmured a very soft, “Holy fucking shit.”
“What?” Zane asked. “Why did you say that?”
“Because these are extraordinary times.”
His ability to sift through Olivia’s memories at will, made him respond, “Yes, they really are.”
He gave himself a mental shake, then added, “All right. Chase, I want you putting the entire Vampire Guard on alert. I’ll want two-thirds of our force for the attack on the camp. Have the Guard congregating in the forest on the west side of the Arundel Mountains at 11:30. You’ll have twenty minutes of quick flight to the Dead Zone. And remember, everyone in the camp can see what’s happening outside the spell boundaries, so you’ll need to stage your troops at least two miles from the camp boundary. And I’ll be providing specific coordinates. Are we set?”
Both men responded in the affirmative.
Zane loved his men. “Sawyer, go get me some wraiths.”
When he hung up, he contacted Ryder, the leader of the Troll Brigade, filling him in on the details and routing him to coordinate with Luther. The Troll Brigade would require different travel arrangements, trolls not being flyers, but they did love their cars. Ryder would have his men in place, positioned within a few miles west of the camp and ready to move in at Luther’s command.
When Zane finally signed off, he presented this portion of the plan to Olivia and Regan. He hadn’t expected an argument from Olivia, but when her green eyes lit up, he had to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“The way you look. You’re very enthusiastic and part of me expected resistance.”
Instead of being offended, she chuckled. “Of everything you’ve seen me do over the past two nights, what would lead you to think for a moment I wouldn’t want to take part in this mission?”
“You’re right. I’m just not used to being around a woman like you.” His words opened the air between them, spinning time out. He held her gaze, and she matched him, not wavering as she stared back. He felt as though he had a dozen things he wanted to say to her, but what these might be he had no idea.
A voice came over Regan’s home security system. “Mistress, you have a visitor at your front door.”
Regan turned toward a monitor set into the bookcase to her left. “Show me, please?”
The monitor came on and Zane recognized the vampire at once. “Ian’s here. Good.”
Zane turned toward Regan, but she wore an odd expression, her lips parted. “What is it?” he asked.
Regan pulled her shoulders back. “Nothing.” She closed her eyes, appearing confused. Then a sudden blush climbed her cheeks. When her eyes popped open, she said, “Sorry. I used to know Mastyr Ian very well. We were… involved, but that was a long time ago. And for a moment, I was back there.”
And Ian had said he’d been to the guild several centuries ago. Funny how some memories never seemed to age.
Still, Zane had never been more surprised. The Ruby Fae rarely lost her footing, but she’d done so just now. And she’d essentially confessed to having had an affair with one of the roughest mastyrs in all the Nine Realms. Ian made Zane look like a mild fae scholar.
Ian was a man of few words, who seemed to scowl his way through life, and whose presence intimidated the hell out of everyone. Zane had a hard time reconciling the woman and her formal home with the vampire who never wore the traditional Guardsman woven shirt. Instead, he left his chest bare, exposing a massive tattoo encompassing his pecs. He wore heavy rings on each of his fingers, even his thumbs. His black brows were thick and sat low on his forehead. Rumors were he kept two women captive in a cave somewhere in the mountains of his realm and used them for his pleasure, but Zane didn’t believe it.
“I don’t want to see him,” Regan said.
“No problem. I’ll take care of this. And don’t worry, Ian won’t be at Angler’s Cliff either. He’ll be in charge of the Guard in the rest of the realm, while I get my troops deployed out at the camp.”
Regan nodded. He glanced at Olivia and lowered his chin. His voice came out like he was speaking with a rumbling engine against his throat. “And I don’t want you anywhere near Mastyr Ian.”
If he thought to offend her, she caught his arm and a sudden wave of her cinnamon scent flowed over him. She held his gaze in a firm grip. “You’re the one,” she said quietly. “No one but you.”
Her words about knocked Zane flat and his mating frequency began to flow inside his chest, moving around so he could hardly breathe.
He slid his arm around her waist and held her fast. He continued to stare into her eyes. The room seemed to disappear and a flash of movement told him Regan had discreetly left them alone.
The moment she was gone, he pulled Olivia hard against him and kissed her. This time, he could feel her mating frequency as well, much stronger now, and he let his go, driving through her chest to swirl over hers. The sensation was so erotic, he grew hard as a rock in a handful of seconds, ready to give her what she needed.
He kissed her wildly and savored the feel of her hands kneading the muscles of his arms. She moaned softly.
He connected his hips to hers, letting her feel how much she’d heated him up.
Her hands drifted to his ass. She grabbed him in a not-so-gentle grasp, forcing him closer. She then arched her hips and rubbed back and forth.
Goddess help him, he loved how she engaged with him so easily.
He was pretty sure only a minute had passed, but he swore if he could get inside her, he’d thrust three times and come.
Needing desperately to draw back, however, because Ian was at the front door, he created a slight physical distance between his hips and hers.
Sorry,
he pathed.
Ian.
I know.
She was breathing hard, her fingers gripping his shoulders, squeezing. “What a beautiful kind of madness this is,” she said, chuckling softly.
“Yes, it is.” He realized he was smiling. Again.
But he had to work at calming down, so he thought about anything other than the woman in his arms. He formed a vision of the moon rising over Maris Luna, the shape of the Arundel Mountains which split his realm east and west, the way the forest moved as a storm rolled through.
When he could walk without either hurting or embarrassing himself, he left Olivia in the library and headed swiftly to the front door.