Lore vs. The Summoning (16 page)

"She's one of yours?" Dominick spoke for the first time since we'd gotten there.

"Yes, Alpha, she is one of mine." Her attention switched back to me. "She will be dealt with according to Coven law." In other words, she'd be tried by the high priestess and if found guilty, put to death by drowning.

"And restitution to my wolf for the loss of his condo and belongings?"

"Setup mediation, Alpha." Morrígan said wearily. "I will attend it."

I brought the focus back to me now that we were dealing with the safer topic of business. "I need to know who she was working for, priestess."

Spying an opportunity, Morrígan snagged it immediately. "I will arrange it. Return tomorrow night without your..."

"No," Aiden interrupted her, "She's not coming here alone."

Morrígan's voice dropped low. "You are beginning to anger me, senator."

"Tomorrow night," I said loudly enough that I hoped they both shut up, "I will come, alone, on one condition."

The priestess's lips twisted to one side. "There's always a condition with you, dearest Ms. Denham." But she waited for me to give the condition before saying anything else.
 

I looked her in the eye and said, "We postpone the gift giving."

Her mouth spread into a broad grin. "We have an agreement."

"Thank you, priestess." I stood from her leather chair, bowing in front of her desk in a deferential gesture.

That was when the evil, evil woman hit the switch on her remote. I bit my lip to keep from making a sound at the sudden jolt. My lack of response spurred her to turn up the juice. I unfolded to stand upright with my hands on the edge of her desk while the vibrations sent little shocks of desire all through me.

She lifted into a standing position with a graceful movement and then moved the four steps to stand beside me. Her hot breath slid into my ear in the form of a whisper, "I will dream of you."

It took every ounce of coordination and the little composure I was capable of displaying not to fall onto the floor in a quivering mess. Somehow I managed to make it to the door. The high priestess remained behind, resting against her large desk with her eyes fixed on us as we moved.

It was a testament to how messed up I was that I didn't protest when Aiden scooped me up and carried me back to my car. Someone had driven us a block away when either the priestess let up on her remote or I'd moved out of range. I let my muscles go slack against the passenger seat with a shaky sigh of relief.

"What the fuck was that, Laura?" The Alpha was the first to speak. From the location of his voice I gathered that he was sitting in the back seat. That must mean Aiden was driving.

I'd forced them to hold their comments until after but I wasn't certain I was going to answer any of their questions.

"That was nothing that concerns you," I answered in what I'd hoped was a cool tone, in reality it was breathless because of the after shocks still riding my nerves.

"We're tryin' to find out who is attemptin' to kill my wolf and you seem to be personally involved with everyone who could be pulling the strings."

His accusation angered me enough to get defensive. "I'm not involved with anyone."

Dominick muttered, "I'll bet you're even friendly with the Prime."

"She is, actually," Aiden told him.

"For fucks sake," I said at the same time as the Alpha was cursing in the back seat.

"You should have told us you had history with the high priestess," Aiden scolded me far too calmly.

"Yeah," Dominick chimed in. "That would have been a nice fuckin' thing to know goin' in."

"I don't really have history with the high priestess." I wasn't even convincing myself. "At least not the kind of history she wants. And look, nobody is supposed to know about this. If either of you so much as makes a peep about..."

"Are you or aren't you a lesbian?"

This from the Alpha was actually insulting. "My sexual preference has no bearing on my ability to track down who is doing all of this shit and put the hurt on them."

The guy was gruff when he declared, "I'm not talkin' about the kidnappin's and fires right now. I just wanna know."

"I don't know you well enough to..."

He interrupted me impatiently. "Oh, just stop it."

"Fine then, what answer will get you to leave me alone?"

I heard Aiden inhale a quick breath but when I glanced at him I couldn't tell why he'd done it. It had sounded like a laugh to me but his face was an unreadable mask.

"What's the priestess got on you?" Dominick demanded angrily. "How can you be such a hard ass with me but almost...submissive to her?"

That question made my entire body go a little cold. Was I submissive to Morrígan? Good gods, I was, wasn't I? That was part of why she scared me so damn much.
 

Stiffly I replied, "I'm not discussing Morrígan with you."

He smacked the back of my seat. "You damn well..."

Aiden interrupted him. "Calm down, wolf. If Miss Denham isn't comfortable discussing this then we can't force her."

The Alpha's ire quickly turned to him. "What the hell is the deal with you anyway?"

"I'm sorry?"

"One minute you're rattin' on her about the Prime and givin' her a hard time for keepin' her little affair with the priestess a secret and the next you're reasonable. Make up your fuckin' mind."

"It's not an affair..." I attempted to argue but was drowned out by them.

"My mind has not changed, wolf," Aiden retorted. "You are right that she is perhaps too close to this investigation. And it was irresponsible for her to keep that information from us..."

I broke in with a louder voice. "I'm sorry but I did try to keep you guys from coming with me. And I told you things might get weird."

Aiden moved onto a more productive topic before the Alpha could say something derisive. "I believe we should track this Megan down before her priestess gets to her, in case Morrígan is the one behind this."

"While I think that is a good idea, I can't go along with it," I said.

"Why?" The Alpha butted in, "Because you don't want to upset your girlfriend?"

My shoulder turned enough for me to look over it into the back seat. "Do you have any idea how immature you sound right now?"

Dominick held my irritated eye for a silent moment. "Why can't you go along with it?"

"Because Mr. Bruce is a vampire and Morrígan is the high priestess of the Fire witches for the Northeast. He might as well play chicken with the sun."

The vampire glanced at me while merging onto the interstate. "I appreciate your concern but I can handle myself."

I shook my head in a slow, grave motion. "It's not about whether or not you can handle yourself. It's that she knows me well enough to know threatening me directly never works. She knows only threatening other people will get my attention. And you're the one she'd go after first because she thinks it will upset me."

"Will it?"

I didn't want to answer Aiden's soft question but neither of them spoke. Obviously they were waiting on my response. I closed my eyes for a moment. "If anyone gets hurt because they were foolishly trying to protect me, then yes, it will upset me."

My answer plunged the car into silence. I was grateful for it. But the silence meant I had to think and my thoughts instantly went to Morrígan.

Gods, what had I gotten myself into this time?

I tugged the belted raincoat tighter around my waist as I stepped out of my car near the row house. My neighbors would just love to be able to tell the symphony that I dressed like a dominatrix on my off time. I really needed to come up with a cover story for all of the weird crap that happened around me. That or I needed a place without neighbors.
 

These days it seemed like my symphony life
was
the cover story. More and more my nocturnal activities took over what was supposed to be my "real life". I didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand the Underground facet of my life was dangerous and I tended to get hurt. On the other I was getting rid of some of Boston's worst criminals -- the ones the police could never hope to contain, even if they knew of their existence.

A figure stepped out of the shadows to block my path. I'd been so distracted in thought that I hadn't realized someone was there. My hand immediately went for the gun inside my coat but it hadn't been in time.

The figure grabbed me my the forearms, wrenching them from within the coat. A split second later I was whirled me around and immediately slammed up against the brick wall. Hot minty scented breath fanned my face while I attempted to decide if this was a supernatural creature or a run of the mill thug. Had that movement been quicker than human or was I just off my game tonight?

I knew the answer when warm lips pressed over mine. That kiss, open mouthed and all, was familiar. The Alpha had followed me home.

The two men had gotten in their respective cars at the brownstone fifteen minutes earlier without much of an argument. I should have known I wasn't going to get away that easily. But of the people I would have expected to follow me, the Alpha wouldn't have been my first guess.

His hands slid in between the folds of my jacket to move along the leather beneath. I wouldn't have thought I'd be able to feel much of anything through the outfit but I'd have been wrong. Each tiny gesture was articulated through the leather straps directly onto my skin. Now that I thought about it, it made sense given who had bought it for me.

I turned my head away, breaking the kiss so that I could ask, "What do you want?"

Rather than answer me he unbelted the coat, spread it wide and press himself against me. I felt the heat of his skin through the layers of our clothes. He was warm. And he was aroused.

"I want you so bad," he said into my ear in that voice I'd known would give me shivers.

"Alpha..."

He growled deep within his throat and grabbed my chin so that he could force another kiss on me. Though it was heated and sexy, I wasn't in the mood to be pawed outside my apartment building wearing Morrígan's little gift. All I wanted to do was strip out of it, shower off what she'd done to me and sleep the night away.

I shoved at his broad chest to little effect. It wasn't until I'd bitten down on his tongue that he loosened his grip. But I'd angered him and apparently anger did it for him because he slid his hands down to my waist to lift me to his pelvis for a proper grinding session. I had to admit that after the tenderness Morrígan had induced with her remote control, it didn't feel half bad. It helped that Alphas were notoriously well endowed.

Seconds later I was on my ass on the sidewalk and the Alpha was growling like a dog in a territorial dispute. I scrambled to my feet to figure out what the hell was going on and got hit with a face full of chestnut hair that smelled suspiciously like Aiden Bruce's cinnamon scent. They appeared to be in some sort of battle on the sidewalk in front of my apartment. I stood dumbly trying to decide what the hell to do.

The vampire ducked an attack directly in front of me. I saw the wide-eyed horror on his face as he reached out for me a heartbeat before I felt the claws enter my chest. My attention snapped forward to where I was met with Dominick's rage filled eyes. His fury fled in an instant once he'd realized what he'd done. The Alpha's claws immediately retracted as his hand shifted back into human form.

"Jesus Christ," Dominick exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

I'm not going to lie; it hurt. But thanks to the durable leather straps that made up Morrígan's gift, his claws hadn't slashed much further than a centimeter into my actual skin. The telltale tingling and itching meant I was already healing the wounds.

"I'm fine," I replied tersely with a step away from the hands that tried to check my wounds.

"I am sorry, Miss Denham. I shouldn't have avoided the attack," Aiden was saying with his attention focused solely on me. "It was cowardly of me."

My voice was low and angry, "This wouldn't have happened if you'd both just left me alone." I punctuated the last three words with a slow drawl.

The Alpha just couldn't resist trying to start more shit. "We were doin' just fine before he showed up. More than fine if you ask me..."

"I didn't," I called back after turning toward the building's entrance. "If either of you shows your face around here again without my invitation, I'll shoot it."

I didn't wait for the inevitable arguments. They could fight amongst themselves out there until the sun rose for all I cared. I was going to bed.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I had made the mistake of showing up at Morrígan's stronghold in black jeans and a black t-shirt beneath my raincoat. I'd hoped she'd overlook the fact that it wasn't leather. I'd been wrong.

Her personal guard met me halfway to the inner sanctum. He bowed from the waist down. "Her holiness has arranged for more appropriate attire. If you would follow me." He didn't wait for an agreement before turning and walking in the direction parallel to the sanctum.
 

I couldn't for the life of me remember what his name was. I thought it was something that had once reminded me of Sesame Street, like Bert or Ernie. Or had it been the Muppets? Maybe his name was Gonzo.

Gonzo stopped in front of a door in a part of the stronghold I'd never visited. He gestured that I was to go inside and when I'd stepped forward he said, "Everything is laid out. She will be pleased if you were to accept these gifts."

In other words, if I didn't put on the clever new outfit, she was going to be displeased. I inhaled an irritated breath but didn't argue. I needed information from her witch. If putting on another silly outfit would get it, then dress me up and call me Fifi.

Gonzo didn't have to say it but I knew he'd wait outside for me. I supposed she'd never actually called him a guard. He was more like her personal errand boy, except he was probably nearly thirty. I didn't know how I knew he was older than me because he had the soft features of a much younger man. Maybe it was the lines around his eyes. I'd have admitted he was pretty if anyone had asked me.