Fire Kissed (24 page)
He circled to the left of the building. Kept to the trees to round the perimeter. Streaked across the lawns. Avoided the wraiths that prowled the grounds so as not to lose time with a fight. Rounded a corner.
And found a side entrance tucked under an overhang. All Shadow. And the slight blue soul gleam of an angel. A dark figure clasped the angel—a mage or wraith since its mind was empty. The two struggled against each other, the angel collapsing.
Jack would not have it. He dived into the fight, grasped the attacker by its hair and threw it out onto the walkway leading to the door.
The angel slumped down.
Mage.
Mage.
Yes, mage. Jack had killed one today. He’d be happy to dispatch another. Feeding souls to wraiths. The mages were as corrupt as they’d been a thousand years ago.
Jack lifted his hand for a killing blow. Aimed for the neck behind that mess of wild red hair.
And then all strength left him.
Kaye turned, her face contorted in pain. Her garment had opened, so her naked body was revealed to the stars. Creamy skin, round breast, the maddening slope of her waist. His heaven.
Jack reared back.
He looked at the angel, who’d raised her arm to say stop.
Looked back at Kaye, trying to push herself up.
“What is this?” he demanded. The wraiths on the lawns would hear, would smell. They would be coming.
Kaye was all reckless danger and sex.
She got me out.
The angel’s legs buckled and she slid down the brick wall of the house. The angel was very ill, her light so dim, her body so weak and parched. Her eyes were bloodied by burst capillaries. She’d come very close to her end.
The angel’s legs buckled and she slid down the brick wall of the house. The angel was very ill, her light so dim, her body so weak and parched. Her eyes were bloodied by burst capillaries. She’d come very close to her end.
What had Kaye done? Jack swung back to Kaye, now just getting to her feet. She wrapped her robe around herself, held it closed at her throat. But would not look at him, not even as she passed on her way back to the door.
He didn’t understand. “Ms. Brand?”
Just now she had an ethereal quality, like a fine-boned sparrow in winter.
She stopped, back proud, but still clutching her shiny, dark robe around her. “Ferro agreed to meet with Segue. I believe he’s planning it for tomorrow night.”
Jack felt himself breaking again inside. He was helpless... so angry, so frightened for her. His eyes and heart burned.
She told me to call you. Said you’d be near.
The angel’s jaw had gone as slack as her body. He had to get her out of there, get her to help immediately. But ...
The angel’s jaw had gone as slack as her body. He had to get her out of there, get her to help immediately. But ...
“Kaye!” He moved to grab or hold her, but she stepped out of his reach, her features contorting slightly with constrained painful emotion.
“Come away from this,” he begged. “Please.”
He didn’t care about the Houses’ plans for a doomed world anymore. Let Shadow take over. Let darkness rise. If only he could keep her safe.
A wraith screeched as it approached. They would be found in moments.
“I have to go,” she said, opening the door again. “Ferro might miss me.”
“You look like Hell,” Adam Thorne said, shaking Jack’s hand.
“I’m in Hell,” Jack returned. No use denying it.
They met at the rear entrance to the Segue Institute, the huge building evoking more expansive turn-of-the-century hotel than paranormal research center. Jack had left the D.C. area at dawn, flown by one of The Order’s private planes, and landed on a strip in the West Virginia mountains.
He’d heard the story from Ava Bennerman, the angel Kaye had rescued from Grey. She’d been captured in Nova Scotia and transported in a sealed crate to Grey’s cellar. Ferro Grey had used an iron ring to extract light from her seven times. She was fed irregularly by him, what looked like scraps from meals. The only other visitor to the cellar had been Kaye, just once, when Ferro had offered Ava to her as a wedding gift.
Which hollowed Jack out. That had been the day, the moment, that changed everything.
Considering Kaye’s history, Jack knew that the sight of Ava in that cellar had been enough for Kaye to make a drastic decision. The fullness of that decision, he couldn’t guess, but now at least he knew a part. And he held on to that part with the entirety of his soul. Eleven tours on Earth and leaps of faith were still agonizingly difficult. This one, like grace, transmuted his rage to renewed, singular purpose, as sharp and cutting as a blade wrought by The Order. From that moment on, he might question Kaye’s methods, and question them deeply and violently, but he would not doubt her reasons.
He’d almost killed her for saving one of his kind.
Ava explained that Kaye had told her she was repaying a debt to Michael Thomas, but not even Ava believed that was all there was to it. Ava was afraid for Kaye, spoke from her heart when she said that Kaye was a light unto herself, and that Grey would eventually notice and take it too.
Laurence, listening to this report, pointed out that four trusted angels now had thought Kaye Brand extraordinary, trustworthy, precious; and the woman had only ever met four. The Order was at her disposal.
“And how is Ms. Brand?” Adam asked. But Jack read his thought:
Now there’s a man sick in love.
Now there’s a man sick in love.
“In danger,” Jack answered.
Jack felt Adam regard him for a long moment, deciding how forward he could be with an old, old angel when Adam was so young in comparison.
“I’m listening,” Jack said. He’d been a blind idiot where Kaye was concerned. Adam, for all his comparative youth, was far beyond him in experience. Jack should have listened to him in that wraith interment field a few weeks ago when Adam had pitied him. Jack should have asked for help.
“From one poor fool to another”—Adam put a hand to Jack’s shoulder—“danger comes with the territory of loving a woman of Shadow. I’ve never felt such fear as when Talia is in trouble. And the thought of my boys with what’s to come?”
Agony.
Agony.
“I’ve never had children.” Never would. And hearing this, he knew his soul couldn’t have taken fatherhood. Not if his fear about Kaye alone shuddered him at every turn.
“I hope you have ten kids,” Adam said, grinning. “For starters. Gray some of that angelic hair.”
Jack felt the burn on his arm and was grateful for it. Because in a way, she still touched him. Always touched him. “Will you help me get close enough to strangle her?”
“You bet.” Adam punched a code in a connecting entrance, and they entered a long hallway with doors off to each side, what Jack presumed to be offices and research areas. The architecture here was distinctly modern, minimalist, and favored technology. Not a place Jack would’ve thought was haunted, and yet Segue had a reputation for just that.
They ended up in Adam’s office poring over two strange communications that Layla Mathews had received, both of which were from mage Houses seeking to ingratiate themselves with Khan.
One message was a declaration of obeisance to the pureblood via his human mate. They offered up the strength of their House to aid Khan’s eventual domination of the mortal world.
Very disturbing. But not the Grey invite Jack was looking for.
The second was a cryptic invitation on behalf of several mage Houses. Layla was named, but it was clear Khan was its intended recipient.
Was a coup afoot? Ferro Grey must be going out of his mind. But still not what Jack wanted.
“We got both messages yesterday within an hour of each other. Around ten in the morning.”
“Khan’s response?”
“He muttered that Layla was responsible and took her off to discuss the gravity of her actions. I don’t think they reached a resolution, however,” Adam told him dryly. “Frankly, this mage business worries me as much as it does Layla.”
Jack was thinking about the timing. “The day before yesterday, Kaye stood before the Council of Houses to claim a seat for Brand. She never came home. And now she’s engaged to be married to Ferro Grey.”
Oh, you poor son of a bitch,
Adam thought.
Adam thought.
Jack continued, anger and worry surging again. “Before the Council meeting, we’d planned to come here together after all this was over. I’d leave The Order. See if we could work with Segue.”
Always welcome here.
He paced to stop the anxiety riddling his muscles from cramping him up and forged ahead. “Last night Kaye said Grey had agreed to inviting Segue, Khan in particular, to a meeting. She thought it would be tonight.”
Which is why you’re here.
“Yes.”
“But we don’t have any communication from Grey.”
“Sure we do,” Layla said.
Jack whipped around to find Layla Mathews in the doorway to Adam’s office. Her expression said she had news.
“When?” Adam looked at Jack as he beckoned her inside.
But Jack was already picking through her brain to discover the answers. He didn’t care that he shouldn’t invade another’s mind. Didn’t care that Layla had a right to privacy.
“Just delivered.” She held out a card, the calligraphy of which was similar to the one celebrating Kaye’s return to magekind. “We are invited to Grey House to celebrate and discuss the advent of the Dark Age.”
“I’m going,” Jack said. He could say he was Segue security or whatever.
“I need to be there too,” Layla added. “I approached Kaye in the first place, and this is an important step toward establishing a relationship between the Council and Segue.”
A trick of perception, and Khan stepped out of a sudden lift and whip of Shadow, like an inky blur in the pristine doorway. His black eyes were tipped with menace. This party was made for bloodshed.
“So you can cause more trouble?” Khan asked Layla.
Layla smiled broadly and patted Khan’s arm. “You don’t scare me.”
“I’d better go as well,” Adam said. Jack knew he was thinking of his wife and boys. He’d be sizing up the mages as potential threats or allies.
Jack turned to glare at Khan. “It’s addressed to you. Will you be attending or are you still staying out of this?”
Khan’s eyes went full black, a warning, but his tone was even. “My presence will suggest I intend to play games with these mages. I don’t play games. I don’t negotiate for power. I say we don’t go.”
Layla looked thoughtful. “Considering the other invitations, I think you might cause more trouble and divisiveness than good.”
“You’re not going without adequate protection,” Khan said.
“I’ll have Kaye on my side,” Layla returned. “Adam, Jack ... what if we added one more to mix it up some? I think I’ll be covered.”
Jack dived into her brain again. Found the name she wanted to suggest. Dismissed it out of hand, then reconsidered. The addition would make things interesting. Set Grey off balance. “Yes,” he said. “Let’s bring him.”
The same name turned Adam’s mind too.
“The dog.” Khan looked satisfied.
So everyone was on the same page, though technically it was a feral wolf of Twilight that Khan referred to, and not a dog. And it was that fae aspect that would compel Ferro to allow this final addition to the Segue group inside his house.
Jack nodded. “Custo comes too. Let’s see what Grey makes of the angel-fae.”
Adam looked at Jack. “And we’ll take our cues from you regarding Ms. Brand. You and Custo may enter my mind freely to help manage the evening. I have a feeling things may get very interesting.”
“Mine too,” Layla offered.
And then Khan’s arms went protectively around her, Shadow rising like a blast of smoke.
Jack felt the disturbance too, a slight imbalance under his feet. And heard it in the simultaneous rattle of small objects, light fixtures, and furniture all at once. The wraiths in the underground containment facility lifted eerie screams audible in the main building. The earth was trembling. A family photo on Adam’s desk fell over.
“What is this?” Khan demanded.
Jack and Adam in unison replied: “Earthquake.”
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