Her Warriors (24 page)

Bettina sat and poured a glass of juice for
herself. “That’s really an excellent theory, Jake.” The High
Priestess looked impressed if Jacki was reading her right. “What
Harper also fails to grasp is exactly who you are, Ria. I think the
time has come to tell him all.”

Jake squeezed Ria’s hand. “She’s right. The
vision showed me this. He needs to know.”

Ria looked unsure, but took a deep breath
and faced Harper. “Like you and your secret heritage, I too have a
secret,” she began. She took another deep breath before her
revelation. “I’m the Nyx.”

Chapter Fourteen

Master Geir stood ready to deal with any
sort of reaction to Ria’s news, but Harper surprised him by saying
nothing for a very long moment. Silence reigned around the table
and all eyes were tuned to him.

“My grandmother told me about the Nyx of the
shifter world. She said the Nyx held great responsibility, ferrying
messages from the next realm to those in this one. It is an ancient
and weighty responsibility and the woman who bears that burden is a
woman like no other.” Harper sounded as if he was reciting the
words as told to him, verbatim. Perhaps he was. Either way, it
sounded like he had a better grasp on the Nyx’s role than most.

Ria smiled to hide a bit of discomfort, Geir
could see. “Well, here I am. I hope you’re not disappointed.”

“Far from it, my lady,” Harper answered
formally. “I’m honored to meet you and even more honored that you
were willing to reveal yourself to me, knowing that until very
recently I was working for those who could seek to harm you.”

“Yeah…about that,” Ria began. “I know you
were working for the
Altor Custodis
. And I know—I have proof
from the Lords of North America—that the AC is corrupt at the
highest levels. Knowing both those things, we have a proposition
for you.” Here, she looked at Jake and he took up the verbal
baton.

“My vision showed me that your masters in
the AC have no idea you have fey blood,” Jake began, clearly
waiting for a response though his statement hadn’t been phrased as
a question.

Harper nodded. “They don’t know. My blood is
so dilute, it’s hard for human mages to discern—or so Grams claims.
I fly under the radar ninety-nine percent of the time.”

“And you haven’t yet broken ties with the
Altor Custodis
, have you?” Jake went on.

Geir began to suspect where this was going
and every muscle in his body tensed. He could see Beau had the same
reaction, as did most of the men around the table.

“Wait a minute, Jake—” Ben protested, but
Harper held up one hand, palm outward, gently silencing the other
human.

“You want me to be a double agent?” Harper
asked, seeming to mull over the idea for a moment.

“We’ve been on the defensive for way too
long,” Ria said, shaking her head. “We need to be proactive, not
reactive.”

“Your presence here presents a unique
opportunity,” Jake added. “For the first time, we could have eyes
and ears inside the AC. Ben’s intel has been invaluable from all
accounts, but he burned his bridges with the AC. We haven’t had any
new intel on them in a long time.” Ben shook his head, clearly
uncomfortable, but Jake gestured toward him. “And that’s okay, Ben.
Don’t beat yourself up about it. We have a chance here to do
something more to clean up the AC, and I think we really need to
think about taking it. If you’re willing, Harper. It’s all up to
you. We can’t force you to do anything.”

Harper was silent for a moment before he
focused his gaze on Jake. “How can you trust me?”

Bettina shattered the tense moment by
laughing. “Are you kidding? Your grandmother would smite you all
the way from Long Island to Timbuktu if you did anything
stupid.”

Harper grinned and ducked his head.
“Anything
else
stupid,” he agreed. “She’s still going to
kick my butt for getting involved with the AC in the first
place.”

“Why did you?” Bettina pushed for an answer
to the question that had been bothering Geir all along.

Harper looked around the table. “I wanted to
know
,” he answered simply. “My grandmother has been a little
stingy with the sharing of information on topics she fears might
get me into trouble. I’ve always been fascinated by shapeshifters
and she’s always been reluctant to tell me more about them. I knew
she had first-hand knowledge. I’ve seen some of her friends come
and go from her estate and knew the exotic animals running around
the grounds weren’t just animals. They were her friends, being
themselves in the safe place she had built around herself. But she
never let me near them and I always wondered why.”

“Why?” Jake said into the silence. “I can
tell you why. She doesn’t want to lose you, and she knows as well
as I do that you are meant to mate with a shifter. When, who or
how, I can’t say, but I definitely see a fur-clad lady in your
future, that’s for certain.”

“Seriously?” Harper smiled and his
expression turned from wonder to cunning amusement. “The crafty old
biddy! No wonder she kept me in the dark.”

“Be careful what you say about Sylvie, young
man,” Bettina said with a comedic glare in his direction. “She’s
one of my oldest friends.”

“So you see, if you turn traitor on
shapeshifters, you condemn your own future,” Jake went on. “I know
you’re smarter than that. And if you want to hang around with
shapeshifters, you can get your fill in our Clan, right
sweetheart?” Jake nuzzled Ria’s cheek for a moment.

“You’re welcome among the
pantera
noir
Clan, Harper Sagtakos, as long as you remain on the side
of Light,” Ria said formally and everyone at the table stilled. The
welcome of the Nyx meant something. Something important.

Harper seemed to realize it too. “I am
honored,” he said, sobering, one hand over his heart. “And I will
do my best to live up to your expectations. If I may, I’d like to
think about the idea of being a double agent overnight. I’ll give
you my answer in the morning.”

“A sensible response,” Bettina approved as
she forked up a mouthful of salad and took a bite.

Everyone began to move again, eating and
enjoying the meal. The talk turned to more mundane things like the
way Geir intended to structure the classes in the dojo and how many
students he could handle at one time. Eventually, Geir saw an
opening to speak of something he had wanted to bring up with the
royal couple for a while.

“You know, Beau and I are pretty evenly
matched hand-to-hand. He has a unique style of fighting that may be
of benefit to a few of our people. I’d like to add him as my
second, if it’s okay with you, milady,” Geir asked
respectfully.

Ria looked at Beau. “Have you guys
straightened things out with the Kinkaid Clan yet? I assume you’re
staying here, right?”

Beau looked at Jacki and Jacki looked at
Tom. Only Tom seemed uncomfortable. Jacki’s decision had been made
and Beau would go wherever she did, Geir knew.

“Not formally,” Beau replied. “But we’ve
decided to stay here with Geir, as long as we have your approval.
In due course, Jacki and I would like to join
pantera noir
,
even though we’re neither
pantera
, nor
noir
,” he
joked.

Jacki touched his arm. “Speak for yourself.
I’m almost
noir
when I’m in my fur. I’m sort of dark,
gray-brown, which is closer to black than your orange stripes.” She
stopped fussing at Beau and turned to look at Geir. “Beau and I
both know how precious your role is here, Geir, and how much you
love your new house.” She indicated the house around them with a
sweeping gesture. “We want to help you make this house a home, and
we hope we can find some useful role within the Clan, as the
Goddess wills it.”

Geir was truly touched. He reached out to
take Jacki’s hand, bending down to kiss her quickly. Beau gripped
his other hand and when he rose, they exchanged a smile that meant
the world to him.

“Well, that’s settled,” Ria broke into his
happy moment with her amused voice. “And while we’re at it, we have
a few more things to settle.” She paused, appearing to wait for him
to look at her. “Master Geir, for years now you have trained my
Royal Guard, always being certain I had the best of protection
while I ran from my enemies. Your good work saved my life many
times over and I cannot ever thank you enough for your dedication
and skill. Each and every
pantera noir
Royal Guard working
today is a product of your teaching and guidance, and they all look
up to you as their mentor. Which is why, now that I’m no longer
living the life of a fugitive, forever on the run, that I would
like you to take over the role of Captain of the Guard in addition
to your duties of Master of the dojo.”

Geir was stunned speechless. It’s what he’d
wanted all along, but had been biding his time to find a way to
discuss. It seemed the time had come and he hadn’t even been aware
of it until Ria seized the moment for him. Thank the Mother of
All.

“I most humbly accept, milady.” Geir bowed
his head, holding her gaze as his heart filled with joy.

“I know it’s a big job for one man to
handle, which is why I would like Beau to be your
second-in-command. He may be new to the Clan, but he’s already a
favorite among the warriors. His humor and skill will add to our
Clan and as he is your partner in mated life, so he should be your
partner in work. Or is that too much togetherness for you?” Ria
broke the serious tone of her words with the humorous question.

Geir had to laugh. “It is what I hoped for,
to be honest. But it’s up to Beau to accept the post. I can’t
answer for him. I can only say that I’d welcome him as my partner
in work as well as in mated life.” Geir turned to Beau, seated on
the other side of Jacki.

She would always be between them—in the best
possible way. The three of them would share their lives and protect
each other in every possible way. It was a beautiful vision of the
future.

“I—” Beau started, his mouth opening and
closing several times before he finally got the words out. “I’m
amazed you would consider me for such a great responsibility on
such short acquaintance,” he finally said. “But I wholeheartedly
accept. I’ve been looking for a purpose in my life for a long time.
I knew Jacki was it when I first saw her, but I didn’t really
understand how full my life would become with her—and now all of
you—in it. I feel like I’m home here, among the
pantera
noir
, in a way I’ve never really felt before. And I will swear
fealty to you, Ria and Jake, if you will have me, and work to the
best of my ability for the betterment of the Clan for the rest of
my days.”

“Well spoken,” Ria complimented Beau as she
accepted his words. “Talk to Kinkaid tomorrow and straighten
everything out. I want to install you all in your new roles as soon
as possible. We need to start setting up house here in a big way.
We may all be in one place, finally, and not forever running, but
that doesn’t mean we still don’t have enemies out there, gunning
for us.” She looked pointedly at Harper. “It’s clear we need to
make preparations and set up routines now that we have a permanent
home. I’d like to get started on that as quickly as we can.”

Geir thought it was a sound strategy and
said so. The rest of the meal passed in a happy daze for Geir as he
contemplated all the amazing changes that had happened so
unexpectedly. Life was good. Very good, indeed.

That night, after dinner and a strategy
session where Geir and Beau mapped out the beginnings of a regular
schedule for training and work, they went back to Jacki’s room.
Geir had been thinking about ways to improve the house for them as
a trio, but he needed to know for certain that all of them were on
the same page, once and for all.

Instead of following Jacki toward the bed
and starting the seduction, as was their habit of the past few
days, Geir signaled for Beau to hold back. Geir sat on the chair
while Beau sat quietly on the foot of the bed. Jacki realized they
weren’t crowding her and turned around.

“What’s up?” she asked, an uncertain smile
hovering around her lips.

“I want to build on to the house,” Geir
started speaking, uncertain how to approach the discussion of such
serious matters.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Jacki
replied enthusiastically. “Can I help pick out the fixtures?”

“Of course you can,” Geir said immediately.
“We all need to have input on the design of our home. I just wanted
to be certain it’s what we all want. I know you both said you’d cut
ties with the Kinkaid Clan and stay here with the
pantera
noir
—with me. You have no idea how humbled I am that you’re
willing to relocate. I will do my utmost to make sure neither of
you ever regret that decision.”

“Don’t sweat it, G-man,” Beau replied
casually, but Geir could see the seriousness in his eyes. “You and
I have both bound our lives to Jacki. I figure wherever she is, is
home.” Beau held out a hand to Jacki and she took it, going over to
sit next to him on the edge of the mattress. “Plus, I’ve been a
rolling stone most of my life. I never had any strong ties to
tigre d’or
. I was a loner for a long time. I half expected
to stay a loner ‘til my dying day, which I fully expected to be on
a battlefield somewhere. And then I saw Jacki and everything
changed.” Beau squeezed her hand and she rested her head against
his shoulder, sitting at his side.

“I can’t believe it took you so long even to
talk to me. And you were so angry all the time,” Jacki protested
softly. “I thought you hated me.”

“Never, sweetheart.” Beau leaned down and
kissed her hair before resuming his tale. “After I saw her that
first time, I got my ass into Kinkaid’s sphere of influence as fast
as I could manage. Sam let me into the Clan, but though I was
welcome there for my skills, I didn’t have any real ties to them
other than Jacki, and I could really only watch her from afar.
She’s like a princess to the Kinkaids. They put all the Clan’s
selkies up on pedestals because they’re so magical and so
rare.”