His Witch To Keep (Keepers of the Veil) (6 page)

“Yes.”

His eyes snapped up from the computer and narrowed. “You went alone?”

She nodded, although her mind slid to Alexi. Maybe not so alone. “The kidnappers fed me poor intel for both missions. Perhaps purposefully off. It’s as if they don’t really want what they’re sending me after. I can’t connect the two items they’ve had me retrieve. That computer is off a cartel guy.”

“Maybe it’s a game.”

She slammed her palm against the wall. “I don’t play goddamned spy games anymore. I got kicked out of that life. This warehouse last night turned out to be a primed war zone, and then…damn it.” In MI6 she’d hated being used to promote another’s whacked backroom dealings. Although she missed the adrenaline of the job, she didn’t miss the bullshit.

“Did Alexi Jovec show up?”

Her gaze shot to him, shocked. “Why would you ask that?”

“Serenity…” He shook his head. He ran a hand over his face. A stressed smile curved his lips. “I’ve seen you take risks and do shit that makes me want to vomit for days afterward. Nothing rattles you other than your family and that guy. Nothing makes you crazy to inspire jealousy in a man other than that Russian. When you two crossed paths two years ago in Israel, don’t think I forgot you pretended to jump me while we were there. Twice. All to inspire that assassin to be jealous.”

Her cheeks burned. “I did not do that just because of him.”

“Come on. I’m not stupid. Afterward in Israel, when he left the area, you were a wreck for weeks. Then last year after that mission in Bulgaria when you were assigned to kill him, which I know you didn’t do…it wasn’t pretty. This outburst could be about Liz, but you just carried out two missions without any one of us the wiser. And now you’re falling to pieces? I got bets on that Russian making an appearance. You think he’s behind all this?”

“What? No.”
And he isn’t Russian.

“So, what’d he say on the phone?”

“Nothing.”
Shit.

He flashed a
gotcha
smile.

Silence was her only answer to him.

“He’s texting and calling you now?” He stomped close. He gripped her chin to force her to meet his gaze. “That bastard is on the fucking other side. Russia and OLM. Are you double agenting now or are you fucking him?”

“Not that it’s your business, but I’m not sleeping with him. And I’m not double agenting. I’m out of all that.”

“That guy is bad news. What does he want from you?”

“Forget him.” She bit back a defense of Alexi and jerked her chin out of Eli’s grasp. She crossed her arms tightly across her chest. “Don’t touch me.”

“What happened when you went after him in Bulgaria last year?” he asked.

“Classified.”

He glared. “I told you not to take that mission.”

“He has nothing to do with Liz. I have to contact the kidnappers to let them know I have the laptop. They’ll arrange some bullshit scenario to get it from me. Maybe this time an exchange. Doubt it, though. Now that we pulled all their electronics, they’ll be pissed.”

He released a long breath. “Don’t take this the wrong way. I know you can handle a lot on your own, but we should go to my brother. This puts you, your sister, and the whole Danssaert line in extreme danger. That is the business of my brother, who is now the druid leader. It’s also my business. It’s the business of every one of us Sentry druids. You’ve got to let us do our job and protect you.”

“Did your brother send you here to babysit me? You know what, I don’t care. The bottom line is planting those monitoring devices was an inside job. It’s got to be one of us. Well, one of you druid guys. None of my witch sisters are into covert shit.”

“We’d never do this. Never.” His face colored red. “Every one of the Sentries vowed to protect you with our lives, not that you take it seriously.”

She stepped backward. “I’m not accusing you. I trust you. I’ve never questioned that you’d protect me. I never wanted you to die for me. That never made much sense.”

“Damn it, you are a Pleiad. There are only seven of you. You are the Keepers of the Veil. You must be here to keep the balance between our world and the world of your goddess ancestors. You know if you die, and there’s no one to carry your line, that the ancestors will cross that veil in anger and…Armageddon.”

“I never asked to be this.”

“Well, you are. Get over it. This is the same damned conversation we had in undergrad before you went on that bloody crazy Colorado rafting trip.”

“Somebody put those devices here. Somebody with access to my house. No one but you guys have access.”

“Someone got in here. We’ll figure it out. When was the last time you spoke to Liz outside the kidnapping?”

She shrugged.

“Were you two arguing again?”

“When are we not? I think she gets a kick out of pissing me off. But that’s what sisters do, right?” She forced a smile.

“You guys need a referee or something. As long as I’ve known you, the two of you are barely civil to each other.”

And that was what made this even tougher. She sighed. “It was better when Mom and Dad were here. Eleven years without them to buffer us…” She shrugged. “She’s my sister.”

She remained optimistic Liz valued family as much as she, even if her sister never demonstrated it.

He shot her a pity gaze that pissed her off.

“While you take a look at that laptop, I’ll step out and send that email to the kidnappers.” She stepped out and closed the door. A few taps on her smartphone and the email was sent. Seconds later, her phone rang. Private number.

“This is Serenity,” she answered.

A deep electronic unisex voice said, “We watched your boyfriend remove the monitoring equipment. A gift has been sent to you, a token to reflect our seriousness about you continuing on this alone.”

Her stomach plummeted, but she kept emotion out of her voice. “You cut off a finger or piece of an ear. Or maybe you took a toe or ripped out a nail or a tooth? I’ve seen it all. I get that it’d piss you off, and you’d feel a need to react. I had no control over him. It’s your shitty placement that enabled him to detect them in the first place. I’m done with retrieving items. If you plan to kill her, then send me confirmation of her death. If you have her alive and wish to continue discussions, then I want to speak with her now. If you want to exchange her for this laptop, then name your place.” Real smooth. A negotiator she was not.

“Two hours. Public parking garage in Manhattan. Fourth level. You will get the exact location in one hour. We shall return call in one minute with Liz.” The call disconnected.

Parking garages were dangerous. Too many hidden zones. She paced and nibbled on a nail. The phone finally rang again. “Hello,” she answered.

“Serenity? That really you?” Liz rushed out. The line echoed as if the call was on a delay.

“What have they done to you?”

“Help me,” Liz said. Her voice sounded far away, as if she stood in a hallway or several feet from the phone. She wondered if they listened in or this was prerecorded.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s awful.” Liz sobbed into the phone. “They cut my hair. They’re…oh, God, you’ve got to help me.”

“What?” What kind of pansy-ass kidnappers threatened by giving their victim a haircut?

“It looks terrible.” Liz choke sobbed. “The whole thing was so humiliating. I just had it highlighted. Just do whatever they want.”

From Liz’s perspective that could be construed as top-notch torture. Only she would be choked up about something as superficial as her highlights. Softly, Serenity asked, “Have they done anything else?”

“You need to work harder to get me out of here. Just shift over here or something.”

Maybe she’d heard wrong. Nope. Liz had said “shift.” She choked out, “Stay alive.” What had Liz revealed to her kidnappers? She might not have been careful about concealing her abilities and might’ve revealed she wasn’t quite normal. But there was a difference between suspicion and verbal confirmation of that fact. There were certain understandings, certain sacred promises between Pleiades families and the druids. No one divulged the secrets, even on threat of death. They were the Keepers of the Veil, the protectors that stood between this world and the world of gods. Their parents died from torture while protecting those secrets, as had hundreds before them. She wanted to scream into the phone,
Don’t tell them anything, you little idiot. There are lives on the line. Lives other than yours.
She wanted to add,
more important
than yours, but were those lives more important? This was her only sister. Liz was important, too. If a Pleiad died, then her gifts transferred to the next eldest sister. When Serenity died, then it was Liz’s turn. But if there were no sisters left in one of their lines, then the gods would get angry; at least that’s what her mom taught her long ago.

The electronic voice cut in, “Two hours. You better start driving.” Then disconnected.

She found Eli cursing over the computer. “It’s got a tracker. If I touch it, it’ll signal. Can’t do this.”

“They ordered a meeting. Two hours. Parking garage in Manhattan. It might be an exchange.”

“Here I thought you actually worked in MI6 for eight years. I mean, come on.” He rolled his eyes.

“I know it’s risky. Okay, it’s probably not on the up and up. But with help—” Her phone buzzed with an incoming text from an unknown source. It read,
2 hrs. U alone. Bring company…Liz dies.

Serenity glanced up, meeting Eli’s concerned gaze. “They just confirmed an exchange. It’s me alone or they kill Liz. Full info on location in sixty minutes.”

“I’ll be there. Unseen, if necessary. You’re not going alone, if at all. We need backup. Other druids.”

She shook her head. “I don’t trust anyone else.”

Except Alexi. She considered texting him but hesitated.

“Okay, but I’m still phoning my brother. He’ll be on standby.” He blew out a frustrated sigh. “This is a bad idea.”

Chapter Six

A
lexi wound upward through the parking deck associated with a business skyscraper and a museum on the lower floors. Lots of cars but not very many headed in or out this time of the day. The only reason Serenity would be in an unfamiliar public location like this had something to do with the laptop. This wasn’t going to end well. He unlocked his jaw, forcing it to relax now that she was close.

The past twenty minutes had been spent in a mad game of catch-up. Damned New York traffic kept him so occupied he hadn’t the time to future glimpse. He didn’t know what type of car she drove, or if she headed into this alone. If the druids were doing their jobs, they wouldn’t have allowed her to come here alone. They shouldn’t have allowed her here. Period. Maybe she was still working solo.

He slowed and chose a spot one level below where her dot blinked unmoving on his cell phone map. He’d placed a locator on her in the necklace she wore at all times several years ago. Wasn’t easy to get it placed, but it’d been very handy in the past week. With a deep inhale, he shut his eyes and glimpsed a future of bullets and death, as expected. This was another attempt to kill her. At least she wasn’t reckless enough to do this alone. One druid, though, hardly seemed enough. And based on his peek into the future of the druid, it wasn’t. His future glimpses were always correct. The only factor that could change the future was him.

He tucked his fury at her foolishness into a dark corner of his mind and exited the car. Time to do what he did best. Kill.

He screwed the suppressor onto his gun and grabbed a few spare magazines from his gun bag. As he stalked to the level above, he reviewed his future glimpse again to see who else was involved. Four hostiles. One exposed and three hidden.

What if he made a mistake this time? What if he missed his target? That wasn’t an option. He must be fast enough.

He would protect what was
his
…

Hell no. She wasn’t his. Couldn’t be his. That was a wet dream that belonged in fantasyland. This was his duty. Duty only. He had to protect the destined mother to his next generation, or maybe another death reaper’s next generation, not that he’d ever met someone like him.

Keep trying to sell that bullshit.
This wasn’t about duty. It was personal. Simply the thought of another male touching her in any way set off a flash of homicidal images. He hadn’t lied to her about his threat if she allowed Eli into her bed. He might respect Eli, but he’d put a bullet into the druid without a single regret before Eli kissed her.

This was messed up and distracting.

The exact reason death reapers weren’t allowed to be close to one woman.

“W
here are they supposed to be?” Eli asked as he eased out of the passenger seat one level below the designated meeting point and adjusted his ball cap.

“Somewhere near the elevator.” This whole thing stank of a setup. But this was about Liz. God, how many times had she said that to herself in the past few hours? Too many. She blew out a shaky breath.

He adjusted the Kevlar vest beneath his dark shirt and bent awkwardly to lean into the car. “I’ll be there. I’ll have my gun on them the whole time. If they twitch, I’ll kill. Drive slowly so I can get up there.”

“Okay.” She pushed the edge of her Kevlar vest away from her stomach where its seam cut deeply. She hated these things. Eli was good, but she wished she’d swallowed her pride and phoned Alexi. She needed his kind of badass precision to emerge from this unscathed. Actually, Alexi probably would’ve said
hell no
to the whole thing. Right now, she agreed. She never liked missions that involved her playing chicken with a loaded gun. Slowly she wove up to level four.

She parked but paused before she headed toward the halted white workers’ minivan.

A dark-skinned man in sunglasses stepped out of the van’s driver’s seat.

This is for Liz
, she pep talked herself. She stepped out of the car and slung the backpack over one shoulder. Showtime.

“Where’s Liz?” she demanded of the van’s driver. She couldn’t read jack shit through the guy’s dark sunglasses, other than his compressed lips.

With a light accent she couldn’t place, he replied, “Where’s the hardware you acquired yesterday?”

“I said I’d only exchange it for her.”

“The situation has…changed.” His sinister half smile shot an
oh, shit
through her stomach. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about the computer. Or Liz.

Going on instinct she sidestepped left. A bullet hit the concrete wall behind her in perfect alignment with her used-to-be-located head. She gasped and stumbled when a bullet ripped into her arm. The backpack flew off her shoulder and thudded somewhere behind her.

The man fell backward from the impact of bullets.

Eli tackled her and grunted. His body shuddered as if…oh, God. Bullets were slamming into him. Please let them hit his vest only. Her head cracked against the concrete, heartbeat thudding like a drum in her brain as her mind struggled to get back online.

Two hundred fifty–plus pounds of solid male crushed her. Breathing became her focus.

Gunfire echoed in the distance. Who fired? Then silence. Seconds later a car squealed upward from a lower level.

She had to move. She’d rather die standing up than trapped underneath a likely dead man. He might be dead…no. He wasn’t gone. Stop it. Get back in the game. “Eli? You with me? Come on. Be with me.”

Nothing.

She held her breath. He couldn’t die. She wouldn’t let it be her fault that he’d died. Finally, she detected the faint rise and fall of his chest. She pushed at him. “Wake up.”

He didn’t budge.

She swung into survival mode. Someone was coming for her. For them. She pushed harder on him. “Get off me. Eli?”

He didn’t budge.

She could shift both of them to her alternate dimension, but for some reason she feared his survival if she did. Shifting a person who wasn’t her destined was risky. Then why hadn’t she hesitated to take Alexi with her? Maybe because she’d inadvertently bonded him.
Shit. Get focused.

Someone approached.

Eli’s weight disappeared. She went invisible and rolled.

Awkwardly she stood but stumbled against vertigo until her back rested against the concrete wall next to the elevator. She gripped her gun, concentrating on her surroundings. Eli wasn’t on the ground or anywhere visible.

Alexi took her breath away with his sheer beauty as he strode toward her, as if power personified. She couldn’t stop how her body swayed toward him. Her vision blurred, and she feared crying from relief. Thank God he hadn’t listened to her. She’d been fine—in control—until she saw him. Now she couldn’t get to him fast enough. She staggered toward him.

His arms closed around her as he dragged her into his chest. He was so strong. Unyielding and fierce. He was safety.

“Time to leave,” he said gruffly. “I put the druid in the car.”

She looped her hands around his neck and pressed her face into his chest, accepting the security of being held by him. She inhaled his strong masculine scent, allowing it to seep deep into her body.

“Thank you,” she whispered against his hot skin, never doubting he’d been the one to make sure she didn’t get killed, even if Eli did shield her. She felt the strength in his arms and the shift of his muscles as he lifted her and opened the car door. He eased her into the passenger seat. She needed to get control and figure out what to do and where to go. But Alexi was always a force to be reckoned with. Right now, letting him take over made the most sense.

“You can drop invisibility,” he said as he drove to the exit gate.

She reached around her seat to push Eli’s shoulder. Her hand came away with blood. She wondered how many external hits he had. “Eli, you awake?” Nothing. She pressed her finger into his wrist, detecting a pulse. “He’s alive. But he looks bad.”

“The druid will survive.” He glanced at Eli in the rearview.

“How do you know that?”

“I know. Don’t talk. Smile.”

The attendant leaned out of his stand to scan beyond them into the parking deck. “You guys see or hear anything weird? I thought I heard a gunshot or something.”

In a smooth American accent, Alexi said, “Nah. We were on the third level. Probably a car backfiring or something above us.”

“You forgot to get your ticket validated,” the attendant chastised, but he wouldn’t meet Alexi’s gaze.

Alexi handed the guy a ten. “Have you seen the new photography exhibit? My wife thought it was amazing. ’Course it put Jack back there to sleep. He’s not an artsy guy.”

The attendant nodded and made change. As he handed Alexi two ones, he gasped. His face ghosted with the telltale reaction to Alexi’s aura. The gatepost shot upright.

Alexi drove away from the garage fast, although traffic slowed him.

She palpated her right arm. It stung. Her hand came away soaked in blood. She caught Alexi’s glower.

“How bad?” he asked.

“Not sure. Just a superficial hit. I—”

“We need to get you to your healer. And him.” He jerked his head toward Eli.

“How do you know he survives? Crap, he looks bad.” She pressed two fingers into Eli’s neck to feel a pulse again. Still there.

“How much more do you need to convince you that your druids can’t protect you?” He cursed in his native language and gripped the steering wheel tight.

Irritation snapped her out of her Alexi hero worship tailspin. He still didn’t think she could take care of herself and didn’t respect her decisions. “Why are you following me? You made it obvious last year you want nothing to do with me. And you work for the OLM crazies that want to murder me after they dissect me like an insect…again.”

“I am the only person allowed to kill you. Apparently, I’m also the only one qualified to save you from yourself.” His head swiveled to meet her gaze. “After what just happened in the parking deck, I’m mad enough at you right now to consider killing you myself.”

She regarded him with a kind of fury sweeping through her that gave way to laughter.

He frowned and shook his head. “What?”

Throwing him off elated her. She touched his hand where he gripped the manual shift column, smiling when he tensed. She traced his strong fingers. “Why did you run from me last year?”

“We are not doing this, not right now.”

She caught her breath at what she saw in the depths of his eyes. Raw desire, need, and something else. Concern, but maybe more? Affection? “I thought so.”

“You thought what?” He darted an uncertain glance between her and the road.

A grin broke across her lips. That wasn’t the look of a man only interested in her for a one-nighter again. He liked her. The phrase repeated in a singsong voice over and over in her head.

He studied her for a moment, then focused on the stoplight.

She was more than satisfied by the flush on his cheeks and the hitch in his breathing. She loved she could shake him in a way she suspected no one else could.

“Let me call our healer.” She removed her cell from the inside jacket pocket and dialed the druid leader, Matt. He answered on the first ring. “Your brother is in bad shape. Where are you?”

Matt screamed into her ear so loud she had to hold the cell a few inches away from her head. “Damn it. Eli mentioned some of what you were up to. I told him it was suicide. But you’ve had him twisted around your finger forever.”

“That’s not true.”

“Liz kidnapped. Eli…did he get shot?”

“Yes.”

“The two of you have always been crazy. Are you hurt?”

“I got shot, but I’ll make it.” Her gaze darted to Alexi, who didn’t glance her way, but the skin over his cheeks tightened. “He really needs you.”

Matt said, “We’re at Bryce’s place. Can you get here or do we need to send someone?”

“We’ll get there. Give us a few minutes.” She hung up. “We need to go to Bryce Sinclair’s penthouse. It’s—”

“I know where it is,” Alexi said.

“Really?”

“We’re almost there.”

“Then why’d you ask where our healer was if you already knew? Isn’t the location of both Sentry leaders information you’d share with the OLM? With that psycho who leads them, Losev? I always thought that guy had a hard-on to kill Bryce.”

“I never asked
where
your healer was. I only said you both needed him.” He turned onto the street that led to Bryce’s apartment. He entered a code into the parking garage gate, which rose to admit them.

She gawked. “How’d you do that? How’d you know the code? What kind of magical skills do you have?”

He shrugged.

“That’s it. That’s fucking it. You will answer one of my questions or I’m jumping out of this car right now.” She popped up the lock and opened the door of the moving car.

He reached across her lap and yanked the door shut. “I might’ve followed you here once. It’s not hard to watch someone else enter a code. Pretty low-tech, in my opinion, for security.”

“Why didn’t you share this information with your OLM
boss
?”

He glanced at her, hesitation in his gaze. “My loyalty has never been to the OLM.”

“What do you mean? Why do you work for them, then?”

“We will discuss why, just not right now. Eli is dying.” He pulled in front of the elevator. “Wait here. Let me get Eli in the elevator first.” He lifted Eli out of the backseat.

“I don’t need help.” She opened her door.

“Please, don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

Her exit wasn’t the smooth hop she’d envisioned. An onlooker would think her drunk with the amount of door clutching and pulling required to get her on two feet. Oh, my, it was a long walk to the elevator. One step away from the car and her head swirled with vertigo.

Alexi caught her before she went down. “Damn it. I told you to wait.” He carried her to the elevator. Before he put her down, he frowned and gazed down at her, his expression unreadable.

Hurt and scared, she realized she didn’t trust anyone other than him to keep her safe and help her with Liz’s kidnappers. The druids were compromised. There was at least one mole that had broken into her house. She might have major personal issues with Alexi, but he’d protect her. He might even help her, if she let him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his chest again. “Don’t leave me.”