ThirteenNights (5 page)

After imbibing a pot of coffee to shake off the lingering
fatigue from her sleepless night, Annie headed to Neutral Ground to use their
communication room. To maintain the integrity of all negotiations, the room had
untraceable phones and internet connections protected by the most skilled
pantheon cyber security experts. That Tai could hack them heralded he was among
the best in the supernatural world. Even in the protected enclave, she worked
her way through her human contacts to unearth her quarry. Slow work, but as
part of a bounty hunter fraternity, she could tap into their wide-ranging and
very colorful connections. After finding directions and memorizing them, she
hopped in her car and picked up Tai.

The drive to Scottsville, Virginia, just outside
Charlottesville, should have taken three hours, but Annie zipped there in half
that time, stealing glimpses of Tai’s drool-inducing profile every chance she
could. She pulled the car off the highway onto an unlit two-lane country road.
Darkness was no match for Amazon eyes and she took the hairpin turns at eighty
miles per hour with ease, squealing to a halt in the driveway of a squat,
nondescript cottage set back from the road. The house was nestled among a
swatch of trees that provided cover as if the owner was trying to hide from
view.

“I’ve been pretty patient,” Tai said, making no move to open
the door. “I’m not leaving this car until you tell me why we’re here and who
lives in this house.”

“Phoebe—your mother.”

His jaw hit the seat. He started to respond twice, but no
sound came out of his mouth. After he rubbed his chin and cheek so often Annie
feared he etched permanent tracks into his skin, Tai finally breathed out a
response. “Why?”

“Because I could find her and I thought you’d want this, to
know more about who you are.” Her voice lowered, her hands clenched the
steering wheel until her knuckles turned white from the tension. “Tell me I
haven’t fucked up completely.”

He kissed her, tightening her against him. If she were human
she’d have suffocated. His mouth devoured her, his tongue jousted hers—the kiss
was anger and gratitude, love and fear, every complex emotion projected into
that single act. When he finally broke away, he kept her locked against him. “I
can’t promise that I won’t hate you a little at some point during the evening,
but thank you, I
am
grateful. Hold that in your heart if it appears
otherwise. Let’s go.”

They walked hand in hand to the front door. The name on the
mailbox, P.S. Cassidy, caught Tai’s attention. “You use human surnames?” he
asked. Warriors usually used their positions as last names for brief interludes
among humans.

“When our skills take us deep into the human world, yes,
it’s necessary to fit in. This won’t come as a surprise but your mother is a
rarity among Amazons—a scholar. She’s on the faculty of the University of
Virginia. I think Phoebe uses it to avoid attention. I had to really dig to
find her. She didn’t break any rules in terms of registering with the Elders
but she found every loophole. It’s no wonder you never found her because I’m
sure you tried. Phoebe, it seems, is the Amazons’ best hacker. Your skills come
from her. I used my human networks to get this address.”

A small smile tugged at the edges of Tai’s lips. He kissed
her temples. “You’re really wonderful. Let’s meet my mother.”

A tall, wide-shouldered blonde woman opened the door wearing
jeans and an orange-and-blue university sweater. Fine wrinkles radiated from
her eyes and lips, streaks of gray hair shimmered in the light, a deep inner
sadness was etched into her face, even though she welcomed them with a big
smile. Annie put her hand out flat, opened her fingers, two to each side, to
create a V. Phoebe responded by placing her hand upright, created the same V
and inserted into Annie’s, forming the Amazon lock—the greeting between
warriors denoting mutual respect.

“You honor me, Antiope,” said the blonde, her husky voice
tinged with emotion. She turned to face Tai, who hovered a few steps behind
Annie, and Phoebe’s voice shook. “Your resemblance to your father is
startling—black hair so dark it’s almost blue, aristocratic nose, stubborn chin
and a focus so intense a person feels they are under a microscope.”

Tai’s hand crushed hers, his body tense with such
conflicting emotions, they threatened to overwhelm her. “May we come in?” Annie
asked. “I can make coffee while you two talk if you don’t mind a stranger
sorting through your kitchen cabinets?” She wanted to give Tai a chance to be
alone with this woman, and to give herself breathing space. Too many powerful
emotions in the room clawed at her sanity, constricted her throat. Even though
being in another room could not shield her from others’ feelings, a few moments
alone concentrating on a physical task could help get them under control.

Phoebe nodded to Annie and ushered Tai to a seat on a plush brown-suede
couch centered in the cluttered living area while she settled herself on the
adjacent recliner. Overstuffed bookshelves covered all four walls and left no
room for photos, art or, more importantly, the trophies of battle and physical
accomplishments most Amazons displayed. Like Tai, she made no attempt to
advertise her victories, which Annie knew were legendary. The kitchen cabinet
like the bookshelves overflowed with stuff, forcing Annie to search high and
low for the coffee and filters.

She heard Phoebe’s voice drone out the story of Tai’s birth,
as if she had repeated it so many times it no longer held meaning for her.
Phoebe’s pain blasted Annie’s senses—the older Amazon had never recovered. “Your
father, Sander, well Alexander Xenos and I met at an historian’s conference in
London. I’m the Elder Amazon historian, my job is to document, analyze and
preserve the deeds of our warriors and our race. I also earn income as a human
historian at the university. Sander was beautiful and brilliant and powerful
for a human. We spent the conference in his hotel room and he went home to his
post at Kings College, which is part of the University of Cambridge. I returned
to Virginia and discovered my pregnancy a couple months later.”

Annie brought the three mugs of coffee into the room. Moving
some books to the side on the glass coffee table between the couch and chair,
she placed the drinks down. Tai’s face clamped into a blank stare but his anger
and sadness twisted through him and tugged at her heart. On her way back to the
kitchen to get the milk and sugar, she squeezed his shoulder in support. His
hand brushed hers in thanks. Phoebe’s eyes took in everything even as she
continued the story.

“Because I live and work in the human world, I hid my
pregnancy and your first six months from the Elders. I was caught trying to
sneak you out of the country when I felt you were old enough to travel. I
wanted to find Sander. If he didn’t accept us as a family, I intended you to
grow up near him. They took you from me and sent me through retraining, twice.
I continue my duties as historian virtually, but never returned to the fold.
When a new Elder takes over, I will step down and merge completely into the
human world.”

“Does my father know about me?”

She shook her head, a tear rolled down her cheek. “No, if
Sander made any attempt to connect with you the Elders would have killed him.
So I stayed far away, because it was not a secret I could keep from him.”

Annie placed the milk and sugar on the table and settled
next to Tai, whose body was so tense she feared it would snap. She pressed her
shoulder and thigh against his and felt him relax into the touch.

“Did you decide to research the warriors’ fertility before
or after I was born?” Tai asked, his voice a growl.

Annie’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “What are you talking
about?”

“The Elders suppressed that research. You dug it out.” The
lack of surprise in Phoebe’s face had Annie’s curiosity in a frenzy.

“I stumbled over it during one of my regular hacks into the
warriors’ databases. I didn’t realize at the time that the author, P.S. Cassidy
was my…mother.” The word rolled hesitantly off his lips. “Why did you use your
human name?”

“Feeling left out here,” Annie prodded but Phoebe continued
to talk to Tai.

“Before. I had gone to the London conference to find him, to
validate my results. Sander’s a world expert on fertility rates and culture
throughout history. I used my human name in an attempt to give the results
greater validity. My scholarship and my reputation are well respected in the
human world. But it didn’t work. The warrior races are dying, sterility rampant
among most of our population. If we don’t change soon, we’ll be snuffed out by
our own stupidity.”

“Why did the Elders suppress something so important?” Anger
flared hot through Annie’s body.

“Because they disagreed with the conclusions. The Amazon
Elders believe a better handle on the genetic matches between the warriors
would fix it. It won’t. In fact, infertility has accelerated since they started
tinkering with our DNA. The only solution is to mix in human and other DNA and
allow families to form. Not all would choose family, but I believe enough of us
would and that would reinvigorate our fertility.”

“Game-changer, I get it now,” Tai mumbled under his breath
as if he were talking to himself.

“Tai?” Annie asked.

“I’ll explain later,” he whispered in her ear after giving
it a light nip.

“I know I don’t deserve it, but I would like the chance to
get to know you better, Tai.” Phoebe’s eyes never left his, a warrior facing
her mistakes with courage.

His hand curled around Annie’s, fingers interlocking with
hers. “You’ve checked on me periodically. Snuck in resources I needed to
survive the camp, covered my ass when I first started hacking, found
clandestine ways to be my mother.”

“You knew?” Joy flushed Phoebe’s cheeks pink and softened
her features. “I’m glad of that.”

“I suspected. Now I know. Thank you.” His grip on her hand
relaxed. “I would welcome the chance to get to know you, Mother. I won’t
promise you an easy ride, but I
will
show up.”

A smile crossed Phoebe’s face that tempered although did not
eliminate the pain carved so deeply in her visage. “Before you leave, I want to
give you something.” With his mother out of the room, Tai turned to Annie, his
thumb caressed her lower lip. “After we leave, we’re going to find the closest
inn, take a room, and I’m going to thank you until you beg me to stop.” Before
she could react, Phoebe returned with a cardboard box, filled to the brim.

“There are two things in here. Photos of you as a baby. In
case you wanted them. The other is all my research. I have a feeling you two
may need it. That Tai fits no molds, I already knew. That you found me, brought
him here and can’t stop touching him… Don’t give in, Antiope. Find a way. I’ll
help in any way I can.”

Tai woke up in an overly plush four-poster bed spooned
around Annie, his knee wedged between her legs. Sun streamed through partially
closed curtains on white wallpaper adorned with small pink and yellow flowers.
They found this Bed and Breakfast about twenty minutes from Phoebe’s house and
took a room, both jumping out of their skin with need. The door had barely
closed when he pounded her against the wall. They both shattered within
minutes. Afterward, he loved her tenderly on the floor where they collapsed,
then took her hard again in the shower. By the time they got to the bed, his
warrior strength abandoned his dick. Unable to stop indulging in her, he licked
and sucked, ravaged her with his mouth until she batted him away and passed
out.

As tempting and pleasurable as it was to wake her up and
keep thanking her with his body, he wanted to show his appreciation for her
gift in a similar fashion. He dragged himself quietly from the bed, found his
computer bag and opened his laptop on the small table by the window. His laptop
traveled everywhere with him and even had a special pouch on the Ducati.

He knew Annie’s sister was older, which meant she had to
have participated in at least one previous Thirteen Nights ritual. When he
hacked that site to get Annie, he had recoded a small piece of it to provide
him with an easy backdoor should he ever need to reenter quickly. It took no
time at all to pull up Marta’s medical and genetic records.

“What are you doing?” Annie called, her voice husky with
sleep.

“You need to come see this.” As much as he wanted to dive
back into bed, his discovery was too important to withhold. He turned back to
the screen, not wanting the temptation of her naked body. Her arms twined
around his neck, her cheek pressed to his and soft breasts rubbed warm against his
back. Yeah, he could concentrate on the computer screen.

“An Amazon medical file?”

“Marta’s records.”

Her body stilled against his. “You found something.”

“A similar genetic anomaly as you.”

Her arms squeezed him tighter, her breathing quickened. “So you
were right, she may be empathic too. That explains a lot.”

“There’s more. You ready for it?”

She nodded against him, her ear brushed against his hair.

“She’s sterile. She can’t have children.”

“Since we both run from Hippolyta’s genetic line and the Elders
want an heir, they’ll be monitoring me even more closely. What’s all this mean
for us?” A long pause. “I’m with child, Tai.”

With the speed of the warrior, he had her in his arms, on
the bed, joined to him—lips to lips, legs and arms wrapped around each other.
His woman, his baby, his family. Her acceptance that something existed between
them turned his emotions into a ticking time bomb, threatening to blow him wide
open with the thought of losing her. He had every intention of keeping her, but
the fight just got harder.

“Do you want to stay with me, raise our child together?” he
whispered into Annie’s hair, his arms held her tight against him, his mind and
heart willing her to say yes.

“What do you mean, Tai?”

“The blood bond.” A lifetime commitment, like a human
marriage, but more.

“The Amazon Elders haven’t permitted a bond since they ruled
all conception matches required prior genetic approval and launched Thirteen
Nights.”

“I’m not asking the Elders, Annie, I’m asking you.”

“I know.” She blew out a breath, ran her hands through his
hair. “Yes, I want you. How are we going to pull ourselves off the grid? I must
be truthful, I tracked down your mother for you in the hope that maybe,
somehow…I don’t know.”

“Yeah. Even though I can recode the DNA patterns in the
digital records, there are backup paper copies hidden throughout the world.
When I changed my own records to allow the pairings, I assumed only a cursory
check, not a global search. Given the low probability of conception, I never
really believed we’d have a baby.” It was impossible to run from the Elders.
Amazons and Gargareans had figured out how to track DNA patterns.

“We find your father. Phoebe’s information is dated. His
research may shed new light.” She stroked up and down his back, alternating
rough scratches and gentle caresses—a promise that she’d be there with him, be
it hard or easy.

Luck seemed to be on their side. Alexander—Sander—Xenos was
still in Cambridge, but not the one in England, he was in Massachusetts on a
one year fellowship at Harvard that started only a couple months prior. The
information Tai unearthed noted that he’d already established himself as a
frequent visitor at the Quill and Parchment, a Cambridge pub run by Clio, the
muse of history, where pantheon thinkers and human scholars mixed. Annie raced
to Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, where they caught the
first flight to Boston.

It was evening by the time they found a hotel near Harvard
Yard and grabbed some toiletries and extra clothes in some open shops on Oxford
Street.

The hotel room was standard issue—king-size bed in the
center, brown nondescript desks and dressers, TV hidden in the armoire. Tai
itched to go the Quill and Parchment. Annie stopped him with a kiss so
carnal—wet, demanding and totally female—all his energy retargeted to her. They
had moved so fast this morning, gave each other no real time to adjust to
exactly what they were doing. He suspected she was dragging her feet, not quite
ready for the rebellion they would initiate whereas he’d been preparing for it
all his life. Only now did he understand what form it would take. The
game-changer found his game. How odd that rebellion for a warrior would be
something as quiet and ordinary as loving a woman and creating a family. He’d give
her tonight, warrior to warrior, to ground her for the challenge to come.

Her arms still locked around his neck, he picked her up and
threw her on the bed, landing on top. She flipped him back onto the floor,
taking a lamp and the alarm clock with them. With those nails, she ripped his
clothes off, then rode him so hard she pulled the curtain off its rod when she
came. Not to be undone, Tai slammed her against the wall, splattering plaster
all over the carpet, and an image of her shoulders etched into the paint. He
threw her on the floor. Her nails ripped the patches of carpet to her side to
shreds during a particularly violent orgasm. A broken chair, tattered sheets
and a warped showerhead later, and the damage to the room would set them each
back a couple of paychecks. They loved each other and would fight for change,
but they remained warriors.