He blushed, he knew it. “I don’t feel the same way about Senator Harley that I do about you. I’ve been meaning to ask you to dinner for some time, but things have been . . . crazy. I realized if I didn’t move now I might lose my chance.”
“It’s about time, Toshio. I was beginning to wonder, you know, if I was imagining things between us.”
“Not imagining it. So yes to the drink?”
“You can buy me a drink and dinner when all this is finished.”
“I’ll even spring for chocolate cake.” He knew she had a fondness for it.
She leaned in and her scent wrapped around him, holding on tight. “I might just let you kiss me.”
He laughed, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles before turning all business again. “Two slices then. So I think with the Council, you should take the lead. Your voice is important. They’ve heard mine.”
“Just take my cues. Molly will be there, along with Helena, so there will be friendly faces. But this isn’t human communication any more. There are things shifters do . . . I’ll need to show my obeisance to my Alpha. I’m here to address them not only as an elected official, but as a wolf as well.”
He nodded. “I understand. We’re on your turf. I’ll defer to your expertise.”
She laughed. “Well, one step at a time. The Vampires were our biggest worry. But now that there’ve been two bombs in less than twenty four hours, both attacking Others, one in the den of a very powerful male? It’s going to be very bad. The wolves and cats are going to follow the lead of Simon, who’s older than everyone else and far better trained.”
She was giving him information, what she could anyway, about Simon and Faine. That trust was important to him.
“If we lose the wolves and cats as well as the Vampires, I’m not sure we can stop a declaration of war by the COO. There’s only so much we’re going to take and we’re going into scary territory.”
“I know, believe me, I know. I’m hoping you can sway them.”
“I’m not sure I should, to be totally honest with you. We’ve been turning the other cheek and we’re bleeding. Our children are being killed. We’re not safe in our homes. Talk isn’t protecting us anymore. It is not our nature to allow harm to our people to go unchallenged. Cade has been holding things together but he’s out of patience.”
Tosh knew he had a seemingly insurmountable task ahead of him. The Others he’d met and knew were good people. They deserved to be safe in their own damned country. “I understand. But if we can get them to hold back until I can convince the president to issue an executive order to declare all Others to have the same citizenship they had before, things might calm down.”
“Maybe. But again, that’s words. I don’t know if words are enough.”
She shrugged and he hoped they were enough to get them through before even more people got killed.
THEY’D been taken to an outbuilding on Cascadia land. They’d been sniffed and searched and one of Helena’s witches was there to examine them as well.
“They’re making sure we haven’t been spelled on any level.” Delilah had softened in some ways. Tosh wasn’t sure if it was him or the fact that she now had dual loyalties. But in other ways, her humanness had muted and that Otherness she had moved to the forefront.
She moved differently and, heaven help him, Tosh thought it was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. Other wolves cast their eyes down when she walked past, and occasionally, she was the one who did the casting of her eyes away.
Dominance politics were nothing new to Toshio. This was just a different type, but he understood it and felt more relaxed for it.
“I wonder where Molly and Helena are?”
Delilah looked around the huge space. “I don’t know, but there’s something up. It might just be that Simon and Lark’s home was attacked and things are very bad. But it could be something else.”
“Great. Something else. Because we didn’t have enough stuff.”
A woman he recognized as Nina Warden came out, all business. She clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Please take your seats. There are cards so do sit where your card is.”
“Hierarchy dominance,” Delilah murmured, explaining.
“Not so different from how we sit on the dais in committee meetings.”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “True.”
Luckily he was seated next to Delilah so he’d be nearby someone who could save him from making a horrible etiquette faux pas.
Helena and Lark came out with several other witches. Helena gave a loud, piercing whistle to shut people up. “If everyone could be quiet for a bit, we’re going to cloak this space and dampen the sound so we can’t be listened in on.”
There was an uproar as people shouted out the question on Tosh’s mind.
Finally, Nina frowned them all into total silence. “We will explain once the process is finished. Now kindly do be quiet as you’ve been asked.”
Tosh kept his questions to himself as he watched the sisters work. Hands moving in concert, speaking under their breath as they traced the outline of the room.
Finally, they stepped back and it was like when a plane reached cruising altitude. His ears felt the pressure and then it eased.
Helena nodded to Nina and the sisters moved to their places at the table.
“Meriel Owen is going to address the committee about some new developments.”
Meriel stood. “Just half an hour ago I received some information that changes everything. What I’m going to say is not known by many people. But it’s necessary now. When we defeated the Magister, several weeks later we received visitors from the other side of the Veil. They had new information for us about how the Magister works.
“We didn’t
The table erupted into three dozen shouted questions and multiple conversations.
“We’re chronicling all this information in our archives, sharing it as we can with other places on the other side of the Veil. The more we know, maybe it can help in the future. But from what we can tell, the Magister is a being of chaos. The way it comes and goes is part of it. It’s beyond our ability to understand the full scope. Old magicks like that defy explanation, so we’re being clumsy but it’s not on purpose.”
Tosh reeled. Other worlds? Veil?
Delilah leaned close. “I’ll explain later if she doesn’t now.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” one of the Vampires asked.
“Because right after that visit the attacks began and we’ve been dealing with this brink-of-war stuff. We’ve been trying to keep the existence of other worlds out of human knowledge. If they’re this rabid knowing about us, what would happen if they knew there were countless worlds on the other side of the Veil?”
Meriel looked to Tosh. “If the military knew, what would they do?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head, caught in the middle. “This is conjecture, understand, but some might see it as a threat. What’s out there? Can we control it before it controls us? Are they more powerful? If so can we get their technology? Some would want diplomacy.”
“Yeah, not the ones who have been trying to kill us since they found out we existed though. What would they do if they knew Simon and Faine came from a world of beasts who could take two forms? Where those beasts ruled their world in warrior castes? Hm? What if they knew about the existence of Fae? We could not take the risk.” Meriel said this all in a calm, measured voice. Tosh understood it and he agreed. There was no telling just what might happen if and when this information got out.
“We’ve been investigating some leaks within Clan Owen, and the de La Vega Jamboree also had a leak. And this afternoon, Helena got a phone call.” Meriel paused for a brief moment. “It has come to our attention that Carlo
