He knew she’d had a lot of difficulty making the choices she had. But she made them anyway. Which is what made her so good at her job. Though he had a feeling she wasn’t sure of that. He’d reinforce it when they were alone.
Alone. He needed that with her. She was different when she was on the job. More closed. Calculating and all business. He liked that, but he craved that Helena only those very close to her saw.
Molly’s secretary, Rita, came in. “You all need to get into the conference room immediately.”
Everything stopped and people turned to Helena and Lark. “Go.”
They made their way across the office to the conference room where the television on the far wall was on. Carlo Powers stood with Marlon Hayes.
“Today we have passed the Domestic Safety Act through committee and it will go to a full vote on the floor. Keep in mind that these monsters have had their own murdered for daring to speak out against their ways.”
Faine looked over at Helena, who looked positively murderous indeed.
There was a general uproar in the press, people yelling questions.
“I know because several of these patriotic men and women have disappeared. They were helping me and our cause and they are all gone today. They admitted what sort of monsters they are, told me all sorts of things. Things I’ll be exposing to you all over the course of the next few days. But suffice it to say there is a lot these monsters have not been telling us, despite their claims of honesty and openness.”
“That bastard!” Molly exploded from her chair and then, unable to pace because of the cast, sat back down. “We haven’t been honest? He had spies in our ranks and it’s our fault? Rita, get all my contacts on the line. We need to respond. I need to get on all the networks to combat this.”
“We need to be ready for them to expose the existence of the Veil. Of demons and Fae and Lycians.” Meriel sipped her coffee. “But unless they have actual proof, we don’t respond to anything. And what sort of proof can they have? Hearsay?” Meriel shrugged. “I don’t give a damn about what someone, who conveniently isn’t around, said about something he or she heard. How can we trust the word of people who won’t appear on camera?”
Helena smirked.
“And we don’t know a thing about any disappearing Others. Not unless there are groups of mages out there again, kidnapping them to satisfy their dangerous addictions.”
People always underestimated witches, but they were just as hardcore as the rest of the Others when it was necessary. Meriel was a vicious, canny woman and he admired that a great deal. This was high-stakes politics and she was absolutely a player. Marlon Hayes thought he’d shake the Others up with this, but he had no idea what was in store for him.
“I need to get back to Los Angeles to get people trained down there and manage the movement of our people into the enclave communities.” Helena stood.
“Keep us updated. I’ll contact Rebecca now. I’m sure she’s seen this mess already.” Meriel was gone in moments.
Lark hugged her sister. “Please be safe.”
“I’ll do my best. You too.”
Faine clasped his brother’s forearm and then hugged him. “Watch over your woman.”
Simon nodded. “You too. And be sure to eat plenty of protein because watching over a Jaansen takes a lot of fortitude.”
“I heard that,” Lark called out from where she stood with her sister.
Simon waggled his brows her way and she rolled her eyes and turned back to Helena.
“Keep checking in. I’ll let you know what we get out of these prisoners.”
Helena nodded. “I’ll go straight to the one we’ve got in holding. The wolves said we could keep him at Gennessee. It’s safer there anyway.”
“Love you.” Lark hugged Helena one last time.
“Love you too.”
Faine barely restrained himself from taking her hand but did allow a brief touch of her lower back as he guided her from the room.
Their bags were already in the car and they headed off to the airport. They didn’t have Mia to fly them this time, but they had engaged the services of another witch who’d handle the air travel for the time being.
They loaded in and Faine sat, patting the seat next to him. “You may as well relax for the next few hours. There’s nothing you can do while we’re in the air. Sleep. I have a feeling you’ll need it.”
“I have work to do.” She pulled out one of her dusty spellbooks. “There’s some old-school arcane magicks in this. We lost our ability to work this sort of magick generations ago. Like a muscle you don’t use, we got flabby. But with this power boost after the Magister, I think some of us can. And we’re going to need every weapon we can get.”
“Why do you think there’s this power boost?”
She looked up at him after she got strapped in. “I’ve thought on it a lot. Heard all sorts of theories. I think it’s that when the Magister left, all the unused magick from the Others that disappeared bled out and we soaked it up. We lost nearly half of our population worldwide. Yes, the mages stole some and the Magister too. But we generate magick by using it. There’s magick in the air and the earth. Less people to use it means more for each of us. That’s my best guess anyway. Morbid though it might be.”
He sighed. “A good enough guess.” He leaned back and closed his eyes. He didn’t need to sleep, but the quiet time to think and work things out would be welcome. There was a lot to piece through. Plus, he rarely got the chance to simply be still with her when she wasn’t bleeding or being shot at.
She put her head on his shoulder and he opened his eyes, taking in the sight. Possession roared through him. Satisfaction that she’d turned to him with a simple show of affection.
His beast pressed against the man’s flesh, flexing its claws before subsiding. Just another way she was different than any other who came before. His beast approved mightily.
There were others on the plane and she’d touched him that way. He held back a smile, settling for a kiss on the top of her head, breathing her in.
“Thank you.”
She sat back in her own seat so she could look up into his face.
“What for,
She smiled. “You’ve set aside your life to help with all this. You could live in Lycia and no one would try to kill you. No one would discriminate against you for being what you are.”
He chuckled at that. “Things are not as perfect in Lycia as you might imagine. We go to war. There are dominance battles all the time. I came to you covered in battle scars, remember?”
She smiled. “Well, I guess that’s true. But I . . . thank you for being there when I needed you. You’ve given me so much great advice. You’ve been someone I could turn to.”
“It is my pleasure to be there when you needed me. As for setting aside my life? Pah. This is my life. Here with you.”
“Lucky me,” she murmured, but it wasn’t sarcastic. He squeezed her hand before she went back to her book.
BY the time they’d landed Helena knew the news cycle would have begun to spin like a giant tornado. Being with Molly while they were all on the road together had taught her that much.
She turned on the news as they drove from the small airport back to the Gennessee offices. She wanted to ask Faine when they were alone why they couldn’t just use trips through the Veil to cut through all this plane travel. There was a time she actually liked to fly.
But even with private planes, which she had to admit kicked ass, it was still hours she couldn’t do stuff. Then again, it was hours she couldn’t do stuff, and she so rarely got downtime she supposed she should appreciate it.
She didn’t though. She needed to be making calls and dealing with email and all that stuff.
“Brief me,” she said to her father, who’d picked them up.
“We’ve taken the havens and are transforming some of them into guarded enclaves for the witches and Others who live outside major cities. That was a very good idea.” He winked at her and she smiled, warmed by the praise.
