Chapter Seven
As everyone moved around them—finding a seat, getting drinks, and waiting to hear what Rena said—Noah could only think about what he’d been about to confess to Jessie before they’d been interrupted. He loved her and he needed to tell her. He was even tempted to blurt it out now, but knew how inappropriate that would be. She seemed skittish already, so he would wait until they were alone again later tonight. But like it or not, she didn’t get to run this time. She was his and he had every intention of holding on to her.
He pressed his lips to her silken hair, loving the soft feel of it against him. Just holding her like this got his body hard and ready. Would he ever get enough of her? He doubted it.
“Hey, do you two need to get a room?”
Noah shot his twin a look over Jessie’s head and had to choke back a laugh when he saw the stricken look on Jake’s face. Guess her big brother wasn’t ready to handle thoughts of his sister having sex with a Scott twin. Especially considering his own relationship with Denn and Raven. By now Jake knew exactly what kind of sexual appetites all the Scott brothers had in common. He’d bet he didn’t know that his sister fit that appetite just perfectly.
Noah led Jessie to the far corner of the room, far enough away to give her a small sense of freedom and close enough to see and hear what Rena had to say.
“As you all know, I’ve been studying the family Tarot for weeks now, hunting for clues to help us figure out what would come next and what we could do to prevent anything tragic from happening.” She picked up four of the cards from the table. “These pentacles cards seem to coincide most with the pieces of the prophecy that have been found. Yet we still don’t know exactly how to handle our latest situation.”
“Are you talking about what happened to Jessie?” Jake questioned.
“Yes, exactly. For a while there we thought that the Reverend knew exactly what the prophecy said and that he was acting against it trying to kill one or all of the brothers, but we didn’t have any real proof of that until now.”
“She’s right, it seems pretty clear that if he knew enough to take Jessie prisoner and try to keep her from Noah, then he’s known all along, and his steps have escalated with each attempted failure,” Graelen interrupted.
“From everything I’ve read and studied, all four have to connect to their mates, and I’m not sure how well that will work as long as Jessie is tethered to the Reverend through the branding ritual and the demon magick,” Rena said.
“Yeah, that demon magick I took out last night was some pretty powerful stuff. About knocked us both on our asses,” Noah said.
“You got your magick back?” Jake’s face lit up. “That’s awesome. I don’t see how he could stop you now.”
Jessie’s body went stiff as a board against him and fear radiated out of her like a radio broadcast. His own body went on high alert, the hair prickling on his skin. Something wasn’t right. He was missing something.
Jake smiled broadly. “I mean, not to short the magick of each one of you, but her demon side is scary powerful. I don’t imagine there is much she can’t handle.”
Everyone turned to look at them, and even Noah stared down at the woman in his arms. Instinctively his arms dropped and he took a step away from her as the shock of Jake’s words fell away, rage wound its way through him, red hot and burning through his veins. Flames licked at his skin as the emotion allowed his magick to break free from his control, building until the heat surrounding him had everyone taking several steps back.
“Noah, you need to calm down. Let’s discuss this.” Denn moved toward him, steady and controlled, his earth magick tamping down on his fire.
“It’s true then? You knew?”
Denn opened his mouth to answer but the windows at the front of the room, overlooking the front yard and water beyond, exploded, sending thousands of shards flying into the room. Bodies ducked and ran for cover as total chaos erupted around them. Distracted from his anger and sense of betrayal, Noah grabbed Jessie’s arm and dragged her into the secure office.
“Noah, what the hell are you doing? We have to get out there and fight. We don’t know what is happening.”
“Precisely.” He sat in the chair and, one by one, checked every screen for potential intruders. With no visual confirmations anywhere on the property he flipped the lights of the room to off and lit up the screens, with the heat sensing infrared and every warm body within a half a mile of the property glowed red on the monitors. “That’s better. Now we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
“How many?” Already Jessie was reaching for the cabinet of weapons he had shown her earlier.
“I count only ten.”
“That seem right to you? Your uncle has come to retrieve me, or worse, kill me, and he only sends a group of ten men against you and your brothers? He is either incredibly stupid or we are missing something here.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
The door to Noah’s office shook and the walls around them buckled. His brothers were gearing up their magick, which left Noah with an uneasy feeling. No magick, not yet. He grabbed up more of the weapons that Jessie couldn’t carry and headed for the door, not even bothering with the lock anymore, just blowing it open with a blast of energy from his hand. Okay, maybe a little magick.
He motioned to his brothers, who were all ducked for cover and covering the women. It wasn’t the first time in his life he wished for telepathy, it sure would have made things a lot easier. “We’ve got ten bogies out there, the closest
