Chapter Thirty-six #2
Katarina roared with frustration, tossing the things on his desk about.
Each and every drawer only led her to more papers.
Without proof, his confession was just coerced, succubus induced rambling.
No one would ever believe her. She was, after all, just an accountant.
Fuck! She needed hard evidence. If he would just tell her where the fucking device was, she could get him to blabber about it long enough to deactivate it.
Or, fuck, I’ll just break it. Her claws were thick enough.
In her frenzied state, her wings popped out of her back, and she was pretty sure little red flames came off her horns as she tossed his whole office.
Not a letter. Not a map. Not a fucking clue.
“Bjorn!” She stomped over to him, dragging him up by the ear and forcing him to limply lean back against the bookcase. Her paralytic was too strong. He was a goner. Fuck. “Bjorn, be a good boy and tell me where it is.”
“Had to be somewhere close,” he panted for air, eyes fluttering. “Please, oh dragon’s breath, touch me.”
Katarina growled, wrapping a hand around his neck. “Where?!”
The problem was her venom could emotionally manipulate someone. It couldn’t convince them to go fully against their wishes. She couldn’t just stab someone and tell them to jump off a cliff. Not unless they were already thinking it, at least. Unfortunately, Bjorn really didn’t want anyone to know.
Tears, hot and angry welled up in her eyes as she throttled him. “Tell me where the device is and how to turn it off.”
“He’ll be here soon,” Bjorn murmured as his head flopped to the right.
“Fuck!” She dropped him by the neck. He slid down, his head cracking against the floor.
She stomped away from him to take a calming breath.
When she twisted back, he lay in a heap of body parts, still smiling with heart eyes.
The words spilled out of her mouth. “What do you want more than to blow up the shield?”
Thankfully, a person’s deepest desires were always available to her. He gasped, clambering back up to his feet. Bjorn stumbled up toward her with a wide grin. “I want you—”
“No, no, no,” she laughed, grabbing him by the hands and forcing them to stay by his sides. “What do you want more than anything. What is it that gets Bjorn out of bed in the morning?”
“I want prestige. I want them to truly know how smart I am. I want them to see how I fooled them all and then I want them to thank me for making it all better.” The words oozed out of his mouth.
Her lips curled up into a wicked smirk as he leaned in for a kiss he’d never get.
She dropped his hands to cradle his face instead.
Holding him an inch from her face, she suggested, “How will they know how smart you are if they don’t know. You should show them. You should show them all how smart you are.”
“I am smart,” he babbled breathlessly.
“So smart,” she cooed.
“I should show them.” He nodded vigorously.
“You should show them,” she breathed, giving him one last puff of her aura directly into his face.
She watched all of it sink into his skin.
It soaked deep, filling his eyes with a powerful glow and his veins a brighter red.
Bjorn ripped out of her palms, racing around her.
She stalked after him. Letting him lead her right to it, she kept her focus on Bjorn.
He grabbed a hold of a bullhorn from the mailcart as he booked it out of the department.
Oh shit…he’s really going to show them! She booked it, following the thin motherfucker out into the foyer of the Council building. He launched himself up onto the ledge of the fountain, clicking the bullhorn. Wait, no, not that.
“Attention!” His voice echoed around the whole building and Katarina skittered to a halt as she saw a foyer full of councilors.
Lord Blightwood, being the first one she saw, stood next to Lord Fowler, both feathery councilors staring up at Bjorn with daggers for eyes.
“Attention! It’s come to my attention you all have forgotten how important I am to this council.”
Aravis Blightwood’s obsidian gaze fell from Bjorn to Katarina, his eyebrows furrowed and face darkened.
She opened her mouth, like she might be able to explain.
His face screwed up more into a hardened scowl.
Bjorn continued to call out to the crowd to gather, the other councilors yelling at him to get down.
Two Enforcers rushed for him and Katarina cursed internally.
Okay, maybe he’s too much. Maybe I doused him too hard.
Thankfully, it would slowly seep out of his bloodstream, no one would know it was there.
As Aravis made a beeline toward her, pushing people out of his way, cape fluttering behind him like a dramatic shadow, she shifted away from the fountain.
Her back to a pillar, she put her hands up as a white flag before the Fowlst could get to her.
Then two familiar faces, carting her child, broke through the front doors. Her heart dropped into her feet, and Aravis stopped to follow her gaze. Bjorn saw them at the same time as he giggled loudly.
“There they are! Now I can show you how smart I really am!” Bjorn pulled a cylinder, skinny like a pen with a singular button on top, from his jacket pocket. “Behold!”
“NO!” Katarina screamed, but she had no control over Bjorn. Not when he really wants to set the bomb off…and I drove him up there to show off.
Bjorn clicked the button and the council building lit up in white.
It engulfed everything, the walls shaking, the crystal panes over their heads cracking, and a piece of the chandelier clattering to the floor.
Screams filled the air and Katarina could pinpoint Isabella’s.
It made her heart skip a beat as she threw her arms up in front of her eyes.
A massive shadow covered her. Peeking tentatively through her fingers, she found a raven feather wing blocking out the light in front of her.
Then it was all snuffed out. Bjorn’s angry screeches were muffled as something heavy splashed in the fountain.
Aravis lowered his wing and the pair blinked slowly, taking in the damage.
One of the statues crumbled into the fountain around Bjorn who was being handcuffed by two damp Enforcers.
At the front of the fountain was a broken piece of metal, clearly ripped out of something.
It was singed and broken into little pieces.
“What is going on?” Aravis barked, his gaze roaming from the crowd at the foot of the fountain to Katarina.
But she was pushing her way out of his grasp toward Nik.
Isabella squirmed out of the mechanic’s arms, screaming for her mother as she barreled forward.
Katarina dropped to her knees. Scooping Isabella up into her arms, tears trailing down her face, she squeezed tight.
“Baby, what are you doing here?” She shrieked before looking up at Jessie who sheepishly smiled down at her. “Why is she here!”
“I uh,” Jessie grimaced, “I didn’t have a babysitter lined up this time. Look—”
“Mr. Bonesaw, explain yourself!” Aravis stormed up behind Katarina. “What is going on?”
Katarina loosened her arms on the squirming bundle in her arms. Isabella dried her tears on Katarina’s shoulder. Thank the dragons above you’re fine. But the question was…how? Why?
“Honestly, Lord Commander, I got no idea. My girl was here to file some paperwork, and we came here to pick her up for breakfast. Kiddo wouldn’t even let me dress her without momma, so I’m just here to get my girl and get some muffins from the bake sale when I saw that wacko on the fountain.
What’s his deal? What was that?” Jessie lied and lied and lied, but it was the best lie Katarina heard in her life.
Not even Isabella called him out on it, too busy hugging Katarina.
She wrapped her arms tight around Isabella again, and this time, her daughter settled into her chest.
“I’m not sure…but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.
Please, can I have everyone not protection guild personnel evacuate?
Lets go, out!” Aravis’ command echoed around the hall.
Katarina climbed to her wobbly feet. A warm hand pressed to the small of her back and steadied her against a firm back.
She twisted but a massive wing blocked her and the boys from leaving. “Not you four. You stay.”
“We’re not exactly personnel,” Nik snarled.
“But you are suspicious,” Aravis snapped back.
Isabella huffed, finally pulling back from Katarina’s shoulder. She rummaged around in her pajamas before shoving two plastic cards in Aravis’ face. “Permit!”
“Pardon?” Aravis blinked rapidly.
Nik choked on a snort, pivoting away from the scene before him, but Jessie beamed from floppy ear to floppy ear. “We uh, we’ve got a permit for being suspicious.”
Aravis squinted at him. If looks could kill, Katarina would have watched the Lord Commander murder her love right there.
But they couldn’t and Aravis had bigger fish to fry.
Like the man currently spewing words like ‘heinously underappreciated’ and ‘you massive morons don’t know who you’re messing with’. So, he let out a heavy sigh.
“Just. Get. Out.” Aravis ground out all three words then twisted from them, storming away.
His talons clicking against the floor as he bulldozed toward the raving councilman.
Nik held it together till they made it out the front doors before he bent over, laughing till he cried.
Jessie scooped Isabella out of Katarina’s arms, spinning her around.
“That’s! What! I’m! Talkin’! About! My girl! My sweet tater tot! You’ve earned yourself whatever you want at the bake sale!” Jessie cheered, pumping her up and down till Isabella was giggling shrilly.
Katarina fell back against one of the many massive pillars that lined the outside of the council building. While most people were dying to get a look inside, she was hoping to get as far away as they could from that damn place. Fuck, I gotta text Sera.
She needed to do a lot of things. So, she made a list:
Yell at Nik and Jessie for endangering Isabella.
Check in with Sera, make sure she didn’t eat the secretary
Make sure she got full custody
Figure out who the fuck stopped the bomb from going off or defused it (because it definitely wasn’t her)
And get a good night’s rest
But first, she needed to take Isabella to the bake sale. Funny…here she was, making another list. Back to the front of The Council Building, tears dried to her cheeks, wheezing for air, and somehow, happy about it. How? How did we get here?
“What were you thinking!” She whirled to face Nik who grinned at her. He pulled her into his arms. She squirmed, slapping his arms. “No! No you don’t!”
Katarina broke free of his embrace to put a finger in his face. “You disappeared! What happened to you? Why do you look like you got eaten by the woods? How fucking dare you act like everything’s okay! Where’s-”
“Momma!” Isabella cut her off and she took a well needed breath. She stared at her pink cheeked baby girl in her ducky pajamas, happily laid against Jessie’s chest. “Bake sale, Momma.”
“Yes, Bug, bake sale,” she sighed, shoulders slouching.
Jessie winked at her, already jogging toward the parking lot.
She took one step only to have a long, stinky arm wrap around her.
She stiffened at first as alarm bells rang in her head.
Oh fuck, you yelled at him. You just chewed him out!
But Nik pressed a sloppy, dirty kiss to her cheek and murmured, “Sorry, Katarina. Didn’t mean to scare you. ”
His words were soft and husky. Tears welled instantly, her heart skipping a beat. She peeked at him hesitantly. Nik pressed another kiss to her temple. The warbled, choked sound escaped her without permission. “I didn’t know where you went or if you were coming back.”
“Can’t get rid of me that easy, wicked thing,” he rumbled with a deep from the gut chuckled. “I am sorry. Forgive me?”
“You owe me big time!” she croaked, unable to fight the smile climbing on her lips.
“Is this that little payment fantasy you and Jessie have been playing?” he teased in her ear.
“Might be,” she whispered.
“I promise to pay you in full,” he hummed as he pressed another kiss to her cheek. Katarina scrunched up her face. He chortled, “what?”
“Stinky,” she gagged, pulling away from him.
He dragged her back in with a wicked chuckle, “You love it.”
Katarina took a moment, studying his face. His playful smile fell to a soft, somber straight line. The confession came straight from her chest. “I do…love it. I love you, Nik.” Then she smirked, “which is why you’re going to pay me double with interest for that little stunt.”
He answered her with a smack to her backside, before actually speaking, “Love you too, wicked thing.”
“MOMMA!” Isabella roared from halfway across the parking lot. “BAKE! SALE!”
“Right,” the pair both rumbled with laughter as they followed her demanding, but delightful child to the truck. I still have so much to do. And I’m still a mess. But…I’ve always liked messy.