Chapter 10 #2
She grabbed it and elegantly spun. Her energy swirled around her in an exotic dance, beauty in motion, showing her happiness, the joy and companionship she was finding with everyone sharing the moment, even him.
She measured out the ricotta cheese before gliding the few steps to the stove to once again flip her onions.
She added in diced garlic and then she was spinning away again, back to her cheese.
She cracked an egg on the side of the bowl and opened the shell with one hand.
She poured dried parsley in her cupped palm before dashing it into the bowl, followed by the parmesan cheese, that she poured and apparently measured by sight alone.
“It’s almost erotic, isn’t it?” Jessie murmured, leaning toward him. “Watching him—or her, in your case—cook?”
Tristan had forgotten to eat his sandwich. To chew, even, mesmerized as he was by his little deathwatch angel creating a culinary delight for her chosen and beloved family. His heart warmed.
“Very,” he murmured.
“You missed the pasta making.” Jessie leaned away again and took a sip of her drink. “I highly recommend watching the pasta making. I watch the muscles. You’d watch a similar part of the body.”
Yes, he would and imagine the salty taste of her skin as he licked a taut nipple before sucking the peak into his mouth.
Natasha practically danced around Austin as he stepped away from the stove, his onions on. She added in the meat and then took to it with gusto, breaking it up to cook. Tristan ate his lunch without tasting it—without even looking at it—focused as he was on her.
“Got it.” Fred finally came into the kitchen with her computer. She jerked to a stop, seeing the table. “He got here with the sandwiches, and no one told me?”
“You were right behind us in the living room.” Jessie frowned at her. “This house is tiny. You must’ve heard us. What would yelling at you have changed?”
“Say the name,” she said, taking the remaining chair and setting down her laptop. She peered into the bag. “What do we got?”
“We should’ve called her in.” Sebastian balled up his trash. “Asking for the types of sandwiches would’ve made Mr. Tom happy.”
“I think that is turkey,” Tristan said, though he really had no idea. They all looked exactly the same. Mr. Tom hadn’t even scribbled a letter on them.
“Sweet.” Fred nodded, making more room for her lunch and her laptop.
Tristan took the rest of the sandwiches and put them into the fridge, eyeing Natasha’s muscular butt as she finished browning the meat.
“Natasha, can I help you so that you can eat?” he asked, pouring her a lemonade and then one for himself.
“Umm…” She glanced at the glass being set on the counter. “Could you unwrap the sandwich, maybe?”
“Of course.” He did as she said before taking the can of crushed tomatoes from her grip. “I’ll open the cans. Eat something.”
She opened her mouth to argue.
“Eat,” he said in a deep, commanding voice.
Her fingers relaxed, and she gave him the can. A wave of goosebumps coated her flesh. Her gorgeous eyes dilated with desire and her energy sucked at him, coaxing him with what she wanted. Prodding him to take control.
His groin tightened as he reached with a free hand for the sandwich.
The kitchen and everyone in it dropped away as he brought the sandwich to her lips.
He wasn’t a shifter, who found feeding their mates erotic, and gargoyles didn’t typically have a culture around food, but all the same, he felt a jolt of pure erotism as her teeth sank into the bread, and she took a bite.
Mate, the moment whispered. Her energy tugged at him harder.
It would’ve been impossible to refuse her unspoken order, not that he’d ever try.
He waited for her to swallow and then he bent and grazed his lips across hers before settling them firmly.
She moaned, barely heard, and then her energy was coaxing him away again, wanting him to back off.
“Check that meat,” he murmured against her lips, and then he pulled back and turned to grab the can opener. She wouldn’t struggle to get her bearings if she had something to do, allowing the hum of their mutual desire to linger, to live inside her until she couldn’t be without it.
He didn’t spare her a glance as he opened the various cans she had set out. When he got back to the table, she had eaten half the sandwich and was adding various herbs and spices to the cooking mixture.
“Okay!” Fred took a gulp of lemonade and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She crumpled up the paper that had held the sandwich. “I’ve found our mage. I have more digging to do, but I have a name, an occupation, and how much she is worth if someone brings her in.”
Sebastian’s chair creaked as he leaned forward in surprise. “She’s got a price on her head?”
“Do they do that often?” Jessie asked.
“Very rarely,” Natasha answered. “Anyone worthy of a price on their head holds a coveted position. They are pampered and treated well and paid handsomely. They usually don’t want to leave.”
“Who is it?” Sebastian asked.
“Tilda Grange,” Fred supplied. “Former head potions engineer for the Mages Guild with a five-million-dollar price on her head.”
“No way,” Sebastian said on a release of breath. “Tilda?”
Natasha spun around. “That was Tilda Grange? You’ve got to be kidding. I thought she was dead!”
“So did I,” Sebastian replied.
“The official standing is that she is presumed dead,” Fred said, “but her files suggest the Guild doesn’t believe that.
They are hunting for her. I need to do more research, but she’s got a few flags in her file, and they have the location where three employees have disappeared while searching for her. ”
Fred looked up at Jessie, and there were shadows in her eyes.
“Here,” Jessie said.
Fred nodded. “This general area. She was tracked to a small town about forty miles away. This was after she left the Guild—without permission, I am assuming, though that is not evident in her file. I have to do more digging. After that town, she disappeared. Mages have been deployed to look. Some have returned. Those coming to this lonely mountain have not.”
“The lonely mountain dominated by a shifter pack,” Austin said as he turned.
“Yes.” Fred pointed at her screen. “That is noted in her file—not the pack or alpha name or anything, just that there is a shifter pack in this area. Two people came looking and didn’t return.
The third was sent as a test.” She made a face.
“He passed said test by also not returning. They are wondering if this pack killed her as well and are in process of sending in a team to get answers.”
“They won’t stop until they know for a fact,” Sebastian said.
“And the only information you need to look up is why she left. I know all about her and her work. She is an absolute genius. Low in spell casting power, but that woman can dream up potions I never would’ve thought of.
I’ve heard, anyway. She’s a legend. I cannot believe she is alive! And here!”
“But you didn’t recognize her?” Jessie asked.
“No. I’ve seen her from a distance, and that was in her work attire. Guild members are expected to dress well. Her appearance now, compared to then, is as different as Elliot Graves and…” He looked down at himself.
“But she recognized you,” Jessie pushed.
“And not Nessa,” he replied. “I was being dragged to and from torture sessions. They used me as a fear tactic for some Guild departments and, while they’d usually spare someone in a position as high as hers from the displeasure of seeing a torture subject, she had to work with the grunts.
She dreams up the potions, but without the power, she has to instruct others how to materialize them.
She would’ve seen me looking worse for wear, much like I am now. She clearly remembers.”
“Why’d she try to attack you?” Tristan asked.
Sebastian made a face. “Because she thinks Elliot Graves would make an example of her. He’d drag her into the public eye and viciously kill one of the Guild’s precious workers.”
“And would he?” Jessie asked.
It was Natasha who answered. “Depends on why she left. She helped the Guild orchestrate some atrocities. She’s complicit in their crimes.
If she had no choice because they wouldn’t let her leave, that’s one thing.
But doing it of your own free will?” She tsked.
“An example would need to be made to show magical people that we will not stand for it.”
“If you were to try that here,” Austin said, “it seems Drex and his pack will try to stand in the way.”
“In the way of us,” Sebastian said, “and in the way of the Guild when they invariably break in and get what they came for. This pack clearly doesn’t understand the hell they are inviting to their doorstep.”