Chapter 3 #2
I reached over and took her other hand, startling her so she looked at me. I immediately let go but said what she wasn’t able to. “You want to know if I’ll act as your priest even if it’s not sexual.”
Tears fell from her eyes as her lower lip quivered. “Yes. I’m sorry, but yes.”
“I will,” I heard myself say, knowing I had to hate myself to some extent to agree to that. I was half in love with Bevin and this could crush me.
“It’s not fair to ask you. I can’t be that mean to you and things have been so awkward, but I don’t know who else to ask. The spirit said to ask you—to name you before another Conrad tried to name himself and stop having the carrot for greed to want.”
“I will do it for now, at least in name, until things stabilize or you find someone you would rather have in that place,” I told her, knowing I could—should do at least this for how much I’d hurt her.
“Let me, Bevin. You’re scaring me and asking.
I want to help. Let me be your Tracey on this front of your situation. ”
That was the right thing to say because she nodded, more tears falling and thanked me. She wanted a team for this part—an ally she could speak Bevin with and feel understood her.
And we had the potential to be that if I got the fuck out of my own way.
“Tell me what happened,” I begged when she calmed down a bit.
“I know what the key does,” she told me, nodding when I sputtered and almost knocked over my drink. “Yeah, I know, not the day for it, but really it is because it’s used as an escape for people like me and today I needed the escape. So—wait, let me see if the recording worked.”
She pulled up something on her phone and hit play, looking at me hopefully. I hated to disappoint her, but I sighed.
“I only hear you speaking. It’s like a soft white noise when you’re not,” I admitted.
“I was afraid of that.”
“It’s better that the answers you got from a spirit probably aren’t recorded,” I mumbled. “Smart of you to think of that. Not sure I could have in my panic.”
She shrugged. “I default to recording now. I have Conrad recorded too. I plan to use that to fuck up whatever plans the council will try to use to weasel out of this mess or him.” She worried her lower lip.
“Someone has him in custody, right? He’s not going to announce I’m a goddess witch like he threatened? ”
“Taylor immediately got him—cut off his fucking press conference announcing you were dating,” I said with disgust. “Made up some shit about a threat and locked him down with his people. Councilman Hanson isn’t thrilled, but the Reids, Moons, Oliverias, and a few others are clear that they vote for Conrad to be put in the ground. ”
“Well, that’s something,” she sighed, but then the tears came back as she looked at me. She took in a slow breath and let it out. “Please don’t let him get me, Derek. He scares me more than Gregg.”
I’d longed for her to say my first name—hear it from her sweet lips but not like this. Gods above, not like this. I reached for her hand but froze when she yanked it out of reach.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “It’s not you. He put his hands on me. I did it with Link too.” She let out a strangled chuckle. “What Conrad did wasn’t even all that bad, but I think it was just the last straw. I think everyone needs to…”
“More than understandable,” I promised her. “Now what do you want to tell me about today?”
Apparently everything.
And apparently, everything included a plastic bright pink flamingo lawn ornament. Which left me with only one question… “Were you high?”
She snorted, not looking offended at all. “Right? That’s crazy, but he said he picked that form so I wasn’t scared and I liked them as a child.”
“So, it’s someone you knew?”
“I think a familiar,” she answered, sitting back in her chair with a huff. “Maybe one of the ones I turned down? What happens to a familiar that doesn’t bond? Wouldn’t it make sense that it would go back to the spirit world and wait for another chance?”
“That makes sense and let’s go with that as the answer for right now so we have less variables,” I muttered.
She gave me a small smile. “This is why I wanted to ask you. You never make me feel small or stupid. If I was going to get cryptic clues and parts of answers to try and piece together, I wanted you to be the partner I had to make the puzzle work.”
Wow. And she seriously didn’t understand how we could have feelings for her or want her? This woman truly didn’t know her value.
She wanted to play me the whole recording and tell me what I wasn’t hearing, but I didn’t think this was the time. The council would be gathering soon and we had to handle Conrad. Bevin was getting flustered when I tried to cut in like I was brushing her off or ignoring what she wanted.
This was the major roadblock we’d hit and unfortunately I was an asshole and plowed through it—not even noticing before.
I made the signal for a time-out. “Bevin, I’m not shutting you down.
I’m missing why this is the priority when I see something else as the priority.
” I held my hands out and brought them together.
“I’m trying to get us here on the same page.
I don’t know how to articulate that and this is the pattern we’re in.
At least I see it now, but I’m not dismissing you. ”
She stared at my hands innocently like she was contemplating what I’d said, but I had a flash of my hands on her pale, naked skin and her moans in my ear. Oh yeah, keeping this not sexual was going to go well.
Bevin’s gorgeous amethyst met mine and I was surprised when they were full of guilt. “I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you sooner. You’re so much easier to deal with and reasonable. I’m sorry you were hurt because I’m so inept and overwhelmed. Really.”
I opened my mouth to brush it off but then let out a shaky breath.
“Thank you. I…” I flinched when I realized tears were burning my eyes and stared down at my food.
“I understand it’s been too much for you, but I think I needed to hear you acknowledge that I did try to talk to you.
Others keep painting me like I just—I tried. Not well, but…”
“You tried,” she accepted. “It just got all messed up. Thank you for hearing me and not letting us make the same mistakes.”
I nodded and sniffled. “We’ll make new ones.”
She snorted. “Undoubtedly. And I think you say just what you said. You’re missing where my head is.
Too many brush me off or try to take over.
I need to hear that you don’t have the pieces you need.
There are too many pieces or the crazy is hard to organize.
Something that makes it not me or my fault.
” She let out a shaky breath this time. “It always feels like my fault.”
“I know that feeling well.” I focused on my sandwich and listened to her explain that she was pushing this because she thought it was the key to how we should handle the council. The spirit felt that naming me was important and came first.
Then I was on board. If she was sent a… Spirit guide? Sure, we could call him that since I had no idea what else to refer to him as. But since she was given one, it would be stupid not to listen.
“But we need to acknowledge that he might not be sent by someone good,” I warned her before she restarted the recording. “All of this—we—”
“I know,” she agreed. “It could be a present from a dark god one day or a spirit from them. It had to be you because you’re as distrusting as I am and that will keep us alive.”
I was glad she understood that.
I swallowed loudly a few times as she told me what I wasn’t hearing in between listening to what she said on the recording.
I finished my food by then and scrubbed my hands over my face.
“Okay, we’re going to need to listen to this a few more times and break it down, start a real plan and figure things out.
But for today, I think I know how to play this. ”
“Good, because I don’t.” She huffed. “I do, but I don’t, and I’m fried.”
“You take the lead and show them you’re not to be trifled with, but then let me be your hammer and threat,” I told her, nodding when her eyes flashed shock. I glanced at my phone and realized we were out of time. “I need you to trust me.”
She swallowed loudly. “Don’t make me regret it.”
“I’ll do my best.” That didn’t seem enough, so I went with what was in my heart. “I’ve never been out to play you, Bevin. I fuck up and I need to be kicked, but I hate the games as much as you do. I’m putting myself at risk doing this too, so my goal will always be to do what’s best for us.”
“Fair. Yeah, that’s totally fair.”
“Now, you know what comes next,” I said gently, hating to push her, but the council should have already gathered, and leaving them to make decisions on their own could be a bigger mess to handle.
She took in a slow breath and let it out before meeting my gaze and holding out her hand to me. “I, Bevin Millen, blessed by the goddess Bé?inn, ask you join my circle as my priest, Derek Wyatt.”
“It’s my honor and I accept,” I promised as I gently took her hand. Suddenly, her soft skin felt like touching a hot stove that was also shocking me. I felt Quinn’s worry as he raced to me, but I couldn’t focus on that as what felt like a city’s worth of electricity was poured into me.
A grip stronger than Bevin could manage held my upper arm as she cried in the background. There was a grunt and the hand let me go as I seized on the floor.
When had I fallen to the floor?
“He’s fine, not in any pain, Ms. Millen,” Andy lied through his teeth.
“I’m not that much of a blonde bimbo, Headmaster,” she snapped. “He’s not fucking giggling.”
Gods, I really did have it bad for her because that sass turned me on. She was so awesome.
I groaned as my body started to calm down. The hand grabbed me again and I tried to push up, worried what had gone on.
“Calm yourself, Derek,” Andy said firmly. “She came for help. What the fuck happened?”
“We can’t tell you,” she snapped. “I already told you that. Don’t push him when he could let it slip and get me…”
Punished by the gods. Wow, that was a trip.
“Sorry, Andy,” I moaned. “She got help, but the warning was clear.” I licked my lips a few times as I tried to relearn my body before I blinked open my eyes, staring into his worried ones. “Information is a weapon. She was told why there’s not much information about those like her.”
He sighed heavily and plopped down on his ass, ignoring how he was dressed. “I get it but—fuck, Derek, you were off the floor convulsing. Warn a man next time.”
“We weren’t given that much information,” Bevin bitched. “And I have a feeling that was intentional.” She sighed when my gaze snapped to hers. “I couldn’t have hurt you like that to protect myself.”
“Try to heal me,” I told Andy, groaning in relief when I felt his power.
“I think I can guess what just happened since you’re about to go into battle and what is going on,” Andy hedged.
“Keep it to yourself,” I begged him. “The warning was—there’s a price for disobeying the gods, Andy. Please.”
He searched my aura and nodded. “You good?”
“Yeah, she…” I sighed, giving Bevin a frustrated look. “I finally understand how fucking infuriating the secrets and all the hoops are for you.”
“Thank you,” she exclaimed. “Everyone brushes that off, but it’s really damn hard!”
I chuckled and sat up with Andy’s help. “Yeah, it is.” I scrubbed my face a few times before looking at Andy. “I could use the backup because I’m going to go piss in some powerful corn flakes.”
He took in a slow breath and let it out. “I’ll join in this, but I want someone on my mate. Someone trusted, not just a trainee. I’ll pay, but I don’t know who to hire, and things are already getting dicey for me.”
“Done,” Bevin immediately agreed. “And I would suggest some off-the-books interviews with the guards. The ones I’ve met are clean, but I noticed some practically turn around when they see Link. That’s not suspicious or a red flag.”
“Always so much fun,” Andy said as he pushed to his feet and helped me up. “Okay, let’s go jump into the fire. If I get divorced because of this, I’m sleeping on someone’s couch.”
I snorted. “Your mate would forgive you anything besides cheating. She’d be mad if you turned me down.”
“She likes you better than me some days,” he agreed. He checked on me again and then Bevin before we hurried to clean up and grab our stuff.
Emma was waiting and then we were circling to the council estate. The fact they were doing this on their turf wasn’t lost on me.
Nor on Taylor Reid from the pissed expression he had when I walked in.
But then I realized it was way more than that and Conrad Hanson was just standing off to the side with his father and a few others like this was a meeting.
I was on him before I even realized what I was doing. People were too shocked that I’d have the balls to do it in front of every council member that they didn’t react right away. I got in three good shots before guards came for me.
And somehow I was able to use magic to block them without even having to focus. It was as easy as breathing, especially since Quinn was there right on Bevin’s shoulder protectively.
It was Link Oliveria and his uncle who broke through. Link grabbed my arms and held them behind me while the councilman moved in front of me.
“I understand, Son, but you’re not doing our side any good this way,” he said as he made sure to block my view from Conrad. “And when the argument is that the power and more is being managed by people too young.”
Bevin snorted. “He’s a few years older than Tracey. It’s his penis that people care about, not his age and his tie to a council member. Enough lying!”
“Agreed.” I smiled evilly at Conrad when he pushed to his feet. “And what I did was legal. I’m her named priest and you tried to take the position from me—forcibly. What is the punishment for that?” I focused on his father. “What is it, Councilman?”
Link realized there was more going on than he knew and let me go, mumbling no more violence because he wasn’t my enemy, but he made an oath to keep people safe at the council. Fair enough.
But if I ever saw Conrad Hanson alone, he’d be dead.