Chapter 13 #3
“Why did she file for divorce?” Felix asked. “Sounds like she had her cake and was eating it, too.”
“Pete’s not exactly lemon chiffon,” Jena snarked as the next trivia question was read out.
Felix snagged another chip. “No, but he is a prepper fruitcake.”
Liam blew out a breath and knocked his knuckles against the table.
“Because I found out she’d taken out a bunch of sizable loans in my name.
Not a clue where all that money went, but it wasn’t to the house or the kids.
” She sure as hell wasn’t driving around in a Ferrari, either.
“I salvaged what I could from our joint accounts and cut her off. Now she’s going for half of everything that’s left. ”
“She stole money from you?” Jena spat. “What a bitch.”
“More like Pete did,” Chase muttered around a bite of burrito.
“Yeah,” Liam agreed, downing a good portion of his beer. Unfortunately, Jenny had been the one who filled out all of the loan paperwork, and if he pressed embezzlement charges, where would that leave the kids? “And the answer’s Merle Haggard.”
“What a dick.”
“Who, Merle Haggard?” Jena asked.
“No, Pete,” Chase answered, taking another bite.
“Duh,” Felix rolled his eyes, and they brightened as the waitress came over with their meals. “Another margarita, please.”
“Do a full round,” Chase said, handing her his empty plate and reaching for the stack of tacos that’d been beside it.
Liam dug into his empanadas, frowning. This was so not the date he’d envisioned when he’d asked Felix out yesterday. Next time, he was taking him out somewhere that wasn’t local.
If there was a next time.
Jena squiggled something onto the tabletop. “So, Ophelia was outside?” she asked.
“She was.” Felix said, dangling a shrimp on his fork.
“After this, I have to invite her into town hall so she can go through the records there. You know, Sweets thinks manifesting Ophelia was more than my specs pinpointing her. When we were going back to our cars, she said something about karma seeking to level the scales. She thinks Mr. Brock and some Kremlyn guy—”
Liam dropped his fork, and they all looked at him.
“You know who he is?” Jena asked.
Fuck. Hopefully he was wrong, but Kremlyn wasn’t exactly a common name. This night just kept getting better and better. “Potentially, and if it’s who I’m thinking of, he’s not someone you want to draw notice from.” Enter reason two Liam wasn’t eager to go back West ever again.
“Whoever he is, he’s a prince.” Felix took a sip of his margarita and cocked a brow.
A cold sweat broke out over Liam’s brow. “Shit. Then, yeah. I know who he is, and the dude’s hardcore. He’s the court’s enforcer and heads the Crimson Guard.” And he’d been really fucking pissed at the outcome of that last case Liam had taken.
“Well, that doesn’t sound good.” Felix frowned and set his glass on the table. “Matilda thinks he’s going to come looking for Ophelia.”
Liam’s heart pounded. Fuck. He was fucked.
“Do you think he’ll be able to track the spell?” Chase asked.
Jena frowned, flicking peppers from her plate. “We weren’t exactly sneaky ripping her out of whatever hole he had her in.”
Liam felt all of the blood drain from his face. “Y-you took her out of the Inchisoare?”
“If that’s the same thing as a prison, I’d say that it’s probable, considering what she looked like when we manifested her.” She shrugged, wiping away her doodle.
Jesus, it wasn’t the same thing as a prison, it was the prison.
“I’m gonna need a shot of whiskey,” Liam said to the waitress delivering the round Chase had ordered.
“If you snatched her from there, then Matilda’s right, Kremlyn isn’t gonna let that slide.
Any chance you can extend that ill intent ward around the entire town?
Because we’re gonna need it.” No idea if it would actually keep the prince of darkness out, but Liam would feel better if there was something other than the existing treaties regulating vamp activities on federal lands between him and them.
Like an ocean. Maybe two.
He picked up one of his burritos, trying to calm his racing heart. He needed to chill out. Even if Kremlyn did manage to get a dispensation from his tribe to come out here, his focus would be on getting Ophelia back, not Liam.
Right. Just keep telling yourself that. Maybe it’ll even come true.
Jena chewed her lip, doodling again. “Magic gets weird over salt water, but where the peninsula hits the mainland at our border…maybe? It would be easier if there was a circle of stones out that way—” Her and Chase exchanged a look.
“What?” Felix asked. “I know that look, spill.”
She sighed, picking at her enchilada. “One of the visions I got from my mother’s grimoire was of a black altar out by the western swamp. I’d planned on talking to the coven about it, but honestly, after Samhain and with everything else going on, it kind of slipped off my radar.”
“Wait, what?” Liam coughed, choking on his beer.
“I really think you need to back up,” Felix said at the same time. “How did I not know this?”
Jena squirmed in her seat. “Let’s just say the vision I had doesn’t bear repeating.” Chase grunted beside her, like he knew all about it, and Felix huffed at the two of them.
“You know, you’re getting as bad as Aggie with her ‘need to know’ disbursement of information shtick.” He picked up his margarita. “You’d think you’d be more forthcoming. She ever tell you what she saw happening this spring, or are you still not naming your kid Agatha?”
“Dude, do not get her started…” Chase murmured.
“No. We’re not,” Jena growled, giving him a wicked side-eye before focusing back on Felix.
“Look, that vision aside, there’s another reason it’s been on the back burner.
” She glanced at Chase again, and he sighed with a look on his face that made Liam think whatever she was talking about was a pack thing.
“There’s something out there. Even though the swamp is a good chunk of the Western pack’s territory, it was an unspoken thing to steer clear.
The trail that leads out there, you can’t go down it more than a half mile or so before you get totally creeped out and your wolf goes ape-shit.
We used to dare each other to do it when we were kids and once was definitely enough. ”
Liam chewing slowed. Whatever it was had definitely freaked Chase out—enough that you could still hear it in the big were’s voice. What the hell could do that?
“Okay.” Felix took a sip of his drink and sat back. “But if it’s a dark altar, someone’s been out there practicing, and you know places like that attract the wrong kind of attention. Leaving it to just sit is a problem waiting to happen.”
Jena frowned. “I know, and if there’s an existing circle of stones, it’s a bigger one.
We can’t just ignore it and set up a ward right next door.
It’ll resonate wrong and erode whatever we do.
The circle needs to be cleansed and tied into the spell.
” She met Chase’s eyes. “We need to go out there to see what we’re dealing with. ”
“That we better include me,” Chase growled.
Jena snorted. “No arguments here, and we should do it ASAP, as in tomorrow.”
“What?” Felix looked at her aghast. “It’s supposed to be like subzero, and I’m too pretty for frostbite.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Yeah, but it’ll be clear. Once Yule begins, the weather’s supposed to go to hell for the next week, and this doesn’t sound like it should wait. Setting up a ward’s going to take time as it is, and God only knows what’s out there.”
“Guaranteed it’s worse than the flying squirrel infestation, and that took a solid week and a half to figure out,” Chase said, pushing back his empty plate and reaching for the chips. “And coconuts are probably not going to be the answer.”
Liam agreed, and the sooner they got the ball rolling, the better.
“Fine,” Felix grumbled, pushing aside his empty plate in favor of the nachos, then brightened up. “Oh, wait. I can’t. I’ve got the urchins.”
Chase snorted. “Well, that’s suddenly convenient.” He ran a hand over his face. “But if it’s just the two of us, I’m pretty sure I can borrow a snowmobile from one of the guys at the compound. It’ll make getting in and out of there a lot easier.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call urchin duty convenient,” Felix muttered, scooping up some guacamole with a nacho. “I’ve no idea what the hell I’m going to do with them for the next week.”
“You could start by take them Christmas shopping,” Jena said. “When I was Cruze’s age, Aggie used to give me cash, then let me spend it on whatever I wanted. I loved that.”
“My parents have a pile of dollar store crap for them, but that’s not a bad idea.” He paused to chew. “I don’t know if Axle would go for it, though.”
“You could do it while I’ve got him at Jerry’s,” Liam offered.
“I could, and I’m due for a pedicure.” Felix swirled the ice in his margarita. “How long do you think you’ll be there?”
“I can make a day of it, then meet you back at the house for dinner. Axle probably won’t mind helping set up the garage,” Liam said. “Especially when faced with the alternative.”
“Sold, as long as you’re cooking,” Felix said, then doing a double take at Jena. “What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head with a funny little smile on her face. He raised his brow at her and she laughed. “You guys just sound like you’re an old married couple, and they’re your kids.”
Felix scowled at her. “I can assure you that I’m quite single and taking ownership of the urchins is not on my dance card. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to use the little boy’s room.”
Liam got up, feeling like he’d just been slapped, and Felix slipped out of the booth.
Chase reached over to smear out Jena’s doodle and waved over the waitress. “Can we get the rest of this to go?” he asked the waitress delivering Liam’s whiskey. She nodded and started loading up her tray.
“You guys are leaving?” Liam asked as he sat back down, his heart in his throat watching Felix walk away. Goddamn it. He’d fucked up again.
“Yeah,” Jena said, snagging one of Felix’s nachos and doodling again.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Liam asked, trying not to lose his shit. He wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs, his thoughts spiraling. What the fuck was he gonna do now? How was he gonna prove to Felix he was ready for this, for them? He hadn’t meant to keep secrets, but—
“Hmm? Oh. Cone of silence,” she said like that explained it.
“I need to corner Aggie and pry out of her whatever she knows about vampires and that altar. If this Kremlyn dude is as bad as you say he is, we need all the info that we can get, and if we have to move material out there to anchor the ward…” she trailed off, looking at Chase.
“You know I’ll help with whatever you need.” He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “But do you think it will even work? I mean, Mr. Brock crossed the wards around the node.”
Jena’s brow furrowed. “Actually, I’m not sure he did.
The way he just stepped out of the aether, that’s shadow walking, and from what I’ve heard, it’s a vampire thing that only the really old ones can do.
If Kremlyn is capable of the same, I have no idea how to prevent that.
I’m pretty sure it bypasses wards completely.
” Her gaze went past Liam and focused on something across the room.
“Can you ask the node?” Chase asked, watching the same thing.
She forced a smile and turned her attention back to the table, then glanced back again. “Um, I don’t know. Maybe. Getting a straight answer out of it is harder than pinning down Aggie.”
What the hell were they looking at? Liam turned around and his dinner threatened to make a reappearance, that same feeling that came over him in the courtroom pumping through his veins.
He was being challenged, and this…this he couldn’t lose. He threw back his shot and stood.
Felix was by the bathroom, and some blond asshole was hitting on him.