“Bring it out here.” When he had to step around Ortega’s man, Marston smiled. “It’s all right, Gabe. You don’t have to stay here with us.”
The man nodded and stepped out of the way, going to the suite’s open doorway to wait.
They returned to the small table, where Elain set up the laptop and charger. After Marston talked Elain through the login and files where Mercedes had stored everything, they searched for nearly thirty minutes but didn’t find any evidence of her storing the book digitally.
“Is everything all right?” Ortega asked from the open doorway.
They both looked up.
Elain realized how this had to appear, her and her mortal enemy, who was feeding a baby and standing over her shoulder, looking through a laptop together.
“I had a thought,” Elain said, “but it didn’t pan out.” She sat back, frustrated.
“The two men who came after us,” Marston said, “I strongly suspect they are the ones who found the spellbook.”
“That makes sense. My vision showed one of them taking it back and giving it to his wife…”
When she didn’t continue, Ortega stepped inside the suite. “Yes?”
“They were staying at a hotel,” she said. “And one of the cockatrice we caught at the meth house said they had a blue Ford pickup truck.” She closed her eyes as she tried to recall the vision. She could only see inside the hotel room, not the exterior. “It had to be fairly close by for them to catch up with you and Mercedes so fast.”
“What are you thinking?” Ortega asked.
She opened her eyes. “I’m thinking that, tomorrow morning, I need to get my ass back to Maine and find me that cockatrice woman.”
Chapter Eight
Before Elain went to bed that night, she checked her texts again via her computer. Her men missed her, loved her, and she could tell they were doing their best not to pressure or guilt-trip her, but wanted her home.
Brodey, especially, had a laundry list of sexy things he intended to do to her once she returned.
I hope he’ll still want to do them to me when he finds out I’m pregnant.
She didn’t want her men suddenly treating her like fragile china.
Instead of copy-paste, this time she sent each man personal messages, engaging in brief text conversations with them. When Ain asked why she didn’t want to talk to them on the phone, she found herself looking for an answer that wasn’t a lie and wouldn’t give away her location—or any other secrets.
She stared at her phone, which sat on the bedside table. Other than using it as a camera earlier that day, she’d left it turned off.
Didn’t have it on the charger today, she texted back. And I’m going to bed shortly.
Technically it wasn’t a lie, because she hadn’t put it on the charger that day, and she was about to go to bed.
Lina and Mai had also texted her, asking if she was all right. She replied briefly to them, confirming she was still alive and well and hoping they couldn’t see what she was doing.
That was when a thought hit her.
She texted Callie.
Quick ? between you & me. Can you & Gigi & BY “see” each other?
Elain waited, refreshing the computer interface several times before Callie replied.
Not really. Fuzzy if at all. Y?
She thought how to answer. Yes, she could lie to her friend.
She just didn’t want to.
Need to keep some stuff private for now.
Callie replied seconds later.
EZ. Visualize a bubble around it. Or inside a locked safe. Or whatever. U choose. They can’t see what U don’t want seen.
Relief filled Elain.
Thank you. :)
YW. U safe?
Elain thought about it. Very. See you tomorrow night.
She knew she had to put in an appearance at the Blackestones’, or risk Daniel saying something to Ain and the guys about it.
Callie’s reply made her laugh. Dinner here, 8, lobs.
That was a benefit of being in Maine. She could eat lobster whenever she wanted.
Deal.
She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to drop off to sleep right away, but apparently the hike had sufficiently worn her out.
It also seemed some of Brodey’s sexy texts had seeped into her subconscious. In her dream, she was home in Florida with her guys, naked in the middle of them. She lay on her back on their bed, Brodey between her legs with his talented tongue doing delicious things to her clit, his fingers fucking her pussy as he teased and tormented her.
Ain and Cail cradled her between them, their lips clamped around her nipples, their tongues flicking and teasing them into hard, aching peaks.
She writhed between them, her passion working harder, stronger, drawing her closer to release.
And then dream Brodey lifted his head, an evilly sweet smile on his face. “Remember, babe. I edicted you, and you agreed to it. You can’t come until you get home.”
Her eyes popped open and she realized her hand was buried between her legs, furiously and vainly trying to rub one out.
With a groan, she squeezed her eyes shut as her hand fell still. “That motherfucker!”
* * * *
Elain didn’t have to seek Lacey out the next morning. The Seer sat at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of tea.
She had another question for her friend. “Since we’re in cahoots here,” Elain started as she slid into a chair, “let me ask you a question. Besides the obvious, what’s buried in your garden?”
Lacey didn’t meet her gaze. She slowly turned the teacup around on the table with her fingers. “What do you mean, dear?”
“Cut the crap.”
Lacey slowly swiveled her eyes to meet her gaze. “Do not ask that which you do not wish answered.”
“See, that’s the thing. I do wish it answered.”
The old Seer smirked. “You have enough on your plate to deal with. We’ll talk later. I am going to tell you to beware of strange women.”
“Define strange. Me and Lina pretty much fit the strange description at this point. Although I think Mai can still pass for normal.”
“Unknown to you. Showing up out of nowhere.”
“Ah. I had a vision of the one guy’s mate. The cockatrice.”
Lacey nodded. “Probably the same one I saw, then.”
“I thought you were retired?”
“I hoped I was, with you girls now on the job. I guess the Goddess doesn’t see it that way.”
“Lucky you.”
She reached over and patted Elain on the hand. “Give Jasper a hug for me. I’ll be home in a few weeks. Ortega said we can stop by Arcadia on the way to Maine so I can pick him up. He said he can land his jet at the airport in Port Charlotte.”
“Why don’t I just leave him with Jocko then?”
“Because Jasper reacts strongly to cockatrice,” she admitted. “I didn’t realize it at the time, only in retrospect. He reacted very strongly to Mercedes. I was too shocked by what I saw when I shook her hand to make the connection then.”
“You want him with me, with us in Florida, in case the woman shows up. Or any other cockatrice.”
Lacey smiled. “Atta girl. Now you get it.” She squeezed Elain’s hand before letting go. “We do have a lot to talk about at some point, just not right now. Nothing I know at this time would seem to point to anything happening at this juncture. If I find I’m wrong, I will tell you immediately.”
“You know, I am sooo over all this secrecy bullshit. I’m thinking this Triad will be the Woodward and Bernstein generation.”
Lacey pointed up at the ceiling.
Elain didn’t need to be a Seer to follow her train of thought.
Marston.
And, by extension, Rodolfo.
Elain let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. I get your point.”
Lacey took another sip of her tea. “You’ll learn, sweetheart. I was once like you. I get it. Believe me, I do
. Unfortunately, the longer you live, the more you learn that secrets are sometimes the only things that hold the fabric of our civilization together. What do you think would happen if shifters and other fae races were exposed to the public, hmm?”
Lacey’s expression turned dark. “Do you think it would be a love fest, or do you think that governments would suddenly start interring us in Guantanamo Bay, or other secret establishments as yet to be named? Or, worse, medically studying us? How would you feel about BettLynn or the Beasts being butterflied alive on some dissection table with electrodes hooked up to them to see what happens? Your men? You? Me? If you think it can’t happen, think again. No one ever imagined what the Nazis were capable of when they committed their atrocities.”
Elain felt ill. “Okay, I get it,” she mumbled.
Lacey’s tone hardened. “No, I don’t think you do.” She set down her cup. “Stop to consider this. What do you think Lina would do if she knew Marston was alive and right here?” She tapped the table with her finger. “Do you think she’d be happy with only punching his lights out and then stopping the way you did?”
“No.”
“No. She’d come in here and not only blow up the place, but blow up anyone trying to protect Marston, which would be all of Ortega’s men, because Ortega has offered Marston sanctuary. It would rip apart the mega-Clan. It would drive a massive wedge between shifter races and Clans that could never be removed. It would mean the cockatrice win, because they would then be able to gain a foothold and use the resulting chaos to try to destroy as many shifters as they could.”
“Colleen is part cockatrice.”
“She’s mostly wolf, born to a woman who renounced her partial cockatrice heritage and identified as wolf.”
“Do you think a full-blooded cockatrice can change?”
Lacey sat back. “I don’t know. I used to think so. I still hope maybe some of them can. Mercedes was proof that they can make what they wish out of their lives.” She sadly shook her head. “Whatever happens, Colleen must live. And we need to do everything we can to guide her life toward the light, not the darkness.”
“Because she needs to live, or because she was your cousin in a previous life?”
“Does it really matter?”
“You’re not exactly objective here, Lacey. Not in the slightest.”
“Bad things are building. Quickly. All I can tell you is what I see.”
“What you want to see, maybe.”
“I see us all taking strange metaphorical bedfellows before we can think about returning to a long-term peace,” Lacey said. “I’ve chosen mine. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel it was vital.”
Elain studied her friend for a long moment. “Okay,” she said. “I get it. I believe you.”
Not that I really have a choice.
* * * *
Elain was back in Maine by early evening. Admittedly, flying on a private jet with all the amenities was a lot better than flying coach.
As soon as she reached her car in the long-term parking lot and turned on her phone, it was like she’d hit jackpot on a slot machine. A virtual blizzard of text messages exploded into her inbox, and her voice mail indicator suddenly bloomed like the national debt.
Fuck.
She relaxed a little when she realized most of the voice mails were from Brodey, expressing his loneliness without her, how much he missed her, wanting to know when she’d be back…and then a long series of him talking dirty to her, seductively detailing what he wanted to do to her, much as he had in his texts.
Admittedly, hearing him say it was nicer.
Apparently, he’d call, talk until it cut him off, and call back to continue. He racked up over twenty messages that way, and her inbox was now full.
After deleting as much as she could, she started by calling Ain’s cell phone.
She hated that he sounded guarded. “Hi, sweetheart. You all right?”
“I’m okay.” She glanced around the parking lot before hitting the locks on her doors, just to make sure. “I’m on my way over to Callie and Blackie’s for dinner.”
His tone shifted from guarded to hopeful. “Oh. That sounds like fun.”
“Look, for starters, I love you. All three of you. Thank you for—”
“Is that her?” Brodey yelled in the background.
She heard a sound, a solid collision like Ain got tackled, and then, apparently, the phone went flying. A loud thunk, followed by dead air, and then a beep indicating the call ended. When she looked, she saw they’d been cut off.
Bonehead strikes again.
She waited, keeping the phone held up, until her phone rang seconds later from Cail’s cell.
“Hi, sweetie,” she said after answering it.
Cail was laughing. “Hey, babe. How you doing?”
“Are they beating each other up?”
“Well, looks like Brod owes Ain a new phone.”
“That’s what I thought.”
In the background, she heard what sounded like a scuffle, then a male yip followed by the sound of her mother angrily chastising someone.
“Oh, way to go, Mom,” Cail said, laughing harder now.
She could only imagine. “What happened?”
“You aren’t going to believe this. She just walked over, grabbed Brod by the ear, and marched his ass out the back door.”
“My mom?”
“Yeah. Hold on.”
Ain came on the line, sounding out of breath. “Sorry, sweetheart. Now, where were we?”
“You all right?”
“Yeah, but when Brodey saw me answer the phone, he almost knocked a full, hot casserole dish out of Mom’s hands. She was on her way to the table with it. BettLynn and the puppies were right there, too. She was trying to get the dish set down, and then when my phone hit the floor and broke, she went after him.”
She giggled. “Uh, is he all right?”
“I think so. She’s got him bent over outside right now, still got hold of his ear, looks like she’s giving him a good tongue lashing.”
“What’s Dad doing?”
“Watching and laughing his ass off.”
“But BettLynn and the puppies are okay, right?”
“Yeah, but if she’d dropped the casserole, they could have gotten burned or cut.”
She let out a sad sigh. “Oh, Bonehead.”
“Anyway. You were saying?”
“I was going to say thank you for letting me do this.”
“Did it help?”
“Yeah, so far. I’ve got something I need to try to do tomorrow.” She wondered how much she could tell him. “I think it’s a lead on a cockatrice.”
Now he sounded all business. “You be careful. Get backup if you need it.”
“I will, I promise. Love you.”
“Love you, too, babe. Here’s Cail.”
Ain passed the phone to his brother. “Hi again, sweetheart.”
“Is Brodey still in trouble?” she asked.
“Um, that would be an affirmative. Wow. I never want to get you that pissed off at me.”
“Me?”
He let out a snort. “Yeah. I’m sure with your Alpha, you’d be at least ten times scarier than Mom is, and let me tell you, I’m pretty scared of her right now.”
“Pregnancy hormones?”
“No, I think she’s just had enough of him moping around here the past couple of days.”
Now she felt bad for Brodey, but only a little. He had to learn to be careful.
Especially now.
She rested her other hand on her belly. “Sorry. Like I told Ain, I think in a couple of days I’ll be able to come home. This has really helped.”
“Good. Love you.”
“Love you, too. Now, I need to get moving, or I’m going to be late for dinner at Callie and Blackie’s.”
He chuckled. “I’d let you speak to Brod, but I think Mom’s on a real good tear out there, and she isn’t going to let go of him any time soon. I know I da
mn sure ain’t about to interrupt her.”
“Plus Ain is going to take Brodey’s phone away and use it until he gets a new one.”
“Yeah, probably. He just went out there and fished it out of Brodey’s back pocket.”
“I’m going to be driving, so tell Brodey he’ll just have to wait until I get back to Lacey’s after dinner.”
“Will do.”
She hung up, shaking her head. She could envision the scene, too.
Although, had she been there, she likely would have Alpha rolled Brodey for his carelessness, something her mother couldn’t do.
Then again, if I was there, he wouldn’t have been acting like that.
She shoved that thought away. Brodey was going to be a father, even though he didn’t know it yet. He needed to learn he had to be careful around the babies.
Pointing her car toward the Clan compound territory, she realized despite looking forward to having dinner with her friends, it was the last thing she wanted to do.
What she really wanted to do was start a systematic search of every hotel in the area, especially any with a blue Ford pickup truck parked outside.
Then again, this is Maine. Blue Ford pickups are probably as prolific as mosquitoes.
Or even go by the house Marston and Mercedes used at a hideout.
That, she knew, wouldn’t be possible tonight, considering the time.
No, she had obligations. The first being she needed to show up for dinner at Callie’s, on time, or risk a lupine search force being sent out after her.
She also wanted to go back to the cockatrice graves in the morning and have another look-see. Try to have a clearer vision of the cockatrice woman.
Maybe I can call Ryan.
Definitely an idea she’d keep on the front burner.
* * * *
Aliah discovered the house belonged to one Lacey Fraser. That name didn’t ring a bell to her, but she knew who she might be able to call to find out.
Although she also knew she’d be taking a risk by doing so.
Nervously, she dialed the cell number and waited while it rang. After the third ring, a male voice answered.
She sucked up her nerve. “Carl? It’s Aliah. Cameron’s wife.”
There was a pause. “Yes?”