“Having bands of roving mages out to stalk and kidnap us sounds like a plot from a novel. Humans have to deal with this fear. I guess I should too. But I hate the idea of it! I hate that these mages are hunting us like animals and will use us up and toss us to the side. I can’t abide it.”
He smirked. “Of course you can’t. We’ll do what we can.”
“Will you help me with this?”
“With what, baby?”
“I need to reach out to witches who aren’t in clans, unaffiliated witches, coven witches, outclan, all that. I have some ideas, but my mother has charged me with this and I’m already getting started. I’d like you with me, helping me.”
He nodded. “Of course. I have some ideas too. You and I can make a difference. Tell me what you need and when you need it, I’m in. You know, your mother told me yesterday that this issue would make your place in Owen history. She’s proud of you.”
“She hated this stuff just six months ago. Told me it had nothing to do with our world, that if the mongrels wanted to kill each other, they would.”
“Edwina can admit when she’s wrong. She believes in the strength of the clan.”
“So do I.” Meriel sat and grabbed her shirt. “But we’re targets too. The rep from Rodas has interrogated these mages. They have more info than any of us and what was shared was enough to convince me that if we don’t work together and strengthen ourselves, it’ll be open season on us.”
“Mages can be taken out. Your mother showed me a great new spell. It’s a feedback spell. You can probably do it while multitasking about forty-five other things. But I think if it’s used at the right time during a mage attack, it can cascade into the mage, draining him until there’s nothing. At the very least it should give the witch being attacked some time to get out of there.”
“She’s never taught me that spell.” But she was flattered, nonetheless, that he thought she was so competent.
“Really? Well, it’s handy. She probably thinks you already know it. I’ll show it to you.”
This was entirely possible. “Nell’s mother was the hunter before Nell. Within Owen, it’s almost always been a Hunter. Yes, that’s Nell’s real family name. Back then you know you were named what you did a lot. Smith, Baker, all that. So it’s been a Hunter or a Garrity. That’s Gage’s family by the way, only his mother is a healer and it’s his father who was in our hunter team until just three years ago. Anyway, I’m tangenting. Nell’s mother taught me all my defensive magick. Though I’ve certainly learned a lot from my mother too. I’d love for you to show it to me.”
“Is it all right with you?” He pulled on his boxers and jeans but stayed shirtless and she stared for long moments at him. Big. Imposing. Those wide shoulders of his leading down to a flat belly and a narrower waist. A waist showcased even better with low-slung jeans hanging from them.
“You’re going to end up right back in bed if you keep looking at me that way.”
She laughed and walked from the room.
“To answer your question,” she said as she began to make a pot of coffee, “I like that you’re learning from Edwina. She’s hands down the finest spellcaster I’ve ever seen. It’s good to learn from her. She never takes shortcuts, which means you’ll learn how to do everything the long way. And it’s easy to change a long spell to adjust it for all sorts of uses. But learning her way, you get the mechanics of the spell, which is important.”
“And she likes me. She didn’t want to at first. But she does now.” He grinned.
“She does. But I can understand that very well. I like you too. You’re very charming.”
“So glad you think so. I’m clearly going to have to buy more coffee if we’ll be living together.” He hopped up on a stool to watch her, pleased and smug.
Oh, back to that. “Why do you want to look at the other places?”
“The one here is on a higher floor and has a private elevator. Keycards only. So it’s less access. Safer. And the view will be better. And it’s bigger. A three bedroom. That way you can work from home and we’ll still have a spare room for people to stay if they like. Simon does from time to time, for instance.”
“Well, I’d actually just meant why you wanted to jump to actually renting a new place when we both have apartments already. But I think the point about a bigger place with better views and the safety issue makes sense.”
“I think it’s silly to pretend to take this slow at this point. Don’t you?”
“Have you ever lived with anyone before?”
“Other guys as roommates. Not a woman. I always figured it would happen when I found the right woman. And look. I was right.”
She’d never admit it to him, but his utter self-assuredness was so attractive.
“I’m bitchy. I hate it when you leave beard hairs in my sink. I need space and time when I work. I work a lot. Edwina will stop by to check in because that’s what she does. Nell will be over all the time too. I’ll fill your fridge with goat cheese and salami. I drink coffee all day long and I’m not going to hide my tampons when the dot comes calling.”
He laughed. “Is this supposed to deter me? You think I haven’t ever seen a tampon before? I like Nell and William so her being here won’t bug me. I’ll ignore the goat cheese and remind you occasionally that salami is bad for you and that you drink too much coffee. I want you with me, Meriel. Tampons and coffee habit included.”
He moved her. With just the smallest things, he made her feel desired and understood. Maybe this moving in thing could work. Her current lease was up in a month anyway. They’d sent her a note about signing a new agreement and she hadn’t gotten around to it yet.
“Let me get dressed and we’ll go look at the other place.”
“I’ll watch.”
Chapter 23
MERIEL laid it all out for the governing council. The deaths, the disappearances, the intelligence they’d gathered.
She went item by item and laid it all out carefully. Knowing it was important to give them a sense of just how serious the entire situation was.
“To cap — we’ve got an organized group of Other-hating human separatists working with mages whose numbers also include turned witches. These mages are taking intel the witches give them and then they both manipulate the bigot humans to help them find us and kidnap us. There are incidents all over North America and it’s not hard to imagine the numbers being far higher than we think now because plenty of people just up and leave town. If they were loners, who’d notice that they left and call the cops? And even then, we may not note this as an attack against a witch because that’s not how any of the victims are being classified by the authorities.”
“How many of these people are out there? What’s the threat to us, really?” Sami asked.
It was a fair question. “There’s no real reason to believe they’re a contagion. Most witches don’t turn. Most mages wouldn’t be stupid enough to join with the very humans who’d turn on them if they knew their true nature. This isn’t a DEFCON One sort of situation. Not yet.”
“Weak prey is attractive prey.” Dominic spoke up, looking ever so handsome in a three-piece pinstripe suit that made Meriel want to lick him. Well, to be fair, she just liked to lick him in general. But the suit worked.
“Are you saying we’re prey?” Meriel knew it was Sami who had to be convinced. She came from a very long line of full-council witches. Being very powerful, she had little idea of what it felt like to be attacked or in fear. She believed in Clan Owen and thought any witch who chose to live outside a clan was foolhardy.