Nell snorted. “I know it was foolish to hope she’d have a voice mail recording that identified her as Gloria Ochoa. You did well. If it’s her, she’ll call back. She’ll use this number and I have an awesome new spell to work with the trace program. It unravels confusion spells. Arel, the hunter at Rodas, showed Gage. It’s awesome.”
Meriel nodded. “Good.”
“You didn’t tell her you and I were bonded,” Dominic pointed out.
“I don’t know if she knows you’re dead or alive and I have no plans to aid her in figuring it out.”
“You don’t think she’s going to stay away, anyway. Do you?”
“No. I think your mother knows you’re alive. And I think it was her in my building.”
It was Nell’s turn to explode from her chair. “What? What? Why didn’t you tell me this before? How do you know?”
“William will kill me if you get all worked up and you go home to him all grouchy. Sit down. When we used that spell to boost our othersight in my building yesterday, it stripped back some of the other things we see in regular othersight. I can see Dominic’s energy right now. Yours too and the baby. In addition to marking you as witches, there are marks, you know what I mean. Little things that identify the person. I missed it when we were there yesterday since everyone got so excited. But when I went back over there today I used normal othersight at first, just without thinking. And the smudge in my hallway had a lot of the same markers Dominic has. What are the odds it’s not her? It’s just a feeling.”
“That’s not just a feeling. You have some reason to feel it.” Nell ran her fingers through her hair, making it stand on end. Automatically, Meriel reached out to pat it down and the two women paused to grin at each other.
“If you two ever feel the need to kiss, you know just to get on with the friend thing, you should feel free.” Dominic winked and Meriel laughed. “As for the other? I think Nell’s right. It could be a coincidence. But how many coincidences can there be before we just accept what’s going on? Also, I’m really pissed you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t connect it right away. It wasn’t until about half an hour ago that it clicked. It was bothering me, but I didn’t know why. Sometimes I do that, you know. My brain sort of takes over thinking about stuff in the background and I don’t notice until the lightbulb moment. And I still don’t know. Not for sure.”
“If that’s her, she’ll call back. Especially if that was her in your building. She’ll have to, just to rub your nose in it. I say we don’t need to mention the Dominic-is-your-son thing unless she already knows. Why should we expose Dom to that if he doesn’t have to be? Also, it might make her worse.”
Meriel liked that Nell was protective of Dominic, that they’d all made friends. It would have sucked if one of them hadn’t liked the other’s man.
“Well, you guys go on. I’ve got your building on our watch list. My staff does a drive-by several times a day. Sometimes at random they’ll go in and check things out. Now that we’ve got this new othersight Meriel learned, we’ll add that. It should help a lot. And of course you’ll still be accompanied by a guard when you’re at work and out and about.”
Meriel hugged Nell before kissing her cheek. “You doing all right?”
“So far so good. No morning sickness for a week or two. I sleep a lot but that’s okay. When I wake up, William is there with a cup of tea and some snuggles. He takes care of me.” She blushed, shrugging.
“Of course he does. Why don’t we all go out together? We’ll walk you to your car.”
Dominic held two elbows out, Meriel took one and Nell the other.
Chapter 24
DOMINIC watched the bar. Something wasn’t right and it didn’t set well with him. It was most likely all this business with his mother had put him on edge. Simon prowled around keeping the women entertained. Which was nice as obviously he couldn’t anymore, even if he wanted to. Meriel was not the kind of woman who’d find it cute that he let anyone rub up on him. She’d probably maim him for it.
He grinned.
She’d taken to stopping in on the weekend nights and hanging out with him. He knew she wasn’t much for club hopping and she was also an early riser, but it pleased him that she made room in her life for him and what made him happy too. He liked seeing her at his table with her laptop. Yes, she even did work there. Or enjoyed a drink with Simon or their friends.
He just liked that she wanted to be with him and that she did it in a way that felt natural. He was lucky. Despite all the nonsense with the mages, he was lucky to have this woman in his life.
Dominic examined the wards again and then opened up his othersight to take the room in. So much magick here. Others packed the place nightly. It was more than a nightclub; it had turned into a sort of general hangout and meeting place. He liked that too. Profits were up and he didn’t have the stress of thinking about what the clan would do when they found him lifting from their font. He was proud. Heart of Darkness felt like his in a way it hadn’t until then.
He didn’t need the extra help now. Between him and Meriel, the warding was fine-tuned and powerful. He had no need to borrow magick now that he knew how to use his own. Admittedly he got a kick out of that.
The place continued to fill up as the evening wore on. There were the usual problems. He had to threaten a table of Weres to behave or be barred.
It was a waste of his time to have to stalk around to keep people in line. He gave them this place and they couldn’t just act like they had some sense?
“Why is it so hot in here? Fix that,” he barked at one of the servers, who scampered off to take care of it.
He slugged back a few drinks and then switched to water. His head hurt. He needed more sleep. But he wanted to be with Meriel when he could. There were always others who’d take up her time if he didn’t claim it. Always someone who couldn’t seem to do it themselves so Meriel had to do it. Like she was their mother. Stupid.
Dominic made a move to go back to his office but Simon hailed him with a wave.
“There a problem?”
“It’s hot. The DJ is fucking things up with this crap. I know I told him I didn’t want trance back here. Gets the vampires all worked up. Plus it annoys me. Don’t know why I have to say things a hundred times to get it taken care of.”
Simon looked at him closely. “Wards holding up?”
“Far as I can see. I used othersight and everything looks okay there too. We’ve got some pissed-off Weres near the bar, but I already told them they’d be barred if they didn’t keep it together. I can’t have all this fighting here. That’s worse than worrying over this mage bullshit. Last thing I need are bar fights back here.”
“You’re on edge. I trust that. Something doesn’t feel right.”
And then she walked in, scanning the room until she found him. Her smile made his head feel a little better. But he didn’t like the way men always looked at her.
“She’s a pretty woman, you know that? Fresh and lovely. Always smells good. That witchy—”
“Do you think I want to hear you wax rhapsodic about my woman’s smell?”
“Whatever. She smells good whether I tell you that or not.”
“Simon!” She approached and patted Simon’s arm. “I love that suit. You’re looking very handsome.”
“Me?”
Meriel turned to him. “You’re handsome too.”