There were no lights in the front of the house, but the back windows, covered with pale, opaque shades, glowed. Brice unlocked a door with stained glass in its top half and opened it.
“Come on in,” he said. “I have plenty.”
Plenty of what? Dimitri and Jaycee left their helmets on Dimitri’s motorcycle and walked behind Brice into the house. Dimitri led, and again, Jaycee let him.
Casey and Maeve hung back, as though uncertain, oddly. They were not very dominant, Dimitri had learned tonight. They’d quickly turned to Brice for reassurance and not tried to engage Dimitri when he’d gone into fighting frenzy. Only Jaycee had been strong enough to hold Dimitri back. If she hadn’t, Casey would be in the hospital by now.
There seemed to be a party going on. The narrow back hall Brice led them along opened out into a larger hall that bisected the house, giving onto living and dining spaces. Shifters lounged in the living room and prowled from dining room to the kitchen behind it, eating, drinking, talking. The reason the front of the house was dark, Dimitri saw, was because the windows overlooking the street were covered with blackout curtains.
Music thumped over the conversations. The music continued even as the talking dimmed, Shifters aware that newcomers had arrived.
Dimitri didn’t know any of them. Shifters turned to him, males and females, Lupines, Felines, and bears watching, testing scent, listening. All were full adults—no cubs or young Shifters before or even just after their Transition were present.
What were they doing here? Besides what Shifters normally did—drink beer, laugh and talk, find someone to be horizontal with if both felt the need.
Except there wasn’t much laughter. Nor were any Shifters pairing off, no mates together, no males and females eyeing each other and making discreet signals. For a Shifter party, this one was amazingly staid.
“Stick with me,” Brice said. “You’ll be all right.”
Jaycee slanted Dimitri a glance, raising her brows. Dimitri said nothing, every nerve in him alert.
The Shifters noted his alertness. They were rising, tensing, ready to throw out the newcomers if necessary. Shifters weren’t big on accepting strangers out of the blue. You had to earn acceptance. Jaycee and Dimitri, living in isolation for twenty years with very few new Shifters joining them, had never had an easy time with acceptance either.
“This is Dimitri,” Brice said in a loud voice. “And Jaycee. Casey found them. I have cleared them.”
The Shifters relaxed, but not by much. It would be a while before they were beer-drinking buddies, Dimitri could see.
“It is almost time, my friends.”
Someone killed the music, and silence descended under the spell of Brice’s deep voice. Brice didn’t elaborate, but Shifters came downstairs and out of back rooms, filling the spaces.
Two Shifters carried a brazier out from the kitchen. Dimitri hoped they weren’t crazy enough to light a brazier indoors—the smoke would choke them.
The two Shifters set the brazier in the living room fireplace—at least they had that much sense. The way they eased it in, carefully placing it on the grate and packing wood chips around it so it wouldn’t move, told Dimitri they’d done this before.
They lit the brazier, feeding it until a flame burned high. Once the fire was going, all eyes turned to Brice. The Shifters were packed into the living room now, standing in silence.
Brice raised his hands. “We give thanks to the Goddess,” he said in a sonorous voice. “May all her blessings be upon you. I welcome her children, Dimitri and Jaycee, into this meeting, and hope one day to welcome them into our clan.”
No word from the Shifters, but Dimitri sensed them relax further, trusting Brice.
Brice gave a nod to someone across the room, and the lights went out. The brazier gave the only illumination, the fire flickering across faces, the scent of burning wood drifting over the crowd. The scent nearly but didn’t quite cover the smell of forty Shifters crammed into one small space.
They gave Brice enough room to stand in front of the brazier with a yard or so of empty air around him. He put his hands toward the flames—closer, closer—then he closed his eyes and extended his fingers closer still.
Dimitri’s skin crawled. He shouldn’t care whether this weird bear stuck his hand into the fire to be burned—idiot—but for some reason, it brought growls to clog his throat. He was never good with fire anyway, always stood in the back when it was brazier-lighting time at Kendrick’s place, but watching Brice deliberately invite third-degree burns was driving him crazy. He growled and twitched, flashes of darkness darting across his vision.
Jaycee’s cool touch sliced through his tension. Dimitri glanced down at her to find her gazing up at him in concern. He shook his head ever so slightly, but Jaycee’s frown didn’t vanish.
Dimitri flinched as a flame licked around Brice’s hand, and the bear sucked in a breath of pain. The big man closed his eyes, sweat on his face, his mouth tight. He swayed a little, his hand shaking but still in the fire.
No one around him leapt to help him, to drag him from danger. They watched, eyes fixed on their leader, as he let his hand be surrounded by flame.
Dimitri couldn’t take it anymore. He shoved his way through the surrounding Shifters, grabbed Brice, and hauled him from the brazier.
Dimitri swung him around, seizing Brice’s wrist and raising his hand. “What are you—stupid?”
Brice opened his eyes, which were streaming with water. His face was red from the fire’s heat, perspiration coating his face, but he looked unworried.
The hand Dimitri held up was unmarred, he saw in amazement. It should have been shriveled and burned, or at least red and blistered. However, it looked perfectly healthy, the flesh intact.
The Shifters around Dimitri growled and moved restlessly. Brice lifted his free hand in a gesture that told them to stay put.
“It’s all right. He doesn’t know.” He turned a kind look on Dimitri. “The Goddess protects her own, my friend. I don’t recommend anyone try this at home”—Brice gave the room a faint smile—“but she won’t hurt me. One day, perhaps, she won’t hurt you either.”
Dimitri stared into Brice’s eyes, looking for lies, but the man’s gaze, scent, and body language indicated he was telling the truth. Or at least that he believed sticking his hand straight into fire wouldn’t burn him.
The flames were too close for Dimitri’s taste. If Brice believed Dimitri would ever plunge his hand into a lit brazier, he was insane.
Dimitri gave one last growl, released Brice’s wrist, and stepped back, though he kept looking into Brice’s eyes. He wasn’t going to drop his gaze and cower, as Casey had done.
Dimitri found Jaycee right behind him. She’d crossed the room with him, ready to back him up, no matter what crazy thing he was about to do. His heart warmed even as his skin prickled under the stares of Brice’s Shifters.
Brice gave Dimitri a faint smile, turned back to the brazier, closed his eyes again, and stuck his hand into the flame once more.
Dimitri quivered, his fists balling. Jaycee’s touch helped a little, but he found he had to keep his gaze averted from the fire leaping around Brice’s hand.
Brice closed his eyes and began to chant, a low, throaty sound that rumbled over the room. The language he spoke was musical and full of complex syllables, beautiful and rippling.
A prayer to the Goddess, Dimitri recognized. He didn’t understand the words of the traditional chants, which were in a Celtic language, something he’d never gotten around to studying. Learning Celtic was somewhere down on his bucket list, right after culturing yogurt.
The Shifters who were better linguists swayed in time to the chant, or perhaps they were simply mesmerized by Brice’s voice. Jaycee’s fingers bit down on Dimitri’s wrist, she as unnerved as he was.
Smoke began to trickle into the roo
m, not from the brazier. Someone had lit an incense stick. More than one—the thick scent of sandalwood and sage began to move through the air. To cover the odor of nervous Shifters? Or as part of the show?
The scent began to relax Dimitri in spite of himself. It was easier to let his mind drift on the smoke instead of fighting it, and to be lulled by the sound of Brice’s voice. Dimitri felt a calm steal over him, but he didn’t scent anything narcotic in the smoke. It was sage and other herbs, nothing more.
Brice’s prayer continued, a few of the Shifters whispering along. Prayers to the Goddess were beautiful, conveying the admiration of Shifters for the benevolent mother-goddess who watched over them and welcomed them into the Summerland.
Dimitri found his body swaying, his eyes closing as he became caught up in the trance of the moment.
A bite on his flesh made his eyes pop open. Jaycee was glaring up at him, her fingers twined with his, her nails pressing his skin. Dimitri jolted, realizing he’d been floating away on Brice’s words and the scented smoke. He gave Jaycee a nod to let her know he was all right, but she didn’t look away.
Brice at last removed his hand from the brazier, his words dropping away to silence. Again, his flesh looked perfectly fine, not burned and blackened.
Brice displayed his unharmed hand to the Shifters. They didn’t cheer, only watched reverently. “And now for the sacrifice,” Brice continued.
Dimitri didn’t like the sound of that. His hackles rose, and Jaycee stiffened beside him.
“Who gives his blood tonight?” Brice asked. “I am willing, but I will step aside for another if you so desire.”
To Dimitri’s consternation, many pleas sounded, from males and females alike. Brice looked his followers over, then turned to Dimitri and Jaycee. “Why not one of our new friends?”
Some of the Shifters liked this idea; others didn’t, but no one offered an argument.
“Jaycee?” Brice asked, reaching toward her with the hand that hadn’t been in the fire. “Will you give of yourself?” He withdrew a knife, flames glittering on its long, thick blade.
Dimitri shook off the last of his stupor. “No way in hell,” he snarled, putting himself between Brice and Jaycee. “If you’re going to c-cut anyone with that thing, it’s going to be m-me.”
CHAPTER TEN
Jaycee tried to move around Dimitri, but the stubborn wolf wouldn’t budge. He stood his ground like a brick wall, folding his arms and becoming immovable.
Brice only regarded Dimitri thoughtfully. “Of course. Dimitri. Come.”
“He asked me first.” Jaycee tried to slid around him again, hampered by other Shifters and Dimitri’s strength.
He snarled at her. “Stay back.”
The command was that of a protective mate and a tracker, one above her in the hierarchy. Every cell in Jaycee’s body was programmed to obey, and she fought it hard. Dimitri didn’t wait for her to debate—he simply pushed his way to Brice.
Jaycee heaved an exasperated sigh and went after him. They were supposed to be undercover, discovering what Brice was up to, but no way in hell did she want to let Brice touch him.
Dimitri halted before he reached Brice and the brazier, his back quivering—he didn’t like being near an open flame, Jaycee knew. Dimitri had always been squirrelly around fire.
“Our little group is bonded only by trust,” Brice said to him. “Any one of us may leave and not return, though we hope you will keep details about our gatherings to yourselves. The human police can be so obdurate.” He smiled with patience for the poor, deluded police. “The blood sacrifice is a showing of trust. Will you trust us, Dimitri?”
Jaycee watched Dimitri stiffen, but his tone remained casual. “D-depends on what you p-plan to do with that knife.”
Brice gave him a kind look. “I won’t hurt you, I promise. If you don’t believe me or don’t trust us, you may walk out the door, unimpeded.” He pointed the knife’s tip at the exit. “Jaycee can choose whether to stay or go, regardless of what you decide. She is a free woman.”
Jaycee hid a start of surprise, not so much at Brice’s words, but at the Shifters’ reaction to the statement—they didn’t so much as blink. While male Shifters acknowledged that females pretty much did what they wanted to anyway, obedience to the mate and the clan leader was deeply ingrained in all Shifters. It was a rare Shifter male who didn’t argue when it was suggested a female could ignore her mate’s command or break unspoken rules of female behavior when she felt like it. The rage of the Shifters at the fight club when Jaycee had jumped into the ring was testimony to that.
These Shifters regarded Jaycee as though Brice’s words were perfectly reasonable. As though her position with them was not dependent on her place in the Shifter hierarchy or whether she was mated and to whom. As though Jaycee was a person in her own right.
Jaycee had always believed this inside herself and acted accordingly, but it was a weird feeling to be accepted by these unknown Shifters for herself, not as a female defined by Dimitri or Kendrick.
Brice was waiting for her decision. “I’ll stay,” Jaycee said quickly. Not because of obligation, but because it was her choice. She wasn’t about to leave Dimitri alone here.
Dimitri growled at her. He wanted her well out of danger, but too bad. Jaycee scowled at him and stayed put.
“Dimitri.” Brice’s voice held a touch of impatience. The other Shifters were waiting expectantly.
Dimitri squared his shoulders and walked forward. He stopped two paces from the fire, his hands curling to tight fists. Brice’s expression said that he understood Dimitri’s trepidation.
“In time, you will fear nothing,” Brice said to him. “The Goddess will never hurt her children. Hold out your hand.”
Dimitri obviously didn’t want to, but he resolutely uncurled his fingers and lifted his hand, palm upward, toward Brice, his arm rock steady. Maeve came forward with a brass bowl that gleamed in the flames’ light.
Brice laid the knife’s edge on Dimitri’s palm but didn’t cut it. “Mother Goddess, hear our prayer.”
He began to chant in Celtic once more, put a steadying hand on Dimitri’s arm, and quickly sliced the knife across Dimitri’s palm.
Jaycee leapt forward with a snarl. Two Shifter males stopped her by stepping in front of her and facing her, unmoving. Jaycee glared at them, but they remained a fixed barrier.
Brice flipped Dimitri’s hand over and let the blood from the cut trickle into the bowl Maeve held. After a few seconds, Brice turned Dimitri’s hand up again and took the bowl from Maeve. Maeve produced a cloth and tied it around Dimitri’s hand.
The look the woman sent to Dimitri had Jaycee starting forward again, ready to rip out Maeve’s throat if necessary. The woman had her own mate.
The male Shifters in front of Jaycee blocked her way again. Around them Jaycee saw Dimitri give Maeve a grateful nod and the smile that could knock Jaycee sideways. Dimitri smiled at everyone like that, but Jaycee was about to boil in her own blood.
Brice took the bowl to the brazier and trickled Dimitri’s blood from it to the flames. The liquid hissed and spat, the acrid scent cutting through the heavy smell of incense. The leopard inside Jaycee growled.
“The Goddess is pleased,” Brice announced, setting the bowl on a table and lifting his hands. “The blessings of the Goddess be upon us all.”
The Shifters cheered. This seemed to be a signal that prayer time was over, because the music started up again, thumping louder than before. The Shifters drifted apart, the atmosphere becoming more relaxed, conversations resuming.
The Shifters who’d blocked Jaycee ceased being statues. One shot her a grin before he walked away. “You ever want to ditch Red there, just let me know.”
Sure, because a mangy-looking Feline would be worth the trade for the well-made, sexy, warmhearted Dimitri. If Jaycee hadn’t been in a hurry she
might have burned him with sarcasm. As it was, she only rolled her eyes and strode to Dimitri’s side.
“You okay?”
Dimitri blinked down at her and showed her his bandaged hand. “Not much of a cut—I get w-worse at the fight c-club.” His hot smile returned. “Want to k-kiss it better?”
“You’re fine,” Jaycee said, folding her arms.
“He is,” Maeve said. She lingered at Dimitri’s side, touching his bandage as though making sure it didn’t slip. “Brice never cuts deep. How about we find you a beer, Dimitri?” She slid her fingers around his elbow.
Jaycee burned as hot as the brazier’s flames. Did the Shifters accepting Jaycee as her own person mean they considered her mate fair game? Seriously, what the hell?
If she went leopard on Maeve and slammed her to the floor, what would the Shifters here do? Laugh? Try to kill her? Throw her and Dimitri out? That would end their mission before it started. She and Dimitri were supposed to be looking for evidence of sedition, not fighting mate battles.
Jaycee tightened her arms across her chest and hardened her voice. “Sure, Dimitri. Why don’t you go get a beer? I’ll make some new friends.”
Dimitri’s brow furrowed but he said nothing as Jaycee turned on her heel and stalked away from him and Maeve. Her leopard did not want to go, but Jaycee made her feet move.
Casey materialized next to Jaycee, regarding her in his nice-guy way. He handed her a cold bottle of beer. “Don’t be too hard on Dimitri,” he said in a friendly tone. “Maeve is only checking him out, seeing if he’s trustworthy. I told her he was, but Maeve doesn’t always take my word for things. Smart of her.”
Casey was her mate. She should believe in him.
Then again, Jaycee would do the same thing, she admitted to herself. She’d double-check. She glanced back at Dimitri, who was watching her.
But I wouldn’t be clinging to someone else’s mate quite so hard, Jaycee thought with a growl.