By the Embers Dies the Fire

  And he knew exactly how he could distract many of them, get them out of the way, send them on a useless mission and then quickly rid them of Elain and her spawn.

  Forever.

  * * * *

  Aliah stood with the rock in her hand, ready to pound flat the skull of the man whose faint image she could see through the veil that had appeared in the cave.

  He was a wolf, of that she was instinctively sure, but he held a copy of the Grimoire Lilitu. She didn’t think it was her copy, but he was so faint, transparent, it was hard to tell.

  She screamed, yelling, ranting, and the wolf looked up and around, then back to his book.

  No matter what, she knew she couldn’t leave this area and explore farther. She’d been able to find some food, and a nasty-tasting spring nearby, but if she wanted back onto Earth, to home, to her baby, she’d have to use this place.

  And when she finally did get back—of which she had no doubts she would—there would be fucking hell to pay when she got her goddamned hands on those three bitches.

  Blood would be spilled. Countless gallons of it.

  When the image faded, she dropped the rock and slumped, dejected, to the cave’s floor, hot tears rolling down her cheeks.

  All she’d wanted to do was live in peace with Cameron, raise the baby they’d wanted to have for so long, and grow old with her mate.

  Fucking wolves. Who gave a shit if they’d helped with meth operations? What did they care?

  Now, she had nothing left to live for but her vengeance.

  Nothing would deny her that. Not being stuck in this realm, not those three bitches, and not whoever that wolf was.

  * * * *

  With Carl’s business in New Madrid settled—and having reminded everyone there why they absolutely needed to not bring him into events—he returned to Maine and his many legitimate business ventures in the Northeast.

  Not to mention his other…interests.

  Trying to discover where Aliah hid the book was at the top of his list. Getting people settled in the spread he’d just purchased in Arcadia, Florida, to keep tabs on the wolf shifters there also dinged his top five.

  So much to do.

  He wanted a look at the Maine wolf Clan land from the ground, although he knew that might be suicidal to try at this point. Not when he wasn’t on Kitty Blackestone’s radar, and didn’t wish to be there.

  Which was a shocker in and of itself. Considering the series of blunders his kind had made lately, was it any surprise he kept a tight and ruthless rein on his own nest, even from over a thousand miles away?

  He couldn’t afford mistakes.

  Their kind couldn’t afford mistakes.

  Yes, he could simply spend his life cowering, keeping his head down, and not making waves.

  But eventually you hit a glass ceiling doing that.

  He wanted to shatter that ceiling.

  Who was to say that once the wolves finished clearing out the dregs that they wouldn’t start coming for others such as him?

  That was a chance he couldn’t risk. He’d have to wage a secret war against them, on his own terms, to ensure his success.

  And if he had that damn book, maybe he could get his hands on the Tablet of Trammel. Then their kind would finally have a chance to rise to the heights their species deserved.

  To rule the world.

  Baba Yaga had helped destroy their heritage, their race, their legacy.

  Now it was time for them to strike back and quit bending over for the wolves and other shifters to take it from them up the ass.

  Had Aliah confided in him and reached out to him—well, okay, he would have killed her and taken the book without a second thought or a smidge of remorse. But at least their race would have the damn book and be able to use it.

  Now…

  Now he’d have to work harder for it. If there was a chance Aliah was still alive somewhere, he’d make sure she’d regret pissing him off and dangling that book in front of him.

  They had been created by the Dark Ones to rule the world, and that’s exactly what he intended to do, even if they had to burn it all down and shake the remains to the ground and start over to do it.

  Chapter Ten

  Elain was relieved when Brighton told Ain he’d be traveling to Maine separately from the rest of them. That he had friends to visit along the way and wasn’t sure how long that’d take.

  The rest of them would fly in style on Ortega’s jet and arrive in Maine on Thursday night.

  Elain already had a private phone chat with Ortega to get their stories straight about Colleen. Elain’s family knew that she would be poofing to an unknown location, but one sworn to be safe by Ortega, to get the girl once they were in Maine. And that it was a special surprise for Lacey, but not why. Marston had also magnanimously offered to let Elain keep Colleen with them all weekend, to give Lacey more time with her.

  So far, so good.

  Thursday night, they’d all be staying at the guest cabin and having dinner together with others from the Clan. Friday evening would be the recognition celebration, including a couple of other babies who’d recently been born, and a day of family-friendly partying, wolf style, would ensue on Saturday. They’d fly home on Sunday.

  Lina didn’t even seem to mind flying, for once, with all of them there. It amused everyone to watch BettLynn, George, and Luke holding hands with each other in their seats during the flight, with Jasper keeping a close eye on them.

  And the baby brouhaha of a few weeks ago where BettLynn and the Beasts teamed up against the adults had come up for discussion again.

  “So you fell on your face, huh?” Ain teased Micah.

  He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know. That’s why we strip before shifting. I reacted without thinking about it.”

  Cail chuckled. “Wish I could have seen that.”

  “They are going to be a handful,” Jim said. “All three of them, not just George and Luke. Don’t let BettLynn fool you. She’s feisty.”

  “Is that really any shocker?” Elain said.

  “No, it’s more a plea for help.” He smiled. “Especially since some of us are only human.”

  Carla reached over and high-fived him.

  “I’m telling you, we need a private school on-site,” Lina said. “Mai will be downloading her current bundle sometime early next year. We can have shifters in town send their kids, too, if they want.”

  Mai, bless her heart, had hit the morning sickness stage of her pregnancy already. She sat in the back of the cabin, near the head, with a glass of ginger ale on ice and an air-sickness bag in hand.

  “I hope I don’t puke my way through this weekend,” she said.

  “I’m sure you will be fine,” Ortega said. Lucy had opted to sit back there with Mai to keep her company.

  “Men do not understand,” Lucy told her with a kind smile. “They think we are making it up.”

  The only thing that had everyone on edge was a tropical depression which had turned into a tropical storm and had spun up overnight in the Gulf of Mexico. If it intensified into a hurricane and maintained its heading, it might put a damper on or even cut short their weekend, because the forecasted track indicated a landfall on the west Florida coast.

  Elain had offered to utilize her poofing services to get everyone up to Maine and back, but Ain had politely, yet firmly, declined.

  Even more firmly when she offered to call Ryan to help. Ortega’s plane was fast enough for Ain’s tastes. Elain suspected poofing made the men feel…weird in a way that they didn’t like, or hadn’t come to grips with yet.

  Hey, if they weren’t scared that the three of them had made a house disappear, but were a little wigged out over nonstandard modes of transportation, she’d take the win. Even Lina, a powerful goddess, had taken years to get comfortable with flying in a regular old airplane, and Elain wasn’t too sure her friend hadn’t downed an extra Xanax or three that morning to allow her to relax for the flight.

  Once they were
settled in Maine, Elaine stepped into her bedroom to call Marston before poofing there. When she arrived, he had everything ready, including an overnight bag for the little girl.

  She grinned when she saw Elain. “Aunty Wain!”

  “Hi, Miss Puppykins!” She scooped the little girl up and bussed her on the cheek. “Ready to go see Lacey?”

  “Aunty Wacey!”

  Marston smiled as he reached out and straightened Colleen’s hair band. “You be a good girl for Aunty Elain and Aunty Lacey this weekend, understand?”

  “Yes!” She reached out for her Daddy to hug him. “Wuv you!”

  “Love you, too, sweetheart.” He kissed her forehead and picked up the overnight bag so Elain could sling it over her shoulder. “I’ll see you on Sunday.”

  Elain’s heart twisted. Sure, she could kill Marston and raise Colleen herself, but…why?

  Why deprive Colleen of her father? He was, by obvious evidence and Ortega’s regular and detailed reports, a devoted, excellent, attentive father. If anything, Colleen might end up a little on the spoiled side.

  Maybe it was what she’d been through herself growing up, but Elain couldn’t do that to the little girl. With Mercedes dead, Marston was all Colleen had. As far as Colleen knew, she had the world’s best daddy.

  As long as he continued to behave himself, Elain would let Marston continue to remain among the breathing-abled.

  “I’ll make sure I have her call and talk to you,” Elain said. “Several times. And you can call me anytime, or text me, and I’ll have her call you.”

  “Thank you. I truly appreciate that. This will be her first night…” She swore maybe he wiped at his eye.

  Or maybe it was just a dust mote.

  Riiight…

  “Look, I could bring her home tonight and—”

  “No, truly, it’s fine. I’m sure Lacey will love to spend time with her, and I want her to interact with other children more…like her. She can play with Ortega’s grandchildren and nieces and nephews, but it’s not the same. They’re not wolves. This will be good for her. She needs to have what normal experiences she can.”

  Dammit, he was making it even harder to hate him. “Okay, last kiss before we go,” she told Colleen, who gave him a hug and kiss.

  With the little girl settled on her hip, and the bag slung over her shoulder, Elain poofed not to the guest cabin, but to Lacey’s, as prearranged with Lacey, who would pretend that she was surprised by the…well, surprise, when rejoining everyone else who wasn’t in the know.

  Lacey was alone and expecting Elain. She immediately scooped the giggling girl from Elain and hugged her.

  “Hello, there, stranger!”

  “Aunty Wacey!” the toddler squealed.

  Elain couldn’t remember seeing such a wide grin on the old Seer’s face as when she was with Colleen.

  “The bag’s in my room, on the bed,” she told Elain.

  Elain had worried about Marston’s scent. So he’d had Lucy wash some clothes for Colleen and then seal them in zipper-top bags before packing them, to keep his scent off them.

  Elain quickly opened and unpacked the clothes into a bag Lacey had ready with a couple of fabric softener sheets in it. Hopefully, the scent, mostly jaguar, would overwhelm anyone who might be slightly suspicions.

  Mainly Lina.

  With Ortega and his crew helping to reinforce the lie, and Mai never having smelled Marston, that left only Elain’s father.

  And he hadn’t scented that wolf in over twenty-five years.

  They also changed Colleen’s clothes, leaving those and the other bag there at Lacey’s. Now ready, Elain gathered up the little girl and poofed back to the guest cabin.

  They’d brought an extra travel crib, car seat, and some extra supplies with them from Florida, just in case.

  With all the craziness of getting settled in, getting ready to head to the restaurant to meet up with everyone, and dealing with the other babies and toddlers, it meant Lina barely had time to do more than give the little girl a hello smile and wave.

  Thank goodness.

  Lacey met them at the restaurant and immediately took charge of Colleen, pretending she was surprised to see her there, and sticking close to Ortega and Lucy’s side. It didn’t hurt that Colleen lived with Ortega and his crew, and added a layer of verisimilitude to their tale of why Elain and Ortega were sponsoring the little girl and not her father.

  By the time they all collapsed that night after getting the kids settled in one room, all Elain wanted to do was sleep.

  This shit’s for the birds.

  Had she cursed Lacey and the others for their secrecy and keeping shit from people over the years?

  Hell, now she understood it.

  It was a draining process, physically as well as emotionally. She didn’t know how they managed it for as long as they had. She still wasn’t sure how she’d ever handle revealing Marston’s existence to Lina, much less to her men, and didn’t want to.

  That night, and Elain completely attributed it to stress, she had another dream of the woman in New Madrid with the phone. The vision started a little earlier than it had before, but Elain still couldn’t get to her before the woman dialed the phone. And it continued on as the others had.

  Elain’s eyes popped open just before the nuclear blast hit her to find it was already morning.

  Early morning, but still the daylight side of dawn.

  At least Elain smelled coffee brewing. That was a plus.

  She used the bathroom and pulled on a robe to find the source of the brew.

  Her mom and dad were standing in the kitchen.

  “Why are we up so early?” Elain asked after hugging them.

  “I don’t know about ye,” her dad said, “but we were dealing with a cranky boy cuttin’ another tooth.”

  “What about the others?”

  “They slept right through it.”

  “I’m surprised I didn’t hear him on the baby monitor.”

  “I was already up,” her mom said. “I was on my way to the bathroom when I heard him and realized I was up for the duration.”

  “Ah. Sorry. Maybe a nap later?”

  “Probably,” she said.

  Elain was wondering about maybe trying to get her guys down to the thinking spot when the network morning show her parents were watching on the kitchen TV blew those plans right out of the water.

  “Hurricane Ignatius is strengthening, and has set its sights on the southwest Florida Gulf coast,” the all-too-perky weather forecaster announced.

  “Shit,” Elain and her dad said at the same time.

  Although storms could be incredibly finicky and unpredictable, based on other weather patterns surrounding it, there was a fair amount of confidence in the forecasted guidance of the storm. The only question was how large and strong it’d be by the time it made landfall, and where, exactly, in the swath of coastline between Tampa and Naples the eyewall would come ashore.

  Elain went to wake up her guys, who then fired up a laptop and huddled around the NHC’s site, as well as several other storm forecasting sites.

  “God, I hope it’s not another Charley,” Brodey muttered.

  “Okay,” Ain said. “Let me talk to Ortega. Regardless, we still have at least four days. We can have the ceremony today like we planned, and me and Cail will fly back to Florida.”

  “What about me?” Brodey asked.

  “You and Dad stay here with Elain and the others. Micah and Jim, and Jan and Rick, can come back with us to help get the stock to safety and board up the houses.”

  “Why can’t we come back?” Elain asked.

  “Because I’d rather have you and all the kids up here, where it’s safe. The guest cottage has a washer and dryer, so it’s not like you’ll run out of clothes. Anything you need, run out and buy.”

  “Like you said, this is the Clan compound,” Brodey said. “Wouldn’t it be better to have me home with you guys to work the cattle?”

  “No, beca
use I know Kitty wants some planning sessions with you, anyway.” He smirked. “Besides, I kind of owe you and Cail for that last storm when I bailed.”

  Cail smacked his shoulder. “Yeah, you owe me more, because Brod was chasing Elain to fricking Spokane to talk her into coming home.”

  Ain turned to him and rested his hands on his brother’s shoulders. “After this is over, you and Elain can have a whole weekend alone together.”

  Cail’s eyebrow arched. “How alone?”

  “Once Ellie’s completely weaned so that Brod and I can take care of her and Connor.”

  “Hey,” Brodey protested. “What about me?”

  “Then you get the next weekend,” Ain said.

  “What about you?” Cail asked.

  “What about me? I had her alone when she saved my ass from the animal shelter.”

  “Not exactly the same.”

  “I’m not concerned about that. I also got to go with her to—” He stopped short, much to Elain’s relief. “I got to go with her to get Connor. This is only fair.” He glanced her way and she didn’t need the mate bond with him to see that he realized how close he came to screwing up and saying too much.

  Brodey hugged him. “I might butt heads with you, but I do love you, brother.”

  “Yeah, love you, too.”

  Cail also hugged him. “Deal. I guess it only makes sense I go back home with you, since I sort of have this down to a science now.”

  “My other point I was going to make.”

  They returned to their room to get dressed and go find Ortega.

  Mai blearily made her way out to the kitchen, a yawning BettLynn in her arms. “What the freaking hell, people? Is this not supposed to be vacay time?”

  Elain turned the laptop around and pointed at it. Mai leaned in, peering at it. “What the—oh. Shit.”

  “Language.” Elain pointed to BettLynn.

  “If she doesn’t learn to swear around Lina, she’ll never learn it. That’s not good, is it? The storm, I mean. The swearing’s the least of my concerns.”

  “The guys are working on their plan now.”

  “So the ceremony’s off?”

  “No, they’re flying out immediately after.”