Out of Smoke and Ashes

  No one was taking any chances with the safety of the other women.

  “Why did he make Abernathy wait until the full moon for the meeting?” Elain asked. “No offense, Callie, I like Blackie and know he’s your husband, but this is my mom. I know everything tells me she’s okay and alive, for now, but I’m worried about her.”

  Callie reached out and gently squeezed her hand. “I know. It’s okay. It was the closest normally scheduled meeting. Abernathy lied and claimed he had nothing to do with Mom’s kidnapping. I can’t argue with Sir’s reasoning that he didn’t want to schedule a special meeting with one coming up that soon and tip our hand.”

  “What the hell is our hand?” Kitty grumbled. “Why can’t you just go take him out?”

  “Because,” Callie explained, “I don’t have the powers my sisters do. I don’t know where the fucker has her any more than any of you do.”

  “And we’re not allowed to get involved like that,” said a strange woman’s voice from behind them. When all of the woman let out shrieks of surprise as they turned, Oscar and the Montalvos immediately rushed the porch, guns drawn.

  “Whoa,” Callie said, holding her hands up. “False alarm.” She turned on the woman. “What the fuck, Gigi? You trying to get someone killed?”

  “Thought you’d be happy to see me under the circumstances.”

  As Elain tried to slow her racing pulse, she cleared her throat. “Um, introduction, please?”

  “Oh, sorry,” Callie said. “Everyone, this is Brighde, my older sister.”

  The redheaded newcomer smiled at everyone, her ice-blue eyes taking in everything. “Hello. Feel free to call me Gigi.”

  The jaguars relaxed and backed off, but Oscar didn’t. Elain watched as his eyes narrowed and his nose twitched as if sniffing something. She’d never seen the man shifted into his Bengal tiger form, but she imagined he cut an impressive figure when he did.

  “Pull up a seat and chat,” Callie said as she retook her seat. “Or is this a business visit?”

  Elain noticed the Immortal wasn’t in any hurry to take her eyes off Oscar. Not that she could blame her. Being mated to three gorgeous guys of her own didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate a hunkalicious bod on someone else.

  “A little of both.” She sidled around the chairs and took the one on the end, closest to Oscar. “What’s your name?” she asked him.

  “Oscar Chaudhuri.”

  “Pleased to meet y—”

  “Gigi!” Callie barked. “Focus, please. Your libido can wait a few minutes.”

  She returned her attention to the women. Elain didn’t know if the smile she gave them was intended to be comforting or not, but under the circumstances, it wasn’t. “Well, for starters, I’m sure Callie’s told you the three of us have different skill sets. Or, had, in her case.”

  Elain tensed, fighting the urge to go smack the woman, Immortal or not.

  Gigi continued. “Anyway, we are bound by certain rules. Not our call. I tend to follow them pretty closely because, in all honesty, I don’t feel like pissing off the literal higher powers that be. Our older sister, on the other hand, likes to play hard and fast with the rules.”

  “She said she can’t help because she’s bound by free will,” Lina said. “Did that bitch lie to me?” She tightly clenched her fists.

  Elain wasn’t sure, but it felt like Lina was suddenly emitting a wave of heat from her body.

  “Calm down, Goddess,” Gigi said. “No, she hasn’t lied to you.” She looked at all of them. “Lacey, you’re the eldest here, of the mortal-borns, that is. You know what I’m talking about.”

  The old Seer nodded, but didn’t respond.

  “Anyway, we are bound by the rules. Yes, in theory, Babs could come in, give you every smidgen of information she knows, and send everyone happily on their way to slaughter and pillage, et cetera. But she can’t.”

  “Because of free will?” Lina asked.

  “Exactly. And, Goddess, you might want to tone it down a notch before you start baking your friends or peeling paint off the wall behind you.”

  Lina blinked before she unclenched her fists. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I didn’t realize I was doing that.”

  Elain reached over and patted the back of her hand.

  “Anyhoo. You’ll notice Babs has been strangely absent and silent lately. She’s free to root for whichever team she wants, but to actively take a hand in the game will earn her wrath from upstairs.”

  “So why are you here, Gigi?” Callie asked.

  “I’m going to…” She tapped an elegantly manicured finger against her upper lip for a moment. “Help summarize what you know.”

  This time Mai let out a snort but didn’t say anything.

  “You might think differently when we’re finished,” Gigi told her.

  “I think that I want Mom back safe and sound,” Mai said, “and Rodolfo Abernathy’s nuts on a skewer so Rick can roast them.”

  Gigi looked up at Oscar again and smiled. Elain noticed that while he’d holstered his gun he wasn’t moving from where he stood, still staring at the woman.

  “Now then. Callie, Daniel received some insider information about Abernathy, no?”

  “Yeah. Proof he killed Paul after Elain cleaned his clock.”

  “Fair to say Abernathy didn’t send it himself?”

  Everyone exchanged confused glances before looking at her again.

  “Oh, come on,” Gigi said. “It means there’s another person in the game. Someone you don’t know about.”

  “Probably Marston,” Elain volunteered. “He’s the one from Brussels. Lina had a run-in with him. He showed up in Arcadia before the last go-round with Abernathy. And there was proof in the package he’d at least met with Abernathy in Arcadia, so it’s a pretty good assumption they’re in cahoots. It can’t just be a coincidence.”

  “I said another person. Obviously, Marston wouldn’t send along proof that he was working with Abernathy. He’d conceal his role in things.” She focused her piercing blue gaze on Lina. “Where else,” she softly asked, “did Marston pop up, to the best of your knowledge?”

  Lina looked grim. “He worked with Edgar and Lenny to kill Kael’s family,” she quietly said.

  Elain felt eternally grateful that was one vision she’d never had, and hopefully wouldn’t.

  “And Edgar and Lenny were…”

  “Cockatrice,” nearly everyone said.

  Gigi slowly nodded. “Cockatrice.”

  “But Marston’s a wolf,” Kitty said. “Why the hell did or would cockatrice work with him? They hate other shifter species. And I don’t think Marston could have made that video of them killing Paul. He’s a wolf. No way he could be that silent in the woods. And like you said, he wouldn’t implicate himself.”

  Gigi crossed her legs and clasped her hands around one knee. “Why would they want to work with him indeed?”

  “They want…an object,” Lina said as she glanced at the jaguars. Elain suspected she meant the damn tablet that kept coming up, but knew it wasn’t supposed to be an open topic of conversation.

  Gigi nodded again as she dismissively waved her comment off. “True. That was one of Lenny and Edgar’s goals, but you are making the assumption it was their only one. Why do you think those two cockatrice were so willing to work with a wolf? Especially one like Marston? A beta.” She frowned. “Well, I suppose that’s not telling you anything you don’t already know or can’t easily find out from Liam.”

  “You can’t just tell us and get it over with?” Callie groused.

  Gigi wrinkled her nose at her younger sister. “Nope. You switched teams.”

  “Dammit,” Callie softly swore.

  Kitty answered first. “He’s Rodolfo’s nephew or grandnephew or something.”

  Gigi smiled and touched her nose.

  Elain felt more confused than ever. “Lenny and Edgar are dead, regardless what their plans were. They were dead before everything happened in Brussels a couple
of years ago. They darn sure couldn’t have had anything to do with Mom’s kidnapping. And the two guys on the video, I’m pretty sure they were also at the meeting the day of the challenge.” She looked at Mai, who also nodded.

  “I think they were, too,” Mai said. “One of them was the one who came after me at the wedding. And they’re the ones who took Mom.”

  “You’re straying too far off the trail,” Gigi warned.

  The women looked at each other. Lina closed her eyes for a moment.

  No one interrupted her.

  “The question,” Lina finally said a few minutes later, her voice soft and sounding like she’d drifted into a trance, “is why would two full-blooded cockatrice, both who could shift, meaning they were older than younglings, partner with a beta wolf nephew of Rodolfo Abernathy as opposed to a better-qualified wolf? Why would they need spells to disguise themselves and hide their cockatrice scents and use dragons to do it? Why would they bring a wolf into their plans to find the missing object they were seeking when it has nothing to do with wolves, for the most part?”

  “Warmer,” Gigi encouraged.

  “They wanted to conceal their true identity from Zack,” Lina continued.

  “True, but irrelevant now, and colder,” Gigi countered.

  “Why Marston Hill?” Kitty asked, looking confused.

  Lina’s eyes opened, wide with shock at the epiphany. “They wanted to get closer to Abernathy. They wanted an in, specifically with him.”

  “Maaayybe,” Gigi hedged. “You’re definitely warmer.”

  Now Elain felt even more confused. “Lenny and Edgar were working with Abernathy?”

  “Colder,” Gigi said.

  “They wanted to use him,” Mai said. “Marston. Specifically him.” Everyone turned to look at her. “He’s an unmated male wolf descended directly from the Abernathy line,” she clarified. “As far as I know, he’s the oldest living direct descendant of that line, next to Rodolfo himself. The closest blood kin not descended from Rodolfo.”

  Gigi smiled, but made no other reply.

  Kitty frowned. “Tell me more about this ritual the three of them did,” she said.

  That grisly task fell to Lina, who witnessed it in one of her visions even though it had happened over eighty years prior. When she finished telling them how the three men had ritualistically murdered Kael’s mother, father, and little sister, all attention returned to Kitty.

  She looked like she was mulling it over and no one interrupted her.

  “Now that I think about it, I’ve heard stories,” she said, “of Abernathy having a run-in a while back with some cockatrice. Eastern European. This had to be well over a hundred years ago, and I don’t know if it’s truth or rumor or even misinformation a nest deliberately spread. Something about him trying to kill a pregnant female cockatrice. Finally succeeded.”

  “But Lenny and Edgar were both unmated,” Lina said.

  “No, she was a widow already…” Kitty chewed on her thumbnail for a moment, the frown never leaving her face. “But then not too long after that, maybe even around the same time, there was an incident of a nest being destroyed. The way I heard it, other cockatrice did it. Power struggle or grudge or something.”

  Lacey let out a soft gasp. “Lina,” she quickly said, “did you bring Bertholde’s journals with you? The ones she left to you?”

  “No, but I did one better. Zack and Kael scanned them all for me and I have the pdf files on my iPad.”

  “Goddess bless technology,” Gigi said with a smile as Lina raced into the house to retrieve it.

  Minutes later, Lina, Lacey, and Callie were huddled around the iPad and quickly thumbing through pages until Lacey held up her hand. “Wait.” She read through the passage. “That’s it.”

  “What?” Elain asked. “And what does any of this have to do with my mom? No offense, but I feel like I’m sitting on my ass and doing nothing and it’s driving me crazy!”

  Lacey waved her down. She stood, carrying the iPad, and walked over to Gigi. “Bertholde’s brother told her about a rumor of a wolf getting a cockatrice pregnant, and the wolf trying to kill her.”

  Gigi let an eyebrow arch skyward, but didn’t answer.

  “And then there were rumbles after the nest was destroyed that someone had wanted to kill a little cockatrice girl, an infant baby, orphaned when her mother was killed. A half breed. That her brothers fought and killed their nestmates to keep her alive.”

  “Oh, holy crap on a cracker!” Lina said. “The female cockatrice was Lenny and Edgar’s mom! Meaning…”

  Her gaze fell on Elain, who by now was also connecting the dots. “Meaning they have a half sister floating around out there,” Elain finished.

  Everyone looked at Gigi. Her other eyebrow joined the first.

  Lacey’s attention returned to the iPad. “And this was after he reported a run-in with one of Abernathy’s men, who’d harassed him about wanting to find a cockatrice nest.”

  Gigi cocked her head.

  “Holy fuck,” Kitty whispered. “Abernathy’s got a bastard wolf-atrice daughter.” She turned to the others, wide-eyed. “She’s got to be the one who sent the information about Abernathy to Danny. It’s the only thing that makes sense. I mean, the way the person moved through the brush without making a sound, that’s typical of a damn cockatrice. Dammit, I’m so stupid! When they’re shifted, they’re stealthy and can jump like crazy and run fast and silent. That’s got to be it!”

  “Oh,” Gigi brightly said. “Well, since you already know about Abernathy’s bastard wolf-atrice daughter, who’s a half sister to Edgar and Lenny, it’s no harm, no foul if I confirm your information.”

  Callie crossed her arms. “You’re a real bitch, Gigi. You know that?”

  “Who, me?”

  Mai looked furious. “That fucker wanted me to abort my baby because she’s a wolf-ote, and he fathered a wolf-atrice?”

  “Well, to be fair,” Gigi said, “he did try to kill her mother. Didn’t succeed until after the baby was born, though. He thought he’d succeeded in destroying the unintended offspring when the mother died. He didn’t realize the baby had already been born.”

  “What’s her name, Gigi?” Callie said. “Give us a name.”

  “That I cannot do, simply because I don’t know it.”

  “Oh, you fucking cunt,” Callie said. “You’re as bad as Babs.”

  “Not quite, little sis.” Her expression turned serious as her gaze fell upon each woman in turn. “She wouldn’t have held your hand through the maze the way I did. But mark my words, you are not the only ones who have eyes on ending Rodolfo Abernathy’s walk on this earth. There are others. One you now know about.” She turned and looked at the jaguars. “And others you don’t.”

  Elain didn’t miss how the two jaguars suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable.

  Before Elain could ask her another question, Gigi turned to Oscar and hooked an arm through his. “Unmated, buddy?”

  He nodded.

  She turned to Callie. “You don’t need him right now, do you?”

  “Naw, but we will in a few hours, so don’t wear him out.”

  Gigi turned back to Oscar. “There’s a little cafe a half mile down the road. Buy me a burger?”

  He numbly nodded.

  “I promise I’ll send him back before you need him, and in one piece.” She walked off around the back of the cabin with him.

  Callie slowly shook her head. “Poor fucking bastard,” she muttered.

  “What?” Elain asked.

  Callie let out a snort. “She’s got the hots for him. I mean, she’s never been shy around guys, that’s for damn sure. But in all my years, I’ve never seen her act like that around a guy before.”

  “How do you mean?”

  Callie shrugged. “Nice. Usually she just grabs the poor schmuck and boinks his balls off before she gets bored and drops him. She never wants to go out on a…date.”

  Lina’s eyes narrowed. “Odd.”
/>
  “But what does it mean?” Elain asked.

  “It might mean Babs is doing a solo act before long, instead of a duet,” Callie said. “Gigi always swore she’d never settle down, and she even picked on me when I let Daniel mate me and I chose to be with him. Told me I was throwing away my life. I warned her she’d better not be so fast to tempt Fate like that.”

  Lacey wore a playful smile.

  “What?” Elain asked her.

  “Oh, nothing. Something that now makes a whole lot of sense.”

  “About Gigi?”

  She hooked an arm through Elain’s. “About a lot of things. Let’s go cook dinner. I’m starved.”

  * * * *

  The women finished updating the men during dinner.

  “Ah. So Abernathy’s got a chicken in the woodpile, does he?” Brodey snarked. Mark had also joined them, flying in a few hours earlier.

  With the meeting now less than twenty-four hours away, Elain felt like she would explode or go crazy if she didn’t keep her mind busy. Even what was meant to be the comforting touches of her men and her extended family of friends only fed her own anxiety as she felt their worry wash off of them with each contact.

  Didn’t help her in the least.

  Jocko slowly nodded. “Aye, seems I remember a rumor way too many years back along those lines, but I paid it no heed then, knowing the arsehole the way I do. Haven’t heard anyone speak of it in well over a hundred years, before I ever left Scotland.”

  “You know,” Zack said, “I knew I always hated Edgar with a passion. That damn concealment spell he and Lenny used kept me and the guys from recognizing them for what they were, but you can’t hide your true nature completely.”

  “So how do they normally smell?” Elain asked. “I’ve never even seen one of them, much less smelled one.”

  Callie, Blackie, and Kitty spoke at the same time. “BO.” They looked at each other and laughed, but their faces held no humor.

  “They normally,” Callie said, “smell like they’ve never heard of deodorant. Some of them only have a little smell, some of them have a very strong one. Once you’ve smelled one for sure, it’s easy to pick up. It’s not like human BO. It’s different. And humans don’t really smell it like we do.”