* * *
THE woman who stood just at the table wasn’t the giggling witch he’d drunk wine with just two weeks before. This woman was not silly. At all. This Molly was totally in charge. It sent a flash of heat through him. Her hair was back from her face, captured by two barrettes at either side of her head. The rest had been held in a pretty but not fussy knot at the back of her neck.
He stared at that bun, wondering what it would feel like when he pulled the pins out. What the cool silk of it would smell like as it tumbled around his wrists and hands.
He tore his gaze away and it snagged on her suit. A skirt, not too short or too fitted. It had a flare so it moved as she walked, hitting the top of her thighs. Her blouse was the color of deep, cold water and it made her skin look . . . Christ, what the fuck was he doing? She looked nice. Yes, that was it. She looked nice. Pretty but not too pretty. Sexy, but that was probably just his twisted mind. She wasn’t showing anything! She had on pearl earrings for god’s sake. He was just broken and bent, that had to be it.
She wore heels, but they weren’t too high. Just right. Not dowdy, but not the hot sexy ones women wore a lot of the time. Not that he complained about such things. He liked hot and sexy high heels.
She nodded to the person next to her and sat, only to have the guy next to her push her chair in. Gage frowned. He could have done that. But she’d have been pissy, he knew. He noted the slight tightening around her mouth and wanted to laugh. She was pissy then as well, she just hid it better with the human next to her. Ha.
He’d seen her be interviewed. He’d seen her give video press releases, but he’d never seen her testify before any legislative body. He settled back, his gaze never stopping for long, moving around the space. There were metal detectors and security here in the wake of 9/11. But he wanted more. They’d told him it was fine. He hoped they were right.
“Ms. Ryan, Mr. Sawyer, Ms. Freed, welcome.” The chair of the committee addressed them. He turned to the person who’d just entered. Ugh. It was the state PURITY leader, Alison Moore.
Moore smirked. “I apologize for being late. It took me some time to get through the throng outside. All those concerned citizens you know.”
Gage had his game face on, but it was a challenge not to smirk right back. He was surprised she hadn’t giggled like that character from Harry Potter. Concerned citizens his ass. Thugs. Just like the thugs who showed up anytime anyone from PURITY would be anywhere.
Molly smiled, her hands clasped loosely on the table before her.
“Let’s take this alphabetically, shall we? Ms. Freed, would you like to go first?”
Lani Freed was an attorney. A civil rights activist who’d been working in the Puget Sound for most of her life. She spoke about the uptick in the number of cases she was seeing regarding unlawful terminations, evictions and general harassment at local businesses.
Sawyer, also a human, married to a shifter, spoke about the impact of the harassment on his family. They’d lost his mother-in-law and a child when the Magister manifested. Two local businesses refused to host the wakes and his wife had been attacked outside their home as she was bringing groceries in from the car.
No one on the panel had any questions for either Freed or Sawyer. And then it was Alison Moore’s turn.
“Thank you so much, Henry, for having me today.”
No one else had used first names. The senators on the dais had used Ms. or Mr. with the people testifying and those testifying had used Senator this or that. This woman had a serious set of stones, Gage had to give her that.
“I came here today to give voice to those so blatantly ignored by the media and our legislators. Honest, hardworking human beings. No one seems to care that our neighbors have been monsters this whole time. None of the elite seems to worry that our children could be infected and turned into wild animals. Well, I’m here to tell you we human beings, the true citizens of this country, are worried and we want you to protect us.”
A few heads on the dais nodded and Molly took mental notes. She’d remember them. Also, Alison Moore made Molly want to punch her. Every time she heard this hateful rhetoric it made her crazy.
“We’re tired of protecting these special-interest groups at the expense of the majority. At the expense of all the decent human beings in this country who are rightful citizens. All these lawyers. What do they need lawyers for? Hm? If you’re innocent why do you need them? All we’re asking for is for you to classify these . . . creatures so we know who they are. All we’re asking for is for us to be protected instead of harmed at their expense. Don’t we have a right to know if our neighbor is a witch? Many of our community are concerned at the satanic rituals and demon-called walking among us. We’re God-fearing and this is our country.”
It went on this way for a few minutes more until her time was up and they gave her an extra minute.
“Ms. Ryan, if you’d like to go next.”
“Thank you, Senator Albright, for having me here today. I’m thirty years old. Up until a few weeks ago I was a lifetime resident of Chicago, Illinois. Though I hope you won’t hold that against me.” She smiled. “I’ve even stopped carrying an umbrella and I can order my coffee like a real northwesterner now. I was born here, in this country. My mother and father were born here. My grandparents were born here. My boss Meriel Owen’s family has not only been here in the country for generations, but they helped build this entire region. We are not creatures. We are not monsters. We don’t call demons and we don’t worship Satan. What we are, are citizens of the United States. Just like Ms. Freed, Mr. Sawyer and Ms. Moore.”
Moore snorted. “You’re pretenders and liars.”
“I allowed Ms. Moore her time plus a minute. It’s my turn to speak and I’m sure we can all agree, no matter our perspective, that democracy means we don’t speak over each other. How can we understand each other if we don’t listen? Now, back to my points. We understand why the human community is uncomfortable and afraid. We’re happy to be as open as we can about what we do and who we are. We want nothing more than to be left alone to live our lives as we did before. Yes, before you knew about some of us.”
Senator Albright gave her a considering glance. “Just why did you keep your existence a secret? If you’re not a harm to the rest of us?”
“Senator, all you need to do is look back over recorded history for your answer. We’ve been burned at the stake. Drowned. Tortured to death. Imprisoned. Every time humans found out about us, they tried to wipe us out. So we learned from that and kept what we were private. Not to trick anyone, but to protect ourselves. And as many of us have begun to suffer from the reaction to our existence, yet again, it can’t be that hard to understand why we did it.”
She sipped her water. “We too understand your fear of the unknown. Of finding out overnight that not only were there werewolves, who you’ve known about for several years, but witches and vampires too. And yet, you can also look to see we have not harmed you. When you didn’t know about us we did not perform satanic rituals in your yards. We did not steal your children. We lived our lives just as you lived yours.”
“How do we know you didn’t? How do we know all our criminals weren’t witches or vampires or whatever else unholy things? Animals disappearing, serial killers, war, famine! How do we know you people aren’t responsible for everything bad?”
Molly looked at Alison Moore, not surprised by her ignorance, just exhausted by it. “This is small-minded and petty nonsense. We’re not trying to track humans or take away your basic human rights. We’re simply asking the same of humans. Anything else is a waste of precious time and energy. And as someone who has lost loved ones, along with Mr. Sawyer and pretty much every single Other I know, we understand just how precious that time is now. This is our moment, as Americans, to shine. To set an example, as we have over and over through our history. It is not time to crawl back into factions and throw rocks. We want all that we had before the Magister showed up. That is all.”
Molly took up every last second before she let go, knowing many of the senators on the committee had another meeting right after this one ended. It worked as they thanked everyone for their testimony and headed out.
“Ms. Ryan.”
Molly turned to face the woman coming toward her. Her stomach clenched and it felt . . . wrong.
Gage shoved her from the way so hard she hit the corner of the table on her hip, sending a shock of pain through her body.
“Back up, right now.”
Power radiated from Gage, and Molly again found herself fascinated by how Gage used his magick.
Police had come around, weapons drawn. Gage put his hands up. “This woman has something in her right hand.”
The police moved toward Gage and Molly was not having it. “Did you hear what he said? No! He’s not the issue. She is. At least get whatever she has before she drops it.” Molly pulled every last bit of authority that had been hanging in the air and drew it around herself. It worked as one of the police officers moved to the woman.
He held it aloft. “Looks like paint or ink. Maybe blood.”
The woman spit at the cop, who really got pissed off, spinning her and cuffing her wrists.
Molly’s would-be attacker began to scream. “She’s a monster. They’re going to kill us all! How can you all just sit there calmly while they take over? Every last one of them needs to be killed. They are ungodly. An abomination on our lands.”
“Do you see what you’ve done, Molly?”
Molly turned to face Alison Moore, who wore that damned smirk again.
“Excuse me?”
“There is no excuse for you. You are unholy, a blight sent upon this land sent to test us. We will not fail.”
“Ms. Moore, I did this. Back in third grade. I believe I know you are, but what am I would be the next line. But I’m not in third grade anymore and neither are you. So let’s be absolutely clear on this. We will not allow you to terrorize or threaten us. We want peace. We want to help you understand us. We don’t need you to love or accept what we are. We just won’t tolerate being assaulted. You need to understand that point.”
“Or what?”
“I’m not being coy. It would serve you not to be either. Lastly, it’s Ms. Ryan. You don’t know me well enough to use my first name.” Molly turned back to Gage, who’d just finished speaking with the police.
“She’s one of those flour-bomber types. They’re not going to punish her for it. She’ll be fined. Are you all right? I pushed you out of the way a little hard.”
She rubbed her hip. “Oh, that little bit of fluff didn’t scare me. I just . . . it felt wrong. I don’t know why.”
“I could feel it too. She projected menace pretty clearly.” He smiled. “You listened to your gut pretty well there.”
“Hm. Let’s go before they get out the blood and try to make it a scene from Carrie.”
“I don’t know,” Gage murmured as he ushered her from the room out into the chaos of the hallway, “might be nice to see that scene where she started blowing up cars and shit with her mind.”
People pressed in on all sides, but she’d be damned if she allowed any of them to make her afraid. Or at least to look it in public. She held her head up high, kept close to Gage and Faine and hoped she didn’t trip.
“Next time we do this we’ll need more security and to leave by a different door,” she said as they finally got to their car.
“Next time? What the hell do you mean?”
“Testifying. Not just here, but I’ve been asked to go to D.C. next Tuesday with a group of Others to address a new committee they’ve established to deal with the Other issue.”
“Issue? Like we’re measles.” Gage snarled it and she was glad Faine was in the car behind theirs.
“Look, this is reality. We can’t pretend it away. Some of them do think of us as akin to a communicable disease. We can’t get anywhere until more people don’t think that. And the only way to do that is to be out there countering what those PURITY people say about us.”
“Why bother? I could have shut her up with the flick of my wrist.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, that would have been peachy keen. Then she could have talked about how we used magick on her to shut her up.”
“So?”
“So then she can get everyone wondering just what we do to them without their knowing it. We can’t give them anything else to use against us. She’s dangerous, Gage. PURITY is dangerous. They will do whatever they have to to harm us.”
“So why are we wasting our time on diplomacy? Fuck this and those assholes. Why are we even letting them get close enough to throw ink on you? They’re not worthy of your time.”
“Of course they’re not worth my time. But that’s not the issue here.”
“So what is the issue here then? Don’t you think your talents would be better utilized elsewhere?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Gage! What do you think my talents are? I’m not a big badass witch like you or Lark. I’m not some whizbang, awesome-at-everything witch like Meriel and those other full-council witches. The God’s honest truth is that this is exactly where my talents are best utilized. I am good at what I do. Better than that hack Alison Moore, that’s for damned sure. The issue here is that the walls are closing in around us and fast. Every day there’s something new. More dumb legislation aimed at stripping more of our rights away. The issue is, I’ve got to work to stop it and I can. I am totally capable of doing it. Better than most anyone I can imagine. And that when I do I will be slapping the spit out of those thugs in PURITY is just icing.”
“Your talents could be better utilized for something good. Where people don’t want to hurt you all the time. That’s all I’m saying. Those PURITY people aren’t going to change their minds. They like to hate something. They lost Russia and have been looking for something else as the big-bad-evil ever since. We’re it.”
“I don’t care about PURITY. No, we won’t change their minds. Small minds are often closed anyway. It’s everyone else. Do you want PURITY’s voice to be the only one out there? Where we’re Satan worshippers barbecuing the family pet to call demons?” She snorted. “God, they’re dumb. Anyway, if there is no answering voice, that’s who we are. And I refuse to let that hang out there without being the counter to it. A woman with my taste in shoes would never eat a kitten.” She sniffed.
Molly was hot with anger. It filled her body and fired her up. Oh, she was mad now and it didn’t happen very often. But when it did, well, she didn’t stop until she’d won. Until she’d vanquished the person who made her mad.
Only the situation was far beyond a cheating boyfriend or someone who stole a client. This was big and she was quite sure she’d never felt like this. More than anger, she was offended by the hateful things she had to deal with every single day.
“Also, PURITY has, oh, I don’t know, offended my something. In a big way. I’m so angry at them I’m not articulate. That horrible, evil bitch is going down. Satanic rituals? Oh my god, fuck them sideways!”
He laughed then. “You’re going to make me get into an accident with the stuff you say.”
“Before I continue, I believe your next line is, “But you’re right and I’m sorry for being such a jerky dookie head.”
“‘Dookie head’? You just said ‘fuck them sideways’ and I get ‘dookie head’?”
“Rosa can’t abide insults to family. Or to people you like in general. So she’d get so mad if you called your brother or best friend stupid or anything bad. Dookie head was as rough as it got around their house.”
“So you like me?”
“Most of the time.” She gave him the side eye.
“Well, a guy like me can’t ask for much more I guess.”
“I don’t lose.” She said it quietly, but he heard it straight to his heart. She sounded angry, yes, but maybe just a little bit lost too.
“I bet.” This woman sitting next to him nearly vibrated with mag
ick. That ambitious, hyperintelligent hardness, smoothed out by something else. A softness in her sense of humor. Something she had already, but now it was more. He’d found himself charmed by her several times a day. In fact, he thought about her an awful lot during his waking hours.
So he felt the difference in her magick then. Hotter than before. Sharper.
“But you’d bet wrong because I did lose. I lost my dad, my sister and best friend. I lost my firm. Something I built. Losing sucks. I don’t like it in any way. So naturally I can’t allow Alison Moore to beat me. I’ve dealt with some icky people. Part of the job sometimes. But she is . . . well, I can’t even think of a bad enough word for what she is. She is a soul-sucking, dead-hearted, joy-killing, walking, talking bag of hate. And for that she must be destroyed.” She picked a piece of lint from her skirt and sighed as she said all that so matter-of-factly.
“You’re sort of scary right now.”
“I feel sort of scary right now. How dare she show up there and say all that stuff right after a man talked about the pain of losing a child? She’s a piece of work and she is not smarter than me at all. Also I have better hair, skin and I’m totally prettier. I win, Gage. I simply can’t allow an inferior being to beat me this way. One of us is going down and it will not be me.”
“You are most definitely smarter and prettier. And better spoken. And you have a good heart. You also, because you missed this one, smell better and have a nicer rack.”
There was silence for a moment and he desperately hoped she’d say something very soon.
She laughed and he mentally blew out that held breath. “I do, don’t I? Anyway, I don’t normally have the urge to completely destroy someone and salt the earth afterward. But I think I’ve been pushed that proverbial last step.”
“It looks good on you. I, for one, can’t wait to watch you destroy PURITY.”
He didn’t tell her her magick had grown and sharpened somehow. She felt it, or maybe she didn’t, but she would. She’d taken a very big step into their world.