Chaos Burning (3 page)

She followed him back inside and toward the large, open kitchen that shared the heart of the house.

“And here it’s as if I breathe the magick in through my pores.”

Simon watched her through his careful, assessing eyes and it felt as if she passed muster when he nodded. “Would you permit me to choose the drink?”

She shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

He went to a bar and studied it for long moments before he pulled a bottle out. She leaned against the counter and watched as he pulled two black stones from the freezer and put them in glasses. He poured the amber liquid—scotch, she could scent the oak of it—over the stones and then once again with the second glass.

“One of my brothers has a boutique whiskey distillery. Try.”

She breathed the scent of the whiskey in before she took a sip. The smoke of it danced across her tongue.

He
didn’t pester her to ask what she thought. Instead he moved to the sink to roll up his sleeves and wash his hands.

“I like it. I’m not normally a whiskey drinker. But for this I’d make an exception. Can I help?”

He paused to look her over. “There are tomatoes over there on the counter. Fresh mozzarella in the fridge.”

She moved to wash her hands the way she’d seen him do it. “Do you have balsamic and olive oil?”

He snorted at her audacity. “Do I look like a man who wouldn’t have olive oil and balsamic?”

“I’m not sure most men do. Though it’s pretty cute you assume that.” She shrugged and sipped the whiskey again. “I notice you’re less terse. Is it the whiskey?”

He laughed, putting the steaks on the grill on his center island as she cored and seeded tomatoes.

“I’ll let you know after the next glass. For now, tell me about the bruise on your neck.”

Surprised, she reached up to touch. “You can see it?”

“I assume you used some sort of glamour on it? To hide it from humans?”

“People always think I have a boyfriend with big fists and it’s not like I can tell them a rogue werewolf tried to twist my head off or whatever. But you can see it?”

“Glamour spells don’t work on me.”

“Handy. Though I suppose I’ll have to keep that in mind. I’m pretty good at glamours. Good thing I’m so charming otherwise.”

He struggled against a smile and she realized it was sort of fun to poke at his careful reserve.

“I’ll keep that in mind. As for it being handy? Sometimes, yes. What happened to that werewolf?”

She shrugged as she washed some basil to go with the tomatoes she’d just sliced. “He’s no longer a problem.”

“Is that an issue? Rogue wolves? And if so, why doesn’t the local pack take care of it?”

“It’s a big problem this year. The population of feral wolves has tripled. Things have gotten worse in many ways over the last year or two. The local pack is pretty good, though they
prefer to pretend rogue wolves aren’t an issue. Since they can infect others and seem to do it without a lot of thought or care, I happen to disagree. Annoying that I have to play police to a wolf issue. But it helps me if I’m having a bad day. It’s always a good workout to kick some shifter ass.”

He seemed to think that was hilarious and she gave him a raised brow as she sliced the basil into ribbons.

“Sorry. I’m not mocking. I’m just imagining what the Alpha must think of you.”

She shrugged. “It’s not the Alpha so much as their Enforcer, who frowns on it. Though you all do like to frown. Still, she knows it’s a problem and in the end, we’ve achieved some level of détente. I get to be the scary monster out to kill them if they get out of line. It’s sort of fun to be the boogeyman.”

He nodded, moving about with that grace she’d always associated with shifters. “If they won’t take care of it, you have to. Of all Others, shifters should know this.”

“I know it’s not as crazy here. I’ve been reminded a hundred times that Seattle is so much calmer. Truth be told, I’m sort of excited.”

“It used to be true, yes. Peaceful territory. Clan Owen has been in charge for a long time. But lately… well, lately things haven’t been so calm and quiet. You might have to show them how to throw some more punches.”

“I’m good at that too.”

He looked her up and down. “I can believe that. Now, tell me about the ex.”

Chapter 2

HER
first full day in Seattle found Lark addressing the full governance council of Clan Owen. Nell Hunter, the leader of the Hunter Corps, was in attendance along with her right-hand man, Gage.

What had struck Lark from the start was how much different the physical space at Owen HQ was from that of Gennessee’s council office. As different as Rebecca Gennessee and her half-sister Edwina Owen were.

Gennessee’s offices were a hive of activity. A lot noisier than the serene, businesslike feel here at Owen. The hunters had their own floor as their force was roughly five times the size of Owen’s hunter team. Not better or worse necessarily, just different. Different enough that she knew simply her presence ruffled feathers.

No one liked change. Especially when the change was due to a bunch of scary junkies prowling the streets looking to kidnap witches to kill them for their magick. Lark understood their hesitation. But at that point she was frustrated that people would cling to the past when they knew those times were long gone.

The world was changing for everyone. It was silly to imagine you could just pretend otherwise.

You adapted or you died. Lark knew which she preferred.

“So we’ve seen a distinct reduction in overall crime in our community since we’ve instituted this system of tactical units.”

Edwina Owen, the previous leader of Owen and still a very important figure there, looked Lark over, one brow up. “Your hunters use human firearms and weaponry. That’s a complicated matter and raises the chances of discovery by human authorities when we obtain the necessary licenses.”

Another bone of contention. Why Others were so wussy about guns she could never really understand.

“It does indeed bring us into more contact with the human authorities. Clan Gennessee can’t afford to lag behind what criminals of all sorts use to commit crimes. We have a higher concentration of incursion into our community by outside groups. Drugs and organized crime are on the rise. I can use magick of course, and I do. But everyone gets depleted and a bullet does the trick in a pinch. The Hunter Corps are staffed by commonwealth witches, we don’t have the same power levels full-council witches do.”

Sometimes full-council witches, those witches with the most power—magickal and political—in a clan forgot that the majority of clan functions were performed by the general population—commonwealth witches. As a commonwealth witch, Lark didn’t have a bond-mate, or super-duper power levels. She was strong and smart, but bullets helped tip the balance in her direction and she had no problems at all using all the tools she could.

“And now the mages are working with turned witches and human separatists.
They
use guns. The human organized criminals we found last year had been working with witches to run a brisk business in prostitution and drugs—they use guns too. They use guns and explosives and they’ll hit a crowded street party filled with children just as easily as choose a military target.”

Meriel, Edwina’s daughter and the new leader of Clan Owen, looked to Nell. “What do you think?”

Lark respected Nell a great deal, especially when she backed Lark up. “She’s right. And permit me to remind you all that Meriel bears a scar that underlines Lark’s point about guns.”

Meriel touched the place on her side where she’d been shot only two months before in a deadly clash with mages and turned witches.

Nell continued. “We found
explosives
in that warehouse. Homemade timers. Several small frag bombs. These people want to hurt us, kill us, take everything they can from us and they’re not only going to use magick. In fact they won’t because we’re superior at it.”

Lark nodded in total agreement.

“This isn’t Los Angeles.” Edwina Owen said it and though she had no actual lip curl, it was in her voice.

“No. It isn’t. You have a fairly decent relationship with your local wolf pack. Ours can be contentious at times. The largest vampire population in the United States is concentrated in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Overall your crime rate is lower. And yet your leader was shot in an attack by mages. Here on Owen land.”

“And this wouldn’t have happened on your watch?” Edwina Owen was clearly insulted.

Lark took a deep breath. Politics were Helena’s job. She was better at not getting people upset than Lark was. But she had no need to play submissive when she was being insulted over something stupid. And she could
probably
do it without being offensive. “It isn’t Gennessee’s intention to insult you. Your land is different. The challenges you face are different.” She looked to Nell, who thank goodness understood exactly why Lark was there.

“There was a time when all hunters did was round up witches who broke the rules of the clan. But that job gets harder and more complicated every year because the world is more complicated. We live
among
humans and Others. Their crimes and problems bleed into our lives and we can’t ignore it. For instance, seven months ago one of our witches had thrown in with a group running a meth lab. Oh, true love. I had to send in a team to clean that up. Because I’d made connections with the local authorities I was also able to get them involved to clean up the biohazard the lab had created.”

“My sister has less problems with being discovered by humans than I do.”

Which was Edwina’s issue, Lark could tell by the way the other woman’s back stiffened. In any case, Meriel had warned her to be prepared for such an attack and so she was. She stood her ground. Gennessee had nothing to apologize for.

“With all due respect, Ms. Owen, that doesn’t make it any less likely to happen. It’s not dependent on whether or not you believe in doing it. You tie the hands of your hunters when they’re not trained as they should be. They’re your best defense against external threats. Now we’re being hunted for our magick. We can be predators, or we can be prey. I know which I plan to be.”

Meriel gave her a discreet thumbs-up.

“If I may speak?” Nell stood and even with the swell of her growing belly continued to look entirely capable.

“Yes, please do.” Meriel motioned to Nell to continue.

“I’ve been quite open about my support for the idea of expanding our hunter teams to specialty units. I
do
believe that we’d have been far better able to meet the threat those mages posed us two months ago during that showdown if we’d had teams like Gennessee. We aren’t just sage-burning kitten huggers. We face threats darker and larger than we have in several centuries. We were not fully prepared. I think Lark can help us change that.”

Meriel leaned back and looked them both over. Edwina stayed silent. Meriel had taken the reins of leadership of Clan Owen just a few months prior, but the changes had already begun.

That had to be hard on mother and daughter both.

“What is your sense of next steps then, Nell?” Meriel asked.

“Lark and I have been working closely together over the phone and email since the attack in the warehouse. With the permission of the governance council I’d like to set up some special teams. Get them up and running, get people trained. Lark has offered to help with this project. And in addition, Lark and I, in conjunction with Arel from Rodas Clan and several other hunter team leaders across the United States and Canada, would like to set up one large unified team to deal with the threat the mages pose. We’ve got a turned witch on the loose who’s working with the mages. And that’s just the one we know about. There are others like Gloria Ochoa. There will continue to be others.”

Dominic Bright, Meriel’s bond-mate and soon-to-be husband, finally spoke. “Nell and Lark are right. Times are changing and if we don’t change with them, we’re at risk. There are groups out there that want to harm us. We need to prepare for that.” His birth mother, Gloria Ochoa, had been a turned witch working with the mages. Because she’d used stolen magick so much, she’d turned, severed her connection to the earth and her own magick and had become a shadow of her former self, a monster seeking yet another fix. She’d tried to kill him during that showdown in the warehouse. And now she was dead. So there was that.

Meriel took a deep breath and tapped her pen once. “Make it happen. Keep me apprised. Lark, I’d like it if you could help not only the hunters here but our rank-and-file membership.”

“I’m under orders to share and help as I can.” Which was sort of true. “I’ll work with Nell on that.”

“YOU
handled yourself with her well.” Meriel caught up with Lark outside the conference room they’d just been in.

“Thanks. Scary as hell, your mother and her sister.” Lark grinned and then moved to give Nell a hug. “Hey you.”

“Hey yourself. Glad you’re here. How about some lunch before we dig into the plans for training?”

They walked down a few blocks to a small hole-in-the-wall type place. “Hottest curries I’ve ever had and they make their own naan.” Nell rubbed her belly. “I think the baby has taken over all my preferences of late. And as it includes naan and curry, I’m on board.”

“Dude, I’m in.”

They found a small table in the corner and began to catch up. “I think you did well today. The council is fully behind this. I think we can help each other.” Meriel sipped her tea. “Dominic is going to be so mad we came here without him.”

“I bet he looks even prettier when he’s mad.”

Meriel laughed. “Totally. He looks pretty all the time. It’s not a trial to wake up to that face every day.”

“I appreciate your letting me stay at the apartment. Bed is nice. Simon offered to take me grocery shopping, but I
told him you’d have stocked the fridge. He still packed a few bags of food for me and also insisted on walking me up and on going through the place to be sure everything was safe.”

Nell laughed. “Nice of you to let him.”