StrategicSurrender (13 page)

Morgan snorted and caught Kiera’s gaze. She grinned
bashfully and shrugged her shoulder.

“You’re always telling me to take the bad with my good,” she
added. “If having people try to kill me for a few days is the cost of having
Hayden in my life forever more I’m willing to go with it too.”

“You both astound me,” Morgan replied, amused. “However I
doubt our Josh feels the same, am I right, son?”

“I couldn’t see anything good coming from that damn
manuscript,” Josh griped at first. His regular gamine grin returned as he
continued. “But between the group of us, I feel sure this will all be cleared
up soon enough. I am trying to look at it as a small blip of annoyance on the
road of my life. I agreed and assisted in the burning of the ritual and I don’t
regret
that
action. As Kiera said, you take the hits with the payouts.
I’ll be all right.”

“Excellent,” Morgan nodded. “So I believe we can take it as
a given none of
us
discussed the burning of the ritual. Since we are all
the ones adversely affected by this outcome that pretty much leaves us all
clear. What I am intrigued by was how someone shared the information so
quickly.”

“You think someone targeted us on purpose?” Josh surmised,
his face showing shock. “But…but why? No one knows Kiera and I have read a
small part of the ritual, and even then we read one page each out of more than
a dozen. What we have is practically useless.”

“Agreed,” Morgan replied. “But anyone twisted and corrupt
enough to be prepared to use such magic would not believe either of you would
stop after only a page. Chances are they either don’t believe us, or they just
flat out don’t care.”

“But that grimoire,” Kiera insisted, “it was
terrible
.
Rank and utterly horrendous. I felt nauseous after only a few minutes in its
presence and reading it made me ill to my stomach. Surely no one could possibly
believe we would voluntarily read the entire script.”

“You’d be amazed by some people’s depravity,” Hayden replied
softly. His face once again was haunted, unbearably sad. Sympathy overwhelmed
Kiera. She reached out and took his hand in hers.

“Oh Hayden,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to bring up
such sad memories for you.” Hayden shook his head and gave her a weak, small
smile. They squeezed each other’s fingers as a silent gesture of strength. All
four of them were silent for a moment.

Joshua cleared his throat a moment later.

“So, do you really think it will be safe for us to bunk with
you, Morgan?” Joshua asked. “It’s public knowledge both Kiera and I are your
protégés. Anyone looking for us is bound to start with you.”

“That’s what I began to mention earlier,” Hayden interjected
before Morgan could reply. “I might be able to help with a partial solution to
our problem. I don’t believe we should further endanger Morgan by staying here.
I feel confident I can protect Kiera myself. By moving around constantly and
with all my training we can revolve from contact to contact gathering
information and relaying it to Morgan so hopefully we can work out what is
happening here.”

“That makes sense,” Josh replied with a nod. “I can hang out
in a hotel and lay low. Loath as I am to cancel my social life for the next few
evenings, I’d rather go insane watching cable than get shot full of holes for a
few drinks and a nice piece of ass. I hear a few of the locals are even doing
mid-week specials. If I can make a booking before lunch time maybe—”

“Not quite,” Hayden interjected before Josh could get too
carried away with his plans. “I’ve organized something a bit more, um, secure
than simply stashing you away in one of the mid-town hotels.”

“More secure?” Josh repeated and looked to Morgan, who
shrugged his shoulders, and then to Kiera. Not having a clue what her lover had
organized, Kiera shook her head at her coworker and then looked back to Hayden.

“Well—” he began. Before the wizard could say more the
doorbell rang.

“Now there’s timing for you,” Josh replied wryly.

“Actually,” Hayden replied, “it might be easier to show you
than explain fully.”

Hayden stood up and looked to Morgan. The elder wizard
nodded his head after contemplating Hayden for a silent minute.

“Go ahead, let your visitor in. I trust you,” he reassured
Hayden.

Hayden crossed over to the large front door and, after
looking through the side panel of glass to check the person on the stoop,
unlocked the door and stepped aside to let the stranger enter. A redheaded
witch walked in, her bearing ramrod straight and her eyes shifting from side to
side as she instantly appeared to take in the whole house within a second.

Kiera felt her stomach sink as she looked closely at the
witch. The stranger’s bearing was stiff and unyielding, her green slacks
looking astonishingly like camouflage gear coupled with a plain black sweater.
Pale green eyes scanned the room automatically and took everything in at a
glance. Kiera had seen any number of similarly trained reactions and it was
enough to bring her out in a cold sweat.

“Hayden, I’m not sure this is really necessary,” she
suggested carefully. The thought of Joshua being kept in close confines with
this witch made her skin itch and not for the “usual” reason when it came to
Josh. “I’m not sure we’re in that much trouble. Honest.”

“Thank you for coming so promptly, Kate,” Hayden spoke to
the redheaded witch, completely undaunted by Kiera’s small outburst. With a
simple gesture he indicated to Kate for her to enter the main living area ahead
of him.

They both sat down, Hayden closer to Kiera this time and
Kiera pulling one of the single chairs closer to the group of them, placing
herself protectively between Joshua and Morgan.

“Kate Williams, this is Morgan Kingsburg, Kiera Patrick and
the wizard I told you about earlier on the phone—Josh Delamere,” Hayden
introduced them all. “Everyone, this is Kate, a Guardian I have known for a
number of years and who I have requested meet us here today to…discuss some
things.”

Kiera swallowed hard as her fears and assumptions were
verified. Much as it sounded like, Guardians were the protectors of the
wizarding world. Highly trained bodyguards, they were secretly—and not very
complimentarily—called Automatons. Much like a mechanical creature, Guardians
were trained to never give in and never give up. Like a machine they just kept
on going until the threat was resolved satisfactorily, which was when they
moved on to the next target to protect.

More than a few forlorn love songs had been written about
shattered hopes and dreams revolving around Guardians. It was widely rumored
that a part of their training included hardening their heart to any witch or
wizard and removing any chance of emotional attachment. Kiera had never been
close enough friends with a Guardian to be able to make a knowledgeable guess
as to whether it was fact or pure fiction. The songs persisted, a few of them
even becoming incredibly popular, and so she believed there was more than a
nugget of truth to the claims.

Morgan greeted Kate politely and offered her a drink, which
she declined silently with a brief shake of her head. Hayden glanced at Kiera
and, recalling her manners, hastily said a soft hello. Josh, being himself,
grinned lazily at Kate, eyed the pretty witch up and down and spoke.

“Nice to see you’re only offering us the best, Foxworth,”
Josh drawled. “If I’m going to be killed out of hand at least I can die happy
knowing a gorgeous, fiery witch can save my ass and get the bad guys.”

Kiera shook her head, the comment pure Josh.
She
knew
that far more than a lazy, dissipated playboy lay beneath his façade, but she
couldn’t blame most of the rest of the world for taking him at face value. He
made it simply too easy to be pegged as such and written off.

Kate, surprisingly, didn’t react in the least to Josh’s
verbal poking, but simply averted her eyes to stare at Hayden and wait
patiently for an explanation or perhaps instructions, Kiera wasn’t sure which.

“Glad to see you’re not completely opposed to the idea of
having a Guardian as a roommate for the next few days,” Hayden replied with a
slightly sardonic smile. Josh snorted.

“No wizard with a brain would ever be concerned to have a
beautiful witch guard his body,” he replied. “But I must admit, don’t you think
this is slightly in the overkill basket, Foxworth? Surely between you and
Morgan this can all be sorted out quickly?”

“Hopefully,” Hayden nodded, “but it’s not worth risking our
lives over to assume so. That’s why I felt it best to bring Kate in on this.”

“What exactly is ‘this’?” Kate asked in a low-pitched voice.
“I do not need unnecessary details or conjecture, but I do work best when
supplied with relevant information and a good idea of what it is I am up again.
Whom am I protecting Mr. Delamere from, what is the projected timeline for this
mission and what level of violence am I to expect?”

“Please, Kate, call me Josh,” he replied. Kate glanced at
him with assessing eyes and merely turned to look back at Hayden without
another word.

“Ah,” Hayden cleared his throat. Kiera had the feeling her
lover was somewhat uncomfortable with the byplay between Kate and Joshua.
Personally she merely struggled not to give in to a fit of laughter. But then,
she had known Josh far longer than Hayden had.

“There will be multiple potential assailants and at this
point we are uncertain what time frame we are looking at. I would expect at
least a few days, possibly even a week or more,” Hayden spoke rapidly. “The
level of force will almost certainly be deadly. There are contracts out on each
of our heads, Kiera’s, mine and Joshua’s. There is a bonus incentive for more
than one of us being killed simultaneously, which is one of the reasons I am
eager to break the three of us up somewhat.”

Kate nodded and continued to look between them silently,
soaking in the information instantly.

“Morgan?” Hayden prompted with a glance at the older wizard.

“Oh of course,” Morgan replied. He thought for a moment.
Kiera knew from many years’ experience he was gathering and sorting his
thoughts to give the most succinct summary possible. After a brief pause he
started in his deep, rich, clear voice.

“A short time ago I came into possession of a dark
manuscript, a grimoire of sorts that held details of a particularly evil, black
magic ritual,” Morgan explained. “I have some small amount of Seer in my blood,
but am predominantly a Strategist. I could not discern any prophecy about the
papers and could only discover potential future outcomes that were…not ideal.
Traditionally the manner with which the Tribunal deals with items such as these
is every member of the cities council will read it, meditate upon the outcome
it could potentially bring about and then cast a vote.

“Despite the fact it is not common for these sorts of…
artifacts
to be discovered,” Morgan continued, “a few have popped up in recent months.
It’s regular practice for the Tribunal to lock away grimoires like this, keep
them out of everyone’s hands while still retaining the knowledge outlined
within them. After recent events I—and a few other members of the Tribunal—are
no longer certain this is the best method to approach such issues.”

“Recent events,” Hayden muttered under his breath. Kiera
placed her hand on his thigh and gave her lover an encouraging squeeze. Hayden
took her hand in his and linked their fingers together.

“I gave the manuscript to Hayden, Josh and Kiera here,”
Morgan said calmly, not appearing to have heard Hayden’s muttered interjection.
“The only indication I had managed to find that did not result in death,
bloodshed and mayhem was to bring in another unknown factor into the equation.
I decided opening the possibility of new destinies into the thread would be
better than keeping the same wizards in control. In a sense I was completely
right. They
did,
indeed, alter the situation in a new direction. They
burned the grimoire.”

“They
what
?” Kate spoke impulsively for the first
time, her tone full of utter disbelief. Kiera smiled but Josh beat her to
saying something about it.

“That grimoire was nothing but pure evil,” Josh said. “There
was
no other way to keep the knowledge and ritual out of hands that
could become corrupt from it.”

“I can understand that,” Kate snapped, seeming slightly
miffed at the logical defensiveness in Josh’s tone. “But no one has the right
to destroy objects under the Tribunal’s care. I’m surprised they haven’t
charged you with ten different felonies I can think of off the top of my head.”

“That may still come to pass,” Kiera interjected wryly.
“Frankly I think we outraged and astounded them all so much with our sheer
audacity, charging us hadn’t entered their heads by the time they wanted us out
of their sight. When a few of them have cooled down it’s quite possible that
will be their next step.”

“What our more immediate concern is,” Hayden boomed as he
once again took control of the conversation, “is that we now have a few
security issues.”

“Issues?” Josh snorted in reply. “You call it an
issue
when we are shot at and blasted with potent magical heat energy from a car as
we amble down the sidewalk?”

“A minor worry about security,” Morgan said repressively as
he eyed Josh. Their mentor didn’t even need more than that single glance to
have Josh returning to his previous silence.

“We learned just a short time ago from contacts I tapped
that there appears to be contracts out on us, like I explained at the start,
Kate,” Hayden continued. “There was a very poorly planned ambush on us out
front of the Enforcers headquarters just a few hours ago. From initial data I
have sourced the contract is only as old as this morning—and so the more time
that passes the more detailed and well put together the attacks are likely to
prove.”