StrategicSurrender (6 page)

Desperately they both kissed each other as if they were on
their way to the gallows to be hung. Breathless, Kiera pulled back slightly to
rest her forehead against Hayden’s. A lightning-quick glance showed their
stolen kisses had not been witnessed by her partner and friend.

“I feel like a naughty teenager again,” she confessed with a
light laugh. “You’re an addictive wizard, Hayden Foxworth.”

“I was thinking something similar about you,” he returned,
equally breathless. “Feel better?”

“I still feel the need to shower,” she replied
mischievously. “But not for exactly the same reason anymore. And more
importantly, I absolutely feel like sharing it with you.”

“Now there is an idea I can get on board with,” Hayden
replied huskily. His voice proved his arousal with its thickness and again
Kiera felt her panties growing damp.

“Well that is something I don’t want to witness ever again,”
Josh spoke with revulsion as he looked up from the dried, desiccated pages.
With evident distaste he picked up the folder, carried it to their table and
tossed it in the middle of it.

“I don’t even want to know why you need blood of a maiden
that has sat through the height of a dark moon and quartz that has been bathed
in tears of a baby.”

Kiera shuddered and even Hayden made a face at that
knowledge. Kiera closed her eyes, took a deep breath and calmed herself. She
held up a hand to stop Joshua, knowing he was about to speak and not wanting to
be interrupted. Carefully, Kiera took the memory of the sheet of paper and
mentally folded it up in her head and packed it far away down the back of her
mind.

Keeping her eyes closed, Kiera spoke softly.

“I’m going to forget what you just said as well as what I
read a moment ago. I will push it to the very darkest recess of my mind so I
won’t ever bring it forward into my conscious mind ever again,” she insisted as
she once again opened her eyes.

For a moment they stared at the folder in front of them.
Kiera warred with herself. A part of her wanted to close her eyes again and
leave them like that until the guys had burned the manuscript fully, not even
wanting to have even the faintest possibility of reading more of the ritual.
Yet simultaneously a small part of her brain was tempted, whispered to her in a
dark voice she had never even heard before.

What possible damage could it cause to know more?
The
voice cajoled her.
Knowing the ingredients and how to prepare them is
useless, surely you should read more of the ritual itself, understand how these
items are used. What use is having only a piece or two of the puzzle, when you
can see the big picture?

Firmly she ignored the voice and instead focused on her
grocery shopping list.

“Kiera? You all right?” Hayden asked gently. With a final
deep, cleansing breath Kiera shook herself visibly and smiled.

“I didn’t want to be tempted to read more,” she explained.
“I think you are absolutely right. This thing needs to be destroyed. Completely
and utterly.”

“You have that little voice urging you to read more?” Josh
said with studied casualness. Kiera compressed her lips unhappily and nodded,
her gaze rising to meet with her best friend’s. Josh had a look of deep
understanding and slight sympathy in his amber gaze.

“Do you think I was wrong?” she asked in a small voice,
worried that maybe even just being in the same room as the manuscript might
have altered her in ways she could never have imagined. Josh shook his head in
the negative.

“No,” he reassured her. “Your reasoning was solid, and based
in true worry and wanting to protect us all, to cover our asses. I don’t think
you were wrong. That doesn’t mean I like having this shit in my head now, but a
page each is not going to hurt us any.”

Relief coursed through Kiera’s body.

“Okay, let’s do this, are we ready?” Kiera asked as she
glanced from Josh to Hayden. Both men nodded the affirmative and Kiera grinned
almost wickedly.

With a half bend down Kiera leaned and grabbed her handbag
from where it lay at her feet under the table. Bringing the large bag up and
placing it on the table, she rummaged around in it until she found the packet
of matches she always carried with her.

“You don’t smoke,” Josh said with a faint frown. Kiera
snorted and eyed him with laughter in her gaze.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t ever need fire. How many castings
and spells do we perform where we need to use flame as the integral catalyst?
Don’t you carry a lighter around with you?” she asked, certain she had seen him
many times with one.

“In my kit,” Josh answered.

“Ah, well I have a lighter and another packet of matches in
my kit, but I still carry them—and ionized salt and a few other bits and
pieces—in my handbag. You’d be amazed how often it comes in handy,” she
replied.

Kiera replaced her bag at her feet, opened the packet,
removed three matches and handed one to each of them.

“Shall we do this together?” she asked. “So no single one of
us can carry the weight of blame alone?”

Josh and Hayden both nodded simultaneously. Kiera struck the
first match then handed the packet to Hayden who quickly lit his match and
passed the box to Josh. All three together lowered their lit matches to a different
edge of the folder and set it alight.

Kiera shivered as the air became strangely heavy and
oppressive.

In her imagination she could clearly hear the papers
screaming as they caught on fire. The folder and desiccated pages quickly began
to smolder and burn. Kiera caught a quick look at her partner and he looked
unnaturally grim, another glance next to her and Hayden looked equal parts
determined and haunted. She recalled about his partner, Ben, and felt her heart
twist at what mingled thoughts Hayden must be contemplating.

Thin curls of smoke began to rise as the grimoire and folder
ignited, burning hotter and more quickly now, curling in on itself as the pages
blackened and turned to ash.

When the manuscript was blackened and still smoldering Kiera
stood up and crossed over to the window. She lifted the heavy glass and frame
open so the thin tendrils of smoke could not set off the smoke detectors. In
utter silence they watched as the manuscript burned into nothing but hot ashes.

Silently for a number of minutes the two wizards watched the
ashes as they slowly cooled down, none of them speaking a single syllable. When
the smoke had stopped and the entire document and folder were nothing but
charred, cool ash Hayden turned and walked to the window. As he reached his
hands up high to pull the window closed, Kiera called out hastily,

“No, Hayden, wait!”

Hayden paused and turned his head to look curiously at her.
Kiera crossed back to the table and scooped up the ashes into her hands.
Pedantically she brushed the table down until she was positive she had
collected every last scrap of what used to be the ritual. Then she walked back
to Hayden, stood beside him by the window and thrust her hand out.

“Good idea,” Josh spoke softly. Hayden agreed with a small
noise of assent.

With a final glance at Hayden their eyes met and connected
again with a ferocious intensity. His gaze was such a dark brown it bordered on
black. Pain, worry, anguish and the faintest trace of hope all shone in his
expressive eyes. Kiera’s heart turned over and in that moment she knew she fell
a little in love with this magical wizard.

Hayden nodded without a word and Kiera slowly opened her
hand, turning the palm down so the handful of worthless char could scatter and
be caught by the wind, lifted and spread out across the city of Chicago.

In seconds it was done, the action completely and utterly
irreversible. The manuscript had been burned, its ashes scattered across the
corners of downtown Chicago. Even had they—or anyone else—wanted to retrieve
the document it was now completely impossible.

“Now that’s something you don’t do every day,” Kiera said
with a deep, slightly shaky breath.

“What?” Josh replied huskily. He cleared his throat and
amended, “Defy the Tribunal?”

“Not just defy the Tribunal,” she countered, “but burn one
of their dark documents into tiny particles of ash and scatter it to the four
winds.”

“Not bad for a day’s work,” Hayden said with the faintest
trace of amusement and pride. Kiera threw a small smile over her shoulder to
the scruffy, sexy wizard and grinned at him. There was a naughty twinkle of
amusement in his eye as she tried to suppress the fit of giggles that
threatened her.

“Yeah,” she said slightly more confidently. “Not bad at
all.”

Hayden made a cup from his hands, held them under the
running faucet. When the cold water overflowed, he lifted it to his face,
splashing himself, and lowered his palms to collect more. He repeated the
exercise a few times, drawing in deep lungfuls of air in between. The men’s
bathroom was thankfully empty at this late hour. He was grateful for the chance
to have a moment alone, to collect his thoughts and try to sort himself out.

It had been a most unusual evening, even for him.

What the hell was he thinking? Exchanging sensual kisses,
licking the tender skin of a Strategy witch’s hand? Filling his mouth with the
taste and scent of her?

Am I losing my mind?
he wondered. It wasn’t the first
time in recent weeks he’d entertained such a notion. Hayden was half convinced
he was genuinely losing the plot, going crazy. It had been known to happen to
many a wizard, particularly powerful ones. And to say he’d been under some
strain was the understatement of the century.

Turning off the faucet, he gripped the edge of the porcelain
basin with both wet hands, Hayden let his head droop down. Even though his face
was wet and cool, he felt heat prickle along his skin. What the hell was it
about Kiera that set him on fire? It was like one look from the sexy witch and
he melted, and simultaneously ignited into flames. It was crazy.

Crazy.

“Guess you’re finally managing to walk into the shadows, eh,
Foxworth?”

Hayden’s head snapped up. He looked into the mirror and felt
his stomach hollow out. He resisted the urge to vomit.

Ben’s face stared back at him, like some freakish trick from
a B-grade movie.

“You’re not there,” Hayden insisted, though he could hear
the wobble of fear and indecision in his tone. He shook his head, closed his
eyes briefly and glanced back at the mirror.

Ben’s face remained there. Grinning at him like he’d seen
his friend do a million times before. Brown hair and eyes, with a twinkle of
cheerful mischief. Hayden felt his heart ache. Despite everything—all the
secrets, all the evil, all the betrayal and power-hungry nonsense—regardless of
all the cool logic in the universe, nothing could prevent the simple fact at
heart Hayden missed his friend and partner.

“I couldn’t believe you turned down such an opportunity for
power,” Ben continued. His tone was light, curious. It was like they were discussing
a case together, brainstorming after a particularly tricky puzzle had been
handed to them. Hayden felt incredibly disorientated.

“Even though it would have just been a third of that
manuscript, I can’t believe you turned it down, Hayden. What was up with that?”

“I’ve seen enough darkness in my time,” Hayden replied,
feeling a form of relief to explain himself to his partner. A part of his mind
realized this was either a hallucination or a trick, but he’d learned enough over
the years to know there was always a reason for everything. If his brain felt
compelled to implement such a bizarre form of self-reflection then there was no
harm in going with it. Obviously he needed to unburden himself. There had been
too many things whirling around in his head today and if this was how he’d get
himself sorted, so be it.

Besides, there had to be crazier things than talking to the
reflection of his former partner—a power-hungry Assassin turned evil
psychopath—in the mirror.

Right?

“I’m at a delicate time,” Hayden said, looking at Ben’s
reflection but focusing his mind internally. Talking about this seemed to make
him feel lighter, more in control. “After discovering you were an insane, power-hungry
mass murderer things took a bit of a bleak turn. I still feel the weight of
stares when I walk down the street. I know people are whispering about me
behind my back, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And the last thing I need
is even a hint that I’m also after dark magics, or prepared to use my power to
force others against their will.”

“A bit harsh,” Ben said, his reflection appearing almost
wounded. “But fair enough. So you didn’t look at the manuscript and you talked
the two Strategists into burning it. Why can’t you wash your hands of the
matter and get back to your self-imposed hermitage? It’s what you really want,
isn’t it?”

Hayden paused. Reflection-Ben had a point. What was keeping
him here?

“I’m curious about the puzzle Morgan’s supplied me with. I
want to see this through. I’m in it now. If I go back to my apartment, close
the door on the world again I’ll just stew and wonder and drive myself crazy.”

“And?” Ben leered at him from the mirror. Hayden licked his
lips, eyeing his friend.

He again had second thoughts. Was there some magic going on?
Or was this really his mind’s way of making him explore his feelings?

Hayden lifted his hand, ran it over the smooth surface of
the mirror, checking for tricks or traps. He whispered an incantation and a hum
of magical energy encircled his palm. To the best of his ability the mirror was
exactly what it appeared to be—a regular, ordinary men’s bathroom mirror. Only Ben’s
shit-eating grin, instead of his own reflection, proved otherwise.

“It’s just us boys in here,” Ben said cheerily. “Stop
doubting and just spit it out. You’re procrastinating, Foxworth, and we don’t
have forever.”

“I want to get to know Kiera. I like her, all right?” Hayden
snapped out, furious with himself and Ben.

His old partner crowed a laugh of success.

“Finally! Dude, I thought you’d never get to the heart of
the matter. So. What is such a desperate problem with this witch that has you
hallucinating
me
to help you?”

It was as if he could suddenly see clearly. Like a fog
lifted or he snapped awake out of a complex, contradictory dream to understand
in the light of day what was really going on.

“You totally blindsided me, Ben,” Hayden said. His tone was
low, soft, hurt. Hayden stood tall, looking reflection-Ben in the eye. “I
trusted you implicitly. Without thought or question. I’ve been feeling pretty
sorry for myself since I realized the depth of your evil. I guess I’ve held
back since then, unwilling to let anyone or anything get back in and hurt me
like that again.”

“And Kiera?” Ben asked. Hayden noticed his friend’s image
was a little blurry now around the edges.

Knowing this was right, but still feeling a tiny tingle of
sadness to see his buddy going, Hayden continued.

“Whatever I feel for her isn’t ordinary. Or common. It’s
special, maybe even unique. I’m not going to let it go, let this slip out of my
fingers just cos I’m a chicken-shit who’s been hurt in the past.”

“Good for you, Hay,” Ben grinned.

Hayden reached out a hand, as if he could pull this
wizard—the old friend he missed terribly, not the crazed madman he’d
become—through the mirror and back into reality.

“I wish things had been different,” Hayden said to
reflection-Ben. “But I’m not going to be looking back so much I miss where I’m
heading, and what’s in my future. I’m not going to beat myself up for trusting
my partner and believing in what’s right and good anymore.”

“Then you better finish washing your face and hands and get
the hell out of the men’s room, Hayden,” Ben chuckled. “Otherwise your witch is
going to think you’re either avoiding her, have escaped out the back window or
drowned in the toilet. None of which will be a good impression.”

Hayden glanced down to switch the faucet back on. He cupped
his hands beneath the cool running water again. About to lift it up and splash
over his face, he caught sight of his reflection once more in the mirror.

Surprised, but somehow not at the same time, Hayden took a
minute to study his face, then splashed the water.

He knew most people would instantly seek help—professional
help—if they’d experienced such a discussion as he just had. But Hayden knew
better. The mind was a powerful tool. Tricky, unendingly complicated and vastly
unknown. That hadn’t really been his old partner, more of a reflected memory of
the wizard his friend had been. Hayden had needed an alternate point of view, a
trusted friend and confidante to unburden himself to, and help explain and
clarify his thoughts to.

Hayden knew he needed to let his guilt go. He needed to
reinforce his inherent trust in the goodness of the majority of people around
him. And he needed to acknowledge not only his growing desire for Kiera Patrick
but also his fear and worry in trusting another person so deeply. She could
well prove to be one of the best things to have ever entered his life. The
thought of letting that potential pass just because he’d been betrayed before
was unthinkable. He hadn’t thought to jump back on the horse so soon after his
fall, but it looked like Fate wasn’t willing to hang around and wait for him to
finish licking his wounds.

Kiera had been presented to him like a gift. He’d be damned
before he let that slide. Sometimes one had to surrender to the inevitable. If
the potency of his attraction to Kiera and the undeniable strength of her
response to him were any indication, this would be one surrender he’d give
willingly.

Feeling a million times better than when he’d entered the
room earlier, Hayden hurried to rejoin his witch.

* * * * *

“So where
does
one go for a bite to eat after
destroying one of the Tribunal’s priceless, irreplaceable dark magic
grimoires?” Hayden asked somewhat facetiously as they strolled down the busy
Chicagoan street.

Kiera and Hayden had split up from Josh—who had parted with
a
very
knowing grin to her—and now strolled around looking for somewhere
pleasant to eat. Josh had sworn he would call Morgan and update him before Josh
got too
distracted
and so while a small part of Kiera worried about her
mentor’s reaction, she knew there was nothing anyone could do about it anymore.

Kiera gurgled a laugh at Hayden and pushed her worries from
her mind. Tomorrow morning would be plenty soon enough to let her concerns
percolate in her head and second guesses plague her. Kiera twined her fingers
with Hayden’s, linking them as she looked around and tried to think of a nice
place to get to know this wizard better.

“Well,” she started with another small hiccup of laughter.
“There is a good grill a little farther down this block, but I really think
after such an adventure as what we have shared tonight it calls for something a
bit more refined. Maybe Italian?”

“Oh,” Hayden remarked with evident enjoyment. “I could go a
good bottle of wine and some fresh pasta, actually.
L’atto Sessuale
?”

“You know that place?” Kiera asked with a tiny hint of
disappointment. It was one of the better—and not as ruinously expensive—Italian
restaurants in the city. It wasn’t well discovered as yet, nor was it deemed
“trendy” by the crowd of people who knew of its existence. Kiera rather enjoyed
taking people there and introducing them to the excellent food and wine.

“Sorry,” Hayden replied with a small smile. “I can pretend
to be surprised if you like.”

Kiera laughed and wrapped her arm around Hayden’s waist,
enjoying the warmth of his body as he hugged her back with one arm.

“No, it’s okay,” she reassured him. “I just keep on
forgetting it’s not a deep, dark secret of mine.”

“Mmm,” Hayden replied as he kissed her lips delicately.
Kiera hummed happily and enjoyed the sensation of Hayden’s lips upon hers. She
didn’t think she could ever get tired of it.

“And what
is
a deep, dark secret of yours?” Hayden
asked, his voice husky with desire and need. Charmed and unbearably turned on,
Kiera laved her tongue out to rasp along the outer edge of Hayden’s sensual
lower lip as she said the first secretive thought that entered her mind.

“I want to learn how to dance properly,” she confessed.
“Like learn to waltz, or maybe something Latin and sexy like a tango or
rhumba.”

Realizing how possibly silly her “secret” could sound to
someone who had been through as much recently as Hayden had, Kiera blushed,
heat radiating from her face. Mortified for a moment, she wished the pavement
beneath her feet would open up and swallow her whole.

“Oh Circe,” she moaned and covered her face with her hands.
“I know that’s not the most earth-shattering thing, but it was the first secret
that sprang to mind and honestly, I’m fairly up front. There aren’t that many
shadows in my life.”

Hayden stopped next to her on the street and moved them both
to the side of the footpath so they weren’t in anyone else’s way. Gently, with
a heart stopping tenderness, he wrapped his arms around her and drew her in so
her face could press into his chest.

“Did you mean it?” he asked softly. Kiera moaned again but
decided the damage had already been done, it would be impossible to dig her
hole any further.

“Yes,” she admitted, “of course I did. I’d love to learn to
dance, but it’s one of those things that just gets put in the ‘maybe later’
basket and not acted upon.”

“Well then,” Hayden replied casually as he leaned back.
Kiera looked up at him, still a little embarrassed. Hayden gave her a melting
smile, soft and sensual and so tender it damn near broke her heart. He bent
down and kissed her nose as if she were a little girl who had scraped her knee
and had a good cry over it.

“You’re gorgeous, and so truthful, upfront and honest,”
Hayden complimented her, sincerity ringing in his tone. “That can prove awfully
attractive and addictive. You shouldn’t get discomposed when I
ask
for
you to tell me something personal and you think it won’t ‘measure up’ or
whatever. It’s personal and obviously means something to you. That’s what’s
important and why it’s a secret of yours.”

Kiera felt her heart melt and she grinned a little shyly at
the handsome wizard.