Double Alchemy: Climax (31 page)

The other man smiled softly. “Ah, yes, the separation. You know, I never quite believed that story. Yet I would never pry because you are a true friend and I know you must have a very good reason for the distorting of the truth.”

Quinn swallowed, looking down at the tabletop guiltily.

Jomo chuckled as he reached over a huge hand and covered Quinn’s with his own. “No mind. You are here now, back together and things are as they should be. That is all that matters. Are you going to pour me a cup of that lovely coffee or is it just going to turn to tar in the pot?”

Quinn chuckled and stood up to pour the coffee into mugs, added milk and sugar for Jomo and brought the two mugs over to the kitchen top.

“How is Ulinda? I haven’t seen her for a while. We need to get together for dinner. I’ll speak to Cade and let the two ladies organise something soon.”

Jomo nodded. “Ulinda is wonderful. I am still singing for her and keeping her happy.”

Quinn laughed. “I’m glad to hear it. So what brings you over this way then? Are you thinking of coming back here full time to work?”

Jomo looked a little embarrassed. “I wasn’t, but if you want me to—”

Quinn shook his head. “No, I was joking. I know you like working from home with Ulinda there and our Skype calls and conference facilities are more than enough for what we need to get done. I do miss your company though,” he said wistfully. “But I guess that’s what happens when we grow up. We get our own families to manage and things tend to drift apart.”

“That will never happen,” Jomo said quietly. “We see each other often and talk often and we are still friends. I am always there for you, you know that.”

“And I for you.” Quinn grinned and the two men sat back, the bromance moment behind them.

Jomo smiled shyly. “I wanted to stop by and tell you that I am thinking of asking Ulinda to marry me and when she says yes, I want to organise the wedding for about eight to twelve months’ time, depending on what Ulinda wants. I want you to be my best man.”

Quinn gaped at his friend. “Wow, that’s great news and of course I’ll be your best man. Who else would you choose?”

He stood up and pummelled his friend on the arm before continuing. “Honestly, take it from a man who’s already there. It’s great being engaged and knowing one day you’ll get married. Then before you know it, babies will be on the way.”

He felt a surge of envy at that thought. Dinner needed to be scheduled with Misty to introduce her to Cade. Quinn was a little nervous about the topic of discussion. Misty had told him chidingly she believed Cade would be fine with the idea of her carrying their child when they were ready.

Jomo grinned. “I hope to have Ulinda to myself for a little while before that happens. I cannot think of having a child just yet. I’m glad you have agreed to be best man. It means a lot to me.”

“It would be an honour,” Quinn said quietly. “After everything we’ve been through together, everything seems to be coming full circle, just like it should.”

The two men chatted for a while about weddings, work and women and finally Jomo drained the dregs of his umpteenth coffee and stood up.

“I need to get off,” he apologised. “Ulinda and I have dinner plans and if I’m late, she will kill me. And then you wouldn’t get to be best man.”

Quinn saw his friend off with the promise of getting in touch to arrange dinner plans and then closed the door behind him. He was pleased for Jomo and Ulinda and knew Cade too would be thrilled at the prospect.

Chapter 29

Daniel Wickman looked at his nephew across the Consortium table. The two men were seated together waiting for the rest of the Council members to arrive. Daniel was Quinn’s invited guest, preparing to give feedback on the latest developments within RAW, the Resistance Against Witchhunting organisation, and his double life as a trusted confidante of the Witchunters Alliance.

Daniel was bone tired. His dual role was definitely starting to wear him down. Just that week he’d been asked to sanction yet another witch killing, one which had thankfully been stopped in time, but he was getting sick to the bone of narrowly averting tragedies.. Quinn had asked him to come along and give an update to the Council, along with the work he was doing with Quinn with the Praetorium and Valensia. For a human, Daniel thought wryly, he’d been drawn into the Fey world more than he’d ever thought possible. It was a side effect of having a witch for his late wife and a Warlock as a foster son. He sensed Quinn’s eyes on him, probing as only his nephew could, with a stare that seemed to bore down deep into his soul.

“Daniel, are you ready for tonight?” Quinn’s quiet tones harboured a distinct concern. “I know you’re exhausted and I’m really glad you’re here, but it might get a little tough around the table. Barton Sinclair and his little helper Cavanaugh have been doing the rounds the past week or so trying to drum up support for their bid to oust me as Grand Master. Whilst I don’t think they’ve got much, it will still be a fairly fiery debate, I can promise you.”

Daniel grunted tiredly. “I know, I’ve heard the scuttlebutt around the cauldron. The Praetorium is no fan of him, I can tell you.” He smiled slightly. “In fact, there’s a current little bit of fun going on in the organisation. Some of the members pick the animal they’d like to turn him into and the weapon of choice to dispatch him with. My personal favourite is a warthog as it comes with a bow and arrow. I fancy me a bit of crackling.”

Quinn chuckled and Daniel smiled. “Barton Sinclair stands no chance and he must know it. He’s just a big bag of wind who picks at a situation bit by bit in the hopes he can wear you down. He doesn’t know you like I do, or he wouldn’t even bother trying.”

Quinn nodded. “Thanks for that vote of confidence.”

Someone came into the room and Daniel’s jaw dropped. The most exotic-looking woman he’d ever seen glided in, her deep, warm red jersey dress clinging to her curves like cling wrap and her deep blue eyes assessing Quinn with a definite predatory look. Daniel wished a woman, any woman, would look at him the way this woman was looking at his nephew. He was sure of one thing: Cade would want to scoop her eyes out with a spoon.

“Quinn, am I on time? I tried so hard to be fashionably late but it looks like I didn’t try hard enough.” She smiled and reached over to kiss Quinn on the cheek. Quinn nodded.

“Valensia, glad you made it. Let me introduce you to Daniel Wickman, my uncle, and the man we have to thank for a lot of the intelligence we get from inside the WA.”

Daniel took the witch’s hand and a tingle swept across his palm as she held it longer than normal.

“I am indeed indebted to you, Daniel.” Valensia smiled as she regarded his face curiously. “You’re nothing like I thought you would look. I thought you’d be…taller?” She grinned slightly.

Daniel’s heart skipped a beat.
God, what was wrong with him, the woman must be nearly half his age! He was a fifty-two-year-old lecher and she could certainly be no more than thirty—or younger.

“Yes, well, you know the saying: small packages and all that malarkey.” Daniel was well aware that his five-foot-seven frame and wiry build tended to make people underestimate him, mostly to their own detriment.

Valensia smiled. “That may be but I’ve always preferred to make up my own mind about what they say about smaller men. Size doesn’t always matter as long as the man knows what to do with it.” She chuckled softly.

Daniel’s legs almost gave way. He gripped the back of the chair tightly.

Quinn grinned widely at Daniel’s obvious discomfort.

“I’ve heard a lot about you and the work you do on our behalf is welcomed.” She hesitated. “I was very sorry to hear about your wife. I knew Moira. She was a great woman.”

Daniel nodded. “She was. Thank you.”

Quinn stepped forward. “Right, now we have the introductions all sorted, I’d better let you know that no one’s expecting you here tonight so it’s going to be a bloody great surprise to all of them when they see you.”

Valensia gazed at him in exasperation. “For God’s sake, you didn’t tell them I was coming? I wondered at all the cloak-and-dagger stuff when they brought me up here.”

Quinn shook his head, his smile wolfish. “No, I thought it would have more impact this way and perhaps give that arsehole Barton Smith something to put in his pipe and smoke. I know you can handle them.”

“Talk about putting Valensia on the back foot! That’s typical you, putting the cat amongst the bloody pigeons to see what happens.” Daniel was a little aggrieved at Quinn’s manoeuvre.

Quinn raised his eyebrows at his uncle’s apparent concern. “It looks like you have a champion, Valensia,” he murmured as he went to the door to peer out and see if anyone else had arrived. “Be careful what you wish for, Dan. She can be quite a handful.”

Daniel frowned at Quinn, his face fierce. “Fuck off.”

Quinn’s chuckled quietly and Valensia threw an enigmatic smile his way. Daniel felt very out of his depth.

“Never mind him,” Valensia’s soft tone whispered close to his ear. “He can be a real arrogant sod, I’m sure you know that better than most. And by the way, age really is all in the mind of the beholder.”

Dan was still fairly taken aback by her age comment.
Had she been reading his mind? Could witches do that?

Daniel nodded. “He’s always been like that. Sometimes I’ve just wanted to lock him up in a bloody cage and watch him pace up and down like a captive lion whilst throwing pieces of raw meat at him. He has that effect on people.”

There was the scent of jasmine in his nostrils as Valensia moved closer to him.

“Yet still you trust him and still you’d support him no matter what—as would I—so what does that say about us both? Are we both fools or is Quinn more manipulative than we both think?”

Her tone was slightly sad. Daniel looked up into her eyes and saw an emotion there he couldn’t quite fathom.
Regret, perhaps?

Daniel sighed. “It says he is who he is and we have to live with it.”

He looked around at the room filling with people, most of them eying out Valensia in appreciation and some of them with downright lust. But she didn’t seem to care that the whole room of men was staring at her with avarice.

Barton Sinclair’s eyes were bugging out, his face almost pink with apoplexy, his hands beating a fierce tattoo on the conference table.

“It looks like Quinn’s plan has worked,” Valensia murmured quietly as she turned to smile at the men in the room. “There is a lot of stiffness and testosterone in this room tonight, something I’m sure he planned as a distraction at my expense. If it’s any consolation, with regards to my earlier comment, I don’t think either of us are fools.”

She laid a soft hand on his arm then released it, moving off to work the room with her charm and beauty.

Daniel found he could breathe again. The woman definitely had an impact; he’d have to admit that. He knew about Quinn’s relationship with her many years ago, and he was flabbergasted that Quinn would decide he preferred men to that specimen of womanhood. There was no accounting for sexual tastes obviously. He sat down at the table and waited for the meeting to begin.

Valensia came over and sat down next to him and there was a slight surge of satisfaction that she’d chosen to do that. He saw Quinn stand straight at the head of the table and stare around the room with an expression that made everyone fall quiet. Once everyone was settled, Quinn smiled briefly at the group and waved in Valensia’s direction.

“Gentlemen. You may have noticed we have someone in the room who certainly isn’t one of our usual members. I’d like to welcome Valensia to this meeting and ask you all to respect who she is and who she represents—the Praetorium of the Witches. I thought it might be useful to have her here to answer any questions about the union between our two organisations as I know some of you have some concerns.”

He smiled but Daniel noticed the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’ll also have no gym locker talk in this meeting, so please can I ask you all to keep any ribald or sexist humour to yourselves until you get home, or to the mistress’s home or wherever else takes your fancy.”

There was a quiet round of chuckles at his words and then silence.

“We have someone else with us tonight who has contributed to a lot of what we have achieved: Daniel Wickman, head of RAW and also, as some of you may know, my uncle. Daniel has been working with RAW for many years and is also a key member in the Witchhunters Alliance, the people who try to kill us with regularity. I know the members of this council can be trusted. As you all know, Daniel’s position is one of the biggest advantages we have. Whilst I know I shouldn’t have to say it, I will, just for clarity. Daniel’s position in the WA is of utmost secrecy and outside of this room, no one knows about him. It must stay that way.”

His voice was vaguely threatening and Daniel had no illusions about what might happen to someone who broke Quinn’s rule. His nephew could be an unforgiving soul.

“Daniel will answer any questions you have about either of the organisations that he represents. He’ll also be working a little closer with the Praetorium going forward so we can begin to gain an insight as to how this union is benefitting us both.”

Daniel looked at Quinn in surprise; this was news to him. He glanced over at Valensia and saw the quiet smile on her face and he just knew she had been aware of Quinn’s intentions. He felt a little put out at being the last to know.

“Right, so we can call this meeting to order now we’ve all been introduced. I’ll open the floor to questions for Valensia, I think. Ladies first.”

Quinn sat down and loosened his tie, opening the top buttons of his shirt. He winked at Daniel.

Of course, true to expectations, Barton Sinclair was the first to address Valensia with a smarmy smile. “Valensia, it’s good to finally meet you. I was beginning to think Quinn was keeping you all to himself. I can certainly see why, if that was the case.”

“James.” Quinn’s voice was quiet but dangerous, any previous good humour dissipating like a puff of smoke in a breeze.