Black Rook (15 page)

But is seemed she always wanted what she couldn’t have. First her father’s love and acceptance. And now Rook.

Foolish, foolish girl.

He held her arm tightly, his expression soft. His gaze dropped momentarily—to her mouth—then returned to her eyes. Copper flecks seemed to dance in the dark brown irises. She parted her lips, unsure what she’d do if he tried to kiss her.

She cleared her throat. “Wherever you’re going, please be careful.”

“How can I deny a pretty lady?”

He shuffled closer, still clasping her arm, the heat of his body like a balm. She wanted him to kiss her, which was beyond foolish, beyond idiotic. He wouldn’t. They were from two different worlds that could never exist together. This thing simmering between them had to stop. His leaving was a good thing. She stepped back and pulled her hand away.

Rook let go with a reluctant frown. “I’ll see you,” he said.

“Maybe.”

He inhaled a breath and seemed poised to argue. Instead, he exhaled hard, turned, and left the room. Brynn stared at the empty doorway, terrified for Rook and unsure of the reason. She’d seen no other visions involving him, just the one of Knight crying in an unknown bathroom—a vision that could happen tomorrow or years from now. It didn’t mean that Rook was in immediate danger.

Only he was, and that’s what bothered her. An entire town of loup garou had been destroyed, and while Cornerstone had twice as many residents, they were also the next closest sanctuary town to Stonehill. If the murderers were working their way through loup garou, then Cornerstone was logically next.

And she was stuck here.

“Fantastic,” she said out loud.

The sleeping woman in bed did not answer her.

From the window of the bedroom, Brynn observed as Rook climbed into the passenger seat of a waiting blue SUV. It pulled away from the curb, taking him off to some important task, and possibly out of her life forever. If that was what the gods wanted, then so be it.

Two large figures crossed the street, coming in the direction of Dr. Mike’s home. Thomas McQueen walked with intent, shoulders back. The man with him she did not recognize, and he kept pace two steps behind, slightly to his Alpha’s right. They strode down the stone walkway to Dr. Mike’s front porch, and a moment later she heard the door buzzer.

She returned to her chair, but didn’t sit. She did not have to wait long, even though her jumping nerves made the brief minutes stretch into agonizing hours. Would the Alpha take one look at her and know of her mismatched feelings for Rook? She would die of embarrassment.

McQueen filled the entire doorway with his presence, and the room felt half as large when he stepped inside. She was struck with the oddest urge to drop to her knees and cower in front of this man; Magus pride kept her firmly on her feet. His companion was older, closer to McQueen’s age than any of his sons, with sandy hair and visible scars on his face and throat.

“Ms. Atwood,” McQueen said. “I’m sorry we haven’t had a chance to speak again since last night.”

“You had more important matters to attend to,” she replied. “But as I told Rook, I have no knowledge of the Magus who was supposedly in Connecticut last night, I promise you. I’m horrified by what happened.”

“I appreciate that.”

“As such, may I have your permission to go home?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

Brynn resisted the very real urge to growl out her frustration. “I have been nothing except compliant, Mr. McQueen.”

“And I appreciate your cooperation, but I’d prefer if you remained a willing guest for a while longer.”

It all sounded so polite, and yet it wasn’t a request. She wasn’t loup garou, but Brynn recognized an Alpha’s order when she heard one. “I wouldn’t say willing, sir, but I’ll continue to cooperate.”

“Thank you. I’d also like to speak with you in private. O’Bannen here can sit with Ms. Reynolds for a while.”

She glanced at the sandy-haired loup named O’Bannen, then nodded. “Of course.” She followed McQueen into the hallway, then down a few doorways to an empty bedroom.

“I’d like to know more about your seer abilities,” he said after he closed the door. “Do you mind explaining?”

“No, I don’t mind.” She put a little distance between them for her own comfort, then told him the same things she’d told Knight. She left out her brief vision that morning, unwilling to alarm not just Knight’s Alpha, but also his father. The kind of protective, loving father she could not imagine having for her own.

“Would your father have any reason to be near West Virginia today?”

“No, he rarely leaves the family home near Philadelphia, except for Congress business. I can’t imagine he’d have any reason to go so far west.”

“All right, thank you.”

She didn’t understand why—oh. “Is that where Rook is going?”

“Yes. I’m sure you can understand my concern.”

“Of course I can. I sincerely wish I had more control over my ability.”

McQueen studied her with a soft frown. “Your father has never worked with you to develop it? None of your peers?”

Sadness clutched her heart. “No. As I said, I’m a disappointment in the world of the Magi, as second children often are. I am tolerated, nothing more.”

“And yet you faced the wrath of six hundred loup garou to save your father.”

Why does everyone seem so surprised by this?
“Kind or cruel, Mr. Queen, he’s still my father, and he’s an important man in the Congress.”

“You wanted to prove something.”

“Yes, I did. In the end, I’ve proved nothing and I’ve embarrassed myself. I can’t apologize to you enough for that.”

“I accept your apology, but you’re wrong. You’ve proven to have courage and loyalty, and you’ve given me a new perspective on the Magi. I’ve never met one I thought I could trust. Rook seems to trust you. I wanted a chance to speak with you to see if my trust could be extended as well.”

Brynn swallowed hard, mouth unexpectedly dry. She hadn’t expected this, and the confession startled her. “And?”

He slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks and relaxed back onto his heels. His warm smile was his only answer to that question. “Ms. Atwood, as loup garou, we rely on the power of smell more than any other sense. We use it to identify between the species, but it’s also part of our genetics. Families have distinguishing scent markers. For example, a loup stranger would be able to tell by his nose that my sons and I are related.”

She nodded so he’d know she understood and was following along. He didn’t seem the type to speak in circles or mince words, so there would be a point to the brief lesson in loup garou biology.

“In the same way,” he continued, “we can tell when strangers have been in an area.”

“Such as Stonehill?” she asked.

“Exactly. Our noses help us distinguish unfamiliar scents, as well as half-breeds and other species, such as vampires or Magi.”

“May I ask what I smell like?”

His hesitation lasted a split second, but it was long enough that Brynn noticed. “The Magi have a smell like bitter orange. And unlike loup, we can rarely tell one Magus from another simply on scent.”

“Is that why your sons figured out who I was yesterday, despite the medallion?”

“Partly, yes. Your medallion didn’t properly hide your scent, but that isn’t why I’m explaining all of this.”

“All right.”

“When our teams returned from Stonehill this morning, everyone present confirmed one piece of evidence. A Magi scent was found in several places around town, which suggests they were present during and likely participated in the slaughter.”

Her stomach twisted up tight. “Yes, Rook mentioned that to me. Actually, he accused me of knowing something about it, but he was upset. I thought we’d established that I know nothing of it.”

McQueen moved to stand in front of her, a large and intimidating presence, and she fought the urge to fall to her knees in front of the Alpha. She was not loup, though, and as a Magus she would never submit to one. Stubborn pride in her people kept her still.

“Rook established you know nothing, and I trust his judgment. I’m simply delving deeper into the topic, and I need you to be honest with me right now. What reason would a Magus have to be involved in these murders?”

“None!” She didn’t mean to shout. “It’s impossible.”

He growled softly, and the sound raised the hair on the back of her neck. “Impossible? Can you name another living creature other than a Magi who would have the ability to burn someone to death from the inside out?”

Her stomach roiled. She hadn’t forgotten what Rook told her, and she knew that only an elemental Magus could have done such a thing. But why?

The importance of this conversation struck her. In his own gruff way, Thomas McQueen was asking for her help. Finally. This was something she could do.

“It is possible for a Magus to kill someone that way,” Brynn said. “The magic we possess is a product of the magic of our parents. It’s why good matches are so important. Strong parents produce a strong child.” Something she would never be able to provide for a husband—no Magus male would want an unpredictable seer mothering his heir.

Heir. Parent.

Brynn pulled on every ounce of her own strength to keep her face still, to not let her fear and disgust show. “For such an ability as you mentioned to exist, one parent would have to possess the elemental ability to manipulate fire.”

When McQueen didn’t ask any questions, she looked up at his face. He was watching her intently, asking without using words. She appreciated that he was allowing her to speak freely, to make the choice of how much to betray about her own people. Elemental powers were not uncommon among the Magi, but she only knew a handful who were fire-based—including her own father.

“Ms. Atwood,” he said when she didn’t elaborate, “I understand wanting to protect your people. I won’t force you to name names at this time, but I hope you understand that for the immediate future, you are not free to leave Cornerstone.”

She heard the unspoken threat—no, the promise to get that information out of her if he reached a certain point of desperation—and it irritated her. She hoped it never came to that. “May I ask a question?”

“Certainly.”

“You said the Magus was smelled in some parts of town, but he or she couldn’t have killed everyone by himself.”

“No. Some of the loup scents were confusing, even for trained noses like Bishop and Jillian. They suspect loup and human half-breeds, between three and six.” He hesitated, weighing the information he wanted to reveal. “They also scented a vampire.”

Brynn shook her head, not understanding. “What would half-breeds, a Magus and a vampire be doing together? And to slaughter a town of loup garou?”

“All good questions, and exactly what we’re trying to answer. Any information that you’re able to give me . . . well, you know where my office is.”

She looked away, unable to meet his eyes any longer. Heavy footsteps moved away. Brynn fell back on the bed and covered her eyes with her hands, dizzy and confused and frustrated enough to scream. McQueen had lost so much, and his own town was potentially in danger from this rogue group of murderers. She wanted to help, but at what cost? Could she give up the names of the Magus men who were fire elementals? Could she give up her own father, the very man she’d come here to save? Could she betray her own people to the loup garou? Was her father’s future death somehow related to all of these recent events?

More than that, could she live with herself if her silence resulted in more innocent deaths?

Chapter Ten

The Potomac run camp wasn’t on any state maps, and the dirt road leading to it didn’t show up on their GPS. Devlin would have driven right past the hidden gate if Rook hadn’t known what marker to look for—an old, fallen tree split down the middle like a tuning fork. The gate itself was an ingenious collection of living brush and dead branches, strapped together in a way that could be shifted out of the road, and then put back again.

Rook let them in, and they trundled down the rutted path toward the most dangerous run in the country. He wasn’t nervous, exactly, but his blood was already humming with anticipation. Different runs had a history of fighting, and Cornerstone had its own bloody past with Potomac. However, he had no reason to think Potomac was involved in the mass slaughter in Stonehill. The other Alphas just needed to know for sure.

Tall trees and their thick summer leaves created a canopy overhead, giving the illusion of having entered another world entirely. Rook rolled down his window and breathed in a nose full of the forest. Dozens of other scents carried inside the truck’s cab, including those of humans, loup garou, and half-breeds. The half-breed stink made him bristle out of habit. He’d never understood how Potomac embraced so many of them.

He thought of Brynn, and his own prejudice hit him in the gut. She was a half-breed, as well, of a different sort, and he not only accepted her, he wanted to know more about her. He’d come very close to kissing her several hours ago at their parting. He was afraid she’d be gone when he returned home from this errand, and he’d have forever lost the chance to kiss her. To feel her mouth on his, to taste what he had already scented. He’d chickened out, too afraid of her reacting badly to the action, and for good reason. She’d been raised believing she was fully Magus and that loup were animals. As much as he had wanted to kiss her, he didn’t think he could stand it if she was disgusted by it—which made very little sense, considering he’d known Brynn for less than a day. More and more, his beast reacted to her proximity and, likewise, to her distance from him now.

His beast needed to shut the hell up about a woman he couldn’t have. It was best for both of them if she was gone before he returned to Cornerstone. He wanted his last memory of her to be a good one, and it was. He still felt her clasping his arm, still smelled her scent on his skin.

The track bent sharply to the left, and then three large, male bodies were blocking the way. Devlin stopped and rolled his window down.

The tallest of the trio walked over to the driver’s side and ducked down to see inside. “Where you from?” he asked.