Dangerous Dalliances (Maxwell Investigations) (3 page)

Cupid
bow lips turned down in a deep frown. “You haven’t dealt with baggage claim and
customs,” she said in the same tone. Her heavy Irish accent nearly slurred her
words. “Really, do they actually expect a woman to only carry three ounces of
shampoo?”

Ashton
fought a chuckle as he tossed her bags in the trunk. “Yes, well, I have always
picked up my own shampoo after I’ve reached my destination.”

Lavender
eyes narrowed. “You’re a heathen,” she spat.

When
she turned away from him, he couldn’t help but laugh at her back. When he first
came across Siobhan McKenna, she had been a spoiled princess with no concept of
the role Fate had in store for her. Now, some years later, she was still a
spoiled princess.

But
she knew how to yield her powers like a weapon.

Ashton
quickly finished with her bags and went to climb into his car. He glanced over
his shoulder and spotted the guard that had approached him. With a curt nod,
the Necromancer slammed his door shut.

Siobhan
turned up the radio as Ashton started to pull away. A look of disgust crossed
her face when high-pitched pop melodies filled the car. “Oh, you have got to be
kidding me!” she exclaimed. “You’re a pedophile too?”

Ashton
growled as he turned off the radio. The girl was lucky she was needed to usher
in chaos. Otherwise he would have been forced to kill her. “I just like the
innocence of the music.”

She
snorted. “You’re at least a century old, and yet you’re sitting here listening
to Radio Disney. The last person I believed did that is now serving 30 to 60.
You may want to watch your back.” She gave him a mocking smile as she turned
the radio back on.

Ashton
growled low to himself as he quickly made his way to I-95. She was needed, and
the moment she wasn’t, he would make sure she would pay.

Images
started to blend together. Madison laughed as she stood over Barry’s broken and
prone body; blood bubbled from his lips as he tried to counter her magic.

Troy lying in a pool of blood, the
twins standing guard over him.

Alex holding a broken arm as he fought
against her.

Victor arming himself for the first
time in centuries.
His heart was heavy as he came to the
realization that he would have to kill a woman he raised as his own.

Casper’s
face contorted in rage as he turned towards Aston, sword at the ready.

Everything melting into the shadowed
figure of the man that had originally taken her in. “My Madi.”
Pan smiled
down at her. In his hand he held a small coin. “It’s time for Death to wake
up.” He held it over her body before breaking it in two.

Dylan’s
voice echoed as she looked at the pinned creature in front of her. There was
nothing in her eyes but rage. “You’re Maleficent?” she questioned. The steel
scythe in her hands glowed with Transmutation energy and quickly formed two
short swords. “Then I guess that makes me the Queen of Hearts.” She jumped at
Madison. “And I want your fucking head!”

*

Madison’s
eyes snapped open as the vision went dark. She looked around the room and saw
that she was home. The half-moon hung brightly in the sky as her body trembled.
Right after she and Troy married, she started to receive visions of the future.
It was just her luck that she temporarily acted as an Oracle for her daughter.
But all she ever saw were flashes of blood and a lot of pain.

Tears
filled her eyes as she thought of what she saw. After everything that happened
in recent years, after all of her talk about how family was everything, she was
going to be the one to betray them.

“Are
you okay?” Troy asked sleepily. He sat up and leaned over Madison. The fact
that he was still with her amazed her. His eyes turned troubled when he noticed
how badly she was shaking. “Is it the baby?”

Madison
shook her head. “A vision,” she said before working her way into a sitting
position. She saw the questions forming on his lips and quickly leaned forward
and kissed him. “I can’t tell you,” she said in a whisper. “Fate is just as big
of a bitch as Karma. If we try to do anything to stop it, then it’ll just turn
out worse in the end.” Her eyes turned to her hands as she also thought about
the content of the visions. There was no way she was going to tell him that she
was going to turn into the worse sort of monster.

She
turned and tossed the blankets off of her body. Hopefully there was still some
of last night’s dinner in the fridge. While she wouldn’t normally eat something
like roasted eggplant, their daughter seemed to take a liking to it. Madison
looked over her shoulder and gave Troy a shaky smile. When he frowned at her,
she shook her head. “I know you’re worried, but everything will be fine.”

Troy
frowned when she kissed his cheek again. Something was bothering her and he
knew there was nothing he could do at the moment to take her fears away. With a
sigh, he moved out of their bed. Even though little Aurora wasn’t due for
another few weeks, he didn’t want to take any chances. “Do you want me to fix
you anything fresh?”

Madison
gasped as she reached for her own robe. She glanced at Troy and saw that he was
making his way over to where she was standing. A grimace crossed her face as he
placed his hands on her rounded stomach. “I think I would rather you call your
father,” she said just before moisture started to run down her leg. “Rory’s
coming.”

* *
* * *

It
was midafternoon when Barry’s phone rang. Lily’s fight party was in a few hours
and he was about to start getting ready. A frown crossed his face when he saw
his mother’s picture on the phone. “What’s going on, Mom?” he asked as he
turned to walk into his room.

“You
should come down to the hospital and meet your niece Aurora Maxine,” Tina said
proudly.

Barry
froze mid-step. Madison had her daughter. The little girl that he was pretty
sure that was going to become as powerful of an Oracle as their cousin Mathias
had been. Barry cleared his throat and painted a smile on his face. “That’s
great, Mom. I’ll be down there as soon as I can.”

Tina
was silent for a moment. She knew all of her children a little too well. “What
are you hiding from me, Barrence?” she asked in a whisper.

“I
am not telling you over the phone,” he said in a defensive tone. If he told
Tina everything Mathias had confided in him, she would hit the roof. Then she
would probably hit him. It didn’t matter that his older brother knew about all
it before even he did. Eric was still comatose and therefore would not be held
responsible for hiding the secret that their two sisters were half of the
Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Barry
on the other hand would be a dead man walking.

And
it wasn’t only Tina he had to worry about. Victor, Troy and Crispin would all
have a few bones to pick with him. He would be lucky if he walked away from the
ordeal with no broken appendages. Then there was also the fact that if they
knew about it, then Crispin would tell Dylan, who would then tell Sloane and
Lily.

And
Lily was the third Horseman. She wasn’t going to be happy about that in the
slightest. The small amount of ground he made with her would be dust in the
wind.

“I
don’t know what you’re hiding and I don’t really too much care why you’re
hiding it,” Tina said sharply. “You be down at this hospital in your brother’s
room in 20 minutes, do you understand me?”

Barry
knew that tone all too well. Growing up that tone was the telltale sign that
someone was about to get their butt whipped. Now that he was an adult, and his
mother out-ranked him in the Council, he was going to be in for some shit
assignments in his near future. “Yes, Ma’am,” he said dutifully before hanging
up his phone.

This
meeting was not going to be pretty. Despite all of the animosity between Tina
and Madison in the past, they were now inseparable. Tina even started going
over to Madison’s for Sunday dinner. It also didn’t hurt that Troy had gone to
culinary school and was a damn good chef. But it was weird watching his mother
dote on the one child everyone thought she had written off.

Barry
walked into his room and saw the blue Hugo Boss shirt he planned to wear with a
matching set of slacks and sighed. If he was about to die, at least he was
going to look good. He looked at the phone in his hand and quickly pulled up
Lily’s phone number.

She
picked up on the second ring. “Hi, Barry,” she said breathlessly. He could only
imagine what made her sound like that.

“Hey,
Lily, I’m afraid I can’t make it tonight.” Hopefully she would understand.

A
soft laugh escaped her. “I know. Madison had the baby. Sloane called and said
that he and Jimmy can’t come either. I was just putting together a small
package to take up to the hospital.”

He
didn’t know if he should be thrilled that she wasn’t upset, or pissed because
his little brother had gotten an invite to the party too. Barry rubbed the back
of his neck. “Okay. Well, are you going to be there in the next 20 minutes or
so? My mother wants to talk to me, and I really think you need to be there
too.” After the words left his mouth he wanted to kick himself. He could feel
humor quickly leave Lily’s voice.

“I’m
not sure that’s a good idea,” she said carefully. “We only agreed to friends.”

“I
know,” Barry said quickly. There was no way he wasn’t going to hate himself
when this was all over. “But something has been bothering me for a while, and
my mother just picked up on it. She wants to know what’s going on, and I think
you should know what it is too.” Barry paused and waited until she was about to
take another breath. “It’s about something Mathias told me.”

There
was no sound on the other end of the phone for a long moment. Lily had always
been torn about her feelings for Mathias. He had been the man to take her in
and raise her and her twin brother. She thought of his as nothing less than her
father. “Where are you meeting her?”

Relief
flooded through him. If she went to the meeting, he could explain why he didn’t
say anything.
“Eric’s room.”

“I’ll
be there.”

Barry
frowned as the phone went dead. He didn’t want to hurt her any more, but he had
a sinking feeling that with Aurora’s birth, something bad was coming. And there
was no way any of them would be able to brace for impact.

* *
* * *

Lily
glared at the lavender and pink basket in front of her. She couldn’t explain
why, but she was furious. It had taken months to get over her father’s death.
Mathias kept her hidden from the world. He kept both her and Cord protected
from the crazy hunts that wiped out most other Succubi and Incubi. It wasn’t
fair that he was now painted a bad guy after everything with Cord. It also
wasn’t right that he confided anything in Barry that he hadn’t already told
her.

A
small sigh left her as she looked at the small bear with large blue eyes. “I
know I shouldn’t be angry with him,” she said as she stood. “But he doesn’t
know me. Why should he have any secrets about me?” Lily shook her head before
walking over to her closet.

She
had originally planned to wear nothing more than a sweat suit, but now with the
trip to the hospital, she would have to make herself look
put
together. A slow sigh escaped her as she ran her hands through her hair. Most
of her usual clothes were in the laundry. Right now she was down to a couple of
pairs of jeans and blouses.

She
rolled her eyes as she pulled out the blouse Sloane had given her for
Christmas. There was no way she was going to try and impress Barry. Her
feelings were still in a tangle from that night all those months ago. On one
hand, he had taken complete advantage of her. On the other, no one was hurt. If
it hadn’t been for that promise she made to Eric, sooner or later, she and
Barry would have hooked up at least once.

Lily
frowned slightly as she started to brush out her hair. If she allowed herself
to think about that night, she could barely remember what happened. She just
had the feeling of waking up completely satisfied. Again something that wasn’t
normal. Usually, to wake up that content, she would have had to take someone’s
life.

Green
eyes locked on her reflection as she bit her bottom lip. She had made the
decision to keep Barry in the ever-popular friend zone, but that didn’t mean
she didn’t want him just as much as he wanted her. And while she was used to
hiding how she really looked, she was tired of it. A smirk crossed her face
when her eyes caught the make-up kit Lacey had given her for her birthday.

Lily
went over to her vanity and sat. Even though they agreed to be friends, she
would make him suffer just as much as she was.

Madison
looked up at the ceiling of her hospital room. Her daughter was beautiful. She
knew that no matter what was going to happen, Rory was going to be well taken
care of. Her eyes drifted over to where Troy sat quietly tracing a trail of
water along the side of his cup. “Go check on the kids,” she said in a whisper.
When he jumped, she gave him a crooked smile. “I want some sleep and you’re
thinking too hard.”

Troy
laughed as he stood and walked over to her side. “Are you sure? I could stay
here with you and have Casper stay with Aurora.” He reached out and gently
touched her face. “I would stay really quiet.” He leaned forward and pressed a
kiss to her lips. “You won’t even know that I’m here.”

“Famous
last words,” Madison mumbled before returning his kiss. When he slowly pulled
away from her, she touched his face. “But really, go check on the boys and the
baby.”

“Kayin
and Aiden are taking perfect care of Casper,” Troy countered easily. He laughed
when he saw her smile. “Alright, I won’t make it too hard on you,” he said
before kissing her again. In their time together, Madison had become his world.
And while he cherished every moment he spent with her, he also knew when she
needed space. “I’ll call them and see about someone bringing them by to see the
baby.”

The
door opened to reveal a tall blonde woman in a nurse’s uniform. She carefully
maneuvered the door open while pushing in a wheelchair. “I’m sorry to
interrupt, but we need Mom for some routine tests,” she said with a pleasant
smile and lovely Irish lilt.

Madison
felt the world around her shift. The statuesque blonde wasn’t a nurse. Things
were starting now. “It’s okay. He was about to let me take a nap while he
checked on our sons.” Madison looked at Troy as he helped her sit up then
stand. “I’ll see you in no time,” she lied. When he frowned at her, she kissed
him quickly and settled into the wheelchair.

Troy
looked at the nurse and his frowned deepened. Something strange had been going
on with Madison for the past few months and he didn’t know how to approach her
about it. He was beginning to worry about her. “I love you, Maleficent.”

Madison
smiled as the “nurse” started to wheel her into the hall. “I love you too,” she
whispered before leaving him in the room. She was silent as the blonde took her
down the halls and to the elevator. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a
thin gold bracelet with markings from one of the royal Fae houses. Madison’s
lips pressed together as she waited until they were on the small car before
speaking. “You’re a Royal.”

Siobhan
glanced down at the woman that she was told would have been so hard to capture.
“Yes. And you’re going to come quietly?”

Madison
slowly nodded. “I’m not one to fight against fate too much,” she answered.
“This was going to
happen
one way or another.”

The
elevator doors opened and Siobhan started to wheel Madison into the parking
garage. “Good. You just had a baby after all.”

* *
* * *

Barry
could only stare in shock as he walked into Eric’s hospital room. What he
thought was going to be a simple conversation between him, Lily and his mother
turned into some sort of family meeting. Eric was lying comatose, while his
husband Sloane and their mother sat at his side. Their father James leaned
against the widow with their brother Jimmy. Dylan and her husband Crispin were
sitting on Eric’s other side and Troy stood just off to the side. Barry pressed
his lips together for a moment and went further into the room. “Hi,” he said
tartly.

Before
anyone could respond, the door opened again to reveal Lily holding a large
basket full of stuffed animals and baby clothes. She looked around the room
before her eyes locked on Barry. “Maybe I shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.

Barry
shook his head and went to help her. “No. I asked you to come,” he said lifting
the basket from her arms. A smile crossed his face when he looked at what she
was wearing. “I just wasn’t expecting everyone else.” He carried the basket
over to a small table while he continued to assess her appearance. Lily’s body
was wasted in baggy clothes and wraps. As a Succubus, she had a body made for
sin, and she was one of the most sensual beings that he had ever come across.

Tina
folded her arms over her chest as she glared at the pair. “Barrence, can we get
to what you’re hiding, then you can finish undressing Lily in your mind?” she
asked rudely.

Barry’s
face went red as Lily ducked her head and went to stand over where Sloane was
sitting. People sometimes wondered where Madison got her attitude from, and now
he knew. Tina could be just as crass. Barry cleared his throat and looked at
his mother. “There really is no easy way to say this, but I have reason to
believe that the girls are in danger.”

Dylan
narrowed her eyes as she took her brother’s stance. She always hated when her
brothers referred to her and Madison as “the girls.” Barry pressed his lips
together, knowing that she was probably reading his mind and finding everything
he had kept hidden from her. He knew she found his conversation with Mathias
when her face went pale.

“Mathias
told me about a prophecy that says that something huge is going to happen
within the next few weeks. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are to rise, and
bring about a new world.” Barry glanced at both Lily and Dylan before
continuing. Lily looked confused while Dylan looked positively ill. “From
everything that we’ve found, we know who three of the Horsemen are.”

Crispin
straightened as he looked at the love of his life. “Lily, Dylan and Madison,”
he confirmed darkly. When Barry started to nod, Crispin shook his head. “And
you didn’t see fit to tell us before now?” he asked.

“What
did you want me to say, Crispin?” Barry asked in turn. “Just call all of you
up, ask how everything was going, and then add ‘oh, by the way, your wife might
be one of the harbingers of the End of Days’? Did you forget that they’re my
sisters too?”

“How
did Mathias come across this prophecy?” James asked.

Another thing that his family was
going to hate him for.
“Because his mother was your
aunt Martha.”
Barry looked at his father and slipped his hands in his
pockets. “She was an Oracle, and after the first vision she wrote about it in
her journals.”

The
frown Troy wore deepened before he stood straight and left the room. Barry was
silent as everyone thought over what he told him.

Tina
stood and walked over to him. “Do you have any idea the position you have put
this family in?” she asked softly. “There are children to think about. If
something happens to Dylan or Madison, how do you expect to explain it to Lacey
or the twins?” When Barry started to turn his face to the window, she grabbed
his chin and made him look at her. “There are also our positions to think
about. We’re all related. You don’t think they’ll throw a fit if something
happens and one of us knew? They could sit back and accuse us of some kind of
bizarre power play. Keeping this from us was selfish and irresponsible.”

“I
was only following Eric’s lead,” Barry said weakly.

“Don’t
put this on him,” Sloane snapped.

“I’m
not.” Barry ran his hands over his hair and tried to calm his anger. “Look,
when I found out, he and I talked on the phone. We were going to meet up and
plan how to tell all of you,” he paused when his eyes turned to Lily. “But then
he had that fight with Cord and ended up here.” Barry turned his attention back
to his mother and sighed. “I know it wasn’t smart. I get that. But really, I
didn’t know what to do. Hell, I still don’t know what to do.”

Troy
ran back into the room and looked at his in-laws. His golden eyes locked with
Tina as he tried to combat his rage. “Madison’s gone.”

* *
* * *

Madison
looked up at the ceiling of the penthouse she was taken to. The Fae princess
had left her on the bed so she could rest. Madison didn’t want to rest. There
was too much going on. By now Troy had to be going crazy. She was sure Dylan,
Crispin and Casper weren’t any better. The only saving grace was that Victor
was on a business trip, but Madison didn’t fool herself. When he did return,
there was going to be hell to pay. Before a smile could cross her face, it
fell. Victor was going to look for her, and he had the power and resources to
find her. Pieces of the vision she had played in her memory again. When
everything was done, she had the feeling that either she or Victor would be
dead.

The
door to the bedroom opened and Madison could only glare at the man entering.
She had trusted him, and now she was going to be his pawn. “What do you want
from me, Gramps?” she asked as she fought back a growl.

Pan
looked at her and smiled. “My Madi,” he said proudly. “You don’t know how long
I’ve waited for you to be ready for this.”

Madison
sat up and glared at him.
“Ready for what?
For me to
betray everyone I love?”

“But
do they love you?” he asked. With a wave of his hand, Madison’s body slammed
back against the mattress. “No. They can’t. Your family threw you away when you
were a child. The Vampires never really understood you. Your Wolf can never
understand who and what a Necromancer really is. Every person you
love,
loves the masks you don to fit in.”

“What
about you, Gramps?” Madison asked as Pan stood over her. “I loved you. Do you
love a mask of mine too? Or is this where you talk about how you’re the only
person to ever really understand me.”

He
laughed. “You loved one of my masks,” he confessed. “It’s only fair. My caring
mentor adored your little orphan.” Pan reached into his pocket and pulled out a
small gold coin. “Do you remember your lessons about the End of Days?” He
looked down at her mutinous expression and smiled. “Of course you do. You have
the mind of a steel trap. It was one of the things I’ve always adored about
you.” Pan lifted the coin and showed it to Madison. “Seven Seals were hidden.
This is one of them.” He smiled as he tested the weight of it in his hands. “My
plans were thrown for a loop when we found out that each Horseman has a
specific seal. I really wanted to take your sister at the same time.”

“Stay
away from Dylan,” Madison snapped. When she tried to sit up again, she felt the
pressure from Pan’s magic keeping her down. “I swear
Gramps,
if you touch her I will rip your heart out with my bare hands.”

Pan
laughed as her eyes slowly turned crimson. “My, sweet Madi,” he sighed brushing
her hair away from her face. “While I would normally let you rest, it’s time
for Death to wake up.” She shook her head wildly as he held the coin over her
chest and snapped it in two.

Madison’s
eyes were terrified as a black miasma escaped the broken seal. She looked at
Pan one last time and shook her head. “I will hate you forever for this,” she
whispered before the mist started to enter her ears, nose, and mouth.

Pan’s
jovial expression fell as he watched his most powerful apprentice. “Of this, I
have no doubt,” he said as her back bowed off of the bed and she started to
scream. “But a new world must be ushered in.”

* *
* * *

Lily
felt ill.

Hours
had passed since Madison disappeared. Tina had members of the Council trying to
investigate. Dylan and Crispin had taken over the hospital’s security office.
Sloane and James left to see if there was any word on the streets about the
coming doomsday.

Lily
found herself in the nursery after spending a while at Eric’s bedside. Her eyes
easily found the small bundle of pink under the name Davenport. Little Aurora
was going to be a heartbreaker one day, but no one knew if her mother would be
found in time to see it. Lily’s shoulders fell as she tried to move her
thoughts away from Madison.

“Lily,”
Troy called as he came down the hall.

She
looked at him and painted a smile on her face. “I just wanted to take a peek,”
she said as she glanced back at the baby. “I didn’t want to be a bother to
anyone.”

He
shook his head. “To tell you the truth, I’m glad you’re here,” he confessed.
“With everything going on, I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to be
alone.”
 
His eyes clouded for a moment.
“If you can, would you stay with her?” he asked softly. He saw the way Lily’s
face paled, and shook his head. “It’s only for a little while. Leigh is on her
way in, but after this afternoon, I don’t want to trust the hospital staff.”

Lily
looked at the darling baby sleeping with her hands up close by her face. “It
won’t be a problem,” she said with a small smile.

Troy
nodded, his attention snared by his vibrating cell phone. He glanced at his
phone and clenched his jaw. “I’ll be a second,” he muttered. He looked up and
smiled at the nurse opening the door to the nursery. “Delia, this is Lily.
She’s Aurora’s aunt. Don’t let anyone take her without Lily’s okay,” he said
before putting his phone to his ear and walking down the hall.

Lily
looked at the nurse with critical eyes. She had a small but powerful build.
“You’re another Wolf?” she asked as she walked into the nursery.