By the Embers Dies the Fire Read online

  And it terrified her.

  Ryan’s green gaze steadily met hers. “What three bodies? There were signs of a struggle, but likely their compatriots took any bodies with them as well.”

  “Jasper!” She’d forgotten about him in the commotion. “Where is he? Is he okay?”

  “Safely guarding the children at Lacey’s. Gigi is there now with them, and Callie has driven your mother to the ER. Your mother will tell them she tripped going down the cellar stairs.”

  “Did you help her think that?”

  “No, I simply told her that it would be an easier version of the story to give to clueless humans.”

  “All neat and tidy, huh?” Elain bitterly said.

  “Would you have it any other way?” His tone hardened. “Perhaps break your men’s hearts that their brother nearly killed their mate, children, and two other innocent children? This way, at least, they can think he died a hero.”

  “Easy, now,” Marston said. “Please don’t make this harder on her.”

  “I’m not,” Ryan said. “But those are interesting words coming from your mouth, Marston. There’s a larger picture here to keep in mind. Frankly, I’m not interested in anyone’s feelings right now. I’m more interested in learning exactly how an Alpha wolf managed to hide from his brothers and everyone else for so long the fact that he had a cockatrice spell book and amulet, and the knife and other items. As well as where he got them from, and that he knew how to do cockatrice dark magick.”

  “The amulet came from a cockatrice Ain killed,” she said. “A female. The mate of the one who killed their sisters. That’s what he said, that he found it in the ruins of the fire that day. I don’t know where Brighton got the other stuff.”

  Ryan knelt so he could look them both in the eye. “I am not unsympathetic to the events of today. However, this is part of the job, as it were. This is one of the things we do so that the greater good is preserved, and Earthlings go about their clueless, bumbling lives none the wiser.”

  Elain finally nodded. “I’m sorry, Ryan. You’re right. Thank you.”

  His expression softened. “No, I’m sorry that it came to this and I didn’t know to intervene sooner.”

  “How do I face my guys?” she asked, struggling not to cry again. “How do I ever look them in the eyes again?”

  “You just do,” Ryan said. “Seer Says. Part of the job. This is the cycle of life. By the embers dies the fire. Brighton chose the path he walked and extinguished his own flame by his actions. You had to maintain balance, and letting him send you to some off-Earth realm would not have served the greater balance. How do you think your men would have handled learning their insane brother killed their children and banished or killed their mate? It would have destroyed them. You hold a secret that preserves their…well, not happiness, but it maintains an illusion that would serve no useful purpose to destroy.”

  When Colleen reached for her father, Elain let go of her. Elain realized she was now soaking wet, and still had some blood on her clothes. Then there were the two magazines in her back pocket.

  “My gun.”

  “Handled,” Ryan said.

  “My scent? The other babies?”

  “Taken care of. Your scent at the rock pile is explained by the fact that you went there before. Fortunately, you told the others about that. The scent of the babies is incidental and transferred via contact from when you rescued the two children, not directly. I moved your van back to Lacey’s and disposed of the cockatrices’ car so it will not be found. The wolves will think they escaped.”

  Elain stared at Colleen. “She’s really safe now, right? From her bloodline?”

  Ryan nodded. “She is. Anyone will believe she is full-blooded wolf. Even Seers.”

  Marston passed the shower head to Elain and stood, Colleen in his arms.

  “Ryan, could you please pass me a towel for her?” he asked.

  “I can go get her dressed, if you’d like.”

  “Uh, sure. Okay. Thank you.”

  Ryan hung the bathrobe over the towel rack and took the towel-swaddled toddler from him. Colleen grinned at Ryan, making Elain smile.

  “The Devil’s great with kids,” Elain tried to joke. “Good thing, too.”

  “Why’s that?” Marston asked.

  “Never mind,” Elain and Ryan both said as their gazes met.

  “Seer Says,” Elain added.

  * * * *

  Marston climbed out of the shower and pulled the shower curtain shut, quickly stripping and tossing his wet clothes in his bathtub after pulling a towel around him. Then he left Elain alone in the bathroom.

  She dragged herself to her feet, hung the shower head up, and stripped her clothes off, too, rinsing off.

  She felt…

  She didn’t know what the hell she felt.

  Numb.

  After finishing, she shut the water off, grabbed another towel to dry off, then pulled on the robe Ryan had brought her. It felt sinfully plush and comfy.

  She wrung the excess water out of her clothes, poured the water out of her sneakers, and piled it all up on the shower floor where she could easily reach it. She’d need a garbage bag or something.

  She opened the bathroom door just as Ryan was about to knock. “Oh, right. There you are. Ready to return?”

  “Return?”

  “To Lacey’s. We’ll finish going over the story there.”

  “Is my mom going to be okay?”

  “I should think so, yes. Just a broken arm.”

  “Is she going to be able to stick to the story?”

  “Yes, she is. I’ve taken care of it.” He stared at her.

  “Sure. Okay.” She walked past him, to where Marston had pulled on a pair of shorts and was in Colleen’s room. “Do you have any garbage bags? My clothes are wet.”

  “Under the kitchen sink.”

  “Thanks.” She started to walk down the hall, stopped, turned, and walked into Colleen’s room. Then she hugged Marston, tightly. “Thank you.”

  He finally returned her hug. “Thank you.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “You’re my uncle and I can’t even admit to anyone that I know you.”

  He smiled, but it held no humor. “Yes, I know.”

  She stroked Colleen’s damp hair, then leaned in to kiss the girl’s forehead. “We’re going to have our hands full with her when she’s older, I bet.”

  “Ortega’s already promised to assign guards to her to scare boys away.”

  Elain snickered. “I can believe it.” Her humor faded. “Dammit, I don’t know what to do about Fiona,” she said.

  “Considering I don’t think Ortega will let her too far out of his sight for now, I think we have a while yet to worry about that. She’s spending the weekend here with one of the cousins.”

  “I know.”

  She headed for the kitchen, grabbed a plastic bag, then stopped in the nursery doorway one last time. “We really gotta stop meeting like this. People are going to talk.” She forced a smile she didn’t feel.

  Marston managed a chuckle. “Yes, I certainly wouldn’t want to cast aspersions upon your reputation, my dear.”

  Ryan silently watched this play out, following Elain back to the bathroom where he took the bag from her, gathered up her clothes and sneakers, and stuffed them into the bag. Without a word, he held out his hand and she took it.

  They appeared in the spare bedroom at Lacey’s, Elain choking back a sob to see the three babies safe and sound in their portable cribs and already falling asleep again. Jasper sat up and wagged his tail, dashing over to Ryan and earning himself a pat on the head.

  “What the hell is he?” she flatly asked.

  Ryan sighed. “Not a what, but a who, and you should ask him that for yourself.”

  The door burst open and Lacey let out a sigh of relief. “There you are!” She threw her arms around Elain. “Oh, sweetheart. We’ll get through this.”

  They left the nursery door open and Jasper on
ce again took up his sentry position on the floor. Gigi met them in the living room and hugged Elain. Lacey dumped Elain’s clothes into the washing machine after retrieving Elain’s phone, which was wet and ruined, her pocket knife, and the two spare magazines.

  Ryan held out his hand for the phone, and seconds later, it was as good as new.

  “Perk of the rank.” He smiled as he returned it to Elain.

  “Is Mom okay?” Elain asked.

  “Callie called me five minutes ago,” Lacey said. “They’re at the ER and seeing her now. She’ll be fine.”

  They all settled at the table after Lacey poured Elain a very stiff bourbon with ice and set it in front of her.

  Ryan went through the story with them.

  “Wait, why is Gigi here to listen to this?” Elain said.

  The former Immortal blushed. “Because I have…information.”

  “What information?”

  “You know I saw Ain kill the cockatrice mother and child and set fire to the hut.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I also saw Brighton take the amulet from her body.”

  Elain stared at her, mouth gaping. “Gee, ya think ya could have fucking told me that a while ago? Oh, like the day we fucking adopted Connor?”

  “I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t realize what it was at the time. I spent very little time around Brighton. To be brutally honest, I had bigger responsibilities to worry about. How was I to know it was more than a mere trinket? I didn’t get that good of a look at it.”

  “So how’d he get the damn book then? The knife? And how am I supposed to explain all this?”

  “The amulet,” Ryan said. “You can admit I took possession of it, because that is the truth. It has no business being available for anyone else to make use of it to open passage to that off-Earth realm. Since that absolutely is my jurisdiction, it only makes sense. No one knew Brighton had it, so we’ll say that it’s of uncertain origin and it was on the rock pile with the other items. We’ll claim the book and other items were brought there by the cockatrice, not Brighton. I made a quick tour through his room here and his house in Florida, and there were a few other items I discovered that were similar in nature and I added them to the pile.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Coffee table,” Gigi quietly said. “In a cloth grocery bag.”

  Elain took several long gulps of the drink, wincing as it went down. “What have we heard back from the others?”

  “Nothing yet,” Lacey said. “We will soon, I’m sure.”

  “Where is he?” she asked Ryan. She didn’t need to clarify.

  Ryan tipped his head toward Lacey’s back door.

  Elain got up, a little wobbly, and headed for the back door with the other three behind her. Going down the steps, and remembering how Ryan had hidden Mercedes’ grave that day, Elain walked almost all the way to the back gate before turning around and looking.

  Carefully looking.

  He would have occluded the smell, too.

  She crossed her arms over her chest, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and silently whispered to herself, “See.”

  When she opened her eyes, she spotted it, over on the other side of the garden from Mercedes and the sundial, with several rosemary plants on top of it. Mature plants several feet tall each.

  No one would suspect.

  She walked over and sank to her knees there. “Thank you, Ryan,” she said. “You remembered.”

  The other three hadn’t moved from the porch. “I thought it apropos.”

  She finally got to her feet, wobbling a little from the stress and the booze, and returned to the house. She sat at the table and finished her drink before staring up at Ryan.

  “Guess you want your bathrobe back, huh?”

  He smirked. “Eventually, yes. I’m rather fond of it.”

  “Why don’t you go take another shower in my bathroom?” Lacey suggested. “Use my soap and stuff. I’ll give you a T-shirt and shorts to wear until your clothes are clean.”

  “So I don’t smell like Ryan.”

  The other three didn’t answer.

  Elain silently swore before letting out a sigh. “So I don’t smell like Marston. Martin. What-the-fuck-ever. Got it.” Elain forced herself back up, swaying a little on her feet. She hugged Ryan first. “Thank you.”

  “I’m truly sorry, Elain. In a few days, I’ll get with you privately about an amulet. It will allow you to summon me immediately.”

  “Thanks.” She hugged Gigi, feeling waves of guilt from her friend. “It’s not your fault.”

  “I kind of feel like it is, partially.”

  “You didn’t know.” Elain headed for Lacey’s bathroom. Lacey gave Elain clothes and waited just outside the door for Elain to hand her the robe.

  When Elain emerged a few minutes later, Gigi was on the phone, and so was Lacey.

  Ryan had departed.

  Elain went to check on her clothes in the wash before pouring herself another large drink and carrying it out onto the back porch, where she sat on the steps.

  As she sipped, she stared first at the sundial, where Mercedes lay. Then to the rosemary bushes marking Brighton’s final resting spot.

  I hate this fucking job.

  As she went through the day’s events in her mind, this time with the semi-numbing effects of the booze, something hit her.

  Brighton said he saw Connor’s birth certificate on her phone because Brodey showed him.

  “Shit!” She got up and went back inside, grabbing her phone. Sure enough, in her pictures, she found the ones she’d never gotten around to deleting after Bolivia.

  “Aw, fuck!”

  “What?” Lacey asked.

  She supposed it didn’t matter. She showed Lacey the phone. She took it, frowning.

  Gigi walked over, her face falling. “You weren’t supposed to keep any of that!”

  “I didn’t mean to! I completely forgot about it. I don’t know if Brodey actually saw the birth certificate, or if Brighton was nosey and swiped through and saw it when looking at baby pictures.”

  “Did Brodey mention anything?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t see it.” She slumped against the wall. “Shit.” She finally e-mailed herself the pictures from the Bolivia notes, including Connor’s baby picture, before deleting them from her phone. “Who was that on the phone?”

  “Brodey and the others are on their way back,” Lacey said. “They’ll drop Liam at the hospital. Callie said your mom is fine, they x-rayed it, just a fracture. She’ll get a cast and some painkillers and be good as new.”

  “He could have killed her.”

  “But he didn’t,” Lacey firmly said. “And even better, she didn’t know it was Brighton who did it. She doesn’t even have to lie.”

  “This fucking sucks.”

  “Welcome to our world,” Gigi lightly snarked.

  Elain went back to the porch and sat, staring at the yard.

  Lacey joined her.

  “I think I want to talk about what’s buried in your yard now,” Elain quietly said. “Before everyone else gets back.”

  Lacey sighed. “I couldn’t tell you before,” she said. “I saw Brighton, dead, getting buried by Ryan.”

  “Why couldn’t you tell me?”

  “Because you would have suspected Ryan of something bad when the truth was he just saved our asses. Literally.”

  Elain didn’t have an answer for that.

  Mostly because Lacey was absolutely right.

  “I didn’t have anything definite to tell you,” Lacey added. “What was I supposed to say? ‘In the future, Brighton dies.’ Well, everyone dies, eventually. It could have been a day or in millennia. I had no idea when it would happen. It wasn’t a clear enough vision, and I didn’t want you to distrust Ryan when I had no context about how Brighton died, much less when.”

  “So who else?” Elain quietly asked. “Mercedes told me it’s a garden of secrets.”

  “
You’re a keeper,” she said. “You already know that one.”

  Elain did, but knew she couldn’t tell her friend the Tablet of Trammel in her garden was a fake.

  “What else?” Elain asked. “Or, should I ask, who else?”

  Lacey didn’t answer at first. “Seer Says?”

  Elain let out a snort. “Sure. Why the fuck not?”

  “Jocko helped me bury one of Rodolfo’s sons. A beta. Twenty-five years ago he showed up, lying about who he was. Jocko and I recognized who he was immediately. He’d been living in Europe for a lot of years. Rodolfo probably thought we wouldn’t know who he was, but there was that…something. In retrospect, he was probably bearing a slight hint of his father’s smell.”

  “So you just killed him?”

  “No, I played along with him. He claimed to be looking for his missing sister, asked if I had any info.”

  “Pretending to be Maureen’s brother?”

  “Yes. I offered him a drink, which I’d laced with enough Ketamine to knock out a horny bull moose. When he woke up, Jocko and I tortured him to find out exactly who he was, what he knew, and what he was doing here. Then we killed him and buried him.”

  She said it so matter-of-factly that Elain had to stare at her for a moment to make sure she wasn’t hearing an alcohol-induced delusion. “What?”

  Lacey shrugged. “War is war. Rodolfo cut a baby out of a woman’s womb. A woman who was his own niece, whom he raped. You haven’t heard even a fraction of the things Rodolfo’s done.” Lacey studied her. “Well, hell, you probably saw more than even I or Jocko know. He killed my cousin. That man was damn lucky we didn’t keep him alive and mail him back to his father a piece at a time. Not that Rodolfo would have given a shit, since the guy was a beta, not an Alpha.”

  Elain did know some of the things Rodolfo had done. She’d tried not to look at all the horrors during her trip through his brain, but avoiding them all had been difficult, to say the least.

  “Anyone else I need to know about?”

  Grief weighed down the old Seer’s face. “Two stillborn children who never took their first breath,” she softly said.

  “Yours?”

  Lacey nodded. “That’s why I won’t ever leave here. I won’t leave them. That might have been nearly a hundred years ago, but I won’t leave them. This is sacred ground, to me. It’s why Jocko made sure it was deeded over to me years ago, that the Clan can never take it from me unless I want to deed it back.”