’round the place, sure he can’t.”
Sebastian put out his hands in feigned indignation. “Dude, I’m right here.”
Niamh acted like she hadn’t heard him. “I figured I’d get him out of their hair for a bit by bringing him for a drink. Maybe he’ll get in trouble with the big boss for leaving the pack lands and be sent home, huh?”
Timmie laughed, and Sebastian continued to stare in indignation.
“What’ll ya have?” Timmie asked him.
He just shook his head. “A ride home, maybe?”
“Bourbon, neat,” Niamh answered for him.
The bartender moved away, and still Sebastian stared at Niamh. “Really?” he finally prodded.
“Everyone knows it, why pretend like we don’t?” she replied.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered as the bartender served his drink and looked around in confusion.
“Weren’t there three of you?” she asked with squinted eyes.
“No?” Niamh glanced over her shoulder. “Why? Did someone walk in behind us?” She hooked a thumb Sebastian’s way. “He never notices when danger’s around.”
“You’re going to give me a complex,” he grumbled.
“Maybe I got it wrong. So what did you…” Timmie’s words drifted away as she watched a skinny guy with a plaid shirt and a shiny gold watch walk in through the door. He stared straight ahead, walking in an equally straight line, until he got to the open stool he wanted. Then he did a ninety-degree turn and sat down. It was more than a little unusual.
“Is he serious with that watch?” Sebastian murmured without thinking.
“Right? ” Timmie whispered, leaning toward him before sparing Niamh a knowing look. “They’re all like that, I swear. Right, Niamh? You must’ve noticed over the last few days.” She looked skyward, shook her head, and slowly made her way to the newcomer.
“That’s one of ’em, right?” Niamh asked.
“Obviously, yes,” Sebastian whispered, his lips against his glass as though he were about to take a sip. “Lower level and insecure, so he’s overcompensating with the watch. He hasn’t got the funds or the position to wear a nicer one, though, so he’s gone for gaudy. You’ll get some scheduling information from him, maybe. His contact, what his contact is hoping to achieve, what he’s learned from the shifters here, but you won’t get anything the likes of which that runner gave Tristan the other night. But we’ll wait and see who else shows up. This guy could be the low-hanging fruit. The one you trip if something scary is chasing you.”
Niamh chuckled. “Makes sense.”
“You haven’t been using the potions to see invisible mages, right?” Sebastian asked before lowering his glass.
Niamh coughed and then threw her head back really quickly, downing the small vial before slipping it into the satchel, the strap resting around her knees.
“No. I’ve felt them around but didn’t want to give anything away by looking right at them.”
“Smart.” Sebastian tapped his fingers against the bar.
Niamh looked over slowly. “Would ye stop that? When did ye get so annoyin’?”
“We’re still in character…right?”
“Is that what this is? Yer bein’ annoying to play some sort of part?”
Sebastian lowered his brow at her but stopped the tapping.
She settled in to her drinking as Timmie talked to the new guy.
“Have Jessie and Austin been out since the night she got challenged by those girls?” Sebastian asked, not able to settle down. He wasn’t used to working like this, with zero defined plan and now under the guise of a ridiculous story he likely wouldn’t remember. They were all flying by the seats of their pants, and he was not good at doing that. If he didn’t come up with small talk, he’d look as stressed as he felt.
“No,” she replied, seemingly staring at nothing, but he could see her eyes flicking discreetly toward the mage. “They say it is because they are tired, though that’s not why.”
“I know Jessie isn’t fond of beating people up in a jealous rage,” he said, watching the bartender serve a few more people as another awkward-looking guy walked in the bar. He was also wearing plaid, though a different color, and oddly fitting jeans. The waist was cinched too tightly and the legs were too short.
Was this some sort of signal meant to communicate something with each other? There was no way these mages could dress so poorly by accident.
This one was wearing another ridiculous watch, too much bling on something that looked like it came from a department store. He might as well scream, “These are fake diamonds and I have no real status!”
“Jessie might not be, but her beast is happy enough fer it,” Niamh said, appearing not to notice the newcomer except for her flicking eyes. She sipped her whiskey slowly, giving the bartender no reason to return to them. “That’s not it, though. She flexed her power at Kingsley in front of his people. The ignorant ones among them, who already hate that Austin Steele needs to help them, will take that as a slight. It’s enough to make a past wound fester, sure as I’m sitting here.”
“Except Kingsley told everyone to get along. And they have, as far as I’ve heard. The trainings have been going well, all things considered, right?”
“Trainings are going fine, yeah. And they are all under the watchful eyes of the various alphas.”
She adjusted in her seat. “The whole pack knows by now that we have to work together. They need us, want us or not.”
“So what’s the problem?”
She took a deep breath, leaning forward onto her elbows again. “The problem is that their respect for Kingsley isn’t enough to negate their hatred for Austin Steele, especially now that his non-shifter mate has shown everyone what she’s made of. Hell, she got their pack-mate kicked out. She’s not the only one making waves, either. Broken Sue’s got a lot of power. More than any of Kingsley’s enforcers.” She shook her head. “The problems from Austin Steele’s past have been set on the stove to boil, and he knows it. I don’t think he quite knows how to go about it, though, wanting to respect his truce with his brother. It’s a dicey situation.”
Sebastian opened his mouth to reply. Closed it.
A somewhat shimmery figure slowly walked into the bar, sticking to the middle of the space between the stools and the booths. He wore properly fitting trousers and a black button-up, casual attire for a mage. His watch was plain, decently made, and with a face that subtly glowed in a telling way.
The potion was reacting to a magical tracker hidden within the watch, a way for magical entities to keep track of their people. Maybe that was why the other two had such hideous models—they
didn’t want to ruin their good watches to magical tracking. The practice tended to corrode the gears and render the piece ineffective, a waste for those without the means to replace them.
“My guess is that it’s going to come to a showdown,” Niamh went on as Sebastian felt a poke in his ribs.
He jerked toward Niamh, the poke having come from Tristan, and let out a loud and surprised
“Hah!”