“Now, what were you saying?” Austin asked in a cool tone of voice as he stepped closer to the man and peered down on him. By this stage, I was out of my seat and standing at the edge of the dais so I could see. All right, I had also been ready to jump into the fray if things had gotten out of hand. Magic or not, I threw a mean right hook.
“I’m pretty sure he was apologizing.” Caleb smirked.
Austin had his back to me now, so I couldn’t see the expression on his face. The set of his shoulders, though... it suggested he burned with anger. Tyson growled low, and his teeth closed a fraction more on the man’s neck, spilling blood.
“Austin,” I said quietly, clambering down off the dais and laying a hand on his arm. “Tell Tyson to back off. You’ve proved your point.”
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t take his gaze from the mage at his mercy. “Have I?”
My gaze flicked to the would-be usurper’s friends, urging them to speak up. They all babbled their agreement, that yes the point had been proven. Each of them clutched tightly at their bleeding snake bites and all looked on the edge of panic.
“Kit’s right,” Caleb said quietly, giving a barely noticeable shudder as Sam draped himself over Caleb’s shoulders. “Let him up. We win nothing by killing this asshole tonight.”
He had a faint lisp on “asshole,” and I bit back a smile. Must be hard, talking with fangs. It was also kind of sexy... okay fine, it was really sexy, in a dirty vampire romance book kind of way.
Austin said nothing for a long, tense moment before Tyson eased his jaws off at an unspoken command between them.
“Get up,” Austin ordered the bleeding mage. “Kneel in the circle.”
The beaten mage glared death at Austin but reluctantly did as he was told. What choice did he really have here? He’d made a bold move in challenging the new Mages, and he’d lost. His options were clear. Swear his fealty or die.
A year ago, it would have seemed barbaric to me that a man I was sleeping with could so casually end someone’s life for daring to challenge him. But this was a new reality, and not one we could afford to trust anyone in. This guy had already shown his true colors, so if he didn’t take the oath, he couldn’t be left alive.
“Speak the oath, mage,” Caleb ordered the man, and earned a death glare for his efforts. Some people just didn’t understand when their life was on the line. Then again, perhaps he did, as he slowly growled out the magical words and accepted the dot of blood ink to his forehead.
One by one, the bitten mages did the same, many pausing before returning to their seats and glanced nervously at Sam and Caleb.
“It won’t kill you,” Caleb answered their unspoken question. I didn’t blame them for wanting to know... If I’d just been bitten by a huge-ass magical viper, I’d be pretty damn worried myself. “It will just give you a nasty sting if you ever try to collude with this prick again.” Caleb jerked his head at the sulking mage.
“Return to your seats,” Austin ordered them all. “And don’t forget that you’re on our radar now.”
They filed off, and I gave Austin’s hand a quick squeeze before returning to my own seat. They still needed to finish the rest of the mages’ oaths before they could get down to why we really came here. Then again, I had a fairly good idea of who the necromancer involved might be.
It didn’t take long for the guys to finish the remainder of the mages, and the room was considerably quieter during the oaths. Perhaps because Tyson and Sam stayed visible? Whatever it was, I was as tense as a damn violin string by the time Caleb and Austin returned to their seats on either side of me.
“We have one last order of business to raise.” Caleb glared across the room at the mage who’d challenged them. The one Austin had called Necromancer. “We have reason to believe one of our own has become involved in matters that they’d be wise not to be involved in. The remains of six golems were found at the scene of an attempted kidnapping, and we have it on good authority that there was a revenant present too.” He paused for this information to sink in around the room.
“Several groups are currently attempting to expose supernatural-kind to the human world,” Austin continued, taking over for his brother. “They are working to bring a war to our world, and we will not stand for it. Let us make this very clear. Mages are not to become involved. You are not to expose your magic to humans, and most of all...” He, too, glared at the browbeaten necromancer. “Most of all, you are never to be found involved in Ban Dia business.”
Gasps rose from the crowd, and someone was bold enough to speak up in a shocked voice. “But Ban Dia aren’t real! They’re... stories. Extinct.”
“You’d do best to continue believing that,” Caleb responded sternly. “If we find any mages have defied these orders, the punishments will be swift and merciless. Is that clear?” Again, his gaze turned to the necromancer, whose face was so red with anger it was almost purple.
As one, the whole room responded. “Understood, Your Graces.”
The twins stared down on their subjects for a long moment, the chamber so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop, before rising from their seats.
“Dismissed,” Austin barked.
Caleb held a hand out to me, helping me to my feet as I rubbed feeling back into my numb ass and then followed them to the little antechamber where we’d arrived.
“So, that was, um, interesting,” I offered once we were safely inside the room with the door closed behind us.
“That was mind-numbing,” Austin snickered. “But now you’ve had a glimpse into Mage politics.”
“And we found our little troublemaker pretty easily too,” Caleb commented, stripping his blood-red robe off and grabbing his shirt from where he’d left it earlier.
“Uh yeah, shouldn’t we like... question him or something?” I asked, frowning. Surely he had important information for us.
“We will,” Austin glanced at his twin, and something unspoken passed between them. “But not while he expects it. Sam nipped him too, while he was distracted by Tyson’s fangs in his neck.”
“Okay,” I eyed up the huge diamond-backed viper, who flicked his tongue at me in a decidedly snakeish laugh. “How does that help?”
“His venom acts as a tracker, this time,” Caleb explained, then paused to listen to what his familiar was saying inside his head. I could tell when Sam was talking because Caleb’s gaze would go a bit unfocused and his head tilted to the side.
“What’s the little dickhead got to say this time?” I asked in a dry voice. What? Sam had a serious attitude on him.
“Um,” Caleb grimaced. “Never mind. The point is that we can track that guy down and pay him a visit at a later time, when he least expects it.”
“Or he might just lead us right to whoever was pulling his strings,” Austin added. “Because there is no way he was acting alone in your kidnapping. Not with Simon being involved.”
“No, you’re right,” I murmured, frowning. “He seems more like the hired muscle.”
“Exactly.” Caleb nodded. “Now let’s get back to the hotel. It’s already almost dawn, and don’t you have a flight to catch tomorrow?”
I nodded, chewing my lip. Wes and I still needed to get to Ireland to meet with this dream dude. He didn’t give a shit that we’d been sort of kidnapped and wasn’t willing to reschedule or bend his rules on allowing the others to join us.
5
The alluring scent of fresh coffee was the only thing saving Vali’s life when he woke me a full hour and a half before my alarm was set to go off. Smart man had come armed with fresh java and offered it as a sacrifice before I could lash out.
“Come on, Regina mea,” he coaxed in that sexy, velvet voice of his while I made grabby hands at the steaming mug. “You can have it when you sit up. You’ll just spill it everywhere if you try to drink lying down.”
Grumbling obscenities about logic, I pushed myself upright and tried not to snatch as I took the mug from Vali’s huge hands.
“Why am I awake, Vali?” I yawned after a long sip. “Don’t you know how late we got back last night? Or... this morning?”