Page 119 of Broken Souls

“I’m still mad at you,” I whisper.

“I know.”

Nodding, I turn and make my way back to Dayne.

But I leave a part of me in that office with the man I supposedly hate.

Forty

HIM

Leno got in touch with all of the capos yesterday. Despite a few silent grumbles, they’ve all found the time to come in. They’ll be here in a few hours, just in time for the wedding. I spoke to Aleric myself, Boss to Boss so the invite wasn’t insulting, and the members he has in the police force are keeping the legit ones off our asses. There’s been whispers of the FBI in the area, having been alarmed by the last-minute roll out of all of our capos and many of our allies. The Blacks are here, as are the Mattos twins, and numerous other higher-ups.

Leaning back in my chair, I finish my conversation with an off-world Boss through a scry Leno set up for me a few minutes ago. Given what we saw at Morn Tower, we are going to need more silver and not the useless shit from Earth. Ryker is the Boss we have been running a smuggling ring with for the past few decades, but we move people, not product.

All the portals to Earth were closed by the archangels thousands of years ago during the Great Extinction (when Sebastian the Ancient Destroyer – an ancient vampire who wanted to be worshiped like a god, and Rakian the Rise of Ragnarok – the son of Loki and the Morrighan, who was pissed off at his parents, tried to destroy the Seven Planes), so if we start bringing in items and materials that will shine a light onto the existence of another world rather than just another species, then the SCU will come here to investigate.

“I’ll agree to the forty-five cut,” Ryker says, his golden eyes sharp beneath his heavy brows. “Even though we have a higher risk, what with the Elv’ve’Norc actually being here rather than just the weak-ass SCU you have there.”

Although the SCU runs with the full authority of the Elv’ve’Norc here on Earth, they don’t have the same weight to throw around given how cut off they are and how they’re made up of mostly Earth humans rather than sups who can take on the creatures they police.

My expression doesn’t change. He might have the higher risk – especially since the archangels are no longer policing the portals themselves, but all he has to do is get the goods and toss them. We have to distribute it, and if we get caught bringing off-world goods here, we’ll become a high priority for the Special Crimes Unit to deal with.

And though we might really need this silver and soon, a fact that would normally put us at a disadvantage during any other negotiation, Ryker doesn’t know a damn thing about what happens on our end. So he thinks I’m just ready to risk smuggling goods if the price is right.

“I’ll send a box with the people tomorrow,” he says. “See how long that takes to move, and we’ll start from there.”

I nod, then run my fingers across the glass in front of me, feeling the cold ‘wetness’ of the magic. The image of Ryker shimmers, the scry now broken, and my own face looks back at me.

Standing, I head for the door, then down the hall. As soon as I reach the bottom of the stairs, a fresh new ward bites into my skin. Mother and Rudy erected them around the stairway to keep nosy guests out of areas they don’t belong. The three wards right outside the basement door, one after the other, are warded to kill upon contact.

When Micha blasted the old one apart, she destroyed decades of magic that not even Mother or Rudy, the two strongest, can rebuild to the same level of power (it’ll take them decades), so they’ve had to stack weaker wards. It isn’t anywhere as strong as what it used to be, and Mother worries a powerful dedicated witch might be able to get through, but Kati Vosika, Cara Jervis, and Joshua Tobler – the only three she thinks might have a chance, will be watched at all times tonight.

If any of them slip away, Maddox will shift into them, give a bit of “their” DNA to our brother, and Khalid will kill them with a soul doll. Although we do not have much alexandrite left, Antonio having stolen our main stash, we can’t afford another Family thinking us weak. The Shadow Domain is dominant in the southeast of America because everyone knows we are strong and merciless. Let either of those things slip, and our allies will turn on us like vultures.

My brothers are all standing at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in three-piece suits despite the heat. Rudy traced a rune on each of us to keep our body temperatures cool an hour ago, so none of us are even sweating.

My eyes find Khalid’s. I have only talked to him briefly since he arrived this morning, back from having killed T. He took our brother into his shadows, and that’s making me fucking paranoid. It was because of T that Khalid’s girl was violated and abused. For the reaper to have forgiven him enough to give him a proper ‘burial’… What reason could T have given to warrant that much understanding?

Does he know I’m a hybrid now?

Does he think Talon was in the right, but he only killed him because he hurt the woman he loves?

Will he be the next person to try to kill me?

I search his eyes, but all I see is the reaper staring back at me.

“We in business?” Khalid asks.

I nod.

“Aw, fuck off with the shop talk,” Maddox says. “Tonight is for getting drunk and forgetting we’re going to get eaten by super werewolves.”

Rudy grins. “If I was there, you wouldn’t have got your asses kicked.”

Maddox laughs. “You would’ve been the first to go. You would’ve taken one look at him and died of a heart attack.”

Rudy flips him the bird, and Maddox reaches forward with all his fingers curled into an O. Then he pumps it up and down Rudy’s finger. Scowling, Rudy shoves him away and wipes his violated hand on his thigh.