Page 38

Kierse completed her homework.

She read the mental fortification book, and she considered therapy. Something she never in a million years would have thought about before this point. Maybe she’d do it if Graves got the promised follow-up call. In the meantime, mental work.

The practice seemed simple: create a little mind block to separate her consciousness from an attacker. But it was not simple. Not in the slightest. And it made her head hurt ferociously.

Still, she practiced until her temples throbbed all day and night.

Then she practiced some more. Day after day, working on muscles she’d never used before, until she felt a scream building in her throat.

Until she thought she’d tear the house down in frustration. From her need to do something physical.

So, one morning, she hoofed it out of Graves’s brownstone, paid off a particularly obnoxious troll, and took the 2 to Penn Station. She exited onto 31st Street just as dawn was breaching the horizon and headed at a quick clip toward Chelsea Park.

Only this winter, she’d seen drug deals on the corner here, but the place had been cleaned up. Fresh grass, trees in bloom, flowers around a small fountain, the playground filled with children’s laughter, even signs advertising a weekend farmer’s market. Her city had changed so much in her absence.

She loved and hated it all at once.

She wasn’t even sure that Nate would be up when she’d texted him on her way over, but by the time she’d soldiered past an unknown guard, who had clearly drawn the short stick for such an early shift, she’d received a text back.

Fucking finally.

Kierse laughed and trotted up the stairs.

Five Points was a nightclub run by the Dreadlords, but it was also their werewolf headquarters.

The three nights surrounding the full moon, which had ended last night, the wolves went underground and locked the place down to keep it safe for the city, in accordance with the Monster Treaty.

“Kierse McKenna,” a voice said as she approached Nate’s office. “I’d heard you were back in town.”

Kierse smirked at the sight of Nate’s second, Ronan.

He was tall and slim with black hair parted down the middle and severe black circles under his dark eyes.

His family had emigrated from Korea, and he’d joined up with Nate’s pack for their protection.

He’d moved up the ranks like he was born to it. And she supposed he was.

“Hey, Ronan. Who did you hear that from? Gen?” she teased.

Ronan shrugged. “I’m glad she’s home. She’s not trouble like you.”

“Oh, she’s certainly trouble,” Kierse said.

“She’s the kind of trouble I like, though.” He slid a cigarette behind his ear and lifted a shoulder. “She doesn’t drag the whole pack into her schemes.”

“Fair,” Kierse conceded. “And if you’re asking, I think she’d see you.”

Ronan grinned as he melted into the shadows. “Oh, I know she will.”

Kierse laughed. Of course she’d run into Ronan and not Finn, his partner in crime. Finn was a burly Black man who was all golden retriever to Ronan’s edge, and the best friends made the most unlikely of pairs.

Kierse turned her attention from the shadows, knocked once on the office door, and pushed her way inside to find Nathaniel O’Connor seated at his desk, head bowed, curly chestnut hair falling into his eyes.

His tawny-brown complexion was waxen from the early hour.

A giant thermos of coffee rested on the desk before him, wrapped in his large hands.

“You’ve looked better,” Kierse said.

Nate’s chin jerked up, and those hazel eyes met hers. “It was a rough moon.” He got to his feet and held his arms wide. “Kierse McKenna, in my house. Didn’t think I’d have to go so long. At least it wasn’t a whole year.”

“It might have been if not for the situation.”

“Graves?”

She shrugged. “As you can imagine.”

“Colette sent a runner over after you left. You two are living with him?”

“Yes.”

“And working together.”

“Yes.”

He leaned back against his desk. “So what’s the plan? Where’s the double cross?”

Kierse hesitated. She was always the girl with the plan. With an exit. That was her favorite rule in thieving. She needed ways out of every situation—physical and otherwise. But she didn’t have one here. The deeper she got into this with Graves, the more she felt like there were no exits.

“Fuck,” Nate said, standing again. “What’s going on?”

“It’s fine. I’m working on it.”

“And you trust him?”

She gasped out a laugh. “No. That’s a big no.”

He blew out a breath. “Well, that’s good. He royally fucked you over last year. I thought you had better brains than that.”

“He’s…trying to regain my trust,” she told him.

“By fucking you?”

She laughed again. “No. Well, maybe,” she said with a shrug. “But no, he’s bringing me in on his business operations and introducing me to the people he works with and trying to help me with a magic problem.”

“Hmm,” Nate grunted. “I still don’t trust him.”

“I know. I told him that I’d let him prove himself, but it’s not easy for me.”

“With good reason.”

“Am I being foolish?”

Nate crossed his arms and looked to the ceiling. “I don’t know. Maybe. The fact that you’d even consider letting him back in after what he did says that you’ve come a long way. If anyone else had hurt you like that, you’d be gone.” He slapped his hands together. “That fast.”

“Yeah.”

“Graves, though…he’s got his claws in you.”

She bristled. “I don’t know…”

“Not with me,” he said. “You can’t lie about him with me.”

“Fine. Yes, I want to trust him again.”

“Then just let him show his cards and make an informed decision the best you can with your heart in his hands.”

Kierse hated that plan, and Nate must have seen it on her face, because he just laughed and pulled her in for a hug.

“A little discomfort is good for you. And I’m still here if you need a good double cross.”

She shook her head with a laugh. The last time they’d worked together against Graves, they’d decided she would feed him information to help the pro-human cause.

There were monsters out there trying to destroy the hard work that had been put into the treaty.

The last thing they wanted was another monster war. “What’s the monster situation been?”

Nate took the out. “Quiet.”

“Third Floor?”

“Quiet,” he repeated. “The whole city has been suspiciously quiet since you left. Like killing King Louis destroyed the monster rebellion.”

Kierse frowned. “That’s optimistic.”

“It’s deceptive. They’ve gone underground. Burrowed in deeper.”

“Any evidence of that?”

He shook his head. “No, there’s nothing, but we know they’re not gone.”

“Rats,” she grumbled. “Well, keep me informed.”

“Always. But that’s not the real reason you’re here, right? My midnight girl is never up at such an early hour.”

She shot him a self-deprecating look. “You know me too well. It’s Ethan,” she confessed. “I went to see him earlier this week.”

His eyebrows rose. “You got inside?”

“The head Druid owes me a favor or two.”

“The head Druid wants to bang you,” he quipped with a wink.

She snorted. God, she had missed Nate’s easy humor. “That’s beside the point. Ethan has been brainwashed. I sort of worry about what happens when his isolation is up.”

“For him, or you…or Corey?”

“Yes,” she said honestly.

Nate sighed. “Would he leave of his own accord if we broke into the place?”

Kierse thought about it for a second, the mischievous smile tugging on her lips. Then she lost the thread of it all. “No. No, he wants to be there.”

“Well, fuck.”

“Yeah. Everyone else is like ‘give him space.’ I’m glad you went straight to ‘kidnap.’”

Nate chuckled. “Fuck everyone else being reasonable. We have chains down below the club. We could chain him up and run a deprogramming.”

Another laugh bubbled out of her. “He’d hate us.”

Nate mimed holding up a picture. “This is a Druid. They are bad guys.”

Full laughter hit her in her belly. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I know. But it helped, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. It did.”

“I know you hate hugs, but you look like you could use another one.”

And the hug was worth it. Worth the early morning and the trek to Chelsea and all of it. Nate was her family. He’d reminded her that he always had her back. Which was exactly what she needed.

A knock at the door pulled them both out of it, and in strode a tall Desi girl in sky-blue nursing scrubs.

Nate’s girlfriend, Maura, was a nurse at a local not-for-profit hospital.

Her long brown hair was up in a messy bun, and she had circles under her eyes that mirrored Nate’s and Ronan’s.

She must have been out all night during the full moon.

“Kierse!” she gasped. She strode forward, knocking her boyfriend out of the way and wrapping Kierse in her arms.

“Hi, Maura.”

“You need to stop this disappearing act.”

“Working on it,” Kierse told her.

“And perfect timing.” Maura released Kierse and thrust her left hand out. Kierse stared down at the glittering diamond ring on her finger in incomprehension before she realized what it meant.

“Oh my God! You’re engaged?”

“Yes!”

“Who’s the lucky guy?” Kierse joked.

Nate glared at her, but Maura just snorted. “Nate did say he wasn’t marriage material,” she agreed.

“I didn’t say those exact words.”

Maura laughed. “‘Perpetual bachelor’ was probably your exact phrasing.”

“Aye, baby,” Nate said, wrapping arms around his fiancé. “You changed my mind. I’m a changed man.”

Maura snorted again and pushed her hand into his face as he tried to kiss her. “I bet.”

Kierse laughed. “I’m so happy for the both of you.”

“Actually,” Nate said as he went back to his desk, “Maura would kill me if I didn’t give you this.” He handed her an envelope of starch white paper with her name across it. “Wedding invite.”

Kierse tore into the letter. Inside the card was all white with swirling gold font:

Please join us for the wedding of

Maura Vendashi Bhardwaj

&

Nathaniel Gabriel O’Connor

Saturday, June 29th

6:30 p.m.

Five Points, Chelsea

Reception to follow.

“This is in only a few weeks,” Kierse gasped.

“Yeah. Just decided to do it if we’re doing it.”

“Damn straight,” Maura said.

“I can’t wait,” Kierse said truthfully. She wanted the best for them. She’d known longer than Nate that Maura was the real deal, and if he didn’t settle down, he’d lose her. She was glad that he’d figured it out, too. “Were you on the night shift?”

“I…yes,” Maura said. Her gaze shifted to her fiancé. He nodded. “But I got off at midnight. I was looking into something else. Something I thought maybe you could…bring up with Graves.”

Kierse’s eyebrows shot up. “With Graves?”

“Tell her, baby,” Nate said.

Maura took a breath and let it out. “I can’t have kids.”

“Oh, Maura, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“No one else knows really. When I was younger, before the Monster War, I was seduced by an incubus.”

Kierse gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. “Maura, no!”

Tears glinted in Maura’s eyes. “Yeah. I didn’t know about monsters then and just thought I was falling in love and rebelling against my parents. But as you know, once you’re…intimate with an incubus…”

“They put the curse on you.”

She nodded. “Yes. They feed on your sexual energy.”

Kierse’s gaze shifted to Nate. “I can’t believe this. I’m so sorry. But how do you think Graves would help?”

“He might know a cure,” Nate said. “Maura jokes, but she didn’t want to get married because she thought I deserved to have children. I told her she was out of her mind, but I have been looking for a way to help her. The pack even tracked the incubus and killed him. It didn’t change anything.”

Maura choked on that, as if it still hurt to think about.

“I know Graves isn’t forthright with information, and he might tell us to fuck off, but we’re down to our last resort…”

“I can ask him,” Kierse agreed easily.

But she had never heard of a cure for an incubus curse.

It was like a vampire draining your blood or a wraith feeding off your soul.

An incubus and succubus worked in a pair to drain energy through sex.

Once they drained you, the only children you could have were theirs…

if you survived. And most didn’t. They were monsters for a reason.

“Thanks,” Maura said with a sigh. “I hate to bring the mood down.”

“No, of course not, Maura. I’m happy to help, if I can.”

“Okay,” she said, wiping at her eyes. “I’m going to go pass out. Night shifts suck.”

She kissed Nate’s cheek and pulled Kierse in for another hug. “The invite goes for Gen and Ethan, too,” Maura said. “And a plus-one. In case you want to bring a certain hot, dangerous warlock.”

Kierse held her tighter. “I love you, Maura.”

“Love you, too, baby girl.”

Then Maura was gone, and when Kierse turned around, Nate’s face fell.

“Do you think he’ll help us? I know that’s not his MO.”

“I don’t know what he’ll do, but it won’t do any harm to ask.”

“Thanks. Yeah. We’ve gone through so many dead ends. What’s one more?”

“I hate this for you. I know that you’d make great parents.”

He shook his head, still clearly wrung out from the full moon. “At least she’s finally agreed to a wedding. If we can’t have kids, then we can’t have kids. I still love that amazing woman and want her in my life forever.”

“I know you do. I’ll be there.”

“There’s an engagement party, too. We’re figuring out the details. I’ll send more when I know.” Nate’s smile was full of affection. “It’s good to see you. You know that you’re family and always will be.”

“Yeah. Of course,” she said easily and meant it.