“Yes. She spoke to Mae. We’re meeting at Nico’s tonight.” He glanced over at her. “Did she give you a time?”
“Two hours after sunset,” she said just as Kato said the same.
“Grace says we should eat something before we go,” Kato added. “Together, I mean.”
“All right,” Dragan said and handed the phone to Maeve. “We’re having dinner.”
Maeve took the phone with a smile for him, before she told Kato, “I saw a restaurant on our way in last night. On the patio. I guess it depends on what you consider sunset, but I figure dinner at 7:30?”
Dragan heard Kato agree, then Maeve was hanging up the phone. “What time is it now?” she asked, leaning forward to see the bedside clock with its hellish red lights. Dragan didn’t need to look, he’d already done so and knew it was on the cusp between afternoon and evening, at just past 5:00. They had two and a half hours.
“The tub is quite large,” he commented. “And the soaking heat will feel good on . . . any parts of you that might be feeling tender.”
She cupped his face in both hands and kissed him on the lips. “My parts appreciate your concern. Would you and your parts care to join me in that big tub?”
“Of course. You’ll need someone to wash your back.” He pulled her onto his lap as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Are you ready, my lady?”
She kissed his jaw. “I love you,” she murmured, hugging him tightly.
“Ah, Mae. You make me your slave when you say that.”
“Not my slave,” she murmured. “My man, my lover.”
He gathered her in his arms and stood. “Your shield against the world, then. I am yours, sweet Mae.” He felt the kiss of her hot tears against his neck as he carried her to the bath, and knew he’d spoken true. He would die before he’d let Sotiris’s evil touch her.
Several hours later, they were all gathered around the conference table in Nico’s big house. It was nearly as big as the palace Nico had owned back in their own time, though only Nico and Lili lived here permanently. There were plenty of rooms for visitors and other offices, however. According to Kato, these were used by Nico’s network of agents when they were in town, although they were more often traveling around the world, seeking out magical artifacts, especially those with the potential to be dangerous in the wrong hands. There were, naturally, some that were far more dangerous than others, and it was those that Damian and Casey spent most of their time seeking out and reclaiming.
Sotiris was busy doing the same, which meant the two sorcerers were still locked in their ages-old battle. Dragan thought again of the chance occurrences which had seen him and his brothers freed as a direct result of that continuing battle. And he suspected the fates, as usual, were have a grand old time playing with their human toys.
Maeve passed him a photo at that moment. It was so blurry that it was barely discernible as a picture of anything, but it was the only image they had of Sotiris’s infernal device. It meant nothing to him, so he passed it to Kato, who sat next to him and would know far more about magical devices than Dragan.
“Can Lili clean this up?” Kato’s question drew his attention, though it was directed at Nico. Kato had considerable magical strength, which had come to him through the blood of his mother, a witch so powerful that she’d been known throughout their world as nothing more than the Dark Witch. She hadn’t intended to pass her magic to her only son, but power frequently had a mind of its own. And when Kato had left his home behind to join Nico, the magic had gone with him.
Nico was staring at the blurry photograph. “I had Lili working on it most of the night.” He looked up when Maeve made a sound of protest. “Not to worry, Maeve. Lili doesn’t need much sleep, and she prefers to work on this sort of thing at night, when there are fewer interruptions.”
“Yes, I do,” Lili said in her cheery way, as she breezed into the room and placed a sheet of paper in front of Nico, before distributing copies to the others. “That’s the best I could do—which is damn good—without erasing all useful detail. The rest is up to you guys,” she told Nico. “I’m taking an hour or two downstairs. But if you need me, call.” She glided out of the room as lightly as she’d come in, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground. Dragan didn’t remember Lili from before, but it was obvious from the way she dealt with Nico that she’d worked for him a long time. It was also obvious, to him anyway, that she wasn’t completely human. He didn’t know what she was, but it wasn’t human.
Maeve tapped the page in front of him. “Does that look familiar?”
He studied it dutifully. This sort of plotting had never been his strong suit. Give him a map and a diagram of the enemy’s forces, and in minutes, he could tell you where to deploy your forces to maximize their effect and defeat the enemy. But this. . . . He’d never say it, but it bored him. Once Nico had decided what the fucking thing did and where the threat lay, he’d rejoin the conversation.
However, his Mae was waiting for his opinion, so he studied the damn image as if it meant something to him. What he saw was a fancy box, roughly rectangular—though just barely—made of some dark wood that gleamed as if oil-rubbed, and with gold symbols and embellishments all around the top border. A knife edge shone sharp and deadly from one end, the blade made of bronze, rather than hardened steel, which told him it had been crafted for something other than fighting.
“What do you think?” she murmured, resting one arm on his shoulder, as she leaned close.
“I think your breast is very soft,” he whispered against her ear.
“Dragan!” she gasped, and started to pull away, but he held her in place with an arm around her waist and a quiet chuckle.
“What? It feels nice.”
She tsked. “You’re so bad. We’re supposed to be working here.”
“My work comes later.”
As if in support of his claim, Nico cleared his throat to draw their attention. “I need to see this in person. Or at least, the place of its making and the materials used. He must have a workroom, a laboratory somewhere.” He looked at Maeve. “You know more of his movements than any of us. Find him.”
Dragan drew breath to protest on Maeve’s behalf, but she placed a gentling hand on his arm and faced Nico directly. “He owns a few homes in and out of this country, but the one where he seems to spend the most time, based on where his calls come from, is in New York City. He always drove to the lake house in a car with New York plates and a window sticker for a private garage in Manhattan. My guess is that he has a penthouse nearby. The day Dragan and I took off, he was only hours away—I’d added myself to his locate app, so I could track him. But it’s unlikely he’s still using that cell. He’s not a super techie, but he’s smart enough to change phones. Still, if you give me a little time with my computer, I might be able to give you an address.”