Embrace Me at Dawn (Doomsday Brethren 6)

Shock opened his mouth to protest, and she knew what he meant to say, that she and Lucan hadn’t exactly been working on the rigors of sword play unless his “sword” inside her counted. She snapped her fingers, unwilling to let a single syllable about that fall out of his mouth.

“Shut it. Later. It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.”

“The bloody hell it won’t!” Lucan shouted and tried to charge past her to attack Shock.

She threw up a force field between the two of them, thanking her lucky stars that Felicia must not be near. This was one trick she’d forced herself to learn and learn well after her abduction. She put it to good use now. Because energy brimmed through her, she could keep it up, concrete thick and impenetrable for hours upon hours. It might take that long for either of them to see reason. She sighed impatiently.

“Stop it now, both of you! Bram brought us here to deal with a problem, not for you to tear one another’s heads off because…why, Shock? I generated energy with someone else?”

“It was far more than that, damn it,” Lucan insisted.

Yes, it had been. And the moment the thought crossed her mind, Anka felt Shock’s formidable magic ripping at her shields. Wincing, focusing to hold it together, she did her utmost to keep Shock and Lucan apart. Her mind whirled, trying to find a peaceful end to this dilemma.

“Stop being wankers,” Bram barked from the manor’s front door. “Inside. Now!”

Lucan and Shock continued to stare at one another as if murder was in their near future. Bram’s directive didn’t faze either in the least.

“Morganna is attacking an SUV full of humans at Hadrian’s Wall.”

Neither wizard backed down an inch. Bram cursed and made his way onto the lawn.

“So unless you want all those humans to die and for the event to be plastered all over the telly and the rags again, you two need to stop arguing over the pretty witch and fight the bad one.”

Shock twitched. Lucan pressed some of the tension out of his shoulders. Still, neither backed down.

Anka frowned, pain streaking between her temples. Holding up the force field between these two brutes was sapping her strength and making her head ache. She closed her eyes, brow furrowing, and tried to focus on keeping the wall in place. If she didn’t…well, each had threatened to kill the other. She believed they meant it.

“What the hell is the matter with you two?” Bram shouted. “You’re hurting her!”

Both their stares latched onto her. Lucan’s gaze seared her face as she felt the blood leaving it. Shock shoved his way into her head, thrashing around.

Almost at once, they both backed away. Shock’s fingers curled into fists. Lucan’s chest heaved, his face contorting with rage. But they held themselves back. For her. She might not deserve their consideration, but at the end of the day, she was grateful for it.

Tentatively, she began to drop her shields. Neither charged past them, as she had feared. They simply stared, both willing her to sidle closer, choose one over the other. They behaved like bloody children with a favored toy.

Shock growled at the thought, and she resolutely ignored him, turning away from both of them and marching toward Bram. One by one, everyone filed into the house, into Bram’s office, where he paced restlessly. Mason stood in the corner with Duke, both on mobile phones wearing strikingly similar frowns.

“For the past half an hour, Morganna has been holding hostages. The news outlets are racing furiously to the scene. We need to reach Morganna before they do, save the humans, and do it quietly. She’s likely looking for Merlin’s potion, scouring landmarks old enough to contain a vial my grandfather would have hid over a millennium ago. When Stonehenge didn’t pan out…I suppose she thought to try this next. I’ve no idea how we approach her without dying. Ideas?”

Duke snapped his mobile shut. “She’s already killed one man. Time is of the essence. The minute the BBC arrives, this goes beyond our ability to control it.”

The tension sucked the air out of the room instantly. Everyone looked around for a too-silent moment. Bram broke it by tapping his fingers on his desk.

“Marrok, do you still have the weakening bracelet Merlin made for Morganna? The one with the amethysts I gave you when you were convinced that Olivia was Morganna reincarnated?”

The big warrior shook his head with a silent apology. “’Twas destroyed along with my little cottage. We’ve since searched the rubble and found naught. Sorry.”

Bram nodded, a gesture of acceptance. But no one thought for a moment that he was happy about it. “Duke, did you discover anything useful when you and Felicia went back to the cave Morganna had been imprisoned in?”

“Nothing, unless you count a knee-deep layer of rocks and dust. Anything that had been in there was likely forever crushed when the ceiling caved in.”

Bram bit back a curse. “And no sign of the Doomsday Diary. Damn.”

Duke shook his head. “None.”

Anka listened with sinking dread.

“Bloody hell. So we have to confront her without having any means to slow her down or placate her?”

“It looks that way,” Lucan piped up suddenly. “I think you should stay behind.”

Instantly, Bram shook his head. “We’ll need every warrior we’ve got to handle her.”

“She’s out for your blood,” Lucan reminded him.

“Exactly. If she’ll trade me for the tourists, maybe we’ll get somewhere.”

“Why hold the tourists hostage at all? None of them can possibly know where Merlin would have hidden her killing potion,” Anka pointed out.

“Good question.” Bram frowned, looking for an answer, then turned to Duke and Mason. “Has she made any demands that you’re aware of?”

The brothers looked at one another, reluctance all over their faces. Finally, Duke sighed. “Sabelle or you.”

“Bram,” Ice growled from across the room.

“Agreed. My sister stays far away from this bitch. In fact, where is she now?”

“With all the wives, including Felicia, at our caves,” Ice answered.

“Sabelle and Tabitha are trying to relax Felicia enough to allow them to use magic in her presence. They’ve been working on the exercise for a week now. They’re making progress. But I won’t send any of them there to face Morganna, even my Fe,” Duke murmured.

“They’re safe in Swansea,” Ice reassured everyone especially himself. “Even if Morganna plotted to nab the women, Felicia will stop the ancient bitch from getting anywhere close.”

Anka didn’t ask aloud if it was possible that Morganna’s magic could cancel out an Untouchable’s dampening abilities. Likely not, and no sense in worrying every warrior here about the safety of his mate. Morganna had her human hostages. That would occupy her for a bit, surely.

“I agree with Lucan, Bram,” Anka spoke up. “I think you should stay here. In fact, I think all of you should stay here and let me go instead.”

Every male head in the room turned to her as if she’d grown a set of horns and suddenly sported a third eye.

“No!” Lucan and Shock barked in tandem.

Bram wasn’t any less subtle. “Have you gone mad? When you don’t have the information Morganna wants, she’ll only grow impatient and kill you.”

Though the lot of them was generally brilliant, they were still male and could be a bit thick at times. “But I’m female. We’re all familiar with her well-documented distrust of men. She might not like that I can’t help her right away, but I can pretend to befriend her. I can promise her that I’ll help trap you, Bram. I can win her trust long enough to release the hostages. Because, let’s be realistic, we’re not going to capture her without a plan. We’re not going to entrap or keep her until we know her weaknesses. We’re not going to kill her without that potion. Your time would all be better spent finding the location of that elixir. If I can placate her for now…” Anka shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t like it,” Lucan snapped, looking like he wanted to cross the room and take her into his arms.

She sent him a sad smile. “I didn’t ask you to do anything but see the logic in it.”

Everyone else stayed mute. Except Shock.

“Fuck no!”

“I wasn’t asking your permission, either. It makes sense. She won’t see me as a threat. I’ll make up some crazy story about Bram double-crossing me and this being my opportunity to get revenge. Maybe I can find out what she knows. Maybe not, but if I can persuade her to release the hostages, then we’ve achieved some small victory.”

The dead silence in the room that followed actually gave her hope.

Bram cleared his throat. “You have some valid points. I won’t disagree with them.”

Lucan whipped his head around to glare at his best friend as if he’d lost his mind. “Are you mad? You wouldn’t send Emma to talk to Morganna. Why Anka?”

“Emma is his mate,” she corrected softly. “I don’t belong to anyone but myself.”

Her words were like a bomb in the room. Shock growled. Lucan shot her a furious stare, clearly ready to argue. But no one else objected.

“I don’t like it, Anka,” Ice finally admitted. “Though the idea has merit.”

“I wanted to fight. I admit that I’m not yet ready for battle, but mingling with witches who thought themselves above me for over a hundred years taught me to wield my tongue like a sword. I can do this.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t see a better plan,” Duke grumbled. “But she’s damn dangerous, Anka.”

Duke didn’t need to state the obvious. “I’ll play up the girl power angle or figure out what she wants to hear and tell her that. But the worst thing we could do is send a group of male warriors in to do battle with her. She’ll come out fighting. There won’t be any talking. The incident at Stonehenge proves that she has no regard for human life, and the longer we debate, the more likely she’s killing off humans even now. Or that the BBC will reach her before we do. What’s it going to be, an infiltrator or a war before we’re ready?”

“Bugger,” Caden groused. “I’m afraid she’s right.”

Lucan turned to his younger brother with an expression of disbelief. “Have you lost your bloody mind?”

“We’ve been around and around this,” Anka insisted. “Unless you have a better idea, let me go.”

Shock grabbed her wrist. “Fuck, no. I told you that.”

“You’re not my mate.” She spit out the cutting words, instantly regretting the hurt that skittered across his sharp, craggy face. Anka softened her expression and pressed against him for a hug. “Thank you for caring now, as you always have. But time is running out. If I’m to keep magickind out of the news, I must go now.” She squirmed out of Shock’s embrace, looking past the betrayal on Lucan’s face, and flashed Caden an inquiring glance. “Have your mate call that rag she used to work for. Fish around for what they know. Tell her to float some other story about Morganna, if necessary. Magickind doesn’t need more attention. I’ll…” Be back? She couldn’t promise that. If Morganna turned that legendary petulance on her, she might die with all the humans. Best not to even mention that. “I’ll do my best.”

Then, with a last glance at Lucan, his desperate, alarmed stare willing her to stay, she smiled regretfully and let herself out.

~ ~ ~ ~

The wind whipped across the hilly plains along the length of Hadrian’s Wall. After she’d left Bram’s, Anka realized that she should have asked more questions about Morganna’s location, at least for show. The reality was, someone had died here recently, and her banshee senses could pick up on death. Despite the wall being over a hundred kilometers long, it took her less than two minutes to find the right location, near Carlisle. Morganna leaned against the shiny white Land Rover, picking at her nails. Her froth of platinum hair, almost like a cloud, cascaded down her back. Five people in the vehicle pressed their terrified faces against the glass, eyes pleading. The sixth was already dead. Morganna looked absolutely bored.

As Anka approached, her heart hammered viciously. On the outside, Morganna le Fay might look wee and delicate. On the inside, she was one terrible bitch who took great pleasure in forcing others to her will. By all accounts, she was also much like a two-year-old, determined to have her way.

Morganna’s head popped up at her approach, and her violet eyes narrowed. They looked so much like Olivia’s that Anka nearly faltered as Morganna took in her signature. “Who are you, witch?”

“I’m Anka. I’ve come to help.”

She raised her brow to a disdainful arch. “Why would I need help? I assure you, I can kill this lumbering transport full of silly humans with nary a problem. One flick of my hand and—”