Magical Midlife Alliance (Leveling Up Book 7), page 31
“Our heroes?” Ulric asked as Patty tugged them along.
“Of course!” Patty looked behind her to make sure she was being followed. “Oh the basajaun, great! Dear, I have your seat all ready for you. I went ahead and swapped out the chair you had last night for a sturdier one. We wouldn’t want you to break it.”
“Thanks, Mama Patty,” the basajaun said, and Ulric turned back with a confused expression.
The crowd opened up for them, even the gargoyles getting out of the way.
“Everyone is talking,” Patty told them quietly. “The question of what a female gargoyle can do has been answered.” She beamed. “People are beside themselves. So fierce, so protective, so magical! The footage I got”—she lowered her voice a little more—“and edited is circling the gargoyle community. People are wowed. We’re getting a lot of interest on our cairn’s social media page.”
“We have a cairn now?” Ulric asked.
“We have a social media page?” Nessa asked as Patty stopped them behind Niamh, where three empty seats waited amid a bunch of people standing.
“The cairn is Austin’s pack name with ‘cairn’ tacked on the end, and yes. Well, it’s a website, actually, but there are links to all the relevant social media sites. I’ve started various accounts—with Miss Jessie’s approval, of course. We’re getting messages left and right! Now…” She pulled Ulric and Nessa a little closer and leaned in. “The word on the street is that Nelson is livid. Livid! He’s citing a lot of different grievances, asking for financial compensation.”
“How much is his ego worth?” Nessa asked as Ulric rolled his eyes.
“He won’t get a dime of it, obviously.” Patty patted Nessa’s forearm. “Just to be sure, I leaked the tape of him running through the house screaming. That’ll shut him up. I posted various clips of the battle on our website. There’s a lot of footage of Jessie, of course, but I also put up clips of the rest of the team. Hollace…phew! He’s getting a lot of interaction.”
“What’s that?” Hollace asked, stepping forward.
Patty smiled at him, but he was too far away for her frenzied whispers, so she went back to huddling with Nessa and Ulric.
“I’ve been hearing that the other big cairns don’t really know what to do. They are trying to stay as neutral as they can. I think that’s why they all want to get out of here. They want to see which way the wind blows.” She squinted one of her eyes, and Nessa figured that was probably her version of a wink. “This’ll work out in our favor, just you wait. At that dinner in a couple days, we’ll be smooth and gracious and neutral ourselves. We’ll say nothing of our demolishing Gimerel and will not rise to the bait Nelson tries to throw at us. That’ll give credence to her generosity with the party after the raid…”
She nodded and squinted again.
“Now, Ulric…” She yanked on his arm a little. “A lot of guardians are asking for details about the setup of the house crew.” She backed up and gave him a poignant look. “Now is the time to help the house. Be cool about it. Don’t showboat. Don’t let on that you know your salary is bigger than theirs. But talk up your position. Talk up how great the area is and how smoothly things run here. Talk about all the skirmishes with the mages and that big battle you have on the horizon. Mention all the women here. Get them talking amongst themselves so we can reel in some of these kookie-loo guardians, okay?”
“Lookie-loo, Mom—”
“Okay now.” She glanced behind them, pulling away. “Do Jessie proud. You know what to do.”
And away she went, immediately smiling and laughing and saying hi to someone as if they were her long-lost friend.
“That woman is a tornado,” Nessa told Ulric, dizzied but envious. “I love it.”
“She can get to be a little much.” He shook his head, spying a woman on the other side of the bar. “If you’ll excuse me…”
Hollace had nestled in next to Niamh with the basajaun on her other side. Jasper had disappeared into the crowd, and once again Nessa and Sebastian were standing outside of things, close but not a part of them.
“We’ve got a problem,” Sebastian said softly, moving his hands to wrap them into a cone of privacy.
She was about to say that she knew when he finished.
“They’ve gone dark.”
A flurry of adrenaline flooded Nessa, and she jerked her phone up to look at it. “What? Why wasn’t I directly messaged that? There has to be some mistake.”
He shook his head, looking over the bar worriedly. “One of the mercenaries got his wires crossed, I guess. He sent an email.”
“An email?” She checked into their database but didn’t find it. “I don’t—”
He showed her his phone with the email brought up.
“But that’s…” She grabbed the phone from his hand. “That’s the general business email. I only check that every few days. It’s not even freaking encrypted! What the hell is he doing? This is not at all the protocol that was very clearly outlined for all of them.” She read through the message quickly; the email was poorly crafted and the grammar atrocious.
She swore. He’d assembled all but one of the mages and three of the mercenaries. Given the timeline, he didn’t think they should wait any longer. They’d deployed that morning. There would be no way to reach them now.
“Who put that idiot in charge?” She handed the phone back. “Not you…”
She let the comment linger just enough to hint at a question.
“No. Not me. But you haven’t been able to take a very hands-on approach to this situation because of what’s going on here. We both know that when no one is directly leading, there’s always someone who tries to step up and assume control. They get off on being in charge. Given we had to assemble all this with heavy distractions and zero time, with a less-than-stellar team we dredged up at the last minute, something was bound to go wrong.”
“Bound to go wrong?” She gave him an incredulous look and laughed sardonically. “Did Jessie tell you the gargoyles are leaving?” She pointed at his phone. “That attack is going to take anywhere from three to six days to get here. Given the state of that email and the bonehead’s inability to follow instructions, I’d guess more toward six. The gargoyles will be gone by that time, our status will be in the toilet, so the solo guardians will probably scatter, and we’ll get hit with a big attack without the forces to return fire. I’ve screwed us, Sabastian. I’ve screwed Jessie. I should’ve made more time for this instead of showing an interest in that handsome gargoyle-monster. I should’ve been more hands-on. Damn it.”
“It’s not your fault, Nessa,” he said, moving closer. “I asked the impossible of you.”
“You always ask the impossible of me. I should be able to deliver better than this.” She turned away from him, angry at herself. Angry at that mercenary. Angry that she’d let everyone down so thoroughly.
A couple people glanced her way, and she could read the curiosity in their eyes. They couldn’t hear her, but they could still see her exaggerated movements. She needed to get a grip. She’d screwed up before. This wasn’t the first time.
Speaking of time, they still had some. The gargoyles hadn’t left yet. There had to be a way to make this work.
She calmed herself down, stilling her movements.
“What do we do?” Sebastian asked, seeing that she was done with the blame-game phase of her disappointment. They were a well-oiled machine.
“We figure this out,” she said, chewing on her lip, watching Paul the bartender shake the drink mixer over his shoulder. “There has to be a way to figure this out.”
She just, at present, had no idea how.
TWENTY-NINE
Nessa
“Let me think about it,” she told Sebastian, taking a deep breath. “We have a little time.”
Sebastian nodded, his head down, thinking. “I’m going to get a drink and try to sit next to Niamh. She always picks on me when I’m in this mood. It takes my mind off things.”
“That’s why she picks on you.”
“I know.”
Nessa watched as he skulked off toward a space at the end of the bar, pulling down the spell as he did so.
She didn’t move for a while, clearing her mind and staring at nothing. Now was not the time to panic. It wasn’t the time for rash decisions or grasping at straws. She had to push away that she knew and loved these people and this town and focus solely on cold, hard logic. That had always been the way forward, the method with which decisions stopped being hard or cringeworthy, and she started doing whatever was necessary to complete the task.
“Are you okay?”
Nessa startled at that rough but familiar voice. Brochan stood next to her smelling of pine and sweat, his shirt rumpled and his pants stained. He’d probably just gotten off work, monitoring the perimeter and his people. The same people she was three to six days away from putting in danger.
“Yeah, thanks,” she said, quickly strapping on a sunshiny disposition. Her armor, as Tristan had said. How had he known? “How about you? How are the troops?”
He glanced down at her empty hands. “Do you need a drink?”
“Why? Are you going to buy me one?” She smiled at him devilishly, knowing that if he did, it might be seen by the other shifters as his desiring a claim on her. He’d always been careful not to cross that line. He especially wouldn’t now that they were in a friend zone.
He didn’t respond, not taking the bait.
“No, thanks,” she relented. “I’m sure Sebastian is ordering me one.”
He pressed his lips against his glass, and she watched the brown liquid slide into his waiting, open mouth.
The thought of his kiss came back to her, rough and hot and delicious. His taste. The feel of him underneath her palms.
“Here.” Sebastian stopped in front of her and handed her a tequila in a sipping glass. “Let me know when we need to leave.”
In other words, let him know when she’d found Ulric’s tormentors and could get them alone. She half couldn’t wait. She needed a little violence right now.
“Will do,” she replied.
“You were left out of the action the other day,” Brochan said, one hand tucked into his pocket and the other holding his drink. He looked out at the sea of people, probably not seeing anyone at the same time as seeing everyone.
Austin appeared behind the bar, stoic and stern. His hard gaze touched down on each gargoyle for a moment before moving on. Those who met his eyes hunched, already well versed in the art of submitting. They’d either seen or heard about how he stood up to raging basajaunak without flinching. Ready to go toe to toe. That was no small thing.
Nessa shrugged, continuing to watch the bar.
“Yeah,” she said. “And I was totally fine with that. I don’t need more ways to die.”
“You don’t need any ways to die.”
She smiled up at him. “My knight.” Then she laughed at his frown. “You were left out of it, too, for the most part.”
“I was playing babysitter to the downed guardians,” he growled.
She laughed softly. “Sebastian said they withstood some serious shots of magic. It would be good to have a few of them on our side.”
He was quiet for a moment. “When they first got here, I disagreed with that. But now…” He nodded, surveying the crowd.
“We just have to reel them in.”
“Not sure what they’re waiting for.”
Voices dropped to murmurs, and then most people stopped speaking altogether. Bodies shuffled out of the way quickly, bumping into one another to make room.
Tristan stepped in, easily topping the crowd, his expression and mannerisms easy. You’d think he was ready for war, though, with how people hurried to get out of his way.
Brochan tensed next to her, his eyes and bearing now hyperalert. He took a slow sip of his drink as he watched the big gargoyle step up to the bar.
“Alpha.” Tristan bent his head in hello, almost a shallow bow. He was acknowledging the leader of this territory and doing so respectfully. That would go a long way to settle any dissenting gargoyles, if there were any left. Nessa only wished his leader were here to see it.
“What’ll ya have?” Austin asked, setting down a beer he’d just grabbed and knocking on the bar for whoever had ordered it.
“Hennessy, neat.” Tristan stared straight ahead for a moment, not looking at anything in particular as Austin nodded and turned to get it.
When the drink was handed over, Tristan said, “I wondered if Alpha Ironheart will be stopping in?”
“No, not tonight,” Austin responded. “She’s at Ivy House, if you care to stop in.”
Tristan gave him a little grin. “It’s been declared a no-fly zone, I’m afraid. I shouldn’t even be here. If you would let her know…” He paused for Austin to incline his head. “If you need anything for the goodbye dinner, as they’re calling it, let me know. I’m an efficient go-between.”
“Goodbye dinner?” Austin’s tone carried humor even though he wouldn’t allow his face to show it.
Tristan allowed himself to show plenty. “Good riddance dinner, then. I doubt any of the leaders, Miss Ironheart included, will be in a hurry for a gathering like this one again. It was a miracle they all got along as well as they did.”
“It probably helped that they had a new kid to team up against.”
Tristan lowered his head slowly, a half nod. “It did. For a time. She seemed incredibly hard to pin down, however. My master wasn’t the only one to be a little frustrated she wouldn’t be cowed. He’d thought the raid would do it.”
“He should’ve paid more attention to the power in her crew.”
“Agreed.” Tristan moved to turn away, and then hesitated. He glanced around him, obviously wanting some privacy. He probably couldn’t be seen walking off with Austin, though, not if he wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.
“Sebastian,” Austin barked, obviously recognizing the problem.
Sebastian, sitting next to Niamh, flinched and then hunched. He got up like a kicked puppy, trudging over to the two men, giving Tristan a wide berth.
“Pretty impressive that you have that mage deferring to you,” Tristan said conversationally, watching Sebastian approach. “His skill in battle is incredible. His trust even more so. He was blown off the roof with no wings and didn’t seem troubled by it at all.”
“Jessie would never allow any harm to come to me,” Sebastian muttered when he got up close, and Nessa felt the pang of guilt with those words. “And only an idiot would be cavalier with Alpha Steele.”
“Agreed,” Tristan said, chuckling a little. He seemed completely relaxed in the alpha’s presence, something not even Broken Sue could achieve.
Austin leaned forward and asked a question, too low for Nessa to hear. In a moment, Sebastian worked his hands, probably putting them in a magical cone of silence.
Tristan watched Sebastian for a moment, then lifted his eyebrows at Austin, who said something that couldn’t be heard outside of that spell. Tristan’s mouth moved next, although he had the sense to look in a different direction as he spoke. He glanced back only once, to make sure Austin was getting what was being said. Once finished, he sipped his drink and moved away, leaving the magic and crossing to a guardian in the back corner.
Nessa was burning with curiosity when Sebastian got back. His look said wait, though. He didn’t open his mouth.
“What’d he say?” Nessa asked him a couple of hours later, no longer able to contain herself.
Tristan had long since left the bar, never having spared her a glance. Broken Sue had also left, after waiting for the big gargoyle-monster to make his exit first.
Now, it was their turn to leave. She and Sebastian walked just outside of the bar, having easily spotted the idiots who’d been staring at Ulric all night, gathering their courage and their allies. The would-be attackers had skulked out a few moments earlier, and Niamh had tipped them off that the weasels were getting into position. They’d then drink out of flasks and smoke their cigarettes, waiting for Ulric to pass them on his way home.
Sebastian glanced around, slowing when he caught sight of the basajaun exiting the bar.
“He’s not coming with us, is he?” Sebastian asked.
“No, I don’t think so—”
“Hello, mages,” the basajaun said jovially. His hard hat gleamed in the moonlight and the wind caught his kilt and flared it a little too high for Nessa’s comfort level. “I wondered if I might join you in wreaking havoc on the shifters terrorizing your crew?”
“Oh…” Nessa let the word ride an exhale. “Uh… That was actually supposed to be a secret. This is against pack rules.”
“Yes, Niamh mentioned that. We have to be extra stealthy. Do not worry—I am very good at blending in.”
She and Sebastian took in his outfit.
“Yeah, I can see that,” Nessa said. “It’s just…we might get in trouble. And Jessie needs you. So you shouldn’t get involved.”
“Ulric has always been kind to everyone,” the basajaun growled. “And the shifter rules are not protecting him, so they should not protect his attackers. The alpha is failing in his duty. It is up to us to set matters right.”
It certainly was a mystery as to why the sentinels wandering around hadn’t blown the whistle on this before now. Nessa suspected some of the shifters still nurtured a dislike of gargoyles, and they were turning a blind eye. Something that would provide Nessa and Sebastian with cover now.
“It’s fine,” Sebastian said, starting to walk again. “Just don’t get caught.”
“I definitely will not.” The basajaun kept pace. “I’ll lose them in the trees if I am seen.”
Sebastian glanced back at him. It wouldn’t be hard to figure out who he was if he had to run, but she didn’t see any point in saying so.
“Anyway,” Sebastian said as they walked, knowing where to go courtesy of Niamh. She’d known about all of this for months but had never said anything and never helped, respecting Ulric’s request for her to stay out of it. He was concerned that the bullying would just get worse if anyone tried to intervene, something that had happened often enough in his youth.
