Page 55 of Warwick

“I didn’t feel my magic return until several weeks after I’d recovered,” Dante said. “And it’s different than it was before.”

Damien and Atticus chuckled. “That’s the goddess for you,” Atticus said. “Like Master Edison said, it can be confusing trying to figure out how or why she does certain things.”

“We can pop out here and there and try looking again,” Atticus said. “But we really have no idea where to even start. There are a whole lot of places in the world that two hellhounds can be hiding. Especially since we have the ability to mask our scent.”

“I’ll make some calls. We’re going to need more warlocks. Alpha Sergei is calling in for more dragons. It’s understandable they don’t have magical powers like hellhounds and warlocks, but their power when shifted is hard to deny.”

“No offense,” Frederick said, “but how is a dragon able to compete with someone with magical powers?” Frederick shrugged when all eyes turned toward him. “I’m not knocking the dragons. Some of them are scary. But they shift. But even shifted, I know that a warlock’s power beats a dragon in their scales.”

“What about the fae?” Benjamin asked. The room went silent again, all eyes now on Benjamin. “Fae have magic that matches us. Why are there no fae enforcers? It would seem logical to ask if any of them would like to come to this realm and join the council. Asher absolutely loves it here. Granted, he’s an omega, but there are plenty of fae that are alphas that I am sure would be willing to relocate.”

It was interesting to watch the different range of emotions that crossed Master Edison’s face. Surprise to dread to possibly hopefulness? “I’ll get in contact with Canyon and Thomas. That is a very good suggestion, although I do worry about what matter of chaos adding several fae alphas to the enforcers would have on the council. But it is a good idea, and I’m sorry I haven’t considered it before.”

“They don’t really have the issues we do here. With them being in their own realm, it’s understandable that our issues here don’t affect them. But I know from talking to Calum and Asher, not every fae is happy where they are. Chaos aside, I would think it would be more positive than negative. A bored fae is mischievous. We’ll keep them too busy to become bored,” Benjamin said.

There were several chuckles around the room. I’d only met one fae that I was aware of. I knew there were, of course, a few around, but as far as I knew, only the one who now ran the council store was the only fae I’d ever encountered.

“I’ll reach out as soon as we’re finished here. Of course they would need training, but I’m sure we can do a condensed version without jeopardizing anyone’s safety.” Master Edison pointed at the wall again. “That is where we’re at presently. The council has most control of RC Transport. Rocco is guarded but is holding out quite well with not giving up his allies. We know of his enemies. They are easy enough to find. They’ve made it no secret that most of them would do anything to see him out of the picture.”

“What’s the plan?” Atticus asked.

“We need to find Marco and Riccardo. Until we can locate them, we can’t get rid of Rocco, and he knows it.”

“What’s Marco’s weakness?” I asked. “Does he have a sister? One? Mother? Anything of that nature?”

Master Edison shook his head. “Rocco is the only one who has a One. She is being held near him but not with him. They have one child, who is grown and gone. As far as we can tell, their son isn’t involved in the coven’s business at all.”

“So how do we find Marco?”

“The same way we found Orson and Mervin. We wait. I know it’s not ideal, but it is all we have at the moment. We have allies ourselves that are there in Venice and surrounding areas, watching for them or any activity that might seem like theirs.”

This was definitely frustrating, to say the least. And Cecil was right; I wanted to be here and involved. Was I anxious and begging to go to Venice? No. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t help from this side of things. Did I feel bad about not being ready to leave in a moment’s notice? Somewhat, but my duty was split now. Yes, I still had a duty to the council, but I also had one to Cecil and our children. He would need me. He had his grandparents, and I knew Lev would help a great deal if asked. We were going to be asking, I just knew.

“That’s what we have for now. We’re looking for Marco and Riccardo. We have Rocco and what we believe is the rest of the inner circle. The rest of the coven is still in place in Venice. We don’t have the ability to move an entire coven of that size somewhere,” Master Edison said.

“Understood,” Atticus said. Others nodded, myself included.

The meeting wrapped up, but I found myself feeling let down a bit. It was good to hear that we had the coven master, but there were still others that we had somehow let slip through our fingers. That was always frustrating.

I was leaving the conference room when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I glanced back, expecting anyone other than Dante. I moved out of the doorway and stopped. I honestly didn’t have anything against the hellhound; I simply didn’t know him.

“Did you need something?”

“Can I talk to you for a few minutes? In private?”

I looked around at the others that were coming out of the conference room. Sebastian made a beeline for me, grabbing my shoulders. “Seriously, Warwick. Six weeks?”

I chuckled. “Cecil freaked out, and I will admit I had a moment or two of panic. We still don’t have names picked out, and he’s trying to decide on a nursery theme, whatever that really is.”

Sebastian started laughing. “Oh man,” he said in between laughing fits. “Yes, I can understand that. I can relate. I can’t imagine having so little time to prepare for not one but two babies. Are you all right?”

“Yes, are you? We’re here if you need us,” Benjamin said, joining the small group in the hallway.

“I’m getting there. I’m more worried about Cecil. He was having a bit of a meltdown about it but seemed to get over everything after a day. It doesn’t help that we are having the first hellhound babies.”

“Do you know, are they identical?” Benjamin asked.

I nodded. “And growing like magic. But we were told it was because of their magic that they were able to develop and grow so quickly. Last week, Cecil felt bloated. This week, he can’t hide his bump.” And it was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. I was completely enamored with my mate, but my mate carrying our babies was hot. And the fact that Cecil was having pregnancy hormones that were of the horny variety was nothing but a good thing. Well, except when I was at work because he told me to come to work and he decided he needed me at home.

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