Page 95 of Malcolm

A hand landed on her shoulder, and Coral and Lydia took two giant steps back. Alek escaped the red smoke that swirled around him and pressed his nose against her neck. “You can call on me.”

The look on Lanias's face after his solicitously spoken words caused everyone to hold back their laughter. It had become a common scene for some, like Raijin and Tiller.

Lanias, who was barely holding on to her murderous intent, lifted her hand and pressed her fingers against the side of his head.

“You’re too close.” She shoved his head back while taking a step forward. She was the only one who treated Alek like an annoying parasite.

“Well, as much as I love this gathering,” Lanias said, “the humans are getting nervous, so why don’t we move this to a more pleasant place?” She rolled her wrist, and a white glowing ticket appeared between her fingers.

Malcolm frowned. “How did you get that?”

A mischievous smile came to her lips. “Like I get everything else, my dear Malcolm. With power.”

The room was suddenly filled with black shadow when it abated; everyone in the room had disappeared.

Embers of War

Eliza

When the darkness dispersed, she found herself, along with all the others, sitting in the main hall. Releasing a gasp of surprise, she reared back and almost fell. Luckily, someone caught her just in time.

“Watch it.” Malcolm pulled her close before he narrowed his eyes on Lanias. “You could have given us a bit more warning.”

Lanias didn’t bother to respond to growling.

Instead, she eyed the people who’d frozen at their sudden appearance. Malcolm's guardsmen had all taken defensivestances the minute they’d felt the Magic, and the other werewolves nearby had shivered when their Veil was parted.

“Lanias, I swear I’m going to tie you down and beat you with a stick,” Oye threatened, where she stood near Castian. “Didn’t we just talk about your bad habit of transporting people without warning!”

Lanias waved her off and took a seat, crossing her arms. “I figured we needed to get somewhere a bit more comfortable to continue this conversation.” She sighed. “Staying in the human world makes me nauseous.”

“Alpha.” Agun broke through the crowd and approached Malcolm, who quickly shot him a warning look that stopped him in his tracks. He looked from Malcolm to the others in the room and felt his hackles rise. He’d never felt negatively towards Eliza for being a witch, but the others in the main hall gave off a dangerously different feeling.

The first person he noticed was a large Asian man standing near a pregnant witch's side. His black hair was long, hanging in his eyes, eyes that were red and held anger. Agun wasn’t sure he could find a bigger male on the compound. His size wasn’t the only thing intimidating about him; there was an intensity that warned others off. When he spoke, Agun couldn’t help but tense up.

“You brought us here because of the demons outside,” Raijin said. He’d noticed the disturbance in the air when he’d first entered but hadn’t been sure of its origin. After Lanias’s sudden spell work, he was sure of his first assumption. “They’ve started to move.”

“You got me, big daddy,” Lanias said, leaning her head back. “They must think this is a good time to deal with the noisy mice scurrying around trying to find out information about them.” She placed a hand on her knee, tapping it. “We are as far fromVeil City as we can get, and I’m sure if you try to send any communications out now, it won’t reach.”

“What?” Sabina reached into her back pocket, pulled out her cell, and saw no signal. “Dammit, I can’t check on Kahlia.”

Tiller checked his phone. “It would seem they intend to bury us here.”

Eliza couldn’t believe how calm everyone was acting; she was why they all could get killed.

Before she realized it, she’d lowered her head, “I’m sorry.”

“What areyousorry for?” Oye snorted. “You’re not the one who wanted to bring back past nightmares.” She pursed her lips, “If anything, if we’d protected everyone better, this wouldn’t have happened. That stupid prophecy still hasn’t been solved either.”

“Prophecy?” Eliza repeated.

“Never mind about that,” Castian cut in. “What’s our plan? They clearly are better prepared than we are.”

“We wait,” Lanias said, avoiding Alek, who’d taken a seat next to her by scooting over. “If they were going to attack, they would have done it and not waited around. They want something from us, more than they want us dead, and they are most likely going to exchange it for our lives.”

Malcolm tightened his hold on Eliza’s shoulder, his stance threatening. “You better not be talking about what I think you are?”

Tilting her head to the side, Lanias offered him a sanguine smile. “I wasn’t saying to hand it over, just that it’s pretty clear what they're up to.”

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