Page 109 of Possess Me at Midnight
“Because I was unprepared,” my brother protests. “The bastard caught me off guard. I had no time to put up a defense. Ice knows what to guard himself against. He’ll shield himself.”
“Use your brains! Ice Called to me. If he has to fight a prolonged battle, I’m the only one who can help him. You can’t risk all magickind simply to protect me.”
“I’ll siphon the anger of others.”
A far inferior energy source, and we all know it. The passive power he gleans will waver quickly once he and Mathias are locked in mortal combat. But pointing out the obvious isn’t working. Both men are too protective, and neither is focusing on the greater good. I have to change tactics.
Whirling to Bram, I lean across the table. “What happens if Ice falters and loses this challenge because he didn’t have sufficient energy?”
“He won’t.”
“If he did, what would happen?”
I know the answer already but want to hear Bram admit it.
My brother grinds his jaw. “Mathias would win the Council seat.”
“Exactly.” I nod. “And then…?”
Bram stares into his coffee cup, lifts a shoulder. “No one knows for certain.”
“Don’t get squeamish now. We can certainly guess. At best, he’ll intimidate Blackbourne, Spencer, and Camden, who are all either corrupt or afraid of their bloody shadows, and he’ll ramrod policies through the Council designed to give himself more power and silence dissent. Then he’ll start murdering his opposition, likely beginning with you, me, and everyone ever associated with the Doomsday Brethren.”
“He won’t succeed.” Fury burns in Bram’s darkening blue eyes.
“You don’t know that.”
“I won’t let that happen. I?—”
“You don’t know how to stop it. None of us do!” I insist. “And what happens if Mathias loses this battle for the Council? What will he do then?”
My brother pauses, frowns, looks across the table at Ice. “No one knows for certain.”
“But we can be sure he’ll have to abandon hope of controlling the Council, at least for now. If Ice wins, you’ll have a four-vote majority. If he loses, you’ll have chaos, bloodshed, and death. Given the stakes, it seems foolish to merely hope that Ice has enough energy for this fight. I’m the only witch who can provide for him. I’m going.”
Bram frowns, grits his teeth. “You’re not.”
“I won’t risk you,” Ice insists. “I’ll prevail.”
“Don’t be stubborn.” I reach out and grab his hand. “Mathias can’t do anything to harm me with so many Councilmen looking on.”
“Don’t be certain of that,” rumbles a new voice from the doorway.
I look up to find Shock standing with arms crossed over his chest, decked out in his usual leather, sunglasses, and bad attitude.
Lucan stiffens, murder in his eyes as he glares at the wizard warming Anka’s bed.
“Who the fuck let you in here?” Ice explodes from his seat.
I stay him with a soft touch. “I rang him earlier. He’s the only one who might know what dirty tricks Mathias could use.”
“Are you trying to help Mathias?” Bram’s voice booms off the cavern walls. “Why else would you tell Shock where we’re hiding? Maybe you’d like to tell him the rest of our secrets, too? Make sure it gets back to the wizard trying to kill us all?”
His outbursts of rage and mocking attitude are on my last nerve.
“You’re seriously asking me that after I’ve done everything possible to help in every way I can?” I demand. “Since you’ve come out of that horrible black cloud, I don’t know who you are. This isn’t you.”
Bram stands, pounding his fist on the long table. “It fucking is!”
