Simon’s sigh and raised brow said he thought otherwise, but he held his tongue.

“What?”

“Nothing at all. I just don’t want you to fuck this up because you were raised to be all suspicious of clans and of what you are. You’re full-council, even I know what that means.”

Dominic sighed. The hell of it was, he wasn’t sure he himself knew.

MERIEL let out the breath she’d been holding all day when she saw his number pop up on her screen.

“Meriel Owen,” she answered, sending a quick lock spell so her mother wouldn’t barge in on the call.

“It’s Dominic.”

He paused and she paused too, waiting to see what he’d do.

“So are you free tonight? For dinner?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I am.”

Another pause. She really should help him, but he needed to do it. Needed to be in control and she understood it and let him be, even if he hadn’t realized that’s what he needed just yet.

“And then after, I’d like to bring you to Heart of Darkness. You know … we have dinner and come over here for drinks.”

And it would give her a chance to know him better, for him to show her what was important to him. That appealed to her.

“All right. Do you have a pen?” She gave him her address and said she’d see him at eight.

After she hung up she had to dig through her desk, remembering the box of chocolate macadamia nut candies someone had brought back from a recent trip to Hawaii. Candy was totally necessary, but if she headed to the vending machines, it took her right past her mother’s office and that was not what she wanted.

Until they performed the ascension spell, she wouldn’t achieve full-council status. Such a thing would be impossible to hide. She was doubly glad they hadn’t had sex the night before because her mother would have noticed the change in her energy. Hell, even right then Meriel knew her magick had ripened, thickened, rising within her and ready to join with someone else’s.

After she’d eaten the fourth piece of candy, two after she’d told herself, “Only one more,” she sat back and allowed herself a deep breath. He called. She smiled.

SHE tried not to be annoyed when her phone rang as she was still goopy with lotion. If it was Dominic calling to cancel, she was so going to hunt him down.

But it was 401. Rodas Industries.

“Meriel Owen.” She hoped she sounded commanding enough. A little difficult when standing naked and slicked up with lotion.

“Ms. Owen, my name is Arel. Gage would like us to add him into a three-way call. Would that be all right with you?”

“Yes, go on. Give me a moment, please.” She put the phone down and grabbed a robe, also picking up her glasses and a notepad as she got settled in at the nearby table.

“I’m back.”

“Sorry to bug you on a Friday night, but when I spoke with Arel I knew you’d want to hear this.”

She sighed. “Comes with the job. What’s up?”

It was Arel who spoke. “Had some excitement last evening on my side of the country. We got a call from a witch up in Boston, asking for help against some mages who’d been stalking two sisters, also witches. As a result of this call, we now have a few mages in our custody.”

Unease slithered through her. “Are the witches all right? The sisters?”

“Yes. They’re both fine. Took some hits. One was partially drained. She turned the draining spell around, drained the mage. Caught him off guard, but it was a great response. Still, she spent several hours puking it all out as her body had to reject all that wrong energy. Spent time with her today. She’s also a shifter so it didn’t hit her as hard as it would have otherwise.”

She had no idea there were such a thing as witch shifters. Fascinating. “I’d like to meet her, if possible. It sounds like she’s got some skills we could use.”

“I explained to Arel about your desire to work with other witches to share knowledge and spellcraft,” Gage said.

“I’ve told Kendra, that’s the witch I’m referring to, about this and she’s enthusiastic to meet you. Since it’s all right with you, I’ll make an introduction later. You should know them and they you.”

She made a quick note to herself about that.

“All right. Thank you. Did she terminate the mage she turned the spell back on?”

“No. But she could have. Scared him enough to be forthcoming about what they were all up to though.”

“Good to know. By in custody do you mean still drawing breath?”

“For now.”

“As it should be.”

Gage laughed in the background. “I told you.”

“I approve of bloodthirstiness in this time and place. There are dark things on the horizon.” Arel cleared his throat. “We’ve been watching some mages back here who’d been on the move, settling in, stalking witches, draining them and moving on.”

This was what she’d been worried about.

“They’re more organized than we’d assumed. And after some rigorous questioning, I can tell you they’ve been working with anti-Other hate groups to target witches ripe for the draining. Not only that, but working with disgruntled paranormals.”

That stopped her pen. “What? How?”

“The mages had been working with a shifter, a cat. The brother-in-law of the witches attacked last night. He led them straight into the heart of their community. Set the witches up.”

“Why? I don’t understand this. Why would someone do that?”

“That cats handled that part, so all I know is what I’ve been told. This was a third brother, never going to run the jamboree. But also a little loopy and got caught up in the demon-possessed line the hate groups had been farming out.”

She sighed heavily. “So we can assume they know things about us? Things that could hurt?”

“One of the collaborators was a cat shifter. It’s safe to assume they understand now that shifters have their own kind of magickal energy,” Gage broke in.

She chewed her lip. Her mother should know of this. At the same time, Meriel had been appointed to this exact position and her mother wouldn’t really want to hear about any of this until they had more specifics. Oh and she didn’t want to face her mother just yet.

“Gage, I want you and Nell to work on this when she gets back. My mother will need to be briefed.” Responsible and yet still kept her out of her mother’s attention for a while longer. “What do we know about them, Arel? Do they pick witches they knew? Witches who are most vulnerable?”

“It appears to be a little of both. But … it’s only a matter of time before they figure out the more powerful the witch, the sweeter the reward. Only a matter of time before some turned witch joins them and shares that.”

Stuck witches were bad enough. A turned witch was one who’d damaged so much of her connection with her inherent magicks she no longer had access to them. No longer a witch, not quite a mage, a turned witch was most dangerous. Still hungry for the pleasure of the initial magickal hit but cut off from a huge part of one’s existence made them all totally crazy.

“What are they doing with the energy they steal? Just using it themselves? Providing the stolen magic to stuck witches? How do these anti-Other groups feel about that?”

“I’m under the impression it has not gone far enough to be organized in anything more than a way for the mages to get the power themselves to feed their addiction. But my fear, and my belief, is that they will get more organized. This is drug dealing and manufacturing on a pretty intense scale.”

“All right. Can we do anything to help?”

“At the moment, we’ve got it handled.”

“But? We need some sort of — I don’t know — a conference? Something so we can share intel.”

“I’m going to leave that to you and Sadira. I have no patience for the bullshit politics.”