Page 40 of Call of the Ride
“Anything you need. I’m ready,” Nox evenly replied, sinking into the chair on the opposite side of the desk.
Matthew smiled in satisfaction as he opened a drawer and pulled out a mag of bullets, sliding them across the wooden surface to his son. “We’re doing trials on some new ammunition, and I was hoping you could test it in the field for me. You’ll be the only one in the unit carrying them.” He didn’t elaborate, but the message was clear—if Nox mentioned this to anyone else, there would be problems.
I looked down at the bullets through Nox’s eyes, and registered a flicker of hesitation, even as he confidently met his father’s gaze again. “I assume the target is shifters?”
His father leveled him with a hard look. “Of course. Supernatural beings—unnaturalbeings—are the enemy. Remember, they are the reason your grandmother is dead. If she hadn’t been mixed up in the old ways—worshiping gods that don’t exist—she would still be alive. Man belongs at the top of the food chain, and we need to do whatever it takes to claim and maintain our rightful place. This is for the greater good,my son.”
The phone on the desk suddenly rang, and Matthew promptly ended the conversation by dismissively waving Nox away before answering. As Nox left his father’s office, a small snippet of the conversation reached his ears, just before the doors slammed closed behind him.
“Yes, I’m flying in tonight, and I expect everything in the tower to be ready upon my arrival, Cassandra...”
Chapter 31
Asa
Iraced to Tan’s side as he collapsed under the weight of his vision, his head hitting the floor with enough force to shake Veles’ palace.
“Why didn’t you fucking catch him, Nox?! You were right there,” I growled at the enormous idiot still standing uselessly above me. After quickly checking Tan for injuries, I breathed a sigh of relief as he regained consciousness in my arms.
“Oh, fuck...sorry, Ace,” Nox muttered, blinking rapidly and looking dazed, as ifhehad been the one having the out-of-body experience. “As soon as Tan got in there, it was like my mind just went blank. I don’t remember a fucking thing.”
Fine, I won’t punch you again.
“You can stop fussing over me now, mother hen, I’m fine,” Tan chuckled, adoringly gazing up at me. “Unless, of course, you’re offering to wrap my dick in a warm hug, in which case I feel positively terrible.”
Per usual, my half-hearted disapproval didn’t last long in the face of his antics. One of the many,manythings I loved about Tan was his absolute disregard for propriety. It was in such stark contrast to the rigid expectations I grew up with, and so freeing to experience, even if only vicariously. Thanks to his irreverence, I could even see the humor in an adulterous goddess pretending to be a khaki-clad saint throughout my entire childhood.
If only the pearl-clutchers knew...
“You did good, suge,” I smiled, attempting to keep us on track despite my body responding to Tan’s mischief. “While you were scrying—or whatever you were doing in Nox’s head—the view in the lapis zoomed into the Tower of London. So that must be where we’ll find Matthew.”
He frowned. “Did it show which building exactly? I went on a tour once and there were something like 22 towers…Cass!”he suddenly shouted, wiggling out of my hold and scrambling to his feet before looking around wildly. “That fucking, no good, double crossing, meddling…”
“What are you talking about, Taneer?” Veles’ voice had gone dangerously low, chilling in its unspoken threat. “Did you see something about Moonstone in your vision?”
Tan was visibly shaking with rage, his light pulsing outward from the tattoos circling his arms, giving his deadly power a deceptively angelic glow. I slowly rose and walked over to where he was pacing, sending soothing warmth into his body until I felt his heart rate settling.
I’m right here.
My love took a steadying breath, briefly closing his eyes before resolutely continuing. “I saw…no, Ihearda bit of conversation. It was right after Matthew gave Nox those enhanced bullets to test in the field. Just as he was leaving his office, I overheard Matthew on the phone with an accomplice. Not just anyone either, since he distinctly told ‘Cassandra’ he was flying in that night and expected everything to be ready for his arrival.”
We all looked at each other in shocked silence. Of course, Tan would feel deeply betrayed, as Cassandra had been part of his family since he was born and good friends with his mother longer than that. But the seer had been actively helping our entire group since we arrived in London. If shewasworking with Matthew, it was odd that she would also be continuously thwarting his plans along the way.
Something isn’t adding up.
“Our best course of action is to go to Cassandra’s shop and confront her,” I carefully suggested, surprised as usual that everyone seemed more than ready to let me take the lead. “She’ll probably see us coming a mile away, but we have two powerful mind readers here, so perhaps we can gather some intel without her knowing.” I briefly nodded at Marena before smiling encouragingly at Tan.
He grimaced in reply. “I don’t exactly know what I’m doing yet,Gueneshem,” Tan shrugged, almost apologetically, before his expression turned stormy again. “And to be honest, right now if I were to get into Cass’ head I just might accidentally on purpose explode it like a watermelon.”
Well, that’s dark.
But…still hot.
“I don’t believe Cassandra Moonstone is our enemy.” Vasi stepped forward, and because we were a team, we all patiently waited for her to elaborate. “My intuition tells me she’s on our side, and I trust myself in that. I agree with Asa that we should go directly to the Emporium and question her, but let’s give her an opportunity to explain...Even if that means persuading her a bit.”
Nox wrapped himself around Vasi from behind, reminding me how enormous he was compared to our tiny but fierce witch. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but personally, I’ll be disappointed if I don’t get to witness you claw-punch that hippie. Seeing you with blood on your hands makes me as hard as a fucking rock.”
Marena snorted in amusement at this declaration—while Veles and Jarilo groaned in disgust—but Tan and I zeroed in on the two of them like hungry predators. The god of the Nav was partly correct when he accused us of being sex-crazed heathens, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t resist the magnetic pull Tan and Vasi had on me, and I was no longer opposed to watching Nox fuck our girl into a screaming mess. The fact that these group activities apparently gave our powers a boost was simply an added bonus.
