Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 (23 page)

Evalle sent a telepathic message to Quinn.
Lanna is right, but Adrianna can cloak us and has far more power—or at least she has far more control of her power. Besides, we need Adrianna’s input on this mission. She should be up and about by now.

Quinn didn’t reply to Evalle, but told Lanna, “If we find ourselves in need of your skills, I will discuss it with you. For now, I would appreciate it if you’d allow us to have our meeting.”

To do anything but comply would make Lanna look like a ranting teen when she wanted to be treated as an adult, which she
was
at the age of eighteen. Good luck convincing Quinn of that.

Lanna expelled a long sigh intended to let everyone know they were wasting her exceptional skills.

There was a certain truth to that, but Quinn had lost her and Kizira at the same time. Thankfully, Lanna had returned with Brina. Quinn would not bend when it came to avoiding putting her at risk again.

They all waited for Lanna to make it up to the next floor and shut her apartment door, then for Storm to confirm that she was no longer in the hall.

Evalle checked on Oskar. Poor little guy seemed to be hiding his face, so she took a place at that end of the table again. She told Storm, “I sent a message to Quinn that we do need cloaking, but Adrianna can do it. We’ll have to ask her, but the way I see it, we’re going to need her help for sure with breaking the curse to free the dragon.”

Tzader, the only one still standing, put his mug down and kept moving around, looking too antsy to be still. “She’s never been to Tŵr Medb, has she?”

“No, but do you know about Veronika and Witchlock?”

“Quinn filled me in.” Tzader pinched his lips, frowning in thought. “Powerful witch from the KievRus coven in Ukraine came here to take possession of Witchlock, but when the time came Adrianna took it?”

“That pretty much sums it up. But Adrianna didn’t want Witchlock. She had a twin, very powerful Sterling witch, although Adrianna was no slouch at the time. Veronika cooked her twin’s majik as part of the process of taking over the power. When everything in the universe lined up just right, Witchlock descended as a tornado, and Adrianna’s sister begged Adrianna to take the power. That was the only way to free her sister’s spirit, because the body was gone. Adrianna did, and it’s a good thing or we’d all be hunting for somewhere to hide. Veronika intended to wipe out anyone with power who wouldn’t be her slave.”

“Damn.”

“Right.” Evalle’s phone rang. She pulled it out and muttered, “Speak of the devil,” before answering the phone. “Funny you should call now, Adrianna. I was about to call you.”

“My reason for calling is not a bit funny. I left you two messages.”

Evalle thumbed her phone. Huh. Yep, two messages. “What’s up?”

“I’m making a delivery. Where are you?” Adrianna snapped.

“At our new building.” Evalle gave her the location. “Just press the buzzer by the garage. What are you delivering?”

“I’ll be there in six minutes. I want tea. Good tea.” Adrianna hung up.

“She’s on the way,” Evalle said. “She has something to drop off and doesn’t sound happy about it.”

“Finish telling us why you think Adrianna can break the curse on the dragon,” Tzader said, but he had a distant look in his eyes.

Something about the Sterling witch bothered him?

Evalle replied, “I’m still not clear on everything that happened to Adrianna when she accepted Witchlock. There’s probably no way to know for sure if she can break the curse until she sees the dragon throne, but she might have some insights.”

Storm interjected, “I could feel the difference in her energy when she walked up to us after it all went down.” He looked over at Evalle. “She cloaked you with little more than a thought.”

“Right. She’d gone to far more effort to cloak the two of us only a half hour before, and that cloaking was very limited.” Evalle thought back on that day. “Here’s the thing. Veronika inadvertently opened a channel to Adrianna’s twin that, when everything was over, allowed Adrianna access to some of Veronika’s thoughts. Adrianna found out that Veronika had more ambitious plans than anyone suspected, and that Veronika specifically wanted the dragon from Tŵr Medb.”

The room went silent. Tzader’s head snapped up and he stared at Evalle. “The dragon throne?”

Evalle said, “We need to ask her if she can tell whether that dragon
was
the throne dragon, and see if she’s gained anything from Veronika since then.”

Quinn quietly stirred his coffee. “I doubt Adrianna has picked up any telepathic noise or impressions since we locked Veronika away beneath VIPER headquarters.”

“I don’t know.”

A buzzer sounded at the garage entrance.

Evalle jumped up. “That’s got to be Adrianna.”

Storm crossed the room in two strides. “It’s daylight outside. Let me get it.”

Evalle followed as far as the open space that would eventually be the lobby, and waited while she heard Storm speak to someone.

Boots tapped a brisk staccato from the garage, across the concrete floor through the door to the lobby.

For a short woman, Adrianna made the most of her size through meticulous choice of clothes. She’d wrapped her voluptuous body in a black denim jacket, black turtleneck, and black jeans. Blonde hair that normally fell loose around her shoulders had been pulled back, revealing a smooth oval face, smoky blue eyes, and ruby lips.

One smile from her and most men would drop to their knees to give her what she wanted.

Not Storm, though.

Evalle smiled over the thought, but she no longer had concerns around this Sterling witch.

Irritation snapped in Adrianna’s gaze the minute hers met Evalle’s. She stopped, arms crossed. “They’re all yours now.”

Evalle shook herself mentally. “Who?”

A pair of twin teenage males entered next, with Storm right behind them. Kardos and Kellman had changed in the short time they’d been away. They were close to six feet tall, their bright blond hair had darkened to a rich gold, and someone had trimmed the wavy locks. They were dangerously attractive for seventeen-year-olds.

Storm swept around the trio and, as he continued past Evalle, he slowed to whisper, “Good luck.”

What was that all about? “Hi guys,” she called to the boys, who both showed off their infectious grins.

Kellman had always been the quiet one she could depend on to use common sense.

Kardos, however, tested the limits of Evalle’s patience at every turn.

She had the strange urge to give them a hug, but she’d only recently started accepting hugs from a very few people and was still feeling her way. These two were homeless street kids. Out of respect for their space, she squashed the idea of a public embrace.

Adrianna looked like
she
might need a hug, but Evalle would defer to someone else for that. Best to keep a reasonable distance from a witch that powerful who looked close to exploding.

“Thank you,” Evalle told Adrianna. “I planned on picking them up this week.” But she’d rather shove a stick in her eye than take Storm anywhere near Isak Nyght, even though Isak had recently shown an interest in Adrianna. Two months back, when the twins were at risk from Svart Trolls invading the city, Evalle had asked Isak’s mom, Kit, if she’d keep them away from the trouble for a few days.

A few days had turned into weeks, then into months.

Evalle had to find a way to thank Kit for her generosity. The boys had filled out some, which meant they’d been active and had eaten on a regular basis. Before Kit, Evalle and her Nightstalker, Grady, had done their best to watch over the twins, but that wasn’t the same as a stable home. Kit had been good for these two.

“You’re welcome. You owe me,” Adrianna said through clamped jaws.

Oh boy, now what? “I’ll reimburse your gas.”

“I don’t want money. We’ll talk about your
debt
later.”

How much trouble could it have been to drive them from the Nyght facility forty-five minutes away, to downtown Atlanta? There was more to this. Adrianna enjoyed driving, and wouldn’t make a big deal out of a simple favor.

Kardos leaned forward, getting close to Adrianna’s ear, and spoke in a conspiratorial tone. “You never gave me your number for that date.”

Adrianna ignored him, but lifted a sharp, perfectly shaped eyebrow in a see-what-I-have-to-deal-with motion.

Evalle warned Kardos, “Trust me, she’s so far out of your league you’d need the Hubble telescope to figure it out.”

“No woman is out of my league.”

Spare me from teenage hormones.

Adrianna added,
“
I was at the Nyght facility when Isak asked me to drop them off before Kit decided to bring them.”

Yep, she owed Adrianna.

Storm smothered a chuckle from the conference room, but it reached Evalle’s ears. After seeing Adrianna roll in with fire practically spitting out of her eyes, he must be standing just inside the door to monitor everything.

Evalle glared in Storm’s direction, then turned back to Kardos, going straight for the simplest fix. “Just a word of advice. I wouldn’t be making passes at Adrianna and piss off Isak Nyght, if I were you.”

All color leached from his face. Kardos quickly stepped back. “Had no idea.”

Adrianna gave Evalle a withering look. “Really? You had to go there?”

Isak and Adrianna had hit it off like gas thrown on a hot coal, especially when he’d stepped between Adrianna and danger.

Evalle found this new development highly amusing, mainly because Adrianna did not. Evalle suggested, “Why don’t you go into the conference room and I’ll be there in a few minutes?”

Adrianna said, “Fine. You better have tea.”

Storm stepped into the hallway. “We do. It’s over here.” He led Adrianna in to meet the others.

“How was life with Kit?” she asked the twins.

As if a switch had been thrown, both boys started talking at once.

Kellman jumped in first. “Kit was very nice to us, but I’m glad to be back. We missed Atlanta ... and you. How’s Grady?”

“He’s good. He asks about you two all the time. I told him you’d return soon.”

Kardos tried to sound imposed upon. “Tell her the truth. We were in the country. Like with cows and things. It was crazy. I can’t do that again.”

Giving his brother a weary sigh, Kellman said, “You were all happy when you found out how hot the girls are in the country.”

“Until Kit told me she’d ...” Kardos shut his mouth.

Storm came back to the hall just then and asked, “She told you what?”

The calm, down-to-earth brother answered, “That if Kardos laid a hand on that young woman, Kit would peel his skin from his body and make him watch as she fed it to the wild animals on her property.”

Kardos turned a deep shade of humiliated red. “She’s scary.”

Evalle had to agree about Kit, who would fit right in with Navy SEALs, all five foot two of her. Given a choice between crossing Adrianna or Kit, who was only human, Evalle would choose Adrianna. But she wasn’t about to admit that to Kardos, who would eventually bring it up at the worst time.

She told the twins, “You can’t go back on the streets, guys.”

Both boys froze, and Evalle knew it was from the implication that local authorities were getting involved.

Kardos gave her a wary look. “You’re not going to try to send us somewhere, are you?”

“Of course not.”

“Because we’re both eighteen now,” Kardos added.

“Really? When was it?”

“It’s two different days.” Poking his thumb at himself, Kardos said, “Mine is December 21
st
and his is December 22
nd
.”

A Sagittarius and a Capricorn. Evalle was not up on zodiac signs, but that helped explain the huge difference in their personalities. Of course, that was based on the astrology she gleaned from the newspaper each week, which everyone knew was
soooo
accurate. Just as dependable as what she found on the Internet.

“Kit had a birthday party for us,” Kellman mentioned. “It was ... nice.”

Evalle bet it was amazing since they’d avoided discussing their birth dates in the past, and for all the time she’d known them they’d never had any semblance of family.

Storm tilted his head toward the conference room, reminding her of the waiting group.

They had to get to the meeting.

She pushed the topic back to discussing a place for them to live. “Here’s what I had in mind. I’m going to be living here, so I was thinking maybe Quinn could work something out with you two for my old place.”

“Underground?” Kardos asked, sounding appalled.

“Yes. It’s a nice place.” Her old apartment was nothing like where she lived now, but way better than the streets where these two had spent years.

Kellman’s face registered concern when he glanced at his brother. “We know you’re making us a great offer, but Kardos has—”