Black Night

Wade led me to armchair and set me down in it like a child. I looked up at him blearily.

“What are we doing here?” I asked.

“We have important matters to discuss and it is imperative we not be overheard. Do you know why your mother is so pleased by Focalor’s gift?” Wade asked J.B.

J.B. shook his head. “She did look like the cat that swallowed the cream, though, didn’t she?”

Wade’s face was unusually grave. “Amarantha has long desired some kind of leverage over Lucifer. Focalor’s gift has given her that means.”

The urgency in Wade’s voice was finally getting through to me. “I don’t see how owning Gabriel would tilt the balance of power much in her favor.”

“Owning him, no. But you are not thinking as Amarantha thinks. Everyone knows how Lucifer is fanatically devoted to preserving his bloodline. It is one of his only weaknesses.”

Suddenly what Wade was saying made an awful kind of sense. Images of Gabriel and Amarantha tangled together flashed through my head, and I felt sick. “You mean she wants Gabriel for some kind of stud?”

Wade nodded. “Additionally, she would have access to more of the Morningstar’s powers through her child.”

“Why the hell are all these immortals so obsessed with bloodlines?” I said angrily. “It’s not as if any of them act like Parent of the Year. They only want children to use for the consolidation of their own power.”

“How did you come by this information?” J.B. asked. His voice sounded funny. When I looked at him, I saw he’d gone a little pale.

“Wade does not need to answer to you,” Jude growled, and James and the other wolf added their own grumbles for good measure.

I had not really noticed the other wolf before except as an anonymous member of the pack. Jude always attracted so much of my attention that I was barely aware of the others. I focused on him for the first time now.

He was large and burly like Jude and Wade and wore the wolf uniform of flannel, leather and denim. He was older and blond with streaks of silver in his ponytail. The coloring was unusual and I thought he probably made an exceptionally handsome wolf.

James was staring at me intently, as usual. His silver blue eyes seemed strangely familiar all of a sudden, like he was related to someone I knew. And just as before, they radiated intense dislike. Maybe I had done him or a family member some wrong in the past and that was why he couldn’t stand me.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” I asked. It was going to nag at me until I figured it out.

He looked away from me, as if he’d realized he was staring. “No. I am a recent member of Wade’s pack.”

I looked at Wade questioningly. He shrugged. “James was a solitary wolf for a time just after his maturity. We often have members join us this way.”

“Okay,” I said, but I still stared at James. There was something about him . . .

“Can we get back on track, please?” J.B. said, annoyed. “I want to know how you came by such privileged information. I know my mother does not disclose her plans to all and sundry, and she certainly wouldn’t be disclosing them to you when she’s spent so much time trying to thwart you at every turn.”

“I cannot reveal the source of my information,” Wade said serenely, but there was a note of finality in his voice. “The important fact here is not where I heard this, but that Amarantha has achieved her desire. She has been given a thrall from Lucifer’s bloodline. He could be impregnating her even as we speak.”

This time I couldn’t stop the little cry of distress that left me. Everyone looked at me.

Okay, fine. I really did a crap job of hiding my feelings. I rubbed my forehead. Did I need this additional problem of trying to stop Amarantha from bearing a child of Lucifer’s bloodline even if I did manage to extract Gabriel from her? How many more intrigues would present themselves before all of this was over? There was a wolf-killer running around loose, and war had been declared on Lucifer’s kingdom. Samiel was still hanging around in the background somewhere and he definitely wanted my head. And somehow I was supposed to salvage this mess with Amarantha and try to get her to reestablish relations with Lucifer.

Priorities must be made. First thing first—there was no way I would be able to live with the idea that Gabriel had made a child with Amarantha. Never mind the politics. This was personal.

“How can I get Gabriel away from the queen?” I asked J.B.

“If she wants a child of Lucifer’s blood that badly, there’s probably nothing you can do,” he said grimly. “At least until she’s had her way.”

“That is not a productive thought,” I said. Maybe I could trade favors with the wolves. If they would help me with this, I could help them get what they wanted from the queen. “What about your negotiations with her for the land that you want? Did you manage to get her to concede?”

Wade shook his head. “Despite the insult of having a member of our pack killed within sight of her castle she still has not given us what we want.”

“And don’t expect her to anytime soon, even if she knows that she ought to,” J.B. said. “My mother could give a mountain lessons in stubbornness.”

“So there really isn’t an opening there,” I said. “Although maybe if I came forward as an additional witness . . .”

“But she’s pissed at you for threatening Focalor in front of everyone,” J.B. reminded me. “Your veracity as a witness would be lessened.”