Darcy clicked her fingers, a small unsettling smile tilting up the corners of her lips. Her Spider Mage frequencies were clearly firing. “The future! We’re dealing with deities here, and we know the Fates are involved somehow, either willingly or unwillingly. Congrats, you just made the grade; bippity, boppity, boo, welcome to the team - Secret Special Liaison Deputy.”
“I hate you.”
“Damn, I was aiming for equal parts fear and love. In the meantime, keep up the good work. Act natural. Just go about your daily life like before. And call me if anymore dead guys get dead. Or if you come across anything suspicious.”
“Wait. What about the bodies?”
“I can’t see either one of them complaining about having to spend more time in your freezer. Besides, I have hookup plans with Declan after this, and they do not involve the two of us disposing of any bodies. Not this time anyway.” On that note, with a flip of her short black hair, her micro plaid skirt twirling out sassily, Darcy made to exit.
It was not a good precedent to allow Darcy to have too many wins on the board, otherwise her cousin would totally lose all respect for her. “Fine. I just want you to remember that I have Nell’s baby shower scheduled for three weeks’ time. You know, the one your mother has been laboriously planning forthe past five months. It would be a pity, if I was so consumed or distracted by all my new secret deputy duties that the event failed to live up to your mother’s exacting standards. Not that I’m worried. We both know who’ll she’ll point the finger of blame at.”
Darcy swung back around, clear blue eyes blazing with annoyance, but also a smidge of respect. Yeah, that jab had landed deep. Darcy and her mother, Sarah, were both strong-willed women who liked to get their own way. The twosome pretty much at loggerheads since the day Darcy was born. And it was no secret that anything to do with the birth of her first grandchild was critically important to Sarah, and that she was for some reason holding her youngest child responsible for ensuring Nell’s pregnancy went smoothly.
“Well played.” Taking a deep breath, a fleeting pained micro-expression crossing Darcy’s beautiful features for a nanosecond. “Just know you brought this on yourself. I have enough on my plate. A mother to placate. A niece to welcome into the world. A meld mate to annoy and boink. Asshole, power hungry deities to destroy. Not to mention a tricky matchmaking Great-Aunt to hookwink, bamboozle and ensure receives a hefty dose of her own bitter medicine.”
Damn it, Gigi had just been trying to prove she wasn’t a pushover; instead, she’d made herself a target. Just what heinous, beyond bad thing was Darcy planning for her now? Oh, Goddess, the number forty-eight smile tilting up the corners of her cousin’s lips made Gigi’s stomach dip in trepidation. That was Darcy’s - I love you, but this will definitely hurt you more than it will hurt me - smile.
“You’re right. I’m not being fair, am I? I know what will help ease your burden over the next few weeks, a partner.”
Excuse me? A partner? Someone qualified to kill bad dudes and deal with all the deity ‘take-over the Earth’ crap? Thatsounded… wonderful. Gigi could concentrate on her shop and catering business, and this mysterious partner that Darcy intended to assign her could deal with all the deadly stuff. Except, this was Darcy she was talking about here, and that number forty-eight smile wasn’t shifting.
A partner? Someone who Darcy considered suitable?
Crap.
Chapter Two
Silver.
Nico Yanez’s eyes shot open, already in motion, thankful he was at least wearing boxer shorts. Rolling silently off the mattress currently located in the middle of the floor of the apartment that used to belong to his brother, Matias. The apartment situated above the bar they co-owned together.
The space unused since Matias had moved into his new meld mate, Quinn’s home. The perfect place for Nico to sleep for a few weeks, given he’d loaned his boat to Matias and Quinn for their official honeymoon.
Dim moonlight streamed in the through the nearest window overlooking the beach below, providing enough light for Nico to make his way on silent bare feet across the gleaming wooden floors to the polished brass pole, located on the other side of the room. One of the few features they’d kept when they converted the old abandoned fire station into a bar.
Even though he couldn’t see the intruder, Nico could sense their general location. Currently, they were behind the bar, heading towards the kitchen. Not the office where the safe was kept? Weird.
Descended from a long line of treasure hunters, Nico had not just an affinity for things made of silver; they called to him. And the older they were, the louder they called. Tugging at his gut. Find me. Find me. Incredibly useful when you were exploring an old wreck or searching for lost things or civilisations miles below the ocean surface.
He dismissed the idea instantly that this was some silly hijinks perpetrated by one of the local Southern Sanctuary residents. They did like their practical jokes. But none would have considered breaking into the Five Alarm Bar at four inthe morning. Besides, most of the rabid local pranksters were elderly - like over a century old - elderly. So tended to confine their antics to business hours.
Still, Nico paused at the top of the pole, running through any number of other innocent reasons someone may have chosen to break into his bar. The invisible sheep were always on a militant animal rights tear, and thanks to their DNA and training, could move ninja quiet. But the bar didn’t currently have lamb on the menu. And there was that silver element the intruder was carrying that kept tugging at his gut.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t just old; it was ancient. Achingly, grindingly old, gnawing away at Nico.
Grabbing a blanket, Nico wrapped it around the brass pole and climbed on, sliding downwards fast and quietly. Moving from shadow to shadow, he made his way towards the swinging kitchen doors. Adrenalin spiking in anticipation, his fists clenched in readiness.
Damn it, he wasn’t supposed to be enjoying the prospect of tangling with an intruder. He was a bar owner these days. A retired treasure hunter. His life was pretty much perfect. His brother, Matias, was cured of his memory issues. Having spent almost a decade awakening every morning - his memory reverting - thinking he was back on their parents’ boat. Where Mama, Papa, and all their friends had just been violently killed, and their kid sister, Copper, had mysteriously disappeared.
But Matias was cured. Even better, Copper had been rescued from the past, and lived here at the Southern Sanctuary now. And okay, she was… changed, might even be the Goddess she proclaimed she was. But she was also in love and melded to the biggest, baddest dude around. And Elijah would lay down his life to keep Copper happy and safe. Sure, Nico still worried about her, but he worried about her a lot less than he used to.
No, what kept him awake lately was the dark path his own life had led him down over the last year. He’d taken a life, almost with relish, snapping the neck of the first, only, woman he’d ever loved.
Loved? What a joke.
Kristiah had been a liar, a fraud, and, unexpectedly, a half-hybrid jaguar, created by a mad human sacrificing priest almost five hundred years ago in the past. Sent to the future to find a hollowed-out blade containing shards of the Goddess Ixchel’s heart.
Hooking up with the treasure hunting Yanez family must have seemed like a no brainer for a schemer like Kristiah. Seducing Nico a bonus. Intent upon securing his loyalty, or perhaps she’d just been bored. Either way, she’d played him like a violin.
