“Yeah, you did at that,” agreed Carson, tugging his mate closer and wrapping his arms around him. Gently, he brushed his lips against Remy’s and then, after using his tongue to lick them, he whispered, “I love you, babe.”
“Ditto,” smiled Remy. Nestling against his mate’s chest, he closed his eyes as Carson began to wash him. It was perfect…just what he needed to help calm the magic sparking within him.
~/~/~/~/~
Standing next to Remy’s car, Carson looked over the roof at his mate. “Hunter is spending the day with Fionn at his hoard.”
“Why?” Remy asked, opening his door and climbing in.
Joining his mate inside the car, Carson chuckled. “It seems Fionn needed some place dark and fireproof to recover from his hangover.”
“I thought you said shifters couldn’t get drunk,” Remy replied, starting the engine.
“According to my cousin, that doesn’t apply to dragons.”
Shaking his head, Remy navigated slowly down the rutted service road leading to the winery, yanking the steering wheel back and forth in an effort to avoid bouncing his mate out of his seat.
“Fucking hell!” Carson exclaimed, bracing one hand on the dashboard while white-knuckling the other around the ‘oh shit’ handle when the car bottomed out after falling into a deep pothole.
“Sorry. I haven’t had the time to get it graded. This always happens after we have a heavy rain. I tried to convince Artur to either pave or gravel the road, but as you can see, I was not successful.”
“Who grades it? An outside company?” asked Carson.
“No, Jules does it with the grader.” Pulling up to the building that held the fermenting vats, Remy saw Mystia standing outside waiting for them. Climbing out of thecar, he greeted her while waiting for his mate to join them. Then, entering his security code for the door lock, he waited until it clicked before pulling it open.
Leading his mate and Mystia to the room where the sabotage occurred, Remy stopped several times to answer questions from different workers before they arrived at the tanks. “These are the seven vats the ladybugs were put into, and this is the one where I sensed the black magic,” Remy said, pointing to a tank.
“Why is the wine ruined?” asked Carson.
“Dead ladybugs produce a foul-smelling toxin when they are processed along with the grapes, giving the wine a bad aroma and taste. When the grapes are harvested, there are always a few bugs along with them, but so few it doesn’t matter. In this case, though, seven of these tanks had lots of ladybugs thrown into each of them. And this wasn’t the first time it happened. It’s going to cause the winery a significant loss.”
“You said something didn’t seem right this last time…what was it?” asked Carson.
“There were dead ladybugs all over the floor in addition to those in the tanks,” Remy began. “The other times, there were no indications something had been done. We don’t even know when the previous incidents happened because Pierre only discovered it when he ran his test routine.”
“Did you check the security video the first time?” asked Carson.
“No, because there weren’t any cameras then. I ordered them after the first incident because I thought it might have been an employee,” Remy replied.
Leading Mystia to the tank that had jolted him, Remy and Carson watched as Mystia extended her arms, placing her hands flat on the side of the tank. There was enough left to cause her to jerk her hands away as the residual black magic clashed with hers. Lowering her eyes, she gazed at her hands, mumbling words so low Carson couldn’t make out what they were. Suddenly, there was a flash and a puff of black smoke floating up from the tank. Removing her hands, Mystia stepped back. “It’s the same signature as the black magic used by the witches I’ve been searching for.”
“I don’t understand,” Remy said, “it doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t,” agreed Carson. “According to Jackson, the witches teamed up with vampires to share stolen loot…which amounts to a hell of a lot more profit than trashing some wine.”
“If I’m correct, the witches are doing this for a client,” Mystia said.
“For a client…like someone hired them to cause all this damage?” asked Carson.
“Yes,” Mystia replied, pausing a moment before continuing. “It all started after Fionn’s father died, right?”
“Yes, although I didn’t realize it until I made a spread sheet, documenting each occurrence,” answered Remy.
“Do you think it’s connected with Artur’s death?” asked Carson.
“Could be, but I just can’t see what it would be,” Mystia said.
“Maybe because there isn’t one,” Carson said. “What if it’s just a coincidence that it started then? We alreadyknow the Witches’ Governing Council was hunting Remy…what if someone on the Council knew my mate was going to be the new Keeper and this was an effort to force him to complain to the Council…to do him harm before he was claimed by his fated mate?”
