Chapter Fourteen
“You must be certain she takes this job.”
Roman glanced up from his desk just as Katrielle the Nomad dropped a file folder on top of the documents he’d been studying. He lifted a brow.
“It’s good to see you as well, Lady Chantelle.”
Katrielle had once been Lalura Chantelle, the ancient witch who’d looked after the Kings and Queens, guiding them and teaching them and basically driving them nuts but while acquiring their love and respect. She was a Nomad, a Traveler, an enigmatic and ancient creature beyond time, so old and so powerful there really was nothing else to liken her to. When a Nomad died, but for special circumstances, they were simply reborn as something or someone else.
Katrielle was a tall, slim woman with masses of beautiful red hair and blue, blue eyes. Those eyes… they always stayed the same for Kat. In every form she ever took, she had those eyes. But this current form had also been Kat’s original form, her first – and she’d intimated that it might just be her last.
Despite her youth and beauty now, Roman D’Angelo would probably never stop seeing her as Lalura Chantelle, the ancient and wrinkled hunched figure with a voice as dry and sharp as parchment paper. So he called her by that name now as he sat back in his chair and folded his fingers gracefully across his lap.
Katrielle simply gave him a tight smile, but her eyes caught the mess on his desk. “I seem to be interrupting.”
“A matter brought to my attention by the Unseelie King,” said Roman.
“Oh?” It was clear she was trying to stay calm, but that she also felt what she had to say was very important. “What’s Caliban done now?”
Roman held back his chuckle. This matter really was very serious, actually. “As of yet, nothing. However, Lord Malek Taal and his men are facing a crisis.”
At this, Katrielle’s eyes flashed. Her demeanor changed. She frowned and took a deep breath. “They’re hunting for mates.” She said it in the form of a statement, not a question. This surprised Roman. And then it also didn’t. He’d known her a long time, and she’d always been ahead of him in the knowledge department. She was ahead of everyone.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I’m assuming you know what is happening, then.”
Katrielle sighed. Then she nodded, just once. “The Unseelie Prophet and I had tea. She told me what transpired between herself and the Taal lord. She filled me in on what is happening among their ranks. Now they are searching for Kindred, the Taal equivalent of a soulmate. But they’re Taal, so the search is far from peaceful. I’m assuming Caliban came to warn you that if the situation isn’t resolved, there may be another fae war.”
Roman looked at the documents on the desk in front of him. They were ancient papers, scrawled with the wording of a treaty that spanned millennia. It was the treaty between the Seelie, the Unseelie, and the Goblin Kingdom. He was admittedly worried there was trouble on the horizon. “Yes,” he said. “But I’m not certain there’s anything I can do other than warn the other sovereigns and have them tell the wardens to keep wary. If a warden kills a Taal as he is searching for his mate, there will surely be a bloody feud. The warden clans will therefore need to stay alert and patient of the situation.”
Katrielle let him finish. And then she sighed. “On the other hand, if the Taal are given free reign and wind up harming a warden while conveying a Taal kiss, it would be worse.”
“True. What do you suggest?”
“At the moment, a few extra precautions. Wards. Spells. Most warden mages are aware of the weakness of the fae to iron. They can work with that perhaps. And….” She closed her eyes and touched her forehead gently. He noted that her fingers were trembling. He frowned.
She lowered her hand and said frankly, “Roman, I hate to change the subject so harshly, but there’s really no time. The leader of the Vega clan must be instructed at once to include Angela Clemens in the team that takes this job.” She leaned forward and tapped her forefinger on the file atop his other documents.
Roman glanced at the folder, then back up at Katrielle. She straightened and waited, but with clear impatience. He said, “I’m assuming there is something fatally important in this folder.”
Katrielle took a breath. “There is. Or there will be. But Gabriel Santiago will not call Angela in unless commanded to do so. You’ll need to give the order. Make it a priority; this has a bearing on the Taal as well.”
Roman’s brow lifted. Interesting. “Do I need to warn Miss Clemens of the Taal threat?”
Katrielle considered that for a moment. Finally, she nodded. “It couldn’t hurt. Speak with the clan heads as soon as possible and be certain Santiago speaks with Clemens as well. As fate would have it… there is a Taal with her in his sights.”
Roman tried to process that. One of the Taal men was after a warden, and not just any warden, but a second-in-command. And a healer. It sent a cold unease through him, as if his blood were flushed with ocean water. He wondered which Taal it was.
“Very well,” he said. He’d known the woman standing before him long enough to trust her implicitly. If she said something was important – that meant it was. Kat stayed where she was while Roman pulled his cell phone from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and opened the file. He read with vampire speed as the call connected.
After a single ring, Gabriel Santiago picked up on the other end.
“Mr. D’Angelo,” Gabriel said.
“Santiago,” Roman replied. He grabbed a fresh piece of paper and began to write. “I have a priority job for you. The file will hit your desk tomorrow morning. I’m requesting certain members for your team. I’m also sending an addendum that you’ll need to discuss with a specific subordinate.” He said this as he made a final note on the file, included the new document, and re-closed the folder.
“Understood,” said Santiago. The line disconnected and Roman re-pocketed his phone.
He then picked up the folder and stood, preparing to deliver it to the job distributor who would take it to the Vega safe house. But as he moved around his desk, he paused and studied his old friend.
Kat wasn’t looking so good.
Roughly two and a half weeks ago, the sovereigns had tasked the best wardens available with tracking down Vicium Mehemii’s location. They’d worked diligently, eventually accomplishing what should have been impossible and pinpointing his position to Manhattan. The embodiment of mayhem and chaos had taken the tall and handsome form of one very powerful man by the name of Victor Maze. He was the president and CEO of Maze Enterprises, also known as Maze Corp or Maze, Inc.
Suitably, Maze Inc. mainly specialized in purchasing and dismantling other companies and corporations. Dismantling… that was entropy’s forte. Maze Enterprises was brutal in its mergers and acquisitions. The company of more than forty-thousand employees owned offices in every major city in the US and overseas. Every single one.
Chaos, it seemed, was capable of spreading at the speed of light.
At the same time, no one had yet seen or heard from the one man who’d been capable of standing up to Victor all these millennia, the one who’d kept him in his own realm all this time, the one who Victor Maze had finally defeated and escaped, no doubt due to the weakness in the dimensional walls caused by the Time King and the recent collision and cohesion of two separate dimensions.
Bantariax the Great Black was missing. According to location spells cast by every mage capable of casting the spell, his essence was not completely destroyed but weakened and scattered throughout the realms. And while Bantariax was dismantled at the hands of Victor Maze, the beautiful and unique Katrielle was without the legendary dragon’s love and protection.
To Roman, this was a terrible concern. Katrielle was the last of her kind. She was the last full-blooded Nomad in existence. And she was much loved by the sovereigns. If Victor Maze got his hands on her….
Roman tried not to think of what he might do. He tried not to think about the fact that he could have done it many times so far and still hadn’t. It was confusing. What was Maze playing at?
He knew Victor was out for revenge. Bantariax had held him prisoner for so long, and now that Victor was free, he no doubt wanted retribution. The best way to exact punishment on someone you hated was to destroy something that person loved. For Bantariax, there was nothing more precious than Katrielle and their daughter, Evangeline. But Evangeline was the Dragon Queen, ripe with draconic power and the protection of an entire hideously powerful dragon kingdom. She was never alone, and Victor had not yet shown any interest in Evangeline.
In Katrielle on the other hand, he’d shown plenty. To date, he’d managed to reach her one way or another more than a dozen times without any of Katrielle’s protectors being able to stop him. He’d first approached her on the sidewalk in front of a jewelry store. She’d stopped to rest, and he had come upon her as if he’d simply been out for a stroll. She hadn’t known who he was, thinking him a stranger. Victor did not tell her, either. He complimented her, flirted with her, gave her just enough of a hint to figure out who he was, and then he left by limousine and driver just as she was realizing his identity. Later, as she shared this experience with her friends, she described him as tall, poised, handsome, and imposing.
His following meetings with her were always similar and entirely frustrating for those who wished to protect her. Always, he was cool and unruffled. Always, he was in complete control. Not once did he outwardly threaten or even touch her. But he came to her. He spoke with her. He made innuendos, softly and expertly. He left her notes or gifts. He seemed to slip right past all her defenses, magical and otherwise. Her powerful wards, her powerful guardians’ wards, and those guardians themselves – he bypassed every one, doing so with such dignified composure it was clear he was toying with her.
Now Roman noticed a slight darkness beneath Kat’s eyes. His gaze slid to her hands. They were indeed trembling. It was perhaps the first time he’d ever seen any sign of human-like weariness on the ancient Nomad. And it occurred to him, perhaps this was Victor’s revenge. Perhaps he meant to tear Katrielle apart where it would hurt the most, in the sanctity of her mind.
Roman looked back up, catching her eyes. “Kat… how are you feeling?”
Kat watched him for a while, her expression unchanging. But she said, “I’m trying not to feel, Roman. It’s too painful to feel.”
Ah, he thought. Victor Maze was indeed winning this round.
Kat continued, changing the subject with a wave of her hand. “Which is why I need you to cooperate with me right now. Take what is in that file immediately and see that it falls into the right hands.” She turned to leave his office by its door rather than the way she usually left his company, which was by transport spell. Normally accompanied by some kind of flashy blast and the scent of lavender.
Once at the door, she stopped, the handle in her grip. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “Right now, it’s all about Angela Clemens, Roman. This is devastatingly important. Love is a powerful weapon. It’s a strong bond, holding things together in the face of forces that would otherwise rip them to shreds.”
Roman digested that, recognizing that she was not only speaking of whatever was in this folder, but of Victor Maze.
“If I can’t fight with that particular weapon,” she continued softly, “hopefully someone else can. And help us even the odds just a little.”
She left his office, and Roman was alone with his thoughts.