I’d slept a little later than usual thanks to the late night, and breakfast for the coven was in full swing when I made it downstairs. With over a hundred vampires in the coven, it was a bit chaotic, though there were only about seventy vampires present in the large dining room. The thirty or so on the night shift ate at different times.

  Mark was sitting with Jason the head enforcer, James the daytime enforcer in charge, and Patty as I joined them. The scents of eggs, bacon, and biscuits made my stomach growl, and I blushed.

  “Good morning.”

  Mark asked, “Is it?”

  I laughed, “Yes, now pass me a biscuit.”

  Patty snickered, and she tossed me one. I didn’t so much catch it as I blocked it so that it fell on my plate. It was good to see her in a truly good mood after what’d happened to her and Susan, but at the same time it was a reminder that very dark things happened in our world sometimes. She’d bounced back quickly from the air sorcerer. Too quickly, if it hadn’t been for the fact our world had dark things in it.

  “Are you holding court today, or will we be touring your realm?”

  James almost choked on his orange juice when he barked a laugh.

  Mark gave me an exasperated look, but the amusement and love in his eyes ruined the effect.

  “The former, unless something comes up.”

  I grinned, “So you finally admit to it then?”

  He laughed, “No, just tired of arguing.”

  I grinned wider, “That means I win, right?”

  Patty was giggling so hard it looked like she couldn’t breathe.

  Jason said, “It looks that way, doesn’t it?”

  Mark said mock severely, “Eat your breakfast.”

  “Yes, your majesty.”

  I piled some eggs, bacon, and sausage gravy on my biscuit, and got right on that. Between last night and the workout that morning I’d worked up a hell of an appetite.

  Mark asked, “Your plans?”

  I shrugged, “I need to check in with Dana and Katie today, otherwise I’m all yours.”

  Mark nodded, “The morning should be boring. We’re doing year end from most of our companies, prep for tax season.”

  I mock shuddered, mostly.

  He grinned.

  I said innocently, “Maybe I’ll take care of that other stuff first thing then.”

  Dana sat down next to me, “Did I hear my name taken in vain?”

  Like me, the raven-haired goddess was dressed rather casually without a business and human expectations to conform to. She had on a casual black skirt with white designs, and a casual black blouse. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and even without a hint of makeup she was just about perfect.

  I nodded, “Busy this morning?”

  She said, “As I understand it, a girl Friday is perpetually at your beck and call.”

  I snorted, “Okay. I need updates from Monday.”

  She said teasingly, “It’s not a laughing matter. Plus, if you convince Mark he’s a king, doesn’t that mean you’re our queen? Which makes me Dana, lady in waiting to the queen herself,” she said with mock gravitas.

  I frowned, suddenly not all that sure I should tease Mark about that anymore.

  Mark smiled smugly, no doubt picking it up in my scent.

  I accused, “Traitor.”

  Dana giggled and looked unrepentant. Everyone else got a good chuckle out of it too, it was less fun when they all weren’t ganging up on Mark with me, but I laughed too.

  We finished up breakfast, and Mark and I split up for the moment after a chaste kiss. I went with Dana to one of the offices on the first floor to go over my portfolio and the status of the foundation and charity setup. It’d only been two days, but she’d made a hell of a lot of progress on all of it. All the investments were in place, but the foundations and charity stuff would take longer to set up.

  Still, almost all the paperwork on it had been done, it was just a matter of filing and time.

  It was just after nine when we finished the business part, and I brought up a scrying window in the moisture of my eyes. Just to find out where Katie was, since I was going to visit her next. I dropped the window immediately and blushed. Katie was still in bed, with Jeremy. Though, thankfully they hadn’t been doing anything, and had been covered by the sheets, it still felt like I’d intruded on them.

  Apparently, scrying could be dangerous, even with innocent intentions. It was also good news. I imagined it meant Jeremy was okay with Katie being a magic wielding witch, if he was still there and had spent the night.

  I could get the details later.

  It also derailed my plans to visit her next, so I sent her a text instead to call me when I could drop by, and then planned to join Mark in the lounge instead.

  “You’re amazing, you really don’t mind doing all this stuff?”

  Dana shook her head, “No, not at all. I love this kind of stuff. Plus, you’re my friend, and the mate of my coven master, and I’m your liaison still. That’s four good reasons to do what I’m doing. I suppose five, since I’m also your assigned enforcer and protector in the coven.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that last.

  She grinned, “Not that you need it, and you’ll probably protect me more than the reverse, but I know Mark feels better having me here when he’s not with you.”

  I nodded, not sure how I felt about it, but not wanting to overreact. Men could be overprotective at times I knew, and Dana would’ve been around for the other reasons including friendship even without that. I also knew our world was far too dangerous for any of that I can face the world on my own nonsense. I needed my allies, and it didn’t make me weak to admit that. Most importantly perhaps, I enjoyed her company, and the lack of fear she showed me.

  Dana was a true friend.

  All that said, he should’ve told me he was assigning an enforcer to me as a guard. We’d be having a conversation about that later, in private. A conversation he’d no doubt been hoping to avoid by not mentioning it me in the first place. I loved him deliriously, but I couldn’t let him get away with it. Things were just about perfect though, and this would just be a bump.

  “Good, I’d miss you if you quit.”

  The rest of the morning moved slowly. I enjoyed spending time with Mark but the endless reports he went over with the coven’s accountants was eye bleedingly boring. Still better than conflict I supposed. It was also broken up slightly by other issues, including the contractor estimates on the two rental houses that were damaged by the air sorcerer and high school kids.

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was sunny, but quite cold out as I appeared behind Katie’s store just after lunch. I opened up the back door and walked inside, and I smiled over at my cousin who looked more than a little excited. A better description would be bursting at the seams, and her cerulean eyes sparkled brighter than her beaming smile.

  I skipped the pleasantries, and demanded, “Spill.”

  She tried and failed to play coy, until she giggled, and put her hand in my face, there was a diamond on her ring finger.

  I didn’t do it often, but I squealed in excitement echoing her own as we hugged tightly.

  She giggled, “No date yet, but he wanted to show me just how okay he is with it, and how committed to us he is.”

  She blushed, “I actually just got to the store, and I still didn’t want him to leave, but he had a construction site to get to.”

  “I’m happy for you, ecstatic. Are you sure?”

  She nodded, “He’s the one for me. Everything seems to be changing. I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Me too. Things are going great for me as well, but I don’t know what I’d do without you around.”

  All in all, that Wednesday went very well, and it was my new life. Later that afternoon I’d had an uninterrupted practice time deeper out in the Atlantic, and there was no sign that my father was looking for or hunting me. Hopefully he’d given up.

  No matter how cold it was in Myrtle Beach in late January, it was even colder in Seattle the following day on Thursday, when I met up with Miku for lunch. I was a bit early, but I hadn’t been waiting all that long before Miku walked into the Sushi restaurant and joined me at the table.

  I knew her a little through my time in Chicago with Ben, but we hadn’t really spent any time alone together before. The start of things was a little awkward as we got to know each other over lunch. New friendships could be that way sometimes, but it wasn’t long before we were talking about our mates. I’d thought Mark could be overprotective sometimes, although he was pretty good at giving me space that way, but Miku’s Jared was a shifter. Not just a shifter, but the local pack’s alpha. Apparently, they fought almost constantly about her safety and drove each other crazy, which they both seemed to love.

  That kind of thing would drive me crazy, but I got the impression Miku excelled under the rough and tumble give and take of her mate and relationship.

  She was very different, but I thought she’d be a good friend, which was probably a good thing given what I’d learned about the future responsibilities Melody hoped for me to take.

  Strangely enough, we didn’t talk much about ourselves at all over that first shared lunch, instead she told me about her mate, pack, coven, and what it was like working with the council. While I told her about my friends and allies in Myrtle beach.

  She did touch on what it meant to be a spirit sorceress, but again more in general than her specifically.

  She seemed very reserved, wasn’t a wiseass like most of my friends back home, and I imagined her mate challenged her often in that regard. She was also far more settled into her life than I was, with all the changes that had happened around me lately.

  I loved my new life, but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel frazzled and overwhelmed by it at times. Too many major life changes, all at once, in both my personal and professional lives.

  Still, I was comfortable in my own skin, truly comfortable with my power now and being what I was, and in my new world. It’d take time for Katie and I to redefine our relationship, and to get used to being a mate and ally to the coven, but as far as the changes seven months back it just felt natural. It was who I was now, a water sorceress.

  It was toward the end of lunch, when my bracelet tingled, and I grimaced when I opened a scrying window. Turns out my father was hunting me after all, and he’d found my cousin instead.

  Miku asked, “What’s wrong?”

  “Katie’s in trouble, I have to go. Actually, I could use some help, want to come along and fight for your life? My father is much more powerful than I am.”

  I hated calling the sperm donor that, even in my head, but it was what he was. The bastard.

  Miku smirked, “You need to work on your sales pitch.”

  I giggled, and we both threw cash on the table and got up. We made it outside and around the corner quickly, and I took us into the water realm.

  To my surprise, Miku still glowed powerfully with spirit magic while in the realm of water.

  She must’ve caught something in my expression.

  “Spirit sorcerers aren’t like other sorcerers. My gateway to channel my power is my own soul, my power can’t be blocked, only contained. A spirit sorcerer’s reach is more a result of their power level, than the source and cause of it. We also reach much farther, I can feel out two miles, and I’m still young and relatively weak. The eldest of us can cover hundreds of miles.”

  I shuddered, and it was my turn to answer the curious look on her face at that response.

  “I have hard enough time sorting all the emotions and connections at three hundred feet, I couldn’t even imagine ten thousand feet. I’d be a babbling vegetable in a strait jacket.”

  She nodded in understanding.

  “It’s pure chaos to feel that many human souls, all filled with desires, wants, needs, pain and despair, as well as joy and excitement, and everything in between. But the unperturbable calm of the spirit realm keeps me grounded and my mind at peace. Without it, I’d be lost. Of course, that peace comes with its own risks.”

  “Risks?”

  Miku nodded, “It’s a delicate balance. Without the chaos of the souls to balance the peace of the spirit world, I’d be tempted to give up this life for the promise of peace between lives in this loud and emotion laden world. No, not tempted, overwhelmed. The grace of peace is a strong lure, no conflict, no struggle, just bliss. In about a hundred years I’ll be strong enough magically to resist it without the human souls as a counterweight, and I can start travelling as you do. Though, quite a bit faster.”

  “It’s that dangerous?”

  She smiled, “Dangerous enough that we’re not taught how to connect our souls to the spirit realm until we’re over a hundred. A child would be lured in easily and simply die as their spirit chose to stay. Young spirit sorcerers spend their first hundred years in the wilderness, raised by their parents away from the humans and cities, which would overwhelm them without that connection to the spirit world.”

  “Wow, and I thought I looked young for my age.”

  Miku still looked like she was maybe eighteen.

  Miku giggled, “We are longer lived than other sorcerers as well, but I don’t think that matters anymore, given my condition.”

  True enough, she was a vampire as well, and wouldn’t even age slowly.

  “We’re almost there, tactics?”

  Miku said, “I’ll try to shield his power, much like a witch’s wards would do. If he’s stronger than you he won’t have trouble breaking past that, but it will lessen the gap between his power and yours, as he will have to constantly spend some of his to defeat mine, or he’ll be cut off and shortly helpless. If we’re lucky, he’ll be off balance and spend more magic than he needs to. I’ll also distract him with physical attacks.”

  Miku paused a moment and tilted her head, “Are you sure he’s here to fight?”

  I nodded, “If he just dropped by to get to know his daughter, Katie would’ve texted or called me, not sent out a witchy SOS through the bracelet. I can still feel it, she’s scared, and annoyed. It isn’t the first time a sorcerer blew away her wards and used her as bait. I also expect she’ll attempt to activate the backup wards once we’re there and distracting him. Between them and you his power should fall like a stone.”

  I spent the rest of the trip briefing her on our first encounter, and the likelihood he didn’t even know I was his daughter. Most likely he’d just seen a news report and recognized me from that, and he’d decided to hunt me down. Perhaps he’d even come to ask the witch coven if they knew where I was, expecting to see Katie’s and my mothers, instead of Katie.

  Whatever the reason, the fact he’d knocked up my evil mother wouldn’t stop me from killing his ass, nor stop me from defending my cousin or myself. He was just another entitled asshole in my world, that couldn’t even bother to ask questions first. It wasn’t quite that simple in my heart, but my head was sure of the score, and my heart would pick Katie every time, no matter how conflicted or wistful.

  I was still scrying, and he had Katie cornered. I was sure my cousin would act when we arrived, but as a sole opponent she wouldn’t have had a chance. Waiting was the right move.

  “In five.”

  Miku nodded, and drew her sword, and pulled a dagger from the small of her back with her left hand.

  I double checked my shield and made sure it was strong and seamless, then we popped back into our world. A spirit shield went up around the room, cutting off his reach to just a handful of feet in every direction. My own power seemed to be ignoring it, apparently it was only blocking his access.

  I didn’t hesitate either, and I sent raw water magic at his shield, along with a powerful needle sized jet of water at his forehead. I wasn’t interested in hearing his justifications or arguing with him, I knew he wouldn’t listen to reason. Too arrogant and entitled. In his eyes I was the reckless rogue that needed to be put down, and I’d never convince him otherwise.

  Miku moved like a blur and hit his shield hard with her sword and a snapping front kick to his face.

  He finally responded to our surprise attack. Despite what’d happened in the ocean, it was apparent he’d expected to feel me coming, and not for me to just suddenly appear in the room. His power flexed, and broke through Miku’s containment, but I could feel her power trying to reestablish the block, even as he continued to disperse her shield before it could form.

  He turned to me and hit me with everything that wasn’t tied into his shields and to counter Miku’s attempts to block him. It hit hard, was still more powerful than I was, but not so much more that my shield didn’t hold. There was a physical element in his attack, and I was pushed backwards, shield and all, and shoved into the wall.

  He growled, “How the hell do you do that,” and hit me again. For the moment, he totally ignored Miku’s strikes and power as the lesser threat.

  That wasn’t a mistake, Miku wasn’t as powerful as I was. Although she was much older, a spirit sorceress grew in power much more slowly. They often gained the peak of their power in their sixth or seventh century, instead of at the end of their first. Assuming they lived that long.

  I couldn’t hear Katie’s voice, but I saw her mouth moving in the Latin phrases that would power the backup wards. Wards I was keyed to, but my father was not. More importantly, she was on the opposite side of the room, against the opposite wall I was, and my father’s attention was focused my way. Apparently, he felt safe from Katie, since he’d taken down her wards, big mistake.

  We continued to assault each other with blades or thin jets of fast-moving water, and pure magic. Even with Miku’s help to lessen his available offensive power, he was at least three time stronger than me with what he had left to work with. My shields would probably hold another minute or so, but Katie’s spell would be finished long before then.