Ulric tensed as a swell of power infiltrated the bar. Through the link, Niamh could feel Jessie nearing the entrance. Ryan, also known as Sasquatch, had gone outside for a smoke. Jessie did not tolerate him on the best of days, and today was far from the best of days.
“She’s still pissed that we didn’t pull Cyra off her,” Ulric muttered, correctly reading the situation.
“That is the general feeling I am getting, yes.” Niamh glared down the bar at Paul, helping a crowd of shifters who’d been drinking all day and were ordering shots. Austin Steele was in the backroom and not slinging beers as he ought to be. Niamh had been dry for much too long. People would start to wonder what she was even doing there, sitting at the bar with a computer and nothing to drink. “Don’t mind her. She had it in the bag.”
“It was kind of a close call, though.”
“Nah. Ivy House would’ve reacted if it had been a close call. Hell, Cyra would’ve let go. She’s been around far too long to get lost to rage. Jessie just needed a moment to push through her fear. Worked out exactly like it should’ve, with the basajaun pissing himself and everything.”
Ulric huffed out a laugh and turned around, elbows pushed back to lean on the back of the pushed-in chair. He’d clearly given up on getting a drink.
Niamh shook her glass again.
“I didn’t even know he’d snuck up,” Ulric said.
“Only Edgar seemed to notice. That el’ vampire is Froot Loops, but he does tend to notice things everyone else has missed.”
“She took out a phoenix in one shot, after already having battled everyone for a while.” Ulric shook his head, his smile growing. “If we can get her enough training, she’ll be a real contender.”
“If we can kill Elliot Graves so he’d butt out of her life, we might have a shot.”
“Wouldn’t we have to deal with the guild?”
“They’d be thanking us. The Anal Repository has a bounty out on Elliot Graves. They’re trying to weasel into this thing he’s throwing in a couple weeks under the guise of ‘discussing the possibility of lifting the bounty,’ but Elliot Graves is ignoring them, so he is. The whole situation has social media atwitter. No one can believe he is flat-out refusing them, and they are dying to see what happens. So it seems our Mr. Graves is re-emerging into the magical world on the wrong side of the current pervasive authority.”
“Then he plans to pit himself against Momar, I take it.”
“If that’s what people are thinking, they haven’t dared mention it where I can see. Stands to reason, though.”
“Still, what the hell does he want with Jessie?”
“To harness her power? I was starting to think someone else might be using Elliot’s name, but with his invitation and all the rest of it, that doesn’t seem likely. Maybe he’s trying a new tactic. Throwing romance and riches at her and promising her the world in the hopes she’ll open up that power for him to use, like the heirs before her.”
“If that’s his game, he’s going to get an unwelcome surprise.”
Niamh watched Austin emerge from the backroom, making his way behind the bar, ignoring everyone, his eyes on the door. He had clearly come out to greet Jessie.
“I half hope it is his game, just so we can see the fireworks,” Niamh murmured.
“Fireworks? It’ll be a slaughter. Austin Steele isn’t rational when it comes to Jessie. He overheard some guy talking about her ass last week and about killed the dude. I saw the whole thing. If that’s Elliot Graves’s game, he might get his arms ripped off for his troubles.”
“Austin Steele is heading toward mating and he’s a powerful alpha—he’ll get a lot worse before he gets better, trust me. I’ve seen some things that would curl yer chest hair.”
“I don’t have chest hair. I’ll have to settle for it curling my ass hair.” He winked.
Niamh shook her head at the jest, still watching Austin Steele. “Good thing fer his power, too, because if Earl is right, Austin Steele’ll have his work cut out fer him, trying to handle her once she finally accepts him as her mate.”
Of course, there were so few female gargoyles that few had much personal experience with them. They were going off gargoyle lore, which was hardly reliable, plus a few scraps of knowledge from some book or other Earl had found.
“Mr. Tom said we shouldn’t fill her in on how a female gargoyle…goes about mating.”
“Are ye daft? Of course ye shouldn’t fill her in. That’s all she needs to know right before walking into a large gathering of experienced and cutthroat mages.” Niamh shook her head. “She’s stubborn about some things, and rushing into romance after a divorce is one of those things. Rightfully so. Hopefully she doesn’t officially decide about Austin Steele until after we’re out of the woods.”
“Out of the tunnels, you mean, and that’s if we make it that far.”
“Well, yes, to be sure. But if we don’t, we’ll be killed, so it really won’t matter.”
“Comforting.”
“What am I, yer mammy? I’m not tryin’ ta’be comforting. Ye knew ye’d be in the thick of it if ye signed on to Ivy House. Expect the worst, hope for the best.”
“Can I get that on an inspirational poster?”
“I’ll tattoo it across yer arse, how’s that?”
“It would be hard to see, but I’ll take what I can get.”
“Based on the women ye go home with, I’d already figured as much, yeah.”
Ulric spat out laughter. “Touché. Mr. Tom seems to think she should have played the field more. I get the feeling he’d prefer to see Jessie with a male gargoyle.”
“He’s a Muppet. There isn’t anyone better for her than Austin Steele, wings or no.”
The chatter died down as Jessie came through the doorway, her face closed down in annoyance. There was no way of knowing if she’d encountered Ryan/Sasquatch outside the bar, but she’d taken her time coming inside. Her mood radiated off her in waves of power.
Heads turned her way and eyes widened. People shuffled or stepped out of her way, nodding as she passed by. Many greeted her with “Miss Ironheart,” giving her the respect due to an alpha. Others looked down at their feet, acceding to her dominance.
The shifters from the training earlier had already told anyone who would listen that she’d taken out the phoenix. Now they all knew what Niamh had known for some time—Austin Steele wasn’t the only power player in this territory.
Niamh sat up a little straighter as Jessie walked toward them, feeling a rush of pride in the Ivy House heir.
Austin Steele leaned forward against the bar, staring at her, ignoring the customers trying to order drinks as he waited for her to meet his gaze. He was proclaiming Jessie the most important person (to him) in the room, a distinction an alpha reserved for his or her mate and children. His intentions were laid bare for all to see.
That she didn’t look for him immediately upon entering the bar—his establishment within his territory—sent its own message. She was powerful in her own right, he wasn’t her alpha, and she didn’t claim him as her mate. Not yet. She held all the power.
Jessie might not realize it, but that was the message she was unconsciously conveying. Austin had told the Ivy House team, in no uncertain terms, that they were not to explain any shifter rules to her. And because fair was fair, he’d asked not to be told how female gargoyles mated. He wanted to experience this as nature intended, apparently. He’d probably live to regret that. Maybe he already did.
“Hey.” Jessie nodded at Niamh and Ulric, who immediately moved out of the way. Even though anger still curled through her middle, she’d chosen to acknowledge her team first.
Finally, as Ulric pulled the high-backed bar chair out for her, she looked up and met Austin’s eyes.
Her eyes lit up and a big smile spread across her face. Hunger sparked in his gaze, and she blushed and leaned toward him just a little, hands braced on the bar. Thick slabs of muscle popped under Austin’s tan, long-sleeved shirt. Power curled through the room, his claim on her manifesting into a surge of magic. She answered with her own burst of power, a feeling like little bubbles slithering across Niamh’s skin, potent but pleasant.
“Everyone freeze,” Ulric murmured, holding out a hand.
A woman down the bar squealed, another shrieked, and a man’s booming laugh shattered the scene.
Austin’s focus shifted, his head snapping to the Dicks and Janes down the way.
The pleasant feeling of Jessie’s magic changed in an instant, turning pressurized and angry, bearing down. Ulric swore. Pain twisted along Niamh’s spine and boiled through her blood. She barely stopped from wilting over the bar.
Grunts erupted all around her, people starting to sink down. Screams and shouts reverberated down the way.
“Silence,” Jessie said, her voice a whip crack of power, ominous and full of authority. Niamh’s limbs tightened until she couldn’t move them if she’d tried. The shouts and screams died off. The entire bar ceased movement until it was dead silent.
“Hi,” Jessie said to Austin softly.
His focus came back to her, and passion flash-boiled through the link, Austin’s response to Jessie’s dominance.
No, his animal’s response. Her gargoyle was calling the shots right now, and the polar bear in him liked it. She was much deeper into the mating slide, as the shifters called it, than any of them had realized. Earl wouldn’t be pleased, the wanker.
For a moment, Austin’s brow creased. He looked like he was on the verge of asking her questions, but a rush of wariness flooded the Ivy House link from Ulric. Although no words transferred through the links, just feelings, the message was clear: Don’t question her, just go with it.
Austin took a deep breath, and his bearing relaxed, his eyes softening. A moment later, a little smile tickled his lips.