She was also intelligent and if Meriel could hit the right notes with her and win her support it would go a long way with others who might be sitting on the fence.
“So what’s your plan then?” Abe asked, cutting through the chatter and urging everyone to stay on track.
“I’ve been working on opening up some diplomatic relations of a sort, with other groups of witches. It is my belief that having guests come here to learn defensive magickal techniques and having our witches go to other clan territories will help bring us all together.”
“We have standards; I don’t see why we should lower them simply to protect witches who’ve rejected what we are.” Sami shrugged.
“I don’t think it lowers our standards to combine forces against an enemy who has been hunting us. I’m not suggesting we break the clan. I’m suggesting we stop pretending other witches don’t exist if they cast bones instead of working spells in other ways. I don’t see how that can do anything but strengthen us.”
“Why should we help anyone outside a clan?”
Meriel looked around the table and then back to Sami. “For me, the answer is very simple. But you’ll have to ask and answer that yourself. We were born with these gifts. We are powerful and united. A clan makes us even stronger. The very land we tread on protects us. This is important. It’s why I don’t fear for our witches the same way I do for others. But I think ignoring our brothers and sisters outside the clans is a repudiation of what we stand for just as certainly as those who mean us harm. And I think it’s a bad idea to let them develop a taste for our magick any more than they have. I’m not willing to accept the constant threat of these mages showing up to harm our people.”
Dominic nodded. “I grew up outside a clan. This isn’t a secret. I’ve learned more about my magick since I’ve been with Meriel than in my entire life before I met her. Meriel didn’t make me join. She shared her knowledge with me and brought me into this clan because of that. I saw the value. I saw the importance of what she was doing. And if you turn your back on outclan witches, you’re only underlining that clans only care for themselves and would coerce instead of seek those new members who join freely. Show them how you are. Open your doors, let them get training, listen to what they might teach you and
everyone
is safer. It doesn’t degrade what you are to lead. It’s part of why Owen holds so much power. Isn’t it? I think the real question, Sami, is why
shouldn’t
we help all witches by offering to teach them?”
“If I may speak.” Nell stood, waiting for permission to say anything else.
Edwina granted it.
“Gage just returned from Rhode Island where he was given access to all files about these mages who were caught as well as taught several defensive magicks that would do everything from repel an attack to striking down a foe. We benefit from that already, don’t we? Meriel and her committee have arranged training courses on a monthly basis. Gage has taught me these spells, and yes, one of them includes blood, but it’s the caster’s blood and it’s not mandatory to learn if this is a problem for any witch personally. In turn I’ve already taught my entire staff. They’ll be teachers now.”
Meriel nodded. “We can teach and be taught. We can keep ourselves safe but also offer that safety to others. And if they come to us, that makes us stronger. If they decide to create a clan of their own, this also makes us all stronger. Even if they continue along alone, we’ve made them safer and they’ll remember that.”
Nell smoothly came back into the discussion. “Training of all Owen witches has begun. Gennessee will be sending some of their people as well. I met with Lark this week. She’s already putting a plan in place.”
Edwina took notes for a few moments and looked up again. “We’ll be seeing this training go live when?”
“As Nell touched on, we’ve begun training already with our own witches. The first two classes filled up within a day. The training isn’t overly difficult. It’s just old-school defensive arts we haven’t used in a very long time. We can do this pretty quickly and pretty efficiently and then, if it works like I hope, I’d propose that we begin teaching our youth as part of their catechism. If we make this a normal part of our array of spellwork, we won’t need all these workshops on more than occasional level. As you know, we’re giving workshops for our investigative and lawkeeping staff. Essentially most of us will have more tools for defense in a relatively short time. And it’ll be part of our system, which makes it automatic.
“Just to be totally up front, it’s my aim to equip all our witches from the earliest ages to defend and repel an attack by these mages. We either live in fear or learn how to deal with the threats ourselves. If we do it enough, they’ll leave most of us alone. That won’t protect everyone, but it’s easier to protect a smaller group.”
The council took a vote and unanimously decided to support the trainings and the cross-training with other groups on a trial basis. Meriel would be in charge of making sure nothing any outsider was exposed to was of a clan-only nature.
“I’ve another matter,” Dominic spoke as Meriel was putting her cap back on her pen.
“Yes?” Edwina made a continue motion with her hand.
“Some of you may have heard that my biological mother may be involved with some of these mages. I wanted you to feel free to ask me any questions you might have to address anything you might be bothered by.”
Of course if anyone gave him any trouble, she’d take care of that right away. Not that she was biased or protective or anything.
A few people asked but thankfully no one accused or seemed to view him with suspicion. Probably in large part because Edwina had so publically thrown her support behind Dominic. Meriel would never forget that.
As the meeting had adjourned, Nell stopped Meriel. “I think I found her.”
“I should call her myself.” Dominic groused.
Meriel took a deep breath and looked to Nell. Nell had found a phone number that may or may not belong to Gloria Ochoa. Between what Rodas told them and her own investigative work, Nell had compiled quite the dossier on the woman.
“Don’t look at me.” Nell shrugged.
“I should call her myself,” he repeated. “This is my mother.”
“Do you still hold out hope she’s innocent in all this?” Meriel tried to keep the question neutral.
“No. I don’t. I think she’s part of it. How much I don’t know, but it looks pretty damning for her.”
“Why don’t you call her on your own? I mean, you can do it here and now, but as Dominic her son.” Nell sipped her tea.
“Because I’m not just speaking as her son. This is my clan too. Shit.” He burst from his chair and began to pace. “I don’t need my woman to do my dirty work.”
Meriel only looked at him, letting him get it all out.
“Why don’t we go home? Hm? You have to be at Heart of Darkness in a few hours. You haven’t had dinner yet.”
He paused and sighed, knowing she was soothing him but not caring. “You’re coddling me.”
She shrugged.
“All right. Call her. You call her now and we’ll go home. I’ll call her too if I decide to.”
Meriel waited for him to change his mind but he didn’t.
She dialed the number and got the voice mail. Logically, she knew it wasn’t necessarily Gloria. But she didn’t need that. Her magick was going off in her belly like sparks.
When the brief message ended, Meriel began to speak. “I’m calling for Gloria Ochoa. My name is Meriel Owen and I believe you and I have a little problem. It seems you might be under the misapprehension that you’re allowed to come onto our earth and harm my family. This is, of course, untrue. In fact, I’d like to have a discussion with you about these issues.” She gave her number for callback and hung up.
Nell snorted. “I know it was foolish to hope she’d have a voice mail recording that identified her as Gloria Ochoa. You did well. If it’s her, she’ll call back. She’ll use this number and I have an awesome new spell to work with the trace program. It unravels confusion spells. Arel, the hunter at Rodas, showed Gage. It’s awesome.”
Meriel nodded. “Good.”
“You didn’t tell her you and I were bonded,” Dominic pointed out.
“I don’t know if she knows you’re dead or alive and I have no plans to aid her in figuring it out.”
“You don’t think she’s going to stay away, anyway. Do you?”
“No. I think your mother knows you’re alive. And I think it was her in my building.”
It was Nell’s turn to explode from her chair. “What? What? Why didn’t you tell me this before? How do you know?”
“William will kill me if you get all worked up and you go home to him all grouchy. Sit down. When we used that spell to boost our othersight in my building yesterday, it stripped back some of the other things we see in regular othersight. I can see Dominic’s energy right now. Yours too and the baby. In addition to marking you as witches, there are marks, you know what I mean. Little things that identify the person. I missed it when we were there yesterday since everyone got so excited. But when I went back over there today I used normal othersight at first, just without thinking. And the smudge in my hallway had a lot of the same markers Dominic has. What are the odds it’s not her? It’s just a feeling.”
“That’s not just a feeling. You have some reason to feel it.” Nell ran her fingers through her hair, making it stand on end. Automatically, Meriel reached out to pat it down and the two women paused to grin at each other.
“If you two ever feel the need to kiss, you know just to get on with the friend thing, you should feel free.” Dominic winked and Meriel laughed. “As for the other? I think Nell’s right. It could be a coincidence. But how many coincidences can there be before we just accept what’s going on? Also, I’m really pissed you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t connect it right away. It wasn’t until about half an hour ago that it clicked. It was bothering me, but I didn’t know why. Sometimes I do that, you know. My brain sort of takes over thinking about stuff in the background and I don’t notice until the lightbulb moment. And I still don’t know. Not for sure.”
“If that’s her, she’ll call back. Especially if that was her in your building. She’ll have to, just to rub your nose in it. I say we don’t need to mention the Dominic-is-your-son thing unless she already knows. Why should we expose Dom to that if he doesn’t have to be? Also, it might make her worse.”
Meriel liked that Nell was protective of Dominic, that they’d all made friends. It would have sucked if one of them hadn’t liked the other’s man.
“Well, you guys go on. I’ve got your building on our watch list. My staff does a drive-by several times a day. Sometimes at random they’ll go in and check things out. Now that we’ve got this new othersight Meriel learned, we’ll add that. It should help a lot. And of course you’ll still be accompanied by a guard when you’re at work and out and about.”
Meriel hugged Nell before kissing her cheek. “You doing all right?”
“So far so good. No morning sickness for a week or two. I sleep a lot but that’s okay. When I wake up, William is there with a cup of tea and some snuggles. He takes care of me.” She blushed, shrugging.
“Of course he does. Why don’t we all go out together? We’ll walk you to your car.”
Dominic held two elbows out, Meriel took one and Nell the other.
Chapter 24
DOMINIC
watched the bar. Something wasn’t right and it didn’t set well with him. It was most likely all this business with his mother had put him on edge. Simon prowled around keeping the women entertained. Which was nice as obviously he couldn’t anymore, even if he wanted to. Meriel was not the kind of woman who’d find it cute that he let anyone rub up on him. She’d probably maim him for it.
He grinned.
She’d taken to stopping in on the weekend nights and hanging out with him. He knew she wasn’t much for club hopping and she was also an early riser, but it pleased him that she made room in her life for him and what made him happy too. He liked seeing her at his table with her laptop. Yes, she even did work there. Or enjoyed a drink with Simon or their friends.
He just liked that she wanted to be with him and that she did it in a way that felt natural. He was lucky. Despite all the nonsense with the mages, he was lucky to have this woman in his life.
Dominic examined the wards again and then opened up his othersight to take the room in. So much magick here. Others packed the place nightly. It was more than a nightclub; it had turned into a sort of general hangout and meeting place. He liked that too. Profits were up and he didn’t have the stress of thinking about what the clan would do when they found him lifting from their font. He was proud. Heart of Darkness felt like his in a way it hadn’t until then.
He didn’t need the extra help now. Between him and Meriel, the warding was fine-tuned and powerful. He had no need to borrow magick now that he knew how to use his own. Admittedly he got a kick out of that.
The place continued to fill up as the evening wore on. There were the usual problems. He had to threaten a table of Weres to behave or be barred.