Chapter Seventeen

Oh no! I"m under a tack!

Helplessness engulfed Oliver, followed closely by frustration that he had nothing to offer, no way to help either of the women before him. Never had he felt as useless as he had when they entered that room. Instead of remaining rational, he'd reverted to anger to cover his inability to help. Eva, however, had been magnificent and fearless, immediately dropping to Ravyn's side to help her. Not even knowing what to do, she'd trusted her instincts to guide her. Despite being thrown into an unknown world, she was seemingly taking it all in stride. Of course, coming that close to death might have something to do with her openness and willingness to accept their world and its inhabitants.

The best he could do was focus on the things he could handle. His own security had been shredded, obliterated by this attack. The facts were clear and didn't need to be stated, but of course he said it anyway.

The wards had failed, and failed badly.

Delta needed to contact her coven and find out what had gone wrong with the wards and protections on his home; in his mood, he couldn't trust himself to speak to them. Once he'd caught his breath and ensured that everyone was safe, it struck him that owning a paranormal security firm meant that his home was the most protected place to be. It was humbling to realize it wasn't, and that some sort of dark magic had been able to penetrate the extensive and rather expensive spells put in place to attack an unwanted guest. Spells that had been purchased for an exorbitant price from members of Delta's rather powerful coven. In a short and clipped tone, he informed Delta that he expected her coven to immediately determine what had happened and to fix it.

Delta admitted the failure but argued that this was the result of a combined attack by unknown entities. Witch magic clearly laced the attack, but there was also unrecognizable magic intertwined with the former. Dark, black, blood magic, and it had dissipated before Delta could even begin to trace its origins. The sacrifice had been huge for such a strong spell, she whispered to Oliver, who knew without her saying that the wards hadn't been brought down by an animal sacrifice. This had cost someone—or perhaps even several someones—their life. And for what? Just to prove that Ravyn wasn't safe? That nothing could keep them out? It was a futile waste of life just to prove a point.

After Eva's adamant agreement that spells and protections needed to be removed from her person, the process was anything but quick. The intricate magic that had been woven around her acted like a living, sentient being. Again working on assumptions, Delta admitted that the magic had layers upon it, probably placed and reinforced, and shored up and patched repeatedly by Eva's grandmother during the years she'd lived. Her death may have added another layer, and then Eva's own part succubus magic that had been suppressed for years most likely had merged its way in as it fought to gain its own freedom. Within it all, the original thread of magic connecting Eva and Ravyn was raveled among the oldest of the disarray.

Even without understanding the exact mess of magic, Oliver did grasp that undoing it safely would take time. He understood time. Always too much, too little, or not enough, but regardless, it always passed.

As Oliver vetted one of his most trusted employees, Delta worked alone on the task of unraveling the magical chaos. Additionally, her ability to literally see magic was an anomaly that few, if any, other living witches currently possessed. Working alone, and occasionally consulting with Hecate for guidance, meant that the task took longer due to limits on Delta's energy and own magic. Acceptable, since outside of his company, Oliver found few he could trust explicitly, and Delta without conjecture had told them there was no one capable of helping her even if she wanted to waste precious time explaining what she saw. Time. Always time.

Ravyn and her entourage left within hours to go back to California. "Too much to do, to sit and wait," she'd announced. "After all, this thread has been attached for eighteen years. What's a few more days? Call me when you're ready for me."

Once they left, Oliver felt he could breathe easier. Never before had he felt relief when Ravyn left. Lonely, yes, but not relieved. The big house just felt so damn crowded with those extra bodies in it. And despite the cooling off period, his temper flared every time his supposed good friend and partner Sebastian came into the room. Even the thought of Bash made Oliver's temper raise.

Oliver also suspected Ravyn absolutely hated the waiting game, and more than likely she knew the tension between the head of her security detail and him needed both time and distance. At least in LA, she could be back on set, working and keeping her time and mind occupied.

A few days after Ravyn had left, and countless layers and threads of magic had been removed, Delta announced that she needed an entire twenty-four hours off to regroup, recharge, and refresh away from them. She'd spent all of her days and nights at Oliver's compound, taking up residence in another guest suite she'd long ago claimed as her own. Alternating between studying, tracing and removing magical threads, and resting, following up with eating copious amounts of food, she needed a true break.

Oliver suspected that meant playing that Dungeons and Dragons game she always talked about, but he didn't ask because he simply didn't care to hear the answer. He pretended to abruptly consider her "request," but his heart sped up at the news.

Twenty-four uninterrupted hours alone with Eva.

As Delta walked out the door to be driven to her apartments in her coven's home, Oliver began composing an email to send out, letting his people know that outside of an emergency such as maiming or death, he would be unavailable for the day. A quick amendment added the exception that if anyone heard even a whisper from or about Malthazar to let him know immediately. Going forward, he needed to be able to find the half-demon no matter where he was in the world or how deep in a mission he went. When he caught back up with Malth, he needed to re-explain the importance of being able to contact each other when needed, especially as partners in Malth's endeavors. Neither Delta nor Bash went so far off the grid that he couldn't send out an SOS signal or vice versa.

Another text was sent to the standby security detail to prepare in case the rest of his plan came to fruition, a mix of work and pleasure.

Oliver then went in search of Eva, finding her in the entertainment room, lounging sideways across a theater seat, reading a novel while music played softly over the speakers.

She took his breath away. For a moment, all he could do was watch her quietly after he'd slipped into the room with her. Her face was pale, but slightly glowing as it was most days now. Oliver suspected she drew from him without realizing it and surprisingly, the idea that he kept her sustained pleased him.

Eva's hair was still damp from washing, and the waves just barely skimmed the tops of her shoulders, peeking out from another one of Delta's borrowed tank tops.

Rubbing his chest, he wondered if Delta had removed the thread binding them. She never explicitly said which ones had been removed and his was so new that it seemed likely that it had been one of the first to go. With or without the magic tether, he'd been drawn to Eva since he first laid eyes on her in the coffee shop just a week ago. Sometimes, Oliver thought she felt the same way, but Eva apparently walled up her emotions better than a master vampire.

Sitting in the theater seat at her feet, Oliver plucked the novel from her hands and studied the paranormal title and cover while she smiled at him. Raising an eyebrow he questioned, "Not enough magic and supernatural mystery in your life currently?"

Shrugging one of her tantalizing shoulders while giving him a crooked grin, Eva replied, "I mean, I guess I do have a type, and I have to stay on top of the competition. Keep up with the writing trends—solely for research purposes, of course."

"Of course," Oliver smoothly agreed, loving the sound of her teasing tone. Despite the fact that her other books weren't inspired by Ravyn's life story, she still created popular works that her fan base loved when they weren't demanding a sequel to their favorite series. The fact that the mundane world ate up anything paranormal didn't surprise him. After all, he did enjoy the movies and shows himself; even if they weren't always entirely accurate, they were enjoyable. Her new insight into his world would grow her writing by leaps and bounds, and he suspected after she finished her latest novel, a demon hero or heroine might make an appearance. If nothing else, Eva had the ability to bounce back and embrace the changes in the world around her.

Breaking eye contact first, Eva looked past him toward the door, shifting positions as if preparing to get up. "Is Delta ready to get started again?"

"No, Delta is going AWOL today. With permission, of course," Oliver added, wondering what it would take for her to not break eye contact every time it was made, or not go running from a room when it was just the two of them. Holding onto her feet seemed desperate, but despite knowing that, he still casually laid a hand on them, hoping to still her before she left the room.

"Not much of a rule breaker, are you, Mr. Patrick?" she teased with a laugh. "Well, good for her. Although that doesn't leave me much to do except read and, to be honest, I'm sort of getting tired of that. I may even have to break down and write some more." She said this as if she wasn't spending most of her downtime typing away on her laptop in corners of various rooms.

Oliver's blood began pumping faster at the teasing tone. How could everything she says sound so sexy? A plan began to formulate, as he realized that today had just become the perfect day to both spend some time with Eva as well as see if their enemies were still lurking about. The wards had been quiet, not even a sizzle from an unassuming animal, but perhaps that was just a ploy to lull them into complacency."Want to get out of here?"

"Do I ever!" To prove her point, she swung her feet free from his hand, aiming for the ground but instead nearly hitting him in the face. He caught the offending appendages before they could bump him.

"Okay, I get it. The whole gilded prison bit." Holding onto her ankles longer than necessary to stop their momentum, he noticed the happy expression on her face turn to a slightly guiltier look.

"I'm sorry"—she put her feet carefully and firmly on the floor—"I can't imagine that my barging in here and staying is all that great for your vampire bachelor life. And I'm not ungrateful. You've given me a pretty great place to stay, but yeah, it would be nice to get outside anywhere and see anything at all. These walls are great and all, but they're still the same four walls."

"Walls worth a few million," he teased back, "and you hardly barged in here. I brought you here after you were nearly killed under my watch. And before you grab onto that with both hands, you're not here out of any sense of guilt. It hasn't been so bad having you around."

"You just like having someone to play board games with."

Groaning, he retorted, "I'm sure I'll beat you at Scrabble one of these rounds."

"Not if I can help it. What kind of wordsmith would I be if I lost at Scrabble?"

Hesitating, she asked, "I don't know all the facts about what you and Ravyn are. But are you okay to go out in the daylight? I mean, you must be if you asked me to get out of the house today. And I don't know; I always thought vampires must sleep during the day or something, but you, you're like a machine. I don't even know if you ever sleep."

Nodding, Oliver explained, "Yes, it all depends on a vampire"s age and who made them, and how old that creator was. But popular belief has garbled some things—or maybe it was intentional. A younger vampire can actually handle more daylight than an older vamp. That's often why an older vampire makes a companion and then discards them every few hundred years. I can still function quite well during most of the daylight hours, but every decade takes minutes from us, centuries take hours. While I'm weakest during a few hours of each day, Ravyn is old enough that any amount of sunlight can be detrimental to her. That"s why she picks and chooses her work so carefully. Thankfully, people this era are more accepting of a sunlight allergy than they were in the past.

"The early years were rough," he admitted. "Even when traveling, you always needed a plan for those hours and a backup plan for the plan to keep your creator safe. Not that Ravyn really needed it. After surviving a millennium, she really didn't need my help, but helping her gave me a sense of purpose, a purpose I needed in those days. Nowadays, sometimes if I choose to, I could nap or recharge during the hours I can't be out, but mostly I'm just weaker than normal, but a little sunscreen and sunglasses still allow me out at most hours."

He"d left a lot out; some secrets just weren't his to tell despite how honest he wanted to be with Eva. Hesitatingly, he added, "A lot of the myth and lore are put out just so people feel safer. No one wants a creature of darkness who can enter a home uninvited at any time of day.

"But it's not just a simple chance to go out and get some fresh air. I mean, that's a bonus for you, but maybe we can get a team together and do a little recon and see if there's anything outside these walls." It was only sort of a lie. Teams had kept the area secure in approximately a ten-mile radius outside the perimeter established around his home. Layers upon layers. All traffic and any camera connected to the Wi-Fi within even a wider radius was fed into his offices in the city, where they were manned day and night by yet another team. If anyone was in the area, they would know long before they could physically get close to his home or Eva. This was a chance to get out and spend time with Eva away from the house.

Wrinkling her forehead, Eva considered his words before questioning, "Would I be . . . are you wanting me to be bait? Bait to draw them in or out?"

Tapping down the need to tell her it would be perfectly safe, but uncertain if she would simply want to spend uninterrupted time with him, Oliver worked carefully to choose his words.

What he wanted was to spend time with her. What he wanted was to keep her safe inside the walls to his compound. But what he wanted wasn't for the best if they ever wished to move forward.

"I dislike the word ‘bait,' but yes, I think if anything is waiting out there, you may draw it out, just test the waters, so to speak. Everything is quiet, very quiet in LA with Ravyn and her team." This bothered him as well as Sebastian. First the constant bombardment of gifts, as well as the physical manifestation of magic, then complete silence. Whatever was out there, it was waiting. Waiting for what, they didn't know, but the waiting was draining. And when you were drained, edgy, and tired you made mistakes. This enemy could be waiting for them to make a mistake, but still it seemed to be better to go on the offense and try to draw it out early on their own ground.

"I can have a team ready to go within an hour." Oliver bit back the guilt over already notifying his security to prep despite not knowing if she would agree. They were probably ready to roll out in fifteen, but she didn't need to know that. "We can go out, get some coffee, shop a bit. Whatever you want. If all goes well, you won't even realize the team is about and if it goes really well, we can get our hands on the witch who's attacking us."

Oliver watched Eva consider his words. Despite all the security in place, he still half-hoped she would deny his suggestion and stay safely within the fortified walls. Layers upon layers of security, he reminded himself. Teams scattered throughout the enlarged perimeter, prepared to leap into action if anything appeared out of the norm.

Nodding with a half-smile still etched with concern, she said, "Let me change, and we can go do whatever. I'm game for anything. Better to be on the offense than constant defense. Who knows? Maybe if we're lucky, we can end this today."

Optimism. Oliver swore her trust in him wouldn't be misplaced. If she was willing to face her fear, he was willing to stand beside her and protect her.

He noticed she was still wearing pajama bottoms. Pajamas covered in tiny flying dragons that clung tightly to her thighs, clearly belonging to Delta, he thought with more than a little guilt. He hadn't been a very good host; he simply wasn't very good at thinking of such things. He owed Delta a huge Christmas bonus this year; actually, it might be a summer solstice bonus if he really wanted to stay on her good side.

"Coffee and shopping then? We could even scrounge up some late lunch or an early dinner. We'll stay away from the city and stick with a few smaller areas just to feel things out," he proposed, acting as if he hadn't already mentally planned a route that kept them circling about well inside an extended perimeter.