Chapter 10

Mari looked into the standing mirror next to the closet. She almost didn't recognize herself. The dress Cisco had bought for her clung to her, a millimeter shy of indecency, the fabric rich and red. The neckline carved low between her breasts, and the backline even lower, exposing the small of her back. The skirt fell silkily almost to the ground and showed flashes of her leg through a long slit when she walked. The dress was scandalous and gorgeous, and she loved it more than any piece of clothing she'd ever worn.

"You look stunning," Cisco said from behind her.

She met his eyes in the mirror and shivered with a thrill at the heavy weight of his gaze. He was dressed in an impeccably tailored black suit and looked delicious. "You don't look half bad yourself."

He smiled easily. "I've got just the thing to finish the look." He picked up the box Greta had given him earlier from a table nearby and handed it to her.

She opened the top and looked inside. Nestled in plush black fabric rested a silver necklace shaped like two clawed hands with rubies sparkling out of it. She could feel the magic worked into the platinum reaching for her.

"It won't restrain your power," Cisco said softly.

Her expression must have given away her doubt at seeing the piece, though it looked nothing like the one her father had fastened around her neck at the ceremony on her sixteenth birthday that had yoked her magic. "I know you wouldn't do that."

"It's a focus," he offered.

She traced her finger over one of the clawed hands and smiled. "They look like yours."

"Beam is very talented." He gestured that he would help with the necklace.

She nodded her assent and held the box up.

Cisco reached over her shoulder to take the necklace, lifting it gently and pausing to kiss her bare shoulder before clasping the cool metal around her neck. "It's linked to the piercings, which are anchored into your skin at the nexuses of your power." His talons scraped over her clavicles before he settled his hands on her shoulders.

She reached for the wards, her magic unfurling tentatively at first and then more easily as she grew to understand how the focus worked. Passing the unruly tendrils of her magic through the necklace wove them together and calmed them somewhat, allowing her to wield them more precisely.

Cisco rubbed her shoulders and dropped his head to speak softly into her ear, "You feel like you're humming with magic."

"Thank you for this." She leaned to rub the side of her face against his. "Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome." He kissed her temple. "Are you ready for dinner?"

Mari laughed. "No, I don't think I'll ever be ready for a meeting with the most powerful sex witch in the world who has been trying to bring my father down for my entire life."

Cisco met her eyes in the mirror. "Firstly, she's only considered the most powerful sex witch in the world because not many people have felt you unfettered. Secondly, you're not your father, and we're the ones who brought him down."

Mari had no doubt Cisco was being sincere, but she did doubt it was possible that she was more powerful than Esmé. That would disrupt the carefully maintained structures of power in their world too much. Someone would have tried to take her father down before now. "You think she'll be grateful that we're the ones who took that thorn out of her paw?"

"I think she never had the social capital that was required to do it herself, and she's smart enough to be keenly aware of that." He pressed his thumbs into the muscles of her shoulders gently for a moment, expertly relieving the tension that had built up there. "We should go."

She slipped her feet into the strappy heeled sandals he'd set out for her that sparkled silver. He bent to fasten the dainty buckles for her, his thick fingers so much more dexterous than they had any right to be. He kissed her bare thigh where it showed through the slit in her dress before he stood.

When he offered her his arm, she took it with a smile. "I haven't been outside the walls in a while. I'm a little nervous."

He led her toward the door at a pace she could keep easily in the gorgeous but deeply impractical shoes. "I didn't want to bring her inside the wards. And I thought it was about time everyone sees you out and about."

"It was the right choice. I just didn't realize how long it had been until now."

Rio waited for them at the kitchen door in a red velvet jacket that matched her dress too well to be an accident and black tuxedo pants. An appreciative smile curled his lips when his eyes roved over them as they approached. "Car's out front along with the escorts."

Cisco nodded as he handed her off to Rio, then he held the door for both of them. "I'll be flying air support on the way there," he said to Mari.

She nodded. Cars were deeply uncomfortable for him, both physically and energetically. Being caged in by all that steel made some magical creatures, gargoyles in particular, very twitchy.

As they walked through the halls of her father's house to confront his biggest nemesis, Rio's strong and sure presence next to her was a profound comfort.

When they pulled up in front of Mon Petit Chou, the finest restaurant of the several her father had owned, there was a small crowd gathered. They were several streets away from the hustle and bustle of the Strip, on a block that catered more to locals than tourists. Mari checked her hair and makeup while Rio exited and walked around the limo to her side. He moved sedately, as if he knew she needed a moment. She had always been a deeply private person, the polar opposite of her father, who gloried in every shred of attention he could wrest from the world. The photo op was necessary but would be taxing for her.

Rio opened the door and held out his hand for her. She smiled brilliantly and let him help her from the car. The flashes from cameras went off like the grand finale of a fireworks display the instant she was visible and didn't let up. She shook out her skirt and paused to let them have their moment. She looked at the people who called her name and made the appropriate expressions. Rio stood off to the side, waiting out of the frame with careful attention, his eyes darting to look for possible threats.

Her eyes were drawn to the sky when Cisco swooped low over them before angling to land dramatically several feet in front of her. The air displaced by his powerful wings disturbed her dress in what she was sure was a flattering way. A murmur went through the gathered photographers as the flashes increased in frequency.

Cisco stalked toward her, every inch of him radiating restrained power and menace. He held out his clawed hand. She made all of them wait for it, feeling the coiled tension of the moment draw out long. Cisco smiled, letting the tips of his fangs show, his eyes smoldering.

Mari took his hand and stepped closer to a chorus of indrawn breaths around them. He lifted her hand and kissed her knuckles, then turned her wrist to nip lightly at the spot below her thumb, somehow both reverent and possessive at once. He let them snap a few more pictures, his eyes locked on hers, and then flared his wings to dismiss them.

None of the gathered journalists missed their cue, the crowd dispersing in moments, leaving the three of them alone on the sidewalk in under a minute. Cisco curled her hand around his biceps and drew her closer to him. "That was perfect," he murmured.

She squeezed his arm. "I never knew you had such a delicious flair for the dramatic."

"I stood at your father's shoulder for decades. I couldn't help but absorb a few things. I'm glad it was his showmanship."

When her father had recruited Cisco, he'd been barely sixteen but already nearly as tall as he was now. For all his size, he'd still only been a child and had been starving on the street for most of his young life. It took a lot of food to feed a growing gargoyle, and her father had provided all that Cisco needed in exchange for just one thing: loyalty. For twenty years, it had bought him just that.

Rio took up a position a step behind her left shoulder when Cisco angled them toward the door. Rio had already been a part of her father's household guard for a few years when Cisco joined, a scrawny and awkward teenage puma shifter who had trouble looking anyone in the eye.

The only time Rio had confidence during those first few years was when he was fighting. He'd always been scrappy and physically gifted. Later, he had found more self-assurance under Cisco's wing and in his bed. Once her father had discovered that leverage he could hold over both of them, he had never let either of them forget it for one second.

Mari shook herself. Dwelling on her father's history of casual cruelty wasn't going to help them right now. He was gone. The gargoyle beside her had taken his place, and she had never been more grateful for anything in her life.

Rio held the door for them as they entered the dim restaurant. The walls were tiled in a blue and gold mosaic of arches and swirls that almost seemed to move in the flickering candlelight. The entryway wasn't large, and there was no obvious exit aside from the one they'd entered through. A tall doorway stood in the wall opposite them, but there was no door, only a differently patterned mosaic. Mari had never been here, though she knew the restaurant's reputation as a place where the powerful of the city held their most important meetings and their wildest parties.

The slight, blond house witch at the host desk folded nearly in half when he bowed. "Your guests have already arrived, Don Francisco."

She felt Cisco tense at the same honorific her father had used, but his face maintained a vaguely pleasant expression without a flicker of his unease. "Thanks, James. You can take us in."

James moved to the doorway with no door and touched one of the rough stones that outlined it. He intoned a word that sounded Slavic to Mari. Magic sprang from his fingers and outlined the door that wasn't there, drawing a portal in greens and yellows. He gestured them through with a smile. "Enjoy your evening."

Cisco led them through the portal, head and wings held with confidence and poise. Mari felt the magic tickle her skin as she passed through the surface. Though she wasn't sure, because it wasn't her specialty at all, she had the feeling they had traveled a long way in that single step. Her suspicion was confirmed when she glanced out the windows and saw a sunlit ocean of the bluest water she had ever seen beyond the windows.

Magic kept the interior of the room cool and dim, the exact same temperature as the place they'd come from, even though outside it looked like it was probably bright and sweltering. The dining room they had appeared in was opulent and empty save for a single table in the center. Three chairs lined each long side of the table, lavish and elegant in blue and gold. Each one might have been a throne.

Esmé sat at the center of one side, flanked by two people who might have been siblings, each one as beautiful as they were androgynous. They were dressed identically in simple green robes with black hair braided intricately back, copper skin, and eyes rimmed with the darkest kohl.

Esmé herself wore an elegant emerald dress with a sinuous pattern worked in embroidery so intricate and precise that it made Mari's fingers long to touch the lush curves. Her dark hair was piled high atop her head in a carefully arranged bundle of curls that evoked a similar design to the dress.

"Esmé, so lovely to see you again." Cisco smiled indulgently. "You look ravishing, as always."

Esmé chuckled, throaty and dark. "You were always a flatterer, Francisco. One of the things I liked best about you." Her midnight eyes drifted toward Mari and narrowed. "Mariana," she murmured pleasantly. "I'm afraid I don't know what to call you. Are you the Demon Queen of Las Vegas now? Or do you prefer another title?"

Mari kept her face as carefully still as she could. "Mariana is fine. I never shared my father's taste for titles." Cisco pulled out the chair opposite Esmé for her, and she took it as gracefully as she was able even though her hands and knees both wanted to shake.

Cisco and Rio took the seats to either side of her quietly.

Esmé took her in with a slow, calculating glance that left Mari feeling like she was being weighed and measured for slaughter. "You look well. Much better than I've ever seen you." Her crimson-painted lips shrank into a moue of distaste. "I never cared for the way he kept you starved and stifled. Your mother never would have approved."

The mention of her mother startled Mari so much she knew it must have shown on her face. "You knew my mother?"

Esmé smiled like a cat that had finally caught the mouse she'd been stalking. "Serena and I were friends for many years. We trained together as girls."

Mari hadn't seen her mother since a few months before her sixteenth birthday. Any mention of her mother after that had been met with violence. "Do you know where she is?"

Esmé shrugged. "The rumor was that he killed her, but Basilio was never one to waste a resource he could harness instead."

Cisco leaned forward. "You think he stashed her somewhere?"

"Perhaps." Esmé tilted her head. "If so, I certainly have no idea where." She raised one hand and gestured to the windows. "Basilio had hidey-holes like this all over the world. I don't even know where we are."

"Tunisia," Cisco offered in a conversational tone.

Esmé grinned toothily at him. "Lovely."

Mari clasped her hands together in her lap. As much as she wanted to know where her mother might be, or if she was even alive, they were getting off track. "Why did you want to meet with me?"

"I wanted to look into your face when I asked you if you could run the city."

Mari knew her mouth had dropped open only when she rushed to close it. She glanced at Cisco, hoping he would answer for her, but he only looked at her placidly. "Of course I can run the city. I've been doing it for years."

"I don't mean magically." Esmé smiled as if she was bored. Only her eyes gave away that she was keenly interested in what was happening around her. "Anyone with even the slightest magical inkling can feel that the wards have been full to bursting for the last few days. I mean constitutionally. Can you do what it takes to run Las Vegas the way your father did?"

"That's what I'm for," Cisco drawled in response.

Esmé's dark eyes cut his way. "You, I believe can handle it. Her, I'm not so sure."

"We're a team," Mari said into the silence that followed the most profound doubt she'd felt since her father died.

Esmé harrumphed. "We'll have to see, then." She leaned slightly and placed her hand on the person to her right's hand. "Let them know we're ready for service, darling."

The enigmatic figure smiled at Esmé. They made a beckoning gesture with their right hand and whispered a few words in a language Mari didn't recognize at all.

Moments later, two house witches dressed identically in crisp white shirts, black ties, and black slacks drifted into the room through the doorway as if materializing from nothing. They took orders efficiently and then moved to the staging area to do their incantations as unobtrusively as possible. One of the house witches put up a lightly shimmering privacy screen that would prevent them from hearing the conversation from the diners.

Esmé had ordered for her entire side, different meals and different drinks, without asking either of her attendants for their input. If they objected to her choices, there was no outward sign of dissent.

Mari tapped her fingers on the table, eager to get back to their conversation. "If you thought I might not be capable of running the city, why call for a meeting? Why not just rush in and take over while we were recovering?"

"Despite what your father may have told you about me," Esmé said pleasantly, "I never wanted to take over the responsibility of running Las Vegas. I'm perfectly happy to carve out my little corner of debauchery and hoard the magic that grows from all of that delicious sin."

That was definitely not what her father had thought. "He made it seem like you were always moments from trying to take it all by force."

Esmé laughed, light and musical. "Darling, I rarely do anything by force if seduction can get me there." She waved a dismissive hand. "No, your father was nearly as paranoid as he was cruel. While I wasn't happy with the way he ran things, he was certainly preferable to many of the alternatives."

"How do you mean?"

Esmé sighed. "Las Vegas attracts a lot of attention from all over the world and beyond. It's a magical nexus, and it's filled with lots of people living their absolute worst lives. That brings everyone from the mafia to the literal denizens of hell to our door, wanting a piece of the action. Your father was very good at keeping all of those predators at bay."

"Due in large part to the wards that she powers," Cisco added after a moment.

"Quite," Esmé said. "The wards keep the demons out, for sure. They keep most magical creatures with bad intentions from trying too hard to take over or make things too messy. The healthy state of the magical protections your father put in place at the founding of the city is why I didn't rush in to take charge immediately when he died." She focused intently on Mari again. "Can you hold it? I need you to tell me if you can't, and we'll figure something out."

Mari felt a blush rising in her cheeks as she held Esmé's gaze. She looked toward Cisco, who smiled when she met his eyes, and then nodded sharply. She turned back to Esmé and marshaled every scrap of confidence buried inside her. "Yes, we can hold it."

"Okay," Esmé said after a few moments, the corners of her lips rising into a sly smile. "How can I help you?"

That surprised Mari so much she just stared for a few seconds before she could respond. "You want to help me? Why?"

"Because I owe your mother a favor I've never been able to repay, and I thought I'd never get the chance." Esmé gestured across the table between Mari and her companions. "Because I like the vibe that's going on here. It makes me tingly in my magical bits." She grinned, slow and secret. "But mostly because a sex witch deserves to be in charge of Las Vegas, and that's way more responsibility than I want in my life, so it should be you."

Mari looked down at her hands for a moment and then back up. She decided to take the chance. "I don't know much about my magic or about how the wards work. Could you help me figure that out?"

Esmé nodded, a little sadly. "I thought as tight as he had you locked down, there was no way you could be trained properly. That was cruel of him, not to mention stupid. You were an untapped asset he could have used to much better effect." She hummed thoughtfully. "Well, it can't be me. I haven't the inclination to get involved in training a novice."

Mari tried very hard not to feel offended by the twist in her voice on the final word. "Is there someone you can suggest?"

Esmé clinked her nails against her glass for a moment and then leaned to her left. "Marius or Danielle, do you think?" she asked the attendant seated there. Neither of them had been introduced, and that didn't seem likely to change.

The person to Esmé's left appraised the group across the table quickly with a frown of concentration. "No way." Their voice flowed like warm honey, rich and sweet. They indicated Cisco with one finger. "He's way too toppy to ever let either of them in his playground." Cisco raised a dark eyebrow at that, but didn't argue the point. They tapped that same finger against their lower lip in thought. "Pris, maybe?"

"Oh, Pricilla is an inspired choice. Yes, I think she'll work nicely." Esmé turned back to Mari. "Pricilla was a protégé of mine for many years. I'll contact her and see if she's available. She's very talented."

"I'll need her full name to run a check on her first," Cisco said.

"Of course, Francisco. Satisfy your drive to protect. I'll send the information over once we're done here."