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A far cry from where they’d begun, the dignitaries mingled and chatted easily, familiar with each other because of the inter-species collaboration of the last three years. Among them were several mated couples: Kane and Nova, Gideon and Rona, Rukia and Isaiah, and the most recent pair, Zeke and Nina, who were currently doing a poor job of keeping their hands to themselves.
Riaz’s eyes shifted to his own mate who’d clearly seen the same and wore her blush prettily on her smiling cheeks. “What I’d do to you, Pet, if we were alone.”
Dark laughter preceded her wink. “Keep nipping at my neck and I might just jump you.”
Having taken their seats, Nina ruefully extracted herself from her mate’s arms. Zeke’s hand lingered on her waist even as she stepped away, his hooded gaze riveted to her.
“Riaz, Cortana,” Nina’s melodic voice instantly took command of the room, “please give us an account of what took place before the events at D’Ancouer.”
Shifting his gaze to Drake, he noted the ashen pale of the vampire’s skin, the man still recovering from his pernicious sunlight poisoning. At the other man’s nod, Riaz described the reconnaissance he and his pack did of the manufacturing facility, and the information they uncovered while doing so.
Cortana interjected as she entered the picture, retelling what occurred in the timeframe between then and D’Ancouer. She left out the parts about her and Riaz’s courtship. When they’d finished, their attention transferred to Jeremiah, who reclined leisurely with the rest of his delegation. The powerful air Elemental had single-handedly cured the air in D’Ancouer of gaseous sunlight.
Something in Jeremiah’s nonchalant posture felt false, almost like he was doing his best to convey normalcy, but Riaz didn’t know the other man well enough to discern the truth. In fact, a notable awkwardness existed between Jeremiah and the other three Elementals, a separation that was unlike anything he’d ever seen from the tightly knit group before.
“When Remmus and I arrived, it was clear someone had tampered with the air conditioning units. The sunlight particles were blasting out in heavy concentration, so I focused on curing the air while Remmus disengaged the tech.”
“Whoever hacked it knew what they were doing.” For once, Remmus was somber faced. “Even with my technopathic abilities, it took time to undo the complex coding that’d brought about the change. When they realized I was meddling, they blew it to smithereens.” He shook his head. “We’re dealing with someone who’s clearly well-resourced and proficient in tech. There’s no other explanation.”
“It certainly adds another layer of complexity.” Aidan crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. “The odds are stacking against us.”
“How did they get on the roof?” Riaz asked.
Drake pursed his lips. “The majority of the roof units were replaced a year and a half ago.”
“Around the time I was taken,” Lucius asserted, catching Drake’s eye, “and when they first referenced the Choke.”
Lucius had been abducted by the Citizens and tortured for information on the immortal races. The vampire had been retrieved by Circe, the woman with whom he was now mated, and adopted daughter of the Raeth sovereign Isaiah who sat on the Accords assembly.
Sitting forward on his chair, Remmus asked, “How many locations do the Citizens know about?”
“They know of D’Ancouer, the Vampire council building, and potentially Nova’s den,” Aidan confirmed, shrugging one shoulder. “And Lucius’ old House in California, but that no longer presents a problem.”
Remmus nodded. “Give me the locations of all of them and I’ll slip some code into the HVACs to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
“I wonder how long they’ve been planning this,” Nina mused.
When she wandered within arm’s reach of her mate, he caught her around the waist and pulled her into him. Newly mated himself, Riaz wasn’t surprised when Zeke’s lips brushed against her neck, but did find odd that the male Raeth didn’t even seem to pay attention to the discussion.
Riaz’s attention shifted to the next person in the Raeth delegation, Nero. The Hawaiian sovereign, brawny and beaming, was bouncing a knee as though he had anxious energy to spare. Kaien, too, rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles to dispel a similar energy. Next to Kaien sat Remmus, but as soon as Riaz locked eyes with the him, Remmus grimaced, muttered an excuse and teleported from the room. His brethren didn’t even notice.
The last Raeth in the room was Isaiah. He was hovering behind his mate, Rukia, like a guard dog, snarling at anyone who got too close, including the water Elemental’s own monarch. That clinched it. All the Raeths were acting jittery; tension surrounded them like a second skin.
Glancing at the other immortals in the room, it was obvious they’d clearly noticed the same thing. Even Aidan had raised a curious eyebrow at his cohort’s antics.
“The entire clan has been off their rocker the last few days.” Shrugging, Rukia smiled and leaned into Isaiah’s touch as he trailed a finger along her collarbone. “Twitchy, the whole lot of them.”
Lucius agreed. “Even Circe has been a bit … odd.”
A hiss sounded from Isaiah’s mouth, a flare of energy accompanying his words. “If we’re to continue disparaging my clan, let’s dismiss. I’d much rather ravish my mate.” His pointed look toward Riaz had more bite than bark. “Or we could do what we came here for and talk about how they almost killed three hundred immortals.”
“Thank you, Isaiah.” Nodding at the man, Drake addressed the room. “The only thing we know for certain is that no one was on the roof the previous night. I was in my penthouse and would’ve noticed had it been breached.”
“This must have been planned some time ago.”
Scowling, Aidan rolled his neck on his shoulders, frowning when he looked at Nina and she gave no impression of having heard him.
His sister had snuggled up against Zeke, locked in her mate’s grip while his lips trailed down her neck. The mated couple was having a telepathic conversation that clearly had nothing to do with the topic at hand, based on their telltale smirks.
