She could almost smell the smoke coming through the connection, Jim cooking something up in that opportunistic brain of his. “It is. Are you thinking of expanding your territory?”
“I’m thinking the Court of Elders is too busy sucking each other’s dicks to choose a replacement and a fine Born from excellent stock is already there to take up the reins.”
Morgan knew Big Jim was talking about Kane, but still, she couldn’t resist teasing, “You flatter me, Jim.”
A loud guffaw had her pulling the phone quickly away from her ear before the sound deafened her. Even so, she still had to open her mouth and shift her jaw until the ringing subsided. When she brought the phone back up, Jim was saying, “You tell my boy that if he wants it, I’ll back him with everything at my disposal.”
She hated the thought of losing Kane from her team, but an opportunity like this may never come his way again. He was already in the territory, perfectly capable of – as Jim put it – taking up the reins. “I’ll talk to him.”
“Do it soon,” Jim warned. “Before you end up with a rowdy bunch of Turned thinking they can get away with murder.”
Big Jim wasn’t wrong. The Born used fear and intimidation tactics on their Turned for a reason. Vampires were blood-thirsty predators by nature, and if they thought that they could get away with it, they’d gorge themselves and damn the consequences. An army of Turned without leadership would quickly expose their race, inciting a panic that would only lead to humans making the extermination of their kind priority one.
“Tell my boy to call me,” was Jim’s final remark before they hung up and though Morgan had a few more calls to make, she sat down in the tall grass near the water’s edge to think for a moment. So many changes in such a short time. Angels on this side of the veil, the death of The Elder that had caused a power vacuum within the Born, vampires targeting witches for unknown reasons, Jamie’s injuries, a chance for Kane to rule a territory, a previously presumed extinct dragon shifter joining the team…
Glancing over to where she had last seen Travis, Morgan smiled fondly as she watched him standing next to the wolf alpha, his eyes squinted against the sun as the two of them plotted tonight’s heist. Somehow, amidst all of the chaos, she’d managed to find the time to fall in love. Talk about change.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jamie had been sleeping when Morgan returned to the cabin and asked to speak with Kane who was hovering at the injured vampire’s bedside. Big Jim’s suggestion, if nothing else, would give Kane something else to think about rather than chewing himself up with guilt.
Kane’s initial response was a big, “Hell, no!” but whether that was because it was his father’s idea or that he didn’t want to leave the Hunters, Morgan wasn’t sure, though she tended to think it was the former. Kane may have been opposed to gaining a territory under the specific terms his father had set down, but he’d been groomed for the job from the cradle. Had most likely always expected to end up in a position of power. It was only the unsavory means he’d been faced with upon coming of age that had led him to the Hunters.
“Listen to me,” she said, gripping his upper arms so he couldn’t simply walk away. “Jamie’s going to be down with those injuries for quite some time, so we’re not hitting the road anytime soon and the vampires in this territory need a leader, they need guidance to keep them in line.”
Kane looked hesitant, his eyes skating to Jamie before he adamantly shook his head. “No.”
Taking a different tact, Morgan offered up the idea she had merely been toying with prior to this. “I’ve been thinking about setting down roots somewhere. A hub for our team. Someplace where we can be when we’re not on a job.”
“When are wenoton a job?” Kane scoffed, though she could see the idea of a home base appealed to him.
“That’s exactly my point,” Morgan piled on. “We deserve downtime every once and a while. Imagine it,” she continued. “Jamie could have the tech setup she’s always wanted, you could have your man cave with all your gaming systems… Real beds that areours, Kane.”
“Can we make it look like the Batcave?”
Morgan chuckled, warming up more and more to the idea now that she’d spoken it out loud and pleased that Kane was as well. “You can design your man cave however you’d like. Carte blanche.”
Kane glanced once more at the bed. “Jamie would love a proper setup, lots of screens, a rolling chair to move around.”
“She would.”
“But here? In New Orleans?”
“I thought you liked New Orleans. The food, the jazz,” she said, using his own words when they’d first embarked on this job. Shit, it seemed like a lifetime ago rather than a handful of days.
Kane nodded distractedly, his eyes once more returning to Jamie before he said, “Let me think about it.”
That had been a few hours ago. Since then, Morgan had attempted to get hold of Jourdain repeatedly without success and Travis had left for his mission, but not before he’d pulled her aside for a smoking hot kiss that had curled her toes, a promise in his eyes that spoke of more of the same once he returned from retrieving Sophia. Without her dragon to help distract her with sexy times, she was getting itchy just waiting, so leaving Kane to his vigil beside a still sleeping Jamie, Morgan had headed out for Jourdain’s house, knowing full well that if the witch had been killed, she was likely going to be met by an irate mother and a cleaver to the throat.
Preparing for the worst, Morgan knocked on the door and was surprised when Jourdain himself, dressed once more in a three-piece suit, answered. The man had noticeably lost weight, his bones standing out sharply above hollow cheeks, the power output having physically drained him, but otherwise, he looked remarkably unharmed for someone who had been in the middle of a hail of bullets. “Miss Rhys.”
“I tried calling first,” Morgan said. “I have some information.”
The man nodded, stepping back to allow her to enter his home. “I’m afraid my phone did not survive last night’s incident.”
Ushering her into his office, he motioned for her to take a seat. His demeanor was chilly, night and day to when they had met. Gone were the bright smiles and booming laughter, replaced with hard eyes and a steely determination. “I wish you had told me you had a dragon shifter on your team,” he reproached. “They tend to make a nasty mess when provoked and they’re rather tough to hide from the media.”
“I haven’t checked the news today,” she admitted, though she should have done.
