with a smile.
“Did you need another?” she asked Nick.
He arched a sardonic brow, as though chastising her for interrupting them. “You’ll know when I do.”
She blinked, obviously flustered. Nick had that effect on most women. She hurried off as though the devil sniffed at her tail.
“You’re such a jerk,” Dru said with a smile. Nick could be a real ass and quite often was, but who could blame him? Too many lifetimes tended to harden a person in one way or the other.
Nick turned to him, a smooth smile crossing his lips, his cool demeanor ever in place. “As I was saying, you haven’t met Moira. She’s a little more than…I expected.”
Oh, he’d met her and the earth witch, but he wasn’t about to admit they’d chased him from their house. “She’s a woman, Nick. You’ve brought down Athens, Rome, and Constantinople… certainly you can handle one female.”
Nick leaned back in the wrought iron chair and sipped his whisky. “Handling Moira is like calling the Dionysian orgy of 27 B.C. a wet dream. But, enough about me. The biggest threat we’re facing at the moment is on your playground. Or is the fire witch no longer a concern? All it takes is one dead witch to solve our problems. Moira has bonded with her sister and won’t be as easy to conquer as a solitary witch.” He lifted a questioning brow, heavy with coercion.
If only it were that easy. “I’ve already told you Claire no longer has her powers. She’s not a threat.”
“Because you have them.” His tone conveyed how little faith he had in Dru’s decision.
He met his friend’s gaze with a dark one of his own. “That’s right.”
“Don’t be so naïve.” Nick leaned forward. “This is the end of the world we’re talking about. As long as she and her powers co-exist on this planet, she’s a threat.”
Behind Nick, a woman stood and slapped her boyfriend’s face before she stomped off. Dru barely gave her a glance. “Her power isn’t on the planet. It’s buried deep inside me. There’s no way for her to reclaim it. Besides, she gave it up freely. She didn’t want it.”
Nick chuckled. “You’re playing with fire, brother.”
“I’ve eliminated the threat. No further action is required.”
Angelica brought his whisky, and Dru knocked it back with one shot. “I’ll take another,” he said as the fiery liquid traced the familiar path down his throat. She nodded and left.
“She can’t win,” Dru continued. “There’s nothing stronger than blood magic, and there’s no way I’ll return her power to her. Problem solved.”
“Do you truly believe when she reunites with her sisters, they’re not going to convince her she made a mistake?”
Dru sucked in a deep breath, expanding his chest, not letting on that he’d already delivered Claire to her sisters. “Don’t question my tactics, Nick. I’m aware of what’s at stake, but the threat is dead.”
Nick narrowed his eyes. “She has your balls.”
An argument broke out behind Dru, one man taunting the other, leaving the second man to threaten to kick his ass.
Dru leveled a heated look at Nick. “No fucking way.” Just because he didn’t want to kill her didn’t mean he wouldn’t if necessary.
A mocking laugh erupted from Nick’s chest. “She has your fucking balls. All of these centuries you fight like a heartless bastard, but when the time comes to prove you’re the ultimate warrior, you let a woman castrate you. A fire witch no less.”
Angry shouts multiplied around them, but Dru didn’t take his eyes off Nick as his own wrath swirled in his veins. “I have her fucking power burning a fiery hole through my goddamned soul right now, and I’m telling you, she’s never getting it back.” He lifted his hand in time to catch a sailing tankard before it shattered against their table.
“Then you better get the hell out of town because one Seal has already been broken, and I can damn well guarantee those witches aren’t going to stop hunting you. They’ll get what they want, or they’ll die trying.”
“I’m not afraid of them. If they come sniffing around me, I’ll start a war they won’t likely forget. They’ll be too busy plucking bloody bodies off the street to fight me.”
Dru stood and grabbed a burly fisherman flailing in his direction, shoving him back toward his friend where they both fell in a pile of other fighting bodies. “What the hell’s the matter with these people?”
Nick snorted. “This is only the beginning, my friend.”
Sizzling sensations seared Claire’s mouth, and