The Viper's Nest (Kit Davenport #4)(54)

“Um, nothing,” I replied finally, shaking my head. “Just reminiscing on the last time I was here.”

Wesley, sharp as he was, turned in his seat to raise his eyebrows at me. He knew what I meant. The last time I was here was what ultimately had brought us all together.

“We’re here,” Cole announced, pulling in to the valet area of the The London Hotel in West Hollywood.

Vali groaned and cracked his neck. “Thank fucking goodness. I am about to claw someone for a shower.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He and Cole had gone out two nights prior to follow up on some lead Vali had found through his connections, and they’d gotten back yesterday looking exhausted. They’d picked up some useful info about shifters actively trying to expose magic though, so it had been a worthwhile trip for them. Even if they looked like they’d flown halfway to Europe and back.

“What time are we meeting him?” I asked for maybe the twentieth time, but the guys indulged me. Not even Austin snapped at me to stop asking the same question.

“Seven tonight,” River responded. “You have some time before we need to go.”

It had already been decided that all my guys wouldn’t be coming with me. We had demanded Jonathan not come with any more than two agents, and he required the same of me, so Cole and River were my escorts. With Wesley on comms too, of course. Weary or not…

Chewing my lip, I nodded and waited for Austin to get out so I could follow. Cole tossed the keys to the valet, and I watched the bellboy unloading our bags from the trunk.

“You okay, Kitty Kat?” Caleb asked me while yawning and stretching as he, too, got out of the car.

I nodded. “Yeah, I think I might just spend a bit of time meditating or some shit until I need to get ready for dinner.” Wesley held out a magnetic key card to me, having just returned from the check-in desk where he’d collected them all.

Cole wrapped me in a tight hug, lifting my feet from the ground. “Call us if you need help, Vixen.”

“Of course.” I smiled tightly and kissed him quickly before he set me back on my feet. According to the little cardboard wallet my key was tucked into, my room was 612, so I waved it at him to see. “Six-twelve,” I told him. “But I’ll be fine. We’ll get there.”

Or I sure hoped I would.

My meditating was the newest idea we’d come up with in an effort for me to control the conflicting and sometimes seriously overwhelming magic swirling inside me. My temper had been running seriously hot, and while I had full control of my Ink Magic, the dragon magic was like trying to handle electricity or something.

The theory was, thanks to Wesley’s intuition, that the various brands of magic were just dueling it out at the moment, fighting for dominance within my core. Meditating did seem to help with my temper, which in turn helped with my control. But to say I wasn’t freaking halfway out over it would be a lie.

Waving my hand to the rest of the guys, telling them that I was fine, I made my way inside and up to my room, leaving them to sort out bags and all that crap.

Once inside, I kicked off my shoes and settled cross-legged in the middle of the king-sized bed. The room was lovely, but it wouldn’t have mattered to me if we’d stayed in a Motel 6. We were here for one thing only. Meet with Jonathan and hear what possible reason he might have for trying to kill us all on more than one occasion.

My lids dropped shut, and I took some long, even breaths to find my center. There was no mistaking it when I did find it, and it was becoming easier every day to tap into that burning ball of power there. Except now it wasn’t the colorless light it had been when I’d first located it.

Now it swirled with threads of light from each of my bonded guardians–Austin, Cole, and Vali. They made up only a fraction of my own light, but there was enough to cause friction.

Time passed, I didn’t know how much, while I stayed there inside my own consciousness trying to unravel the threads of the guys’ magics, trying to separate them from each other and prevent the flare-ups that seemed to happen anytime those threads crossed one another.

I had no idea if it was the right thing to do. Maybe I should have been trying to squish them all together? There wasn’t exactly an instruction manual on how to handle your dianoch’s borrowed magic, For Ban Dia Dummies.

The sound of my door opening was what jolted me from my meditation, and I reacted on instinct, hurling a ball of fire at whoever was coming through the door.

“Good session, then?” Vali asked me in a dry tone as he deftly caught my fireball and extinguished it before I could burn the whole damn hotel down.

A huge, pent-up breath gusted out of me, and I dropped my face into my hands, cringing.

What if that had been housekeeping or something? Fucking hell, Kit, get a damn grip! You could have killed someone!

“I’m sorry,” I groaned, looking up as Vali perched on the edge of my bed and placed a box between us. “I am trying. You just gave me a fright, and I...”

“Reacted,” he finished for me, nodding. “No need to apologize to me, Regina mea. I know all too well how hard this must be for you. Also, we forgot to mention we had an extra key to your room. Paranoia, you know?”

Chewing my lip I nodded. “What time is it?”

“Six,” he replied, and my eyebrows shot up. I’d been meditating for over two hours! No wonder my back was so stiff. “I bought you something.” He pushed the box toward me, and I eyed it curiously.