An elderly descendant sighed. “I can’t say I trust that she won’t betray us—like she said, she doesn’t know us—but I trust she won’t betray you, Maddox, so … ”
The redhead again spoke. “I don’t feel comfortable with this. I know that she’s your anchor, Maddox. I have nothing against her on a personal level, but I … ”
“Let’s say a haze took Jordan tomorrow, Pen,” Maddox said to her. “Would you be happy to isolate him in the mausoleum where he’d scream and scream but no one would hear him? Or would you want Raini to help him?”
Pen snapped her mouth shut. A deep sigh left her. “All right, if you honestly believe she won’t betray us, I’ll agree to trust her. I’m still not comfortable with it, but I’ll do it.”
Others said pretty much the same thing, even Marcella.
Euan shot to his feet, glowering. “Letting an outsider possess this knowledge goes against everything our kind is taught.” He sliced his gaze to Raini. “If you betray our secret—” He cut off at the growl that rumbled out of his Prime.
Maddox glared at the piece of shit. “Don’t. Fucking. Dare. You do not threaten her. Ever. Is that understood? Bear in mind that I’ve killed people for less.”
Clenching his fists, Euan opened his mouth … but he said nothing. He teleported away instead. Which Raini’s demon found seriously disappointing, because it had wanted a chance to pummel the little shit.
“The meeting is over,” Maddox declared.
Descendants began to leave until, finally, there was only him, Raini, and his two sentinels.
Carmen blew out a breath. “That actually went pretty well.”
“I thought so,” said Hector. “But then, they probably only behaved so cooperatively for selfish reasons.”
Maddox nodded. Yes, his demons would want Raini to step in if they or someone they cared for were taken by a haze. They’d spent too long watching each other suffer in such a way, never believing anything or anyone could help them.
Maddox held his hand out to Raini. “Now for our next meeting. There’s still some time left before it should begin, but I have a feeling that Jolene and whoever else is concerned for you will already be waiting, anxious to see you.”
“This won’t go so well. They’re pretty mad at us both.” Standing, she placed her hand in his. “Before we go, we need to get our story straight. What am I supposed to tell them happened?”
Maddox thought on it for a moment. “As I know you’ll want to tell as few lies as possible, we’ll simply say that you were knocked out by a psychic blow and then wavered to my club by a halo-bearer who hoped to use you to distract me; that you didn’t come around until after the fight was over.” It meant she’d have to say very little, since she could claim she was unconscious for most of what happened.
“Okay,” she said simply.
“I know you don’t like the idea of deceiving them—”
“Really, it’s okay. If they knew, they’d understand. It helps to know that.”
He studied her face and then, satisfied she truly understood the lies were necessary, he nodded.
“Want Carmen and me to come along?” Hector asked him.
Maddox shook his head. “Keep an eye on things here. It’s doubtful that Castiel will make another move tonight, but there’s always a chance.” With that, he teleported himself and Raini to the living area of the penthouse.
He wasn’t in the least bit surprised to find the room full of people, including her parents, her colleagues, and Jolene. Things went exactly as he’d expected they would. People descended on Raini, checked she was fine, and demanded to know what happened.
He told them that she’d been dumped at the club during the halo-bearer attack as an intended distraction, and that Maddox had killed the angel responsible and placed her out of harm’s way.
While her friends, family, and lair members were grateful that he had “saved” her, they were still furious about being prevented from seeing her straight away, and so they spent a little time ranting about it.
Maddox didn’t attempt to explain or justify it, seeing no reason to do so. He’d made the right decision by Raini … who was now rubbing her temples, he then noticed. Maddox felt his jaw tighten. “You’ve all seen that Raini’s fine,” he said, cutting them off. “You’ve heard what happened. So perhaps you could stop yelling—she’s had a tough time of it, she doesn’t need to be dealing with your anger on top of everything else.”
Many sighed and lost their confrontational postures.
“He’s right,” Devon said to no one in particular. “We all need to calm ourselves down.”
“It’s not that easy,” said Evangeline. “I’m still an internal mess after hearing that both my daughters were missing.”
“But surely you all now understand why Maddox couldn’t just drop everything to bring me here,” said Raini.