March 17, 2024

Lá Fhéile Pádraig

Lá Fhéile Pádraig is ‘the day of the festival of Patrick” - and yes, I’ll be having New England Boiled Dinner with my son - corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. It won’t be ‘boiled’ though - done in the pressure cooker instead. Add some stone-ground mustard and it’s just amazing.

As you can see - the branding update is done! The new website graphics and the graphics for here and on Ream are all updated as well. I’ve made it as simple as possible to buy books, in every format they’re available in, from my website, so please check it out.

I’m almost done with Remington - which will be in the Marked by the Wolf anthology this summer, and I’m still working on Rowan - then King and Queen will be up. I’ve got a lot of books planned for this year and while the website issues slowed me down a touch, I’m ramping back up again.

The book below by Jaelle Keyes is a wonderful story - I really enjoyed it. It’s available free for a limited time, so grab a copy for yourself.

Also - see those promo links below? If you click them, a faerie gets their wings…not really, but if you click them, I get credit for reaching out to readers and it seriously helps with my advertising. Thank you for just clicking, even if you don’t find a book you like.

A little bit naughty, but mostly nice. A sprinkle of sugar and dash of spice.- A Misfit Witch's spell for love.
Maid of honor, Merry Bright thought she’d put together the perfect low key bachelorette party for her sister’s third attempt down the aisle.
Too bad the irresponsible bride and the other ungrateful attendants don’t share her vision.
Once again, Merry’s left doing damage control in the wake of her wild-child sister’s shenanigans. Only this time Merry’s the one in deep snow when Gabe Kryzmis, the grumpy sheriff of Idunno county, is mistaken as the party's exotic entertainment.

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And So It Begins - Chapter Nine - College Park, MD 2024

Jo had asked Ambassador Mansouri to reach out to Ashton Lennox and ask if he’d be willing to meet with her. She knew a call from her would be ignored, and asking the Duke for a favor was not going to happen without some concessions being set.

It took two weeks before his office called her to schedule a meeting. Since the Duke didn’t want either the British or Irish Embassies to know his business, he agreed to meet at the Institute. Jo was amused. On her home territory, she’d have the advantage, but he’d think he held all of the cards since he’d deigned to come to her. A step down from Olympus, so to speak.

When Lisa showed him into the office, Ash found her seated in a comfortable chair by the fire, shoes on the floor and her feet tucked up beside her. A tablet in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, she looked as if she were relaxing after work, not in the middle of the day. Her black cashmere slacks, and a deep blue sweater set were set off by a black pearl necklace and matching earrings. He thought she looked stunning. He didn’t dare let her know.

“Director Wilder, did you forget about our meeting?” Ash said as he took the seat opposite hers, uninvited.

“Of course not,” Jo replied. “However, I’m aware you believe your time to be more valuable than mine, so I decided to relax instead of waiting with baited breath for your arrival.”

Ash gave a soft snort of amusement, then gestured to the coffee service on the low table between them. “May I?”

“Help yourself. We don’t stand on ceremony here,” Jo said with a smile. Once he had settled back with his own coffee, Jo spoke again. “Now that you’re here, I’d like to know what you think this meeting is about.”

Ash arched one dark brow and took a sip of coffee. “I figured you wanted to apologize for your behavior at the dinner. Or that you wanted me to apologize for my behavior at the dinner. Either way, I wanted to see you again.”

“Why would you want to see me again?” Jo asked, her tone calm and almost pleasant. “If I remember correctly, you called me a bitch.”

“Well, you were being a bitch,” Ash replied. “Then again, I was being an asshole, so I suppose I deserved it. As to why I wanted to see you again? Well, you intrigue me. Something about you, calls to me.”

“I see,” Jo said and set the tablet aside. “Tell me about Apex.”

Ash blinked once, the only movement that gave away his surprise. “Apex?”

Jo slid her feet down towards the floor and slipped her feet into her shoes. She leaned her elbows on her knees and clasped her hands in front of her. “Don’t play stupid with me, Lennox. You’re not the only one in the room with a high IQ. Tell me what you know about the Apex Consortium, a supposed think tank in DC.”

“Supposed think tank? They are a think tank. They also happen to be much more. Why are you asking me about Apex?” Ash said. He was still pretending to be relaxed, his cup held lightly in one hand, his back against the padding of the chair.

“Well, I didn’t think you’d tell me anything about the Orion Group, so I figured I’d ask about Apex,” Jo offered, her smile a touch feral.

The pretense of relaxation was gone as Ash put the cup down and sat forward a little. “What game are you playing?”

“Let’s face it, Lennox,” Jo replied. “The DC area is riddled with organizations that present as one thing, but are actually something else. The Wilder Institute is no different. We know about Orion, but we don’t know much about Apex. Since that’s been your focus for the past four years, I figured you’d be the person to ask about them.”

Ash’s eyes widened and he dropped back in the chair. “The Supernatural Intelligence Network. I had my suspicions, but couldn’t be sure. That’s absolutely brilliant.”

“And you’re still not answering my question,” Jo said.

“Orion is a bit like your SIN,” Ash replied. “We look like a think tank, and we do do a lot of research and policy work, but we’re also a front for our own intelligence agency that works under the aegis of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Now, normally I wouldn’t tell you anything, but the fact that you know Orion exists and that I’ve been tasked with Apex – and for how long – shows me you have a clearance high enough to make the connections.”

“Yay. You’ve figured it out,” Jo offered dryly. “Could you please tell me what you know about Apex?”

“Well, since you said please,” Ash teased and Jo sighed and leaned back.

“You’re a frustrating individual,” Jo said.

“So I’ve been told,” Ash replied and laced his fingers together across his stomach. “Before I answer that, have you seen the latest bulletin from the National Terrorism Advisory System? It states that the US remains in a heightened threat environment due to lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and personal grievances.” He watched Jo nod her head, showing she’d read the bulletin. “This is precisely what Apex encourages. They foment anger, hatred, distrust, but most of all fear. When a group of people are afraid, they react. It’s why we have so many mass shooting events, murders of trans women, and so on.”

“There has to be an ‘us and them’ mentality for society to function as it does,” Jo replied. “History shows that mankind usually feels the need to persecute someone. Unfortunately, right now there are a lot of someones in the cross hairs. This is why one of SIN’s main objectives is to keep the general populace from finding out about supernaturals. They’d have a whole new plethora of targets to go after.”

“I’d like to see one of those white supremacist types go up against a rampaging shifter,” Ash said with a snort of laughter. “They’d need a change of drawers.”

Jo chuckled. “True,” but then her smile faded. “Until they used a rocket launcher or a drone carrying C4 to take out a pack house. And don’t tell me they can’t get ahold of something like that. Theft of military armaments or construction grade explosives happens a lot more often than any of us would like to admit.”

“You’re correct,” Ash said. “Okay, let me check with my superiors and see how much they’re willing to let me share about Apex. I’ll do my best to convince them we’re all on the same side and the resources you could bring to the table are exceptional.” He got to his feet, then paused. “And, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I was such an asshole at the dinner. I could make excuses – that I was overtired and stressed and worried about one of my team, but that’s just what it is – an excuse. That doesn’t make it right.”

“Thank you, Your Grace,” Jo replied. “However, I’m not going to apologize for calling you out for that behavior. You have my contact information. Please reach out as soon as you have anything you can share. For our part, we’ve been running around, putting out fires in the supernatural community for years, but the last decade has had an increasing number of events that are too coordinated to be excused as belonging to disparate groups. If we can pin this on Apex with some surety, then we’ll be in a much better position.”

Ash gave her a polite nod of his head. “I’ll be in touch.” He turned to leave the room and Jo watched him walk away. The dark gray wool suit fit him beautifully and the blue-green silk tie had brought out his eyes.

Jo sighed. It was hard to dance this particular diplomatic dance when the man was giving her fantasies of wanting to strip him naked and lick him all over.

As the door closed behind him, Jo shook herself, then slipped off her shoes and curled back up with her tablet. She had a few messages to send. They might finally have an answer to who the Rejects really were.

She didn’t have any illusions that identifying the entity behind the coordinated puppetry of various hate groups would end the assaults, but having an actual target instead of some amorphous big bad guy was a step in the right direction. SIN had grown from that little experiment in 1901 to an organization with branches around the world, able to police their own kind and assist various governments when situations called for it.

Somehow, though, Jo had a feeling that Apex, if that’s who was truly behind all of this, would be an adversary that would take all of their best efforts, and then some. Either way, she was sure SIN was up to the task – and Dr. Theophilus Wilder would be proud.

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Chapter ten next week! Or you can grab the book for your collection here.