The Necromancer Council

Chapter 4

Chapter Four

It was hard for Cissy to be completely comfortable in someone else's space, but the alternative was to have Darius in her own home, and she couldn't stomach the idea of it, even if he did seem to be a perfectly reasonable person. But when it came down to it, she barely knew him other than one meeting in the Necromancer Council hall, and that wasn't good enough to let him in her space, especially when she was taken from her previous flat by someone who was supposed to be family.

Somehow, she knew that was going to take a long time to get over.

Even with her apprehension about the situation, she couldn't bring herself to completely ignore the way her soul seemed to be tugging her towards Darius. She'd never believed the rumours that necromancers also had fated mates until she'd talked to Tabby about it, so she had no idea if that was what she was feeling.

Or maybe it was simply attraction. He did have the most piercing eyes she'd ever encountered, and that was without taking into account the rest of how he looked. If she wrote down what her type was, he'd tick all of the boxes. Since being rescued from Alvin's den, she hadn't really thought about s*x much, and certainly hadn't found the courage to go out and dance with strange men while drunk. But now she was sitting opposite the handsome necromancer, she was starting to wonder if it was something she was finally ready for again.

"So, who do you want to invite to the Council?" he asked, eyeing her warily.

Could he tell what she was thinking? She didn't think it was possible for necromancers to read thoughts. Especially not of other necromancers. But who knew what was true and what wasn't?

"I'm not sure. I hadn't actually gotten that far," she admitted, feeling rather foolish for the admission. She should have thought this through before she went before the High Council and promised to set up the Necromancer Council if she didn't know how to do that. They might have a meeting room and a purpose, but that wasn't enough to set up something that basically ruled over all the necromancers in the country.

"Ah, I can see how that would be a problem."

"Yes."

Silence filled the air between them, though it wasn't as uncomfortable as she would have expected.

"What about Aurora Evans?" Darius asked after a moment.

"Isn't she mated to a member of the Shifter Council?" Cissy asked.

He nodded. "I think so."

"I thought that was against the rules." Guilt filled her as the tug towards him intensified. If it was what she thought it was, then they were going to have a big problem. True mates weren't allowed to sit on a Council together.

"I think it's enough of a loophole." He shrugged. "They wouldn't be on the same Council."

"There are a lot of advantages to that," Cissy mused.

"Exactly. She already knows how things work on the Councils. She served as a liaison to the last one, but wasn't involved in the downfall. Other necromancers know her, but she's also known to other paranormals. As far as I can tell, there are very few reasons not to invite her."

"Hmm. Alright. So Aurora it is. But who else should we be invited? There are five seats and that's only filled three of them." She paused, realising she'd made the assumption that he was also taking a seat on the Council and hadn't just been appointed to help her. "You are taking one, right?"

Darius laughed, a surprisingly deep sound that went right through her. "I suppose you're the only one who can answer that. Aren't you in charge?"

"Oh, right. Do you want to be?" She c****d her head to the side, feeling a little more confident in herself now they were talking. He hadn't made any sudden moments and wasn't trying to get too close to her without permission. Both of those were good for setting her mind at ease.

"It's a great honour to serve the Councils."

She snorted, surprising both of them. "That just sounds like the kind of platitude you say when someone is asking you to do something you don't want to," she pointed out.

"I could say the same to you whenever you talk about the Councils. Why do you want to be part of this?"

"No one's ever asked me that."

"I can go and put fresh water in the teapot if you want some time to think about it?" he suggested.

A small reassuring smile spread over Cissy's face and she pushed a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "I'd like more tea, but I don't need the time to think," she admitted.

"Okay, more tea and an open ear it is." He rose from his seat at the table and made his way over to the sink where the kettle perched ready to be filled.

She bit her lip, trying not to focus too much on the way he was making her feel and the comfort it was bringing to talk to him like this. He wasn't what she normally expected from necromancer men, but that was probably because she'd spent far too much time around the wrong ones when she wasn't avoiding them completely.

But that wasn't the matter at hand. She could work out what was going on with her emotions once she was on her own.

Cissy took a deep breath before opening her mouth to speak. "I guess I want to do something about the way necromancers are treated by the other paranormals. The easiest way I can see to do that is to start properly conforming to the system the others use. Maybe then, they can trust us."

"They have plenty of reasons not to," he pointed out as he flicked the kettle on. He turned to face her, leaning against the countertop and crossing his arms in a relaxed way.

"Yes. They do. But we're the only ones who can change that. I can sit around and say I want it to be different, but if I don't do anything about it, then how can I expect other people to on my behalf."

"I feel the same way," he admitted. "I can't help that maybe if we finally bring our faction of necromancers into the light, people will stop thinking of us as people that raise the dead, and start respecting us for what we really are."

"People who can help protect the dead and the sanctity of them," she finished for him, already knowing where he was going.

"Precisely."

The kettle whistled, signalling that the water was boiled. Darius picked it up and brought it over to the table to fill up the teapot sitting between them.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," she muttered, staring down at her mug and trying not to feel overwhelmed by that knowledge.

"We do. But I'm sure we can do it. They do say that it's easier to hit a goal when you have multiple people trying to hit it at the same time."

"Teamwork," she whispered.

"Yes. Though I don't think that comes naturally to us." A small smirk played at his lips.

She laughed again, surprised at how easily amusement was coming to her compared to before. "I suspect that's why the original necromancers only devised certain spells to be possible with multiple casters. It cuts down on the risk of dinosaur bones running around the countryside if you can't find enough of your friends to raise it with you."

Darius snorted as he dropped back into his seat. "That's something we should be glad of."

"Oh, I don't know. It could make learning history more interesting if you had a handful of necromancers instructing the bones to play out important events."

"It gives a new meaning to reenactments, that's for sure."

"And also breaks several of the most fundamental beliefs of the old necromancers," she agreed.

"So you want to bring them back?" he asked.

"I honestly don't know," she admitted. "I think some of them are good rules and things to live our lives by. But the others? Not so much. I don't particuarly want to reinstate their line on the s*x ceremonies."

"Hmm, not a voyeurist then?" He raised an eyebrow.

A furious blush rose to her cheeks. Why had she used that as an example? There were dozens of things the old necromancers had done that weren't acceptable in this day and age. Going for the one topic that she didn't want to be discussing with someone who might be her mate wasn't the smartest of moves if she didn't want to breach the elephant in the room.

"I'm sorry, that was inappropriate of me to ask," he said softly. "I can see what you mean, though. There are some rules we'll want to keep if we can, and others we'll want to get rid of immediately. The orgies are one of them."

"Unless people want to be having them," she muttered. "But not for official business."

He chuckled. "Can you imagine sending out that invitation? The Necromancer Council invites you to the annual festival of exhibitionism. Nakedness is not optional."

She snorted. "I can't imagine a lot of the necromancers of old were particularly pleased to get that invitation themselves."

"Or maybe they liked it if they were struggling to seal the deal with someone special." He winked.

Cissy smothered another laugh, before realising she didn't have to. There was no reason she had to hide how she was feeling around this man. Not only had he not given her any reason to think that he would require it, but she also wasn't under lock and key.

"I can think of better ways to impress a woman than turning up naked in front of all her friends."

"And family. Don't forget they'd be there too," he put in.

She groaned. "Can you imagine? What if you touched the wrong thing..."

"Please don't finish that thought," he put in, laughter coming through every word. "I don't even want to think it."

"See, not worth it, even to make eyes at someone special," she pointed out.

"I'll concede that point. So what would convince you to make eyes at someone special?" he asked, a serious note entering his voice. "A candlelit dinner? Or are you more of a picnic by the sea type?"

"We're hours from the sea."

"Ah, so that option has your interest. Good to know."

"It's not very necromancer-y," she muttered.

"I could collect a few skulls and scatter them around the picnic blanket on sticks?" he suggested. "It would put other people off from joining us."

"And ruin the ambiance of a perfectly nice picnic."

A satisfied smile twisted at the corners of his lips and it took her a moment to realise what she'd done.

"I'm sorry, I don't know, I..." she trailed off, unable to tell him she hadn't meant to assume things about the two of them, while knowing that on some level, that was a lie.

"It's okay, I feel it too. But you're clearly not ready to do more than talk about hypothetical picnics on the beach."

She glanced down at her lap. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Just because the universe says something is meant to be, it doesn't mean we have to rush things," he assured her.

"But from what I've heard, it can be painful to reject a bond..."

"We're not rejecting it, just delaying it until we're in a position to do something about it."

The earnestness in his voice convinced her to look up at him and meet his gaze. The moment she did, she almost regretted it. There was so much promise swimming in them. At least that put any doubts about what was happening between them to rest. She was feeling the pull of true mates, and at some point, she was going to end up acting on it.