Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight by L.J. Smith Page B

could tell that from his posture, from the tense way he was pacing.
    “You will when I tell you.” She didn’t have the energy to yell at him the way she wanted. She couldn’t afford the luxury of going with her emotions.
    “Why do you always think you know what I want?” he snapped, his back to her.
    “Okay. Be like that. You probably wouldn’t appreciate the chance anyway.”
    Morgead whirled. He glared at her in a way that meant he could think of too many nasty things to say to settle on one. Finally he just said almost inaudibly, “What chance?”
    “I didn’t come back just to take over the gang. I want to do things with it. I want to make us more powerful.”
    In the old days the idea would have made him grin, put a wicked sparkle in his eyes. They’d always agreed on power, if nothing else.
    Now he just stood there. He stared at her. His expression changed slowly from cold fury to suspicion to dawning insight. His green eyes narrowed, then widened. He let out his breath.
    And then he threw back his head and laughed and laughed and laughed.
    Jez said nothing, just watched him, inconspicuously testing her balance and feeling relieved that she could stand without fainting. At last, though, she couldn’t stand the sound of that laughing anymore. There was very little humor in it.
    “Want to share the joke?”
    “It’s just…of course. I should have known. Maybe I did know, underneath.” He was still chuckling, but it was a vicious noise, and his eyes were distant and full of something like hatred. Maybe self-hatred. Certainly bitterness.
    Jez felt a chill.
    “There’s only one thing that could have brought you back. And I should have realized that from the instant you turned up. It wasn’t concern for anybody here; it’s got nothing to do with the gang.” He looked her straight in the face, his lips curved in a perfect, malevolent smile. He had never been more handsome, or more cold.
    “I know what it is, Jez Redfern. I know exactly why you’re here today.”

CHAPTER 10
    J ez held herself perfectly still, keeping her face expressionless. Her mind was clicking through strategies. Two exits—but to go out the window meant a three-story drop, and she probably wouldn’t survive that in her condition. Although, of course, she couldn’t leave anyway without doing something to silence Morgead—and she wouldn’t survive a fight, either….
    She suppressed any feeling, returned Morgead’s gaze, and said calmly, “And why is that?”
    Triumph flashed in his eyes. “Jez Redfern. That’s the key, isn’t it? Your family.”
    I’ll have to kill him somehow, she thought, but he was going on.
    “Your family sent you. Hunter Redfern. He knows that I’ve really found the Wild Power, and he expects you to get it out of me.”
    Relief spread slowly through Jez, and her stomach muscles relaxed. She didn’t let it show. “You idiot! Of course not. I don’t run errands for the Council.”
    Morgead’s lip lifted. “I didn’t say the Council. I said Hunter Redfern. He’s trying to steal a march on the Council, isn’t he? He wants the Wild Power himself. To restore the Redferns to the glory of old. You’re running errands for him. ”
    Jez choked on exasperation. Then she listened to the part of her mind that was telling her to keep her temper and think clearly.
    Strategy, that part was saying. He’s just handed you the answer and you’re trying to smack it away.
    “All right; what if that is true?” she said at last, her voice curt. “What if I do come from Hunter?”
    “Then you can tell him to get bent. I told the Council my terms. I’m not settling for anything less.
    “And what were your terms?”
    He sneered. “As if you didn’t know.” When she just stared at him, he shrugged and stopped pacing. “A seat on the Council,” he said coolly, arms folded.
    Jez burst out laughing. “You,” she said, “are out of your mind.”
    “I know they won’t give it to me.” He smiled, not a