The Truth About Night

by Amanda Arista

  I waited until everyone’s fur settled before I stirred the pot. “Rafe found the spell Cartwright might be working. It spans the city and could point to where our people might be. But we still don’t know what kind of Demon we’re dealing with, we don’t know exactly how to kill it.”

  “And I’m just supposed to believe some book in a language no one can read?” Levi said.

  Finally, something that Levi and I had in common: a need for proof.

  Rafe looked up at me and my entire body hummed as the Charm wrapped around me. It was time for the truth. My truths.

  “They tried to do it before,” I said. “Thirteen years ago, my father found evidence that the Cartwrights were setting up iron train tracks on leylines to magnify a spell. This generation is doing the same thing, four dead bodies, same quadrants of the city, same spell.”

  Levi seemed to gnaw on the information as he ground his teeth.

  Rafe’s voice was the most professorial I’d ever heard it, keeping the tone neutral. “It’s the Gia’r DLoom, an ancient fairy protection spell. This time. however, based on the Old Speak we have found and the state of the bodies, we think they are twisting the spell to turn the city into a permanent feeding ground for the Demon.”

  “Feeding on what?” Xenom asked.

  “Without knowing the demon, we don’t know for sure,” Rafe admitted

  Levi’s fists turned white. “I knew it,” he growled. “You two don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  My hand hit the table between us – a grounding point for the storm in my head. “My father was fighting Demons long before the Shifters came to Philly.”

  A general gasp circled the table.

  “He figured this out all on his own and died protecting this city.”

  In the shocked silence that followed, Rafe placed the book on the table, opening it gingerly, as if the pages would turn to dust.

  He pointed to one of the sacrifice sigils in the book. “To complete the spell, a blood ceremony takes place at the center of the stones.

  The Bear shook his head. “But Demons using fairy spells? How is that possible?”

  I was beginning to see what Emily said about the magic being hard for Shifters to handle. I finally had an answer to all this. It rumbled through me like thunder on the horizon. About why it didn’t matter who the Original Sire was in my bloodline. About why it didn’t matter that we didn’t exactly know what kind of demon we were just about to hit. Using Piper’s words made the skin on my shoulders tingle as I finally understood them. “It’s not the power, it’s how you use it.”

  “All we need to know is where they took my wife and my sister,” Levi growled. “I don’t see how the spell is connected.”

  Rafe eyed me from across the corner of the table. He wanted me to tell them the truth. Tell them about the blood control, about my heritage. And the truth of the matter was that if they knew what they were going up against, they might actually make it. If they understood how determined this Demon was, why Emily and pack were really taken, they might actually take a moment to make a plan and not run in there half-cocked. Like I had with Ethan. If they knew the truth of it all, they might make it out of there alive.

  But it also meant they would totally bench me. Or worse, duct tape me to a chair for being another one of the Demon’s conduits.

  Or they wouldn’t.

  The truth helps more than it hurts.

  I nodded at Rafe and took a step away from the table. I’d seen angry mobs before, seen tides turn with one piece of the truth. I knew that my place in this fight was teetering on the edge. The Charm raked across my skin like steel wool at the thought of not going toward the danger.

  “He is after Merci.” Rafe kept speaking and I kept listening. “The night Ethan was killed. It was supposed to be a hit, but when he got her blood, everything changed. They’ve been trying to lure her out into the open.”

  “Why?” Levi asked. “What is so special about a reporter?”

  Rafe laughed. “Haven’t you met her? Everything we’ve gotten so far has been because of who she is, not what she is.”

  My heart fluttered. It was ludicrous and childish, but there was a palpitation in my chest that couldn’t be explained away by too much coffee. It was probably the most romantic thing anyone had ever said to me.

  Levi stared at me and I stared back at him. I knew I wasn’t supposed to stare a predator in the eyes, but I wasn’t afraid. Because Rafe was right. Before all this crap, I was Merci Lanard, investigative reporter and defender of the weak. That was who I was, my pen was just a little sharper now.

  “I’m Lilin.”

  There was a slight decrease of oxygen in the room as the other nine people gasped at the information. Rafe looked at me like I was some sort of angel.

  “The Demon found out and has been honing in on me and mine since.” I pointed to the first. “Jon Mitchell attacked me the day before he was killed. Tay-Tay was killed because Benny wouldn’t give me up. Beakman was killed in the same place I was supposed to die, and I was interrogating Benny right before he was sucked dry.”

  “The spell was circling you. Why not just attack you again?” Levi asked.

  “If Rafe is correct, he wants me as the last sacrifice to the Gia’r DLoom and his permanent host.” My entire skin was a mix of goosebumps and hot flashes as I looked into the eyes of everyone at the table. “He needs me alive and willing. Emily, the pack, they were taken because he knows I’m working with you and this is his last-ditch effort to draw me out and complete the spell.”

  The pack hadn’t strapped me to a stake yet, but Levi’s nails were threatening to pierce skin his fists were so tight. But the only way to go on from here on was through and hopefully, they would follow.

  I usually made a complete disaster of public speaking, but this was too important. My palms grew sweaty as I looked them all in the eye and pieced together my final argument to solidify my place in this fight, and maybe with this pack. “Piper might be your home, but this city- this is my home, where I am safe and welcomed. I’ve dedicated my life to keeping bad things from happening to good people.”

  Levi crossed his arms, still glaring at me. “This isn’t one of your little stories, Merci.”

  The Charm flared to life and the hair at the back of my neck rose. “Not a story, my ass. It’s the big story, the monomyth. Everyone fights for what is important to them. I will not let the soul of my city be devoured by some demon. I lost Ethan to it, and I will not lose Emily.”

  Everyone’s eyes were on Levi. He tightened his clasp on his upper arms and looked away from me. They always looked away. And I now I knew why: some people really can’t handle the truth.

  I softened my tone, calmed my own storm; neither my ego or my Charm needed to convolute my intentions. “You called me, Levi, and I want to believe it wasn’t just a mandate from Piper. I know I am an outsider, but you have to trust me on this. We both want this city and the people in it safe. Together we make sure it ends tonight. I cannot lie about this.”

  Levi was silent and I watched the struggle in his eyes. I couldn’t blame him. Emily had told me it was hard for shifters to trust outsiders, and I was a part-demon outsider who had four dead bodies surrounding her like an albatross. I had been the cause of Ethan’s death. And I was asking for trust with little more proof than a book in a language no one read.

  “Please don’t let pride get in the way of doing what is right for your pack,” Rafe said.

  I curled my hand into his, more sure of him with every breath I took.

  “This is your call, Levi,” Xenom said.

  The silence was deafening and I could hear the lightning in my head, waiting for a grounding point, a plan.

  “Where is the new epicenter of the spell?”

  A sliver of relief streaked through me, as if Levi’s words provided that release and I felt it all the way through my feet. I pulled out a map from my bag with the new location on it. “The last body, Benny, shifted the e
picenter of the spell. So here is where it needs to finish. I think you’ll find our people here.”

  Levi looked down at the maps and his demeanor changed. It wasn’t the angry wall we’d been talking to and nor the wolf I had seen that night. Instead, a General stood before me, studying the maps of the city. It struck me like a tuning fork: he’d been through a real war before.

  “We’ve already searched their homes and residential areas, so it makes sense that the warehouse district could hide an operation big enough to make ten shifters disappear.”

  I waited. Patience was never my virtue, and this was like waiting for Hayne to okay a story, but so much hinged on the plan and if he was going to let me be a part of it. Not that I could stay out of trouble and that duct taping to a chair might actually be a decent proposition.

  “With decent construction crew, you can get a lot done in a very little amount of time,” Levi scratched at his chin and I could hear the stubble pressing through at the late hour.

  “I can take a few pictures, see if they have sigils already in place.” I offered.

  Levi’s eyebrows drew closer together, but I didn’t think he wanted to know exactly the how. I knew he was having a hard enough time accepting the spell part of this evening.

  “I think we let Lanard go in and do her thing,” Levi said.

  “What?” Rafe barked. “He’s after her.”

  “We need to know what protection it’s got in place. So we dangle what he wants in front of him while we surround the building and get a plan of attack into place.” Levi looked out at his pack. “This isn’t going to be pretty. This might get bloody very fast, but they have taken our people. Get everyone else. You have an hour.”

  The faces dissipated from the table and Levi’s hard gaze landed on me.

  “After this is all done, we need to talk.”

  “You got it.” I promised, though there was the echo of something like banana toothpaste on my tongue.

  Levi left us to the research spread out before us.

  I curled around Rafe’s arm and rested my head on his shoulder.

  “I’m not sure this is the best move, Merci.”

  “What?” I asked, keeping my voice between us. “You’re one of the strongest here. Why do you want to take the knee?”

  “I need you safe, Merci.”

  “I need me safe, too. Without you there, you’re risking us not getting this thing.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  I grabbed his chin, forcing his eyes to mine. He didn’t fight me, but I fought the Charm from locking in. I wanted this to stay between the two of us, without the magic to muck it all up, and this time, the magic seemed to agree.

  “Explain to me why in the thick of it together isn’t the best plan in the world.”

  I watched goose bumps rise on his pale neck. He swallowed, then nuzzled hard into the palm of my hand.

  I lowered my voice. “Here’s the truth, Rafe. I need you there.” I took in a deep breath and let the truth settle around me and form as words between only us. “It’s not just a powerful protector thing. I need someone there who reminds me to think of everyone, including myself. Because the Charm gives me tunnel vision that leads me to trouble, like I’m a magnet for the stuff.”

  He closed his eyes and leaned into me.

  “And I can’t throw myself away because there are people who still need me, people I haven’t met yet, stories that need to be told.”

  “Finally, you’re catching on.”

  My eyes started to water. “And I have to save Emily. I made a promise to Ethan that I wouldn’t them hurt anyone else. I’ve failed him. I can’t fail her.”

  I bit down on my lower lip. It was the closest thing I’d ever gotten to my own truth and it hummed along my skin, finally out in the open, finally free.

  I wrote down everything Rutherford said about the building at the epicenter of the spell in my notebook. “Is it registered to a security company?”

  “Do I want to know why you need that information?”

  “I am not planning on any criminal mischief, Officer.”

  “Then, no. It doesn’t seem to be on a security system. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have something.”

  “In that neighborhood, probably D&B security.” I thought for a moment to see what else might be useful while I had Rutherford on the phone. “I think that’s it.”

  Rutherford sighed. “Please stay out of trouble, Merci.”

  “You and my boss need matching tattoos. Goodbye, Julie.” I hung up the phone then scratched out the notes into full ideas.

  “What’s D&B security?” Rafe asked as he walked back from the final regroup of the shifters who had trickled in over the past hour. Maybe this wasn’t going to be Rafe’s last pow-wow with the pack.

  I glanced at my notes again to make sure they were in order. “Dog and Bat. Old school. Not going to discount cutting the power though. The entire block is nothing. It’s an old warehouse with a scrap metal yard. They were trying to rejuvenate it but lost funding and it foreclosed to the bank. A company bought it about a year ago but hasn’t really done anything with it.”

  Rafe leaned against the table that had become my makeshift desk. “You found out all that with a few phone calls?”

  “I’m a professional, Rafe.” I shoved my notebook back into my messenger bag and repulled my hair back into a pony tail. “So what’s the plan?”

  Rafe wasn’t happy with everything, but this was a battle, it wasn’t supposed to be puppies and rainbows. “We are to find out what kind of protection they have set up, break it. The pack will come in when I give the all clear.”

  I glanced down at my watch. We had to save the pack mates and hopefully put this thing down for good, somehow. Even though we had no clue what he was, or really how to kill him. Here goes Merci Lanard running into danger again, but this time, I had back up. It was a strange thought. That this wasn’t me against the world. This was me and a bunch of really powerful shapeshifters against one demon and untold numbers of minions.

  But there was something else, something that itched at him. I focused on him, trying to figure it out, testing how much I’d come to know him and his energy. It was right there, in the pull of his teeth on his lip. “You’re keeping something from me.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest. “Levi assigned me to protect you.”

  “Good call.”

  “And kill you if you actually get possessed.”

  My breath caught in my throat. Failure had not actually occurred to me. The Ego of Merci Lanard shining through. But Levi wasn’t wrong.

  I said the words fast, like ripping of a Band-aid. “We can’t walk in there without a plan B, Rafe. You know me. You will know if I am not me.”

  “No, Merci. We will stop it before it gets to that.”

  “Then if you can’t, I’ll just have to …”

  I was going to say ‘do it myself.’ If I had any semblance of not being me, I would just jump off a building, right? Or maybe get myself hit by a train … Rafe had said he’d known what was going on when he was possessed by Jovan, still regained his consciousness. So if I was actually possessed, I would know, right?

  The truth was like a bee sting in my brain, infecting everything I had known about my father and making it throb for a moment before it settled into a new formation in my brain. Hot tears welled up in my eyes.

  “What if he’d had to ask himself the same question?” I asked Rafe. “To protect this city, to protect me, what if my Dad killed himself so the demon couldn’t possess him or couldn’t complete the spell?”

  Rafe grabbed my hands and held them hard.

  I took in a deep breath laced with the heat of him, laced with the hot scent of leather and books. I let it out and dried my eyes. “I guess I really am my father’s daughter.”

  Because I knew that I would do the same thing. For this city. To protect Rafe. I would do anything.

  I pulled my hands from his to wipe my eyes.
/>   “Once more into the breach?” he asked.

  I nodded. I was ready. “Just remember, I have one advantage you don’t.”

  He scoffed. “And what’s that exactly?”

  I pointed to my person. “The bad guys can’t really lay a hand on the their boss’s custom meat suit, so no real harm can come to me. You however, don’t have that protection.”

  “I’m used to getting my ass kicked, remember?”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I balanced myself between the brick ledge and a small shelf on the side of the Dumpster. I lifted the lid and leaned it back against the wall. I clicked on my flashlight and took a good whiff of the contents.

  “What are you doing?” Rafe whispered as he covered his nose.

  “Checking for freshness. The trash gets picked up in this neighborhood only once a week.” Smelling what I needed, I dropped the lid of the dumpster and dropped back down to the pavement.

  “What exactly did that tell you?”

  “Trash is fresh. You can still smell pizza. After two days, the smells started to mush together and it just becomes that trash smell.”

  Rafe grimaced.

  “It means someone had pizza in this building in the last two days. So not abandoned. Squatters might take out the trash, but squatters will be easy to deal with.”

  I pulled out some hand sanitizer and rubbed my hands down with alcohol.

  “Do you always go through the trash?”

  “What people throw out is more telling than what they save. No one gives a second thought about it. Caught one guy on embezzlement by finding where he cut and pasted a logo.”

  “By going through the trash?”

  “My job is strange. I won’t lie, but I saved retirement funds with a Dumpster dive.”

  He followed me around to the front of the building. A small window had a pane of glass missing. I listened at it for a moment, trying to detect any hum of life. “Wait, why am I doing this? You’re the one with the super hearing.”

  “Not super,” Rafe whispered. “Just better.”