by Holly Evans
He stopped and crossed his arms. "Yes, I am an alchemist. Not a healer."
I rolled my eyes at him before I said, "And you've been paid for a year’s services."
His nostrils flared and the tips of his pointed ears turned pink, but he just said, "Fine. I have some ointment on me," as he patted his leather satchel.
I filled in Elise on the details while Kadrix cleaned up Quin's injuries. Her face darkened at the mention of the black-clad people.
"The witches have chosen their side, then."
I raised an eyebrow; I hadn't heard of witches acting that way before. She sighed and flopped down onto the sofa, almost kicking Lysander who insisted on sitting on the floor by my feet.
She petted his head absent-mindedly and said, "There are certain factions within the witches who deal with combat magic. They are mercenaries, some are assassins, but most are closer to thugs for hire."
I curled my lip; witches were becoming something of a bane.
She continued on, "They're usually not particularly skilled with magic, and so they're trying to bring pride back to their family through mercenary work."
Kadrix walked up to stand at the back of the sofa. "We should have known witches would take the infernal side in all of this, they're always so eager for power and too weak of mind to see past their noses."
He looked down at me. "Come along, Evelyn, I don't have all night."
I ground my teeth together but stood and stripped off my blood-stained shirt for him. The ointment tingled and burned, but I fought to keep my face calm and straight. Nothing good came from showing the elf my discomfort.
"Tell me, what's happening between you and the hound?" he said.
I smiled sweetly and said, "Tell me what's happening between you and my brother."
His elegant fingers probed a particularly nasty bite a little too deeply; a smile flickered across his lips while his eyes held mine. I maintained my sweet smile despite the increasing pain; I would not be beaten.
Finally he looked away and said, "Your brother is a rather special creature, I enjoy his company." He leaned in and whispered in my ear, "He's also a talented kisser."
“Thank you for healing my injuries," I said as levelly as I could before I put on the clean shirt that Elise handed me.
I would tear the elf into tiny pieces if he dared hurt Quin. I didn't care what gender Quin fell for, but no one hurt him and lived to tell the tale. Elves were far too interested in their deals and sacrifices to put someone else first, but sometimes, the heart made foolish decisions.
Lysander growled and grumbled while Kadrix spent a little too long running his long fingers over the hound's toned abdomen. The desire to tell him to remove his hands from my hound flared up; I pushed it aside and focused on the more important situation.
I looked between Elise and Lysander. "What now?"
As if in answer to my question, the sky outside flashed blood red, bathing the dimly lit room in a garnet flash that burned itself into the back of my eyes. I practically leapt over the back of the sofa and ran out the back door to see what was going on. A storm raged overhead. The sky was bathed in blood-red clouds, with crimson- and ruby-coloured lightning streaking down into the city below. The thunder growled and crashed overhead; the church shook behind me when a particularly violent crash exploded overhead. Elise stood next to me; her pale skin had a grey tone to it. She bit her bottom lip. Things had just gotten a whole lot worse.
I paced around Elise's small living room. "How is this even happening?"
"Witches," Kadrix spat.
Lysander was curled up on the sofa watching me pace. "They need there to be a widespread fear throughout the city to help open the hellmouth."
I squeezed my eyes shut and said, as calmly as I could muster, "And how do we stop it?"
"We track down those responsible and stop them," Kadrix said, as if it was nothing.
I glared at him. "Your tracker worked once."
His expression darkened, his shoulders tensed, and his fingers began working some magic before he said, "The witches interfered with it and broke it; I couldn't have prepared for that in the short timespan you gave me."
"I didn't give it to you, the other hound did. The one that's trying to open a hellmouth," I growled.
A cold blast hit me square between the eyes.
"Did you just throw a fucking curse at me elf?" I shouted.
Lysander had leapt over the back of the couch and had Kadrix pinned to the floor before I could cross the six feet between us. The hound was snarling, his sharpened teeth barely inches away from Kadrix's calm face.
"Kindly call your hound off, Evelyn. It was one minor curse, you're not even hurt."
There was a mild pain between my eyes, but nothing that wouldn't fade in a few minutes.
Grudgingly, I said, "Lysander, leave."
He growled and muttered under his breath but stood and allowed the elf up.
Elise said, "Have you quite finished? I believe we have a larger problem here."
I apologised to her; it wasn't my fault, but I should have shown more respect to her home.
"Go home, all of you. I need to speak to my lady, and you all need a good night's sleep."
Her voice was calm and dismissive. I hugged her tight before we left. Kadrix walked with his shoulders back and head tall. The temptation to slap him around the back of the head was incredibly strong. Quin said something quiet to the elf before he joined Lysander and me to head home.
The storm had simmered down, but the horizon was still red. I dreaded to think what the humans would think of all of it.
Quin chewed on his bottom lip for a short while before he said, "Evie, I can talk to you, right?"
I felt awful that he had to ask at all. "Of course."
"I... I think I'm falling for Kadrix. I know it's stupid, he's an elf and I've never felt something for a guy before but... he makes me happy. I get this bubbling excitement when I'm around him, everything just seems that little bit better."
I squeezed his shoulder. "Your happiness is what matters."
He smiled at me, an invisible weight tumbled from his shoulders. His step became lighter, and my guilt increased.
I added, "Although I will kill him if he hurts you."
He grinned at me. "I wouldn't have it any other way, sis."
I leaned against the railing while we waited for the next tram to show up. Quin gestured between Lysander and me, "So..."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "So?"
"Come on, Evie, don't give me that."
I rolled my eyes and ignored him; there was nothing to be shared or said there. The hound was dumped on me, and the feelings of protection came with the bond. I couldn't be rid of him, so I had to look after him. Lysander smirked, that infuriatingly sexy smirk that made butterflies form in my stomach. I was torn between punching him and kissing him. Fortunately, the tram arrived, removing the decision from me.
Quin gave me an amused look when Lysander calmly strode into my bedroom. I sighed heavily but let it slide; what was done was done. The hound sat at the end of my bed in nothing more than his boxers. He'd heaped his clothes in the far corner next to my wardrobe.
"I see you're making yourself at home," I said while trying to get changed without seeming too self-conscious.
A shiver ran up my spine when he traced his finger up over the butterflies that had been tattooed there. Against my better judgement, I allowed him the contact.
"It's a beautiful tattoo."
His breath was warm against my neck. His scent surrounded me, bringing me to start leaning back against his body.
I snapped myself out of it and said, "Behave yourself."
His laugh held a growling edge that made a thrill form in the pit of my stomach. He was going to be the end of me. I pulled on an over-sized T-shirt to cover my body from his gaze, and hands. When I turned around to face my bed he was sprawled out over the bottom half, the soft light of the bedside lamp caused shadows to pool in th
e soft line of his toned torso. My eyes drifted lower. I forced myself to look back into his dancing blue eyes, avoiding the amused smirk that sat on his lips.
"This is my bed; I would like to sleep comfortably in it."
His mouth parted just a little, his eyes glittered when he said, "Would you, really?"
The lie, the polite fiction, refused to form in my mouth. The words crumbled and shattered every time I tried to wrap my tongue around them; I had no choice but to tell him the truth, and I hated him for it.
"No. Now, either take on your hound form and curl up small, or get on the floor."
"Yes, mistress,” he said with a soft purring growl that had an undesirable effect on my body. He was driving me mad.
My dreams were filled with Lysander and the other hound. Blood red skies crashed down around us, the other hound's harsh, barking laugh echoed throughout the city before demons pranced along the streets. I woke with a start. Something warm was pressed against me, wrapped around me. I started to panic before I realised it was Lysander in his hound form. He remained pressed against my body, nothing but the thin blankets between us.
His voice formed in my mind. "You were having nightmares, I was protecting you."
His matter-of-fact tone irked me, but less so than my own desire for his sultry growls.
I threw the blankets off and dragged on some fresh clothes.
"You're welcome,” he huffed.
Quin emerged from his room a few minutes later. I stood in front of the windows looking out over the city; a dull fog crawled along the road. There was no denying that it was unnatural; the faint red hue removed any doubt of that. No one had prepared us for this, we were supposed to keep rogue lycans in line, to stop the redcaps from picking off tourists. We weren't equipped to stop hellmouths’ being opened.
Quin put his arm around my shoulders. "Don't worry, Evie, we'll save the city."
I frowned and said, "How can you be so sure?"
He flashed me a grin. "Because we're the Hawke twins, that and we have some great friends."
I collected my thoughts and mentally prepared myself for the day. We had no choice but to succeed. Quin made coffee and started on breakfast while I checked my phone, hoping for word from Elise. Nothing. Lysander had gotten dressed and sat on the floor near me.
"Can you track the other hound?" I said, grasping onto straws.
"No."
The edge to his voice fuelled my irritation; he was a part of this. A less unpleasant part, but part of it nonetheless.
Quin handed me a cup of steaming coffee and some French toast. "We'll go out into the city and speak to some people, someone has to have some more information."
I bit into the toast. It felt foolish. It felt weak, but what choice did we have?
He said over his shoulder, "It'll give you and Lysander some time to bond."
I glared daggers at his back. Lysander, however, laughed; his pleasure rippled through me and eased my tension. Still I cursed him.
"Why don't you check on the power points of the city and I’ll speak to people?" Quin said around his toast.
I smirked at him. "Do you not think I can be trusted to speak to people, dear brother?"
He grinned at me. "Well, you're hardly a people person, Evie."
I pouted. "I don't know what you mean..."
The rest of breakfast rushed by, everyone eager to get out into the city and find the hound. Lysander had nothing of use to say about where he might be. He resorted to growled monosyllabic answers. We decided to head down to the river. Water was a key part of a lot of magic.
The hound's tension was eating at me until he finally snapped, "I want to help. You think I enjoy the prospect of losing my freedom? Of suffering the wrath of my previous master?"
I allowed him to continue on.
"I feel just as useless as you, mistress."
He shoved his hands into his pockets and hunched his shoulders.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" I asked.
"Blood, chaos, and fire," he grumbled.
"And you can't track him why?"
He growled, "Because my master has given him something to hide him from me."
"Ex-master," I corrected him.
He looked back at me, the corner of his mouth quirked upwards in amusement. The moment was broken when I looked down at the usually quiet, dark brown river. It was blood red, and a woman was knelt on the concrete path weeping piteously. We were in deeper shit than I'd hoped.
The river of blood was only the beginning; the witches had been busy. We had tried to calm the woman, but she’d proven to be inconsolable. We stopped wasting our time and continued on to see what other chaos had been unleashed on the city. Thick shadows hung around the alleyways, pitch black and all-consuming; the details of the black and white stones vanished. That wasn't the only thing that vanished. Lysander and I stopped dead in our tracks when we saw a young couple disappear into the shadows. At first it seemed to be a trick of the light, but they didn't emerge again. We cautiously approached. The temperature plummeted when we reached the edge of the darkness. There was something about it that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I prodded the edge with the toe of my boot. Lysander dragged me away when a tendril reached out and slipped along the black leather.
Screams cut through the air near one of the many bridges; that particular one stood firmly across the bloody water and rooted itself on one of the islands. We ran across the bridge and found two older women trembling under a tree. Each of them was covered in bright pink burns, edged with pale yellow and off-white. They huddled close to each other and eyed the sunlight as if it was going to eat them alive. We approached slowly, I couldn't help wondering if it was some trick, a mirage or illusion to pull me into the darkness. We slipped around the shade of the tree remaining in the light, the woman gasped and shouted at us in Czech. It took a moment to translate, to understand that she was shouting about the light burning. I glanced back at Lysander, who was looking around for a trap.
I remained in the light and said in slow Czech, "The light burned you?"
She nodded enthusiastically and said between sobs, "Yes, the light. It burned."
She held out her pink arm as an example. I looked at Lysander once more, looking for answers. He gave a small shrug. There was nothing we could do for them.
The city was in chaos, and there was no sign of the hound that we could find. Dark whispers emerged from doorways, quiet giggles from invisible children tickled my ears and begged for me to slip away down narrow lanes. Shadows and foggy forms trailed behind people, stalking them before they devoured them. Nowhere was safe. We couldn't help the people, as we didn't know what was going to affect them. Some couldn't go in the light, others couldn't go near the shadows. Terror was rippling through the city; the fear was almost palpable. The hound was succeeding, and there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it.
We leaned against the large statue with the two angels at Palackého Náměstí while I rang Quin.
"The city is in bedlam, I need contacts. Give me the name and address of a witch that I can throttle some information out of."
He sighed softly. "Throttling isn't going to get you very far, Evie." I waited for him to say something more useful. "No one will speak to you, not after you killed Serena."
"So what am I supposed to fucking do?"
"Keep looking." His calm tone soothed me a little. It made me hope he had a better plan.
"This is a big city, Quin... we can go a year without bumping into anyone we know."
Resignation filled his voice. "I understand that, but I have nothing else for you. The witches won't talk. Not to you."
"Do you at least have some direction for us to search in?"
"Sorry, Evie. I have to go."
The city, my city, was crumbling around me, and I was supposed to wander around and hope I bumped into the hound who caused it all?
Lysander paced in front of me. "He won't do any rituals during daylight
. He needs the darkness and moon. He'll be in hiding, likely with the witches."
I ground my teeth together. "So, let's go and throttle some witches."
He grinned at me. Quin's voice rang in the back of my mind, but I wasn't about to wander idly around the city and hope while he did something useful.
There was one coven at the top of my list when it came to throttling for information, and that was the one responsible for kidnapping Quin. They already feared me, and I knew that they had connections to something bigger. I'd put off approaching them before because they were neophytes and had no real idea what they were doing. They were the closest thing I had to something; I was getting desperate, and starting there was better than nothing.
Lysander remained close to me; his muscles were tightly coiled, ready to fight at the slightest notice. I was glad of it, of his support. There was no telling what was going to jump out and try to eat us. The tram felt bizarre, being entirely empty during the day, not that I blamed people for remaining home given the experiences of the day. We got off the tram and looked up and down the road for anything suspicious. The odd little excuse for a park sat on the opposite side of the road. Scrubby grass sat between the old tarmac paths that wove back and forth down the steep hill, culminating in a short set of stone steps. The cake shop in front of the tram stop was shuttered and closed for the day. Even the breeze refused to budge. It was as though the street were paused, holding its breath, waiting.
I had no such patience.
We crossed the road and approached the roughly built stone wall that formed the perimeter of a small park that stretched up the side of a steep hill. Mature trees stood proudly just above the wall, marking the edge of the grassy area. My fingers ran over the comforting coolness of my blades. Nothing had jumped out at us by the time we reached the top of the steps, but still we remained alert and tense. We were halfway through the park when it finally happened. An almighty banshee screech cut through the air. I felt as though my ears were going to explode. The sharp pain pierced my skull and threaded its way into my brain. Lysander howled and fell to his knees, his eyes squeezed shut and his hands clutched to his ears. When the noise faded, we were surrounded.