by K. M. Shea
“Yep!” Fran said, her voice forcefully cheerful.
I didn’t see any goblin cars outside. I was starting to get uneasy. The lack of backup was weird enough, but Ethan’s eyes were so…cold.
“If you’ll excuse me for a minute. I’ll be right back,” I abruptly said, internally swearing when I realized I left my backpack—and purse and cell phone—in Ethan’s car.
“Sure,” Fran smiled.
“I think not,” Ethan said.
My eyes darted to Fran—who was smiling and unmoving—before I took a step away from the table.
“It’s useless. I have the building locked down,” Ethan said, his cold smile reappearing as a time ghost materialized next to him.
Simply Sweetness was dead silent. Usually you could hear the comforting sounds of hissing coffee and espresso machines, and the murmur of quiet conversations, or the bells above the doors jingling whenever someone entered or exited.
But the only noise I could hear was my breathing.
“You’re with Fidem,” I said.
“Correct,” Ethan said, standing up. “You will come with me. Resist, and your friend will be harmed,” he said, glancing at Fran.
I reached for my throat, intending to yank off my tracker necklace.
“Don’t,” Ethan said, catching my hand. “We know you have a tracking device. Activate it, and your life is forfeit. Do you understand?”
My heart pounded in my throat. “Yes,” I said.
Ethan pulled me along with an iron grip, towing me downstairs. Another time ghost stood next to the coffee counter, and a third was waiting outside, by the car.
Ethan shoved me in via the driver’s side. I purposely honked the horn, but the area was still frozen in time so it made no difference. When inside Ethan slipped a ring off his finger and dropped it in the car cup holder.
His body shimmered for a moment before his bleach blond hair turned the same colorless shade as Krad’s and his skin darkened into that ashy color. His brown eyes didn’t change, but they still held no warmth in them. His tapered ears poked out of his short hair.
“You’re a dark elf,” I said as Ethan started driving.
“Dökkàlfar,” Ethan sneered.
I digested this information and reviewed my weapons list. If I dropped the light bomb I would blind both of us. While I couldn’t miss him with the freezing ring in this close of quarters, it would be stupid to use it as he was driving.
What about the truth earring? My protection charm hadn’t done anything yet. Did I need to do something to activate it?
We were still in downtown Oakdale when I recognized that in spite of Ethan’s frightening words, I had an advantage. Ethan—or whatever his name was—was a Dökkàlfar. Dökkàlfar’s magic was canceled out by technology, and iron. We were sitting in a relatively new model of a Honda. If a car wasn’t modern technology, I didn’t know what was.
Ethan stopped at a stop sign near a warehouse that was three blocks off Main Street.
I wrenched the car lock open and leaped outside, ripping off my necklace as I moved.
I was already running down the sidewalk when Ethan turned off the car, but he caught up to me with ease.
“Pathetic,” Ethan said. “Like a scurrying cockroach,” he said before he dragged me along—not back to the car, but to an older warehouse that was for sale.
“Let me go! Help!” I shouted.
Several beings were positioned behind the chain link fence that circled the warehouse. When they saw Ethan approaching—dragging me behind him—they returned to the guardhouse and opened the gate.
Ethan hauled me inside the compound, yanking on my arm when I tried to pull away from him. “Search her,” Ethan said to two dark elves guarding the door of the warehouse.
“Help!” I tried screaming again.
“No one will hear you. The perimeter is spelled,” Ethan said, his tone bored as he gripped the back of my neck while the dark elves patted me down.
I was deathly afraid that they would take my jewelry, but they either didn’t notice the pieces or didn’t think I would use them. The only thing they removed from me was my tracker necklace—which was tangled in my sweater.
The dark elf that fished the necklace off me offered it to Ethan and said something in the same booming, foreign language Krad used for his magic.
Ethan replied in the same foreign language—I’m guessing with a few curse words based on the anger in his voice—before he tossed the car keys at the elf and said something bossy sounding.
The elf caught the keys and gave me a disgusted look before he strode away with my tracking necklace.
So much for forfeiting my life—although my guess was that Krad wanted me alive, which wasn’t very comforting.
Ethan dragged me into the warehouse, so I wasn’t sure where the elf went. I did know, however, that I was in deep trouble when no squads from the MBRC appeared to bust down the fence and retrieve me.
The warehouse was dirty and scummy. It was once a Pepsi storage facility, but it had been up for sale for at least a year so it was cleared out of all Pepsi products.
“Sit,” Ethan said before shoving me into a rickety chair. He held his hand out—palm facing me—and said “Bind.”
I shrieked when black chains made of magic looped around my body, strapping me to the chair.
“What do you want?” I said.
“To eradicate humans,” Ethan said, giving me another one of his cold smiles. “But we would settle for killing you and crushing the MBRC.”
“If you think the MBRC will go down so easily, you’re a bigger twit than I thought,” I said, lolling my head to the side. It was a good thing I did. My truth earring flashed once to signal it was activated. “How do you plan to bring the MBRC down?”
“We haven’t thought that far ahead,” Ethan said, totally oblivious to the compelling spell. “Our captain only gave orders to capture you.”
“What does he want with me?”
“To kill you, I would say. Though maybe he’ll use you to bring about the destruction of the MBRC. Probably not, though. He really hates you,” Ethan said, eyeing me. “I wonder what it is about you that raises such hatred in an elf as great as Krad Temero.”
“So you started dating Fran to keep tabs on me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s how Krad knew I would be out last Saturday?”
“Yes,” Ethan paused. “Why am I telling you this?” he said before turning to give me another glare.
He swore again in his foreign language. “You’re wearing a truth spell,” he said.
“What’s the language you’re speaking?”
“The tongue of the Dökkàlfar,” Ethan said, looking furious even as he answered. “Mouth binder,” he said, flicking a finger at me.
My mouth snapped shut, and I was unable to speak. But in spite of himself, Ethan was still giving me plenty to think about.
It would be a great relief, to Aysel anyway, that Krad and his cronies had no immediate plans for the MBRC. Actually, it seemed that they were spending most of their resources on attacking me. That seemed stupid and petty to me. I mean, professionally speaking I’m a small fish.
I tried stretching and wriggling to move the dark chains holding me to the chair. They didn’t give at all, but I could feel the magic that clamped my mouth shut already weakening.
Clearly Ethan-the-liar was not the best magic user.
I was flexing my jaw and trying to pry my lips open when there was this terrible high pitched squeal.
A dark elf opened a side door and poked his head inside. He said something in the harsh language of dark elves.
Ethan responded in kind, slipping a dagger from the folds of his jacket.
The reporting dark elf replied, twisting to glance behind him.
“Fran?” Ethan said, his stance turning slack just as I was able to pop my mouth open.
The peon dark elf shrugged and spoke again, reaching to take the dagger from Ethan.
>
Ethan held the dagger out of reach before slipping it back in his clothes. He spoke sternly, vigorously shaking his head.
The dark elf guard raised an eyebrow and said something snotty sounding.
I yelped when Ethan grabbed his minion by the throat and pinned him to the wall. He growled at the elf before shoving him outside and closing the door behind him.
With the minion gone, Ethan ran his hands through his hair and looked surprisingly ruffled for a guy that just kidnapped someone.
It seemed my backup had arrived.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Fran followed us here. Curses!” Ethan said, not even noticing that I could talk again.
My heart froze. “What?”
“I don’t know how she tracked us here, but she did,” Ethan said, pulling his ring out of his jacket pocket before shoving it on. His looks returned to Ethan-the-human, but I wasn’t fooled.
“She’s not part of this. You have to let her go,” I said.
“I can’t! She’s climbing the blooming fence as we speak!” Ethan said, his face twisted.
“What did you tell your men to do to her?”
Ethan gave me a look that said I was crazy. “To stand down,” he said, as if the answer were obvious.
….What?
“You can’t use her against me,” I said, my mind racing as I imagined all the things Ethan might do now that he had no reason to be undercover.
“I don’t want to, I just want her safe,” Ethan said.
The notion struck me like lightning.
“You want her safe?” I repeated.
“Yes!” Ethan shouted in frustration as he looked around the plant, probably searching for a place he could stash me.
The door banged open.
“Ethan Gray,” Fran said as she stepped through the door.
I watched Ethan-the-lying-dark-elf transform from a killing machine to a stupid idiot.
“Fran, I can explain,” Ethan said.
“My best friend is chained to a chair. No, you cannot,” Fran said, marching across the room.
“But, you’ve just come at a bad time. I was just…getting to know Morgan,” Ethan said, glaring at me as if daring me to speak against him.
I stared at him, stupefied by this abrupt change in his personality. Any half-wit would have ordered his men to keep Fran from entering the compound. What the heck was he doing?
“Getting to know her? That’s all?” Fran said, pausing long enough to put her hands on her hips and glare at her boyfriend. “You are such a liar. I should have known that the second you told me you loved romantic comedies.”
“I do love romantic comedies,” Ethan said.
I cleared my throat.
Goaded by my truth spell, Ethan corrected himself. “Actually any movie is ghastly, but I love watching them with you!”
“Yeah, liar. You’re a best friend stealer!” Fran said, striding in my direction.
“You’ve got to get out of here and get help,” I hissed when Fran knelt next to me.
“Help is already on the way,” Fran briskly said, pulling on the chains.
“Not the police!” I begged.
“No, that Madeline girl you introduced me to ages ago said it was being taken care of. I’m just supposed to get you out,” Fran said, scowling at the chains. She stood up and turned back to her boyfriend. “Release Morgan.”
“But—,”
“RELEASE HER!” Fran shouted.
The chains fell off me.
Fran turned back around to face me. Unaffected by the magical change, she hauled me up. “We’re going,” she announced, dragging me towards the front door.
“Fran, you have to believe me. I wasn’t going to hurt her,” Ethan said.
“You weren’t?” I asked.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her a lot,” Ethan said.
“You are unbelievable,” Fran said. As we came closer and closer to the door I thought I could hear shouting outside. “We are over. If you even so much as text me again I’m going to the police,” Fran huffed, opening the door.
Ethan pushed it shut. “We should talk about this,” he said.
“No, we’re leaving.”
“Maybe he’s right,” I said.
Fran gave me the evil eye. “You can’t be on his side. He kidnapped you.”
I uneasily laughed, hoping to cover my real fear. I couldn’t let Fran out that door. In the brief moment the door was open, I saw a squad of shape shifters in army fatigues—the Shadow Shifters. I recognized them because they had saved me before. The weekend I was kidnapped by Hunter, my cyclops friends paid the squad to bust in Hunter’s headquarters and grab me.
The Shadow Shifters fought with magic pepper spray laced paint balls, and their magic of shape shifting.
If Fran saw them in action, there would be some serious trouble. (Although I was 98% sure she was going to have to get her memory modified anyway after this ordeal.)
“I’m not on his side. Let’s go out the back door. That pops us out in another street,” I suggested.
“Fine,” Fran said before she stormed back through the plant, still dragging me.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Ethan said.
“Dude, your cover is blown,” I said.
Ethan gave me a poisonous glare, and Fran whacked him in the arm.
“Rule number one. I will always choose Morgan over you. So giving her dirty looks isn’t helping you,” Fran said.
“But, Fran—,” Ethan started.
One of the warehouse windows broke, and I heard the popping noise of paintball guns going off. There was a flash of black electricity and a thundering noise that was going to be extremely hard to get Fran to write off.
“What the—?” Fran said, the rest of her sentence lost in another boom.
Another peal of black electricity crackled. This time it shot in through the open window, heading straight for Fran and I.
“Look out!” I shouted, throwing myself on the dirty ground.
Fran only stared at the oncoming magic, like a deer caught in a car’s headlights.
“No!” Ethan yelled, throwing himself in front of Fran.
The electricity hit Ethan right in the chest. I’m sure it hurt worse than a dragon snapping down on him, but Ethan didn’t utter a peep. It flared from him, a few sparks and charges diving at me.
I braced myself, but my braided bracelet flared. A see-through, pale yellow shell flickered around me. A horse made of the same yellow vapors intercepted the sparks, killing them on contact. The vaporous animal reared and trumpeted in challenge before fading away—with my yellow shield.
When the black lightning was spent, Ethan slumped to his knees.
“Ethan!” Fran yelled, kneeling next to him.
“You have to get out of here,” Ethan said, his clothes smoking.
“But you’ve been hurt,” Fran said, touching his shoulders.
I felt inclined to leave him, but I had a better feeling than Fran for his true nature. “He’s right, Fran. We need to go,” I said, scraping myself off the ground.
“But—but,” Fran stammered, looking back and forth at Ethan and the shattered window.
“Go,” Ethan said, pushing her hands away.
“You need medical attention—,”
“GO!” Ethan said, pushing himself into a standing position.
“Fran, come on,” I said, pulling my pinky ring off my finger.
“I’ll call you,” Ethan said, offering Fran a half smile.
“We’re still fighting,” Fran said.
“FRAN,” I said.
“Okay,” Fran said, scurrying to my side. She cast one more look at Ethan before she slipped outside, into the nippy winter air.
The second she was gone I whipped my ring with the freezing charm in it at Ethan.
The dark elf saw it coming. He could have easily dodged it. Instead he let it hit him, and he stopped moving.
The charm had worked.
Ethan the dark elf was frozen in time.
“Morgan!” Fran called from outside.
“Yeah,” I said, picking my pinky ring off the floor—Hunter would kill me if I lost it—before busting outside.
“What do we do now?” Fran asked, pulling up her hood.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Let’s head back towards Main Street and see—,” I cut myself off when a fast moving car screeched to a stop a few feet away from us.
The window rolled down, and from inside a smooth voice said, “Miss Morgan and companion, get in.”
“Vlad?” I said, my eyes practically popping out of my head.
“At your service,” Vlad said.
“What are you doing here?”
“Madeline said you needed a driver. Now, get in,” Vlad said before rolling the window up again.
I bit my lip, wondering if it was really wise to put my life and Fran’s in Vlad’s hands. Not because I didn’t trust him, or he wasn’t a good vampire. No, it was because I still clearly remembered the night I gave Vlad his first driving lesson in the Best Buy parking lot.
“Do you know this guy?” Fran asked, shivering in the cold air.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Do you trust him?”
“With our lives, sure. To drive a car? Not so much.”
There was another thunderclap—the kind that typically accompanied the black lightning.
“Into the car,” I said, hurrying for the vehicle.
I opened the back seat and threw myself inside. Fran was right behind me.
“Put on your seatbelt. You’ll need it,” I told Fran as I buckled myself in. “Vlad, what’s going on?”
“The MBRC pinpointed your location immediately after you triggered the alert,” Vlad said, slamming down on the gas pedal. The car squealed before shooting forward—moving much faster than the 25 miles per hour speed limit. “But the area is clearly urban,” Vlad said. “And we knew you were being held against your will.”
What he meant was that there were lots of humans around—so the MBRC couldn’t exactly bust in, guns blazing—and they had to be careful not to get me killed.
“I see,” I said, before I was thrown against the car door when Vlad sped around a corner. “Slow down, you’re going to get us pulled over.”
“I was under the impression I am a getaway vehicle. Do get away vehicles not get away as swiftly as possible?”