by D. N. Hoxa
Closing my eyes, I focused on my surroundings. I heard every little noise—every laugh, every glass slamming on the table, every footfall on the floor—just in case I needed to come back here again. Then, I looked at myself, at Amina, and Paul, too, at the way they were talking and laughing like nothing in the world could ever trouble them. I committed the look on my face, the smile and the shine in my eyes to memory, too.
Then I called to my mind and woke up in the real world.
Chapter Five
Sin Montero
Delivering maneater heads to Hellbeast Affairs wasn’t all that different from delivering hellbeast heads. There was a simple procedure, a couple of forms to fill, lots of unnecessary questions, but it was protocol, like the worker kindly informed us every time we complained. I mean, I could be wrong, but there really was no need for the Guild to know what the maneaters were wearing. What was even the point?
It was eight p.m. when we left the building of Hellbeast Affairs, having delivered all four heads of the maneaters we’d killed half an hour ago. We’d gotten really good at it. Lucas and Kyle, my coworkers, had finally gotten the hang of the ward that kept them locked inside it. From then on, it was just a matter of minutes before we killed them. It was fun. I liked it—even more so when I knew how many potential lives we could be saving by killing those things. Or at least sending them back where they came from—which was the Underworld.
Normally, the guys and I grabbed a beer after work most nights, but that night, Carter Conti and I had different plans. We told Lucas and Kyle that we didn’t have time to get a drink, and that we were both calling it a night, heading home. The truth was, we were meeting at a bar in the City to talk about the Uprising.
By the time I got there, Carter was already sitting at a corner table, all alone, drinking beer, his eyes on the door. He grinned when he saw me, and that always made him look a lot younger than he was. The bar was barely half full and my magic said that all the people in there were human. It’s why we’d decided to meet here in the first place—far away from supernatural prying eyes. It was hard to have a private conversation when you were surrounded by werewolves and ghouls and the occasional vampire, all of whom could hear even the lowest whisper coming out of your lips.
I got myself a beer from the bar and made my way to Carter.
“Took you long enough,” he said when I sat across from him.
“I wasn’t hurrying.” Which was the truth. Kit jumped from my shoulder and onto my lap, for once not squeaking his complaint. I hadn’t even planned on asking him to join me here since Carter already knew he wasn’t really my familiar, but he’d come himself. I think he was just nervous after our rendezvous with the Uprising two nights ago.
“This place is nice,” I said, looking around us. It was really nice because it was dark and all the other people already there were sitting far enough away that they wouldn’t hear us. To my left was the window and I could see the street outside perfectly, just in case something wanted to surprise us.
“See? I told you we’d eventually go out, alone together. As friends,” Carter said.
Right. He had said that. “Aren’t you smart,” I mumbled, and it only made his smile bigger.
“Chris says hi. I went to see him today.”
That made me sit straighter right away. It was the reason why we were here in the first place. Chris Conti was Carter’s twin brother, and the Alpha of the Bronx Pack. He had information that Carter and I could find very useful.
“And?” I asked as Kit jumped to the floor before he disappeared toward the bar. He’d probably go see what he could steal, though I didn’t know why he bothered. His family was at the apartment now, and they had enough food in the pantry to last them at least a few days. Which reminded me—I needed to go grocery shopping again. Those little ones ate like fucking trolls.
“He was able to find some information about the people who blocked the Pack’s access to the Gateway last time,” Carter continued. “One of them hangs out in Queens and Chris is pretty sure we can get to him easily. The problem is, I don’t think he knows much. He doesn’t have any important position within the Uprising. He’s just an errand boy.”
Yeah, that didn’t sound very promising. “So far, I think it’s safe to assume that they’re hanging out in Estird.”
Estird was a different world that was going to be destroyed by a series of really big volcanic explosions in a century or so. The Uprising had made it their home after the sari fae had abandoned it for a better planet.
“Probably. It would be stupid of them to come here, and they’re not stupid,” Carter said, scratching the sticker off his beer bottle. “But we should pay that guy a visit anyway. Maybe he’ll be helpful.”
I flinched. If that guy was working for the Uprising and he wasn’t in Estird with them, the chances that he knew something important were very slim. “Not yet. We don’t need him right away. What we need is to bring them here.” Especially Amina Gray and hopefully the Spring fae—Faron—too.
“And how are we going to do that?” Carter asked.
This time, I had an answer. “Me.”
I’d been thinking about it since the night before when Carter left my apartment. It might not have been the best idea in the world, but it was all I had for now.
He narrowed his brows. “You?”
“They want my head. They want me dead and they won’t be able to resist if they think I’m defenseless in the Shade.” Because I doubted they’d come after me out here again. Not after the show that the vampire Yutain put on for us two nights ago. Just the thought of it made me shiver. The way he’d torn Mason apart…
“You want to play bait,” Carter said and I nodded.
“I want Amina and Faron. I’m pretty sure the Possessor will join them, too.” His name was Boyle, and he and I had some unfinished business, too. He wasn’t one to join a fight directly, but he’d bring an army of maneaters and hellbeasts with him. Luckily, I no longer had to worry about them. I knew exactly how to kill both kinds quickly.
“We can use the guy Chris found to send the information to them. Discreetly, of course,” Carter said.
“That’s what I was thinking, too.”
The guy from Queens may not be important, but he could still useful. We had no other connection to the Uprising, and so if we fed him the right information, he’d send word to Estird. Amina wouldn’t be able to resist confronting me after how things went last time. I was sure of it. I’d seen it in her eyes—she wanted to kill me just as much as I wanted to kill her.
Carter thought about it for a second, his eyes moving to the tables every few seconds, like he was making sure we weren’t being spied on. So far, he looked relaxed, and my magic couldn’t sense a supernatural’s essence anywhere in the building.
“Do you think it will all be over if we kill the vampire and fae?”
I swallowed hard. Now, this part was a bit tricky. I’d thought about it almost all night in bed and the whole day, too. As much as I didn’t want it to make sense, it did. It was the only thing that made sense.
“It will if the Guild’s involved,” I said reluctantly, looking down at my beer bottle.
Carter knew exactly what I meant and he didn’t miss a beat.
“That’s dangerous, Sin,” he warned, and I nodded.
“I know, but we have no choice. The Guild has to know about it—everyone at the Guild.” Because Damian seemed to think that the Uprising had people in the Guild, too. And just that stupid thought made my stomach do a flip. Ugh. “They’re the only ones who can shut down the entire operation. We can kill Amina and Faron, even Boyle, but it’s not going to be enough. They have people, a lot of people, and you and I will never be able to even find them, let alone make sure they keep away. But the Guild can do that. It’s their job to do exactly that,” I said almost in a breath. The excitement and the fear were making my voice high-pitched.
Carter thought about it for a second, then shook his head. “But the Gu
ild doesn’t know about you. It’s very risky. What if they find out?”
Goose bumps covered my arms instantly. If the Guild knew I was a Marauder, they’d kill me without a second thought. Now, if the Guild knew that I was a Marauder and an Alpha Prime, they’d move heaven and earth to kill me really quick. So quick I probably wouldn’t even see it coming before it was too late.
But the truth was, I had no choice now. Not after Amina ambushed me. It was only a matter of time before they tried again, and who was to say that they wouldn’t win the second time?
I shrugged. “They won’t find out. We’ll be careful. We’ll plan everything to the last detail,” I said, and when the expression on his face didn’t change, I almost grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “We have no other choice, Carter. If the Guild isn’t involved, the Uprising will continue to be there. You’ve been to Estird. You’ve seen.” Amina, even Faron and Boyle, weren’t irreplaceable. Nobody really was.
“We’ll plan everything to the last detail,” Carter repeated.
“We will.”
“We’ll know where we stand and where they stand. We’ll prepare for the worst case scenario, too.”
“Exactly.”
A second later, he grinned. “I like this you and me against the world situation. We’ll be like Batman and Robin. Cloak and Dagger. Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.”
The relief was instant. I knew I couldn’t do this alone. Together with Carter, maybe we stood a chance. I laughed. “The Uprising is not the world.”
He shrugged. “Eh, I’ll take it.” He raised his beer at me and I did the same. “We’re going to kick ass.”
“We totally are.” Only because we didn’t have another choice.
“Just don’t go falling in love with me by the time this is over.”
“I won’t.”
The response was automatic. I didn’t need to think about it at all. My mind knew. My heart knew. My fucking bones were engraved with it. It was the first time I actually thought about it. I was not going to fall in love with Carter because I’d already hit the bottom for someone else. The fear of that knowledge paralyzed me completely, even if it didn’t surprise me that much, not really.
“Hey, I was just joking,” Carter said after a second, which meant I must have looked even worse than I felt.
“I know,” I said, clearing my throat. I drank my beer to wet my dry tongue. “I know. Let’s talk details.”
Clearing my head was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I managed. I just had to focus on what I’d already thought about and talk it over with Carter.
“We’ll need more people because I’m pretty sure they’re not going to come alone,” Carter continued like I hadn’t just freaked out on him seconds ago. “The Pack will help.”
I flinched—not because it was a bad idea. It was a great idea. I just didn’t want to put more people at risk than was necessary.
“They can stay close by, I guess. But they don’t have to engage unless absolutely necessary.”
Carter raised a brow. “They can handle themselves, Sin.”
“I know that. I just don’t want anyone to die, that’s all.”
He nodded, looking down at his hands for a second, then caught me by surprise, like he always did. “I hear he’s back in town.”
Ugh. I should have known Carter would bring Damian up. He couldn’t resist it, and knowing him, I couldn’t even hold it against him.
I took a deep breath. “And?”
“Wondering if you saw him, that’s all.”
“I did, yeah.” Where the hell was he going with this?
“And? What happened?”
I bit my lip. Did I want to tell him what happened? About Yutain, too? I didn’t think so.
“Nothing happened. Everything’s the same.” We had talked about this the night before already.
“Things change. Nothing ever stays the same.” He shrugged. I squinted my eyes at him. Did he just do what I thought he did? I couldn’t be sure but he didn’t give me the chance to ask. “Anyway, back to the plan. The Pack will be there, and they’ll wait for our signal. We’re going to need weapons and spells. Wards.”
I nodded. “I’m pretty sure you can get us weapons. And I can get us spells.” I could buy them. I still had the money from Sonny’s tuition that I had saved but never had to pay—because of Damian. I would gladly use it to buy some premium quality witch spells. It would be worth it to know that there would be no more threats looming over my head after it was over.
“When?” Carter said.
“We’ll need tomorrow to prepare. I’m thinking Virgin Square. It’s easily isolated. Not much traffic.” I’d fought the Uprising before in Virgin Square within the Shade. Back then, Malin had done the wards and the spells and had persuaded the Shade to keep us from prying eyes, but this time, that wouldn’t be necessary. We wanted the Guild to see.
“Agreed. We’ll need a good lie to tell to the guy,” he said, scratching his chin. “How about a meeting with Chris?”
I narrowed my brows. “Would they buy it, though? Chris is an Alpha and the Uprising will know that he won’t be alone there.”
“They attacked us in Pack territory, remember?” Ah, yes. I did remember. “I don’t think they care about the Pack all that much, which is exactly how we want it.”
“And he would hear this information, how?”
“Word travels fast among our kind. Almost half of Queens belongs to the Conti Pack. It’s no secret that Chris has been trying to hire you. It’s easily believable.”
I nodded. “Assuming it works, we’d have to be there at least two hours prior. I’m thinking about hiding spells all around the Square. As soon as we kill Amina and Faron, I don’t think we’ll have to deal with the rest. If everything goes right, they’ll walk away on their own. Or try to.” By then, the Guild would be there. They’d arrest them all. They’d probably arrest me, too, but I wasn’t planning to use my own magic—only my daggers and the spells I would buy. Careful was going to be my middle name until this was over.
Fear gripped at my insides as I tried to piece everything together. My imagination insisted on giving me flashes of Carter and me covered in blood, on the ground, dying. But I’d been in enough fights before to be confident in my ability to at least take a lot of hits without dying. And I’d fought them all before. I knew how they moved. I knew how Amina moved. With my daggers alone, I wouldn’t be able to kill her but bought spells were much easier and faster to activate. I wouldn’t even need to chant. It was going to be fine. There was no other way. It was either this, or I could wait for them to catch me somewhere unprepared again.
“What’s on your mind? You look really pale right now,” Carter said. I imagined I would.
“Just trying to think about all the things that could go wrong.” And there were a lot of them. The list was long and it was getting longer by the second.
“It’s been taught that your worst enemy couldn’t harm you as much as your own wicked thoughts,” Carter said, and again, he shrugged and grinned.
I barely bit back a laugh. “Are you quoting Wu Tang to me?” It had sounded like it earlier, but I hadn’t been sure. Now I was.
He burst out laughing and that was enough of a confirmation. I shook my head, smiling. He was an idiot.
“They’re pretty damn good,” he said, still shaking with laughter. “Are they your favorite?”
“No, but they really are great,” I said, just as Kit climbed on my leg and settled on my lap again. He seemed content, which probably meant he’d eaten something already.
“Damn. Who is it?” Then he held up a finger. “No, don’t tell me. I’ll figure it out eventually.”
“Well, I’d tell you not to bother, but I can tell you’re enjoying the music, so I’ll let you go through with it.”
“It’s really good,” he said again, and the surprise was evident in his eyes.
I drank my beer for a bit. I didn’t want to ruin his mood again,
but I had to ask. “Why do you think they killed your dad?”
I expected him to flinch, or at least look away from me, but he didn’t hesitate. “I think he was involved with them somehow. He traveled to Estird a few times before he died, and I heard him talking on the phone once. I think…I think he might have been one of them. Maybe he found out something he wasn’t supposed to or defied the wrong guy. It’s…it’s instinct. I can’t really explain it because it’s not even mine. It’s my wolf’s.”
His wolf’s instinct was good enough for me. “We’ll find out when we see them.”
“Is he a hellbeast?” Carter said after a second, raising his brows at Kit sleeping on my lap. He’d made himself comfortable, tail wrapped around his little body, and he was breathing deeply. I never understood how he could sleep like this, in all that noise, and even on my shoulder, but he never seemed to have any trouble with it.
“Yes.”
“How?”
I wrapped it up as well as I could. “I met him in the woods when I was nine. Took his magic by accident. We talked. He didn’t want to go back to the Underworld. I offered him a safe place to stay, a roof over his head, and lots of food if he agreed to pretend to be my familiar. He did, and we stuck together ever since.”
“Wow,” Carter said. “That had so much potential and you just took the soul right out of it. You suck at telling stories.”
I laughed, but it was forced. I’d told that story before—to the girls. To Damian. Everything that reminded me of him made me feel very…impatient.
“Well, I’m not a storyteller.”
“I knew there was something wrong with you,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t tell stories for shit. I don’t know why I didn’t see it earlier. That’s a disastrous flaw, Sin Montero.”
I shrugged. “I’m not even going to deny it. Cheers.” We clanked our beer bottles, then planned properly. Every detail, everything that could go both right and wrong. We went through it all.