Blood and Fire: An Urban Fantasy (The Marked Book 1)

by D. N. Hoxa

  “Okay. Why One-eyed Hawk?”

  I smiled. “Just a stupid name. After I lost my eye, I had a couple months to go around the city searching for my version of bad guys before I left. Drunks in clubs who refused to take no for an answer, thieves wherever I could find them, and I sort of took my anger all out on them. I didn’t hide. I didn’t give a shit who saw me. And I never miss my mark with my chakris. Before long, someone came up with the name and it kind of stuck.” I shrugged. Those weren’t the best of my days, and they ended with Nana locking my powers away to keep me contained. After that, I had to get away. I just had to.

  And just to talk about it brought back memories I’d rather not revisit right now. To have Logan lying so close to me and to feel the heat of his body was a good distraction, one I planned to use if my thoughts started drifting in the wrong direction. For now, I pulled out the piece of napkin that Mathias had written on and checked the letters once more.

  “I think this means death.” Mathias had done as he said he would: he’d translated individual runes into individual letters, all possible versions of them.

  What’s worse, the alphabet didn’t translate directly into Futhark runes. More like words and shapes, but there were some words that, put together, meant a certain Futhark symbol. I’d read enough translated runes to be able to recognize some of them, and though it had been a long time since I laid eyes on runes, I was pretty sure the combination of the letters ittio was death, or something close.

  “And these,” Logan said, running his fingers over the first letters. “Mathias seemed to think these mean reverse.”

  “Hmm. Reverse and death.” It didn’t make any sense as there wasn’t such a thing.

  “He did say that the runes were used in rituals to speak to the dead,” Logan said. I did remember that.

  “It pisses me off that we’re no closer than we were before. I mean, these symbols, these runes could mean fifty different things.”

  “So we’ll explore fifty different spells and figure out which one he’s using,” Logan said. Not the best of solutions, but it was all we had.

  “In the morning, we should head to the library, find as many translation books as we can so we can figure all these out.” Mathias said the language was Coptic. That might narrow it down a bit.

  “Sometimes I feel like it doesn’t matter what the rune said. What’s more important is to know who he’s going to attack next.”

  “Exactly. And since we’ve run out of high priests and priestesses in Richmond, I don’t know where else to turn.” It would have been nice if Sasha Fortine would have stuck around, but as it was, we were at a dead end. “What about your friend Jora Richardson? Can he help?”

  Logan shook his head. “I don’t think so, not with this.”

  “Who is he, anyway? Is he your boss or something?”

  “Something like that,” Logan said. “He raised me.” Which meant he wasn’t raised by his parents either. I felt sad for him because I knew exactly what that was like. I wanted to ask him to tell me his story, but I also didn’t want him to feel pressured in case he didn’t want to.

  I kept forgetting, we weren’t friends, Logan and I. No matter what it looked like, or felt like at the moment, we weren’t friends. We were just two people going after the same thing for now—the thing that was going to turn us into enemies once found. I couldn’t let him kill Nana, no matter what he thought she’d done to him.

  “Where do you come from, Logan?”

  “I was raised in Washington. Lived there my entire life,” he said.

  That was all the way across the country. “You’ve come a long way.”

  “It’s going to be worth it.”

  “You know you can’t kill her, right?” Not only because I wouldn’t let him, but Nana was a powerful magian.

  “I know I’ll try,” he said dryly.

  “What did she do to you?” I really wanted to know what would drive a man like him all the way here in search of someone he had to know he couldn’t beat.

  “That’s a story for another time.”

  He used my own words against me. Fair enough.

  We lay there in silence with the light on. I didn’t want to sleep in the darkness, and it seemed Logan didn’t either. I pulled Katherine’s blanket up, closer to my neck. She was right. It was getting cold now that I wasn’t moving, even though Logan’s body gave off incredible heat. Was it the same with all Pyros or just him?

  “Goodnight, Eye Patch,” he said after a while.

  “Goodnight, Sparkle.”

  Even when his breathing became even and it sounded like he was asleep—and he did snore a little, by the way—I couldn’t make myself let go. Too many things were on my mind. Nana, the Egyptian runes, Dumont and the MM, my father, Avery…a long while after, I turned to look at Logan, at his profile, while he slept peacefully right next to me. I couldn’t figure out what it was about him, something that pulled me in, yet kept me at arm’s length. But his peacefulness eventually rubbed off on me, and I found myself dragging my body a bit closer to his, in search of heat. I closed my eyes and imagined what it would be like if he’d always be here, and if I wouldn’t be forced to spend my days and nights on my own. It was a good fantasy, and it finally lulled me to sleep.

  12

  Just like we promised Katherine, we were up and out of the guest house by six in the morning.

  I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye, but I had no idea if she was up yet. Also, I really needed to use the bathroom. Luckily, she opened the back door of the house as soon as we stepped in the yard and waved for us to come in. The morning was cold, the sun hidden behind grey clouds. I just hoped it wouldn’t rain today.

  We went in the kitchen, and the heat melted my seemingly frozen bones. My nose was freezing, too, and I hadn’t even realized it.

  “Sleep well?” said Katherine, her back turned to us. She was taking something out of the fridge that was close to the door. Hailey’s colors and coloring book was gone, and she was probably still asleep.

  “Great, thank you. I hope you guys did, too,” I said, in a rush to leave before her husband returned. The night hadn’t gone exactly like I had hoped, but I couldn’t blame her. Four years was a long time, and after how we’d left things, it was hard to just go back to being friends. I wish she’d given me a chance, and I wished I’d tried harder. But when Nana told me that Katherine left the Enclave, I almost felt betrayed, as silly as that seemed now. She had every right to not want to have anything to do with me because I almost cost her her life. But I didn’t see it that way then. I could have tried harder to talk to her.

  “I’m making some peanut butter sandwiches. It’s the only thing I can offer you right now. I’m a terrible cook.”

  Sandwiches. My mouth watered.

  “You don’t have to, Katherine,” said Logan, and I punched him on the side of his thigh.

  “A sandwich would be great, thank you,” I said. We needed to eat, and it was warm in there. I’d take it. “Also, if I could use your bathroom real quick.”

  “Second door to the left,” Katherine said, and I practically ran to it, unbuttoning my jeans as I went.

  When I came back, my bladder felt a hundred pounds lighter.

  The TV mounted on the wall to our right was on, and it showed the weather. Damn it, it would rain today. Hopefully we wouldn’t need to run from anyone, but knowing my luck, I wasn’t holding my breath.

  Katherine looked even more tired than last night. I hated to think that she’d stayed up all night because of us. She was probably worried sick. Now I regretted accepting the sandwiches.

  They were bigger than I expected, and she filled our glasses with milk, too. Needless to say, they were delicious.

  “So, do you have any leads in finding Nana?” asked Katherine from the other side of the kitchen, as if she didn’t want to come any closer to us.

  “Egyptian runes,” I said, chewing the sandwich. Logan was already done with his. It’s like h
e went through the entire thing with two bites. “Whoever took them is using Egyptian runes, and we just deciphered what they could mean last night. We’re going to try to figure out the rest today.” At the public library, where they had to keep books about runes. I’d never been, but I’d heard they held some textbooks, at least.

  “Wow, Egyptian,” Katherine said, shaking her head. “They must be really powerful.”

  “Well, they took Nana, so…”

  “What about her curse? I thought she couldn’t leave that house at all.”

  “Me, too.” I had no idea how that man had managed to break it, but we were going to find out. I was sure of it.

  “Be careful, Ruby. This sounds really dangerous. Two high priests are already gone,” she said.

  “He tried to take Graneheart, too, but couldn’t. I think he’s in the hospital.” Which might be a good thing. We could sneak inside a hospital if we needed to talk to him, couldn’t we?

  “Can you turn that up, please?” Logan said, nodding at the TV screen. The image of a house burning turned my stomach completely. Katherine turned the volume up.

  The anchorwoman said the house had been burning for almost half an hour, and firemen were still trying to put the fire out. It was the house of a lawyer, and they didn’t know what had caused it to blow up yet. A picture of the lawyer who owned the house appeared at the corner of the screen that showed a lot of firemen with three hoses in their hands trying to fight the fire, and the anchorwoman said they didn’t know yet if he’d been inside when the fire started. He couldn’t be older than fifty, with salt and pepper hair and deep wrinkles around his eyes, but nowhere else. I almost knew that face. I’d probably seen it in the news before.

  “Poor man,” Katherine said in a whisper. I certainly hoped he hadn’t been there. Fire was a terrible way to go.

  “Why does he look familiar?” asked Logan in wonder.

  “You probably saw him on the news.” I looked at the face of the man again. He really did look familiar.

  “I don’t watch the news,” Logan said.

  Huh. He didn’t watch the news. So why would that man who, according to the anchorwoman spent his whole life in Virginia, look familiar to him?

  For a second, my entire body froze. I even forgot how to breathe. The picture of the man filled my vision, and something rang in my head loudly. I dropped the sandwich on the plate and reached for my back pocket and the picture that Sasha Fortine had left for me with her students.

  Of course that man looked familiar to Logan. He didn’t watch the news, but he’d seen the picture when he took me from Gwendolyn Love’s Enclave. I’d found it on his table together with my phone and weapons.

  And I hadn’t seen the man on the news before, either.

  “Aha!” I said when I found the face among the twelve others in the picture. It was that man! It was the same man on the TV, only a lot older.

  “It’s him! This is him!”

  Logan took the picture from my hand, and Katherine came close to look at it, too.

  “It is,” she said after a second. “It’s definitely him.”

  “Yes, that’s where I saw him,” Logan confirmed.

  There was no doubt in my mind. The lawyer was in that picture, together with Christopher Ford, Nana, Sasha, Gwendolyn and Cornelius.

  I turned to the TV again, and the fire that was already disappearing made it perfectly clear. This had been no accident. It was too much of a coincidence, and I didn’t believe in those. The man who’d taken the others had either taken or killed this man: William McCoy.

  “We need to go,” I said to Logan, the sandwich forgotten. It was clear to me now. We didn’t need any more high priests to tell us what was happening. We didn’t need to go to the library. We needed to find out exactly who the other people in the picture were and find them. Now, before he did. That was the only way we were going to figure this out.

  “Ruby, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Katherine said, her voice full of concern.

  I put the picture in my pocket again and went to her. I hugged her, even though she might not have wanted me to.

  “It was so good to see you, Katherine. Thanks so much for helping me. I am in your debt. Please give Hailey a kiss for me.”

  “It was good to see you, too. I miss you. I miss Avery,” Katherine whispered. I felt the tears coming, and I had to force them back with all my strength. “Please be careful.”

  “I will,” I said and stepped back. There was a notepad and a pen on the counter, and I wrote down my number for her.

  “Thank you for your help, Katherine. You have a lovely home and a lovely daughter. Tell her I said hi,” Logan said.

  “You’re welcome,” she said with a smile.

  “This is my number. Call me if you need me, okay? Any time is fine.” I would make sure to pick up.

  She took the notepad and nodded.

  We slipped out the backdoor. I could go around the house and to the main street. No need to use the front door. Now that I knew exactly what we needed to do, I felt lighter somehow. More in control.

  I’m coming, I said to Nana in my mind. No matter how long it took me, I was going to find her.

  And I was going to make her unlock my magic so I could prove to the world I wasn’t the monster they made me out to be.

  ***

  “The human police station,” Logan said, staring at the picture while we walked. Katherine’s neighborhood was awfully calm at that time of morning. It was really cold, too. I wrapped my arms around myself to keep warm. “They have the most sophisticated facial recognition software out there. We could get names and addresses within hours.”

  “Good idea. Except we can’t just waltz into a police station and demand to use their computers. It doesn’t quite work like that.” Unfortunately. That would have sure saved us a lot of time.

  “Sure we could. Who’s going to stop us?” Logan said.

  I turned to look at him in surprise. “Um…the police? Don’t the police have weapons in Washington?” I was pretty sure they were well aware of firearms in Washington, but I could always be wrong.

  “Weapons that fire bullets,” said Logan with a grin. “Lead melts at about 350 degrees. I can produce more than 600 with my hands alone.”

  “No way.” Fuck, that was cool. “You can actually melt bullets?”

  “Yep. It would have to be really close, but I can do it. I’ve done it many times,” he said, pride brightening his features. Maybe it was the fresh morning light, but he looked damn sexy that morning. Absolutely fuckable—if I were to have such intentions. Which I didn’t. I just think it’s important to describe everything in detail, so you get a very clear picture of what’s happening around me right now. You’re welcome.

  “Good for you, Sparkle. However, I have no way of melting bullets, in case you didn’t notice, and no magic to protect me from them. So, breaking into a police station remains a strong no.”

  “Don’t worry, Eye Patch. I’ll be there to save you,” he said. “Again.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I thought I was the one with the superhero obsession.”

  “Just stating facts. At this rate, I’m confident enough to bet that I’ll save you another ten times before the year’s over.”

  I liked the sound of that. However… “Just to remind you that once we find Nana, we’re going to go at it like monkeys, and there won’t be anything pleasurable about it.” Unfortunately.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Logan’s smile drop instantly. “She’s a bad woman, Eye Patch.”

  Did I believe that? Hell, yeah. Nana could be bad. To those who messed with her business, to those she considered a threat. Yeah, she could be pretty bad.

  But she could also be good, too. Protective. Patient. She even hugged me once.

  “She’s no worse than most. I’ll tell you again, she’s going to kill you, Logan. If you actually get to her, she’s going to kill you. Your fire can do nothing against her magic.”


  “We’ll see about that,” he said in a whisper.

  “How much money do you have?” I asked. I’d warned him and would warn him again in the future, but it would be his decision in the end. There wasn’t much I could do about it, except try to stop him, which I would.

  “You wanna go on a vacation already?” Logan said. Good to see his mood wasn’t spoiled all the way.

  “I absolutely would, but that’s not why I’m asking. I think we should find a hacker.”

  He was silent for a second. “To hack into the police data base?”

  “Yep.” If we couldn’t break into a police station, this was the next best thing.

  Logan was in. “How much do you need?”

  ***

  Two hours later, we left the small cafe in Jackson Ward with takeaway coffees in our hands and smiles on our faces. It wasn’t the best coffee I’d had, but it was still coffee, so after I drank one inside, I took another with. You just never knew how long the day was going to last.

  Since my phone’s battery had died, and we needed Internet access to search for hackers online, we’d decided to risk it and spend some time in a public place. It was amazing what one could do with a smartphone nowadays. I’d contacted Travis Chase to give me some direction, and once he sent over a decent hacker site where I could literally just post the job, we got ourselves a deal in just twenty minutes. Then, I photographed Sasha’s picture with my phone, sent it over to the hacker, whose handle was @VirtualDiseaseX, and told him we needed names and addresses as soon as he could get them for the remaining six people in the picture that we didn’t know. Logan wired half the money now, and he’d send the other half after we received the information. Easy peasy. I freaking loved the Internet.

  “This is why you need a smartphone, Sparkle,” I said as I enjoyed my coffee and looked around at the people passing us by. So far, nobody was showing any interest in us.

  “I have a smartphone, Eye Patch. I just don’t have it with me.”

  He had an old phone, if you can believe it. The kind of old that didn’t even have light on the screen. He said it was safer to use, and he’d left his smartphone behind in Washington to come here. Who on Earth would even do such thing? Major red flag right there.