Dark Revel

by E. A. Copen

  Drake made me stand and walked me to the door.

  I twisted to look at him, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Where’s my daughter?”

  “You tell us.” Codey’s upper lip twitched as I passed. “Tell us where you left the body and I might be able to talk the D.A. into taking death off the table.”

  I barely cared. I needed to focus on what they’d said. No body. No body meant she might still be alive. But if they were charging me, they must’ve had some evidence, enough to get a grand jury to indict. Without a body, they’d have a tough time proving murder so it must’ve been something else substantial. Something they could rest their entire case on. Bloodstains? But where? There hadn’t been any at the house other than the one that belonged to Leah.

  One thing was for sure. I wasn’t going to get any answers on the inside. I needed to spring myself, and fast.

  Chapter Four

  “I want my phone call.” I hung on the metal bars of the jail cell, watching the officer behind his desk as he pretended to ignore me.

  He and I had been having that same conversation for two hours now. I’d ask for my call and he’d either ignore me or pick up his coffee and sip it loudly. Occasionally, one of my cell mates, mostly drunks, would chime in and tell me to shut my trap. The one big guy in the corner never said anything. Just stared at the back of my head as if he could will it to turn into a steak.

  The officer licked his finger and turned the page on his paperback, shifting his feet on the desk.

  “Phone call,” I repeated. “Phone call. Phone call.”

  “What’re the odds saying it another time will make me change my mind, son?” The officer sighed and lowered his novel. “I’ll tell ya, it’s exactly zero. Detectives said no phone calls, so I don’t let nobody have phone calls. That’s just how it is.”

  Well, I had his attention at least. That was more than I’d had all night. I had to keep it. “Who? Detectives Asshole and Douchebag? Funny how they get to boss everyone in this precinct around.”

  “Damn shame, ain’t it?” He picked up his book and started reading again.

  Dammit, I’d lost him. I needed to think of something, something that’d get him on my side. If there was one thing I learned while I was in prison, it was that prisoners have rights. Getting arrested didn’t negate them. Citing a violation of constitutional rights was a surefire way to piss off the cops and correctional officers all over, but it was also every inmate’s best chance at exploiting a technicality and getting out. When in doubt, exploit the technicality.

  I pressed myself harder against the bars. “It’s a violation of my constitutional rights. I get a phone call. I’m not being violent or belligerent. You don’t get to deny me that right.”

  “I ain’t denyin’ shit,” he said, turning the page. “That’d be Drake and Codey.”

  “Seems to me you’re the one denying me right now. If I have to bring this up when I talk to my lawyer, might be I forget all about Drake and Codey. In fact, I can barely remember them now.”

  The officer lowered his book again and raised his eyebrows. “Son, it’s the middle of the goddamn night and you don’t look like the kinda guy who keeps a lawyer on retainer. Who the hell are you going to call at midnight?”

  “Does it matter?” I shifted my shoulder and stuck my hand through the bars. “Come on, man. What’s a phone call going to hurt?”

  He lowered his feet from the desk with a sigh, dog-eared the paperback and left it on his desk. “If it’ll shut you up, fine. But only one. Five minutes.” The officer pulled me out of the cell, still cuffed and called his backup to come watch the cell.

  As soon as Drake and Codey arrested me, I started thinking about how I’d get out of this. I had friends on the force, even if Drake and Codey were assholes. Moses was a literal angel. He might’ve been able to get me out, but involving him would tank his career. He was only a few weeks away from retiring and laying low. Last thing I wanted to do was rob an angel of his pension.

  Emma would help if I asked, which was exactly why I wasn’t calling her. She was the best damn cop in New Orleans, and I was not getting her fired. Considering her proximity to me, she’d likely already be relieved of duty without pay until this was all sorted out. That’d crush her. If I so much as contacted her, it might be enough to tank her career forever. Thinking about that hurt, but I had to shove it away. Finding Remy and making sure she was okay was more important.

  With Leah in the hospital, and Jessica missing, I couldn’t call Nate either. He had to be there for his wife, and available if news about Jess came in.

  The only other help I might’ve called in was supernatural. Baron Samedi wouldn’t get me out. He’d cuss at me in French and tell me to figure it out on my own. There were gods who owed me favors, but I didn’t have a reliable way of contacting them, especially without Samedi.

  With few options, I’d have to resort to more unstable allies. The kind who might not answer the phone just because it was me calling. Didn’t matter. I had to try.

  The hallway the officer walked me to was narrow and lined on one side with modified pay phones. Any call made from the building on those would have to be done collect unless I somehow conjured up a couple quarters. He walked me to the closest phone, unhooked the cuffs around my wrists so I could dial and stepped back, hands on his gun, just in case I made a break for it.

  I frowned at the phone. Calling collect was one thing. Doing it when you didn’t know the number you needed was another. Plus I’d have to make an international call. Good thing he’d taken the cuffs off. That much iron would’ve kept me from being able to do any good magic.

  Putting my back to the officer, I lifted the receiver to my ear and pressed one hand against the dial pad. Eyes closed, I focused my will toward the delicate bits of machinery inside, mumbling the name I wanted under my breath. Locator spells like that worked only about half the time. I hoped luck was on my side.

  The dial tone faded, and the phone buzzed three times. The computerized voice came on and asked for my name. I thought a minute and recorded something. After a minute, the phone dialed a number. It rang four times. Come on, asshole. Pick up.

  “’Lo? Who’s this?” growled a man with a heavy Australian accent on the other end.

  “You have a collect call,” recited the computerized voice, “from ‘Don’t hang up. Remy needs help.’ Do you accept the charges?”

  Josiah was silent for a long moment.

  I ground my teeth. “Come on, you cheap bastard.”

  He sighed. “Fuck me, fine. That’s what I get for being a sucker. Yes, put him through.”

  The line clicked as we were connected.

  “Were you seriously considering hanging up?” I asked. “You asshole!”

  “If you were in my position, you’d consider it too.” Something shrieked loud enough I had to pull my ear away from the phone. “Shut up, you. I told you, you get the silver out when I’m good and ready. Fuckin’ phone call doesn’t change that.”

  “Um... Josiah?”

  “Sorry, mate. Werewolf tried to eat my spider. Poor life decision. Now, what can I do for the Pale Horseman? Said your girl was in trouble?”

  I checked over my shoulder for the guard. He was still standing there, waiting impatiently. Everything I said was probably being recorded, so I’d have to be careful exactly how I asked for help. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. I’m in jail for something I didn’t do. There’s something weird going on. Our kind of weird, and it took my daughter. The cops think I did something to her.”

  “If you need bail money, you’re talking to the wrong bloke, Laz.”

  “No, no! Don’t hang up. I don’t think I’ll be getting bail. I was thinking I’d need help with something else. I’ve sort of hit a wall on this project I’ve been working on. Would you mind coming out here to help me work through it?”

  The phone creaked as Josiah changed positions. “How big a wall are we talking, mate?”

  “Big.
Impossibly big.”

  He sighed. “Just when I was beginning to think I’d get the weekend to myself. All right, but you’re paying me. Cash this time, Lazarus. No more feathers.”

  “Awesome. When can you get here?” I glanced back at the guard. He was checking his watch. My time on the phone was up.

  “Dawn for double my normal fee,” Josiah answered.

  The greedy bastard. Oh well. It couldn’t be helped. I was dead broke, but he didn’t know that. I just had to hope that when he got there I could convince him to help me out anyway.

  The officer stepped toward me.

  “Deal,” I said quickly. “And Josiah? Thanks?”

  That night in the cell was one of the longest of my life. I curled up in a corner near the bars, arms crossed, and tried to will myself to sleep, but sleep eluded me. All I could think about was my daughter, out there with some stranger, scared and hungry. What was the last thing I’d said to her? Did she have any idea what was happening to her? At almost seven months old, she had to know something was wrong. I just hoped whoever had taken her didn’t realize they had more than the Pale Horseman’s daughter. They also had a Faerie princess, the heir to Summer.

  Hell, maybe it was Titania that took her. You hear stories about fae stealing babies all the time, except in the stories they usually left a changeling in its place. No changeling had been left, but I didn’t know if that was how the fae did things. For all my dealings with Faerie, I knew little about its people other than that they found the touch of iron painful.

  God, I hoped whoever took Remy didn’t let her get burned by iron. I needed to get out, to get to her before she was hurt. If she wasn’t hurt already.

  I shook my head. You can’t think like that, Laz. She’s out there. She’s alive. I can feel it. Or maybe I just wanted to believe it. There was no way to know for sure.

  When I wasn’t worrying about Remy, my thoughts turned to Leah. I hadn’t heard anything about her condition after they took her away, but she seemed like she was barely hanging on. Whoever took Remy had stabbed Leah, which meant she must’ve put herself between the kidnapper and the kids. Leah didn’t much care for me, but she’d been there when it mattered. If she made it through, I’d have to make it up to her somehow. Was that even possible? Maybe she and Nate would never talk to me again after this.

  I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath. Thinking in circles about all the hurt or missing people wasn’t getting me anywhere. Josiah was coming and I had to assume he’d help me somehow when he got there. I needed a plan, some sense of direction. From behind bars, new clues would be impossible to come by.

  But I’ve already got some clues. I sat up and uncrossed my arms. I saw the crime scene. I heard first-hand what happened with the car, even if I didn’t see it, and I saw the figure at the Six Flags. This is all connected somehow. I just have to figure out how.

  I went over the evening from the top. The anonymous tip about the zombies in the amusement park had come after dinner, during dessert. Leah had offered to take Remy while we ran the quick errand, kissed Nate goodbye, and they left in separate cars. That’d always been the plan, except Emma and me were supposed to take Remy and go home after, not run out to kill zombies at the old Six Flags. That was the first clue. Whoever had called had done it for a reason. Had they separated us from Remy for a reason? Probably so they could get to her.

  That meant whoever had her was a necromancer at least as powerful as me. Somehow, he’d been able to walk through the wards without triggering them, too. There were ways that could be done, but he’d need some piece of me, enough to convince the wards he was me. It would’ve taken months for him to collect enough hairs or other biological material to override those wards.

  I shivered. This wasn’t some random, spur of the moment kidnapping. It was a well-executed plan, months in the making. Whoever was pulling this off, it wasn’t someone I’d pissed off recently. The only good news to come from that realization was that they could’ve killed me or Remy at any time. Instead, they’d separated us before striking, and taken Remy alive.

  But how did Jessica figure into the equation? Why take Nate and Leah’s kid? Was she just a victim of circumstance? Maybe the kidnapper didn’t know which one was Remy at first glance. That’d make sense. Remy and Jessica were born less than a month apart, and unless the kidnapper knew Nate as well as I did, he might not have known that.

  I imagined him stomping into the nursery where Jessica and Remy were laying side by side and stopping over the crib. A moment of confusion. Which kid was he supposed to take? If he took the wrong one, there’d be trouble. Better take both. That was exactly what I would do.

  Okay, so he took both Jessica and Remy alive. Presumably, they’re both still alive wherever they are. Maybe I can locate them with a basic tracking spell. It was a long shot, but it was all I had. There was still a good chance that whoever had kidnapped them would’ve also taken precautions against that sort of magic. Anyone powerful enough to raise seventeen zombies and walk through my wards had to be able to disrupt a tracking spell. I needed a backup plan.

  What I needed was help from someone else with a vested interest in locating Remy. Someone like Titania. I rubbed my face. I must’ve been going crazy if I was considering talking to the Summer Queen for help. She was Remy’s grandmother though, and the Summer Queen. Titania wouldn’t want her hurt. Then again, she’d want something insane in exchange for her help. Faeries were like that. Though Remy was her flesh and blood, Titania was a total self-absorbed bitch who wouldn’t give me the time of day for free.

  Talking to Titania meant getting to Faerie, something I couldn’t do. There were back doors into the fae all around New Orleans, but I didn’t know where any of them were or how they worked. Josiah might, though. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was something.

  The one thing I knew I couldn’t do was go to Emma for help. Not only would it hurt her career beyond repair, but Drake and Codey probably had people watching her house. Once I got out of jail, I’d have to keep my head low. Whatever Josiah had planned, it wasn’t going to involve doing things the way the American legal system preferred.

  Chapter Five

  I must’ve dozed off. When I woke up, I knew something was wrong. Everyone else in the cell was asleep. There were five of us crammed into the cell, one of which had been coming down from meth. He’d been pacing and talking at a million miles an hour. Now he was snoring, leaning on the big guy who’d been staring at me.

  More than that, the buzz of magic was in the air. I breathed it in and felt my lungs tingle. A near unbearable tiredness settled in my limbs, but I fought it off to stand and peer out at the guard station. He was asleep too.

  Must be whatever spell I’m feeling, I thought, gripping the bars. The station was silent. No ringing phones or the click clack of keys on the keyboard. No printers whirring, and no doors slamming. Maybe everyone in the station was asleep.

  That was more than a little unsettling. Anyone who could cast a sleeping spell on that many people at once wasn’t someone I wanted to tangle with. I hoped it was my rescue and not whoever had taken Remy.

  Footsteps echoed down the hallway moving toward my cell, the click of feminine heels. I pressed myself against the bars to see whoever it was. Good or bad, they were coming for me since I was the only one awake.

  She was tall with dark hair and curves to die for. A black leather briefcase bounced against a dangerously short pencil skirt. Thin fingers with blood red fingernails gripped a pair of black rimmed glasses hanging from her partially unbuttoned white blouse. She lifted them and slipped one of the ear pieces between white teeth before flashing me a sultry smile.

  Khaleda Morningstar, one of the most dangerous women alive. I’d killed her dad not so long ago. Not that she cared. He was the Devil after all, and he’d sentenced her to be tortured in the fires of Hell. Josiah had helped me free her and they left New Orleans together, but I hadn’t expected her to hang out with him. The two of them were in
dependent. They must’ve hit it off. At least, I hoped that’s why she was walking my way.

  Khaleda stopped in front of the cell and pulled the plastic from her mouth. “Lazarus Kerrigan. You’ve looked better.”

  I gave her a once-over and stepped back from the bars. Sure, I was with Emma now, but a guy could look, right? Besides, Khaleda was a succubus giving off major magic vibes. I couldn’t not look. “I wish I could say the same about you. Honestly, you look good. Way better than when you got on the plane.”

  “It’s my new diet.” She turned her back to me, hauling the briefcase onto the officer’s desk. Khaleda swept his feet aside and flipped the case open.

  “I don’t want to know who you’ve been eating lately. Tell me you’re here to spring me?”

  Khaleda lifted a tiny vial of sparkling blue liquid. “You know, I didn’t want to come. We were dealing with a werewolf in Bali, you know. Bali, Lazarus. Beaches, sun, and sand. Meanwhile, no matter what time of year it is here, the sun never shines for more than a few hours, and the humidity sticks to you like spider webs.” She spun around with a smile. “But you did help save me from Hell. I owe you. After this, we’re square.”

  “Don’t act like you don’t like coming to the rescue, Khaleda. Deep down, I know you’re a good person.” I took another step away from the bars after checking to make sure I wouldn’t trip over one of my cellmates.

  Khaleda stepped up to the cell. “That’s where you’re wrong about me. I’m a bad girl, Lazarus. As bad as they come. I just happen to use my evil for good.”

  She popped the cork on the tiny bottle and emptied the contents on one of the metal bars. It looked like thick blue glitter glue, oozing down from the bar. Except it was steaming and melting through the iron like a hot knife through cheese. Once it melted all the way through, there’d be a hole just wide enough for me to step out sideways.