“I know. There were three here when I got here. Dimitri’s cactus thorns drove two of them away. I punched that one.” She pointed at an unconscious man slumped against a dumpster. One of those cactus thorns protruded from the fence above him, but he didn’t appear to be perforated himself.
I hadn’t seen him or sensed him as I’d come up. “You punched him? With what, a tire iron? He’s out cold.”
He wasn’t magical, so he wasn’t one of the three I’d been counting.
“I also hit him with a cast-iron frying pan. After he laughed at my punch.”
“That would do it.”
“Then I grabbed one of my newest rifles—the bear grinder—and threatened him with it. He ran backward so fast he tumbled into the dumpster and cracked his head on it.”
“You are a fearsome woman.”
“I am a mad woman. Val, my truck.”
“We’ll get it put out. You’ve got insurance, right?”
I jumped into the middle of the kitchen fire, spraying water on anything that looked like it could be put out that way. Two empty fire extinguishers already lay spent on the floor. The remnants of grease in the bottom of the drained fryer station were burning brightly, but I vaguely remembered that water would only make a grease fire worse. I grabbed towels and aprons to wet down and tried to smother the flames.
“I tried to call nine-one-one, but I have no reception.” Nin crouched outside the truck, watching the wall and shadows in all directions. “I am in the middle of the city. There should be reception.”
“I know.”
I sensed Sindari had knocked the man off the fence and into the street outside and was chasing him down. The two other magical beings were still on the far side of the compound. I couldn’t tell what they were doing, but one of them had to be responsible for the spell blocking our phones. They felt like full-bloods. A shifter, maybe a member of the Northern Pride, and someone else I couldn’t identify from a distance. As soon as the fire was out, I would visit them and find out what.
“Or maybe not,” I muttered as my senses told me they were on the move. And heading this way.
“Here, Nin.” I waved for her to take over with the hose. “We’ve got more trouble coming.”
She took the hose, but she also leaned around the corner of her truck, facing in the direction I pointed, a big double-barreled shotgun at the ready. I ran to the truck next to hers, not wanting to draw fire her way. After activating my cloaking charm, I crept closer to the aisle, keeping the truck at my back.
The two people heading our direction paused. I must have dropped off their senses.
They didn’t pause for long. The light of the fire made it hard to see people in the shadows, but my senses told me they were looking at Nin from between two trucks across the way. Finally, I picked out the cloaked figures against the black siding of a burger truck.
They were whispering to each other. I crept closer. The bigger person’s voice carried.
I ducked around a truck, activated the screen on my phone where they couldn’t see it, started a recording, and returned to the other side. As I snuck closer, I caught something about the Pardus brothers and having already been paid.
He drew a handgun and said, “Nobody cares if she gets hurt or killed, and if I killed the Ruin Bringer…”
Whoever his partner was didn’t answer, or answered too quietly for me to pick it up. He strode closer to the aisle—and Nin.
He pointed the gun in her direction. Nin was behind cover but kept leaning out to look for approaching enemies. He might get lucky.
“Not on my shift.” I shot him in the shoulder.
He flew backward, hit the ground crying in pain and rolling, then jumped up. He shifted into an ocelot and sprinted at me.
I fired twice, the bullets slamming into his chest, then switched to Chopper as he reached me, springing for my face. I darted out of the way fast enough to avoid the claws slashing for my eyes, then drove my blade into his side. He screeched and crashed into the truck I’d been standing in front of. As he landed, I lunged in and pressed the tip of my sword to his throat. At the same time, I grabbed Fezzik with my left hand and aimed it toward his buddy, who was watching but hadn’t moved or drawn a weapon yet. The shifter transformed back into human form and tried to roll away, but I stepped on him and kept the blade to his throat.
“How much are the Pardus brothers paying you?” My phone was still recording in my pocket. I wasn’t sure he’d been speaking loudly enough before to pick up his words, so a confession would be nice.
“Not enough to deal with you,” he spat between pained panting breaths.
“They just want Nin out of the picture?”
“Oh, they want you dead too.”
His buddy finally moved, facing me and lifting bare hands, the palms strikingly pale, fingers long and lean. A woman’s? At first, I thought she was showing me that she was unarmed. Then a mental attack poured into my mind like a thousand fire ants burrowing through my ear canals and into my skull.
The shifter rolled away as I gasped, distracted by the pain. He turned into an ocelot again and sprinted down the aisle and out the front gate.
Snarling, I tried to fire Fezzik at the woman, but my finger didn’t want to obey. The mental attack grew stronger, more intense, and it felt like a cable was pulling my arm down as I struggled to keep the weapon aimed at the person. At the dark elf. The magic was familiar and I belatedly recognized those albino hands.
I fired, even though I was aiming at my assailant’s foot. I couldn’t force my arm up to shoot at her chest. She sprang more than ten feet in the air, avoiding the bullet that gouged a hole in the pavement, and landed lightly atop the burger truck.
The attack on my mind lessened, but she wasn’t done. She drew her hand back, as if to skip a rock.
Not a rock. I leaped sideways as a disc glinting orange with reflected firelight sped toward me. I whipped Chopper across but didn’t connect with the projectile. It slammed into the truck next to me and sank in deep.
Do not meddle in our affairs, a female voice spoke into my mind.
Your affairs? What are you doing partnering with some scruffy cat shifters?
The time of humans infesting and destroying this world is coming to the end. All who do not stand with us shall perish along with them.
Are you offering me a chance to switch sides? I wouldn’t, of course, but I was curious.
You chose your side long ago, mongrel.
“Yes, I did.” The weight pulling my arm down had faded when she shifted from a mental attack to a physical one, so I aimed Fezzik and squeezed the trigger.
But she waved her hand, and the bullets slowed as if they were flying through molasses instead of air. Before they reached her, she dropped off the other side of the truck. I sensed her run to the far fence and leap up and over.
She didn’t go the same way the shifter I’d shot had gone—nor did she head toward the one that Sindari had chased off—so maybe that meant they weren’t truly working together. Just that, for some reason, she’d lent her magic to them tonight. In exchange for a favor?
Sindari hopped over the fence as if it were three feet high instead of twelve and rejoined me. I chased the other one until he went into what I believe is called a night club. It was very noisy and filled with people. I assumed you would not want me to follow him inside.
Were service animals not allowed?
Sindari placed a heavy paw on my foot. If you’re partial to this, you’ll remember that I am not some servile animal.
If you tear off my foot, I’ll have a hard time battling dark elves.
He squinted at me. I thought I sensed an elf or dark elf. What was he doing here?
She was delivering threats.
How novel.
I thought so.
Someone honked out front. Maybe the police or fire department had finally figured out what was going on.
“You all right, Nin?” I checked on her, found her finishing hosi
ng down the last of the flames, and got a thumbs-up.
“Hello!” came a familiar call from the entrance gate.
“Back here, Dimitri.” Fairly confident we’d dealt with all the trouble—Sindari would alert me if more showed up—I stepped out into the main aisle. “Are you alone?”
“Who else would be with me?” He pushed the gate farther aside and stepped in.
“Your hot date.”
“Jeremy from the club? I haven’t had time to get together with him yet.”
“Zoltan,” I said dryly.
“He doesn’t leave the premises except to hunt, and he said he stays local for that.” Dimitri strode toward me, frowning darkly when the charred and smoking food truck came into view. “Fresh, local food. That’s his preference.” His mouth twisted. He wasn’t wearing his cervical collar, but I wagered it was still in the van.
“How fortunate for the people of Woodinville.”
“Is Nin all right?”
“Yes. Physically. Mentally, she’s probably already stressing out about disappointing her regulars when she can’t show up for the lunch hour tomorrow.”
“Maybe she can use the kitchen there, then set up a table with some warming trays.” Dimitri waved at the building, then rested a hand on the soot-covered hood of the truck.
“Do you think there’s any chance of fixing it?”
“I don’t know much about cars, so if the engine was damaged, don’t ask me. The rest…” He shrugged. “I’ll have to take a look. Do we know who did this?”
“Shifters and a dark elf. One of them confessed that the Pardus brothers paid them and didn’t care if anyone was hurt or killed. I recorded it—” I pulled my phone out, “—but I’ve been told that confessions that I extract at sword point aren’t admissible in court.”
“They’re not?”
“Some legal mumbo jumbo about duress and threats.” I shrugged indifferently.
“Have you actually been to court?”
“To testify? A few times. Colonel Willard has learned to pull strings to keep me from being subpoenaed.”
“Are you an unreliable witness?”
“I’m a sarcastic witness. I’ve been held in contempt of court three times.”
“How many times have you been in court?”
“Three.”
“I can’t believe you said I’m the surly one who shouldn’t be hand-selling my wares.”
“I’m pretty sure I just implied you weren’t quite as cute as the box of puppies next door.”
“Who is?”
“Nobody.”
Sindari came to sit by my side, his shoulder reaching as high as my shoulder. Please tell Dimitri good evening. And let him know he may pet me if he wishes.
He may? Like it’s an honor for him?
It is certainly an honor. We have discussed my status and importance among my people, and that I am essentially an ambassador here.
Ambassadors get assigned by other people, not summoned through charms.
You’ll find that, as you travel to different worlds and learn different languages, the definitions of words are nebulous and imprecise.
Are you sure? I think the definition of bullshit is universal.
That’s because you are unworldly and untraveled.
“Is he talking to you?” Dimitri looked from me to Sindari and back.
“Yeah. He says he wants you to scratch behind his ears.”
Sindari narrowed his eyes at me.
“Also that you should feel honored when you do it.”
“I always do. He’s soft.” Dimitri stepped to Sindari’s side and rubbed his ears.
Soft? Assure him that I am made from fang and sinew and akin to the hardest metal alloy your people have discovered.
“He likes belly rubs too,” I said.
I am thinking of chewing your arm off.
I need my arms to wield my weapons. Chew off something less vital, please.
A kneecap?
I’m partial to those too.
You are a difficult handler.
I know.
Sindari pretended aloof indifference to Dimitri’s behind-the-ear rub, but I caught him leaning in for better access. While this was going on, Nin came out, her face smeared with soot, her shirt torn. Her eyes were moist with tear tracks streaking her dirty cheeks. Her forlorn expression made me want to beat the crap out of the brothers’ minions again.
“Thank you for coming, Dimitri, and Val.” Nin hugged me and then hugged Dimitri. She paused and looked at Sindari. “Does your tiger like to be hugged?”
Sindari lifted his chin. She may embrace me.
“He says it’s okay.”
Nin hugged Sindari, who was looking quite pleased by all this attention.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get here in time to do anything,” Dimitri said. “I was way up in Woodinville.”
“Is the farmers market not over for the week?” Nin asked.
“Yeah, but I’m forging a new business relationship with Zoltan.”
“You will become an alchemist?”
“No. I’m assembling something for him, and he’s teaching me about building a following on social media.”
“I could teach you about these things. Your cactus shot one of my enemies in the scrotum.”
I blinked. “We usually just say balls, Nin.”
“That is imprecise. Also, it was the word yesterday on one of my word-of-the-day apps. Once I use it five times, it will be mine forever.” She nodded with the determination of one seeking to master the entire English language, including the anatomy part of it.
“What kind of word-of-the-day app pops up scrotum?” Dimitri asked.
“It is medical-themed.” Nin pulled out her phone. “Do you want the sample sentence and definition?”
“No,” Dimitri and I said together.
Outside the compound, police lights flashed, and I glimpsed a fire truck pulling up. With the spell cocooning this place lifted, the authorities must have finally learned about the incident.
“I’ll take a look at your truck while you talk to them, Nin,” Dimitri said. “I’m sure you have insurance, but I’ve done some bodywork. Maybe we can get things up and running again quickly.”
“That would be wonderful.” Nin touched her hand to her chest and smiled warmly at him. “Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to find a way to keep the brothers from attacking you yet, Nin,” I apologized softly. “This is unacceptable. I’m going to do something tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Val. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you. Like paying you.” She raised her eyebrows.
I held out a hand. “No payment, but I could use some magical armor if you have time to work on it. There are officially more days in the week now where I’m being shot at than when I’m not.”
“Oh yes. I would be pleased to make you something. Lightweight, yes? That is important.”
“Very much so.”
“I have some prototypes, but I will design something new for you.”
“Thank you.” I would still insist on paying her for her time and the materials, but I didn’t mention it now, since she looked relieved to have something to trade.
Another vehicle rolled up outside the gate, and a car door slammed shut.
I patted Sindari. You better disappear before the police see you.
Your people need to learn to accept that there are many beings that exist beyond those native to your world.
Yes, they do. But not tonight.
As he faded into nothingness, I braced myself for the inevitable questions. I was tempted to disappear as well, but I wanted to make sure they didn’t give Nin a hard time about anything. She had a permit for the food truck, but my understanding was that one couldn’t get permitted for selling magical weapons since the government didn’t admit that magic existed. Everything in the back compartment of her truck was hush-hush.
I endured the police questioning with a m
inimal amount of sarcasm. It wasn’t their fault they had shown up late. The sorcerous dark elf had been the problem, and it worried me more than a little that she’d been working with the Pardus brothers’ thugs.
Tomorrow, I vowed, I would figure out how to deal with them. One way or another.
17
As soon as I left Wilmot Gateway Park in Woodinville, jogging along the trail toward the section looking across the river to the Pardus brothers’ mobile-home park, I activated my cloaking charm. A bicyclist heading in my direction swerved, face screwing up in confusion as I seemed to disappear to his eyes, but shrugged and continued past. I ran to the side of the paved trail so I wouldn’t be in anybody’s way.
Freeway traffic zipped by to my right, but my attention was focused to the left, across the water. I hadn’t wanted to risk driving through the neighborhood—the charm would only camouflage me, not my Jeep—and this would make it more difficult for the shifters to give chase if they somehow detected me. They would have to come after me on foot and go for a swim first.
As the house came into view, half hidden behind brush and trees in the little lot’s back yard, I sensed the auras of the brothers and… eight more magical beings. My shoulders slumped. What were they doing? Running an Airbnb for shifters?
After last night, I ached to take those two jerks down, but I couldn’t fight that many shifters, and definitely not on their own turf. By now, the brothers had to expect me, and they’d likely added magical fortifications.
I could still sense the aura of a magical being in the mysterious basement that shouldn’t have existed, but it seemed weaker now. The memory of the plaintive call for help came to mind, and I longed to go over there and rescue whoever was down there. If I’d spotted a window or entrance to the basement, I might have tried sneaking in, but there wasn’t anything visible to indicate there even was a basement. The entrance had to be in the house.
A spotted leopard wandered out the back door and onto the unkempt lawn. I didn’t know if he’d been assigned patrol duty or was going out to take a leak, but the shifter’s presence deterred me from thoughts of rescues. At least for the moment. I had to figure out a way to even the odds first.
Battle Bond: An Urban Fantasy Dragon Series (Death Before Dragons Book 2) Page 15