by Ciara Graves
I remembered it well enough. All I needed now was to get my magic to work.
Rafael and the others needed to know we didn’t have as long as we thought. Shuval was going to force the Blood Moon to rise, whether we were ready or not.
I had to reach them. I had to let them know before it was too late.
Before Shuval turned me into a freaking monster.
“I’m here, Rafael, I’m right here,” I whispered to the empty room, shutting my eyes again. “Just come and find me. Please. Don’t be late. Don’t you dare be late.”
Chapter 4
Rafael
“Are you sure this is going to work?”
Gigi had set up a circle of candles in the middle of my apartment. Damian and Horace were here, as were Bowen, Mercy’s vampire bouncer friend, and Todd, the ghost Mercy had killed.
After Damian and I helped Governor Rickshaw and Nor bury the deceased in Sector 7, we were told to wait for more instructions.
This was an order from on high, Nor reminded me as I left the Fed building that day. I wasn’t supposed to follow any more leads or look for Mercy on my own.
We would have a face-to-face with the Hunters in a couple of days, and he wanted me alive for it. Oh, and not covered in the blood of whatever evil bastards I managed to get my hands.
I didn’t say agree to this arrangement, letting him believe I was going to keep myself occupied otherwise.
If he knew what we were up to tonight, I had no doubt he’d pull the plug and then proceed to rip me and Damian a new one for disobeying his orders to not follow any leads or look for Mercy.
Would I have listened to him? Probably not, but it didn’t help that Gigi had texted me late yesterday to say she found another tracking spell she wanted to try.
That had pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn’t follow Nor’s orders.
Gigi’d said the spell had to be performed in a location where the target of the spell had experienced intense emotions.
This, alone, made my place the best option. It was here we’d officially first met. And here, we had our first major fight that ended with my pulling a gun on her. And here, where we both finally admitted we couldn’t live without one another. It was here we spent our time together.
I blew out a heavy breath, then froze when I sensed a hand on my cheek. The touch was familiar and comforting. I shut my eyes, feeling Mercy near me. It was like I could reach out and touch her. I raised my hand to my face, holding it to my cheek.
Why the long face?
I flinched at the sound of her voice in my mind. That’s not really her. It couldn’t be. If it were, she’d be telling me where she was and how to get to her, not asking me why I look pissed off.
I’m going to find you, I thought to the voice anyway. I promise it.
The touch on my cheek turned urgent, and the voice was shaky in my mind. Running out of time… can’t… see you… Rafael…
My eyes shot open. “Mercy.”
Bowen and Damian were eyeing me.
I looked back at them. “What?”
Bowen hissed. “Why did you say her name?”
I glanced around, but Mercy wasn’t here. I let out a shaky breath, running a hand through my hair at the same time. “I heard her voice just now. Inside my head. Was certain I felt her hand—it’s nothing. Probably the rage talking,” I mumbled and gave myself a hard headshake.
“Is this the first time it’s happened when you’ve been awake?” Damian asked. “What did she say?”
Gigi was busy working with the circle, but the way she tilted her head said she was listening. I didn’t want them all thinking I was going mad, but Damian didn’t look like he was going to back down.
“No, not the first time,” I admitted. “I catch a whiff of apples every now and then.”
Damian frowned.
Bowen told him quietly, “Her shampoo. She always smells of apples.”
My jealousy sparked for a second until I squashed it down. “And just now I heard her voice telling me she couldn’t see me, and something about running out of time.”
Damian’s eyes turned calculating as he walked to the windows then back to us. “The spell.”
“What spell? Are you saying that was her?” I demanded, my heart lifting.
“There’s a chance she’s trying to reach out to you from wherever she is. I taught her a spell to use in emergencies. It’s a way to let someone know where you are, pull you to them. She only ever used it once,” he explained in a mad rush. “She might not even realize she’s getting through, but this is good. This is the sign we needed.”
A sign. I wanted more than a damned freaking sign. I wanted Mercy back in my arms. I wanted to turn back the clock three weeks and not let her leave. I wanted to end this fight against Shuval before it ever began.
But all I got was a sign that Mercy was alive. Since she was able to reach me, even a little, then at least her power wasn’t bound. That was a surprise. I’d expected her to be on magic lockdown.
“I’m ready,” Gigi announced, standing in the center of the circle. She whispered a spell and the candles lit up. “Everyone, if you would stand around the circle where I showed you. Even you, Todd,” she added when the ghost hovered toward the far corner of the living room.
“I’m not her friend,” he pointed out, “not really. And I’m dead.”
“Which is why you can help. And if you’re not her friend, why do you keep sticking around?” Gigi’s brow went up with her question.
Todd shrugged then floated toward the outer edge of the circle. “Still not sure what I can help with.”
“Mercy killed you,” Gigi told him plainly. “She went against her moral code. That is an emotional link to you that will never break. Trust me, you are all here because of that kind of link. Horace, if you could just stand by and keep an eye on us?”
Horace saluted her with a tap of his fingers to his forehead then backed away. He crossed his arms, body tense and ready for action.
“You sure this is safe?” I asked.
“Yeah, you guys will be fine.”
“Gigi, I meant, is it safe for you? Mercy won’t be happy if she finds out you hurt yourself trying to find her.”
She hesitated, then bobbed her head. “I’ll be fine. Really. Not a big deal. Just have to, you know, use a drop of blood, or a few drops, and then hope this doesn’t backfire and steal my magic. Nothing to worry about.”
“Wait. What?” I snapped.
Damian shook his head.
Bowen hissed in protest.
“You can’t do this,” Bowen said urgently and took a step toward the circle.
Gigi threw her hand out, and a rush of air pushed him back, keeping him away from her. “You all have been risking your lives to find her,” she argued hotly. “I’m doing this, and you can either help or get out. That’s the deal. I should’ve known Val was evil and I didn’t. This one’s on me.”
It was on all of us for believing Val was innocent, but we’d had this argument several times over the last few weeks. I didn’t argue with her on that point again.
Bowen gave me a pleading look to do something, but Gigi was right. I hadn’t wanted to put her life in danger, not after all she’d been through, but Mercy risked her life to save Gigi. If we stopped Gigi from doing the same to find Mercy, she’d never forgive us.
Especially if Mercy… No. I wasn’t even going to go there.
Mercy was alive. She was still alive. She had to be.
“Just tell us what to do,” I finally said.
Bowen hissed louder but shut up when Gigi shot him a glare. She glanced toward Damian and Todd, too, but neither spoke out against her plan.
Gigi sat in the center of the circle, not wearing one of her brightly colored dresses for once. Instead, she was dressed all in white. There were even several white ribbons woven through her braided hair.
She dragged a wooden tray in front of her. On it was a silver chalice, a dagger, another bowl filled with some
off-white powder, and another that was filled with a dark, brown liquid. It gave off the sweet scent of vanilla and something else I couldn’t place. Smelled familiar though, like it came from Gigi’s shop. The last item was a bundle of hair pulled from Mercy’s hairbrush.
“This isn’t dark magic, right?” Damian asked as Gigi shut her eyes.
“No, but it’s pretty damned close. Now, I need you all to be quiet, stay right where you are, and link hands. No letting go until I say so, got it?”
I held out my hands to either side of me. Bowen and Damian did the same, and we created a second circle around the lit candles. Bowen’s nervous energy shot from him to me. Damian remained still as a statue. Todd didn’t seem sure what he should do at first, but held out his hands, too. Damian and Bowen connected to him, and a burst of warmth shot through all of us.
A visible circle of light flowed from one to the other as a static charge filled my apartment.
Eyes closed, Gigi reached for the dagger and sliced it down the palm of her left hand. She squeezed the wound, not wincing at all. Blood dripped into the silver chalice. It sizzled as if the chalice was hot, then began to smoke. Gigi held her sliced palm over it, cutting off the steam. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. She set down the dagger and reached for the bowl with the liquid.
The light within our circle pulsed. It was slow at first, then increased when Gigi splashed the liquid into the chalice, letting it run over her open wound.
This time she did wince, and her shoulders stiffened. She fumbled over the words, and the candles flickered. The lights went out a second later. A chill breeze whipped around the outside of the circle.
“Gigi,” Damian said quietly.
If she heard him, she didn’t show it. Her speech grew louder, but the words were in some guttural language. It was old, very old.
Bowen’s grip on my hand tightened.
I grunted.
The crackling power closed in, pressing us closer to the circle of candles. Even Todd was having issues; his body shimmered in and out of focus, though his hands remained visible the whole time.
Gigi reached for the powder. She took a pinch of it, then threw it into the silver chalice.
The second she did, her head was thrown back violently, and the candle flames exploded upward. I had a half-second to wonder how the candles still remained what with the size of those flames, when a jolt shot through my body.
My eyes opened wide, but I wasn’t looking at the ceiling of my apartment.
I saw Mercy.
The first time I met her played out in front of me, back when she hid her true face from me. The passion behind that first impromptu kiss became so real in my mind that it was like it happened all over again.
The image disappeared and was replaced with the first time we made out, clinging to each other like the rest of the world didn’t matter.
Her laughter surrounded me as that image faded, only to be replaced by another, then another after that. Mercy’s face was in each memory.
Through the whirlwind of memories flashing before my open eyes, I spotted Gigi reaching for the strands of Mercy’s hair. She added them to the chalice, placing her hands over the top.
More steam issued out of the chalice.
The last of the words she shouted were lost as a strange wind picked up, gusting around us as though a storm had manifested inside the walls. The pulsing light within our circle shot toward the center where Gigi sat, then swirled into a column of pure light. It struck the ceiling.
As Gigi fell silent, watching the spectacle with a hopeful look on her face, the light made a shrieking sound, so powerful, I thought my ears would bleed.
The shrieking turned into a thunderous roar, almost as if there was a dragon amongst us.
Then the light shot toward us, blocking Gigi from sight, slamming me into the wall.
Damian struck the couch, tipping it over, taking Horace with him on the way.
Bowen ended up being flung over the kitchen counter and into the fridge, denting the door.
Todd simply disappeared.
“Gigi?” I called out. Her name came out garbled. I coughed, working to get air back into my lungs.
My back in excruciating pain from being rammed into the wall, I scrambled to get to the circle.
The candles were melted blobs of wax on the floor. Gigi was on her back in the center of them.
“No, Gigi, wake up, damn it,” I yelled, louder than I meant to.
She shot upright with a gasp. “Shit,” she groaned, rubbing her forehead. “Ouch. That really, really freaking hurts.” A few more choice words came out of her mouth that caught me off-guard.
“Such language. You’ve been friends with Mercy too long,” Damian uttered. “Bowen? Todd? You good?” He and Horace supported each other as they stumbled toward us then sank to the floor.
“Not like I can die again,” Todd muttered as his body manifested a few feet away from Damian.
“Same,” Bowen hissed as he used the counter to haul his ass back up. “Think I killed the fridge.”
Gigi picked over what remained of the silver chalice and the ingredients. The chalice was cracked in several places.
“Just a fridge.” I sat on the floor near her. “I’m going to assume that wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“No.” She slammed the tray against the floor. “Not even close.”
“The spell not work?” Bowen asked, joining the rest of us in what remained of my living room.
The furniture was all pretty much shot to hell. The floor was scorched, as was the ceiling. I was going to have a hell of a time explaining this damage to the landlord.
“No, the spell worked just fine,” Gigi ranted. “It would’ve led us to Mercy.”
“But?” I said.
Gigi hung her head. “But Shuval’s magic is too strong. Probably because it’s being bolstered by the hybrids she created. I can’t find her, Rafael. I can’t find Mercy, and I don’t know what else I can try that isn’t dark magic. I’m sorry. I’m so damned sorry.”
“You tried. That’s what matters.”
“No, it’s not,” she snapped. “She’d be ready to cross that line to get to any of us and I… I just can’t. Maybe there’s a way, if I’m careful, if I just use a little—”
I grabbed her by her shoulders and forced her to look at me. “Mercy would not want you to taint your magic by using darkness to find her. You are not to try it, understand? Onyx wanted me to look out for you, and I’m damned sure Mercy would too,” I told her firmly. “We’ll find her, Gigi. We will, but not with you crossing that line. Leave that to me and the others. We can handle the consequences.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied my face. “Can you?”
Without responding I let her go and stood. I’d been handling killing all those hybrids just fine. I wasn’t going to let myself feel guilty for taking so many lives until I had Mercy back and Shuval was dead.
After a few minutes, Gigi gathered her things and said she was heading out, but to keep her updated on any news. Bowen promised her we would. The door closed a few seconds later.
I waited impatiently for the rest of them to clear out, leaving me alone for another night.
“We’ll be meeting with the Hunters in two days,” Damian reminded me.
“It’s not going to go well.”
“Don’t have a choice. Governor Rickshaw wants us there so we can speak on behalf of the dragonborn about to be dragged out of hiding.”
“Any news on whether we’re getting full government aid against Shuval?” Bowen asked.
“Yeah, that’d be the day,” Damian muttered darkly. “They still don’t think there’s enough proof to support our theory of another war starting soon. Or that she’s using the ley lines and has killed so many people already. She’s covered her tracks too damned well. By the time they decide it’s real, it’ll be too late.”
“Then it’s on us to stop her.” Bowen’s cell beeped. He pulled it out. “Damn
.”
“Problems?” Damian asked.
He nodded. “The guards at the house have seen activity in the woods. I don’t know yet if it’s some stupid human or Shuval’s spies. Either way, she’s going to make a move for the artifacts soon.”
“Do we have another safe location?”
Damian and Bowen shrugged.
“Maybe,” the vampire said. “But moving them will make them vulnerable to being stolen. Besides, she might not know where they are yet. As I said, I have no idea who’s stalking my place.”
“Rufus would’ve had a location,” Damian said quietly. “Shit, why did he have to turn on us?”
As much as I hated the goblin for making Mercy kill him, Damian was right. He would’ve had a plan, a way to keep the artifacts safe.
“We might have to destroy them. There could be no other choice,” I suggested.
Damian’s lips thinned, but he nodded. “Bowen?”
“If it stops Shuval from getting her hands on them, I’ll find a way to see it done. You’ll tell me how the meeting with the Hunters goes? And when we have any leads on Shuval?”
I nodded.
He blurred out of the apartment.
Todd saluted us and disappeared.
Damian and Horace didn’t linger much longer. Damian asked me once more if I was good for the night.
I grunted something that passed for a reply.
The brothers headed for the door, but paused as Horace opened it.
“Don’t mention Mercy when we meet with the Hunters,” Damian warned. “Focus on Shuval only. We’ll deal with the rest of the dragonborn once we’ve established if the Hunters are going to work with us. I’m not even sure if the dragonborn are willing to fight yet. Most of them are too scared to think of anything but saving themselves and their families.”