Song of Midnight Embers

by Dana Marie Bell

  Greer nodded, but Mollie wasn’t certain if he was bowing to the mayor’s will or simply placating his queen’s mate. Either way, she had the feeling Greer would do what he wanted anyway. It seemed he always did.

  “Trust me, Greer. This will get you into places you normally wouldn’t have access to without having to come and see me first.” Dragos tapped the table. “And I know you’ll use this power as only you can.”

  Greer’s head snapped up. “Oh?”

  Dragos nodded. Whether or not he knew, he’d given Greer permission to do what was necessary in front of witnesses. If it ever came out that Greer was forced to kill someone, he could point to Dragos’s official sanction, at least during this investigation. “I think we understand one another, yes, Greer?”

  For the first time since hearing the news that Allan might have died first, Greer’s smile was genuine. “Yes, Dragos.”

  “Good.” Dragos pointed toward his office door. “I’ll remain in touch with all five of you. I expect results, my friends. Don’t disappoint me.”

  The elementals all stood, even Zander, bowing respectfully to Dragos. “Don’t worry, Methuselah, we’ve got this.”

  Of course, he had to put his own twist on respectful. Mollie kept herself from laughing as Dragos growled again. “You aren’t allowed to play with Eddy anymore.”

  “Aw, man.” Zander pouted on his way out of the office. “He has cookies.”

  “Out.” Frisco pushed Zander out the door. “See you, Dragos.”

  Rock simply nodded farewell and walked out.

  “Oh, and Greer?”

  Mollie stopped, eyeing the two men warily.

  “Yes?”

  “If you do find the man behind making my Mina hurt, I want him to suffer.” A chill went down Mollie’s spine as she noticed that Dragos’s eyes hadn’t returned to normal.

  Greer’s seemingly nonchalant grin returned. “It will be my pleasure.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The next morning, Mollie and Greer headed for Dr. Kogon’s office. “What do you think we’ll find?” she asked.

  Greer shrugged. No matter what they found, he had his marching orders, and he couldn’t agree with them more. The bastards would pay, one way or another. “I think we’ll see a lot of dead people.”

  “Ass.” Mollie grunted and stared out the window. “I’m not looking forward to this, you know.”

  Greer patted her hand. Mollie was shaking, terrified of what they’d find. He had to ease her somehow, make this less damaging. He could think of only one way to do that. He just hoped it didn’t backfire on him. “Think of it as the circle of life. Disgusting, stinky, fluid-filled life.”

  She made a disgusted noise, but the frown she kept trying to throw him wouldn’t form. “That’s revolting.”

  He almost laughed at the faces she was making. “As gross as it sounds, it’s something dryads have to deal with all the time. Animals that die of natural causes, or getting into something they shouldn’t have, or any number of reasons. We give them what burials we can, but we still find them and are still forced to deal with them.”

  “Good point.” The sympathy as she turned back to him was almost too much.

  It was better than the shaking had been, but still not good enough. She needed to be able to view Lily’s remains with her wits about her. She had to look beyond the person to the body. “It’s going to be pretty nasty. Maybe even a bit gooey.”

  She gagged and turned away from him again. “Let me out of the damn car.”

  “Nope.” He pulled up in front of the hospital, the only one in town. “Okay, now you can get out.”

  She did, scrambling out of the car like he’d let go a burrito fart. “You’re disgusting.”

  “Have I mentioned the smell?” He laughed as she began smacking him. “Stop!”

  “Not until you do.” Mollie kicked him in the shin, the impact less than she’d probably hoped due to her flip-flops being made out of foam. “I will seriously end you.”

  “Yes, my mate.” He bowed deeply.

  “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” She paused beside the car, staring straight ahead at the automatic doors that led into the hospital. “Looked at a corpse to find...something you didn’t want to know.”

  “Yes.” He wouldn’t lie to her about that.

  “Any advice?”

  He thought about that for a moment and decided to give her the best advice he could. “It’s not her anymore. What made Lily a person is gone now. All that’s left on that metal slab is justice, and the only way to give her what she deserves now is to look at her corpse and seek out her killer, not her.” He shot her a quick, grim smile. “And find something to block the smell.”

  “Ugh.” She tilted her chin up and marched in front of him into the hospital. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Greer followed her. Hopefully they’d be in and out, and he’d be able to take his mate...

  Greer froze. There was a tingling in the back of his mind, a whispered warning from the bushes around the entrance. Something was dangerously wrong. Worse, Mollie was already inside, waiting impatiently for him.

  He held up his finger, asking for a moment as he tried to pinpoint what it was nature was trying to tell him.

  The warnings were vague, but the birds were agitated, the insects equally so. A bee buzzed by him, hurrying home to its hive. The flies were gathering, as if they expected a feast.

  The ornamental trees that had been planted around the hospital were the worst, though. They were screaming in his mind, but their feelings were chaotic. Whatever had them terrified had to be...

  Shit. Fire. The only thing Greer could think of that would send a tree into a panic was the thought of fire scorching its bark, darkening its roots and pulling all of the moisture out of it until it was nothing but a blackened husk of what it used to be. Worse, one of the trees had a dryad, a nurse in the hospital if Greer was remembering correctly. Greer strode for the front doors, aware that whatever was going on, one of his people was in danger. He took hold of Mollie’s biceps and guided her toward the front desk. “Something has been warning me of danger.”

  Mollie nodded, smiling at the receptionist. “We have an appointment to see Dr. Kogon.”

  “Names, please?”

  “Greer Berkley and Mollie Ferguson.”

  “One moment.”

  Greer pulled Mollie back slightly. “I think they’re afraid of fire, but I’m not certain.”

  “Shit.” Mollie grimaced. “The djinn?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not taking any chances. One of the trees out there is dryad-born.” Greer glanced around, wondering if the dryad was there right now, or if he or she was elsewhere, possibly with a family. He needed to get more in touch with the town dryads. He didn’t know them nearly as well as the ones who chose forest homes.

  They’d kept themselves back from the town, and this was the result. He couldn’t tell where one of his people was when the person’s tree was right outside.

  “Dr. Kogon will see you now.” The receptionist smiled and pointed. “Head down the hallway, take the elevator down to sub-level one and make a right. The doors to the coroner’s lab are right there.”

  “Thank you.” This time it was Mollie who grabbed him, leading him to the bank of elevators behind reception. “We’ll deal with it when we find it, Greer. We can’t unless we can pinpoint the source of the threat.”

  He glared at a plastic plant sitting next to the elevators. “If they had living greenery in here, it would make things easier.” A damn plastic piece of garbage couldn’t tell Greer shit. It just sat there, looking shiny and fake.

  Yuck.

  He totally got why some people found mannequins creepy. They were plastic people, with plastic faces and no real
expressions. This imitation plant was freaky in its realness, but without roots and sun, it was nothing but a poor imitation of the real thing.

  The elevator arrived, and Greer and Mollie stepped in, pressing the button for Dr. Kogon’s lab. “You okay?”

  “I hate plastic plants.” Greer grimaced, wondering if he could sneak in at some point and replace the plastic monstrosity with a nice fern.

  “Me too. They just don’t smell right.” Mollie wrinkled her nose in disgust.

  His mate worked at The Greenhouse, a home for endangered plant life. Everyone had wondered why such a fierce fire elemental would work around plant life, but Greer now understood it completely. She’d been looking for common ground with him, and he’d never realized it because his ass was dumb as fuck. “I know what you mean.”

  The doors swooshed open, and Mollie once again took the lead, following the directions the receptionist had given them. Mollie knocked on Dr. Kogon’s office door, entering at the sound of a muffled scream.

  “Dr. Kogon?”

  In a flash, Greer had Mollie behind him. Dr. Kogon was gasping, his hands clutching his head, his skin glowing a brilliant red. Greer could almost count his blood vessels, he was so filled with light.

  Mollie put her hand out, and Greer could feel the heat pouring off the doctor as she drew it into herself. She controlled it, taking it from the doctor’s flesh and diffusing it, cooling him down.

  Greer rushed forward and picked up the phone, searching the desktop for the number of the emergency room. When someone picked up, he barked out, “Dr. Kogon’s been attacked. We need a stretcher down here immediately, and I’d contact the burn unit.”

  Mollie groaned. “It’s too much, Greer.”

  He turned to find his mate...

  Holy.

  Shit.

  Mollie was on fire. Her blond hair flickered with red flames. Her gaze was burning, the cool blue eyes a bright, flickering red. Her flesh was lit from within as the flames danced up and down her arms and legs. Her torso smoked as her little sundress burned away in a flash.

  “Add a pair of scrubs to that, please.” Greer hung up. “You can do this, Mollie. You can do anything.”

  She was concentrating so hard on the doctor she barely acknowledged his words.

  Greer watched as his mate did battle with an enemy only she could sense, the knowledge that he was helpless in the face of her pain driving him to the brink. He glanced at Dr. Kogon, who now lay slumped over his desk, his skin scorched and blackened in spots and his breathing choppy. “If you can hear me, asshole, know this. You’ll never see me coming.”

  Before he could say anything else, the doors were slammed open and the emergency room crew entered. A security guard tried to force Mollie to her knees but cried out when contact with her flesh burned him.

  “Leave her alone. She saved him.” Greer got between security and Mollie, whose flame was only now beginning to die down. “She drew the fire from him.” He grabbed the scrubs one of the techs tossed to him and held them out to Mollie, never once taking his eyes from the security guard who was still glaring at her. “Put these on, sweetheart.”

  Mollie’s hand shook, but she took the scrubs. “Thanks.”

  While Mollie got dressed, Greer glanced at the doctors checking Dr. Kogon. “How is he?”

  “Critical.” The ER doc glanced at the others. “Let’s get him on the gurney.”

  “You should know—” Mollie’s weary voice was briefly muffled by the shirt going over her head, “—the fire attacked his brain.”

  “Fuck me.” The ER doc grimaced. “Poor bastard. Let’s get him a CT scan and an MRI. I want to know the full extent of the damage. I want a large bore IV...”

  Greer tuned them out. “You think he’s dead?”

  Mollie’s expression was so sad he had to hug her. “Yes. We didn’t get here fast enough.”

  “We got here in time to stop Dr. Kogon from turning out like Lily Wulfenbach.” Greer tightened his hold on her as she began to shake. “We’ll find him.”

  “You warned me there was danger. We should have suspected this.” Mollie’s shaking intensified, scaring the hell out of Greer. “We should have known they’d go after Dr. Kogon.”

  “I didn’t even realize he might be on their radar.” Greer stroked her back, amazed at how warm she still was.

  “It’s powerful, Greer. So strong.” Her teeth started to chatter, and Greer gestured for one of the ER techs to come and check her out. “And it’s not a djinn.”

  “Then what was it, sweetheart?” He took Mollie’s arm and held it out for the tech, who began taking her blood pressure.

  She lifted her head off his shoulder, tears in her eyes. “The demon did this.”

  * * *

  “She needs fluids and rest, but I think she’ll be just fine.”

  The unknown voice woke Mollie out of a deep sleep. She tried to twist onto her side, grumbling under her breath, but a sharp, painful tug on her arm stopped her short. She opened her eyes to see an IV attached to her left arm, and beyond that the rails of a hospital bed.

  Aw, shit. The memories of fighting the fire inside Dr. Kogon came back with a rush, painful and terrifying. She’d only felt that power once before, and that had been when she’d helped Ash defeat the shadow that had haunted Selena. Hell, each of the rulers had helped, lending Ash their power so he could defend his mate from the demon that had hurt her.

  This time it had only been Mollie fighting the demon, and it had sapped all of her strength just to stop it from completely destroying Dr. Kogon. No doubt the man had been brain dead before she’d even got there, but she hoped she’d at least given the other coroners a chance to investigate his body. Maybe they could find something, anything, that would help identify the type of demon they were dealing with.

  How had it gained access to him? Like Lily, he wasn’t one of the kidnap victims, but unlike Lily, he’d been integral to the autopsies performed on their dead. Could he have been contaminated in some way?

  “Mollie?” A warm hand touched her brow. She turned, her gaze meeting the worried one of Greer. “How are you feeling?”

  “My head is floating, and my body aches like hell.” She winced, her head light. She almost didn’t give a crap that her body felt like an overdone hot dog, all crispy on the outside and curdled on the inside. “What drugs did they give me?”

  “Mostly fluids and a sedative. You kind of freaked out there at the end.”

  She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. “Dr. Kogon is dead.”

  “Yeah.” Greer’s soft voice was soothing. “There was nothing more you could have done.”

  She nodded, not entirely convinced. “If we’d gotten here earlier, he might have lived.”

  “True, but we got here when we did. We were on time for our appointment, and that’s all anyone could have expected of us.”

  “Ms. Ferguson, we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  The look Greer shot over her head was lethal. “Let her rest. She can talk to you later.”

  “No.” Mollie struggled to sit up. “I want to get it over with while the memory’s fresh.”

  Greer helped her, still scowling at the two officers standing at her bedside. “Keep it short.”

  One officer nodded respectfully. “Yes, sir.” He must be a dryad if he was responding to Greer that way.

  “Go ahead.” Mollie leaned back gratefully when Greer raised the bed’s back. “What do you want to know?”

  “You said you had an appointment to meet with Dr. Kogon,” the second officer asked. “What was that for?”

  Mollie and Greer exchanged a quick glance. “It was something we were doing for Mayor Ibanescu. He’s investigating the deaths of Lily and Allan Wulfenbach, and we were to meet with Dr. Kogon for the autopsy re
sults.”

  The first officer nodded, but the second one frowned. “You were under arrest for Lily’s murder not that long ago. Why would the mayor ask you to look into her death?”

  “Maybe because he knew she was innocent.”

  Uh-oh. Greer was giving the second officer that smile. She put her hand over his clenched fist and tried to silently soothe him. “Look. Lore knows I’m innocent. That should be enough for you.”

  The first cop was staring at his partner in confusion, but the second didn’t seem to give a shit that his boss thought Mollie innocent. “Ms. Ferguson, can you tell me what happened when you walked into Dr. Kogon’s office?”

  Mollie nodded, instantly regretting it. Man, she had to get something to counteract the sedatives still in her system. “We got there, and I saw Dr. Kogon holding his head. He was glowing from the inside, and I knew he was being attacked by something that wielded fire.”

  “What did you do?” The second cop, or Good Cop as she was beginning to think of him, was questioning her with a mild voice and a sympathetic air, the complete opposite of Bad Cop.

  “I tried to pull the fire out of him. I was hoping I could save him, but I was too late.”

  “What makes you think he’s dead?” The Bad Cop was eyeing her with suspicion.

  “Because no one could sustain that kind of heat and survive it.” She shuddered, the knowledge of what must have happened filling her with horror. “His brain had to be cooked.”

  The Bad Cop started to speak again but was cut off by the Good Cop. “You’re right. And since nothing but the doctor was burned, we’re assuming it was the same killer as the one who struck Lily Wulfenbach.”

  Mollie nodded. “I’d assume the same.”

  “So you agree that you’re our prime suspect?” Bad Cop asked.

  “Really?” she whined. “Not this again.”

  Greer pulled out his cell. “Should I call Lore and let you speak to him? Or Dragos? We arrived after he started burning. You can ask the receptionist what time we got here. She should be able to corroborate our story. Or look at the damn security tapes. I’m sure there’s at least one camera trained on the hospital’s parking lot.”