by Alisha Basso
He took my hand and walked with me to the front door.
“Goodbye, Lily.”
He started to turn away, and I swallowed, the thick pulse in my throat nearly strangling me. “Talon, wait.”
He paused with his hand on the doorknob. I walked to him, reaching up to remove one of the crystal studs in my ear. Olivia had given them to me, and they were my favorites. I slipped it through the vacant hole in his ear and secured it. It just seemed right that he have one of the studs and I the other.
I rose up and pressed a lingering kiss to his jaw. “What does ana’astar mean in English?”
He looked at me and blinked several times, regret, duty, honor, and appreciation in his gaze, direct and sincere. He brushed his hand over my cheek. “Sweetheart,” he answered huskily.
Then he was gone.
“You weren’t kidding, Lily. That guy is trouble. So, we’re not under arrest or anything?”
“No. We have an understanding.”
“I bet you do,” he said wistfully and I wondered at the underlying sadness there.
I didn’t look at Nock. I couldn’t. I stood there for a moment, miserable with the injustice of it. I didn’t care for Talon Sunstrike. I couldn’t let myself. He was the enemy and could destroy me, hurt my friends and my business. But why did I feel as if he’d left part of his heart inside me, as physical and as real as one of the crystal studs I had given him only moments ago?
Chapter Thirteen
I walked back to my bedroom intending to strip the sheets and eradicate the heady smell of Talon for my own peace of mind. It had already been done. I could hear the washing machine. My room had also been cleaned.
Suddenly, Nock popped in. For once he didn’t say anything, just wrapped his arms around my leg and leaned against me. I reached down and curved my hand over his head.
“Thank you, Nock.”
“I didn’t do nothin’,” he mumbled. “Must’ve been those damn non-existent house elves.”
“Of course,” I said, letting the twisted feelings go. I had things I needed to do. “What day is it, Nock?”
“Three days later than when you went after Styx.”
“Hell’s bells,” I said, and he looked up at me. “I missed the McCarthy job! Dammit. I needed the money, not to mention I didn’t even contact her.”
His arm tightened around my leg. “Don’t worry. It was taken care of.”
“What?” I said. “You can’t cook. Who did the job?”
“Aunt Tilly,” he said proudly. “And, believe me, they were extremely happy with the meal.”
I was just getting my business up and running again. Word of mouth was so valuable and could be so cruel. I was in debt to Nock’s aunt. “Oh, thank goddess.”
“Oh” he added smugly, “and we now have another standing order for our cream puffs.”
I smiled, feeling lighter all of a sudden, cheered by the good news. I was glad I’d saved Talon’s life, but I was also very worried about what it might cost me.
“Great,” I said. We can certainly use the business, but it means we’re going to have to use—”
He reached up and covered my mouth. “Don’t say it. I know it’s a necessity, but just don’t say it out loud.”
We separated and I knelt down. “I’m going to check out the address for you-know-who.”
“The garbled name.” He shifted, looking worried. “Lily, maybe you should talk to the OS.”
“No, they can’t help me. I have to do this alone.” I ruffled his hair. “Stop worrying. I just healed a fae from two vampire bites. What’s a rogue mage or two after that?”
“Don’t get cocky,” he said with deep sarcasm, but I heard his affection. My heart contracted.
#
I was relieved the address wasn’t in Haven’s End. I’d had enough of that place to last me the rest of my life. Plus, I didn’t want to run into Styx or the enigmatic, russet-eyed man. Wondering who he was, I still reeled over the fact that Cole Bleak was in the Order of the Third Eye. I had thought the stitching on his cuffs was familiar. The address was in St. Paul, though. Not far from the Order’s stronghold, the converted Cathedral of St. Paul.
“We have no way of knowing if he’s there or not,” Nock said. “Want me to go check it out?”
My gut clenched and I rubbed my hand over his head absently, thinking. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. He was doing all this stuff on my behalf. “No, I’ll go myself. You stay here and rest. Sounds like you’ve been very busy while I was…”
“Boffing your FDA dust hound.”
I smacked the back of his silky head, and he said, “Ouch,” and rubbed it. “That wasn’t nice.”
I gave him a warning look. “Watch your gremlin side, then, little man.”
“Was the fae good in bed?” he taunted, dancing away. “I heard they were, using all their magic to…”
“I don’t kiss and tell,” I said. “How about Rena? How is she?”
He screwed up his face. “I’m not interested in her. There’s someone…oooh… you mean witch. ”
“Mean witch…” I said, threat in my voice. Nock had a…girlfriend? Love interest? Or did he mean something else.
He broke off and went invisible when I took a step towards him. I swore softly, my sore heart aching, and had to once again push all thoughts of Talon and how wonderful he’d been into the deep recesses of my heart and mind.
I looked at the address again. Nock had set my dragonscale armor, once again in its silk covering, on the dresser. Since I was going after a very dangerous mage, one who worked with runic magic and goddess knew what else, it would be prudent to wear it.
Luckily Talon wasn’t lurking outside when I left. He was probably at the FDA getting his ass chewed for not checking in. Lucky break for me. I jumped in my T-bird, drove over to St. Paul and parked at the curb. The neighborhood was quiet, no kids, no traffic, no movement. My heart pounded a bit as I approached the big Victorian house.
The front door was splintered and hanging off its hinges. I looked around, my senses tingling. What the hell had happened here? I heard nothing except the sound of the wind in the trees.
I took the first step, alert to any danger, my blood rushing in my ears. Ever since the Break, death could come swiftly and unexpectedly. There were things walking this plane way more dangerous than a rogue mage.
At the entrance to the house, I paused and listened again, but again heard nothing. Stepping over the threshold, I stopped. The smell nearly gagged me, a stench of old blood and death. I took a deep breath and stepped into the foyer. Gore was everywhere, as though several people had been killed right in the foyer. The walls were splashed with a lot of blood, and I seriously considered just turning around and leaving until I noticed a door ajar and light filtering through it.
I walked closer, throwing a quick glance over my shoulder before widening the door. A flight of stairs descended in front of me. Debating whether I should go down or just get the heck out of what look like a death trap, I decided if Cole Bleak was hiding down there. I wanted the answers I was pretty sure he had.
I went down the stairs and found myself in a basement room. There was a couch and a TV and a computer station with a man sitting in front of it, his back to me.
“Hello,” I said.
I stepped forward and came to an abrupt halt. Cold steel touched my neck. A shiver of alarm raced down my spine and damn near stopped my heart.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” The cool grey silk of a woman’s voice was tinged with an eerie calmness.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I said, keeping my voice as calm, as cool.
“Don’t play word games with me, witch. Your purpose here. Now.” Her voice had gone hard and tough.
I saw no reason to lie to her or hide why I was here. I wasn’t breaking the law. The front door had been open. Well, busted open, but still open. “I’m looking for Cole Bleak.”
Her silence was deafening. “
Why are you speaking gibberish?”
I kept forgetting he had a spell on his name. “A rogue mage. I have some questions for him about my partner’s death.”
Her voice harsh, she said, “What are you doing investigating a death? That is for the OS to handle.”
“The OS is, I’m afraid, unable to handle it.”
“I will have you explain later,” she said.
The blade swung away from my neck and I heard a snick as it was sheathed. I turned around to find a woman my same height, dressed in body-hugging black leather with a katana strapped to her back and an automatic weapon at her hip. She was locked and loaded. She looked dangerous, with a lethal edge to her ghostly grey eyes. She had really black hair, so black it absorbed the light. It was cut in a pageboy.
I bet she knew how to use every weapon I could see on her person, as well as the ones I couldn’t.
She was five feet eleven inches of pure, unadulterated, ass-kicking female.
She was also an OS enforcer.
Hell’s bells. More law enforcement.
At first glance, I thought she might be a vamp, but then reassessed my assumption. Goddess be thanked, because I’d had my fill of vamps to last me the rest of my life.
“What is your name?” she demanded.
“Lily Starbuck,” I said. “And you—”
“Shhh, did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” I asked.
“That rustling.”
She must have powerful hearing, because I heard nothing. Her eyes flicked to the man sitting at the computer. She strode forward and I followed close behind her.
Her soft voice was low but potent. “You shouldn’t be nosing around. Many died here.”
“Who?”
“OS wardens.”
I looked at her, but she focused on the man, circling to face him. Her eyes locked in on the man’s neck and she went very still. I walked around the other side of him and gasped. My pulse faltered, then started to pound.
His throat was ripped out, jagged flesh hanging in tatters as blood trickled out. His T-shirt was soaked with it, and it had pooled beneath the chair, thick and red. My stomach heaved. His terrified eyes were open and there was something…familiar about them. He had dark hair and dark eyes, his features well-formed. A little too well formed.
“It’s a thought-form,” I said, not sure how I knew. But I did with one hundred percent certainty.
Her head jerked up to me. “A what?” Before I could answer, her attention snagged on the screen. She breathed a sigh of relief. “At least the game has defaulted to the login screen.”
I moved closer to the desk and picked up a disc jacket. On the front in bold red letters, complete with dripping blood, it read, Legion of Monsters. My hand tingled and I looked down in shock at the jacket. “This is unwarded!”
“I know. We’re hunting this mage, trying to stop him. We had reports of game monsters being released into the here and now.”
The warden took the jacket and removed the disk from the computer drive. She broke it in half. “We’ve been tracking him for a week. The massacre upstairs happened three days ago, when he was cornered in this house. He escaped.” Her voice was cold with anger and promised retribution.
“A terrible loss to lose even one warden,” I said. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded.
I wondered where the rest of her team was. Wardens always traveled in threes. Had she lost her team members?”
Setting the pieces in the case, she snapped it closed and stowed it in the small of her back. “Why did you come back here?”
“Clever mages sometimes return to a place we’ve already searched to hide out. Safer. I was covering all my bases.”
Suddenly, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. “Obex.” I said just as it jumped toward the warden. It hit my barrier with a terrible thump and fell to the ground. It picked itself up and skittered into the dark recesses of the basement, its claws clicking on the wooden floor. The sound sent prickles of fear all along the back of my neck and down my spine.
My breath hissed in through my teeth. My jaw went slack in terror. I grabbed the warden’s arm and started pulling her frantically towards the stairs. My voice high and tight with fear I gasped, “Daray!” There was no mistaking the small, squat, scaly creatures with their sharp, killing claws, wide mouths full of rending teeth and the speed of a vamp. “Quick, lethal, and cunning. They run in packs. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Something hurtled past her, just missing her throat. Searching my mind quickly, I accessed the spell I needed. I said, “Ignis,” and the Daray burst into flame with a high, ugly, keening sound. Wowzers! I’d only ever used that spell to light the burners on my stove or heat food. I felt a bit sick that I had used it against a living thing, but it had been intent on killing us. I had no choice.
The smell of burning flesh filled the basement, thick and choking.
We ran for the stairs, pursued by the sound of clicking claws. Just before we reached the stairs, six silhouettes emerged from the dark. Two went to the right, two to the left, and two headed straight for us. They were trying to cut us off! Realizing that these creatures were not only dangerous, but intelligent, I turned and shoved the warden away. With a wave-like motion, my palms open and flat I shouted, “Obex keravnos.” A crackling purple sheath of light whooshed up, stopping four of the creatures dead in their tracks, triggering wounded screeches that hurt my ears.
The warden pulled the katana from the sheath on her back and sliced at two oncoming monsters while I dashed to the stairs. Blood and viscera spattered all over us with a series of sickening splats, and I slipped on the suddenly slimy stairs.
Using my hands to steady myself, I ran up the last few steps, the warden at my back, slicing the air with spelled steel. I threw open the door at the top, and the light from the upstairs poured in, making the creatures squeal and retreat. On the landing, we slammed the door shut and locked it.
Breathing heavily we looked at each other. “If just one of those games can cause this much havoc, you’d better find the mage game master and put him out of commission.”
“Isn’t he out of commission?” she said. “I’m pretty sure he’s in the basement and he’s dead.”
Trying to wipe off the gore, I faced the woman, trying to make it clear to her. “That’s what he wants you to think. I told you that thing down there isn’t the mage. It’s a thought-form, a manifestation of mental energy conjured by the creator that can be either a person or object. In this case, the mage copied himself. These thought-forms are often referred to as golems. I think one tried to kill me. This thought-form was actually a decoy, but the one who tried to kill me was an assassin golem. This was a trap. Thought-forms can draw unwary people to them. Believe me, he’s already wrapped a spell around his name. He would take precautions. We should leave. He might have set more traps here.”
“I’ve got to get to my team.”
We headed to the front door, but a powerful roar vibrated the very foundation of the house, and the floor actually rippled, as if it was in the grasp of a powerful earthquake.
“Run,” the warden barked as we saw a massive wall of green flesh breaking plaster and taking out doorways as it thundered towards us. I’d never seen such a creature. I’d read about them and seen pictures, and that was as close as I’ve ever wanted to get. It was even hairier, bigger, and had pointed teeth. I backed up as the troll charged.
The warden ran courageously toward it, swinging her sword. As he swiped at her, she changed, her legs reforming into claws, her body condensing and sprouting feathers and wings. She was a shifter—a shapeshifter. She cawed as she took flight over his head, landing behind him and reforming into the grey-eyed woman. She was going to hamstring him. But at the last moment, he reached up a massive hand and swatted her away. The warden hit the wall and landed in a motionless heap.
I had no time to think. Trapped between the wall and the massive creature, I whispered “
Obex.” He swiped at me and he smashed the spell’s barrier like it was nothing. He drew his hand back and roared, his large eyes widening in pain. The barrier hurt him, but it was probably not much worse than a mosquito bite.
The next swipe would kill me. He reared back, and I braced for the impact, barely noticing the blur of red that flew at the giant’s face. It latched on and the beast roared again, shaking the foundations. But it was enough to distract him and give me an opening. Jolted into action, I slipped under the monster’s legs and ran for the back door.
Another terrible roar sent concussive waves outward and the sharp scent of sulfur wafted through the house. I threw a quick glance over my shoulder and was stunned to realize that the red blur was a small dragon. There was only one small dragon species that I knew of, and they were supposed to be a myth—the legendary tiny dragons of Tser. Pronounced “sear” with the T silent. The tiny creature breathed sulfur-scented fire right in the monster’s face.
I didn’t have time for my shock to even register, because the monster focused on me as though I had been his intended prey all along. Great, a great fucking troll. I was such a lucky witch. Adrenaline poured into my bloodstream, and I made it through the back door, but the monster, traveling fast, hit me from behind like a Mack truck, ejecting me into the back yard. I hit a tree hard.
My head swam, but not so much that I couldn’t thank my lucky stars I was still alive. It must have been the armor. I had a lot to thank Nock’s Aunt Tilly for next time I saw her. If there was a next time.
I looked up when a shadow blocked the sun, looked up into all the ugliness. Death in the feral dark eyes. Then the dragon flew at his eye, his claws extended. I heard the voice, but wasn’t sure where it was coming from.
“Run!”
Even as the troll reared back, clenching his massive hands into fists, I couldn’t move. Too stunned and dizzy. The little dragon breathed fire again, but the troll swatted at him and I saw him tumble. I staggered away from the tree, caught the little guy in my arms, and curled my body over him. I could only hope the dragon armor would protect us both from the crushing slam heading our way.