“You can disguise a whole building?”
“With sufficient work, you can disguise anything. Didn’t you used to put a disguise charm on your bike to keep people away?”
I took a step back down the sidewalk, searching for another entrance. “I used a distraction charm. But thanks for reminding me that Raj is responsible for destroying my bike too.”
“Sorry, little siren. It’s the same principle though.”
I jumped as part of the building blew up. Swearing, I hunched over, sweaty hands on my thighs as one of the satyrs waved away the smoke. He’d blown the lock off the door that gave access to the upper stories. “A little warning next time before you set off explosives?”
“So much for the chance to go in quietly,” Lucen muttered.
I shrugged. There was no quiet, a fact we’d discussed on the way here. Based on what had happened at headquarters, I had a strong suspicion that Raj could use our connection the same way I did. Which meant he knew we were here and we could be walking into a trap. As I often did, I fervently wished I could sense pred emotions. Needing to rely solely on my human senses could be damn inconvenient.
“Looks like we can get in this way.” A satyr stood in the newly opened doorway and switched on a flashlight.
I had no flashlight myself, but I did have a reloaded gun. I pulled that out and immediately stuck it back in the holster when my phone began to play “Highway to Hell”. A couple of the satyrs laughed.
Lucen had been messing with my ringtone on a daily basis, starting with the obligatory R.E.M. offering. It wasn’t as though we had time for this joking around, but I knew why he was doing it—to keep my spirits up. Admittedly, this was no easy task he’d set himself. Also admittedly, the sexiest thing about Lucen wasn’t his abs but his sense of humor. It didn’t always work on me lately, but I appreciated it more than ever.
Alas, I did not expect good news on the other end of the line. It was Tom. “We think we’ve found the Vessel.”
“You do? You have it?” The laughter around me died away as the satyrs listened in.
“Not in hand, but one of the teams has reported finding an unusually strong magical signal. They’re tracking it down. Hold on.”
I gritted my teeth, waiting for Tom to return. “They think they’ve found the damn thing,” I whispered to Lucen.
Lucen produced a detection charm from his pocket. “Are they sure? There’s some very strong magic in this building too.”
“Still there?” Tom’s voice was back in my ear.
I sighed in exasperation. “Yes, I’m here. I’ve found Raj. Are you sure the Vessel isn’t with him? We’re detecting strong magic here too.”
“I’m not sure of anything anymore.” He sounded exhausted. “Another team just called in because they’ve also picked up signs of hefty power, but on the opposite side of the city.”
“Peachy. So this is Raj’s plan for hiding it. Lead us on wild-dragon chases.” I glanced up and down the intersection, expecting to see violent furies closing in any moment as Raj sprang his trap, but all remained calm. The quiet was enough to make the hairs on my neck stand up. “We’re going in then.”
“Be careful. Let the satyrs do the fighting.”
Of course. Tom believed I had a larger role to play in this war. I hung up, wondering why he thought I’d start being careful at this late a date.
I signaled to the satyr with the flashlight and retrieved my gun. “Let’s do this.”
Four satyrs entered the building in front of me, and two—including Lucen—went behind. The light switch in the stairwell refused to cough up any light, but I could see the damage all around in the tepid glow of several flashlights. Gouges had been cut in the plaster walls, and the heavy wainscoting bore blackened curse scars and possibly signs of fire damage. The satyr at the head of the line called, “Be careful” as we reached the second-floor landing. A step near the top had a chunk blown out.
“Where to?” Lucen asked, deftly stepping over the missing stair.
I closed my eyes, but any ability to be more precise was gone. Trapped in such a small area with the men, some of whom were forced by simple physics to be in contact with me, was interfering with my ability to focus. My body stirred with faint but noticeable lust, and I had no sense of Raj’s direction. He could have been right on top of me.
That thought gave me pause, and I looked up. The building was only three stories, but I didn’t relish the thought of climbing higher. All that rubble on the bottom floor must have fallen from somewhere, and this landing didn’t scream stable. If I bounced on my toes, the dusty wood squeaked and moved with me.
“I can’t tell anymore,” I admitted. “He’s too close.”
“We should start at the top then.” Gi pointed his light and gun up the last flight of stairs.
“It might be faster if we split up,” said the satyr who’d blown open the door.
Lucen kicked aside rubble that had settled on the next step. “We stay together. Protect Jess and keep your eyes open. There’s got to be a trap.”
I wasn’t sure if I was glad or not that I wasn’t the only one thinking it. The same way we’d climbed the first set of stairs, we took off up the second. These were in even worse condition. Once, the satyrs had to skip several steps, a tense moment when we weren’t sure if the wood would hold their weight. But it did, and I found myself being passed from Lucen to Gi since my legs wouldn’t reach across the same distance. It would have been uncomfortable and awkward enough without the bonus arousal.
I readjusted my shirt on the landing and stood back to allow Gi room to kick down the stairwell door. Two more satyrs rushed forward, weapons drawn. A dark hallway greeted them, but no furies.
“What a shithole,” one of them commented. He tossed what looked like a curse grenade down the hallway, and it lit up the area like a floodlight. The sounds of many scurrying feet followed.
Great. Whether dragons or rats, it all sucked.
“We couldn’t have tried that earlier?” I asked, blinking as my eyes adjusted.
“The light wouldn’t have worked as well on the steps,” the satyr said. “So do we start knocking down doors or what?”
“I don’t have a better plan. If something changes, I’ll let you know.”
There weren’t as many offices up here as it would have appeared from street level, though in part that was due to several walls having disintegrated. More plaster chunks, shards of glass and remnants of things that might once have been office equipment crunched underfoot. The floor was definitely of questionable utility in some places, and it wasn’t always easy to see where. Everything was coated in a thick layer of plaster dust. Spiders, dragons and other creatures had made quick work of claiming the space for themselves as was evident in the many cobwebs and the piles of dung in the corners.
“Look.” Lucen pointed toward a set of footprints in the dust. “Pretty recent.”
“I told you, he’s here.” Somewhere. The building wasn’t huge, and we were halfway down the hall. Much as I didn’t want to walk into a trap, the fact that we hadn’t yet encountered anyone was even more disturbing.
Keeping my back to a crumbling wall, I wet my lips and neared the next corner. The room around the doorway was dark, cast in shadow by most of the magical glow. I inched closer, and someone poked me in the shoulder.
Cursing, I spun around and backed myself against the opposite wall. A long, bent nail stuck out of the splintery molding. A fucking nail. I took a deep breath, my heart pounding in my throat, then I sneezed from the nasty air I’d inhaled.
“Jess, you okay?” Lucen was at my side before I could regain my wits.
“Fine. I’m fine. Hey, what’s that?” He’d been using a flashlight to peer into the darker room, and its beam had briefly illuminated a strange shadow on the floor.
The other week in Europe, I’d bee
n pushed into a trap Raj had made. He’d used my blood to create a magical cage, a feat accomplished by drawing glyphs on the ground. The memory of it had me shuffling back another foot until I could figure out what I’d seen on the floor.
Lucen signaled for Gi, and the other satyr nudged the light down the hallway with his boot. It didn’t brighten the room much, but the strange shadows morphed into focus.
“Just more debris.” Lucen pointed the flashlight along the far wall. “We’ve reached the end of the floor.”
Under the ghostly light, it appeared as though someone had blackened the windows in the room. They hadn’t done a perfect job, and the glow of the streetlights peeked through cracks in the paint.
“Still sense him nearby?” Lucen asked.
I nodded but winced. It was as though Raj was everywhere, and yet there was no sign of his presence. “Time to go down, I guess.”
“You hear that?” Gi asked.
I’d heard nothing, but in a flash I was as alert as everyone else. I raised my gun in the direction of the stairwell, and the satyrs did the same with their weapons. For a couple seconds, I held my breath, straining for signs of a threat. An eerie stillness enveloped the area as we stood motionless. Then all at once, the hallway erupted with a boom.
The noise shook the fragile structure. I ducked low as the ceiling crumbled onto my head. Any second I expected the whole building would crash down with us in it, but that was obviously not Raj’s intent. The blast was only a distraction. Three furies burst through the stairwell door before we could climb to our feet, and the next thing I knew I was pelted with something wet.
I dropped my gun as my world was pulled out from beneath me. A disorientation curse. Dragon shit on toast. Of course, it would be. Raj wanted me alive.
“Jess, stay low!” Lucen yelled, as if I could do anything else. I was in absolutely no shape to join the fighting.
Somewhere, someone was shooting, but I didn’t dare turn and look. A few feet over my head, a bullet collided with the wood, and splinters rained on me. Lifting my eyes a couple inches, I could see the edge of the doorframe into the blacked-out room. Filthy floorboard by filthy floorboard, I wormed my way on my stomach toward the doorway. Behind me, I could hear shouting and bodies and steel slamming together. Clearly, not everyone had been hit by the curse.
Thrilled to finally see some cover ahead, I moved a little too quickly, and my stomach lurched. The floor seemed to roll away beneath me. Up became down, down became sideways. I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t vomit, but the sensation of falling was overwhelming.
“Behind you, little siren.” Lucen didn’t sound so good himself. Since he’d been right next to me, some of the curse must have hit him too.
I wiggled deeper into the room to allow him cover, my head too fuzzy to worry about the splinters and broken glass that were digging into my thin shirt and exposed stomach. The debris in the center was several feet away. If I could get behind it and use it as a shield… I was almost there, and I shut my eyes to fend off my nausea.
But as I reached out to push myself along, something unexpected happened. When I felt the floor drop out from beneath me, it wasn’t the curse. The floor simply wasn’t there. My arms met with nothing but air where floor should have been.
Another disguise charm, I thought, and that was all I had time to think. Too much of my weight hovered over the nothingness. Without any way of maintaining my balance, and already suffering from severe vertigo, I couldn’t figure out how to pull myself backward.
So I slipped forward instead, and screaming, disappeared down the hole.
Chapter Six
I was still screaming when I slammed into…more air? Groaning, I peered through the stray hairs that had fallen into my face, but my world was a blur of faintly glowing color that told me nothing. Confusion made me dizzier. I couldn’t focus, so I shut my eyes one more time. All I could tell was that the pain I’d been expecting never arrived. My limbs dangled over nothing, yet an invisible cushion supported me.
Then that vanished with a distinct popping noise. Even if my brain had been fully functioning, I had no time to ponder what was going on. The floor and I met at last, and I was pretty sure it had the upper hand. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was why it hadn’t attacked me sooner.
I rolled over, willing the vomit down my throat. High over my head, Lucen was yelling my name and I could hear more sounds of struggle, but I had no ability to respond. I feared if I opened my mouth, I’d puke. Plus all of my energy should be saved for getting to my feet and figuring out where I was. But my body was having none of that idea, however sensible, and I curled into the fetal position instead.
“Get her out of there.”
Vaguely, I recognized Raj’s voice. Figured. If only I’d interpreted that sensation that he was right above me or behind me as him actually being right below me, this mess might have been avoided.
Fear pumped my blood faster, but it did nothing to help me dispel the curse’s effects. All I could do was swear to myself. Rough hands grabbed me under the shoulders, and I was dragged from wherever I’d landed.
Now would be a nice time to hurl, I told my stomach, but it stubbornly refused. My damn freakish body had a mind of its own. The curse must be slowly subsiding, but not vomiting was just a start. Being able to fight off an attack was something else entirely, and I didn’t trust the curse’s effects would disappear fast enough for that.
Whoever had moved me let go, and my upper back smacked into the floor. I barely managed to protect my head. At last, I pried open my eyes a crack. Raj was telling someone to hurry, and heavy feet stomped behind me. As the room swam into focus, I watched a fury slam closed some kind of metal gate. A second later, an object crashed into the concrete behind it and swore. I blinked again, testing my ability to sit. Lucen. Shit. That object looked like Lucen.
Sure enough, he pushed himself upright. In the dim light, he appeared as groggy as I did, and blood trickled down his head. I opened my mouth to call out his name, but an unpleasantly familiar pair of motorcycle boots landed in my line of sight. Was it really only a few hours ago that I’d stared at Raj’s shoes? I so did not enjoy being in this position.
“We need to stop running into each other this way, soul swapper.” Raj’s voice told me he was grinning, but lifting my head high enough to confirm it was asking for trouble.
Rather than waste my limited brainpower thinking of a witty comeback, I simply raised a middle finger.
Chuckling, Raj pressed it back down, and his touch made my skin crawl. The anger I’d been nurturing this evening spiked, and the bond connecting us flared as though it was strengthened through the physical contact.
“The good news is that we don’t have to keep meeting like this,” Raj said. “You’re coming with me this time. You see? I made sure you didn’t even get hurt when you fell, so there’d be no excuse. Of course, I can’t say the same for your boyfriend.”
“Jess?” Lucen’s voice was weak.
I tried looking around Raj’s large legs, but the fury completely blocked my view. “I’m okay,” I told Lucen, though that was probably a lie.
Raj lifted my chin so I was forced to see his scarily tattooed face. “Oh, yes. She’s fine. We’ll take good care of her.”
His goons laughed, but Raj was on to something. Our bond was stronger than ever when he touched me. I could visualize it once more—a thick, darkly powerful rope. Only not a rope. A circuit.
I’d never figured out what exactly Raj had done to me in France when he’d used me to channel power and open the Pit. But whatever it was, he’d used the bond to feed me power too. That must mean I could use it to take from him.
Bracing myself mentally, I grasped our connection and yanked on Raj’s magic. It came at once, eagerly, flooding my senses with a hot, dazzling burst of sheer energy. The effects of the disorientation curse flew awa
y, blasted right out of me. Alas, next came the disturbing rush I’d been waiting for. My every nerve lit up, and my head became too light. I shuddered from the impact and tried to force the energy hit down, grounding myself. As I did, the long-simmering rage in my blood began to heat up.
To my surprise, Raj laughed. “Yes, there does appear to be some residual connection between us. I’m no more certain of what it is than you are. I could detect your unease and confusion when you were attempting to locate me.”
Peachy. As I’d suspected. Sometimes being right wasn’t worth it.
Shakily, I climbed to my feet. I was sick of staring at Raj’s boots, and my muscles buzzed with power. One more pull on the bond and I’d be ready to take on the world, or feel like it anyway.
My head wasn’t entirely sure that was a good idea though. Raj had fed me so much power last time that it had hurt. My brain had felt like it was being split in two, and my body—far from being strengthened by the hit—had been hard to control. Right up until the moment I’d passed out. In some ways, it wasn’t as bad as what had happened when Claudius had addicted me, but it wasn’t a situation I wished to repeat. Under the circumstances, however, I didn’t see what other options I had.
“Can you break the connection?” I spoke casually, but it would be good to know if Raj could cut me off if I got too greedy with his power.
Although Raj was over a head taller than me, now that I was standing, I could see more of the space. We were on the ground floor, and the ruined area was part of the bank. Smashed and charred desks had been pushed aside, and the teller counter was covered in chunks of the ceiling. A moldy-smelling carpet runner had been rolled into a corner.
Then there was Lucen, locked behind a fancy iron-gated door. He’d pulled himself to his knees, and his hands were wrapped around the bars. With a determined expression, he shook his head at me. Was he telling me to stop drawing power from Raj, or warning me not to goad Raj into breaking the connection? Or was it something else entirely?
Misery Happens Page 5