Dance With Death

by Becca Vincenza

  Darkness swirled around me, and their tattered memories eclipsed my mind.

  Chapter 7

  The cold slab of concrete seeped into my skin as reality came crashing back to me. The visions I’d received blurred my thought processes, because as my vision cleared, an echo of the memory stood over me.

  Indigo leaned over me in full Alpha mode, in his beast form, and he was pissed. Am I still living in one of their memories? Reaching out to see if he was real, a voice broke me from my stupor.

  “What the fuck are you doing here, Rowan?” Cornelius demanded.

  Blinking, I pulled my hand back and glanced up at the giant werewolf in front of me. Oh, that saliva dripping down his jaw was real, all right. Grimacing, I pulled my hand back and wiped off the bit that dribbled on me. “Gross,” I muttered. “Watch where you drool.”

  Indigo snorted at me and took a step closer, lifting his lips to show off his pointy teeth.

  “I’m not going to ask again, Rowan,” Cornelius fumed.

  His wings trembled as a look I’d never seen crossed his features. He was seriously pissed. Must have messed up big time. Well, when haven’t I?

  “I was taking a stroll.”

  Indigo growled and stepped closer to me. Cornelius watched him and his hand twitched, but if he interfered, he would only make it worse. As discreetly as I could, I shook my head at him. I could deal with Indigo’s wolf.

  “On this side of town?” he pressed.

  “Got lost in the music,” I replied with a sarcastic smile. It was my own private joke about my practice session earlier, but it reminded me of how I arrived at this point. And what happened. Indigo stepped closer, his nostrils flaring.

  “Step back, puppy.” I lifted my hand and posed my fingers, ready to flick him on the nose. Indigo leaned closer, his teeth showing.

  “You better back up,” Cornelius warned.

  I ignored him, and Indigo ran his tongue over my fingers, humor lighting his eyes. Just like that, his more human half was back in control. He took a couple steps back as the transformation began. Indigo shifting in front of me wasn’t a new thing, but as his fur melted away to skin, I discreetly averted my eyes and turned around.

  “Well, look who’s suddenly all shy,” Indigo taunted.

  “Not shy, just doing the decent thing.”

  “When have you ever done that?” Indigo asked, his tone playful.

  I smiled. “First time for everything, right?”

  “I would prefer if you started a different time,” Indigo replied, desire lacing his voice.

  “I’m still right fucking here,” Cornelius griped under his breath. Fabric rustled and smacked against flesh. “You can turn around now, Rowan.”

  I spun on my heel and turned to face the men. Their faces mirrored each other, both looking pissed and annoyed. I was relieved to see that Cornelius had given him a pair of gym shorts. Where he’d hidden them, I had no idea. But if you travelled with a werewolf, it made sense to keep extra clothes around.

  “Why were you following us, Rowan?” Indigo crossed his arms over his bare chest.

  “I wasn’t following you.”

  “Then why are you out here?”

  Cornelius stepped forward and cocked his head as if sensing something. “We need to get moving.”

  “We’re not done talking about this, Rowan.” Indigo stepped forward and grabbed my hand.

  ****

  I slinked away from Indigo and Cornelius the moment we pulled up to the apartment complex. They were silent on the drive home, and I was too exhausted for banter. Dealing with their brand of co-parenting was something I needed to skip tonight.

  A chill followed me the moment we arrived back home, and even cocooned in my blankets, I couldn’t get warm. As I lay in bed, a memory from years ago surfaced. Alaska had been hit hard with one of the coldest winters we’d endured in a very long time. My blood had always run hot, so the cold didn’t normally bother me, but that winter was almost unbearable.

  Indigo had been staying over and crawled into bed with me to keep me warm. We were still so young. He didn’t come in because of the urges that typically propelled a boy on the cusp of manhood. He came as a friend. Holding me in his wolf form, he exerted undeniable control. Not only did he make me feel safe that night, but I was the warmest I’d been all winter.

  That same unrelenting chill hit me now, and nothing could warm me. I closed my eyes and hoped for sleep.

  ****

  The werewolf stood over me, his fangs dripping with saliva, and his claws gleaming in the moonlight. Death was bound to come for me, but this was not what I expected. The last image that filled my mind were of those sharp claws raking over my throat. Warm blood poured down my skin and pooled on my chest. My blood gurgled and bubbled, drowning me as I tried to breathe.

  The next scene flashed in my head—a glimmer of wings before coarse fur brushed against my arm. I fought against my assailants, but their physical strength was far greater than mine. Magic sparked in my fingertips, but before I could mutter a curse, there was a pop and then the world went dark.

  The next one started off almost in reverse. Death had already leeched into my veins and crept closer to my heart, slowing it, and blood poured from multiple bite wounds and scratches. My attacker growled as he stepped closer. Severe blue eyes belonging to a werewolf stared back at me. Though they belonged to eyes I recognized, I realized the memory I was trapped in did not belong to me. I was seeing someone else’s death, someone who didn’t know my wolf. He just knew him as his killer.

  All through the night, I continued to live through a series of gruesome deaths. Those ghosts that clung to Indigo and Cornelius when I first arrived at the bar suddenly made sense, but as much as I wanted to hate Indigo, he had never been a cold-blooded killer. That much I knew. He wouldn’t have done this just for the sake of bloodlust.

  At least that’s what I told myself as I tried to pull out of the dreams that haunted me. Even after I managed to wake from the never-ending nightmare, I couldn’t seem to shake off the chill. The memories clung to me and followed me into the shower.

  When I first came to the city, Indigo said he wanted to start over and give me the answers I sought, but I wasn’t ready before. Before, I wanted to keep all my focus on finding Abel. After we reunited and then promptly went our separate ways, things just got buried. But as one of my heavier flaws, I held a grudge against someone who I thought cared about me and broke the trust. I held it in an iron-fisted grip, protected by the most powerful wards I could think of, and refused to let it go.

  But after experiencing those memory-dreams last night, I decided to find Indigo and finally get some answers.

  After I showered and got dressed, I walked out of my apartment and crossed the hallway to Indigo and Cornelius’s. I lifted my hand up to knock, debating with myself if I really wanted to know. After all, I could just let it be and keep things the way they were, adding it to the list of reasons I shouldn’t give him another chance.

  Just then, Cornelius swung the door open and glared down at me. “Is there a reason why you’ve been standing out here for five minutes?”

  “Why did you wait so long to check?”

  “Indigo wanted to wait and see what you were going to do, but then I got a text from Nix asking for a brief on what happened last night. Am I telling him how you stumbled upon us after you were...what was it again?”

  “Dancing?” I offered helpfully.

  “You don’t dance, Rowan,” Indigo added from inside the apartment.

  “Things change. You, of all people should know that, Indigo,” I fired back, still staring up at Cornelius.

  He narrowed his eyes but pressed his wings tightly against his back. He moved past me and stomped down the hallway, his tail dragging behind him. Still weird, seeing him walking around all gargoyled up. Shaking my head, I walked into their apartment and closed the door, turning to face Indigo.

  “What’s going on, Ro?” he asked, concerned.
/>
  “Do you remember when you told me you wanted to explain, and that you had a lot to tell me?”

  “Yes?” Indigo got off the bar stool he was sitting on and stepped over to me. Suddenly asking him felt daunting. Knowing the truth would make those dream-memories real, but if I backed off now, I could still chalk it up to being the result of a very long night.

  “I...”

  Indigo stood in front of me, and for a moment, those blue eyes from the memory didn’t match the ones before me. Not in the slightest. His wolf remained in the background, but he wasn’t malicious or dangerous. For a moment, I was transported back to a time when I was a kid in love. A girl with a stupid fantasy. I breathed through my nose and broke my gaze with Indigo, ignoring the flutter in my heart. A palpitation, that’s all.

  “Rowan?” Indigo must have sensed the change in my demeanor and took a step back from me. His shoulders dropped in defeat.

  “I need to ask you something.” Because whether I like it or not, I need to trust the werewolf in front of me.

  “Anything.”

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  The muscle in Indigo’s jaw twitched as he pulled the cell phone from his pocket. He took one look at the name, and his lips tightened as he swiped the screen and put the phone to his ear.

  “What? Okay. No, she’s here. I—” Indigo shut up and looked at me. “Fine.” Indigo dropped the phone back in his pocket and remained quiet for a beat before his top lip curled back. “Nix wants to see both of us.”

  “You don’t seem very happy about that.”

  “He has a mission.”

  “Oh.”

  Indigo led me out of his apartment, and we walked down to the lobby area. Willow and I had taken to sneaking out of the back of the building, which meant we rarely left through the front entrance. The lobby was quiet, clean, and standard issue with mailboxes and a small sitting area. Willow had already claimed a chair, and a certain grumpy gargoyle was hanging around her side. I took the opportunity and snuggled in next to her.

  Indigo gave me a look of annoyance, but I ignored him. Nix hadn’t arrived yet, but others from Indigo’s small team of whatever-they-were came through the elevators. Stephan and Kayana stepped through the doors and made a beeline toward us. Both were there to rescue me when I had been taken by a rival vampire coven.

  I didn’t stick around to thank them afterwards. Not once I found out that Nix, their team leader, planned to abandon the search for Abel. Seeing them again made me feel a little uncomfortable. Maybe my actions were rash, but I had been trying to protect my brother.

  “Hello, stranger,” Stephan announced with a nod in my direction.

  “Hey, Stephan.”

  “There has been another death, with the same techniques and circumstances as the death Rowan stumbled upon last night,” Nix began without preamble as he joined us in the lobby, coming from the hallway of his office. “It’s why I asked you to come down. And Willow, your talents will be needed as well. Kayana, you won’t be needed this time, but I need you and Stephan to handle a different task for me. I will discuss it with you later. For now, Rowan, Willow, Cornelius, and Indigo are with me.”

  Nix breezed out of the room as swiftly as he came through it. As leader, he expected his commands to be followed without question. Another fun werewolf trait. Willow shrugged her shoulders, seemingly not too surprised by the turn of events. Kayana and Stephan followed Nix. “Come on, Ro. You need to get ready,” Indigo said, grabbing my hand.

  What worried me was the body. Another one, and only two weeks apart from one another?

  Small town life didn’t prepare me for the dead bodies stacking up in the big city.

  Chapter 8

  Indigo was not happy about me coming along. He made that abundantly clear as we prepared to leave. He led me down to the gym to gather my staff, which Nix made me return after my last adventure, and to grab extra gear. He seemed reluctant to hand over the weapon to me, and the low hum of his growl was impossible to ignore. Cornelius and Willow stood on the other side collecting weapons, and Cornelius grabbed a couple of his glamoured accessories he wore in public to appear human.

  After collecting our supplies, we returned to the lobby. Engine already cranked, the SUV they brought to the last scene sat right outside the doors. Nix sat in the driver’s seat, waiting for us.

  Taking the same seats as before, I slid in the middle of the back seat as Indigo sat on one side, growling constantly, and Willow sat quietly on the other side of me. I was tempted to elbow him in the gut just to get him to stop. Let his throat get hoarse. Maybe then he won’t be able to talk at the crime scene.

  “Indigo.” Nix met his gaze in the rearview mirror. My instincts said to look away, but I kept watching and waiting. “We’ll talk later,” he added meaningfully.

  Indigo turned his gaze away but didn’t look down. I wondered how two werewolves handled a situation when neither of them held dominance over the other. Growing up with weres, I understood the importance of it, but it seemed the rules of their world had changed from my isolated hometown to the big city. Rules, I discovered, would be a lot different when it came to Mystic deaths.

  Several days had passed since I stumbled upon the first dead body, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the man I found and how his ghost led me to Indigo and Cornelius’s dark pasts. His death had obviously piqued the interest of whatever organization Indigo worked for. Any time I tried to ask questions about it in training, Indigo avoided the subject. While my normally curious personality demanded I follow up until I got answers, Indigo knew how to shut me down quickly.

  Usually, all he had to do was stop in the middle of training, look at me with a very serious look on his face, and say those magic words. “Keep your head down and keep your brother safe.” Using Abel was a low blow, but one to which I responded well. Willow had been binge-watching a show about reincarnation on a streaming site, and she mentioned that Abel and I reminded her of the brothers on the show who kept dying for each other.

  The rest of the ride was silent until Nix parked the SUV, and we all piled out. Cornelius had on his glamour pieces, made by Kayana, I’d learned, and he looked human. The entire effect was strange because I had an almost double vision of him—his true form, and the human one plastered on top.

  “Another Mystic reported the death to the Guard,” Nix announced. “They will be here in a half hour, according to my contact. He tried to give us as much time as he could, but we’ll need to move quickly.” Nix led the way through the parking lot, winding through the district. The area was a little more secluded, the buildings spaced farther apart.

  The familiar scent of death filled my nose. For most necromancers, death had a unique but pleasant smell. My twin and two of my other brothers used to play “Scent the Dead.” Necromancer children were the queens and kings of creating morbid games.

  The closer we got, the stronger the scent became, and the faster the muscle in Indigo’s jaw ticked. He never liked our game when we introduced him to it. He had heightened senses, which meant he smelled the decay more intensely than most.

  Willow’s flames sparked next to me, and I glanced over at her to see her staring off in the distance. What did she see that upset her? Maybe it was the idea of finding another dead body. Necromancers had a higher tolerance for the idea of death.

  I reached over to touch her and offer comfort, but when she met my eyes, a carefully blank look slid over her features. I retracted my hand and faced forward. Soon, the scent of death beckoned me forward, and I ignored the rest of our party. Death held a certain sway over necromancers, as blood did for vampires and the moon did for werewolves. Someone called my name, but it sounded muffled and distorted. I stepped closer to the grisly scene.

  The discarded ghost stood near its body, looking lost and confused. When coming to a violent end, some ghosts needed time to realize what had happened to them, and as a result, they existed in a dazed state. At least that was what Abel always told me. The closer I
got, the stronger my magic grew, bubbling under my skin.

  Trying to avert my gaze from the very undressed ghost, I kept my eyes on the body. Magic crackled between my fingers, the Control Lines threatening to leap out and attach to the corpse. Doing my best to tamp down my magic, I stepped a little closer.

  Magic akin to mine suddenly brushed against my skin, and someone else’s Control Lines wrapped around the wrists of the ghost. Stepping up, I glared at the warring bright green lines. At the same time, the ghostly girl looked up at me with a haunted look in her dead eyes. Her mouth opened as she started to speak. When nothing came out, I realized that the necromancer who was trying to steal the ghost away had commanded her to remain silent. Acting out of instinct, my magic burned as I tried to take over and steal away control. As soon as my lines crossed theirs, the foreign power seeped into mine.

  Cringing against the intrusive feeling of another’s magic against my own, I tried to pull back. “What the fuck?”

  Cruel laughter echoed in my head as I realized the other necromancer had somehow managed to use their lines to communicate with me. Gritting my teeth, I focused on trying to break the connection I had unwittingly formed.

  “You certainly aren’t as powerful as your brother. He is a true treasure,” the disembodied voice said with a smirking tone. The voice in my head was distorted, which made it impossible to tell whether I spoke to a man or woman.

  “Well, I’ve been hearing that my entire life, so you’re going to have to try harder with those taunts. Maybe get a little more personal next time?”

  “More personal than your family? I think not. I know a nerve when I’ve struck it.”

  “Well, I know a two-bit hack when I feel one. Now, how about you let my friend go?” Two months ago, I would have trusted I was strong enough to break the connection the other necro had, but now my powers were too volatile to try something so unnatural. Getting trapped inside the ghost’s or the necro’s body wasn’t an appealing thought.