by Karen Lynch
Nikolas dropped his hands. “Did it help?”
“Yes. I almost feel like my old self again.” I laid a hand on his chest. “I’m sorry if you were worried.”
The anger drained from his expression. “You don’t have to apologize.” His hand grazed my cheek and his gaze held mine. It was as if the last forty minutes hadn’t happened, and we were out in the driveway again, returning from our date.
His phone rang.
He smiled apologetically and stepped back to answer it. “Here.” He listened for a minute. “What did they find? No, I want to talk to them. We’ll be there shortly.”
I hid my disappointment behind a smile. It looked like another movie night with Jordan.
Nikolas looked at me. “It’s still early. Do you want to come see the command center?”
Jordan was beside us before I could open my mouth. “Hell yes, we do.”
I grinned. “What she said.”
“Grab your coats and we’ll head over,” Nikolas said, returning his phone to his pocket.
The house they had rented was impressive, though not as big or as opulent as Eldeorin’s. Warriors patrolled the iron fence, and at least half a dozen black SUVs and motorcycles were parked in the driveway. As soon as we entered the house, I heard men’s voices coming from the living room. I followed Nikolas into the room that had been transformed into a temporary command center. Folding tables had been set up around the large room, and each of them was covered in computers and other electronic equipment. I looked at the closest one that held three large monitors displaying maps of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. On each map were small clusters of blinking red, blue, green, and yellow dots.
“What are the dots?” I asked the blond warrior sitting at the table. He was someone I hadn’t seen before.
“The colored dots are our people. Each unit’s signature is coded for a different color, which makes it easier for us to track them.” He moved his cursor over one of the dots and a small box appeared on the screen, showing the person’s name, status, and last check-in time.
“How big is a unit?” I asked, impressed.
“A unit has six members.”
My eyes found Nikolas and Chris, who were talking to another warrior on the other side of the room. “When I met Nikolas and Chris it was just the two of them. They don’t have a unit?”
The blond warrior smiled as if I’d said something funny. “Nikolas and Chris normally work alone. If you saw them in action, you’d know why.”
Jordan elbowed me. “She’s seen Nikolas in action alright.”
I smiled at the warrior’s questioning look. “Nikolas found me in Maine last fall.”
“Oh, you’re that girl.” His blue eyes sparkled with laughter. “We’ve heard all about you.”
“See, Sara, you’re famous.”
We walked to another table where an Indian warrior named Raj was tinkering with tiny electronic devices the size of a dime. When we expressed an interest in his work, he was more than happy to explain it to us.
“These are transmitters we use for surveillance.” He held up one of the devices. “They work well most of the time, but some of our targets have started using warlock magic to detect and disable them. I’m working on a transmitter that is undetectable and impervious to magic.”
I took the device and turned it over in my fingers. “Are you close?”
“I believe so. I’ve been working with a warlock in Jaipur for two years, and I think we are close to perfecting it.”
“That’s pretty cool.” I gave the device back to him. “Thanks for the show-and-tell.”
He smiled widely. “Anytime.”
Jordan tugged on my arm. “Let’s check out the rest of this place.”
“Nice talking to you,” I said to the warrior as she dragged me away.
We circled the room, stopping at each of the work stations, which were manned by warriors. A couple of them showed security feeds from cameras in Los Angeles, and I recognized Blue Nyx on one of the monitors. One station was dedicated to police bands and news feeds, and another showed a map of Los Angeles with a dot for every confirmed vampire victim. There had to be almost fifty. My stomach churned as I turned away.
We wandered around the first floor and made a detour to the huge kitchen for snacks and sodas. When we returned to the living room, Nikolas and Chris were nowhere to be seen, though I could feel Nikolas’s presence close-by. Jordan and I claimed a sofa that had been pushed against the cold fireplace to make room for the equipment. Our location gave us a view of the entire room, and the equipment and voices in the room made it easy for us to talk privately.
“Okay, spill it,” Jordan ordered. “What did you and the faerie really do?”
I started to shake my head and stopped. I hadn’t told Nikolas the truth because I knew how upset he’d be, but there was no reason not to tell Jordan. She’d keep it to herself if I asked her to, and I really wanted to talk to someone about what had happened.
“This stays between us,” I said in a low voice.
She moved closer. “That good? So what did you do, go hunt down a vampire to practice on?”
Her guess was so close to the truth that I was at a loss for words for several seconds. My silence made her eyes go round and she grabbed my arm. “Shut up! You did not!”
I nodded slowly as I watched the door in case Nikolas returned. “I had no idea what Eldeorin was planning and it happened so fast.”
“Well, don’t leave me in suspense.”
I related the entire story to her, leaving nothing out, as I kept an eye out for Nikolas. Some of the warriors glanced our way and smiled at us like we were two school girls whispering about boys. If they only knew what really passed between us.
“You killed two vamps without a weapon?” Jordan croaked, staring at me with something akin to awe. “Sara, that is...”
“Crazy, I know, but it’s not like I had a choice. Eldeorin has very different ideas about training.”
“I’ll say.”
I chewed my lip. “Now that you know everything, what do you think I should do?”
“About Eldeorin? Doesn’t sound like there is much you can do.”
“No, about Nikolas. If I tell him, he’ll be so upset and he’ll worry every time Eldeorin shows up.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” She rubbed her chin. “I don’t know. It’s a tough call.”
“What would you do?”
“I’d keep quiet and go kill some vampires.” She shrugged. “But I don’t have a Nikolas to consider. I honestly don’t know what I’d do in your shoes.”
I sighed heavily. “You’re no help.”
She pursed her lips. “Okay, let’s look at it another way. You took out two vampires who killed a kid and were probably going to kill that whole village. You saved a lot of lives, and you burned off some of that power that’s been making you miserable.”
I nodded.
“If there’s nothing Nikolas can do to stop Eldeorin from training you, then it’s probably best not to say anything right now.”
“I guess.” I looked at the doorway as Nikolas walked through it. His eyes found me, and a small smile touched his lips. One of the warriors called to him, and it was easy to see the way the others looked to him to lead them.
My eyes were drawn back to the doorway as two more warriors came in. They were both tall, but one towered over everyone in the room. His features and coloring were Middle Eastern, and he wore his black hair tied back in a short ponytail. He was by far the biggest warrior I’d ever seen, and maybe the surliest if his scowl was any indication. I watched him absently hold the hilt of the sword sheathed at his hip, and I wondered if he was one of the foreign warriors sent here by the Council to help hunt the Master.
“That guy must be six-seven at least. What do you think?”
Jordan didn’t reply and I gave her a sideways look, only to find her staring at the large warrior.
“Hello? Earth to Jordan.”<
br />
“Mmm.”
A smirk spread across my face. “Is it love at first sight?”
That got her attention and she fanned herself. “I think you mean lust at first sight. That has to be the hottest male I’ve ever seen.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Hotter than Nikolas?” Not possible.
She tilted her head and studied the man as if she hadn’t heard me. “There is something about him, something...”
“Dangerous?” I offered, thinking he was one man I wouldn’t want to face in a dark alley.
“Yeah. He looks like he could take out a nest of vampires by himself.”
“You don’t think he’s kinda scary looking?”
She exhaled slowly, her eyes never leaving the warrior. “He’s perfect.”
I nudged her with my shoulder. “Are you sure it’s not love?”
Her rich laugh drew the attention of some of the warriors, including the new one. He aimed his scowl in our direction and stared at her for several seconds before looking away again.
“I don’t think he likes us,” I said.
“Not yet.” She winked at me. “Did you see the size of that sword?”
I felt my eyes widen before the two of us dissolved into laughter. Every eye in the room turned our way. Nikolas gave me a questioning look, but all I could do was shake my head and laugh.
Chapter 14
“Very good, Sister.” Aine clapped as I sent small controlled waves across the lake. I passed my hand through the water and a five-foot waterspout formed a few feet from me. I held it for a minute then let it collapse. It was hard to believe that a week ago I couldn’t use my power without causing a near disaster.
Aine’s eyes shone. “You have improved so much these last few days.”
“That’s because you are a great teacher.” I couldn’t imagine someone sweeter or more patient than my sylph friend.
“Am I not a great teacher as well?” asked Eldeorin, appearing at Aine’s side.
“The jury’s still out on that,” I retorted as a mixture of excitement and trepidation stirred in my stomach at the sight of him. It had been a little over a week since our trip to the Mexican village, and Eldeorin had made good on his promise to continue my “education” as he put it. Every second day, he appeared to whisk me away on one of his training sessions, which always ended with me killing something.
First, it had been the drex demon in New Orleans, a nasty scaly thing that resembled an upright crocodile and disabled its victims by injecting them with venom that created severe hallucinations. I’d had to follow that thing as it dragged a young man into the bayou, not one of my more pleasant experiences. After the demon was dead, Eldeorin had helped me get the man back home again, and he’d assured me the guy wouldn’t remember the experience because of the aftereffects of the venom.
Next, we’d gone to Miami to hunt some vampires that had been preying on the residents of a retirement community. What Eldeorin hadn’t told me was that there were five vampires living in a newly formed nest in a nearby industrial park. Luckily for me, the vampires were all less than a few months old, and I had relatively little difficulty taking them out. Still, it would have been nice to have had a heads-up. When I’d said that to Eldeorin, he’d replied that I needed to learn to think on my feet because I never knew what I’d be facing out there.
Two days ago, we’d travelled to Seattle where I’d killed a vampire who was responsible for at least three missing teenagers. He’d been older than the vampires in Miami and he’d put up a little more of a fight, so the kill had been pretty messy. Eldeorin had to clean me up and heal a few scratches before he’d taken me home. But it had been worth it because I’d found two of the missing teenagers in the old house the vampire had holed up in. They’d been traumatized, but they were alive. Eldeorin used his magic to heal them and wipe their memories of their horrible ordeals before we’d dropped them off at the nearest hospital.
Every time Eldeorin arrived I had no idea what he had in store for me, and it scared me. At the same time, I couldn’t deny that I liked how it felt to kill those monsters and to save people from them. I felt like I had a purpose, like I was doing what I was born to do. Not to mention that unleashing all that power helped me focus during my training with Aine.
The only downside – and it was a big one – was keeping my adventures a secret from Nikolas. Whenever he asked me about my trips with Eldeorin I said we went to the desert to work on my power. Not telling him the truth gnawed at me, but Jordan reminded me I didn’t have another option, unless I wanted him to lose it. As much as I hated it, I decided to wait until I could prove I was capable of taking care of myself before I told him.
“So, Cousin, are you ready for our next little excursion?”
I waded out of the water and waited for Aine to do her little drying trick. “I don’t suppose we’re going somewhere fun for a change. They have vampires in Hawaii, don’t they?”
Eldeorin laughed and hugged me because he knew it bugged me when he did that. “Oh, I have something very fun for you today. You like snow, don’t you?”
“Snow?”
The word was barely out of my mouth when the world went black. I found myself standing in a foot of snow in the parking lot of what looked like a storage facility. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered in the bitter cold as fat snowflakes swirled around me. “Are you trying to freeze me to death?”
“Oops.” Eldeorin waved a hand and I was suddenly wearing soft-soled boots that came to my knees, a warm jacket, and a knit cap that I pulled down over my ears.
I waved a hand over my form-fitting outfit. “What’s with all the black? I feel like a cat burglar.”
He gave me a lopsided smile. “I figured we might as well have some fun.”
“You always have fun,” I reminded him, sticking my hands in my pockets to warm them. “I do all the work, remember?” I looked around the empty parking lot. “Where are we, and what are we doing here?”
“We are in Minneapolis to see a gulak demon that has decided to enter the slave business.”
Anger burned away the tiny knot of fear in my stomach. “Human or demon slaves?”
“Both, most likely.”
“This place looks deserted. Where are they?”
He took my arm and led me around to the front of the building. Then he pointed to a two-story warehouse across the road. “They are in that building.”
I studied the warehouse. There were two loading doors and four upper windows on the side facing us, but I could see no sign of activity. Several inches of untouched snow lay on the ramps in front of the doors, indicating that no one had gone in or out that way in the last few hours.
The sound of an approaching truck broke the silence. A few seconds later, I spotted a white moving truck at the end of the street. “Um, shouldn’t we hide before they see us?”
“They can’t see us.”
“Oh, right, glamour.” I exhaled in relief. “When will I be able to do that?”
“Baby steps, Cousin.”
“You know, for a teacher you’re not that big on sharing.” I thought about our other excursions. “I’m not going to go in there and find a dozen gulaks, am I? It’s just one, right?”
Eldeorin shrugged. “A gulak usually has a second and third but they won’t be as strong as he is, and none of them is as strong as you.”
“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” I recalled the fight at Draegan’s party. I’d only had to take out one of the gulaks because Jordan had killed the other one. And neither of us had faced Draegan because he’d been unconscious. Something told me he would not have been an easy kill.
The truck reached the warehouse and the driver put it in reverse to back up to one of the loading doors. The doors opened and a gulak and a ranc demon got out.
“How are they able to drive around in broad daylight without someone seeing what they are?”
“Glamours,” Eldeorin replied. “Warlock made, if I’m not mistake
n.”
Silently cursing warlocks everywhere, I watched as one of the gulak demons typed in a code on the panel next to the door and the door began to rise. The ranc demon moved to the back of the truck, and I heard the truck door slide up followed by the unmistakable sound of crying.
“You’re up, Cousin. Get in there and go all Fae on their demon asses.”
In less than a minute, I was across the street and crouched in front of the truck as the two demons led seven bound and shackled humans into the warehouse. The four women and three men all looked to be in their late teens or early twenties, and judging by their various states of undress, they had been taken from their beds. I watched a pale red-haired woman stumble only to be yanked up violently by the gulak demon. She cried out, and my nostrils flared in outrage. The bastard didn’t know it yet, but he’d just hurt his last human.
The warehouse door began to close, and I jumped from my hiding place to slip inside before I was locked out. Knowing Eldeorin, the glamour hiding me would only last until I entered the building. That was his way of keeping things interesting. But, hopefully, that would be all the time I needed.
Just inside the loading door I ducked behind a stack of wooden pallets to size up the situation and get my bearings. The open area of the interior was lined with rows of floor-to-ceiling shelves that were empty except for a few crates on the upper shelves. That made it easier to follow the progress of the demons and their prisoners as they moved toward a door on the far side of the open space.
The ranc demon shoved the humans into the room, and I waited several minutes for them to reappear. They spoke in a language I couldn’t understand before the ranc demon headed for a room a few doors away from where the humans were being held. The gulak demon climbed a set of stairs to the second floor. I had a feeling he was going to report in to this boss. I’d deal with that later. First, I needed to take care of his friend and get those people out of here.
Remembering what Eldeorin had said about a gulak never working alone, I scanned the room to make sure it was empty before I slipped out from my hiding place. I stayed close to the wall as I silently made my way to the room where the humans were, and I let out a relieved sigh when I tried the door and found it unlocked.