As she dropped her hand again, a ladder slid down, the exact height of the room and leading into a crawlspace.
I glanced at her. “Nice trick. Demon magic?”
Still peering into the hole with a frown, she nodded. “I don’t know where he got the substance in the first place, it’s not from this dimension. We’d be the only ones able to use it like that.”
I mean, a sledgehammer to the ceiling might’ve worked too, but it would’ve been awkward as hell.
I pinned the penlight between my teeth and gripped the rung at eyelevel to climb.
I went slow, feeling outwardly for any sense of a magical trap, but all I caught was more wardings similar to the one at the apartment threshold. Still nothing to keep out blood family.
At the top of the ladder I found a crawlspace, the two feet Melinoë had observed as well as an extra foot above that. Comfortable enough for crouching, and there was a thick yoga pad and pillow rolled out in the corner. Meditation, maybe, but also the odd spell could knock you out if you were unprepared, and lying down up here would be safer than trying to climb down the ladder while impaired.
Custom shelving ran along two walls, taking up the whole space—here were his rarer texts, some loose on the shelves, other in Plexiglas cases. The air hummed with magic that rolled across my skin, flaring to life at the presence of an intruder before coiling back again when it was clear I wasn’t a threat. If I let my eyes go hazy and unfocused, I could see the layers of magic and spinning sigils lining the space in precise placement. His spells were carefully crafted and expertly placed, but with the odd wisp of wildness, the moments when he cobbled something together perfectly in a way we were never trained for.
I got out of the way so Melinoë could join me. I couldn’t find a separate light source, but let my own magic float up, weaving between the threads of Dev’s spells. Cool blue electric light filled the space and I put away the penlight.
I moved on my knees toward the nearest shelves, looking for anything out of the ordinary—where a book might be missing, something moved in haste. “How exactly have you been tracking the Aanzhenii?”
“The old-fashioned way.” When I looked sharply at her, she elaborated. “Reports of sightings, rumors, social media. They sometimes cause blackouts, especially if there are two or more together—power outages, WiFi down. In addition to warping space and time, that is. I get alerts about outages, we compare it with known sightings.”
“That sounds...tedious.”
“It is.”
Dev was brilliant. Focused and patient when he needed to be, but he did not do ‘tedious’. He didn’t look for shortcuts because he was lazy; he looked for shortcuts because he didn’t want to waste time, because he believed there were better ways of doing things. But he was prideful—if he was experimenting, refining his spellwork, he wouldn’t have brought it to her until he had something concrete. Possibly after testing it out...?
Maybe there was no sign of the Aanzhenii taking him at the motel because he’d found a way to magically track them and went there to test his work.
It was a big leap for me to take, especially considering we hadn’t talked in so long—I was basing it on the Dev I grew up with, colored by the perspective of a baby sister. But like any good theory, there might be evidence to support it; it could be tested as I went.
“Someone else was in here...”
I looked over at Melinoë, whose black brows had pulled into a frown. She crouched in front of a chest of small drawers set between the shelving, her fingers splayed as she ran them a few inches back from the dark wood. The crackling blue light above us tinted her glossy hair as she moved.
“Someone other than Dev,” she elaborated. “They were focused over here.”
“Aanzhenii?” I guessed. What else would leave invisible imprints in the environment? I didn’t see anything myself, but—
She shook her head. “No. Demon.” She shifted over, making room for me, and I crawled over to sit on my knees at her side.
I looked. Saw nothing. “Not visible to a witch, I guess?”
She gave me a self-deprecating smile. “Sorry, right. I’m used to working with Dev and I don’t... Well.” She dropped her left hand but kept the right extended, hovering it just an inch from the wood. “There’s this...residue. Certain demons leave it when using their particular brand of magic. It looks like...black oil, at least to me and Dev.”
Like the magic that had hidden the crawlspace. “But it’s not his?”
“No.” She sat back cross-legged and set her hands on her knees. “I’m guessing they were looking for something. Recently—the residue fades over a few days.”
I moved a few inches closer and reached for the first drawer. There were eight of them, three narrow ones at the top, two long ones below, and another row of three small ones at the bottom. The bottom held supplies, some I could identify by smell before I even opened the drawers—a mix that was almost spicy and other times more acrid and sulphuric. Gemstones and talismans were placed in careful, individual compartments, probably with some kind of organization order but I could only guess how. One of the longer drawers had rolls of scrolls under an acrylic lid.
I reached another drawer where nothing but a small slender black-lacquer box waited. If it was velvet, I’d expect jewelry, but this...I wasn’t sure. I pulled the drawer out fully and reached for the box.
“Wait,” Melinoë said quickly, her hand flying out to caution me.
My fingertips hovered over the box. “What? Demon boobytrap?”
“There’s a lot of that residue around it,” she said, frowning. “Like whoever else was in here spent a lot of time on this.”
So this might’ve been what they were looking for—or, at least, whatever was in it. “Is it going to explode?”
“I’m not a bomb-sniffing dog, so...maybe?”
“I mean, was that why you told me to wait.”
“Oh. No, I don’t think it’s explosive.”
Comforting.
I took a breath and grasped the box, gingerly sliding it out. The lid was on hinges, delicate black ones along one side of the seam so small I nearly missed them. With care and a silent prayer to whatever goddesses might be listening, I eased the lid back.
The box was empty. But it hadn’t always been.
The interior had a cut-out that was in the shape of the pendant that it had held, a long loop for a chain that went the circumference of the box and then joined to continue up to the center where the place for the pendant itself was.
No pendant now, though I could picture it. An oval, blood-red stone with flecks of black that sometimes—at least to my eyes as a child—seemed to move. It both fascinated and repelled me, and even with its absence, I could see it so clearly I swore I’d blink and it might appear.
I knew what had been kept in this box—saw it many times before.
“Elis?” Melinoë prompted—clearly as close as she and Dev seemed to be, he’d never revealed this.
I snapped the lid shut. “I think—”
The crawlspace floor beneath me rumbled suddenly.
I tensed and shifted, eased to a crouch balanced on my toes and angled my back against the supply shelf as I looked around. “You feel that?”
Melinoë nodded. “Something’s here.”
Hello Obvious Woman, thank you for your insight.
The hairs rose on the back of my neck and the magic around me grew sharper, the air humming with razor blades about to strike. I eyed the trek back to the ladder—Dev must’ve had another escape route, but we didn’t have time to look for it—and weighed the possibility of running for it without being remotely clear on the threat.
“I can go first if you—”
My words were cut off as moving, shrieking darkness exploded up from trapdoor hole in the floor.
Six
Swarming
I darted back but hadn’t much room to move, spine bumping the shelves behind me as I scanned the ground. A squealing,
chittering noise filled the small space, the textured darkness growing as it rolled from the center mass toward us. The crackling blue light of magic above me answered my silent call and jerked down, brightening what approached.
I’d thought it almost looked like a blanket, initially; it wasn’t. Hundreds—maybe even thousands—of tiny creatures, some combination of a rat and a tarantula, swarmed. The size of a large rat but rounder, six legs, gleaming teeth, and a razor-like ridge down their backs—that was about all I got along with red eyes before I had to push the magic down to cut off their path. Electric blue lightning zigzagged down, frying the creatures in the front row and driving the others back.
Melinoë dove toward me, landed at my side. Blood dripped from her hand. “Motherfucker bit me.”
“Well, I didn’t suppose they were here for a tea party.” I couldn’t see the ladder past the wall of magic and writhing creatures beyond. The stink of sulfur warred with the ozone scent of my magic, and I couldn’t help but think it mirrored our physical predicament. “I can clear a path but I have no idea what’ll be beyond the ladder, if something else is waiting down there.”
She fished with her good hand underneath her coat and pulled out a handgun. “I’ll go first and cover you if you can hold these ones off.”
It was a plan. Not a great one—I didn’t like relying on others—but not like we had a lot of options.
I parted my lips to verbally agree when the creatures surged forward, crawling, wiggling, screeching and chittering, eyes glittering red. They threw themselves at my wall of magic, wave after wave of them; every time a row died, the ones behind them took their place until they had their own wall of corpses built.
The pressure against my magic pushed harder and sweat broke out over my brow. Pain clawed up behind my eyes, a foreign feeling I’d only known a few times—it had been a while since I’d been up against something fighting back. Sparks pushed against the blue electricity, tendrils of blue weakening and fading.
Creatures pushed through the wall of corpses, escaping near the bottom and darting toward us.
“Go now!” I barked and swung my hands up, thrusting a fresh burst of energy into the lightning. Bodies flew, struck the walls, and a path to the ladder opened.
Melinoë shot forward, not even bothering to crawl but diving, landing on her side and rolling. She swung her upper body through the space in the floor, called “Clear!” and whirled, dropping down feet-first in an instant.
I was not as graceful.
There was little room to move and I had to hold the fucking things back, watching behind me and shifting my wall of magic to close off any gaps. The creepy fuckers kept pushing, wiggling past my defences as I shuffled on my knees for the ladder.
The circle of my magic got smaller and smaller, more gaps widening. Two broke through, then a third; I gave up all pretence of being careful because I didn’t have time.
Three feet from the ladder and something bit me, pain spearing my calf. I flung a hand back, blasted the thing, just as I felt another land in my hair.
Fuck it. I threw myself for the ladder, falling head-first and catching a rung on the way. My right shoulder jerked painfully—probably tore something there, but better than landing on my head—and I scrambled to get my feet on. I climbed a few more steps then jumped, landing hard and falling to one knee on the floor of Dev’s loft bedroom.
Melinoë was there, grasped my wrist and yanked me—great, now my other shoulder would be fucked too—around the bed and toward the stairs. We ran and I tossed bolts behind me, glanced back once and saw the swarm pouring like water from the hole in the ceiling.
Down the stairs, toward the door; my magic was weaker now but followed along the ceiling, lighting the way. I couldn’t hear my own footsteps over the sound of the creatures, the chittering a din that filled my ears. They crawled across the floor, the walls, the ceiling, moving like liquid, knocking over anything they came into contact with but drowning the sound.
Melinoë reached the door first and threw it open, darting out ahead of me but waiting. I chased after her but paused in the threshold, flung my hand out to toss a wall of electricity in their path. Dev’s warding flared to life at the presence of warring magic, crackling a deep angry orange and sigils shifting.
It was enough to hold them back for a moment, and Melinoë slammed the door shut. I took off ahead of her, still hearing that goddamn chittering even though they hadn’t made it to the hallway. My head throbbed—as did my shoulder—and I felt blood slicking my ankle, my wrist. My forehead was wet and I didn’t know if it was sweat or blood.
Probably both, and the fucking cardio wasn’t helping things.
We clambered down three sets of stairs and burst into the street just as screams filled the building behind us, lights flicking on in some of the windows only to be chased out by darkness—the goddamn swarm was falling on everyone.
Maybe it had nothing to do with Dev and we were just caught in someone’s magical crossfire, but it was a hell of a coincidence.
My steps stuttered on the street and I went lightheaded, my vision darkening. Melinoë caught my elbow and held me steady, peering back and forth down the dark empty street, black hair swinging across her brow. Her lips, pale and bloodless, parted, and she took in short quick breaths as she strained to see.
“I took the subway,” she said at last.
Bile rose up my throat with the exhaustion. “I didn’t.” I raised a shaky hand for the red Mini Cooper across the street.
The apartment building door burst open behind us, thousands of glittering red eyes filling the night.
I swore and started running with Melinoë, fumbling to fish my keys from my back pocket with one hand as I waved the other one back. Magic answered, lightning falling from the sky with a crackling sizzle, forking and spearing hundreds of creatures.
But the swarm kept coming.
Dizziness intensified and I stumbled, losing the keys in the process.
Fuck fuck FUCK I was going to kill my brother for this. If he wasn’t already dead.
I whirled and went back, pouring more magic into stopping the swarm. More broke through, launching themselves at me, latching on with razor teeth as I scooped up the keys.
Then Melinoë was there, kicking them back, and I fried the ones biting me. This time I handed her the keys and made it to the side door, throwing myself in the passenger side. I slammed the door and caught several creatures who had followed, slicing their screeching bodies in half.
Melinoë got the car started and floored it, the vehicle rolling over bodies and jostling us.
The swarm was fast but the Mini Cooper was faster.
As the sight of them faded in the rearview mirror, I leaned back, panting and aching and bleeding, my eyes closing. “Motherfucker.”
“Ever seen those before?”
“No. I guess some kind of demon—” I swallowed back more bile as she made a sharp turn and I almost lost all the coffee dumped on my stomach before I’d left home. I looked down at my mangled hand and the bites and blood dotting the fabric of my skinny jeans. At least they hadn’t gotten through my combat boots. “I get the sense they wouldn’t leave a body, if that’s what got Dev.”
“There’d be blood,” she said evenly, staring at the road. “I don’t think he’s dead.”
I was too exhausted to argue. I was being careless with magic, I knew—calling it silently, without a proper spell and precautions, used up my own energy and exhausted me far more quickly. In my defence, I hadn’t been attacked like that in ages and it didn’t occur to me to have anything else at the ready. My left hand flexed and pressed to my thigh, but no—I wasn’t that desperate. Yet. There was no sign of them catching up with the vehicle—for now, we were safe.
If I pursued this, I’d need a proper arsenal.
Who are you kidding? Of course you’re pursuing it. You knew that the moment you asked Tanvi about local John Does.
“Where to?” she asked at last. “I was g
oing to get a hotel room or something but hadn’t made it far enough to check in yet. Home?”
Home would be great but I wasn’t likely to find a lot of answers there.
“Yes, but not my apartment. We have to go to my dad’s house.”
Seven
On Occasion
At first glance, I did not look like I grew up rich.
Mostly because I didn’t care what I wore as long as it was comfortable, and while I’m sure people could explain the difference between a two-hundred-dollar t-shirt and a twenty-dollar one, I would not understand it. And for that twenty-dollar one, I would wait and get on sale for under ten, if possible. My footwear was usually a bit better quality, and at home I paid good money for a comfortable mattress. But that was it.
Dev had always dressed better. Clean-cut, even his most casual clothing tailored. Subtle, the way Dad dressed as well, and both of them always gave off an air of finished in a way that made me feel lacking.
So yeah, I grew up rich even if I didn’t look it, and there was no getting away from that when we pulled up at the manor’s gate.
Melinoë eased the Mini Cooper up to the gate, and anyone checking would recognize it immediately. I had a Ducati I took plenty of places, but when my gut told me earlier to take the car, I was now glad I’d listened—we would’ve been eaten on the bike. The vehicle idled for a moment as the night crew was likely assessing us at a distance. Security at Dad’s wasn’t immediately obvious, but anyone who didn’t belong was swiftly encouraged to leave. By force, if necessary—or even if not.
The house looked dark from a distance, but that didn’t concern me. Growing up, Dad did what he could to keep a normal schedule, but now his kids were both out of the house, so he went with what was natural—which meant being up all night. I knew he’d be awake, and so would anyone else there.
I reached across Melinoë and punched in my gate code from the open car window, waved at the security camera, and had her drive forward as the gate swung silently open. As the car moved through the wardings, uncomfortable prickles of magic ran along my skin, a reminder to anyone entering to watch themselves. I wasn’t particularly worried, but I wondered what Melinoë felt.
Blood Ties Page 4