“Your people are less competent than you think.”
“Do tell,” Malcolm said on the other end of the line.
I walked up the street, taking a left up to Serenity Cole’s clinic. She’d been working on reverse-engineering the serum since I’d brought it to her after last night’s fireworks. Turned out she was also a pretty good doctor. Should have considered that before almost killing myself with the exhaustion displacement potion.
Granted, I wasn’t fully recovered by a longshot, but the pills she had me on for radiation sickness were way more convenient than the IV drip. Naturally, I was ignoring everyone’s orders of bed rest.
Not my style, remember?
Hopefully Serenity had worked on a cure. Because I’m sure MagiTekk had contingencies and other factories gearing up to replace their billions in lost product.
“Are you still there?” Malcolm sounded almost desperate. This was an embarrassing defeat for the esteemed Chief of Security. I’m sure his quarterly bonus would reflect the earnings hit.
I gave him the address in Midtown where I’d agreed to meet Silvia.
“We’re even, now,” I said.
“We’re even only when I say so.”
“You stay the fuck away from me and Roark.”
“Don’t forget I know your little secret. How you want to take us down.”
“Then tell the world,” I said, calling his bluff. “Kill your last remaining son.”
“You don’t want to test me, Miss Callaway.”
“Better get out now, before the whole thing burns. It’s a real house of cards.”
He laughed, confident and unbothered. “We’re too big to fail.”
“You’ll get a message later today.”
“Which is?”
“Have a little patience, Malcolm.” I reached the all-glass exterior of the clinic. “And make sure that note you promised is at my apartment when I get back.”
“And if it’s not?”
“You’re gonna have bigger problems than the one you already have.”
“I don’t think you—”
“Oh, you’ll bend when you see this problem, Malcolm.” I listened to him curse. “Or maybe you’ll just break. Fuck if I care.”
I hung up and went inside, hoping that my words weren’t hollow. It all depended on what Serenity had whipped up.
The teenage intern saw me come in. “Serenity is busy.”
“Come on, not this again.”
The girl held up a bag. “She filled your prescription.”
“Oh yeah?”
“She said it goes great with water.” The girl gave me a funny look. “I don’t get it. There’s no medicine.”
I looked inside the bag and nodded with a small smile. “But it’s good for all of us.”
Bag in tow, I headed outside—into the light, where Roark was waiting in his car.
“You ready for this?” I asked as I got into the passenger seat.
“We’re in it together.” The wisps were conflicted, but for now, we’d see this case through as partners.
“Supervisor can’t be committing crimes.”
“Best we don’t get caught, then,” Roark said, his blue eyes glinting.
We looked at each other for a moment before the car screamed off, headed straight toward the water treatment plant.
48
Long story short, Roark and I dumped Serenity’s vaccine into the water supply. Within days, every supernatural creature would be inoculated, putting MagiTekk’s latest innovation out of business permanently. Surely they’d return to fight another day, but for now, they were reeling.
Add another problem and defeat to Malcolm Roark’s tally. The mess at the cathedral was a PR nightmare, and MagiTekk’s quarterly revenue projections had gone up in a cloud of dragon napalm.
If he bent any further, he’d probably snap.
Roark’s cruiser stopped outside my apartment. I went to get out, but he grabbed my arm. For a second, I thought he was gonna kiss me.
Not quite so lucky.
“You could’ve told me about Silvia, Ruby. Why you needed the cube.”
“I didn’t—”
“Should’ve told me.” Roark’s handsome jaw was set in a stern expression. “I think—I think this is it.”
My chest tightened, and I asked the question, even though I knew the answer. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not gonna be out in the field anymore, and—well, shit, I just can’t trust you.”
There it was. Grievances laid bare. A tense silence settled over the leather interior. He had reason to be pissed, but I wasn’t ready to give up.
We’d been through too much for that.
“What about when I saved your life back in the loop, huh? Or brought down a cult by myself?” Stretching the truth a little, but it was close enough.
“I didn’t say you were evil.” Roark looked down, at a loss for words. “Fuck, I just—”
So I made the decision.
I kissed him before he could say anything else we’d regret.
Time paused for a split second, his aftershave lingering on my cheek as I pulled away.
“I’m not going anywhere, Colton Roark.”
He cracked a smile and said, “Okay, Ruby.”
“See you tomorrow,” I said.
“What about tonight?”
“Don’t get any ideas, Casanova.”
“I know how you work.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I said, feigning mock indignation. “You have shit to attend to, Supervisor.”
“Duly noted, Miss Callaway.”
I went to get out again, but he pulled me in one more time. Through the slit of my eye, I could see the wisps turning all sorts of colors.
Confusing indeed.
I let go and got out of the car. Waving him away, I contemplated the turn of events.
Maybe I was lucky after all.
Heading upstairs to my apartment, I sensed a disturbance within. Unholstering the shotgun, I crept toward my doorway. I’d been burned too many times by unwelcome visitors to go in blind.
The door was ajar, but my apartment was empty. Nothing was missing.
On the glass table was a small vial and the note Malcolm Roark had waved around at the construction site.
I picked up its yellowed edge and breathed in deep.
If you’re reading this, it began, then I’m dead. And everything is as it should be. Because now your training is finally complete. And you can set out to do what I always meant for you.
It was signed in a familiar script with an unfamiliar name.
The Oracle of Delphi.
But the writing was Pearl’s.
My breath caught, and I sat on the chair, skimming until the last line.
When the time comes, Ruby, you will have to kill the father. Even if it means risking the hatred of the son.
I looked at the half-empty blood vial that had once been in Silvia’s possession. It had a note of its own attached, written in a neat, even hand.
I kept the rest for safekeeping. And to see who bends first.
Beneath it were the three names—and addresses—from my list. Those responsible for setting me up and killing Pearl. But I had little intention of going after them. There was bigger prey to hunt.
“Game on, Malcolm,” I said, feeling a familiar vengeful fire rise in my chest.
My phone buzzed. A text from Roark that made my chest hurt.
I got off tonight.
I smiled forlornly and folded up the note.
Too bad things could never just be easy.
Right?
END OF BOOK 2
Blood River
The Ruby Callaway Trilogy (Book 3)
Book 2 Recap
This is a brief recap of Shadow Flare (Book 2).
Obviously, spoilers await, so if you haven’t read Book 2 yet, go do that first.
Shadow Flare kicks off a few weeks after the events in Lightning Blade (Book
1). Supernatural bounty hunter Ruby Callaway is settling into a new world. 2039 barely resembles the past she knew before being locked up in the Tempe Supernatural Internment Camp. With Colton Roark’s help, she has her own apartment, a clear name, and a cover job as an FBI consultant.
Their goal remains the same: end MagiTekk’s corporate reign. However, the fact that Malcolm Roark—MagiTekk’s Chief of Security, and Colton’s father—knows about their plan is ominous. The elder Roark, however, is certain that they pose little threat. Instead of locking them up, he enlists Ruby’s help with a problem of his own. She owes him a favor after he helped them in Lightning Blade, and now he’s cashing it in. The deal? To make sure nothing happens with MagiTekk’s essence suppression serum rollout. The company has been testing the product for over ten years, and the release will be worth billions. Although Malcolm doesn’t necessarily need Ruby’s help, he wants to see whether he can break her to his will.
Naturally, she has no plans to concede to Malcolm. But there are complications. Colton Roark has been promoted due to his work on the Solomon Marshall case, and now serves as an FBI liaison to MagiTekk. This puts him firmly in the lion’s den, and makes Ruby question his dedication to their cause.
More concerning is the case they’ve caught. Twenty-three bodies are found near the entrance to the Fallout Zone. Ruby immediately identifies it as the work of the Crusaders of Paradisum, and their leader, Donovan Martin—a man who Ruby killed over a hundred years ago, in 1923. The Crusaders are a cult with a singular goal: to resurrect Pan, the god of Arcadia, and recreate paradise on Earth. Ruby believed this objective died with their leader—except he apparently survived. The Crusaders have a strange relationship with the FBI and MagiTekk, all of which centers around a strange monument in Old Phoenix: The Cathedral of St. Peter.
As they work to untangle the web, however, unseen complications come from the shadows. A sorceress who Ruby met during one of the failed loops is back—and Silvia remembers meeting Ruby. The sorceress knows that Ruby and Roark were responsible for selling her out to MagiTekk and Malcolm Roark. Somehow, she survived an attack from Malcolm Roark’s Ghosts. She comes to Ruby for both revenge—her lover was killed in the attack—and because Ruby’s blood has special properties that might be able to reverse the effects of MagiTekk’s essence suppression serum.
Silvia wants Ruby to destroy the warehouse where the first shipment of the serum is held—and to give her the only surviving sample afterward. The sorceress takes some of Ruby’s blood as an incentive. As a skilled magic user, Silvia is too powerful to fight head-on, so Ruby has little choice but to play along.
Matters get worse when Ruby, chasing a lead with Roark through the Fallout Zone, is exposed to a near-lethal dose of radiation. She survives, but reawakens under the care of Alice Conway, Roark’s half-vampire hacker CI, with only 24 hours before the essence suppression serum rollout. This leaves her little time to deal with the Crusaders, Silvia, or Malcolm Roark. Despite her condition, Ruby insists on exploring leads.
Ruby and Alice soon discover that MagiTekk’s layers of deception extend deeper than they thought. In Lightning Blade, Alice discovered the company was using the widespread internment camps as research centers, gleaning data to create lucrative products. Now, the duo learn that MagiTekk made a deal with the Crusaders, giving them access to mana wellsprings they’ve discovered. In return, the Crusaders gave MagiTekk an essence suppression technology that they developed over their one hundred year hiatus. Most worrisome is a large mana wellspring that lies beneath the Cathedral—a powerful, pure source of magic concentrated enough to revive even a dead god. As the monument lies under FBI protection, that means the government is complicit in this scheme, as well.
Ruby connects the dots: the essence suppression serum and sudden reemergence of the Crusaders of Paradisum is hardly a coincidence. With the cult creating widespread panic and anxiety, MagiTekk’s serum should fly off the shelves as fear surrounding the supernatural spikes to an all-time high. And, with the cult having access to the wellsprings, that will make them a formidable threat. MagiTekk is trying to foment a war, as war is better for business than peace.
Needing an exhaustion displacement potion to continue, Ruby and Alice visit a shady black-market dealer. Here, however, they encounter Silvia again, who is displeased with Ruby’s rate of progress—or lack thereof. The sorceress takes Alice as collateral and brands Ruby with a magical timer reminding her that there are just twelve hours remaining until the trucks leave MagiTekk’s warehouse. Silvia is kind enough, however, to give Ruby an exhaustion displacement potion to temporarily combat her fatigue and radiation sickness.
Ruby scrambles to stop both MagiTekk and Silvia’s plans. She learns from FBI Supervisor Emma Janssen that the relationship between the Crusaders, MagiTekk and the FBI began over twenty years ago, when the cathedral was built atop the massive wellspring. Ruby is stunned to find out that the wellspring contains the fossilized remains of Pan, God of Arcadia—and that the various entities have been studying it for the past two decades. MagiTekk finds the two of them, and Janssen dies. Roark is promoted to Supervisor. Ruby manages to burn down the suppression serum warehouse, but must strike a deal with an elf dragon that requires her to break into Roark’s bank account and short MagiTekk’s stock. Roark is furious, putting a strain on their relationship.
Ruby heads to the Cathedral of St. Peter alone to end things with the Crusaders. She’s ambushed by security personnel and, given her deteriorating state, is unable to fight them off. Ruby awakens dangling over a pit that contains the fossilized remains of Pan. Donovan Martin wants her to witness the dawn of Paradisum on Earth. There’s one last twist: the Crusaders will not revive the god, but instead use the massive stores of mana from the wellspring to make his disciples stronger, and near-immortal—like him.
Summoning the last of her strength, Ruby manages to kill him. But there are still additional security personnel beneath the cathedral, and she has little hope of escaping unarmed. Roark shows up and saves her life. The next day, after Ruby visits Serenity Cole to discuss an antidote for MagiTekk’s serum and takes care of a few other errands, she talks to Malcolm. He’s furious about the warehouse burning down, but she gives him the “true” culprit in Silvia. As he’s taking care of the sorceress, Serenity successfully reverse-engineers the serum; Roark and Ruby put it in the city’s water supply, thus inoculating the population and scuttling MagiTekk’s plans permanently. Afterward, Roark tells Ruby he can’t trust her anymore and tries to end their partnership. She kisses him.
The book ends with Ruby entering her apartment and finding a note left by Malcolm Roark. It’s from Pearl, written over twenty years before. It prophesies what Ruby must do: When the time comes, Ruby, you will have to kill the father. Even if it means risking the hatred of the son. It’s accompanied by a half-vial of Ruby’s blood—which Malcolm retrieved from Silvia. There’s a brief note from Malcolm: I kept the rest for safekeeping. And to see who bends first.
Ruby receives a text from Roark promising to meet her that night, and the book ends with her smiling forlornly, wondering why things can never be just a little easier.
1
Colton Roark’s strong, firm fingers glided across my shoulders, brushing lightly against the zipper of the little black dress. I arched my back, allowing him to pull the zipper down. Bathed in the neon glow of the skyscape below, our skin was awash in a blend of pastel reds and aquamarine blues. I reached for the curtains, but Roark caught my hand and wrapped it gently within his own.
“No need.” His cool blue eyes stared deeply into mine. The relaxed strength of his words made my heart flutter. “304th floor. No one’s watching.” He leaned forward, lips against my ear. “Unless you want them to.”
“I’d consider it,” I said, body buzzing with the excitement of possibility.
The stainless-steel fixtures of the bedroom glowed softly as I kissed him, tasting his aftershave. The light, soft stubble gracing his jaw rubbed against my
cheek. I breathed in sharply, wondering how we’d gotten here.
The day had been a whirlwind of events—hardly one that should end with us on favorable terms. I’d hacked into Roark’s computer, using his savings to short MagiTekk’s stock. But a girl had to pay an elf dragon to burn down MagiTekk’s warehouse full of a newly developed essence suppression serum somehow, right? After that, I’d gone rogue, infiltrating the Cathedral of St. Peter alone. But, upon storming the secret joint FBI–MagiTekk–Crusaders of Paradisum facility in Old Phoenix, I’d soon found myself dangling over an ancient mana wellspring housing the remains of a long dead god.
Roark had arrived with the cavalry just in time. Both safe, both alive, but trust in tatters from what had gone unspoken.
Yet here we were, friends again.
More than friends.
I guess he understood that old cliché about breaking a few eggs to bake a cake.
Or that other one about using his retirement account to pay a renegade elf dragon.
Same thing.
The tight dress slipped from my shoulders as we pressed against each other in the sheets, his bare lean chest against mine. Somewhere in the middle, we both wound up naked. His fingers traced along the faint lines crisscrossing my back. Souvenirs from over twenty years spent in the Tempe Supernatural Internment Camp.
I pressed against his chest, feeling the silver plate along his abdomen. It rippled and tensed, almost like real musculature—but not quite. A reminder of when Solomon Marshall had shot him.
Of when he had almost died.
Roark pulled away, blue eyes shining, an odd expression taking over his face.
“You’re stopping now?” I batted my eyelashes and rubbed my fingers along his thigh.
He caught my hand. Not quite as sweetly as he’d done only moments before. “There’s something I have to do.”
“Later.” The bed vibrated around us, rocking back and forth. I reached up to kiss him, but he avoided me. “Hey, come on.”
Ruby Callaway: The Complete Collection Page 39