Jocelynn Drake - [Asylum Tales 02]

by Dead Mans Deal

  Turning my full attention on Sofie, I found that her lovely bluish-gray fur was now dark and matted with her blood. There was a large wound in her abdomen and her breathing was shallow. She was fading fast. With a deep breath, I drew in as much energy as I could hold. As I exhaled, I sent that energy streaking through her body. It was a similar spell to what I had used on Bronx nights ago, but stronger. I was afraid of her dying before I could heal her. This spell tied her soul to the energy in her body. As long as I maintained the spell, her soul was trapped.

  Despite the smallness of her frame in comparison to Bronx, it still took several minutes for the worst of her wounds to heal. I was vaguely aware of Gideon using magic around me. I could hear the tinkle of broken glass and the clink of silverware while a heavy breeze swept by me as the door flew to its place at the front of the apartment and the lights clicked on. I kept my eyes closed, straining to keep as much of my focus on Sofie as I could.

  When the beat of her heart was strong beneath my fingers and her breathing was even, I started to unravel the healing spell, pulling the energy out of her body. Sofie shifted and I thought I could feel her purring. I opened my eyes and took a deep breath, relief making my hands shake as I pulled them away from her. Sofie was an annoying, meddlesome old witch, but she was my annoying, meddlesome old witch and I’d be damned if I was going to let some fucking witch or warlock kill her because I had been stupid enough to send her into danger.

  I sat on the carpet, leaning against the nearest wall, and dropped my head until my chin nearly hit my chest. Both Sofie and I had nearly been killed by a witch and a warlock. I was exhausted down to my soul and my body hurt in more places than I wanted to think about. I didn’t want to move, didn’t want to breathe, didn’t want to think, but I still had to do all of the above because Gideon was here and was going to want some answers. He also had some answers that I desperately needed.

  Something nudged my elbow. I looked down, lifting my hand. Sofie crawled into my lap and curled up. She didn’t speak, only purred as she snuggled close. I gently ran my fingers over her wet, sticky fur, soothing away the last of the trembling and terror that had gripped us both. I had almost lost her. A lump grew in my throat and my chest ached with a pain that had nothing to do with physical injuries. The Towers were picking apart my life no matter how hard I tried to escape. I’d left my family to keep them safe from the Towers and now the bastards were trying to claim the lives of my friends. There had to be another way.

  “You’re better than I am at that particular healing spell,” Gideon said. “I think I would have been able to save her, but she wouldn’t be as strong as she is now.”

  I wanted to smile, but I was too tired. As I looked up at him, I found that my apartment was back to its prebattle state with both doors fixed. The dead warlock was gone along with the bloodstain in the carpet. All that was left were a few stray pieces of chalk and my own bloodstained hands.

  “Good to know I’ve got at least one skill,” I said, scratching Sofie on the top of the head and behind her ears.

  “If you’re fishing for more compliments, I’d stop.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it. Why don’t you tell me what the fuck is going on? And by that question, I mean for you to start with Indianapolis, cover Sofie’s injuries, and finish with the two fucknuts who popped by to rearrange my apartment.”

  “I’ll start with the easiest and the rest should fall into place,” Gideon said on a sigh as he sat heavily on my couch. He looked as exhausted and as rough as I felt, but without the bruised and cracked ribs. “I didn’t get to talk to Sofie, but I did see her briefly in Dresden. I assumed that you sent her in hopes of drawing me back to Low Town.”

  I stared down at Sofie in my lap. “You went all the way to the Tower?”

  Sofie gave a wide yawn. “You aren’t the only one who wants answers. And it was the only place I was guaranteed to get them.”

  I suppressed a shudder at the thought. She had walked into the lion’s den. The European Ivory Tower wasn’t in Dresden, Germany, but more to the north of the city in some forestland called Der Loben near a series of lakes. Everyone referred to it as Dresden because that was the closest big city. And for roughly nine years, the Dresden Tower had been my home.

  “As I was saying,” Gideon continued a bit irritably. “When the meeting broke up, I had already lost sight of Sofie, but I gather someone else was following her. They took care of her once they were sure they had your location.”

  Sofie rubbed her head against my hand. “Sorry, Gage. I didn’t mean to lead anyone back to you.”

  “As long as they didn’t tell anyone else where they had found me, it doesn’t matter. Any idea who they were?”

  Resting his right elbow on his knee, Gideon leaned his forehead against his right hand, scratching his scalp in thought. “The warlock on your floor was Neil Wilson. If there was a witch with him, it was most likely his apprentice. I think her name is Leanne, or maybe Lenore. He usually called her Useless Clod. Did you at least finish her?”

  I looked away from the warlock, unable to meet his gaze. “Don’t know. Sent her fishing off the North Shore. She might have escaped.” Gideon remained silent so long that I had to look back. He frowned at me and I could feel his disappointment. For the first time, my claim that I wasn’t a killer like him sounded weak and pathetic. An excuse rather than a principle.

  “I get that they were here to kill me,” I said, breaking the silence. “But do they have a new reason to be here?”

  “For both our sakes, I fucking hope not,” the warlock snapped, surprising me with his choice of language. He flopped back against the couch and dropped one foot on the top of my coffee table.

  “You want a drink? My brother’s got some beers,” I said with a smirk.

  Gideon hated me most days and the feeling was more than mutual. He was a pompous, arrogant, controlling asshole who liked to make my life hell, but I had to stop there because I also knew that he had done a lot to protect my life. Regardless, he had never looked quite so human as he did slouched on my couch with hair standing on end and shirt wrinkled. If his state didn’t scare the shit out of me, I would have laughed.

  “God, that would be nice.” He sighed and shook his head. “No, Ellen will worry.”

  “You go home every night?”

  “I try, but it’s not always possible. After Indianapolis, I have to.”

  Yeah, the whole world was in a state of shock and terror. His wife would definitely need a little reassurance tonight from her warlock husband. While the news reports were offering little information beyond horror, a warlock could provide a better view of why the world was close to burning.

  “Speaking of which, what happened with Indianapolis? Is the renewed attack on me tied to it?”

  “Yes.”

  My head dropped back against the wall and I closed my eyes. Fear coiled in my stomach and that drink was starting to sound better by the second.

  “Things have been bad in the Towers for a couple of years now. Between Peter’s death, Simon’s death, and the runaways, everyone has been on edge. It all exploded this afternoon when rumors hit New York that someone managed to get exact Tower locations.”

  My heart stopped and my breath froze in my chest. I could even feel Sofie stiffen in my lap at this news. Apparently she hadn’t heard this bit yet despite her quick trip to Germany. The world was teetering on the brink of destruction and I now had a hand in it. To make matters worse, a key figure in this growing debacle was sitting in the next room eating pizza and drinking beer. May whatever forces there were in the cosmos please take pity on me and let my brother stay in my bedroom with his mouth shut.

  “All locations?” I asked, struggling to keep my tone steady.

  “We don’t know. I’m not even sure how true the rumor is, but it doesn’t seem like most are concerned about the truth of it any longer. What I’ve heard is that two to three locations have been discovered. The ones that keep coming up are New York, D
resden, and Canberra.”

  “Where’d the information come from?”

  “We are aware of several small resistance groups that have been working on trying to find the locations for the past few decades. It’s been largely humans with a few ogres, trolls, and others thrown into the mix. No one strong in magic, particularly glamour, so we’ve left them alone. The guardians gleaned word a few months ago that they made a new contact and were excited. We watched but this person was very smooth. We never saw him or her, but when a couple representatives struck the enclave they were watching, nearly all were found dead.”

  “Their contact killed them?”

  Gideon nodded. “One person was found clinging to life. He was squeezed, but we got only one last fleeting thought. Elf.”

  “Fuck,” I whispered. This was a disaster.

  “Yes, the one race that we’ve feared from the beginning. Those bastards know more about glamour than anyone else. We always worried they would crack the protective spells. The Towers hoped that the elves had been broken, that they wouldn’t try to fight back, but apparently not.”

  “Stop. You don’t know this is the elves. It could be one rogue elf acting alone. You also don’t know if this is the elves or the Svartálfar. There is a difference.”

  Gideon arched one eyebrow at me. “Afraid for your girlfriend?”

  “Don’t push me, warlock,” I said in a low growl.

  Gideon’s expression hardened, but he let the comment pass. Picking a fight now wasn’t going to help anyone. “The guardians searched their headquarters and found stacks of maps. Only the ones for upstate New York and Germany held markings, but another for Australia had been pulled aside.”

  “I’m guessing their headquarters was in Indianapolis,” I said mostly to myself.

  “No, that was in Oklahoma City. Their contact had nearly cleaned them out, so the Towers didn’t feel the need to raze the city. Unfortunately, the witch and the warlocks caught the scent of one other person who had escaped. He slipped into Indianapolis. They were afraid he would have a chance to talk to someone if they waited to ferret him out, so they leveled the city.”

  “They killed thousands to silence one person?”

  “They were protecting our secret,” Gideon said evenly.

  “No!” I roughly lifted Sofie off my lap and placed her on the floor so I could push to my feet. I couldn’t sit still any longer. The worst of the pains in my body had subsided, but there was a growing pain in my head as if it was going to split in two in anger and frustration. “Don’t tell me you side with them. That you agree with what they did.”

  “Of course not! And neither does the council.” Gideon sat up, sliding to the edge of the sofa cushion.

  His comment stopped me short, snapping my gaze back to his haggard face. “They were executed?”

  He snorted. “Barely even a slap on the wrist. The council members, for the most part, cursed and shouted, but in the end, the attackers walked out of the hall with a pat on the back for doing what they had to in order to protect the Towers.”

  I shoved my hands through my hair, clenching my fingers around the short strands. Muscles clenched and unclenched throughout my body as I struggled to keep my temper under control. The Ivory Towers were locked into the same mentality that had persisted for centuries. They had to be the top dog. They slaughtered countless innocents to maintain that position. There was no talking. No negotiating. No looking for other options. For them, the best defense was a crushing offense.

  “We’re trapped, aren’t we?” I asked, unable to raise my voice over a whisper. I turned back to Gideon, who had dropped his head into his hands. “The Towers, the witches and the warlocks, they’ve been like this for so long that they can’t back down even if they wanted to. They’re so locked into this sense of entitlement that they can’t walk down the street like normal beings. Can’t stand in line at the grocery.”

  “All were taken before the age of twelve and most by seven. I doubt there’s one who remembers what it was like to be human, let alone wait in line.”

  “So I’m right. There’s no escape. They’re everywhere, suffocating the world with their hate until we all roll over and die.”

  Gideon lifted his head to look at me. “We’re trying. We’ve found a few places around the world where the watchful eye of the Towers is . . . somewhat blind. It’s a place where we can live in relative peace with others.”

  “It’s a pretty idea, Gideon, but what about the rest of the world?”

  “You want to save the world now?”

  “Fuck!” I shouted. Balling up my fist, I slammed it into the wall, denting the drywall enough to create a small hole. “No! I don’t want to save the world, but I don’t want to watch it burn either. I don’t want to see that look of terror in Trixie’s eyes because she’s afraid that the Towers are going to hit her town or attack her people again on a goddamn whim.”

  “I want a better life for our loved ones as well, but railing at the fates and punching holes in the wall aren’t going to fix anything.” Gideon’s voice was calm, but there was a light in his eyes. I think he wanted to punch a wall or two as well, but he was holding himself in check. He was right. My temper tantrum was helping no one, but damn it, venting at least kept me from using magic to blow holes in things.

  “Then where does that leave us? What do we do?” I snapped, struggling to rein in my anger.

  “Survive,” Sofie said.

  I had honestly forgotten that she was even in the room. Had I said anything that I shouldn’t have? I froze, my mind scrambling to replay my tirade. I trusted Sofie with my life. She was my friend, but I wasn’t willing to trust her with the lives of Gideon’s family. That was his choice.

  The large cat made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat before she jumped up on the coffee table in front of Gideon. “You two think you’re so smart and sneaky, but you’re both babies,” she said. “The softer edge movement started well before Gideon arrived in the Towers. I wasn’t a part of it, but I kept an eye on it.”

  “Why? To crush it?” Gideon demanded, sitting up straight. His voice hardened. I had a feeling that if Sofie gave the wrong answer, he wouldn’t hesitate to skin the cat right there. And of course, Sofie wasn’t the type to back down from anything.

  She laughed at Gideon. “No. I guess I was curious. At my age, I don’t get curious about the actions of people much. I feel like I’ve seen it all. I might not have been at Gage’s trial, but when I heard that Peter had assigned you to watch over him, I knew that you had found your way into the movement. I always knew your visits were a way of safely transmitting information to Gage. I might be stuck as a cat and out of the Towers, but I’m no fool.”

  The warlock frowned at the mention of Peter’s name. I hadn’t known him personally, and I had only seen him the one time when I stood before the council for my trial. He had been the one to cast the deciding vote to let me live. He had been the one to advise me to hide. Apparently, he had also been a part of the movement among the witches and the warlocks who wanted to live in peace with the rest of the world. It had been his recent death that created the opening on the council.

  “I’m sorry if you feel that you were used,” Gideon said stiffly. “We were never sure where your interests lie. I mentioned to Gage that you were in the area, and was pleased when he gravitated toward you on occasion as it gave me a chance to keep him abreast of changes.”

  Sofie gave a shrug of her small shoulders. “I didn’t mind. I appreciated the visits from both of you and the information. I doubt that I’d agree with everything that your group believes, but I do agree with Gage’s sentiment. Things need to change. I watched the Great War and the growing pile of dead bodies. I haven’t the stomach to do it again.” She looked up at me. Her expression was unreadable as a cat’s, but I had a feeling that she was sad. “But for anything to change, the first thing you have to do is survive.”

  I waved one hand at her and paced a small distance away. I was
getting tired of this you-have-to-stay-alive mentality. I had to do more, but I didn’t know what. As it was, I had to find a way to help Trixie settle things with the Summer Court, get Bronx free of Reave, and extricate Robert from the mess he was tangled in before the damn dark elf got us all killed. There was no time to lead a fucking revolution against the Towers . . . and maybe that was the point.

  “Fine. I stay alive,” I said under my breath. “I’ve got enough to keep me busy for now. I’ll leave the rest of the world to you.”

  “Staying alive is going to be harder than you might think,” Gideon warned, drawing my gaze back to him. He drew in a heavy breath and stared at the table in front of him.

  “What? You’ve been removed as my guardian? A new warden has been assigned?”

  “Not yet. During the last meeting, your name came up a few times. There are some who are afraid that you could prove to be a source of information since you’ve defected.”

  I threw my hands up in disbelief. “They’re thinking of this now? I’ve been out for roughly ten years.”

  “Some have voiced it before but I think they had trouble accepting the idea that you’d be disloyal to your own people. I guess some believed that you only wanted to get away from Simon, not the Towers. They thought you were still one of us.”

  A horrible sinking feeling filled my body so that it was like my heart was pumping sludge through my veins. “Someone thinks I have something to do with the information leak?”

  “No, not this one. The spotlight is firmly on the elves. But I think they are now realizing that you’re a risk. You and the other runaways.”

  “That was the reason for the hit squad on my doorstep?” I shook my head and then paced back to where he sat. “Someone found out that I was in contact with Sofie. I’m sure she never particularly hid where she was, so when she was located, they followed in hopes of locating me.”

  “Gage—” Sofie started, but I held up my hand.

  “Don’t, Sof. You didn’t know and it doesn’t matter. If they want to find me, they will. I’m sorry that you got hurt in the process.”