"My magic's a bit complicated."
He slowly nodded. "Uh huh. So apologize to her."
Could it be that simple? Just apologize to my Arcane? Tell her I was sorry? That I understood her objections? That I'd been unreasonable and had lost my compassion in my search to find Lethe? I guess I could do that, right? I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I pictured her there, an image of me in a mirror, surrounded by fiery red sparkling power. I spoke out loud when I apologized, listing off my mistakes for Brahms and Ivan to witness. It took a bit longer than I expected, and when I was done, I felt dizzy.
And very embarrassed. But relieved.
I opened my eyes. All of my Elementals were manifested, gathered about the room, and all smiling. Except the Unicorn because a horse smiling was a crazy thing to see.
I waited. They waited.
"Anything?" Ivan said.
I lowered my shoulders. "No."
That's when the back door burst open, and Crwys, Levi and Tas came in with something, or someone, in tow.
"Ivan," Crwys said. "Get a hold of Kyle. I don't care how you do it. Hack his phone or set off his fire alarms or something if you think he’s sleeping, but get a hold of him. Now!"
My Elementals vanished as Levi and Crwys carried what I realized was a sheet-wrapped body between them and set it on my huge break room table.
"Babe," Crwys said as he put a bloodied hand on my shoulder. "We're gonna need that super healing power of yours."
But…but…I didn't have my Arcane!
I moved in closer and saw the face. It was barely recognizable beneath the blood and bruises.
It was Arden Vervain.
FOURTEEN
There are always moments of incomprehensible clarity. I know that sounds a lot like an oxymoron, but it was how I felt when I stared down at Arden's face. Tas, Brahms and Crwys all jumped in and started pulling the sheets away, and then the clothing. I ran into my office and grabbed the new sheets I'd bought four months ago, still in their wrapper. I’d fully intended on taking them upstairs, but that’s when hell broke loose and then I forgot them before I left with Bastien. I used them to cover her where we could.
Tas had her hand on Arden's chest, just above her breast, her eyes closed. "I've still got a pulse, but it's weaker than it was before."
Was Tas a doctor? That's when I noticed a subtle, golden glow outlining the hand pressed against Arden. Magic? A Witch? Or even a Warden? How come it was so hard to pinpoint what the hell she was? Not even my dex could tell me. It didn't come up with unknown so much as undetermined.
Crwys glanced at Ivan. "Ivan…"
The Techno Witch's eyes glowed a soft green. He held his hands in front of him, and I could see blurry images moving between them. He was doing his mojo, surfing the web with his magic. "I haven't located him." Ivan's voice was deadpan. Emotionless.
"Sam," Crwys said as Brahms moved his hands and a bucket of water appeared. "We need your Arcane here. She's in bad shape."
"Who…who did this?" Brahms asked.
"Sam," Crwys said with more emphasis. "Give us a hand."
"What about her coven? They have healers." I approached Ivan. "Find her coven. Get them over here."
"Already done," he said, never looking at me.
But Crwys was looking at me. "Sam…didn't you hear me? Arden could use your Arcane healing."
"She can't use it," Brahms said as he started cleaning the Witch's wounds with ripped pieces of the sheets dunked in the water.
"Can't use it?" Crwys came to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "What happened? Did something happen to it? Did you lose it?"
"No I—" I thought about the incident that had pissed Arcana off. I wanted to tell him exactly what happened, but I was surprised at how ashamed I was of my behavior. At how callous my need for revenge had made me. "I can't use it."
Instead of demanding answers, my lover pulled me to him and held me tight. He kissed the top of my head and whispered, "It'll be all right."
The back door flew open as Jack Roberts came tearing inside. I moved back when I saw him. His clothes were torn, including his jeans that were hanging on him but covering all the right parts. Scratches and bruises decorated his face the same way they did Arden. Twigs and leaves fell from his hair as he ran to the table where Arden lay motionless. "Oh…thank God…she's here."
To my surprise, Crwys ran at the boy and literally picked him and threw him to the ground.
"Crwys!" I shouted as I tried to get between him and Jack. "Stop it!"
Jack managed to roll away.
"Get out of my way, Sam." Crwys sidestepped me and continued after Jack.
Jack scrambled off the floor and dodged a few of Crwys's attacks. "Crwys…what the hell?" Unfortunately, he moved the wrong way and was caught with Crwys's right hand. Around his neck.
I ran to them and jerked on the Dragon's arm. "Stop it! You're going to kill him!"
"Just like they tried to kill Arden."
I paused. "What?"
Jack tried to speak as he clawed at Crwys's hand. He kicked and lashed out, and I was a little afraid he would wolf-out at any minute. Apogee Wolves didn't have control over their shifts and relied on the moon for their power. Unless they were in great danger or under stress. And even then, they weren't supposed to have control.
But I'd seen Jack maintain himself as a wolf. He wasn't exactly a slave to his situation.
"Some pack calling themselves the Bloody Rose dumped Arden at our feet this morning. Said she was a present from the Aces pack."
What? I took a step back and looked at Jack. The Aces had attacked Arden? That didn't make sense. I'd learned it was Arden Vervain who engineered the treaty with the Aces and deeded several acres of Gypsy Gardens to them. Why in the hell attack her?
I pulled at him again. “That’s just stupid, Crwys! The Aces would never hurt Arden!”
Brahms appeared at my side, his eyes wide. "What did you call them?"
The back door opened again as Kyle and about seven members of Arden's coven came running in. The coven went to the table where Arden lay, and Kyle ran toward Crwys. Before I could call out a warning, Kyle conjured a spell and shot ice at Crwys. He dropped Jack and staggered back. If there was one thing a Fire Dragon didn't like, it was the cold. Kyle had chosen ice to distract Crwys, not to hurt him.
Kyle caught Jack in his arms as his lover also staggered back on unsteady feet. That gave me a second to get a good look at Kyle…in fact, I looked at all the coven members. They were wearing their regular robes, but the material was dirty and torn, singed in some places. Several of the members had scratches on their faces and blood as well.
Kyle had a nasty cut on his left cheek, and it had bled down his jaw to his neck. He wore the remains of a blue sweater and jeans, and he was barefoot. He wasn't wearing his bag of potions.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kyle screamed at Crwys. "Jack's not your enemy!"
"Kyle," I called to him. "Hold on. It's not his fault." So I told him what Crwys had just said as I kept an eye on my Dragon. He looked dazed, but he wasn't down, as ice crystals continued forming on his clothing and skin, then falling off, hitting the hardwood floor with tinking sounds.
"That's probably the ones who helped in the attack," Kyle said as he made sure Jack was okay. A quick kiss and he was all up in Crwys's grill again. "And what the hell? You know the Aces would never harm Arden or her people."
"He's right," one of the coven spoke up as she worked. "None of us would have survived if the Aces hadn't shown up."
Crwys patted down his body to remove the rest of the ice. "Then why did they have her?"
"We didn't know what happened to her," Jack said, and then started coughing.
Kyle finished for him, "Just…listen, okay? Jack and I were out at Arden's looking through her library to see if she had something that could help us get Satar out of the basement. Suddenly, the entire house was full of those little Elf guys."
"Was it Yolyn?" Brahms ask
ed as he stepped forward. He held a bloody rag in his hand.
"I never saw her but the others looked like the same Risi who came in the shop." Kyle wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. "We still don't know how they got into the house. That place is warded as securely as the Parliament building."
"Then they have a path to it," Brahms said. "Once that's established, there's very little to erase it. Except one thing."
"And I'm sure it's something dire. What they didn't know was that the wards are set to alert Bastien and Ben. Luckily, within a few minutes, the Aces arrived and the fight began." He looked at Crwys. "There were Wolves there and they took Arden. I'm going to assume they were this Bloody Rose pack. When the Aces drove them back through their gate, we couldn't find her. I was terrified they'd killed her and taken her body with them."
"And they delivered her to us," Tas said.
I jumped. I hadn't noticed the leggy detective had joined us.
"You think it might be a show of force on Yolyn's side?" Kyle asked as Jack coughed on his way to the fridge.
A few pieces fell into place for me. "No…I think it was them looking for the King. They somehow learned Arden was the one who helped Satar on this side of Brahms’s gate."
Crwys shook his head. "And of course they didn't find him." He glanced back at Arden. "I wonder if they tortured her to get answers."
"There was no time to for torture," Kyle said.
Thinking of what Brahms and I had talked about, I spoke up, "Not necessarily." I strode to the fallen Witch and moved around the other coven members as they worked. After examining a few places on her body, I returned. "She was tortured. And pretty bad."
"When? How?" Kyle said.
"Because of the time problem," Ivan said, looking at me. "They gated her out and tortured her while fighting her people. Then they dropped her off in front of…" He frowned. "How did they know where you were going to be?"
Good question. From Crwys's note, he'd gotten the call from Max early in the morning. How did these Nisse assholes know this? And an even bigger one for me—
"Did she tell them what happened?" Kyle said, voicing my thought. "Did they get the information?"
"We don't know," I said and instinctively sent out my feels. They snaked like dark spaghetti over furniture, through walls, and wove a tight net around the wards. "I don't sense them here. But if we assume she did give up the location under duress, then they'll come here next."
"Oh, great," Ivan said as he walked up. "They can just drop in like they did last time because we can’t stop them.”
Brahms said. "Unless another Risi who has ownership sets up a door."
"Ownership?" I said.
"Door?" Crwys said.
"Ownership of a gate end is established if the Nisse owns the building it's in. Meaning if there is a mark set on it. If I owned this building, then I could put up a door and cap the gate. They couldn't get in."
"So you're saying I have to sell my shop to you in order to stop them from just gating back in." I narrowed my eyes at him. "Right. Uh…No."
"I have to agree with Sam on that. There's no way she's going to hand ownership to this place over to anyone."
Brahms held up his hand. "It would only be temporary. A limited mark. It's not like selling property in this realm. It's more like…" He shrugged. "A verbal agreement. A spell."
"You mean a magical agreement?" I still didn't like this. "Uhh…" And of course, the one person I'd ask if this was a good idea or not was now lying on my table, unconscious and fighting for her life. "There's got to be another way."
"There isn't. But I would be very glad to help look for one."
Crwys shook his head. "Sam…I wouldn't."
I was looking at Arden, though. She was the most powerful Witch in New Orleans, hands down. I would never tell her that to her face and bang that ego up a notch, but it was true. But even she hadn't been able to stop the Risi army from invading her home. I could only guess what they did to her. But I didn't know if she'd told them where Satar was.
I looked at the robed coven members, many who had wounds that needed to be treated as well, though I was sure they wouldn't leave Arden until they knew she was stable. All of those people in that house, the Aces, and still this?
I turned to Kyle. "Where's Bastien?"
"He's still with the pack," Kyle said. "He's coordinating everyone, setting up guards around the house. I doubt they'll come back if they got what they wanted out of Arden." I could hear the worry in his voice. "What is going on?"
"It's a false Quest," I said. "Yolyn wants the throne, and she's instigated it."
“Right now we’re still not sure of that,” Crwys said as he ran his fingers through his hair. He looked to the back door as it opened and Levi came through. "Excuse me," he said and met his partner at the door.
I looked at Tas. "What's going on?"
I couldn't read her expression. Though if I guessed, I'd say it was somewhere between worried and really worried. "Max discovered the stone transmutation isn't part of a Quest. It's being purposefully induced to make it look like there's a Quest."
My jaw dropped. So did Kyle's and Jack's.
Jack said, "How are they doing that?"
"He didn't know. I'm afraid it's out of his purview. I'm not sure if Crwys has theories, but I would guess Yolyn has something to do with it." She then told us about what they'd seen in the assistant medical examiner's lab. About the stone becoming pumice-like when there was no more new flesh to eat. When she got to the crumbling part, I wanted to throw up. I personally had been turned to stone before. I remembered it as probably one of the scariest moments of my life. I remembered the numbness, and then the cold, and then the inability to breathe was the stone worked its way up to my lungs.
"But what would do that? Some weird potion?"
"Max found a puncture wound on one of the victims."
I said, "Are they related? I mean, did he find out if that's where this anomaly was introduced?"
Tas nodded.
"What was Crwys going to say? I mean, do you three have theories?"
"We agree this isn't Quest related. But if the Purs have set one in motion, we have to get the King out of your basement in order to prove to the Purs he lives. Our end game is to stop this, and stop Yolyn."
Brahms cleared his throat. "Samantha? I can stop them from coming here."
"Yeah, I know. And I really appreciate your offer, but I can't just hand ownership over to you. You seem very nice, but I don't know you. There has to be another way." And the idea of it came to me. "Kyle, where's Solomon?"
"He's doing a bit of research on this Quest and that little caveat about a Dragon's heart."
I looked at Ivan. “I thought you were doing that.”
Ivan shrugged. “I ran out of places to look. Remember it has to have been entered into a digital form for me to find it. But if Solomon can find something in a written book…”
That made sense. I looked at Kyle. "Can you call and ask him about warding against gates?"
"Sure." Kyle pulled his phone from his pocket and stepped away from Jack, but not too far. The young Wolf looked exhausted. Someone needed to treat his wounds.
No sooner had I excused myself from Tas and Brahms than the floor of my shop shook beneath me. Everyone yelled out as a bright yellow light outlined the door into the front of the shop. The walls dimmed around us as they sprouted roots and thick trees. Small bone-colored flowers bloomed along these new walls that made the place look as if it were an underground tunnel.
"They're here!" Brahms said as he waved his arm.
I ran to my purse and retrieved my two guns, reunited again. The Lord and The Lady felt good against my palms as I swung them around to face the door. It cracked in two and burst out in opposite directions as Arden's people lay over her to shield her with their bodies.
I fired the first shot as they came through the door, and I smiled when my bullet struck Yolyn's chest.
FIFTEEN
Unfortunately, my bullet didn't pierce what looked like flimsy cloth or leather armor. Seeing me standing there, she narrowed her eyes as her people flooded in from the opening behind her and aimed her arrow at me. I aimed both my guns in return so when she fired, my bullets deflected the arrow and it went wild.
That's when I saw an arrow strike Yolyn in the neck. It was a dark wood arrow, with feathers the color of the sun. Yolyn cried out as she fell, and her soldiers hesitated when they saw their leader fall immediately.
I guessed close to fifteen Risi soldiers had come through my busted door. My Elementals appeared life-sized before me, strangely all clad in their human forms. Belenos, the fiery redheaded beauty that he was the night we bonded, stepped closer and touched my arm. I thought I’d never see him like this again…or that’s what he said. “Desperate measures, Samantha. You should leave.”
"Leave?" I fired at two more soldiers when they decided to ignore their leader and started after Arden and her people. Both soldiers cried out and fell back. "This is my home."
“That you've abandoned for two months.” Belenos's voice had an alarming tone of urgency to it. “We don't have the roots to fortify a defense here. And there are over fifty Risi waiting just on the other side of the gate.”
Crwys and Levi fired at the soldiers, taking them down one at a time as a few scrambled to lift their leader and drag her back through the door. I could just see the glow and spin of what looked like the gate Brahms had made the day before.
But for every one we shot down, more came through that door. The coven formed a protective ward around Arden. I could hear them chanting as their combined power formed a helix around her. But how long would that hold if even one of the Risi got through and shot a coven member?
Not long, was the answer. The helix would fall like a house of cards, and Arden would be vulnerable. She was so badly injured even her own Water Elemental was nowhere to be seen.
My Elementals joined in the fight, reverting to their smaller, more familiar forms. They drowned, blasted, chopped and suffocated as many of the Risi they could. I looked for Jack and Kyle and found them in the fight as well. Jack had shifted to Wolf, and Kyle was shooting basketball-sized flame balls at the soldiers, burning only their flesh and nothing else.
eldritch files 07 - elemental blood Page 10