Wreathed in Flame (Faith of the Fallen Book 3)

by Cassandra Sky West

  She threw up her arms to block the blow she knew was coming. Fist impacted against her forearm.

  Alexi dodged left as another punch shattered the bark of the log behind her. Bits of wood exploded like a grenade.

  Why didn’t he shift? She knew he was a wolf, but he—

  She blocked a jab, but his other fist caught her full in the stomach, knocking all the breath out of her. She doubled over, raising her arms to shield her head.

  A powerful kick hit her arms, sending shivers of pain through her bones. She grabbed at his foot and twisted, tearing him off his feet.

  Her enemy went sailing through the air, crashing into a nearby pine tree, cracking the trunk in half. He dropped to the ground, landing on all fours.

  The man was shirtless—shorter than her, but solid muscle. His blonde hair was cropped short on the side, giving him the appearance of a short mohawk. He grinned—no, that wasn’t a smile. He was baring his teeth at her. They were stained ash-tray yellow.

  “Well, aren’t you a sweet piece?” He sucked his lip at the end of his words, sending a ripple of disgust through her. His voice was accented thickly. English, maybe? She couldn’t put her finger on it.

  He twitched and she brought her hands up. He was fast. Too fast. He batted aside her guard and wrapped one thick hand around the back of her neck. His forehead slammed into her face, and she felt the bone give way.

  Hot blood streamed down her face. Her height gave her a longer reach, but at a grapple, that was useless.

  “Shift!” she grated at him, struggling against the instinct to pull at the hand on her neck. “Shift, you piece of—”

  He punched her in the stomach, sending a jolt of pain through her. “You think I can’t put you down with my bare hands?”

  Alexi threw her arms out wide and slapped them together. Her open palms clapped against his ears, hard.

  He stumbled back, grip loosening. She brought her knee up into his gut, spun, and kicked as hard as she could. She caught him full in the chest. He flew back, colliding with the ground and rolling to land face-first in the dirt.

  The man pushed himself off the ground with what seemed a deliberate slowness. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing blood across his cheek.

  “You’re gonna pay for that one.” He rolled his neck and stretched his arms out. There was a tattoo on his forearm. A triangle with an owl on it, and words she had no time to make out. Military, she was sure.

  “Special Air Services?” Alexi coughed, playing for time. She just needed a few seconds for her injuries to heal.

  The man laughed. “SaS are weak sauce, love. Let me show you what a real man can do.”

  Alexi couldn’t help an eyeroll. Like being a complete bastard made him more manly.

  Branches cracked, and Alexi caught Savanna’s scent. The man snarled. “I don’t have time to play with your friends.”

  He charged. Alexi dove. She rolled across the ground beneath him. His body shifted overhead, skin and bones flowing as the man disappeared and the wolf landed, shattering a tree.

  He looked like a saber-toothed Rottweiler, but the size of Warren’s Ducati. Craning his neck, he howled.

  The hair on Alexi’s neck rose as he glared at her with yellow eyes, and then vanished into the trees. A moment later, she couldn’t even hear him. He was gone.

  “Alexi?” Savanna called out from behind her.

  “Over here,” she said. She shrugged out of her jacket and pulled off her bloody shirt, revealing the tank top she wore beneath. Savanna and John appeared a moment later. John, bless him, led the way with his pistol out.

  “He’s gone.” Alexi wadded up her shirt and wiped at her face.

  “He got away… from you?” John asked.

  Alexi sighed. She’d taken a beating, and then lost him anyway. But John’s confidence in her soothed the sting of defeat.

  “A hell of a fighter. Probably former military.”

  A twig snapped behind John, and Detective Summers stepped through the trees. She had her weapon out as well, but aimed it as if she weren’t sure who to point it at. Alexi was betting it was her.

  “Talk. Now. Or I’m taking you all to jail.”

  There was no way this was going to go well. Alexi had spent a good while disbelieving that she was a vampire in the beginning, and she had all the evidence in the world.

  Alexi dropped the bloody shirt to the ground. “Listen, Detective. We’re all friends here. You can put the gun away.”

  “Like hell.” The woman had guts, that’s for sure. Alexi could admire that. But while the woman’s hostility could hardly prove fatal for her, Savanna and John wouldn’t be so lucky.

  Alexi gathered her will. “Holster your weapon and calm down,” she commanded, her voice resonating with power and buzzing through the back of her head.

  The command rolled over Summers, her muscles seeming to relax of their own accord. She holstered her pistol in a shoulder rig concealed by her jacket.

  “What… wow. What was that?” Summers asked, her voice low and calm.

  Alexi nodded to John, and he went to the Detective’s side. “So, magic? It’s kind of a thing…” he began, walking with her back to the house.

  “Alexi?” Savanna’s face was concerned.

  “I’m fine,” Alexi reassured her friend. “But, damn. He was fast. I don’t know if I could have won that one.” She reached up to prod her nose, but the bone had already healed, straight as ever.

  “Any idea who he was?” Savanna asked.

  “No. I saw a tattoo, though. I might be able to track that down.”

  Savanna nodded, seeming to inspect Alexi for any other injuries.

  “Savanna, I’m fine. Really.”

  “Okay, it’s just… I’ve seen you not win…”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “On the bright side, I figured out a few things about the kidnapping,” Savanna said as they walked back to the house.

  “I sure hope so. The ride here was nice, but I don’t know if it was quite worth the beating I just took.”

  Her tone was light, but Alexi couldn’t help but think that she had barely escaped that encounter with her life—and if she was going to face that wolf again, she’d need all the advantage she could get.

  A normal beating wouldn’t kill Alexi… but she was pretty sure the man in the woods wouldn’t stop at normal.

  Savanna didn’t want to be part of this conversation. She left it to the others to explain to Sara and Li Po what had happened. The Pos were understandably freaked out.

  Detective Summer wasn’t believing any of it. The only reason she wasn’t still freaking out was because of the voice Alexi had used on her—once in the woods, and again once they returned to the house.

  Savanna only half listened as she went about investigating the house. She could see normally, but her second sight superimposed magical hues over her perception. There was a pretty rainbow of colors—vibrant purples and little bolts of lightning crackling back and forth as lines crossed.

  She had been honest with John about the trail fading. However, in the house there seemed to be some leftover residue of some kind on the walls and floor. She followed the trail up the stairs. Little clouds of light attached to the walls told her where their skin brushed or where they placed a hand. The carpet looked the same, with puddles of dark orange where the werewolf’s feet had touched.

  Werewolves. From the slight variation in color she could tell there were two of them.

  Sending two wolves to snatch a little girl? Seeming a little like overkill. The Pos were hardly a threat to them. Unless… they were worried about the Arcanum, which was a possibility. She could confirm it if they would just return her calls.

  Ever since Connor, she’d wanted to call. To talk to someone who knew him. Someone who grieved over him like she did. She didn’t even know where they’d buried him.

  No, she couldn’t start down that road. She’d end up in bed, curled up in the fetal posit
ion for three days. Wei needed her.

  Savanna buried what felt like an ocean of grief and regret and need… and focused on the task at hand.

  The wolves had gone straight for Wei’s room. No checking the other doors… not even pausing outside hers. They knew exactly where to go.

  In the room, she could sense something else. Another color. Faint—almost too faint. Like an echo hovering over the bed.

  The wolves had left the same way they came in. Had they taken the girl with them? She couldn’t tell. But why leave a bundle of sticks in her place? She blinked several times to let her normal vision return.

  Kneeling beside the bed she picked up one of the twigs. It was old. She could sense the age in it. And powerful, somehow, as if it were closer to nature than even a tree would normally be. She folded her legs to sit and fished out her smartphone.

  She punched a search in. Native trees of Washington.

  The first couple of hits had nothing useful, but she finally found one with clear photographs. She swiped through them, examining each image and comparing it to the leaves on the bed.

  Nothing matched.

  She rolled the leaves and twigs between her fingers. Something nagged at her about it. Fae magic often emerged through trees and wood, but they wouldn’t have snatched the girl. There were more nefarious creatures than the fae they had met, though. Ones that used similar magic.

  Savanna bit down on her lip and punched in another search. Trees of the UK.

  Ash. Willow. Yew. Oak.

  That looked close.

  English Oak trees, she searched.

  There were a lot, but nothing matched exactly. Though they looked close, nothing was exact.

  Rare oak trees of England.

  Bingo. She pulled up a page about a tree called the Audley End Oak. Only one existed in the entire world, in Essex. It wasn’t terribly old, but it was the last of its kind. A perfect match, so far as she could tell.

  How the hell did they get here?

  She collected a few pieces to examine farther, and then headed back down the stairs.

  Heated voices greeted her as she walked into the front row. John’s brother-in-law was shouting at him in half Mandarin, half English, arms waving.

  “If you let me take her to China like I wanted, none of this would have happened.”

  “Sara doesn’t even speak Mandarin!” John shouted right back at the man. “She’s American, Li. We’re American. Okay? Why can’t you understand that?”

  Sara’s face was buried in her hands, shoulders shaking silently. Her baby was missing. This was the last thing she needed. They’d probably argued round this tree a million times before, and would continue doing so for years to come.

  “How could I forget? You remind me all the time. You say you need her close to protect her, but she’s my wife, John. Not yours! She is mine.”

  “Then act like it!” John shouted at him. “Comfort her. Say a damned kind word once in a while. She’s a frigging CPA and you keep her locked up in this house. When was the last time you asked her how she feels? What she wants? When was the last time you cared what she wants?”

  Savanna cast a plaintive look at Alexi, who stood against the far wall with arms crossed, a scowl painted across her face.

  “Stop fighting.” Alexi’s voice cracked through the room like thunder. Even Savanna could feel the power of the words ripple through her, banishing even the tiniest feelings of aggression.

  Silence descended on the room.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Li,” Savanna began. “Have you talked to anyone strange recently?”

  Li looked at her, seeming suddenly so helpless and afraid without his anger to shield him. John deflated like a balloon, all his worry and concern and desperate need to protect his sister plain on his face.

  “I know this seems bizarre,” Savanna continued, “and it is. But last night, two men broke in your door, walked directly to your daughter’s room, and traded her for a pile of leaves. The leaves are from a single specific tree—the only one of its kind in the entire world.”

  “I don’t understand,” Li said, his voice naked with honesty that she had not heard before.

  “How did you do that?” Detective Summers quietly asked Alexi.

  “Magic,” Alexi said, and left it at that.

  “Have you spoken to anyone strange or… out of the ordinary? Perhaps a new co-worker?”

  “I… no, no new coworker.” Li shook his head, eyes still wide.

  “A salesman then? Or maybe a waiter at a restaurant? He would have needed to talk to both of you.”

  John looked to his sister, “Sara?”

  She twisted the hem of her dress between her fingers. “We met with a new accountant a few days ago.”

  “Sara—” Li started, warning in his voice.

  “Shut up,” Alexi commanded him, and his mouth snapped shut. Savanna knew Alexi hated leaning on people, but this guy had really pissed her off.

  “An accountant?” John looked at his sister. “Sara… you’re a CPA.”

  Sara darted a glance at her husband and then looked down at the ground.

  Savanna let her vision slip over to her second sight. Magic often hid, especially if the wielder wanted it so. If she could keep them talking, perhaps she could spot it.

  “We’re… we’re having a hard time,” Sara said, finally. “With money.” She chanced another look at her husband, as though she expected him to lash out at her words. “The recession, you know, and I’m not working. I had some ideas, but…” She paused. “We decided to seek some assistance. Li said the man was highly recommended.”

  A man? As in a human? Not likely. As Sara spoke, a ghost of an image formed around her mouth.

  “Where did you meet him?” Savanna asked.

  Sara opened her mouth to speak and… there. In the ethereal world, a gag seemed to coalesce around her face. It was crude, but powerful. The kind only a willing subject could impose. Not a curse. A geas.

  “Alexi, can you feel the spell on them?”

  Alexi pushed gracefully away from the wall, seeming to almost rippled across the room to stand by the Pos. She closed her eyes, raising a hand to Li, and then to Sara.

  “I can feel it, but it’s slippery. I can’t push against it.”

  Savanna turned to Sara. “Where did you meet this accountant?”

  Sara opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. In alarm, she turned to her brother. “John, I—”

  Again, her words stopped, and she fell silent. Her face crumpled. “I’m trying to tell you, but… I just… I can’t.”

  John went to her, pulling her into a hug. “Shh. It’s okay.”

  Alexi glared at Li, “I’m going to release you, and you’re going to behave. Understand?” His eyes narrowed and he let out a sigh of resignation. He nodded.

  Li grunted suddenly, working his jaw. “I didn’t know. Sara, it was such a good deal, I didn’t know.” The man sunk to the couch, seeming to shrink beneath his wife’s accusing stare.

  “What was a good deal?” Savanna said.

  “I… I… he…” Li’s mouth opened and then closed a few times. He shook his head.

  “It’s the geas,” Savanna said. “It prevents them from saying anything we could use to track this thing down.”

  “Maybe,” Detective Summer said, eyes narrowing. “I don’t know about magic, but finding people is what I do. Where did you hear about this accountant? And from who?”

  “You’ll get her home okay?” Alexi straddled her bike outside the Pos house. The wolf in the woods had unsettled her and she needed some reassurance of Savanna’s safety, since she didn’t plan on returning home right away.

  “You know you can count on me, Alexi.” He gave her a smile.

  After the revelation that the someone or something had bargained their daughter from them, there wasn’t a lot Alexi could do. Nothing to hit, or throttle words from. She wasn’t used to feeling so helpless.

  She waved dismissively at Joh
n, but shot him a grin all the same.

  “Careful where you point that,” he said as he climbed into his black muscle car.

  “You okay?” Savanna asked quietly. The witch lingered near her, as if she could sense this incredible weight on Alexi’s heart. Every time she thought of Wei… of that little girl alone, and afraid. Not knowing whether she would ever see her mother again.

  Alexi sucked in a sharp breath. “I’ll be okay. It’s just… it’s hard to see the Pos suffering like this, you know?” She knew that couldn’t be the whole story, but she didn’t know what else to say.

  Maybe it was the time she’d spent in Heaven. There was a part of her that knew she didn’t belong there… but there had been a sense of peace there she could not find here. A warmth and acceptance this world would not offer her.

  A place where she didn’t need to hide.

  No. That wasn’t it, either.

  It was the little girl.

  “I just wonder… I wonder—” Alexi’s breath caught in her throat, tears suddenly stinging her eyes. “Did my parents...?” She stopped.

  Savanna’s arms were around her.

  “Did my mom stay up crying because her daughter never came home?” Alexi asked. “Did mine wonder why I never came back for her?” A sob shook its way loose. “My little girl.”

  Savanna wrapped her slender arms around Alexi, hugging her tight.

  “As a daughter,” she whispered, “I would do anything to have my mom back. The one who loved me.” She looked Alexi in the eyes. “Not the one that tried to kill me,” she finished with a wry grimace. “Go see her, Alexi.”

  “Maybe.” How could she, though? She could never return to that life. Not the way she was, now. But could she see them, and then walk away?

  “Alexi,” Savanna said sternly. “Go see them. You don’t have to talk to them, or even approach them. At least go lay eyes on them. Know that they’re all right.”

  Alexi nodded. “Maybe,” she repeated.

  “Alexi?” John said as he pulled up for Savanna to hop in. “Where did you get a hundred-thousand-dollar bike?”

  “This—?” Alexi looked down at the sleek red motorcycle that Warren had so casually lent them. “Well, I guess I’d better return it in one piece, then.”