Blood (The Grimm Cases Book 3)

by Lyla Oweds

  Voices drifted from the room I’d recently abandoned. Father, discussing the most recent educational budget with Garrett. My ears rang with the echo of their words, even though my mind couldn’t discern any of them.

  Lily’s physical appearance when Julian had manifested her memories. The things she’d endured. And who knew what horrors the other victims had suffered. Bianca was gone and the likelihood was high that the man in the next room was involved.

  Bianca.

  Being with her, I felt as though I could tell her anything. I’d never told anyone about my dream before. But she was a part of me, and even then, I felt like she’d understand. Once we closed this case, I didn’t want to see less of her. I needed her around. I planned on asking her to work with me full-time—outside of her studies, of course.

  The thought of going forward alone…

  My breath hitched and my throat closed. I couldn’t do this without her. Not anymore.

  Her mind fascinated me, and I wanted to learn more. How she came up with the conclusions she made. What interested her. The mystery behind her entire existence.

  She made me feel alive again. I wanted it all. Even her anger, which was the most adorable thing.

  My heartbeat echoed in my ears. My chest was close to bursting.

  I glanced at the picture again, seeking out every detail. I couldn’t even imagine what might have happened to Bryce and Matheus, but for them not to intervene…

  And Finn. He was in danger too. He was there, but safe enough to send out a photo. But for how long?

  What could they be doing to her, even now? How long did we have before Bianca became another statistic? I didn’t know. My only saving grace was that they seemed to have waited before killing Lily.

  I couldn’t think anymore—the vision of her face filled my mind.

  My world went red.

  I lost track of time and space. It was only when a familiar arm held me that my sight began to clear once again.

  It was hard to breathe, and I was drenched in sweat. I was on the floor, Miles on his knees in front of me. His hands grasped my forearms in a bruising grip. There was blood on his shirt and his hands. I was surprised, and worried, before I remembered why.

  Rational thought returned. And I ignored Julian’s low words in my ear. My sight focused in on Garrett Cole, and I began to struggle to reach him once again. The man was on the ground some feet away. Bloodied, but not broken enough.

  I had to get to him. I had to make him talk.

  “Where is she?” Power raced through me and my voice strained, but reverberated through the room.

  Garrett’s face paled as he met my eyes. The sight of his fear only served to fan the flames of my fury even higher. I’d not been this close to losing complete control in this life. It was only Julian’s presence that prevented me from going over the edge.

  Julian’s arm stiffened, and his questions quieted at my words. Miles stared at me in trepidation.

  But it was my father who responded, moving in between me and my prey. He crossed his arms, the action bringing my attention to his appearance. His brown hair was in complete disarray. And his suit, which had been impeccable before, was shredded and covered in blood. However, none of it seemed to be his own.

  How long had he held me back before Julian arrived?

  “Damen Abernathy.” While his voice was light, his easily-read face was expressionless for once. “What do you think you’re doing? You can’t murder a famous politician in my conference room. These things take planning.”

  Garrett shot him an alarmed look, but my father waved him off. “Not that we’ll be doing anything of the sort today.”

  My chest was heaving in my fury. I waited for the moment that Miles and Julian would loosen their hold so I could rip off Garrett Cole’s face.

  Father must have noticed my intentions, because he continued, addressing Garrett. “Of course, the exception would be if you’ve done something terribly wrong. And considering Damen’s sudden, seething hatred of you, that is the case.”

  “I’ve done nothing,” Garrett replied, staggering to his feet as he held his hand to his bleeding nose. The conference table had been overturned at some point, and most of the chairs thrown aside. “And I’m offended that you would insinuate it. You assured me that you’ve been able to put a lid on his temper.”

  “I’ll show you a temper,” I growled. How dare he speak as though he’d done nothing?

  I wanted to kill him. But first, I needed to strangle him with my bare hands until he confessed to everything. He had to know where Bianca had been taken, or at least had a hint to it.

  Despite what everyone believed, I was not absentminded. I’d been mentally keeping a tally, a picture of every injury that had marred her skin from the beginning of this. They remained branded into my memories, and my art. And I wanted to make everyone in that family pay for every hurt my girl had suffered. As far as I was concerned, that included everything that had happened at Aine’s home. If it hadn’t been for their family, she’d never been a victim of a haunting in the first place.

  Julian was right. I tried to see the good in people. I could forgive Lily. I might have been able to excuse James. But I couldn’t forgive them. Not when it came to her, and not now that she’d been taken. The limits of my mercy only reached so far.

  “Dean.” Garrett turned toward my father, exasperated. He was trying to regain control of the situation despite his broken appearance. “This was the last time. Charges will be pressed, and I’ll go before the council myself, if I must. I’ve told you before that your son is a danger to society.”

  He sounded confident. Too confident. As if he was certain he’d sway the Elders to his favor.

  It didn’t take two guesses to figure out why. Red bled into my vision once again.

  “Now hold on a minute.” Father’s stoic expression broke as he shot a disbelieving look at Garrett. He, too, had heard the threat in his voice, even if he didn’t understand where the man’s assurance came from. “You know my family. And while you also know that Damen has a temper, there is always an underlying reason for his anger. The fact that you brought it out this time is very interesting.”

  Garrett held on to the edge of a chair, narrowing his eyes at my father. “What are you insinuating?”

  Father’s eyes met mine, his expression demanding the truth. “Who is ‘she’? What’s the matter? You were so upset you weren’t even fighting correctly. What a waste of all those lessons.”

  As our eyes remained locked; reason trickled through my fury.

  I hadn’t been able to share much of my life with my father. After our parents divorced, my mother took Finn with her, while my father kept me. But he wasn’t the same man he was while they were together. When they were together, we could talk about everything. Even my nightmares. The burdens that normally remained private in our lives, Father had been there to help me through them.

  It had been years since we shared that bond. Years since he’d asked if anything was wrong. He’d become distant, and I’d almost forgotten that I could rely on him.

  But he also cared. That much was evident in his gaze. Right now, he was unquestionably on my side. He didn’t even hesitate to believe in me.

  How could I not have seen it before?

  Titus had connections, but they would take time to mobilize. But Father, because of his and Uncle Michael’s connection to the local police, had instant resources that we could use.

  “Her name is Bianca,” I told him. Astonishment flashed across his expression. He hadn’t expected me to be honest. But I had to trust him. “I need your help,” I admitted, and his surprise became more palpable. “Someone in the Cole family plans on using her in some ritual. They’ve been dabbling in dark magic for generations in order to gain power. Finn was watching her today. He sent me a picture of her being taken.” I nodded toward Garrett, who paled further with my every word. “I don’t know which one of them is behind it, nor do I care. But I’m going to g
et her back.”

  I focused my attention on Miles. He had dropped my arms while I spoke. Now his shoulders were tense as he clenched his shaking fists against his thighs. His eyes were almost distant, but I needed him to come back to me. “Where is Daniel?”

  “My son?” Garrett gasped, outraged. “Where is my son, you ask? Dean, listen to this nonsense. This is an outrageous story. You cannot possibly believe that—”

  “I left him not even twenty minutes ago.” Miles sounded lost. “Mon dieu. I was on my way to check on Bianca. But since you were along the way, I decided to stop here first. If I hadn’t… I could have been there.”

  Julian had let his arm fall from me, but he was still silent. I had no time, though, to check on him. This was more important.

  I returned my glare to Garrett, daring him to lie. In fact, I almost hoped he tried. “Tell me about the ritual. How much time do we have? How long does this ritual of yours usually take?”

  Garrett was staring at me as if I’d lost my mind. “What ritual? I don’t even have enough power to—”

  His reply was silenced as Miles lifted the shorter man off the floor by his throat. A dark shadow touched the ground near Miles’s feet, and the room began to quake with the force of his anger.

  “Don’t you fucking lie.” Miles’s voice was a deadly calm in the chaos. “Now that I’ve broken the taint of your magic once, I can feel it easily. The residual effects lie within you, even now. You’ve done this before. Now answer the question.”

  Julian touched my shoulder, pushing himself from the floor as he slipped my phone into his pocket. Where he’d found it, I had no idea. That time would be forever lost to me. As he stepped closer to the two, his expression was serene. However, based on our history together, I knew he was anything but.

  I couldn’t hold back my victorious smirk.

  Garrett Cole would tell us exactly what we needed to know, and Miles wouldn’t even have to do a thing. Neither of us were as efficient at information gathering as Julian. And right now, it’d be a waste of precious time to do anything but allow Julian free reign.

  In normal cases, necromancers were controlled by witches. The flow of their abilities directed by the condition of the earth. And it was a witch who could empower, or remove power, from a necromancer. But this wasn’t a normal case.

  It didn’t matter if Garrett Cole was stronger by dark magic. Because it was a fact that the only person in the world who was a threat to Julian and his magic was Miles.

  And Miles was the only person who could stop him when he got like this.

  But Miles wouldn’t be stopping Julian, not any time soon.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Bianca

  Panic

  The sound of dripping echoed through the room, gradually seeping into my awareness. My eyes felt heavy, too heavy. As if I’d woken from an unnatural sleep.

  I wanted to return to that place.

  But between the dampness in the air and the coolness touching my skin, I knew I had to wake up.

  My mind was in a fog—my thoughts slow. Something was strange. It wasn’t normal to sleep standing up. And my wrists burned.

  Drip. Drip.

  That sound again.

  It was so cold.

  A door slammed open, crashing against the wall. The sound startled me, and, despite my exhaustion, my eyes popped open.

  Awareness hit me all at once.

  I was in a small, windowless room. Unlike Lily’s prison, mine was fortified with dark steel and chains hung from the ceiling. The place resembled a butcher’s workroom, which, considering why I’d been kidnapped, caused panic to well in my chest.

  I’d been tied to one of the chains. My toes barely touched the ground and my wrists burned from the cuffs that held me prisoner. The pain from it echoed down my arms. I glanced up, to make sure… But I wasn’t bleeding or outwardly wounded from the shackles.

  So why did it hurt so much?

  I couldn’t think on it. As the reality of my situation hit, the panic spread through the rest of my body. I trembled uncontrollably, and my breath escaped in short bursts.

  My own clothing was gone. Now, I only had on a light shift. But at least they’d left Titus’s pin in my hair. It had been pressed deep into the twist of my bun, painfully noticeable because of the sharpness digging into my scalp.

  I’d never been more thankful for painful hair accessories. The annoyance of it kept me grounded, kept me from losing myself entirely. It was a reminder that I wasn’t alone.

  The boys. They would be looking for me.

  While the thought was comforting, breathing remained difficult. Because the reality was it didn’t matter if they were looking for me. They might not find me in time.

  I was going to die.

  “What’s she doing awake?” A man stalked into the room—the same man I’d confronted at the restaurant. And, outside of his comment about the state of my consciousness, he ignored me while he joined a second man across the room.

  “I don’t know,” the second man drawled. “She only just woke up.”

  He was seated in front of a table, diagonal to me, and was carving into a small stick. “We’ll need to move quickly with this one. Jeremy left because the proximity alarms were triggered. I told you from the beginning this was a bad target.”

  “It takes time to prepare what we need. The beginning stages are delicate, and he’ll want to follow the job to the letter.” The first man appraised me while he spoke, his speech at odds with his unsettling appearance.

  His half-crazed gaze locked on to mine—he was searching for something in my expression, but I wasn’t certain what. But the look in his eyes caused my breath to catch in fear. Then he turned from me, returning his attention to his comrade. “Can’t you feel it? There’s something different about her. Engaging, but not. Yet still powerful enough to sustain our work for a long time. We might be able to relax. It’s worth the risk.”

  “That would be nice. Especially since the last one was basically useless,” the other man replied, going back to his whittling. “Only a year. What a waste of resources.”

  With each word, my fear grew more profound. Splashes of color swirled among the gray, and I knew I was on the verge of blacking out.

  My toes slipped, and the extra weight on my arms caused white-hot agony to radiate through me. The pain forced my mind back into focus.

  I had to keep it together. I couldn’t be used again. I had to try to escape.

  Just as the thought crossed my mind, another man entered the room. He wore a suit and had dark hair and a mustache. I had to be suffering from delusions already, because it almost looked like he was dragging Finn along with him.

  “Look at what I’ve found,” he said, shoving Finn to his knees. “He was roaming about in the woods.”

  “Maybe I just like trees!” Finn snapped, seemingly unconcerned about being ‘found.’ “You can’t criminalize a person for that.” Then, he turned toward me. He was dirty, clothes torn, and his hair completely wild. Even his glasses were missing.

  But he didn’t seem to care about any of that.

  There was concern in his gaze, and a slight fear. Oddly enough, as his vision checked over my frame, there was relief as well. After a short pause, he frowned, his attention briefly turning to the others before he spoke to me. “Bianca, no matter what happens, you cannot check out.”

  I blinked at him, the anger I’d been harboring no longer important.

  How did he know? Since waking up, I’d been trying so hard to stay present. Especially when all I wanted was to run from it.

  “He was wandering about, but clearly not lost.” The fair-haired man frowned at the two of us. “That’s the oldest trick in the book, Jeremy. He wanted you to bring him here. That’s Finn Abernathy.”

  “It doesn’t matter who he is. He can’t do a thing. The wards are still up.” Jeremy shrugged, stepping up to the table and leaving Finn behind. “It’s not like he’s in a state to be killing an
yone today. And no shikigami can move in or out of this place. It’s better to have him here than out there screwing up my alarms.”

  “Should we kill him?” the blond asked, glancing at the others. “What do you think, Ryan?”

  “Probably.” The whittling man frowned at Finn. “He’s too high profile for his disappearance to go unnoticed. And he’d talk. We’d have to make it look like an accident. It was risky enough confronting Dubois and Fernandez together. We’re getting into a lot of debt for this job. Stick him in the corner; he’ll wait.”

  “Don’t underestimate me,” Finn remarked dryly, shifting as he held out his bound arms. “I can still bite your legs off.”

  The men burst into laughter.

  “Oh, you’re a funny guy.” Ryan put his carving down and stood. “Trying to distract us with the classics. But it won’t work.” His laughter dropped, and without another word, he punched Finn in the face.

  I screamed, my first sound since awakening. I wasn’t sure what this meant, but I didn’t enjoy seeing Finn like this. Ironic, considering that last night I had a dream about punching him.

  Finn fell to the ground, and when he lifted his face, a line of blood dripped from his mouth. His eyes burned, and his furious gaze was locked on to the man who’d hit him.

  “Finn…” My breathing came out in short bursts. My pride crumbled to pieces. I never wanted to actually see him hurt. Not by anyone other than me. “Finn, are you all right?”

  The other two men stopped laughing as they glanced at me.

  “What do you think, Dominic?” Jeremy stroked his mustache. “Young love? That’s odd though. The spell is supposed to target those who won’t be missed.”

  The blond, Dominic, frowned, looking between Finn and I. “It does explain why she was with Bryce Dubois. It also explains why this moron followed us to begin with. He must have been nearby when we picked her up.”

  “Do you think anyone else knows?” Jeremy wondered. “I didn’t find a phone on him. He doesn’t exactly have a reputation for thinking things through.”