“Were you trying to kill him?” Kelly asked.
“Technically he was trying to kill me first, so yes.” Since everyone seemed to have gone quiet I added, “The Irish guy didn’t seem to be bothered by the death.”
“And you never saw this Irish guy before?” Vaughn asked.
“No, but there was something that seemed familiar about him. Other than he sounded like Colin Farrell.”
Stone rolled his eyes as Vaughn placed a gentle restraining hand on his arm. At least it looked gentle until I noticed her white knuckles.
“Damn, you’re riling a lot of folks,” Jaylene offered, having joined the group about halfway through my after-action report. “And you’re sure the girl in the other room doesn’t know anything more?”
“She might, but it wasn’t like I had a lot of time to question her.” I shook my head. “I wasn’t even sure where to start.”
“Kelly, you might be the best to take the girl and talk with her. See if she might know more than she’s shared or even that she’s seen,” Vaughn suggested, realizing that of the team Kelly would be the least threatening to Sabina.
Kelly looked wary for a second, then nodded, giving me a half-smile before she rose and headed to the back bedroom where from the sounds of the shower being turned off meant Sabina could be joining us any moment.
“I think we should have a physician look you over,” Vaughn continued, looking at me, but it was teammate to teammate and not leader to freak. “See what they can tell us about your …”
I didn’t blame her. I didn’t even know what to call me now. Witch/shaman/shifter? I’d never heard of such a screwed-up genetic make up. “I’d need a doctor used to working with—” I waved my hand around.
“Ling Mai will know of someone,” Stone said, his tone less badass than usual. “You didn’t mention Bran or your father. You’ve been in contact with either of them?”
“No.” I wouldn’t call hearing Bran’s voice as contact. It wasn’t like we communicated. Then I looked at Stone’s face. “Why? What’s happened?”
Bran wasn’t hurt. He wouldn’t be. No way. Which left my dad. And as mad as I was about what had happened between us, that didn’t mean I wanted him in any danger.
“I was to meet with Bran but some simin fae interrupted us,” Stone said, earning raised brows from everyone in the group who knew who the fae were and who they worked for. “Last I saw of him they were trailing him.”
Mandy whistled. “Doesn’t sound good for your boyfriend.”
“He’s not—”
But I never finished the sentence as another knock on the door had Jaylene heading to answer it. But before she could, the door burst inward and a swarm of Weres came stampeding in.
What was it with these guys?
Chapter Thirty-five
There was no time to think, just act.
Jaylene went flying against the nearest wall. Stone stepped in to stem the tide pushing aside Vaughn, who didn’t look in good enough shape to go after Weres or even kitty cats. Mandy grabbed a floor lamp and swung it like a baseball bat. I’d expected the blonde kid to scamper to safety but he surprised me. He stepped forward rather than ran though I could see it took every ounce of courage he had. Then he started flapping his hands.
What the—?
I ignored exhaustion as I waded into the thick of things, swinging fists as fast as I could. If I was going to be a freak shifter, at least I should get something out of the mess. And initially it looked like I could. Weres were flying backwards like confetti at a wedding but we were seriously outmanned.
Four Weres were dog-piling on Stone. Mandy was still recovering from a broken arm and her swings started flagging. Vaughn was sidestepping out of the way, which was the best thing she could be doing then. Looked like she might be heading for the kitchen. Good idea. Knives in kitchens when there wasn’t much else that would slow a rampaging Were.
Jaylene lunged toward Stone to save his ass. Which left me and Greek-god-named kid to keep the onslaught from getting to the backroom where I hoped like Hades that Kelly was getting Sabina to safety. I just kept butting heads and tasting blood from a split lip or gash along my eye. Damn, it stung.
Then I noticed Hercules. What was he doing? He waved his hand like an apprentice sorcerer, and a Were would freeze mid-attack.
“New weapon,” he huffed, between ducking a flying Were and wrist-zapping another.
“Cool!” Taking out a flash-frozen killer was a heck of a lot easier than stopping a full-fighting force Were. That’s where I started putting my attention. Grabbing an incapacitated Were and swinging him with all my might. If the house had anything less than stone walls, it’d have been in rubble by now.
I spotted a frying pan whipping through the air. Just enough to connect with a head or exposed body part before it pulled back and whapped again.
Kelly. It had to be.
It took a long, drawn out few minutes before the tide of the fight changed, from us zero, to attackers scrambling for the gaping doorway. Those who could, grabbed their buddies and hustled outside, with Herc following them, yelling, “Take that. And that. And don’t come back!”
I didn’t know if I wanted to hug him or take him aside and teach him a few facts of life—Noziak style.
Instead I limped over to where Jaylene was pulling Stone to his feet, blood streaming down his face. Vaughn walked over to the frying plan suspended in air and murmured in a low voice, “It’s okay, Kelly. They’re gone now.”
Kels winked back into existence, but with that scared look she got when she did. Only because turning invisible like she could meant she she’d be blinded for twice as much time when she reappeared.
Herc re-entered the room and set the door at an angle over the doorway. It wouldn’t stop anyone but might not draw as much attention as a wide-open hole either. Mandy sank into the nearest chair as Jaylene shuffled to her side.
“Sabina?” I shouted, earning the sight of her poking her head around the corner.
“All clear?” she asked.
“For now.”
“Wow!” She summed things up succinctly as she stepped over broken furniture and tossed cushions.
I slipped into the only remaining chair near me, one with a big gash releasing stuffing in small clumps. It wasn’t home decorating I was thinking about though, as I gingerly touched a slash above my eye. One already healing though still tender.
“You brought them here.” Mandy glared at me. “No one else knew about this place.”
“New Girl did,” Jaylene said, her voice a cross between back-off and not-another fight.
“New Girl?” The words escaped before I meant them to. In for a penny, in for a buck. “You mean you replaced me already?”
There’s a fine line between sounding whiny, hurt, and pissed off and I was straddling it.
It was Vaughn who took the stuffing out of me. “She’s a shifter.”
“And where the hell is she when we could have used her?” Mandy demanded, obviously scenting a new bone to chew on.
Vaughn glanced her way. “With Ling Mai.” Vaughn cut her glance at me. “Stone was tired of us getting hurt so easily. We needed some fresh bodies that could fight …” She glanced around the room, not needing to say more.
“Makes sense,” I mumbled, though I still couldn’t process how easy everyone had moved along.
“Think the issue we need to be dealing with now is finding out who wants Alex so badly they’d attack us all to get her.”
I shook my head, the same question racing like a squirrel on crack around my head. Who? Why? Out loud I said, “We’ve got to figure out who or what Zaradian is.”
“I know,” a familiar voice spoke from the doorway, the cantilevered doors not masking him.
Bran.
The son of a bitch was back.
Chapter Thirty-six
I didn’t think. I rocketed forward. Not to embrace but to pummel the crap out of him. Standing there. Tall. Dark and arrogant f
rom the tip of his designer shoes to the lock of midnight hair that had grown a shade too long.
Murderer!
Whatever Bran was though, he wasn’t a lightweight. He used the shield of the door to counter my launch and sent me spinning backwards.
His one hundred percent focus was on me. Fear rippled in the back of my throat. He wasn’t the kind, considerate lover here. Or even the ally. I didn’t know who or what he was anymore but I did know he killed Van and I wanted to rip his head off.
“We need to talk,” he said, stepping warily into the room as my fellow teammates backed off.
Didn’t blame them. I’d be leaving by the back door if I could. But this was my fight. And talk wasn’t on the agenda.
“You killed him,” I snarled, anger shaking my voice, firing my determination as I crab walked backwards on my hands until I could find protection at my back or enough space to scramble to my feet.
“Now wait just a minute.” He was using that calm and reasonable voice. That alone was enough to have me screaming.
Instead, I felt wetness dampening my cheeks. What the—? Noziaks did not cry. Never. Ever.
We got even. Eye for an eye. Death for a death.
Something bitter, deeper than sorrow exploded within me. Bran cared for me once. I cared for him. More than cared. Which was why his betrayal clawed at me all the more.
Right now he was making a bad thing worse. Softening his voice, extending one hand like one did to a frightened dog. Come here puppy, all will be well.
Only it wouldn’t. Not ever again. Van would never be coming back and Bran was the reason why.
With a snarl of rage dragged from deep within I scrambled to my hands and knees, never letting my intention waver. “You killed him,” I whispered, my voice so ragged it tore at my throat. “I asked … you said you’d …”
He actually frowned. Like I was the crazy one. His glance shifted then, for a split second as he looked toward Vaughn and Stone as if asking what I was babbling about.
As if he didn’t know.
I took his distraction for permission and kick-started myself across the room at a speed that took us both by surprise. My shoulder cracked into his legs as he flew up and over my head.
Not so urbane sophisticated now as Mister Big Shot landed with an exploding crack.
I was just getting started. A death for a death. It was only fair. Only just.
Blood pumping through me so loud I couldn’t hear beyond it even as I caught Jaylene and Kelly shouting something from their corners in the room.
This time I made it to my feet as Bran’s head still shuddered, looking dazed. I raised one hand, a spell dancing on the end of my tongue. I brushed against the blood from the earlier battle still staining my skin, added it to blood I drew from savaging my lip.
“By darkest night. By deepest hole.
Debt be owed. Debt be paid.”
This was black magic. The kind I swore I’d never use. The kind that took my mother from me. That needed blood to activate.
I bit down harder. Fresh blood fueled the strongest black magic. Mine worked.
“Debt be owed. Debt be paid.
A life for a death.
Black for white. Go—”
Bran had raised his own hand, pointing one finger at me. His Celtic blue eyes ages older than when he’d walked through the door, his words even older, spoken in a harsh, garbled tongue I didn’t recognize.
“ἄβυσσος
κυβερνάω
ἄγγελος
ἱερός, ἱερός, ἱερός
ἔργον
δράσις.”
What? In the heartbeat between one second and the next I went rigid.
His words wrapped around me, heavier than chains, thicker than steel. Like whatever Hercules had done to the Weres. I froze; body, voice, action.
But not my mind. My thoughts screamed for release.
Whatever he’d just done he’d have to undo. And when he did, he was mine.
Chapter Thirty-seven
“What just happened?” Sabina was the one to break the terrible silence in the room, the one broken only by heavy breathing until now.
“Lovers spat taken to a whole new level,” came Mandy’s snarky comment, though even her words sounded wary.
Bran dragged himself to his feet. Slow like. Acting hurt. As if. He’d not begun to hurt. Just wait.
“You kill somebody Alex knew?” Stone stepped to the fore, ice in his tone.
Go, Stone!
Bran shook his head, that unruly lock of hair tumbling across his forehead. “Not anyone who wasn’t trying to kill me. Or her.” He actually glared at me. Me? The one frozen!
“Can you undo what you just did?” Kelly asked, walking right up to the warlock, her fists clenched, her eyes still sightless. How she knew what had gone on was beyond me but the Great Spirits love her, she had my back.
“Yes.” Bran looked at Kelly as if he meant the word. He might, in his own Machiavellian way, but he had no idea of the payback I was going to unleash his way the second he freed my voice. That’s all I needed. Just a few words.
“Were you speaking the truth when you said you knew who or what Zaradian is?” Vaughn asked, all business, as if I wasn’t standing here, a wedge of fury.
“Yes.” Bran said again, straightening his shoulders, looking pained. Not that I was noticing. He deserved everything he got. What you sow so you reap.
“And?” Stone’s tone said get-on-with-it.
“Zaradian is the name of a demon cast out of Earth three thousand years ago. A follower of Satanail.”
“So he was cast out before Christ came?” Herc asked, doing the math.
“Yes. Or so the legends say. Many were lost in the battle between good and evil and it was a near miss that Zaradian was banished from Earth.” Kelly’s voice hitched as her hand went to her mouth. I knew the thought of dealing with demons pushed her buttons, given her background. But who knew if Bran was even telling the truth? What had I done to anger a demon? One gone for three-thousand years? Seriously? Was anyone really listening to this crap?
As if answering my thoughts, Bran looked at me as he continued, “Zaradian was not only one of the followers of Satanail, a fallen angel, Zaradian chose his destiny when he joined with Satanail.”
“And Satanail was who exactly?” pragmatic Jaylene asked.
“The older of the two sons of God.”
Hercules whistled, looking down at something in his hand. A phone? The kid was interrupting a warlock with info from a phone? Oh, this babe had a lot to learn. Kelly looked paler than before and Mandy was casting Jaylene a WTH look. I was with her.
Hercules nodded his head. “He’s right. Christ was the second son. Zaradian the first.”
I must not have been the only one wondering how the kid knew what he was talking about as he looked up and said, “What?”
“How would you know anything?” Leave it to Mandy to verbally bitch-slap him. Once again I was on her side. This was beginning to worry me. Not that I needed more to occupy me. My mind was razor focused. Get unfrozen. Kill Bran. Everything else was on hold until those two steps were done.
“It explains about Zaradian on Wikipedia,” came Herc’s reply as he raised his phone. “It doesn’t have a lot but does say in spite of the esteem God held his son in it wasn’t enough for Satanail. He rebelled and promised his followers relief from devotion. God cast him and his followers out and Satanail wandered in the void with several other fallen angels.”
He glanced back at his phone and continued, “He wandered until he decided to make a second heaven which he called the universe. Then he created the physical world filled with misery and suffering.”
“Fraulein Fassbinder isn’t going to be happy you’re getting all your intel from Wikipedia,” Jaylene snorted, looking back at Bran. “Any of this true?”
“Most of it.” Bran straightened his cufflinks as if talking to a Rotary club meeting, or whoever
passed as high-ranking mucky mucks in his world. And he must have used up a heck of a lot of his magic by chilling me out. By the intentional way he moved, as if he had to think through every action, he was either in pain or exhausted. Either would work for me the second I got unstuck.
Bran finished, “Zaradian became one of Satanail’s main Watchers.”
“And a Watcher does what?” Jaylene asked.
Probably didn’t freeze witches, that’s for sure.
“Watchers prepare the way for Satanail to return. When Christ came to this plane, he cast out Satanail and many of his Watchers. But not all. Those who remained continued to stir up trouble on Earth and in the universe until they were routed and banished, one by one.”
Nice fairytale, warlock. Doesn’t mean you’re not going down!
“So what does this Zaradian Watcher want with Alex?” Vaughn asked. At least she hadn’t forgotten I was in the room, listening to all this poppycock.
Bran looked at me then. Really looked at me and if I wasn’t hurting so bad at the thought of Van’s death I might have caved right then and there by that look. Sorrow. Resignation. Regret.
I’d have toppled if I wasn’t a solid mass of pissed-off witch.
“My guess is someone wants Alex, or her abilities, to free Zaradian.”
No way would I release a demon. No freakin’ way!
My whole team looked at me as if I was Hitler personified. Thank the Great Spirits for Kelly who stepped to my side, her sight now restored, as she bumped up against me, hip to hip. Not hard enough to topple me but just enough to make it very clear whose side she was on. “Alex would never do that. Never. And I can’t believe even one of you would even consider that she would.”
She said the last bit directly to Mandy. You tell her, Kels! The kitten had some wicked-ass claws and wasn’t afraid to use them.
“No one said she would,” Stone grumbled.
INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Page 15