by Dannika Dark
Wyatt returned to his seat across from Crush. He didn’t like having this decision on his shoulders.
Crush laced his fingers together and addressed Switch. “Son, if you want this job, you better curb that impulsive behavior of yours. Remember where it got you last time.”
Switch’s long hair fell in front of his face when he lowered his head. “I’m not trying to stir up trouble. I just want to help. I know this isn’t my family, but I guess pack instinct kicks in. Can’t help it.”
Wyatt rubbed his tattooed fingers. They were in a real pickle. The game changer was finding out that Gem wasn’t on the dangerous side of the Bricks. That made a rescue more feasible. Wyatt had pinpointed her location at a hotel built in the thirties. The tracker could only signal the general area, so Wyatt had no clue where in the building she was. If he botched the rescue, he’d be the cause of her death. And knowing that girl, she’d haunt him from the afterlife.
Switch tapped his fingernail against his coffee cup. “So why don’t you go get her, and we’ll stay here?”
Wyatt snorted. “You think I can just shirk my duties? I’m central intelligence. I don’t get to leave unless it’s a direct order from my boss. What happens if he has an emergency and I’m not here? I also have to make travel arrangements to get them the hell out of there. If something happened to their vehicle, I’ll have to figure out the safest way to get them to the nearest airport.”
These guys didn’t know what it was like to bear this kind of responsibility. Wyatt had to coordinate travel plans on the fly, and that was no easy task. He mapped their routes and made himself available around the clock in case something went awry. He also had the daunting responsibility of search and recovery should the team not make it out alive.
Wyatt was getting an ulcer, and Gravewalkers didn’t get ulcers.
Crush sipped his coffee, his blue eyes trained on Wyatt. Despite him being a gruff guy, Wyatt didn’t sense any derision in his tone. He was the kind of fella who wanted to get it done, and Wyatt respected that. It made perfect sense where Raven got her personality.
“We stay here,” Crush stated. “Every man on the property accounted for. But I got more friends than this—friends who owe me favors I’ve never called on.”
Wyatt frowned. “You’d use up all your favors to help someone you barely know?”
Crush tugged on the collar of his tight white T-shirt, which had a bottle of orange soda printed on the front. “That’s the only way to do it in my book.”
“Maybe that’s not such a hot idea, old man. It’s dangerous.”
Crush sat back. “Good versus evil, my friend. Sometimes that’s all a man needs to make a choice.”
“I don’t want any of your buddies haunting me from the afterlife.”
Crush gave him a stony look, but there was something else in that look that Wyatt was all too familiar with: prejudice. “Just don’t do any of your voodoo shit to make them zombies.”
Wyatt groaned. “You don’t know anything about Gravewalkers, do you?”
“I don’t like the idea of ghosts.”
“Me either. Why do you think my job is working with computers? Anyhow, I don’t have magical powers to bind someone to the living world. That’s their choice. I just don’t want them following my ass home.”
“So I’ll make my boys promise not to die on me. How’s that?”
Wyatt took off his hat and stretched it between his hands. “So what’s the plan, Stan? Set up a surveillance van? Drive them out with tear gas?”
Still staring at Wyatt, Crush turned a skull ring on his finger. “Guns blazing. That’s the only way to catch them off guard.”
Wyatt got a quick visual of what that might look like. “I think you need to make an appointment somewhere else, because I’m all booked up on crazy. Your wolves will tear my friends apart. And if they don’t, they’ll die trying.”
Crush’s ring clicked against his cup when he wrapped his hands around it. “We’ll take a piece of dirty laundry from their rooms. Once their animal gets a whiff, they won’t attack anyone with that scent.”
Wyatt wrinkled his nose. “You want me to fish out their dirty underwear?”
“Don’t be a peckerhead. Just grab a shirt. That’ll do.” He lifted his cup. “And wolves can kill a Mage. Tear him to pieces. They start with the hands first, that way the Mage can’t blast them with energy. After that—”
Wyatt turned green and held up his hand. “I don’t need details.”
Crush let out a deep belly laugh. “No, son. You don’t. Every Breed has weaknesses. A Mage has power, but they don’t have absolute power. Don’t let ’em fool you; they’re afraid of Shifters. That’s why they used to enslave them.”
“I know all about it,” Wyatt said matter-of-factly. “I’m older than you, remember? I lived in the days of slavery, and just about every single Mage where I came from had a Shifter servant. Sometimes they’d hook the horse Shifters up to carriages and parade them around town. They hated that the most. Worse than being a maid or tilling the fields. Shifters didn’t like having their animal demeaned in public.”
Crush narrowed his eyes. “You ever own a Shifter?”
“Do I look stupid?” Wyatt put the hat back on his head. “Don’t answer that. No, I never owned a Shifter. I only saw them with Vampires or lightwalkers. A lightwalker is—”
“A Mage. I know.”
Wyatt shook his head. “Old-fashioned word. Never even made sense. It’s not like they walk on light.” He held up his finger. “Gravewalkers, on the other hand, do walk on graves.”
“Time’s a-wasting,” Switch reminded them as he laced his fingers together, much calmer than before. “I’ve never been the type to sit around and do nothing when there was a chance to make it right. But there’s a Polish expression: not my circus, not my monkeys. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve got to learn. So that means concentrating on my job and not sticking my nose in your business. Hunter’s my responsibility when his dad’s not around. I’ll stay. I’m sorry if I’m coming across as bossy, but you’re the one who invited us in on your problems. We can’t tell you how to run your show, but we can help. Take it. People who do nothing change nothing.”
“People who do something they’re not supposed to also get fired. Maybe to you it’s just a job, but this is the only thing I’ve got.”
“What if your friend dies?”
“I’m a Gravewalker. Dangling death as an incentive doesn’t work. The only reason people are afraid of death is because they don’t know what happens next. They think it’s over, like a curtain at the end of a play. But I know what happens. Death isn’t a big deal. Just the dying part.”
Switch covered his circle beard with both hands as if he were trying to keep himself from saying something he’d regret. Wyatt wasn’t going to apologize for his views on death; he couldn’t afford to get attached to people. Nobody understood Gravewalkers. Wyatt had lived his entire life watching specters come and go. Some people were better off dead.
Still. Gem was a sweet girl. He didn’t like the idea that someone could be hurting her. Not only that, but she’d willingly walked into the face of danger. She could have abandoned Niko and stayed here, but she’d gone back. Blast! Wyatt wanted to be a hero, but Raven would kick his ass if any of her father’s friends died because he decided to send them on a mission.
Or would she kick his ass for not doing it? Did she love Keystone more or her family?
Wyatt chewed on his fingernail, conflicted about the choice before him. “Fine. But you stay here.”
“Someone needs to control them,” Crush countered.
“I thought you said they wouldn’t attack my guys?”
Crush arched his brow. “You know how wolves are when they get blood in their mouth. I don’t think they’ll touch them, but it’ll go better if I’m along for the ride.”
“I don’t want you going.”
Crush stood up and turned his pockets inside out. “I’m all out of fuck
s to give. Don’t worry. I know what you’re thinking. Raven will kill you if I get myself killed. I’ll hang back and play it safe, but this isn’t up for debate. If Viktor has a problem with it, he can deal with me. If everything goes well, you take all the credit for approving the plan. I just need to make some calls.”
Wyatt got out of his seat and stretched. “Maybe you should wait until after dark. If you go prancing into the Breed district in broad daylight, you’ll end up in an eternity box.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Crush said. “Vamps are out all night, and if someone’s gonna notice us, they’ll notice us. Day or night.”
Switch rose to his feet. “What do you want me to do?”
“Work on that dickish personality of yours?” Wyatt clapped Switch’s shoulder as he passed by him. “I liked you better when you were losing at pool.”
Switch gave him a short grin. “And I liked you better when you were losing at darts.”
Hunter dashed into the room, a black mask covering his eyes.
“Well, hey there, Zorro.” Crush put his hands on his knees and looked Hunter in the eye. “Bad guys are trying to storm the castle. Think you can stay here and protect everyone?”
Hunter nodded exuberantly.
Crush rumpled his hair. “Good man. We’re counting on you. All these doors need to stay locked, and if anything bad happens, you and Kira need to hide like little mice.” He glanced up at Wyatt. “Is that her name?”
Wyatt looked into the gathering room. “I should go find her. She ain’t supposed to wander off. I want everyone together in case something happens and we need to fly the coop.”
Switch chuckled. “I’d never guess in a million years you were from the South.”
Wyatt frowned. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” Switch said. “Lucky guess.”
Chapter 31
Gem shifted the pillow beneath her, cramps settling in her legs from having sat at the tea table all day, trying to translate Niko’s book. Her Mage power indicated the time of day was now reaching sunset. Had Viktor and the team completed their mission? She wondered about them a lot.
Much to her surprise, Cyrus actually knew one short phrase in the book. He bragged about remembering it word for word after all these centuries, but little good did it do him when he had no understanding of how to unlock the book’s true power. He had memorized the symbols and found someone who could translate them. Unfortunately for Cyrus, that Relic died a short time after from the plague. Cyrus hadn’t bothered asking the man to teach him the language. It was far too complex for a pea brain like him.
Gem rubbed her temple and stared at her papers. She had smartly left the translation book behind. There was no way she would chance Cyrus getting his hands on that, not if it meant relinquishing what little power she had. After a tedious night of learning, memorizing, and coding data into her DNA, she’d spent all day translating pages of the red book… in her head. The words she scribbled on paper were gibberish, incorrect translations for the symbols. If Cyrus discovered her deception, he would kill them both, so every word and phrase had to be matched whenever repeated and also required some semblance of logic when reading it.
Her brain hurt. This was by far the most taxing thing she’d ever done under pressure.
“Why does this take so long?” Cyrus said angrily, shoving her head toward the book.
So long? Was he insane? She was lucky she’d gotten as far as she had.
Gem gave him a cross look as he circled to the other side of the table, his arms folded like some kind of toddler on the verge of a tantrum. “Because it’s thousands of years old. Because Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
Cyrus looked at Arcadius. “I don’t like her tongue.”
Arcadius steered his gaze down to her. “Want me to cut it out?”
“She’s tired.” Niko interrupted, taking on a conciliatory tone. “Tea will help. Gem is extremely adept at deciphering complex languages. You will find no one else who can match her skills.”
Gem refrained from smiling, but his compliment warmed her. That feeling was extinguished when she noticed his tunic. Gem wasn’t used to seeing him in clothes that weren’t black, and she found herself hating it. Hating the bloodstains. Hating the untied drawstrings that hung from the neck. And, most of all, hating the meaning behind them.
Servitude.
Gem rubbed her ink-stained fingers across her camo leggings, guilty that she had warm boots and Niko walked around barefoot. At least Cyrus had kept his word and removed the cuff.
After Niko finished pouring her tea at the long table against the wall, he carefully turned and knelt beside her.
She scooted the papers out of the way. “You can set it down.”
He bowed his head. “I did not want to disturb your work. Cyrus is a generous man to offer my freedom in exchange for your services.”
With Cyrus still looming over them, Gem wanted to roll her eyes. Cyrus would never let him go. But she marveled at how easily Niko could manipulate his Mage brother.
Niko had put on quite a show to secure an agreement with Cyrus. He remarked how Gem could hasten his rise to power, but then he quickly revoked the offer and demanded that Gem leave immediately. That was enough to pique Cyrus’s curiosity on what exactly Gem could do. Instead of threatening her, Cyrus offered Niko’s freedom in exchange for her services.
It was all she needed to buy time. This book was unlike anything she’d ever read before. A maze of incantations specific to different Breeds. Before leaving Keystone, she noticed it was broken up into parts, but without a table of contents, the only way to determine the theme for each part was to translate the first page.
Gem sipped her green tea while Cyrus crossed the room and sat on the wooden sofa. Lykos joined him while Arcadius remained by the door.
“You shouldn’t overwork yourself,” Niko said quietly. “There’s no rush.”
They hadn’t concocted a plan to get out of this. The only thing they’d managed to accomplish was staying alive. But Gem held a secret plan that kept her reading, kept her searching for just the right thing. She wasn’t sure if it would work, but they didn’t have many other options, and time wasn’t on her side. Eventually Cyrus would realize that she’d created a false translation and take out his anger like a wounded dragon.
“What was your Creator’s name?” she asked.
“Artemon.”
“Cyrus says he forced immortality on him. Was that how it was for you?”
Still kneeling, Niko sighed and cupped his hands in his lap. “Yes.”
She set down the teacup. “I’ve heard stories about people forced into immortality, and I can’t imagine. I’m sorry.” Those last words seemed woefully inadequate.
“The past is where it belongs.”
“Is it?” She pushed up the sleeves on her black sweater. “How did you find out the book had power?”
“Remember the Relic I told you about whom we stole the book from? When he didn’t cooperate or respond to blackmail, Cyrus tortured him for information. The only thing he learned was that the book had the power to rule all.”
“If that’s all he told you, how did you know a Mage infused power into the pages?”
Niko raised his head and observed the men in the room before answering. “My sensei told me about such books and how they were created. He said they were the alpha and the omega.”
What Niko hadn’t known all those years was that the spells weren’t activated by reading them alone but by touch. After a long night, Gem noticed strange occurrences whenever she ran her fingers over the symbols and read them aloud. It didn’t even matter which language she used so long as they matched up with the symbol. It was as if it drew from her power in order to work. If she had to guess, only a Mage could activate the spells. Otherwise, the Relic who owned the book would have figured it out and been a powerful man.
“Did you show it to your sensei?” she asked.
“I have never shown the book to
anyone.”
“Too much talking.” Cyrus snapped his fingers three times. “Nikodemos, bring me food. You still remember how to cook, don’t you?”
Niko’s lips thinned. “Don’t say anything to anger him. I’ll just be in the next room.”
“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. Just toiling away on a dead language and writing nonsense on paper.”
He gave her a worried smile and left the room. Niko was in on her fictitious translating of the passages—it was the one thing they both agreed on. If something went wrong, at least Cyrus wouldn’t be able to read the book himself, which would be bad even if he didn’t know how to unlock the power.
From their brief conversation, Gem had acquired a valuable piece of information needed for one of the spells. It was the name of Niko’s Creator, who was also the Creator of these other men.
Artemon.
Cyrus had given her a quill and inkpot instead of a regular ballpoint, and the ink stained her fingers. By the looks of his home, he didn’t embrace the modern world. Ancients were like that, and she wondered if she might one day be clinging to relics of her past. What might those be? Microwaves? Toilets? Hair dye? Battery-operated lights? What did the future hold in store?
She sipped her tea and gathered her thoughts.
Can I do this? What if I’m wrong? What if it doesn’t work? What if he catches me?
Gem had been waiting for an opportune time, but fear gripped her spine. Cyrus was Niko’s Mage brother, but were the others as well? She couldn’t remember. These past two days she’d been without sleep, and she couldn’t remember the details of every conversation. Kallisto was still unaccounted for, and that presented a threat, especially if he didn’t share the same Creator.
She patiently waited for Niko to finish cooking. The smell of grilled meat wafted from the kitchen, a delicious blend of pork, vegetables, and rice. Once he fed these ogres and returned to his position, she would ask him more questions.