I braced myself for the answer because it was information I desperately wanted but had been too afraid to ask for. If Dad had tried to attack the court, or infiltrate back into the Rain’s ranks, I couldn’t say what might happen. Or what it could mean for Evie and our daughter.
“No. Not yet. It’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth,” Eth said before turning to Lou. “What about Abe?”
“Ben’s heard nothing,” Lou said.
We talked for a while longer, running from reexamining events from our childhood, through to possible plans for the future. It was nice being something of a family again, and before long, we were recounting our successes and failures with boisterous storytelling.
A knock on the door broke up our laughter.
“Louise, Mom would like—” Mackenzie walked in and took in the three of us. I could see a trace of hurt echo on her features before she pushed it back down. It was a reminder that it wasn’t just the three of us. Not anymore. We had another sister. I was certain my guilt was printed on my features when I glanced at her.
“Mack,” Eth said, with a tone clear of regret and remorse. “How’ve ya been, sis?”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “We should have found—”
Mackenzie raised her hand and cut me off before offering a sad smile. “I understand.”
“We didn’t mean to leave you out,” I started again. The rest of my sentence died on my tongue though because I didn’t want to speak it out loud. We just forgot about you.
“This has been an adjustment for me too. I never expected to have siblings, especially not ones fully grown and living their own lives. However, Lou has spent many hours with me, talking about your histories, so I do feel like I know you all.”
“Well, I hope we can get to know each other better. Stay with us for a drink?”
“Unfortunately, I came on official business. Mother would like us both for our lessons, Louise.”
“Looks like it’s back to business,” Lou said, tossing down the last of her drink. “Catch you later.”
“You wanna kick on in the city?” Eth asked as the girls left.
I shook my head and finished my own drink. “I’ve gotta get back to Evie.”
He sighed. “Well, it was fun while it lasted. Catch you next time.”
Watching his slumped shoulders as he left, I realized we’d missed out on so much. He’d bailed me out so many times, he’d put his faith in my beliefs when it came to Evie, and he’d helped save her life when we had to leave the country. Now, he was left to rebuild the Rain in the image I’d envisaged, and I was barely helping him.
“Eth, wait up! What’s the next case on the agenda? I want in.”
“What about Evie?”
“She’ll be happy that I’m out of the way and keeping out of trouble.” It was only a half truth. She had been pushing me to return to help Eth more, but I also knew she liked our time alone together. There had to be a balance between the two though, and it was just a matter of finding it.
“If you’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Well, then we have a possible vampire coven in New Jersey to investigate.”
“I’m there.”
CHAPTER TEN
“YOU READY?” ETH asked as he tossed me a pair of ear plugs.
I nodded before pressing the soft plugs into place so that I wouldn’t be tempted by the song of the siren we were chasing. Eth signaled with his hands to move forward with caution.
With my gun gripped tightly, I headed into the darkened farm house. My feet trailed across the dusty ground, in long, careful steps to ensure I didn’t trip over unseen obstacles while my gaze was locked on the rafters, keen and steady. Eth and I fanned out in different directions, just as we’d planned during the car ride over.
My heart raced, the adrenaline from the thrill of the chase coursing through my body once more. As much as I tried to deny it to Evie because I knew she needed me, especially now that she was over six months into her pregnancy with our daughter, I missed this life.
I didn’t miss killing blindly, but I did miss saving lives, and the siren was responsible for leading three men to their deaths—we’d done the research and had clear evidence. She’d spent night after night singing songs to lure the men from a nearby bar out into the night before enticing them to a rooftop to take a plunge to their deaths. Each victim had companions who swore they’d seen a large owl-like bird with the face of a woman calling to their friend.
One pointed to this abandoned farmhouse as the direction the bird had flown seconds after his friend had leapt from the rooftop.
Even with the protection of the ear plugs, the sound of the siren’s song reached my ears. It was tempting me to release myself to her hold, the sound filled with promise of love and happiness. It was the trick of the siren, luring men to forget their lives, to follow her blindly.
I closed my eyes and let Evie fill my head. For a moment, I imagined I could feel her skin beneath my fingertips, could smell her hair, and could hear her voice whispering to me with words filled with salacious promises. With the security of my love for Evie holding me steady against the siren’s song, I looked for the bird again.
A shot rang out beside me, the bullet smashing into the beam inches beside my head. I spun in the direction of the shot, only to be greeted by Eth raising a gun to me again. One of his ear plugs rested on the ground at his feet, and he was plucking the other from his ear with his free hand. A goofy-ass grin was planted on his face.
“Eth, you don’t want to do this!” I shouted. The sound of my voice echoed in my head with my volume.
His response was to close his eyes, absorbing the music of the siren deeper into himself. I ducked out of the way just before he opened his eyes and fired another shot at me. At least his actions confirmed one thing—the siren was nearby.
Keeping one eye on Eth, standing in the middle of the barn with a love-struck look on his face, I scanned the rafters again.
“Can’t you hear it, Clay!” he screamed loud enough that I could hear him despite the foam barriers in my ears. “It’s glorious. It’s freedom!”
He turned his gun around, and I threw myself toward him as soon as I realized the siren’s intention. I struck at his hand, forcing the gun to fall from his hold. The blow was enough to draw Eth’s attention back to me.
A madness resided behind his eyes as he assessed me. “You have to hear it, bro. It’s magnificent.”
He reached out for me. I ducked under his arm and twisted away. His hand caught my shirt and he pulled me closer to him, before yanking one of my earplugs out. I tugged free of his hold and clamped a hand over my ear. Even with my technique of trying to remember Evie, I was certain that the siren would be able to win me into her control too before long if I could hear her clearly.
Eth came at me again, lunging for me with his fists raised.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I flipped the gun in my hand. When he neared me with his charge, I side-stepped, twisted, and brought the handle of the gun down across the base of his neck.
His momentum carried him to the ground, but before he’d even landed, I was looking skyward again, seeking a female face among the darkness at the top of the barn.
After a moment, I locked eyes with the beast. Her face was breathtaking, true beauty out of the ancient world—beauty similar to that which Evie bore—but I was able to see the foul beast that lurked beneath, the malice in the emerald eyes and fangs beneath her full lips. The aura around the creature was a dark brown sludge, polluted like her soul. Unlike Evie’s beauty and goodness, which radiated from her very core, it was clear this creature was evil incarnate.
Knowing that she’d been spotted, the siren flew down off her perch, swooping for me. I counted and held my hand steady, ready to fire the instant she was close enough.
I squeezed the trigger just as she opened her mouth to start a new song. Eth’s hand reached for my ankle, knocking me off balance, but as I fell I
saw my shot was true regardless of the last-second interference. The siren plummeted to the dirt with open, glassy eyes and a red hole just off center in her forehead.
When I landed, my head smacked against the ground, sending an explosion of stars behind my eyes. My teeth pierced into my tongue hard enough to draw blood, sending a trickle tracing into the back of my throat.
“Oh shit!” Eth’s voice was free of whatever enchantment the siren had wrought over him. An instant later, his face appeared in my vision as he kneeled over me. “Are you all right, bro?”
He offered me his hand, and I used it to pull myself into a seated position. My head throbbed where it had impacted with the ground. I pressed my hand over the tender spot to try to ease it. “Just fine. No thanks to you, asshole.”
“Sorry, I guess earplugs weren’t quite enough protection.”
“You think?” I spat out the blood tainting my taste buds before running my tongue across the roof of my mouth to assess the damage. It wasn’t too bad. The wound would probably be healed by the time we got back to New York.
Eth led the way out to the car. “Well, we know for next time, right?”
I chuckled, but stopped when it sent a jolt of pain through my head. “Yeah, live and learn, right? And at least I have a little while off now to recuperate with Evie and Ava.”
“So you’re sticking with Ava for her name then, huh?” He tossed me an instant cold pack from the first aid kit before cracking one for himself.
“I think so,” I said as I put the cold bag against the throbbing ache on my skull. “Evie likes it, and that’s what’s important, right?”
“Happy wife, happy life,” he said in confirmation.
“Precisely. Besides, it means bird and life. It seemed fitting.”
Leaving me to tend my aching head, he disappeared to dispose of the siren’s body. When he came back, he headed straight to the car and started to climb in without waiting for me to move. “I don’t suppose I can get one more favor out of you before you go on daddy duty?”
He was inside the car before he’d even finished his question—no doubt trying to escape the glare he knew I’d be giving him.
I yanked open the door and climbed into the passenger seat. “Are you crazy? Evie will kill me if I take another mission this late in the game. Remember, we promised her I’d be home from six months onward. We’re already past that.”
“I know,” he said as he started the engine. “And I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think I’d need you.”
I leaned back against the headrest, trapping the icepack between the leather and my head so that I didn’t need to hold it in place any longer. “What do you need?”
“Well, there have been reports of a black horse in Alaska terrorizing hikers going in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.”
“A horse?”
“That’s what it’s been described as. But I don’t know, man, apparently it’s been tearing up the place pretty bad. There have been a few campers who’ve returned to base camp half dead screaming about this beast terrorizing the trails.”
“So what are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a horse like the one they’re talking about, at least not here in the States. Some elements of the description seem to match the púca a few years ago.”
He fell silent as the creature type settled over us. It wasn’t a species we’d hunted often. In fact, we’d only encountered one once before, and it had caused me to leave a child motherless moments before Eth had murdered her.
“I can’t do it,” I said. “I’m sorry, but what if Ava decides to make an early appearance.”
“Then Evie has Mom, Mack, Lou, and Aiden to help her, doesn’t she? She’s well looked after. Isn’t it more important to prove that this method of yours works?”
“Yes, but I can’t do that to her.”
“But if it’s a púca, you might be my best chance at identifying it. With your abilities.”
“Well, take Aiden then.”
“You know he won’t help.” Eth sighed. “It is outside the particular scope of our role as protectors of the court,” he added in a voice mocking Aiden’s polished inflection.
“Take Ben and the two of you can enchant yourselves.”
Eth chewed his lip as he watched the road in front of him carefully.
“I can’t,” he said after a moment.
“Why the hell not?”
“Because it was Terry that called it in.”
“Terry?” He’d been one of Dad’s most trusted friends and Abe’s second-in-command once upon a time, but that all changed after an incident with a vamp. He’d allowed himself to become compromised during a mission and had divulged secrets about Bayview. That mistake had allowed three vampires to almost gain a foothold into the building. They’d killed six operatives before they were stopped. Terry’s name was mud around the halls of Bayview after that, and he’d been shipped off to one of the regional offices. I’d never known where, but obviously he’d drawn the Alaskan straw.
“You know what would happen if Ben got anywhere near him.”
One of the operatives killed had been Ben’s part-time fuck buddy. They’d never been seriously involved, but he had still cared deeply for her. He’d never forgiven Terry for her death.
“It’s got to be you,” Eth said again. “Don’t make me beg—that won’t work out well for either of us.”
“I can’t.”
“Don’t say no. Just think about it on the way home.”
Eth didn’t ask me again for the rest of the trip, just sat in pensive silence. That of course left me alone with my thoughts, which were far too noisy to be helpful.
The events of the day, of Eth swinging the gun onto me and firing came into my mind and left me feeling anxious. It wasn’t that I was worried about myself. I could handle Eth, even if he was under the influence of some crazy siren. What I couldn’t handle was him taking another operative into a similar situation. One who would have likely shot Eth the instant the gun was turned on them. They wouldn’t have cared if he was being affected by a spell or enchantment; they would just protect themselves first and foremost.
The more I thought about it, the more it played on my mind. If I let him go to the other side of the country, to the middle of nowhere, to help someone who was barely competent at the best of times, and something happened to Eth because of Terry or whoever else he took, I’d never be able to forgive myself. My teeth worried the inside of my cheek as I ran through scenario after scenario. The truth was Evie could wait another week, maybe even another month, before she really needed me. Eth though he’d need me in Alaska more than he had on any other mission.
“Fine,” I said eventually, breaking the silence in the car. “I’ll talk to Evie and see what I can do. When do we leave?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
It would be an almost eight-hour drive to get home. So for Evie, I would be leaving the day after I arrived back home. “You really don’t want me to live past tomorrow, do you?”
“Evie will be fine. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
I scoffed. “Have you met my wife?”
“Would you rather I talk to her?”
“Hell no. I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not going to promise anything.”
He nodded, as if it was all completely decided. “That’s all I can ask. We’ll be gone for two weeks.”
“Two weeks? You couldn’t have told me that before I agreed?”
“No, because then you wouldn’t have agreed.”
“Asshole. I suppose I better call Mom and let her know that the guard needs to stay a little longer.”
As usual, Mom didn’t ask for the details of our case. She was still a little weary of the Rain and didn’t entirely trust the headway that Eth was making with the new regime. It was easier for her just to ignore that world and look after the court. Thankfully she’d extended that definition to include Evie and our daughter. It didn’t stop her from c
hewing me out about leaving my heavily pregnant wife at home alone though. I promised her the same thing I would promise Evie. It was definitely the last time before Ava came.
By the time we arrived back home the following day, the thought of telling Evie I had to leave again was too much, especially when I’d be gone for so long again. I knew I had to sweeten the deal and ensure that she would be safe at the same time.
“Can we swing by Cats Whiskers Market on the way?” I asked Eth.
After he’d agreed, we stopped in to grab some stuff.
A different worker was on duty, one who wasn’t an other based on her lack of aura and who I could only assume didn’t know about that world. When I asked for Laura or Kieran, I was told they were on vacation. I was disappointed because I’d been hopeful I could get them to keep an extra eye out on the house until I returned. Instead, I grabbed a packet of Evie’s favorite chocolate and headed back to the car.
When Eth dropped me off at the door, I told him I’d see him the following day. “If I’m still alive, that is.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
“Maybe. Wish me luck!”
I pushed open the door, ready to use the chocolate, my body, and any other means necessary to get what I needed in order to protect Eth on his mission. I just wished I had someone to protect me from Evie.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
BEFORE WE’D EVEN hit the airport, I regretted my choice to go with Eth instead of staying at home with Evie. The bed had been so inviting when I glanced back after getting up that morning. Not only that, but Evie had been so warm in my arms, I’d dreaded getting up to finish packing. Granted, she wasn’t as hot as she’d been in years past before the sunbird rested again, but enough to remind me of what I would be missing in the harsh Alaskan outback for the next couple of weeks while Eth and I hunted down the elusive devil horse haunting the trails.
I sighed at the thought.
“What crawled up your ass and died?” Eth asked after we’d boarded the first plane. “I would’ve thought you’d be smiling from ear to ear after your reunion with Evie.” He made fake kissing sounds.
Living with Embers: (Son of Rain #4) Page 8