by Kristie Cook
There.
“I felt it!” Blossom’s mental voice nearly squealed in my mind.
We both felt a nudge. A gentle bump. North again.
She picked up the chanting of her spell, concentrating harder as I tried to steer us farther north. We slid over the countryside, pushed until I thought we might even have moved beyond the state line. Another slight tug to keep going. But my head pounded. Blackness started to seep into the edges of my consciousness. I snapped our minds back before I passed out.
“Definitely north,” Blossom said from her cross-legged seat in front of me. She released her tight grip on my hands.
I pressed my fingers to my head and rubbed circles into my temples.
“Yes, north,” I agreed as I opened my eyes.
My thumb did a quick check under my nose and by my ears, and I was grateful to find no blood this time. I had been close to pushing my limits . . . but never had I been able to reach out so far. Way beyond what Rina had ever mentioned being capable of doing.
“We’ll discuss it with the team tomorrow.” First, I needed to talk to Tristan about it.
Before I could, however, a call came in from Trevor and Sundae. They’d cornered five newly infected were-panthers during their first full moon. Panthers weren’t indigenous to the area, and Trevor thought them dumped by their creator. We made the trip once again to the Georgia countryside near the coast and returned with five new converts.
Maybe things were beginning to look up.
“Tristan?” Charlotte asked a few mornings after our little success as she leaned over the kitchen island, her elbows on the counter. Her hands fisted together, and she rested her chin on them as she looked up at us.
He and I stood on the other side of the island, and the rest of the team was gathered in the kitchen, as well. Tristan took my hand between his, closed his eyes, and focused for a long moment while the rest of us waited silently.
“Alexis and I discussed it and nothing has changed,” he said. “We go north.”
So the next day we packed up our few belongings on the bikes and prepared to depart. Right as we were about to leave Georgia for good, a white fur ball bounded up the driveway.
“Sasha!” I squealed as I scooped her up and snuggled my face into her little neck. “Where have you been? We almost left you!”
She licked my face as if to say she knew. I wondered what she’d been up to on her own for these past few weeks and wished I could read her thoughts. Animals were like faeries, though—I could sense their mind signatures, but drew a big blank when I tried to dig deeper.
When we headed out, we looked like a small biker gang: seven of us dressed in leathers and black on five Harley-Davidsons. Sheree rode my bike while I rode with Tristan. Sasha stood on the gas tank in front of him, wearing the goggles and leather coat I hadn’t been able to resist buying at Trevor’s shop, hoping she’d turn up again. Charlotte kept us cloaked and shielded until we were out of the Atlanta suburbs and on country roads, then she removed the cloak so I wouldn’t have to focus so much on keeping a link between all of our minds. The connection allowed us to “see” each other, but when I didn’t have to worry about maintaining it, I could let a bigger part of my mind roam, searching for familiar mind signatures.
While in Tennessee, we stopped at the faeries’ cottage in the mountains to see if the sisters knew or had heard anything about Dorian or the Daemoni’s plans—if they even wanted to be helpful—but Lisa and Jessica weren’t home. Part of me was glad, because I had no idea what they might do if I didn’t have Kali’s soul in a jar the next time I saw them. The task they’d given me was daunting, but it no longer scared me. Kali’s soul could never be saved—she’d never allow it—so I had no qualms about handing her spirit over to the faeries and the Otherworld. That would be one less Daemoni roaming this earth, which was my goal. Especially since she might have had something to do with Dorian’s kidnapping.
On the other hand, if they’d been home and willing to help, they might have given us insight from the Otherworld. We hadn’t seen Bree since the day she’d helped Tristan, Blossom, and Jax.
The faeries’ cottage took us more west than Blossom and I felt we should be going, so we headed northeast from there, sticking to back roads, trying to avoid checkpoints. In North Carolina, we rode part of what Tristan called the Tail of the Dragon—a curvy mountain road full of switchbacks and a popular drive among bikers and sports car enthusiasts. As we sped along the road, our foot pegs often scraping the ground as we leaned into tight curves, I could understand the draw. The ride provided quite the thrill.
At least, until we completed an S-curve and found ourselves at a checkpoint.
Normans ahead, I had warned everyone not two minutes before. I’d picked up on the six mind signatures and listened in on their thoughts. They hadn’t spoken to each other at all, their minds focused on their hunt. With the way the road curved, I thought they traversed the woods. I didn’t realize until the last second they were cops standing in the road, and they hunted supernaturals. We’d already rounded the corner, too late for Charlotte to cloak us.
Maybe things weren’t looking up after all.
Chapter 15
“ Just act Norman.” Tristan spoke to all of us through my telepathy as we slowed in front of the roadblock. “If they don’t suspect anything, they’ll let us move on.”
I didn’t think it would work that way. Based on the experiences Vanessa and I had had so far, these officers would know exactly what to do to test us. Only Blossom and Charlotte could pass their tests of silver weapons—they wouldn’t react to the silver, they would react to the pain, and they’d bleed. Jax and Sheree would bleed, too, but they’d be more difficult to injure, and depending on how much pain the officers chose to inflict, they could lose control and change. Vanessa, Tristan, and me? We’d never stand a chance.
Jax, with Blossom clinging to his back, and Charlotte moved to the head of our pack, already knowing our mages were our only hope for not being detained. But the thought of them suffering on our behalf made my stomach clench. Even knowing Tristan could heal them didn’t help. My body tensed and my muscles coiled, ready to act if the Normans did anything to my friends.
“Is there a problem, officers?” Tristan asked after we finally stopped and cut the loud engines. A deafening silence filled the air for a long moment. Not even birds, squirrels, or other wildlife in the woods lining both sides of the road could be heard. Tristan had made his voice appropriate for the situation: friendly enough, yet with the hard edge of a hardcore biker.
Four of the officers crouched behind the three marked cars, shotguns pointed at us. Two of them, wearing khaki pants and brown leather jackets to ward off the cool mountain air, held their handguns in front of them as they slowly approached us. Neither answered Tristan.
“What’s your business here?” the closer one asked, his eyes—and gun—trained on Jax.
“My mates here were taking me on this Dragon ride,” Jax said casually. He gave a nonchalant shrug. “It’s all right.”
The officer narrowed his eyes, as though he didn’t buy Jax’s answer. He appraised Jax and Blossom for a moment as he walked by them, while the other officer stayed at the front of our group, his feet planted shoulder-width apart and his gun held in position, ready to fire on any of us.
“Is there something wrong?” Tristan tried again as the first guy passed us, his gray eyes scrutinizing us. “Because we’re just out for a good time.”
The cop only grunted, so I jumped into his mind.
“I don’t buy this group for one minute,” he thought as he kept walking. “On a casual ride my ass. Only thing is—”
“Hey!” he barked aloud as he stopped at the end of our group, right next to Vanessa. “I saw that.”
Oh, shit. What did she do now?
“Nothing, Alexis,” she said. “I did nothing.”
The cop suddenly grabbed Vanessa in a chokehold and dragged her off her bike. Good thing she’d
already put her kickstand down.
Go along with him, I said when he held the gun to her temple.
She sighed in my mind. “I know the drill. I’ll wait for your order.”
Tristan swung his leg over the bike and stood to his full height.
“What’d she do?” he demanded, his voice rougher now. He took a step in Vanessa and the officer’s direction.
The other cop’s gun clicked. “Don’t you move!”
The sound of the officers behind the cars pumping shells into the chambers echoed in the otherwise still air. Tristan stopped and raised his hands to chest level, palms out, in the universal “don’t shoot” position. Of course, they didn’t know he practically stood in a fighting stance, his palms ready to fire.
“It’s not what she did,” the first cop snarled as he dragged Vanessa up to the front of the group. “It’s what she is.”
His gun-hand dropped the pistol into the holster, but came back with a silver-bladed knife. He slid the edge against the curve of Vanessa’s cheek. Her jaw clenched—the silver hurting, but not badly—and I stiffened, already knowing he’d have to cut her up bad to make her bleed, and then they’d know for sure we weren’t Norman. Except . . . what the hell? A small trail of red trickled down the side of her face. Among all the many thoughts I monitored in my head, Blossom chanted a silent spell.
The cop sprang back, letting Vanessa go. “I, uh—”
“You what?” Tristan demanded as he took another step forward despite all the guns aimed at us. “You thought you’d cut up some innocent chick just because you don’t like the looks of us?”
The cop’s head shook violently. “I could have sworn . . . look at you! No flaws on any of you.” He eyed Jax’s scar. “Except you. But all these gorgeous women with two men? Not your typical biker gang.”
“I don’t buy it,” the other cop said. He swung his arm so his pistol aimed at Blossom. His trigger finger twitched.
But I moved faster.
“No!” I screamed as I jumped from the motorcycle and landed on the cop, tackling him to the ground. The gun fired into the air, the explosion right in my ear.
The other four guns immediately aimed at me as I lay on top of the cop. The officer closest to us dropped his knife and drew his own pistol. I sprang to my feet, my hands up. We were never getting out of this now. I’d crossed twenty feet, including hurdling Charlotte, in a blur. The thought of sitting in another jail cell that smelled like piss made my stomach sink.
“Now, now,” came a lustrous voice from behind me. “Do we really need to do this, sweethearts?”
I didn’t think I’d ever be so happy to see a faerie.
Bree, appearing in all of her golden glory, sauntered past me, her movements and her voice reminding me of Marilyn Monroe. The effect she had would have made Marilyn look like an amateur, though, and it was immediate. The guns of the two cops right in front of us clattered on the ground, and the men stared at her with their mouths gaping. She turned her full faerie glamour on them, her hair blazing in the sun and her eyes a sultry gold.
She looped an arm around each of theirs, then continued her strut toward the police cars, the two officers gladly moving along with her. I couldn’t read her thoughts, and all the cops’ minds had pretty much turned to mush.
“We really don’t want to hurt you,” she said. “That’s not who we are.”
“So you’re . . . you’re,” the first officer who had cut Vanessa stammered. “Shit. What’re they called? The Amadeaus?”
So they knew about us? Who were these county cops in the middle of nowhere?
Bree’s eyes settled on him, full of warmth. “The Amadis.”
“And you’re them?” he asked as his tongue slipped over his lips.
“Oh, I’m not,” Bree said with a mischievous grin.
“Oh, fuck,” whispered a cop from behind one of the cars. “We’re all gonna die.”
The second one’s pants darkened in his crotch area.
They misunderstood Bree, not knowing she could be neither, although she did favor the Amadis greatly. After all, she’d sacrificed herself to serve the Angels.
Were they scared because they knew we weren’t normal humans? Or because they thought we were Daemoni? I couldn’t get anything from their addled brains.
“Please don’t hurt us,” the first cop said. “We’ll do anything. If I could only have a—” Looking as though he had no control over himself, he leaned closer to Bree, his gaze dropped to her lips, and his voice lowered to a whisper. “—a taste.”
Bree let go of the other cop, who sank to his knees at her feet, apparently oblivious to his wet pants. She swiped a finger down the first officer’s cheek as she gazed into his eyes. His expression slackened as he became completely helpless.
“Who put you here?” she cooed.
“I . . . I don’t understand,” he said, his expression pleading for her mercy. A check into his mind told me he wanted more than her mercy—he wanted everything she could give him, and he’d willingly do anything to get it.
“Who told you to put up this roadblock?”
“We heard . . . we heard they move in packs, like gangs. They like danger and often travel by motorcycle.” He swallowed, then licked his lips again, his body leaning ever closer to Bree’s golden form. “The Tail of the Dragon’s always been a good time for their type.”
I focused in on his thoughts more, picking up vague images of Norman biker gangs they’d stopped. Then a stray thought popped into his mind. “Be careful how you handle them. They’re evil and will gladly eat you for breakfast. Or make you one of them.”
The voice belonged to Pastor Rick McCorkle.
They’re okay, I thought for everyone to hear. Of course, Bree couldn’t hear me, though. They’re working for us!
“We’re Amadis,” Tristan said aloud for Bree’s benefit. “We’re the good guys. The ones you work for.”
He returned to his motorcycle and nodded at me to join him. We both mounted, as did the rest of our group.
“See?” Bree said. “We’re all working for the same thing. So you can move your cars and let us go on our way.”
The cop nodded helplessly. Bree let him go, and as she strolled toward us, she gave me a wink. Three of the cops jumped into the driver’s seats of their cars but didn’t have a chance to move them.
Daemoni! I screamed into everyone’s heads as soon as I picked up the mind signatures that popped into my range.
The air swooshed over us as Charlotte threw up a shield and a cloak over everyone in our group. But she’d only been able to protect us. Metal smashed into metal as a white van slammed into the cop cars. Flames erupted from the van’s windows and quickly spread to the cars nearby. Several Daemoni vamps and Weres jumped out of the van, patting out the flames that burned on their clothes. A moment later, the van exploded, shaking the ground under our feet. Shrapnel flew in the air and rained back down. Black smoke rose and spread on the spring breeze, bringing the acrid smell of burning chemicals with it.
They’d used a homemade bomb to decimate the checkpoint.
“That was kick-ass!” one of the Daemoni exclaimed before he blurred over to the car farthest away. “This one’s good. Still alive.”
“This one, too, but barely,” said a female.
“Oh, dear God,” Sheree whispered. “They’re going to turn them.”
“We need to stop them.” Charlotte dismounted her bike.
“Wait. No,” I said. “Let them do their thing. Then we go in, kill the Daemoni, and convert the newborns.”
“Alexis—” Tristan said.
“Fine. So we don’t kill the Daemoni unless there’s no hope. But we can add the new ones to our own army.”
“We’re not going to let them be turned in the first place,” Char said.
“But we need them,” I argued. We needed every soul we could get on our side.
“Our purpose is to protect human souls,” Sheree said as she put a hand on my arm.
>
I groaned with frustration, mostly with myself. I didn’t have to dig deep to know she was right. I couldn’t believe I’d even suggested it. I’d let desperation cloud my judgment, and that wasn’t good.
“Of course,” I breathed.
Charlotte dropped the shields and cloaks, then crouched into fighting position, her palms out, ready to cast spells.
“I knew I’d smelled stinkin’ Amadis,” one of the Daemoni vampires sneered as she glared at us. “Wondered where you’d gone. Figured you’d cowered out.”
“Leave the innocents alone,” Tristan called out to them as he, Vanessa, and I slowly approached the burning rubble, while the rest of our group stayed back. Well, I thought they all had. A white crocodile meandered up next to me, and a tiger strode next to Tristan, her fangs bared.
The Daemoni blurred at us, as though wanting nothing more than a fight. Maybe that was the real reason they’d shown up, knowing these policemen served the Amadis, so surely there were some around. As far as my mind could find, we were the only ones.
I blasted electricity at a vamp at the same time Tristan hit him with debilitating power. The bloodsucker fell to the ground instantly, and Jax scooped him into his large jaws and shook him like a ragdoll. The female who’d been taunting us swung a punch at me, but I parried it, taking the brunt of the pain in my forearm rather than my head. I flicked my other hand and my dagger slid out of its sheath at my hip and landed in my palm as I clenched my fist. With a quick swipe of my thumb, the blade appeared right before I sliced it across the vamp’s shoulder. Her scream could make a person’s toes curl, but I didn’t let up. I gripped her arm with my left hand and shot Amadis power into her until she fell to her knees and shrieked for mercy.
But something came over me, and all I could see was Dorian’s face. All I could feel was outrage exploding within me, not unlike their homemade bomb.