“Her heartbeat is spiking,” the younger woman said, her voice even. “I’m going to pull her out in ten seconds, counting down.”
“Ask her what the building looked like,” I said in a low voice.
Every witch and wizard in the room turned my way and several put fingers to their lips.
“What do your surroundings look like?” the younger woman asked.
“Dark blue walls, white stripes.” The older woman’s voice grew strained, and her breaths came out in labored rasps and grunts as she spoke. “There’s a long oval table. It’s a conference room. Hotel.” Her petite frame began to convulse.
The younger woman reached, fisting a hand in front of the woman and grasping onto what looked like nothing. She wrenched her hand away.
The older woman dropped to the floor with a thud and threw out a hand to the younger woman to catch her balance. Every mage in the room clapped, giving quiet applause before turning to their companions.
Rick’s hand clapped over my shoulder, making my wolf jump, but I managed to keep my shit together this time.
“Sorry for the strange greeting, Darrel,” Rick said as he smiled. “The medium made contact, and we needed to start without you. There’s no guarantee the ghosts will stick around.”
“That woman was talking to a ghost?” I demanded, even though I’d already suspected as much. My every hair was still on end. The scene sat very wrong with my wolf, and I could easily believe that there was a supernatural source behind the unease.
“She made contact with Helen Blane, one of the union witches that died at the party in Cutten Steps.” Rick lumbered out of his chair, making it look like the motion was difficult for him before gesturing to the door. “Do you want some coffee for the road?”
“No.”
“Then I’ll walk you out.”
He didn’t need to hint any harder. Between my drive to return to my brothers and Scarlet and my unease with what I witnessed here, I had to force myself to walk at a measured pace.
The other mages were leaning over and talking amongst themselves. A few stood at the coffee station. The young woman and older medium had joined the crowd, chatting as if they hadn’t just been communing with the dead thirty seconds earlier.
Halfway back to the street, Rick threw a look over his shoulder. “I hope you’ll tell the new alpha that we’re doing our utmost to figure this out quickly. We’ll be happy to send all findings over and invite you if we can find a way to commune with any of the other spirits.”
I nodded. Clearly the guy had invited me here to cover his ass with the alpha. “Can you explain to me the context of what I saw in there?”
Rick turned at the bottom of the stairs, his hand on the bar of a heavy metal door. “Helen’s mother said that she’d been heading out for secret meetings every week for about two months leading up to the party. According to her mother, she was excited and nervous. She hoped that it was a new man in her daughter’s life, but Helen told her that she’d been given an amazing secret opportunity. We saw echoes of a similar message with the other mages, but all the deceased mages were single and lived alone.”
“Doesn’t sound like a coincidence.”
A hard glint entered Rick’s eyes. “Not to us, either. From the sound of it, someone went after our most vulnerable mages and impersonated the Mage Union to do it. Los Angeles had nothing to do with this. No one has heard of Mage of the Ages. It sounds like a group of people went to a lot of trouble to arrange what happened. They told our people that they were special, that they could do something important, and then they killed all of them. Six of our witches and wizards were murdered, and we’ll be doing everything in our power to learn why.”
“We tracked down Nancy,” I said. “She doesn’t think Morte is dead. She thinks he’s still binding the demon to the bidding of whoever’s behind this.”
Rick nodded. “Well, she’d know. Morte’s family and friends are under the impression that he’s dead. The queen of the fae allowed us into the Cutten house today, but it had been scrubbed clean. Not a trace of magic there, demonic or otherwise. We won’t be able to do any kind of tracking spell with that as his last known location. We’ll put some mages on trying to find his signature. What do you know about this Queen Titania?”
“More than I want to.” I felt a surge of anger just hearing the woman’s name. “She’s determined to blame the pack for the deaths and has called a hunt on us. The alpha of Six Rivers is trying to track down the person who arranged all this before a war starts.”
Rick whistled and ran a hand over his head. “Well, we’ll do what we can from our end. I hope your alpha won’t hold any ill feelings toward the Mage Union. As you could clearly see, our representatives were tricked, too. They paid the highest price for it.”
I wasn’t going to make any promises to the man on Scarlet’s behalf, but I had to agree with his assessment. It sounded like there was a fourth party out there. Not the fae or werewolves or mages, but a group of people in suits who had arranged this months in advance. The question now was, why? Were they trying to cause a war? Had all their plans gone as intended, or had they gone astray?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Aaron
“Where the fuck is she?” Lance’s expression was livid. If looks could kill, I’d have exploded into a thousand pieces by now.
We stood in a basement storage room between piles of boxes. I’d followed her scent to a metal tissue box in the dressing room, finding it smeared with her blood. From there, her scent trail led underground to a storage room filled with boxes where it simply vanished.
Mack mussed a hand through his hair, his bright eyes darting around the space frantically as if he’d find Scarlet hiding behind a box. “She was crying, and I saw Darrel head in after her, so I gave them a minute. But that’s all I gave them—sixty seconds.”
“She was crying?” Lance growled.
Mack fisted his hand. “Yes. I don’t know why. I was trying to give her what she wanted, but I’m afraid I fucked it all up.”
Lance’s eyes glowed gold, and his fingers twisted into long claws. Otherwise, he looked perfectly calm. “Darrel’s not here. He’s at the Mage Union. I just got a call from him, and he’s heading here with news.”
“The incubus took her,” I said. The words burned my throat. I didn’t want them to be true, but there was no other explanation.
Horror registered on the other two men’s faces.
“What happened to the necromancer?” Without waiting for an answer, I headed for the door. Finding a dead end to Scarlet’s scent had short-circuited my brain, but as of now, I knew what I had to do.
Rushing through the building to the edge of the stage, I inhaled deeply. My heart beat in my ears as I crouched and sniffed the floor. The club had too many odors to discern one from the other, but Scarlet’s distinctive scent was thick here. My heart skipped when I caught another scent that was faintly familiar. Nancy smelled like beer, pipe smoke, and faintly of cookies.
Then the mingled scent of Mack and Lance overwhelmed my senses. Without looking back, I waved and told them, “Twenty feet. Back off that way and track me.”
They retreated, and I again found the faint scent trail. Pushing the velvet curtain aside, I crawled into the wings of the stage and tracked Nancy’s scent into the darkness. The necromancer had headed back into a tangle of wires, and their live electricity sizzled off my skin as I climbed over them.
I would not panic.
I would not fucking panic.
This necromancer was an expert on demons. She would know how it vanished. Climbing over the clot of wires, I tracked her scent to a wall. When I traced my hands over it, I found cold, buffed-metal that chafed against my fingers.
“Is somebody out there?” The voice was faint, coming from the other side of the metal wall.
“Damn it, can I get some light back here?” I called over my shoulder. I couldn’t see a damn thing. It was so dark that I wondered if my eyes were closed
.
“Here.” Both Lance and Mack rushed up to me with their phones, casting an eerie blue glow on the door. It wasn’t so much a door as a wall panel with a small lip.
Curling my hands under the edge, I pulled the door open. For just one moment, no more than an instant, I let myself hope that it was Scarlet in there, that she had gone with the necromancer and hidden back here. Then we shone our lights in.
Nancy shaded her eyes with a hand. “He knew we were coming,” she called, her voice a hoarse croak. “He knew.”
The tangy scent of blood filled the air, and I glanced down to see a long metal spike impaling the necromancer’s hand, pinning her to the floor. Blood welled around the wound, soaking into her jeans leg as she knelt on a tangle of cables. Sweat soaked her clothing. The room was no more than a cramped electrical closet. Wires of every color snaked around her, pressing into her sides. We needed to get her out of there.
I crouched, wrapping my hands around the end of the spike. “The demon took Scarlet. Their scent trail vanished in the basement.”
Nancy lifted her head. A darkening bruise ringed one eye, and a split in her lip seeped blood. Sweat dripped down her face and hair, raining onto the wires around us. “Who did you tell?”
“No one.” I gripped the stake, trying to get a firm hold, but the metal spike had embedded into the floor.
“Liar. You told someone.” Her eyes burned into mine, daring me to contradict her words. “The incubus looked a lot like you, only with a beard.”
“Darrel. My brother. We told my brothers.”
“I also told the four fae princes,” Mack said from the doorway. “The leak might’ve been from one of them. They were going to help us stall the hunt.”
“Or they’re the ones who conjured the demon in the first place,” Nancy practically shouted, breathing hard. “I should’ve never involved fucking civilians.”
Mack crouched beside me. “Let me do that, Aaron. Unless it’s iron.”
“This lovely stake here would be ancient bronze melded with stone, forged in hell,” Nancy said through rasping breaths. “You’re not getting it out. I need my knife. It should be out there. I’m going to have to cut through the side of my palm .”
The very idea made me want to throw up, but Nancy gritted her teeth like she was ready for the knife. I crawled out of the way, to the edge of the utility closet, but Mack moved in to take my place.
“Being the only fae born from two monarchs has caused me nothing but grief so far. But maybe this once, it can do some good.” He wrapped his hands around the spike. Around the point, the floor cracked and fissured. There was a whistling sound, like a gunshot, and with one powerful move, Mack thrust his hands upward, yanking the metal from her flesh.
Nancy shuddered, clutching her hand to her chest. She gagged, covering her mouth with her free hand. After her body convulsed as she attempted to hold back her retching for almost a minute, she reached over and snatched the bloody spike from Mack, shoving the weapon into her utility belt. “I earned that.”
“Come on. Let’s get you out of there before you’re electrocuted.” Mack sounded calm, but with all the blood and sweat Nancy was dripping onto the wires, it was only a matter of time. He offered her a hand, but she ignored it.
Nancy stumbled to a crouch, spraying blood as she maneuvered out from the cramped space. As soon as she was free, the necromancer stormed from the back of the stage, burst through the curtains, and headed to the front. Dancers and patrons gaped, but she only fumbled a cigar out of her pocket and shoved it in her mouth.
“We’ll drive you to the hospital,” Lance said as he hurried after the necromancer. “On the way, you need to tell us how to track that fucking demon.”
“Do I look like I have medical insurance?” Feet from the exit, Nancy lit her cigar and limped into the parking lot, heading for a beat-up red sedan with “Necro-Nancy” painted across its side.
She shoved up the trunk lid and nodded to me. “Help me out, will you? There’s a metal rod that will prop this up.”
I wrapped my hand around the metal pole, propped up the trunk and leaned in. “How do we track the demon?”
“Um... I don’t know.” She set her cigar on her bumper and fumbled through assorted boxes in her trunk. “Maybe we should anticipate where he’ll go next and set up a trap. Oh, wait...” She paused to flick a glare over. “We just did that. Maybe you jackasses know how to track a demon.”
“There has to be a way,” Lance growled.
“There’s not.” Nancy shook her head and pulled a roll of gauze from her trunk. In almost violent motions, she wrapped her bleeding hand tight. “Of course, you could summon a hell hound and have him track the demon’s infernal trail.”
“Do it,” Lance said.
“I don’t summon.” Picking up her cigar, she shoved it in her mouth.
She went to grab the edge of the trunk, but Lance seized it and held it firm. “I will give you five million dollars.”
“Make that seven,” I said. I had half that in cash, and I’d fucking sell my place in Sacramento. I had more disposable assets than that—a car, watercraft, and, damn it, my bike.
“If I had a dollar for every time a rich asshole said that to me, I’d be able to afford insurance,” Nancy said. “No, probably not health insurance. But I’d be able to afford a house and a decent car. The answer is no.” She smacked down the metal pole holding her trunk open.
Lance jerked his hand out of the way as the trunk came crashing down. “Ten. I’ll make it happen.”
“Don’t you fucking get it?” She screamed the question. “If I wouldn’t do it to save my brother’s life, do you really think I’d do it for any amount of money?” She squeezed her eyes shut. “You fuckers. There are no harmless demon summonings. You summon a demon, even the lowest level of demon like an incubus, someone usually dies. Often a whole group of innocent people end up dying. I’m heading home, sewing up this wound, drinking a bottle of whiskey, and praying until I fall asleep.”
“You’re religious?” I asked.
“You would be, too, if you were in my line of work.” She bit her cigar and swung open the door to her junky sedan. “You have my number, right? It was you ringing up my phone nonstop, wasn’t it? Call me if you find the demon, and I’ll come out and banish him for you. Otherwise, don’t fucking bother me again.”
“You didn’t answer your phone before.” Lance went to grab her door, but Nancy slammed it shut, almost getting his hand again. “What if we need to reach you?” he called.
“I’ll plug my phone back in. It’s a landline. No message machine,” she said.
Lance lifted his hands in surrender. “You shouldn’t be driving. I’ll take you to a hospital and pay the bill, no strings attached.”
“I’m a mage. The car drives itself, and I have plenty at home to speed the healing. Move, or I’ll hit you with my side mirror.” She might be hostile, but tears shone on her cheeks. We fucked up, and we’d lost Nancy the chance to save her brother’s life. I was surprised she hadn’t taken that bronze spike and driven it through one of our hearts.
“I’m sorry, Nancy,” I said as I moved out of her path.
“Yeah, me too,” she said, her voice breaking on the words. Then her sedan squealed away, leaving us staring after her.
Just as her car clunked down over the curb, a motorcycle engine rumbled nearby.
“This is my fault,” Mack muttered as he clutched two handfuls of his dark hair. “I thought I could fix everything. I wanted to pave the way for this to be over and told the fae princes what we were planning.”
Lance turned, and I tensed, thinking I was going to have to intercede. But my brother only said, “We were all careless. It doesn’t matter where the leak came from. All that matters is that we get her back.”
Darrel’s headlight blinded us for a second before he pulled into Nancy’s vacated spot. He yanked off his helmet. “What happened? Did we get him? Where’s Scarlet?”
C
hapter Twenty-Nine
Scarlet
All I knew was pain. Pain seared into my wrists and wound around my body. The burning scent of my own sizzling flesh stung my nose, and my stomach churned. I’d felt this agony before. Silver.
My head swam, and acid surged up my throat. I bit down on the material stuffed into my mouth, and a panicked thought flitted through my mind.
What if I drowned in my own vomit?
I didn’t know if that was truly a risk, but the thought was enough to convince me to swallow the vomit. My heavy eyelids fought for control, feeling as if they were weighed down with lead. I forced them open, millimeter by millimeter, looking down at well-trodden dirt and grass and a pair of fine boots. Roots snaked through the underbrush, barely visible in the moonlight. My red hair streamed down around my head, brushing along the higher blades of grass. I swung back and forth, and a moment of nausea hit again. Once more, I fought it back.
Someone was carrying me upside down like a werewolf suitcase as they walked through the forest. Had fae attacked me at the club? Had I been with Mack when it happened?
No.
That wasn’t right.
I tried to think through my pain but only found murky half-memories. Dressing room tables. I had been crying, and then Darrel...
My forehead seared with a memory.
The Incubus.
Fuck.
Why hadn’t I demanded Darrel say the password the moment he came into the room? We’d treated it as a joke, saying it before sex, and now I was about to die for my stupidity. When I craned my neck to look down, I found my body curled into a fetal position and wrapped in what looked like a dressing robe. Around the silk gown was a web of silver chains, meaning the agony I was feeling was the silver pressing through the thin material.
“This way, Your Highness,” a familiar voice murmured from beside me.
My head shot up, and I glared over at Oxonos.
“You fucking traitor.”
It was what I wanted to say, but the thick gag in my mouth prevented my jaw from even moving.
Filthy Fae: A Dirty Alphas Novel (Heartland Forest Book 2) Page 23