by K. F. Breene
“You did what now?” Callie asked.
Roger’s head turned slowly toward Darius, and the shimmer of green surrounded him again. “With vampires, it is never a selfless act. Let’s make one thing clear—you will never rule the supernatural in that town.”
“The guild took over Seattle and you did nothing. But now that they are losing ground you intend to fight?” Darius tsked. “How much money does the guild pay you to stand on the sidelines and look the other way?”
Every muscle on Roger’s body tightened. “We don’t have the resources to beat them back. Not with the magic and power they have at their disposal. Had I found a couple of wild naturals to work with us, like you did, we would be—”
“Naturals? Wait.” Callie held up her hand as suspicion crossed her face. “Are you talking about Penny?”
“We’re off track,” Darius said in a way that cut through the room. He offered me a slight bow. “I apologize.”
Roger’s eyes widened.
“I agree,” I said. “Callie, you can yell at Darius later. Roger, you were saying?”
“One good turn deserves another,” he said. “I have it from a reputable source that the demon you banished didn’t die.”
“Not on the surface, no, but there wasn’t much left of it when it got its ticket back to the underworld,” I replied. “You don’t have to worry about it coming back.”
Roger shifted his weight. “What I mean to say is, it did not die after banishment. The rumor is that it is joining with others of its kind and forming a sort of army.”
My jaw clenched shut as a cold shock of fear washed through me. I’d spent my whole life trying to avoid this. Trying to keep the knowledge of what I was from people who could take it to my dad. And now a high-powered demon, who had seen me in action, was alive and below, holding the key to my entrapment.
The desire to run pumped through me, so acute it was hard to breathe. Not fight, run. I was no match for my father, and I knew it. If he wanted to show up, grab me, and haul me back down to the Dark Kingdom, he would. The people who stood in his way would die, especially if he brought a host of high-powered demons to help him.
Dizzy’s warm hand covered mine.
Roger nodded solemnly, clearly reading my face. “I had heard that you went to great pains to kill it. I thought you’d want to know.”
“How did you come by this news?” Darius asked with a firm expression.
“We’ve gathered the information piecemeal from a few sources before assembling it, as we often do,” Roger answered. “I could be wrong, but I didn’t get to where I am by waiting for trouble to find me. If a demon army is coming to the surface for vengeance, I have to prepare for them.”
“You did nothing to help her kill the demon in Seattle. Why are you suddenly making this your task?” Darius asked, not hiding his suspicion. At least not from me.
Roger squared his body to Darius and uncrossed his arms. It was rare for an alpha to reveal so much agitation in his movements, which meant Darius was tap-dancing on Roger’s I want to kill you! nerves. “The real problem in Seattle was mages killing people. Our hands were tied until the demon went rogue, and as soon as it did, Reagan was on it. She extinguished the problem without calling for—or needing—our aid. But the situations are vastly different. That was one demon, and we need to prepare for an army. As the elves’ right hand in the Brink, sanctioned to protect humans, or at the very least keep them in the dark about magical people, this is my duty. If what is rumored comes to pass, I’ll need all the help I can get.”
He had missed an important bit of information in those rumors. It wouldn’t be him that needed the help—it would be me. Because kidnapping me was clearly their purpose.
He was right on one thing—we’d both need all the help we could get.
I bowed over my hands as irrational emotion surged. Fear-induced tears were trying to get out, of all things. Since when was I a crier in the face of extreme danger?
“Who originated these rumors?” Darius asked.
“I don’t reveal my sources,” Roger replied.
“Then how can we substantiate these claims?”
Dizzy cleared his throat. “We can—”
Callie elbowed Dizzy. He grunted. “Ask some of our friends what they’ve heard.” She shrugged. Being that she normally wasn’t a shrugger about matters of importance, she had to be hiding something. I had a feeling I knew which “friends” she meant.
A crease formed between Roger’s brows and his eyes narrowed. He might not know about the shrugging, but he certainly knew what it meant when someone elbowed someone else in order to shut them up.
The dual mages weren’t very subtle.
“Any additional information would be welcomed,” Roger said slowly.
“The night is getting old.” Darius turned, showing his profile to Roger. It was his polite way of saying get out.
Roger caught the meaning. He pushed off the counter after shooting one last look at the dual mages.
“Thanks for letting me know,” I said, standing.
“Then I can count on you?” Roger asked.
“If I can count on you.” Lord knew I would need the shifters’ help if a bunch of demons came calling.
He stuck out his hand and I shook it. A deal made. I was aligning myself with the shifters. I had already aligned myself with the vampires—a connection that had been doubled down by my discovery of their biggest secret, their alliance with the unicorns. So basically, I was the squishy part between the rock and the hard place. Super.
It belatedly occurred to me that I hadn’t introduced Roger to anyone. I was the world’s worst host. Someone should really get me a trophy for it.
Before I could fix that issue, Roger was striding away. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Right. Okay.” I followed behind him, waving at his back while he headed down my front steps, waving at the side of his head when he turned to get in his car, and finally gave up waving as he closed his door.
“Well, that is shitty news,” I said as I closed the door.
“That information came from Vlad,” Darius said, still in the archway. He was studying me. “I’d bet my life on it.”
“How do you know?” I headed back into the kitchen.
“First, who else would know? He watches the underworld closely. No one else has all but taken up residence there. Second, when he wants to influence matters with an unseen hand, he spreads clues for his marks, leaving it to them to piece it together. That makes them feel privileged to the information. They are more inclined to believe it. I’ve known him a long time. I know how he works.”
“You had me at who else would know.” I sagged into my seat. “But still, we don’t know if it’s true, or just his way of screwing with the shifters.”
“True. If Vlad is planning something and wants to keep the shifters’ focus directed elsewhere, it would be an easy thing to create rumors, then let a couple demons loose for them to deal with.”
“We can find out,” Callie said.
I shook my head, because I knew how she could find out. Why they were so hellbent on calling demons after all we’d been through, I didn’t know, but it was really annoying.
“A simple circle to call a weak demon should suffice,” Dizzy said, confirming my suspicion. “The demon might not know the answer when we call it, but we can send it back to find out. It’s pretty simple.”
I dropped my head to the table. “If what Roger said is true, Agnon is running around the underworld telling all its friends about me. They are probably on their way to tell my dad now.” A weight lodged deep in my gut.
“What are the odds we can summon that particular demon?” Darius asked.
Callie chewed her lip. “We know its name, and its…essence, I would call it, so that would help, but if it crossed the river into the Dark Kingdom, it would require a lot of power for us to summon it. It’s too high level, even in its weakened state, and it’s harder to call a specific demon.
Plus, if it is traveling with its sect, they can block our summons.”
“In other words, our odds of summoning Agnon are next to nil,” I muttered into the table.
“If it crossed the river.” Callie drummed the table.
“Worst-case scenario: what if we find out that the demon has crossed the river, is with its friends, and is on the way to tell my dad?” I asked, trying to push through the fog. “What are my options?”
“We hide you,” Dizzy said.
“If Lucifer is looking for her, Vlad will volunteer his services,” Darius said. “He’s been seeking a relationship with the demons, and this would be a perfect way to make the connection.” He crossed to the counter to pour himself a snifter of cognac. “Hiding her from the two of them would be…challenging. In the short term, I can manage it. But eventually they would find her.”
“Is the short term enough time for her to learn the extent of her powers?” Dizzy asked.
Darius nodded thoughtfully. “Perhaps.”
I wasn’t so sure.
I sat back in my chair. “Just spitballing here, but can we command a demon to be a hit man?”
Dizzy frowned and scratched his nose. “I have no idea. I can research and find out.”
“What about burying you behind a wall of all the shifters, vampires, and mages we can get on our side?” Callie asked. “If they come, we’ll tear them down.”
“Few vampires would stand against Vlad,” Darius said. “Shifters and mages would keep the lesser demons at bay, though it would be a stretch if they’re faced with a large host of the higher levels. But Lucifer?” Darius shook his head. “There are very few creatures on this earth that can kill an elder vampire one on one in hand-to-hand combat, and when Reagan is operating at the higher levels of her power, she is one of them. Lucifer would be mightier still. No, standing against him would not be an option. Another worry would be, if a large host of demons come to the surface, and the shifters—which represent the elves’ presence in the Brink—have to stand in their way, what will that mean in the grand scheme of things? Will it be the conflict that starts an incipient war between the magical species? A conflict that Vlad has been attempting to orchestrate.”
“Whoa. Can we just back up a second?” I held up my hands. “If Vlad is the one spreading the rumors, and the rumors are true, he must also know how detrimental this situation is to me. He’ll know why.”
“Yes. We have to assume he is privy to at least part of what you are.” Darius took a sip of his drink. “He has been unusually quiet of late, and it being so soon after Seattle, where he made known his interest in Reagan, only backing off after I’d told him I’d submitted the bonding paperwork—”
“You what?” Callie jumped in.
“He didn’t.” I dramatically shook my head. “He just said he did to get Vlad off my back. He really didn’t.” I sure hoped he hadn’t, at any rate. Because that was not going to happen.
“I’ve suspected he has secrets he is trying to keep from me,” Darius continued as though we hadn’t interrupted. “So the question is, what are his goals? He would’ve taken this to Lucifer himself if he had simply wanted the connection with your father.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know what to do, which is why he’s lobbing it at us?” I asked.
Silence filled the room, no answers to be had.
“Well, first things first—we need to make sure the rumors are true.” Dizzy knocked on the table. “Let’s get that warehouse fixed up, because we’re going to call a demon.”
Chapter Five
Two days later, enough time for the dual mages to research the right circle to use and, presumably, for the warehouse to be patched up, I parked in front of the warehouse next to Dizzy’s beater. Clearly the dual mages worried about my propensity to damage property when using my magic. Darius’s sleek sports car was parked half a mile away. If he’d just lower himself to driving the town car, something he never did when he didn’t bring a driver, he wouldn’t have to worry about damage.
I turned off the car and hung out for a second, weighed down by the rock I’d had in my gut the last two days. Something inside of me said this was legit. That Vlad wasn’t just blowing smoke to freak out the shifters. He’d witnessed some of the chaos in Seattle. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that he’d followed me once or twice without us knowing. There had been plenty of opportunities for a savvy onlooker to get a glimpse of my special abilities. Being that he had a presence in the underworld, he’d have more pieces to the puzzle than anyone else. That was all someone like Vlad needed.
The question was, why was he indirectly warning me? Was it because he knew that the only way to keep this from escalating was to cut it out at the root, Agnon, and I was the only one who could get past the river to do it? Maybe he didn’t want Darius to know that he knew what I was for some reason.
When had my life gotten so complicated?
As soon as I’d hooked up with elders, that was when. They were so high maintenance.
I blew out a breath and leaned my head against the steering wheel. Cutting out the root was a tall order. While bounty hunting was sort of my thing, or at least it had been, normally I had breadcrumbs to help me find a mark.
Normally I knew my surroundings.
If I attempted this, I would be going into the underworld as probably the only thing resembling a human, full of latent magic (which could as easily turn me into a monster as save me), and with absolutely no clue as to where I was going. I might as well paint myself in neon and strut around with jazz hands. Hey, y’all, look at me!
This would be an extremely well-paying job, being that I’d get to keep my freedom, but some jobs were just too great. Too complex. I didn’t have the chops to complete it.
Realistically, though, what was the alternative? Let Darius hide me, like the mages had said? Try to learn my magic in time to combat my father and/or a host of extremely powerful demons?
I laughed sardonically, the sound jarring in the quiet car.
I’d been trying to master my fire magic most of my life, and I was still basically a novice. I couldn’t even access half of it. Using my powers together? Yeah, right.
Learning my magic, even with a teacher, would take years. Years! I probably didn’t even have months. The demons would come, regardless of whether my father knew about me or not, and Roger had already made it clear the shifters intended to amass in front of them. Dizzy and Callie would wade into the fray, trying to protect me, dragging a bunch of wide-eyed, blackmailed mages with them.
For what?
I was the heir. The only one in history who could survive the Dark Kingdom for eternity. The thing my father had been trying for since the beginning of time, or so rumor had it. I was a prize the demons would stop at nothing to obtain. They’d come in waves, first one sect, and then others. We might be able to fight off one wave, maybe a couple, but for something as valuable as me, they’d eventually overcome us. And they’d kill in large numbers to do it.
I’d be condemning the few friends I had, and a whole lot of innocent supernatural people with them.
To end up being taken anyway.
My laugh was louder this time. A few tears squeezed out.
“If I’m forced to meet my father, I will greet him by giving him a black eye. I absolutely will.” I yanked my keys out of the ignition, jerked at the handle, and kicked open my door. It moaned woefully.
Screw tears. That wasn’t my speed. Giving people hell, now that was my speed. If I had to go into the underworld, and things went sour, I’d give them Reagan Somerset’s famous how-de-doo!
But Dizzy was right: first things first. I needed to find out for sure if the rumors were even true.
I marched toward the closed warehouse door, newly attached. The other fixes weren’t so polished. Clunky, ill-fitting boards covered the holes in the walls. It looked like a drunk with a hammer had gone at it. It would work, though. For now, anyway.
The metal of the handle was co
ol on my palm as I cranked it and ripped it open. No, this wasn’t a battle, but it sure felt like it. That meant being prepared for anything.
In the middle of the spacious warehouse, the dual mages hunched over a chalk circle. Dizzy pointed at something, drawing Callie’s eyes.
A flicker of movement shifted my attention to the far wall. Darius waited, unmoving except for the swivel of his head. He stared at me, showing no expression.
Nearing the center, I let my gaze drift over one of the most elaborate summoning circles I’d ever seen. There were three rings in all, the smallest in the center of the design, the largest enclosing most of it. Figures and characters were drawn in the middle, between the rings, and outside, their placement seemingly haphazard. No blood traveled the chalk outline; the dual mages had not (thankfully) sacrificed anything for the necessary power.
“You’re planning to—”
“Ah!” Callie jumped and clutched at her satchel. Dizzy flinched, staring up at me with wide eyes.
“Jiminy Cricket, Reagan, you scared the life out of me.” Callie sagged, now clutching at her chest.
“She popped up like a poltergeist.” Dizzy looked back down at the circle. “Very quiet.”
“Like I was saying, you’re planning to call a lesser-powered demon, right?”
“We’re aiming for a higher level four.” Callie straightened up.
“With just two mages and no sacrifice?” I frowned. “Can you pull that off and keep it in the circle?”
“We’re not worried about keeping it in the circle.” Dizzy put a piece of chalk in his pocket and dusted off his pants. He needn’t have bothered, given the collection of stains and holes already there. “If it gets out, you can control it or kill it. That, or Darius can kill it. We have insurance not many mages in our position do.” Dizzy puffed up with pride.
Callie stared at Dizzy for a beat that clearly implied, You are missing the important issue here. “We’ll call it by offering the blood of the damned.”