Alec’s phone rang. “They’re in,” he said. “We needn’t have bothered staking out all the entrances. They walked in through the front door. Let’s get ready.”
She nodded as a tall handsome man sidled up to them. His tell-tale heat signature identified him as a Were. Next to Alec’s coolness, he was practically a walking furnace.
With the build of an Olympic swimmer, he was as tall as Alec but broader in the chest with defined muscular arms. His light brown hair was streaked with gold, a sunny contrast to Alec’s darkness. Like most Werewolves, his chest tapered a little dramatically to a narrow waist over legs that were also corded with muscle. He was still leaner than a lot of gym rats she had seen, but the power of a Were’s muscles was in their density.
Clapping Alec on the back, he exchanged a muted greeting with his old friend. Then his eyes lit on her and his hard stoic face changed. His eyes heated, and he gave her a toothy grin.
“Mmm, hello gorgeous,” he growled as he stepped closer. “You must be Diana. I’m Dmitri.” He paused to give her a sweeping bow before straightening in a way that emphasized the muscled expanse of his upper body. “When we’re done here, why don’t we go to this charming little after hours place—”
Alec moved between them. “Don’t even think about it.”
Diana rolled her eyes and walked away toward the museum without answering, leaving the two no choice but to trail behind her.
The Were lowered his voice conspiratorially, but Diana could still hear him thanks to her enhanced hearing.
“She’s not yours yet,” Dmitri was saying. “I can tell. Your scent is on her, but it’s not strong enough for a mated pair.”
“Stop smelling her, you dick.” Alec huffed, and Dmitri chuckled a little too heartily.
“The Professor has a crush. And not just any crush. A crush on an Elemental. A Fire Elemental, judging from her scent. You are either the luckiest sod alive or the stupidest,” Dmitri whispered. “Better make sure she really likes you before you start anything. You are extremely flammable, my friend.”
Diana spun around. “You can smell what kind of Elemental I am?” she asked from what would have been well out of earshot for a normal human.
“And she has super hearing. . .I am in love,” Dmitri murmured. He raised his voice. “And yes, I can smell your talent. It’s like a wood fire in winter, love. Absolutely delicious,” he said, inhaling deeply as they caught up to her.
Diana ignored his flirting with a shake of her head. “Did your men spot a child in the group?”
“None walked in with them, but they were carrying several large parcels. . .one could’ve been a sleeping child,” Dmitri said, instantly serious.
Or a dead one, Diana thought, refusing to voice the possibility aloud.
“She’s alive. Right now she has to be for any of their rituals to work,” Alec said quietly, doing his damned mind-reading trick again.
Dmitri nodded, puffing up in anticipation.
Two heroes, she thought, almost sentimentally. It had taken longer to see that selfless quality in Alec that was so readily apparent in his Were friend, but that was only due to her own stubborn prejudice. She knew that now.
“Yeah, of course” she finally lied in a reassuring tone, though in her mind, she could think of a few spells that would work regardless.
But she wasn’t about to tell that to the two hopeful men. She could break their hearts later. Or never, if all went well.
A minute later, they reached the museum. There was a little playground and a sculpture garden in between the main entrance and a long wing that jutted out onto the street. Diana led them to one of the sculptures underneath some trees.
The small group of commandos Alec had organized had been instructed to wait for her signal before entering to avoid alerting those inside. A few were stationed in the sewers under the museum, prepared to enter through the basement and up through a grate into one of the galleries nearest the entrance. More men were on the Rue Alsace-Lorraine, the large street full of shops that ran parallel on the left side of the museum complex. At least one barred door was on that side, waiting to be broken into once they were given an all clear. More men were ahead on Rue de Metz, prepared to scale the shortest wall of the complex.
“We go in only when I say. Are your men ready?” she asked in an undertone.
“Yes,” Alec answered in a harsh tone.
His normally calm and collected demeanor was shifting. He drew himself up taller, and his expression was ice cold.
“Remember. Your men are here to make sure the circle doesn’t escape, not to engage. Without warded armor, they’re too vulnerable. And make sure they stay out of my way,” she said, taking off her leather jacket as she moved to the entrance.
Diana opened the front door silently, but stayed on the threshold, examining the new spells the circle had cast.
Focusing her energy, she concentrated on the network of threads beyond the door, disabling them with a quick incantation. Pressed for time, she didn’t undo them outright. Instead, she placed a stronger charm over the room, effectively smothering whatever was underneath, closing the door when she was done.
“Aren’t we going in?” Dmitri whispered.
“Not this way, but that should clear the path for your men. Follow me.”
Walking silently, she headed around the right side of the building along the Rue des Arts.
“Oh, this is. . .convenient,” Alec said, examining the brickwork on the right side of the building complex.
In three different places, a protrusion of bricks formed a ladder-like trail straight up the side of the building. The farthest one ran along the tower that overlooked the entire complex. Several walls must have been removed during the city’s evolution to make room for the street on the right side.
She headed for the last one, testing for spells of contact first, but the circle had chosen not to ward the whole building. If they had, any drunk coming to pee or puke at the wall would have set them off.
Diana quickly scaled the bricks. Some of them crunched slightly under her fingers due to age. At the top, she stretched her leg, and in one fluid motion, crossed to the right, turning the corner of the rectangular tower and shifting onto the terracotta tiled roof of the building above the courtyard. Not a sound was made when Alec joined her.
Silent as the grave, she smirked to herself, then frowned when a crack sounded behind them. Breathing audibly, the heavier werewolf climbed up beside them. Diana turned to give him a dirty look, and he shot one back that clearly apologized.
“Don’t move,” she mouthed at him with a scowl before turning away.
She crept closer to the inner courtyard, carefully staying in the shadow of the tower.
The scene in the inner courtyard was like something out of a movie, one about black magic and death. Four robed figures were setting up a ritual altar lit by torchlight. In front of it, they’d drawn a sacred circle with what could only be blood. She hoped it was animal blood, but at this distance, couldn’t be sure.
The only thing missing was the bleating goat tied to a stake, ready to be sacrificed. Spurred by the thought, Diana scanned for other heat signatures. Out of sight, in a room across the courtyard, there was another person.
A small one.
Still alive. Diana breathed a sigh of relief.
“She’s there,” she whispered to the two men.
“Where? I can’t smell a blasted thing beyond that crap those gits are spreading around,” Dmitri whispered.
“In the room behind them. Let’s go,” she said, raising her hand to signal the waiting men before jumping.
Diana landed in the courtyard in front of the circle with the softest of thuds. None of the four robed figures reacted right away, but the louder twin cracks behind her were harder to ignore. One by one, the circle members noticed they weren’t alone. Diana faced them, flanked by the larger men.
“None of them have heartbeats,” Alec said, speaking first as he studied
the tableau of frozen witches in front of them.
“You!” A hooded figure pointed to Alec. “I knew it was a mistake! I knew you saw something!”
The nothing man threw back his hood, his handsome face twisted in anger. For a moment, it flickered as his rage weakened the glamour, revealing the falseness of the face he was wearing.
The other three figures had taken down their hoods as well. There were two woman, a brunette and a blonde, and a tall black-haired man in addition to the nothing man. All three looked like they fell off magazine covers, but one wasn’t using a glamour charm.
No Brenda, Diana realized as she quickly scanned the others. Even with the glamour charm, she would have known her by her heat signature. And all of these people were true talents, unlike the humans they used to cover their tracks. Two of the others were also staring at Alec. But one wasn’t.
One was looking directly at her.
“You,” Diana said, pointing at the blonde woman with delicate features and wide green eyes that fell shy of true beauty. “You’re the leader.”
“No, she’s not!” The nothing man shouted. “I am!” He moved in front of the slim blonde, shielding her from view.
She didn’t buy that for a second. It didn’t feel right.
“Is that really what you think?” she asked, shifting slightly to see the blonde again, who hadn’t moved. “Did she tell you that? Did she tell you she needed you? Did she tell you were special. . .necessary?” A slight mocking colored her tone now.
“Shut up,” he said, sneering. “You’re just a blood whore. Does he tell you you’re special to him?”
“He doesn’t have to,” Diana said honestly. “But you’re not in charge here. Why don’t you let your leader speak?”
Nearly apoplectic with rage, the nothing man’s glamour fell away completely. In real life, he was a slightly overweight twenty-something with greasy brown hair and the pallor of a gamer.
“I am in charge here!” he shouted again, spittle flying.
Inflexible, she shook her head. “No, you’re not. And do you know how I can tell?” she asked, never taking her eyes off the woman behind him. “I know because of all of you, she’s the only one who knows who the real threat here is. So why don’t you back off so the grownups can speak?”
Without warning, the blonde woman hurled a cursed spell ball at Diana. Judging from how closely it passed the nothing man’s head, it was clear she didn’t care if she hit him or not.
Worried the curse might hit Alec, Diana didn’t dodge it. Instead, she deflected it with a blast of heated air, causing it to crash harmlessly in front of her.
Truly pissed now, she smiled coldly at the surprise and shock of the circle members. It was harder to see on the blonde’s face than on the others, but it was there. And Diana’s actions had finally moved her to speak.
“What are you?” the blonde asked, suspicion and wariness on her almost-pretty face.
The enemy’s features were familiar. She had a narrow patrician nose and eyes set a little too close together. Her high sculpted cheekbones and pale skin were set against brows darker than her hair made for a combination Diana had seen before.
“You know you look like him,” she said, stalling for time as she worked silently to disable the spell traps set in the courtyard.
“Who?” the woman spat.
“Your father, of course. You’re a Burgess remnant. . .Hillard’s bastard to be precise. He’s the only one stupid enough not to take an illegitimate child in hand.”
And his brother and sister were either too decent or too boring to have affairs.
The other three members of the circle stared at them. The other woman, an attractive brunette with an ugly expression, hissed. “Ignore her, Sage. Just kill them and let’s finish this.”
Diana ignored the interruption. “If you had been born legitimate to the Burgess clan, or had your father seen fit to inform the old man—your grandfather’s name is Gerald, by the way—that he’d had a child out of wedlock, you would know what I am. And you would know that there are consequences to those who fuel their magic with death. That’s when you get to meet someone like me, Sage.”
The nothing man stepped in front of Sage. Pointing to Alec, he said, “That is her master. We kill him, and they’re finished.”
Sage flashed him a look of contempt. “Shut up, Chase. That thing has no master.”
Diana smiled. “Actually, I do. But my master doesn’t walk on two legs. Doesn’t walk anywhere, actually. Not in this neighborhood anyway,” she said, gesturing around her.
“Are you saying you answer to God?” Sage laughed, a true witch’s cackle.
“Never seen one of those, although there are number of winged things around that call themselves angels,” she said, engaging and distracting the circle while she put her right hand behind her back, signaling to the mercs that all the spell traps were down.
Men poured into the courtyard, and the circle members started running. The brunette screamed as a soldier cut her off.
“The wards are down!” the nothing man yelled as all four regrouped and took defensive positions. Sage threw down her robe as the other three started throwing spell bombs and curses.
Alec waved his men back behind the stone wall of the arcade. “Behind the wall and the columns. Don’t let them leave!” he shouted as he whipped in front of one of his men at vampiric speed. Snatching a glass vial out of the air, he hurled it back at the witch who had thrown it.
A scream filled the air as pandemonium broke out. The courtyard filled with smoke.
“Get the girl!” Diana shouted to Dmitri.
She knew Alec wouldn’t leave his men while the circle was throwing spells. The Were ran to the right, dodging balls of red and blue light. A spell blasted Diana’s front, a black and green sticky mass that swept over her searching for a weak spot to latch onto. She ran a hand down the mass, burning it away.
“Okay, now I’m mad,” she hissed, holding out her hands and igniting them into twin torches before heading into the heart of the battle.
33
Alec was in front of his soldiers when he lost Diana in the haze of green-blue light and smoke. A few seconds later, an unnatural fog rolled in around him up to the waist. It washed over the men concealed behind the wall, obscuring his sight and muffling his hearing. A flurry of spells and curses followed the fog. Streaks of light and glowing balls fell like a rain of arrows all around him.
Batting one of the red balls of light away from the head of a crouched soldier, he yelled, “Don’t let them hit you!” but his voice didn’t carry farther than few feet.
Shit. He had to get to the witches. Springing forward, he plunged into the ever-thickening haze. Behind him, fire devils sprang up, neutralizing spells before they could hit him and his men. A whirling mass of fire danced in front of him, burning away the cloying vapor. Suddenly, the courtyard blazed with light and smoke, as a wall of purple-tinted fire rose between the soldiers and the witches. Nearly blinded by the brightness, he covered his sensitive eyes.
Fuck it. He closed his eyes and focused on listening to his enemy. Over the booms and cracks of falling spells, he trained his supernatural ears on the more subtle sounds of human movement—the pounding hearts and rushing blood.
Ahead of him was a fast moving heartbeat. He opened his eyes, but the smoke still obscured his vision, until a stray fireball caught a man’s lank brown hair in the light. Alec raced to catch the nothing man, eager to inflict some damage on the guy who’d visibly lusted after his mate.
Despite the fact they were mid-battle, the nothing man had tried to restore his glamour, but it was on the fritz. It blinked in and out like a strobe light as he shed the robe impeding his movement.
Whipping forward, Alec grabbed the guy by the collar. He pulled him in, but the piece of shit twisted like a snake. His arm drew back, and he somehow managed to hit Alec point blank on the chest with a blast that slammed him against a statue, one of the howling gargoyles lin
ing the passage closest to the entrance.
Winded, Alec brushed his hand across his front. There was a layer of burned skin under a hole in his shirt the size of a softball. Luckily, the damage was superficial and already healing.
Scrambling up, he scanned for his enemy. The little prick had taken the opportunity to run toward the west building—the one where the little girl was.
Dmitri better have her.
Alec grimaced as he got up and ran after the warlock. He shot in front of him and grabbed him before he could escape. Swinging the man like a rag doll, Alec pulled him down toward his sharp teeth. Blood singing in his ears, he bit down as the witch screamed and kicked.
Inside of him, the heart that barely beat began to race as live blood poured like ecstasy through his body. It would only last as long as his food still breathed.
Determined to make that as short as possible, Alec started to drain the witch. But before he could finish him, a massive blast of spell light and fire made him stop and turn.
On the ground lay the male witch with black hair, taken down by bullets from Alec’s men. A smoldering pile indicated another was gone by Diana’s hand. Directly behind their bodies was a scene straight out of his worst nightmare.
Diana was in the center of the courtyard. The blonde witch, Sage, was in front of her, holding a large knife by the hilt. The blade was buried in Diana’s stomach.
A huge roar filled Alec’s ears. It was an inarticulate sound of rage and pain that seemed to stop everything around him, and he was making it. Despite the bleeding wound at his neck, the witch he was holding laughed delightedly as he caught sight of Sage and the knife. In one motion, Alec snapped the man’s neck and tossed him aside to run toward his mate.
Diana fell to her knees in front of him. Blood seeped through her shirt as she grabbed the blade just below the handle.
Fire: The Elementals Book One Page 25