by Gaja J. Kos
He started to answer, but Rorik’s hand snaked around his shoulders and pulled him close, the heat of his body washing across his skin, even more dangerous than before. “Oh, this genius did far more than that.”
Nathaniel smiled as the intrigue in Sander’s eyes cranked up a notch. Because, in a way, Rorik was right to boast.
He let out a content breath. “I already embedded Rorik’s ancient magic in them, too.”
Chapter 25
“And you’re positive this will work?” Zarja asked as she eyed the circular amulet resting in her hand.
Nathaniel plopped down in the chair next to her and thanked Frank as the werewolf placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. He looked a little worse for wear. Thin lines and dark circles cast shadows beneath his eyes, his usually clean-shaven beard boasted a three-day stubble, and his somewhat longer strands of hair jutted in every possible direction. But for a man who had barely slept over the past two days, he still seemed unexpectedly invigorated.
Something Zarja had no doubt had everything to do with the blond Perelesnyk currently absent from their little get-together.
“If it doesn’t, there isn’t much more we can do,” Nathaniel said, rubbing his fingers against his jaw just as Adis reached across the table and snatched one of the pendants from the pile.
“I can feel our essence in it. As well as the magic of the Kolduny.” He raised his gaze to Nathaniel. “This is remarkable work.”
“Say that when we know for certain they’ll repel the Upirs,” he answered somewhat wearily, then added, “Rorik believes they’ll be more than sufficient to protect their bearers.”
Adis cocked his head to the side, his bright, ginger strands shifting elegantly with the movement. “But you’re not sold?”
“It’s an occupational hazard.” Nathaniel smiled. “I always require proof.”
“Well then”—Zarja clasped the chain with the amulet around her neck and tucked the pendant beneath her ribbed tank top—“I guess it’s time for us to go hunting and test these babies out.”
Nathaniel’s gaze snapped to her, any traces of weariness gone in an instant. “Katja found something?”
“No.” She tapped her claws on the table, imagining how good it would feel to sink them into something slightly less inanimate. A cold smile pulled on her lips. “But we have Adela’s address. And I think we’re long overdue for a little visit.”
The very second the entire pack materialized on the empty landing of the townhouse, Rose filtered through the scents, searching for any signs of danger. With Evelin still down for the count—a fact the emerald-eyed were was far from pleased with—she and Zarja were the next best trackers. And right now, her senses were running in high gear.
Free-drifting components of human and vampiric life filled her nostrils. Some fresh, some stale. With the latter in majority.
She padded closer to the door before her, breaking apart the air that seeped through the small cracks, then glanced at Zarja. The were shook her head, confirming what Rose already knew.
The apartment was empty.
Do you think she went into hiding? she asked, still using the bond as a precaution.
A low snarl rolled down the metaphysical path. If you’d seen the way she taunted me… I doubt the bitch would run now.
A trap?
Even as the words left the confines of her mind, Rose knew she was right. The echo of her suspicion was written in the shadows of Zarja’s hazel eyes, but so was her decision to not tuck her tail between her legs and run the other way.
No, this little game of cat and mouse Adela and the rest of her cronies were so fond of playing had gone on for long enough.
Keeping the door in her peripheral vision just in case some nasty, living surprise did pop out, Rose sighed and glanced at the people crowding the hallway. She took in the pack first, all of them dressed to fight in clothes they wouldn’t mind shredding, then Veles, standing perfectly calm by their side, his power a muted flickering, until, finally, her gaze fell on Morana’s lovely features. She, too, was dressed for battle, sporting a pair of black, skin-tight pants and a short-sleeved tee, her long hair braided back to keep the strands from hindering her vision.
A smile tugged on Rose’s lips.
For the first time since she’d met Morana out on that grassy field, the goddess actually looked the part of the deity, but even more so, the fighter that she was.
“Can you tell if the other apartments are currently occupied?” Rose asked.
Morana nodded, already closing her eyes. A faint sense of power prickled at Rose’s skin—cold, but not unpleasant, like a phantom northern wind.
“Both apartments on the ground floor”—Morana paused—“and one on the first.”
“We need to get those people out. If our two-souled friend left us a parting gift, I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
“I’ll go,” Zarja offered. “They might remember me from when I questioned them alongside Tomo. If they don’t…well, I can always trip the fire alarm.”
Rose angled her head in confirmation, her fingers brushing against the hilt of the knife strapped to her thigh. “Let me know the moment they clear the building.” She hesitated. “Or if we need to outrace the fire department.”
“Will do,” was all Zarja said before she pushed through the group and stalked down the landing, her leather boots barely making a sound against the polished stone.
As soon as the were was out of sight, Rose let out a long, steadying breath, and faced the pack. “Who volunteers for watch duty?”
Silence.
Nothing but glaring and silence.
Veles chuckled lightly. “I think your not-so-merry band of wolves is fed up with you walking into traps, Rosalind.”
“Damn right,” Mark growled, the sentiment immediately echoed by the rest of them.
“You know,” Rose drawled, flicking her claws, “me walking into traps isn’t necessarily a bad things. At least I gained enough experience to pull seniority over the lot of you.”
Mark stared at her, but, beside him, the twins couldn’t hold back a laugh. Rose winked at them, then faced her childhood friend once more. She knew better than to try swaying him with pack humor. Besides…
“I have the amulet, Mark, not to mention my own energy, as well as Veles’s power to draw on in case things go wrong. I’m not keeping your from going in with me, but I am walking into that apartment whether you like it or not, and I am taking point.”
Mark’s deep brown eyes watched her without flinching. “Then I’m backing you.”
She nodded. “Fair enough. We do still need a lookout. Hopefully one on each landing, in case the Upir decided to rig more than just her apartment.”
“Zarja already has the ground floor. We’ll cover the rest,” Jens offered, his gaze flickering over to his twin, who growled his agreement.
“And I’ll stay out here with Veles and Morana,” Tim added.
“Thank you,” Rose said before either of the deities had the chance to protest. Although Veles could whisk them both away in a heartbeat, if the need arose, she would have been unable to connect with his power during the length of their travel. It didn’t matter if it would make only a second of difference—the god would never leave her without his aid.
Having Tim guard them put her worry to rest. At least a little.
All clear, Zarja’s voice sounded in her mind. They’re waiting down the street until I give them the green light to return.
Rose chewed on her lip and sent word of her intentions through the bond at the same time as she said out loud, “Here goes nothing.”
She walked up to the door, Mark a silent yet firm presence by her side, and let thin slips of her energy penetrate through the cracks. The golden tendrils entered the apartment, feeling the air and slithering across every surface. Right until they brushed against the essence of chaotic magic.
She hadn’t been able to smell it before, but as it clashed with the light of her p
ower, she could feel it as clearly as if she were holding it in her hands.
Potent. Wild. Lethal.
Rose barely had enough time to scream her warning as the very air around her stilled. Golden light erupted from her core a split second before the pulse of the explosion sent her flying backwards, and straight into inky, black oblivion.
“Fuck!” Zarja hissed. The palm of her hand shot out against the wall, the vibrations reverberating through her entire body. Is everyone all right?
The air was thick with dust, and her skin crawled violently as the otherness of the Upir’s chaotic power rolled over her. But it was the lack of any kind of response that truly twisted her gut—a sensation far worse than anything Adela could throw at her.
Teeth bared, she rushed up the stairs, a sigh of relief spilling from her lips as she saw Jens push himself off the ground. But the dread was far from gone.
“Where’s Jürgen?” she pressed.
The were coughed, blinking past the dust. “Level up.”
She sprinted up the stairs, ignoring the heaviness in her lungs, as well as the nausea that coiled inside her as more and more of the vile magic invaded her senses. The amulets were working, protecting her body from any serious trauma, but they didn’t stop her from feeling the wrongness of the blend as seconds ticked by without a whisper through the bond.
A dash of blond hair flickered in the corner of her vision, already headed up. Zarja pushed harder, leaping up several stairs at a time and caught up with Jürgen just as the werewolf entered the thick, gray cloud of debris that permeated what little was left of the top floor.
Veles’s disembodied voice pierced the thick veil of destruction. “We’re here.”
The strain in his words propelled her forward. She locked onto its echo like a lifeline, her sense of smell unable to pinpoint the location with the presence of chaos and destruction drowning out the individual scents. Blind as she was, she all but crashed into Morana when the goddess staggered to her feet, shaking off bits of plaster clinging to her skin.
Catching Morana’s hand when she veered dangerously to the side, Zarja wrapped her arm around her slender waist, and gently moved her towards the stairwell.
The foundation of the building groaned and swayed beneath her feet—or was it her own disorientation, caused by the force of the explosion, messing with her balance? Either way, they had to leave. Had to clear this death trap before it was too late.
Jürgen called from ahead, “I’ve got them.”
She reached for the bond at once. Jens, get the fuck out of the building. We’re coming.
As soon as the thought reached the were, Tim appeared from the cloud of dust with a barely conscious Rose in his arms. Veles followed closely on his heels, ragged and bloodied, while Jürgen carried Mark slung across his back. Alive, but out of it.
The instant they regrouped, Veles extended his power. He blacked out their surroundings, taking them through the void where nothing but the beating of their lives existed, and when they reemerged on the other side of the street, Jens was already waiting.
Zarja willed her eyes to focus, blinking past the sudden intrusion of blinding light. “Oh, shit.”
The entire southwestern side of the building was missing, flames rising towards the sky and extending into angry currents of putrid dark gray smoke. But at least out here, the chaotic magic lost some of its strength, reduced to nothing but the faintest of traces that she would have missed if she didn’t know what to look for.
Sirens wailed somewhere in the distance, their cries cut off by a loud crack as the support beams snapped. Stunned, Zarja watched the remnants of the roof cave in on itself, taking another chunk of the building with it.
But before she even had the chance to curse anew, darkness swirled around her again, and this time, it was the familiar scent of Veles’s residence that engulfed her once her surroundings popped back into existence. Her gaze skimmed the pack, falling on Mark’s still unconscious, bloodied form. Shit.
Rose had been right on insisting to take point. That surge of power she had felt ripple through the air undoubtedly muted the force of the Upir’s magic. And still, the consequences were far worse than Zarja was comfortable with.
She swore, then jumped as her cell phone rang, her heart a thunderous rhythm that pounded in her ears. Still holding on to Morana, she fished the phone out of her pocket, her every move sending small clouds of dust puffing from her clothes. She scanned the caller.
Tomo.
“The explosion was us,” she said as the call connected. “Adela set us up.”
“What?” Tomo’s voice carried a hint of surprise, yet there was an undercurrent of urgency Zarja felt had nothing to do with Adela’s apartment. Her stomach sank, fingers tightening around Morana’s waist.
“Fuck. You aren’t calling about that, are you?”
A heavy breath met her words before the officer said, “You need to meet me right now. We have a hostage situation. And the ones behind it are the vampires you hunt.”
Chapter 26
Fighting the headache that refused to subside despite her preternatural healing abilities, Rose peered up at the black-paneled, glass-fronted high-rise that loomed over Dunajska Road. Truthfully, she wasn’t certain whether it was the explosion causing the myriad of small, vicious hammers to pound in her temples, or the weight of Tomo’s news.
The vampires had taken hostages.
Civilians.
Humans.
Although luck was a relative concept, given the situation, she was grateful the bastards had at least timed their strike on a Saturday. At this time of day, the offices were more than half empty, giving the vamps fewer targets to snatch. That was the upside. However, it still left a good fifty people locked inside, their lives hanging in the balance and waiting to be severed by a bloodthirsty plunge of fang.
Yes, luck was definitely a relative concept.
Behind her, lights from the police vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances that were waiting on standby flashed, the scents of frightened humanity weaving down the street in relentless waves. And yet there was absolutely nothing coming from the building. Chills crawled down her spine on stinging, phantom feet.
“Do you sense their souls?” Rose asked Veles and Morana, standing on her right.
The deities shook their heads in unison, expressions solemn.
“Yeah, me neither.”
Rose groaned, watching the sunlight ricochet off the sleek panels. This was beyond bad. Tomo hadn’t even been able to tell them on which floor the hostages were kept.
The phone call the police had received from inside the building revealed only a chorus of terrified voices and the vampires’ demand that the pack—and only the pack—entered the building if they wished to see the hostages released.
Maybe it was her headache messing with her, but as hard as she tried, Rose couldn’t figure out what their game was. The only way to kill The Dark Ones was if the bastards finished them off all at once. Stuffing them into a single building certainly made it possible, but not when Evelin was still down for the count, safely tucked away at Veles’s residence. And since they had been standing here in plain view of the building for the past ten minutes, there wasn’t a chance the vamps hadn’t spotted the pack was one member short. But there was no call demanding the injured werewolf join them, and that, more than anything, made Rose’s unease grow.
What was their plan?
She stilled.
Perhaps the vampires didn’t need to kill them.
While their souls wouldn’t depart for the underworld unless they were all murdered at the same time, their bodies could still be harmed—quite bad at that, based on what Evelin had gone through. What she, herself, had feared, surrounded by Vedmaks when the bond had snapped back into place.
Shit. No, the bastards certainly didn’t need to kill them to remove them from the fight.
Their broken bodies would pave the way to bloodshed just as well, leaving only a few individuals t
o stand between the vamps and complete domination.
With a long exhale, she shook off the tension sinking into her back. One step at a time. One damned step at a time. Her life motto lately, it seemed.
And also the truth.
Regardless of what the vampires had in store for them, right now the hostages were their priority. The rest of the shit would just have to get a ticket and step in line.
“Rosalind,” Veles said, his gaze still fixed on the building and voice terrifyingly calm, “Adela met with one of the Vedmaks, did she not?”
She half turned towards him, realization instantly coiling in the pit of her stomach. “You think they exchanged more than just the news of my whereabouts?”
“The blockage does feel similar,” Morana added softly. Too softly. “If they fortified the building with the magic-laced iron the warlocks had used in their stronghold, that would explain why none of us can sense their souls.”
That it most certainly did. Rose growled—a low sound that spread all the way to the high-rise in question.
“So basically we’re fucked.”
Veles’s olive gaze met hers, dark flames echoing his displeasure. “It would appear so.”
“Right. Then we go in.”
“Srček—”
“We have to, Veles.” She shook her head, fighting the fury clawing its way through her skin. “Maybe if we find a way to break the containment spell, you can snatch the fuckers’ souls from out here while we rescue the humans.” She placed her hand on his arm, squeezing gently. “You know I love you, Veles. And you know I intend to bug you for nothing short of an eternity”—she smiled—“so trust me when I say I’ll be careful. We’ll all be careful.”
He groaned, but traced a finger down her cheek nonetheless. The warmth of his skin, his energy, seemed to reach all the way to her soul, and she accepted the comfort with gratitude. As she did the fact that Veles wouldn’t counter her plan—as much as the thought of her walking in there pained him.