Demon Born Magic (Ella Grey Series Book 3)

by Jayne Faith

  “Zarella doesn’t scare me,” I said. “And you can pass that along to Gregori.”

  Jacob had sent them. He wanted whatever it was that Zarella had hired us to retrieve, but Jacob had miscalculated, probably mistakenly thinking we’d picked up the item when we’d gone through the rip to the dragon.

  “We don’t have it yet,” I said. “That wasn’t what we were doing in the desert. Zarella hasn’t even told us where it is.”

  The door at the end of the room opened, and my captor swung around. It didn’t open far enough for me to see who was on the other side.

  “C’mere,” the unseen person said.

  The beefcake with the cattle prod jogged to the door, bent his head and listened for a moment, and then nodded and whispered a few words.

  He tossed the prod on the table and stalked toward me as he reached for a knife sheathed on his hip. I drew back, as much as I could in my current position. Knife in his fist, he went around me, and a moment later my hands were free.

  “Get your shit and get out,” he said.

  I jumped up and backed away. “Huh?”

  “You’re free.”

  His jaw muscles bulged, and he folded his arms. He looked pretty pissed about losing his opportunity to torture me further.

  Keeping my eyes on him, I backed up to the table and reached for my whip. My phone and the knife and sheath that were usually attached to my waistband were nestled in the coils like eggs in a nest. I snatched up my things just as the garage door at the opposite end of the room, which I was now seeing for the first time, began to rise.

  With one last look at the guy, I sprinted past him toward the dark night outside. As I passed him, I caught sight of the handgun holstered on his thigh. The leather holster was stamped with a G enclosed in a circle.

  The Gregori Industries insignia.

  Yep, good old Uncle Jacob.

  I spun around in the darkness, looking for any clue as to where the hell I was. Not the Gregori campus, I was fairly sure. I was surrounded by two long rows of garage doors. A storage facility? I took off. I’d worry about everything else once I’d put some distance between me and the guy with the cattle prod.

  “Ella?”

  I shakily skidded to a halt at the sound of a familiar voice calling out my name. Lynnette came running up behind me.

  I looked beyond her. “Were the others with you?”

  She bent over and placed her hands on her knees, shaking her head. She was trying not to puke, I realized. I edged back a step.

  “What happened? Are you okay?” I asked. As much as I wanted to hightail it as far away as possible, I was actually glad for an excuse to just stand there for a second. My legs didn’t feel entirely stable.

  She held up a finger, silently asking for a moment.

  A scrabbling noise against the pavement sent my pulse flying. I squeezed the handle of my whip, my arm tensed and ready to lash out. I wasn’t sure how long I’d last in a physical confrontation. My muscles were still shaking from the zap from the cattle prod.

  A couple of little yips announced that the dark blur bearing down on us was no threat. Loki flew at me, hitting my chest with his front paws and nearly taking me down. He was back to the hellhound-doodle form I recognized.

  I knelt and wrapped my arms around his shaggy neck. “I’m happy to see you, too, boy.” He lapped at my arm with his tongue.

  “Where are the guys?” I asked. Turning my attention back to Lynnette, I realized she was still dry-heaving. “Geez, what did they do to you?”

  “The guys got away.” She shook her head. “This will pass in a minute. I’m just having some major after effects from getting my magic back so abruptly when they released me.” She straightened and pushed her dark hair away from her face. “I’ve never been cut off for so long. I don’t know how you’ve survived it for days on end.”

  “It’s better than the alternative,” I said grimly.

  I pulled out my phone and saw a series of messages from Rogan and Damien. They’d escaped, and they were looking for us.

  I beckoned to Lynnette. “Let’s get out of here.”

  I called Damien and told him we were at some sort of storage facility. I checked my GPS and found we were about a mile from where we’d entered the rip, and I relayed that to him.

  “They’re coming to get us,” I told Lynnette.

  Lynnette and I ran toward the end of the row of storage units with Loki loping along with us.

  I glanced at her. “Did they ask you about a box?”

  “Yeah. What was that about?”

  “No idea,” I said.

  “So you think, what, they had the wrong people.” It was so clear she didn’t believe me that she didn’t even bother phrasing it as a question.

  “I don’t know what they were talking about. You don’t know what they were talking about. So yeah, I’d say they had the wrong people.”

  We’d reached the end of a row. I slowed to figure out which way to go.

  “There.” Lynnette pointed at what looked like the entrance.

  I nearly sagged with relief when I saw we wouldn’t have to scale a fence to get out. My legs still didn’t feel quite right. It was more than just the shock from the prod. I suspected I was also still suffering the residual effects of the blast that had knocked me out in the desert.

  We ducked under the bar that blocked the driveway into the storage facility. I scanned down the road and realized headlights were bearing down on us. I wasn’t sure if it was our ride or not. I was just about to pull Lynnette behind the facility’s sign when Loki gave an excited bark and wagged his tail.

  The vehicle screeched to a halt, and I let out a breath. It was Rogan’s Jeep.

  The driver side door swung open.

  “Hop in!” Rogan shouted.

  I saw Damien in the passenger seat.

  I jerked open the back door, shoved Loki in ahead of me, and dove in. Lynnette crammed in behind me, and Rogan took off before she had the door closed.

  “Did you guys get away before they knocked you out?” I asked. My heart was still slamming in my chest.

  “They got Damien, but I managed to steal him back before they took off with him,” Rogan said.

  He was driving like a bat out of hell. I squinted into the dark, trying to figure out where we were. Still a couple miles outside of the city, it looked like.

  Damien twisted in his seat. “Are either of you hurt?”

  “Not permanently,” I said. “You can slow down.”

  “What?” Rogan glanced at me in the rearview mirror.

  “It’s okay, they let me and Lynnette go. They’re not going to come after us.”

  He eased off the gas pedal a little.

  “What in the hell was that?” Damien asked. He pulled his hands down his face. “I seriously thought we were going to be corpses buried out there in the desert.”

  “I think it was mistaken identity,” I said. I’d fill in Damien later on my real suspicions about what had just happened. “We both got questioned, but when they realized we didn’t have what they wanted, they let—”

  “I disagree,” Lynnette cut in. “I don’t think it was a mistake, but I do know it wasn’t me they wanted.” She peered at me sharply.

  I exhaled loudly. I was not in the mood for this. “I don’t have a box, and I don’t know about any box. Seriously, lay off, will you? I think we’ve all had enough for one night.”

  We crossed over into the city limits. Returning to humanity made it a little easier to shake off the crawling in my brain ever since I’d spotted the Gregori logo on the beefcake’s holster. But I really needed to talk to Damien alone. I was pretty sure that Jacob had accidentally tipped his hand.

  “Drop off Lynnette first,” I said to Rogan.

  “Nope, my car is at your place,” she said, folding her arms with a self-satisfied little smile. “Remember? I was at your birthday party, and then I left with you to do you a favor in the middle of the night. Oh, and then I got
knocked out and tied up for my trouble.”

  “Look, I’m sorry about what happened,” I said. “But it wasn’t my fault. It was just an ugly misunderstanding.”

  We mused over what had happened as we made our way back to the city. The front window of my apartment was dark, and it appeared the party was over.

  “See you tomorrow at the coven meeting,” Lynnette trilled in an overly cheerful voice as she got out of the Jeep.

  I swore under my breath as I watched her stride down the street toward her car. I wasn’t going to the damn coven meeting no matter what she threatened. I had more important things to do.

  Loki hopped out and bounded around in the grassy area in front of the porch, and I leaned forward between the guys.

  “Let me know tomorrow about what’s next?” I asked Rogan.

  He nodded and gave me a look from under hooded lids. In spite of my current condition, heat stirred through me. This night might have ended differently if I wasn’t still suffering the aftershocks of the various weapons I’d been subjected to. Personal indulgences would have to wait.

  I wearily dragged myself out of the car and to the sidewalk, and Loki came over to bounce circles around me.

  I waited until Rogan had pulled away and then grabbed Damien’s sleeve and pulled him close.

  “It was Gregori,” I whispered. “He thought we had something from Zarella. A box.”

  He grasped my elbow before I even realized I was swaying on my feet.

  “You okay?”

  I briefly closed my eyes and nodded. “I’ll be fine. Just a little shaky. Count yourself lucky you didn’t get taken in.”

  “So you think Gregori knows Zarella hired us, and Gregori wants whatever we’re going to be hunting down.” His brows pulled low over his eyes. “Gregori must not have great info if he didn’t know we don’t have it yet.”

  “And it must be pretty damn important for him to jump us that way, and torture—” I cut myself off with a growl. I’d almost said, “Torture his own niece.” Damien didn’t know that Jacob Gregori was my uncle, and I preferred to keep it that way.

  “Wait, torture?”

  I shrugged. “One of his lackeys hit me with a cattle prod.”

  It was Damien’s turn to curse. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? I can take you to the emergency room.”

  I waved a hand in the air, brushing off his concern. “Nah. But we’re going to have to tell Zarella he’s been made. Gregori’s going to be breathing down our necks if he thinks we’ll lead him to the box. Hell, he might even kill us for it if he wants it badly enough. He could easily make us disappear. He could have done it tonight if we’d already had what he wanted. We can’t go forward with Zarella’s job.”

  “But Gregori doesn’t know that we know he’s behind it,” Damien protested. “We can use that to our advantage. I bet Zarella can help. I say we go ahead with it.”

  I had no idea how Damien thought we could use the knowledge to gain the upper hand, but I knew he couldn’t stand the thought of giving up what Zarella had offered.

  We stared at each other by the weak light of the front porch fixture. Zarella had dangled the ultimate power in front of Damien, and he wanted it—badly.

  Maybe we were both stupid for wanting impossible things.

  “I’ll tell Zarella what happened and see what he says,” Damien finally said.

  “Okay. It’s fricking freezing out here,” I said. “Let’s get some shut-eye, yeah?”

  He nodded, turned, and flipped a wave at me over his shoulder as he trudged toward his Lexus. “Talk to you tomorrow.”

  Loki and I went into the dark apartment, and I beelined to the kitchen, suddenly in dire need of a sugar fix.

  “Oh, thank god,” I whispered as I spotted a plate with half a dozen cupcakes on it. I peeled part of the paper away and ate half of it in one bite. I finished it off, licked purple frosting from my thumb, and took another.

  Loki sat, transfixed and unblinking, watching me chow down.

  “Hey, I earned this,” I said around a mouthful of cake. “Don’t judge.”

  The next morning I was rudely awakened by my phone buzzing against my cheekbone and jangling in my ear. I didn’t even remember falling asleep with the thing on my pillow.

  It was Rogan.

  I sat up, raking my tangled hair off my face with one hand and holding the phone up to my ear with the other.

  “Hello?” I croaked.

  “Morning, sunshine,” Rogan said. “The underworld council is convening a special session to usher you into their ranks. Today.”

  Chapter 13

  “TODAY?” I REPEATED stupidly, still trying to clear the fog of sleep from my brain.

  I’d agreed to join the underworld to appease Zarella, but I hadn’t really given it much thought beyond that. Suddenly it all started to feel a whole lot more real.

  “Tonight, actually. The council meets at eight,” Rogan said.

  Rogan and I arranged to meet up and then go to the location of the council meeting, which would be held at some sort of facility in the hills.

  I had no doubt Zarella had his own reasons for wanting to pull me into the underworld. I wondered how long before he’d reveal them. In any case, once I was officially inducted, he owed me the big fix to my reaper problem. And with Jen’s help, I was on the verge of getting my magic back. I’d deal with the consequences of it all later.

  I went to Damien’s to work, and he showed me Zarella’s reply, which essentially said that we didn’t have to worry about any more interference from Gregori. I didn’t know if I wished he’d said otherwise or not.

  Damien and I passed the day applying for contract jobs. It was mundane work, but there was a moment, just a few seconds really, when I looked up from my laptop. I watched him as he typed, his brow furrowed in concentration. A strange sense of pause came over me, as if a ball had been tossed in the air, and that very second was the one where the ball stopped its ascent and hung there, suspended, before gravity pulled it back down.

  Things were going to change. If Zarella offered Damien a way to become a mage, he would take it. Even though Zarella had warned there would be a cost.

  Our deal with Zarella was going to restore me to who I was supposed to be. It was going to give me a chance to survive and live the new life I’d been given since my accident. But it was going to turn Damien into someone else, and it wasn’t going to come cheap.

  An uncomfortable sensation of weight settled in the center of my chest.

  Back at home that evening, Deb and I made an early dinner. Lately she had an insatiable appetite for mac and cheese and fresh arugula salad drenched in some gross-looking greenish dressing. I couldn’t complain though because at least it was an inexpensive meal. I wasn’t sure what we would have done if her pregnancy cravings were filet mignon and caviar.

  When we started cleaning up, I knew I couldn’t procrastinate any longer.

  I turned to her. “I’m not going to the coven meeting.”

  She paused with the faucet running into the bowl we’d used to mix up the macaroni, and her eyes found mine.

  “Tonight I meet with the underworld council for some kind of induction ceremony,” I said.

  She shut off the water and slowly scrubbed at the bowl.

  “I don’t like this,” she said. “Any of it. Zarella, that dragon creature, the underworld necro creepers who’ll do who-knows-what to you. After last night . . . ”

  Earlier that morning I’d told her all about the crystal cave and our misadventures in the desert. I’d tried to downplay the hands-bound cattle prod incident, but Deb had gone pale and had to sit down when I got to that part.

  “I won’t be all on my own,” I said. “Rogan is taking me. He’s already part of the underworld, and he’ll have my back. I know the idea of the underworld is a little unsavory, but they’re not out to harm me.”

  I was talking out of my ass. I had no idea what the Society of the Underworld was really like or how the membe
rship regarded or treated one another. For all I knew, they gathered every full moon to sacrifice small animals and dance with demons around a burning effigy. The only shred of reassurance I felt about any of it was because of Rogan.

  “I hate that you’re missing coven activities, too.” She pouted. “I like that we do those things together.”

  I gave her a wry look. “Deb, we live together. We see plenty of each other.”

  “I know, it’s just, well, things are going to change, you know?” She absently rubbed one hand over her pregnant belly. “Things are already changing. You’re not on Demon Patrol anymore. You’re going to bring Evan home. I’m going to be a mom soon. It’s all going to be different.”

  I forced a smile. “You and I will still be the same, though.”

  I couldn’t help noticing how closely her sentiment echoed what I’d felt earlier at Damien’s. An uncomfortable tightness spread through my chest. I knew change was inevitable. Some of it, like Evan’s return, I welcomed. But uncertainty seemed the prevailing theme in my life these days, and as much as I wanted to feel sure of something, I knew I had to ride it out the best I could.

  We both fell into quiet pensiveness until she had to leave for Lynnette’s. By the time Rogan came to get me, I was more than ready to get out of the silent apartment. Ironic, considering how I used to covet my space. I ran out before he had a chance to come up to the door.

  My pulse jumped when I got into his Jeep, and it wasn’t just because of nerves about the underworld council. My brain insisted on calling up in great detail the feel of his lips crushing mine and the pressure of his chest against me.

  “Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked, casting me a couple of quick glances.

  I cleared my throat. “Yeah. The quicker the better.”

  “So, um, you’re going to get marked. It’s part of the ceremony.”

  “What?”

  He gave me an apologetic look. “It’s small.”

  “Where’s your mark?” I asked.

  He reached around to the back of his neck and pulled down the collar of his duster. I leaned over, squinting. It looked like there was some sort of red-inked design.