Grave Rites: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Grant Wolves Book 6)

by Lori Drake

  Guilt, fear, and anger dogged his every step, but it kept him going. When he reached the safe house, Cathy practically flew out the front door and across the front lawn to meet him halfway. They exchanged what they needed to say with their eyes, but Chris forced the words out anyway.

  “Dawn’s been taken.”

  “Dawn’s been taken.” Joey stuffed her phone back in her pocket and glanced across the living room at where Adam was pulling everything out of what he called his field kit and putting it back in for the third time. It looked like a bunch of electronic gizmos and tools to Joey, but he’d been adamant about returning to Granite Falls to throw it together before they headed back into town to begin scouting the Underground.

  “What the… how did that happen?” Jessica asked, her dark eyes wide.

  Joey grimaced as several of the wolves milling around the room glanced their way. Fortunately, Adam appeared to be completely absorbed in what he was doing.

  “Keep it down, would you?” Joey said.

  Jessica winced, flicking a glance in Adam’s direction. “Sorry. But the question stands.”

  “She and Amber got ambushed on their way from the car to the safe house. That’s all I know. Amber’s unconscious.” Joey sighed and rubbed her temples. This was a complication they didn’t need.

  “So much for the buddy system,” Sam mumbled, shaking his head. “I don’t think that changes our plan much, does it?”

  Joey flicked another glance at Adam, not relishing having to tell the guy that his presumptive girlfriend had been witch-napped. “Dials up the urgency a bit, is all. And makes you-know-who a bit of a liability.”

  “You wouldn’t consent to be left behind in his shoes,” Sam said.

  “No, I sure as hell wouldn’t. And I’m not going to do that to him, but we’re going to need to keep an eye on him. He’s not going to be clear-minded.”

  “I’ll watch him,” Jessica said. “Maybe we should consider spinning up another team. Three would cover more ground than two.”

  Sam opened his mouth like he was going to say something, then shut it and looked to Joey.

  Fighting a smile, Joey nodded. “Good idea. Now I wish I hadn’t left Maria at Jon’s. She’s a phenomenal tracker.” She paused, considering her options. “Jess, go see if Itsuo is still with Jenny.” Her eyes flicked from Jessica to Sam. “You round up Vince, if you would. I’ll break the news to Adam.”

  “Yes, Alpha.” Sam inclined his head respectfully and headed off with Jessica.

  As much as Joey had missed them, the time Sam had been away had been good for their relationship. There was a time not long ago when he would’ve instinctively taken charge and started barking orders. When all of this was over, it might be worthwhile to talk to Chris about making Sam their second. Technically, as co-alphas they were each other’s second. But if ever there were a time when both of them were incapacitated or unavailable… the pack would be in good hands with Sam in charge.

  Turning to the task at hand, Joey took a deep breath to calm herself before striding across the living room toward Adam. “Figure out what you forgot yet?”

  Adam looked up, flicking a lock of brown hair out of his eyes with a twitch of his head. “I’m not sure I forgot anything, but… just wanted to check.”

  “Measure twice, cut once, right?” Joey said. Or at least she’d heard that on some house flipper show Dean had watched during his brief tenure as the pack’s resident handyman.

  “Something like that,” Adam said with a distracted smile, going back to his bag-packing. “We about ready to hit the road?”

  “Nearly, but I need to talk to you about something. Why don’t you sit down?”

  “I’ll be fine.” He sighed. “I know I’m not an alpha, but I can handle this. I’m not a weakling.”

  Joey gently gripped his shoulder and steered him toward the sofa. “That’s not what I want to talk to you about.” Once he sat, she sat across from him on the coffee table, her arms forming a bridge between them, anchored by her hands on his knees. Her touch would give him comfort while he received the bad news, or at least she hoped so. She let her wolf rise to the surface, taking advantage of whatever tools at her disposal to make him feel supported and safe.

  Brow furrowing, he studied her with a growing frown, eyes meeting hers briefly before skittering away. “Okay, now you’re making me nervous. What’s going on?”

  Joey took a deep breath and dove in. “I’m afraid there’s no easy way to tell you this, but… Dawn’s been taken.”

  Adam was on his feet so fast that Joey had to lean back to avoid getting a face full of his crotch. “Sit.” She hadn’t intended it as a command, but with her wolf so close to the surface, it rolled out of her that way on a wave of dominance.

  Adam collapsed back onto the couch like his strings had been cut and put his head in his hands. “Shit, shit, shit…”

  “Listen to me, Adam. This doesn’t change anything. We’re going to find her. We were already going down there to look for Rachel tonight. I’m spinning up another team, and Chris is rallying the coven to send some support. We’ll find them both, and we’ll bring them home.”

  Adam sat there for a long moment, the grandfather clock ticking away quietly in the background. When he finally lifted his head, there was resolution in his green eyes rather than anguish. “I’m not staying behind.”

  Joey put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I’m not asking you to. But I need you to keep your cool while we’re down there. Okay? Because I’m not saying I won’t send you back if you become a liability.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed, but he nodded. “I understand.”

  “Good. Now finish packing your shit and get in the car. Wheels up in ten. So to speak.”

  21

  The bickering around the room was getting noisy, and Chris briefly wished his hearing was dulled again. He came to his senses as soon as the thought registered and shook it off, however. So far, Cathy’s spell seemed to be keeping his energy from leaking, and he was grateful for that. Unfortunately, Cathy’s magic hadn’t been able to locate Dawn.

  “Would you all be quiet!” Ethan snapped. “I can’t hear myself think.”

  Amber still lay unconscious, and the High Priest had practically worn a path in the carpet between it and the coffee table. Lisa approached him and put a hand on his arm. He halted and pinched the bridge of his nose, but wound an arm around her and drew her against his side. She wrapped her arms around him with a lover’s casual intimacy and looked up at him with worried eyes.

  “All I’m saying is that it’s mighty suspicious only one of them was taken,” a lean man with heavy guyliner and a pierced eyebrow said.

  A woman in a floral blouse scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous, Sebastien. There’s no way Amber is involved in this. Have you even met her?”

  “Um, yeah.” Sebastien folded his thin arms. “She’s a freaking spin doctor. Professionally.”

  “She’s a marketing consultant,” someone else said. One of the twins… was it Fariq or Ali? Chris couldn’t tell the two tall, swarthy men apart. As it was, he could barely remember half the names of the witches he’d been introduced to in the last twenty-four hours.

  Ethan held up a hand, temporarily wreathed in golden light. “Enough!” The word rolled through the room with an almost physical force. Silence followed in its wake.

  Neat trick.

  Chris pushed off the wall and wandered over to stand behind the couch, looking down at Amber for a moment. There was the beginning of a nasty bruise on one side of her face. Was it possible that Amber was the witch they were looking for? Had she been right under his nose for two days?

  “Look, I know I’m not a witch,” Chris said. “And I haven’t known Amber very long. But she rose to the defense of everyone in the coven when we determined that a magic user was involved. She said the killer’s aura would bear the stain of such acts. Now, all of you can see auras. I can’t. Look at hers. What does it tell you?”


  A lengthy pause followed, and when Chris flicked a glance around the room, it looked like all the witches we’re doing just that.

  “It looks normal,” Sebastien said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

  Voices rose in argument again, and Chris sighed. Ethan glared at him like it was all his fault that his blessed silence had been lost, and to be fair he was right. “Sorry,” Chris mouthed, offering a helpless shrug.

  “Come on, you all know Amber,” Lisa said. “She’s been here forever.”

  “Maybe it was you.” Sebastien eyed her. “After all, everyone knows you would’ve loved to make Rachel go away.”

  Lisa pulled away from Ethan and launched herself at Sebastien like she wanted to claw his eyes out, but Ethan caught her by the waist and drew her back, whispering something to her. She broke away from him and whirled, slapping him before stalking out of the room in a huff.

  “Well, that escalated quickly,” Chris murmured, wondering what that was all about. Joey had mentioned him picking up Rachel from work. Had Ethan and Rachel been having an affair? That would give Lisa plenty of motive.

  “What’s going on, and why is everyone shouting?” A quiet voice rose from the couch, where Amber lay, blinking blearily up at the ceiling.

  Ethan hastened to kneel beside the couch, reaching for her face but stopping when she jerked away. “Welcome back,” he said.

  Amber squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. “Did anyone get the license plate number on that truck?”

  “Would you like me to heal you, child?” Cathy asked, approaching the couch.

  “N-no, I’m okay.” Amber pushed herself up gingerly and looked around. “What happened? Where’s Dawn?”

  “That’s what we’d like to know,” Ethan said. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Amber’s brow wrinkled in thought. “Parking the car.”

  “A little amnesia is normal with head trauma,” Cathy murmured.

  “Where’s Dawn?” Amber repeated, looking around with something rapidly approaching panic. Her eyes found Chris and implored him to answer.

  “She’s gone. I found you unconscious a little ways from the car. Her phone was there, but it’s broken, and her scent trail ended at the street. She got in a car, or someone put her in a car.”

  “No, no…” Amber shook her head and groaned. “That doesn’t make sense. Why not take both of us?”

  “The question hadn’t escaped us.” Ethan paused to cast a warning glance over his shoulder in response to a snort from the peanut gallery. “But fortunately you’re here with us now. And we’ll find our missing lambs.”

  “Speaking of which,” Chris said. “I could use a few volunteers for a search and rescue mission. We believe the killer is holding Rachel—and now, maybe Dawn—somewhere in Underground Seattle.”

  Hands popped up around the room. Not all of them, but more than a few. Chris smiled, pleased that for once the witches would voluntarily help rather than wait for Ethan to tell them what to do.

  “Where’s the phone?” Amber asked. “Dawn’s phone.”

  Chris pulled it out of his back pocket. “Here, but it’s broken.”

  “Give it to me.” Amber took the phone from him and stripped off one of her gloves.

  Someone in the room gasped, but Chris couldn’t figure out who. More than a few of the witches looked surprised, though Ethan and Cathy merely watched impassively.

  Amber hesitated, taking a deep breath, then touched her bare fingers to the phone’s shattered screen. She stiffened, eyes going vacant, and a muscle in her jaw twitched. It only lasted a few seconds, but when she pulled her hand away and let the phone drop into her lap she was breathing a little heavily. Everyone in the room seemed to be holding their breath to see what she’d say.

  “It was a man. Tall, light hair. Some sort of uniform. He ambushed us from behind, knocked me out. Dawn tried to fight back, but he shot her with… some sort of dart gun. She dropped her phone when she fell.” Her eyes lowered to the item in question. “Then he stomped on it.”

  The description fit the one Joey’d given of Jordan Kazinski, but Chris was too distracted to offer that up right away. He stared at Amber in confusion. Had she used some sort of magic on the device? No, he hadn’t seen her use any sort of magic at all. The bright glow that sprang up around a witch when they were casting a spell—or preparing to—was impossible to miss. The absent quality to Amber’s eyes had reminded him more of the way she and the others looked when they were inspecting auras. Had she “read” the device somehow? By touch?

  It came to him in a flash. Psychometry. That’s why Amber wore gloves, because touching things gave her flashes of insight into their history. Amber wasn’t merely a witch. She was also psychic.

  Amber put her glove back on and looked up at Chris. “We have to find her.”

  Chris shook off his revelation and nodded at her. “Right. The description you gave sounds like the guy linked to the missing wolves. And we did suspect he was using a tranquilizer gun to subdue witches. Which brings us back around to who’s going to help us search the Underground tonight?”

  Standing, Ethan eyed Chris for a moment, then offered a hand. “I may have been hasty to judge you based on your predecessor’s behavior.”

  “May have been?” Chris lifted a brow.

  Ethan smirked but kept his hand out. “I’m trying to apologize, here. Let’s put it behind us and work together.”

  “That’s all I’ve wanted, all along. Apology accepted.” Chris shook his hand, giving it a firm squeeze while looking him in the eye. “Now, let’s go round up your missing sheep.”

  “Oh no. Oh hell no.” Joey pushed her chair back from the tiny cafe table with a noisy scrape of wood on tile and stood as Chris stepped in the front door, followed by a motley slice of humanity that must’ve been the contingent from the coven.

  Smirking, her mate practically swaggered across the room and leaned down to plant a kiss atop her head. “Nice to see you too.”

  Joey grabbed his arms and held him at arm’s length, frowning up at him. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Um, besides being emasculated by my fiancée? I’m here to help.”

  Joey pressed her lips together, a rebuke frozen on her tongue as she looked past him to the six witches not-so-discreetly watching them from the line at the counter. At least the wolves had the presence of mind to pretend they weren’t listening. With a growl, she jerked her head toward the door and stalked out of the coffee shop with him trailing in her wake. Once they were outside and out of earshot, she rounded on him again, but he pulled her close and kissed her soundly before she could get a word out.

  His warm hand continued cupping her jaw, thumb brushing her cheek as he pulled back enough to look in her eyes. “I’m okay, I promise. Cathy found a spell to keep the leak contained.”

  Joey sighed, searching his eyes and face for some sign of the fatigue that’d dogged him for the last twenty-four hours but finding none. “Are you sure? I’m already going to have enough on my hands keeping an eye on Adam.”

  “As sure as I can be. I even shifted before we left, just to make sure everything was in working order.”

  Curling her fingers behind Chris’s neck, Joey pulled his head down a little more and pressed her forehead against his. The part of her that wanted him by her side, always, warred with the part that wanted him safe and healthy. But this was a fight she’d always have to face. It was just a little easier when he was operating at one hundred percent.

  “Okay. How many witches did you bring? I counted six.”

  “Six, yeah. Ethan stayed behind with the rest to keep an eye on the spelled map. They’ll be in contact if they see any unexpected activity.”

  Joey considered this, nibbling her lower lip. “How are they going to know if magic activity downtown is friend or foe, if we’re prowling around here?”

  “He imbued the spell with the essence of every member of the coven, so it
should only trigger if someone else uses magic. It’s pretty cool, actually. I’m wondering if the same principle can be used to track non-pack wolves.” He lifted his head and smiled at her. “Anyway, shall we head back inside and rally the troops?”

  Joey nodded and took his hand, and they marched back into the coffee shop together. Under her direction, the wolves split up into the teams she’d already assigned them, and when the witches got their drinks and joined the assembly, introductions were made all around.

  The witch contingent consisted of Cathy, Amber, and four witches Cathy introduced as Lisa, Sebastien, Dante, and Terry. Everyone was itching to get started, so once they were properly caffeinated Cathy split the witches up amongst the three scouting teams. Two of the teams consisted of two witches and two wolves, but Joey’s team contained Chris, Adam, Quinn, Cathy, and Amber. It was a big group, but Joey needed to be able to keep her eyes on Adam and Chris. And Quinn, for that matter. The big wolf had been nothing but helpful and seemed sincere in his desire to find his friend and get to the bottom of what was going on, but she had no misconceptions about where his loyalties lay. Her mother hadn’t raised a fool.

  Okay. Her mother hadn’t raised that much of a fool.

  The groups split up and headed to their designated entry points. Adam had done his best to cobble together a map of known entrances, public as well as those discovered by urban explorers and shared online. He’d also cautioned them that cops were well aware of the tunnels in that part of the city and were constantly on the alert for trespassers, so they’d need to be discreet about how they snuck in.

  Joey led her group a few blocks from the coffee shop to the building Jordan had disappeared into. There wasn’t an entrance there on Adam’s map, but Jordan had gone in there for a reason. He’d had a key, for Pete’s sake.

  They cased the building discreetly from across the street. The storefront on the ground floor of the five-story brick building closest to the door Jordan had disappeared through was a used bookstore. It was closed for the night, though the vintage clothing store next door was still open.