by D. N. Hoxa
“I can’t tell you what I don’t know. I’m just a messenger,” the man said. “But, the Uprising could use someone like you. You’re what, a Level Three?”
The Uprising? “I might consider it—if I speak to my brother first.”
He grinned. “In that case, be here tomorrow at midnight. They will be allowing passage for a few minutes,” he whispered.
“Passage to where?” Where the hell had they taken Sonny?
“Like I said, I can’t—” Somebody ran across the street, the sound of footsteps cutting him off. I jumped back, the image of the masked men who had attacked us last night in front of me. But it was just an ordinary guy, wearing jeans and a shirt—definitely no mask. Fuck, I scared so easily today.
“Just a minute,” the Cap guy said and walked a couple feet to the side.
The new guy rushed to him and whispered in his ear. “We’ve got eyes on Typhon Reed.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“Where?” Cap guy said.
“He was at Cavalieros, but I think he’s coming this way.” The new guy sounded afraid as he looked across the street. I did, too. No Damian. What the hell was he thinking? I told him to stay away!
The two brothers slipped into the liquor store for a second before they came out with shotguns in their hands. I took a step back.
“Shoot on sight,” Cap guy said, his dark eyes sparkling. “Kill that sonovabitch. Do you have any idea what will happen if we bring his head in?”
I took another step back. Damian wasn’t going to come here. He knew I was trying to talk to them. He’d stand back.
The brothers searched their pockets, and I saw the one closest to me pull out two huge bullets for his shotgun. Two silver bullets. Shit.
“Hey, wait a minute,” the new guy said. He was looking right at me, his brows narrowed. “Weren’t you with the Typhon at the club the other night?”
No fucking way. “Um…nope. Must have confused me with someone else. I don’t know any Typhon.”
“No, it was you. I saw—”
“Here he comes!” Cap guy shouted, throwing his hands in the air as a wave of yellow light shot forward, across the street. Damian had just come out of the alleyway.
“Shoot!”
Goddamn sonovabitch. I was going to kill him to pieces.
Kit jumped from my shoulder to the ground. I moved to the brothers and grabbed their shotguns by the barrels. One of them fired, but the silver bullet landed on the asphalt. I pulled the shotguns hard, but neither of them let go. Getting my daggers out of their sheaths, I spun around and kicked the one on the left in the face, and he fell to the side. His brother pointed his shotgun at me, so I ducked down and the bullet fired right over my head. I kicked him in the groin with the heel of my sneaker, and he fell on his knees on the asphalt with a shout. The other was already coming for me, aiming the butt of his shotgun at my face, so I jumped back. Something pushed me on my side and threw me back. I fell to the ground and rolled to lessen the impact before I jumped back to my feet. I looked up to see Cap guy shooting his yellow spells at Damian, who moved away, and the spell almost hit me a second time. Dropping one of my daggers, I raised my hand and chanted an attack spell.
The second I spoke the first word of the spell I knew something was wrong.
I should have stopped, but I didn’t. Magic roared inside me, stronger than it had ever been before, filling every inch of my body before I knew it. My fingertips lit in a blinding purple light, and the magic that shot from them pushed my arm back, almost knocking me down again. The spell shot forward, an intense light ball wrapped in bright purple fog, and it crashed onto the spell of Cap guy, sending it and him back as if there had been nothing there.
Damian was fighting the brothers, and as I looked, he broke the neck of the first and grabbed the second by the hair. The shotgun was in his hand, and he was trying to aim it at Damian’s body, but I couldn’t even call to him to watch out.
I saw the yellow light through the corner of my eye, approaching me in a blur, and I jumped to the side to get away from it. It missed me by half an inch, and in the time it took me to get to my feet again, Cap guy was in front of me.
“You fucking bitch!” His fist came for my face, but I dodged. “I’m going to fucking kill you, and then I’m going to kill your brother. And I’m going to fucking enjoy it!” he spit, swinging his arms at me. I moved away, too distracted to fight properly. “Do you hear me? I will fucking kill him and cut him to pieces!” His eyes were red with rage, and he raised his hands, the words of the spell falling from his lips in a rush.
He was going to kill Sonny. That’s all I could focus on. My instincts took over and my arms rose. I chanted a ward just as yellow magic slipped from his fingers, growing bigger and brighter as it came to me. I couldn’t let this man go, not without finding Sonny first. I’ll be damned if I let him kill my brother. If I had to kill him first, I would.
His spell died as soon as it came into contact with my ward, dissipating into thin air. I raised my dagger, but I didn’t get to take a single step. Hands appeared on the sides of Cap guy’s head, and it jerked to the side in one quick motion. He fell to the ground in front of Damian’s feet.
I looked back to see that the brothers were dead, too, in front of the liquor store. Damian stepped in front of me, but I moved back. I looked at my hands. The tips of my fingers were lit from within, and they were glowing purple.
“What is this?” I asked, my voice not my own. “What’s going on, what is this?”
I’d used magic before. I’d been using magic since I was six years old, and this never happened before. My fingers didn’t light up. My spells were strong enough to knock a four-hundred-pound hellbeast to the side, but my magic had never been so powerful, so ready to leave my body that it pushed me back.
“Sinea, we need to leave,” Damian said.
I looked at him. He didn’t look panicked like he should have been.
“You know.” He knew what was happening to me. “Tell me what’s going on, Damian. Tell me!” I demanded, showing him my hand. My fingers were burning purple!
“The Guild will be here any minute, and we need to leave—now.”
I looked around the street. People looked at us from a distance. Everybody had seen me. Three men were dead in the street. What had I gotten myself into?
Strong arms pulled me up, one under my legs and the other around my shoulders. I didn’t have it in me to protest when Damian moved and the world turned into a blur. I just closed my eyes and waited for it to all go away.
It didn’t.
When we stopped, Damian put me on my feet. The dark sky stretched wide above me. We were standing on the roof of a building on the other side of the street, and we could see the bodies of the three men perfectly from up here.
And we could see the Protection Unit officers running. Twenty of them. Half spread around the street, and the other half went for the bodies.
I looked at my hands. My fingers were no longer glowing.
“It’s the amulet,” Damian said as he looked down at the street, at the officers. I didn’t have the heart to look, so I turned away. “You’re using its power.”
“But how? You said I was fine. You said a doctor checked on me.” Had he lied?
“You are fine, Sinea,” he said and turned to me, his wide eyes full of sorry. Of regret. “You’re just…more powerful now.”
More powerful. That didn’t make sense. Supernaturals, especially sorcerers, could get more powerful—though training and years and years of practice. Not within a night.
Kit squeaked as he climbed up to the roof of the four-story building, and when he saw me, he ran up my leg and to my shoulder in a heartbeat. He sniffed my neck, trying to make sure I was okay.
“I want it out of me,” I said to Damian and squeezed my eyes shut to try to forget the feeling of the new magic. It felt so invasive. Foreign. It wasn’t part of me.
“We’ll get it out,” Damian said. “C
ome on, let’s get going.”
Chapter Fourteen
We walked into the apartment building, side by side. The revolving doors made me a bit dizzy. I wanted to start screaming at Damian already, but there was a guard with brown hair and a warm smile by the door.
“Good evening,” I said with a nod.
“Good evening, miss,” the guard said, his smile widening. It wasn’t his fault that I was pissed. It was Damian’s, and as soon as we got into the elevator and the doors slid closed, I spoke.
“What the hell were you thinking? I told you to stand back. I told you to keep hidden, and you just waltzed out of that alley, just like that!”
“Keep your voice down, little thief.”
The bastard. “No!” I shouted, and Kit squeaked in support. “We had a deal! I told you to stand back and—”
“And I would have, had I not heard your brother’s friend,” Damian said, turning his head to me slowly. Gone was the guilt in his eyes. In its place was now raw fury.
“Travis?” I asked, and he nodded. “What did you hear?”
“He was telling his friends how he felt sorry that those men were going to kill you tonight. He said they didn’t allow anyone from the outside to know about their secret, and as soon as you talked to them, they would put a bullet through your head.”
“Travis wouldn’t say that,” I said, but I wasn’t so sure. I’d never particularly liked Travis. He’d always seemed fake, telling you exactly what you wanted to hear, but never actually meaning it. Still, I doubted he’d have thrown me to the wolves like that.
“He did. And I had no choice. I wasn’t going to risk your life like that,” Damian said, and the elevator doors opened. We’d arrived at the penthouse.
All the lights were on. Moira, Zane, John and Emanuel were standing, their eyes on us as we stepped inside, their expressions blank.
“Gentlemen,” Damian said, and only then did I realize that there was someone else in the living room.
Two men dressed in black suits, and they were sitting on one of the sofas across from Damian’s team.
My heart skipped a beat. They were with the Guild.
Damian didn’t flinch. He didn’t hesitate as he walked to them with his hands in his pockets, like he’d expected them to be there all along. He hadn’t. Otherwise he’d have said something to me.
Quietly, I went to stand next to the team. I wanted to hear this.
“Mr. Reed, so sorry to come here like this, uninvited,” the man on the right said as they both stood up. He was taller of the two, about five feet eight, with wavy brown hair that had turned grey close to his ears. His piercing blue eyes looked at me for a second, but then he turned his focus to Damian.
“Since you’re already here, Mr. Landon, by all means, have a seat.” Damian sat on the sofa opposite them, his back turned to us. He looked completely at ease, stretching his arms over the sofa’s back, one leg over the other.
“Thank you, Mr. Reed,” said Landon as he and his friend sat.
“We won’t take up too much of your time,” said the other. He had to be a couple of years older than Landon, at least, his thick hair a mix of all shades of grey. He was shorter and rounder, but the sharp look in his dark eyes made you wonder about his magic. “We came because we received news of unusual magic use in the Shade, by a liquor store, just half an hour ago.”
My breath caught in my throat. Moira turned her head to me slowly and shot me a pissed off look. Did she somehow know already?
“And you were spotted by witnesses close to the location, Mr. Reed,” said Landon, a hint of amusement in his thin voice.
“I was in the Shade, yes. I had a drink at a club—Cavalieros,” said Damian, his voice ice-cold.
“And you didn’t happen to be close to the liquor store at all tonight?” asked the other guy with a grey brow raised, not even trying to hide his suspicion.
Damian smiled and it looked pretty terrifying, though I could only see his profile. “I was not close to the liquor store, Mr. Flinn. But I did hear that there was a fight.”
“And you weren’t curious to see?” Flinn asked with that same tone again.
“If I got curious about every fight that went on around me, I wouldn’t have time to do your jobs for you,” Damian said, the smile never leaving his face.
Flinn turned a shade lighter. “If you have any information, we’d be very appreciative, Mr. Reed. The magic used was not only unusual—it was very powerful. Three people are dead.” His eyes found mine. I didn’t move a single muscle, but it already felt like he could see right through me. My heart beat loudly in my chest. I doubted they could hear it. They were not vampires.
“Like I said, I wasn’t close to the fight. I didn’t see anything,” Damian insisted, but now both men were focused on me.
“And who is she?” Flinn stood up and raised a hand toward me.
Damian was instantly on his feet, too. “She’s a…friend.”
Both men raised his brows. They clearly didn’t believe him. Friend? I wouldn’t have believed him, either. Vampires in general—and Typhon Reed in particular—didn’t have any friends. But that was before I knew who hid behind that name.
“We haven’t seen her before, have we?” Landon said, turning to his colleague, but it was just for show.
“No, we have not,” Flinn confirmed.
“Who I keep in my company is none of your concern, gentlemen,” said Damian. Only a fool wouldn’t have heard the threat in his voice. My knees were shaking badly.
“Of course not,” Flinn said with a nod. “But we would like to bring her in all the same, do a little test, nothing major.”
My blood turned cold. “Why?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Flinn smiled at me, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Because Mr. Reed here is in the Guild’s employment, and we like to know who his team is, especially on a night like this. We just want to make sure we’re not missing anything, that’s all.”
He knew. He had to. Witnesses had put Damian close to the liquor store, and they’d seen us arrive at the penthouse together. They wanted to test me, just like they had almost fourteen years ago.
If I said no, I’d make myself even more suspicious. There was no reason why a person would refuse an order of the Guild. And I didn’t need complications. I needed to be free tomorrow, to prepare for midnight.
I’d already fooled them once, when I was ten years old. I could do it again, and it would be even easier.
“I have no problem with that,” I forced myself to say. I had no desire to go with these men, but if it saved me from even more trouble than I was already in, I’d do whatever needed doing.
“Excellent!” said Flinn with a smile, when…
“No.” Damian’s voice was ice-cold.
“No?” Landon asked him, the surprise clear in his blue eyes.
“No,” Damian repeated. “You come here without an invitation and you disrespect me in my home. That is as far as I’m willing to allow you to go. Push more, and you’ll cross the line.”
The men swallowed hard. I wanted to say something. Damian didn’t need to insist. I could do this. I’d fooled them before.
“I assure you that we meant no disrespect,” Flinn finally said. “But a harmless test—”
“She’s mine, Mr. Flinn,” Damian cut him off. “And she’s not going anywhere until I say so.”
The men wanted to argue. The way they looked at him said they wouldn’t dare. I held my breath for what felt like an eternity. Even Kit watched, not making a single sound from my shoulder.
Then, Flinn smiled again, his face white as a sheet, his hands pulled in fists shaking—with anger, I’d imagine.
“Very well, Mr. Reed. We’ll be on our way, then.” They made for the elevator at the same time.
Relief fell on my shoulders. I watched them walking with their heads down, but I didn’t dare move until the elevator doors closed.
Shit. I was in trouble.
�
�Really fucking great,” Moira said under her breath, and she stormed out of the living room into the hallway. When she slammed a door closed, the whole building wanted to shake. Emanuel went right after her.
“You okay?” Zane asked Damian, while John looked me up and down, a curious expression on his beautiful face.
“Yes. Leave us,” Damian said, still staring at the elevator doors as if he was expecting someone to come through any second.
The two vampires disappeared to the hallway without a sound.
I let go of my held breath. “Thank you,” I said in a whisper.
“No need to thank me,” he said through gritted teeth. It reminded me that I was angry, too—angry at him.
“This is so wrong, Damian. You should have let me handle it. Travis thinks I’m a Sacri. That’s why he thought they’d kill me, but they weren’t planning on it, not until they saw you coming.”
“I told you—he said they were going to kill you, and I had reason to believe him. He knows them better than you and I do,” he said, closing his eyes, making a visible effort to calm himself. For whatever reason, I wasn’t afraid.
“Yeah, well, they didn’t kill me. We killed them. And now the Guild knows something.” Like Moira said, really fucking great.
“What did they say?” Damian asked.
Goddamn it. I’d been so mad, so eager to send him to hell, and now that anger suffocated me because I couldn’t very well take it out on him. If Travis really said that—and I saw no reason why Damian would lie—then I understood why he would come for me.
“They said Sonny is with something called the Uprising, that I could join them if I liked, but they weren’t here. They are…someplace else, and tomorrow at midnight, they’d allow passage to wherever Sonny is.” I paced back and forth in front of him, unable to stand in one place. “The…the sorcerer was a darkling, and I think his friends were, too. He touched my hand, and he knew I was a darkling and not Nulled—like him.”
Damian thought about it for a second. “The Uprising,” he whispered. “I’ve never heard of it before.”
“Whoever they are, they have Sonny, and maybe they’d have told me more if you hadn’t showed up.”