by D. N. Hoxa
He tried to move his head away as Kit pulled out one hair from his head at a time.
“Hey, look at me!”
“Yes, yes, I got it! You have what they want, bring the amulet and Sonny. Got it,” Travis said.
I smiled and slapped his cheek. “Good boy, Travis. And don’t try to cross me, okay? I know how to find you.”
Kit jumped from his head and ran out the door, and I followed him. I’d waited long enough. I’d shied away from trouble my whole life, but I was done. Let it find me. I’d handle whatever was to come.
I left the Shade and ran back to my apartment. I hadn’t been there in what felt like weeks. It smelled like me and Sonny in there. It was a small place, with a living area, a big kitchen, and two rooms for Sonny and me. It was perfect. We’d been living in it for four years now. I’d missed my small room, too, and especially my bathroom. We didn’t have a shower. We had a tub.
I’d texted Malin and Jamie to meet me here when they could, but it was still six in the morning, so they’d both be asleep. I didn’t know if they had plans for today, or work, but I was hoping they would be able to help me. The plan I had come up with wasn’t the greatest, but it would work. I’d make it work because I had to. Sonny had stayed in that place, away from me, for long enough.
But when I sat in the warm tub and the water soothed my skin, all I could think about was Damian. I allowed myself a little time to let it all out because I wouldn’t be able to focus if I didn’t. I allowed myself to remember, to feel. I even cried for a few minutes. Last night had been the best and worst night of my life, rolled into one. I’d felt like I was on top of the world and down in the Underworld in the span of a couple of hours. To think about Damian’s eyes when he looked at me, thinking I’d really wanted to kill him, broke my heart to pieces. He’d looked ruined, completely ruined, and there was nothing I could do to fix him.
It helped a great deal. The hour I spent in the tub until the water turned cold helped clear my head, and when I got out of the bathroom, I was in control again.
“So, let me get this straight,” Jamie said. “You went in there to kill him, and you fucked him instead?”
Well, that was one way to put it.
I nodded. “So now I’m on my own and I have to get Sonny back. And I need your help.”
We were in my living room, sitting on the only couch we had in there, in front of the TV. Sonny and I weren’t big on decorating. The prettiest thing we had was a sign made of wood that said Dream.
“Of course, Sin,” Malin said. “Of course we’ll help you.”
I smiled at her. She always knew how to make me feel better. She’d even brought chocolate chip cookies she’d baked the night before, and they were delicious.
“Good. Because I’m meeting them tonight at the Virgin Square. I thought it was the best place, since things are probably going to get ugly.”
Virgin Square was at the edges of the Shade, the only place that didn’t have buildings in it. It was a square of land laid with cobbles and benches to the side, overlooking the part of Manhattan that belonged to the real world. It was right behind Mane Street, which was lined with one-story buildings, with Virgin Square at their back.
“You did well. I can lock down the entire place from prying eyes and ears,” Malin said. My heart melted.
“I was hoping you could do that.”
The Shade listened to her the most. And she was a witch. Witch rituals were more powerful than their spells. Even the Guild wouldn’t be able to find out what was going on there.
“I just need to check the position of the moon in the Shade Net.” She took out her phone. “And Jamie can gently push people away if someone wanders by.”
“I’m also going to talk to Lucas and his friends. We’re going to need a little backup.”
Lucas Cook and his friends were mercenaries, just like me. They hunted hellbeasts and they were very good at killing them. The last time the Uprising had ambushed us in the streets of the Shade, they’d had maneaters with them. Maneaters weren’t the same as hellbeasts, but Lucas and his friends would be able to kill them because apparently, possessed maneaters weren’t as good at fighting as normal ones. To pay Lucas, I’d use the money from my savings for Sonny’s tuition. It’s not like he was going to school now, anyway. I just hoped Lucas would agree when I met him later in the day.
“It’s a Waxing Gibbous. A full moon would have been better, but at least it’s not a First Quarter. We’ll be fine,” Malin said. “I’m going to have to call in sick at work. They’ll understand,” Malin said. “Tanner will understand, too. Right, Jamie?”
That’s when I realized that Jamie hadn’t spoken at all. We both turned to her.
“Oh, sorry. I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Sin fucked a vampire—the Typhon, no less.”
I rolled my eyes. “You just found out that I’m darkling, and a Marauder, and we’re talking about going against really powerful people tonight, but you’re stuck on the fact that I slept with Damian?” She wasn’t making any sense.
“Fucked is the word you’re looking for,” she said. “Slept with is a term reserved for when you’re in love with the guy.”
“What the hell do you want me to say, Jamie? I fucked up. It happens. But right now, I just need to know that Sonny is okay, away from those people. So get over it.”
Jamie sighed. “Yeah, fine. Of course we’ll get him out,” she said. “Tell us what we need to do.”
For the next two hours, we planned the whole night in detail.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The air was heavy with magic. I stood in the middle of Virgin Square with Kit on my shoulder, waiting. It was ten minutes to midnight, and everything was ready. I was, too. I wore my favorite pair of jeans, really stretchy so that I could fight in them easily. A black shirt under the leather jacket Damian had bought for me, my daggers in their sheaths on my hips, and I had my hair tied up in a bun, away from my face.
Malin had outlined the Square with a variety of herbs and powders. She’d locked the Square tightly in wards, to keep sound and sight inside it. From outside, we’d look like nothing more than a bunch of people hanging out together, and the best part was, the Guild would never know about it. Malin had persuaded the Shade to cover for us, and I had no doubt that it would. Because what we were doing here was very illegal, and if someone found out, we’d be in deep shit. I hated to drag my friends into this with me, but I had no choice. Alone, I didn’t stand a chance. With them, I just might make it out of here alive and with Sonny.
Lucas and his two friends, Merlin and Kyle, hid just outside the Shade, in the City. I’d paid them a good dollar to come here and kill maneaters, if Boyle brought them with him. I paid a lot more than what they’d get for the head of a hellbeast monster, but it didn’t matter. I could make the money again in no time.
Malin stood outside of the ward, hiding on the roof of the first building on Mane Street. She had all kinds of grimoires and herbs and strange dishes, ready to help me if a fight broke out—which would happen, no doubt about it. Jamie was with her, too. She was a Sentient, and she was the only one of us who could persuade anyone who wandered close to us to turn away by invoking a variety of very bad feelings in them.
“Remember what we talked about, Kit,” I said to the squirrel on my shoulder. He squeaked. “As soon as you see Sonny, you run to him, and you take him away the first chance you get. Remember the hiding spot.” He squeaked again to tell me that he understood. He was going to have to turn to his true form for this, and he hated doing that, but we had no choice. He was stronger in hellbeast form, faster, better equipped to cause damage, even though he was little.
“Go!” I told him and gave him a peck on his furry head. “Go hide.”
He jumped on the cobbled ground and ran away toward Malin and Jamie.
Three minutes to midnight.
Footsteps echoed in the night. They seemed to have come out of nowhere, taking over the silence sudd
enly. They were coming from Mane Street that led directly to the Square. I braced myself.
Malin would see them, too. She’d allow them through her ward without them sensing anything, then close it down behind them again. It was almost over.
Five shadows appeared in the distance. My heart skipped a long beat. I held my breath as they approached, then stepped over the cobbles of the square. The ward didn’t stop them. I let go of my breath.
The tall man to the right was the fae, even if I couldn’t see them clearly yet. There were no glamoured crystals in Virgin Square. All we had was the light of the moon and the lights from Manhattan behind me. I recognized Sonny, too. He was walking to the far left, the hand of the man next to him on his neck, probably holding him so he wouldn’t escape. Analie flew in circle over his head, soundlessly.
He was alive and standing. Now, we just had to keep it that way.
Next to them was a short guy with unusually wide shoulders—Boyle and his brown pelt. Between him and the fae was a woman. She wore a dress that reached her knees, and black shoes that shone under the moonlight, but I couldn’t see her face. The cloak that covered her shoulders had a hood that she’d drawn all the way to her eyes. Its shadow covered her face completely, and all I saw were waves of dark silky hair falling to her breasts.
When they were ten feet away from me, I saw them clearly. I saw Sonny, a terrified look on his face. The man holding him by the back of his neck was the same sorcerer I’d met at Tachtoh, standing with the Spring fae behind Boyle. But I hadn’t seen the woman before, and I was dying to get a look at her face.
They stopped five feet away from me. Boyle smiled. I was happy to notice that the bags under his eyes hadn’t improved at all. In fact, they looked worse in the darkness.
“We were told you had what we want,” Boyle said. No hello. No chitchat. Good.
“I’d have had his head right here if it wasn’t for your pathetic excuse for spies,” I said with as much venom as I could muster. “Now, the Typhon won’t let me get near him.”
“What are we doing here then?” Boyle asked. He was trying very hard to keep his cool. I wondered where he’d gotten all those maneaters from, or better yet, how had he accessed the Underworld?
“You’re here because I know where he will be, tonight, in one hour, and I know how to get to him.”
Lies. It was all I had. Lies and hope that they’d believe I was desperate enough for Sonny that I’d only tell them truths.
Boyle smiled and his face resembled a hungry wolf. “Let’s get to it then.”
“Let Sonny go first,” I said, never looking at my brother. I didn’t want to give any of them the chance to act without my knowing about it. I could see the fae staring at me, the golden emblem of his Court on his black tunic shining weakly in the moonlight.
“That wasn’t the deal,” Boyle said, holding his arms in front of him. I noticed he had black leather gloves on, too. And a black coat under that pelt. Almost as if he were cold.
“The deal was for me to bring you the Typhon, but you screwed that up. So now, I’m going to tell you where to find him, and how to get to him, and I’m going to give you back the magic of the amulet.” I pulled a piece of paper out of my back pocket. “I already have the spell to do it.”
Another lie. Malin had found a way to return the magic in my body back to the amulet, but it wasn’t a spell. It was a ritual, and I’d be damned if I gave it to them. “So let my brother go, so we can get down to business.”
“Where is he going to be?” Boyle said through his teeth. His dark eyes sparkled with malice.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Let Sonny go first.”
Silence stretched in the square. My heart beat loudly in my chest. I had them here. I wasn’t going to let them get away, not with Sonny again.
Then, the woman moved. She pulled off the hood of her cloak, revealing an achingly beautiful face. Her hair was pitch black and wavy, her green eyes shining like emeralds. Her tan skin was flawless, and the red lipstick she wore gave her an exotic feel men probably died for.
She smiled at me, and I knew what she was. A vampire.
“You fucked him, didn’t you?”
What the…my lips parted as I stared at her.
“Oh, come on, don’t be shy. I can smell him on you.”
My mouth opened and closed, but I found nothing to say.
“Amina,” Boyle warned, but she only raised her hand, and he clamped his mouth shut.
Amina looked at me, analyzing me inch by inch. “Was it good? It was, wasn’t it? He’s a god in bed. I’ve experienced it firsthand.” Her rich laugh filled the night air.
Like Jamie would have said, get the fuck out. She was Damian’s girlfriend at one point?
Fuck. Jealousy was a foul feeling, but I wasn’t immune to it, apparently.
“He didn’t tell you about me, did he,” she continued, but she didn’t expect an answer. “How sad. He would have told me about you.”
Bitch.
“He’s not in the habit of mentioning unimportant things,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I assure you, I was very important, honey. More so than you’ll ever know,” she said with a wicked grin.
I’d never wanted to slap someone more in my life.
“Once upon a time, you probably were. Clearly not anymore.”
Her smile dropped instantly. Her green eyes darkened within seconds. She already wanted me dead. Bliss.
“It should be fun to see you kill him,” she spit.
“I already told you, I can’t get close to him anymore because of your men. It’s you who has to take him. I’m not strong enough to win an outright fight against him.”
In the mandatory classes we took at the Guild before I became a mercenary, they taught us that hellbeasts always underestimated us. To most of them, we were too small, too weak, merely mortal. We were taught to use that to our advantage, and maybe Amina wasn’t a hellbeast, but she wanted my head, just like them. It wouldn’t hurt to make her think I wasn’t powerful enough to take her. Maybe I wasn’t. I had a feeling we’d soon find out.
“Where is he, Montero?” Boyle said, raising his voice.
I looked at him. He wasn’t going to let Sonny go if I didn’t give them something. I swallowed hard.
“He will be at that club—Three Hills. Last night, before your men got caught, he told me he had a lead that something would go down at the club after midnight. I was supposed to join him, too, but we all know how that went,” I said, hoping to God that I’d sound convincing. I was good at lying. I’d done it my whole life.
Except I’d never had a vampire so close to call me out on my bullshit simply by listening to my heartbeat.
Boyle turned to Amina and they exchanged a look. Then, the sorcerer holding Sonny by the neck took out a phone and typed something on it.
My ears began to whistle.
“What’s it going to be? Are you going to let my brother go so we can get to the important things? I still have to do the spell for the amulet,” I said, and I definitely sounded braver than I felt.
“No,” Boyle said, and Amina smiled wickedly again, like she had me. “We will hold onto the boy until we confirm the information about Typhon. If he gets to that club, we will know. Only then will we give you your brother.”
Sweat lined my forehead. “And if he doesn’t show up?”
“Then you die,” Amina said, her voice full of cheer. “Both of you.”
I nodded. “Great. I’m not worried. He’ll be there.” I began to unfold the piece of paper I’d written of spells I’d used a thousand times, just to make the whole thing seem more authentic. My hands shook slightly, but if they noticed, they’d just think I was afraid of them. Which I was. “The amulet?”
Boyle raised his brows. “In a hurry, are we?”
“Yes. Very much. I want to get this over with and the spell might take a while,” I lied. I risked a glance at Sonny. He tried to mask his fear as well as he
could, but he didn’t make a single sound. Analie continued to fly over him in silence.
“Do it, Boyle. Let’s get the amulet back, and if Damian doesn’t show up, we can kill her quick. I’m dying for a taste of her blood,” Amina said, flashing me her white teeth, still square for the moment.
I wanted to flip her off. I hated how she said his name. Damian, like she knew him better than I did. Which was probably the truth. Bitch.
The fae suddenly stepped forward and offered me a small metal box painted black. The amulet. I’d been so sure Boyle would have it. I took the box from the fae’s hand, never looking away from his eyes. If he wanted to do his magic thing on me, I needed to know so I could signal Jamie. Tyar from the coffee stand was right. To stop the fae from putting me to sleep, I had to turn his own gift against him. And I couldn’t do that, but Jamie could. She could calm him down with a spell from a distance, and we didn’t even need the spells to work all the way, just enough to distract him.
I opened the box and saw the amulet. The last time I saw it, the tear-shaped crystal attached to the leather cord had glowed blue. Now, it was empty. Just a transparent piece of crystal. I pulled it out by the cord with a shaking hand. I leaned down and left the box on the ground, then stepped back. The others were watching me. This was what we’d planned for. For one last time, I prayed for Sonny’s life. For all our lives.
Then, I got to work.
There was this spell Aunt Marie taught me when I was about thirteen years old. She took homeschooling very seriously, made me and Sonny sit in her makeshift class for eight hours a day, Monday to Sunday. She was relentless, and we couldn’t eat or sleep in our beds until we learned everything she taught us. She was a Bender, my aunt. Her Talent was light bending, but she was very good at spell casting, too. This particular spell was very powerful, she said. It would imitate what she could do with her Talent, and it wouldn’t be as powerful, but it would rob anyone around me of their senses when it hit them, and it would only last for ten seconds, if I got it right. I’d never tried it before. Never needed it in my hunt for hellbeasts. Now, it felt like the perfect opportunity to give myself a head start. I just hoped I could pull it off.