by C. D. Gorri
Alrick snarled and threw the bloodied, limp body across the room. It crashed through the window and tumbled head over feet to the sidewalk below.
“Look what you made me do, enchantress.” Alrick’s anger seethed, the memory of another witch’s betrayal fueling the fire in his blackened soul. He lunged for her, biting into her neck and severing the pulsing artery. Blood sprayed from the wound, and she gurgled, sucking in a dying breath.
As she lay on the floor, bleeding out, Alrick consumed the man’s heart. He shivered as the organ slid down his throat, and he closed his eyes, allowing himself a moment to bask in the feel of his body being restored.
But the shouts of panic from outside interrupted his pleasure. Law enforcement would swarm the apartment soon, and he hadn’t yet gained the strength to withstand their weapons. He plunged his talons into the women’s chests, taking their hearts, and silently slipped out the door before rushing down the stairs and escaping in a flash of magic.
*.*.*.*
“What about those two?” Cade tipped his beer bottle toward a pair of blondes at the bar, but all Noah saw was an image of Amber’s face as she laughed at whatever the shifter she was dating had said. It had been ages since he’d seen her laugh that hard, and the thought of another man bringing her so much joy gnawed in his gut like termites in an abandoned wood shack, eating away at him from the inside out.
A band took the stage and played a smooth jazz tune, and Noah cast his gaze toward the bar. Rows of liquor bottles lined the shelves, and a massive mirror hung above them, reflecting the revelry in the room. People smiled and laughed, but Noah couldn’t stop his frown.
He set his half-empty beer on the table. He should’ve been happy for Amber. He was happy for her. Well, at least he would try to be. “Sorry, man. I’m not feeling it tonight.”
Cade sighed as two men approached the ladies he’d set his sights on. “Yeah. Neither am I. You wanna jet?”
Noah nodded and headed for the door. When they reached the sidewalk, a hawker holding a sign that read Big Ass Beer shouted at them, motioning for them to enter the club across the street. Noah ignored the man and hung a right, but he cut across the street to avoid passing in front of the strip club where his trouble began. Two extra bouncers stood outside with the women, and he recognized the one who’d pinned him to the wall. He wouldn’t be going anywhere near that place for a while…if ever again.
Thick clouds blanketed the dark sky, and the sweltering summer air clung to his skin like a wet electric blanket. The crowds of Bourbon Street thinned the deeper into the Quarter they ventured, the clubs and shops giving way to residences with window baskets overflowing with flowers. Here, the night felt peaceful, but as they made their way toward St. Philip Street, a blood-curdling scream pierced the night.
“Holy shit! Call 911.” A man pulled the screaming woman to his chest and took his phone from his pocket.
Instinct drew Noah toward the commotion, but he hesitated. His protective nature was what had landed him on probation last month, and he wasn’t about to make that mistake again. Cade didn’t falter. He picked up the pace, striding toward Dauphine Street as if he were the police himself.
“Oh, hell.” Noah jogged to catch up. Instinct was impossible to fight for long. “Need some help, folks?” he asked as he approached the couple, but the last word got stuck in his throat.
A man lay on the sidewalk in front of a pale green two-story, his lifeless eyes frozen wide in shock, a gaping, bloody hole in his chest where his heart should have been. Not again.
“Son of a bitch. I know him.” Cade fisted his hands and tilted his head up to sift through the scents in the air.
“Who is he?” Noah asked.
“His name’s Jasper. He’s a second-born from the Biloxi pack, studying at Tulane. I’ve hung out with him a couple of times.”
“This makes four,” Noah said under his breath. A crowd began to form around the body, and sirens blared in the distance. “We’ve got to go.”
Cade’s jaw ticked as he ground his teeth. “It’s personal now.”
“Come on.” Noah grabbed his arm. The last thing he needed was to be caught by the human police with a victim from the same murderer. “Let’s go find the bastard.”
Cade nodded, lifting his nose again as they strode away from the fray. “Do you smell that?”
Noah inhaled deeply, and the faintest scent of rotting garbage reached his senses. “Either someone threw out some rancid meat, or we’ve got a demon on our hands.”
“It gets stronger this way.” Cade took off down St. Philip, and Noah followed.
They zig-zagged through the streets of the French Quarter, the scent of demon intensifying in some areas and then dissipating as they moved toward it.
“It’s like the bastard disappears,” Noah said. “He’s not leaving a trail.”
“Some demons can do that. They teleport.” Cade motioned for Noah to follow him down Burgundy. “If this guy has that kind of magic, it means he’s a strong one.”
Strong enough to rip the hearts from his victims and disappear without a trace. The pack had their work cut out for them this time. They caught another whiff of demon scent, and as they followed it toward St. Louis Cemetery Number One, a sinking sensation formed in the pit of Noah’s stomach. It had been weeks since Nylah’s last text. What if she had met the same fate as Jasper, but no one had found her body?
No, he refused to entertain the idea. He had to focus on the issue at hand, which was the fact that their noses had led them straight to the city of the dead.
“What is it with monsters always hiding out in the cemetery?” Noah pulled a file from his pocket, which he always kept on hand for situations like this, and picked the lock. He and Cade slipped inside, and he shut the gate behind them, setting the lock so it looked closed to anyone who might walk by.
They paused at the entrance, listening for any signs of movement within the stone walls. Row after row of above-ground graves created a maze inside the single square-block cemetery, with multiple generations of New Orleanians entombed in each one. Some were well taken care of, with pristine white plaster and flowers adorning the façades, while others appeared weathered, the brick and mortar exposed to the elements after years of neglect.
“That’s a new one.” Cade nodded toward a massive gargoyle sitting a few yards away.
Noah peered at it through the darkness. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say it had blood running down its chin. “It’s old enough for mildew stains. Look at its face.”
“True,” Cade said. “Guess I haven’t been here in a while. Meet you in ten?”
“Howl if you find anything.”
Cade slipped between a row of tombs and shifted into his wolf, while Noah strode in the opposite direction, weaving between the graves. The rancid scent of demon was strong, so the fiend had at least been here recently, if he wasn’t still inside. Noah’s half of the cemetery turned up no results, but as he made his way toward the entrance, something felt off. He turned in a circle, taking in his surroundings.
The gargoyle was gone.
A grunt sounded behind him, and Noah spun to find what he’d mistaken as a statue rising to its full height and smelling of fiend. Before he could shout for Cade, the demon planted both hands against Noah’s chest, shoving him backward into a tomb. His head hit the brick with a smack, and his vision swam.
Cade barreled in with his teeth bared and plowed toward the demon. The fiend grunted again, taking off in the opposite direction, and Noah scrambled to his feet to give chase. He ran after Cade, but the wolf stopped abruptly, jerking his head around with his ears pricked.
Noah froze, listening, but the demon didn’t give away his location. He crept down one aisle, while Cade prowled another. He turned, going up another row and down the next. When they met in the center of the cemetery, Cade shifted to human, his wolf’s body shimmering with magic as he transformed.
“The bastard disappeared.” Cade pulled his phone f
rom his pocket. “I’ll call Luke. You let Macey know the cops were called.”
“I’m on it.” Noah dialed her number and said a silent prayer to whatever gods might be listening that, wherever she was, Nylah wouldn’t cross paths with this fiend.
Chapter Seven
Amber sat in a green vinyl chair next to Noah in Luke’s office. It was six a.m., and the citrusy scent of his shampoo still lingered in his hair. She leaned on the arm of the chair, drifting closer to him and breathing in his intoxicating scent.
Her mating instincts must’ve been kicking in hard. Noah had always smelled good, but damn. She wanted to wrap herself up and get lost in him…unlike the Neanderthal her father had set her up with yesterday.
She’d managed to rein in her laughter and politely inform him that sex would not change her mind about the pairing, but he’d left New Orleans none too pleased. Once word spread of her rejecting such a “viable male,” no doubt the race would be on to see who could win her hand. Wouldn’t that be fun? No, not really.
Noah looked at her, arching a brow in question, and she realized she was leaning way too close to him. She sat up straight, and her head spun like it always did when her empathic premonitions were about to reveal themselves. Clutching the arms of the chairs, she braced herself for the ominous feeling about Nylah to slam into her psyche, but it didn’t come.
This premonition was about Noah. Change. Something about him was going to change. She dug in deep, settling into the feeling and hoping against hope that her ability would reveal more.
It didn’t.
She blew out a hard breath. Leave it to her to have a gut feeling about the one man she could imagine spending her life with, yet all her ability told her was “change.”
“Are you okay?” Noah’s gaze held concern. “Did you get something more on Nylah?”
“No.” She rubbed her chest. “I think it’s heartburn.” There was no point in sharing what she’d just felt about him. Change could come in so many forms. Maybe it simply meant their relationship would finally turn back to normal. He’d been acting strangely around her well before his probation, and it was time she got to the bottom of it.
“The full moon is tomorrow,” she said. “Will you be joining us this time?”
Indecision tightened his eyes as he held her gaze, and the tendons in his neck tensed like he was grinding his teeth.
Why was he acting so weird? “It’s a simple yes or no question.”
“Yeah. Yeah, of course I’ll be there.” He straightened. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
She gestured from herself to him. “This awkwardness between us. Where is it coming from?”
He let out a nervous laugh. “I’ve been gone for nearly a month, and you thought I’d abandoned you, so…”
“No, this started before all that. A few months before, actually. If it’s because I started flirting with you, I’m sorry.”
He blinked, missing a beat in his reply. “When did you start flirting with me?”
“Well, I didn’t, but I wanted to until you got all weird. I thought maybe I’d flirted by accident with the way you’ve been acting.”
“Why would…?” He clamped his mouth shut and shook his head. “I started to flirt with you, and you shot me down, so I backed off.”
“When did I shoot you down?”
His brow rose like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Honestly, she couldn’t believe it herself. “You said you were glad we were friends because you knew I wasn’t after you for your pack status. I know when I’ve been relegated to the friendzone.”
“Relegat—” She huffed. “That’s not what I meant by that.”
“Sure sounded like it.” He cast his gaze to the wall in front of him.
Amber chewed the inside of her cheek and stared at his profile. He had a strong jawline, with coarse auburn hair peppering his skin. He closed his eyes for a long blink, and the air conditioner hummed as the fan kicked on, filling the room with cool air.
“Noah…” She clutched his hand. “I meant that as a compliment. I thought we were becoming more than friends, and I meant I was glad I could trust you. That I could date you without having to worry that you only wanted me to give you an alpha child.”
His lips twitched like he was having trouble forming the right words.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked.
“Probably for the same reason you didn’t ask about me when I was gone. Wounded pride.” He shook his head and leaned away from her. “It doesn’t matter. You seemed happy with the guy you had lunch with yesterday. Is he going to be your mate?”
Jesus, word travels fast. “How did you know about that?”
“I saw you through the window, laughing. He must be a funny guy. I’m happy for you.”
“Are you?” She bit her bottom lip. If anything, he seemed jealous. “Noah, I was laughing at him, not with him. He was half-cowboy/half-caveman. I sent him packing as soon as I could.”
The door swung open, and she jerked her hand back into her lap.
“I’ll make this quick,” Luke said as he strode into the office and sat behind his desk. “We’re behind at the jobsite, and we need to head there immediately.”
Noah straightened, lowering his gaze slightly, showing respect for the alpha. Amber leaned forward in her chair.
“The body you and Cade found last night wasn’t the only one. There were two more in the apartment above.”
“Christ,” Noah said. “Any of ours?”
Luke shook his head. “Witches again. Until this is resolved, no non-shifters are allowed on the streets in the Quarter after dark, Noah and Macey excluded.” He looked at Amber. “Are we clear?”
She nodded. “What did you learn about Nylah?”
“She missed her last check-in,” Luke said. “The congress hasn’t heard from her in a week.”
Amber’s stomach sank. While the feeling of impending doom for Nylah had passed, something still felt off about her. Like she was out of danger for now…or the threat had already come and passed…but she was standing on a slippery slope.
“Do they know where she might be?” Noah asked. “Where was she when she last checked in?”
“She was in Mississippi last month,” Luke said. “After they read the report of the murder you discovered, she was ordered to New Orleans. She hasn’t made contact since.”
Amber looked at Noah. “Have your parents heard from her? Surely she’d at least contact them if she was in town.”
Noah started to answer, but Luke cut him off. “They haven’t, and that’s no surprise. National agents are forbidden from contacting anyone in their pack.”
“Why was she sent here?” Amber asked. “We’ve never needed the congress to get involved with supernatural policing.”
Luke shook his head. “No, we haven’t, but this is where things get weird. She was sent to investigate the reappearance of the Grunch.”
Noah cocked his head. “I thought that was nothing more than an urban legend.”
“Me too,” Amber added. “It was made up by kids as an excuse to scare their friends. You drive down Grunch Road, and if you see a goat, the cannibal dwarves will come out and eat you.”
“I thought it was an urban legend as well, but the congress assures me it’s not. After the demon Noah and Cade encountered last night, I believe it.” Luke opened his laptop and punched a few keys. “The Grunch are human-demon hybrid abominations created by a European religious sect centuries ago. They fused demon souls with an army of human warriors and used a magical crystal called Thropynite to give them shifting abilities. They transformed into gargoyle-like creatures—like the fiend you and Cade encountered—and swept through towns and villages, murdering magical beings.”
“Are you serious?” she asked.
Luke nodded. “A group of them somehow made it to New Orleans, and that’s where the Grunch lege
nd began. No one has seen hide nor tail of them in centuries, but it looks like something woke them.”
Amber glimpsed Noah from the corner of her eye, and he’d gone pale.
“Thropynite is real…” He stared straight ahead, not seeming to focus on anything for a moment before he blinked and shook his head. “I’ve heard stories about it, but I thought it was legend too.”
“It was destroyed more than one hundred years ago,” Luke said, “but someone stole a sizeable shard and has been selling pieces on the black market. If some made it to the US, it could have awakened the creatures who came here centuries ago.”
“Holy crap.” Amber slumped in her seat.
“Tell me about it,” Luke said.
“We need to find the Grunch. They must have my sister.” Noah fisted his hands on his lap, and Amber placed her hand on top of his.
“Her trouble might not even be related to that. I haven’t had any feelings connecting the two, so she might just be indisposed. Whatever it is, we’ll find her; won’t we, Luke?” She shot her brother a hard look.
“If we are dealing with the gargoyle shifters, they only operate at night.” He looked at Noah. “I want you and Cade to head to the Grunch Road area at sundown to see what you can find.”
“I’ll go with them. She’s my friend too.”
“No, you will not.” Luke arched a brow at her. “Noah and Macey are the only non-shifters with permission to patrol.”
She straightened her spine. “Then don’t call it patrolling. Call it looking for my friend.”
“As your alpha, I forbid it.” His gaze softened. “And as your brother, I’m asking you nicely not to. Please, Amber. They’ve already killed one second-born. I won’t risk it happening to you.”
She pursed her lips, glancing at Noah before returning her gaze to Luke. She’d concede this time. Her second-born ability wasn’t intended for fighting, and her presence could put Noah and Cade at risk if they felt like they had to protect her…which they would. They all treated her like she was fragile, and that irked her to no end. “All right. But keep me posted.”
“You do the same if you get any more details from your premonitions.” He stood and motioned to the door. “Let’s get to work.”