by Jayne Hawke
"The pack will be safe. Lily is one of us, and combined we're an unstoppable force. She cannot be a full goddess; she must be fallen. And fallen gods can be defeated. We won't kill her, but we'll bury her so deep she might as well be dead," Elijah said coolly.
Some of my tension faded at his words, at his faith in me and my abilities. He was right. Fallen gods were just as immortal as their fully fledged friends, but they did have limits. As far as I was aware, she was a goddess of shadow and war, which meant that I was going to become a master of light. I made a mental note to see if I could speak with the overminds, too. I needed to know where they stood in all of this. They were tied to both me and the goddess. If they were going to side with her then I needed that information sooner rather than later.
Once this bullshit with Varehn was dealt with, we were preparing for war.
Thirty
Liam and Rex had taken the shifts through the night to watch over Nia as she did her alchemist thing. She'd been knocking back a potion which kept her awake and alert. I'd been sorely tempted to try it when she offered, but it was better that I didn't get hooked on something like that. Coffee was bad enough.
The small orbs she'd been making sat nestled in an old cardboard box. They were all colour-coded and a few in particular were done by shame or texture, but I wasn't sure exactly what each colour corresponded to. I’d learned the important ones by feel. Nonlethal poison were round and ridged. Lethal bombs were round and not ridged. A few different specialties were cylindrical or triangular. Health, antidotes, and resistances were square in various textures. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to integrate any of them into the plan. I wanted to trust Nia, but that didn’t mean I was fully prepared to. Jess, on the other hand, had to be sent away after she tried to juggle them. Elijah reminded her that she didn't, in fact, have nine lives.
"Reports of another burn just came in," Liam said as his face scrunched in confusion.
We all looked at Nia, who was carefully stirring a lurid green concoction. She'd already admitted to the previous fires. She'd explained the symbols to Liam and given enough details for us to be sure it was her. That meant that either we had a second arsonist on our hands, or it was the murderer trying to cover his ass.
"Lily and I will go and check it out," Elijah said.
We jogged to the door and quickly pulled on our boots. Elijah tossed me my keys.
"Your turn," he said with a grin.
It was before the morning rush, which meant that I had nice quiet roads to floor it down. Elijah calmly gave me instructions as I threw the car around the corners and tested its limits. My muscle car did not corner anywhere near as nicely as Elijah's fancy late model, but it did pick up beautifully on the straights.
"Do we think this is Varehn or the murderer?" Elijah asked.
"My money's on the murderer. He's gotten used to trying to cover the murders with a fire, so it makes sense he's continuing with that. I doubt he'll know that we've taken Nia in."
Elijah nodded as I screeched around a corner before I slammed on the brakes. The fire was far bigger and more aggressive than the previous ones I'd see. Flames licked at the sky overhead and reached out for the buildings on either side. The heat made the air around us shimmer as smoke curled upwards in increasingly thick plumes. The firemen were already there battling it with their magic, and there was no sign of Varehn.
"The building wasn't abandoned, and it was far closer to the heart of the city. How are they going to explain that away?" Elijah said as he got out of the car.
I looked around for some sign of the murderer or Varehn's people. There were a few bystanders out in their sleepwear whispering to their neighbours as they looked on horror. We were at the edge of a residential area with neat red-brick houses and tidy little hedges around the front gardens. It wasn't the fanciest area in the city, but there was enough money for people to start talking when a building went up there.
The firemen got it under control and sent everyone back into their houses. Elijah handled talking to them while I went to check out the remains of the building. The roof had collapsed and one wall had fallen outwards onto the driveway next door. A body sat in the very centre of what must have been a living room. The charred remains of a couch could be seen there with springs poking up around a very battered frame.
Crouching down, I glanced over the body and felt the fae life essence clinging to the shattered bones. Like the others, the chest had been caved in. The skull hadn't fared much better. He was escalating. Standing, I looked to the closest remaining wall and saw sloppily painted symbols that resembled those which had been found in Nia's burns. The lines were rougher, less precise, and the colours weren't quite the same. When I went to get a closer look, I saw that small flecks of ash poked out through the paint. Anyone would be able to see that this wasn't done by the same person.
Finally, I reached out to try and identify any remaining magical signatures. There was something alchemical. The magic threads had been cut and hacked together so that I couldn't quite identify what they'd been originally. It was an odd patchwork, as though the person wasn't entirely sure what they were doing. There were at least two forms of fire in there, so that was our starter.
Walking back to the car, I tried to piece it together in my mind. The patchwork of magic spoke of a complete amateur, which suggested the murderer had tried to make it himself. Alchemy might be mocked by witches, but it wasn't something just anyone could do. There needed to be an innate magical spark there along with study and knowledge. That might just be what we needed to narrow down the list.
"Did you get anything?" Elijah asked as I turned the engine on.
"Possibly. I think he tried using alchemy to make his own fire-starter thing."
"That could help us; I'll text Liam. The firemen said there were no witnesses, at least no one there when they arrived."
"Another fae body was inside, too. It was brutally beaten. The skull was caved in as well this time. He's getting more aggressive - and confident. It was risky coming somewhere this built up and starting the fire. People will have been getting ready for work."
"He could have been looking for attention," Elijah said.
"Why would he do that? Surely he knows the court will be hunting him down. Word's spread about our situation with Varehn; it's big enough that even non-hunters could be aware of it all by now."
"Arrogance. Maybe he's taunting the court, and us."
"Well, now, that is a very stupid things to do."
The court was not going to take kindly to that, and neither was I.
Thirty-One
I was itching to get back out there in the city and bring in whoever was behind this. They'd caused us a lot of trouble and brutally taken many lives. Now they were escalating, and who knew where it'd end? An all out war on fae mixed bloods?
"Varehn's gathered an entire army. I was jumped when I tried to get a doughnut," Jess said with a feral look in her eye.
"An army? Seriously?" I said looking at Liam.
I knew he'd put a bounty on our head, but an army was a whole other thing. Liam frowned at his tablet and swore under his breath.
"He's doubled the bounty on our heads and has brought in mercs from all around the world."
I rolled my jaw. If it was a war he wanted, then he was a war he'd get. My usual information contacts had failed me, but I still had allies.
"Rex, Jess, call in your favours. We're gathering our own army and putting this sniveling little shit down for once and for all. This is no longer about saving mixed blood fae, or solving the case. This is about putting Varehn and those like him in their place. We are not weak. We are not lesser. We are the best fucking hunters in this city, and no one is going to forget that again," Elijah growled.
My immediate reaction to his little speech was not a useful one. We didn't have time to deal with the warmth that pooled within me or the images that flashed through my mind. It was time to step up and remind the fae that while their lords might own t
he land, we were not going to be kicked around and used as toys.
"I have a favour owed from a pair of knights," I said.
"I'll call in the deal with the Black Forest crew," Rex said.
"I have some good people," Liam said.
Jess bared her teeth in a terrifying smile.
"I know just the people."
There was an electricity in the air. This was something that had been quietly building for a long time. Perhaps it hadn't originally been aimed at Varehn and his kind, but this was something we needed to do.
I'd met the knights Hazel and Reed a couple of years back. They were in town handling a rogue leanan sidhe. The leanan sidhe were a muse fae with a strict quota on how many humans they were allowed to devour per year. Some people willingly gave themselves over to the beautiful fae. The leanan sidhe inspired creative humans to create their masterpiece, something truly incredible to be remembered for decades to come. As the fae did that they slowly drained the creative's life force, that was what they ate and how they survived. The one the knights were after had concluded that the quota didn't apply to her, and that was causing problems.
Hazel and Reed had gotten into trouble when it turned out that the leanan sidhe had a partner, a particularly skilled pixie. The pixie had badly injured Reed and Hazel had come to me to ask for back up. I was more than happy to help.
Walking into the work out room for a little privacy I pulled up Hazel's number on my phone. The knights remained neutral, they didn't involved in petty squabbles or political bullshit. I just hoped that didn't mean that they'd turn me down.
"Lily, it's been a while."
Hazel sounded tired, she tried to muffle a yawn.
"You know I hate small talk. I need to call in that favour."
"We were waiting for the call. We're an hour outside of Brighton. Book us somewhere nice to sleep and we're yours."
The knights travelled around the world keeping the supernatural beings in line and getting justice for those who couldn't. They protected the weak, innocent, and downtrodden. It was all very nice. Unfortunately for them the people they looked out for very rarely paid them, and the coven they all came from only had so much money. So they were usually found in cheap motels and such.
"I'll get you a room the White House, it's not far from the pack house."
The White House was a very nice hotel with large luxurious beds, full-butter pastry platters, and a very talented chef. It was my hotel of choice. It was also four-hundred a night, but having Hazel and Reed on our side would be worth it.
"We'll see you there."
Hazel hung up. Both of us hated small talk, and I'd appreciated her efficiency from the moment I'd met her. Her partner Reed was the strong silent type which was even better. I had to admit that I found the knight pairing system to be a little weird. The coven paired their offspring off at a very young age. It was supposedly done on the compatibility of their innate magic. Whoever their partner was would be their life partner, whether they liked it or not.
As with all witches the guys were far weaker with magic, although the knights had a lot more than your average male witch. That meant that they tended to focus on non-magical weapons. Reed had opted for guns. Hazel was a talented witch, but her blade work wasn't to be underestimated. Together they were a team that might just rival Elijah and me.
I waited in the expansive lobby of the White House for the knights. The brilliant white marble pillars had always seemed like a little much to me. The floor had been bespelled to look as though it was fresh snow glittering in the mid day sun. Large orbs given the appearance of the winter sun hung from the double-height ceiling giving everything a chilly and pale glow.
The receptionist watched me from her large white desk as I settled myself down into the middle of the long white leather couch. It had been pushed up against the wall between a pair of pillars, with a snowy scene at my back. If you sat and watched the scene you'd catch small movements. A snow hare here, an arctic fox there. It was some very expensive magic, and it did really finish off the whole look. Although the white on white always got to me after a little while. The ceiling gave something of a respite from it with the thick pale snow clouds.
Hazel and Reed walked in with their leather backpacks hanging casually on their shoulders. The receptionist immediately sat a little straighter, her silver skirt suit adding some prissiness to her already severe demeanor. The knights wore scruffy old jeans, Reed was in an ancient looking dark grey jacket which had certainly seen better days. Hazel's blood red jacket was a little smarter, but it didn't hide the actual blood quite as well as it could have.
I greeted the pair with a genuine grin. They were good people to have around and I was glad to know they were on our side. Hazel's dark brown curly hair had been pinned back into a messy bun with stray strands falling into her stormy grey eyes.
"You sure do know how to treat a girl," she said with a warm smile.
"Only the best for my favourite knights."
She snorted.
"We're the only knights you know."
"Just because your my favourites my default doesn't stop you from being my favourites."
The receptionist lived up to the iciness of the surroundings but relaxed some when the knights showed her their pendants. All knights carried a pendant showing their place in the world. They were allowed to travel freely between any and all territories, and most respected them. Some of the lords and ladies had pushed back against their presence, but the coven was powerful and well connected. The potential problems soon backed down.
They'd been given a room on the top floor with views out over the city and the ocean beyond.
I remained in the hallway as the knights did their sweep of the rooms. Of course it was clean, I wasn't going to risk fucking them over. Reed tossed his bag onto one of the armchairs which sat around a large silver wood table. Hazel flopped down onto the king-sized bed with a delighted smile.
"I could get used to this."
"Order whatever you want from room service. I don't want you starving," I said.
Reed picked up the room service menu and raised his eyebrow as he caught sight of the prices.
"Real butter pastries huh?"
"Like I said, only the best."
He nodded in approval.
"I'll need some more ammo," he said evenly.
"Do you need me to source it?"
"No. I have a guy. Just don't start any fights before tomorrow morning."
"I can't make any promises."
After the shadow monks had come after us in our own backyard I really couldn't be certain of anything. Varehn clearly wasn't fucking around, and now the goddess was flexing her claws at us.
Hazel had fallen asleep on the bed with her legs dangling off the end and all of her clothes on. Reed gave her a gentle adoring smile before he very carefully removed her boots and looked at me pointedly.
"I'll call you when we have more details," I said before I turned to leave.
The way he looked at Hazel melted my heart. They might not have chosen each other, but there was no denying the love they shared.
Thirty-Two
Jess had texted me to meet her by the pier, given that was five minutes away I'd agreed without asking why. I'd assumed that she'd bought too many doughnuts and needed help carrying them. It wouldn't be the first time.
When I walked up to her I was surprised to see a pair of what looked like pixie mixed breeds standing with her. The almost identical women barely came up to my collarbone. Their dark hair and liquid silver eyes matched, but the one in the yellow cami and short denim shorts had a more feral edge about her.
"Meet Kay and May," Jess said with great pride.
"Chaos and Mayhem," the one in the mini black dress said.
I should have been surprised that Jess was bringing in a pair of fae mixes called chaos and mayhem. But I wasn't. This was Jess we were talking about.
"They're the best," Jess said.
"What's your
fighting style?" I asked.
The one I thought was Chaos, in the tiny black dress, grinned at me revealing sharp almost crocodillian teeth. That was something that was going to haunt me for a long time to come. I was really starting to wrack up the haunting experiences, I might have to invest in a therapist if I had many more.
Chaos back-flipped onto the bench directly behind her, when she landed on the slender piece of wood she had a set of throwing knives in her hands. Her sister had vanished and reappeared on top of the doughnut stall. They moved too quickly for my eye to catch as they danced around throwing and catching knives with terrifying precision. No surface was too difficult for them, no knife throw with fault.
"They're the most awesome of ninjas!" Jess said.
They were certainly something.
"As long as they're on our side," I said.
"We've been looking for an excuse to take Varehn down, we weren't going to turn this down," Mayhem said.
I had to admit I didn't really want to be anywhere near them in a fight, but we'd take what we could get. And Jess was clearly very pleased with her addition to the little army we were amassing.
"We're bored now. Text us when shit gets interesting," Chaos said.
And just like that they were gone. The street was wide open, there weren't any real hiding places. Unless they'd shot behind the food stalls. I wanted to go and look but Jess threaded her arm through mine and started leading me back to my car.
"You have to admit they're more badass than the knights."
I looked at her.
"Not a chance. The knights are notorious around the world."
"But can they ninja?"
"I don't think you can use the world ninja like that."
Jess shrugged.
"Why not? You understood what I meant."
I didn't have an argument against that, and trying to get into linguistics and semantics sounded really exhausting.
Elijah sent a text confirming that he'd brought someone on board, and Rex was talking to whoever his people were. It was increasingly surreal seeing the names pop up on the screen and knowing this was real. This was a war. The weight of the goddess and whatever she had planned for me weighed heavy in the back of my mind. Would we have to go to war against her? Was that a war we could even win?