by AJ Merlin
“Teach you what?” I asked, looking back at him. He didn’t answer, and the three hellhounds didn’t give him one either.
But I could take a guess. When I watched them, it looked like I was missing a silent conversation. And by Merric’s words, I had a certain feeling that I was.
“You’re telepathic with each other, aren’t you?” I went on.
“It’s a shame you left us so quickly at the gala,” the hellhound leaning against the porch railing said. “I’m Megaera, since Tisiphone says you don’t remember our names. We would’ve told you then. It’s no secret that we can share our thoughts with one another.” Her smile was more genuine than either of her sisters.
That meant the remaining hellhound, the least polite one, was Alecto.
It occurred to me that Nathanial hadn’t appeared in the doorway, and I had the thought that he’d gone out another way. Good for him. I didn’t want to deal with these three, either.
“I can help you,” Tisiphone said, emphasis on the I in her sentence. “I know about this kind of magic, more than either of them, and two noses are better than one. Neither of them could track like you and I could.”
Why in the world did she want to be so helpful?
“Are you sure it’d be you doing the helping?” Merric asked, speaking happily once again. “I bumped into your bokor the other night. Really dark aura, don’t you think? All swirly and stormy and…” he trailed off, making dramatic, swirling motions with his hands. “I bet he’s really good at this kind of thing.”
“Uriel would be glad to help,” Tisiphone agreed. “All you have to do is ask.” Her eyes were on mine again. The Bokor who’d been with her and Niall at the gala was incredibly low on my list of people to call for help.
On the one hand, that was a stupid idea. I didn’t know anything about Tisiphone’s group of preternaturals. The only one of them who had inspired some small bit of goodwill in me had been Niall, and he wasn’t here. Their Bokor had been unsettling, and these three weren’t much better.
But people were dying. Voodoo or not, people were dying.
“Why do you want to help?” I asked in a very neutral tone.
Tisiphone blinked, then looked taken aback. “You’re really asking me that?” She said, sounding offended.
“Yes?”
“Because death like this is wrong,” the hellhound said, sounding more forceful than I’d anticipated. The other two nodded their agreement. “Think of me what you want, but I wouldn’t do this. And I wouldn’t associate with anyone who did. We don’t kill for the fun of it, and what reason can you think of that we would need more power?”
“What about your Bokor?” I pressed. “Merric is right. This seems very up a dark priest’s alley.”
Megaera growled suddenly, her eyes flaring and teeth lengthening to fangs.
I stepped back as Yuna rounded on her.
“Don’t tempt me,” the sea witch warned. “I already don’t like you.”
“We’re not trying to steal your girlfriend,” Alecto promised, leaning on one of the porch’s columns, seemingly without a worry in the world. “So you can put your fangs away, cecaelia. Or any other parts of you that might hurt us.”
“And we’re not sure why you care so much, nogitsune,” Alecto added. “What’s a witch when you could have anything you want?”
“Anything I want?” Merric hunched his shoulders. “I don’t know about that. And it’s not like I have any lofty ambitions. But I’m always willing to hear suggestions?” His orange ears wiggled.
“Nogitsune?” I murmured to him under my breath.
His eyes darkened in a warning, but before he could speak, Alecto answered first.
“It’s just what he’s called. Though I suppose there’s no correct designation for him. Being the only one of his kind, and all. Is that lonely? Is that why you stay around here? A summoner is rare, after all. But you’re…what’s the term I’m looking for?” She made a show of pondering the word, one finger tapping her lower lip. “Critically endangered?”
I grabbed his arm before I could think to stop and consider our options.
Just like the night at the gala, Merric was so very cold. When I looked down I saw black veins creeping up my fingers, and the feeling of it was just short of painful.
I’d never had frostbite before, but I had a feeling this was similar. Only worse.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to upset my friends,” I said, wondering if I should hook my fingers into Yuna’s belt and tow her back as well.
“My sisters should learn some manners,” Tisiphone snapped, her fangs on display as she growled at both of her sisters.
Alecto and Megaera barely spared her a sideways glance.
“I’m sorry,” Tisiphone went on, her teeth back to normal. “Please give us all a second chance? I promise we’ll act better.”
Should I? Some part of me said hell no, but rationally I understood why Yuna and Merric would put anyone on edge. They weren’t exactly cuddly, baby supernaturals.
“If you really want to help me for the reasons you say, I’d appreciate it,” I told them, ignoring Yuna’s sound of protest and the way Merric shook his head in disbelief.
But I needed all the help on this I could get, and neither Merric nor Yuna knew as much about these killings as Tisiphone herself seemed to.
Besides. The faster I could find who was doing this, the fewer people would end up victims.
I took a breath, preparing myself to diffuse the situation as best as I could.
And stopped.
There it was. On the air, the scent of dark magic wrapped itself around me like a suffocating blanket. It didn’t carry the scent of Yvenson or the first victim I’d found, but there was something bad going on.
And it wasn't that far from where we were now.
“Why don’t you come have dinner with us?” Alecto pressed. “Tisiphone is right. Killing for the sake of killing is wrong. But we need more information to help you.” Her eyes went from Yuna to Merric. “You can bring your friends,” she added, like the words were being pulled from her throat involuntarily.
Did she smell it too? Did Merric? Werewolves had stronger senses of smell than their more inherently magical counterparts, so it was very possible that they did not.
My answer was too fast. “No.” I swallowed. “Not tonight.”
Not now, when I needed to pull the bone out of my bag and compare the scent of the dead woman’s magic to what was fLoating through the air.
Megaera’s eyes narrowed. “Really? You’re busy with something else?”
“Yes,” I said.
“What?” Tisiphone demanded.
I wasn’t sure why the three of them were so pushy, but it was really beginning to make me rethink my earlier stance on letting them offer any kind of help.
“With me,” Merric answered, surprising me with the words.
“With him,” I agreed. “We’re busy. And honestly, you three are really being too much. If you want to help, then I’ll talk to you another time, when I don’t already have plans.”
Yuna shifted, her eyes on Megaera as she studied the hellhound.
Tisiphone’s face fell. She glanced at Alecto, who carefully schooled her features into something less irritated. “You’re right. I’m sorry. We’ve been a bit on edge, truthfully. We haven’t adjusted too well to being here just yet,” Tisiphone admitted.
She sent me an apologetic smile that I accepted with a polite one of my own.
“We’ll try to find you again when you’re less busy.” As she spoke, she walked off of the porch, her sisters falling into step with her. “Until next time, Georgette.”
Only when she and the others were out of sight, did I sigh and mutter. “It’s George.”
“You did introduce yourself as Georgette,” Merric pointed out.
I looked at him, doing a double-take when I saw he wore his favorite facade. “Why do you look like that?” I couldn’t help but ask.
> His brown eyes found mine. He blinked, unimpressed. “Would you like to tell me why you so urgently wanted to get rid of them?” He inquired instead of answering my question.
“Because I smell something.” Digging in my thigh bag, I procured the tiny bone and brought it up to my nose.
Why in the Goddess’s name couldn’t she have gotten me a stone or a charm? Why a bone?
I inhaled, scenting the bone twice over before tucking it away again.
This time, when I took a deep breath of the air around me, I was able to distinctly scent this woman’s magic mixed in with whatever the hell was going on.
“George?” Yuna rounded on me, her gaze intense.
“The dead woman in there had her magic stolen,” I explained, then whirled to face Merric. “Wait-you were there before me, weren’t you? Did you see who did it?”
“No,” he denied. “I would’ve told you long before now and ended this little Loa-errand-girl job of yours if I did know. Every time I’ve shown up, whoever did this has been long gone.”
“But…” I swallowed, unsure if I wanted to ask the question. “Were the victims dead when you showed up?”
He stared at me. I stared back, and even Yuna was quiet behind me.
“Pick your questions better,” he said at last. “Find something less….obvious to ask me.”
“But Merric, you could’ve done something. Not save them, I guess, but couldn’t you ask them who did this to them?”
“Stop asking,” he warned. “I mean it.”
“No. I’m not going to stop asking–“
“When I got here tonight, that dead woman in there was on her way out. What was I supposed to ask her, when her lungs were burned from whatever he seared her flesh with? The first night you showed up, she was almost dead as well. Her throat had been cut and I don’t think I know sign language well enough to ask your questions for you.”
His voice never rose, but his now-yellow eyes were goading. “Please do try to remember, George, that while I’m being nice in accompanying you in and out of fox form, I am under no obligation to do so. I’m not the one who bargained with a Loa and probably came out with the short end of the stick.”
I took a very deep breath that burned my nose with the smell of bitter magic and nodded. Swallowing, I told myself that I would not let myself get angry with the kitsune.
It was futile. I couldn’t turn Merric into something he wasn’t. I didn’t even want to. If I tried with him, then I’d have to try with all of them.
And I wasn’t sure I was exactly the most qualified person to decide when we were going to act like saints.
Not after Collette.
“You’re right,” I agreed. “I appreciate any help you’re willing to give me. Both of you.” I looked between them. “So, uh. I’d really appreciate it if you came with me while I try to track this.”
“You know you don’t have to ask,” Yuna assured me.
We both looked at Merric.
He glanced up, then grimaced. “I really shouldn’t indulge you,” he sighed heavily. “If I say yes now, then you’ll start expecting me to show up wherever you put down your little savior flag, George. And that’s not really my thing.”
“There might be lots of chaos if we find the person?” I offered.
Merric rolled his eyes. “Well, of course there will be. That’s a given with you around.” He pondered it dramatically, one finger tapping his lips.
“Just this once,” he agreed. “But only because I’m here and I could use some entertainment.”
“Thank you.” I smiled, twisting the fabric of my t-shirt between two fingers.
He didn’t bother to return it.
“Where are we going?” Yuna was holding her sword, and I had finally decided that she summoned it with magic whenever she was on land and planned on a fight. She rested the sheathed blade over one shoulder, her attention on me.
“That way,” I said with certainty, pointing towards more houses. “It’s not far. The scent of her magic is really strong.” Stronger than it had been when I’d tried this before.
A surge of anticipation shot through me, and before I knew it, my wolf ears and tail were visible.
My lips parted, being pushed apart by sudden sharp fangs in my mouth.
I was going to find the person doing this, and at the very least, not let them go until the Loa had whoever it was in their clutches.
Chapter 20
It was so difficult not to let my wolf take over.
She and I were in agreement about this. Killing for the sake of killing was wrong. It didn’t matter what kind of magic those people who were murdered practiced. Innocent was innocent.
My wolf tried to convince me that I could do this so much easier if I let George-the-wolf out to play. Then I’d have speed, strength, and my teeth to teach this person a lesson.
And to make sure they didn’t get away.
“Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Merric asked, keeping pace with me as I jogged down the darkening street.
“I don’t know this part of town,” Yuna remarked. “But something feels off.” She glanced at Merric. “Why ask her? You can feel it too.”
He frowned, but didn’t ask again.
Another scent was beginning to intermingle with the acrid tang of magic, but I couldn’t place it right away.
I’d breathed this smell in before. I was sure I had.
Memories flashed through my brain, and I opened my mouth to speak.
Yuna beat me to it.
“We’re getting close to the lake,” the cecaelia announced, slowing to a walk when I did as well.
“I thought you said you’d never been here,” I murmured, eyes wide as I looked at the industrial buildings all around us.
Gone were the residential blocks and cute front yards. No, the neighborhood we’d been in had given way to this place, with its large, dumpy buildings and general lack of pleasing aesthetic.
The scents of machines and old grease-filled my nose, making me sneeze.
“I can feel the water,” Yuna explained. “It’s nowhere near where I live, but this is definitely Lake Pontchartrain.” She hesitated. “Are you sure about this? I can’t help remembering the last time we did something that reminds me a lot of our current activities.”
“You mean where we all almost died until Merric crushed that wendigo’s face with his hand?”
The kitsune in question snorted at my words.
“Worked out then, didn’t it?” I stopped walking, my eyes sliding from one building to the next.
While I was still able to smell the dead woman’s magic, the traces of it were twisted up with the lake and the industrial scents that threatened to make me sneeze again.
“Whoever it is, they’re here somewhere,” I promised. “I just don't really know where.”
“Do you have something better than that?” Merric asked impatiently. “Or just somewhere here?”
“Somewhere here,” I repeated. “As in, I don’t think the person is further than the buildings currently around us.” I lifted my hand to gesture at the three buildings in front of us, my heart pounding in my chest. “We could split up?” I offered.
“That screams bad idea,” the kitsune laughed. “For you. Not us. To be clear. She and I would be fine. You–“
“I get it,” I interrupted. “Seriously.” He didn’t need to rub it in, as he was so keen on doing.
“We can split up,” Merric amended. “But you two should go together. I’ll check this out.” He didn’t wait for an answer before slipping into the shadows of the building to my right.
I tried to watch him go, but when he passed through a particularly deep shadow, the kitsune just vanished.
“I wish I could disappear like that,” I muttered, still not seeing any sign of him.
“He’s just showing off,” Yuna sighed. “He could’ve used the door like the rest of us. Which do you want to go in?”
We had two options. The square
cement building with an assortment of broken windows, or the other square cement building with broken windows and a weird stain on the door.
“That one,” I said, pointing at the one with the stain. “It’s the more obviously creepy one. If you squint, that stain could be blood.”
Yuna walked forward, running her fingers lightly over the old steel of the thick door. “It’s not blood,” she promised, pushing it open until the door swung open on its hinges with a very ominous creak.
The scent of metal was much stronger in here, as expected.
But so was the bitter tang of bad magic.
And blood.
“I’d be willing to bet we found it,” I murmured, looking around the large room. Machinery cut off my view of most of it and created what looked to me like a large maze.
Above us, wire catwalks spanned the length of the open room, suspended only on chains.
I didn’t like this place whatsoever.
“I’ll go this way,” I offered, gesturing towards the right side of the building.
“Maybe we should go together,” Yuna suggested after a brief hesitation.
I shook my head, glancing at her in the dim light. “I’m not a child, Yuna.” As if to prove my point, I drew the Chariot card to my hand. Magic swirled and sparked around my fingers, and in a burst of power, I had the Form of the Chariot beside me, her winged arms folded over her chest and her feathered head bowed.
I put a hand on the white-feathered woman, and she stood gracefully, chin lifting as she spread out her magical awareness in the room.
Everything in here was muddied in black magic, but I couldn’t tell where the source of it was.
I sent her in front of me, her steps silent on the stone floor as she peered around one of the large, dormant machines.
“Be careful,” Yuna insisted, reaching out to hold my wrist in her long fingers. “Don’t make me have to play the hero tonight.”
With a grin, I gripped her wrist in return. “I’ll be fine. I can do this. I can take care of myself.”
Even if I didn’t quite believe the words, should something really nasty appear, I refused to look like I was afraid in front of either of them.