“Where is your demon?”
Amber almost tripped over her feet at the sudden question. She hadn’t heard anyone coming. A hand closed around her arm as she turned to face whoever had asked. She jerked back with a snarl. “Let go––”
“Where?” the woman asked again, tapping her finger directly against the place on Amber’s chest where the mark lay.
She looked at the woman in shock. What was the deal with everyone being able to see Angel or her demon mark all of a sudden?
Chapter 45
Amber
“What are you talking about?” Amber asked, deciding to play dumb. There was something wrong with the woman that had stopped her.
“Lying and searching and…and…” The woman would have been beautiful if she’d been clean. As it was, it looked like she’d been rolling around in a dumpster.
Amber held her breath for a moment. The smell was hard to bear this close. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“The…the…curses and eyes and lies,” the woman insisted, her fingers digging into her arm hard enough to leave bruises.
“Do you need help?”
“So many.” The woman shook her once, hard.
Amber reached over and gently pried her fingers off, unwilling to hurt someone that was suffering like this. As a nurse she’d had to treat people with mental illnesses before. Staying calm and not overreacting was important. She needed to get her phone out and call for an ambulance though. Someone in this state shouldn’t be walking around the streets alone. If she grabbed someone else, she might get hurt.
“Can you come with me? I can get you lunch. Something to drink?” she asked asked gently.
Bright green light blinded her and she flew backward, hitting something hard. She tried to roll away but sharp points dug into her skin, holding her down.
It took all her control, but she forced herself to go still. The wolf strained against her hold. She wanted to shift badly.
A moment later her vision cleared and she blinked rapidly. The spell had trapped her in a tangle of thorny vines. Every time she moved they tightened, so she continued to hold still. The woman was gone.
Taking a deep breath, Amber found the pack bond in her mind and took stock of who was closest. Ceri was still nearby, but Genevieve and Tommy were closer. They’d probably all felt her momentary panic and the shock of pain through the bond. Alarm and worry was coming at her from all of them.
Genevieve was moving fast to her location. She must have shifted.
Amber sank into the pack bond. It was stronger than the last time she went this deep. Ceri’s magic had woven into it, along with something else. The only thing she could relate it to was the power she felt on the nights of the full moon.
I’m okay, they left, she thought at the pack as hard as she could. They hadn’t tested the whole communication through the pack bond thing that they were supposed to be able to do now that they had a shaman in the pack, but it was worth a try. Hopefully her intention had been clear. Some of Tommy’s panic eased, but Ceri didn’t relax and Genevieve didn’t slow down at all.
She’d been pinned in an odd place. It was out of sight of passersby down the narrow alley. The vines covered her completely, though she could see through the cracks.
A door opened to her left from the back of some restaurant and a woman walked out carrying a trash bag.
“What the hell?” The woman stared at the mass of vines in annoyance. “Freaking elves. Why are they always trying to grow crap in weird places.”
A vicious growl echoed off the concrete as Genevieve skidded around the corner, racing toward her. The woman with the trash screamed, threw the bag at Genevieve, and ran back inside.
Her beta slid to a halt about a foot from the vines, breathing heavily. Genevieve sniffed it carefully and circled around trying to see her more clearly.
“I’m okay, Gen,” she said with as little movement as possible. “I just can’t move or they tighten. Ceri is on her way too, I can feel her getting closer.”
Genevieve sat on her haunches and growled unhappily at the vines. A piece of lettuce was stuck to her head from the trash she hadn’t completely dodged.
“Yeah, I feel the same way.” Her arms were in an awkward position. The temptation to just shift and try to tear her way out was getting greater by the moment.
With an angry huff, Genevieve shifted back. It was mesmerizing to watch the fur roll back. During the full moons she was always too caught up with the urge to run to notice things like that.
“How the hell did you manage to get caught like this?” Genevieve asked, crossing her arms.
“Crazy homeless woman. Guess I startled her. Where’s Tommy?”
“I left him with the car. He’s driving to us.”
The back door to the restaurant opened again and two guys burst out, sliding to a halt when they saw Genevieve standing there butt-naked.
“What the––” the first one stammered, eyes wide.
“My alpha was attacked in the alley. Sorry to startle that other employee,” Genevieve said with a big smile as she put her hands on her hips.
“Hello!” Amber said from where she was trapped, making both of them jump.
One of the men finally snapped his eyes back up to Genevieve’s face. “Yeah, uh, no worries.”
“Bye-bye now,” Genevieve said, shooing them back inside. “We’ll handle this, but the elf mafia could return at any moment and you do not want them thinking you’re involved.”
Both the men paled and scrambled back inside, slamming the door shut behind them. Amber was pretty sure she heard a deadlock sliding into place as well.
“Elf mafia?” she asked with a laugh.
“They’ve actually been creating a serious issue around here lately. Don’t you keep up with the news?”
“Not at all. I avoid it.”
“Ceri is almost here,” Amber said with relief. The areas where the vines touched were starting to itch.
“What have you gotten yourself into now?” a snarky voice asked. Angel was barely visible through the vines.
Amber shut her eyes and sighed. “Don’t start.”
“Who are you––oh. Hi, Kadrithan. You know it’s rude to appear to just Amber, right?”
The pull on the demon mark increased and Angel stepped out of the shadows looking more or less solid. His face wouldn’t quite come into focus though. “You’re the only one who ever wants to see me, Genevieve.”
She snorted. “I’d just rather see you than know you’re floating around invisible, insulting my alpha.”
“Such loyalty,” he mused, his tone suggesting he didn’t think that was a good thing at all.
“Alternatively, you could just go away,” Amber suggested. Her humiliation didn’t need to be seen by anyone else.
“I second that,” Ceri said, appearing at the end of the alley, her purse slung over her shoulder. “We were barely apart for five minutes and you’re already in trouble. You’re lucky I was already in town with you or you’d have been waiting for a half hour while I drove here.”
“Next time I’ll plan better,” Amber said drily.
Ceri stopped next to Genevieve and looked at the vines curiously. “So, what happened?”
“The unfortunate combination of magic and a mental illness. I should have just called the police right away.”
“Ah. This looks like elf magic. Are you sure it wasn’t…could whoever took Deward be targeting you?”
Amber shrugged, and immediately regretted the movement when the vines tightened. “I doubt it. The lady was completely out of it.”
She dug around in her purse for a moment, then pulled out a small, glass bottle. “This will only hurt a little bit.”
“What––”
A flash of light and heat burst over her. She bit down on a scream. The vines retreated immediately and she shoved free of their grasp, and whatever the hell Ceri had thrown on her.
Someone grabbed her
arm and jerked her farther away, lifting her off her feet. She stumbled on the landing and had to cling to Genevieve to stay upright.
Panting and still shaking from the shock of the pain, she whirled on Ceri. “Only a little bit?”
The witch laughed at her. “Telling you it’s going to hurt a lot doesn’t help. It’s like ripping off a bandaid, I just had to do it.”
“The way you yelped was amusing,” Angel agreed.
Ceri smiled at him before catching herself and crossing her arms with a frown. “Are you sure this wasn’t related somehow? Could someone have paid the elf to attack you?”
She shrugged. “If they did then the attacker was a great actor and a terrible assassin. She seemed legitimately mentally ill. It was just bad luck.”
“I don’t like the timing,” Angel said, walking around the burnt remnants of the vines.
“I dislike agreeing with the demon, but…I don’t like the timing either,” Ceri admitted. “It’s way too much of a coincidence for you to be randomly attacked by an elf…while we’re hunting down an elf.”
“Well…” Amber itched at a dry spot on her arm that was still healing from the light burn she’d received. “She did grab me and ask where my demon was. So it is a little suspicious.”
Angel’s head snapped up. “What?”
“I was heading to the coffee shop to meet with Shane. The elf asked as I was walking by, then grabbed me. I thought it was just a random question…” she trailed off, feeling a little stupid based on the way everyone was staring at her. Something about the woman had just made her not think twice about what she said.
“You’re normally just as suspicious as I am,” Angel said, drifting around her.
Her head began to ache as she tried to recall exactly what the woman had said. “Eyes…and lies…” Her vision swam and she had the urge to run. They shouldn’t be asking these questions. The woman was crazy, it didn’t matter. “It was nothing. Y’all are overreacting. I should go before I’m late.”
“Amber, look at me,” Angel demanded sharply.
She put her hands over her ears and shook her head. The wolf howled wildly in her mind, thrashing against her control.
Warm hands closed around her arms and jerked them away. Her head snapped up, gaze locking with Angel’s. His eyes burned with power.
“What is happening to her?” Genevieve yelled in the background.
“A curse is affecting her,” Ceri said tensely.
Amber couldn’t see any of them. The demon’s gaze held her in place. It felt like he was looking into her.
Fight it, his voice echoed in her mind. You’re stronger than this. Draw on the pack bond.
The wolf crashed to the forefront and pulled on the bond with all her might. Amber felt her consciousness wavering and let the wolf take control as much as she could without shifting. Something was wrong but the wolf knew what to do. She knew how to fight it.
Power rushed into her from the pack, laced with a hot, violent magic she’d never felt before. It had to be Angel’s. She didn’t think he could really act without a demon’s mark in return, but it seemed he could.
His grip on her arms tightened and he ground his teeth together. She felt his hands begin to tremble as she fought through the tangle of the curse that had latched onto her mind.
A screech lanced through her mind and the curse snapped. At the same moment, Angel shouted in pain and disappeared.
Amber blinked and found herself staring up at the sky. Ceri poured a cool, sweet liquid over her face that washed away that last of the confusion.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know, but we need to find that elf. Now,” Amber said pushing Ceri away so she could stand. “She knew Kadrithan by name and I think she has Deward. Or the curse does.”
“What?” Ceri asked in confusion.
“The curse garbled her words. She was asking me where Kadrithan is because she knows he is looking for Raziel’s key, whatever that is. She said she’s seen many futures and that we have to find it soon.” She stood and looked around. “Where is Kadrithan?”
“He vanished,” Ceri said as she packed up her bag. “Worry about him later. Let’s try to catch up with the elf.”
Amber pressed a hand to her demon mark. It felt strained. What had he done?
Chapter 46
Ceri
“Can you smell her?” Ceri asked, following Amber as she paced back and forth along the sidewalk. This should be going faster.
“Her scent is everywhere, then it completely disappears. Sorry, I’m not actually a bloodhound,” Amber grumped at her. There were dark circles under her eyes.
“I can’t track it either,” Genevieve said, clearly annoyed. “Tommy, what about you? Anything?”
He shook his head. “It’s just like in the tunnels. She’s got to be hiding her scent somehow. Has Kadrithan come back yet?”
Amber shook her head. “No and the mark feels…strained and weird. Kind of like it did when my wolf banished him.”
Ceri looked around them, taking in this area of the city. Tall trees grew up between the tightly packed buildings which mostly housed coffee shops, pizza, and a couple of elf cafes that offered meals enhanced with magic. It was after lunch now, so the area was quieting down.
Tiring of the wait, she dug through her bag, hoping she had something to make this easier. Chalk for a circle of protection. A necklace with a crystal pendant that might work. She also had the totem she had created which would give her spells a little extra oomph. “I could try a tracking spell.”
Amber deflated a little. “I think we’re going to have to. It’s like she walked in circles then vanished.”
“She’s crazy, but she’s also powerful, as evidenced by her rooting you like she did. And noticing me during the scrying attempt. Come on, I need to go back to the place she attacked you.”
Amber followed her. “Why do we need to go back there?”
“White magic tracking spells are finicky. The best focus I can use for it is a place where the target recently cast magic.”
Tommy and Genevieve jogged over, trailing after them. They hadn’t gone far from the alley. She could still feel the magic tingling over her skin when she turned between the two buildings. The vines, once green, were already black and decaying.
“I don’t have much time,” she said, hurrying to standing in the place Amber had lain.
She grabbed the chalk and drew a quick circle of protection. It would be stronger if it were carved into dirt, but she needed to do this where the elf and Amber had their confrontation, and the area was all concrete.
Grabbing the pendant next, she held the crystal between her palms and slowly filled it with magic. It would act both as a battery and a magnet, drawn inexorably toward its target.
Once it was filled, she stepped into the center of the circle and focused intently on their target. The elf’s magic lingered in the air like a bad smell.
“Quaere invenique.” The pendant zoomed out from between her palms like a dart, catching on the necklace that she had wrapped around her fingers.
“This way,” she said, leading them to the left in the direction the pendant was pointing.
“That would have been useful while you were….” Amber trailed off.
Ceri forced herself to smile. “It probably would have saved you some time. It’s too bad they can’t be made ahead of time. The magic would run out by the time you needed it.”
“Ah, figures.”
Amber’s phone rang and she cursed when she saw the caller ID. “I forgot about Shane.”
“Talk to him. You can catch up in a minute, we won’t confront her without you if we find her,” Ceri said, waving her away.
Tommy jogged up to walk next to her. “Can you tell how far away this elf is?”
“No, only the direction. It’s a pretty limited magic. Though, it does have a range of a hundred miles, so she’s still in the state.”
“Great,” Tommy muttered.
“How are you holding up?”
“Fine other than feeling utterly useless.”
“I––” The pendant slipped out of her fingers as it was drawn abruptly downward. Ceri stopped and stared at the sidewalk. “She’s below us.”
Tommy looked down at the ground as well. “Think anyone would notice if we dug a big hole in the street?”
“That might be a little obvious.”
“Maybe we can go down a storm drain or something,” he suggested, eyeing a nearby manhole.
Genevieve jogged over. “What’s going on?”
She gestured at the pendant. “Somehow, the elf is below us. I assume more tunnels. I really don’t understand why the witches burrowed under everything in the area, but apparently they did.”
“Then it has to be connected to the tunnels Deward disappeared in. You and the trolls can break the curse right?” Tommy looked both hopeful and desperate.
She released the tracking spell and tucked the pendant in her pocket. “We can try.”
Chapter 47
Kadrithan (Angel)
Kadrithan rarely made mistakes and he never did anything reckless. Until today, apparently.
He rolled off the chaise lounge and immediately vomited as the room spun around him. The strain of fighting that curse had pushed him so far beyond his limits he was surprised he was still conscious. If Amber didn’t have two souls, it would have been impossible.
His muscles began cramping as he crawled toward the bathroom. It would be unbearably undignified if he had to call for help, so he pushed through the discomfort. He needed to start keeping his medicinal potions near the chaise instead of so far out of reach.
As painful as his condition was, the realization of what they were dealing with consumed all his thoughts. A prophetess. He hadn’t seen one of those in a century. Of course, she was cursed as well. It looked like the standard one that kept anyone from believing her by making her seem crazy. It twisted the words as they left her mouth.
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