by N Gray
Devan stood beside me, went down on his haunches, and bent over the body as though he would touch it, but his hands hovered just above it. A warm wind blew in from the side and then it was cold again.
Devan rose, dusted his hands on his clothing—except that there was no dust on them—and faced us. “It’s our boy. I saw him do this.” He rubbed his chin. “I don’t know how he did it, though. How he was able to be in his house and kill this man at the same time—but he did do this.” His cell phone pinged, and he read the message before saying, “My aunt had a vision about you, Blaire. She says you are in danger.”
“We know that already, but tell her I said thanks, anyway.”
“She also says you mustn’t get caught.”
“Okay.” I shrugged. “Was that it?”
Devan nodded.
“Very cryptic, but I should be fine. I have a bodyguard,” I said, and smiled at Sawyer.
The Lion’s Den looked like a large barbecue and picnic area. There were eight barbecue stands positioned in a semi-circle around a fire pit in the middle. Behind it all was their clubhouse. There were four other cars in the parking area when we arrived. Marcus walked along the footpath toward us and pointed at Sawyer.
“He can’t be here.”
“I can stay in the car, Marcus. I am not here to mess with any other were-animal’s territory,” Sawyer said, with the car door open and his right leg still in the car.
Ralph gave him the key. “Put her on if you want music.”
“Thanks,” Sawyer said, and he closed his car door and went to the driver’s side. To me, he said, “Blaire, yell if you need me; I’ll hear you. If you get hurt, Sebastian won’t be pleased.”
“Thanks, Sawyer, but I should be safe here.” I glanced at Marcus as I said ‘safe’, but he wasn’t paying attention.
We followed Marcus to the clubhouse entrance, where we went through double doors and entered a room with a round table. There were people already sitting around it.
There was one chair which reminded me of a throne: it was large and painted gold with a red cushion. The man who sat on it, the king, rose when we entered and said, “Blaire, how wonderful to finally meet you.”
I walked up to him and shook his hand. It was a good, strong shake.
“I’m Troy, and you know Marcus, obviously. And Melinda”—he pointed in the direction where she sat at the table, and then to the person next to her, Léon’s private investigator—“Kit, and this is Keegan, my second.” Troy placed his hand on Keegan’s shoulder. Keegan was a large bald man with the fattest black mustache I’d ever seen.
“Please sit.”
Marcus sat beside Melinda; Devan, Ralph and I sat on the other side of the were-lions, with several empty chairs separating them from us.
“As you know, we are all part of the Were-Animal Alliance, and there has been talk of your attack. More specifically, it has come to light that you now carry three different lycanthrope strains. You haven’t shifted into any of them yet, have you, Blaire?”
I shook my head and said, “No.”
“Sebastian suggested that it would be a good idea for you to meet with us, the leopards, and the wolves.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m here.”
“And what do you think?”
“Everything is still very new and strange to me. And I won’t lie, ’cause I know you guys can smell it, but I am relieved I haven’t shifted yet.” I glanced at Melinda. “I do have one thing to ask, though. Why is she here? From what I understand, she wants to eradicate her animal.”
I shouldn’t have ratted her out, but her king needed to know what she had been up to with the serums she had concocted.
Melinda shifted in her seat, and her eyes were cast downward, then she stared up at Troy.
“Because she asked to be here. We know what she has been trying to do—and what she did to Marcus. Don’t worry; we are keeping an eye on them.”
Melinda blushed and looked down, but there was no smile.
Marcus moved in his chair, as though he was uncomfortable sitting beside her. Troy glared at both of them.
“What do you think of me being here, meeting you?” I asked.
“Not sure yet,” he said as he rubbed his chin with his hand.
“Why are we meeting with only a handful of your were-lions?”
“We heard what happened at the leap, and we thought it would be safer keeping it small.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Marcus shifted in his chair again, which made everyone turn in his direction.
“Marcus, what is bothering you so much?” Troy asked.
“Nothing.” His eyes flicked from Troy to Keegan, and then to me.
His face had that sweaty glaze I had seen before. When Melinda had injected him with her serum, he had shown signs of flu. For a were-animal to show any signs of a cold was odd because lycanthropes didn’t get sick, and Marcus had lied to us by telling us it was a byproduct of him taking strong medicine.
“Are you medicated again, Marcus?” I asked, leaning forward so that I could see his face. Heat crept up his neck in maroon blotches. Melinda was still staring down at her hands. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“Marcus?” Troy commanded.
Marcus rose from the table, lifting it slightly and letting it drop with a loud thud. He moved closer to where I was sitting, dark shadows dancing across his face. His small blue eyes were dark. He stood in a fighting stance with his feet pointed in my direction. Ralph and I rose from the table at the same time. I touched his shoulder and shook my head. I could handle this. I approached Marcus in anticipation.
“What’s up, Marcus? Why do you want to fight me?”
Marcus frowned, anger flashing through his eyes, then his facial features softened.
“It’s not me, Blaire.” He doubled over, holding his stomach. When he stood straight again, his small blue eyes bled into a glittered sky—a vast darkness void of the human that should be there.
The voice that came out of his mouth wasn’t Marcus’s. “I have been waiting for you, Blaire. You must visit me soon.”
“Who are you?”
“Don’t you recognize me?” the voice asked.
“Can’t say that I’ve met you before.”
“But you have been the one following me. You are the one invading my life. I thought I would return the courtesy.” The man using Marcus’s body stood using Marcus’s feet and moved them apart, both hands in fists protecting Marcus’s face.
At over six feet tall, a were-lion like Marcus could throw a small car around without breaking a sweat. The man using his body was both powerful and dangerous.
There was no way that this would be a fair fight.
I touched the gun in my holster and felt the tension ease. I could draw my gun and shoot him. But there was one problem with that; Marcus was our boss. The only choice I had was to knock the voodoo man right out of Marcus.
My training kicked in. I ran and grabbed Marcus’s back while lifting both my legs and came up toward his face. He grabbed my lower body and held on. I swiveled my body and legs so that his head was between my legs, and I grabbed his back from the other side. I squeezed my legs around his head and brought his body down while I held onto his back—the head-scissor-takedown was a great Brazilian Jiu Jitsu technique I’d learned. As my legs dropped to the floor with his head still between them, and before he could hit me, I kneed him in the face, knocking his head backward. A sharp, snapping sound vibrated around the room, and Marcus fell to the floor. My gun was out and pointed at him before he even hit the floor.
It took a while before Marcus could open his eyes, and when he did, they were small and blue once again.
“Are you okay?” I asked, the gun still pointing at his face.
He flinched in pain, and it didn’t look like he could nod, but he blinked and whispered as he exhaled, “Yeah.”
I stood back and observed the room. Everything had happened so fast that I hadn’t seen
Ralph grab Melinda. As if from nowhere, Danny—the were-lion who had attacked me, infected me, and left me for dead—had arrived. Danny stood back and lifted his hands into the air when I pointed my gun in his direction.
“What are you doing here, Danny?” My voice wasn’t friendly.
“The pride asked me to be here, Blaire. I didn’t want to, I promise, but I came for them.” His hands dropped to his sides, and he lowered his head. “And”—he looked at Troy— “I need to beg for your forgiveness.”
I glanced at Troy, who was now closer to the action. He nodded once. “He will pay for what he did to you for years to come, Blaire. I can promise you that.”
“What are you making him do?” I said, keeping my attention on Marcus.
“He lost his rank within the pride, and he has become our errand boy. We also forbid him to associate with vampires.”
“You don’t know me. Why do you care what he did?”
“My pride only hunt animals, never humans.” The tone of his voice had become icy, and when I glanced at his face, he showed no emotion when looking at Danny. “And we don’t do the dirty work of vampires, no matter who they are.” To me, he said, “And, as you might become one of us, it’s the least we could do.”
I didn’t know what to say. The punishment was more than I could have asked for—apart from death.
“Thanks, Troy.”
Melinda helped Marcus to sit up, and he had already healed his neck without shifting.
“How did the priest get to you, Marcus?” I asked as I went down onto my haunches near him and tapped the side of his head with my gun.
Melinda sat on the floor with Marcus between her legs, leaning him against the front of her chest. She wrapped her arms around him, an armband dangling from her wrist. Marcus and I stared at each other; I wanted to make sure his eyes stayed blue, and he wanted to make sure I didn’t pull the trigger. My gun was still pointed at him.
“I don’t know,” he said, in between short and shallow breaths.
“Where did you buy the armbands, Melinda?” I pointed my gun at her left wrist. They were similar to the ones Grant, Lauren, and Jeremiah had been wearing a few nights ago.
Marcus strained to look at her wrist, lifted his arm, and pulled his sleeve up. He was wearing one, too.
“I bought it for him. The two came together in a love packet.”
“From a voodoo shop?”
She nodded. “What did I do wrong?”
A long sigh escaped my mouth.
“How did McNielty know you were coming here tonight, Melinda? It’s rather convenient, don’t you think? Do you know him personally?”
“N-no,” Melinda stuttered. “But I do buy from his shop at least once a month. He said I seemed different; that I was glowing. He suggested that love had brought out a sparkle in me, and that these were new.” She lifted up the armband.
“You love me?” Marcus managed to say, the shock of her confession evident.
Her cheeks flushed, and she nodded. She turned back to me and said, “He offered these love bracelets for free when I purchased the candles. I didn’t know what they were capable of doing. You have to believe me.”
It was all very perfectly timed, and I couldn’t understand how McNielty had managed to stay one step ahead of me. Of us. How did he know of our plans?
I rose and said to Ralph, “I want to go to the priest now. I have had enough of this fucking case. It ends tonight.”
“My aunt advised that you need to stay away from him, Blaire. You shouldn’t go,” Devan interjected.
“I don’t care, Devan!” I said, yelling. “For all we know, your aunt saw wrong. Did she see that this would happen?” I pointed to Marcus.
“No.”
“Exactly, Devan. The bodies keep piling up, and he keeps coming after me. And I’m expected to just stand around and wait for him to hurt me? Fuck that.” I touched Ralph’s shoulder. “Either you drive me there, or I’m taking your keys from Sawyer and going alone.”
“No, I’ll drive. You coming, Devan?”
Devan hesitated. “Yeah, I’ll come.”
“Thanks, Troy. I’m sorry for what happened here.” I waved my hand in the direction of Marcus and Melinda, who were still on the floor.
“No need to apologize; it wasn’t your fault. We will keep an eye on them,” Troy said. He turned to Keegan and whispered in his ear; Keagan nodded and turned toward the back of the room, from where Danny had appeared.
I put my gun back in its holster and started walking toward the exit.
Ralph parked right in front of the priest’s voodoo shop. The doors were closed, as were a number of the other shops.
“I thought the voodoo shop stayed open till 8pm?” I said. It wasn’t six, and yet the shop was closed, the little Closed sign hanging loosely behind the glass door.
“Not tonight, Blaire.”
“Thanks, Ralph, I can see that.” I climbed out the car, approached the closed doors, and pulled on them. When I touched the metal handle, a surge of electricity passed through it and zapped my hand.
“I felt that, and I didn’t have to touch it,” Devan said from behind me.
I flinched; I hadn’t heard him walking behind me. I was focused too much on the case, instead of paying enough attention to my surroundings.
“Magic?”
“Oh, definitely! That’s one of the first spells you learn as a witch, a priest, or a warlock.”
I turned to stare at him. “Really?”
He nodded. “Yep. It’s a fun spell and super easy to do. A lot of owners ask witches to enchant their businesses to keep burglars at bay. It’s a good income.”
“Do you do it?”
His smile reached his eyes. He didn’t say, ‘yes’ but he didn’t have to. That smile said it all. I smiled back at him.
“It’s not the right time to meet our priest, Blaire.”
“He keeps fucking with us, Devan. I’ve had enough.”
Ralph said, “Sawyer says you need to get to the Labyrinth, Blaire.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. He just said that you needed to go.”
What a disappointment: I had been reluctant to use my gun the last two months unless in self-defense—until tonight. Tonight, I wanted to use it on McNielty.
The old Blaire might finally be peeking out from her hiding spot.
We all piled into the car again, and after a scenic road trip, we were back at the same door Ralph always parked near; the one near the garage door. Before he parked, Elena, another of Léon’s bodyguards, stood by my door. I hadn’t seen her as we pulled up. She opened the door for me.
“Where did you come from?” I asked as I climbed out.
She gave me a half-smile, one that was full of mischief. “I knew you were on your way.” She glanced at Sawyer. I turned to look at him, but the were-jackal was already out of the car and heading toward us.
“What’s going on, Elena?” Sawyer said, deep lines showing between his eyes. “I thought she had to stay away.”
“Apparently not.”
“Who’s here?”
“The two big ones.”
They were talking to each other like I wasn’t there. “Can one of you please tell me what’s going on?”
Sawyer glanced down at me, those dark Egyptian eyes swimming in mystery. There was something else there, too. Concern?
“The Vampire Council have sent emissaries to hand down Roland’s sentencing.”
“What does that have to do with me being here?”
His dark eyes flicked to Elena and then back to me. “That’s what I want to know.” He glanced at Elena again.
“I honestly don’t know. Just that the emissary wants to meet you and you should be present for the judgment,” Elena answered.
“Jesus, when you say it like that, it makes me not want to meet them.”
“Is everything all right, Blaire?” Ralph asked.
Devan was also out of the car, hovering
near us.
“This doesn’t concern you. You may go,” Elena said with a flare of hostility.
A tiny spark of her power touched my torso. When I rubbed my arms, she stopped whatever she was doing.
Ralph ignored Elena and stared at me. “You want us to stay?”
“No, it’s okay. Thanks, Ralph. I should be fine.”
I wasn’t so sure everything would be fine. If things went wrong, it was no use getting us both killed by vamps. One of us needed to be around to kill the priest.
We agreed that Ralph would fetch me in two days' time. Tomorrow, Sunday, we would rest, and if I made it through the evening with the Vampire Council and Roland, then tomorrow Rory and Sawyer would take me to meet their alpha, their Wolf King, just in case my body shifted for real and I picked a were-wolf.
Chapter 15
I FOLLOWED SAWYER AND ELENA INTO the large hall where everybody had gathered. The walls of the banquet hall were high and dark, like a drowning sea so blue and so dark that it looked black.
Sebastian caught my eye first, his tall body standing out among the vampires. He was wearing dark jeans, a grey t-shirt, and a black jacket. He looked very casual yet businesslike, with his blond hair styled like an executive.
There was a man I had never seen before, shorter than Sebastian, talking to him and Léon.
When Sebastian saw me, he smiled and called me over. Elena stopped and stood against the wall, like the security guard she was, while Sawyer continued to walk with me toward the men.
Salvador, Sebastian and Léon’s father, was sitting on a two-seater couch with Charlotte. Salvador was a tall man; even while he sat, you could see those long legs stretched out in front of him. His straight hair was more salt than pepper and was kept neatly off his face. His skin was pale and smooth, with high cheekbones. He, too, was in smart-casual attire, wearing jeans and a black collar dress shirt.
Charlotte wore a green blouse that made her flaming red hair look like it could burn to the touch, and her crystal green eyes were vivid; I could see the bright color of her eyes from across the room. She wore a tight black skirt and heels so high that I wouldn’t be able to walk in them. From what Sebastian had told me, Charlotte was Léon’s lover. I wondered what she might think of Léon’s display of power toward me. Was she the jealous type? If she was anything like Galina, then yeah, I should watch my back.