Embraced by Embers

by Kasey Mackenzie

  We rounded the final curve in the paved path, and the wind picked up speed courtesy of the lake gleaming in the stark moonlight. Meaning there was enough illumination to make out the scene of carnage ahead, even without magically augmenting my senses.

  Several corpses littered the rocky beach a dozen yards from the trees Rhianne had mentioned. Blood slashed through divots in the ground every few feet, and its sharp metallic tang could be scented with deep inhalations. Two more bodies sprawled beneath those trees, where I guessed Nic had brought Liam for a private moment before they’d been attacked. Those two corpses belonged to figures garbed in black leather and motorcycle helmets that covered their faces. Blood soaked their clothes as well as the grass surrounding their corpses.

  “Our attackers from earlier today,” I announced for those who hadn’t already made the connection. I stared down at the mercenary’s two corpses from mere feet away as a dozen monks secured our perimeter, bolstered by the assistance of most of my new liegesworn. The grizzled veteran who’d introduced himself as Theo and the worried mother named Melody insisted on remaining near me. They were the strongest two Elementals of the group from what I’d gleaned; she a Selkie and he a Phoenix like me. Her Selkie skills could prove invaluable given that both Nic and Rhianne were currently unavailable.

  Jake leaned down to tug off the two corpses’ face masks; nobody present recognized them, so we moved on to the bodies spread along the beach. My breath huffed out when I recognized the one closest to the water as being Liam. His body bore testament to the fierce fight he’d waged to protect my brother—even more fierce than the battle on the careening commercial truck—and his attackers had nearly decapitated him from the sheer effort it had taken to pacify him.

  We all breathed much more easily when Ju Hai pronounced that he would still be revivable. Jake, Wen, and Shan methodically unmasked each of the other leather-clad corpses that Liam and Nic had slain before Jake’s brother died and mine—currently nowhere to be seen—had presumably been abducted. Again, none of us recognized them, not until Riku and Colin rejoined us after securing the immediate vicinity.

  Riku let out a curse and knelt beside the burliest biker, one with sunburned pink skin and a ton of tattoos visible on his neck and bare lower arms. His sightless blue eyes were too dark to resemble my father’s, but think of Garrett I nonetheless did. If that man had been stupid enough to abduct someone I loved after the last warning I’d given him, his death at my hands was going to make what all these bodies had gone through look painless.

  Yeah, so this ruthless world was rubbing off on me. If it required me to do terrible things to terrible people to protect the innocent, that was a price I was willing to pay.

  “You recognize him?” Jake’s tone was sharper than I’d heard in some time, and catching his furious and anguished expression when he glanced at Liam’s limp body, I understood just why. He’d only recently regained a relationship with his brother and had already almost lost him again. That thought inspired an anguished expression to cross my face as well. My own brother was lost—what if that loss was permanent?

  Riku ignored our visible emotions, and his continued calmness allowed me to find my own. Or at least pretend to. “I do. This man is one of the leaders of a Springfield-based mercenary group. They hire themselves out to anyone who will pay their exorbitant fees.”

  Springfield was about 45 minutes from nearby Branson; more like 35 if you drove like my bondmate. Considering the incentive burning through my system, even I might drive like a bat out of hell if that meant finding Nic.

  Jake moved to kneel beside Riku. “These mercenaries are Freeholders?”

  Riku nodded, serene expression cracking enough to reveal derision. “The Chapter based out of Springfield covers a large swath of southwestern Missouri. Some of them are upstanding people, of course. But their leadership will accept anyone who can pay their dues, and paying extra means they’ll look the other way if you skirt the laws provided that no Clans complain.”

  Jake’s parents stepped over, glaring at the mercenary’s body as if he’d been personally responsible for their son’s death. Which could actually be the case.

  Breena’s green eyes smoldered. “Good, because we can damned well pay them enough to look the other way if any area Clans are unwise enough to bitch when we exact retribution.”

  My lips twisted fondly. I’m so glad she’s now on my side! Because damn, could she be scary. “Since there’s no sign of Nic, I’m going to try to contact him now.”

  Things had been too hectic for me to try that sooner. Jake provided a solid figure for me to lean against, and he wrapped his arms around me as I shut my eyes, leaped into Spirit, and envisioned my brother’s face inside my mind. Now that I was so much better at using my Mindbending abilities, I usually had only to think of someone I was close to and channel Spirit to zip straight to the threads of Spirit closest to their physical body. But something blocked me from connecting with his psyche.

  “Shit. I can’t find him using Spirit. Something—or someone—is blocking me. Perhaps the unidentified Mindbender we suspect is out there.” I touched Jake’s shoulder to ground myself emotionally the way physical proximity to my bondmate never failed to do. “Gonna have to try a different approach. Are the mercenary’s headquarters near Springfield?”

  Riku nodded. “About 10 minutes nearer to us, I’d say.”

  “Do you have any maps handy? Preferably ones I can mark up?” That question earned another nod. “Good. I have an idea on how to track these assholes down and get my brother back. And God help whoever was behind this, because I sure won’t.”

  Breena stepped over to pat me on the shoulder as if I were a small child. Her words had me melting as if I actually were. “Good. The more I get to know you, the more proud I am to call you another daughter. Now, let’s get our ass-kicking boots on.”

  Nerves jangled beneath the surface when I sat at one of the wooden tables in the courtyard a few minutes later. All of my liegesworn except for Nic—including the newbies, a heavily pregnant Bianca, and Keith—sat or stood all around me. A large, colorful map depicting the state of Missouri in all its glory rested on the table in front of me, along with a box of magic markers. Time to put my theory to the test.

  I glanced at the expectant faces surrounding me. “Since someone is blocking me from contacting Nic directly, it’s time to get sneaky. Riku—can you mark the location of the mercenary headquarters on the map?”

  His face lit up with a smile and his eyes began to twinkle. “Indeed I can. They actually own land that borders a private lake much like ours; although more a pond, really.” He grabbed a bright red marker and circled a slice of land about 30 miles away.

  Rhianne, who had recovered from her scrying ordeal by eating enough food to give me a run for my money, cracked her knuckles with a menacing laugh. Like she’d seen one too many episodes of The Sopranos. “Excellent, the better I can drown their asses with.”

  “Whoa, settle down there, Godfather,” I said with a wink. She merely smiled even more fiercely. A sudden rush of affection flooded my system. God, it felt so good to have finally found my forever family. They would support me as unwaveringly as I would them. It overwhelmed me for a moment, but then I pulled myself together to focus on finding my brother.

  I quickly traced a path along roads and highways from our current location to the one Riku had marked on the map. Jake’s determined expression met my eyes when I nodded at him. “I’m hoping our unidentified Mindbender won’t be able to block me if I come in from the back door, so to speak. But wake me if I start showing any signs of freaking out.”

  He planted a kiss on my lips. “Understood. Make sure you get a nice, long look at whoever killed my brother, if you hear anyone bragging about bagging the nearly indestructible Gryphon. I’ll need a description of whose ass I’m gonna kick the hardest.”

  That had me laughing some of my nerves away. Judging by the light in Jake’s eyes, that had been his intention. W
as it any wonder why I loved him? All his super-fine qualities (not to mention his super-fine face and super-duper-fine body) aside, he just got me and my gallows humor.

  “All right,” I said on a deep exhalation. “Try not to burn the place down while I’m gone.”

  “No promises,” he said with an eyebrow wiggle, to which I just rolled my eyes.

  Channeling the fifth element so I could launch my psyche away from my body and zip along the nearest band of crimson Fire energy came a million times easier than even just weeks ago. Practice really did make perfect; or at least more proficient. If it really made for perfection, I’d know how to counteract the mystery Mindbender blocking me from Nic’s psychic presence.

  The ghostly images that made up the monastery’s buildings and inhabitants faded as my psyche raced along interlocking bands of Fire energy. A few times I had to borrow Jake’s affinity for Earth whenever Fire diverged from the direction I needed to travel. Occasionally, I battled the disorientation of using both physical and Elemental vision (fine when both were gazing at the same basic scene but another thing entirely when viewing locations that were miles apart) to compare my metaphysical location with the path I’d traced along the map.

  After one final check several minutes into my mental voyage, I recognized the name of the rural road leading to the pond owned by the mercenaries. Spirit responded to my call, and I wrapped its glittery sparks of magic around me, cloaking my psychic presence without forcing the Spirit into any unnatural forms. That added to the fact I was using Fire to approach the rambling ranch-style house, rather than Spirit, should get me close enough to confirm whether Nic had been brought here.

  Tension gripped me on both the physical and ethereal planes, but I shoved my fears aside and crept closer to the old but freshly-painted house. A line of motorcycles edged the dirt road that ended a dozen feet in front of the house. Several pickup trucks and a couple SUVs were parked on a long gravel driveway just off the dirt road. Fresh tire marks led to one of the SUVs, and I wondered whether that had been the vehicle used to transport my brother—and whether he was still here—and most important, whether he was still alive.

  He’d damned well better be!

  The mere thought of Nic had a band of Fire energy shimmering much more brightly. My throat went dry when I noticed that the cord of crimson magic led straight inside the sprawling house. That served as a rudimentary confirmation that Nic was indeed inside the house, and most likely alive. Still, I needed to confirm that for certain and scout out the number of enemies we’d be facing. And ideally learn the identity of our Mindbending wildcard.

  I checked to make sure that Spirit fully camouflaged my psyche and then eased toward the house. Tapping into magic to hear the sounds my physical ears would have heard revealed only the typical sounds one would expect. Buzzing insects, distant vehicles on a road busier than this country lane, and the raucous calls of birds winging by. Only when I reached the large bay window dominating the front of the house did I catch the sound of raised voices. Peeking through that open window revealed a living room filled with people. That meant I wouldn’t have to risk getting any closer and tripping any Spirit-wrapped traps the Mindbender might have laid.

  Thank goodness for people who hate curtains!

  A dozen bikers, still in their leathers but minus helmets, stood and sat around the huge living room furnished with a hodge-podge of thrift store rejects. They were gesturing wildly as they argued, none of them seeming ready to back down from their respective positions. When one pointed toward a figure sprawled upon a sleeping bag in the far corner, my pulse slowed to a crawl. Familiar spiky black hair, fauxhawk much the worse for wear, and the same jeans and trendy shirt he’d had on earlier made identifying him easy.

  Nic!

  Fortunately, he was unconscious, or his reaction to my psychic scream would likely have tipped off his captors. Especially if one of them were the Mindbender. I gritted my teeth and focused on gathering as much intel as possible. There were eight people arguing in the living room and another three in a makeshift infirmary in the house’s master bedroom. Two were Dragons partially submerged in tanks filled with soil, and the other was a Phoenix in the smallest firebath I’d ever seen. Obviously this trio had taken the worst injuries when capturing Nic.

  Sadly, none of the eleven mercs claimed credit for killing Liam. Guess that meant we’d have to kick all their asses equally hard.

  Psychically searching all the rooms in the home didn’t take long, but it didn’t reveal any other useful info. Not that I’d expected the mystery Mindbender to jump out of a closet and scream, “Here I am!” Just to be safe, I also performed a perfunctory search of the surrounding terrain—one long, grassy field that bordered thick forestland—but turned up nothing. Not even the slightest hint of Spirit-wrapped wards.

  That realization had me frowning and zooming back toward Nic’s slumbering form. Peering at him closely revealed that steady sparks of Spirit trickled into his body, a clear indication that whatever spell the Mindbender had fashioned to interfere with Rhianne’s scrying and my psychic communication was still in full force.

  Wonder if they have to stay close to maintain the spell or if they could be anywhere by now?

  That became a question for another moment when weakness began tugging me back toward my body. Despite the added strength of a dozen more liegesworn to draw upon, my body had finite limits. Ignoring these early warning signs would only lead to all kinds of trouble.

  And I already had plenty of that to go around...

  Chapter 5

  Jake's face was the first I saw when I blearily blinked my eyes open. For once, he didn't appear overly concerned. That was a good sign, since I assumed it meant nobody had attacked or burned down the monastery while I was gone. It was a relief to come back from one metaphysical trip without finding complete mayhem.

  The food elves had been busy during my absence. Several plates piled with leftovers from the earlier feast as well as a huge bottle of Dr Pepper were resting near the map on the table before me. I must've jostled it during my meanderings, because now it was wrinkled as hell. Still it had gotten the job done. Nobody wasted breath trying to interrogate me while I was stuffing my face. Not that I would've answered. A grizzly bear coming out of winter hibernation had nothing on an Elemental whose body had been ravaged by channeling too much magic. Which was pretty much my life story these days.

  Once my body had stopped trembling from low blood sugar, I looked up from my latest plate of food to meet the curious gazes of my liegesworn, Jake, and his parents. I took a moment to ask, “How is Liam?”

  Breena’s lips twisted, and she brushed a strand of red hair behind her ear. “Just as damned stubborn as his father. That boy should have been born a Dragon.”

  Wen shot her a sardonic expression, although he wisely stayed silent. Not that he needed to speak his words out loud. We were all thinking the same thing. Of Liam’s parents, his Phoenix mother was definitely the far more stubborn.

  The amusement dancing in her own eyes indicated she knew the truth, too, but no way was she going to admit it out loud. “They revived him while you were gone. Instead of doing the smart thing and sleeping, he’s getting hyped up on stimulants so he can help retrieve your brother.”

  Just hearing the us had that warm fuzzy feeling flooding through me again. Hopefully Breena wasn’t counting on me to talk Liam out of coming. Far be it from me to advise someone to hang back while their loved one—or even just lusted one since they were early days yet—was in danger. Hypocrite wasn’t a look I wore well, so I tried to avoid it. By the time I chugged the liter of Dr. Pepper, a revived Liam joined us. The barely-contained rage coloring his cheeks and clenching his jaw did not bode well for those mercenaries whose asses we were about to kick.

  The hopeless romantic deep inside had me rushing to reassure him. “I scouted out the location where they’re holding Nic. He’s alive and in one piece, but unconscious. It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes
to get there—as the crow flies or as Jake drives.”

  Normally that would have earned at least a slight upturn of his lips, but this time it barely got a nod. Man, he really did have it bad for my brother.

  “There were eleven mercs there that I counted, and I searched every inch of the ranch-style house they call headquarters along with the surrounding terrain. Three of the eleven were using Earth and Fire to heal their injuries. The other eight seemed to be either uninjured or already fully healed.”

  Liam gave a less grudging nod. “We’d better hit the road immediately or we run the risk of them either moving him or bringing in reinforcements.”

  Jake’s turn to nod. “Yeah, no telling how or when they plan to hand him off to whoever hired them. The sooner we go, the better.”

  Inwardly, I winced from the exhaustion that held my body in its grip; but outwardly I only nodded. “Agreed. Let’s assign several small teams to accompany us and go do what we do best. Kick ass, take names, and get back our brother.”

  Dia placed a hand upon my shoulder. “Damned right we’re gonna kick some ass and get back our brother. Nobody gets to pick on him except us.”

  This time, Liam actually cracked a smile. “Boy, if I had a dollar for every time Jake and Colin said that about me when we were growing up…”