“Obviously not.”
“Bugs isn’t a liar. If she said she didn’t take them, she didn’t.” Knife wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
Ryker finally dragged his gaze from mine to where Knife’s hand rested on my shoulder. By the time he looked back at Knife’s face, his stare had gone from icicle cold to glacier frost. It was a steep contrast to the magic filling the room with sweltering heat.
Knife was trying to help, but I’d been so close to getting out of here before he got involved. The last thing I needed was for the two of them to go at it. The night had already tanked. All I wanted was to get the hell out of here and call the whole visit a mistake.
“Then where are they?” Ryker asked.
Knife stepping inside had reignited the whole matter, and I was going to crack if I didn’t get out of here.
I lifted my arms. “Search me if you want, for magic’s sake, if that’ll finish this up.”
Ruck was shaking his head. “I don’t know if that’s…”
I ignored him. He’d already done enough damage tonight. I’d forgiven him, but I wasn’t listening to him now and getting stuck here for another hour.
I yanked off my jacket and flung it to the floor. I would’ve stripped out of my shirt and pants next, except I heard Ruck groan. I suddenly realized what I’d forgotten in my desperate urge to escape. My arms were a mess. Now there’d be more questions.
Knife froze.
Ryker’s eyes narrowed. “What happened to your skin?”
The three of them were staring at me. I glanced down, realizing the damage was worse than it had initially looked. Bruises were forming up and down my arms, and the sleeveless shirt was displaying them all.
“I fell.” Technically, the monster had shoved me down.
Ryker reached forward, grabbing my wrist and pulling me closer. “Did he do this to you?”
I could feel the room about to explode.
Knife stepped forward. “Me? You’re the one who just manhandled her.”
Ryker pulled on my arm until he was standing between Knife and me. What was wrong with him? Knife had a very good point. Ryker had dragged me in here.
Ruck was staring, shaking his head, eyes as big as I’d ever seen them. He turned to me. “Do something!”
I barely heard him over the buzzing of magic that I thought even Ruck felt.
If it didn’t calm down in the next few minutes, Knife was going to be dead. Even with sweat breaking out all over his body, Knife was all in. He wasn’t going to back down.
Ryker let go of my wrist, and I tried to dodge back around to step in between him and Knife but was blocked by two forearms. Well, at least they agreed on something.
“I told you what would happen,” Ryker said, nearly nose to nose with Knife.
“Do something,” Ruck said.
Someone was going to be dead if I didn’t come clean. Dammit. Did I really have to?
“Don’t act like you’re the one trying to protect her when all you’ve ever done is use her.” Knife’s chest puffed out as a bead of sweat dripped from his cheek to his shirt, and his face had gone red.
“And you haven’t? Everyone knows about the fucking tent.”
Really? Everyone? Tents were nothing to be embarrassed of. It was a job.
Damn, it was getting uncomfortable in here.
I had minutes, maybe seconds, before Knife dropped. Fuck. I pushed forward again, ramming into Ryker’s arm, the one that sprang up as soon as I moved. “It wasn’t either of you two. I was attacked by something else.”
Both heads swung to me.
“What?” they asked in unison.
Twelve
I was curled up in the corner of Ryker’s couch, wondering how this night had gotten worse as the chatter in the room buzzed in my ears. I’d thought I’d bottomed out when I was curled in a ball in the center of the street. Somehow, curled in the corner of Ryker’s couch was worse.
“Bugs,” Ryker said, jerking my attention back to him. He stood in front of me, not looking fatigued despite the fact that we’d been at this for hours. “You’re sure there isn’t anything you left out?”
Ryker had been leading the interrogation. Knife had tried several takeovers, but they’d been unsuccessful. Dez, Burn, and Sneak were hanging back, listening like it was the first time they’d heard speech before.
Ruck was on the other side of the couch, an elbow on the armrest and his palm holding up his chin. I tried not to make any fast movements, because a firm rattle of the couch and he was going down. At least one of us could catch a nap.
I shrugged. I’d lost the urge to argue an hour ago. I was on to the part where I was blindly repeating everything in hopes this would end soon. It was torture by repetition. “There was the time at Dorley I smelled it, and then here.” This was the fifth time I’d answered this question, and I didn’t think it would be the last.
Ruck squinted, as if he were in physical pain. He leaned back and said, “Wait, didn’t you tell me you noticed something after Knife’s birthday dinner?”
“No. I don’t remember anything being off.”
Ruck rubbed his eyes and then yawned. “After he blew out the candles? You were complaining they smelled weird.”
I sucked in a breath. I’d thought it was a funny-smelling smoke. “Yeah, he’s right. I did.”
It had been so subtle I’d completely forgotten it.
Ryker took a few steps away, shaking his head. He’d finally gotten additional information and now he was more annoyed?
His silence didn’t last long. “Why wasn’t I told about this?”
“That I smelled something funny?” He’d lost his mind. Completely and utterly lost it.
Knife edged forward, crowding Ryker. “Or me? You live with me. I should’ve been the first to know.”
The only reprieve I got from Ryker’s death eye was when he switched it to Knife. “You can’t handle this situation. I should’ve been informed, though.”
If there weren’t several layers of people in between me and the door, and my wingman Ruck looked as energetic as a plucked turkey, I would’ve made a run for it.
“There wasn’t anything to tell. It was a smell.” I pulled a knee up to give my arm a resting place. If my skin wasn’t raw, no one would’ve believed I’d been attacked. Now we were debating the threat level of a smell.
I looked at Burn and made a gesture like I was tilting something to my lips. He broke away from next to Sneak to come to my side. He tugged a flask out of his pocket and handed it over.
I knew he’d have something on him. I took a swig and then another until I finished it.
“You okay?” he asked, pointing to my skin, while Ryker and Knife argued about who should’ve been informed.
“Yeah, I’m good. Looks worse and all that.”
He nodded, rolling his lips in as he continued to watch me.
“I’m fine, really. It was just—weird.” And slightly terrifying, like a living nightmare, but I didn’t have the energy or inclination to whine at the moment.
He smiled a little and then looked at his feet, like if he looked at me for another minute he’d call me on my bullshit.
“So it said Bugs, that’s it? Nothing else?” Burn asked.
Ah shit. “Well, no. Not that name.”
“What did it say?” Dez asked, moving forward, taking the seat in between Ruck and me.
Ryker and Knife had stopped speaking and were back to interrogation mode.
“It called me by the name my mother gave me,” I said.
Ruck’s mouth went so wide I could see his tonsils. “Seriously? The monster knows your real name before me? I didn’t even think you remembered it. That’s fucking bullshit.”
“To clarify, it called you Chiara?” Ryker asked.
My head snapped to him. “How do you know my name?”
“He knew it too?” Ruck threw his hands up. “What the fuck? You think you know someone and they’re hiding all sorts of shit.”
“I didn’t tell him,” I yelled at Ruck, as he got to his feet and waved a hand at me.
“Then how’d he know?” Ruck pointed at Ryker.
“How did you know my name?” I asked Ryker.
“It was on the contract your parents signed that the Debt Collector showed us.”
Showed? That was a stretch. The show he was referring to was more like a fluttering piece of paper in the air. We’d barely seen anything, or I hadn’t.
“Anybody have a guess on what this thing is?” Burn asked.
The room fell quiet for the first time since they’d all come shuffling in here. Leave it to Burn to cut to the heart of the problem.
Ryker was running a hand through his hair like he was sorting through ideas in his mind. Knife was scratching his jaw. Dez was leaning forward, her hands steepled on her legs.
“Maybe it’s a Gorgol?” Dez mumbled through her fingers.
Ruck’s forehead grew about ten new wrinkles as he looked at me and mouthed, What’s a Gorgol?
I shrugged. I know but didn’t like the sound of it.
“No, I’d sense one of those a mile away, and they aren’t strong enough to break an outer ward.” Ryker said.
“What about Snarg?” Sneak asked.
Ruck kept flashing his gaze to me, checking in. If he thought I had a clue, he was wrong. I might be a Wyrd Blood by birth, but I’d lived the life of a dull, not run in magical circles where this sort of thing was discussed.
Ryker was shaking his head again. “They can’t disappear like that. Their mass is too heavy, and wrong type of magic anyway. I’ve never encountered something that could be invisible and not trip off one of my wards.”
Wasn’t I special? I had a brand-new monster all to myself, never seen before.
Sneak cleared his throat from the other side of the room. “Maybe you should worm it? See if we can narrow it down?”
I hadn’t thought up a reply to shut this down when Knife said, “She can’t worm. She’s been on the fritz for a few days now.”
“He said it. Not me,” Ruck whispered in my direction.
“You can’t worm?” Ryker was tilting his head down, crossing his arms. “No one thought this should be mentioned earlier? That it might be important?”
Did he think he was in charge of running my life? Thank magic I’d left when I had. One night back and he was trying to take complete control again.
“No. I didn’t. And I didn’t sign over my life and everything I am when we merged magic. Now I’ve had enough. I’m going home. Where’s Switch?”
Ryker stepped forward. “Now you’re going to be stupid and think you can handle it alone?”
I stood. “Stupid was when I trusted you wouldn’t take my magic.”
This was getting too intimate. It was feeling like old times. Even the bickering. The anger toward him. It was as if all the feelings were getting dredged up from the abyss and set loose, running wild. Feelings I wanted to freeze up, dry out, and bury six feet under.
The longer I let this conversation go on, the worse it would get. He was already trying to take the reins. Next he’d be telling me what I was supposed to do and with whom while I watched him do everyone else with everybody.
“This isn’t your problem. It’s mine, and I’m ready to go.” I looked to Knife. “Where’s Switch?” I asked again.
Ryker stepped closer. “You’re not going anywhere. There’s a creature in my territory and my stones are missing. You might prefer to fuck him, but he can’t protect you.”
“You don’t have a right to talk to me about who I want to fuck or where I’m going.” We were standing toe to toe, his magic crashing against mine and becoming something else altogether. And I knew I had to get out of there.
I stepped away from Ryker, and he didn’t try to stop me.
“Who was the last person to see Switch? I’m leaving.” I’d walk if I needed to. I turned around the room, looking from one person to the next. They were all staring at Ryker and me, as if we’d been groping and kissing in the middle of the room.
Knife was staring the hardest, squinting as if he were trying to read tiny lettering.
I moved closer until I was right in front of Knife. “I need to go. Where is Switch?”
He finally broke his concentration from Ryker and focused on me. Before he spoke, I knew something was off. “You know, maybe it would be best for you to stay here for a little while, just until this is resolved.”
“Wh-what?” There was no way Knife had suggested I stay here.
“I’ll stay too, but I think it’s better. Just for a little while, at least…”
He kept talking, repeating his argument for me staying.
His words faded into the buzz that was ringing in my ears. It was on the tip of my tongue to refuse. I could see in Knife’s eyes as he continued to repeat the same thing in different ways, that he’d deny me my home in Dorley.
What was going on here? Was he afraid that Ryker would kill him? Was there something else afoot? Did he not trust Ryker? Did he think Ryker was behind the attack and wanted to remain close in order to catch him?
Either way, if I walked out of here with nowhere to go, Ruck would follow me. I might be dooming us both to death without the protection of a city and fellow Wyrd Blood. There was a monster stalking me. What if I died out there and left him stranded alone?
“You want me to stay? That’s what you’re saying?” I asked, even though he’d said it in every way imaginable over the course of five minutes.
“Only for a little while,” Knife said, his eyes already pleading for forgiveness.
He must have a plan of some sort. It was the only thing that made any sense. Okay. I’d play along, but he better supply some answers as soon as we were alone.
I threw up my hands and turned around. “Fine. You all want me to stay? I will, and I’ll get you your damn stones back.” I didn’t know how I was going to do it, and from the looks around the room, they were all stumped on that matter too. Well, fuck them all. Except Ruck. I was going to need some help, after all. Everyone needed a little backup. And Dez too. She didn’t have any guilt here. Actually, just fuck Ryker.
I marched toward the door and then stopped. “I still have a room, right?”
Ryker nodded, and I swore he wanted to smile. He didn’t, but I could feel the happiness on him. I could smell it. Gloater. He thought he’d won, but I wasn’t going to be here long.
“Hey,” he said, right before I walked out. The stone came flying toward me.
I caught it and then pocketed it. He was wrong about one thing: I might be stubborn, but I wasn’t stupid.
Thirteen
I jerked awake to the sounds of people starting their day. It took a minute to remember that life had gotten upended last night. If the sounds hadn’t done it, the stone jabbing through my pocket and into my ribs would’ve. I’d slept with my jacket on in order to have a close place to keep it.
Back in my room. Back at the Valley. Back to seeing Ryker at every turn. There was one other thing back in my life that I could be happy about, though. Biscuits! Piles of fresh eggs and sausage. I might’ve eaten the dull fare at Dorley, but I hadn’t liked it.
The food would have to wait for a few, though. I needed to find Knife and find out his plan. Whatever he was thinking, it would surely need some fine tuning if history was any indication. Plus, I had my own plans to lay out. I’d been winging it for months, and where had that gotten me? Back here.
I was out my door five minutes later and kneeling in a fresh batch of dirt a minute after that. This had been one of my favorite spots to worm when I’d lived here. Plenty of cover, with bushes facing the busy part of the Valley, but plenty of sun, too. Maybe my worming issue wasn’t me. It could’ve been Dorley soil and unhappy worms.
The minute the worm landed in my palm, its wiggling made it clear that there’d be no answers today. Guess it wasn’t Dorley. I dropped it without asking anything and headed off to where Knife’s room had been la
st time he’d stayed here. Odds were, we’d all be back in the same places.
I banged on his door several times to no answer, so I opened it. It wasn’t locked, and his ward was pathetic. Other than a nosey dull, I doubted it would keep even the lowest-level Wyrd Blood at bay. After last night, I wouldn’t put it past him to try and dodge me.
No Knife. I stepped out of his room and headed toward Ryker’s place. It was on the way to breakfast, and I might as well get my business settled now so I didn’t have to back track later. I had some things I needed to handle with him, too.
Ryker was standing in the living room drinking coffee and talking to Burn when I barged in without knocking. No Knife, though.
They stopped speaking as soon as I walked in, making me suspect I’d been the topic of conversation.
The aroma of black brew drew me over to the side table, and I made myself a cup as they watched, as if they knew I had a bomb to drop. There was also a plate of biscuits by it. No wonder Ryker was always the last to show for breakfast. It was surprising he showed at all. He was getting in-house catering.
Biscuit and coffee in hand, I took a seat on the couch. I’d been sorting through this fiasco since last night, and I saw only one way that I’d be safe here for the time. I choked down a couple of bites before I laid out my demands. “I need more stones. I need enough to be able to ward off a nice chunk of real estate around where I’m staying while we figure things out. I’m thinking six should do it.”
Ryker leaned a shoulder against the wall. “You were going to retrieve my stones. Now I have to help you get more?”
I took a sip of coffee, and then another bite of biscuit. I’d seen this question coming the second I decided what needed to be done. “Yes. If you want your original stones back, that’s part of the deal. When I leave, I give you three back and keep the rest.”
And then if I still had a monster issue, I’d be better protected.
I angled away from him, looking across the room. There was a tan bag sitting in the corner that would have a stain on the other side. A sleeve with a ragged cuff was hanging out. Knife hated that shirt. How many times had he threatened to throw it out, saying it made it look like he didn’t pay me enough? Technically, he didn’t, but I hadn’t stayed at Dorley for the money. I’d stayed there to avoid the man now standing in front of me.
Blood Binds: Wyrd Blood Book Three Page 7
