by D. N. Hoxa
Then we continued to talk about the Uprising, music, and even the Pack for a while.
Two hours later, I made my way back home with Kit over my shoulder. I wasn’t exactly afraid. I didn’t think Amina would attack me again, knowing what had happened with Yutain, but I still looked around me every few seconds. The paranoia was ready to swallow me whole.
When I made it to the apartment and opened the door, two things shocked me. There was a piece of paper folded on the floor, like somebody had pushed it under the door.
My living room couch was torn. Marks of tiny claws were everywhere. About half the kitchen cabinets were wide open, and there were dishes all over the floor. Kit’s children were running around like headless chickens in the midst of it all and Dalia was nowhere to be seen.
“Goddamn it!” I shouted so loud that Kit woke right up. “Look at what they’ve done!”
Kit jumped to the floor and rushed to them, squeaking loudly. The little hellbeasts all stopped running and froze in place.
“Clean everything up. Now.” I ordered them, but none of them moved a single muscle.
Then Kit squeaked again, and they suddenly turned to the dishes, grabbing them and dragging them toward the kitchen. With a hand to my face, I took in a deep breath and urged my heart to calm down. I closed the door and grabbed the piece of paper from the floor. I opened it—it was a spell for a potion, handwritten in black ink. I had no idea what it was for, but my stomach pretended it was home to all sorts of butterflies long before my mind caught up with it. This was from Damian, and I had no idea what the hell it even was. The need to know where he was and what he was up to almost suffocated me, but I’d already decided that I wouldn’t go there again. With a sigh, I put the piece of paper in my back pocket and went to help the hellbeasts tidy up the place.
Chapter Six
In the morning, I met the girls for brunch. Malin, who was a nurse at a human hospital, had the second shift, and Jamie had barely woken up in time. She worked late at Cavalieros, the best club in the New York Shade, and she usually slept past noon. Today, she’d made an effort. She’d even brushed her bright blue hair, which was a surprise.
“What the hell is wrong with people? How can they be so…awake?” she said when the waitress brought our orders and left. We were in the human part of Manhattan. I hadn’t exactly explained to them why I wanted to keep away from the Shade over the phone, but I would in a second, and that made me very nervous.
“Maybe because it’s noon?” Malin said, shaking her head, her corkscrew curls bouncing with every movement.
“Exactly,” Jamie said, completely missing the point. “It’s just noon, people!” she shouted, which made half the restaurant we were in turn their heads toward us.
I laughed. “Not everybody’s as lucky as you. People have to get up early for work,” I reminded her.
“Well, people suck,” she informed us. “Why are we here again?”
“Because that’s what normal friends do. They have brunch together. We’re having brunch together,” Malin said. “Just wake up already. You’re on your second coffee.”
“Some vodka would have been better.” When we looked at her, she shrugged. “What? It would wake me right up.” Uma, her familiar, a beautiful black cat, purred. She was sitting by Jamie’s feet, watching, moving her tail slowly from one side to the other, like she was trying to hypnotize everyone who stared at her. She was the reason why we were in that restaurant. They allowed pets in here.
“Doesn’t matter. You’re not drinking vodka at noon,” Malin said.
“Oh, she won’t need the vodka at all. What I’m about to tell you guys will wake her up just fine,” I said reluctantly. I just wanted to get it over with as soon as I could.
“Oh? Do tell,” Jamie said, her big, green eyes suddenly very alert as she and Malin leaned closer.
“Well, I don’t know where to even begin. I was attacked by the Uprising three nights ago.” They gasped. “Well, technically, I didn’t even fight, just did a spell on the vampire guy—Mason.”
Then I stopped. Maybe Carter was really onto something here. I sucked at telling stories.
“By the goddess, Sin,” Malin breathed.
“It’s fine! I’m fine. Not a scratch on me, I promise.” They were always afraid for me because of my job as it was. I hadn’t wanted to freak them out earlier by talking about it over the phone.
“Are you sure? Because you do look a bit pale,” Jamie said, like she’d just noticed.
“I’m fine. You can see that I’m fine.”
“Absolutely fine? Nothing hurts? No wounds that we can’t see?” Malin pushed, looking down at my body.
“I swear it, I am one hundred percent fine.” I didn’t even think they’d believe me. I half expected Jamie to demand I strip in front of them right then and there.
“So what happened?” Malin asked.
Ah, the tricky part. “So, um…I was trying to use my Talent, actually, on the Mason guy. He wasn’t alone—Amina Gray was with him, but she kept her distance and only watched.”
“That bitch,” they both said at the same time. “Then?”
“Then…Damian came. Out of nowhere.” For some reason, I lowered my eyes to the table, as if they were inside my head and knew exactly how I’d felt when I’d seen him. Damn it, I used to be good at this. At keeping things hidden. I’d done it my whole life. Now, when it came to Damian, I was nothing but a rookie.
“Shut up,” Jamie said, almost breathlessly. “He’s back in the City?”
I nodded. “Apparently. He just showed up out of nowhere with his sword, and he fought Mason, and then he…stopped.” The way the girls were looking at me, you’d think they were waiting for the verdict on their lives. “You’ll never guess who came,” I said to Malin.
“Who? Who came?”
“Yutain,” I whispered, leaning my head closer to them.
“What? What’s that?” Jamie asked. Just like I suspected, she had no idea who Yutain was.
“No fucking way.” Malin put her hand to her chest, her mouth wide open.
“Yes, way. He’s real. He’s this thousand-year-old vampire, who lives in the wind or some shit. I don’t know, he kind of owns the human part of Manhattan. He came and he said he didn’t want any trouble and that he wanted to talk to Damian.”
“Oh, my goddess,” Malin whispered. “That’s insane!”
“And? Then what happened?” Jamie urged.
“Then the Mason guy tried to attack Damian again, and then Yutain, he…um, he killed him. Really, really quick. It was…” My voice trailed off. I didn’t want to even think about it, let alone put it in words for the girls. “It was brutal. Let’s just leave it at that.”
They looked positively shocked. “What did Damian say?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. He left with Yutain and I went home. Amina just stayed there and watched me like she wanted to eat me whole, but she didn’t attack. I don’t think the Uprising will try to attack me out here again, and that’s why I’m staying out of the Shade. For now.”
Realization flashed in both their eyes. “Fucking hell,” Jamie breathed.
“Did you see Damian again?” Malin asked.
I nodded. “He came by the apartment. He said that the Uprising was coming for me and that they had people high up in the Guild. I kind of shut the door in his face.”
Jamie scratched her chin. “But where was he? Why did he disappear?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask. It doesn’t matter.” It really didn’t.
“Of course it matters. How did he look? Was he injured or something?” Malin asked.
“He was but from the fight with Mason. When I first saw him, he was fine.” Better than fine. Very…godlike, damn him.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Jamie asked, squinting her eyes at me.
I sighed. “I’m going after the Uprising.”
It was like I’d pressed a big red button with the sign DON’T PRESS THIS BUTT
ON over it. They gasped and they told me all about how I was a fool, that I wasn’t going after anyone, and all that stuff. They went at it for five whole minutes before they actually let me explain.
“I won’t be alone. I will be with Carter. He wants them dead, too.” I wanted to tell them why, but that wasn’t my secret to share. Carter wanted them dead because he believed that the Uprising killed his father. Couldn’t blame him. I wanted them dead for less. “I’m going to buy a shitload of spells, and Carter’s going to bring weapons. And twenty werewolves, too. I’ll be fine. The Guild will be there in minutes, probably. All I have to do is kill Amina and the fae.” I flinched. “And Boyle.”
“It’s madness, Sin,” Malin said. “You can’t take them on your own.”
“Sure I can because I’ll be prepared. I’ll buy spells, remember? And you’re going to take me to that witch you’re always talking about after we’re done here.” She’d always mentioned a Prime witch who made the best spells that lasted the longest in the Shade. That sounded exactly like the right person for my spells.
“I don’t know about this, Sin,” Jamie said, shaking her head. I’d been right about one thing, at least. She was now wide-awake.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it,” I said, hoping to change the subject before they thought up more reasons why this was a disastrous idea. I took the piece of paper from my back pocket and gave it to Malin. “This is a recipe for a potion, right? Any idea what it is?”
“Where did you get it?”
“Found it in my apartment. Somebody slipped it under the door. I think it was Damian.” Who else would it be?
She analyzed it for a second. “It is a potion, but I have no clue what it’s for. I can search if you’d like.”
“I searched the Shade Net. It doesn’t recognize it.” The Shade Net was a massive database online where you could find all kinds of information, whatever the Sacri Guild deemed safe for the public to know. This spell didn’t exist in it.
“We can ask Allison,” she said and handed back the piece of paper. “The witch we’re going to see about the spells.”
“I still think this is a stupid idea,” Jamie insisted.
“I’m not going to just sit around and wait for them to catch me unprepared, Jamie. What if I don’t even see them coming? What if they grab a gun and shoot me from a distance? What then?” The look on her face said she hadn’t thought about that at all. “I have to take care of it while I still can. I won’t be alone, and once the Guild gets there, it will be game over. They’ll catch them all.”
“She’s right,” Malin said. “Sitting on your ass means you’ll die for sure eventually. But if you do this, you might have a chance.”
“Yes! Thank you—that’s exactly what I mean.”
“And I’m going to help.”
“Me, too,” said Jamie, but I shook my head.
“No, you’re not. That’s why I’m buying spells. And why Carter will have twenty people with him. I won’t need wards this time, and I won’t need to hide from people.” That was kind of the whole point.
“Fucking hell, Sin,” Jamie said, rubbing her face. “You’re so…complicated.”
I laughed. “You haven’t even heard the best part yet.”
“What? There’s more?”
I nodded. “Kit has a family.”
“Shut the front door,” said Malin.
“A hellbeast family. A mate who looks like a version of Kit’s true form, only she has three eyes, and—check this out—they have five kids. Tiny little hellbeasts who have four legs and are furry. They have the three red eyes and everything—I’ve even named them. There’s Milky, Bear, Hungry, Mustache, and DaVinci.” I counted them all on my fingers.
There was a reason why I’d named the last two hellbeasts like that. Mustache had a legit mustache—his fur was darker over his lips, and it looked exactly like a mustache. And DaVinci was the little fucker who drew on my walls. Well, scratched them with his tiny claws in all kinds of shapes. I thought he wanted to be an artist when he grew up, but who knows?
A minute ticked by and the girls had yet to say something. They just kept staring at me.
“Also, the mate’s name is Dalia,” I added, just in case they were wondering. “She’s really strict with the kids. They fear her. And Kit, too. They don’t listen to me for shit, though. They’ve taken Sonny’s room. I’m not even allowed in there anymore.” I don’t know why I kept on talking.
“By the gods, you’re serious,” Jamie finally said.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Let’s just eat our food before I pass out,” Malin said. “And just a suggestion—next time, don’t just dump it all out on us at once. Be more subtle, for fuck’s sake.”
Subtle? I could be subtle. “Deal.”
After that, we didn’t talk about me anymore, which was a relief. Instead, Malin told us all about her new boyfriend, Robbie, the Necromancer who worked for the Guild. It was easy to see she was infatuated with him. Her eyes sparkled when she said his name, and it made both Jamie and me giddy about it, but for once, we held back the bad jokes and let Malin talk. We could always make her life miserable later.
Allison Baker was a Prime witch who owned a shop in the Shade. I’d have preferred not to go in there at all, but I needed to know what I was buying. It was almost three p.m. when we made it to her shop because I’d had to go back home and get Kit. When in the Shade, he had to stick with me at all times, like true familiars do. He no longer minded going out with me. Guess now that his family was safe at the apartment, with him at all times, he didn’t need to hurry to go see them. I really was happy for him.
The witch’s shop was very fancy. White marble floors, glass shelves on either side of the square room, with all kinds of things in them. Bright white lights, a nice white sofa on the side with a small round table to the left, and a really pretty lamp on it with rich greens and golds.
The witch herself was sitting behind a desk on the right of the room, two bright lights at her back that made her come into focus, look brighter somehow with an almost eerie glow. It made me wonder if she’d done it on purpose or even if it were a spell of some kind. She stood up when we entered, a fake smile plastered all over her face. She was about six feet tall with the stilettos she had on, and her skintight black dress looked very expensive, too. Her light brown hair was combed back, neatly tucked behind her ears, and every strand looked completely frozen in place when she moved.
“Malin, so good to see you,” Allison Baker said, her voice light as a breeze as she came to shake Malin’s hand.
“It’s good to see you, too, Allison. It’s been a while,” Malin said politely. “Please, meet my friends—Jamie Taylor and Sin Montero.” We all shook hands and exchanged fake smiles for a few seconds.
“Nice place you’ve got here. I can feel the magic from the shelves all the way here,” Jamie said, pointing her finger at the glass shelves. She was right. Magic radiated from them—possibly the ward the witch had put up to protect those items. Even Kit was interested. He kept sniffing the air from my shoulder, but he didn’t jump off me yet. Uma, though, couldn’t care less. As soon as we entered, she curled up by the door, paws under her chin, and looked at the street outside.
“Magic is what I sell,” Allison said with a proud smile. She’d sure made an impression. “How can I help you ladies today?”
“My friend Sin here is a maneater hunter, and she and her team have been having some trouble lately with some maneaters,” Malin said, just like we talked about at the restaurant. “She’s looking for some fighting spells. Powerful spells that can kill maneaters without trouble.”
Allison raised her thin brows as she looked at me, new interest sparking in her eyes. “I’ve sold spells to maneater hunters before. Who is your team?”
Ah, shit. “Carter Conti and two others. We just got the permit a month ago. I doubt you’d know them.”
Again, she gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I have a few spells
that have a proven track record against maneaters.” She moved to the glass shelves on the left, behind the white sofa, and put a hand over the glass. She whispered to herself, probably to deactivate the ward, then took what looked like a piece of rock from the shelf. It would easily fit in my fist, but it wasn’t a piece of rock. It was a gem, dark green in color, roughly cut and full of sharp edges.
“This is a fire attack Prime spell,” Allison said as she held the gem between two fingers and showed it to us. “It’s a bit costly but it’s powerful. It will be sure to knock two maneaters on their backs and keep them down for at least five seconds.”
My mouth watered. I wanted that gem so much I thought about grabbing it from her hand. For now, I only nodded. Allison made her way to the other side of the room and brought back two more items. One was a gem, too, a bit smaller than the first, and orange in color. The other looked sort of like a silver locket—round and engraved with Latin letters on either side.
The gem was the opposite of the spell I’d used the first time I’d fought Amina and the Uprising in the Shade. Allison said it would turn the lights out for the target and keep them in complete darkness. A very useful spell. What I wanted was to see without being seen, and since I was the bait, this would be as close to that goal as I was going to get.
The locket was a fire spell, too, except this one leaked a sort of magical fuel that lit the target on fire, a fire that couldn’t be put out for a solid thirty seconds, even with magic. Very useful, too.
I requested a freezing spell—those were really handy. I used them all the time, but since I wasn’t going to be using my magic this time around, a bought spell would have to do. This one would do exactly as the name suggests: it would freeze the target for a few seconds to give me enough time to get close and personal, and stab them in the heart. Or the eye. Either would do the job.
And when Allison told me the price, I told her I’d get two of the darkness and the magical fire spells, and one of the standard fire and freezer spells. She literally gasped. It was a lot of money, but I was willing to spend all I had if it meant I pulled this off.
