Fated Mates of the Underworld, Books 1-3

by Baxter, Linzi

Grandma smiled. “No. Everything that happened in the last two weeks will be a blip in the universe until she is back in power.”

  Wrath stood with her sword. “Let’s go kick some ass.”

  Atieno pinched the bridge of his nose. “First, we still don’t have a location. Second, you guys are all tipsy, if not drunk.”

  I went to stand next to Wrath. The floor swayed, and I sat back down on Atieno’s lap. “The media is breathing down my neck. How am I going to bring a warlock into custody?”

  “Ms. Cloven, can you come out of retirement for one last case? Your replacement is good but not as good as you.”

  I looked between Grandma and Atieno and took a sip of wine. “What are you talking about?”

  Grandma ignored me. “Yes.” She let out a sigh. “When I was younger, I worked for the council. I can strip powers. I stripped Synth many years ago. That’s why he’s after me. If he’d gotten to me, he would’ve been at full power again.”

  The next couple of hours we spent talking and laughing. Tomorrow we would get back to work, but tonight was about family.

  14

  I woke to the sound of voices and the smell of pancakes. My stomach rolled at the smell. Any other day, I would be excited to go downstairs and eat Grandma’s breakfast.

  How much wine did we drink last night? After Atieno arrive, Grandma broke out the tequila and said we needed a night of fun before all hell broke loose. I was sure hell had already broken loose.

  “How are you feeling? Here’s a glass of water and some aspirin to help with the headache.”

  I slowly opened my eyes, and the sun shone in through the window. It seemed extra bright for the morning. Quickly resting my arm over my eyes to block out some of the bright light, I let out a groan. “What time is it?”

  From the noise downstairs, it sounded like everyone was up. I wanted to sleep for another few hours.

  “It’s quarter to ten. We need to head into the office.”

  It was later than I thought. “I want to call in sick.”

  Atieno smirked. “I told you not to do those shots last night. Now, why don’t you take those pills, and we can go downstairs? Bacon and pancakes will help your stomach.”

  My stomach turned at the sound of food. “Why aren’t you hungover?”

  “Half vampire, half lion. I have a very fast metabolism. I can’t get drunk.”

  I glared at the very sexy man sitting next to me on the bed. Life was unfair. I lay there, looking like death drove over me and backed up a few times. The pounding in my head made it hard to concentrate.

  “Mike called this morning. He went over to Sasha’s house to tell her about Fate,” Atieno continued. “She’s not going to cross over until we figure out who killed her.”

  “I should be there for her.” I needed to take a shower and get moving, no matter how comfortable the bed was and how much it smelled like Atieno. I could’ve laid there all day. More than anything, I needed to figure out where the warlock was hiding and blow him up. The thought of killing him made my head hurt a little less.

  Atieno leaned down and kissed my forehead. “First take the pills and jump in the shower. It will make you feel better.”

  “How do you know? You’ve never been hungover.”

  Atieno’s deep laugh rumbled as he walked out the door. “Hurry up. Mike’s going to meet us in an hour.”

  I couldn’t hold back a smile. I really liked Atieno. Would I always feel the same, or was this because it was new? “What am I going to do?” I asked.

  I grabbed the pills off the table and downed them. The cool water felt good and refreshing. Besides Grandma, Sasha and my mom, no one had ever looked out for me before and brought me something when I didn’t feel good. The last time I was sick, I was dating a man I met online. We had been together for a few months, and I called to tell him I couldn’t go out because I had the flu. He hadn’t asked if I needed anything. He told me to call when I was no longer sick.

  Atieno cared about me.

  The pounding in my head decreased a little as I stepped into the shower. The warm water felt good as it trickled down my body. With each second under the water, my hangover decreased a little. I turned off the shower and stepped out, grabbing a blue towel.

  “Coffee?” Atieno held out a mug. “This will help with the headache.”

  I grabbed the mug and took a long swig, enjoying the rich roast as it went down my throat.

  “Thank you.” The caffeine kicked in. “Are Wrath and Paldon still here?”

  Atieno wrapped his strong arms around me. I rested my head on his chest. “No. They went home last night. Paldon didn’t have cribs for the twins. After we go to the station and figure out our next plan, we can call and let them know. It wouldn’t look right if we brought two civilians in to work with us. And I know Wrath wouldn’t leave her sword at the front desk.”

  I took another sip of coffee before throwing on a pair of dress pants and a white button-down shirt. Time to get to work.

  * * *

  “We need to go back to the Shouting Lychee,” Mike said.

  Jared, Mike, Atieno, and I sat around the conference room table.

  “I don’t think he would be stupid enough to keep Fate at the Shouting Lychee.” My instincts told me he had moved on. He would wait before he attacked Grandma or me again.

  I wondered if he had drained her powers and we might be too late. Atieno reassured me that hadn’t happened. As of last night, the council still had tabs on her and knew she was still alive, but they couldn’t pinpoint her location because she was too weak. They had told Atieno they thought she was underground. With the water table so high in New Orleans, I doubted that was an option.

  Jared put down his cup of coffee, a frown on his face. “Why not set a trap? He’s made it clear he’s after you and your grandma. Both of you could go to the bar. It would only be a matter of time before he showed up.”

  Mike stood and went to the map on the wall. “He would see a trap a mile away.” Mike looked over to Atieno. “You said the council thought she was underground. I wonder if the old, thick stone tombs would have the same effect as being underground if he added magical protection.”

  Mike was growing on me and I realized that he was good at his job. I winced, thinking that our conflicts had probably been more my fault. When we worked cases together, I would go off and work without him. When it was solved, I would tell him instead of working with him. Now I knew why the department was frustrated with me. It would have resolved many of the problems if Curly had told me he knew I had powers and that Jared and Mike were shifters.

  “I like your idea. The only problem is that New Orleans has twelve cemeteries. That’s not counting the ones outside the city. It will take us days to figure out which one they could have Fate at. We aren’t even sure that’s where she could be.”

  Jared frowned. “Have you been able to find Georgina?”

  Mike leaned forward. “No, she vanished. Do you think we can get a judge to give us a search warrant?”

  I shook my head. “We have no evidence.”

  Atieno tapped his fingers on the table. “Maybe we should look anyway. We could head over and see what we can find.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. That old lady deals in the art of black magic. I bet she has a spell on her place that will curse us for the rest of our lives,” Jared said before downing the remaining coffee in his cup.

  The place being protected was a risk, but we didn’t have any other options unless we wanted to spend days going through tombs. And I knew some of them were cursed, so either way, we might end up on the wrong end of a spell.

  “Atieno and I could look in the tombs, and Jared and Mike could check out Georgina’s shop and house. Atieno and I’ll start with the hidden cemeteries. If he used one, I don’t think he would’ve used one of the ones tourists frequent.”

  “Not happening. I’m not walking into that lady’s shop without being asked,” Jared said with a sour look on his fa
ce.

  “If you want, I can have my sister Wrath come and help. She won’t have a problem going into Georgina’s shop.”

  Jared’s attitude was starting to get under my skin. Asking him to hunt down someone tied to dark magic was risky, but if we didn’t stop the warlock soon, we would have bigger issues than a curse.

  Jared was close to retirement and counting down the days. He had a calendar above the desk and would mark off each day and write how many he had left. He was at eighty-six. I had learned over the past week that we had other shifters in the police building, but they weren’t in our department.

  I would be perfectly happy replacing Jared with one of the new officers.

  Mike chuckled under his breath. “Your fingers are sparking purple. You might want to take a couple deep breaths.”

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten. “Your ass is going to go with Mike, or you can hand in your resignation.”

  I was perfectly satisfied with the way he blanched.

  “If I help Mike tonight, I want easy cases until I retire.” Jared leaned back and crossed his arms.

  A sense of uneasiness washed over me. I wasn’t sure how much we could trust Jared. Mike swore he was just old and wanted to retire. As a shifter, he could work many more years. I planned to ask Wrath to go with them tonight anyway. I wasn’t sure if Jared would hurt Mike, but I wasn’t going to take the chance. I also didn’t plan on letting Jared know Wrath would be there.

  “Fine,” I bit out. “No more hard cases if we solve this one. Go see what you can find on Georgina before you guys head over to the shop. Mike, I want to go over a couple things with you.”

  I waited until Jared left the room and shut the door. “I don’t trust him. But we need to keep him close.” I pulled my long white hair into a bun. “I’m going to send Wrath to watch your back. She isn’t going to show herself. If Jared does something, I want him to think you’re alone.”

  Mike stared at the door for a few seconds before turning toward me. “He’s been off since Lieutenant Curly was killed. Is Wrath the only option? I’ve never met her, but the stories I’ve heard are enough for me to keep my distance. Did you know she once took down an entire village of mercenaries?”

  Atieno barked out a laugh. “It wasn’t an entire village. It was six men. Each time I hear the story, it grows, and she wasn’t alone. Her sister Lust helped her. When Lust had all the men eating out of her hands, Wrath walked in and killed them.”

  I took a deep breath. “Why did she kill these men?”

  “They were destroying villages, one by one. Killing women and kids. Money fueled them until they attacked the wrong village. Wrath spends her free time going around helping people. She would go to this village and read to the kids. When she found out what happened, she killed the mercenaries.”

  A smile tugged at my lips. For being hard and cold on the outside, Wrath was good. She was right. She possibly was my favorite sister. I didn’t plan to let her know. It would just go to her head and might hurt the feelings of my other siblings. Deep down, I couldn’t wait to meet them all. Paldon was amazing. Wrath was caring. I wondered what Lust was really like.

  “Mike.” I leaned forward, gazing at the list of cemeteries. “You had the idea about cemeteries. Do you have a clue which would be big enough to hide a secret warlock lair?”

  “Not really,” Mike replied. “If I had to guess, I would say St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, and before you say anything, they closed half of the cemetery off. The only entrance open is Basin Street.”

  “Thank you.” I grabbed my to-go cup of coffee off the table. “Once you’re done looking around Georgina’s, call me. I’ll call Wrath on my way out to let her know you need help.”

  Atieno and I headed to the car. It was time to look at some old tombs.

  15

  Even during the day, old cemeteries gave me the creeps. That didn’t stop me from going and seeing them though. I had visited every cemetery in New Orleans a few times and walked along the paths, reading each tomb. When I couldn’t make out what it read, I wished I had the power to travel in time. A lot of people would want to travel to the future to see what it held.

  Not me. I would want to see the past, how people dressed and acted before technology took over our lives. When I was a kid, instead of asking to go to the park, I would beg my mom to take me to a cemetery. One of my favorite cemeteries was Myles Standish Burial Ground, in Duxbury, Massachusetts. According to the American Cemetery Association, it was the oldest maintained cemetery in the United States. My creepy obsession wasn’t only with cemeteries in the US. I had visited one in Ireland a few years back. Jails fascinated me even more.

  “How are we going to be able to tell if Fate is here?”

  Atieno and I had only walked a few feet into St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Goose bumps formed on my skin. My powers were more connected to the dead than the living. And since I drank Atieno’s blood, I felt my powers even more. Each grave called to me like a beacon.

  “The air will feel heavy where dark magic was used. And the only way he could possibly keep Fate locked up is with dark magic. Her powers are too strong to be held down with anything else.”

  We spent a few hours at the station before heading over to the cemetery. We didn’t want to chance the tourists still being there. The groundskeeper was snapping the lock on the gate when we walked up. I flashed my NOPD badge. He let us in and locked the gate on the other side.

  “We forgot to get the number from the groundskeeper. How do you plan on getting out of here?” Pandora asked.

  “Hell’s portal,” he answered like I asked a stupid question.

  I grabbed Atieno’s hand as we continued to walk down the path toward the closed area of the cemetery. He squeezed my fingers. Awareness went through my body, causing my nipples to harden.

  Atieno smirked. “The faster we find Fate,” he said as we approached a large tomb, “the sooner we can focus on us.”

  “I wish. But we need to figure out why Sasha is still here and if we can keep her.”

  “I think Mike wants to help her,” he said knowingly.

  “What will happen to him when she crosses over?” I asked, worried about Mike.

  Atieno shrugged. “His tiger won’t let her stay in limbo. We need to let them figure this out.”

  “I’m not good at standing on the sidelines,” I huffed. The warm New Orleans sun beat down. I reached up and wiped the sweat from around my neck. “The humidity is a killer.”

  “Mugginess is on the high side today.”

  “Is it really hot and humid in hell?” I asked.

  With each passing day, I wondered more about Lucifer and siblings. Should I see if I can visit? He mentioned Paldon had a house there.

  “The weather is perfect in hell. A cool seventy-five every day with no humidity. The pools are heated, and the grass is perfect.”

  My feet stumbled. “You’re kidding, right? I keep picturing burning rings of fire to pull my magic.”

  Atieno smiled and squeezed my hand. “I’m dead serious. Lucifer has made a perfect Mayberry village complete with school and perfectly manicured lawns.”

  I stared at him for a second, feeling stupid. “So all the evil people sent to hell get to live better than all of us?”

  “Nope,” Atieno muttered then squeezed my hand. “Hell has levels. The top is where Lucifer, his workers, and other supernaturals live. You can take an elevator in Lucifer’s castle to the lower levels of hell. A total of nine levels. Each level looks like a ring of fire. The bottom level has the most magic. That is where you should pull magic from.”

  The inner workings of hell sounded interesting. I wasn’t quite sure I was ready to go for a visit yet.

  Atieno stopped in front of a tomb that had no markings on the outside. It looked newer than the other graves in the cemetery. Atieno reached into his pocket, pulled out a necklace, and laid it on the step of the tomb. “This is Madaline Whiteloath. She was a white witch. Rumor has it, if you leave he
r a gift, she will put a protection spell on you.”

  I rolled my eyes and knelt down next to the grave. “Or someone comes and steals the gifts every night. The police are always chasing people away who are trying to get into the cemetery at night.”

  “Maybe,” Atieno said.

  “You think she still helps people?” I watched Atieno’s eyes. I unclasped the necklace around my neck and set it next to Atieno’s. “Hopefully you’re right and she helps fight off the darkness we are going up against.”

  I shivered as I felt a cool breeze whisper along my heated skin, causing goosebumps to appear. I stood back up next to Atieno. “Did you feel that?” I asked him.

  “Feel what?” He looked from the tomb to me.

  I ran my hands along my arms. “I felt a cold breeze when I laid my necklace down,” I said, gesturing toward the tomb.

  “I told you she protects people who leave her gifts,” he said, reaching for my hand again. We continued to walk down the path.

  I pulled a bottle of water out of my backpack and took a swig. As we walked, Atieno told me, “Madaline does good, but not everyone here does. There is more evil in this cemetery than any other area in New Orleans, and dark magic feeds on evil. Synth might use the evil mixed with his magic to hold Fate captive.”

  “Why not kill her?”

  Atieno stopped and turned toward me.

  “Fate keeps the world balanced. Right now there is no cause and effect. Synth is working to free his one true love. But he needs the power to pull her back from exile. If he kills Fate, the universe might tip, and who knows what would happen. But if he keeps her alive and unable to control the cause and effect, he can bring his true love back.”

  “It’s strange.” We continued down the path. “Someone so evil is doing this because of love.” I smiled over at Atieno. Love would make a person do crazy things. Love for my grandma had made me cross a line I shouldn’t have. How far would a crazy warlock go to get his love back? He’s trying to destroy all life for a chance to be with Hecate again. He had already killed six people that we knew about, but I bet there were more corpses around New Orleans that we haven’t discovered yet.