by Char Webster
“She’s always healed quickly. Way faster than anyone else.” Julie had been jealous of that on many occasions. She and Markos joined Aedan and Damian in the kitchen.
“How did Pravus know where we were staying?” Julie asked once they were all seated at the table.
Markos had wondered the same thing.
Damian was pulling takeout containers out of a large paper bag. “This guy’s been a step ahead of us the whole time. Either he’s developed additional senses to monitor us, or he’s been spying. Either way, it’s disturbing. I can feel his presence if he’s close, but he could be watching from far enough away that I’m not picking up his essence.”
Markos snatched one of the cardboard-covered tins and tipped the lid open to look inside. “Are all these the same?”
Damian grabbed the last one from the bag and a white plastic fork and sat by the window. “Most of them have scrambled eggs with bacon, sausage, and grits. This one is full of potatoes with sautéed onions and peppers, and this one here has Brioche French toast with bananas and pecans.”
Julie grabbed the French toast and walked over to the counter. “These are all mine.”
Aedan stole it from her hands and laughed, holding it too high for her to get it back. “Too slow.”
“Hey!” Julie threw magic at him, but Damian took the container and set it back on the table.
“Leave some of that for Aria.” Damian started to dig into his eggs but then stopped to dump tons of Tabasco on them.
“I’ll be right back.” Julie made a portal and disappeared.
Markos yelled, “Get me one,” before the portal closed behind her.
“Where is she going?” Aedan asked.
“To Wawa to get coffee. It’s Aria’s favorite and she got Julie hooked on it,” Markos explained.
Julie came back with five huge coffees and passed them around to everyone except Aedan. She put Aria’s on the counter.
“Where’s mine?” Aedan pouted.
Julie gave him an angelic smile. “Oh, you mean this one?” She held the coffee out to him, but snatched it back when he put his hand out.
“You’re asking for it.” Aedan stalked toward her.
She held it behind her, and she backed away. When it was taken out of her hands from behind, she jumped.
“Thanks, Juls. You’re the best.” Aria held the coffee in her hands.
“Hey! You’re awake. I was so worried about you.” Julie gave her a big hug.
Aria took a sip and made a face.
Julie took the coffee from her and handed it to Aedan who she had completely forgotten about. “That wasn’t yours. This is.” She handed her the one from the counter.
“Mmmm. Much better.” Aria sat down in one of the empty seats at the table.
Aedan glared at the coffee like it was poisoned and turned an accusing eye toward Julie. “What’d you do to it?” Aedan held the coffee away from his body.
“Nothing. I swear.” Julie was laughing when she said it, and he narrowed his eyes at her.
“Then why are you laughing?” Aedan demanded.
“It’s just plain coffee. Aria won’t drink it unless she has lots of sugar and French vanilla creamer in it.”
Aedan took a small sip, shrugged, and drank a big mouthful.
Markos was enjoying the relaxed atmosphere and leaned back, full and satisfied.
Aria noticed that Damian was staring at her, and she was returning his gaze.
“Here. Have some breakfast. I made sure they saved you some French toast.” Damian handed her two of the take-out boxes.
“How much do you think I’m going to eat?” Aria couldn’t believe the amount of food in front of her.
“As much as you want. Here’s the Tabasco.” Damian slid the bottle toward her.
“Thanks.” She was in a slight daze. Damian had provided all her favorite foods and knew her choice of hot sauce. She stopped eating to stare at him, but her brother drew her attention away. How did he know so much about her, she wondered.
“How are you feeling?” Markos was concerned about her.
Aria shrugged. “I’m fine this morning. Not tired anymore, and my skin isn’t tingling with leftover magic.”
Markos and Damian both looked relieved.
“He took my portal knife. I had it in a sheath in my back pocket, and it’s gone.”
“I’ll get you a new one. I have a friend who’s one of the best and most sought after artisans.” Damian was going to make sure she had the very best magical tools.
“Are you talking about Gareth?” Aria grinned thinking about the mysteriously aloof and chilling elf who was a master sword and knife marker.
“Oh, you know him?” Gareth owed Damian a favor, so he knew that the elf would do a great job for her.
“I hate knowing I’ll be without one for a while.” Aria might need to make a portal, and now she couldn’t.
Damian got up to throw his empty container away and leaned down next to her to whisper in her ear. “You’ll have to stick close to me.”
Markos cleared his throat. “We need to make some plans.”
Aria continued to eat her breakfast while everyone discussed what to do next.
Damian couldn’t stop watching Aria. He could have lost her again. “We’re going to lure Pravus to a location away from the crowds but filled with magic to entice him.” He reached out with his magic, but she was keeping hers locked up tight.
Aedan turned the chair backwards and sat facing Aria. “Julie and I went back to see Lucinda yesterday, and she told us that if we can get Pravus to enter a magic infused circle and then light it on fire with a binding spell, we can keep him there until the Legacy Enforcers come to get him.”
Aria’s eyes grew large. “How did you get her to help us? She wasn’t as forthcoming when Damian and I were there.”
Julie was shredding a paper napkin, making a pile of confetti. “She told us that she had gotten some information that we would need from one of your relatives.”
Aria scrunched up her nose. “My relative?”
Aedan nodded. “Lucinda’s best friend is Alissa Renault.”
Aria grinned. “I love Ali. I didn’t know she and Lucinda were close. Ali is a distant cousin, but we are from the same clan.”
Damian crowded behind Aria’s chair, but he couldn’t seem to move away, and she didn’t ask him to. “I’m glad Lucinda decided to help.”
“Me too.” She paused. “I hate to bring it up, but how do we capture Pravus?” Aria couldn’t imagine the dark mystic falling for a trap.
“That’s the hard part.” Damian went to lean against the counter, forcing himself to give her space. “He seems to know what we’re going to do before we do it, so we need to be clever with this.”
Markos put both hands on the table to push himself up to stand. “We do what he won’t expect. We surrender to him.”
~*~*~
Pravus was a little concerned that his wound hadn’t healed yet. He should have been back to normal within an hour or two. It had been over twelve, and blood was still seeping out of the cut.
“They’re not at the hotel, and I can’t find where they went.” Hugo announced, barging into the bedroom Pravus was using.
“Why are you back here and not still looking for them?”
Hugo didn’t mask his lethal expression quickly enough. “I’m checking in.”
“I told you not to bother unless you had information.” Pravus had been putting it off, but he was going to have to kill Hugo. The shifter was becoming more of a hindrance than a help.
“I don’t know where else to look. The entire city is full of magic.” Hugo sat down in one of the flowered chairs next to the window.
“You no longer have to look anywhere.” Pravus rushed to his side, putting a hand on Hugo’s chest. Since the man was weak, Pravus had no trouble draining him of his life force within seconds. Hugo hadn’t even fought back.
Pravus inhaled deeply after he had finished absorb
ing the magic, energy, and life force from Hugo. His shifter ability would not transfer to Pravus, and he had no idea why.
The magic helped to heal his injury more, but not entirely. Maybe he only needed to take more life force.
A little more rest, and he would track down Aria and Damian. Then, he could find another home that didn’t look like someone threw up flowers all over everything.
Chapter Ten
“Isn’t it a little cliché to be in a graveyard in New Orleans?” Aria asked sarcastically.
Damian had been purposely crowding her since breakfast. He used every available excuse to touch her, brush by, or bump into her. He knew she could tell he was doing it intentionally, but she hadn’t called him out on it, so he continued. This time, he walked so close to her that their fingers grazed each other with every step. “We need some consecrated ground.”
Markos pushed between them, earning a growl from Damian. He had been trying to separate them all day. “Don’t worry. We’re not staying here.”
“Hey, Ar! Check out this sculpture,” Julie called to her.
Damian faced Markos. “What’s your problem?”
“I don’t have one.” Markos smirked.
“Yeah, you do. You’ve been a pain in my ass all day.”
Markos shrugged. “How do you figure that?”
“Dude, don’t play games. Why are you interfering with me and Aria?” Damian was getting tired of her brother constantly being right there every time he turned around. “You were all for me patching things up with her a few days ago. What changed?”
“You let her get taken, didn’t find her for hours, and then when we get her back, you act like nothing’s happened. My sister deserves better than that.”
“It kills me to know I didn’t protect her, and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen again.” Damian didn’t know where Markos was going with the conversation.
“It’s not good enough. How do I know that you’re not going to ditch her again? What if we don’t find him or if he decides to hide out again for years? Are you going to pull the same crap you did before?”
Damian stepped closer to Markos. “We both just promised your sister that we wouldn’t keep anything else from her. I meant that.”
Markos shrugged. “That doesn’t mean you won’t run again.”
Damian growled in frustration. “I told you that’s not going to happen again. I wanted another chance with her for centuries. I’m not going to blow it.”
“You walked away before because you were protecting her. You’re not going to protect her the same way?” Markos demanded.
“I can’t leave her again.”
“We’ll see.”
“Hey, guys. Come see this.” Aria called over to them.
Aria, Aedan and Julie were gaping at a statute of a warrior woman that looked eerily similar to Aria.
“That’s the warrior angel who protects the City of the Dead.” Lucinda stepped out of the shadows.
“Someone must have seen me and carved this statue in my likeness.” Aria felt as if she was standing in front of a mirror. It was so realistic.
“It has looked like many different women throughout the years,” Lucinda told them cryptically.
Aedan was watching the warrior angel closely. “That thing seems like it’s alive.”
Damian circled the statue, examining it from every angle. “How can it appear like many different women? Do that many ladies look like Aria?”
Lucinda stepped backwards into the shadows. “Its appearance depends on the circumstances and the need. It seems the City needs Aria right now.”
“Why?” Aria asked, but Lucinda was gone. She faced her friends. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Damian moved closer and reached out to brush hair away from her face. “It means your magic was safe even when you were injured, so you are probably the only one who can stop him.”
“Great, no pressure there.” Aria couldn’t take her eyes off the carving. Why her? Why would some mystical changing statue look like her? She wasn’t anyone special.
Julie put her arm around her friend. “It’s not. That’s only showing what we already know. Pravus wants you because you’re powerful. It’s pretty obvious that you can stop him.”
“And that is why you’re my best friend.” Aria leaned her head against Julie’s. “Let’s get out of this cemetery.”
Aedan scooped up some dirt next to a mausoleum and put it in a plastic bag.
Markos moved to Aria’s side. “You’ve always had an inner strength. That thing was showing you it’s still there. Don’t read too much into it. Just know that you have what it takes to defeat Pravus.”
~*~*~
Aedan swiped his phone off and stuffed it into his pocket. “They found another body. We need to go.”
The body had been dumped in the bayou, and it was only a lucky break that it had not disappeared to the reptilian residents. Two local wolf shifters had stood guard until they had gotten there.
Julie bent closer to look at the man lying half under some brush and leaves. “I know him. He’s the creepy guy who cleans the Legacy jail. I think his name was Hugo.”
Aria pushed through to the front of the crowd. “Yeah. He’s a rat shifter.” She heard Aedan mumble about it being a fitting shifter form. “He used to hit on everyone and never got anywhere. I bet he was involved in Pravus’s escape.”
Damian and Markos were having a private conversation when Aria called over to them. “He has to be full of energy and magic at this point. He drained this guy, and who knows if there are any more victims.” They joined her at the body.
“There’s a bloody hand print on his shirt, and from what I can see, there are no injuries on him.” Markos was kneeling next to Hugo.
Aedan stooped down next to Markos. “That’s fresh. He’s only been dead for a couple of hours.”
“He should have healed from your stab wound by now. I wonder why he hasn’t,” Damian said to Aria.
“That’s a good thing. If he’s still injured, he’ll be easier to capture,” Julie announced.
Aedan walked over to the shifters and mystics that were standing off to the side. “Thanks for coming. Please keep watch for anything else like this.”
A tall woman with long white hair grabbed his wrist. “This is bad magic. Evil. You need to find him before he corrupts the balance.”
“We’re setting a trap for him tonight.”
“We can send mystics to your location so there’s a large concentration of magic that will entice him to come to you.” The older woman’s companion told him. She was exotically beautiful with long dark hair and the smoothest mocha skin that Aedan had ever seen.
“It might be dangerous. He can pull energy from afar as well as draining it quickly by touching someone.” Aedan wanted them to know that there was no guarantee for their safety.
“We know. It’s worth the risk to catch him before he starts to attack more people. We have a school for mystics a few miles from here. If he targets someplace like that, dozens of students could die.”
“We appreciate your help. I’ll call you when we get everything set up.” Aedan watched them vanish into the bayou.
“She was hot.” Markos was watching the last spot he saw her before the bayou absorbed them.
Aedan grinned. “We’ll see her again soon.”
“They’re going to help us?” Markos asked.
“Yeah. We need to make it as safe as we can.”
Markos put his hand on Aedan’s shoulder. “We will.”
~*~*~
“Why did you call me?” rasped a man from the side of the dumpster. He had been waiting in the sweltering heat for over an hour for Pravus to arrive. Normally the humidity didn’t bother him, but the air seemed heavier than usual.
The alley was in a rough section of New Orleans that was rich with dark magic. Pravus breathed in the malevolent essence that lingered in the air. “Len, I’m calling in the
favor you owe me.” Pravus studied the dark mystic he hadn’t seen in hundreds of years. Len still had a shaved head but seemed to be covered in even more tattoos then he had before.
“That was a long time ago. I owe you nothing,” Len hissed.
Eerie laughter bubbled out of Pravus. “Then why are you here? Why did you answer my call?” Pravus was disgusted that he didn’t bother to brush off his camouflaged pants after rising from the dirty ground.
Hatred showed on Len’s face. “You know why. I had no choice.”
“Ahhh. The blood oath you swore, and here I thought it was your undying devotion to me and my cause.”
“What cause is that? Endless power?” Len flexed his bulging muscles under the tight t-shirt he wore.
“That’s just a bonus. I want to rule it all. Everything.” Pravus wanted to control all the magic and power in all the nine realms.
“You think you can defeat all of Legacy’s Enforcers? The supernatural armies they can raise? You’re insane.” Len turned to walk away, but Pravus stopped him.
“You doubt me? Do I need to prove my power to you?” Pravus began to pull Len’s magic.
Len yanked his energy and magic back, but it was a viscous battle he was fighting. “Enough. So you can take my life force. You could probably take hundreds of life forces. Eventually you will get overtaken. You cannot win.”
“That’s for me to decide. I have a job for you.”
Len glared at him. “After this. I’m done. You can’t call on me again.”
Pravus shook his finger at Len. “That’s where you’re wrong. We’re going to be working together for a very long time.”
~*~*~
“Where are we going to set our trap?” Julie asked impatiently.
Aedan had taken her to search for a spot that was rich in magic, but not where anyone would see them.
“Outside of New Orleans and closer to the bayous where it’s less populated. We don’t need tourists or innocents stumbling into a fight.” Aedan had borrowed the car that was in the garage of the house they were using. It was an older model car that guzzled gasoline, but it ran fine with the help of some magic.
