by J. C. Diem
“Gods don’t need to eat or drink, lass,” he said. “But thank you for the kind offer.”
“How did you know what Crowmon is?” Liam asked.
“From his aura,” she replied, gesturing at him.
“What does it look like?” I asked in fascination.
“Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Humans’ auras range in brightness and colors, depending on their personalities. Shifters’ auras are brighter and have more intense colors. Hybrids like you two have darkness to signify you’re part vampire.” She turned to the deity and squinted at something only she could see. “When I focus on Crowmon’s aura, it’s almost blinding.”
“What color is it?” he asked curiously.
“Mostly white, with flashes of green and red,” she replied.
“Red and green are the colors of my jester suit,” he said nostalgically.
“I also see flashes of a darker green and black, but they seem to be residual,” Nancy told him as she examined his aura. “It seems you went through some kind of trial. Whatever happened has changed you. You were tested and were rejected from your world. Now you must pay a penance for the dark deeds you performed.” Her voice sounded far away, as if she’d gone into a light trance.
Crowmon wasn’t surprised, but he didn’t look happy. “Aye, that’s what I figured,” he grumbled. “Did you see what I need to atone for?”
Nancy shook her head and snapped out of her daze. “That information is hidden from me. All I know is that you’ve been given a second chance. It’s up to you to decide whether to do the right thing on our world.”
Liam and I exchanged worried glances. While Crowmon was fairly weak now, we had the sense he’d been far stronger on his world. He’d done something awful enough to be rejected from his dimension for it. If he turned bad again, we’d be stuck dealing with whatever problems he would cause.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Crowmon said with a scowl. “I have no intention of turning to the dark side again. It cost me too much the first time.” He shuddered and wrapped his arms around his slender torso, as if he was trying to protect himself from the memories that were locked away inside his mind.
Chapter Sixteen
NANCY’S HANDS WERE shaking too badly for her to pour us tea, so I did it for her. Liam preferred coffee, but he took the cup I offered him with a nod of thanks. “Uncle Mark told you about Alex’s suspicions?” he asked, changing the subject to the reason why we’d come to visit her.
“He did,” Ms. Ettenberg confirmed. “Agent Steel told me about the witch spying through your eyes, Alex. I enchanted a charm that I think will prevent her from being able to scry through you again.”
“If she can see through my eyes, why did she use a bowl of water?” I asked.
“It was part of her trap to lure us all to her fake lair,” the wiccan explained. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a bracelet. Thin gold bands were delicately woven into an intricate braid. A gold charm dangled from it. She handed it to me and I held it up to examine it.
“What is it?” Liam asked, leaning over to take a look.
“It’s a woman wearing a blindfold,” I said. I handed it to Liam so he could examine it. Crowmon held his hand out and our boss handed it to him when he’d taken a good look at it.
“That’s nice craftsmanship,” the deity said in admiration. He touched the charm and I felt a strange tingle. “There, I just gave the spell a boost,” he said in satisfaction, then tossed the bracelet to me. “I’d like to see any witch try to scry through you now,” he boasted.
I slipped the bracelet on and felt another tingle all over my body. “I felt the spell activate,” I said in amazement.
“My mom can sense magic, too,” Liam said. “Neither Nick, nor I can feel it.”
“You’re very much like Lexi,” Nancy said to me, which instantly made me feel uncomfortable. I’d never been able to feel magic before. This had to be a new development from the spells being weakened slightly. Or maybe it was because my vampire had become stronger. I was still too new to all this to know for sure.
“Have you made any headway into figuring out the spells Irene has been using?” Liam asked, knowing I wanted to talk about something else.
“I have, actually,” Ms. Ettenberg replied brightly. She shot to her feet and left the room. Walking down the hall to another room, we heard her rummaging around in a drawer, then she returned with a book. “I’ve managed to identify some of the symbols.” She flipped the book open to show us some sketches she’d made. “I think they might be Celtic in origin.”
Liam took the book from her and Crowmon shifted to sit on the couch next to him. “Aye,” he confirmed. “Some of these appear to be Celtic, but they don’t mean anything.”
“What do you mean?” Liam asked in confusion.
“They’re just letters and symbols that have been altered and jumbled together to make it look like a spell.”
“The spells are fake?” I asked, feeling vindicated that I’d figured it out before anyone else.
“So it would seem,” the jester said. He took the book and flicked through the photos and drawings that were documented inside. He looked at me and pointed at the tattoo on my neck that wasn’t quite hidden by my hair. “The spells the witch placed on you are different from these ones.” He gestured at the book. “Whatever magic the witch is using is far older than the Celts.”
Nancy was both disturbed and intrigued about that possibility. “What do you suspect, Crowmon?”
He flipped the book shut and handed it to her, then stared off into the distance. We waited for him to mull it over for a few seconds. “I think Irene Dawson is dabbling in something that should have been left alone,” he said at last. “Something that has been long forgotten by men and should have been left buried.”
The sense of doom that had come across me once before trailed down my spine like bony fingers again. His expression was haunted and also resigned, as if he knew something bad was coming and that we would have no choice but to face it.
“Do you have any idea what it could be?” Liam asked.
Crowmon shook his head. “I’m not from your world, lad,” he reminded him. “But I know who might be able to answer this riddle.”
“Who?” Nancy asked in fascination.
“The fae,” the trickster said unhappily. “They’ve been around for eons. If anyone would know what this threat is, it would be the faeries.”
Liam didn’t seem all that thrilled at the prospect of speaking to the fae. “I’ll tell Uncle Mark about your suggestion,” he said and took his cell phone out. He left the room and stepped outside to talk to Agent Steel in private.
“I can sense that your magic is weak,” Nancy said to Crowmon. “Is that because you don’t have any worshippers in our dimension?”
“Aye, lass,” he confirmed. “Gods need followers to gain strength. Only a handful of people in this world are aware of my existence. Alas, none of them worship me yet.”
I snickered at his doleful expression. “Emma worships you for stealing that figurine for her.”
“She’s a squirrel,” he said. “Animals don’t count.”
“You’re a thief?” the wiccan asked in surprise. “Doesn’t doing bad deeds come with repercussions?”
“I’m a trickster god,” he reminded her. “It’s expected for me to cause mischief. I’m not exactly the type of god people pray to when they want their ailments healed, or for someone to fall in love with them.”
Now I was intrigued. “What did people pray to you for?” I queried.
“My kind make deals,” he explained, settling back against the couch and lacing his hands over his stomach. “I grant small wishes and in return, I take something from my followers.”
“Like what?” I asked suspiciously.
“It might be a bit of their energy, their luck, or perhaps I borrow some of their libido for a short time if I want to satisfy several women in one night.” He wiggled his eyebrows sug
gestively.
Ms. Ettenberg blushed and took a sip of her tea. Mine was mostly gone and I gulped down the rest. “It’s hard to imagine your kind grew so weak that they vanished from our world,” Nancy said. “I imagine they must have been quite powerful at the height of their reign.”
He became introspective at that comment. “Not necessarily, dearie. We tend to use the energy and magic rather than hoarding it. We need power to grant wishes, after all.”
“What sort of wishes do you grant?” I asked.
His expression became sly again. “Usually, it’s to prank someone’s enemy. Trickster gods don’t deal in death, but we’re masters at causing misery.” A shadow crossed his face and Nancy shivered as if she’d sensed his past rise up momentarily.
“So, if I had an enemy and I wanted to get back at them, I could pray to you and it would give you enough energy to play a mean joke on them?” I asked for clarification.
“Exactly,” Crowmon replied. “Whatever I took from you would be used against the one who wronged you. I’d gain some strength from it, but I’d use most of it against your foe.”
“Do people become permanently drained when they sacrifice some of their essence to you?” Nancy asked.
He shook his head. “It isn’t necessary to take much essence from my worshippers. Humans replenish their energy overnight. Only the extremely old, frail or sickly can’t afford to sacrifice any of their essence.”
“What about supernatural creatures?” I asked. “I bet you’d become pretty powerful if my kind started worshipping you.”
He shuddered at that notion. “I’ll stick mostly to bargaining with humans, lass,” he said. “They have less capacity to stab me in the back.”
Nancy and I exchanged a look, sensing he’d been horribly betrayed by someone he’d cared about. Neither of us asked him about it. He’d deliberately forgotten his past and he didn’t want to have to dredge it up again.
Chapter Seventeen
LIAM RETURNED A FEW minutes later, looking distracted. “Uncle Mark asked me to thank you for giving Alex the charm bracelet,” he said to Nancy.
“Tell Agent Steel I was glad to help,” the wiccan replied. “My coven has sensed darkness gathering during the past few years. Other groups like ours have also sensed it. We aren’t sure what it is. We only know that it’s evil.”
“Do you think it’s tied to whatever keeps bringing beings here from other dimensions?” Liam asked.
“I believe it’s highly likely,” she confirmed bleakly. “We’ll do everything in our power to assist the PIA to deal with the coming threat. I’m sure other wiccans will also be willing to help.”
“If things are going to become as bad as I fear, we’ll need every able-bodied magic user we can find on our side,” Crowmon said with a grimace.
Liam finished his tepid tea and offered Nancy his hand. She shook it, then escorted us to the back door. “Since the spells Irene Dawson left behind are fake, I won’t bother to continue to study them,” she said. “I’ll focus on the tattoos that were branded on Alex’s skin instead.”
“We’d appreciate it, Nancy,” Liam said gratefully. “Let Uncle Mark know about anything you come up with.”
“I will,” she promised, then let us out into her back yard.
The zombie rose out of the ground before I could reach out to him. He knew we wanted to be taken home without needing me to tell him. I only had a light connection with him, yet he was able to glean my needs anyway. I still hadn’t raised a human from the dead yet. It was hard to say whether I was dreading it, or looking forward to it. Maybe it was a bit of both.
As soon as we returned to our base, I checked on Emma. The squirrel was still perched on the back of the couch, watching Franko. The alpha was training with Brynn in the ring. Nick, Syd and Yas were watching the pair from the sidelines.
Liam opened the door and we filed inside. Aware that I’d returned, Heath immediately tried to impress me with his skills again. He feinted a jab at Brynn’s face, then slammed his gloved hand into her stomach when she left herself open. Her air whooshed out and she dropped to her knees. He lifted his hand to finish her off with a punch to the face, but Yas was already on the move.
Rage pulsed through me and I’d instinctively taken control of the vampire once again. She was the deadliest weapon in the building when I was in charge of her. She grabbed hold of Franko’s arm, then spun around and tossed him across the room. Once again, he flew through the air and hit the wall in the living room.
He was ready for it this time and bounced to his feet. “I’ll kill you for that, leech!” he roared. His snarl was savage as he sprinted across the room. Liam and Nick stepped in front of him with identical grim expressions. The alpha hole skidded to a stop, realizing he’d just screwed up again.
“That’s another mark against you, Agent Franko,” Liam said. “Alphas are supposed to be able to control themselves. You just proved you aren’t capable of containing your rage. Our squad is like a pack and we don’t abuse our pack members.”
Glowering at the twins, the veins were standing out on Heath’s neck and forehead again. He visibly regained control of himself, but his rage didn’t abate. “You were raised by the supreme alphas,” he said stiffly. “You have no idea what it’s like in other packs and having to adhere to the rules we live by. Everyone had to fight for their position in my father’s pack. Anyone who was weak was banished. I was raised to fight for what I want and to never show anyone any mercy.”
“You don’t belong here, Franko,” Brynn said. Yas had helped her to her feet, but the injuries she’d sustained had already healed. “We don’t need a hotheaded, vicious, brutal animal in our squad.”
He flinched at her accusation. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he said unconvincingly. “I was just trying to show you my skills.”
“You mean you were showing off for Alex again,” Sydney said with an eye roll.
“If you really want to show us your skills, then you can spar with me,” Liam said. Nick grinned in anticipation, so did Syd and Brynn.
“You’re on, boss,” the alpha said, accepting the challenge. He swaggered over to the boxing ring that the girls had just vacated.
“I have a feeling this is going to be good,” Crowmon said to me quietly. “I don’t suppose you want to offer a god a quick prayer, maybe to wish Liam some good luck?”
I cut a look at him to see he was smirking. “He doesn’t need luck,” I said, then remembered Franko was an alpha and that he could use his power to weaken my brother. “But I guess it couldn’t hurt,” I added. “Oh, Crowmon, wise and benevolent deity, I pray to you to grant Liam the luck he needs to beat this alpha hole during their fight.” While the god didn’t want supernatural creatures to worship him in droves, I figured this one time couldn’t hurt.
Crowmon closed his eyes and I felt a tiny tingle of magic as the trickster drew some of my essence from me. The drain was so small that it was barely noticeable, but I sensed he’d grown stronger from it. “I’d forgotten what a kick that is,” he murmured. Looking intently at our leader, he silently clicked his fingers. “It’s done,” he said in satisfaction as the luck he’d just drained from me was sent to my brother. As he’d told Ms. Ettenberg, he kept a small amount for himself.
“What are you two up to?” Yas whispered as she crossed to us.
“Franko isn’t just about to get his butt kicked,” I said. “He’s about to be annihilated.”
Sensing my anticipation, Emma scampered over and scaled my body to perch on my shoulder. Nick, Syd and Brynn stood on three sides of the ring. Yas took up the fourth position. They would watch the match closely, since no one trusted the new recruit.
Liam donned the gloves that Nick tossed to him. “The match will last for five minutes, or until one of us gets knocked out,” he said. “No blows below the belt.”
“Are we allowed to draw blood?” Franko asked, dancing on the balls of his feet.
“Small cuts are fine,” Liam repl
ied. “Dismembering limbs or gouging out eyes isn’t.”
Now that he knew the rules, the alpha nodded. From his smug grin, he was confident he was going to win. From the almost silent giggles coming from Crowmon, he was sure luck would favor my brother.
The pair touched gloves, then Franko took the first swing. Liam blocked it and sent a brutal punch at his opponent’s ribs. The alpha grunted at the impact, then the fight was on.
If I hadn’t had enhanced vision, it would have been impossible to follow the battle. Their punches were hard and fast and were designed to incapacitate their foe. Liam moved like a snake, somehow avoiding punches that should have landed. Every jab he released found its mark without fail, making Franko boil with fresh rage.
I felt Heath begin to harness his alpha power and waved at Liam in warning. His eyes flicked to me, acknowledging that he’d seen me. Before his enemy could try to take control of him, Liam stopped holding back. Moving in a blur of speed, he unleashed a devastating series of punches at Franko’s head, stomach and solar plexus.
Fully enraged by now, the rookie sent out a blast of alpha power to try to overwhelm his opponent just as Liam smashed his gloved fist into his jaw. Eyes rolling back, the alpha hole’s knees buckled and he folded to the floor. The power he’d unleashed sputtered out before it could take hold of our boss.
“We have a winner!” Nick announced in a gleeful tone. “Once again, Liam Levine-Garrett is the reigning Shifter Squad champion!”
We cheered for our leader as Franko came around with a groan. “What the hell happened?” he asked groggily as he sat up. His lip had been split during the battle, but the small wound had already healed.
“You lost, lad,” Crowmon told him in fake commiseration. “But at least you managed to last for two whole minutes before Liam knocked you on your ass.”
We snickered at the incredulous look on the alpha’s face. “That shouldn’t have been possible,” Heath said, fresh anger rising. “I’m an alpha. No lesser wolf can beat me in a fight!”
