“Can you arrange a meeting?”
“Better yet, I can tell you exactly where to find him. But I’d take a fae who can compel him to truth. He has a rather casual relationship with it. And he’s an asshole just because he can be.”
Faes’ ability to compel was a nice trick, but not necessarily the subtlest way of getting people to tell the truth. They did it with a kiss, and from what I’d seen, it could be evaded. Ethan had done it—with much effort and he’d nearly injured himself, but he’d definitely done it.
“I’ll take Ethan, it’ll be just as good,” Josh offered.
Chris scoffed. “Ethan and Dexter in the same room? This is going to be interesting.”
Once we were out of the house on the way to Josh’s car, I made a note that Chris seemed to have clothes, which made wearing Josh’s a choice and not a necessity.
What the hell is going on with them?
We’d almost made it to the car when a small cadre of vampires approached us, Gabriella and Chase leading them. It had been a few days since I’d seen them, and once again their looks had changed. I figured their life had to be quite boring if they spent so much of it changing their hair and overall style whenever the whim hit them. Today they were going for something dark and dangerous-looking. Their hair was jet-black with a hint of indigo highlights, their clothing all black. Black and silver makeup covered Gabriella’s eyes, and Chase’s looked like he had done something to darken them. Behind them I could see four other vampires.
Chris turned, giving them an appraising look. She, too, had thick lines of makeup that darkened her black-opal-colored eyes, which were giving them a hard stare. “I’m not going back. Tell Demetrius to stop. I’m done.”
“That’s not up to you,” Gabriella barked back. “You don’t get to be turned by Demetrius no less and betray him like this. You will come.”
Chris took several steps forward. “I would like to see you make me.”
Gabriella charged Chris, and Chris’s fist slammed into her chest with force. She hit the ground with a thud. Chris was on her, thrashing Gabriella’s head into the ground. She rolled away in time to miss an attack from the back from another vampire. She jabbed her elbow into his nose, he stumbled back, and she retrieved the stake that she had secured in the back of her jeans and shoved it into his chest. He dropped to the ground, reversion slowly inching up his legs.
One of the other vampires’ fist caught her on the face. She responded with a heeled foot striking into his. After her spin kick forced him to the ground, like the other vampire, his fate was secured with a stake through the heart.
Chase advanced, and I struck the heel of my hand into his chin. His head jerked back with force. I delivered a quick ankle swipe, and he collapsed to the ground. My foot landed on his forearm and I twisted his hand until I heard it snap. He wailed curses. I moved toward one of the staked vampires to retrieve a stake when Gabriella lunged at me, knocking me to the ground.
“That’s enough.” Josh waved his hand, and forceful magic battered against me as it sent Gabriella back. Chris and I moved closer to him, and when Gabriella regained her feet, her attack was stopped by the protective field Josh had erected around us. Her fist pounded against it, and each time was met with a stronger force that shoved her back.
Josh sighed heavily. “I can do this all day, Gabriella.” He looked bored, making it obvious that this was just a minimal trick he had at his disposal. Glaring, she backed away, helping Chase up, and they left seconds later.
Once we were finally in the car, Chris said, “After this meeting, I’m leaving.”
“What if we need more information?” I asked. If this was a good lead, it was because of her. She was resourceful and a fountain of information. I didn’t necessarily want her in Josh’s home, though, and whatever was happening between them was going to be disastrous at best.
Hiding emotions was something Josh was absolutely terrible at, and disappointment showed on his face. He only provided an unconvincing “okay.”
“If you need me, I’m sure Claudia can find me.” Chris was even worse at hiding her irritation over that.
Ethan was waiting for us next to Winter when we arrived at our destination, and quickly fell in step with us as we made our way to a bar. Chris had described it as a little dive where the mages usually hung out. Judging from the outside, calling it a “dive” was insulting to that type of bar. The name of the place that was scrawled over the door had discolored letters. The wood door had been battered and nicked. The blemished brick building was off-white, and I couldn’t determine if it was weathered or in desperate need of a thorough cleaning.
This is where Mr. Moneybags hangs out?
The moment we walked in, I could tell there were wielders of magic in it. Light magic inundated the room, as well as the strong magic coming off of Josh. I looked around; the outside was just a ploy to deter people from coming in. All eyes were on us, interlopers that weren’t welcome. But the attention quickly went to Josh. There was an array of expressions marking the faces of the onlookers. Everything from amazed and awestricken to balefully resentful were exhibited.
The place was vastly different inside. A large oval-shaped bar with a glass counter was placed in the middle of the room. Cyclic lights wavered underneath it and made the stainless-steel supports glow. Decorative silver lights hung from the ceiling. Stainless-steel pedestal tables with glass tops and round white lights created circular waves around it. In the corners were unique box-shaped pieces of contemporary furniture.
The bartenders, who had to be mages, made an elaborate show of making drinks. They might not be as strong as the witches, but what they lacked in strength, they made up for in showmanship. I stopped near the bar for a moment, remembering my favorite childhood movie, Fantasia, as olives danced in the air and dropped into martini glasses, orange peels whirled about before landing in a glass, and cherries twisted and bounced before plopping into a drink.
“What the hell is going on with Josh and Chris?” Winter hissed in a low tone in my ear, pulling me from being distracted by the show, once Ethan, Chris, and Josh had gotten some distance from us.
“I don’t know. He says nothing, but—” I sighed, cutting off the rest.
“I can smell her all over him. And she is still staying with him, why?”
“Your guess is as good as mine; we can’t talk about it now. But she’s leaving.”
“Good, she needs to.”
We rushed ahead to catch up with them. The club was a lot larger than it looked from the outside, and when we went through a second set of doors, we entered a room with several pool tables, a large sofa, and a foosball table and darts on the other side of the room. A less ostentatious bar. Homage to the vintage look was seen throughout the vast room. A jukebox in the corner, which I was sure played CDs, a rotary phone on the wooden bar, a vintage Harley in the corner. It might not have been as modern-flashy as the front of the bar, but the accoutrements indicated money unnecessarily spent for show even in the corners of the room, although in here, the bartender wasn’t making a presentation out of giving people their drinks.
“Dexter,” Chris said toward three people playing pool in the nearly empty room.
He grinned, leaning on his pool cue. “X,” he corrected her. He gave all of us a passing look before he settled on Winter. “I’m X, and you are?”
I didn’t have to look to know that Winter was giving him a cool glare of disinterest and probably rolling her eyes so hard it gave her a headache.
“I’m with them,” she said flatly.
“I’d still like a name.”
“Winter.”
“What’s in a name? You don’t have to be so cold, baby.” He took a few steps toward her.
Ugh, I hate this guy already.
When Winter moved back a few steps, he quickly closed the distance.
Damn, he’s going to end up with that stick shoved up his hindquarters before we can even talk to him.
Winter gav
e him a warning look and another opportunity to move. Chris stepped over, blocking his advance. “I can assure you that is a bad idea unless you really feel like visiting the ER tonight.”
He chuckled, a deep melodious sound, before taking a few steps back. He tossed one more look in Winter’s direction before resting on the edge of the pool table. He was needlessly arrogant. Pecan-colored narrow eyes. The beard was a poor attempt to sharpen and define his rounded face. He had just two or three inches on my five-eight frame. Dressed in a simple gray button-down and jeans, he wore a Bulgari watch that looked out of place with his casual appearance. He paid very little attention to Josh or Ethan, leveling dismissive glances in their direction, while his attention focused either on Winter, me, or Chris. With a half-smile still on his lips, he turned to Chris. “What can X do for you?”
Ugh, he is a douchebag.
“I have it on good authority that you own a couple of properties that we are interested in,” Ethan answered.
“And those properties are?” He’d turned his back to us and started racking the balls. Sometime during introductions and him gawking at Winter, his friends had left.
“The ones you have over near Camby Lane, in the woods, protected by a ward that a mage couldn’t even begin to erect,” Josh spat out with annoyance clearly displayed on his face.
“Josh—it is Josh, isn’t it?” For a brief moment, his forced middling smile turned to a scowl as he gave Josh a long, roving look before returning to the table. He took a shot to break the balls. “I’ve been made aware of your feelings toward us. ‘Diet-witches’ and ‘half-witches’ are what you all usually call us, right?”
“I prefer diet-witch. Half-witch gives you all far too much credit.”
“And yet I have a ward that you can’t seem to break. So I guess you aren’t the witch that you are rumored to be.”
Then X shot Chris a look before saying to her, “I will remember you brought them into my house.”
“I wasn’t aware that you lived here. Hard times?”
“If I own it, I consider it my house.”
“My apologies” was her lackluster response as she shrugged off his poorly veiled threat. “They are looking for their friend, and I’ve been trying to find someone for the past few weeks. I think you might be able to help us.”
He continued to play, hitting the balls and barely acknowledging our presence. Ethan clenched his hands into fists, and it seemed to take a great deal of effort to keep them at his side.
Chris noticed it, too. “Let’s not be coy. What the hell are you doing in that house?”
He chuckled and stood. “I thought you said you didn’t want to be coy? Let’s not be. Let me guess.” He finally directed his attention to Ethan. “I should be honored that you’d deign to come off your little high horse to come visit. Apparently I have something of yours.”
“It’s not a something, it’s a person,” I snapped. I really hated this guy.
He brushed me off with a shrug and a condescending look before returning to the table. Ethan stepped forward and tossed the table aside. “We need your attention.”
Mr. Douchebag X cut his eyes at Chris. “Thanks for bringing this into my house.” His voice was drenched with arrogance and entitlement, and my tolerance for him was starting to match Ethan’s. “There isn’t a need to play games. We will finish our little experiments and you’ll get her back”—he smiled—“new and improved.”
“Unless she dies, like the rest,” I pointed out.
“There’s that. I’ve had some losses, but things have improved. I hope she’s not one of the casualties of this. I can see why you are fond of her. She’s kind of cute, quite the fighter. They had a hard time keeping her. She nearly escaped twice. Please know, I had no idea who she was until I was informed of it.” He waved his hand dismissively. “My bad. I’ll make sure—”
Ethan held him off the ground by his throat. His face became increasingly red as he fought to breathe, and his fingers clawed at Ethan’s hand before he remembered he could do magic. A flash came off his fingers, pushing Ethan back, but it wasn’t anything but a light shove that he was able to withstand. X’s face became ruddy and patchy.
“They will kill her,” he rasped out. Ethan dropped him. X’s legs folded under him and he fell to the ground. “If anything happens to me, they’ve been instructed to get rid of all evidence. If anything happens to me, it is your doing.”
Josh reacted, sending him back until he hit the wall and was held there. “What are you doing with the people there?”
“I guess what you lack in brains, you make up for in magic. A human with were-animal senses is an asset. Like here in my club, as guards. But they also have human fragility and are able to be controlled with magic. I’m sure Chris has already told you how I like to spend my leisure time. Can you imagine the show?” He reeked of the very conceit that allowed him to feel he could do anything he wanted without consequences; he’d probably gotten away with it for many years.
Josh kept him secured against the wall. We knew most of what he was bragging about, and his wards were too strong to be mere mage magic. It wasn’t too hard to piece the rest together. We started to leave when Mr. Douche X continued to talk—he’d said too much, and there wasn’t much more we needed to hear from him. As we walked out the door, Josh released his magic, and once again, the mage hit the floor with a powerful thud. He cried out and I heard a snap—I really wanted it to be his leg. But I kept myself from looking back because I wasn’t confident that if it wasn’t his leg, I wouldn’t go back to complete the job.
CHAPTER 12
After our meeting with Dexter, Ethan went back to the retreat. I wanted to go, but I needed to practice my magic with the Aufero, because it seemed as if I was going to have to use it to help Josh bring down the ward around the compound where the mage was holding the strange were-animals and for the spells to remove the lunar curse. The ward was going to be the easier of the tasks without a doubt.
For the past ten minutes, the Aufero had been in the corner, where it was getting a well-deserved time-out. Simple spells like protective fields and some wards worked fine, but the stronger I made them, the darker the results. The final protective field that I’d made, which I’d attempted to expand to protect others without moving it, had had me writhing on the ground gasping for breath as all the oxygen was drawn from it.
I changed direction, worked on defensive magic. Three balls of magic levitated just above my hand, moving just as the metal stress balls had with Josh earlier in a synchronized pattern of beauty, until their teal color phased into black and heated like coals. I moved my hands just in time—instead of burns on my hand, I had three scorch marks in my carpet.
Exhausted, I plopped down on the sofa to rest before I started again. Using Josh’s magic wasn’t difficult because I didn’t have to manipulate it as much. The magic in the Aufero was both natural and dark, and I had to work around the difference, manipulating it and changing it to get the results I needed. I was convincing myself to take another fifteen minutes before starting when someone rang the bell. I looked at the clock: it was close to eleven, and I knew it couldn’t be anyone else other than my neighbor. The full moon was just a few days away and I hadn’t received his monthly basket. It had been weird the first time—he’d called it a celebratory gift. He knew so much about this world—and I’d seen the way he looked at me sometimes—I thought of it more as a condolence offering. But each month, I was gifted with a large basket, mostly of chocolates, with an assortment of wines and cheeses or specialty popcorn. It was never apples. David knew me too well; it was rather hard to keep smiling when someone handed me a basket of so-called exotic apples. Unless they were dipped in caramel or chocolate, they were just apples—unimpressive. I’d come to anticipate my treats and enjoy them, so I jumped up to answer the door.
When I looked out the peephole, David was slumped and Demetrius was holding him by the throat. I snatched open the door.
“He is ali
ve for now, Sky, but whether he remains that way is up to you. We need to talk. If the conversation goes well, he will stay that way.”
“Talk,” I said through clenched teeth. My fists were balled so tightly at my side my nails were digging into my skin.
“Invite me in.”
I looked at David’s ashen appearance and didn’t see any bite marks. That was a good sign.
I dropped the ward, and Demetrius stepped over the threshold and released David. I grabbed my friend before he could slip to the floor and carried him to the sofa. Demetrius’s handprint had left a red band around his neck, and his breathing was slow, but at least he was breathing.
“I didn’t hurt your fragile little friend, but if this conversation doesn’t go well, believe me, I will.”
My breath caught in my throat and I assessed the situation. Demetrius rested casually against the wall, his midnight eyes as cold and crisp as the black shirt and slacks that he wore. Never before had he reminded me of the Prince of Darkness, the way most people described him, yet it was very fitting at the moment.
“What do you want?”
“Let’s not play this game. Chris. She’s at your witch’s house. She should be with me. You will make that happen.” He snarled, “She is mine, give her back to me!”
For all their sophistication, expensive clothing, and self-indulgence, it was obvious that vampires were nothing more than slaves to their ids, seeking whatever would satisfy their primal cravings at that very moment and ignoring any consequences. Their acts of violence were nothing more than the tantrums of a child. Waah, give me what I want or everyone dies. Waah, he has my toy and I want it back. Waah, she won’t play with me anymore.
“If she was yours, then wouldn’t you have her? I’ve dealt with her on many occasions, including earlier, and she doesn’t seem like the type of woman that wants to be owned. Well, that’s the impression I got when she was kicking the asses of the vampires you sent to claim her.”
Moon Cursed (Sky Brooks Series Book 5) Page 17
