Druid Vices and a Vodka: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Six

by Marie, Annette

  I stared at the illustration of an armored knight on the card. “How do you remember all that?”

  “I’m a diviner,” she answered simply. “Tori, have you told him how you feel?”

  “No.”

  She touched the deck one more time, and my heart dropped. Somehow, I knew what the next card would be. It had appeared in my first reading and stalked me ever since, warning me again and again of what was coming.

  She flipped the card, revealing the grim reaper and his bloody scythe. Death. The card of transformation … of irreversible endings.

  “I think you need to tell him soon,” she whispered.

  Staring at that relentless Death card, I wanted to throw up. What was I doing here, working my regular shift, earning my pointless paycheck, while Ezra’s life trickled away? I had days left before the full moon. I didn’t know anything yet. I needed to—

  “Sorry to interrupt, ladies.” Kaveri stepped into the gap between Sabrina and Sin. “Tori, could I get a bourbini?”

  “Sure,” I replied automatically.

  As I reached below the counter for a cocktail glass, the young witch leaned a slim hip against the bar. “What do you three think of it all?”

  “All of what?” Sin asked politely.

  “The attacks. Did you see the footage from the LA precinct yesterday?” She shook her head. “A guild-run film studio had to take credit for it, pretending it was a publicity stunt, but rumors are running wild. And now the Pandora Knights? It’s scary.”

  I busied myself pouring bourbon into a shaker, pointedly keeping my mouth shut.

  “But they aren’t connected,” Sin said. “What does an LA precinct have to do with a Vancouver guild?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s way too much of a coincidence. And when you add in the news that the Ghost is a druid, well …”

  “How is he connected to anything?” Sin demanded in frustration.

  “Those Odin’s Eye men are saying a druid attacked the MagiPol building,” Sabrina mused uneasily. “One of them checked the precinct’s logs. Two druids were booked only a few hours before.”

  “Of course it was a druid.” Kaveri sniffed. “A witch would know better than to accept magic that powerful from a fae.”

  Assuming a fae would offer a witch something that powerful, which I doubted.

  “Hey, Kaveri,” I said abruptly as I added half an ounce of liqueur to the bourbon, peach bitters, and ice. “I’ve never understood—what’s the difference between a witch and a druid?”

  “Order and chaos.”

  “Uh … could you be any more specific?”

  She tucked a lock of long brown hair behind her ear. “Most people will tell you the only difference is power. They’ll say a druid is just like a witch but with all the Spiritalis dials turned up to ten. They can sense energies more easily, see fae and fae magic better, connect with fae more directly, and so on.”

  “But that isn’t correct?” I guessed as I strained her drink into the cocktail glass and added a sprig of mint.

  “It is, but there are varying power levels in every class. Thank you,” she added as I passed her drink over. “What truly separates us isn’t how much power we have but how we use it. Witches restore order to the natural world through ritual. In the same way Arcana users build spells to channel arcane energies, we use rituals to channel and shape the energies of the natural world.”

  She took a long sip. “Druids skip the ritual and go straight to direct manipulation of energies. They can do it because they’re more powerful, but without the structure of a ritual, it’s like trying to hold water in your bare hands. They create chaos rather than reduce it.”

  I remembered the wild, violent magic spilling out of Zak while he’d been lost in grief. Yeah, I could see where Kaveri was coming from.

  “Their interactions with fae are the same,” she added. “We use ritual to formalize the exchange of favors and magic. It makes everything simple and straightforward. Whereas druids just … allow fae all over them.”

  Or maybe druids didn’t allow it so much as they couldn’t stop fae from coming for the “feast,” as Echo had put it. The Rat darkfae Zak had attempted to bargain with last fall had straight up licked him. He was a tasty little druid morsel, and without a powerful protector like Lallakai, he’d be exposed to every nasty fae who wanted a bite.

  She will own him until his last day, Echo had told me. Or had he been warning me?

  With a clatter, the Odin’s Eye/Crow and Hammer meeting broke up. Mythics stood, stretching and talking. Aaron, still in deep discussion with Andrew, headed upstairs while Izzah scooted off her chair and strode to the bar.

  She smiled tightly as she joined our small group. “Eh, Tori, have you talked to Kai today?”

  I froze. “Uh … no. Did you ask Aaron?”

  Her cocoa eyes clouded. “He said Kai had a family emergency.” She glanced at the other women, who were pretending not to listen—badly—then leaned closer. “Is he okay, Tori?”

  I opened my mouth, then closed it. “Can I get you something to drink, Izzah?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I want answers-lah, not a drink. You’re hiding something. You and Aaron both.”

  I flinched. “Let me get you a drink first, then we can talk about Kai.” Vaguely. Really vaguely.

  “A martini, please,” she said, stiff and angry.

  “You got it.”

  Deciding to spoil her—since I couldn’t give her real answers—I turned to the shelves of high-quality liquor. Behind me, the pub bell jingled. Odin’s Eye mythics on their way out, I assumed as I browsed my options. Where was the stuff I’d given Shane Davila? Oh wait, that was in the fridge. Duh. Should I use gin instead? Hmm …

  The back of my neck prickled, and I frowned. My ears buzzed in the sudden silence.

  The pub had gone dead quiet. I could hear my breath catch in my throat as my adrenaline spiked. A bottle of gin in my hand, I whirled around.

  The pub hadn’t suddenly emptied, nor had a magical force teleported me into a silent dimension. Everyone was exactly where they’d been, scattered around tables or standing in clusters. Sin, Sabrina, Kaveri, and Izzah were still gathered beside my station.

  They were all there, silent and spellbound by the man standing two steps away, waiting for me to notice him.

  Not a mere man.

  A druid.

  A rogue druid.

  A rogue druid by the name of Zak—and he was standing inside my guild in plain freaking sight!

  Chapter Sixteen

  The bottle of gin slipped out of my numb fingers, hit the floor, and shattered.

  Expensive liquid splashed all over my jeans, and my shock broke. Fury and fear and disbelief and oh-my-god-how-moronic-is-he? rushed through my head in a dizzying wave, and my mouth was moving before my brain could catch up.

  “You are the dumbest dickhead on the entire planet!”

  My furious exclamation rang through the silent pub. His green eyes—human-green, not fae-power iridescent-green—flashed angrily.

  Sin, Sabrina, Kaveri, and Izzah turned their heads in perfect unison, mouths hanging open as they looked from me to the rogue and back again. Shock had silenced them, but they were recovering quickly—and wild curiosity was igniting in their expressions.

  At least it wasn’t horror or fear. They didn’t know he was a rogue. Or a druid. Or a murderer.

  Since I’d last seen him, Zak had shaved off his untidy scruff and gotten a haircut. His dark locks were barely an inch long on top and even shorter on the sides—not that the short style detracted from his ridiculously striking face. If anything, it highlighted his amazing cheekbones and gorgeous eyes, framed by luscious lashes.

  I cleared my throat loudly, mentally scrambling. “What are you doing here?”

  His mouth thinned and I realized I should’ve invited him somewhere private to talk. Oops.

  He stepped closer to the bar, and the four women on his side of the barrier drew awed breaths. The wa
y his unfairly handsome face combined with his black clothes, villainous coat, and leather gloves was too perfect, and he was oozing bad-boy pheromones so strong the girls were nearly drooling.

  “You’re a difficult woman to contact,” Zak said in a low, raspy rumble. The female foursome beside him swooned. “Would you mind?”

  He held out a shiny new cell phone. I took it, since he was offering it, but once it was in my hand, I stared from the device to him and back, painfully aware that everyone in the pub was watching our every move.

  A muscle in his cheek twitched. “Despite what you may think, I don’t know your number by heart.”

  Oh. Oooh. I woke the screen. His contacts, already open, contained exactly zero phone numbers. Did he buy—or steal—this phone just to contact me? I might’ve been very slightly flattered.

  Okay, I was flattered. Also nervous about why he wanted to talk to me so badly.

  I added my number, then tossed the phone back to him. He caught it and pushed his coat aside to slip it into his back pocket.

  “You’re an alchemist?” Sin blurted loudly. She tactlessly pointed at his waist. “That’s an alchemy combat belt.”

  His cold stare swung to her as he let his long coat fall back into place. She went silent, mouth gaping lamely as her crippling shyness in the face of any hot man took over. Turning his back on the bar, he strode toward the door.

  Seriously? He’d just invaded my guild, demanded my phone number, flaunted his edgy man-beauty everywhere, and now he was leaving without another word? Did he want to make his visit as memorable as possible?

  “Hold on,” I called irately. Planting my hands on the bar top, I vaulted over it. “You’re going to call me as soon as you’re outside, so we might as well talk now.”

  He halted. The instant I reached him, he was moving again. I walked beside him, heading for the safety—or at least the privacy—of the street.

  “What the actual hell are you doing here?”

  Aaron’s furious shout rang through the bar. Stumbling in surprise, I looked back. The pyromage was halfway down the stairs from the upper level, his teeth bared. Andrew and Girard stood behind him, their eyebrows raised in question.

  “Hey Aaron,” I said with forced calm. “We’re stepping outside for a chat. You should join us.”

  His jaw clenched, visible from across the bar. “I’d love to have a little chat.”

  Great. This was going to be so much fun.

  He stormed down the stairs and strode aggressively to my other side. He and Zak glowered at each other over the top of my head, and I almost face-palmed. Sure, guys. Go ahead. Make a scene. Why not?

  “Idiots,” I said in a sugary whisper, putting a hand on each of their shoulders and squeezing hard as I smiled for my audience. “Please move your testosterone-crippled asses outside right now.”

  Their glares singed me, then they marched to the exit, side by side. Zak’s slightly longer stride won out, and he shoved through the door first, Aaron right behind him. I followed them outside, rolling my eyes so hard they blistered in their sockets.

  “What’s wrong with you, barging into our guild?” Aaron snarled the moment the door shut. “With your face showing, no less?”

  “Was I supposed to come in with a hood and mask?” Zak snapped. “You were the ones broadcasting your reactions to the whole guild. If you and Tori had an ounce of brainpower between you—”

  “Why are you here, Zak?” I interrupted, folding my arms—partly for sass and partly because it was freakin’ cold out.

  “I don’t have any of your phone numbers, or secure access to the MPD database to get your numbers. This was the only way to talk to you, and it couldn’t wait.” His gaze cut across us. “Where is Kai?”

  “Kai?” I repeated. “I have no idea. Makiko took him away, remember?”

  “So he’s with her?”

  “We think so.”

  “Can you contact him?”

  “He isn’t responding to messages,” Aaron said flatly. “I don’t know if he’s seeing them.”

  Dread built in my chest like cold liquid compressing my lungs. “Why are you asking, Zak?”

  “I’ve been gathering information about Varvara and her plans. The Pandora Knights are the highest-grossing bounty guild in the city. She got them out of the way first so they couldn’t interfere with her next move.”

  I almost asked him how many people he’d killed to get that information, but I really didn’t want to know.

  “What’s her next move?” Aaron demanded.

  “To consolidate her new power in Vancouver, she needs to eliminate her competition.”

  My heart stuttered. “You mean the Yamadas, don’t you? That rogue guy said the Yamadas were taking over, and Varvara showed up to oppose them. That’s why you want to know where Kai is?”

  “She’s going after the Yamadas’ presence here in the city next—probably tonight while the Pandora Knights incident has everyone distracted. I want to head her off. Where can I find the Miuras?”

  Aaron swore. “I need to get my keys.”

  “If you know where they are, just tell me.”

  “No way.” Aaron put a hand on the door, his blue eyes blazing. “If you didn’t need information, would you even have warned us that Kai is in danger?”

  He pushed into the guild, letting a wave of conservation out into the quiet street. The door thumped shut behind him.

  Zak leaned against the wall. “Next time I show up somewhere unexpected, Tori, try not to act like I’m a specter returned from the dead.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll just tell my guild you’re my ex-boyfriend and I dumped you for being an egotistical dickhead.”

  “Nice try, but you haven’t been part of the mythic community long enough to have a mythic ex. Unless you want them to think you were cheating on Aaron.”

  “Huh.” I thought for a moment. “Then I’ll tell them you’re in love with me and you’ve been stalking me like a total creeper.”

  “I’m sure that will get a great reaction.”

  I grimaced. “The women would probably ask me why I’m not all for it.”

  “All for what?”

  “All for the hot alchemist trying to get in my pants.”

  “When have I tried to get in your pants?”

  “We’re talking about my cover story, not real life, Zak.”

  He grunted irritably.

  “By the way.” I stuffed a hand in my pocket, feeling for the square of fabric. “You took off last night before I could give you the Cara—”

  The guild door swung open. Aaron marched out, his jacket over his arm, sheathed sword slung over his shoulder, and keys in his hand. Zak gave his head a slight shake and I reluctantly left the Carapace in my pocket.

  Ezra followed Aaron through the door, carrying his pole-arm—and my combat gear. I grinned as he passed me my belt and badass leather jacket. Too bad I wasn’t wearing my matching leather pants—too hot for a long shift behind the bar—but good enough.

  As I buckled on my belt, I realized I was forgetting something. “Uh, one sec, guys.”

  I stuck my head back into the pub. Chatter circled the room, the gossip engine revving hard. Several people looked around at my reappearance, including the four girls still at the bar.

  “Hey, Cooper,” I shouted.

  More conversations broke off, gazes swinging toward me. I scanned the mythics for a familiar greasy head.

  “Cooper!”

  “What?” came the reluctant response from the back corner.

  I spotted him tucked at a table between Cameron and Cearra. “Cover the rest of my shift.”

  “Huh? No way. It’s Friday night and—”

  “Just do it!” I bellowed.

  “Tori—” he began in a whine.

  I stepped outside and shut the door firmly. Turning to the three men, I shrugged. “Okay, we’re good to go.”

  * * *

  Six minutes later, Aaron pulled his SUV up to the curb of
a downtown street, the streetlamps glowing and a handful of cars zooming past. Though it was Friday night, it was a cold, dark, windy Friday night, and this was the business sector of downtown. Almost everyone had gone home for the weekend.

  I looked around, then leaned over the center console. “Uh, Aaron? Why are you stopping?”

  He cut the engine and pulled the keys out of the ignition. “We’re here.”

  “This is, like, twelve blocks from the guild.”

  “Yep.”

  From the passenger seat, Zak scrutinized Aaron. “You sure about this, Sinclair?”

  Ignoring him, Aaron directed his words at me. “Remember what I said about that time we tagged a Yamada associate and Kai disappeared for a night? After that, I made sure I’d know where to look if he went missing again.”

  Nodding, I threw my door open. “Let’s go get him.”

  We climbed out and gathered on the sidewalk, facing a towering skyscraper with one curved end, like a closed-in U. It was sleek, elegant, and all windows, the flawless glass reflecting the surrounding lights.

  Beside me, Ezra craned his neck back. “It’s completely dark.”

  I blinked. At least a few windows glowed in all the surrounding buildings except this one.

  “Zak,” I muttered, fishing a hair tie out of my pocket. “What exactly is Varvara’s plan?”

  “All I know is she’s targeting Yamada holdings next.”

  “What’s our plan?” Ezra asked.

  Aaron rubbed the back of his neck. “Go inside. Get to the top floors. Find Kai.”

  Zak snorted.

  “Got a better idea, asshole?”

  The druid reached for the hood of his long coat. As he pulled it over his head, dark wings swept out of nothing, and a feathered body followed. The huge eagle collided with Zak’s back, and her wings furled around him as she melted into his body.

  Aaron made a harsh noise. “That’s freakin’ creepy.”

  Zak strode toward the tower’s main doors.

  “Let’s go,” I muttered, trotting after him as I pulled my curls into a high ponytail and looped the hair tie tight around it. Unobstructed visibility over fashion.