Conspiracy of Ravens

by J. C. McKenzie

Cole held his position, slipping from side to side to dodge fireballs and knives.

  When their initial attacks failed, the dark fae advanced in unison with no spoken words and no change of emotion. Their stone faces remained trained on the one man capable of getting Raven out of this mess.

  Maybe she should run? Would Cole’s shadows continue to cloak her if she escaped?

  As if flicking on an internal switch from passive to active, Cole moved. He snaked across the pavement and closed the distance to the other fae with fluid grace. Like liquefied shadow, he continued to dodge their attacks.

  Metal flashed in the air. The brick crunched as two knives sank into the wall about a foot from Raven’s head. She straightened and swallowed. Maybe “stay here” wasn’t such a good idea.

  Her feet grew roots into the pavement and her limbs froze.

  Cole slipped around the weapon fae and delivered staggering blows to the kidneys before completing some sort of judo throw. The first fae to attack continued to fling fireballs at Cole, but he’d started to back away from the Lord of Shadows. Cole advanced, picking up speed, spinning, leaning, ducking around whatever the fae threw at him. In a breath, he appeared behind the fire fae, reached out and snapped his neck in one swift move. The dark fae crumpled to the ground.

  The wind fae continued to direct blasts of air at Cole, but the Lord of Shadows was too quick. He continued to duck in and out of shadows, striking at the fae. A knife materialized in Cole’s hand. With lightning fast reflexes, he plunged the knife into the fae’s chest.

  Raven gasped.

  The wind fae’s eyes widened. He clutched at his chest and sank to the ground.

  She stepped forward.

  A ninja star flew through the air. Cole slipped to the side, narrowly escaping the sharp edges. The weapon fae staggered to his feet and the two squared off. Cole smiled. They feinted and dodged. Like trying to hold water with a bare hand, Cole slipped through and around every attack the other dark fae threw. It became clear in a few shuddered breaths Cole could’ve incapacitated the fae at any time of his choosing.

  Sweat dripped down the other dark fae’s face as he continued his failing assault.

  “Cole!”

  He winked before shadow jumping to place himself behind the weapon fae. He kicked his opponent’s legs out from under him.

  “What?” His porcelain pale face showed no exertion. No rose-tinted cheeks or sweat. Instead, his smooth skin glowed with evanescent light under the midday heat of the summer sun.

  “You’re not a cat.” She meant to scold him about playing with their attacker but blurted out the cat comment instead. She smacked her palm against her forehead.

  Cole sighed and straightened. The weapon fae staggered to his feet and scowled. Hands clenched, he snarled at the Lord of Shadows. His gaze darted in Raven’s direction. His shoulders tensed and he drew another dagger. He flicked his wrist and the metal flashed through the air until it struck the brick one foot to the left of Raven’s stomach. Raven trembled. The weapon warper’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t focus on her exact location, so Cole’s shadow veil prevailed. Good thing, too. He’d probably skewer her if he could locate her. Raven took a large step to the right. Maybe she should keep her mouth shut for once.

  Cole turned to face the other fae. Instead of engaging in another fight, he stood eerily still as dark bands shot out from the alley and from the fae’s own shadow. They wove around the weapon fae’s neck, wrists and ankles before flinging him against the alley wall opposite of Raven.

  Oh goody. Front row seats to Underworld torture. If only she had some popcorn.

  Cole’s shadow bands continued to hold the man in place.

  The weapon fae’s eyes widened. “Camhanaich.”

  Cole nodded and walked over to Raven. His shadow veil slipped away, and he ran a finger down her cheek, his fingertip hot against her skin.

  The other fae’s face paled and his shoulders dropped. “We didn’t know.”

  Cole nodded without turning toward the other fae. Instead, his gaze flicked to the two daggers embedded in the wall by her head and near her stomach. His jaw clenched. “Were your orders to kill or capture the girl?”

  Um, excuse me. This girl is a grown ass woman, thank you very much. Raven bit her tongue. Now was not the time.

  The weapon fae swallowed. “Capture the girl if possible, kill if not. Eliminate any witnesses.”

  “Who holds your contract?”

  “Anonymous. As are all jobs through the guild.”

  Definitely mercenaries then.

  “Timeline?”

  “Open.”

  “Payment?” Cole asked.

  “Upon completion.”

  “Amount?”

  “Three thousand gold.”

  Cole’s shoulders relaxed. With one more finger stroke against her cheek, he turned to the attacker.

  “I didn’t know, my lord.”

  Cole nodded. “I’m allowing you to live for two reasons. One, you’re mine now.” He flicked up his fingers to emphasize his points. “And two, you will go back to the guild and tell them Raven Crawford and her family are under my protection.”

  The weapon fae’s eyes bulged out of his skull. His head snapped in her direction.

  “Anyone who takes that contract will be destroyed. I will show no mercy next time.”

  The other fae dipped his chin. “The guild will pull it.”

  “They better.” Cole released the shadows, and the fae dropped to his feet. “Or I will destroy them as well.”

  The weapon fae’s gaze slid to Raven, again.

  “Leave.”

  The man nodded before throwing a portal disc at the ground. Cole used his shadows to fling the dead bodies of the other two fae through the portal after the lone survivor. Once the portal snapped shut, taking the disc with it, Raven breathed again.

  “Holy fuck,” she whispered.

  Cole turned. “There’s nothing holy about fucking.”

  “It’s an expression.”

  He frowned.

  “So, those were fae mercenaries?”

  “Yes,” he said. “We won’t have to worry about them anymore.”

  “Why not? Won’t the person behind the contract just raise their price?” Three thousand was a lot of money. Not enough for her to turn herself in but enough to pause.

  Cole picked up her purse and handed it to her. His shadow reached out and smoothed the bumps on her arms. “He or she could, but the guild won’t post it.”

  “Why not? Shouldn’t they be impartial?” Mental note: Add researching the Underworld’s Assassin’s Guild to the “To Do List.” She took the purse from Cole and slung the thin strap over her shoulder.

  Cole chuckled. “Unless it concerns me.”

  “What makes you so special?”

  Cole let out an exasperated sigh and turned toward her parents’ house. “I made the guild. I can unmake it.”

  A shiver raced along her spine. Okay. Move research up the list. Right under finding out everything she could about the mysterious man walking beside her, especially anything explaining this moth-to-the-flame attraction. She’d met attractive men before, but none of them caused her to become a complete bumbling idiot in their presence. “Who’s protecting my family exactly?”

  “I’m the Patron Fae of Assassins,” he said as if it answered everything. And it did in an ominous way.

  She remained frozen in place. Of course, she knew he held that title. She knew he was deadly. She knew he commanded assassins. But the true meaning of his title and its implications finally sank in, smacking a few brain cells on the way down. What had she done? Had she made the right choice?

  He glanced over his shoulder. “They’re guarded well.”

  “We’re meters from my parents’ house right now. Why didn’t these guards come to help? Where are they?”

  “One, they’re supposed to remain undetected. I’d be extremely disappointed if you spotted them.” Cole smirked. “Two, they d
idn’t help because I didn’t need it. Abandoning their positions to unnecessarily offer aid would leave your family vulnerable. If this was meant as a diversion, the puppet master pulling the strings would’ve achieved what he or she wanted.”

  “Do you think Bane sent them?”

  “Bane? No. Not his style. He’d never send someone in his place if there was a chance for a fight.”

  Raven jogged to catch up. Her flip flops slapped against her feet and the sidewalk. “If we no longer have to worry about mercenaries or assassins, why do you look like you just swallowed week-old sushi?”

  Cole opened the gate to her parents’ place and stood to the side so she could go first.

  “Thanks.” She brushed past him, inhaling his earthy scent.

  He nodded and followed. “Now that I’ve taken the paid, anonymous option away, whomever was behind this attack will have to come at us with his or her own court or house.”

  Pepe lifted his head from munching grass and bleated at them with his mouth half full.

  “Hey, Pepe.” Guess Dad was still pissed at the neighbour. She mulled over what Cole said about the possibility of an impending fae attack. “And the fae coming at us with their own house is worse?”

  “It can be.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  ~Wenher von Braun

  Raven sat precariously between a pile of questionably smelling clothes and an empty pizza box. Her lips twisted into a frown. Cole had walked her to the front door of her parents’ place and after a toe-curling kiss, disappeared into his shadows.

  “You could clear a space for yourself.” Mike winked and turned back to his computer. He sat in the expensive office chair Mom and Dad got him last Christmas, wearing athletic shorts and a white tank top. He looked like he planned to go to the gym, but still managed somehow to sit with the authority of a Supreme Court judge. Raven had entered his kingdom.

  “I’m not touching anything in this sin bin without a hazmat suit.” She’d already sat here longer than she wanted, briefing Mike on all that she’d learned so far.

  Mike scowled. “Yet, you let Romeo kiss you goodbye.”

  “Were you spying on me?” Ew.

  “You two thumped down the walkway like an inexperienced marching band. I looked outside and the two of you were playing tonsil tennis. Trust me. That’s the last thing I wanted to see. Not even industrial-strength soap can clean the image out of my mind.”

  Her face flamed. She glanced at the window. Although shut, Mike had pulled up the blinds. Natural afternoon sunlight streamed in. “What in the Mortal Realm does this have to do with the filth you insist on living in? When are you going to stop marking your territory with your stench? Pretty soon Mom and Dad are going to invest in door seals and install them to contain the stink.”

  “You sound like Mom.”

  She glared.

  Mike spun around. “Because out of the two situations—sitting in my room of questionable sanitation or snogging the Lord of Darkness—”

  “Shadows.”

  “Whatever.”

  She folded her arms.

  “The latter is infinitely more hazardous to your health.”

  She eyed the pizza box and toed the magazine with a naked chick draped over the hood of a truck. “I’m not so sure.”

  Please, don’t let there be a black light. Ignorance was bliss in some cases.

  Mike shrugged.

  “Why am I here? Why couldn’t we talk someplace else, or on the phone, or better yet, just texted each other so we could avoid all this person-to-person interaction and skipped all the old-school social etiquette stuff?”

  “Etiquette?” Mike chuckled. “I don’t think you’ve practiced that, like, ever.”

  She flashed her middle finger at his back.

  “Saw that.” Mike smirked at his computer screen. “You’re here, young Padawan, because we’re going to hack into our brother dearest’s email account.”

  “You think we can discover where he is from his email?” Bear wouldn’t be that stupid.

  “No. Bear’s not that dumb,” Mike said.

  “Then?” Maybe she should invest in a cattle prod. She could use it for conversations with Mike, and Megan...and people in general. She’d give them a little zap when they took too long to get to the point.

  Raven rubbed her bare arms. Her parents had invested in an air conditioner for the three weeks in summer it got hot enough in the Lower Mainland to need one. Sitting in Mike’s room with her tank top and short shorts left her cold and her lungs dry. She relished the cool sensation when she first walked into the house from the summer heat but not now. Maybe she should raid Juni’s room for a sweater.

  “Once we have access to his email, we’re going to reset his password for his online banking.”

  Raven’s mouth dropped open. “We’re hacking a bank? You look like you’re about to go for a run, not commit a crime.”

  “We’re not really hacking. I’m not attacking their code.”

  “Sounds like a technicality. It’s still fraud.”

  “Sounds like you don’t want to find Bear.”

  She pursed her lips and sat back. Her bare shoulders hit the wall and she jerked forward. Mike’s room. Touch nothing. Or at least, touch as little as possible. She crossed her arms and hugged herself. “Dad can’t find out.”

  Mike rolled his eyes. “Obviously.”

  “Why do you need me here? Besides dragging me down as an accomplice.”

  “The bank requires Bear to answer personal security questions when he resets his password or logs in from a new location. In this case, we’re doing both. His email also requires security questions for password resets.”

  Raven grumbled.

  “What is it?”

  “I can barely remember the answers for my own account.” She flapped her hand at one of the screens. “I mean, I know the answer, usually, but not how I originally typed it in. Like did I use capitals, spaces or pronouns? How am I supposed to know what Bear’s answers are?”

  “Relax.” Mike turned to face her. His gaze softened. “If we don’t get in, we’re no worse off than before. It’s worth a try, though, right?”

  Her shoulders sagged. “Right.”

  “Besides, if this fails, I can always attack the bank’s code.”

  Raven groaned. The sunlight from outside transformed into streams of gold and red. The room darkened.

  Mike flicked on his desk lamp. Along with his bedroom light, his room was illuminated enough to qualify as a maximum-security prison. Her brother swiveled back to his computers. “Ready?”

  “Hit me with it.”

  “Pet.”

  “Fucking hell spawn.”

  “K-i-s-s-a.” Mike spoke as he typed. “Favourite beach?”

  What in the Underworld? There were tons of beaches in the area, and Bear visited a lot of them, in addition to going surfing on the island. “Tofino?”

  “That’s a town, not a beach.”

  “Long Beach?”

  Clickety-click-click. Mike shook his head.

  “Chesterman?”

  “Nope. Maybe try one of significance?”

  “Rathtrevor?” She named the beach from the picture they both had framed. The sprawling white sand beach on the east coast of Vancouver Island was the only beach they had a shared memory of. But that was so long ago. She’d never been back since the end of high school. Neither had Bear as far as she knew.

  “Bingo. Good work. One more. Oldest sister.”

  Raven snorted.

  Mike hit enter and grunted. “Didn’t work.”

  “Branwen.”

  Mike groaned. “Of course.” He typed again. “Okay, we’re in his email. Now for the bank.” Mike shifted to look at another screen while his fingers tap danced along the keyboard.

  Raven stood and navigated around the hordes of clothing to look out Mike’s window. The sun had set, casting
the world in shades of gray as the light slipped behind the trees. Her parents’ yard, now cast in darkness, echoed memories of her past. She’d run around this patch of grass yelling, squealing, playing and laughing with her siblings. With Bear. Her heart ached.

  Pepe’s bell jingled as he meandered around the grass. Did he ever stop eating?

  A shadow moved along the edge of the property near the neighbour’s trees. Her breathing stopped. She leaned forward. There it was again.

  Her heart pounded. She pulled out her phone and hit Cole’s contact information.

  He picked up on the third ring. “Camhanaich.”

  “There are suspicious shadows moving around my front yard. Is that you?”

  “No. Is it the goat?”

  “No,” she hissed. Did he think she was that stupid? Someone was out there. Or something. Her hand trembled on the phone.

  “Where?”

  “Southeast corner of my parents’ property. By the trees.”

  “Just a second.” He mumbled in the background.

  Who the heck was he talking to? Her phone buzzed with a little static and warmed against her cheek.

  “That’s one of my guys.”

  Raven let out a long breath and her heart stopped racing. He said he’d be angry if she managed to spot one of his guys...but here they were. “Don’t peck his eyes out.”

  Without saying goodbye, the Lord of Shadows hung up on her.

  She stared at her phone’s screen. Yup. He definitely ended the call. Who was he with? A lady friend? A servant? Someone else he was interrogating as a part of the investigation. Ugh... She needed to calm her tits. She had no claim over the dark fae lord. He owed her nothing except protection and not killing her twin when they found him. She needed to keep that straight in her brain. His delicious mouth moving along hers while his shadows caressed her skin didn’t change the facts.

  Yet, if she closed her eyes, she could feel his hands on her body and taste him on her tongue.

  “You need to stop staring out the window like a distraught Rapunzel.”

  She turned to glare at her brother, but he remained focused on his computer screens.

  “By the way, do you know what Einin means?” he asked, still clicking and typing away. He selected the “Forgot My Password” option on the bank’s login screen.