Rage: A New Adult Urban Fantasy (Spelldrift: Coven of Fire Book 3)

by Sierra Cross

  But was he ready to believe it, live it? His lips answered my unasked question. He pressed a kiss on my mouth that was so full and tender it took my breath away. His tongue brushed my lips, a request. My whole body responded, lips parted, my heart beat like a caged animal against my ribs. Heat bloomed in my core, and his hand slipped around my waist, fingers finding their way to the skin under my shirt. My hands grabbed his collar and pulled him closer. His lips sank to the bend of my neck, teeth gently grazing my exposed skin. He kissed his way over to my collarbone, the stubble on his chin lighting up a path of ecstasy as he moved. His hand moved up my ribcage, and his thumb brushed across the lace cup of my bra, the firmness of my desire meeting him. A moan welled up from deep inside me. The sound of my pleasure lit a fire in him, his greedy mouth dropped to the front of my shirt. My hand reached back to lie down and pull Matt down on top of me. But my fingers hit Asher’s still leg.

  Reality slammed me in the gut like a bulldozer. Without my body’s permission, the logic center of my brain sent the flat of my hand onto the center of Matt’s chest, gently pushing him back. Even as my senses were appreciating the hard muscles beneath my fingers, my mouth formed the words I didn’t want to have to say.

  “We can’t do this on top of Asher.” I swallowed, struggling to get my breathing back to a normal pace. Our devil of a warlock looked like a sleeping angel.

  He raised an eyebrow like he was about to argue the point, but stopped. “You’re right,” Matt said breathlessly. He took a deep breath and exhaled. “Lay down next to Asher.”

  Any last ember of jealousy had been extinguished. Matt knew I was his.

  My body didn’t want to be that far away from him, but the room was so small I didn’t have to worry. My head hit the pillow, Matt slid down the wall, one shoulder leaning against the bed, the other against the wall. Our faces were inches apart. “You at least get the pillow.” I handed him the slim bag of lumps that passed for one in this hotel room.

  He punched it into a ball, leaned his head on it, and took my hand. The rush of excitement faded and so did my strength. The day’s events had taken their toll.

  “Thank you,” Matt whispered.

  “For what, the pillow?”

  “Nah, the pillow sucks. Thank you…for coming for me.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The sun pierced the brilliant blue sky, shining down on the crowded streets. I’d woken up to the sounds of the city, wrapped in Matt’s arms. Asher sat in the broken-down chair across from us. When I’d opened my eyes, his big grey eyes were staring at me, full of…sadness. I sensed he and I had a conversation in our future. For our coven’s sake, I hoped it went well.

  Since we were fugitives, Asher had conjured us glamours for our excursion outside the hotel room to find lunch. He’d cast us as a neat little family unit. Glamouring himself as a dashing fifty-something dad with grey at his temples and reading glasses, me as a teenage boy with scrawny mid-pubescent arms and tattered high-tops on my feet, and Matt as squat, doughy, middle-aged soccer mom with coffee stains on her I-Heart-Horses T-shirt.

  Asher was back to his normal color, but he was moving like an old man. And using this level of magic, even while drawing energy from us, took its toll. It didn’t help that he was having to stop every few minutes to get control of his laughing fits. The spell wrapped around our bodies, and until it was released, that’s all we could see. Even when I looked at myself, the illusion was all I saw. And I didn’t recognize the men I was traveling with, though the energy I received through our coven tattoos remained unchanged.

  Unperturbed, Matt was striding around with his usual poised, confident air. Making the whole thing somehow even funnier. Kind of wrecked the sullen teenage pout I was trying to rock though.

  Wrought iron tables with umbrellas of every color crowded the front of the café and waiters zig zagged between them in an amazing dance of delectable delivery. We sat at a table under an umbrella, and I flagged a waiter, forgetting I was a fourteen-year-old boy.

  Someday we would come back to this exact spot, when no one was hunting us. But for that to happen, we had to evade capture long enough to set things right. Even though we were wanted fugitives we still needed to eat. Our brains needed fuel to plan a way out of this mess.

  My sympathetic nervous system had seen so much action in the last two days, I felt numb. At any moment Alana could descend on us with a horde of Neqs to realize her twisted vision of the world. The Council probably had an APB on us for busting a Caedis out of prison. We were 5,000 miles away from home and would no doubt soon be popping up on the Fidei wanted lists there too. We’d given Liv a heads up so she wouldn’t be shocked if the authorities came around looking for us.

  The waiter set down a platter of crispy bread with red sauce and rough-cut slices of ham. My mouth watered. Then he put the small porcelain cup—half the size of my usual latte—in front of me. When the bitter liquid melded with heavy cream hit my taste buds, the world righted itself, if only for the time it took to swallow. Perfection. Don’t get me wrong, Strong Brew was still my ideal cup o’ Joe, but this was now a close second.

  “So, mate, still think you’re an abomination?” Asher asked. I’d told him that Matt had seen the videos.

  Matt didn’t bristle like I expected him to. Whatever passed between them had softened the edges of how they communicated, and I wondered if the change would be permanent. “All my life,” Matt said slowly, “I’ve hated myself, believing I was a coward for not turning myself in.” Matt pushed his plate away. “Walking down the street, I wondered if people could sense the evil in me. There hasn’t been a moment that I haven’t been terrified of what I would become, praying I’d have the courage to end it before I hurt others.”

  “At least you know that’s all a load of crap now,” Asher said. “And the guardian warrant on you is bullshit.”

  “No, it’s not,” Matt said, shocking me. “I took an oath to the Fraternal Order of the Guardians.” My heart stumbled at what I was afraid he was going to say next. “I know it’s crazy, but it’s hard to let go of it.” He shook his head; the bouncy brown curls Asher had given him flopping around his full cheeks. “But after what I saw, after what they’ve done, been doing for decades. I can’t be a part of it any more. I need to help change the system. After I free Alana’s soul.”

  “Congratulations. You’re not the fecking idiot I thought you were,” Asher said with no punch to the words. He chomped into the crusty bread and considered for a moment. “Well, there’s no ‘I’ in your life anymore, coven sister. It’s ‘we.’ As in, ‘we will free Alana.’” Asher looked at me, but not for approval. He knew I’d have said the same thing.

  “I guess we’re going to take down that Caedis,” I said.

  Matt shook his head. “Your lives will be in danger—”

  “You devil,” Asher teased. “I’ve already said I’m in. Stop trying to woo me.”

  “First, we have to figure out how to find her,” Matt said, motioning to the waiter for the check. “She’s wounded. Maybe that’ll slow her down.” He said it without much conviction though.

  “How do we free Alana’s soul anyway?” I asked.

  “First, we need to lure the Caedis—who knows we want her dead—to the Demongate,” Asher said. “Then we kill that body, and get the Caedis lifeforce—that’s the smoke-like form they take in this realm when they don’t have a skinsuit—to cross back over into the demon realm. At the same time, we open a portal to the Void, locate Alana’s soul—which is untethered and roaming free—and send her to the light. Piece of cake.”

  “Ah…yeah. Right.” I let myself have one hysterical peal of laughter. “Easy.” I looked over at Matt. Until a couple of months ago, I’d thought magic was impossible for me. We had no idea how we’d put down the demon tree or get me free of Tenebris’ mind control, but somehow we’d managed. “We’ll get it done.”

  Our waiter brought us the check, and Matt paid it with the last of the euros in his wallet.
I tried to stand, and my muscles moved like the Tin Man’s before the oil can, but the caffeine had at least revved up my brain. We could do this. We’d find a way. Then the room started to darken in tunnel vision, and I slammed back down on the hard-wooden booth. “Not again!” I heard myself say as I was whisked away on a tidal wave of fear and panic.

  Hot acrid air stung my nose. Dim reddish light forced my eyes to adjust. Not my eyes and nose, Liv’s. Her pulse hammered in her head. Breath was barely making it into her lungs.

  She was back at Millennium Dynamics. Alone, damn it. But this time she was inside, halfway down the narrow hallway to the demon portal wall. What the hell? She was so far in the belly of the beast she’d never make it out of there alive. The icy grip of doom clamped around my heart.

  Whatever magic she was using was stronger than the cloaking spell she used the last time. This one had weight to it. As she moved, it felt like she was walking under a heavy blanket. Maybe she’d fixed it so Callie couldn’t sense her energy like last time? I was praying that was the case. But what the hell was her plan? The weight of this spell was so intense she wouldn’t be able to move very fast.

  I heard faint voices and footsteps and knew Liv was following them, closing in. Her muscles twitching with each step, her heart hammering. I didn’t want to see who those footsteps belonged to. I felt myself pulling back trying to stop the forward movement, but I kept being tugged along. The candles in sconces along the wall didn’t even flicker when Liv passed them. What kind of spell had she thrown?

  The rocky walls closed in as the path to the demon party room narrowed and bent, descending around a corner. The backs of two women became visible in the dim light. One, I could tell, was Callie. Her slim silhouette and the signature high heels she always wore these days were a dead giveaway. The other woman was covered in a long dark robe, walking with an uneven gait.

  As Liv got closer I could hear Callie’s words.

  “The healing properties in the portal room are amazing, almost as strong as at the Demongate—but no pesky wards to have to fight through.”

  “I sense the veil between realms is thin here.” Alana breathed a sigh. “I can feel it working already.”

  “I consider it my personal spa.” Callie waved her arm out like Vanna White. “I often come here just to recharge. You’ll be at one hundred percent by morning.”

  Then we were right up on them. I smelled burned skin and sulfur.

  “Thank you, my dear. Your assistance will not be forgotten.” The voice was pinched with pain, but it was nevertheless unmistakable. Alana. She was in Seattle? With Callie? Had they formed an alliance with Aunt Jenn? It would make sense since both of them were against the Council Suprema.

  Alana paced the room, not looking at all relaxed. Her gaze kept returning to the doorway.

  “I promise you, this level is secure,” Callie assured the Caedis. “Jenn Hill has no idea you’re in the building. The wards are masking your signature. And I’ve looped the feeds on the security monitors so this room appears empty. You’re safe. Relax and heal.”

  So many questions my brain was on overload. Callie was working with that Caedis and Aunt Jenn didn’t know about it? And I had time to think about none of them. Everything flipped into fast forward, and my eyes struggled to take it all in.

  Liv’s hand was slicing through the heavy spell that shrouded her, blood rushing loudly in her ears. Callie yelped. Alana staggered back, green blasts instantly forming on her fingers. Thank god Liv was wearing her wardsuit. Liv rushed Callie, hand going to our lost sister’s neck, fingers wrapping around her throat and squeezing. What was she doing? She couldn’t kill a demon of any kind that way. Callie flailed and smacked Liv hard. I felt my own cheek burn. Callie’s nails were digging into her hand, clawing, trying to dislodge it from her neck. A blast of fire hit my back, though it was mostly absorbed by the wardsuit, I felt like a marshmallow on the end of stick. Another blast hit her shoulder, the suit was weakening already! It wouldn’t hold much longer. Her fingers trembled with effort of pressing into Callie’s neck, Callie’s face turning pale with the lack of oxygen. The painful tingle of dark magic raged, but Liv barely seemed to notice it.

  “Feel that, Alix!” Liv shouted in triumph. She knew I was with her on this freak show of a ride.

  And then I felt it. A weak, fluttering pulse. There was another magic in that body, other than the prickling evil that was so strong. Callie was still in there. My heart ripped from my chest. Liv threw a spellbead. I saw its smoke form and before she took flight, I was evicted from the vision.

  I dropped to my knees hard, tears flowing down my face. Waiters were staring. Matt tried to help me to my feet. I didn’t want to stand. I wanted to throw myself on the ground and sob. Callie was alive! She was in there, on a demon ride from hell. And whatever evil sauce she’d dipped in had now got her teamed up with Alana.

  My limbs were trembling so hard I couldn’t shrug off Matt’s attempts to scoop me up and deposit me back in my chair.

  “Take a breath Alix.” Matt rubbed my back. “You’re going to pass out if you don’t.”

  “What the hell did you just see?” Asher demanded, setting a glass of water in front of me. “Is Liv okay?”

  I managed to nod, but I was crying so hard I was hiccupping. It took a long time for the floodgate to slow to a trickle, so that I could tell them everything I’d just seen. Pain registered on their faces when they heard about the odd second pulse of magic inside of Callie. We had to save her, somehow. But how? I could see conflict on Matt’s face; it was important to him to kill Alana’s Caedis. And I knew it was important to all of us to protect our Demongate, do right with Masumi’s evidence on Mals, and stop a takeover of our Council. Just a tiny little to-do list.

  But this was Callie.

  I needed to call Liv. Rescuing our coven sister was now at the top of our list. Would I have to fight Matt on that?

  “Hello?” Liv said. And I was too messed up in the head over Callie to even yell at Liv for going in there alone.

  “I felt it,” I cried, once again feeling humbled by the knowledge. “She’s alive. She’s in there.” Tears started to fall again, but I couldn’t let them. I couldn’t come apart at the seams now. I needed to stay strong…for Callie.

  Liv sniffed. I knew she was crying too hard to speak.

  “You were right this whole time,” I said. “We’ll get back as soon as we can. We’ll do whatever it takes to get her back as soon as we land.” We should’ve started trying to save Callie as soon as we lost her. Hindsight hurt like a bitch.

  “That’s just it,” Liv said, and sniffed again. She took a moment, then managed to say, “I haven’t found the way to save her. Yet. But I won’t rest until I do.”

  “Oh.” My heart sank. How long would I have to live knowing Callie’s soul was at the mercy of evil, and we could do nothing about it? What if we were never able to pull her out of that hell? Guilt and grief swelled in my throat, stealing my ability to speak. It took me a minute to settle my feelings enough to share this with Matt and Asher.

  “Fuck.” Asher crumpled his napkin and threw it across the table.

  I knew he had believed there was no hope of bringing her back. But Liv was right all along —Callie was alive. Maybe she was also right about there being a possibility of saving our coven sister?

  By the look on Matt’s face it appeared he was about to crack under the weight of this revelation. But in true guardian fashion he swallowed it and said, “My mother’s the one we can save now. We’ll figure out how to help Callie as the information comes to us.” If I didn’t know him better, I’d think he was one cold SOB. But he was compartmentalizing. I knew from the vision trip inside his head that his emotions were ablaze, just expertly moved to the side. To move forward was the only way he knew how.

  It seemed like all our problems led back to the Spelldrift. But getting there was no longer as simple as buying a plane ticket. The Council would have set up tripwires at the airpor
ts that would catch our glamours. Going back to Las Calles to buy more spellbeads was too dangerous—besides spellbeads powerful enough get us across the Atlantic would be monstrously expensive. There was no escaping it. I had to hit my aunt up for yet another favor.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The private town car dropped us off at Ruth’s, our favorite diner, in the heart of the Spelldrift. It had been a whirlwind trip back from Barcelona. Aunt Jenn, already knowing we were fugitives, had hung up on me upon hearing my voice. Only to call me back from a magically scrambled phone seconds later. She explained that her foreign sources had alerted her to our predicament, but the warrant hadn’t reached Seattle.

  Despite all the effort I’d put into beating it out of me, I still felt a weird loyalty to my aunt. I broke down and warned her about Alana being in her basement, so to speak. She’d been shocked to learn there was another unregistered Caedis on this side of the Demongate. I got the feeling her experience with Tenebris had left her gun-shy of those higher-level demons. But somehow, she seemed unfazed by my warnings about Callie not being trustworthy. Maybe that was life on the dark side, always switching allegiances, upping the prize to assure loyalty? I guessed my aunt knew what she was doing.

  To her credit she didn’t ask about the crimes we were accused of or Matt’s Mal status with the guardians. She simply told us there was a Millennium Dynamics plane in London and she could get it to one of the small private airports near Barcelona in three hours. Aunt Jenn was true to her word. The steward on the corporate jet had no passengers on the manifest, the flight having been registered as carrying legal documentation only.

  It took us to Boeing Field, where this was just one more corporate jet landing at the small airport. Aunt Jenn had a black SUV waiting for us on the tarmac, and we were whisked back into the city without passing by a single customs agent or magicborn officer.