Blood of Egypt (Witch Fairy Book 8)

by Lamer, Bonnie

  “Because he’s protecting me,” Eliana says quietly, respect for the agent shining from her eyes. “If you involved any of your men, they’d know you were using my help, right?”

  Agent Amman nods curtly. “There are some in my agency who I do not trust with the information of your whereabouts or your activity.” Wow. He really is protecting her, even with his own family at risk. That’s impressive.

  “Thanks, man,” Josh says, giving Eliana’s hand a squeeze and smiling at the agent. “I know you’re risking a lot here.”

  “Perhaps it is time to do what we came here to do,” Agent Amman says gruffly, clearly uncomfortable. He starts to walk towards the end of the alley again.

  “Hey,” I say to Kallen, grabbing his arm as he starts to follow. “I know this isn’t the honeymoon you signed up for, so you better make it back to me so we can actually take a real romantic honeymoon. Maybe Fiji? There’s barely anyone around and we could stay in one of those little huts over the water?”

  He grins and puts his hands on my cheeks. “Possibly. But, this has been a fine honeymoon. I have learned to expect the outrageous and the dangerous whenever I am in your presence.” He leans down and kisses me lightly. “That is half the reason I love you; you are an endless supply of excitement. Everywhere you are.” The last sentence spoken with a husky, sexy voice implies he’s not talking about situations like this and my cheeks start to pink. Kallen chuckles and kisses my left one as it flushes. “I love you,” he whispers in my ear and then he turns to follow Agent Amman.

  Chapter 25

  Agent Amman has reached the end of the alley and Kallen has caught up with him. The agent makes a small noise, enough to finally draw the guard’s attention. There is some talking back and forth in Arabic and suddenly Kallen and Agent Amman are walking towards the guard with their hands up. Josh taps Eliana and me on the shoulder and we follow him out of the other end of the alley, just in case the guard looks to see if there are more agents. Honestly, I don’t think the guy’s that smart, but I guess it’s better safe than sorry.

  My worry must show on my face because Eliana gives me a quick hug. “He’ll be fine,” she says.

  I try to smile. “I know.” I should be more confident in his abilities; he is one of the most powerful Fairies in the Fae realm, so I’m sure he can handle himself. But this situation is so different from any others he’s been in. I’m going to go crazy just standing here and doing nothing. What if he gets hurt and I’m not there to heal him? “We have to follow them,” I say.

  “We will,” Josh says. “We just need to give them a minute to get inside and then we move in.”

  My eyes widen. “You were already planning to go inside?”

  He chuckles. He reminds me so much of Kallen. “I wouldn’t be able to keep Eliana out there if I tried, and Agent Amman is a good man. We have to help him. But, hold off on the magic until it’s absolutely necessary, okay?” he asks both of us.

  Eliana and I look at each other and then back to him. “Okay,” we both say. We get an eye roll from Josh for the lack of conviction in our responses.

  Knowing that’s as good as he’s going to get, he shakes his head and then leads us back into the alley. When we reach the end, we discover that the guard didn’t go inside with Kallen and the agent. He must have called someone out to get them.

  Amazingly, the guy still isn’t watching the alley. Actually, he’s not watching much of anything, he’s sort of hunched against the door and his eyes are unfocused. It looks like he’s on drugs or something. Weird. I look at Eliana and she just shrugs. She has no idea what’s going on either.

  Josh motions for us to stay put and he exits the alley. He attempts to look casual, as if he’s from here. Since he has bronze colored skin, black hair and some Egyptian ancestry in his family tree, he definitely looks the part. The guard barely gives him a second look. I think it strained the guy’s eyes too much to give him the first one. I wonder if Kallen did something to him.

  Josh walks over to the man and says something in English. The man’s brow crinkles and then reaches into the pocket of his thobe and takes out his cigarettes. He shakes one out with a lot of effort and hands it to Josh. Josh takes the opportunity to grab the man’s arm, spins him around and twists the arm behind his back. He then knocks the gun to the ground and asks the man something in his ear. We can’t hear what he’s saying.

  The man says something and then Josh looks over at Eliana and me. He has the guy subdued, but I don’t think he wants to really hurt him, though I suspect he could. He has some serious moves even if the guy was drugged or something.

  Reading my mind, Eliana says, “He’s a black belt in Aikido.”

  That explains it. “Impressive. Should I help him out and put the guy to sleep?” I ask and she nods in approval. Looking back at the man, I will him to sleep with magic and he slumps in Josh’s arms. Josh pulls him away from the door and tries to prop him up against the building, but even in a sitting position the man keeps falling to the ground. After a couple of tries, Josh gives up and leaves him there. With a quick look around, he motions for us to join him.

  The door to the apartment building isn’t locked. Josh opens it easily and we follow him inside. The entry hallway is dark, lit only with one dying light bulb on a dangling fixture that’s sure to fall out of the ceiling any minute now. To our left and right are mailboxes and beyond them are two apartment doors. In front of us are the most unsafe stairs I have ever seen. They make me think there should be a condemned sign on the door. First off, the stairs are steeper than most, with no handrail to steady yourself on the way up. There are holes on the individual steps where it must have been attached that are filled to the brim with dirt. There are large cracks and holes in the wood of each stair, making me think that anytime someone will put their foot right through one or more of them. Basically, it’s a deathtrap waiting to be sprung.

  “He said they’re on the fourth floor,” Josh says in a low whisper. Of course they are. It would be too easy to have them be in one of the two downstairs apartments.

  Gazing skeptically at the stairs as well, Eliana says, “I’ll go first.”

  Josh puts a hand on her shoulder. “No, let me go. You and Xandra are needed a lot more than I am up there.”

  Eliana’s about to argue when I butt in. “Um, guys, I can teleport.”

  An ‘oh yeah’ look lands on both their faces. “Good plan,” Josh says with a small laugh. “I wasn’t looking forward to a broken leg if one of those stairs gave out.”

  “I better just do it landing by landing, though,” I say. “I don’t know what could be in the hallway and I don’t want to land us in a bunch of trouble.” Or in a wall. I keep that last part to myself.

  Eliana nods. “Okay.”

  I touch both of them and I will us to the first floor landing. No one up here. We walk down the narrow hall, past an apartment door to the next flight of stairs. There’s another apartment door just before the stairs begin, but we don’t hear anything. We can’t even tell if anyone’s home in any of these apartments. After a quick peek to make sure we’re clear, I teleport us to the third floor. Our luck holds out and this hall is empty, as well.

  We’re not so lucky when we peek up the stairs to the fourth floor. There are two men in jeans and black tunic style shirts with guns. They’re a little more on the ball than the guy outside and they catch us looking up at them. One of them starts to say something, but I take both of their voices away. Then I imprison them in a circle of magic that’s so small, they can’t even point their guns at us. Unfortunately, one of them is still able to pull the trigger. Great. I hadn’t thought about that.

  Whoever is in the apartment up there was just warned that we’re coming. I’m so mad that I create a magical hammer and conk both guys on the head, knocking them out cold. Only, they’re still in the magic circle, so they’re passed out standing upright. That must look pretty strange to the two guys who come running out of one of the apartments up there.
Their fellow gunmen apparently are not their immediate concern as they move around them and charge down the stairs after us.

  “My turn,” Eliana says and a wind rushes up the stairs so fast and strong the two new gunmen are blown back, causing them to fall on their butts on the stairs and then get thumped back up them. Ouch. Their spines are going to be sore later. Their guns are blown out of their hands. To be helpful, I take their voices away to keep them from screaming while Eliana does her thing. When the guys are back at the top of the stairs, I let the magic holding their buddies go and the two unconscious men topple, trapping these guys with their weight. Eliana’s wind is still beating at the men, holding them in place.

  When we don’t hear anyone else rushing out to save these guys, we start to climb the stairs. I don’t want to teleport us there because we’d be sitting ducks if there is another gunman. Trying not to make the stairs squeak too loudly, we creep up until we can see the hallway. The apartment door at the end is guarded by another man. He’s waiting for us and has his gun pointed in our direction. Good choice on our part to walk.

  Working in tandem, Eliana and I disarm him and disable him. With her magical fire, she heats the handle of his gun, leaving the man no option but to drop it. He now has what appear to be third degree burns on his hand.

  Simultaneously, I pull the guy’s feet forward and up. Just his feet. It looks like he’s doing a high kick with both legs. His back and head hit the floor with a loud thump and the impact pushes the air out of his lungs. As he’s gasping for air, Josh runs over and punches the man so hard, he’s instantly unconscious. I’m pretty sure that he also broke his jaw, but he won’t be feeling that until he wakes up and we’re long gone. Eliana beams with pride at Josh. He may not have magic, but he’s definitely a force to be reckoned with.

  “HBA!” is shouted through the door. I don’t speak Arabic, but I would bet that means stop or we’ll kill everyone in here. Yeah, I got a lot out of one word I don’t understand, but it was more the tone of voice that leads me to that conclusion than the word itself.

  I look at Eliana and Josh and I know they both want to go tearing in there, but they don’t want to do more harm than good and neither do I. This sucks. If there was only a way for us to see inside there without the door being open. I sit and ponder this for a split second until we suddenly have to take cover behind the stairs going up to the fifth floor. Someone apparently has become inpatient and is shooting at us through the door.

  An idea trickles into my brain as I create a magic wall in front of us that will keep any stray bullets from getting too close. In the Fairy realm, there are watchers. They can’t leave the realm, but they can see through it into this one. Maybe I can do something like that, too.

  A spell pops into my mind and I utter it quietly, “Look past the obstacle in my way, my second sight create a passway. Seen only by eyes of whom I choose, show us what we seek inside that room.” Short and sweet, but effective.

  A large window appears in the door and we can see into the apartment. There is a man with a rifle pointed at the door and I get the urge to jump back so he can’t see us. It is with a great amount of willpower that I stay rooted to my spot. Eliana and Josh do the same, trusting that I’m not going to get them killed. I like them so much.

  Now we can focus on saving the people on the other side of that door.

  Chapter 26

  We move from the stairs to in front of the door. I want to see into the room clearly. While no one on that side can see out here, it’s obvious that Kallen feels my magic. I can tell by the grim look on his face as he stares at the spot he knows my magic is affecting. The little crinkle in his brow tells me he doesn’t know exactly what I’m doing and that has him worried.

  I can see the majority of the apartment from my little ‘window’. It’s about what you’d expect it to look like, based on the outside of the building and the hallway. It’s small, basically one room with a kitchenette. The walls are cracked and peeling and there are yellow stains here and there near the ceiling. Since this isn’t the top floor, I don’t even want to contemplate where the stains came from.

  A faded yellow table and two chairs are positioned near the kitchenette. On the opposite side of the room, there’s a dingy blue, flowered couch with a floor lamp next to it and a battered yellow chair off to the side. That’s it for furniture.

  On the couch are two very frightened people who are bound and gagged. The woman’s skin is a golden color and her hair is dark brown with a slight wave to it. Her eyes are a deep brown like dark chocolate and they’re open as wide as they can be, but it’s still possible to see the delicate cat-like shape to them. Even with the gag in her mouth, it’s easy to see that she’s beautiful. She looks to be a bit younger than Agent Amman, maybe ten years or so. The young girl is probably six or seven and she has tears streaming down her cheeks. Her hair has a slight wave to it like her mother, but she has stronger features than her mother’s delicate ones. She looks more like her father and the look in her eye as she glares at her captors has his strength behind it, despite the tears. Good for her.

  There are three men in the room besides Kallen and Agent Amman. They are dressed similarly to the man in the hall, wearing jeans and tunic style shirts all in dark colors – one brown, one black and one dark blue. Must be their ‘I’m a criminal’ uniform. Two of the men, the ones in brown and black, have guns trained on Kallen and the agent and the other, who must be the main guy, is pacing back and forth in front of them saying something. Why didn’t I think of adding audio to my spell?

  It’s pretty obvious what’s being said, though, even if we don’t hear the actual words. He’s promising revenge, torture, death, etc. From the look in the agent’s eye, he’s planning on killing the guy the second he gets a chance. Can’t say that I blame him. Wow, where did my morality go? There’s no need to kill them, there are prisons here for bad guys. Though, he did kidnap the agent’s wife and daughter and from the looks of it is promising to do terrible things to them if his hand gestures mean what I think they do. My morality is just going to have to take a hit on this one.

  “That is amazing,” Eliana whispers. “I can’t believe you have the magic to do all this stuff.”

  I shrug and sigh. “Yeah, me either. I shock the hell out of myself pretty much every day. When I’m not almost killing someone I love, that is.”

  “Um ladies, I think it’s about to hit critical mass in there,” Josh says.

  He’s right. The pacing man has dragged Agent Amman’s daughter from the couch by her hair and has a knife ready to cut her neck. It’s easy to see that it’s taking every single ounce of willpower on the agent’s part not to attack the man and rip his heart out, literally. But that would simply get them all killed.

  Something changes about the knife. I’m not sure what it is, I can’t see it that clearly. His back is to me. Zoom would have been a nice addition to this spell as well.

  It looks like Kallen has flipped the knife around so the handle is against the girl’s neck and the blade is in the man’s hand. The man drops the knife to the floor and blood is dripping from his palm. He’s stunned for a moment and the two gunmen are looking at him like he has suddenly lost his mind.

  Anger takes over and the man pulls his own gun from the waistband of his jeans. The barrel is placed against the girl’s temple. His finger is a little shaky on the trigger; probably from the pain in his hand.

  “That’s not going to happen,” Eliana says as she heats his gun as she had the door guard’s earlier. The man drops it to the ground looking at his burned hand. Angry and terrified at the same time, he roughly shoves the little girl back towards her mother. Since she’s still bound and gagged, she falls and hits her head on her mom’s knee. She’s openly sobbing now. Her mother does her best to try to comfort her but with her arms behind her back, she can’t do much.

  The man stalks towards Agent Amman with murder in his eyes. I know I should do something to end the situation but I have to ad
mit, I’m a little nervous. These are humans, not magical beings. If my magic goes awry, they would be a hell of a lot more defenseless against it. Plus the guns. I know I can protect against them, but if one goes off accidently from being kicked around or something, one of those humans in there could die before Eliana or I could heal them.

  While I’m having my inner dialogue, the man grabs a gun from one of the other men and has it pointed at Agent Amman. I feel Kallen let go of some of the magic he has drawn from the earth and it bursts out towards the man, forcing him back and making him stumble. His trigger finger jerks and the gun fires towards the ceiling. Oh god, what if there’re people up there.

  My reaction is instantaneous. A magical shield covers the ceiling and the bullet ricochets from it, falling back to the ground. All three gunmen look at each other wondering what in the world just happened.

  Mostly what happened is that the main guy is even more pissed off than he was and that’s quite an accomplishment. He was already homicidal. Where do you go from there?