by Noree Cosper
“Lead the way,” I said.
We climbed the steps of the wooden staircase to a room filled with more tables in chairs, but they were bathed in a soft blue light. The place had its own special bar filled with top shelf alcohol. Aside from the bartender we seemed to be the only ones here.
The bartender gave us a bright smile as we entered. “What can I get you?”
“Cherry Vodka Sour,” I said.
Dominic glowered at me. “This is an investigation, not recreational time.”
“Why can’t it be both?” I leaned close to murmur in his ear. “Besides, the tender may think something is up if we don’t order anything.”
“Just don’t overdo it.” With that, Dominic shook his head, muttering something, and strode to a booth on the opposite of the room from the bar.
I sashayed over to the bar and picked up my newly made drink, leaving a ten in its place. “Thanks. This your usual serving spot?”
He chuckled. “Are you asking me if I come here often?”
I shrugged. “Something like that.”
He nodded to Dominic, who had begun wandering the tables. “Won’t your boyfriend be against that?”
The thought he assumed Dominic was my boyfriend sent a buoyant feeling through my chest. “Actually, I was wondering if you saw someone come in wearing a hooded cloak over the past few weeks?”
“Seriously?” The bartender let out a laugh. “No, I don’t even think they would have gotten through the door in something like that. I’m surprised you got in here.”
“Well, I had a little help. Thanks for the drink.” I tipped it to him.
Damn, I’d hoped someone would remember something, but the bartender was the only one up here.
With a sigh, I sipped my drink and meandered to an empty booth in the corner. Dominic had moved to the tables in the center, running his fingers over the back of the chairs with a concentrating expression. My gazed traveled down his shoulder and back, to where his slacks fitted perfectly against that toned ass of his. Maybe it was a good thing I’d run into him. Two heads were better than one in figuring stuff out, and I could think of a lot of things two bodies could do together. I coughed and turned back to the table. Solve mystery first, sexy thoughts later.
I slid into the seat, lost in thought. My fingers ran over a tiny scratch in the lacquer. This had been the table I had seen, but I was sure the man had worn a hood in my vision. Maybe it was just a symbol?
“The conspirators were cloaked in Lies,” Tyche whispered.
“Even you can’t tell who it was. What about the redheaded man? I saw his face at least.”
“All lies. I am blinded by my brother.”
My lips pressed in a thin line. “Another daimon.”
I drained the rest of my drink and turned to find Dominic approaching me.
“Is this the table?” he asked.
“For all the good it does. They used daimons to hide their identities. Have you been able to get anything?”
He shook his head. “Whoever it was, they were very thorough.”
My shoulders slumped. “Great, we’re clueless. What now?”
“We need a daimon of more power than the one used,” he said.
“That’s a problem,” I said. “Tyche said she can’t see through it. From your books, she’s pretty powerful.”
“And you summoned her with only guidance from a poorly written book.” Dominic’s eyes narrowed and his lips lifted in a conniving smile. “If the two of us work together, we can summon something much more powerful.”
“And that would be?” I sucked in an ice cube and crunched it with my back teeth.
“The Fates.”
The ice got caught in my throat at my intake of breath, and I choked and sputtered.
His hand rubbed my back and left a warm tingle that jolted through me to my private parts. The sexy thoughts rushed back to the front of my mind.
“You have got to be kidding,” I wheezed. “They would run all over us.”
During the last couple of weeks, I’d read several stories told of a witch or warlock who couldn’t control a daimon. It never ended well. One of the worst was of a witch who tried to call the Fates. They possessed her, and she became a puppet, dancing on the strings they wove.
“I have the expertise and no small power of my own,” Dominic said. “Combined with your power, we should be able to bind them long enough for them to reveal who’s involved in this plot.”
I pursed my lips and he took my hand in his, rubbing his thumb in the soft spot between my forefinger and thumb. I swallowed as my mouth became dry. I needed a refill.
“You can do it. Have faith in yourself.”
I rubbed my sweaty palms on my legs as my mouth went dry. Even though I’d been studying for the last few weeks, the rituals I’d practiced hadn’t turned out right. Most of the time, nothing bad had happened. But a couple instances, the daimon had gotten free of the binding and Dominic had to banish them. Now he wanted me to summon something even more powerful than any daimon? His gray eyes stared into mine with a dark intensity. He believed in me and he was way more skilled than I was. I had to trust him.
“Fine,” I said. “What do we need to do?”
“The ritual and ingredients are back at the house.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ll need a few hours to go over the correct ritual. We should be able to do it tomorrow night.”
“Let’s get out of here then,” I said.
“Come. My car is in a parking garage a few streets over.”
I waved to the doorman on our way out. He eyed me with a slight sneer. I trailed behind Dominic through the crowded streets to a four-story parking garage. We rode the elevator down to the basement and the doors slid open with a ding. I shivered as we passed the shadowed cars, barely illuminated by the florescent lights that hung in the ceiling.
Dominic stiffened and pushed me behind him.
A man shuffled out from between two cars and blocked our path. The smell of old blood emanated off him, leaving a copper aftertaste in the back of my throat. Shaggy brown hair stood out in different directions and his eyes matched the pallor of his skin. Three bullet holes stained his button up shirt brown with the wounds showing through. His pale lips rose in a grin.
I gripped Dominic’s sleeve. This thing had to be another ker, or maybe it was the same as the one Dominic had banished at my apartment. Maybe it had found a new body.
“Took you long enough,” the ker said in a raspy voice. “I was getting bored.”
The ker flexed his fingers and his nails grew into ragged, white claws. “You keep getting in the way. I guess I’ll have to take care of you first.”
Dominic whipped out that special penlight from before, but the ker leapt forward and smacked it out of his hand. Blood welled up from two scratches in his palm. The ker grabbed Dominic’s arm, spun, and tossed him toward a silver Lexus.
I let out a small scream, my hands covering my mouth. Dominic’s body slammed into the back of the trunk and cracked the window. The blare of the car’s alarm bounced off the concreted walls, and the back lights began to blink.
“Hmm, I wonder how long until someone comes looking.” The ker regarded me and grinned. “Time to finish this.”
I gulped. “We don’t have to do this. Maybe I can make a better offer than whoever you’re working for.”
The ker tilted his head. “You got a better soul than yours to offer up? I’m really looking forward to eating yours.”
My mind went blank. Who was I willing to sacrifice for myself? Charlie? My parents back in Ohio? I licked my lips and glanced at Dominic, who’d managed to roll off the car and to ground. He was on his hands and knees, shaking his head as if trying to expel something from it. With a whistled tune, the ker hiked his leg back and kicked Dominic in the stomach. Dominic fell to the ground, groaning and clutching his middle.
“Times up.” The ker took a few steps towards me. “No deal.”
I started backing away. “T
yche, I need some of that luck we’d bargained over. I’ll trade my first memory of riding a bike.”
“Agreed,” Tyche said.
The ker’s foot caught Dominic’s light pen and tossed it the air. It landed a few inches from me. The creature paused and looked from it to me with raised eyebrows. I scrambled forward and snatched it up.
I pressed the button and aimed the light-created circle at the ker. My voice shook as I recited the first few lines, imagining them on the page of the book Dominic had forced me to study. “Thee I revoke, Bornless one. No place thou have on Earth. Return thee to the Darkness of creation.”
The creature growled and charged me. My instincts tried to command my body to leap out of the way, to run away to somewhere safe and warm, where dead bodies didn’t talk. I held my ground, keeping my shaky aim on the ker. What were those next words?
Dominic’s voice rose, tired and pain filled. “Thou art Osorronophris: Whom no man hath seen at any time. I am the blood of the Mother.”
I caught on and our voices joined as one. “Hear me and obey! Aoth: Aboth: Basum: Isak: Sabaoth: Iao: Hear me and depart!”
The ker convulsed and went limp. The body remained in motion, however. It slammed into me, knocking the air from my lungs, and sent the both of us careening into a nearby Mazda.
I pushed the body off me and sat up rubbing the spot where my back had hit the bumper. Dominic pulled himself up and staggered my direction, holding a spot on his stomach.
“See,” he said, panting. “We make a great team.”
We dragged the body behind several of the cars and hid out until Dominic’s cleaning crew arrived. The owner of the Lexus never showed up and eventually, the alarm gave up in mechanical exasperation.
One of the crew looked over Dominic’s wounds and bandaged up his hand. With a nod of thanks, Dominic turned to me and ushered me to his car. I sat in the passenger seat and tapped my fingers on the armrest. It was hard for me to sit still after the fight. This time I’d banished the ker, with Dominic’s help, but still…one win for Ava. I hoped the thing was rotting…wherever it was daimon went to.
“Seriously? A sedan. That’s not obvious at all,” I joked.
“What? A sedan is inconspicuous.” He pulled out of the parking lot and waved to the crew as we began winding through the garage maze.
“Yeah, if you are doing something underhanded,” I said. “All the movies say so.”
“And you believe everything you see in movies?”
I shrugged and flipped the radio on as we pulled out of the garage and onto the roads. A rock song by Evanescence came on and I sang along, focusing on the words. My voice grew louder and louder with each song, until Dominic had to roll his window down to drown me out. After about twelve songs, we pulled into the driveway of Rosethorne.
I shuffled through the front door after Dominic and paused in front of the staircase. The shadows had claimed the second floor as their own. The adrenaline had left me during the car ride, but I was still riding a high of my own.
“You should get some rest,” Dominic said.
I licked my lips as a different kind of energy filled me. “You know, you’d be remiss in your duty as my protector if you didn’t walk me to my room, or something like that.”
An indulgent smile hovered on his mouth as his gaze trailed over my body. “Oh, you seemed to do well defending yourself tonight.”
I climbed the stairs watching his butt sway back and forth in those pants. After a too short walk, he turned around outside my door and stared down at me. The fun was over. Did it have to be, though? I just had to get him in my room.
“Here we are, all safe and sound” he said.
I nodded inside the door. “You sure nothing’s in there?”
He smirked. “You need me to watch over you while you sleep?”
I grabbed the lapels on his coat and rose up on my tiptoes so my mouth was inches from his. “Or maybe I just need something to help me sleep.”
His warm breath tickled my lips, teasing them. “Interesting choice to deal with your fear.”
I didn’t even want to think of my fear. This was the best way to take my mind off things.
“Enough talking.” I kissed him.
Our tongues met and danced. He moaned in my mouth and scooped me up with his strong forearms beneath my ass. A fluttering danced in my belly. I wrapped my legs around his hips as he pushed the door wider. With our lips still locked, he walked us to the bed and set me down. I pulled him down on top of me and his hands slid under my skirt to brush my thighs and cup my ass. His musk titillated my senses. I unbuttoned his shirt with quick, desperate flicks of my fingers. His jacket and shirt came off in seconds as did my top. I sucked in a breath as I took in the flawless tan skin over his broad chest. I wanted to taste every inch of him.
My tongue trailed along his neck and to his chest. He hooked his fingers on the hem on my panties and yanked them down, moving so he could pull them off and toss them away. I shuddered as his fingers slid inside of me.
“Does that feel good?” His husky voice played over my skin like silk.
I barely managed to get out an agreeable whimper. His digit worked in and out of me, causing my hips the thrust up. I gripped the edges of the sheets, gasping for air. I needed…what was it I needed?
“Fuck me,” I begged.
He chuckled, kissing my jawline. “All you had to do was ask.”
His jeans slid off his hips and I held back a gasp. Dominic liked to go commando.
He spread my thighs and moved between my legs, the tip of his cock pressing into my entrance. Our eyes met, his gray darkening to black in passion, and he rammed his cock inside of me. With a cry, I arched my back. It was like electricity was coursing through my entire body.
I wrapped my legs around his lean waist, clenching my sex around his cock as he thrust in and out of me at a rapid pace. Our mouths met, and our tongues entwined. My hands locked into his unruly hair and my body stiffened as I came in a series of spasms. He let out a long groan as he tensed and joined me in climaxing.
He crawled off me and collapsed, burying his face in the pillow beside mine, panting. After a few moments, he rolled on his side in my direction and rested his hand on my abdomen. I looked over at him and grinned.
“So,” he said. “Think you’ll be able to sleep?”
I snuggled close to him. “If you keep the demons away.”
“Only the bad ones,” he said.
I gave a drowsy giggle. The room faded away as I drifted off. If I dreamed, I don’t remember what they were. Instead, I heard Tyche’s voice, calling from the darkness.
“Wake up,” she called. “There is danger.”
The world came into focus, starting with the ceiling. Light streamed in from the window, along with the muffled sound of waves crashing on the shore. The other side of the bed was empty. I sat up with a frown, pulling the blanket up to covered my bare skin.
“You have to get up, run. The killer’s trap has been sprung.”
The sound of raised voices drifted from outside my door.
“The Opportunist has been caught.”
I threw on some clothes, quietly opened my door, and crept into the hall to the landing overlooking the first-floor foyer. I crouched down, trying to remain out of sight and peeked over the edge. Below, Dominic stood between two men in black suits. They held his elbows. Across from them stood the quartet of warlocks and one witch that I had met the morning after I arrived. From what I remembered Dominic saying, they belonged to the High Council.
“This is ridiculous.” Dominic’s voice held a mixture of anger and grief. “Why would I even kill my father?”
“Who knows what goes through the minds of murderers,” the man with salt and pepper hair, Victor, said.
The woman, Larissa, pressed her hand to her collarbone and bowed her head. “Are we sure about this?”
“The evidence is pretty damning,” Xavier, the black-haired man, said.
“W
e still need to complete our investigation,” one of the men holding Dominic said in a deep voice. “The High Inquisitor shall be given a fair trial like anyone else.”
“Should we really call him High Inquisitor anymore?” asked the blond man, Aaron.
“What about the girl?” Victor asked. “His protégée? She might be an accessory.”
As their gazes started to drift up, I ducked back out of sight and held my breath. This wasn’t good. It looked like someone had killed Dominic’s father and was trying to pin it on him…and me. Dominic couldn’t have done it. He had been with me last night.
“I believe she’s staying here,” Larissa said. “She must have one of the rooms upstairs.”
“She’s not here,” Dominic said.
“We’ll be the judges of that,” Victor said. “One of you go find her. The other can take Dominic to a cell.”
Two thoughts occurred almost simultaneously.
They have cells in this place?
Oh shit, they are coming.
My heartbeat pounded in my head as I darted toward my room. I paused. I’d be trapped there, unless I wanted to risk climbing out a second story window. Where the hell was I supposed to go?
“There is a secret way. A hidden way,” Tyche whispered.
“Where?” I thought back.
“Third door on your left.”
Behind me, the stairs creaked as someone ascended. I rushed to the door Tyche had said would be my salvation. Or close enough. I opened it, slipped inside, and closed it with a soft click. I pressed my back against it, letting out a soft breath. The scent of sandalwood mixed with the salty ocean air.
In the center of the room stood a king-sized bed with a navy bedspread. A painting of a ship on a stormy sea hung over the headboard. White wooden columns melded with the walls in the corners of the room.
“They are coming,” she said. “At the column where the sun rises, whisper the words Masku Emuq.”
East? I strode to the window and stared out. The sun was peaking towards the midway point. Almost noon. It still was on my right. I turned to the column nearest that direction, which was to the right of headboard. I took a few steps closer. The sound of a door closing from across hall caused me to jump.
