"Uh uh. No sale here, shugah. You used a fraction of your pyrotechnic power and passed out like a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl. That's not natural for you, Crwys. Grey's been pacing between here and the living room. It's obvious she's worried, but she won't talk to me either."
"You can hear her?"
"Not in wolf form. But I know she can shift into her human self when she wants to." She glanced at the foot of the bed where he could see the wolf's ears and tail moving back and forth. He could also hear her panting, but she hadn't said anything else since letting him know the Air Elemental that attacked them had been Sam's Sylph. And he hadn't relayed that bit of information to Arden or anyone else.
"I'm fine. I've just been working a lot of crazy hours, that's all."
"You're a Titan, Crwys. I know what kind of regenerative abilities you have. Unless staying in human form all the time has some kind of accumulative effect on you."
He kept his gaze averted from hers; not wanting her to know she'd accidentally hit on the truth. Grey stopped pacing and jumped up on the bed. Big gray and white wolf, big bed. She sat, and then lay down but her ears remained perked. She was listening to them.
Time to change the subject. "I need to replace the bathroom door."
"I suppose." Arden pursed her lips as she focused on some point past his head. He assumed she was thinking about something else. "I can have someone do it."
"No. I'll do it. I burned it." He sat forward and wished he had more clothing on besides his boxers. He usually wasn't this overcome with modesty, but with Arden? He'd rather not go there. She was a beautiful woman with soft, smooth skin, dark hair like Sam's, but with dark eyes to match, unlike Sam's sky blue ones. Arden's beauty wasn't as blatantly obvious to most—because she often came across as harsh and bold. But she had her good points, which showed more the longer he knew her. "You're sure the ring's secure in the safe?"
"Yes, I am. I saw Ivan put it in there myself, and then I helped reinforce all those wards on it. No one can see it there, and it can't summon gale force winds while it's locked inside, not with the wards on the safe. I called for a car and had Ivan and Dharma taken to my home. I'll take care of them, just as I promised Sam." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't change the subject again. What are you not telling me, Crwys? Or more importantly, what are you not telling Sam?"
He closed his eyes. "Please don't pry, Arden."
"If there's nothing wrong, then there's nothing to pry into. That response just answered a lot of questions for me, Crwys Holliard." She pointed at him. "Don't fuck with her, Crwys. Or you'll lose her, do you understand?"
"I'm not stupid."
"You better not be. So"—she lowered her hand and her gaze lightened—"I got Ivan's and Dharma's versions of what happened on Bourbon, and the local news stations have painted it as a freak tornado, but…I suspect whatever shoved bricks, concrete, and signs into their truck also tried to crush them with the bookshelf in Sam's office. Dharma's already told me it was an Air Elemental."
He took in a deep breath and nodded. "I believe it was. It felt like one."
"And Sam's Sylph removed itself from her this morning. Is it the same one?"
"How would I know that? I mean, how do you know whose Air Elemental is whose?"
"You know because of how they feel. I can't explain it to a…Cowen, and let's face it; you are a Cowen by our standards. I can't explain it to a Dianic as well. I already tried with Kyle, but unless you have an Elemental—" she paused for dramatic effect.
"Then you can't know what it's like. I got it." Crwys felt for Kyle, who'd already proven to be quite powerful on his own without the need for Elementals, or even Dianic Gifts, which Crwys wasn't sure whether Kyle had one or not. He'd never spoken of one. Kyle's training with Solomon was going well, or at least what he'd seen of it. Crwys had sort of developed a liking for the young man, who tried his hardest to be a participating member of the coven.
Sam's coven, which Crwys just wasn't a part of.
"So are you thinking Sam's Air Elemental escaped and is now running amok about the Quarter?"
"Elementals don't attack unless ordered to, Crwys. And only if they agree the need to fight is warranted. An Elemental has to be in sync, in harmony with their Witch." Arden looked serious. "I've got a crazy theory, but…"
"Spill it."
"It's just that…we know her Arcane is built on the basis of Dionysus planting part of himself inside of her. He did that thinking it would give him an easy way in, a place for the Arcane to sort of…chew on."
"Yeah, but it backfired on him. It became independent, and it sided with Sam once she was infused with Arcane Magic. That's why it hid itself in me."
"Right, but what if it wasn't just fooling Dionysus, but us too? What if it's growing beyond what she can handle?"
He shifted in the bed and heard banging around downstairs. "That's ridiculous. So far her Arcane's been fine, and it's helped us out a lot. And what the hell is going on downstairs?"
But she was already up and heading out of the bedroom, which gave him the opportunity to get out of bed and put his jeans back on. He followed her to the living room just as Kyle came up the stairs and met his aunt at the top.
"What's going on down there?"
"Oh…sorry." Kyle grinned. "I was trying to rig up some kind of curtain over the bathroom until the door's fixed. I was hammering." He looked past Arden to Crwys. "You look better. But you've still got some bags under your eyes."
Crwys stood by one of the sofas and nodded. "Look, I'll bring a door over tomorrow and get it fixed. Hopefully before Sam gets out of the hospital."
Arden looked at him. "When is that?"
"I don't know. She's supposed to call me."
"That's good." Kyle rubbed his hands together. "So, the pictures you wanted me to look at?"
"Pictures?"
"Crwys…Mambo Nadeen's murder?"
He nearly dropped his jaw. How did I completely space about that?
"What?" Arden whirled around and faced him too. "Nadeen Lefebvre's dead? How come I don't know about this? Oh, dear Lady… I need to call Cosgrove…" She pulled her phone out of her utility vest.
"No." Crwys came around the sofa and put his hand on her phone. "We're keeping this quiet for now because we're trying to track down the killer. I took a few pictures of her altar because it looked like her knife was missing, and maybe she was doing some kind of spell. Knowing what that spell was could be a motive for the killer. So I asked Kyle to look at them to see if he could figure it out."
"Why don't you just ask another mambo?" Arden said.
"Because I've already been to Nadeen's place," Kyle said as Crwys moved from Arden to pick up his phone someone had placed on the dining table. He thumbed through the pictures until he found the right ones and handed the phone to Kyle.
"You've been to a mambo's home?" Arden didn't look or sound okay with this. "Is this part of this new training?"
"Nadeen and Solomon are—were—friends, Arden," Crwys said in hopes of squelching some of the Witch's bravado and what he assumed was ego. After all, she was the self-declared Witch Queen of New Orleans, and her own kin was getting magic training from someone else. "And there are things in Southern Conjure he needed to know, otherwise Solomon wouldn't have taken him there."
"I'm still not sure this is a good idea. No Vervain has ever sullied themselves with voodoo."
"Then it's about time," Kyle said as he moved the pictures around with his fingers. "And what I'm learning isn't voodoo. Hey Crwys"—he looked up—"can I e-mail these to the shop? Put them on the computer downstairs?"
"Yeah, sure. I didn't think about that. Bigger screen." He scratched his head. "Did you see something in them?"
"Well…" He widened one of the shots with his fingertips and turned it so Crwys could see. Arden scooted in to peer over Kyle's shoulder. "See this spot right here? There's something missing. Most altars retain a lot of dust, because at any given time there's a lot happening and we don't
disturb it. So I'd say from the shape and position…" He looked at Crwys. "You were right. She's missing her knife."
"Knife?" Arden sounded irritated. "Mambos use knives? Like athames?"
"Not like athames," Kyle said. "More like our white-handled working knives. They cut herbs and candles and wicks same as we do. So right off the top of my head, I'd say that's the obvious thing."
Crwys chewed on his lower lip as he tried bringing the image up as large as he could get it. He needed to get back into Nadeen's house and take a closer look. "I've got a wild theory that it might be the same knife those boys were using."
Arden and Kyle stared at him, but it was Arden that spoke, "That's one hell of a stretch, Fireboy. I mean what would those three college jocks have in common with a mambo? How would they even know who Nadeen was? And besides, my girls didn't say anything about that when they read the boys' minds."
Crwys looked at her. "When they what?"
She waved dismissively at him. "Never mind."
"Might be something they're not allowed to see, Arden. Could it be an effect of that Dybbuk-possessed ring?" Crwys looked at both of them. "The knowledge of what they did with Nadeen?"
"I don't know," Kyle said. "How powerful is a Dybbuk? I'm like Sam. I thought they were just vengeful spirits. Wait…Ivan said you swore a ghost priest attacked you. That's why you have those marks on your neck."
Crwys absently put his hand to his neck. Were the marks still there? Had he not healed?
"Stop now." Arden held up a hand. "No one said anything about a ghost priest."
He described the guy in the cassock and repeated what he'd told everyone earlier. Crwys emphasized the point that the guy was winning right before he vanished, which coincided with Ivan taking the ring. "I told Sam I thought maybe the priest was the spirit they were trying to summon with that incense."
Kyle pursed his lips. "That could be. Maybe this priest is the astral representation of the Dybbuk."
"And the wind is a manifestation of what?" Arden looked at him. "Ghosts don't usually have that kind of power. And what I know about Dybbuks, they're more the cursing kind of nasty. Manipulating Elements isn't usually their thing…unless…"
Crwys and Kyle leaned toward her. "Unless?" Crwys prompted.
Arden crossed her left arm over her middle and rested her right elbow on her wrist as she tapped her chin with a lacquered nail. She frowned, then sighed, turned away, and then turned back. She moved the pointer finger from her chin and made a circle with it. "Unless all of this is connected somehow. Because I don't believe in coincidences."
Kyle arched a brow. "You mean the ghost priest, the wind, the dudes with the knife, Sam's Sylph, and Mambo Nadeen's death are all connected?"
She pointed at him. "Exactly."
Crwys and Kyle both said, "How?"
"Stop doing that," Crwys said to Kyle before he looked between the two of them. "So how do you plan on finding out if you're right?"
Arden reached out with her right hand and gave his left cheek a tap. "You're the detective. Detect. You do your cop stuff today and find those things out. Get Sam out of the hospital. Maybe when she gets here she can sense whether or not that was her Air Elemental." She gave a dramatic sigh. "Also, no one tell Cosgrove any of this."
Thunder rolled softly over the shop. Everyone glanced up.
Kyle cleared his throat. "Ah, don't be so sure he doesn't already know." He looked at Arden. "Remember, Emily was there when it happened. And I assume she tells the boss everything, whether that was Dryden or Cosgrove."
Arden said, "Dragon's balls…" She looked at Crwys. "No offense."
"None taken."
"I'll walk my aunt out and lock up," Kyle said and handed the phone back to Crwys. "I'm gonna go look at the photos on the computer downstairs."
"Thanks Kyle." He waited until they were down the stairs before he returned to the bedroom and joined Grey on the bed.
You're suffering from the Dragon's Sleep, aren't you?
"How do you know about that?"
Grey's wolf form became fuzzy and thinned before it reformed and Elizabeth Hawthorne sat on the bed with him, draped in a gray and white coat of fur. Her own. "When I was in Medbh's service, it was my job to gather intel on her enemies. Or those she perceived as enemies. There was a Dragon once who crossed the Queen."
Crwys put his hands on the bed. "A female Dragon?"
"I don't remember."
"Do you remember their name?"
"No. You know better than anyone that a Dragon's real name is never kept in the mind."
That was true. Even his own name, the name given to him after his transformation, was unknown and unremembered, except by Ashur. "I was asking because not all of my species are…were…friendly."
"So Medbh believed as well. I learned there were originally five of you, but that's all I discovered." She shrugged. "But I did learn about the Charm of Fury."
The spell of form. "And you gave that info to Medbh?"
"I gave her a version of it." Elizabeth winked. "I told her the Sleep was a price for your human form. But I know the reason goes a lot deeper than that. It's deep Arcane, Crwys. The oldest magic there is, and I know it is a spell that keeps you in human form."
"Then I think you should forget what you know, Witch," he growled. "This is not a secret I wish to discuss."
She looked at him with no fear in her eyes. "And you have asked my daughter to marry you when you are this close to Sleep. Her welfare and her happiness is my priority, Azazel."
He paused and swallowed as he chose his words. "I thought I had another hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty years. But the signs of what we call genesis, the folding back on our personal beginnings, vivid memories that remind us where we came from, are starting. The fatigue is coming."
"Has it come early before?"
"Has it come early? Yes, once, but that was by choice. This time—I don't know. Levi suggested it could be all the recent things I've experienced from the Arrow to Sam's Arcane." He shrugged. "It's all guesses at this point as to why. But it's coming, Elizabeth. And I can't stop it."
"Then don't lie to her. Tell her the truth. Or if you're too cowardly to do that, then let her go. Don't break her heart if you're not going to be there for the rest of her life." She shifted back into wolf form and bared her teeth. Because I won't allow you to hurt my child.
TEN
I stood beside my hospital bed as I turned Ivan's face from one side to the other, taking a long look at the cuts, the stitches, and the bruises. The stitches, I learned, were sewn by one of Arden's doctors. Or I should say one of her many doctors. She had quite a few in her coven and on her personal payroll. I was actually grateful she'd been there to patch up both Ivan and Dharma.
I was dressed in a fresh pair of shorts, t-shirt, and sandals. When Kyle called asking about what time Crwys was picking me up, I'd told him I didn't want Crwys to pick me up. I wanted him and Ivan to get down here and bring me a change of clothing.
"Why?" he'd asked.
"Because the three of us are going to scour the French Market and find the place that apparently sold those boys that ring."
But once they got to the hospital and showed up at the door looking like they'd taken shots at one another, I ordered both of them to spill it. I dressed while they talked. Apparently this ring was dangerous without Kyle touching it. So now we were just waiting to get my discharge papers since the doctor cleared me. I stepped back from Ivan and shook my head. "I swear boy, you just can't catch a break."
"You're telling me." He smiled sideways as he gingerly touched the bandage I'd taped back in place. "Dharma's spending the day in bed at Arden's."
"Did you look up the Dybbuk?"
"Oh yeah. But can we have beignets and coffee while I share with the rest of the class? I really don't like hospitals."
"Sure." I switched my gaze to Kyle. He'd improved so much in the past few months, since taking on a real teacher in the magic of Southern Conjure. Me—did
n't know a thing about it. But I was pretty sure if he kept hanging around his aunt he wasn't going to learn anything, because she assumed he didn't have any power. "Why do you have that expression?"
"Don't call me Gollum or anything, but I keep thinking about that ring. Like why was it in a box under the floorboards? I've been trying to figure that out for the past few hours. Arden thinks all of this is tied together somehow. The ring, the knife, Nadeen's death, but I'm not seeing the connection."
Ivan nodded. "And where does this ghost priest fit in?"
Now that was a wild card right there. I half assumed it was the physical appearance of the Dybbuk's vengeful spirit, but…how would I know for sure unless I saw it and threw my dex on it? "Let's just follow the leads that make sense for now. We'll go to the Market. I promise to buy you both beignets while Ivan spills his guts on Dybbuks, and we'll find the stall. Then Ivan can head back to Dharma, and Kyle and I can go back to the shop."
It took another half hour before a nurse came in with my papers. I signed everything, ran my credit card at the cashier, and let them wheel me out to the curb. Ivan stood with me as the nurse and wheelchair returned inside, and Kyle went to get his car. I stared up at the freaky-looking sky. "What in the hell is that?"
The temperature was cooler than it should be. A constant breeze moved the trees as well as debris along the parking lot. The cloud cover made everything look monochromatic and dull. I actually shivered as I stood there. I thought shorts would be good for a day in the Market, especially since it was summer.
Ivan made a face. "I don't know about you, but that doesn't look right."
"No." I shook my head. "It doesn't."
Kyle pulled up in his Prius, and I piled into the back as Ivan took the front because of his long legs.
"Where's Grey?" I had sort of assumed they'd bring my wolf.
"She didn't want to come," Kyle said as he fastened his seat belt. "She's watching Crwys. After last night's little fiasco, he looked like he needed sleep and she wanted to look over him."
Elemental Storm (The Eldritch Files Book 6) Page 8
