"Cosgrove knows about Holliard and how dangerous a Dragon with a gun can be, even though Holliard has always been an exemplary cop, with the occasional nonconventional means of bagging the bad guy. As the new leader for the Witches in the area, getting into the position as chief of detectives to keep an eye on him seems logical. But that also puts Cosgrove in a conflict of interest position. If he sees cases coming in which he knows are Witch connected, or just plain supernaturally connected, he'll have to choose which side to err on. To down play the magic, or expose it, but either way, he would be required to deliver justice. This position puts him front and center of things and gives him control." She sighed. "And I'm afraid he is a bit of a control freak."
I'd followed her logic. It made sense now why Cosgrove had come in asking questions. He knew on the magical side that lightning killed Mambo Nadeen. Coincidentally, I'd just lost an Air Elemental, who could also control lightning. He was doing his own investigating.
Once a cop, always a cop.
Kyle crossed his arms over his chest. "Why are you telling us this? I think I can speak for both of us when I say we appreciate it, but we don't know you. And in my experience, this kind information comes with a price."
Tas reached into her jacket pocket, and I admit, I summoned Fire pretty damn fast with my left hand, though I kept it behind the counter. But the detective's hand came out with a blue thumb drive. She handed it to me. "This is a list of everything we found in Nadeen Lefebvre's house, including what was in her altar room. Holliard and Tulose told me to inventory, so I did."
I took the drive as I doused my fiery hand. "So…you're working with Levi and Crwys?"
"Technically." She made a face. "Yes and no. Prescott's pairing me up with them. Wants to form a four-man team. So there'll be someone else coming in soon." She grinned and leaned toward the two of them. "Prescott seems to think I'm calm and level-headed enough to keep up with those two."
Kyle took the drive out of my hand. "We appreciate this. But won't Crwys and Levi want to see it?"
Tas nodded. "Just show it to them. Keep them on their toes." She glanced up as thunder rolled along overhead, a constant reminder of the storm. She pointed at the ceiling. "And that? That's not natural. Just hope you guys can figure out what's going on before things go to hell."
My phone rang in my pocket. Scared the crap out of me. I hadn't realized I'd been listening so intently to Tas. I pulled it out and looked at the face. Crwys. With a hand up to signal, "Just a minute," I took the call. "Hey."
"You okay? You in bed?"
The bell to the front door jingled and Tas was gone.
"No. I'm working."
"Sam…"
"I'm not an invalid. I'm fine. Well, I feel only half here, but I'm okay. I don't think the Sylph's loss has really set in yet."
"It will. It's like losing an arm, Sam. You'll be fine until you need to use it."
True. I toyed with the idea of asking him about Detective Damali, but when I saw Kyle putting the drive into the computer I kept quiet. There had to be a reason she'd given it to us first. "Kyle, me, and Ivan went to the French Market this morning."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, and this is what we found out about that stall…" I gave him the information we got about this Maggie person and what she does for a living. He was quiet for a few minutes, and I had to raise my voice. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just tired."
"You're tired a lot lately. Do Dragons catch colds?"
Crwys snorted. "No. Look, the reason I called is Prescott's getting some pressure from above on getting Mambo Nadeen's murder solved before news of it reaches the general public. Which will probably be by the eleven o'clock news. So I'll be late."
I waited for him to tell me about the new detective. He didn't. "So, is Prescott giving you and Levi any extra help solving it?"
"Naw. Of course not."
Why wasn't he mentioning Tas? "Okay."
"So…promise me you'll tuck in with a good movie and Grey tonight? Stay out of the storm?"
I bit my lower lip. "I'll try." I wasn't about to promise anything, not if were planning on breaking into Nadeen's house.
"Okay. I love you, Sam."
"I love you, Crwys."
I hung up and Kyle waved me over to the computer. "I've done a search on these files and there's no ritual knives listed in the altar room."
"I'm not surprised. I think I'm gong to assume the knife my Sylph used was Nadeen's." I pointed to a file in the directory with our names on it and the title READ ME FIRST. "What's that?"
Kyle snorted. "I think Tasoula Damali has more than a personality disorder. I opened that first. Read this."
A word of warning, Sam. Remember that Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
I made a face and looked at Kyle. "What does that mean?"
"That she knows Shakespeare," he said as he looked at me. "The way I see it is we need to be careful of who, or what, we put our trust in."
THIRTEEN
I didn't know what to make of Detective Tas Damali. I was intrigued by the amount of information she had, glad she handed over the inventory, and a bit put off that Crwys hadn't say a word about her. The more I thought about him working late and the possibility Tas was with him, the more irritated I got.
It was an irrational irritation. I knew Crwys was loyal to me. I knew he loved me. But I also acknowledged that I liked Bastien, which was evident by the fact that I was thinking about him right then. So was it possible that maybe Crwys might think about Tas? I mean Sweet Lady…she was gorgeous.
"Sam, you're pacing," Kyle said. "I doubt Detective Damali has any sites on your Dragon, so maybe you should do a quick walk and brush it off before we attempt any breaking and entering tonight?" He kept his eyes on the computer screen the while he talked.
Fine.
With Kyle at the register, I coaxed a reluctant Grey to stroll with me under the cloud-filled sky down to Lafitte's, just a few buildings down. I peeked inside and the bartender waved. I waved back.
The bartender was the only one inside. Really? New Orleans weekends start on Thursday nights. That place should be crowded by now. We walked another two blocks and stood on the corner of Dumaine and Bourbon. I counted maybe twenty people? The businesses were open, but not a lot of tourists.
"Grey," I said as I started back toward the shop, "I don't like the look of this."
Can we go back? I wanna go back to sleep.
"You've been sleeping an awful lot today. Did you even get off the bed when Crwys left?"
No.
"What's wrong?"
I don't know. She took off ahead of me back to the shop. I opened the door, and she loped straight to the counter and plopped down on her bed behind the computer stool.
Kyle glanced back at her. "Crwys must've played with her earlier."
I pursed my lips as I looked from the windows to my wolf. "No, she's been sleeping all day. I hope neither of them are getting the flu—can Dragons get the flu?"
"I have no idea."
I walked to the shop door and looked out and up at the dark, starless sky. It thundered a little and became silent. How come I wasn't tired like Crwys and Grey? I'd had a hard time falling asleep at all. I hoped tonight night would be better.
Kyle headed downstairs to store a few items that came in that morning. He'd run out of shelf space and wasn't in the mood to rearrange everything for the fifth time that month. The basement wasn't really a basement either, not like most people thought of one. We had what was called a raised basement in the back, where the shop slopped up to accommodate the rooms beneath it. The front wasn't technically on the second floor, but the back was.
The basement had three-ish rooms and a hot water heater in it. I kept a rack of metal shelves down there to store the odd item or two. The other room was where the ish came from, since it was a small, five-by-five inside the second room. In it I kept a safe that was heavily warded against things seeing in, or whatever I put in there
from seeing out. That's where Kyle had stored the ring, and I'd stored a Faerie's head last year.
Yeah. Don't ask.
Months ago, my Arcane had used the safe for the Bow of Artemis and the single Arrow we still had. It had also used me to brick it up and used Crwys's noggin to hide itself. For a long time, the floor had been strewn with those bricks. Brown stains of blood, both Crwys's and mine. Until last month, I finally got down there and neatly stacked the bricks along the side of the safe and the opposite wall.
I decided to go ahead and close the store and started the process of shutting down the register. I sensed Jack before I saw him. It was through the pack link I shared, the one Bastien had forged with me. I could sense Lycans with it, and I could hear their mind chatter—if I wanted to. Most of the time I kept it shut off. But this close?
Jack was a nice looking man. A bit taller than Kyle. He had broad shoulders that came down into nice hips and muscular legs. I'd seen Mr. Roberts without his clothes a few times, because when Lycans transformed back into their human forms—they weren't wearing clothing.
Jack had always been the calmer between he and Kyle. The negotiator. The computer man. Jack once worked for the FBI. In fact, we met him because Crwys's boss thought we were computer terrorists. Well, she thought Ivan was. It was nice watching her wipe the egg off her face when Jack Roberts's investigation proved otherwise.
He didn't work for the FBI cyber division anymore. I really didn't know where he worked. He was dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals. He also had two bags in his hands.
I turned the sign around on the door and headed back to the counter. "Kyle's in the basement. Why don't you go on down there? I know he's missed you."
The relief on Jack's face was a nice reward. "Has he? I hope you're right. I've been so busy." He pulled the bags up and showed me a heart shaped box of chocolates and flowers. "You think he'll like these?"
"He'll like just spending time with you. Go on." I nodded to the door. Jack headed for the basement.
Done. That was it for the day. I had no idea when Crwys would be home—
-You could use your Spirit to find your Sylph.-
I literally stopped in my tracks on my way across the shop. "Can I do that?" A few years ago, talking aloud to one's self would have made others wonder if you were conspiring with evil leprechauns in your head. Nowadays, people see somebody talking to no one and they assumed there's a phone involved somewhere. And they rarely bothered to look for it.
-Would it hurt to try? I noticed you trying to use Spirit this morning. But I think it would work better if you tried it in private.-
She was right. It wouldn't hurt. I made sure the rest of the shop was locked up and set the alarm. I could hear voices coming up from the stairs to the basement and assumed Kyle and Jack were still down there. I coaxed Grey up the stairs and worried when I saw how slow she was moving. So…what do you do when your shape-shifting, former Faerie Hunt beast got sick? Did she go to a doc or a vet?
No vets. Stop that right now. Grey hopped up on one of the sofas, curled up, and closed her eyes.
I turned the TV on with the volume down, kicked off my shoes, and sat on the sofa. To concentrate, I started a series of calming deep breaths.
What're you doing?
"I'm trying to find my Sylph. Now shush."
I kept breathing, closed my eyes, and thought only of Spirit. Of the Unicorn. Of her shape and her feel and what it was like to be the Unicorn for that time.
Eventually, and I had no idea how long it took, I felt something brush against my face and reached out to touch the Unicorn's nose. Touching it gave me a jolt, and I managed to clarify my sight, the way I had before when I Tracked something.
So it was possible to clarify without all of my Elements…but it was damn hard to concentrate. I got a few flashes of something as I let the feeling of the Unicorn take me. Scenes. A room. A small room. Almost like a closet. There were bricks everywhere on the floor, as if something had broken a wall. And there was a safe and blood—
Wait a second.
That's my basement! I opened my eyes.
Something made a Goddess-awful noise downstairs that actually shook the building. Dumping Grey into the floor between the couch and the coffee table, I didn't even bother with shoes as I grabbed my gun out of my bag and ran down the stairs.
I stopped on the last step, looking around the now quiet break room. The lights were on; thank the Goddess. But the silence bothered me. "Kyle?" I called out and my voice echoed just a bit. "Hello? Jack?" I moved to the basement steps, the gun out in front of me. "Hey, guys," I yelled again.
No answer.
Grey came down the steps into the shop as I went down the basement steps, the gun still in my hand. I paused at the door, then pushed it open and held the gun out.
I expected to see Kyle and Jack. What I didn't expect to see was my Sylph. Floating in the air above a non-moving Jack and Kyle. I pointed my gun at him. He looked at me. I could feel my power pulling at him, wanting him back, and desiring him to return. And I thought I could see a part of him reach out to me. But he abruptly snapped away and tumbled back in the air before he rushed past me and up the stairs.
I started after him when Grey's voice stopped me. Sam! Kyle and Jack!
Dammit. I set the gun on a metal shelf and picked over the strewn bricks to kneel beside Kyle. Two fingers against his neck. Heartbeat. I then put two fingers against Jack's neck. He had one too, but it was slower, fainter.
With a quick look at the scattered bricks and the wounds on their bodies, I assumed they'd been pummeled by them. The stacks I'd made were gone, and several of the bricks on the floor had blood and hair on them. I checked Kyle out. He had a few good hits to his back and arm, and one to his head. I assumed he'd used his power to deflect most of them.
Jack hadn't been so lucky. He didn't have magic and probably never knew what hit him. His face was bloody, as was his neck, shirt, and arms. Even his legs had been hit hard.
A second later, the link I tried so hard shut down came to life. The voices became a cacophony in my head, and I put my hands to my ears thinking that would stop the noise. When it didn't, I yelled out for things to stop. But it was my mother's voice in that link that silenced it.
I heard Bastien loud and clear.
The snarls of protest and raw emotion that came through that link destroyed what small defenses I'd built up against the loss of my Sylph. And now, combined with the fact he'd just attacked Kyle and Jack in his former home…
I shook my head, then scolded myself for not thinking it.
Relief flooded over me and I knew it came from Bastien.
I sat between them on my knees and placed a hand on each of them. I took several deep breaths as I summoned my Spirit and gave each of them what I could. Exhaustion pressed down on my shoulders as I gave Jack the most. I could just hear him in the distance. A sigh of relief as I eased the bruising and sought out signs of internal bleeding. There were a few places, but they were easily mended.
I felt the wolves. A great number of them. The rumble of motorcycles and a few cars in the parking area. I heard the beep of the back door as it was opened and took in another deep breath. Bastien called out my name as the rumble and stomp of footsteps sounded like thunder above me. The first one down the stairs was Bastien.
The past four months had been good to him. He'd filled back out, and his skin was ruddy and tanned. His hair had grown out and his beard was gone.
He wore a close fitting white t-shirt, jeans, and no shoes. He crossed the distance and caught me as I leaned back a bit too far. The small room spun on me, and I realized I'd used a bit too much of my own energy reserves with Jack.
Bastien moved me away from the others as they descended into the tiny room and gathered around Jack. Ben moved into the middle of the crowd and put his hands on Jack's chest. He frowned with his eyes closed, and when he opened them, he looked up at me. That's when I realized I was in Bastien's arms. "You healed him."
I gave Ben a weak smile. "I tried. He had some internal injuries."
"I can tell. You did good, Sam." Ben held up his hand to the others, the men and women who touched Jack wherever they could. "He's gonna be fine, but we need to get him back home. Jacob, you and Christos pull the van into the back."
I watched as they moved in a perfect synchronicity. The majority of them went back up the stairs while a few remained. One of them, a girl whose face looked familiar, touched Kyle's arm. "He's in better shape."
"Move! Out! I need to get down here! Don't give me that look—I'll melt your face off!"
Arden came down the stairs at that moment, knocking wolves out of her way, followed by two of her coven. They crowded around Kyle, and one of the women had a little black bag. Once Arden knew her nephew was breathing, she looked around and her eyes widened when she saw me. "You okay?"
"She is tired. She healed Jack," Bastien said.
I squeezed his shoulder. "Put me down."
"No."
"Bastien—put me down now."
He did, but he wasn't happy about it. I leaned on him as I turned to look at the safe. It was open and the ring…
Gone.
"What in the hell happened here?" one of the coven said as she picked up a brick with blood on it.
A wolf grabbed it, sniffed it, and then held it up toward Bastien. "She attacked him with bricks."
"Don't be ridiculous. Chérie wouldn't harm the pack, especially not one of her own and his aimé."
The wolf held the brick out for those remaining in the basement to see. "Then explain this, Bastien. Explain why it has our brother's blood on it?"
Elemental Storm (The Eldritch Files Book 6) Page 11
