by Smith, HD
As I thought about all that had happened, it occurred to me that Cinnamon’s situation might not be like I had assumed. If X had access to Sage, he’d most certainly have had access to Cinnamon. She might have acted as though she didn’t care about her brothers, but there was no way she’d throw one of them to the wolves. Kill them herself, maybe, but let someone else do it? Never.
I closed my eyes and stepped outside of my body. I thought of Cinnamon and formed a line to her apartment. I slipped my presence there while my body stayed in the kitchen with Mace.
The apartment she lived in was expensive, and, as far as I knew, owned by her boyfriend, Parker Rosen. Cinnamon didn’t pay for anything—Parker took care of all the details. He was a billionaire, a self-made man from what I had heard, who’d made his fortune during the housing boom and got out before the market crashed. Cinnamon had been with him since shortly after we returned from the museum last summer. It wasn’t that long, but he’d been around longer than most in Cinnamon’s world. I’d never met him, but I was sure he was exactly the kind of man she liked to date: rich, lonely, and easy to control. What I couldn’t put my head around was how X fit into this equation. Was he a business partner of Rosen’s? Is that how he’d met Cinnamon?
Cinnamon’s apartment was eerily quiet when I arrived. I found her sitting alone in an overstuffed chair in the front room. At first I thought she was thinking, lost in her thoughts, but then I noticed she wasn’t moving. She was still as a mannequin—not even blinking.
“Cinnamon,” I said, but she didn’t look up. It was like she wasn’t there.
I opened my eyes and returned to the kitchen. “Cinnamon isn’t home,” I said to Mace.
“Where is she?”
“She’s at the apartment, but she appears to be in some type of stasis. I don’t know if we can help her. What do you know about her boyfriend?”
“Was he there?” Mace asked.
“No, she was alone.”
“Was Sage with her?”
I shook my head.
Mace banged his hand on the counter. “Where the fuck is he?”
“I’ll find him.”
I held out my hand for Mace to take. He eyed it warily, but I just raised one of my eyebrows in challenge. He took my hand, and I closed my eyes and thought of Sage.
I checked before materializing on the other side of our jump, just to be sure we didn’t die trying to save his brother. Mace nearly landed on his butt, but caught himself in time.
Scowling, Mace had to yell to be heard over the noise in the crowded room. “A little warning next time.”
I ignored him, surveying the melee in front of us. The old warehouse had seen better days. Hundreds of people were huddled around a metal cage in the center of the steel and concrete room. Blinking my second sight on, I checked the room for magic wards. There were glyphs that translated to non-detection, blood lust, and thirst, all of which hit me at the same time.
A wave of sensation covered me as the glyphs took control of my mood. The spell for blood lust rolled over me, causing the vines on my arms to ignite.
A woman to my right yelped when she caught sight of my tattoos. Mace, clearly affected by the same spells, pulled me around to face him. He snarled at me, but in that sexy way he had of being all badass and cute at the same time.
The power at my core roiled when he grabbed me by the back of the neck and jerked me forward. Part of me, the part being driven by the lust spell, wanted it as he slammed his lips down over mine. As the energy built up in my palms, the tulip and rose tattoos blazed with fire as Mace’s kiss burned through me. His tongue pushed past my lips in the kind of kiss you dream about—unrelenting, wet, and oh so good. Just as quickly, my power reversed the spells causing me to lose control and I kneed him in the groin.
Even so, the no-holds-barred power-whore inside me had been unleashed, and she was sucking as much energy as she could out of everything around.
I pulled on the power of the spectators. The woman who’d yelped dropped to her knees in pain. I had to get control before it was too late. I yanked hard with my will and wrenched the power back. I tamped it down into a tight, controlled ball at my core.
Mace pushed back to his feet, anger and lust still written all over his face. I put my hand to his cheek and locked eyes with him. A static charge passed between us, removing the blood lust and reminding me of the first time I’d controlled him this way, which reminded me of Faith’s assertion that I’d been pregnant.
While our eyes were locked and I had his undivided attention, I asked, “Why does Faith think I was pregnant with your child?”
“It wasn’t mine,” Mace said, surprising me that he had any information at all.
“Whose was it?”
“I assumed Jack’s.”
I dropped my hand, falling back a step before running into someone and righting myself. I thought back to everything that had ever happened between Mace and I, and I saw the void in my memories with him. There was a missing space centered on the time he held me prisoner last spring. How the hell had I lost those memories? But then I knew: Death. He was the only one that could remove my memories. He must have taken them, but why? What happened to the baby? There was no way I could have had it. Maybe that was why Death took away the memories. In the beginning, he’d been kind. Was it Jack’s baby? Who else’s could it have been?
I was shoved from the back and I whirled around to face the crowd, my arms reigniting with vines of blood and my palms sparking with hellfire.
The crowd was chanting, rooting for something in the pit below them, but they started backing away when they got a good look at me. Mace pushed his way through to front. I followed, creating a wake of pagans and druids as I moved through the crowd. The tattoos on my body flared when I saw what they were cheering. Sage was fifteen feet below us in a stone pit fighting for his life against a bear-sized tiger with two heads—and the crowd was rooting for the tiger.
I went ballistic, unleashing the power with no plan to let anyone leave alive.
I’d already been on the edge. Seeing Sage in the pit tipped me over. I pulled hard, letting the power from the mob soak into me. In an instant, they fell silent. You could hear a pin drop, the quiet only broken by Sage’s pained cries. I wanted them to pay for their cruelty. Sage was a bastard, but no one deserved this kind of treatment. Some of the stronger ones in the crowd tried to flee, but I stopped them.
I watched in fascinated horror as the beast in the pit with Sage took a swing at him and caught him in the side. I smelled the blood before I saw it.
Mace hit his hands against the cage. “Help him,” he growled, bringing me back to my senses.
The tiger lunged at Sage and it looked like the injured hellspawn wouldn’t survive the blow. “Sleep,” I commanded and everyone—including the tiger—went down.
The command to force everyone to sleep pulled hard against my core power base, breaking my power grab. Looking over the side, I saw that the beast, which had been mid-lunge when I’d given the command, had fallen on top of Sage and trapped him.
Focusing my energy on the trapped hellspawn, I said, “Sage, wake up.”
Coming to, Sage had enough energy to throw the tiger off, but not much else. Sage stood, but fell to his knees, his wounds still oozing blood.
“Mace, wake up,” I commanded.
Mace stood, scanned the area, and then took off to find a way to his brother.
I closed my eyes and stepped outside my body. I tuned everything else out and breathed. Concentrating all my energy on locking down the power, I waited until the vines had disappeared from my arms, then opened my eyes and returned to my body.
That’s when I started hunting. I wanted to know who owned this place because it was getting shut down tonight.
With everyone lying on the floor, it was easy to spot the guy I’d say was house muscle. There were a few doors at the back of the room along a walkway a few feet above the main floor. A large pagan leaned against the last
door in the back. Once I got closer, I saw the bulge in his jacket where he had a gun in a holster. I pushed him aside to open the door he’d been blocking. The stench of stale tobacco and other not-so-innocent aromas wafted out of the small room. It had most likely been the foreman’s office when this place was used as a warehouse, but now it was someone’s love shack.
I blinked my second sight and saw glyphs for sex, attraction, and lust, none of which had much affect on my heightened senses. The spells rolled over me and reversed without effort. Once I got a look at the guy being ridden hard by the buxom pagan, it was clear why he needed the spells. He had to be the ugliest druid in Underworld. I instantly knew both of their names. I touched the beautiful pagan, Samantha, and felt a small charge of energy pass to her. She wouldn’t be looking at her bedmate, Roger, the same way again.
I used my will to flip them over, putting Roger on top. I grabbed his arm and commanded, “Roger, wake up.”
As soon as his eyes were open, I snapped a line to the pit below and transported us there. Mace had already taken Sage away. I could hear them in the outer room, which left me alone with the very naked, very unattractive Roger. I glanced at the tiger. This close it was massive and its teeth and claws were razor sharp. Sage shouldn’t have been able to survive this beast.
Roger began to speak with a pronounced southern twang. “I’m runnin’ a legal bettin’ establishment here. You got no right to stop me.”
My eyes flashed green and I glanced at the door behind us where Mace was tending to Sage’s wounds. “That belongs to me.”
He swallowed hard. “I didn’t know nothin’ about that, my lady.” He bowed at the waist. “You’re certainly welcome to your property.”
Keeping an even tone, I was working hard to remain in control, I asked, “How exactly did you acquire my property?”
“He was brought in earlier. It seemed legit.”
Legit my ass—he knew what he was doing was illegal. “Who brought him in?”
He was hesitant. I closed the distance between us quickly, not giving him a chance to run. I whispered his name, “Roger,” and watched his eyes turn as dark as night.
“Who brought him in?” I repeated.
“Thanos.”
What the fuck? How would Thanos have gotten his hands on Sage? And why would he have brought him here? “Roger,” I said, surprised when his eyes cleared, as if my control over him had been released. “Never turn your back on a two-headed tiger.”
“What?” he stammered, looking down at the sleeping beast and covering his family jewels.
I turned to leave.
“Your boy’s fine. He fights better than most,” Roger whined. “He even killed one of my cats.”
I followed the owner’s gaze to a bloody streak on the concrete floor. Something big had been dragged out. This guy deserved his fate, pitting these animals against magic users.
“Do you think that matters to me?” I growled.
Roger flinched as if I might hit him, but I decided the beast deserved that honor.
Roger whimpered as I pulled the heavy iron door closed. “You can’t leave me in here with this thing. It’ll kill me.”
I sealed it shut and locked him in the pit. I had no remorse for what I was about to do. Through the small square opening in the door, I focused on the beast. “Awake.”
“You bitch,” Roger wailed as the tiger got to his feet. “The true ruler will prevail. You’re nothin’—”
His words were cut short by his screams and the tiger’s snarls as it tore Roger to shreds. I think Mace said something, but I was too entranced by the big cat mauling the owner to hear him. Then the tiger’s voice came through the melee. “You die now,” it roared. “Killed mate. Must die.” The two heads spoke as one voice. It seemed the beast had more than one reason to kill Roger: he’d let Sage kill the tiger’s mate.
As a final act of defiance to his captor, the tiger clutched his broken body in each of its vicious maws. With a flick of its heads, Roger was ripped in two, leaving both bloody halves on the floor.
Someone grabbed my shoulder and spun me around, breaking me out of my trance.
Hellfire coalesced in my palms and Mace jumped back to avoid the backlash. I readied my will to slam him against the wall, which was when I saw the vines glowing bright against my skin. I wasn’t in control and I hadn’t even noticed.
“You need to focus,” Mace said quickly. “Get control of yourself and come here. Sage needs healing.”
Staring at my arms, I marveled at how easy it would be to suck this place dry. I could pull the magic from everyone around me. I could—
“Heal him, please,” Mace begged.
Mace didn’t beg.
I studied my arms again, and this time I could see the screaming images of the other tattoos dancing behind the bloody vines. Scary power was trapped within me, but I could use it to help instead of hurt—if I wanted to. In the distance, I heard Mace beg again. I had to concentrate and contain the power within. If I couldn’t control it, it would control me.
I must control it. No, I will control it.
Several minutes passed before I had the power contained. I wanted to be out of this place with all the blood and death soaking the walls, but I had to save Sage first.
I glared at Mace to back off when he tried to get too close.
Sage’s condition was much worse than I’d thought. There were cuts and bruises over his entire body. His clothes were in tatters and a long claw mark ran the length of his chest. His left hand was bloody, as if the big cat had chewed on it.
“Steady him,” I commanded.
Mace hurried to his brother’s side. He pulled Sage’s battered body upright.
I placed my hand on Sage’s head and said, “Heal.”
A pulse of energy flowed through my palm and washed over Sage. The bruises were the first to go, followed by the cuts as the blue lines of power wove in and out to mend them. His hand returned to normal and the gashes on his chest closed without leaving a mark. He was still covered in blood, but he was whole. A beat later, Sage took a startled breath. He pushed Mace off to stand on his own, his breathing heavy but stable.
“Ungrateful bastard,” Mace scowled, throwing his will at Sage.
I expected Sage to hit the ground in his recently healed state, but he swatted Mace’s attempt away with little effort. And according to Roger, he’d also killed one of the big cats. I glared at Mace and he backed off.
Turning my gaze to Sage, I demanded, “Where’s your brother?”
Sage gave me a cheeky grin and pointed at Mace.
White wisps of energy crackled at my wrists.
Mace cleared his throat. “Brother, I recommend you answer Claire’s questions without pissing her off.”
Sage raised his lip and snarled. I threw my will to shove him hard against the wall.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Brother,” Mace quipped.
Sage struggled against my hold, but he stopped struggling when he realized he wasn’t going anywhere until I decided to let him go.
“Do I need to ask again, Sage? Or are you ready to cooperate?”
“You’re the one asking questions you already know the answer to,” Sage said.
I knew what Ronin said, but I wanted to hear it from him. “What do I already know?”
“Sorrel’s dead. I killed him,” Sage said, lifting his chin defiantly.
“What?” Mace yelled.
“I wanted his power,” Sage said, struggling against my hold again. “And now I have it.”
“You’re lying,” Mace accused. “You can’t simply take another’s power by killing them.”
My eyebrows drew together. Was Mace saying Sage must be lying because power transfer doesn’t work like that? I asked and he clarified.
“He thinks it’s true,” Mace replied, “but that’s not how it works. Someone has tricked him. You bastard,” Mace said, lunging at Sage. “You killed our brother for nothing!”
I s
topped Mace with my will, holding him back from attacking Sage.
Sage remained tight-lipped.
I’d gained Raven’s power by killing her, but that was different. The contenders were all linked by magic. I agreed with Mace, a person couldn’t just gain someone’s power by killing them. There would be murders every day if that were true. But Sage was now stronger than Mace—and neither twin alone had ever been stronger than Mace before. Sage had killed the big cat. Could the twins be linked in a way that would make the transfer possible? Young Jayne said twins were rare, although I knew of several sets. Perhaps the ability was possible because the quads’ mother was a chimera, but if that was the case, could Mace gain Sage and Sorrel’s power by killing Sage? My head spun just thinking about it.
“I agree, Mace, but he’s stronger than before. There must be a reason.”
“What of mother’s spell?” Mace asked, but I ignored him.
Putting my hand on Sage’s face, our eyes locked. “Did you know you would gain his power if you killed him?” I asked.
Sage struggled to resist before he finally said, “No.”
“Why did you kill Sorrel?”
“He had access to you,” Sage admitted.
“Access? Why did you need his access?”
“The apartment,” he said.
But Sage had been at the apartment the night before. He could have gotten past the wards? There must be more to this. “Cinnamon came for you. Is that connected?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then Cinnamon must know X. How does Parker Rosen factor into this?”
“There is no Parker Rosen.”
There was no Parker Rosen? “Cinnamon is dating X?”
“There is no Parker Rosen,” Sage said again, which meant either Cinnamon didn’t know she was dating X or her entire relationship was a farce.
“You were already at the apartment. You had access. What did X want that you weren’t able to get?”
“The locket,” Sage said.
Jayne’s pendant? The child had called it a locket as well, but I’d never realized it opened. “The pendant isn’t in my apartment.”
“Not that apartment,” Sage said.
