I cursed under my breath. A smoke spell to cover his escape? Nice move, but there were only so many ways out of the room. I resisted the urge to cough and fought to see through the acrid magical air.
As my throat and mouth burned, I realized we weren’t dealing with a simple smoke spell. Dammit. Poison. I struggled to keep my mouth closed, but my eyes burned and my stomach rolled. Darkness threatened to overtake me, but I couldn’t leave, not with Costa trapped. The smoke cleared enough to make out impressions of the men in the room, but I couldn’t seem to shout for Costa, warn him.
My mouth and lungs weren’t working right.
A shape moved next to me and I reached out, grasping at clothes. Koslov, it had to be. The shape struggled and cursed at me, but I clung to it, ignoring the pain as one of my nails felt like it ripped from my fingertip. My other hand still hurt so badly it was hard to hold on, but I held.
Until I saw the fire.
Chapter Fourteen
The flames moved up Koslov’s body, still difficult to see even as the smoke spell began to fade. Because as it disappeared, it was replaced by smoke from the fire licking his body. It traveled fast—too fast to be natural. From his stomach, it moved down to his shoes and up to touch his face.
I scrambled away from the flames, and the burn on my hand throbbed, bile crawled up my throat, and even though the smoke was clearing, it curled up in my lungs. I had to find Elaine and Natalie. Had to get them out before the fire spread. I stumbled to the hallway and then glanced back to yell for Costa. I was able to make out Koslov in the darkened air. His screams cut through the smoke, so loud it was as if they came out of the throat of a banshee.
And Leon, arms outstretched toward Koslov, grimaced, even as he burned the man who’d taken away his free will. Tears trailed their way down his soot-stained face.
Suddenly Costa was there, arm around me, pulling me to the hall that Leon had been dragging me toward. I swallowed the bile in my throat and looked away from the scene behind me. Elaine had to be back there. And given Leon’s frame of mind, I wouldn’t be surprised if he burned the whole damn building down around us. We had to find Elaine and Natalie before that happened and get them—
and ourselves—out of the building.
The air cleared the farther down the hallway we got.
Doors lined the walls. My lungs burned, but the farther we moved from the smoke, the more the spells’ effects dissipated.
“Elaine,” I croaked as loudly as I could. “Natalie?” No muffled sounds greeted us—not that I could hear over the waning screams behind us. “Oh my god, Costa.
What if they aren’t here?”
“They are,” he said. “They have to be. Koslov probably just has a spell up to dampen sound.” Costa kicked down the first door and I kicked at the next, wishing I’d had the presence of mind to grab my crowbar from the floor where Leon had tossed it. These doors stood between Elaine and me—maybe the very one I was trying desperately to break. I had to get it down.
The cries no longer sounded from down the hall, and I wasn’t sure if I hoped that was because Koslov was no longer suffering or because of a sound dampening spell that draped the entire section of the hall we walked in, keeping the sounds within a certain distance of their origin.
The door I worked on finally gave, and I almost fell into the room, my knee screaming in protest as my foot hit the ground. Light from the hallway poured into the room, and I stared dumbly at Elaine.
Dark circles surrounded her eyes and she looked thinner than she had a week before, but she stared at me—
wide-eyed and tied to a chair. Alive. I called something to Costa, and after a few second he appeared with a pocketknife to cut Elaine free. She flung herself into my arms. Adrenaline rushed through my body, and I squeezed her tight.
Costa was there, pulling me again. Elaine clung to me as we moved, and I saw Natalie, looking slightly rumpled but otherwise unharmed, next to Costa. She rubbed her wrists where she’d no doubt been restrained as well. I followed them down what felt like a never-ending hallway, half carrying Elaine with me. Then there was light. Fresh air filled my aching lungs. And sirens wailed loudly.
I held Elaine and Costa held us both until a paramedic took her from my arms. I followed them, but then Elaine was surrounded, and I was forced to hover around the edge of the bodies questioning her. Then Astrid was there, giving me water and asking questions that I couldn’t seem to pull my mind together well enough to answer.
A paramedic asked me something, but talking hurt my smoke-burned throat, and all I could stutter out was a question about Elaine.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Vasquez asked, and I blinked at him. I hadn’t even seen him approach.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice low and raspy. The water I’d forced down had helped—but it wasn’t a miracle cure.
He grimaced at my voice. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Don’t think you’re free and clear on this stunt.” I nodded, and immediately regretted the motion. I wasn’t sure if the smoke inhalation or the use of my very rusty conscious succubus powers was responsible, but something had given me a heck of a headache. But I was alive, and I’d see as many doctors as they wanted to throw at me after I got Elaine set up in the hospital.
Vasquez stomped off, and I saw him corner Costa near the ambulance. They were moving Elaine inside the vehicle, so I pushed up from the police car I’d been sitting on and headed for my sister.
Someone tall blocked my path, and it took me a few beats to wrap my mind around the red hair, the pursed lips, and the striking features.
“I don’t have time to talk to you, Agent,” I rasped, putting as much bitchiness into my voice as I could.
Beatrice raised an eyebrow at that. “You have your sister now. I’d say you have nothing but time.” My gaze flew back to Elaine. Yes. They were definitely loading her up to go to the hospital. I needed to get into that ambulance.
She spared a quick glance over her shoulder, and when she looked back at me her expression had softened. “Look, I just wanted to tell you that I was sorry. I acted like a real bitch at the hotel. You didn’t deserve that, and neither did Val. I get…protective of him sometimes.” A smile touched her face, taking her from merely gorgeous to breathtaking.
“Okay, scratch that. I get downright jealous.” I couldn’t deal with this right now. I couldn’t think about Costa or his ridiculously attractive partner. “I need to get on that ambulance,” I said simply, and then shouldered past her. I waved at the paramedic who held the door and he paused, understanding. I threw a quick glance over my shoulder before jumping into the ambulance. But Costa was no longer talking to Vasquez—the OWEA agent was gone.
Chapter Fifteen
I stared at my teacup and tried to make plans for the day.
Nearly a week had passed since Costa and I had saved Elaine and Natalie from the warehouse fire. The questions started only minutes after we’d escaped from the building.
Questions from the paramedics about Elaine. Questions from Lieutenant Vasquez about Koslov. Questions from OWEA agents about Costa. So many damn questions, and all I wanted was to go home.
But I’d heard nothing from Costa. I knew that he had to be up to his ears with his own questions and reports and who knew what else, but I didn’t have to be happy about it. Luckily my burns were easily treated on an outpatient basis. I just had to be careful with the bandages for the first few days. And Koslov’s spell had been short-lived. My lungs and throat were raw, but as long as I kept my voice down, it didn’t bother me too much.
Movement in the entryway between the hall and kitchen drew my attention. Elaine, arms crossed with a frown creasing her face, leaned against the doorframe.
“Any word?” she said simply.
I shook my head. I’d told her what happened during her kidnapping—most of it, anyway.
“You should call him.” Her voice was firm. Strong.
Like she hadn’t just been held against her will fo
r several days. Of course, she couldn’t hide the full impacts from me.
I’d heard her screaming in her sleep. I’d woken her from the nightmares.
“You should be resting.”
“I’m tired of resting. Why don’t you just call him?”
“Because there’s no point.” I took a sip of my tea and turned my eyes back to the table.
“Mari, look at me.”
I took a deep breath and met her eyes, the same clear blue I saw in the mirror every morning. “I’m here for you,” I said firmly. “I don’t have time or energy to worry about Costa. You are my priority.”
Tears welled in her eyes, and I’d crossed the room to pull her into my arms before I realized I’d moved. She squirmed and pushed me away, stepping back so she could capture my gaze again.
“Stop this. You can’t keep me any safer than you already do. And I refuse to live my life in fear again. I lost years of my life that way. Years, Mari. And I cost you years of your life, too.”
I shook my head furiously, but she didn’t stop talking.
“You deserve this, big sister. You deserve a chance to be happy. You deserve a man who will make you happy.
And if there’s one thing I learned from all of this, it’s that life can end at any time. We both need to live to the fullest while we can.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but the doorbell rang, startling me, and I sloshed some of my tea onto the table.
A smile flashed on Elaine’s face. “I’ll be upstairs,” she said, and then she turned and hurried away.
“Did you call him?” I hissed after her. But she just waved over her shoulder at me and disappeared up the stairs.
I took a deep breath and opened the door. Costa’s expression was serious, and I had to restrain myself from jumping into his arms the moment I saw him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call,” he said, stepping into the house.
I looked away from him, suddenly fighting a lump in my throat. “It’s fine,” I finally managed.
“No, it’s not, but I wasn’t able to call anyone. The fire…
They suspected me, at first until they questioned all the witnesses. And then enough time passed that it seemed like it would be better for me to just come here, talk to you in person.” He closed the door and stepped closer to me.
“And Elaine called you,” I muttered, feeling somehow betrayed. I’d known Costa had been implicated but hadn’t realized they’d given him such a hard time. After all, they’d interviewed me and I’d told them about Leon.
But considering what had happened, I wasn’t surprised by their extra thoroughness.
“There was that, yes.”
His expression was something I’d never seen on him.
Unsure and hesitant. A little sad. Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to wipe that sadness from his face. But I couldn’t. Not yet.
“Explain to me what the hell happened in your hotel room.” Flashes of Bea’s face hit me, and the humiliation I’d felt that morning came back in a rush. I stepped back, needing room between us.
“Bea questioned why I’d be working with you on this. I told her it was because I wanted to keep you close in case the kidnapper went for you.” He grimaced and shoved his hands in his pockets. “That was bullshit, of course. It wouldn’t have made any sense for the bastard to come after you, a cop. There were plenty of easier succubi around who would have made more sense.”
“But she believed you?”
“She knew I was full of shit.” He snorted. “But she wasn’t in town, so there wasn’t much she could do until…” I nodded. “Were—are you involved with her or something?”
“No!” he said, and he stepped forward and grasped my shoulders. Startled, I looked up and met his eyes. He dropped his hands to his sides, and stepped back. “I’m sorry. No. We’re close. We’ve been partners for years, and we’ve been through some shit together. But it’s not like that. Not for me, at least. She’s like a sister to me. She’s just protective.”
I believed him. I wasn’t sure if it was Beatrice’s apology after the fire, or the desperation in his eyes that did it, but I knew he was telling the truth.
“I should have come after you. Explained. I’m sorry.
I haven’t exactly been trusting since everything that happened with my brother, and honestly I was scared that you’d just tell me to go to hell.”
I sighed. “I should have let you explain. Running out like that…it wasn’t exactly the mature thing to do.” Sadness crisscrossed his features, but hope was there, too—just under the surface. It broke my heart. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him into a hug.
He stepped closer and buried his face in my hair, his arms so tight around me I squeaked. He loosened his hold and looked at me, then moved a bit of my hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear. I smiled at him, and the tension drained from his features and the muscles under my hands. It felt so good to be in his arms again.
“I missed you,” he said.
“Me, too,” I whispered. He lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me gently, and I pressed myself against him, my body suddenly soft and in great need. Only the knowledge that Elaine was probably listening to us upstairs allowed me to break our kiss. When I pulled back, his intense expression almost made me decide I didn’t care what Elaine did or did not hear. But I gave him a small smile and stepped back.
“I’m sure you know, but Koslov didn’t make it,” he said, and I nodded, still unsure exactly how I felt about that.
“Leon?”
“They’re saying he died in there, too. The whole warehouse went up, you know.”
“You don’t sound convinced.”
“I’m not sure fire could kill a salamander, even at those temperatures. Well, not most salamanders anyway.
The OWEA also interviewed some of Leon’s family.”
“And?”
“Apparently he and Koslov were in a relationship for nearly a year. It ended right around the time Koslov started his succubi experiments.”
I shuddered. “So Koslov decided to siphon a succubus’s power for himself, to get back at Leon.” I knew it was true; it fit Leon’s mixture of emotions and the brief flashes of memory I’d gotten from him while thrilling the salamander.
Costa didn’t ask how I knew that, but worry creased his brow. “Seems like it. And from what we could gather from his staff, Koslov has been growing seriously unstable the last couple of years. Not that the man could have ever been totally right, being willing to do what he did, but it’d been starting to show.”
“Maybe because he took the power? A power his mind and body weren’t built to handle.”
“Maybe.” He paused. “How are you doing?” I shrugged. “I’m okay.”
“You drained some energy from Leon, didn’t you?” I stiffened and headed for the kitchen. Costa trailed behind me. “Yes, but not enough to make a lasting connection. I’ll be fine.” That wasn’t entirely true; I could still feel a bit of Leon, and that would never go away. But the presence was small, and so unformed it wasn’t worth mentioning. I knew it would fade—if not disappear—in time. “Want some tea?” I asked.
He gave me a disgusted look. “Coffee?” I smiled. “I guess I could dust off the coffeemaker.” He sat down at the kitchen table while I looked for the old tin of coffee I knew I had somewhere. “How is Elaine?”
“She’s better than I expected her to be.” There. An old tin of coffee hid behind a bag of flour. I turned to face Costa and waved the coffee at him. “She’s already talking about going back to class. I think she’s handling this better than I am, to be honest.”
“So there are no lingering magical effects?”
“Not that Natalie could find. She doesn’t think Koslov had long enough to complete the spells.” I looked away from Costa’s intense gaze and focused on my kitchen window. The sun was out, sparkling against the grass. The first sunny day I’d seen in a while. “I talked to Natalie about Kosl
ov.”
“What did she say?”
“Apparently he’s always had a bit of an issue with women. Natalie said that no one realized how deeply disturbed he was. He took Natalie when she started looking into that list of potential suspects for us. Guess he got nervous.”
I heard footsteps against the tile, and the next thing I knew, Costa stood next to me. “Where does this leave us, Mari?”
I turned to face him, and his expression was open, full of emotions I couldn’t name, and something in my heart twisted. But I didn’t know what to say. I cared about him—
far too much considering our short time together and the mobile nature of his job—but there it was.
He leaned in, and murmured against my ear, “I’m falling in love with you, bella. I’m afraid I’ll crash and burn without you.”
I grinned. “Well, I certainly wouldn’t want you to burn.”
This time, when he kissed me, I had a hard time letting him go.
Acknowledgments
There are so many people I owe a thank-you for their help and encouragement with this project. I want to give a huge thanks to:
My family, for always being there for me, and for supporting my choice to try this writing thing. I love you all so much!
My husband, Sash, who accepts my crazy writing hours in stride, and has been willing to entertain himself virtually every evening and weekend for the last two years.
Thank you for believing in me.
Regan Summers, who not only gives up precious vacation time to read the stories I send her at the last minute, but who also continues to inspire me with her wonderfully written stories and awe-inspiring work ethic.
Your friendship and support have made this whole thing possible for me.
Joshua Roots, who offers sage advice when it comes to improving my stories, and who encourages me with his own tenacity and hilarious writing. Thank you, my friend.
The rest of the Cantina crew on Absolute Write, for always being funny and kind. You are my haven.
Succubus Lost (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, #2) Page 13
