by A L Fogerty
“And you want to go in there?” Jagger asked.
“She wouldn’t be going alone.” Kayla squared her shoulders. “I would go with her.”
“And so would I,” Quinn said.
“And me too.” Willa put her arm around Mackenzie’s shoulders.
“So these treasure hunters,” Riddick said, “what were they after?”
“The city hasn’t been looted in twenty-five years,” Willa said.
“Everything from magical items to priceless human artifacts. It’s all there. But the city is full of embodied spirits that guard it relentlessly. Many have died trying to loot it.”
“How did these treasure hunters lose the spirit box in the first place?” Jagger asked, dropping the stripped rib bone onto his plate.
“Malik said the treasure hunters believed the box was inside one of their backpacks. It’s possible that it fell out.”
“There must be another way,” Jagger said. “It seems like a dangerous and foolish mission.”
“It could be worth it,” Riddick said with a grin.
“It could be your death,” Jagger said.
The brothers stared at each other for a moment. A smirk played across Riddick’s lips. Kayla knew that Riddick would do almost anything for the chance to find an interesting and exciting item—after all, he’d nearly gotten himself killed in his attempt to keep a motorcycle he had insisted on taking outside of a zombie-infested mansion.
“If I knew of any other way,” Mackenzie said, “I would take it.”
“Well, I can’t possibly leave now. But if you really believe it’s the only way, Mackenzie, you have my support.”
“I’ll go with you,” Riddick said, rubbing his hands together.
“If he’s going to go, then I’m going too,” Sid said.
“I bet there are a lot of books in old Knoxville,” Felix said.
“Libraries galore,” Mackenzie said. “Never looted.”
“Maybe I could go with you too,” Felix said. “You never know when you’ll need some information.”
“You’re all going?” Jagger asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’d better not get yourselves killed.”
Kayla chuckled at his insensitivity, but she knew that he meant well. He was worried about them, and it would kill him if she and his brothers didn’t return. She also knew that Jagger had grown fond of Willa and Mackenzie. He’d believed that the moment the witch arrived, she would solve the ghost problem, and he’d been growing impatient. After the death of Jamie Lark, Jagger was not expressing his best self.
“We begin our preparations for the journey tomorrow,” Kayla said.
Kayla met Jagger’s eyes, and the heat of their bond passed between them. She felt his apprehension, and her heart ached. He wouldn’t know what to do without her—he didn’t want her to go. But he wouldn’t try to stop her. It was one of the many things she loved about her mate. She would miss him just as much, and she would do everything in her power to return to him as soon as she could.
“Quinn needs to stay here,” Jagger said. “He’s the village healer. Without him, we have no one to take care of our illnesses, not to mention to consecrate the ground.”
“What if we get hurt on the road?” Kayla wanted Quinn by her side.
“I’ve learned a bit about medicine from my studies,” Felix added.
“It’s settled,” Jagger said. “Quinn stays.”
Chapter Four
Kayla tightened her saddle on Lightning’s back, whistled for Bane, and checked her saddlebags one last time. Sid was busy stuffing the bags with enough jerky to feed an army. Kayla chuckled and shook her head. Sid was unlikely to go anywhere without enough food.
“It’s a week’s ride to the City of Ghosts,” Felix said, checking his revolvers. “We’ll be on the road for quite some time.”
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Kayla asked the studious Blackfang brother.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Jagger came out of the house and watched as she and the others prepared to leave. She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her shoulders as she looked up at her mate staring down at her from the porch. Leaving him was going to be difficult. She didn’t know how she felt about it.
“You have everything you need?” Jagger asked.
“I do.”
“You need help with anything?”
“No. I think I’ve got it under control.”
“I’m not sure how wise it is for you to leave.” He crossed his arms and squinted into the morning sunlight.
“This is our only option, Jagger. We’ve talked about this.”
“But you’re needed here.”
“I’m not needed here. They have you.” She walked up the stairs to join him on the porch.
“I need you.” He sighed.
“I know how you feel,” she said, putting her arms around him.
“You’d better come back to me in one piece,” Jagger said.
“I could have ensured she would if you hadn’t insisted I stay.” Quinn appeared in the door, holding a pouch of herbs.
“It couldn’t be helped,” Jagger said. “We need you here.”
“I’m going to miss you both so much,” Kayla said, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.
“We’re going to miss you too.” Quinn stepped toward her. She let herself be enveloped in his arms and lay her head against his chest, feeling his heartbeat under her cheek. He wrapped her in his arms and held her close, kissing the top of her head. He rubbed her back and murmured. “I love you more every day.”
“I love you too.”
“Take these healing herbs, just in case anything happens.”
She took the herbs then turned to Jagger and hugged him one last time. After giving both her mates a final kiss, she turned away and hurried down the stairs. As she hopped up on Lightning’s back, she gave him the impression of preparing for the journey through their mental link and sent a message to Bane, who had been sitting on the porch.
The witches had mounted up and joined Riddick, Felix, and Sid outside her house. Everyone was prepared to go. She felt a tear slip from the corner of her eye and slide down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away, hoping no one had seen it. She wanted to give the impression of strength, and crying over missing her mates was not the way to do it.
“Stay safe, Kayla,” Quinn said. “Come back to me.”
She nodded as she turned Lightning away, leading the party out of the village. They took the well-worn path through Mist Valley and along the ridge until they came to the magical barrier that Willa had cast only a month before. The shimmering shield was part illusion and part energetic wall. It hid the village and the Mist Valley territory so that anyone coming toward it would see a sheer cliff instead of a path. If an unwanted intruder managed to get to the barrier, they would not be able to enter.
Then they came to the clearing where Colton Irontooth and his pack of alphas had attacked them the last time they had left Mist Valley. The attack had resulted in Felix sustaining an injury that had festered until they’d arrived in Dark Haven. Kayla glanced at Felix and saw a scowl on his face. She knew exactly what he was thinking.
“At least we aren’t getting attacked by an angry mob of alphas this time,” Riddick said cheerily.
After the Blackfangs had taken her away from Smoke Mountain territory, her father had sent every alpha in the region after her and the brothers. At the time, she had felt a great deal of guilt.
As they crested the ridge and headed through the dry oak forest, the strings of her attachment to her mates grew taught. It left an empty space inside her that grew more painful with each mile they rode.
The party traveled all day, heading east down the mountains and into the valley toward Knoxville, the City of Ghosts. It didn’t take long before they came into the world that had once been. Traveling along the old-world highway, over cracked and broken concrete, they passed dingy, molding street signs and storefronts promising discounted prices
on cheap plastic merchandise.
Kayla had been born after the fall of human civilization and had lived her entire life in the forest. It was only during the brief days she’d spent in Dark Haven and Hell City that she had experienced anything close to an urban existence.
She glanced at Willa and Mackenzie. They had spent their entire lives as upper-class witches in Dark Haven. Of all the creatures still living on earth, the two of them had to be some of the most privileged. It still astonished her every day that Willa and Mackenzie had been willing to throw all of that away to help the shifters. But after seeing the way witches and vampires treated their slaves, Kayla had a feeling that she would have done the same.
It was unbearable to see the human slaves in Dark Haven and especially the blood lotteries in Hell City. According to Quinn, it was her destiny to bring good back into the world. Just a few months before, she had been a scared and lonely girl whose biggest ambition in life was to be left alone to hunt in the forest with her wolf. It wasn’t until she’d met Quinn and his brothers that the idea of being anything more had come into her consciousness.
She’d come to learn that Reginald Redclaw wasn’t even her father—she’d been sired by a being from another dimension. There had been some subtle signs. She was hands down the worst at shifting of any shifter she’d ever met. But her ability to tame familiars was not common to most alphas. Her magic and strength were much greater than any other alpha in the known world, and her power seemed to grow stronger every day.
“We should camp soon,” she said as the sun tipped near the horizon at the end of a long day’s ride. “Riddick, will you scout ahead for us?”
“Sure thing, my queen,” he said with a wink, kicking Dart, a chestnut gelding, into a canter.
He hurried along the long stretch of empty highway while the others continued at a more comfortable pace. The two witches, who had been quietly bickering at the beginning of the trip, had settled into easy conversation and laughter as the miles wore on. Kayla understood why they were so agitated.
Going to the City of Ghosts was a huge risk for all of them. Kayla knew Mackenzie was a high achiever, always at the top of her class, always getting the best grades. Failure would be a huge blow to her ego. But it wasn’t only that—she knew that it would also signal to them that they had not earned their keep in the village.
Jagger had never said it outright, but he was growing impatient with how long it was taking to remove the spirits. The responsibility fell on Mackenzie, but in the month she’d been in Mist Valley Village, she had only managed to make things worse.
“I found a place not far from here that’s clear of zombies. Looks like it will be comfortable for the night,” Riddick called, trotting toward her from down the road.
“Good job, Riddick.”
“Anything for my queen,” he said with a wink.
She blushed and shook her head at him. Ever since she and Riddick had been trapped together in that cell in Dark Haven, there had been a growing flirtation between them. It had gone dormant over the last months in Mist Valley, but since her mates were back at home, Riddick seemed to have had a resurgence of those feelings.
Kayla, feeling the empty space between her and her men, didn’t discourage it. Quinn’s mother’s prophecy had spoken of how she would mate with all five Blackfang brothers. The suggestion had seemed ludicrous at the beginning of their journey, although it was not uncommon for shifter alphas to have more than one mate. Her father had taken several wives after her mother died. But Kayla had never wanted to mate at all. To then learn she was expected to take on five had been quite a stretch of the imagination.
She had grown to love Jagger and Quinn, and she had deep respect for Sid and Felix. Riddick was always a bit of a wild card. He could be extremely useful, or he could get the entire pack killed. There were many things she truly loved about him, such as his relentless sense of humor, his easy smile, and the way he played the mandolin. He had a positive attitude and a willingness to try new things. She appreciated all those things, especially in contrast to both Jagger and Quinn. They both brooded. Being with Riddick gave her a break from that. He lightened her heart.
“It’s only a few miles up ahead.”
It wasn’t that Kayla disliked Jagger’s and Quinn’s personalities—on the contrary. She tended to brood herself. But Riddick somehow relieved her of that and helped her see the fun in the worst situations.
They made it to an abandoned single-story roadside hotel.
“I inspected a few rooms and made sure that they were clear,” Riddick said. “This should be a safe place for us to stay for the night.”
“Well done,” Kayla said, dismounting. The parking lot was set away from the highway, so passersby wouldn’t see their horses.
“The rooms I cleared are on the second floor,” Riddick said. “I thought it would be safer since zombies can’t climb stairs.”
It was always a risk to camp in any area that had been populated because of the chance of being swarmed by zombies. Kayla was concerned about leaving the horses outside unattended during the night and didn’t want to stretch Willa’s magic by asking her to cast a shield every night. She settled on having Bane watch them while they slept.
She grabbed her saddlebags and carried them upstairs. “Are there just two rooms?”
“I only cleared two. But I didn’t hear any movement in any of the others.”
“How should we do this?” Willa asked, holding her saddlebags, which seemed too heavy for the slight young woman, over her shoulder. Kayla could see her straining, more than ready to set it down.
“Girls in one room, and boys in the other,” Kayla said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Willa replied.
They slipped into their room. Kayla collapsed on the moldy bedspread, wishing she was sleeping out in the open. The chances of sleeping in the forest would grow slimmer as they approached the City of Ghosts. She would have to get used to staying in decaying hotels for the rest of the journey.
“This place is disgusting,” Willa complained.
“I couldn’t agree more.” Kayla crinkled her nose.
“These blankets have got to go.” Mackenzie yanked the comforter off her bed.
The three of them stripped all the sheets and blankets and tossed them out the door onto the balcony. Then they covered the bare mattresses with their furs and blankets.
“Much better.” Mackenzie sat on the bed beside Willa.
“I guess we’re eating cold jerky tonight.” Willa reached into her pack.
“We’ll have to be more careful about lighting fires the closer we get to the city,” Kayla mused. “We don’t want to attract attention.”
“On my journey to Mist Valley, I ran into multiple hordes of zombies, fresh and skellies.” Mackenzie accepted the jerky Willa handed her. “If I hadn’t been a necromancer who was able to control them, I would have been in big trouble.”
“Did you meet any humans on your journey from Dark Haven?” Kayla asked.
“I saw a few, but I avoided them completely. Humans hate witches for obvious reasons. So if they catch one of us alone and without the skills to defend ourselves, they usually kill us on the spot.”
They ate their dried food and drank water from canteens before turning off their lanterns and climbing under their furs to sleep. Kayla lay awake for a long time, listening to the other women’s slow, steady breathing. She finally drifted off late in the night, her fatigue winning out over her anxiety. She couldn’t have been asleep more than an hour when a terrible commotion resounded outside.
The horses screamed. Bane and Lightning sent her panicked messages through their mental links. Kayla shot to her feet, alerting the witches as she grabbed her weapons. “We aren’t alone.”
She cracked open the door, looked outside into the darkness, and saw nothing. Slipping out the door, she nocked an arrow. She aimed at a fleeting shadow below her. The shadow came into the dim light of the moon. The zombie charged toward the h
orses. Kayla aimed and shot. The arrowhead ripped through its skull, right between the eyes, and it fell face-first against the pavement.
When there was one zombie, there were always more. They seemed to travel in packs, regardless of when they had been created. The oldest zombies had long since turned into skeletons, but even they still transmitted the virus to humans through their bites. Shifters were immune to the virus, but it weakened their magic. Zombies also carried a rather nasty infection that could kill even if the injured party didn’t turn. Kayla nocked another arrow as the groggy witches joined her outside.
Mackenzie lifted her arms as the horde of skeletons and zombies scuffled toward the horses. They immediately changed course and began to tear at each other so ferociously that by the time Sid and Riddick were on the ground, the zombies had already torn each other’s heads off.
Riddick observed the carnage, his daggers gripped lightly in his hands. “I guess this wasn’t the best campsite after all.”
“It could have been worse.” Kayla shrugged.
“We should take turns keeping watch.” Sid rested his hammer on his shoulder. “Especially while in these populated areas.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Kayla said. “I was having trouble sleeping anyway.”
The others all nodded and went back to their rooms. Kayla sat on the balcony above the horses and looked up at the night sky. It was hard to believe it was the same sky as before the cataclysm. Being so close to the city had a way of making the reality of what was lost much more real and poignant.
She sighed, looking up at the waning moon and thinking of Quinn. She reached out to him through their mental link, knowing he was probably sleeping. They couldn’t communicate the way she did with Lightning and Bane, but they could transmit vague images and emotions. She sent him her love then stopped when she felt a sense of longing rising in her chest. She didn’t want him to worry about her. It wouldn’t help anyone.
She had agreed to go on the journey. She was supposed to be the leader. She was supposed to be finding a way to clear the village of ghosts and set the spirits of the people free. But instead of strength and bravery, she felt lonely for her mates.
