“How do you know that?” I retorted on a snort. “You have some power detector?”
His eyes shone when he looked at me. “I know.”
Surprise, surprise. Another side of Kale appears. The ability to sense another’s power is a gift, not a born trait. That meant magically he was equally as kick-ass as his combat skills. “Well, what do you want to do?”
He looked around the tombstone again, studied the group, and then turned to me. “I might be able to fight off most of them, but I worry for your safety.”
It discouraged me once again how much I liked that he worried for me, especially because I was trying to not think of him in that way, but I also happened to agree with his point. “There’s no way in hell I’m going in there with the dagger. Sorry, I know my limitations.”
“Don’t apologize,” Kale countered, looking around the tombstone again. “You’re talented enough.”
My heart warmed at the compliment, and again, it irritated me. It seemed that there were two different people living inside my body. One wanted to run from Kale and the other wanted to run into his arms. Perhaps I had the split personality. “What’s the plan, then?”
Kale’s lips had parted to respond when the group clapped, shouting in merriment. I glanced around the tombstone again to find that a warlock approached the crowd.
“Nice look,” a short, stubby warlock called.
I gave Kale a questioning look, and he shook his head, equally confused.
“The plan has come together,” the warlock with the dark hair, thin build, and wimpy appearance beamed. “They’ve come.”
“Who has come?” I whispered to Kale.
He shook his head again and his lips pressed into a fine line as he watched the crowd in front of us.
“Tomorrow shall be the night,” the warlock continued. “Beltane is when Baal will arrive. We’re ready.”
“Will our Master join us soon?” an incredibly tall warlock called.
I mouthed master to Kale. He shrugged, meaning he’d never heard the term either. But it didn’t take a genius to figure out this had to be the leader Bryon spoke of. Maybe part of me was relieved this leader wasn’t there. Maybe it meant Charleston was safer. Anyone who managed to persuade this many warlocks to go against the Alchemy had to be dangerous to extremes.
“We don’t need him now,” the warlock stated, his voice carrying through the dark cemetery. “This task is ours, we’ll succeed, and the Master will reward us.”
Hoots and hollers filled the air. That didn’t make any sense either. I wondered if life would ever make sense again. If this leader needed Baal, why was he not the one to summon him? But then, summoning Baal was stupid…beyond stupid. Could be the warlock was smart enough to realize that, and put someone else in charge to face Baal’s wrath if things backfired.
“Goddess, this is bad,” I admitted as the gravity of the danger ahead weighed me down, as if the grave below was swallowing me whole. “Why wait until Beltane?” I asked Kale quietly. “Why not do it now if they’re ready?” True enough, I knew jack shit when it came to summoning a Prince of Hell, but I couldn’t make sense of it.
“Baal will be stronger during the sabbat.” He took my hand, scooting back, and we crawled away along the damp grass. “We can do nothing tonight. We’re outnumbered and need backup.”
“No kidding.” The first step—notify the coven. I sure as hell hoped they had enough resources for this attack. Sadly, the coven only had ten Wards who were employed by them, because Charleston had been relatively safe…until now. “I hope you know more warlocks like you to help.”
Kale winked. “I know a few.”
Nothing pleased me more. It meant more protection for me. One thing did stand out, though. Clearly, Kale wasn’t a total lunatic who ran in with guns drawn when faced with a fight, since he wasn’t doing it now. Maybe in this moment, I wanted him to go crazy-ass-killer on all these warlocks, so this could end.
I snorted at myself as I crawled along the grass; might be a good idea to pick a side and stick to it.
Chapter Eleven
On the drive home, we were a quarter of a mile from my house when my phone beeped. Lost in my own thoughts, the distraction snapped me back to reality and I realized Kale had been silent too. I grabbed the phone off the dashboard and looked at the screen, which displayed the text message from Peyton.
Need you. Please come.
Her only reason to contact me this late, with that clipped message, meant more trouble. As if I didn’t have a whole world of it already resting on my shoulders. But Peyton, as always, came first. I kept the steering wheel straight and typed without looking at the screen—I had mastered the art of texting while driving to avoid an accident.
Be there in five.
Once the message was sent, I tossed the phone back on the dashboard and pressed the brakes as Kale asked, “Problem?”
I pulled into a driveway, put the SUV in reverse, and turned around. “We have to make a quick stop at Peyton’s.”
He straightened in his seat. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t know.” I put the gas pedal to the floor.
Luckily, Peyton’s house was close to our current location, but as each minute passed my worries tripled. I prayed that whatever she told me, whatever was wrong, had nothing to do with the Alchemy mess. This trouble I wanted her well away from and I didn’t need to add trying to keep her out of it to my list of things to do. While I suspected she could handle hearing about this trouble, knowing her, her worry for me would put her into full panic mode.
It took the exact five minutes I told Peyton it’d be and tension strained my muscles when I pulled into the driveway of her yellow brick bungalow. I put the SUV in park and was out a second later with Kale in tow. I strode through the front garden and opened Peyton’s green front door, not bothering to knock. She glanced up at me from her seat on her flower-patterned couch.
Peyton’s home reflected her personality: simple with no material extras, and clean. If a speck of dust lived in this house I’d fear for its life. I did a quick scan of her home and nothing looked out of place, but when I looked back at her and stared into very pink eyes, my defenses kicked into high gear. “You okay?”
She shook her head and her hands trembled on her lap. “Something horrible almost happened.”
I rushed into the room without a thought to Kale behind me. I heard someone in the bathroom, and it sounded like they were preparing a bath. As I settled a foot away from Peyton, loud footsteps beat the hell out of her hardwood floors from the hallway.
A second later, her boyfriend, Jace, burst into the room with a fierce scowl on his face. His presence didn’t surprise me since he lived with Peyton, and it explained the noise in the bathroom, but the look of him shocked me stupid.
“What in the hell happened to you?” I gasped.
His spiky blond hair was covered in dirt, his thin face was also plastered with mud, and his lips were barely visible through the thick filth. His slender six-foot-two frame, clad in jeans and T-shirt, was caked with grime.
“I almost died tonight,” he growled, displaying a set of teeth that looked very white against the dirt.
I nibbled my lip as I studied him, stunned to find Jace so ruffled. Of all the Wards employed by the coven, Jace was the best and even had been rewarded by the High Priests, so his near-death experience floored me. I looked at Peyton then, and a burn like no other raced through my veins. Not for Jace—he could handle his own—but because Peyton had clearly witnessed it. “By who?”
“Bastard warlocks who attempted to raise a demon,” Jace spat.
I looked over my shoulder at Kale and I sighed, which he mirrored. Jace’s night proved Bryon had told us nothing but the truth. He said in New Orleans, murders happened in large numbers and he suspected they would only increase, and clearly Charleston wasn’t an exception.
When I turned away from Kale, Jace’s eyes were wide as he glanced over my shoulder at him, and then Jac
e’s eyebrows furrowed—I think, since it was kind of hard to tell with all the dirt on his face. “What shit have you landed yourself in?”
“Pardon me?” I retorted.
Jace jerked his chin toward Kale. “Why is he with you?”
“Ah, he’s a new Ward for the coven,” I replied in slow caution since in truth, I had no idea why Kale was here, but Jace’s surprise freaked me out. Once again, in the same reaction I’d seen from Bryon, Jace’s measured expression couldn’t be overlooked. “You know him?”
Jace laughed, though it sounded rough. “Yeah, I’d say I do.”
Great, just what I needed, a legendary Ward who worked alongside me and seemed to impress even Jace. Then again, maybe that’s why Kale wasn’t as haughty as most warlocks I knew. Perhaps he didn’t need to be because everyone knew he was special. “Have you worked together before?”
“My life is not up for discussion,” Kale said in a hard voice that no doubt would end the conversation.
It did.
Not as if that stopped me. I turned to Kale. His lips were pressed into a thin line, and by all appearances, he issued the same threat to Jace he’d given to Bryon to keep his mouth shut. Alarm bells sounded in my mind. Why did Kale have the power to issue orders of silence—and receive compliance—with a simple look? As I opened my mouth to demand answers, Kale said to me, “Peyton is most important now, Libby.”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I once again noted his tactics to get the attention off him. But if he thought I’d let this go and not find out how he knew Jace, he thought wrong. However, he did remind me of what was important now, and it wasn’t Kale. “Of course she is.”
Focusing away from both warlocks, I finished my approach toward Peyton as whispers from Jace and Kale came behind me, but I couldn’t bother to listen. Right now my friend was a mess and that was all that mattered. Her hands were on her lap, clasped tight, and her eyes were puffy from obvious tears.
I dropped down on the cushion beside her and squeezed her hands. “He’s okay, you know.”
“Now he is.” Her voice shook and bottom lip quivered. “But he came so close, Lib. I thought he was going to die.”
I pinched my eyes shut and saw red, and then I inhaled a slow breath, trying not to lose it. Her tormented emotional state now was exactly why I kept her out of it, and so should have Jace. Peyton couldn’t handle the danger and I knew this moment would haunt her for months to come. “What happened?”
“I sensed dark magic tonight, and the coven told us to go and check it out. In the forest, a pentagram had been drawn.” Tears rushed down her cheeks and her voice sounded on a loud sob. “It happened so fast. I…”
Jace was at her side before she could finish, brushing her hair behind her shoulder. “Come take the bath I ran for you.”
He stared at her with the warmth I’d seen many times from him. The only reason I could stand Jace. If anyone cared for Peyton as much as I did, it’d be him, and his actions now were so Jace.
While he was the one in need of a shower—badly, I might add—he ran her a bath to soothe her. That, and those little selfless acts he’d shown time and time again, put Jace in the do-not-loathe category.
When Peyton didn’t move, he offered his hand and said quietly, “You’re a shivering mess, sweetheart. You need to calm down.”
“He’s right.” I patted her thigh, smiling to reassure her. “Baths always make you feel better.”
“O-okay,” she whispered, tears still flooding her face.
I held her elbow when she stood, not confident she wouldn’t topple back to the couch, and Jace wrapped an arm around her and assisted her to the bathroom. When they vanished, I jerked my head to Kale. “How does Jace know you?”
“I’m a Ward,” he replied without emotion. “We typically do know one another.”
Fair enough answer. Not that I believed it. “He seemed impressed by you and he’s not often impressed.”
Kale grinned. “I’m good at what I do.”
Again, another reasonable answer, but my instincts didn’t trust his response. There seemed to be more to Kale and more going on here. Jace’s awed reaction to him made me believe Kale was somewhat legendary, but with a similar reaction from Bryon, as well as both warlocks responding to his unspoken orders, I realized this warlock was not a random Ward.
Before I could dig into that further, Jace’s angry footsteps from the hallway made me hold my questions back for later. He stormed into the room with a look that could kill. “What the fuck is going on, Libby?”
All the heat in my blood at what Peyton had been through exploded with his challenge. I pushed off the couch, stomped forward, and got in his face. “You tell me why you had her with you. You know better. I warned you, long ago, to protect her at all costs.”
His eyes lowered into slits. “The threat wasn’t immediate.”
Hell, hadn’t we been in this position way too often? I might hold Jace in high regard and even not mind him with Peyton since he made her so happy, but my foot was up his ass…a lot.
He leaned down toward me. “You need to back off me.”
Kale stepped in next to me, placing a hand on my lower back, and said in a soft voice as if to placate me, “Libby, go sit down and hear him out.”
I scowled at Kale and shook him off me, more annoyed than my body could contain. “Did I ask for your opinion?”
“No,” he replied, cool and collected. “But there’s no sense riding him so hard until you hear what happened.” At my narrowed eyes, he raised his hands in surrender. “I know you want to protect her, but hearing the facts first makes your reasoning for killing him stronger.”
Dammit, why did he have to always make sense? I looked at Jace who, as always, stood his ground against me. Maybe I respected him for it. He wasn’t a pushover and I liked to know Peyton was with a warlock who didn’t take shit from anyone, which included me. “You might die tonight, just so you know.”
“What else is new?” Jace grumbled.
I plopped down on the couch, crossed my legs, and folded my arms, and the cushion bounced beneath me. “Spit it out, then.”
Jace approached the beige recliner and nearly sat, but then must have realized his dirty state and thought better of it since he straightened. Peyton would kill him if he made a mess of her furniture, no matter her emotional state. Instead, he leaned his butt against the armrest. “Once Peyton sensed the magic, the coven ordered us to check it out.” His eyes bore intently into mine and pretty much flipped me off. “They requested I go along with Peyton in case any trouble came our way. I didn’t bring her with me. She brought me with her.”
Okay, one point for him, but I wasn’t confident he still wouldn’t die. “So, you went there, and then what?”
Jace frowned as dirt drifted off his arm and onto the carpet. “Place was empty, except for the pentagram. Peyton could still feel the dark magic around her, but no dead body remained within it, and whoever had drawn the rune was gone.” He rubbed his face, and then sighed at the dirt that now coated his hand. “Within minutes, two warlocks attacked us.”
“Did you question them?” At his raised eyebrows, which flaked off more dirt, I sighed. “You didn’t get the chance, I take it?”
“Too busy protecting my ass.” Jace shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They were beyond powerful.”
No doubt the extra power came from the demon they summoned, but before I could say as much, Kale, who remained at the doorway, interrupted, “Both are dead now?”
“Yeah,” Jace whispered, and his lead lowered. “Took a good ass-whooping first, but both are gone.”
I sighed away the rest of my curse words stored up for him at the slight twitch in his jaw. The night had affected him as much as it had Peyton. Now that I wasn’t ready to butcher him, my concern rose. “Did you get hurt?”
His head lifted, and he shook it. “Nah, I’m fine. Scary as shit, though. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.”
�
��For Peyton?” Kale offered.
Jace nodded at him. “They came close to killing me. What would have happened to her?”
Now I completely forgave him and I tilted my head, regarding Kale. He knew Jace was worried for Peyton, not himself, and why did I like that? Maybe because it meant he wasn’t a heartless warlock and thought past his own agenda.
“Now you will tell me what’s going on,” Jace spat at me. “I know you keep secrets from Peyton, but something is up—that shit tonight I’ve never seen before. How are those warlocks so strong?”
I rubbed my eyes, so damn tired, and actually at a loss for where to start. When I lowered my hands, Kale gave me a quizzical look—in search of what, I had no idea—and then he turned his attention to Jace. “A rebellion has formed against the Alchemy and they plan to attack tomorrow night. The warlocks have tapped into demonic power, and it’s that which fuels their strength.”
Jace’s eyes widened, the sternness faded from his face, and his mouth dropped open. “No shit?”
“Yes, and so it seems, the problem has intensified,” I muttered.
“Can I help?” Jace asked.
Typical of him. Maybe it took me a while to warm up to him because I never trusted him because, well, he’s a warlock, but he’d proven to be a damn fine asset to the coven.
I looked at Kale, and he stared at me and waited for my answer, so I sighed. “No.” At the disappointment in Jace’s eyes, since he did in fact love a good fight if Peyton wasn’t around, I pressed on. “She can’t know about this, and if you’re involved, she will. I don’t want her in the middle of this war.”
He pursed his lips and he shifted on the armchair. “It’s wrong what you’re doing. How you keep the truth from her.”
“Wrong or not, I won’t drag her into it.” I gave Jace a look of my own. He wasn’t the only one who could play tough, and I used the only leverage I had. “You want her to go into a deep depression again?”
“No,” he bit off.
“Exactly. It’s better if she’s not involved.” I rubbed my eyes again and my shoulders felt weighed down. “I’m sure the coven will have a plan to stop this once we tell them what’s going on, and then we can find another way to keep Peyton out of it.” I lowered my hands, but wanted to continue to rub the ache out of them. “Perhaps they’ll call her in, keep her busy at the coven, and then you can join us tomorrow night. At this point, all the Wards will have to be involved in this.”
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