But what the hell would I do with a human-sized viper? The thought alone was enough to terrify me.
Grey moved away from me, walking back around the circle as the words he muttered beneath his breath reached a crescendo.
As soon as he reached the centre of the circle, he slammed the staff into the floor, and the tiles cracked with the force of the blow. The circle broke apart and magic flowed out.
It slammed into me, knocking me from my feet and sending me flying back across the kitchen. I hit the far wall, my breath whooshing out of me as the scalding wave of Grey’s magic continued to wash over me like the waves of the sea.
The air grew warm, and then hot, until it was uncomfortable to draw a breath. Something hot and wet trickled down my face, and I reached up to my nose. My hand came away bloody, and I scanned the kitchen.
Triskel was across the room, on her side and, from the looks of it, completely unconscious. She’d shed her glamour, and her gold and red scales glittered in the kitchen light.
The kitchen staff gathered near the circle. Their eyes were blank and their faces slack, but at least they looked unhurt by the power blast that had knocked me on my ass.
Climbing to my knees, I searched for Grey and found him standing in the centre of the broken circle.
Blood ran from his nose and eyes, and when he turned his head to look at the people gathered around him I could see that it dripped from his ears too. The temperature in the room continued to climb until it was scalding and each breath I took burned my lungs.
Suddenly, there was a pop as cool air flooded into my lungs. The people gathered around Grey collapsed as one, landing in a heap around the edges of the circle.
Grey dropped too, falling to his knees with a muffled groan that tore at my heart.
Scrambling up from my position on the floor, I raced over to him. I didn’t hesitate at the edge of the circle; it had already been broken, and the power was now gone. Grey lay on his side in the centre of the circle, his blood drying on his skin.
“Can you hear me?” I crouched next to him and brushed his hair back from his closed eyes.
He stirred and let out a low moan, and my heart started to beat again.
He opened his eyes and stared up at me, the silver lightning now gone. “Did it work?”
I nodded, even though I wasn’t entirely sure. I took a moment to watch as the humans began to snore lightly.
“Yeah, it worked,” I said in relief.
Grey smiled at me before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out, leaving me alone in the middle of the circle.
“Great, everyone gets to play sleeping beauty but me,” I grumbled. Then I pushed up onto my feet and got to work.
Chapter 22
I left the humans where they slept. Waking them after everything that had happened seemed like the worst idea ever, but I managed to wake Triskel, and together we gathered enough pillows and blankets to make them as comfortable as possible. How much they would remember, I had no clue. That was definitely going to be a question for Grey, whenever he decided to wake up, of course.
I sat down in a booth with a steaming bowl of stew. The gravy was so rich it was practically black, and I jabbed another piece of crusty bread into it to soak up the meat juices. The butter had melted into the bowl, settling on top of the stew, its golden colour glistening in the overhead lights.
Jamming the bread into my mouth, I chewed and swallowed as quickly as my bruised face would allow. So far, I’d been thrown from the mouth of a cave and tossed across a pub. Not to mention last night, when I’d faced the creature and had my ass handed to me. All of this had led to a much slower healing process than I was used to.
Of course, being tired and hungry definitely wasn’t helping, but the large bowl of stew would go a long way toward remedying that.
“How long was I out?” Grey’s voice drifted to me from across the pub, and I turned to watch him stumble from the kitchen.
His dark hair was tufted around his head, giving him the appearance of a creature with horns. Seeing the always suave and in-charge Grey looking so dishevelled made me smile, and I ducked my head back to the bowl of stew to keep my grin to myself.
“A while,” I said, struggling to keep my voice free of the laughter that bubbled up inside me.
He slid into the booth across from me, throwing his head back with a low groan as he stretched.
“Food,” he said, sniffing the air. “My god, where did you manage to get food?”
“The kitchen,” I said, shoving another piece of crusty bread into my mouth. I chewed and swallowed before adding, “Seemed a shame to let it go to waste.”
Grey’s stomach grumbled audibly, and he dropped his head, giving me a wide grin.
“You totally want me to go and get you some too, don’t you?” I asked with a sigh, pushing up from the table.
“You’re an angel,” he said.
“Don’t get used to it,” I quipped back. “I’m only doing it this once because you saved those people.”
I darted back to the kitchen, filling up a bowl and grabbing another basket of crusty bread rolls from a tray, then made my way back into the pub to find that Triskel had joined Grey at the table.
Grey was leaning back in the booth, and the smile on his face could have melted the hearts of a thousand women. Triskel was clearly not immune to his charm. She was practically draped across the table, her whispers inaudible from where I stood. I watched as she reached across the table and ran a finger up over one of the tattoos visible beneath the sleeve of his white shirt. Her finger disappeared beneath the fabric, pushing it aside to reveal even more of the intricate design.
Jealousy, raw and unbridled, roared through me. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced, and my hands shook with the effort of not crossing the floor and dumping the contents of the stew bowl onto her head.
Not for the first time, I wondered if I was losing my mind. My reactions were way out of control and bordered on neurotic.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed away the jealousy and crossed the carpet to the booth. Triskel raised her gaze to my face, and in her violet eyes I saw a challenge.
Ignoring it, I set the bowl down in front of Grey and plopped down into my seat once more. If she wanted to flirt with him, then so be it. Grey didn’t belong to me, no matter how much part of me wished he did. We’d had our chance and screwed it all royally to hell.
Grey lowered his face over the bowl and drew in a deep breath, a low moan escaping him as he closed his eyes.
“This smells so good,” he said, opening his eyes, his dark gaze capturing mine. “Thank you.” His words were heavy with meaning, and I knew he wasn’t just thanking me for bringing him food.
Hearing Grey express gratitude was definitely new to me, and I couldn’t keep the surprise from my face.
“No problem,” I said, jamming another piece of bread into the bowl before I crammed it into my mouth.
I could feel his eyes on me. What else did he want me to say?
He sighed, and the sound of his spoon hitting the side of his dish told me he’d given up.
“I was just filling Grey in on what a fantastic job he did with the spell,” Triskel said, her voice sickly sweet and laden with admiration.
“Yup, it was fab.” I lifted a spoonful of beef and potatoes to my lips.
“It was more than that. If he hadn’t interfered, those poor people would still be stuck. They’d have died without his help, it was so…” She trailed off in a mock attempt at searching for the right word. “Heroic.” Her voice was breathy, and I half-expected her to swoon right into Grey’s bowl.
I met Grey’s eyes and raised an eyebrow at him. Colour had flooded into his cheeks, and he looked positively uncomfortable at the praise Triskel was heaping on him. The jealousy I’d felt only moments before completely fled, and a grin twisted the corners of my lips as I watched him squirm.
He hadn’t been this uncomfortable a moment ago. What had changed?
“Have you always been a witch?” she asked, and I practically choked on the stew.
“Eh, a witch?” Grey said. “I’m not actually a…”
Triskel cut him off again as she rambled on in her quest to impress him. “And the way you turned the twig into a stick with just a little blood! I couldn’t believe it.”
I set down my spoon and watched Grey’s face. There was no way I could continue eating while listening to this conversation; I’d only end up choking on something in an attempt to smother my laughter.
Seeing my amusement, Grey shot me a helpless look as Triskel continued to gush about how amazing his magic was.
“So, did Siobhan give you any indication of where she was going?” I asked, my pity for Grey’s discomfort overcoming my desire to watch him squirm.
Triskel shot me a look that might have withered a lesser person, but I stared her down, meeting her glare with a blank expression. Had she been playing me before? When she had acted so scared and almost helpless, I had viewed her as much younger than she probably was. She was, after all, one of the fae, so perhaps her behaviour was just another aspect of her glamour. I now knew without a doubt that little Triskel had an edge to her, one she wouldn’t hesitate to use against me.
“No, I think I said that already.” Her voice was sharp enough to cut glass. “But did I—”
“Well, you didn’t tell us who the men were,” I interrupted.
“What men?” Her irritation had her curling her fingers into the table, and I watched as a small piece of the wood came away under the pressure.
“The ones you said you’d thought were coming for you.”
She glared at me before her violet eyes cleared suddenly, and I watched as she widened them slightly, making herself look more innocent.
“I was so frightened,” she said, turning back to Grey. “If you’d been there, I wouldn’t have been frightened at all, because I’d have known you could get rid of them.”
“But who were they?” I probed again.
“Hunters.” Her voice was low, and this time there was no mistaking her genuine fear.
“I thought the hunters had all been run out of England,” I said, meeting Grey’s concerned glance with one of my own.
“So did I,” he said. “So did everyone.”
“What would bring them back now?” I mused, mostly to myself.
“They said they were collecting rare and valuable creatures,” Triskel said. “They wouldn’t say why, but they knew what I was.”
“How did Siobhan get rid of them?” I pushed my spoon around in the stew, no longer feeling quite so hungry.
“She had me go into the cupboard upstairs. The other spell she has on this place keeps my magical signature hidden.”
“Shit.” I dropped the spoon into the bowl with a clang. “You’re telling us that now?”
Grey swore violently beneath his breath and dropped his own spoon.
“What does it matter?” Triskel said, and I stared at her. Was she really that naive?
“Grey brought down all the spells covering this place, and that includes the one that keeps your signature hidden,” I said. “If these hunters are looking for you, Grey may as well have served you up to them on a platter.”
My words seemed to finally sink in, and Triskel looked genuinely perturbed. Her face fell and tears welled in her violet eyes.
“I didn’t think it would bring down all the spells,” she wailed. “Can’t you put it back up?” She turned to Grey and latched onto his arm, her fingers digging into his flesh. Her glamour started to fail, gold and scarlet scales glittering across her throat.
Grey swore, and I realised her fingers were no longer those of a human but had instead become talons, her red nails long and curved like the blade on my karambit. She dug them into his flesh hard enough that blood began to well against them.
Pulling my blade, I moved fast. I thrust up from the bench seat and perched on the edge of the table, one knee pushing into the centre of Triskel’s chest and forcing her backwards. I pushed the edge of my karambit against her neck, holding it so that if she so much as breathed without my say-so, it would split her throat without any effort on my behalf.
“Let him go,” I said, my voice low and quiet. She released Grey, raising her taloned hands so that I could see them in my peripheral vision.
“I don’t want to die,” she whispered, tears spilling down over her black lashes.
“The spell is gone, so we need to take you out of here.” I kept my knee pressed into the centre of her chest as I spoke. “But if you try to hurt either of us again, I won’t hesitate to hand you over to the hunters.”
My lie had the desired effect, and Triskel’s eyes widened in horror.
“You wouldn’t, not really,” she said in shock.
“Try me.” My voice was cold.
“If you get me out of here to somewhere safe, I promise I won’t try to hurt either of you,” she said solemnly.
Nodding, I withdrew my blade and twisted so that I could jump onto the floor, my booted feet landing with a thud that ricocheted up through my bones. I needed to sleep, to recover. I was strong, but there was only so much of a battering I could take before it caught up to me.
My mother might have been a gorgon, but my father was human, and it weakened me. And while I was still immortal, I was no good to anyone if my responses and reactions were compromised.
“Can Division 6 find a safe house?” I said to Grey.
He opened his mouth to answer, but Triskel let out a low sob that had my heart skittering to a halt.
“I’m not going back to one of those holding cells,” she cried, scampering over the edge of the table, shedding her glamour entirely as she moved.
“Crap on a cracker,” I said with a sigh as I watched Triskel dart toward the kitchen.
“I was going to say that we don’t have any room in the safe houses right now,” Grey said.
“So what the hell are we going to do?”
“You could…”
I raised my hand, silencing him as I shook my head vehemently. “Not a chance in hell, Grey. She’s crazy, and anyway, I have houseguests…”
“The empath and her daughter,” he said, his dark eyes studying me carefully.
My mouth dropped open. I wanted to ask him how he knew, but it seemed utterly pointless. He worked for Division 6; they had their noses in everyone’s business.
“Yeah,” I said instead. “They needed somewhere to stay, so I helped them out.”
“They’re trouble, Jenn,” he said, causing me to instantly bristle. Who the hell did he think he was? From what I’d seen so far, the only one to bring trouble into my life was him. Merry and her mother had been nothing but a joy.
Even though I wasn’t entirely sure if that joy was my own, or if Merry’s infectious enjoyment of life had spilled over onto me.
“I know, I know,” he said, raising his hands. “It’s none of my business, but I can’t help but worry about you sometimes, so I checked them out.”
“Find anything interesting?” Attacking him was pointless; he would continue to snoop into my business anyway, and getting mad at him was only a waste of time.
“When we’re done here, I’ll fill you in,” he said cryptically, which told me I probably wouldn’t like whatever he had discovered.
“Fine, but you better,” I said. “This still doesn’t answer what we’re going to do with Triskel, though.”
Grey shook his head, and a sinking feeling filled my stomach.
Chapter 23
We sat in the car outside my house, and I stared up at the dark windows. I was hoping Carolyn and Merry had gone to bed, and that this wasn’t another case of Carolyn being so terrified of someone coming to take them away that they were hiding.
Triskel sat in the backseat, her silence telling me exactly what she thought of the plan. Although I knew if Grey had offered to take her back to his place to lay low for a couple of days, she would have practi
cally snapped his hand off in her haste to take him up on the offer. Not that any of that mattered now.
She needed somewhere to stay, and I had both the space and the warding to keep her magic hidden.
Lucky me.
“You remember what I said.” I twisted around in the seat and met her silent glare.
“Yeah,” she said sulkily as she slid lower in her seat.
“You leave Carolyn and Merry alone,” I repeated.
“Yeah, I heard you the first time,” she said. “I’m not an idiot.”
Turning back in my seat, I met Grey’s half-smirk.
“What about the morgue?”
He glanced down at his watch and shook his head. “It’ll be open all night, but Antony, the guy we need to speak to, will have gone home by now.”
Nodding, I stared down at my fingers. My sudden unwillingness to leave the warmth and safety of the car was completely unlike me. I usually couldn’t wait to get away from Grey, and now I was half-contemplating inviting him inside.
“You want to come in and get a coffee?” I asked, and Triskel’s head suddenly appeared between the seats.
“Please do, and I’m sure if we ask nicely enough, Jenna will have a couch you could crash on.” The desperation in her voice made me smile and at the same time feel somewhat better about asking Grey inside in the first place. Her statement and tone of voice made my asking him suddenly appear less needy by contrast. Less like I desperately hoped he’d agree to come inside, even though that was exactly how I felt. There was something about being in his company that brought me a sense of peace I hadn’t felt in an age. But being near him also screwed with my head, making me feel completely out of control. It was a complication I could have done without, but then life was notoriously tricky like that, always throwing curveballs into the mix.
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