by Ciara Graves
“You want to go there? And do what?” I asked skeptically. “If her parents do agree to talk to us, seeing as we’re supes, you can’t just torture them if they refuse to answer.”
“I never would think of torturing a human in front of a Fed,” she said lightly. “Scaring them shitless isn’t off the table though.”
I glowered at her.
She sighed. “What? We need answers. And who knows, whatever they tell us might help us find their daughter alive. We could bring her back home.”
“How about you let me do the talking?”
“Fine, party pooper,” she muttered and drank her beer.
I was going to start laying out a plan when a knock sounded at the door. Iris. It had to be her. I got up and answered it, but a woman in a bright pink dress was there, wearing a cheerful smile.
The second I took a breath, the magic coming off her in waves slammed into me, and I snarled.
“Witch!”
“Yes. Yes, I am,” she replied, her smile not faltering despite my growling.
“Gigi?”
“Mercy!” The witch shoved past me and hugged Mercy, asking her a thousand questions one right after the other about what happened and why she was staying at my place.
Mercy tried to answer, but her friend kept talking over her, then turned around and shot me a glare so intense, it had me staggering back a step.
I rumbled, planting my feet as my hands curled into fists, my anger right on the edge.
“You have a lot to explain.”
“Me? What the hell for?” I shook my head, considered grabbing her arm and throwing her out of my apartment. This was a terrible idea. Too much magic so close to me was beyond off-putting, and my skin itched.
“Yes. You kidnapped my friend!”
“Gigi, I told you that’s not why I’m here.” Mercy stepped between us. “Both of you take a few steps back and calm down, alright? Gigi, seriously.”
“What?”
“I can feel you amping up to do something stupid. Just stop. Take a breath.” She glanced over her shoulder at me, giving me a crooked smile that had my hands relaxing. “He saved my life so can you not try to attack him?”
“You told me that, but I don’t believe it.”
“Well, you should,” I snapped. “The goblins attacked, and Rot is out for blood.”
“How about we all sit down and talk?” Mercy suggested.
Gigi continued to shoot me death glares, but then Mercy gave her the whole story of what we’d been through since Friday night, apparently only having told her a small bit of it over the phone. By the end, thankfully leaving out any mention of our kiss or what occurred last night, Gigi was still glaring, but not at me. The power building in her caused my anxiety to shoot up another few levels, and I longed to have her gone.
“The tracking spell. Were you able to get it to work?” Mercy asked.
I perked up.
“Sadly, no. It was enough, what you gave me to work with, but he’s protected. I cast it, but all it did was circle around my shop then fizzle out.” She suddenly seemed very interested in the cushion she sat on. “You know, if someone more powerful than me who just happened to be a mage would try to do it, might get it to work then.”
“No,” Mercy yelled then cleared her throat when I raised my brow at her. “No. You know I can’t do it.”
“You won’t try,” Gigi argued. “There’s a difference.”
“I can’t!” Mercy stormed to the kitchen, muttering under her breath.
Gigi screwed up her lips as she looked ready to strangle her friend. “You’re a coward.”
“I’m sorry. I’m a what?” Mercy whirled around.
I suddenly found myself in the middle of two very pissed off and strong people ready to tear each other’s heads off.
“You want to run that by me again?”
“I do. You are a coward. Do I need to say it slower?” Gigi was on her feet, too. “Coward with a capital C.”
“Right, the bounty hunter who runs around catching the bad guys, throwing myself into danger with only a few weapons and no magic is the coward.” Mercy threw her hands up as Gigi nodded. “You’re unbelievable! You know why I can’t, so drop it!”
I, however, did not know why and before I thought it through, I asked, “Why can’t you? You said you’re a mage.”
If looks could kill, I would’ve been flat on the floor, dead.
“Cursed, remember?”
“And? I saw what it did for you when you were thrown off the roof. As well as when you went after Liam. You’re damned powerful. You can’t use it at all? Have you tried? Really tried?”
“Yes!” she yelled.
At the same time, Gigi said, “No.”
I crossed my arms, not believing I found myself siding with a witch. “You won’t even try if it gets us to Liam? To the man you need to find? The mage who cursed you, to begin with?”
Gigi stiffened, then she relaxed, and I wondered if I imagined her strange reaction.
“The last time I tried to use my magic, aside from the ball, it blew up a building,” Mercy replied.
I started to laugh, thinking she was overexaggerating, but then she asked if I remembered the apartment building that collapsed two years ago. A lot of people got hurt, but thankfully, no one was killed.
“That was you?” I asked.
“Yeah, it was.”
“You were alone when you tried,” Gigi pushed. “If you’d let me help you then there might be a way for you to learn to control it. To get past the curse!”
“You of all people know you can’t just get past a curse! You either break it, or you don’t.”
“We need to find Liam,” I insisted, but then she was walking away. “Where are you going?”
“Bathroom! Mind? I’d like to at least look decent when we go talk to that girl’s parents. You coming with me or do you want to stay here and side with a witch instead?” she yelled, then slammed the bathroom door shut so hard it shook the walls.
This was not the time for me to get distracted, but suddenly I wanted to know everything about Mercy and her curse. Maybe by catching Liam, we’d find a way to lift it, and she would be free to use her magic again.
“So,” Gigi said, tearing me from my planning, “what’s your story?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that scowl on your face. You don’t like witches?”
“Don’t like magic,” I corrected. “Any magic.”
“But you saved Mercy, brought her back to your place,” she pointed out. “Bit of a contradiction don’t you think?”
“I don’t have to explain myself to you. All I want to know is do you have a way to track and find Liam or not?”
Gigi planted her hands on her hips, but then her face softened when she glanced in the direction Mercy disappeared. “If she wasn’t cursed, she would be a great mage,” she whispered. “And no, I don’t have a way to track Liam, not unless you convince her to try and use her magic. I doubt that’s going to happen, since I’ve been trying for years.” Her eyes narrowed.
I sensed her magic stretching out toward me until I growled a warning for her to back off.
“What an interesting demon you are,” she mused.
“You won’t get anything from me, witch, so don’t even try it,” I warned.
She held her hands up, but I doubted she was going to drop the issue as Mercy had. Then again, she only didn’t want to know about me so she wouldn’t open up about herself. Gigi was an entirely different story, and I suddenly regretted letting her into my place.
Chapter 14
Rafael
Without Mercy’s bike, we had to walk through Nashville to the transport that would take us to the human Sector 21A. Gigi took off the same time we did. She and Mercy shared a few parting words I wasn’t privy to. But the look the witch shot me held the promise that she was not finished with me.
I’d rumbled at her in passing, but then Mercy was walking awa
y, and I had no choice but to catch up. She said nothing the entire way, and I did the same.
We stepped inside the transport, and she keyed in our location. The moment we arrived and stepped out, two human guards asked for our passes. I flashed my Fed badge and my pass. Mercy showed her pass and bounty hunter license that allowed her to track targets who ventured into the human sectors.
“Whatever your business here, make it quick,” the guard with the buzzed haircut snapped. “Curfew is in three hours for your kind.”
“Our business might take longer than three hours,” I replied.
The guard moved closer.
I growled, flashing fang.
He paused. “Get a move on then, demon. I suggest both of you not break any rules while you are here.”
“Don’t plan on it,” I said, snarling for good measure, then smirking when the large man flinched.
“Was that necessary?” Mercy asked as we stepped out of the transport terminal and onto the street. “I’d like not to get shot by the humans while we’re over here.”
“They think they’re better than us, always have,” I spat. “Yes, it was necessary.”
“Why am I not surprised you hate the humans, too. Is there anyone you don’t despise?”
I nearly said you, but stopped myself and pushed on quicker, forcing her to catch up with my fast clip. Humans stepped away from me as I approached, most whispering behind their hands. Not that I cared what they had to say about me. I came to do a job, not worry about what the humans thought of me. I had plenty of dealings with them in the past, and it always ended with one of them opening their mouths and blaming us for everything wrong in their world. As if humans weren’t as violent as the other races on any given day. I’d seen what they did to each other when in a mood. How they tore themselves apart worse than a pack of goblins. I swore to protect and serve the supernatural races. Not humans. Not unless one of our own was over here causing havoc. Which despite what humans claimed, was a very rare occurrence.
“What are you looking at?” Mercy snapped at a girl around her age who openly gawked at the scar on her face. “Get moving before I make you move.”
“And here I thought you liked humans,” I commented.
“When the hell did I say that? Come on. We’re two blocks away, and I would like to stop being these peoples’ freak show for the evening.”
Nice to know both of us were going to be in shit moods for the rest of the day. By the time we reached the apartment building where the girl’s family lived, Mercy was complaining about not taking Gigi up on her offer to use a charm on her face.
“You should be proud of it,” I told her.
“Proud? Why the hell would I be proud of this mess on my face?” She buzzed the apartment four times in a row and stood back, waiting. “Well?”
“You survived, Mercy. That’s what all scars signify. You survived.”
“Surviving isn’t living,” she whispered.
I was going to ask her more about her life, but then a woman’s voice came through the speaker, shaky and quiet.
“Yes?”
“Mrs. Ulric?” Mercy asked.
The woman said she was.
“Hi, I was a friend of Terry’s and I uh, I was just wondering if I could come and speak with you just for a moment. I just… I’m having a hard time, and I think… I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”
“What’s your name?” the woman said slowly.
I raised my brow at Mercy, asking her what the hell she was up to. I crossed my arms, expecting Mercy to mess up, but she replied, “Sally.”
“Sally… I think I remember her saying she knew you.” Mrs. Ulric sighed heavily. “Alright, come on up. My husband’s not home yet, but you can’t stay long.”
The front doors unlocked as Mercy thanked her and we ducked inside, turned right for the stairs, and climbed up to the fourth floor.
“How did you know she had a friend named Sally?” I asked.
“Read the file,” she said.
“And?”
“And in there, it mentions an interview taken from a girl named Sally. No idea if they were friends or not, but if they interviewed her, then she was either there the night Terry disappeared, or she was her friend.”
“You guessed.”
“I did. And look where we are now,” she pointed out as we came to a stop outside the apartment door.
“The second you knock, and she answers, she’s going to freak out.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Just let me do the talking and don’t growl at all. You’ll scare the poor lady half to death and since I’m not allowed to scare her, neither are you.”
She knocked loudly, and the locks inside clicked a few seconds later.
The door opened, and the second the woman’s eyes took us both in, she moved to slam the door shut with a confused yelp.
“Wait! Mrs. Ulric, please, we’re here to help you,” Mercy told her, putting her foot in the door at the last second.
“You’re supes! Get away from me! Get out of here! I want nothing to do with your kind. Not now!”
“We know Terry went missing and she was a donor,” Mercy said in a rush. “But we think we know who took her. We’re after him, but we need your help, please.”
Mrs. Ulric stopped trying to shut the door on Mercy’s foot.
“The man we think took her? He’s after more girls just like Terry. Help us stop him, please?”
I held my breath, swallowing back my annoyed growl when Mrs. Ulric looked up at my horns and gulped, but then she exhaled heavily, seeming to fight back a sob.
She leaned on the door. “Terry, my poor sweet girl. All she wanted was a damned life of adventure. To be with your kind and this is where it led her.” She glanced up and down the hall then waved us inside. “You can’t stay long. If my husband sees supes here, it won’t end well.”
“Has he never liked our kind?” Mercy asked as we stepped in and Mrs. Ulric shut the door behind us.
“He was one of your biggest supporters here in the human sectors until one took his daughter away.” Tears shimmered in her eyes.
I turned away, not in the mood to deal with this woman’s sadness. I took in the apartment, walking slowly around and let Mercy take the lead.
“She was such a good girl, sweet and then she was just gone!”
“It’s alright. I understand your pain. I do,” Mercy assured her, sounding damned truthful.
Another question to add to the list already growing too damned long in my head.
Mercy took a deep breath. “This man is a monster, and we need to stop him. About the night Terry disappeared, is there anything you can tell us? Maybe where she was supposed to go? Who she was with?”
Mrs. Ulric shook her head. “No, she was on campus and only talked to us a few times a week. I just got the call the following morning… her purse had been found dumped on the sidewalk somewhere in Sector 21, nowhere close to campus obviously. And there… there was blood.”
Dead end. Everywhere we turned for answers on Liam led us to another damned dead end. If we ever did find the mage, I’d strangle him out of sheer aggravation for how long it was taking to track him down and bring him in. It wasn’t even him I wanted. Too many unanswered questions were falling on my desk. First, regarding who was involved in the murders. And second, about the dark artifacts appearing around the city.
“Is there a chance we could see her room?” Mercy asked. “Or her phone, if you have it?”
Mrs. Ulric nodded, wiping tears from her cheeks. “Just down the hall. She was here a week before she disappeared. Stopped over the night, to hang out.” She choked up again and waved us on. “Just be quick if you can.”
“Do you want to come with us?”
“No,” she replied, shaking her head. “No, I haven’t gone in there since… I just can’t.”
“We’ll be quick. I promise.” Mercy grabbed my arm and dragged me into the bedroom. “Alright. Spread out.”
“What
exactly do you hope to find?” I sifted through some papers on the small desk. “A map that says she was taken at X marks the spot? Or an actual link to Liam?”
“How about you stop being an ass and just look for a clue. Isn’t that your job?”
She slammed a few books down in annoyance and spun around, running her hands through her hair and messing it up in a way that only made her even more beautiful.
Gut twisting, I turned away, focusing on the desk again to stop my mind from wandering back to last night. No woman—no matter what race or how messed up she thought she was. No woman would want to be with me once she got to know me. Iris wasn’t the first to break it off with me because I wasn’t what she wanted me to be.
“Well, now. What are you?” Mercy picked up a business card off the floor.
“What is it?”
“Card for a nightclub in Sector 21… and the date written on the back is the night she disappeared. Looks like she was meeting someone.”
“Let me see.”
She handed me the card. “You know this place?”
My stomach dropped. “Shit.”
“Yeah, pretty much what I was thinking, too.”
The club was the one we’d gone to meet Wesley at the other night. The one where a swarm of goblins nearly killed Mercy. “We can’t go.”
“The hell we can’t.”
“And if Rot’s there? If he sees you?”
“Trust me, he won’t. But if this is what leads us to Liam, then we’re going.” She snatched the card out of my hand and shoved it in her coat pocket. “We’re going to have a long night ahead of us.”
“Wait. We’re going tonight? With no planning?”
She shrugged. “Why wait?”
“No. We need to think this through. We’ll go tomorrow night… Actually,” I mused, eyes flickering to the calendar hanging on the wall. “Friday. It’s a full moon. Isn’t that when Terry disappeared? First night of the full moon?”
“Yeah,” she replied, appearing anxious as hell.
“Something you’re not telling me? You’re not a were of some type, are you?”
“What? No,” she said but cracked her knuckles nervously. “It’s nothing. Friday… Friday will be fine. Gives us time to plan. And you’re right; we shouldn’t go in blind.”
