Why the hell I couldn’t have just waited, seen if Bran could have stopped time long enough to extract my teammates and get the hell out of Dodge, or Paris?
Now even he had vamoosed, no doubt as wary of me as my teammates were. By the Spirits, they were smart to be.
I had to be the savior and throw caution to the wind. As if. And who was the woman speaking to me?
Too many questions, not enough answers.
“Talk to me, Noziak,” Stone demanded, his voice ratcheted back to a low throttle. He looked wrung out, but then fighting a vampire at full form was not easy and he was far from full form. “Tell me what you did here?”
What he was really asking was what kind of scary freak are you and should we cut our losses now and send you back to prison? I could read between the lines.
I’d taken their power from them. What was the price going to be for that? There would be a price and I wouldn’t be able to hide from it.
Stone had been the one who’d rounded up the dead preternaturals and disposed of them. But why did they all die? Had my sucking their power killed them? A question that I could tell was bothering Stone, and me. Connecting what I’d done to those deaths meant I was going to be out of the agency so fast I’d get whiplash. But that was better than what could happen to me if the Council of Seven learned I was what I was.
Talk about being between the rock and a hard place.
The Council was ruled by seven beings who’d earned a seat for life and who held ultimate power among all the preternaturals, non-humans and magic-endowed people like me. The Council’s sole function was to keep the knowledge of non-humans from humans and sometimes that took draconian measures.
Not that I was losing any grief over the Weres, demons, fae and other assorted beasties that we’d just contained. It had been a near call that we were the victors and not being carted off in body bags, what pieces of us that would have been left.
At least that’s what I told myself. I was glad to be alive and glad my team was alive too, but I wanted to spew out everything in my stomach just thinking about the ramifications of my actions. I was still shaking from the use of so much strong magic. Or was it from the lure of holding such power over others; too much power, seductive and still calling to me. This made black magic look like child’s play.
I hunched over on a curb near the demolished café. How did I undo what had just happened? Hope only Stone was aware of the ramifications? Pray to the Great Spirits that the others had been too busy fighting to know exactly what went down? Sneak away now before Jaylene and Vaughn joined us?
Kelly was already sitting to my left. She couldn’t see the destruction around us, because as a side effect of her ability to turn literally invisible, for every minute of transparency she experienced, she was blind for double the time once she popped back into corporal form. She might accept what I’d done but I doubted the others would.
Vaughn and Jaylene had just checked Vaverek’s apartment, which had been sanitized, but they were standing far enough away with their backs to me that I could make a dash, if my legs could hold me.
“Thought your intel was supposed to be good,” Mandy continued to grumble at my side. But at least she was shifting the conversation away from my magic spell casting. Stone’s look said he wasn’t finished with me yet, so I’d better enjoy my reprieve.
Trust me, Mandy couldn’t kick me any harder than I was kicking myself. “Technically Vaverek was in that apartment.”
“So you say.” Mandy shot me one of her patented WTF looks. “But your informant didn’t share he was there as bait. I thought your warlock wanted to track down Vaverek.”
“He does.” I ignored Mandy’s first statement. I doubted that she wanted to hear that Bran had warned us, only it was almost too late. And he didn’t want Vaverek except as a means to another end. And Vaverek was dead once Bran had the intel he wanted.
Keep talking about Bran, not about what I’d done.
“Lay off her, Mandy,” Stone said. “Some ops go belly up.”
I glanced at him, not sure I’d heard him right. The kick-ass and take-no-prisoners instructor was giving me a break? Or a small, additional reprieve before he struck?
My shoulders sagged as I fought to keep my stomach contents down.
Mandy eyed him too, but before she could verbally launch into him he surveyed the street and spoke as if to himself. “Vaverek must have damn good intel to know who we are and that we were coming.”
“Could he have used a seer?” I asked, not wanting to look at the other possibilities, especially ones involving warlocks betraying us. One warlock in particular.
Or maybe it was Bran who had set us up to see if I could do what I just did?
By the Mother Goddess that made things worse.
Stone glanced away, examining the street as if seeking insights there. “Vaverek had enough lead time to empty the street of humans and bring in reinforcements. These weren’t bodyguards, but a group specifically assembled to stop us. To test us in several ways. Which is why they had us surrounded before we even tumbled to them.”
I glanced at the silver ring on my finger, designed to alert us to the presence of preternaturals. Sort of an early warning device. “Why didn’t the rings work?” I asked, not really expecting an answer.
“I’m going to make sure I find out,” Stone promised with a tone that said when he did it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Find out what?” Vaughn asked as she and Jaylene walked up and joined us. All of us looked pretty worse for wear, except her. I swear the woman had to be non-human to look that put together after battling preternaturals. I willed her not to bring up what happened at the end.
Bless her heart, she didn’t, though she gave me a smooth look that said we’ll-be-talking-later.
Not if I could help it.
“The set up this morning was too good, too orchestrated and too smooth to be reactive,” Stone replied, rubbing one hand along the back of his neck. “Vaverek, whoever the hell he is, has some good inside connections.”
“Didn’t we already know that?” Kelly was the only one amongst us, other than Vaughn, who might call Stone on something and not regret it for the rest of her life. “Alex brought the intel from her last assignment that suggested Vaverek was involved with something called the Seekers.”
“Something or someone,” I mumbled. “All we know after nearly getting killed is that Vaverek is a stronger adversary than we thought, has more resources available than we assumed, and is willing to risk a dozen preternaturals to find out our strengths and weaknesses.”
“Nice summation.” Jaylene nodded, arms crossed. “I’d say Vaverek one, the IR Agency zero. Even with whatever Alex just pulled off.”
I shook my head, regret making it hard to even spin back a response.
“So what now?” Kelly looked around as if trying to read our expressions behind her still-blind eyes.
No one answered right away. Though I noted everyone kept their gazes averted from mine.
I stood to shake off my lethargy. Noziaks don’t mope. Well, not for long. All I managed to accomplish though was to set off the bongo drums in my head.
I squared my shoulders before I spoke. “Jaylene’s wrong.”
“About what?” Mandy stepped forward to defend her ally. I had to give her credit for being willing to mess with me after what she’d seen me do.
“It’s Vaverek two, IR Agency zip.” I let my gaze rest on each of them individually, even sightless Kelly before I spoke again. “Vaverek is still holding my brother hostage and Van’s time is running out.”
“If he’s still alive.”
Leave it to Chiquita-girl to stick the blade in and twist.
“Yeah, if he’s alive.” Like it or not I had to agree. Every hour that Van remained a prisoner meant that whatever torture he was going through would be successful. And once that intel was extracted, Van was no longer needed.
Think about him. Not me and my screw up.
My brother knew a heap-lot about the preternaturals who worked with humans, particularly in Europe, even if those humans didn’t know who, or what, were rubbing shoulders with them. Expose those non-humans and all hell would break out; pogroms, witch-hunts, mass stakings of anyone assumed to be a preternatural. The Council of Seven would no longer be able to hide the existence of non-humans and neighbor would be eyeing neighbor worldwide.
“You look like you have a plan.” Vaughn’s voice shook me from my dark thoughts. “It’d better include all of us.”
Not what I wanted right then. What I had in mind was better accomplished witch-to-warlock. Alone. “Yeah, I do.”
“Going to share?” Jaylene nudged.
“Vaverek may have won this round.” I scuffed my beat up shoe against the sidewalk, wondering how I was going to get what I wanted, a free hand, only make it seem like someone else’s idea. “But there are five of us, six including Stone.”
“Don’t forget Ling Mai.” Kelly came to her feet.
Jaylene snorted. “Yeah, she’s a nuke all on her own.”
Ling Mai was the head of our agency and Jaylene was right. Our secret weapon working behind the scenes.
“So we have seven to one.” I was just warming up. “Surely between us we can find and nail this bastard.”
Mandy played devil’s advocate. “Paris is a big city.”
“But we’ve already destroyed a city block and the morning’s still young.” Use humor to deflect them from looking too closely at what I wanted to do, which was a solo mission.
Stone stepped into the mix. ”You’re saying let’s get a move on it.”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Play to our strengths. Ferret out where this guy’s hiding. How he connects with the troop he sent after us. Rattle some people.”
Stone shrugged, then shot a lightning fast, and sexy grin at Vaughn. “Princess, you should have some contacts here from your days as an ambassador’s daughter.”
“Damn right I do,” she purred back. “Bet I get a lead on Vaverek before you do.”
“You’re on.” Stone had to have some Irish in him to rise to the bait that easily. Either that or there was an unstated sub-bet going on, not that I needed the details.
But at least two of them were heading out on their own. Three left to take care of.
“I don’t know a lot of French but I do know the underbelly of a city.” Jaylene stepped forward. “I’m sure I can shake loose something.”
“I can help,” Mandy said, looking resigned. “I speak French.”
We all glanced at her. Chiquita had hidden depths. Who knew?
“What about me?” Kelly piped up. “Once I get my sight back I should be able to do something.”
“We need a coordinator. Someone we can all report to who will also be able to track all of us so no one runs into another Vaverek ambush.”
“Playground monitor?” she replied with a small smile.
“Call it what you want, we still need you.” Leave it to Vaughn to make a crap job sound like the lynchpin position. “We’re stronger as a team. Less risky for all of us.”
“I agree,” Stone added, looking straight at me. “Now’s the time to use what we have together. No individual heroics.”
He looked at me in particular but waited until each of us nodded in assent. My nod must have been the least impressive, and Stone’s frown indicated he’d noticed. But he said nothing.
“I’ll go back to the Campanile then.” Kelly’s tone saying she’d make the best of being stuck at the cheap hotel we were staying at while the rest of us went hunting.
Stone threw a kibosh into my plans by clearly announcing, “Alex, you head out with Mandy and Jaylene. There’s safety in numbers.”
Yeah, right, as if I didn’t know what he really wanted—them to keep an eye on me. I guess I should have been grateful that he didn’t pull me off the team right then and there. On the other hand, knowing Stone as I’d come to know him over the last few weeks, I bet he was giving me just enough rope to hang myself.
Then he added, “Just in case your warlock was the one who set us up here, I want zero contact with him. By anyone.”
Now Stone was a mind-reader? I plastered a yeah-okay smile on my face that didn’t mean squat because I didn’t trust my voice to sound like I was really going to do what he just ordered me to do.
It hadn’t been that long since I’d become an IR team member and I was actually finding that I liked having these strong, focused women at my side. So ditching them now wasn’t an easy step, but I felt it was a necessary step toward getting what I needed. And getting that meant going through Bran.
If I didn’t take this chance to follow up on the one lead I had, who knew if I’d get another opportunity to head out on my own. Not that Mandy and Jaylene knew that was my plan, but they would.
First step, shake their company. Second step, find Bran and force him to see me. Third step, save my brother by doing the first two steps.
I could make this work.
I had to.
CHAPTER 9
Delmore Vaverek stood at his balcony window in the 7th arrondissement glancing at the slate roofs across the street, the glaring white stone walls brightened by the high noon sun, listening to the childish shouts from the gardens of Champs de Mars nearby. But his attention was totally on what he’d just seen.
Was this the reason he’d been sent to acquire this witch? He’d heard she was powerful but merde, what he’d seen was not supposed to be able to happen. Or was what occurred outside his pied-à-terre the result of something else? What did the Americans call it? A sleight of hand. A scam.
Could this be what he’d been waiting to appear at last?
His cell phone rang and while he was inclined to ignore it, one look at the number had him answering before the end of the second ring.
“Vaverek speaking.”
“So you survived your little fray?” The Druid on the other end of the line laughed his nasty, rasping laugh. “You may thank me now.”
“I survived but so did all the members of this upstart agency. The same individuals you said would be easy to eliminate.”
The sudden silence on the other end told Vaverek he’d earned the druid’s attention. “And your people?”
“I would have thought you’d have heard by now.” Vaverek wanted to share his own laugh but this man was dangerous, too dangerous to taunt lightly. “They are dead.”
“All of them?”
“Oui.”
“Merde.”
Vaverek allowed himself a smile, knowing the Other could not see him. “Which means you must clean up the details on your end.”
“How did you fail?” came the whiplash response.
“Oh, I did not fail.” Vaverek lowered his voice though there was no one in his salon to overhear him as it’d been swept that morning for listening devices. Still one could not be too careful. “In fact, I learned more than I expected from this morning’s fiasco.”
“About the witch?”
“Yes.” Vaverek stepped closer to rest one finger along the wavy panes of the two hundred year old window, aware how fragile so much of this world could be. His smile ratcheted up. “You did not share with me all of her amazing abilities.”
“Explain.”
“When we meet later. Not over the phone.”
Vaverek heard the druid catch his breath. Anger? Or anticipation? Either way Vaverek was now the one with the upper hand and they both knew it.
“Fine. Until this evening.”
“You won’t be disappointed.”
“I’d better not be.” If Vaverek thought he’d gotten off lightly he was wrong as the other added, “And speaking of disappointments, how is our guest doing?”
Vaverek tightened his grip on the phone. “He still breathes.” What did the other expect? One minute Vaverek’s orders had been to use any means necessary to extract the information wanted, the next the prisoner was needed alive. It’d been a near miss but th
e orders were rescinded in time.
That rasping laugh again. “Will he be breathing as you conduct the next experiment?”
“I’ll make sure he is.”
“Good.” Vavervek could almost see the druid nodding. “Still on for tomorrow?”
“No. I think it would be better to push it back to Wednesday.”
“Because?”
“One day will not make a difference and I have decided to make some alterations to the original plans.”
“Such as?”
“I think it would be more effective if his sister were present.”
“You are forgetting she is mine. It’s part of our agreement.”
“I don’t plan to sacrifice her. One Noziak’s death is all we need.”
“And if she is hurt, our agreement is finished. You understand?”
There was no mistaking the threat beneath the druid’s tone. “A Were never forgets,” Vaverek said.
What he didn’t share was the presence of the other at the morning’s event. His presence made the stakes higher, the risks greater, but without either the rewards would not be as sweet. How to capitalize on this new piece of knowledge was the key. A game changer as the Americans would say.
“You still there, my friend?” the voice jabbed at Vaverek.
“I am.” But not for long. There were pieces to be put in place on the chessboard of life.
“Nothing else to report?”
“No.” Not yet. Maybe not until it was too late for the other.
“I shall see you later then?”
“Until tonight.”
Vaverek hung up before the druid could say more. No doubt there’d be a penalty for that small show of disrespect but he was willing to pay it to retain the upper hand. Vaverek was not just any Were, but of the Erdő clan, the mountain deep Weres that came out of Transylvania before mists were born. The ancient ones. Some said the original Weres.
Soon the druid would be currying Vaverek’s favor and not the other way around. Vaverek now had the key.
Alex Noziak.
CHAPTER 10
“Forgive me, old friend, for this call but it’s necessary.”
INVISIBLE POWER BOOK TWO: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) Page 3
