Considering I’d probably be the one shedding blood, the book would more than likely bind itself to me. That meant I would have a position of power over the object and the deal, something I suspected Dante knew when he hired me to retrieve it.
“We have discussed the details.” Xantos sounded like a teacher trying to make a troubled student understand. “I will select the weapon you receive. The business affairs I am engaged in when you get the grimoire shall determine where I wish you to bring it. You have the crystal to communicate with me. Dante may name his price.”
“I was mostly referring to the price,” I replied. “But thank you for the clarification on all the rest.” I paused before asking hesitantly, “Would it be possible for me to see the cub on occasion? Or at least know how he’s fairing?”
“I shall bring the cub when I visit Maekyl,” Xantos replied. “Should those visitations go well, I will provide you with the means and a schedule to visit him at my residence.”
“Considering Maekyl knows the rules, and I’m certain you know how to be a proper guest, I have no doubt the visits will go well,” I said, realizing too late I’d just given him permission to visit.
Somehow, though, I suspected Maekyl had already informed Xantos that I’d agreed to the visits. After having a pleasant chat with him here, I was thoroughly looking forward to spending more time with him, even if he was a manipulative bastard. But, hey, I wasn’t always a nice person, and if you asked some people, I was as bad as he, or close to it.
“Very well. Contact me when the deal is brokered,” Xantos said. Then, abruptly, he fell silent and closed his eyes. I watched him for a full, still minute before clearing my throat. There was no response.
“Xantos? Are you all right?”
“Our business is concluded. I would leave, but I’m waiting on my drink. The demon’s libations are a treat,” he explained, not opening his eyes or moving.
“Ummm…okay?” I said.
Sitting back, I took a sip of my drink and decided to enjoy the quiet and the sight of the little cub sleeping peacefully, half covered in the docelfar’s hair.
* * * * *
Chapter Eighteen
Despite the unexpected visit from Xantos, I was eventually able to enjoy the amazing pheasant and sliders. Jen joined me after Xantos left, and we spent the meal discussing the ancient docelfar and Dante.
By the time I returned home, the sun was setting, and I was determined to search Nick’s ledgers for something useful. I couldn’t stop thinking he was involved in some way; I just didn’t know how.
Instead of tackling it by myself, I called Jade and asked if she wanted to help. Twenty minutes later we were sitting in my basement, sipping glasses of wine, with the ledgers spread out on the table before us.
Maekyl was situated beside the dragon egg that was the current centerpiece. Surprisingly, the undead, captured dragon took the role of guardian to the unhatched egg seriously.
“Most of these are your standard self-storage buildings,” Jade said as she flipped through the pages. An open notepad sat beside her, the page still empty. “We’ve used some of the places for our shipping.”
“So, none of these are good places to stash a fae?” I asked. Taking a sip of my wine, I smiled at my friend. “Thanks again for coming over to help.”
“Thank you for asking,” she replied, clinking her glass against mine. “It’s almost like old times. You, me, and that talking skull. The only difference is these aren’t maps and battle plans.” She nodded toward the ledgers and notepads.
“In a way, they are,” Maekyl interjected as he turned his attention from the papers to Jade. “The area and target are smaller, and the topography has changed, but you are still using strategy and removing useless intel. The art of war applies here.”
“He has a point,” I said. Flipping another page in the ledger, I compared the addresses with the ones from Universal Manpower. “Those were some rather wild days,” I added with a sigh. “I almost miss them.”
Jade laughed. Maekyl’s eyes sparkled as he studied me intently. I could hear the wheels turning, as he considered my words.
“If you continue on the path you’re on, my lady, you may find yourself commanding a different sort of army,” Jade said thoughtfully. She tapped one of the pages of the ledger nearest her. “Does this address match up with anything from Universal Manpower?”
Ignoring the dragon leiche and his gaze, I turned my attention to the papers. With a huff of annoyance, I stood up and handed the egg to Jade.
“What—” she began to say but silenced herself as I moved Maekyl to a corner of the table.
She tucked the egg beside her on the sofa before reaching over and helping me straighten the ledgers and papers.
Towering over the table, I began weaving a spell, my hands moving gracefully and intricately over the pages.
The addresses rose into the air above the table, shifting until they began separating or pairing up. It was a spell I’d use long ago when I needed to go through ledgers and letters to match up the names of spies and betrayers.
The spell had been created with Maekyl and Trix, another ally during my wilder days. A shadow dragon, Trix had been a close ally who had delightfully aligned herself with me and assisted in furthering my Magick studies.
Maekyl had had a big crush on her.
Since the spell had worked with handwritten information, a large part of it practically illegible, I figured it would work with the printouts and ledgers.
The words glowed teal blue as they hung in the air. I gestured, and the addresses without matches flew off to the far right where they plastered themselves against the wall. Those with matches lined up above the table.
“That makes things a bit easier and less jumbled,” I said, stating the obvious.
Jade leaned back on the sofa and studied the addresses. Her eyes darted between them.
It brought back memories of our warring days when we worked together seamlessly. Grabbing my laptop and a tablet, I handed the tablet to Jade as I began using the laptop to search for the addresses that matched. Maekyl’s eyes swept back and forth between us, but he, thankfully, remained silent.
We narrowed the possibilities to a handful of addresses within minutes. We were looking at a maximum of five places to investigate. Before another minute passed, however, Jade tapped the tablet’s screen and expanded a single location.
“This is the one,” she declared.
I glanced at the address. “A two-story house along Broad Street?”
“The ground floor is a flower shop,” she explained. “You probably haven’t been by there in a while. It used to be a beauty parlor. It was sold earlier this year, and the flower shop opened about a month ago.”
I thought about Jade’s reasoning. Holding a fairy isn’t that hard, but keeping one alive and healthy can be. All the flora and fauna the fae had in her converted basement was to sustain her and give her nourishment during the winter and long periods of rain. She could sleep in a mundane bed for days at a time with the plant life beneath her. If she began to feel worn, a nap in the basement would rejuvenate her body and energy. If they held her captive in the same dwelling as a flower shop, there would be no questions about having unusual specimens around or their disappearance when her captors needed to put them in the same room as her.
“That sounds plausible,” I replied slowly. “You’ve never led me a stray before, so I won’t doubt you now.” I waved my hand through the addresses hanging in the air, breaking the spell. As the glow faded, I rubbed my hands together, a fiendish grin on my face. “Now, for the best part, planning our attack. Do you have a weapon preference? Should we use mundane, mortal weaponry or our preferred types from centuries ago?”
“It’s been a long time since I brought out the treasures of our past,” Jade replied, smiling a fiendish grin of her own. “I think we should shake the rust off and perhaps take some modern armament along, just in case?”
“Finally, someone in
this house is using sense,” muttered Maekyl.
“I have a rather well-stocked armory,” I said. I glowered at the skull. “You’re just jealous you don’t get to tag along this time.”
“This time? When have you ever allowed me to?”
“The last time ended with a visit from my parents, who were pretty angry with my activities,” I retorted, though the reply wasn’t as sharp as it would have once been.
Turning on my heel, I gestured for Jade to follow me as I headed for one of the side rooms. My armory wasn’t nearly as large as it had been once upon a time, but it was still a nicely stocked ten-by-twelve room. Each bladed weapon had a home, either on the wall or in large armoires. One half was weaponry that was more common in past centuries, while the other was a vast array of modern weaponry. Shelves under the guns held ammunition for them.
It wasn’t a small amount.
“Father always said to be prepared for anything,” I said in explanation. “I may have taken him a bit too seriously.”
“Not at all,” said Jade. She looked blissful. “Shall we choose our weapons and develop our strategies?”
“Yes,” I said simply, moving to the side.
So many lovely weapons. It was going to be difficult to choose which to take.
* * * * *
Chapter Nineteen
The flower shop closed at 5:00pm, sundown was at 6:15pm, and we stormed the shop at 8:00pm. Okay, we didn’t exactly storm it. We stealthily infiltrated the place and took care of business without firing a single shot. That the building burned to the ground before the fire department, which was right across the street, could get the hoses hooked up wasn’t us. Not exactly.
We’d prepared quite sufficiently for the possibility of combat with a variety of beings, Magickal or not. We’d reviewed blueprints of the house, so we knew how to get in and out from several points. Maekyl helped cast a spell that allowed Jade and me to see all the occupants of the dwelling as though we were using infrared scopes like those used by military forces around this world. It was a simple plan. Teleport onto the small roof, enter through the nearest window, pass through two rooms, and retrieve the fae. Then we would climb back onto the roof and teleport out.
Yeah, easy. But, for some reason, we still brought a pair of semi-automatic handguns, a military grade rifle fitted with a grenade launcher, a sword that burst into flames, a two-handed axe that most lumberjacks couldn’t lift or swing, and a half-dozen poisoned daggers. And, I was amped up on dragon’s blood, caffeine, and a shitload of memorized spells.
Maybe we should have pared it down.
Teleporting onto the roof went fine. Jade, our equipment, and I landed gently on the flat tiles, only two feet from the window. While trying to open the window, we discovered it was locked. A simple spell took care of the problem, and we raised it without resistance.
Step into the room, with all our gear, without making a sound? Nailed it.
Walk silently across the floor and into the adjoining hallway? Not so much.
As it turned out, the house needed repairs when it was bought. The current owners barely used the upstairs, so they hadn’t bothered fixing things up. The termite damage hadn’t been a concern for them, since they didn’t keep any large creatures or beings on the second floor, like the minotaur that was guarding the shop’s lobby. It weighed almost as much as a full-grown gorilla. If he had ever gone upstairs, the owners would have discovered what Jade and I did—the floor couldn’t handle more than two hundred pounds.
Jade took one creaking step on that floor, then a second, then crashed right through to the ground-floor lobby. Her rifle, two poisoned daggers, and an axe that weighed a hundred pounds went right along with her. She landed in the minotaur’s lap, so he was pretty much taken out of the fight. He screamed like a bull being neutered, which, really, is what happened, along with every bone from his hips down being broken or crushed.
We couldn’t really blame him for being loud and upset, could we?
Although taken by surprise, Jade was a battle-hardened hill giantess, and she stayed on her feet, even as they were driving the minotaur’s knees into his ankles. The axe, hanging upside down on her back, did the neutering and a good bit of other damage. Once her unexpected descent ended, she leapt away from the crushed minotaur and brought her axe around to a battle-ready position. However, someone crashing through a floor plus a wailing minotaur equals a lot of noise, so the elements of surprise and stealth were gone.
From my vantage point of leaning over the large hole that used to be floor, I saw all this happen. I’m pretty sure I looked quite dumbfounded; it wasn’t something I expected to see that day, or really, any day. I couldn’t see what happened next with Jade. Something large on her right flank made a hungry noise, and she charged out of my view. As for me, I shook my head to clear it, pulled out a pair of daggers with my gloved hands, and moved into the hallway, where I found a human man with a shotgun approaching.
I threw the dagger in my left hand at the guy’s upper chest, then moved in close enough to kick the barrel of the shotgun away from me. I sank my knife into the man’s neck, and it and the poison coating the blade did their jobs. As he started to convulse, I pulled the dagger free and moved past him, into the next room.
As I was kicking in the door, I heard a loud crash from the ground floor, and the house shook slightly. I didn’t have time to worry about it. I went into the small room that contained the secret space where the mercs had hidden the fae. It was filled with plants and flowers. The smell and heat were immediate but not overwhelming. The crowded space made it harder to find the hidden door. The house shook another time, and I heard several roars and percussive thuds.
Once I found the recessed door, I used my bloodied dagger to pry it open. I wished I had gone with my initial impulse to blast or cut a large hole in the wall to allow some air in.
The air in the crowded plant room was muggy and thickly scented, like a green house. The air coming from the secret room was almost toxic and noxiously hot. From my first breath, it clawed at my throat and lungs. I was surprised the fae hadn’t managed to get out on her own.
In the air that rushed out of the ever-widening doorway, I could taste every kind of plant and fungi that Althea was growing in her basement, along with cacti, nightshade, and oleander. The last three would keep her drunk, sleepy, and weak for as long as she was breathing the air. I had no idea how long it would take her to recover, and no time to contemplate, so I leaned back, took as deep a breath as I could, and charged in.
The room had no windows and only a small fan to circulate the air. Pots of every plant I had smelled and tasted in the air were scattered everywhere.
Going in, I tripped over a large bucket of growing mushrooms that barely stayed upright. In a far corner, directly across from the fan, was the fae. She was bound neck to ankles with wire, which no doubt contained a small amount of iron to keep her in pain as well as immobile. Her head rested against her chest and my loud, fumbling entrance hadn’t seemed to phase her in the least.
“Althea?” I asked, trying to keep the foulness out of my mouth and lungs.
She didn’t move.
If I had to reanimate her to get her out of this place, so be it.
I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, though. Marching past her, I pulled my sword from the scabbard across my back. The blade immediately ignited with a deep blue flame. Since the fire was Magickal, it required almost no oxygen to burn.
Hefting it over my head, I brought it down in a two-handed swing against the wall. The boards parted before the blade and began to smolder. I took three wide swings, then kicked. The rough rectangle I’d made with the sword cracked and flew apart.
The rubble fell to the ground, while fresh air and light from street lamps and the moon flooded in. I exhaled and took a greedy breath before looking around. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs which didn’t sound heavy enough to belong to Jade.
Running out of time, I quickly put the s
word into the scabbard and used precious energy and Magick to transform the wires binding Althea into pasta. As I reached forward to break the now brittle bonds, Althea gasped and arched upward.
Pasta cracked and fell all around her, but her legs did not have enough strength yet, so she fell forward. I caught her, told her we were getting out of there, and stood her up.
Half carrying, half supporting the fae slowed me a bit, giving the owner of the footsteps time to reach us before we could exit the room that had been Althea’s prison.
It was a human woman, strongly built, with a short, hassle-free haircut. She wore military fatigues and carried several weapons, but she didn’t bother to draw her firearm or any other weapon. She just kicked the door closed with a thick-soled combat boot.
Not in the mood for this, I summoned a hurricane-force wind and sent it at the door. The door came completely out of the wall, smashing into the female warrior.
Both flew to the other side of the small room and crashed against the wall. Portions of the wall around the door had also blown loose, giving Althea and I a large exit to flee through.
“Jade?” I yelled.
A moment later, the giantess called back from below, “I’m at the base of the stairs! It’s clear!”
The fae was gaining some strength and required less help as we passed into the hallway. We found the staircase and made our way down.
Jade stood at the bottom of the steps holding her bloody axe in both hands, with a grim but pleased smile on her face. She swung her head left and right, searching for additional guards.
The house continued to creak as we joined her and headed for the front door, or what was left of it. The doorframe was bent in a few places and only tiny fragments of glass still clung to the metal. Most of the picture window was similarly smashed. Lying on the floor, covered in a thousand cuts and pieces of glass, was a human male. You didn’t need to be a necromancer to know he was very dead.
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