“Tarian.” Her mother pointed to the rune on the floor.
“I know. Can we talk about it later? I really need a shower.” She left her mother and Alex staring at the rune. She had enough to deal with. Getting pregnant was way down on the list.
Chapter 10
Tarian arrived in the Cellar reception area grime- and puke-free. The hot shower had washed away most of her aches and pains, and she was grateful to find the floor of the Cellar entrance also scrubbed clean. Citrus lingered in the air and clashed with the musty damp rock.
“I’m not so sure this is a good idea.” Alex stood with his arms crossed in front of the door to the cells, wearing a stubborn expression.
“I think it’s a great idea.” She watched a bead of sweat drip down the side of his face. Nervous? Or had he just been in the deeper parts of the Cellar? “You’re hiding something. What?”
“I got nothing to hide, chica.” Alex unfurled his arms to run a finger lightly over the newly acquired scar on her arm.
An army of goosebumps stood at attention as his fingers traced the mark, and a shiver ran down her back. She should have worn a long-sleeved shirt, but it was summer and dammit, it was hot in the Cellar. A tank top seemed like the smartest move, plus it was her favorite. Still, maybe it would have been wiser to hide the reminder of her little problem.
She turned away to look for any sign of forced entry around the metal door. She wasn’t surprised to find it intact, and there were no magic traces other than Alex, Frankie and the natural protection of the rock itself.
“So, the dolphin call…” Alex shifted from one foot to the other, but remained in front of the door as a giant roadblock.
“Wasn’t your brother playing in Boston today? I thought you were going to the game?” Tarian felt along the part of the door she could reach, then shoved her hip into Alex to nudge him over so she could run her hands over the controls. He barely shifted. The security panel beeped in protest. Her handprint wouldn’t work to open this door. Only six people in the world had access to the Cellar, and two of them were in the room with her. The other four members of the special unit assigned to the Cellar would rotate shifts later in the day, so none of them had been around when Chester was killed. She’d trust any one of them with her life. No way any of them did this.
“Game was rained out in the third. Besides, there’s other things besides baseball.”
Tarian cleared her throat. “Did anyone come down here after I dropped off Chester?”
“Not until after we found him dead,” Frankie said from behind the desk computer.
She punched Alex in the arm. “So, are you going to let me in, or not?”
“You’re not gonna go alone, chica. And before you argue, nobody goes in without one of us. Not even you. Procedure.”
She nodded her agreement, relieved that she wouldn’t have to get uppity and pull rank, fight him for access, or worse, talk about the call for Potentials. He shifted and looked embarrassed. He’d obviously already responded. For all she knew, he’d planned on it since his naming day. The thought made her cheeks burn.
Damn the throne. Why’d it have to go start the ritual now? She had enough to worry about. She’d always thought that her mother would issue the call after a long period of debate by the regional leaders, and that it would be some grand ceremony that she’d have to be available for, so she’d made sure she was never available and avoided as many meetings as possible just in case they brought the subject up. She should have known she’d be betrayed by the very thing she was due to inherit. The throne was a traitor, that’s what it was.
It was just one more thing to add to the list of reasons to kick that demon’s ass. Talk about timing. A demon attack and the Succession Ritual on the same day. What were the odds? Pretty damn small. Now just when she needed to focus, distractions in the form of men vying for her attention were going to loom on all sides. Starting with the giant distraction that barred her way into the Cellar.
Tarian watched Alex deal with the security on the door. The muscles along his back rippled as he held his hand to the plate. He was loyal and honest, and he’d do anything for her. She trusted him completely. He was everything any girl would want. Passionate, caring, thoughtful, loyal and built. And she loved him as she would any member of her family.
She’d never looked at him as mating material before. She’d never looked at anyone that way. It was a topic she avoided, one she ran from if she were honest with herself. And Alex had never pushed the issue. He was a good friend. More like a brother than a lover.
She couldn’t afford to spend time dealing with hurt feelings. If she told him she couldn’t connect with him that way, he’d be more than hurt. He’d be devastated. He had a gentle soul beneath all those muscles and macho Latino lover impersonations. A rift with her best friend was not something she wanted to deal with. Not now. She needed to focus on the real problem. Finding the demon and stopping him. Everything else would just have to wait.
The door opened, and Alex stood aside to allow her to enter first. She paused to let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting in the hallway. When she could see reasonably well again, she started down the hall. Cat calls and whistles echoed out from a couple of the cells. She ignored them.
The air grew hotter as they progressed. Her tank top clung to her back before they were halfway to the third cell, and the air felt thick with some sort of energy she couldn’t name. The black rocks absorbed energy from the inhabitants, but it didn’t feel like that. It didn’t feel like a protective spell either. It felt…sticky, somehow. Her neck throbbed. She rubbed it with one hand while she walked.
Two cells away from her target, she noticed a red mist radiating through the door. By the time they stood next to the door, it lay on her skin like a thick blanket of foreign magic. She brushed her arms, but it didn’t help. She glanced back at Alex.
“You feel that?”
He raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“You can’t feel that?” She shivered, and her neck twinged. What on earth was this invasive?
“I don’t feel anything but the same heat wave I always feel.” He looked around. “You’re making me nervous—stop it!”
“I can’t believe you can’t feel this. I’ve never felt anything like it. And I shouldn’t be able to feel much of anything this far into the Cellar. Whatever it is, it’s strong enough to pass through the door. I can’t imagine what the inside of the cell is like.”
She stepped forward and put her hand on the door to the cell. Alex pulled her hand away like she was a child near a hot stove.
“You’re always rushing in. Let me check it out first.”
“You can’t even feel this; how are you going to check it out?” She crossed her arms and waited for the logic to sink in.
Alex frowned at the door. He put his hand on it and muttered a word that sounded suspiciously like “chocolate.” He waited. Then nodded.
“It’s clear.”
“The cleaners have already been in, silly. Of course it’s clear.”
“Call me any name you want.” Alex looked at her with a satisfied expression. “Nobody gets hurt on my watch.”
“I won’t point out the obvious.” She gestured at the door. “Can I go in now?”
He focused his own power, which put the hairs on her arms at attention. He stood with feet shoulder width apart, both arms tensed, the nodded. Tarian opened the cell door, then gasped when a rush of energy knocked her back into Alex. His arms wrapped around her, and he held her tight as her knees buckled. She leaned into him, letting him support her until her legs stopped wobbling.
“I gotcha.” He squeezed, a reassuring gesture.
Tarian put her hands on his arms and squeezed back, grateful for the support. “What the hell was that?”
“You collapsed. You seem to be doing that a lot lately. Maybe you should go back to the healer.” His arms held her tight. Her back was hot against his chest, and she could feel his breath along the back of
her neck, even hotter where it touched the cold of the demon’s mark.
“I’m on the list.” His whisper caressed her ear.
She pushed away from him and pointed at the cell. “I didn’t collapse, Alex. Didn’t you feel that? That was a huge rush of power.”
He shook his head and glanced into the cell. “There’s nothing here. Same old empty hallway, same old empty cell.” He turned back to stare at her, his eyes lit by some internal fire.
Tarian avoided his stare. How was she going to tell her friend that he was just a friend?
She rubbed her arms, took a deep breath, then pushed past him into the room. The power had dissipated. She could barely feel it now. Just the slightest pin prickle on her skin and an almost imperceptible ripple of the hairs in her nose. She looked around. Thick slabs of solid black rock formed the floor, bumpy black rock defined the walls, more black rock huddled overhead. Just the one door. Two glowing phosphorescent rocks above the door did little to cheer the place up, but she supposed the last thing they were supposed to feel was happy if they were in the Cellar.
She walked the entire perimeter of the cell. The toilet, which was usually bolted to the floor, lay on its side. A water cup was wedged into the rock along the back wall. The rest of the cell was empty.
“Look at this place. There’s no way Mark Chester did this. He couldn’t even lift his head. And that rush of power. No way he did that. Not that there’s any way he flayed himself either.”
Alex shuddered. “Be glad you didn’t see it.”
She paused near the toilet. Some sort of writing peeked out from under it. Someone had left graffiti. She pushed the toilet over, then stared at the word “Scion.” Each letter was formed with precision, in what appeared to be blood.
“So this is what you were hiding. How is this still here?” She looked back up at Alex.
“The cleaners said it wouldn’t come up.” He looked embarrassed but not apologetic.
She turned back to the writing. Was it even blood? She put her hand down on it to absorb any latent energy. Blood always held energy. Even those without magic talent left residue of themselves behind, at least for a little while. After a moment, she was forced to admit to herself that the cleaners had more than earned their title. If there were magic traces here, they’d been scrubbed away. It would take a lot more effort to get anything out of this.
She sat down in the middle of the floor facing the bloodstain and placed both hands on it.
“You hoping for a vision? You should see a psychic for that.” Alex knelt next to her.
“Just trying to figure out what was in here. Whatever it was, it killed Chester, and in a pretty nasty way. Yet nobody heard anything, nobody saw anything, and there’s no way it got past you guys out there. So it came straight here. What could come straight into a holding cell?”
“Nothing.”
“Exactly. This power? This is different. It’s not normal.”
“I don’t know, Tari. I don’t feel nothing. Anyway, why’d he write your name on the floor? Some think he was trying to name his killer.”
She looked up at the words, shocked. Someone thought she had killed Chester?
Alex put up both hands. “I didn’t say ‘me.’ Just some people.”
“Who?”
Alex shrugged. “It’s just gossip.”
“Chester couldn’t focus on anything but my boobs. And he wouldn’t have been able to write that neatly even if he’d wanted to. He didn’t write this.” She couldn’t keep the scorn out of her voice. Of all the nerve, accusing her of something like this.
She pushed the thought aside and looked back at the word on the floor. Not her name. Her title: Scion. Someone was calling out the heir to the throne. Why? Maybe the demon taunted her. He’d snatched her blood and now he’d killed her only source of information. And he wanted her to know about it. He wanted her to notice just how easily he’d invaded her sanctuary. Pretty effective way to put her nerves on edge, sneaking into the Cellar. The one place on earth she’d have sworn was impenetrable. Yet he’d waltzed in here with time to leave graffiti.
She’d never felt unsafe before. Never felt vulnerable. She could fight. She had power most people never dreamed of possessing. Now this demon managed to get close enough to leave a serious wound, a link to her power, and melt through Cellar walls as if they were air. She suddenly felt as though she were standing in a glass house that might shatter at the first rock thrown.
She closed her eyes and cast about for more latent energy in the cell. When she tried to follow the mist to the source, the signal stopped cold. She cast further, pushing her tracking ability harder. Nothing. On a whim, she focused inside herself for the tracer. It lay still, wrapped inside the shields that held firm. She didn’t dare loosen them to try to track it, but maybe…she cast out a feeler from the tracer.
Her head started to ache as she strained to pick up any sign of the demon or whatever had been in the cell. She couldn’t even tell if they were the same thing. All she felt was a solid wall of nothing. She huffed, opened her eyes, and rubbed her head with the palm of her hands as she looked around. A whole lot of nothing stared back at her. She stood up to go.
“Why can I feel this mist when nobody else can?”
Alex shrugged. “You got me. Maybe you gotta be a girl to feel it?”
“It seems almost like someone was leaving a message. The question is, who left it? Why? What did they mean? What do they expect me to do about it?”
“That’s way more than one question.” Alex grinned.
She left the cell, hitting his arm on the way out. “I guess I’ve found out all I’m going to here. Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 11
Alex locked the cell behind them but didn’t move to follow her. When she realized he wasn’t behind her, she turned back.
“What?”
“You can’t pretend it’s not happening. It won’t go away, Tari.” He walked slowly toward her, his eyes riveted on hers.
“I’ll figure out who he is, Alex. I’ll find him. You know I can do it.”
Alex shook his head. “I know you don’t wanna face it, chica. But you got to.”
“If I don’t find this demon, nothing else will matter. Let’s focus on one thing at a time, okay?” She squeezed his arm, then continued down the hallway. After a heartbeat or two, she heard his footsteps behind her. She wasn’t ready for this. Potentials. Sex with strangers. Pregnancy. Motherhood. Turning her friend into a lover, even if it was only for one night. How would they even look each other in the eye afterward?
She liked things the way they were. She was just one of the guys to him and Frankie. They were the only ones who treated her as a friend, instead of the heir to an amazing gift of power from the Ancients. They were the only ones who made her feel real. She liked that and didn’t want it to change.
By the time they got back to the reception area, she was pissed off at just about everything. Alex for making things awkward, the throne for starting this stupid ritual, the demon for attacking her in the first place, her own body for letting her down when she really needed her strength, her mother because, well…just because.
She glared at Frankie, who remained behind the desk, fixated on his computer.
“Frankie, energy radiated out from Chester’s cell and seemed to coat everything in a red mist. What caused it? And don’t even start. I know I’m the only one who can feel it.”
Frankie frowned, then started tapping on his keyboard. A few seconds later, he shook his head. “I’m going to need more to go on. That isn’t enough to narrow down a search.”
“What about Chester? Someone should check who put out the charges on him.”
Frankie cleared his throat. “I’m already on it. The charges were logged in by Daryl, except he shouldn’t have been able to because he’s not the right level for that. The records are clean on who dropped them. No trace at all.” He scratched at the stubble on his chin.
“There has t
o be something, Frankie. There are only a couple of places they can even access the system, right?”
Frankie nodded. “On this computer here and the one in the admin offices. You might try the archives. They have access to all the old records and other things besides. They won’t let me put that stuff in my database, so I can’t search it from here.”
“The archives.” She groaned. There was nothing more boring than a giant room filled with dusty old books. “I don’t have time to spend all day in the archives.”
“You could ask Calliope.” A faint smile crossed Frankie’s lips, and his eyes focused on something not in the room. Interesting. Her sister and Frankie? She could imagine worse pairings.
If anyone could find information in that dusty cave, it was her sister. She could ask Calliope to do the book work, and then sneak out to do the tracking on her own.
“I know what you’re thinking, chica. You’re not sneaking out alone. No way.” Alex crossed his arms, and Frankie looked at her with an expression that said he knew her all too well.
“I’m just going to the archives, Alex. Leave it, okay?”
“I’ll go with.”
Alex opened a portal to the rotunda above them and waited, his mouth set in a firm line. She could argue, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t help. Nothing and nobody was more stubborn than Alex when he had his mind set. Not even her.
She flounced past him and stepped through the portal. She didn’t wait for him on the other side, but set off at a fast pace down the hallway that led to the archives.
He caught up after a few long strides and grabbed her arm to stop her. “We’re friends, right?”
“I’ve known you my whole life.”
“Then why won’t you look at me?”
“I’m looking at you right now.” She stared up into his dark brown eyes, daring him to argue.
“You know what I mean. Chica, it won’t ruin things. We’ll still be friends.”
Demons & Djinn: Nine Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Novels Featuring Demons, Djinn, and other Bad Boys of the Underworld Page 118
