Witchlock

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  "VIPER has changed significantly," she mused. "Do they require witches to join the coalition?"

  "No. Not yet, anyhow. Queen Maeve and Cathbad have made a strategic move, which opened the door to resources they can use to destroy the Beladors."

  "And you no longer wish to destroy your enemy, the Beladors?"

  Donndubhan smiled with the confidence of a charmer. "I have but one goal. I want to be free to do as I wish. Given a position of authority and respect, I will serve a powerful witch whom the Medb cannot overpower. Are you Sterling?"

  She laughed.

  "What's funny?"

  "I control the Sterling witches."

  His dark eyes gleamed. "Are you as powerful as the Medb?"

  "My people were more powerful than the Medb seven centuries ago."

  "Who are you?"

  It took him long enough to ask. "I am Veronika of the KievRus coven. I am chosen to wield Witchlock once again." This one would be simple enough to control even without her full powers.

  "Witchlock? We had to study that. Everyone believes it's a myth."

  "That's because my family wished for you to believe such. Until now. Witchlock has only been controlled by a KievRus witch born with the mark of our first leaders, Heide and Volkov." She extended the hand that held the sphere and pulled her sleeve back further to expose an ouroboros on her forearm. The emblem of a Celtic snake that swallowed its own tail was no tattoo created by a human hand. Veronika had been born with a circle birthmark the size of a quarter, with an eye and slash marks. It changed as she grew, forming into the final design when she reached the age of nineteen, two years ago.

  Upon that birthday, she swore to bring her people to power again and set out to make the trade with the Sterling coven for Ragan. Her family had set a trade in motion when Veronika was born, but when Veronika was told of the most powerful Sterling to be born in seven generations, she knew that Ragan would be the first step in claiming Witchlock.

  Donndubhan lifted his gaze to hers. "How do I know what you say is true?"

  "Look into my eyes and you shall see the future." Then she lowered her shields to allow him to peer into her glowing eyes, where he'd see witches across the world falling to their knees in front of her, because she whispered a quiet spell that compelled him to believe what she projected.

  His face lost color and he fell to one knee. "I will swear fealty to you. I ask only that you give me a position of significance. I want to be more than a servant."

  She blinked, making her eyes normal again. "Do not swear fealty to me, because your word is meaningless. You stand here ready to break your oath to the Medb."

  "Give me a chance to show you what I can do."

  Should she take control of him now, or later when it would be so much simpler?

  Later. He was a puppy anxious to please his master and he would serve her well.

  If not, she would either take control of him or kill him trying.

  Once she held the ability to take possession of his powers with no effort, she would make him completely loyal. "I'll give you a chance to prove yourself."

  "You asked about the trolls. I will tell you all. I'm building an army of demons from Medb warlocks. Once this army is ready, I'll lead them for you."

  "Where is this demon army?"

  His eyebrows climbed high then dropped. "I ... have yet to produce a successful specimen, but I'm close."

  "You're wasting your time and you will not waste mine. I have no use for a demon army. Once I have Witchlock, I will rule all witchcraft."

  The warlock angled his head in compliance, then stood. "Then what do you want me to do?"

  "First, I must find two women." Veronika knew Adrianna had come to the southeastern US, but still, she would have wasted time pinpointing the exact spot. The mark Veronika's ancestor had placed on the gryphon woman had provided the gryphon's location, leading Veronika straight to this city. She had not found the woman yet, but Adrianna couldn't be far if the two were friends.

  He crossed his arms, looking pleased with himself. "Give me enough information and I can find anyone."

  "One woman is a witch known as Adrianna of the Sterling coven and the other has dark brown, almost black, hair and kinetic ability, plus she can change into a gryphon."

  He started laughing.

  She prepared to teach him to never laugh at her, but he must have noticed the change in her expression, because he immediately explained.

  "I'm not laughing at you, er, your highness?"

  "You may call me Veronika." For now, she amended silently.

  "Great." He rubbed his hands together, excited. "I like working on a first name basis. I was laughing because I already have what you need."

  Was it possible? "What do you know of them?"

  "Adrianna works with VIPER as a contractor."

  So that is what she'd been doing since abandoning her coven. Veronika said, "Go on."

  "The gryphon sounds like Evalle Kincaid, who I wouldn't have called a buddy of Adrianna's at one time, but those two have been seen together on occasion."

  "What else can you tell me about this Evalle?"

  "She isn't supposed to shift in this world. She's a gryphon, because she was born with Belador and Medb blood, which marked her as an Alterant. She's got wicked kinetics and communicates telepathically with other Beladors."

  Evalle immediately moved up Veronika's list of powerful beings she needed in her stable of minions.

  Donndubhan might not have been exaggerating when he claimed to be valuable. She told him, "Take Imar and bring me those two women."

  "They won't come willingly."

  "Do not kill them and leave no trail that leads back to me. If you require assistance, you will contact me, but tell no one I am in the city."

  "Understood. I can handle this. Where do you want them delivered?"

  She did like the confidence in his voice and told him where she'd meet him on the top of another roof. The open vantage point allowed her the best chance for escape if by some chance he betrayed her.

  He would make that mistake only one time. She didn't need Witchlock to literally turn him inside out while still alive.

  He nodded. "I know that building. It's in a good central place to watch over the city. Evalle only travels around at night. With daylight close, my best bet at catching her is this evening."

  Wasn't he just a fount of information? "Does she function at night by choice?"

  "No. She's has a deadly reaction to the sun."

  Good information. "Find both and bring them tonight."

  "Consider it done. Just to show you that I am holding nothing back on our arrangement, I'll tell you that Queen Maeve is very interested in another Belador known as Vladimir Quinn."

  She thought on that. "I have heard this name. What is so special about him?"

  "I don't know why Queen Maeve wants him, but she has one of her top people tracking him. Quinn has the ability to mindlock. He can take control of a mind and he can destroy one with his kinetics."

  Mindlock. Energy rushed through her at considering the possibilities of controlling that power.

  "What else do you know of him?"

  "I saw him at Oakland Cemetery and I believe he's hiding someone in a tomb there."

  Yes, Donndubhan was turning into quite the information source.

  Chapter 28

  Evalle gripped Storm's arms as they teleported from the Tribunal back to Atlanta. Just touching him gave her comfort, even though Storm was a churning mass of anger and frustration.

  Storm couldn't blame Tzader. She wouldn't.

  Tzader had been as blindsided as she'd been when Cathbad produced a warlock corpse with her dagger stuck in its head.

  How had her dagger ended up there?

  The only logical answer was that the dead warlock had to have been the demon she killed, but turning a Medb warlock into a demon would have required a lot of power. Why turn a warlock when changing something else that had less power would b
e simpler?

  So who had changed a Medb warlock?

  And for what reason?

  The Tribunal would point at the Beladors for that and accuse them of some nefarious scheme to make it look as if Medb had created demons. But the Medb had created the earlier ones.

  If the Medb weren't behind this demon creation, then who could be? And what would be the purpose of taking that kind of risk and facing getting caught by VIPER, the Beladors or the Medb?

  The swirling colors in her peripheral vision cleared and she was standing on the top level of a parking deck near Woodruff Park.

  Wrapped in Storm's arms was the only way to teleport.

  A swift wind ahead of bad weather whipped hairs around her face. She stepped back and wiped the strands from her eyes.

  Storm said, "Evidently dropping us on street level would have been too much of a strain on the prick."

  "Wouldn't want to inconvenience the princess," Evalle quipped.

  That was enough to finally tug a smile from his lips.

  Tzader materialized as Evalle turned to stand next to Storm, who draped an arm around her shoulder.

  Tzader didn't waste any time. "I have no idea how we're going to find out how they framed you, Evalle, but I'll put everyone I have available on this."

  "I want my dagger, Z." She nodded at where he'd hooked the weapon on his belt.

  Looking apologetic, Tzader said, "I told them I'd hold it as evidence. I figured that was the only chance of you getting it back later."

  "Damn." She stopped staring at the dagger with longing. "I appreciate you taking it though. I've just missed it."

  Storm broke in. "We can't depend on the truth being revealed if the Medb are actively working to hide it, which you know they will be. Hell, I was with Evalle when she healed, but if a Tribunal wouldn't accept her statement of killing a demon as truth when she didn't glow red, I knew it would only agitate them for me to start defending her." He turned to her. "You aren't safe here."

  Tzader said, "If you try to take Evalle somewhere to hide her, you'll hurt her without intending to. I promise you Sen can find her anywhere or I'd ship her off to Treoir right now. If he gets that kind of shot at her, none of us will be able to stop him and right about now Sen is close to begging for that chance."

  Evalle asked Storm, "Were you thinking of trying that?"

  Storm didn't even try to defend his position. He simply stated, "No one is taking you from me."

  And she felt the same about being ripped away from him, but she would not stand by and give Sen reason to harm Storm or Tzader. In fact, Tzader looked worse every day and didn't need this crap. She asked Storm, "Let's not go up against Sen, please?"

  Storm's determination showed no sign of changing, but he finally said, "I want to go back to the mountain and retrace everywhere Evalle went."

  She had no intention of being left out of this. "I'll go with you."

  Storm said, "No."

  Tzader said, "I agree."

  "What? You want to just lock me away? I'm no more interested in being stuck in my room underground than being imprisoned beneath VIPER headquarters."

  Tzader frowned and Storm had the decency to look put in his place.

  Storm wiped a hand over his face and let it fall to his side. "What do you want to do?"

  "Find whoever is framing me."

  Tzader asked, "We need to be asking why they're doing this if the Medb want gryphons."

  With her guard dogs calming down, Evalle gave up her anger and scratched her head. "I don't know. It's not like the guy I tracked from Memorial Hall in Stone Mountain was trying to gain my attention. He seemed to be avoiding me. I went after him."

  Storm quirked an eyebrow at that, but didn't comment on her running toward danger alone. He said, "The Medb have some plan in play and I'm betting it has to do with taking Evalle to TAmr Medb."

  Tzader grunted his agreement.

  Evalle pointed out, "Why prove me a warlock killer when that would very likely end with Macha or the Tribunal vaporizing me?"

  Storm snapped his fingers. "Cathbad wouldn't risk that, but that bastard would offer to take you as restitution for their loss."

  "Crap."

  "Storm's right," Tzader said, nodding. "We have to be smart about how we play this and hope that our people pick up intel or that Storm lucks into something."

  "We have more than luck in our favor," Storm clarified. "I picked up a something besides just your energetic residue. I picked up a trace of majik."

  Evalle and Tzader said, "You did?"

  "Yes, but I didn't admit it because I wasn't specifically instructed to share that information."

  Evalle laughed. Take that, Loki.

  Storm added, "I can't tell what it is yet, because it's almost as if the majik was sanitized and that's what stood out about it."

  This felt more like a team. Evalle smiled up at Storm and he curved his hand on her shoulder, pulling her a smidgeon closer.

  Then he explained further, "The damage to the warlock's face was not consistent either. I think that clearly points to having changed shape, which is more than dropping a glamour. I'm going on the idea of what you and Evalle alluded to in the meeting, that the corpse was originally a warlock who was changed into a demon, then given a glamour."

  She leaned into him, happy he agreed with her reasoning.

  "Damn," Tzader said, scratching his chin. "That would actually explain how Evalle's dagger turned up in a warlock corpse. Now, we just have to deliver proof of someone changing that warlock."

  "Another thing I didn't mention," Storm added. "That warlock barely had a scent of Medb. I doubt anyone standing back smelled it."

  "I didn't," Evalle admitted.

  "Me either," Tzader added.

  "I think that adds to our theory," Storm continued. "While I was gone tracking the troll killer, I talked to Lucien, who said that last week when we had the first influx of demons along with the Medb, he got close enough to a Medb killing a demon that he should have been able to identify a scent, but there was none then either."

  "Not even for the Medb?" Tzader asked. "I had reports that the warlocks doing the demon killing were part of the Medb's elite Scath Force. They should have reeked of that lime scent."

  "One would think," Evalle said.

  Tzader's brown eyes narrowed. "Why didn't I hear about this, Storm?"

  "I asked Lucien what happened when he reported that to VIPER and he said Sen dismissed it without a second thought because it was when all of you Beladors were having so many problems with your power while Brina was missing. Sen said he didn't care what the Medb smelled like as long as they kept killing demons."

  "No one told me," Tzader snapped.

  "Lucien was told not to repeat it, which makes me wonder if Sen had a hand in any of this."

  That floored Tzader based on the surprise in his face. "If that was ever proven, the Tribunal would take Sen apart one piece at a time for all this trouble they're going through."

  "He tried to kill Storm once," Evalle interjected.

  "There's no proof besides your word," Storm reminded her. "Sen would come up with some kind of defense to get around it, claiming that even if you believe that's what you saw you were too distraught to know what really happened. Or some shit like that."

  "You've got a point, but I'd like to see Sen hung with abetting the person behind all this." Evalle looked over at Storm. "Lucien was told to say nothing, but he told you?"

  "Lucien is a loner and he doesn't like Sen any more than I do. We talked. That's all."

  "We need to get busy," Evalle said, ready to get out of there and do something while she still had a few hours of darkness left.

  Tzader told Storm, "Sorry I had to put you on the spot in the Tribunal meeting, but I'm glad you were there."

  Storm waved it off. "I'll go anywhere she goes."

  But would he ever be able to stay with her anywhere she lived? He'd said he was glad about living with her, but she still had her d
oubts, and she needed to share those doubts with him, as Nicole had suggested. She stifled a sigh. That conversation would have to wait a little longer now.

  Nodding at Storm, Tzader said, "I'll pull as many Beladors as we need off of any duty, other than guarding Brina, to help. You're about to see the full force of the Beladors when it's comes to protecting one of their own."

  Tendrils of warmth swarmed through Evalle at Tzader's declaration of support from the entire tribe. She'd spent years trying to prove she belonged to the Belador tribe. She'd been called a Belador from the day a druid brought her into the fold, but saving Treoir from the Medb and bringing Storm to use his majik to return Brina to the castle had gone a long way to securing her position in the minds and hearts of some warriors who'd still been wary of her.

  "Evalle?"

  She looked up at Tzader calling to her and found both men staring at her. "What?"

  Storm almost smiled, but he managed to tuck it away and maintain a serious face in front of Tzader, who was scowling. "I asked if you could talk to Quinn."

  "I told you I would."

  "I need you to do it soon. I took Lanna to Treoir-"

  "Good idea. Lanna may be able to help."

  "We'll see, but I want to hand over the Maistir responsibilities for a few months once this is settled, and he's the only one I would put in my place. Maybe longer than a few months if it works out."

  "You'd step down?"

  Tzader and Quinn had been her rocks since the first time they'd met. They'd been captured in a Medb trap and all three had almost died. Tzader had always been the one in charge, because he was a leader of warriors.

  But right now indecision warred with duty in his gaze and Evalle had never seen him so torn.

  He said, "Brina isn't making progress. Macha said she believes Brina is losing more memories. I would never turn my back on the Beladors when they need me, but right now Brina needs me more."

  He was breaking her heart. Evalle said, "Oh, Z. What do you need me to do?"

  "Just help get Quinn's head in the right place so that if I have to ask him to take over for me, he can."

  "How is his present state of mind?"

  "I wanted him to tell you, but when Kizira was dying she told him they had a child, born of when they met thirteen years ago."

  Evalle felt that punch to her stomach and she wasn't even Quinn. "He's going to want to find her."

  "He's already started trying and I think he believed that Lanna was his best way to find Phoedra."

  Finally, a bright spot in all this. "Lanna says she can find anyone by touching something that belongs to them."