April’s Fools

by Ophelia Bell

  I couldn’t fault his choice though. We managed to land and slip down the stairwell without being noticed, narrowly missing a downpour as the heavy clouds we’d just flown through decided they needed to let loose. We were at ground level within only a few minutes.

  “I caught sight of Gray’s trail when we landed,” Stuart said once we ducked into a coffee shop to hear each other over the sound of the storm. “Murdoc’s too.”

  “Good. That oughta make it easier to find them in this mess,” I said, scowling out at the rain. The set to Stuart’s jaw told me there was more, and that I probably wouldn’t like it. I narrowed my eyes. “Something else I need to know, brother?”

  “I want to backtrack Gray’s path. See if we can make sense of what’s going on and how much trouble he’s really in. How much we’re going to be in. If we can head off the danger Gray had to run from, even better.”

  “You think Chaos is in town?” Eddie asked, his big hands wrapped around an enormous mug. Creamy froth clung to his mustache.

  “I won’t know what to think until we see where he was when he decided it was time to run.”

  We were seated at a high-top table in the rear of the coffee house, in a corner near the restrooms, where we had a clear view of the room. Stuart faced the hallway behind us, watching our backs while he nursed his cappuccino. The air pressure shifted suddenly, as if someone had opened a door, but no one new had come in through the main entrance. When Stuart tensed and blinked in surprise, I turned—and nearly spilled my coffee down my shirt.

  “Deva! Llyr! What in Gaia’s name are you two doing way up here?”

  The pretty little Chimera put her hands on her hips. “I could ask you four the same thing, you know. You’re supposed to be in New Mexico. Where are Gray and Murdoc?” Stuart and I shared a look, but before we could answer, Deva waved her hands. “You know what, it doesn’t matter right now, we need to talk. The fact that you guys are even here is troubling.”

  “We got a message from Gray that he needed us,” Stuart said. “So we came. Murdoc is with him already. At least, we hope he is. Chaos is up to something.”

  Deva grimaced, and beside her, Llyr let out a foul curse.

  “We were afraid of that,” Llyr said. “Even the rain up here feels wrong. But Deva sent a hound to the Pandemonium, and Chaos is still in Las Vegas. At least, he was last we checked.” He glanced at Deva, who nodded.

  “Yes, he’s not getting his hands dirty with this, whatever it is, but he’s definitely involved.”

  Chayton stood and offered her his seat. “Want to sit down and explain?”

  She settled on the stool with Llyr standing at her back, his hands resting on her shoulders as if he drew comfort from her closeness. The nymphaea had always been far more sensitive to the machinations of Chaos than the other higher races, and his agitated look didn’t offer any comfort to the rest of us.

  “Remember when I said I had my hounds on someone’s trail who I thought might have run afoul of Chaos?”

  “Yeah. You said it was a member of the Bloodline. Sounded like you were worried they’re getting caught in the crossfire of Chaos’s rivalry with Fate.”

  “They are. And I don’t plan to sit around waiting for any of them to get hurt before I do something. If the Bloodline are at risk of becoming collateral damage, I need to step in, but I need to make sure that’s what’s really going on. All six of my hounds followed a member of the Bloodline from Las Vegas to Seattle, but they split up once they got here. I didn’t give them a new command to follow someone different, so whoever it is, the original orders must have been applicable. When I inhabited Blaze’s consciousness a few moments ago, that was when I saw you guys, so I knew something was up.”

  I sat back in surprise. “So there are two members of the Bloodline being targeted? What the fuck is that bastard up to? I swear he didn’t give us any orders. We don’t work for Chaos anymore. You know that.”

  “But he still has the Bane brothers,” Stuart said. “They’re the guys he sends after members of the higher races who screw him over.”

  Deva frowned. “Who are the Bane brothers?”

  “More like what are they,” Eddie muttered.

  “Typhon,” Chayton spat. “The monster with a hundred heads. The brothers are really just the heads of Chaos’s favorite son. And if you cut off one head, two more grow back.” He shivered. Behind Deva, Llyr turned pale.

  “Hey, buddy, you don’t look so hot,” Eddie said, vacating his stool and urging Llyr to sit. The big satyr fell onto the stool with a grunt, shaking his head.

  “I’ve faced them before,” he said when he finally regained his composure. “One is an easy fight, but more than that and their magic produces so much feedback you can’t focus enough to defend yourself.”

  “Yeah, I was kind of glad they were technically on our side while Chaos signed our paychecks,” Chayton said.

  “If Chaos sent a creature that powerful, he must have a good reason. Nothing makes him flex his muscles like Fate. Since Fate favors the Bloodline now that I’m their advocate, we have to assume that’s what’s driving him,” Deva said. She cast her gaze around the table at the four of us. “Which brings me back to my earlier question. When Gray sent his message, did he mention the Bloodline?”

  “His message was coded,” I said. “All it mentioned as a ‘convergence of earth and fire’ that Chaos wanted to steal. Could he have been referring to the Bloodline? Who were the hounds trailing?”

  Deva pursed her lips, then nodded. “It was a member of the Bloodline. Strong in ursa magic, judging from his appearance, but without meeting him in person, I wouldn’t be able to confirm. They lost the target after he got to Seattle which is unusual. It’s as if he disappeared entirely. The other three followed someone else for a couple days, but now all of them are following you, which is why I came. You guys used to work for Chaos, so I worried he might still have you in his pocket. That doesn’t seem to be the case though.”

  I held up my hands. “On Gaia’s honor, it isn’t us. We want to get to the bottom of this as much as you do. But why the hell would the hounds be on us now and not their target?”

  “Because, for whatever reason, the hounds see you as a piece of the puzzle. I commanded them to follow the person Chaos was hunting and keep them safe. They would have manipulated circumstances to urge the victims to safety. They aren’t overt about it though. You never see them. Their magic simply affects your preferences when offered a choice, and steers you to the choice most likely to lead to the desired outcome. If they were guiding you to a soul mate, they’d nudge you toward the fork in the road that would lead you closer to the other person. I suspect that since you guys are skilled bodyguards familiar with Chaos and his thugs, that makes you the best candidates to offer protection to whoever this new target is.”

  “So it’s probably lucky Gray was here to start with, huh?” Chayton asked.

  “Perhaps. But wasn’t he considering a trip to North Carolina instead? He chose Seattle last-minute, if I recall.”

  I frowned. “We were all considering driving cross-country together to the Black Mountains before we decided to split up. There’s a Sanctuary portal there, plus the kind of art community the dragons were hoping to settle down in. Turns out the portal in Taos was locked, so we’d have had to turn around once we reached it anyway. Are you suggesting the hounds were somehow influencing us already?”

  She gave me an enigmatic smile and shrugged. “They’ve never failed to do what I commanded. It’s just taken me a while to understand how to word those commands. Gray’s caution is probably for good reason. I don’t want to stop you from following through on your plans. But even if I did, I think the hounds would recalibrate and send you there anyway. What’s your next step?”

  “Track down Gray’s trail and try to find out why he decided to run,” Stuart said, setting his empty mug in a bin nearby. “But now I think it’s just a matter of confirming our suspicions that Chaos sent the Bane brothers ch
asing someone and Gray got in the middle of it. So unless you have more to add, we should get moving.” He dipped his head deferentially to Deva, who nodded back. Then I followed suit, sliding off my stool and bowing a little deeper. It was easy to forget we were in the presence of a goddess, and of all the deities I’d known, Deva was the most likely to answer prayers with action. She’d earned our respect.

  “Llyr and I will stick with you guys for a bit if you don’t mind. I don’t want to sit on my hands if there’s something more I can do. I also want to observe the hounds, to see if my instincts are correct.”

  We headed out into the rain, and after a few feet hunched into my coat, I realized the downpour wasn’t touching us. A glance back at Llyr only got me a nod and a half-smile from the normally easygoing satyr. The itch of Chaos in the air was enough to make me feel uncomfortable in my own skin, so I couldn’t imagine how it affected someone as sensitive to it as he was, but he still had the presence of mind to shelter us from the weather.

  Stuart led the way with Deva at his side, and after walking a few blocks, we found ourselves on the doorstep of a swanky art gallery. Chayton stopped short in front of the window, gawking at the display so blatantly I expected to see a set of tits somewhere inside. A flyer pasted inside the window advertised an opening at the beginning of May and invited passers-by to come in for a tour of the artist’s studio. A photo of a pretty woman with a sunburst of curly blonde hair looked back out at me from the corner of the flyer.

  What I saw when I looked up took my breath away. There were four pedestals, each with a handblown glass vessel in a different shape. Each vessel was overflowing with tiny flowers or miniature plants of different colors. The shapes and colors made it evident that the display represented the four seasons, but the level of detail and obvious connection to earth magic was what held me transfixed. Was she ursa?

  “He came in here,” Stuart said, eyeing us as he held the door open.

  Deva passed by, pointing at the display as she went inside. “Those were crafted by a member of the Bloodline, but one with a level of power I’ve only seen in two others. Zarya and Aella both possessed magic that strong but theirs was pure. Whoever this artist is has a combination of dragon and ursa magic. You see it, don’t you, Stuart?”

  He nodded as we filed in behind Deva, then let the door shut behind us and joined us to examine the sculptures. “Gray must have seen it too. I have no doubt these were what brought him in.”

  Deva turned with purpose, and I followed her to the counter set unobtrusively to the left of the entrance. The woman behind perked up when we approached. “Can I help you?”

  “We’d like to meet the artist,” Deva said, gesturing back toward the window.

  The woman opened her mouth, then closed it again, her gaze sliding to the rear of the gallery. “I’m sorry. Ms. Vincent is unavailable, and the hot shop tours are on hold for the time being. We had a…um…break-in last night.”

  “Show us,” Stuart demanded, pushing between Deva and me.

  I straightened up and leaned in, spearing her with an intense stare, ready to make my own demands. The woman stepped back with a squeak.

  With a huff, Deva shoved in front of us, glaring up at us both and whispering, “She’s Bloodline, don’t antagonize her!” Then she turned to face the woman. “I’m so sorry. You might not know me, but I’m here to help. If something happened to Ms. Vincent, we all need to know. Our only concern is for her well-being.”

  “I—I know who you are. And him…” The woman pointed at Llyr. “But I really don’t think you want to go back there. The gallery owner wouldn’t even let us call the cops.”

  “The cops wouldn’t be able to do anything,” Deva said. “But we can. Will you show us?”

  The woman swallowed, staring up at us. Her eyes landed on Llyr, and her expression went slack for a second, then she nodded. “Right this way,” she said in a strange monotone. When I hazarded a glance at the big satyr, his irises were twin whirlpools of hypnotic light. I guess that was one way to get things done.

  She led us through the gallery, pushed through a door, down a hallway past a couple offices and a storeroom, then through a second door into a huge warehouse-sized studio beyond. At least I thought it was a studio, but it was in such a state it looked like a hurricane had blown through, and a wave of disconcerting magic hit me in the face like a bad smell.

  The woman left us, heading back to the gallery and closing the door behind her without a word.

  “Fuck me,” Eddie breathed, taking in the quite literal chaos of the space. It was littered with broken glass and twisted metal. At one end, a kitchen counter lay toppled on its side with very obvious talon marks marring what had once been a smooth chopping-block surface. The windows behind the kitchen had blown out allowing rain to make its way in. The glass furnaces were cold and black inside, and in the middle of the area that divided the hot shop from the forge was a pile of shattered obsidian shards.

  Deva bent down to nudge one with a fingertip, then shivered and stood again, wiping her hand on her jeans like she’d just touched something gross.

  Stuart took her place, his pale eyes glowing as he examined the broken pieces, one of which clearly resembled a thumb. “Vesh,” he said, and I grimaced.

  “You sure?” Chayton asked.

  “Who’s he? Or do I even need to ask?” Deva turned toward us, arms crossed. I’d never seen her angry, but right now, her ire rolled off her in waves.

  “A Bane brother,” I said. “If Gray killed him, he’ll be coming back twice as angry.”

  “And there will be two of him,” Stuart added.

  “Can the six of you defend against them?” Deva asked.

  “Depends how many of the brothers show up. Now that we know it’s them, it might be safer to run, which is obviously the conclusion Gray already came to.”

  Deva sighed and took in the room, her multicolored eyes flickering with light. Then she hummed a soft tune and crouched down, reaching a hand out as if to pet an invisible dog. A second later, her eyes turned an eerie glowing white, and she went utterly still.

  “What’s she doing?” Chayton whispered, looking at Llyr.

  “Traveling,” he said. “Seeing the world through Blaze’s eyes. Blaze is one of our hounds.”

  She remained in that position as if in a trance for several minutes before the hazy look left her eyes, and she stood again. “I found them. Murdoc and Gray are with one of the Bloodline. They’re on an island north of here. I’ll give Llyr the location, and he can drift you there. I need to track down the other target and make sure he’s safe. I don’t know how he eluded my hounds, but I know he’s still alive. I’d feel it if he weren’t.”

  I cleared my throat, hesitant to ask my very telling question. “The one you found, was it a woman?”

  Deva didn’t answer at first. She stood facing Llyr, three fingertips pressed gently to the side of his face. When she released him and his vision cleared, Llyr smirked and said, “Most definitely a woman. She looks like the artist of those sculptures, but I think your friends are already staking their claim.”

  Even though he meant it as a taunt, a shiver passed through me. I shot a look at Chayton and Eddie, whose eyes had widened in excitement. Elden had been right.

  Stuart stepped toward Llyr, holding out a hand. “Then we shouldn’t waste time.”

  Before he could take hold of Llyr’s hand, a sound like twisting metal ripped through the air. A dark, smoky tendril whipped around Stuart’s wrist and yanked him to the side. Another tendril coiled around Stuart’s neck. Before I could even turn to attack and help my friend, dark smoke streamed in from outside, the clouds sparking with wild magic until they solidified into half a dozen figures dressed in trench coats.

  “You have angered us.” The voice was chilling in its familiarity because it was the voice of the creature we’d just found in pieces on the floor. Vesh swept in from the side, reaching a hand out to Stuart, who dangled in the grip of a second Ves
h, fingers scrabbling at his neck where the chaos creature’s dark tentacle constricted his airway. His conjured clothing fell away, the chaos disrupting the matrix of dragon smoke that held it together. The second Vesh sliced tentacles across Stuart’s skin, opening bloody cuts that showed scales underneath.

  “Let him go! We’re not your enemy!” I bellowed, flexing my fists and extending my claws. Low growls sounded from Chayton and Eddie at my back. We were completely surrounded by Vesh and his brothers.

  “You know us,” Chayton said. “We can talk about this!”

  “Your friend blocked us from our task. We are taking this dragon to answer for the other one’s insult. Maybe he will tell us where to find the girl and her father.”

  Shit.

  He started to dematerialize into smoke, Stuart’s body fading too.

  “No!” Deva yelled, her voice a sonorous demand that brooked no argument. Every figure that surrounded us froze. Vesh and Stuart grew solid once more. I rushed to Stuart, grabbing him around the torso as Chayton and Eddie untangled him from Vesh’s grip. He sagged against me, gasping for breath when we released him just as our attackers regained use of their bodies.

  Deva’s arms stretched to either side, smoke streaming from the corners of her mouth and her nostrils. The magic whirled out from her, creating a hazy barrier that Vesh and his brothers pushed against to no avail.

  “Llyr, I’ll hold them off. Get the guys out of here now!”

  The big satyr curled his arms around Stuart and me, gripping us by the shoulders. “Grab hold of me, you two!” Chayton and Eddie slapped hands over his forearms. Then the entire world spun away in a vortex of cold rain and ocean spray.

  18

  April

  A deep yell of alarm yanked me out of a sound sleep. The two warm bodies that had been curled around me leaped off the bed with a lurch. I sat up and opened my eyes to chaos in the middle of the bedroom. Five strangers had just appeared out of thin air at the foot of the bed, one of them covered in blood.