by Jami Gray
“And we know Ransom struck a deal with a Kyn to get rid of Cheveyo. Which means our next questions should be who would raise a Soul Stealer and why?”
“The why is easy,” he answered, his voice contemplative. “To cause dissension between Houses.”
She gave a soft snort. “They were doing pretty good all on their own, don’t you think? All that crap about how the shamans think the Amanusas and wizards aren’t part of the natural world because of where their magic comes from. I agree that most of the demon-born are pains in the ass and wizards have some serious personality issues, but really?”
“Don’t forget, part of the pack believes the same thing. They tend not to trust witches in general.”
Considering how hard it was to get a straight answer from Cheveyo, she could understand the pack’s distrust. Hell, getting a straight answer out of the very sexy man behind her had its own challenges. Probably not something she should mention, though.
He nipped her shoulder.
The darkness hid her rueful smile. “Caught that, huh?”
He kissed the abused spot. “Yeah, I did.”
“Okay, so we have one unknown Kyn linked to Ransom, who’s linked to the chindis. Ransom knows about the Kyn. It stands to reason he would do his research, discover the divisions between the Houses, and then capitalize on it. If Kyn are busy fighting amongst themselves, they’d never see him coming and it leaves the Kyn community vulnerable. Especially if, say, a savvy human land developer decides the Kyn have something he wants.”
“Right. Remember the pressure of this land deal was enough to make it a topic of conversation at the Council meeting.”
She fought back a threatening yawn. “Mulcahy said they considered sending some Wraiths to address it.” The yawn won and it was a moment before she could continue. “You saw Tala’s reaction. I bet none of the Southwest leaders liked that their business was under discussion.”
“I’m sure it went over like a lead balloon.”
She gave a halfhearted grin at the dry observation. “Ransom said the land belonged to the humans, not the monsters.”
Something tugged at the edges of her mind. Some snippet of conversation. She reached for it, only for it to float out of reach. “Let’s say Ransom decides to split the existing Kyn division wide open. Not completely stupid, he needs a way to do it that won’t point directly back to him.” A flash of Jeremiah’s last memory surfaced. “He wanted to warn his alpha that they were being hunted.”
Confused by her half-muttered comment, Gavin frowned. “What?”
Excitement stirred. Ignoring her body’s protests, she rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her arms to face Gavin. “One of Jeremiah’s last thoughts was to warn his alpha they were being hunted.”
All the information on chindis began to coalesce and a phantom of an idea began to emerge.
“Okay—” he began.
Knowing she was on to something, she cut him off. “What if we’re right? Tala said it only took ritual magic to raise the ghosts. What if Ransom found the spell and raised the chindis on his own? What if he sent them to the wrong Kyn?”
“Say a Head of House?” Gavin’s voice sharpened as he followed her logic.
“Right. So Ransom sends them after Chavez and Tala because they hold the land he wants and their biases are strong enough to give him the opening he needs. Using the chindis as elimination tools, he sends them after the witches first. The chinidis only turn on a shifter after Jeremiah went sniffing around the last death scene. Wouldn’t it make more sense to attack both the shifters and the witches at the same time?”
He shook his head. “Not necessarily. Think about it. If you attack just one House, especially the House with a contingent of members who are barely tolerated, wouldn’t it come across as the Lycans against the magi?”
“It would cause some serious in-fighting,” she admitted.
“But something happened to change that.” Lost in his thoughts, he absently curled a strand of her hair around his finger. “Because at his office, he wasn’t the one in control, someone else was.”
“Maybe the same someone who raised the Soul Stealer.” No matter how she arranged the pieces, she couldn’t line them up. “Still doesn’t answer why that same someone raised a Stealer.”
Gavin’s absent movements stilled, and his jade gaze locked onto her. “What if Xander found out?”
Raine blinked.
He gripped her shoulders and gave her a light shake. “Think about it.”
Pieces shifted, rearranging into a fuzzy picture. Feeling her way, Raine said, “She went to Toby to find out the story on the local situation and the truth behind Brett Chavez’s death.”
Saying it aloud, the missing piece fell into place with a quiet snick. Tala’s comments on the amount of dedication needed to raise a Soul Stealer circled and landed. “Lord and Lady, that’s it.”
A rush of adrenaline washed her aches and pains away, and she scrambled out of bed.
Gavin flicked on the table lamp, light flooding the room in a warm off-white glow. Finding her pants, Raine dug through the pockets until she came up with her cell phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“Rio.”
Gavin raised an eyebrow in question but she ignored him, listening to the phone ring on the other end. When static began to streak across the line, she took a deep breath and tamped her emotions down. Sitting with her back against the bed, she made some headway as the static faded. On the fourth ring, it was picked up.
“Do you have any idea what time it is, McCord?” The growl coming through the phone had her flinching.
“My apologies, Mr. Castle, but I need to ask you a question.”
“It had better be damn important, woman, or I swear I’ll make your life hell.”
“You said inquisitive minds went to you if they had questions.”
His only answer was a grunt.
Taking it as agreement, she pushed on. “Has anyone ever asked you how to raise the dead?”
“Anyone who loses someone close to them asks that question at one time or another. Any particular dead you’re looking at?” An anticipatory glee crept in to his question.
“Brett Chavez.”
The rough chuckles coming over the phone sent shivers over her skin, and she tightened her grip on the phone. “That boy was well loved, McCord.”
“So someone asked.”
“Two someones actually.”
Holding her breath, she waited for her suspicions to be confirmed.
“Lizbeth Chavez and Jenny Walker.”
“Jenny Walker, the girlfriend?”
“The one and only.” A loud sigh came over the line. “Can I go back to sleep now, girl? This old body doesn’t do well on limited sleep.”
“Thank you, Mr. Castle.”
The drone of the dial tone filled the line. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she held her cell phone as Gavin leaned across the bed until his head appeared over the edge next to her.
She looked at him from mere inches away. “Now you can call Mulcahy and give him three names.”
“Tomás Chavez, Jenny Walker…”
“And Lizbeth Chavez.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dawn still slept when Gavin and Raine finally reached Mulcahy in Portland. Their boss was en route to his office, and Raine let Gavin do the reporting. Wrapped in a blanket, a cup of hot tea in hand, she leaned back against the porch railing to watch Gavin pace in the cool morning air. Only getting one side of the conversation was enough to confirm her decision.
Occasionally she caught the buzz of her boss’s voice as Gavin laid out their suspicions. Impressed at how well he parried Mulcahy’s rapid-fire questions, she took a sip of her tea and scanned the empty kitchen through the sliding glass door. Standing outside in the freakin’ cold wasn’t her top choice, but it ensured their conversation stayed private. She missed the first part of the conversation while she made her tea and peeked in on the
two witches and wolf in the front room. The only one awake was Ash, and he watched her warily from his protective spot next to his slumbering companions.
An icy breeze wafted over the deck, sending sneaky fingers under her blanket and burrowing under the thin barrier of sweats and T-shirt. The tea helped, but she was still cold. And uneasy.
Giving Gavin her back, she surveyed the surrounding shadows of the forest standing sentinel around Tala’s yard. Was the uneasiness just her imagination, fueled by the fact that every time she was near a bunch of trees down here something tried to eat her? Or was it an early warning system? Either way, she was jumpy.
“I understand the position it puts you in, sir.” The carefully controlled tone of Gavin’s voice pushed her unsettled instincts aside and she paid attention to the conversation. “However, the game changed last night. We got Cheveyo, but now Xander’s missing.”
Even she caught the dangerous silence his comment evoked. Gavin took a deep breath, met her questioning look, and continued. “The last person to see her was Toby Greene. She disappeared somewhere between his place and Tala’s.”
Mulcahy’s response left Gavin stifling a small wince as he lowered the phone until it was in-between the two of them. He pressed the speaker button.
“Why was she going to Greene’s?”
The snap of Mulcahy’s question made Raine start. Tea spilled down the front of her blanket.
Her quiet curse hung on the morning air, seemingly louder for the quiet. Brushing at the rapidly cooling drops, she answered, “Because we needed to find out what the hell is going on up here.”
“And you let her go on her own?” The small phone’s speaker was no deterrent to the resonating intensity of Mulcahy’s too level question.
She stopped fussing with her blanket to glare at the phone. “Xander is a highly trained Wraith and, as such, I trust her assessment of any given situation. She felt if we went in together, it would be viewed as a threat. Considering how evasive Chavez’s people have been, she thought she’d get a more honest opinion of what was up if it was just her and Greene.”
“And because the three of you felt whatever Greene had to say may not reflect positively on Chavez, she did this without Chavez’s permission?”
Even the soft static crackling across the line couldn’t disguise the censure in his voice. It scraped like nails over a chalkboard and she struggled to remember who she was talking to. “They called us in. If they didn’t want their dirty laundry hung out on the line, then maybe they should have thought of that first. There was no way Chavez was going to let any of us, including Xander, talk to someone he couldn’t control. So no, she didn’t ask his permission. Sir.” She tacked on the last with a snap of her teeth.
“Where is Cheveyo now?” The question was etched in ice.
“With Tala,” Gavin answered before she could. She curled her lip and he gave her a short shake of his head. She took the minute he was giving her to rein in her frustration before it fell out of her mouth and got her in trouble.
“Awake?”
“No. He’s still unconscious.”
“Can he be moved?”
Gavin stared at the phone, his brow furrowed. “I’d have to check, but probably.”
“Good, because after I update Vidis, you’re not going to have much time before he’s down in Chavez’s yard. If you’re right, and either of the Chavezes are involved, there’s no way this will end well.”
“You don’t think it’s Jenny Walker?” Raine asked.
“No.” There was no hesitation in his answer.
“Why?”
For a moment silence echoed down the line, then their boss answered, his voice flat, “Because the loss of a child will take more of a soul than the loss of a lover. Grief will lead to desperate decisions and grave actions. One basic tenet of magic is that a spell’s strength is dependent on the user’s will. To raise a Soul Stealer, you have to be walking the edge of madness. That speaks more to a parent’s grief, than a girlfriend’s.”
Studying Gavin, she had to silently disagree with her uncle. It was too easy to remember facing the Stealer as she realized she’d fail Gavin again, and the resulting wave of choking horror sucking her into a bottomless well of despair.
“Go talk to Tala.” The sound of Mulcahy’s voice cut through her dark thoughts. “See what she can give you on the Walker girl.”
Her grip tightened on the blanket and she moved toward the patio door. As she drew even with Gavin, he snagged her close. She leaned into him briefly. The faint brush of his lips against her hair helped to chase away the lingering shadows, settling her. She left him to finish the conversation.
Sliding the patio door open, the cabin’s warmth wrap around her, battling back the early morning chill and leaving pebbled skin behind. She set her teacup in the sink before heading to the living room. Time to go wake the witch.
Ash’s quiet warning snarl as she stepped just inside the living room made her pause. Crouching until they were eye level, she met the amber gaze and flared teeth of the guarding wolf. “I just need to talk to her, and I’m really not in the mood for you this morning.”
Another snarl rolled forth.
Taking a page from Tala’s book, Raine leaned forward and nipped Ash’s nose. His startled yip and disgruntled look left her smiling.
“Ash.” At the quiet command, the wolf turned to look at his mistress. He swung back to Raine, huffed, then with careful dignity, made his way to Tala.
Raine settled on the floor tailor fashion. Tala’s blonde hair was a tangled mess, the typical braid a long forgotten memory. Sleep erased the drawn look from the night before, but the bruised circles under her eyes stood out starkly against her pale skin.
Raine watched Tala scratch Ash absently behind one ear then turn her attention to Cheveyo. The soft mutterings of the fire smoldering behind the couple broke the quiet. Skin-ruffling magic tripped across Raine’s flesh as Tala examined Cheveyo on every level.
Mentally, Raine held her breath as the minutes ticked by. She wasn’t as convinced as Gavin that his illusions would hold. When he asked her why, she explained how—if she knew to look for it—she could see the subtle differences in his magic. It didn’t make sense that someone as powerful as Tala, or Cheveyo, for that matter, could miss it. Even Gavin’s assurance that she was the only one to “see” magic hadn’t helped.
The unsettling feeling of Tala’s power faded away. The blonde rubbed her eyes and arched her spine, a low moan escaping at the soft pop when her vertebrae realigned.
“How’s he doing?” Raine asked.
Tala looked at her, and Raine was relieved there was no freaky white in those dark eyes. “The same,” she said, her answer quiet.
Raine frowned. “Shouldn’t he be getting stronger now that we’ve broken his connection to the Stealer?”
Tala cocked her head. “Have we?”
Confused, Raine stared. “Have we what?”
“Cut the ties between him and the Stealer.”
Too much lay under that question and Raine fought to keep her pulse level and her body relaxed. “What do you mean?”
Tala watched her closely as the tension in the room began to rise. “What do you see?”
Raine felt herself getting lost in this conversation and that was not a good thing. She looked at the unconscious man between them. “He’s too thin, starved. He looks like he’s been a prisoner for months instead of days.”
“No!” The word snapped out like a slap, jerking Raine’s attention back to Tala. Red rode high on the witch’s cheekbones. “What do you see, McCord?”
Choking back her automatic need to retaliate, Raine paused and realized what Tala was really asking. Taking a breath, she lowered her psychic barriers until the scene in front of her burst forth, its light and colors painting a surreal picture. “What am I looking for?”
Tala’s aura shimmered as she leaned forward. “What do you see when you look at Cheveyo?”
Tricky question
. Raine chose her words with care. “His magic is still weak, but better than before. It’s wrapped in your magic.”
“And yours?” Tala’s question was sharp.
Examining the connection between her and Cheveyo, Raine could make out the delicate warp of Gavin’s as it merged with hers. “It’s still connected to him.”
“Are there others?”
Raine switched her attention from Cheveyo to Tala. The witch’s glow pulsed, the gold darkening as if agitated. “Others?”
“Yes.” Tala’s tone was impatient. “Other magic, something that doesn’t look right.”
Besides the newly formed bond between her and Gavin and the sleeping witch? She studied Cheveyo’s magic, trying to skim the psychic waves. She didn’t want to go too deep, not without Gavin next to her and he was still outside talking with Mulcahy. Nor did she want to disrupt the delicate weave of Tala’s healing magic. With her luck, she’d end up bound to another damn witch.
“Everything seems as it was last night,” she answered, still trying to figure out what she was looking for. “I don’t know what you want me to see.”
Cool fingers snagged her chin and yanked her head up. Tala’s face was inches from her and the unsettling white was bleeding over her pupils. The spooky multi-tonal voice was back. “You will look, Weaver, and you will find the damaged bonds. Find them and fix them.”
Raine slammed her mental barriers back up so fast, sharp needles of pain reverberated through her skull. Raising her hands, she shoved the witch back. The steely fingers on her chin left gouges in her skin as she scrambled backwards in an awkward crab-crawl, leaving the blanket behind. “What the fuck?”
Her shove sent Tala back a few feet. “Find the threads,” the spine tingling alien voice commanded.
Pressing her back into the wall, Raine warily watched the crouching witch. Tala’s neck was bent as she visibly fought for control. When she threw her head back, her mouth twisted into a grimace. Raine saw the swirling fight of white and black in her eyes.
