Shattered Spirits

by C. I. Black

  A grainy recording filled the screen.

  “Hiro put MacCabe’s time of death at around ten last night.” He needed to get to Melissa, but he couldn’t pull himself away from a possible lead to a murder suspect.

  “And Gig says there’s only one person on the footage at that time.”

  A man walked into the picture, his back to the screen. Capri hit pause. The picture wasn’t great. The man was bald or had a shaved head and he was Caucasian, but that was it.

  Capri hit the play button, inching the footage along. “Come on. Look at the camera.”

  The man shifted. Over his shoulder, the light in MacCabe’s bike shop went out.

  “Does look like he’s waiting for someone.” Ryan leaned closer, savoring the heat radiating from Capri’s skin. All they needed was a clear profile, then they could try facial recognition programs and get an ID.

  The man shifted again. The door to the bike shop opened and MacCabe stepped out. He turned his back to the man, likely locking the shop’s door.

  The man stepped forward, away from the ATM. They were going to lose him without even getting a hint of his identity.

  Then the man glanced over his shoulder. Capri hit the pause button, capturing a perfect, grainy profile of Howard Pimm.

  Movement flickered in the dark computer screen. Ryan leaned closer to get a better look. What was in the video? What tiny detail could there be?

  “What do you see?” she asked. Her breath caressed his cheek, drawing shivers of need and desire.

  It was so damned distracting. He needed to focus on whatever was moving in the video.

  Wait. She’d pressed the pause button. There shouldn’t be any movement on it—

  Which meant it was a reflection of the greenhouse window behind them. Capri’s house sat on a large old lot. He’d barely seen the neighbors’ houses when he’d parked in the driveway, and only darkness had lain beyond the greenhouse windows when he’d first entered—although he had been rather distracted at the time.

  Maybe he hadn’t seen anything at all. Tree branches in the wind or something.

  The movement flickered again, something looming, drawing closer?

  Cold dread filled him. He turned and time suddenly moved too slowly. A man, outside, straightened in the bushes, a gun in his large hands.

  Ryan’s heart jerked. “Gun.”

  Capri wrenched around. The shot exploded, roaring through the glass and slamming into Capri’s chest. She lurched back and her hands flew to the entry wound as if that could somehow staunch the bleeding. Blood poured over her bra and across her pale skin.

  Oh, God!

  He reached for his sidearm, but it wasn’t there. It lay on the floor on the other side of the table with his shirt and her clothes.

  The man fired again.

  Ryan yanked Capri down and dragged her beyond the table into the cover of the plant-filled shelves, adrenaline consuming away any hint of pain from his ribs. “We have to get you to a hospital.”

  “I’m fine.”

  Another shot exploded around them, but from the other side of the greenhouse. Glass shattered.

  He pressed his hands against hers, adding pressure to her wound. “Your phone is on the table.”

  “It just grazed me.”

  The hell it did.

  “I’m fine.” Light radiated from her eyes. The ferocious monster she’d revealed on Raven’s steps earlier that day slid across her expression. “I’ll take care of this.”

  She pushed him aside, leapt up, and rushed around the shelf.

  Ryan scrambled after her. The man from the window fired again. Another man, a stocky guy with a flattened nose, fired from the doorway to the kitchen.

  Blood flared along her arm, but she didn’t even stumble. She raced at the man in the doorway, Flat Nose, and batted his gun aside.

  The man in the window, a bald guy with a spiderweb tattooed over his scalp, fired at Ryan.

  He dove back for the table. Another gunshot slammed into the wood inches above his head.

  He leapt up to grab the phone, but Tattoo fired three quick shots. Ryan jerked back and bolted for his clothes. Tattoo fired again, forcing Ryan away from the weapon and phone. His gun was so close. He could see it peeking out from Capri’s shirt.

  Someone yelled. Capri broke Flat Nose’s elbow and seized his gun. He relinquished the weapon but wrenched around fast, so damned fast, and rammed his fist into her face.

  She fired—she still had to be stunned from the punch—and hit him in the chest.

  Ryan yanked his attention from her. She could handle herself. But that was when she wasn’t bleeding. She’d been shot in the chest. Except she wasn’t moving as if she were in any pain.

  Tattoo fired again. Ryan dove for his gun, spiking pain through his ribs, and drew it from its holster and fired at the window. But Tattoo twisted to the side.

  How the hell—? The man had literally dodged a bullet.

  Tattoo sneered and fired again. Bang. Bang.

  Ryan scrambled around the table for cover, abandoning the chance of getting a phone. Capri raced toward him. Behind her, two more men crowded the doorway to the kitchen, holding MAC10s.

  Shit.

  Blood smeared Capri’s face and chest. She looked ferocious, terrifying, and wild. “Run.”

  He didn’t need to be told twice. He fired at the men behind her and bolted with her between the shelves and around a corner.

  Machine gun fire exploded around them. Bullets tore through plants and shelves. Glass shattered.

  The gunfire paused. “Come out, little drake,” someone called.

  Capri glanced around the shelf. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  “What?” Ryan peered around her. Two more men with MAC10s had joined the first guys. “You have got to be kidding me. We have to get out of here.”

  Something rattled, metal against the tiled floor. Click, click, click. And a grenade bounced into sight.

  “Holy Mother!” Capri leapt up, hauling Ryan with her, and they dove through the window. An explosion roared behind them. Ryan hit snow and rolled, leaving blood smeared across the pristine white. The cold stung his bare skin and it hurt to breathe. He leapt up, gun ready. Capri crouched beside him. The men in the greenhouse rushed toward them and more movement in the surrounding trees caught his attention.

  Another explosion ripped through Capri’s house. Someone yelled and a woman materialized out of thin air beside Capri. The woman screamed and slashed at her with a machete.

  Capri jerked back and fired, but the woman vanished and reappeared behind her.

  Ryan’s mind stuttered, but someone rushed from the shadows beside him and he didn’t have time to think, only react.

  The man punched. Ryan wrenched back, pointed his gun, but the man was too fast. He batted the gun down and rammed a fist into Ryan’s gut. Pain roared through Ryan’s chest. He yanked his gun back up and fired, hitting the man in the side. The man howled and staggered back but another took his place. Dark, shadowy-figured men and women dressed all in black surged around him.

  A MAC10 spat bullets into the ground beside him, and he twisted out of the way into an assailant’s grip. That man’s hand seared Ryan’s flesh, sending agony up his arm.

  The man slammed his free hand against Ryan’s bare chest. More agony. Burning, core deep. Ryan wrenched back, but the man held tight. The air shimmered around them and the world twisted with the promise of a future flash.

  Not. Now.

  Agony roared through his chest. The future flash continued to build. Behind him, a woman screamed. Ryan’s heart froze. He didn’t know if it was Capri or not.

  His vision shot out of him and whirled above him. Men and women swarmed around them. Three bodies lay at Capri’s feet. Flames engulfed her house.

  A man trained a gun on Ryan’s back and fired. Ryan jerked to the side and the bullet slammed into the man holding him.

  The future flash rippled, the agony from the man’s touch vanished, and the m
an dropped to the ground.

  Ryan staggered, his senses half in his body, half whirling above his head. He leapt at the man who’d fired at him. The man staggered back, but his foot caught in the snow and Ryan snagged his hand, seizing the gun.

  The future flash yanked Ryan’s senses up. A man with a MAC10 aimed at him. He grabbed the man in front of him and forced him around. Machine gunfire slammed into the assailant’s body.

  Capri screamed, her eyes wide. She shot the MAC10 guy and rushed to Ryan.

  “Run,” she roared at him.

  A woman swept around behind Capri.

  The future flash wrenched Ryan from his body again. The woman leveled her gun and fired, hitting Capri in the back, in the heart.

  Pain lanced Ryan’s side. Capri gasped. Her knees buckled, and he grabbed her. She clung to him as if that would keep her from falling. But the shot was fatal. Blood poured from her, staining the snow.

  “Run,” she growled.

  But he couldn’t leave her. He shot the woman who’d shot Capri.

  The future flash shot up. There were too many. He had less than half a clip left—if he was lucky.

  Another MAC10 guy raised his weapon.

  Capri shoved back from him. Somehow she’d found the strength to stand. “I. Said. Run.”

  CHAPTER 30

  “Run,” Capri growled.

  Not without her. Ryan wrapped an arm around her waist, took most of her weight, and shot the man beside him. The man staggered back and Ryan shoved past him. Machine gun fire spat through the snow beside him.

  He hauled Capri deeper into her yard, away from the street and possibly more dangers. She needed a hospital, but he couldn’t help her if she was dead.

  She shoved against his grip. “What are you doing?”

  “Getting us the hell out of here.” But his vision swept out of his body again. The assailants followed.

  One of them, a scruffy middle-aged man in a torn suit, raised his gun. He pointed it at Ryan’s back.

  Ryan wrenched to the side. The bullet slammed into a tree by his head.

  “We’re not going to get out of here.” She twisted out of his grip, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the pine grove a few feet away.

  How the hell—? She shouldn’t even be standing. Maybe he hadn’t seen what he’d seen. But she’d been shot—twice… maybe more?

  “There are six coming up fast,” she said.

  His vision trembled. He leaned against the tree beside him to keep his balance and trained his gun on the closest assailant. Bang. The woman dropped.

  “Now there are five. And I’m out of bullets.”

  “Get that woman’s gun and take out one more.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  She flashed him a fierce smile filled with heat and wildness. “Take the rest.”

  She leapt at the next guy, seizing his arm and slamming him into the tree behind her.

  The next man was on her a second later. He stabbed a sword at her, but she sidestepped the strike and kicked out his knee. He fell and she cracked her elbow against his face.

  Holy shit!

  His vision shot to a man standing back, raising his MAC10.

  Right. The gun. Ryan had to take out at least one more.

  He scrambled for the woman’s body, only half seeing. His vision twisted from bird’s eye to within him to just above his shoulder. This strange non-future flash was growing stronger. His adrenaline was fading and so was his control.

  The flash flickered to Capri. A new man punched her, knocking her to her knees. Blood poured from her nose and mouth.

  The man grabbed a sword on the ground. “I know how to kill a drake,” he said.

  Ryan blindly grabbed the gun.

  The man raised the sword as if to chop off Capri’s head.

  Ryan’s vision twisted. He fired, but his vision had jumped to the MAC10 guy before he could tell if his shot had hit. Ryan jerked the gun to him and fired again. MAC10 guy’s head snapped back and he dropped.

  The world wrenched around Ryan, twisting, rippling, out of control. Pain flooded him and he fought to breathe.

  “Are you hit?” A hand grabbed his shoulder. Capri’s hand, hot and radiating a sizzling electricity.

  “What?” He couldn’t think past the electricity and the churning world.

  “Are you hit?” Her hand trembled. “We can’t stay. You need a hospital.”

  He snorted. Somehow that jerked him out of the future flash or whatever the hell was happening to him. “You need a hospital. You were shot. Twice. I saw it.”

  He raised his head, his gaze hitting hers. He was falling into a blue sea, a Capri-blue sea. The fierceness was still there, but so too was a softness. Affection, directed at him.

  His mind stuttered. She’d been shot. His gaze dropped to her chest. She still only wore her black bra and panties. She was covered in blood, but there weren’t any entry or exit wounds in her chest.

  “How—?” His mind stuttered again. It didn’t make sense. It was impossible.

  He yanked his attention back to her face. Her nose and mouth no longer bled. But the injuries had only been seconds…? Minutes…? He didn’t know anymore. Nothing felt right. Nothing was right.

  “You’re not—you should be dead. You should—”

  “I’ll explain later.” She grabbed one of the dead assailants beside her and shoved him at Ryan. “Take his coat and boots. We don’t know if there are others still in the house.”

  He glanced toward the house. Flames engulfed it. It sat on a rise in bright roaring contrast to the night and snow and quiet surrounding them. But it hadn’t been quiet moments ago. Blood and bodies littered the ground.

  “Ryan.”

  He wrenched his attention back to her. She should be dead. He saw her get shot. Saw it before the weird future flash thing had happened.

  “Coat and boots. We need to get out of here. Now. Then we need to figure out who set this up.”

  She eased to the woman and pulled off her boots.

  Right. Immediate danger first. He could fall apart later.

  * * *

  Capri put on the dead woman’s boots and shrugged into her coat. Her chest hurt. Mother of All, did it hurt! She was a pretty fast healer; the bleeding had stopped shortly after the shots, but it still hurt. She hadn’t taken a beating like this in hundreds of years.

  Ryan pulled off the man’s boots. He looked like he was on automatic pilot. At least he was moving.

  “Do you think the attack had anything to do with the decapitations?” Uncertainty filled his expression, but it wasn’t uncertainty of who’d attacked them. He’d seen her shot. His mind was on the verge of shattering, unable to accept what he thought was impossible.

  “I don’t know. If it is, does this eliminate anyone in our suspect pool or move anyone to the top of the list?” Keep him focused on a mundane problem, something he was familiar with. Just long enough for her to get them someplace safe.

  She checked the woman’s coat for a phone, found one, and ensured she could call for help. Now they needed to get moving. They’d spent too much time there as it was.

  Ryan shrugged into the man’s coat. He shoved his hands into the pockets and pulled out a wad of bills.

  “That should come in handy.” They were going to need to get someplace safe and money for a taxi would be useful. “Let’s go.”

  He nodded, checked his gun, and she led them deeper into the grove. There was a gate in the fence at the back of her property. It led through a gully to the semi-major street beyond. Never before had she wanted to be able to gate without an anchor. Diablo’s rapid gating ability would have been really handy right at the moment. There wouldn’t be any footprints for their assailants to follow and she could get them someplace safe in a hurry.

  Ryan slipped and grunted. He pressed his arm against his side and panted. He was losing his mind and losing blood. The question was, which was going to kill him first?

  His impossi
ble aura, the one she wasn’t supposed to be able to feel, flickered around him, now fully visible. Except he didn’t have an aura. He couldn’t. He was human and not a mage.

  It was the stress of the situation, the agony still searing through her, and the panic of her inamorator’s life being threatened. That was it. But man! He glowed like all the assailants had.

  Her aura sight must be messed up. Getting a beating could do that to a girl. Her headache was back in full force. She’d tried using her earth magic on the first guy in her greenhouse and an agony she’d never experienced before had torn through her. After that, she’d been unable to summon her earth magic at all.

  And all of that just meant her aura sight was unreliable. She needed a place to hole up, take care of Ryan, and then figure out what the hell she was going to do. The question was, where to hide? The magic used in the fight proved the assailants had been mages. She didn’t recognize any of them as drakes, so they had to be humans. Which meant—

  Mother, why did her head have to hurt so much?

  It meant Ryan’s question still stood. Was the attack related to the decapitations or not? Not a lot of people knew where she lived, so it could have been the leak in the Asar Nergal. Or it could have been someone else.

  No. The attack had been big. At least a dozen mages, maybe more. That required resources. But whose? And God dammit, whoever that was owed her an entire hoard. All her beautiful flowers, burning.

  She pushed that thought away. Focus on the immediate danger. Losing her hoard was heartbreaking, but losing Ryan would destroy her. Find who did this, and end them. That was the goal. And because of all the mages involved, it had to have something to do with catching Boyd and the others earlier that night. Retaliation or something. She and her team had to be getting close to something big and someone powerful behind the mages. It was the only logical explanation. But who?

  “The only person I can think of, who would have had the funds and the balls for an attack of that scale on an FBI agent, is Raven Mitchelle,” Ryan said, as if reading her mind. “But that still doesn’t make any sense. Her business is too legit for something this stupid.”

  Unless it wasn’t legit. But she couldn’t say that and put Ryan onto Raven’s trail. She needed to keep him away from drakes, not get him more involved. But all those mage kids, not to mention Anaea—a human sorcerer—and Grey in Raven’s house implied the black drake was somehow involved in something more. Except Anaea wouldn’t be part of an attack on Capri. That didn’t seem her style and it certainly wasn’t Grey’s or Hunter’s. Not to mention that none of the mages who’d just attacked her had been kids. “So who else could it be?”