by Dianna Love
This had nothing to do with justice.
It was cold-blooded killing. Murderers.
Evalle went back to sorting out her thoughts, reaching the same conclusion. “This isn’t a vigilante. For a group killing like this, someone has to be behind it.”
“I had the same thought.” Quinn said, “We have to figure out who created that energy field.”
Evalle covered her face. “What if ...” She lowered her hand, exposing the disappointment that powered her words. “What if Macha is doing this to show the Beladors they’re making a mistake by following Daegan?”
“That’s possible, but—”
“It isn’t Macha’s style,” Evalle argued against her own point. “I’d expect a goddess with her power to vaporize hundreds at one time and make a statement.”
“Maybe in the past, but she needs followers. If she can convince enough Beladors to follow her before they align with Daegan, then we’re looking at—”
“War. Daegan said a war was coming, but I never dreamed it would be Belador against Belador. Is this the start of it?”
“I hope not.” Quinn had an even bigger problem now. How could he take Kizira’s body and run if the Beladors were facing a war? He’d planned to wrap up this investigation, then find Tzader to inform him and Evalle at the same time that he had to disappear forever with Kizira to protect the identity of his child. Quinn had stayed as Maistir as long as possible, but he’d put the Beladors at greater risk if he hid the body and stuck around.
He’d put Phoedra at risk if he didn’t get her mother’s body safely hidden.
That left him with only one option. He’d get Tzader to convince Daegan to declare Quinn an enemy of the Beladors once Quinn left.
He still had a little time left. He would not give up hope of finding a way to protect everyone he cared for, but he’d prepare Tzader, Evalle and Daegan before he made a final move.
When he reached Casper and the unconscious woman again, Quinn asked, “Has she stirred?”
“Nope.”
Evalle looked around as Isak approached. “Where’s Devon?”
“Those two guys we followed were just walking along and all of a sudden they took off, like with your kind of speed.”
Evalle met Quinn’s gaze with a hopeless look, but didn’t comment, which allowed Isak to finish explaining. “Devon said he’d meet us back here, then he left so fast I couldn’t tell you which way he went after the first ten feet.”
Quinn said, “Devon won’t engage without contacting me.”
“Right,” Evalle agreed then returned her attention to the unconscious woman. “We don’t have any prisoners and she showed up out of nowhere. I say we hold onto her until we have a chance to interrogate her.”
“Agreed,” Isak and Quinn said at the same time.
Adrianna lifted an eyebrow at them. “Where do we take her?”
Isak offered, “We can take her to my interrogation room.”
“No.” Quinn caught himself. An image of waterboarding came to mind. He wouldn’t treat her like a criminal. Yet. But he definitely wanted answers, and quick. Who was she? What was she? That power was unlike anything he’d seen before.
Was her presence tonight coincidental?
Not in his world.
She’d been here for a reason and she was going nowhere until he flushed it out.
Since Evalle trusted Isak and there was no time to segregate this group, Quinn made one thing clear. “I want this contained as a Belador issue. That means we need to keep it from VIPER.”
Evalle was quick to agree. “Absolutely. I have no doubt that Daegan will deal with the guilty.”
“Who’s Daegan?” Isak asked. He asked the witch, “Do you know?”
Adrianna drew a dainty breath and said, “Yes, but it is not my information to share.”
“What the hell, Adrianna?”
She rounded on him. “Don’t give me attitude when I have no idea how you’ll handle information on nonhumans. My knowledge of Daegan came from a classified mission. You do know what that means, right?”
Quinn looked to Evalle, who had a put-upon look. She said, “Isak?”
He whipped his head at her. “What?”
“Daegan now rules the Beladors, but he has not made any formal announcement or met with VIPER. We’re trying to give him time to get situated. He spent the last two thousand years locked up in Táur Medb, cursed into the shape of a dragon throne. Once we learned he was there, several of us launched an unauthorized rescue mission and now he’s our leader. I’m telling you because I trust you not to share this with anyone, not even your teams, until Daegan makes his plans known within the non-human community.”
“Nice to know someone trusts me.”
Adrianna sniffed at his comment, trying to look annoyed, but Quinn thought he saw hurt before she covered it with her usual in-control mask.
Casper said, “I only know about it because Quinn asked me to join you tonight and he explained this was an off-the-books mission. But I get it. If VIPER gets involved, the Beladors will be suspected of every infraction against the Medb.”
Isak said, “I thought that was SOP for these two groups.”
“It is,” Evalle replied. “The difference is that instead of leaving policing our group up to us, VIPER might take it another step and drag Beladors into Tribunals, where determining guilt isn’t as important as expedient judgment. As an example, if a deity asked a Belador whether they’d ever wanted to harm or kill a Medb and he or she said yes, that could prove guilt even if they had committed no crime.”
“Damn.”
“Exactly.”
Quinn’s gaze went to the woman on the ground. She’d curled up, soaked to the bone, and had started shivering. It wasn’t cold out here. Was she having a reaction to the Witchlock power?
Great. Now he was feeling guilty about someone who had threatened to attack them. He was ready to get moving. “Can we take her to your place, Evalle? It’s close.”
She gave the woman a quick perusal. “Sure. She’s contained.”
Isak shrugged. “That works for me.”
Quinn hadn’t said the soldier could join them, but Isak was now part of this.
Devon came running up to them, face flushed and eyes hinting he had something important to say. Thankfully, he spoke telepathically. Quinn, I’ve figured out something. I know you aren’t going to believe this, but those men were ...
Quinn watched pain cross Devon’s face as he hesitated to deliver the bad news that Quinn already knew.
Devon finished, I don’t want to accuse our people, but we need to talk with only Beladors present.
Quinn told him, Evalle and I have come to the same conclusion I believe you have reached. As much as I trust this group, I don’t want to share everything we know with non-Beladors.
I hear you. When I followed those two men after I sent Isak back, I found out what they were after before they split up. I tried to hang with them, but they’re actually faster than me.
What’d you find out?
They’ve been torturing the witches and warlocks to find someone who could open a tomb.
A tomb. His blood turned to ice.
Quinn felt his blood pressure bottom out, which had to be why Evalle gave him a worried look. Her empathic gift might not match Storm’s, but it was clearly functioning.
Quinn forced his brain to override his emotions. He had to act, not react.
It couldn’t be.
Queen Maeve wouldn’t have been killing her own people to get to Kizira’s body, would she? Why do that when she knew where Quinn had buried the body, and expected to receive it in less than two days? Plus, she had the power to compel her own people. Why would she kill them to get what she wanted?
That made no sense, but hell, he had no idea what she’d do.
Quinn ran back over what Devon had said. They weren’t just looking to open that tomb. The person employing those demons was also generating enough power to create that f
orce field, and make those warriors self-destruct against their will.
They wanted Kizira’s body.
Meeting Evalle’s questioning gaze, Quinn asked, “Can you clean this up without me and get that woman to your place?”
“Sure. What’s going on?”
“I’ve got to go somewhere before I meet you there. I’ll be right behind you.”
She hesitated and sent him a telepathic message. Is everything okay, Quinn?
I’ll know how to answer that when I see you at your building.
Got it. Speaking out loud, Evalle replied to him as if they hadn’t spoken telepathically. “We’ll be at my place in twenty minutes if nothing else happens, like humans deciding to come out and dance in the rain.”
The humans had to be as sick of the rain as the rest of them. Creeks were overflowing around the city and flooding had caused nonstop problems.
“Thanks.” Quinn turned to Isak and Adrianna. “Thank you, too, for helping tonight.”
Then Quinn keyed the button on a small transmitter he carried and started walking quickly toward 10th Street, taking the sidewalk in the direction of the interstate. He’d made it two blocks when a Lexus SUV pulled up along the curb. He climbed into the rear seat where a towel and scotch waited for him.
“Where to, boss?”
“Oakland Cemetery.”
Quinn dried his hair and slugged back two shots of single malt scotch during the ten-minute drive to the historic cemetery near downtown.
Not waiting for his door to be opened, Quinn climbed out and refused the umbrella offered to him. “I’ll only be a minute.”
“Yes, sir.”
With no humans around and having the cover of darkness, Quinn raced away at hyperspeed to reach Kizira’s tomb.
Chapter 8
With daylight coming in less than a half hour, Evalle strode into the building that never failed to brighten her mood.
This was home for her and Storm. The next floor up housed apartments currently in use by the twin boys, and Lanna, once she returned. The third floor had been dedicated as a play space for her sweet pet gargoyle. She and Storm had made the top two floors their home.
Her wise mate had dedicated this street level space for offices. A large part of it was already usable, but some space had been left unfinished until they took a tenant.
They had a functioning conference room plus two furnished offices, one of which was Storm’s and the other he’d designated as Evalle’s.
She had no idea what to do with an office, so she mostly visited his when she wanted to distract her mate.
Leading the way from the garage that could easily park ten vehicles, she walked into the conference room and pointed at a sofa Storm had installed for her and Feenix. Her sweet gargoyle enjoyed NASCAR. Even though Feenix had his own television in his play space upstairs, Storm had also installed a large flat-screen unit on the wall at the other end of the conference room for times when Feenix joined them down here.
Isak followed Evalle, carrying their still-unconscious captive.
Casper and Devon stayed behind to patrol the Midtown neighborhoods and Piedmont Park until daylight. No Medb attacks had happened during the day, which allowed the Beladors on patrol a chance to rest. So far.
Isak deposited the woman on the soft leather.
Adrianna entered next.
Evalle had caught Trey up on the way here and assured him Quinn would share more as soon as they knew more.
They’d all grabbed towels in the garage to dry off, but Evalle went down the hall to a bathroom and returned with a stack of hand towels she plopped on the conference table.
Isak lifted one and ran it over his head, which was no longer covered by his NVG gear. He asked Adrianna, “Any guesses on what she is?”
This was the first time Adrianna had been given a chance to look at the woman in decent lighting.
She shook her head. “No. I could feel the energy inside her when I put my hands on her, but I don’t know what it is. Which is strange.”
Evalle walked to the mini-fridge and grabbed bottles of water she passed around to everyone. There was a certain irony in being dehydrated after spending hours in a downpour.
She slaked her thirst and pointed her bottle at Adrianna. “What do you mean by strange?”
Isak chuckled. “Good point when strange is the operative word around you people.”
Adrianna had been about to reply, but she paused in that careful and controlled way she had. She cocked her head at Isak.
Evalle took one look at the witch and backed up.
Standing too close to a pissed off woman who held the power of Witchlock in the palm of her hand, literally, could be a deadly mistake.
“I’m not sure what is more insulting,” Adrianna began, turning her words on Isak. “Your comment about us being strange as if all humans are so normal or the way you said you people.”
Isak held up his hands. “I wasn’t saying strange is bad, just that it’s ... already unusual.”
Adrianna studied Isak. His hair should have stood up from that much intense witch focus, but the human didn’t know Adrianna as well as some of them did.
Evalle smothered a laugh.
When she’d first met Isak, he’d been toting his standard demon blaster and had made it abundantly clear to her there was no place in his world for anything not human.
That was before he discovered Evalle was not human.
He’d chased her for a bit, and had seemed fairly serious at the time. But that was before Evalle made it clear she only had eyes for Storm. Isak met Adrianna around the same time. Those two had mixed like oil and water. Isak’s attention to Evalle had been nothing compared to what he’d turned on the little witch now glaring at him.
Evalle had thought Isak possessed better survival skills until he started to speak again. Evalle shook her head at him and warned, “Put the shovel down while you’re almost ahead.”
Did Isak take the hint? No. When in doubt, men had their own standard “go to” reaction.
Isak crossed his arms and put on his intimidating look, which had zero effect on Adrianna. She muttered, “Never mind.”
Dismissing him, Adrianna finished her thought on their captive. “To answer your question, that woman’s energy felt strong, but as though it were wrapped in a protective casing. I couldn’t reach it.”
Evalle asked, “Not even with Witchlock?”
“I didn’t try with that. I’m still working through the learning curve on the power. Unless it’s a critical situation, I’m trying to use it only when I feel relatively certain I’m not going to have a backlash, blow something up or ... kill someone.”
They all looked at the unconscious woman. Evalle said, “She’s breathing, but her skin is losing color.”
“Her arm was very hot when I touched it,” Adrianna said.
Evalle grabbed a hand towel off the table. The room had a wet bar, but she stepped over to soak the towel with colder water from the water cooler. She placed the folded rag on the woman’s head.
When she stood up, she caught Isak smirking at her. “What?”
“Nothing. That’s ... very Florence Nightingale of you.”
“Aren’t you in enough trouble without pissing me off, too?”
He gave her an arrogant male grin. That bear had better watch himself. Evalle blew off his arrogance, but Adrianna would turn him into a bug and drop him in a frog pond.
Adrianna walked over and put her hand on the woman’s cheek. “Still hot. Worse, actually. I could try my majik on her again, but if she’s having a reaction to it, another shot might kill her.”
~*~*~
Reese stayed perfectly still, keeping her eyes closed and her breathing shallow, as if she was still out cold. She wished she were. Yáahl had said the medallion could heal her. He’d failed to say the pendant would take its time doing so.
Evidently it hadn’t healed all of her jötnar wounds, and the flush of having her power back had masked a g
ash in her side that had decided to continue bleeding.
And the jötnar poison was still running through her body.
Who were these people?
Why were they acting concerned after that witch had tried to kill her at Piedmont Park?
Reese had finally figured out her location after chasing down the guy, a Belador it seemed, with the female Medb. When had Beladors turned bad? And teamed up with demons? She’d only gone after the guy carrying the woman because she’d thought it was a human she’d be saving from a demon.
She couldn’t believe she’d risked her life for a Medb witch. They valued no one’s life. That stupid action had landed her in the middle of a Medb-Belador mess.
Oh, and to put the cherry on her day, she’d been caught by a Belador Maistir.
Quinn.
Yeah, this had jumped straight from bad to sucking beyond belief. In spite of Yáahl’s annoying habit of finding the best way to make her life miserable, she would’ve thought he’d drop her somewhere close to the body if he really wanted her to keep it away from the Medb.
So where was Kizira’s body? And how was Reese going to escape this group without her power?
Biting pain spread through her abdomen. She forced herself not to curl into herself and groan. If she could get out of here soon and find the medallion, she could still stop the poison. But from the way her body felt, she might have an hour or two, and that was only because she had less poison in her now.
The medallion had come off while she was fighting that demon. Talk about poor strategic planning on Yáahl’s part. How was she supposed to fight with one hand on the medallion? She had to get back to Piedmont Park before someone either picked it up as a found gift or threw it away.
Without that, she had no power to fight anyone nonhuman and no way to teleport the body back to Yáahl.
Her toes felt numb. Not good. If that persisted, they might turn black and fall off soon.
“You’d get answers faster at my place,” the one called Isak said.
Reese had names for each one. She’d regained consciousness when they’d parked in this building. The way Evalle had given instructions to everyone and played hostess had to mean she owned the building.
