by Deanna Chase
I fidgeted, picking at my fingernails, barely able to hold still. “What’s it doing?”
“I’ve had hunches like that before. It’s best to pay close attention to them, so I’m running a search on any businesses connecting Pittman and anyone on this list.” She tapped the book. Another click of the mouse and a map materialized. She typed something in and three tiny stars popped on the screen.
“Hot damn!” she said, smiling.
“Whoa. There are three matches!” A tiny bit of the weight on my heart lifted. “This isn’t Google Maps,” I said, watching multiple routes emerge and light up the screen.
“Cool, right? This handy program gives me detailed info on which streets to take based on a number of factors: time of day, residents, crime stats, schools, businesses, and socioeconomic demographics.” Another tap on the mouse and five avatars, all based on her more popular aliases, popped up. She clicked the one marked Tracker and the routes narrowed to two per location. She traced her pink fingernail over the green line. “This one is the most neutral. It’s probably the safest, but it’s also the one that’s the most predictable if anyone is looking for me.”
“So we’re taking the red one,” I said, realizing it would lead us right through vamp territory again. Being that it was already dark, it was the riskiest one if we had to stop for some unforeseen reason. Phoebe had over a hundred different ways to disguise herself, but all the vamps in town knew who she was and fooling them would be tricky at best.
“Was there ever any doubt?” She smirked and jumped to her feet. “Come on. We need to suit up before we go on our recon mission.”
“Recon? Not rescue?” My heart sped up and my chest tightened with emotion. We had to save Tal. We just had to.
“Recon first. Then rescue.” She grabbed my hand and tugged. “Trust me, Wil. The last thing we want to do is rush in unprepared.”
“Right. Of course.” But if it were solely up to me, I’d go in guns blazing, vampires and thugs be damned. I’d had just about as much as I could take and was ready to kick some serious ass.
She sent me a reassuring smile. “We’ll bring him home. I promise.”
Until we found him alive, no one could make that promise.
“Trust me.” Her voice went soft, as if she was speaking with a fragile victim and not another agent of the Void.
I straightened my spine, resolved. “Of course we will.”
Ten minutes later we were back in the car, laden with a new stun gun, binoculars, magically enhanced voice amplifiers for eavesdropping, a collection of nasty spells originally intended to paralyze vamps and whatever else Phoebe had in her bag of tricks. The paralyzing spells were normally too potent for humans, but if the people holding Tal were hopped up on his drug, the spells might be the only thing that could give us an advantage.
I sat back in my seat, trying to compartmentalize all that had happened that day: the attack from the mysterious daywalker, Tal being abducted, David and Allcot stepping up to help.
David. What had happened to the man I’d met over a year ago in my shop? I now knew he’d been sent to watch over me. He’d been human then. And maybe he hadn’t been completely honest with me, but he had been real. This new David? He acted too much like his father.
Phoebe glanced over at me. “You all right?”
I clutched Link a little tighter and nodded. “Fine.” Link pressed into me, showing me support the only way he knew how.
“Good. ’Cause things are about to get sticky.”
“Huh?”
The car swerved right, then left, barely missing a truck that came out of nowhere.
“Who the hell was that?” I cried, holding on to the dash to keep from flying forward as she braked sharply and turned left down another darkened street. Three more turns and she popped out onto North Claiborne.
“Phoebs?”
She flew through a yellow light and let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry about that. The gang lord of that neighborhood likes to do traffic checks on unfamiliar vehicles sometimes. So far I’ve managed to avoid them all.”
“The gang lord? Traffic checks?” What was she thinking? “And that’s the neighborhood you chose for your ‘safe house’?”
She smiled sheepishly. “It’s the perfect hideout, right?”
“Until they find out who you are and use you against the Void,” I scoffed. “If they ever catch you, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”
She stopped at a red light and I stared out the window at the convenience store sign for Noble Snacks. The first three letters had been burnt out for as long as I could remember. It now read le Snacks. Classy.
“Relax, Wil. I keep my spells with me at all times. Worst case, I’d knock them out and hit them with a memory spell. They’ll never see it coming.”
I slumped down in the seat, unconvinced. I hated the idea of her spending time in that neighborhood by herself. I had to admit, no one would go looking for her there. But if anyone cared to take a closer look at her operation, she’d go missing in a heartbeat. Gang lords didn’t take kindly to outsiders on their turf.
Phoebe reached over and pressed a button on her dashboard GPS. A moment later the same screen that had been on her computer showed up and the car calculated directions to our first stop.
“How did you choose where to go first?”
She shrugged. “Just call it a hunch.”
I raised my eyebrows in question.
“It’s where I’d take someone if I didn’t want anyone to see or hear what I was doing.”
My frown deepened. Like her fake shack house. Now I knew why she never took me on recon missions. Stalking vampires was one thing, but going into the slums was entirely another. Faeries didn’t go unnoticed. I bit down on the urge to protest and braced myself for whatever came next.
Before long, we were headed over the Crescent City Connection, the bridge that spanned the Mississippi River. She took the second exit, steering us into the heart of Algiers. It was a part of town I’d never been in before. The car bounced over uneven roads through the darkened streets. Once again, there wasn’t a working streetlight in sight. Parked cars lined the street, giving the illusion of inhabitants, but everything was so silent there was a feeling of desertion.
“It’s creepy here,” I said.
She nodded. “It really is. This neighborhood used to be a prime hunting ground for the city’s vamps. Now as soon as the sun goes down, everyone disappears. There hasn’t been a report of a vamp sighting in months, but people don’t forget that kind of thing quickly.”
No wonder she’d chosen this location first. The residential streets gradually turned into retail shops and then large commercial warehouses. Phoebe circled a few blocks. “There,” she said, pointing at a darkened four-story brick building covered in ivy.
I raised my eyebrows. “Looks condemned and deserted.”
“That’s the point, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.” Link pressed his nose to the window, his tail raised in high alert. “He senses something.”
A wide grin spread over her face. “I guessed correctly then.” She rummaged around in her bag of tricks and pulled out two tiny earpieces. She handed me one. “Put this on.”
I did as I was told.
Phoebe glanced at me, frowning. “Here.” She tossed me another mousy brown wig that was shoulder length. I was already wearing jeans and running shoes. With the disguise, I’d be as nondescript as I could get except for my wings. But I had a feeling I was going to need those.
“Let’s go.” Phoebe hopped out of the car. Link scrambled over me, jumping out seconds before I did. He shimmered gold. His bones elongated, crackling with the shift. In full wolf form, he peered around, his eyes flashing with intelligence.
“Stay close to Willow, Link,” Phoebe said. He immediately trotted to stand beside me, his large body pressing against me slightly. She patted his head. “Good dog.”
I smiled. The two didn’t always get along due to the shoe
stealing, but when it came to hunting the bad guys, they had total respect for each other. Clutching my stun gun, I ran quietly behind her toward the warehouse. Link lifted his nose and the hair on his neck stood straight up. There was definitely trouble in that building. I didn’t know how he did it, but Link seemed to have developed a supernatural sense of when someone had ill intentions.
Phoebe stepped lightly and I fluttered slightly off the ground behind her. We were silent as we made our way to the back of the building. Phoebe put her finger to her lips, unnecessarily warning us to be quiet. She touched the side of the building, a white spark spreading out in a web network under her palm, and whispered, “Engage.”
Static filled my left ear. She adjusted a setting on her earpiece and the static in mine faded away. Neat trick to have them connected. I turned to give her a thumbs-up but froze when faint voices filled my ear.
“Our boy isn’t cooperating,” an irritated voice called.
Another person grunted. “Would you? As soon as the boss gets what he wants, that one is destined for the food den.”
I bristled, my wings tensed for flight. Food den was slang for forced vamp feedings. The idea of Tal being fanged by a vampire turned my stomach. Usually fae didn’t have to worry about vampire bites as we take measures against that sort of thing by ingesting Sunshine. It made our blood rancid to vampires. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t bite or that they wouldn’t. Piss one off enough and he wouldn’t hesitate to rip our throats out.
Phoebe pulled out a suspiciously familiar marbled green stone. I peered at it. I’d seen that jade pendant dozens of times before. It was Tal’s calming stone. She mumbled something in Latin and then pressed it into my hand. “The closer you get to him, the warmer it will get,” she whispered in my ear.
“How—?”
She held up her hand, cutting me off, and shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for questions. “Just follow me. If the stone gets hot, let me know.”
I nodded. She clutched her own sun agate with one hand and a tranq gun in the other. A feeling of pride swelled in my chest. Phoebe was armed to the hilt and willing to do whatever it took to find Tal. All of this was for him…and me, not the Void. If the new director found out she was tracking Tal at all, she’d be in some serious shit. That job was for whomever they’d assigned his case to.
I briefly wondered if we were doing the right thing, taking this on all by ourselves. But how could I know who to trust? Besides my mom, Phoebe was the only one. Everyone else—David, Allcot, anyone at the Void—they were all suspect. Everyone had an agenda. Everyone except Phoebe. She had nothing to gain from this except trouble.
Two things happened simultaneously to pull me out of my thoughts: the stone started to burn my palm and the thick heavy sensation of vampire coated me, weighting me down until my feet touched the ground again.
“Phoebs,” I whispered, but before she could turn around the earpiece buzzed and Tal’s voice filled my ear.
“You might as well end this now. She’ll never bring the drug to you.”
End this? What did he mean? End him? A sharp pain stabbed my heart. Why was he taunting them? I grabbed Phoebe’s arm.
She stared me in the eyes and then nodded to the stone in my hand. I needed to lead her to him. Shaking from the vamp energy clinging to me, I shut my eyes and concentrated. The stone was sending fire through my palm, consuming my entire hand. My reflexes begged to fling the thing from me, but I clutched it tighter. The stone was my best bet to find Tal.
I stepped forward, slowly gauging the heat level of the stone. No change. A few more steps and the stone cooled. Dammit. I shuffled back and headed a few more steps in the opposite direction. It warmed and then cooled again. The spot in the middle was the most intense connection.
Glancing up, I spied a bar-covered window three stories high. Luckily I had wings. I nodded toward it and thrust through the vampire fog, fluttering to the side of the window, careful to only take a peek and not expose my presence.
My breath caught. Bright fluorescent lights illuminated a Plexiglas-enclosed lab. Tal was inside, his wrists and ankles shackled together. He was also stripped bare from the waist up with a dozen electrode wires attached to his body.
No! Dark circles lined his eyes, and his skin was so pale I could see the veins in his chest and neck.
This was not happening. It couldn’t be.
But it was. They had already done considerable damage. I wanted to scream at him to just give them what they wanted. Nothing was worth what they were putting him through.
That tiny voice in the back of my head reminded me that once they got what they wanted, they’d either kill him or exploit his gifts until he was a shell of his former self. It wouldn’t be the first time a vamp had turned a skilled fae into a slave.
If I wasn’t careful, it was how I’d end up.
We had to get him out now.
I dropped to the ground, careful to land lightly. Any sound at all could alert the vampire within. Phoebe pressed her lips together in grim acceptance at what must have been my wild-eyed panicked look. She ran a light hand down my arm, trying to soothe me. When I opened my mouth, she shook her head violently and pointed to the roof.
Then she mouthed, “I’ll meet you up there.”
I nodded once and glanced at Link, who was slinking off around the side of the building. He’d catch anyone trying to flee. Steeling myself, I thrust upward and fluttered inches above the flat rooftop.
A soft light flashed, followed by Phoebe materializing out of thin air. Another neat and useful trick. Witches who could materialize were rare. The spell took an incredible amount of energy. She would likely only be able to use it once, maybe twice more before depleting her magic. She stood unmoving while we studied the building, planning our attack.
There were two chimney stacks, three air-conditioner vents, and a steel door leading into the building. The door was out. Too obvious. No way was I going to fit through the chimney, so that left the air-conditioner vents. Phoebe frowned. The only way to get through without making any noise would be to use vanishing spells. Not ideal since at this rate, she’d drain all her energy before we ever got a chance to kick some vampire ass.
I held my hand up, asking her to wait. Still flying, I searched every inch of the roof and then around the top of the building until I came to the side covered in ivy. There. Peeking out from behind the foliage was a broken window, free of the usual wrought-iron bars. Upon closer inspection, I realized all the windows on this side hadn’t been barred. Someone had been too lazy to clean up the overgrown ivy.
I flew back to Phoebe and waved her over. She stepped lightly, careful to not make a sound. When we got to the edge, she knelt down and flattened out on her stomach to peer down the wall. She turned and grinned at me.
Now we were in business.
I pointed at the ivy and then myself. I was skilled with life magic and spent my days manipulating plants. Clearing the ivy was a piece of cake. I hovered near the building, letting my wings hold me steady in the air, took a deep breath, and then lightly touched my fingertips to the nearest vines.
Their life rushed into me, giving me the familiar jolt of energy, but instead of manipulating it and forcing it back into the plant, I took it and stored it away inside me and watched as the small section of the ivy wilted before my eyes. I smiled and repeated the process until enough of the plant fell away from the window, leaving us with enough room to squeeze through.
Phoebe nodded her approval and indicated she’d go first. We hadn’t exactly made a plan. We didn’t even know how many people were in the building. So far, I knew there were the two humans who were torturing Tal and at least one vampire who was hiding somewhere. He was close, but not so close it was affecting my ability to move. Not like what happened in Mid-City earlier in the day.
Three wasn’t so bad, but it would be better if Link was inside. Phoebe could take the vampire down. But if the humans were on Tal’s new drug, we could be in ser
ious trouble.
No time to stop and worry about it now. Tal was in bad shape. I wasn’t leaving without him.
Phoebe grabbed hold of the ivy I hadn’t killed, climbed down the side of the building, and disappeared through the window. My pulse started to race. I gripped my stun gun tighter and fluttered to the window, squeezing my way in.
A flash of light momentarily blinded me, followed by a cry, and then a grunt of pain filled the warehouse. Footsteps echoed against the wall.
Dammit! That had to be Phoebe. What had gone so terribly wrong so fast?
There wasn’t a ledge or anything to climb down on. How had she gotten to the floor? Magic? My only choice was to crawl out the window or flutter to the floor and pray no one saw me. There wasn’t any contest. Phoebe and Tal needed me.
Something in the air seemed to shift. Fear gripped me as the metaphysical weight of a vampire weighed me down, forcing me to drop to the concrete below.
And before I could even blink, the form of a chiseled vampire with glowing blue eyes materialized before me.
“Willow Rhoswen,” he said lightly with a smile I was sure he intended to be welcoming but came off as chilling. From his exposed fangs to the warrior stance, he was one hundred percent predator. It took all my effort to not shrink back into the shadows.
Instead, I bore the curse of his vampire weight and squared my shoulders. “Release Talisen. Now. Or this is the last moonrise you’ll ever see.”
Chapter 18
The sleek, platinum-blond vampire stared at me. His lips curled as his laughter filled the warehouse.
Nervous energy mingled with my fear. Where was Phoebe? Was she hurt? I didn’t dare take my eyes off the vampire in front of me. At that moment, my only defense was my stun gun, and if I didn’t see him coming, I was a dead fae.
“What do you want from us?” I demanded, holding my ground. I stood with my feet apart and my finger stroking the trigger of my gun. One movement from him and I was ready to stun his ass.
