“Of course I know Malachy Moray.” Orin looked up and frowned. “We had…business dealings in the past.”
Finn snatched back the picture, and Orin gave a small gasp, his eyes following it back into Finn’s coat pocket.
“Do you know where we can find him?” Finn pressed.
Orin shook his head. “I assumed he died in New York.”
My heart sank, and I circled around the desk. “Do you know anyone who could help us locate him?”
Orin opened his mouth to say something, but an explosion roared through the club, shaking the foundation. I grabbed onto the edge of the desk and stumbled to my knees, my ears ringing.
“What the hell?” I cried.
Orin bore his fangs and flew across the desk and out the door in a flash.
Finn hovered over me, holding me steady. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m—”
He grabbed my arm and shoved me beneath the desk.
“What are you doing?” I cried, wrenching away.
“Stay there!” He turned, shouting his Druid spell to make his sword appear before racing out of the office.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I scrambled across the floor and raced after him.
Clouds of smoke filled the air. The entire front end of the building gaped open, and a pack of giant wolves streamed inside, gnashing their teeth and snarling. They slammed into the hordes of dearg-dubh, ripping their limbs apart. Screams filled the club, drowning out the thundering music still pumping from the speakers. Blood streamed through the thick haze of dust, splattering across piles of rubble and shattered furniture.
Orin tackled one of the wolves, his neck muscles bulging as he wrestled it to the ground. Grabbing it by its scruff, he lifted the animal over his head and threw it against the wall, breaking its back.
I raced to Finn’s side.
“Púcas!” He sneered, as if it were a curse, and jumped into the fray, hacking at a gray wolf dragging a female dearg-dubh by her ankle.
“Shapeshifters?” I shouted over the screams.
A púca darted through the air toward me, its yellow eyes beaming through the dust. My old instincts kicked in, the pulsing force billowing up from my belly and through my fingers. With a flash of my hand, I cast the creature back against an overturned table, and the wolf curled on the floor with a whimper. Two more púcas charged, their yellow eyes flashing. Power shuddered through me, and I blasted a shock wave of pure force against them, their bodies twisting in the air before crashing hard against the wall. Plaster rained down on them as they crumpled to the floor.
“Elizabeth!” Finn called through a broiling mess of fur and white flesh.
I charged toward him, spying a púca charging for an attack. Its spine rippled before the creature leaped into the air.
“Watch out!” I screamed.
The wolf slammed against Finn’s chest, its jaws fixing on his arm. Finn thrust his sword through the animal, its insides spilling all over the dance floor and glistening beneath the strobe light.
“There are too many of them!” He dodged another attack and brought his sword down on the neck of a púca. “Get to the car!”
One of the wolves climbed onto the bar, its nails dragging across the gleaming wood. Its shaggy blond pelt shivered and shook, and he shifted into a giant man with a thick beard. A long leather trench coat billowed around him, tattoos covering every inch of his skin.
“Orin! Come with us and no one else needs to get hurt,” the man shouted over the chaos. He pointed to Orin, flashing a dark tattoo on the back of his hand.
Orin stood in the middle of the club, surrounded by wolves, his shirt ripped to shreds, his fangs bared. The music had stopped and the tinkling sound of broken glass and groans from wounded dearg-dubh echoed through the surreal silence.
Finn’s back pressed up against mine as five of the wolves circled us, closing us in.
“Can you transport us out of here?” he hissed.
“Not without Orin,” I said beneath my breath.
The dearg-dubh panted, his fists clenched. “I’m not going anywhere with you, Phelan!”
“You’ve been infringing on our territory, and it’s time to pay up.” The man made a gesture and the wolves attacked, ropes of saliva flinging across the club. My powers surged through my limbs, and before they could sink their teeth into Orin’s flesh, I blasted a ball of pure energy against them. It rippled across the room with an unseen force. With a howl and a whimper, they slammed into the walls and collapsed.
My fingers dug into Finn’s wrist. “Cover me!”
The club exploded with snarls and screams, but I broke into the blank quiet of the astral plane, collecting Finn and Orin’s energies. Throwing my web around them, I gathered them close into my sphere of power and sent the rest of my mind barreling into Finn’s car. When I opened my eyes, I found us all safely inside.
Finn looked around, his hands drifting across the steering wheel, bewildered.
“Go! Go!” I screamed.
He cursed and threw the car into gear, sending us racing down into the tunnels below Chicago.
Chapter Six
I grabbed the oh-shit handle as Finn swerved through four lanes of traffic, horns blaring in our wake.
“What the hell happened back there?” he shouted to the backseat, where Orin lay sprawled clutching his stomach.
“That,” Orin panted, “was none of your business.”
“You make it my business or we can take a detour to Fianna headquarters right now.” Finn slammed the stick into fifth gear. “What’s an army of púcas doing in downtown Chicago?”
“I’ll tell you…” Orin’s voice faded out. “It’s just…”
I turned around to face the dearg-dubh. A sheen of blood gleamed on his black shirt in the reflection of the street lights.
“Finn!” I cried. “Orin’s hurt!”
He cursed and turned sharply to go up a ramp. Then we drove into a dark alley, and Finn jumped out of the car and dragged Orin from the backseat.
Opening my door, I hovered over them, my heart pounding. Orin had clues about the Children of Lir, and I needed that useless dearg-dubh alive.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked.
Finn placed his hand on his side, glowing light emanating from his fingertips.
Orin sighed and his eyes rolled back in his head.
“He took a wound through the kidney, but he should be fine.” Finn collected him in his arms, lugging him over his shoulder in a fireman carry.
“Put down that dearg-dubh, Finn O’Connell!” A strong female voice rang through the alley.
Finn’s shoulders slumped, and he muttered a curse under his breath.
“Yes, Taisha.” He set Orin down in the snow.
The dearg-dubh emitted a low grown but didn’t stir.
A woman with long, thin braids emerged out of the darkness. She raised her chin and surveyed us with her wide eyes. Regina and Seamus followed her, weapons raised.
“We were just on our way to Trinity,” Finn said hurriedly. “There was a disturbance at Scáth.”
Taisha nodded. “We are aware of the events at Scáth tonight. Our insiders at Chicago PD are on cleanup. Is the dearg-dubh dead?”
“One of the púcas bit him, but he’s healed now.”
“A pity, that.” Taisha’s lip curled up in disdain. “Take this bloodsucker to Trinity.” Taisha’s eyes drifted to Finn’s car. “That is, if you do still know the way there. Our GPS tracked you going in the opposite direction.”
Finn stared blankly at Taisha for a moment before gathering Orin’s body and placing it back into the car.
Taisha wheeled on me. “And who are you?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Regina beat me to it.
“This is Elizabeth Tanner,” she said. “King Bodb Dearg’s granddaughter.”
The woman flashed me a cruel smile, her eyes narrowing at me. “Ah, so you’re the aos sí that gave the Fianna so many problems
a few months ago.”
Taisha chuckled, and the sound chilled my blood.
“Ah, yes,” she said. “I’ve heard about you, Elizabeth Tanner.”
Finn walked around the car. “Elizabeth is helping me with my initiate quest.”
Taisha turned to go and called over her shoulder. “Bring her, too. Amergin will need to know she’s in Chicago.”
Fuck that, lady.
At the sound of Amergin’s name, I closed my eyes and focused my energy to travel out. A strong hand closed on my wrist.
“Don’t leave me,” Finn whispered in my ear.
The desperation in his voice startled me, but I wrenched my hand away. “I’m not going back into Fianna custody. Do you remember what happened last time?”
A pained look crossed his face, but he composed himself. “Orin knows something, but he won’t talk to me. He’ll trust you, Elizabeth.”
My gaze flitted to Orin in the backseat, and I shook my head. “Fine.”
Finn opened the door for me, and I hopped in. He slammed it into gear, and the car lurched forward, wheels squealing.
“Whoa! Where’s the fire?” I clicked on my seatbelt.
Finn didn’t answer but looked forward, a dark glare contorting his features.
“So that’s your new boss?” I said after a few awkward minutes.
Finn made a slight nod, his hands gripping the steering wheel.
“And you don’t like her,” I said.
“No, it’s not that I don’t like her…”
“It’s that you have a problem with female authority.”
“Christ, Elizabeth,” he hissed.
He turned into Lincoln Park, downtown skyscrapers giving way to slim brownstones.
He began again in a quiet voice, “Taisha was the head of Trinity New York, back in the 1800s, and she was my commander then just as now.”
We stopped at a stoplight, the red glare casting a spectral gleam over his face. The light changed and the car purred forward.
“Taisha is an incredible commander. Fearless…” Finn trailed off, struggling to say the words.
“What?” I insisted, my fingers tracing the weave of my seatbelt.
“The night we raided the button factory, the night Charlotte died, we came across a group of unauthorized dearg-dubh. ‘Illegals,’ I suppose you would say. Fianna protocol is to round them up and deport them back to Tír na nÓg. We only use force if they resist or get nasty.”
Finn swallowed hard, shaking his head. “But what happened was a massacre. These were not just thugs and gang lords. There were children there, too. Whole families and she wasted them. Mercilessly.”
“Did you tell Amergin? What did he do?” I asked, horrified.
“Malachy set fire to the factory. I had no proof. What could I do? Taisha was my superior. It was her word over mine, and I was so destroyed with grief. At the time, maybe…” He trailed off again.
“What?” I pressed. “Maybe what?”
“Maybe I thought they deserved to die. I don’t know. I don’t believe that now, but you must understand…Charlotte…” Finn took a deep breath. “The Fianna mate for life, Elizabeth. You know that?”
“Yes,” I whispered, staring out the window.
Finn cleared his throat. “Anyway, that was a long time ago, and things have changed. But…I’ve never forgotten that night. I’ve never forgotten the look on those children’s faces as she mowed them down like dogs.” Finn let out a long exhalation, and he turned onto the street leading to Trinity. “And Taisha knows I’ve never forgotten it.”
Taisha, Finn, Orin, and I sat in what used to be Finn’s office. She had taken down some of the paintings and the books on the shelves, but other than that, not much had changed. Orin still reeled from his wound, holding his side and bending over slightly.
Finn glanced at the dearg-dubh. “Taisha, Orin should really be looked at by Máirtín.”
“This isn’t an ER, O’Connell,” Taisha snapped. “I need to know what an army of púcas is doing in downtown Chicago.”
Orin glared at Taisha. “I have no idea.”
“You’re lying.” She rose from her chair and leaned over him. “We know you’ve been involved in illegal activities here in Chicago. Púcas don’t just blow up bars for nothing. How did they get here? Did your kind bring them over?”
“Do we look like dear friends to you?” Orin sneered. “I have no idea how they got here.”
“Was this a turf war?” Taisha insisted. “Are they dealing in the city?”
“Now why would I know a thing like that?” Orin smiled sweetly up at Taisha. Before I could even blink, she landed a punch on his jaw. His head snapped back, and he bolted to standing, his fangs flashing.
Well, that escalated quickly.
Finn pounced on him and threw him back in his chair.
“Back off, bloodsucker,” he hissed.
Orin brushed himself off and sat up straight. He glared at me as if I should have done something to intervene. I looked away, crossing my arms across my chest. Orin would get no sympathy from me.
“I would like to remind you who you are dealing with, Taisha McKay,” Orin growled. “I am head counselor to the Fae King.”
“You think I give a rat’s ass about your Fae King?” Taisha leaned over Orin. “You’re in my house now. I know you’re dealing in Chicago. I can’t prove it yet, but I will. So, the way I see it, you can either help me get these púcas and Amergin might go easy on you, or you and your Fae brothers can all go down together.”
Orin looked up at Taisha, his eyes narrowing. “Like I said, I would love to help you, but I’m afraid I’m as confused about this attack as you are.”
Taisha leaned in close to Orin and whispered. “I’ll be watching you, dearg-dubh.”
Orin shrugged. “And this is different how?”
She pointed to the door and glanced at Finn. “Show this bloodsucker out.”
Finn hesitated, stealing a worried glance in my direction.
“O’Connell!” Taisha barked. “Do I need to repeat myself?”
Finn grabbed Orin by the back of his neck and dragged him out of the office. The door clicked shut behind him, and I shrank in my chair.
Taisha whirled around, her eyes boring into me.
“So, Elizabeth Tanner,” she drawled, leaning against the desk. “You’re helping Finn O’Connell with his initiate quest?”
I nodded. “We have a mutual interest.”
“Rumor has it the two of you have demonstrated mutual interest on several occasions.” Taisha smirked and shook her head, her smile turning to a dark stare. She tapped her fingernails on the desk, her brown eyes studying me. “I wanted nothing to do with this little deal you and Finn made to work together, but I was overruled. What Amergin wants with that Fae is beyond me.”
I sat up straighter in my seat. “What does Amergin want with my mother?”
She raised her eyebrows and traced circles on the surface of her desk. “That is the question, isn’t it?”
Taisha knew something I didn’t, and the realization gnawed at my insides. I was a fool to think Amergin was simply doing a favor for the Faerie King. He had reasons, a larger design. Of course he did.
“You’re welcome to stay in this house, assist Finn in any way.” She stood up, circling the desk to face me. “But know this: the Fianna take care of their own. If you fuck with my initiate, if you put Finn in harm’s way, I will turn that pretty face to ash. You’re unnatural beings, all of you Fae. You don’t belong in this world.”
Her hand brushed against a large knife slung on her hip.
I ground my fingers into the armrests, trying to dispel the fizzy-pop feeling running through my hands. “Finn knows the risks. He approached me.”
Taisha shook her head, a pained look crossing her face. “Of course he did.”
She turned away, gathering a stack of papers on her desk and flipping open a thin silver laptop. “Get out of my office. I have work to do.”
/> I opened my mouth to ask Taisha again about Amergin’s interest in my mother, but she looked up and shot me an icy stare. With a huff, I turned and darted out the door.
“Oof.” I smacked right into Finn’s broad chest.
His hands cupped my elbows and he stooped to meet my gaze. “I’m sorry I left you alone in there.”
“It’s fine.” I rubbed my temples. “I’m just tired.”
Finn’s hand tightened on my shoulder, and his gaze softened. “It’s been a long day.”
“So what now?” I looked up at him. “Should we go after Orin?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I need to talk to my crew. I mean, Taisha’s crew,” he quickly corrected himself. “I haven’t seen them since I returned from London, and they might know something about The Children of Lir.”
We wound through Trinity Chicago’s opulent Victorian mansion, Finn leading me down several staircases until we came to a large living area. Antique furniture filled the room, but a giant TV stood in the corner, a race car video game flashing on the flat screen, the sound of roaring engines cutting through the speakers. Regina and Seamus gripped video game controls, their thumbs pounding the buttons. Máirtín sat in a corner with headphones on, immersed in a novel. I scanned the room, looking for Grainne, but I didn’t see her bright smile or fiery red hair anywhere.
Seamus let out a huge groan as Regina’s car crossed the video game on the flat screen. “Every time!” He threw his controller on the ground. “You don’t even know how to drive!”
“Shut up, Seamus, I do too know how to drive.” She shoved him with her shoulder as they set for another match.
“I’ve ridden in a car with you, Regina. You definitely do not know how to drive!”
Regina opened her mouth to insult Seamus, but then she saw Finn in the doorway and grinned. “You’re back!”
Máirtín put down his book and lifted his headphones from his ears. He smiled at me, nodding a quiet hello.
Seamus snapped off the television before turning to Finn with a warm smile. His gaze drifted over to where I lingered in the shadows by the doorway.
Children of the Veil (Aisling Chronicles) Page 5
