Dead to Me (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 5)

by Lisa Emme

  Balling the scrap of paper up in disgust, I jammed the bracelet over my hand and onto my wrist. I closed my eyes and took a calming breath. Deirdre was wrong. I didn’t know what to do. I had never learned how to cast or trigger a translocation spell. Unwilling to admit my ignorance, I allowed a sliver of my magic to flow out and caress the bangle at my wrist, examining it. After a moment, I found what I hoped I would – a magical trigger just waiting to be pushed.

  I opened my eyes and gave Isaac and Jonah one last nod and then gave the trigger a flick. The bracelet began to pulse and glow, sparkling as brightly as if the sun had been shining. I felt a tug on my wrist and then, knees buckling, the roof fell out from beneath me, a non-existent wind whipping at my face.

  CAW!

  CAW!

  CAW!

  I had just enough time to think, “Oh no, not Lucy!” and then all went black.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Having experienced the sensation once before, I was ready for the sense of falling. When the floor made an abrupt reappearance, I tucked into a roll, springing to my feet. I wavered for a moment, still disoriented, but managed to remain standing as I flung the still pulsing bracelet off my wrist. It landed on the concrete floor with a soft clinking sound.

  “Bravo! I had every confidence in you, darling.” Deirdre’s voice rang out from the dark. “See Arturo? I told you she was talented.”

  Arturo, obviously a mage and the creator of the translocation spell, stepped into the light. He was short, stocky and hairy, and reminded me of a dwarf. He grunted something unintelligible at Deirdre and flung out his arm. Before I could think to react, a dusting of powder drifted down over me. I tried to back away and brush the dust off only to discover that I was unable to move, completely frozen.

  Deirdre laughed. “Isn’t it marvelous, Harry?" She stepped up beside Arturo and patted him on the shoulder. “Freeze powder.”

  I sucked in a breath, relieved I could. “Mm-mmm-MM-mm!” I said, discovering my lips were frozen together.

  Deirdre laughed again. She crossed the space between us and I thought at first, she was going to kiss my cheek, but then she grinned and slid her hand in my front pocket, removing Drago’s brooch. “I’ll take this,” she said, pocketing it. She jerked her head at me with a smirk. “Check her for weapons.”

  I glared as a low-level vamp approached me and began patting down my pockets, quickly finding my folding knife and stun gun. He continued patting down my legs, his eyebrows rising in surprise when he discovered the knife at my ankle. He stood, tucking everything away in his own pockets.

  “MMM! Mm-mmm-MMMM!” Those were mine, the thief!

  “You better pat down her back. She tends to carry an invisible sword,” Deirdre added with a smirk.

  The vampire stepped beside me again and eyed me skeptically. Putting his hands on my shoulders, he slid them slowly over my back. When his fingers encountered my katana, he grunted in surprise, feeling along the leather sheath until he found the strap and pulled it over my head. No longer in contact with my body, the sword and its harness snapped instantly into view.

  Deirdre simpered, reaching out for the sword. “I’ll take that. If you play your cards right, darling, maybe Mommy will give it back to you.”

  I glared at her, hoping to convey all the anger and betrayal I felt for her.

  SMACK!

  Deirdre’s hand flew to her face and she stared at me in shock. I blinked back at her equally surprised. I had slapped her with my TK! Cool.

  SMACK!

  I gave her another one for good measure.

  “Stop that, you little bitch!”

  SMACK!

  Deirdre’s head flew back from the strength of the blow, blood trickling from her nose.

  “Stop her! Stop her!” she ordered.

  The vampire that had stolen my stuff grinned and reaching into his pocket pulled out my stun gun.

  “MM-MMMM!” Oh crap!

  My body jolted with the first zap but frozen as I was, I merely trembled in place, tears streaming down my face. He looked at the stun gun, impressed – it packed a pretty big punch for such a little device – and then grinned at me, pressing the prongs against my neck again.

  CAW!

  CAW!

  CAW!

  Lucy! I gaped at her through my teary eyes. She must have travelled with me through the spell.

  “What the fuck?" The vampire waved his arms as Lucy swooped down on him, her talons raking across the top of his head. He screeched as she came away with a clawful of hair.

  “Where did the fucking bird come from?”

  Deirdre frowned, keeping a careful eye on Lucy, who had perched up in the rafters above, cawing her displeasure.

  “She supposedly had a pet raven at the meeting,” Deirdre replied. It’s just a stupid bird. Leave it.”

  “That fucking thing attacked me,” he growled, pulling out what appeared to be a Luger handgun. It looked like something straight out of an old war movie.

  BANG!

  BANG!

  Lucy squawked, taking flight, the first shots luckily missing the mark.

  “I said, leave it!” Deirdre stomped her foot. “You’re going to shoot one of us the way you’re waving that thing around.”

  The vampire glared at Deirdre but lowered the weapon. He turned, his eyes falling on me. With a scowl, he swung out his hand, clipping me in the temple with the butt of the gun.

  “Fucking bird,” he growled.

  A wave of dizziness came over me and I felt my knees buckle. The force of gravity was too great for Arturo’s spell and I slid to the floor just as everything went black again.

  ***

  “Harry. Harry, dear. Wake up.”

  A hand shook my shoulder and I turned towards the voice, wincing as pain sliced through my skull. I put a hand up to my head.

  “That’s a girl. Get up now, Harry.”

  Arms reached under me, helping me to stand. They led me over to a bench along the wall.

  “There you go, dear. Have some water.”

  A plastic bottle appeared before my face. I squinted at it, still trying to get my bearings.

  “Eleanor?" I reached out for the bottle, missing it on the first try because I was seeing everything double.

  “Yes, dear. Here.” She pushed the bottle into my hand and I took a grateful sip.

  “Eleanor!” It suddenly dawned on me where I was and what was happening. I peered up at her and she smiled down on me like I was a precocious child.

  “You took quite a blow to the head,” she said. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” I replied, touching my temple tentatively. I winced as my fingers found a tender spot. “How are you? Are you okay? Where are the others? Have you seen Cian?”

  I jumped to my feet and looked around hopefully. We were alone in what appeared to be a prison cell. I leaned up against the bars, squinting into the gloomy corridor. Across the way, a hand waved.

  “Hey, Harry.”

  “Charlie? Is Nash with you?”

  Charlie Harris’s face appeared, framed by the bars of his cell. A second later, James Martin popped up beside him.

  “Just us, I’m afraid. They got you too, did they Harry?” Charlie asked.

  “No, they didn’t. Can’t you tell? I’m here to rescue you,” I replied.

  “You’d better sit down, dear,” Eleanor said, patting my arm. “I think you must have hit your head harder than I thought.”

  ***

  “So, you haven’t seen any sign of Cian since you were abducted?” I bit my lip with worry. Eleanor had filled me in on what had happened, but there wasn’t much to tell. When news of Salvador’s kidnapping went out, protocol was to secure the alphas. Nash had rushed to his mom’s house in time to be taken out with her guards. Drago’s men, armed with the “freeze dust” or whatever it was called, had simply ambushed them all, freezing them instantly, much like they had done to Salvador.

  Eleanor patted my hand. �
��I’m sure he’s all right, dear. A mother knows these things.” She gave me a knowing look. “Besides, I think you’d know too, don’t you?”

  I put my hand to the mate mark at my nape and nodded. Frustrated, I pushed myself up from the bench and started pacing the cell.

  “Deirdre told me why they want Nash, uh, Cian,” I said and I told her about my conversation with my traitorous parent. “But what I don’t get, and no offense, but what good are you to them? I mean, the packs already have new alphas so it’s not like your abductions would accomplish anything.”

  “I can answer that,” Charlie growled from across the room.

  “Answer what, you old has-been?" The voice rasped from the doorway leading out to a corridor.

  Charlie growled and grabbed the bars of the cell, hissing as a newly applied coat of silver burned his hands.

  “Carl Mullins!” I gaped at him in shock. Of course, I should have guessed. He acted sketchy at the council meeting, the way he was so interested in Drago’s brooch, and someone had to have told Deirdre about Lucy’s appearance at the meeting.

  “Traitor!” Charlie yelled. I looked at him in surprise.

  “Shut up, old man.” Carl scowled across the room at Charlie and then turned to Eleanor and me. “You know the drill, bitch.”

  “Hey!” I growled, taking offense, but unsure whether he was referring to Eleanor or me.

  Eleanor had no such confusion, stepping up to the bars and turning around to slip her hands behind her back, carefully avoiding the silver paint. Carl clomped forward and cinched a magical zip tie around her wrists. She’d be powerless with the magic of the zip tie blocking her werewolf abilities.

  “You too, witch.” Carl held out a tie towards me.

  Reluctantly, I followed suit and Carl nearly cut off my circulation with the tie. “It’s too tight,” I complained as the hard-plastic cut into my skin.

  “I don’t fucking care.”

  “You will if I lose a finger or something and Deirdre finds out why.”

  With a growl, he pulled out a knife and cut through the zip tie, letting it drop to the floor. He replaced it with a second tie, this time not quite so tight.

  “Better?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “Much.”

  “Peachy. Now get the fuck out here. Drago wants to see you.”

  “You no-good traitor!” Charlie yelled as we were led out the door. “I’ll fucking kill you. Your name will be expunged from every record of the pack!”

  “Eleanor,” I asked quietly. “Does Charlie have any kids?”

  “He had a son,” came her whispered reply, and with those four words, I knew what had gotten to normally mild-mannered Charlie.

  I stopped, letting Carl bump into me.

  “Keep moving.” he said, giving me a push.

  I scowled at him and held my ground. “If Charlie doesn’t get to you first, you’re mine.”

  Wishing I could access my power so I could give him a little taste, I had to satisfy myself with giving him the best version of stone-cold-bitch I could muster.

  Carl snorted as if he found my attempt at intimidation amusing, but I was rewarded by the tiny glimmer of doubt in his eye.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Carl led us through a maze of hallways, by barking directions at us from the rear.

  “Left here…Turn right…Down the stairs.”

  As we trudged along one corridor, I caught a half-worn name stenciled on a door. It read “Stoney Creek Pen–”. Of course! I should have realized. We were in the old, decommissioned prison about thirty minutes north of the city.

  Carl barked another order and I followed Eleanor through a doorway and into the bright light. After a moment or two, my eyes finally stopped watering and I was able to look around. We were in a large auditorium that probably once served as the dining hall, based on the long tables and benches piled up in the darkened corners of the room. It was sparsely populated by about a dozen vampires, although it was hard to tell because the light only illuminated half of the space. There could have been others hiding out in the dark gloom on the other half of the room and I wouldn’t know it, not with the restraint blocking my handy-dandy internal supe-detector.

  “Welcome! Welcome!” Drago’s voiced boomed out across the room. He looked rather pleased with himself and a lot healthier than he had the last time I saw him. I assumed it meant he was once again in possession of his magical brooch. Sitting like a king on a chair set atop one of the big tables in a display likely meant to mock the Magister’s audience chamber, Drago gazed down on us, his expression a cold, calculating smile. “The infamous Harry Russo, here at last.”

  Deirdre, seated in chair below him with a wine glass in her hand, smiled indulgently up at him. “I told you she would come. My daughter, the hero.” She tittered into her glass and then took a sip.

  “Sit beside your mother, child. You’ll have a front row seat for the show.” He waved his hand and one of his lackeys, another low-level vampire, set a chair down beside Deirdre.

  When I made no move towards it, Drago scowled. “Make her sit,” he said absently.

  The vampire scuttled up to me and I turned my “if looks could kill” stare on him. He blanched visibly – something not easy to do for a vampire – but grabbed me by the elbow and hauled me over to the chair and shoved me into it.

  “This is going to be so goooood,” Deirdre purred, leaning towards me. Her lips and teeth were coated with a red film and I guessed her wine contained something more than alcohol.

  “Are you high?” I asked her in surprise.

  “Just a little,” she replied, pinching her finger and thumb together. She pushed her wine glass towards me, the liquid threatening to slosh over the edge. “Blood from a junky. It packs a punch even if it is a few days old.”

  I flinched away from the glass, my stomach roiling at the sickly-sweet smell. When I found Nash, I’d have to tell him I’d solved his triple homicide. “Your level of depravity continues to amaze me.” I wrapped my calf around the leg of the chair and did a little hop-sit, trying to move away from her.

  “Quiet!” Drago bellowed. “Eleanor Nash, your pack refuses to tow the line. This will not do. I must have the obedience of all the werewolves, if I am to take over rule in this territory.”

  I watched Eleanor who, despite her disheveled appearance, stood proudly beside the brutish Carl. At her name, her chin lifted haughtily.

  Drago continued, scowling at Carl. “I thought you said you could bring all the packs into line if you became alpha.”

  Carl swallowed uncomfortably. “I would have, if it weren’t for Eleanor’s get. She’s managed to influence Peter Martin and prevent him joining with me in denouncing Tomas.”

  “Are you telling me you’ve been bested by some pregnant bitch?”

  “No,” Carl growled. “It’s the vampires as well. They all work against me.”

  “Excuses,” Drago scoffed. He turned his attention back to Eleanor. “You will tell your daughter to drop her support of Tomas or suffer the consequences.”

  Eleanor laughed.

  “Silence!” Drago pushed himself up from his chair to tower over her, but still she laughed.

  “You fool. You don’t respect the packs and so you never bothered to learn our ways.” She shook her head. “The moment you took me, I ceased to be alpha of the Tri-River pack. I have no say, no influence. Evaine is alpha now.” Eleanor puffed up with pride. “And she will never kow-tow to the likes of you.”

  “Shut it, bitch,” Carl growled, backhanding Eleanor. She fell to her knees and he knocked her to the floor. He wound his foot back as if to kick her.

  “Stop it!” I shouted, jumping to my feet and dashing towards Carl. I leaned forward at the waist, ramming him in the stomach with my shoulder, taking him by surprise.

  We went down in a tangle of legs, but luckily, I stayed on top, hopping to my feet, to wind back with a kick to his gut. The air whooshed out of him, but he paused for only a second
before grabbing my foot and yanking it out from under me. I fell backwards, my hands, still in the restraints, digging painfully into my back, but I managed to kick out, freeing my foot so I could roll, keeping the momentum to spring back up on my feet.

  The room echoed with Carl’s angry growls as we faced one another.

  “Enough!” Drago ordered. “Stand down, wolf.”

  I glanced at Drago in time to see him nod at the vampire on his right. It was the jerk with the Luger who tried to shoot Lucy.

  “You’re pathetic, Carl Mullins. How did you ever expect to stand against Tomas and his vampires if you can’t even take on a little girl with her hands tied behind her back no less?" He waved a hand in disgust. “I have no use for you.”

  “But–”

  BANG!

  Unfortunately for Carl, Luger-man was a better shot at close range. The werewolf’s body toppled as if in slow motion, the dark circle on his forehead, left by the path of the bullet, slowly oozing blood, while the back of his head was so much splatter on the floor behind him. The bullets were silver. There was no coming back from this injury.

  “Someone clean up that mess,” Drago ordered.

  I backed up to stand beside Eleanor who was trying to regain her feet. “Are you okay?” I asked in concern.

  “I’ll be fine, Harry. My old joints aren’t what they used to be.”

  Drago, as if suddenly remembering us, shouted out orders. “Put the witch back in her seat and grab a chair for our aging alpha. She can watch our proceedings. Maybe that will change her mind about talking to her daughter.”

  A vampire grabbed me by the elbow, dragging me back to my seat while another did the same to Eleanor, pushing her into the chair placed on the other side of mine.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart, but the adrenaline was rushing through my veins. I closed my eyes trying to find my inner calm, but all I could hear was Carl still growling at me. It sounded so real, it was hard to believe I was imagining it now. Suddenly suspicious, I opened my eyes and peered around out into the gloom. There was still a growling sound, coming from the darkest part of the room.