by Linsey Hall
“Wow, that’s hard,” I gasped.
Ares crouched down and met my gaze. “You did great.”
His voice was…proud, almost. But not patronizing. I had a good ear for that. Suddenly, I realized how close he was. His hand was on the ground near my knee and he was only a foot from me.
At this distance, I could smell his intoxicating scent. The winter morning smell of his magic, combined with something that was distinctly him. Clean and earthy at the same time.
Up close, he was so handsome it made my breath catch in my throat.
I shouldn’t be this affected by him, but I was. He wove a spell around me, some kind of vampire mojo—except that existed only in the movies.
This was all Ares.
His gaze dropped to my lips, his green eyes darkening with heat. I felt it too, as if he were a sexual space heater.
I couldn’t help it—my gaze dropped to his lips as well. I swallowed hard, licking my lower lip. Ares leaned in, just slightly.
My mind filled with visions of kissing his full lips. Of pushing him onto his back and climbing on top of him.
The closeness—and the visions—snapped some sense into me.
Now was not the time. I had to practice my magic. I had to meet with my deirfiúr and solve this mystery. And I had to learn to trust Ares.
He was a guy with too many sides—the harsh vampire who put me through my trials in the vampire realm and the more human one who was helping me.
Who was he? Because there was only one I should trust, and I didn’t know which one he really was.
“Um, I need to practice some more,” I said.
His gaze cleared immediately, as if he realized my sudden discomfort. He leaned back. “Yes. Practice. It’s vital.”
“Yeah.” I inspected the dust that used to be the pencil. The dishrag sat next to it, looking impossibly big. “I have a long way to go.”
Ares stood, moving off to the side. “You’ll get there.”
He was right—I would. I would have to.
It took a while, but I managed to destroy the dishtowel. I was exhausted by the time I was done, and since I still had to face another Vampire Court challenge, I didn’t want to waste any more magic or energy.
What I really needed was breakfast.
Ares transported us to P&P in a flash. It was cold and rainy, the wind whipping across my cheeks. I shivered and stepped away, my broken cooking pot tucked under my arm.
Cass popped out of P&P a moment later, apparently having seen us appear.
She pointed to the pot. “What’s that?”
“My badge of shame. I couldn’t destroy it.”
“But she destroyed a pencil and a dishtowel,” Ares said.
“Well done!” Cass clapped me on the back. “But you’ve got a ways to go.”
I grinned. “At least I can count on you for your honesty.”
“Always. Come on. Let’s have some breakfast and chat.”
I glanced at Ares. We hadn’t yet told him our suspicions about the dragon tattoo gang who’d been responsible for Marin’s death. No doubt he was interested—probably even doing research of his own.
But I didn’t want to talk about that yet. First, I’d find out what Cass and Del had discovered. Then, I’d weasel what information I could out of Ares.
“So, I was thinking that we could meet back up after I have breakfast with my friends?” Please be cool with it.
He nodded. “I’d like a change of clothes, and I have a meeting with Magisteria and Doyen. I’ll meet you back here in three hours to pick you up for your next trial.”
Cass’s eyes widened. “Another one? Today? But you just finished one.”
“I know.” And I was still kind of feeling it. Well rested, but with sore muscles. Practicing my magic this morning hadn’t helped. But since Ares had insisted, I had to think it would help me with my upcoming trial.
Ares nodded at Cass, then turned his gaze to me. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye.” I waved awkwardly, and he disappeared.
Cass turned to me, gaze relieved. “Thank fates he’s gone.”
“Yeah. Yeah, totally.”
Cass poked me in the shoulder, her brows raised. “Oh my gosh. You aren’t glad he’s gone at all. You do like him.”
“No. Totally not. Well, I mean, kinda. But I can’t trust him, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Why not?”
“He’s on the Vampire Court. Putting me through crazy trials that exploit my weakness. Which I think he may be telling Magisteria and Doyen all about.” Right now, in fact. He could be telling them about my Destroyer gift and the problems I was having.
But he’d also healed me.
So yeah, who the hell knew?
“Let’s not worry about him now,” I said. “Let’s talk about what you learned, and then I’ll see if I can get any info out of him.”
Cass nodded. “Good plan.”
I followed her into P&P. It was warm and cozy, with that cotton-wool feeling of being protected from a stormy winter morning. Quiet music played on the speakers, something that Connor had picked out for a rainy day. He had perfect taste.
Since it was a weekday, the morning crowd had died down. There were old guys doing the crossword puzzle in the corner, but otherwise, it was just me and my friends. Connor stood behind the counter, his dark hair flopped over his head, fiddling with the controls of the huge, gleaming espresso machine.
Del waved from our usual spot at the comfy chairs in the corner. I joined her, sinking gratefully into the plush softness of my usual chair. I’d need a cat nap before meeting Ares again, just to recoup some of my power.
Claire hurried over, her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and an apron over her fighting leathers. She smiled. “The usual?”
“Yeah, thanks.” I grinned at her. “You’re a hero.”
She winked, then hurried back to the counter.
I turned back to Cass and Del. “So, you found something?”
Cass pushed her red hair back from her face and leaned forward. “We tracked them. Del and I went back to the caves on the Yorkshire Dales first. Just to see if they’d left anything behind that would help our dragon senses latch onto them.”
“And? How was the site? Much destruction?”
“Fortunately, only a few of the artifacts were destroyed. The rockfall was mostly contained to one side.”
“Whew. Good.” My muscles relaxed a bit. I’d been worried about that.
Claire returned with our food—their special breakfast pasties and coffee—then sat down to join us. She often helped us out when we had problems like this. Right now, we could use all the help we could get.
She looked at Cass and Del. “You’re telling Nix about what you found?”
“Yeah.” Del lowered her voice. “We found a boot under the rocks. Foot still in it.”
I slowed the pastry that I was putting to my mouth. “Ew.”
“Yeah.” Del grimaced. “That mage who caused the rockfall didn’t have as much control as he thought he did, I guess. Anyway, that definitely gave us enough to find the guys who did this. They live—or work—in a huge warehouse compound on the northwest side of town. In the woods.”
Del handed me her cell phone. I took it, studying the photo. Though the huge trees, an enormous factory building rose up from cleared grounds. Guards were stationed on the porch and all around the perimeter. Dozens of them.
“That’s a lot of guards. And that place is on the outskirts of Magic’s Bend?” I looked up, flabbergasted.
“Yeah,” Cass said. “Kinda crazy. That factory building is old, but the fences and security are new.”
I turned back to the phone, flipping through. There was a massive gate, more guards, some guard-dogs that I could see. And in one, the ocean. “It overlooks the sea.”
“Yes,” Del said. “On one side are the gates and dogs and magical enchantments that give Aidan’s a run for their money. On the other side is the sea.”
“So you weren’t able to get in?”
“We didn’t try very hard,” Cass said. “It was clear we’d need more backup. And Aidan is checking to see if his company has something that can counter their magical protections.”
It wouldn’t be the first time we used Aidan’s skills in security to break through magical barriers.
“And none of us even knew about this place?” I certainly hadn’t. But then I kept to this part of Magic’s Bend, for the most part. We all did.
“No. It’s well hidden, and pretty far off the beaten path. And I can’t imagine they’ve been there super long.” Cass leaned forward, eyes intense. “But here’s the crazy thing. We saw the guards. And two of them had visible tattoos of dragons.”
Excitement and dread competed within me. “Holy fates. So then the fragment of tattoo we saw on the mage had to be a dragon. And the dragon gang is involved in the theft of the beaker.”
I leaned back, mind spinning.
“If they’re even a gang,” Del said. “I don’t know a lot about gangs, but that compound we saw was high budget, despite the old factory they’ve got it in. And professional.”
“So more like a mob?” I asked. What exactly was the difference?
“Or some other terrifying organization.” Cass held up her fingers and began to tick off. “So far, they’ve murdered an Informa mage—Marin Olerafort—to steal his secret about dragons. They abducted you with the intent to kill or torture you for information, and they’ve stolen this beaker. Oh, and they definitely wouldn’t have minded killing us during those attacks.”
“No, they wouldn’t.” They’d tried with the giant spiders and the rockfalls. Those weren’t subtle attempts. “So some serious shit is happening.”
“Yeah.” Del shoved her dark hair back from her face, blue eyes annoyed. “They’re planning something, obviously. We can’t ignore the secret that they killed Marin for.”
“Dragons. Returned.” It’d been only two words, pulled from the mind of Marin’s killer, along with a string of others that had been unintelligible. The prophecy had been protected—scrambled, more like—by the Cathar Perfecti who had held onto the secret for centuries.
Though I’d taken the secret from Aleric by stealing his Informa ability, I hadn’t been able to decipher it myself.
“And you still don’t know if Aleric told his mysterious master the information he’d stolen from Marin?” Claire asked.
“We don’t.” I scrubbed a weary hand over my face and sipped the coffee she’d brought. “But I think it’s safe to assume he did.”
“And somehow the beaker is connected,” Del said.
“Or at least valuable and part of some other plan,” Cass added.
Del leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. “Which we can assume is evil, given the magic that came off that compound.”
“Gross?” I asked. Normally, evil magic and intentions gave off disgusting signature. Garbage fire scents, jellyfish stings, the screeching of nails on chalkboard. That sort of thing.
“Totally gross.” Del straightened, her face set in a grimace. “Totally evil.”
“Perfect.” I bit into a cheese and potato pasty, forcing myself to take in some energy. I’d need it, that was for sure. I swallowed and looked at my three friends. “I met a goddess of fate in the vampire realm.”
Three pairs of eyebrows shot upward.
“A real goddess?” Claire asked.
“Totally real. You should have felt her magic.” Just the memory of its strength sent shivers across my skin. “She was the real deal. Anyway, she told me that my role in the Triumvirate has begun.”
“Geez, this is all happening fast,” Cass said. “All in the space of a year. Me, Del, then you.”
“Maybe we’ll get it out of the way,” Del said.
“Or die.” We’d barely survived the last two challenges presented to us by fate.
“Not die,” Claire said. “You can handle this. And we’ll help, of course.”
I reached over and squeezed her hand. “Thanks. I bet we’ll need it.”
Though Claire made a mean pasty and could sling drinks with the best of them, her real skill was with a sword and her fire mage skills. If she turned her mercenary abilities toward our problems, we’d have a better chance, without question.
“What else did the goddess say?” Del asked.
“That the beaker is more than a beaker. And it’s important to my task for the Triumvirate.”
“So this just jumped up a priority level, huh?” Cass asked.
“Definitely.” I polished off the last of the pasty. “I have another Vampire Court trial to complete in a couple hours. If I can win their trust, they’ll be off our backs. And maybe even help us.”
“That’s worth striving for,” Del said. “We’ll do another round of recon, this time with Aidan and his tools. Scout for weaknesses so we can break in later.”
“I like it.” I looked hard at them. “But don’t go in without me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Cass said.
“Better not,” I said. Whatever this was, it was dangerous. I knew my deirfiúr were strong—stronger than me, in fact—but the idea of them going off to fix this alone made me nervous. It was my task. My danger to face. I didn’t want them at risk for something I should be doing.
I couldn’t lose them.
Chapter Eight
I managed to snag two hours of sleep on my couch before Ares showed up outside my apartment. Once again, he did the tossing pebbles at the window thing. The clattering against the glass woke me.
I scrambled up, wiping a bit of drool from my face, then hurried to the window. I pushed it open to see him standing out in the light rain, his hair sparkling with it.
“You really need to give me your phone number,” he called up.
“I rarely have it turned on.” With my comms charm, I didn’t often need it. “I’ll come get you.”
Since we didn’t have any kind of fancy buzzer on the green door at the foot of the stairs, I ran down to open the door. He grinned and stepped in.
“What are you looking so cheery about?” I was grumpy, having been woken up to go get my butt kicked in the vampire realm.
“Just glad to see you.”
That was too honest. And too nice. Instead of responding—since I didn’t know how to respond to such a normal sentiment in such un-normal times—I turned and hurried back upstairs.
Ares followed, though I had to glance back to confirm that since his steps were so silent.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
“Just about.” I tugged on my boot, then pulled on a leather jacket over top of my kitty Princess Leia shirt. I hurried into the kitchen, whipping up a quick cheese sandwich. Just cheese on bread, really, since I didn’t have time for the fixings. But I’d need all the energy I could get for what was coming.
I returned to the living room, swallowing the first bite of my sandwich. “So, the challenge will start right away?”
Ares nodded and held out a hand.
I walked to him and took it. When the ether sucked us in, I barely noticed. I was getting used to this. I’d transported plenty of times before, but it was becoming so commonplace with Ares that it was like stepping out the door.
When we arrived in the vampire realm, it looked the same as it had. Big full moon shining down on the white marble gate and the massive, silver-leafed trees standing guard.
“Does this place always look the same?” I asked.
“Essentially. It rains sometimes. But there are two moons, so something is always up in the sky.”
“Two moons? So this place is somewhere else in the solar system?”
“Honestly, we don’t know how it works.” Ares started toward the gate.
I followed, eating my sandwich as I walked.
“We have vampire scholars, of course,” Ares said. “But none have figured out the two-moon thing. We know how to access our realm from earth, and th
at it shares cultural similarities with the Baltic. But otherwise, we don’t know.”
This place was full of mysteries. The walk down the path bordered by statues was as riveting as it had been the first time. Honestly, despite the challenges I faced here, I liked the vampire realm. It was magical in the purest sense of the word.
I glanced at Ares as we walked, noting that his features had taken on the sharp harshness of the vampire realm. He was almost more handsome, but in a way that made fearful chills race over me.
As we neared the courtyard where Doyen and Magisteria spent much of their time, nerves began to prickle my skin. It was hard to swallow the last bite of sandwich, but I valiantly managed.
Once again, Doyen and Magisteria sat in their thrones. When they looked up, they were even scarier than Ares. Their features were sharper, their gazes colder.
“You are ready?” Doyen asked.
I shivered at the sound of her voice, remembering the mind games she’d played with me. And with poor Kevin. Before I’d taken my nap earlier, I’d tracked him down and given him a call to make sure he was all right. Fortunately, he was.
I looked at Doyen. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
She stood, Magisteria along with her, and tucked a hand inside her white robe, withdrawing a piece of parchment. She held it out, her gaze expectant. I approached, heart pounding, and took the paper.
It was thick and sturdy. I unfolded it. “A map?”
“Yes. You must reach the X at the other end,” Magisteria.
“What’s there?” On the paper, it was literally just an X. There were written directions scrawled on the map, which showed a land I’d never seen before. The vampire realm, presumably.
“You’ll find out,” Doyen said.
“Ares will accompany you.” Annoyance coated Magisteria’s voice.
“Again?” I asked.
“Again.” Ares’s voice was hard, his gaze on Magisteria and Doyen.
Magisteria scowled at him. “Normally, one of us would take the second challenge. But he has insisted.”
Though they were a trio—each equal in power, supposedly—it was obvious that they didn’t want to fight him on this. Point to Ares in the vampire power struggle.
