Conspiracy of Ravens (Crawford Investigations Book 1)

by J. C. McKenzie

  What does a fox say?

  Grounded!

  At least that’s what Dad said when he discovered Mike was behind the sudden increase in police calls regarding unconfirmed attacks.

  This, though. This cry was different. The pain in Mike’s screeching bled through. Raven stumbled on an exposed root and hit the ground hard. Her hands broke her fall, slamming against the packed dirt with roots and upturned rocks. Her worn jeans ripped at the knee. Her head snapped forward and smacked the dry ground. A headache bloomed.

  Raven grunted and leapt back to her feet. Her palms stung, and her knees ached. She ignored the pain and pressed on. The sweet cedar smell of the forest in late summer burned her nose. Moonlight streaked through the trees and illuminated the deer path like some mystical fairy tale…or a horror movie before things got messy.

  She wanted to yell, to cry out and reassure Mike as she ran as fast as she could, but what if someone held him? She bit back her words and pushed harder. The closer she got, the stronger her scent would be.

  He couldn’t be far. As a fox, he had a phenomenal sense of smell and he’d know her approximate location. With a strong survival instinct, much like a normal fox, Mike wouldn’t risk drawing the attention of predators unless he knew help was nearby. And since Raven’s senses were muted and subpar in human form, he had to screech for her to hear him.

  A branch lashed against her cheek. Her skin sliced open. Her eyes stung.

  Keep going.

  She reached a small clearing. A furry body of orange and red huddled near the base of a large bush. The fox turned at her arrival and whimpered. A leg-hold trap clamped his foreleg, his limb bent at an awkward angle. Matted with sweat, and missing small patches, his fur had lost its usual fluffy look. He sat in the center of a small circle of trampled dirt, about two feet in diameter.

  How long had he been here? Dad sent him to do some filing at the office hours ago. Had he gone for a night run? Or had something lured him into the forest?

  “Mike.” She rushed forward, knelt down beside her brother.

  He whimpered. His little fox body trembled. “Shhh. It’s going to be okay. I’ve got you.” She brushed his patchy, matted fur back. Despite wanting to gather him in her arms and hold him close, moving him right now would only add to his pain. She smoothed down his fur, instead. “I’m here. I’ll get you out.”

  When his quivering subsided, she pulled away and straightened. Her shirt plastered to her sweaty body. She placed a foot on each side of the trap and pushed the springs down. The rusted metal groaned. When the trap released its hold on Mike’s damaged leg, she pulled his shaking body into her arms. As soon as he was clear, she removed her feet and the trap snapped shut.

  Her blood boiled, and her body vibrated. Traps were normal dangers for shifters. Much like large predators, they learned at a young age to be wary and careful. But this…

  This was illegal. No respectable trapper would set traps within city limits. Someone had deliberately set this leg-hold close to a known shifter’s place of business.

  Red stained her vision. She clutched Mike hard to her chest, glad he hadn’t tried to shift back to human form while caught. He hadn’t panicked. That was good.

  Mike whimpered. She eased off crushing his body to hers. He was safe. Everything would be okay.

  Shadows encased them. Her scalp prickled as if someone reached out and gripped her head with giant fingers. Raven twisted around to find a large figure blocking out the moonlight.

  “You!” she hissed.

  “Move.” Cole’s deep voice punctured the quiet forest and silenced Mike’s whimpering.

  Before she could demand answers, Cole flowed forward, gathered them both in his arms and pushed them into the darkness of the trees. A shadowy film settled over them, much like the dark cloak when Cole had pulled her into the shadows at Bear’s apartment.

  A branch snapped down the deer trail to the right.

  Cold settled over her skin.

  Moments later another large, looming figure entered the clearing. Luke. Again. She couldn’t lose these two dark fae. They kept hopping back into her life like rabid fleas.

  Wearing the same clothes as before, Luke crouched by the trap that had held her brother moments ago. He used his forefinger and thumb to pick up the leg-hold by one of the springs and lifted it in front of him.

  Her body tensed. Fury wiped away the momentary fear. One of these men had set a trap and Lord of War or not, she was going to find out what was going on. She pushed forward.

  Cole’s arms tightened around her.

  She stilled and clamped her mouth shut. She held Mike closer. Dammit, without even speaking, Cole was right. This wasn’t the time to confront Luke. There might never be a right time to confront the Lord of War. She stood silent and useless while her blood simmered.

  With a sneer, Luke tossed the trap to the side and stood. His gaze swept the clearing and the surrounding trees, not pausing over where they hid.

  “Did you keep the shifter for your own sport, Camhanaich?”

  Raven tensed. Mike went rigid. Did Luke mean Mike or Bear? Surely, he saw the patches of fur in the trampled circle and knew which shifter he caught. Bear couldn’t shift, anyway.

  “I sense you, Lord of Delinquents. I feel your shadows lurking in the darkness like some contagion. No matter. I will find the Claíomh Solais, and then you will answer to me.”

  Luke pulled out a red object shaped like a flattened rugby ball, only smaller, the odd stone-like surface glittering under the moon. He threw the disc on the forest floor and a portal formed, sucking the air from their surroundings like a giant vacuum. Without hesitation, Luke stepped into the portal and it snapped shut behind him. The trampled dirt where Bane had stood appeared just as it had before. No disc. It must’ve been sucked into the vortex with the Lord of War.

  Cole shifted his weight behind her and tightened his hold around her waist. Was he enjoying this?

  Raven threw her elbow back, connecting with hard abs. Cole grunted and his hold slackened. Still clutching the small, shaking form of her brother, she stepped away and whirled around to face the Lord of Shadows.

  “You!” she hissed again. “You better start talking.”

  Still clad in black, Cole folded his arms across his considerable chest. “You better start being thankful. Or at least reasonable.”

  “Reasonable?” She hefted Mike a little. He was heavier than she remembered.

  Cole’s gaze flicked briefly to the fox before returning to study her face. “I had nothing to do with the traps.”

  Traps. Plural. She quickly scanned the area. Trappers used old dirt and leaves to cover the springs and teeth of a trap, leaving only the trigger pad exposed. She couldn’t see or smell anything, but that didn’t mean much. Traps rarely worked when shiny and new. The one clamped on Mike’s leg was rusty and slathered with grime.

  Cole sighed and picked up a stick. He threw it near another opening in the bush.

  Snap!

  Raven jumped. Another trap triggered. The powerful teeth sank into the old bark with a crunch.

  Raven and Mike flinched.

  Cole turned to face them. If only she could punch that smug look off his face. She wasn’t much of a fighter. At least not the type that could take down a man like Cole. A couple of self-defence classes, and a childhood playing fisticuffs with brothers. Neither qualified her as a ruthless warrior. She was armed with snark…and that was about it.

  “What exactly is the Claíomh Solais?” she asked.

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes.” Very much so. Both Bane and Cole wanted her help to find it, yet, neither wanted to give her any information.

  “Well, among other things, stolen,” he said.

  “Mr. Bane seemed to believe he’d control you if he gained possession of this object. Is the Claíomh Solais some sort of crazy dark fae remote control?”

  “Not even close.”

  “Then why won’t you or Bane tell me
what it is? Or what it does?” she asked.

  “Knowledge is power. Neither of us will freely grant said power to an Other with no ties or loyalty to us.”

  “That’s not helpful. I need to know why Bane would set a trap for my family. Is this revenge because we wouldn’t take his job, or is there something else going on?”

  Cole sighed and gestured to Mike with a wave of his hand. “Your brother would’ve provided Bane with an excellent bargaining chip. I’m sure you’d do anything for this brother as you would Bear. I’m not the only one looking for the Claíomh Solais. I’m just the only one who’s decided to play nice. Have you reconsidered my deal?”

  Raven took a deep breath and held it. So, Bane wanted leverage. That wasn’t good. How would her family stay safe? She glanced at Cole. Bands of moonlight broke through the shadows cloaking him to illuminate his pale skin. He could keep them safe.

  Had she reconsidered his deal?

  Raven tensed. No. He purposely evaded her questions. He definitely held back something important and couldn’t be trusted. “I’d like you to leave.”

  Shadows streaked out from the dark forest and wound around the Patron Fae of Assassins, coating him like liquid chocolate covering a juicy strawberry in one of those fondue towers. The dark bands rushed away, and Cole no longer stood beside her.

  Chapter Nine

  “Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues.”

  ~Unknown, but obviously someone awesome

  Raven’s scalp prickled when the shadows consumed Cole and completed his “disappearing into the night” magic trick. She squeezed her brother to her chest and stomped through the forest toward their dad’s PI business. Twigs snapped under her feet.

  “Hey, Mike.” She shifted his thankfully-not-dead weight in her arms and dug out the mystery card she found at Bear’s apartment from her pocket. “Smell this.”

  Mike whined, but dutifully craned his neck and sniffed—short successive inhales followed by a long exhale. He repeated the scenting action a few times and turned to her with his wide soulful eyes.

  “Recognize it?”

  Mike shook his head and snuggled into the heat of her body. His bent forearm resting over hers.

  Raven sighed and went back to plodding along the deer path. How far had she run? She had the physical stamina of a sea slug in cold water, but adrenaline played funny games on the mind. Already tired and sweaty, her muscles ached, her joints complained, and her arms screamed for mercy. Much like his human form, Mike hadn’t finished filling out. He was on the small side for a male fox, and last time they dropped him on a scale, it read thirteen pounds. Mike had definitely put on some weight since then.

  Weight.

  Technically, weight was a measurement of the force of gravity acting on an object.

  Her grade twelve physics teacher’s nasally voice resonated in her memories, explaining how to draw a vector diagram for the forces involved in holding up a glass of water. Her teacher had cast his big eyes behind bigger glasses to explain how it didn’t matter if the glass was half empty or half full, it required a force equal but opposite to the force of gravity acting on it to hold it up. The more weight, the more force required. Basically, the fatter Mike got, the more tiring it was to hold him, and she didn’t need to take a physics class to figure that tidbit out.

  Raven had barely passed that course. But she still remembered the glass analogy, though it did little to provide fuel or give her strength to carry her brother much farther. It just made her thirsty. She licked her lips and pressed on.

  The next physics unit had been on the discovery of magic. The unearthing of an additional force a hundred years ago had allowed scientists to move past the barriers between the Mortal Realm and the Other Realms. They called the newly discovered force “magic,” because apparently, they lacked any imagination.

  Much like the discovery of electrons behaving both like particles and waves in the early 1900s, this revelation created mass excitement within the scientific community along with loud voices of detractors. Eager to prove their theory with more than equations and proofs, the physicists gave little thought to the ramifications of their actions as they dismantled the barriers with some crazy scientific voodoo crap way too complex for Raven to understand. Once the scientists created access to the Other Realms, though, they couldn’t reinstall the barrier. Their actions, all in the name of science, caused an imbalance. A real-life disturbance in the force. Pun intended.

  And if Raven learned anything in her high school science courses, it was nature always tried to maintain balance.

  Hordes of vicious entities whose existence had inspired myths, legends and religion in the Mortal Realm waited on the other side of the barrier. The Others had learned how to manipulate the Force of Magic, or Fm, long ago but hadn’t figured out a way to take down the barrier. They visited the magic-less realm for short vacations filled with debauchery and hijinks, but never stayed long. The relative stability on the mortal side of the barrier, and limited access to the source of their powers prevented them from permanently moving to the Mortal Realm.

  When the barrier fell, however, crazy moved down its gradient from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration, and chaos ensued.

  Since the initial hysteria, an uneasy equilibrium had been reached. Things had settled…somewhat.

  Raven stepped over a log.

  Mike’s leg bounced against her arm. He whined.

  “Just a few more steps, buddy.”

  The lights from the street illuminated the dark path ahead. Before breaking free from the cover of the woods, Raven paused in the safety of the shadows. Her T-shirt, now doused with sweat, clung to her body. Jean Claude Grand Am sat under the warm glow of the building’s security lights—the engine off and squeaky door open, as she’d left it. The gentle summer breeze blew through the branches. Some dogs barked a few blocks over. In all appearances, the short distance to the relative safety of Crawford Investigations looked clear and safe.

  Raven stilled. Her skin itched. Her power pressed from within, demanding release. Something was wrong. Something dark lingered nearby. Was it Cole? Or was it Luke? Or something else just as sinister? If she stepped out of the forest, she’d leave herself and Mike exposed, without backup. Besides stern words and Raven’s questionable abilities to fight, nothing prevented someone from snatching them away at any time.

  They were defenseless.

  Raven sniffed the air. Nothing. Should she risk it?

  She glanced down at Mike. His amber eyes met hers—soulful and deep, creased with pain. Her baby brother. He’d waited in a dark forest injured, vulnerable and alone, hoping someone he trusted would arrive before the person who set the trap. She’d arrived in time, only minutes before Bane. What if she’d taken longer? What if she hadn’t made the light at Boundary? What if she stayed in the alley longer with Cole? Her eyes stung. She squeezed Mike again.

  Raven swore. Her skin itched, as if the magnitude of her decision threatened to explode from within. Despite appearing clear, she couldn’t risk her brother more than she already had. She pulled out Cole’s card and hesitated. She might regret this, but she’d rather endanger herself than her family. Any day. Any way. There was no other choice. She shifted Mike in her arms and reached for the phone in her pocket.

  He picked up after two rings. His rich voice flooded her senses. “Yes?”

  “Can you protect my family?”

  Cole paused. “To an extent. If the entire Underworld came for them, there’s nothing I can do.”

  She nodded. “If you protect my family to the best of your abilities and promise not to harm Bear when we find him, I’ll work with you, not for you.”

  Silence met her proposal.

  “Take it or leave it. You don’t have any leads. I do.” He wouldn’t have offered a deal otherwise.

  “Deal. But in return, you promise to disclose everything you know. You promise not to hide any
thing from me. No too-stupid-to-live moments where you run off after a lead without me. No stashing your brother away. And no keeping the Claíomh Solais for yourself or getting some altruistic feelings and donating the Claíomh Solais to some scam of a charity or museum.”

  “Deal.”

  “One moment.” He hung up on her. The dial tone cut off any response she could make.

  What the hell was she thinking? Making a deal with a fae lord? They’d been one of the most ruthless groups of Others when the barrier fell.

  Cole materialized out of the shadows. His forest scent brushed past her.

  Too late to go back now. She made a deal. She shut her mouth and stuffed her phone into her pocket. “Do we shake on it?”

  Cole frowned. “That is not how we seal a promise.”

  “Pinky swear?” She rotated her hand and stuck her pinky finger out.

  He shook his head and stepped in. His large hands slipped to each side of her face, and he leaned over Mike to bring his mouth down on hers. Dark shadows wove around them and sunk into her skin as the promise of more than their deal raced through her veins. The forest faded away. Her brother dissolved. All that existed was where his body met hers. She wanted to run her hands up the smooth fabric of his shirt and splay them against the hard muscles of his chest. He tasted like a chocolate bar after a month-long sugar-free diet. She wanted to ingest, absorb and inhale him all at once. His lips, soft yet firm, pressed and played, while his hands threaded through her hair and gripped the back of her head. Her nerves hummed at the tease of his tongue. Heat pulsed in her limbs. All her worries fell away.

  Cole pulled back with a self-satisfied smile.

  Mike let out a string of guttural yelps, unimpressed with being the meat in a fae sandwich, apparently.

  She licked her lips. “Surely, you don’t go around making out with men and women every time you make a deal.” Or did he? Not sure how she felt about that, but she did know his kiss had melted her bones. His dark Other energy pulsed so close to her, strong and more crystalized now. If she reached out, she could trace it with her fingers. Her body swayed and the thought of moving right now didn’t appeal to her at all. If she tried to walk, she’d probably face-plant.