Shadow's Blade, page 27
“I’m defying her, too, and she’s even less pleased about it than you are. But at some point, I’m going to have to kill her.”
“Or be killed by her.”
“Right, but I’m choosing to be an optimist.”
He looked skeptical.
“Anyway, if it comes to a battle, will you stand with me again?”
“Name the time and place. Mis hombres and I will be there.”
My smile was no less genuine for being grim. “Thanks.”
I had hoped to see Rolon and Paco before I left Amaya’s estate, but they weren’t in the driveway with the other security guys when I left the house. One of the men returned my weapons to me, but Jacinto’s guards didn’t say much. They opened the iron gate, waited for me to drive back out onto the street, and shut the gate behind me. It all struck me as a little too abrupt.
So almost from the moment I left the mansion, I was checking my mirrors for a trailing car. I spotted it about a minute after I pulled out of the subdivision. Late model sedan, dark color; the driver kept his or her distance, and, once we were on well-traveled streets, even allowed a car or two to pull in between us. I changed lanes a couple of times, testing the other driver as I guessed who it might be. He—they, really; if I was right, there were two of them in the car—didn’t match my changes right away; they were too good for that. But as we approached intersections, they would drift into my lane, in case I intended to turn. By the time we drove past the entrance ramps for the 101 Loop, I knew beyond a doubt that they were following me.
Last time I’d been followed, Neil Davett was in the pursuing car, which was ironic, since I was on my way to his house now. But I didn’t want to arrive there with company. Our first encounter had been difficult enough with just the two of us. Bringing an audience, be they Amaya’s muscle or Saorla’s magical soldiers, would only complicate things.
I’d put plenty of wardings on Billie’s car already; one more probably wasn’t going to make much difference. But I cast the spell anyway, taking special care to protect the tires. Once I knew that I was safe, I led my shadow onto a quiet residential street and crafted the spell I used as a standby in such circumstances. Their car, the driver’s side front tire, and a nail.
I heard the blow out, watched in my rearview mirror as the car veered and then stopped about half a block behind me. I pulled into a driveway, turned around, and drove back to the other car, slowing as my window pulled even with theirs.
“Having trouble?” I called.
After a few seconds’ pause, the driver’s window glided down, revealing Rolon, red-faced and wearing a fearsome scowl. Paco sat in the passenger seat.
“Hey, I know you two.”
“Shut up,” Rolon said.
Paco laughed.
Rolon twisted in his seat. “You shut up, too. You think Jacinto’s going to find this funny?”
“I didn’t mean to get you in trouble, amigo,” I said. I pitched my voice higher and made it a bit nasal, trying to do my best Bogart imitation. “But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of.” I looked from one of them to the other, waiting for at least one of them to laugh. Nothing. “Seriously?” I said. “Not even a grin?”
“What are you talking about?” Rolon asked. Before I could answer, he opened the door, climbed out, and slammed the door shut again. He squatted beside the flat tire and cursed.
“It’s from Casablanca. Haven’t you ever seen it?”
Rolon glared back at me.
“Don’t you guys like movies?”
“I don’t like anything in black and white,” Paco said.
“I really am sorry, Rolon. But I can’t have you trailing me tonight.”
He straightened and crossed to my window. I half-expected him to drag me from the car and kick the crap out of me. “Jacinto is going to be even more pissed at you than he was.”
“I’m willing to take that chance. You have a phone or do you need to borrow one?”
He pulled a phone from his jacket pocket and dialed a number. “You’d better go, Jay. You don’t want to be anywhere near here when help arrives.”
I nodded, rolled up the window and left them there. I didn’t envy Rolon the conversation he’d be having with Amaya, and I wasn’t looking forward to my next encounter with either of them.
CHAPTER 19
The Davett house sat in a quiet neighborhood, much like the one in which I’d left Paco and Rolon. Nice houses, neat yards, clean streets. None of the homes here compared to even the most modest of those in Ocotillo Winds Estates, but judging from the late model SUVs, minivans, and sedans I saw in most of the driveways, people in this area did all right.
Neil’s metallic green Hyundai—with a brand new front tire—was parked outside a ranch house that wasn’t much bigger or smaller than its neighbors. Most of the lights in the house were off, but I could see that some of the back rooms were lit. He was home.
I eased out of Billie’s car, closed the door quietly, and approached the house, wondering if I should draw a weapon. My last conversation with Neil hadn’t gone well, and I didn’t expect this one to start off much better. A dog barked in a yard across the street, and I slowed, not wanting to draw attention to myself.
It never even occurred to me that the dog might be barking at someone else. Stupid.
Spells hit me from both sides. The wardings I’d cast before going to Amaya’s house were still in place; they probably saved my life. But that much power directed at me from two angles was enough to put me down. I collapsed to the sidewalk as if I’d been bludgeoned with a sledgehammer, which is essentially how it felt.
I heard footsteps—the scrape of men’s dress shoes in front of me, the click of a woman’s heels behind. GQ and Vogue. What were the odds?
“Look who we found,” GQ said. I could picture the grin on his disturbingly handsome face. I didn’t open my eyes though. Better to let him think I was too dazed and hurt to do anything.
I remembered the spells I’d used on them last time, outside the Casa del Oro, and assumed they would have wards in place to block similar attacks. I needed something new.
I hadn’t split the ground open under Saorla out on the trail earlier in the day, because I had tried something similar in a battle with her during the summer. But these two hadn’t been there.
Three elements: the sidewalk, GQ, and a giant crack in the cement. The ground opened beneath him with a roar that promised to rouse the entire neighborhood. His shout of surprise and alarm ended with a sharp grunt.
“Butch!”
Another spell hit me. My wardings blunted the worst of this one, too, but it felt like someone had kicked me in the back. Vogue ran toward him as fast as her stilettos would allow, giving me a wide berth.
I conjured again. Vogue, the street where she was running, and a magical wire about neck high. She hit it hard and fast, and went down in a heap, like a running back who’d been clotheslined.
I scrambled to my feet. As far as I could tell, GQ hadn’t moved or made a sound since tumbling into the chasm. Vogue, on the other hand, was already trying to get up. One of her shoes had fallen off. I grabbed it and tossed it out of reach. I pulled the other shoe off of her, and threw it away, too. Then I hoisted her to her feet, and wrapped my forearm around her neck.
“His name’s Butch? Seriously?”
She tried to pry my arm off, but I was stronger than she.
“You’re going to answer some questions for me,” I said. “And then I’ll decide whether or not to throw you down into that hole with your friend.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything.” Her voice sounded strained, and she struggled to break free. Without the heels, she was a couple of inches shorter than I was, and, more to the point, she couldn’t shatter my foot with a well-placed stomp.
“Where’s Fitzwater?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Did his helicopter crash today? Did he survive?”
She went still. Apparently she hadn’t yet received news of the mechanical problems Gracie conjured for the chopper.
“No answer? Fine. Are you following me, or have you been watching Davett’s house?”
“Who’s Davett?”
I tightened my grip on her. Little did I know, that was what she’d been waiting for me to do. She threw an elbow, catching me in the gut. I didn’t let go of her, at least not that time. The second elbow loosened my hold. She slipped out of my grip, grabbed my arm with both hands and flipped me so that I landed hard on my back and smacked the back of my head on the asphalt. Just like you see in the movies.
For good measure, she kicked me in the temple. Good thing I took her shoes.
“What the hell is going on out here?”
I tried to see who had spoken, but I couldn’t focus. I had an idea, though, I was pretty sure my situation was on its way from bad to worse.
“Go back inside, Davett,” Vogue said.
“Who are you?”
“A friend. I was sent to keep an eye on you, to keep people like this guy from bothering you.”
“And who’s that?”
Footsteps on the path leading from the house to the sidewalk.
“Hey, I know him.”
“Yeah? Well, I hope you’re not too attached.”
I could hear her walking around, and a moment later her steps clicked again; she’d retrieved her heels. I guess there was a dress code for killing me. No shoes, no shirt, no murder.
“Not attached at all. What happened to the sidewalk?”
“He did that,” Vogue said, clearly meaning me. “My partner’s down there. Can you give me a hand?”
“Yeah, sure.”
I forced myself up, but my head throbbed viciously, and I was dizzy as hell. If I could make it back to the car, I might get away, but I wasn’t sure I could walk that far.
Another spell stirred the air, and Vogue cried out. From my knees I saw Neil straighten and walk in my direction.
“Can you walk?”
“What the hell?” I managed.
“Should we close that up, trap them in there?”
“I thought you were . . .” I shook my head, which turned out to be a bad idea. I squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that would stop the world around me from spinning. It didn’t.
Vogue let out a low groan from within the split pavement.
“I don’t want to be here when she gets out,” Davett said.
“If we close it up, they’ll die.”
“Would that bother you?”
I looked at him—the middle one of the three. “Believe it or not, it would.”
“I can knock her out again.”
“She’s warded. In fact, how is it possible your first spell worked?”
Neil held up his hand. Blood still oozed from a cut across the back of it, below the knuckles. “I find that blood spells work well against wardings.”
He cast again—the air practically shimmered with his magic—and another grunt came from within the chasm.
“You’d think she would have known that.”
“They were probably after you,” he said. “I don’t think she expected you to use blood, and I don’t think she expected me to attack her at all.” He reached out his unbloodied hand. I stared at it, and then at him. At last I gripped it and let him help me to my feet. “Come on inside. We’ll put some ice on that bruise.”
He led me into his house and to the kitchen. I sat on a stool by a granite counter and he brought me a glass of water and then a baggie filled with ice. I drained the glass and put the ice to the lump on the back of my head, wincing at the first touch of cold.
“Why are you helping me? The last time we met, we didn’t exactly hit it off.”
“No, we didn’t. But I’m no friend of those guys.” He jerked a thumb toward the street out front. “And I’m hoping that if I help you, you might be willing to help me.”
I thought about this for all of two seconds before nodding.
“I’ll start by apologizing,” I said. “Last time I accused you of abusing Gracie. I know better now. She swears you never hurt her or the kids, and I know that she’s a were. I’m certain that all her injuries have coincided with phasings.”
“So you have found her.”
“Sorry. Should have led with that. She and the kids are fine.”
He closed his eyes, rubbed a hand over his mouth. “Thank God. Where are they?”
“Someplace the two in the sidewalk and their friends won’t think to look for them, with someone I’d trust with my own life.”
“You’re not going to tell me.”
“Not yet, no. I appreciate your help, but I’m afraid it’s going to take more than that to win my trust.” He took a breath to say something, but I stopped him with a raised finger. “Think about it for a minute. Would you really want me to be so quick to trust, with the safety of your wife and kids on the line?”
I could see that he was ticked off, but he didn’t argue. “Has she talked about me, other than to say that I didn’t hurt her?”
“We’ve been busy with other things,” I said.
He raked me up and down with his gaze. I sensed that in that moment he saw me as a potential rival rather than as an ally. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means we’ve been attacked by weremystes using dark magic, and by weres turned before the phasing for the express purpose of tracking us down. And we also had to deal with Gracie being forced to shift, which scared the crap out of your kids, especially Emmy.”
“You were there when she changed?”
“I was in the next room. We were at a motel—Gracie and the kids in one room, me in another—and Emmy came and got me.”
“What about when she shifted back?” he sounded sullen, like a jilted teenaged boy, and he was still watching me like he blamed me for the jilting.
I remembered what Gracie had told me: Sometimes after changing I’m . . . hungry, in more ways than one. She also said that Neil might not know about the talent Emmy had already exhibited. I needed to watch my every word.
“Did I mention that the person she’s with right now is my girlfriend?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing happened between us, Neil. And I should tell you that Emmy would have kicked the crap out of me if something had. She still isn’t crazy about having me around, and she goes out of her way to remind me—and Gracie, too—that I’m not her father. Not that either of us needs to be reminded, but she’s eight, and she misses you.”
He swallowed and nodded, his eyes bright with tears.
“I’m sorry if this is abrupt, but those two outside are going to wake up soon. They’re going to be pissed off and they’re going to want to take it out on me. I need to ask you a few things.”
“Yeah, all right.”
“Do you know of a woman named Saorla?”
“I’ve heard the name.”
“Where?”
His cheeks flushed.
“Dark sorcerers,” I said.
He gave a reluctant nod. “Yes. Who is she?”
“She’s the one who’s after your wife and kids. What did these weremystes say about her?”
“Not much. But from the way they spoke her name, I could tell that they answered to her, and that they were afraid of her.”
“I don’t doubt it. You know what a runemyste is, right?”
“Of course.” In about a second his cheeks went from flushed to ashen. “She’s a runemyste?”
“Not quite. The runemyste I know calls her a necromancer. But she’s nearly as old as the runemystes, and the power she wields is almost on par with theirs.”
“Shit.”
“Saorla is gathering an army. She wants to destroy the runemystes, because she believes doing so will leave her and her kind as the most powerful magical beings in our world.”
“How many of her kind are there?”
“That’s a good question. I don’t know. But I sense that she’s their leader, whatever their numbers. She’s trying to lure weremystes to her cause, using blood magic and the promise of enhanced power. She’ll enlist those who agree to follow her, and she’ll kill the rest of us. She wants Gracie on her side. She probably wants you, too. But she wants Gracie more.”
“I’m sure she does.”
“How long have you been working with these dark sorcerers, Neil?”
“I haven’t been.” Seeing the skepticism on my face he frowned. “What did Gracie tell you?”
“She thinks you’re jealous of her spellcraft, of the power she possesses. And she thinks that jealousy drove you to start playing with blood magic.”
He didn’t deny it. “I was never one of them. I dabbled, nothing more. And I haven’t dealt with them for a while now, since Gracie left. Truth is, blood magic scares me. She’s right, I guess. I am jealous of what she can do, but I’m also afraid of it. I’m not sure I could control power like hers. The dark sorcerers you’re talking about . . .” He shook his head. “They use a lot of blood. Not little cuts and scratches like the one I gave myself tonight. They do sacrifices. Actual sacrifices. And not just animals, either. How fucked up is that?”
“Did you talk to them about Gracie?” I asked. “Is that how they first became aware of her?”
His brows knitted in a way that reminded me of Zach. I hadn’t noticed it until then, but the kid was the image of his father. “Is that what she told you?”
“I haven’t asked her.” I lied, but I didn’t think this was the time to tell him I already knew the history of his failed marriage.
The truth is, I’m not sure my denial convinced him. He narrowed his eyes and didn’t speak for several seconds. “I turned to blood magic because I wanted to be as powerful as she was. And I tried a bit of it around the house. She didn’t like that at all.”
That much at least, she had told me.
“But it made her curious. So one night we got a babysitter, and once the kids were settled, she and I drove out to South Mountain Park. Sometimes folks gather there to do magic, play around with blood spells. Some of the stuff that happens there I really don’t understand. I think they’re trying to make themselves stronger.”
