Lunacy (Blood Trails Book 13), page 11
“Blood and bone.” I scooped Peasblossom off the waist pouch and called my magic, even as I started running. Blue energy pooled in my palm, then sank into Peasblossom. “Hold this healing spell. Don’t use it until someone’s dying.”
“I know the drill.”
I followed Edwin and Scath, and there were at least three moments where I’d have lost them if it weren’t for their tracks in the snow. I caught up with them after what felt like a small eternity—I had never been a runner, even when I was young—and found both of them hiding behind a massive downed tree.
I crept up beside them and peered over the fallen tree. Fifteen yards away, I could barely make out three figures. One of them was Nate. His arms were raised over his head, and he was talking to someone who was approaching him like a dog catcher might approach a roaming pit bull. The moonlight caught something silver in the stranger’s hand. A blade of some kind.
“He’s going to touch his skin with the silver,” Edwin said, filling me in on what was being said. “Confirm he’s a monster.”
My blood ran cold. I recognized the third figure now. It was Howard. The counselor stood twenty feet away from Nate, watching the stranger with the silver get closer and closer. He held a gun on the werewolf, the same kind Edwin had taken off the other man.
“We need to stop him.” I held up a hand, focusing on the gun in Howard’s grasp. “I’m going to gum up Howard’s gun. He’ll have to reload before he can fire it. That should give you a chance to tackle him without getting shot. But we have to assume his ammunition is silver of some kind.”
“Safe bet,” Edwin agreed. “I’ll go for Howard. Scath, can you take out the guy with the silver blade? Silver doesn’t hurt you, right?”
Scath grinned, her teeth white in the darkness. “I’ll be fine.”
I tried not to let her sudden uplift in mood bother me. I didn’t really have a lot of experience with her human-form demeanor. Maybe she was always like this. Eager for a fight. Filled with joy at the thought of giving a bad guy his due.
I’d think about it later.
I focused on Howard’s gun and raised my hand. “Malum indicibus.”
Green energy curled around my hand, then shot through the air, heading straight for Howard’s gun. I put a hand on Edwin’s shoulder, holding him back until I saw the light sink into the weapon, a flicker of emerald sparks erupting from the mouth of the weapon before winking out of sight. I dropped my hand and nodded.
Edwin and Scath shot forward, leaping over the fallen tree and charging their respective targets. Howard swung his weapon around, a split second too late. I thought I heard the click of the trigger as he tried to fire, but there was no resulting gunshot. The spell held, and he crashed to the ground, with Edwin on top of him already ripping the weapon from his hands.
Beside him, Scath fell on the stranger like something from a nightmare. I was sure it was a trick of my eyes, but it seemed like Scath’s shape wasn’t completely solid. As if there was a layer of thick black smoke over her skin, held so close I almost convinced myself I was seeing things. The silver blade fell to the frozen ground with a muffled thud, and Scath wrestled the man onto his front, dragging his arms behind his back.
“Don’t hurt him!” Nate shouted at Edwin. “We need to talk to him!”
My eyebrows twitched up as I stayed hidden behind the log. I was more help if Howard and his friends didn’t see me, didn’t know I was there. And so I had time to wonder at Nate’s concern for Howard’s safety and the information he might offer. Maybe Nate and Dustin had been closer than he’d admitted?
Edwin grabbed something off Howard’s belt, then flipped him over onto his stomach and wrestled his hands behind his back. Zip ties, I realized. Howard must have been carrying zip-ties.
Edwin said something, but his voice was too deep, and too far, I couldn’t make it out. Scath dragged the man she’d taken down closer to him, accepting a zip tie to bind his hands behind his back. I waited, looking around and listening. If Howard had more friends around, they’d be watching. And now was right about the time they’d make themselves—
Edwin jerked his head back, one hand flying to his face. Scath looked down at her chest, then pulled her lips back to reveal too-sharp teeth as she scanned the trees to my left. At the same time, something struck Nate in the shoulder, and he cried out and crouched down, keeping low to the ground.
Making himself a smaller target.
Gunshots, I realized. They must have hit Edwin and Scath in the vests, though if Edwin’s reaction was anything to go by, shrapnel or silver dust must have flown into his face.
“Peasblossom, do you see the shooters?” I whispered.
“There!” Peasblossom hissed. “There!”
I followed where she was pointing. It took my brain a minute to register the newcomers, dressed as they were in winter camo. But once I realized that, it was easier to spot them. There were three of them, each one armed, each one keeping their gun aimed at a different target.
I had a split second to call my magic, a split second to think of something that would keep all three of them from firing.
“Excavare!”
I pointed at the ground at the trio’s feet, and the frozen earth erupted in a geyser of dirt, snow, and rotted leaves. The men shouted in surprise, and all three of them tumbled into the five foot pit. I said a small prayer that they’d chalk up the sudden crater to some sort of explosive. Considering they were with Howard, and at least one of them knew about the silver, I’d guess that they knew about the Otherworld, but still. No sense letting them know witches were real if they hadn’t figured it out yet.
Howard kicked out at Edwin, taking advantage of the werewolf’s distraction by whatever had flown into his eye. His strike caught the shifter in the solar plexus, and I could almost feel a sympathetic whoosh of breath out of my lungs as the shifter doubled over. The one under Scath rolled away, but Scath stopped him, reaching down to pull something off his body. Another weapon, I guessed.
“We’re trying to help you,” Nate bellowed, one hand clasped to his shoulder. “You’re in danger!”
Howard heaved himself off the ground, angling his body awkwardly at Edwin. He had another weapon too, I realized. Another gun. And he’d drawn it and was taking aim at Edwin.
Edwin saw it too, and he rolled out of the way. Preternatural speed was the only thing that saved him, as Howard’s bullet drove into the frozen ground. Howard took off at a run, his hands still bound behind him.
“Stop!” Nate took a step toward Howard, but swayed on his feet. Blood covered his hand where he held it over his shoulder.
He was losing too much blood. Peasblossom seemed to realize it too, and she dove through the air heading straight for him, healing spell at the ready. I let her worry about Nate, concentrating instead on the two men crawling out of the pit I’d made. One of them was still below ground, helping the other two climb out.
Scath grabbed the man she’d taken down off the ground, lifting him over her head like a sack of laundry. She took aim at the two men standing at the edge of the pit and threw their squirming companion. He struck both of them like bowling pins. One of them managed to get out of the way in time, his shoulder barely struck by his cohort’s body. He had some sort of training, or else he was just very focused, because his gun was already up and firing. His shot struck Scath, and this time it seemed they’d figured out the vests. This time he aimed for her leg, and his aim was true. Scath’s leg buckled and she hit the ground on one knee.
“Peasblossom!” I yelled, not caring who heard me. “One more!”
A second later, the man who’d shot Scath shouted, dropping his gun as one hand flew to his eye. He stumbled back a step, and his foot met empty air. I waited for him to fall, his body over the open pit. I called my magic again, and I took aim at the pit with the same spell.
“Excavare!”
This time, when the dirt and snow settled, the four men were in a ten foot pit. I jumped over the fallen tree trunk and ran for Scath, hitting my knees in the snow next to her, reaching for her injury.
“I’m fine,” she rasped.
I started to argue, but as I did, I looked up to see Edwin get to his feet, giving chase after Howard. Then suddenly the counselor ground to a stop, twisting his body viciously as he threw something with his still-bound hands. Something hit the ground—and exploded.
Chapter 10
“Grenade!” Peasblossom shrieked.
I barely heard the pixie’s voice over the sound of earth exploding upward in a twisted mimicry of the spell I’d used to detain Howard’s associates. Chips of rock, splinters of wood, and hunks of ice-crusted dirt hailed down on me, and I held an arm over my head, protecting my eyes from the debris. When the torrent stopped, I dropped my arm, my heart pounding as I took stock of the situation.
Edwin lay on the ground. His face was to the earth, his arms over his head, protecting his neck and face. There was enough moonlight overhead for me to see his entire body trembled.
Images flashed through my mind. Edwin when I’d first met him. Silver shrapnel embedded in his face around his eye, turning his iris milky white, the skin around the metal shards angry and red. I brushed dirt from my shoulders as I stumbled toward the fallen shifter, my chest too tight to allow any speech. Inches before I reached him, Edwin pushed his body off the frozen dirt, his arms shaking violently. I threw a hand in the air as I fell to the ground beside him, summoning a ball of light to hover over my shoulder. A steady pale gold glow illuminated Edwin’s blood smeared face.
No glint of metal, no glitter of silver.
The grenade was mundane.
But it was still a grenade.
One of Edwin’s ears was missing a significant chunk, and his left cheek was a stomach turning mess of sliced flesh. Blood dripped in a steady stream to his shoulder, joining an already large pool of blood where the grenade had shredded his upper arm. If he’d been human, I’d have pushed him back to the ground, torn off whatever clothing I could reach to press it against the wound and slow the bleeding. But Edwin wasn’t human. And the bleeding was already starting to slow.
“Edwin, I’m right here,” I said, keeping my voice low and calm as I called my magic. “I’m going to—”
“I’ll heal,” Edwin rasped, his words slurred by the blood dripping from his lips. He raised a hand, held it out toward me. “Howard’s blood.”
I stared at him. Despite his injuries, he’d somehow managed to hold onto his thoughts enough to keep from touching anything with that hand. The hand he’d used to hold onto Howard, I guessed. Howard must have cut himself when he tried to escape the zip ties.
“Howard, wait!” Nate shouted. “You’re in danger!”
I glanced up in time to see Nate try to get to his feet, his body tilting wildly in the direction I’d last seen Howard. He swayed and stumbled forward a step. Then another and another until he keeled over, hitting the ground hard.
“Let him go!” I reached into my pocket for a clean tissue. “I can track him when he stops. Don’t risk getting shot.”
In the distance, I heard the sound of a motor. A dirt bike, or possibly a four wheeler.
“See to Nate,” Edwin said, pulling away from my touch. “He was hit with one of the silver bullets. He needs you more than I do.”
“Peasblossom already healed him a little. If he stops trying to run, he’ll hold out until we get the medics.” I held the tissue out to Edwin and he grabbed it, smearing Howard’s blood onto it before handing it back to me. I glanced up toward the pit, relieved to see Peasblossom flitting through the air, only the moonlight off her tiny sword and the pulses of satisfaction through our empathic link telling me she’d taken it upon herself to make sure no one tried to climb out of the pit. “I can’t track him with this until he stops moving. We’ll take care of you and Nate first, get someone out here to pick up Howard’s friends. Then we’ll find him.”
“What if Tom finds him first?” Nate insisted, his voice weaker than a moment ago. “We can’t let Tom kill him.”
I knelt by Nate’s side and put one hand on his shoulder, easing him onto his back. My fingertips met clothing soggy with his blood, and patches of slick skin and pits where there’d been more flesh before. Nate had been hit, and the bullet had done enough damage that he’d lose consciousness if I didn’t stop the bleeding fast. Peasblossom’s healing spell could only do so much if the silver was still in his body.
“We’ll find him first,” I said, keeping my voice low and soothing. “I can use his blood to take us straight to him.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I felt a presence looming behind me, and I looked back to see Scath peering over my shoulder at Nate. Her position put her thigh right next to my face, and I hissed as I saw her injury up close.
“I’m fine,” she said without looking at me. “Silver won’t hurt me.”
“But there’s iron in the casings. Sit down, I’ll look at it when I’m done with Nate.”
“Not cold iron. An alloy. It itches, but I’ll heal.”
I wanted to argue, but I knew better. “Fine. Then do me a favor and call 4944. Nate’s going to need an alchemist to take care of the silver dust in his system. And call Liam, have him send people to collect Howard’s friends.”
“Already called him,” Edwin said. “He wants me to wait here until they’re picked up.”
I was willing to bet Liam had heard the pain in Edwin’s voice, and his order for the silver-scarred werewolf to stay put was more of a nod to his injuries than any concern that Howard’s friends might escape. Or maybe I was projecting.
Now that the adrenaline of the fight was wearing off, the cold air stung that much worse against my skin every time the wind kicked up. I concentrated on keeping my hands from trembling as I retrieved a first aid kit from Bizbee.
“Who cares about them?” Nate ground out through gritted teeth. “We have to go after Howard. We need to get to him before Tom does. Do your spell, go find him.”
“We have to get you to a hospital,” I told him. “I can clean the wound and stop you from bleeding to death, but you’re going to need an alchemist to turn that silver to lead before it poisons you.”
Nate’s head rolled from side to side. “If Tom finds Howard first, you’ll never get your answers. You’ll never find out if Howard is really the one who killed Dustin.”
“I can’t use the spell until he stops moving.” I paused before slipping the headlamp Bizbee had passed to me onto my head and fixing the light so it shone on Nate’s wound. Bright red blood shone beneath the black material of his coat, with tiny flecks of silver winking at me like tiny stars. “You seem to care an awful lot all of a sudden.” I ripped his coat, giving me a better look at the wound. “Are you and Tom close?”
Nate stared up at the sky, his eyes unfocused. “No. Doesn’t matter. Dustin wasn’t a fool. Just came off that way. Don’t think Howard killed him. Don’t want to see Tom punished by Osbourne for murder.”
“Just a lone wolf looking out for another lone wolf?” I asked.
“Something…like that.”
I wanted to pursue that line of thought, press Nate about why he’d been so ambivalent about helping me find Tom until I’d mentioned Howard. But his eyelids fluttered shut, and he lost what little color he’d had left. I concentrated on healing him as best I could, keeping him from bleeding out while we waited for the paramedics.
Thanks to a load of luck charms, Otherworld ambulances had a response time that was at least half of what a human ambulance could manage. Despite our remote location, it didn’t take longer than twenty minutes for them to emerge from the trees, stretcher ready.
The fact that one of them was an ice elemental helped.
I jumped back as the ice elemental—a spindly-limbed creature with white frost for skin and icy blue pits where their eyes should be and no clothes to speak of—sailed into the space between me and Nate on a rush of snow shaped into a slide. The snow fell away as they extended their legs to meet the ground, their thighs no bigger around than my wrist. It looked like a strong wind would snap their body in two, but I knew better.
“He was shot with a hollow point bullet filled with silver dust,” I told them.
The ice elemental knelt down and touched one hand to Nate’s shoulder. I hadn’t closed the wound for fear of trapping the silver dust in Nate’s body and making it harder for the alchemist to do their work. The ice elemental touched the tip of one finger to Nate’s wound, and a layer of ice crawled over his flesh, sealing the wound temporarily. I winced, grateful that Nate had already lost consciousness. Otherwise, having his flesh frozen that way would hurt.
“We’ll take good care of him,” the other paramedic said calmly.
I turned to find a dryad standing behind me. I wouldn’t have known what he was if it weren’t for the fact I’d neglected to turn off the head-light Bizbee had given me. The dryad winced and blinked as I inadvertently shone a light directly into his eyes—revealing the irises shaped like the rings of a tree trunk, the green shine when the light reflected off his pupil.
“Sorry.” I winced and reached up to turn off the light. “I’m so sorry. I need to go, I’ll leave you to it.” I pointed at Edwin where he waited beside the pit, staring into the darkness with a far away look that told me he was listening for any hint the men inside were plotting an escape. “That’s Edwin, and he works for Detective Sergeant Liam Osbourne. He’s going to wait here for police officers to come pick up some suspects we apprehended.” I hesitated, then gestured at my face and shoulder, then pointed to Edwin.
The dryad frowned, then followed my gesture. I could see the moment he noticed Edwin’s injuries. “I see.” He smiled. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of everything.”
Relief flowed up my spine, easing some of the tension in my shoulders. I noticed that Scath gave both paramedics a wide berth, and I knew better than to rat out her injuries. One look at her green eyes flashing at me in the darkness was all it took to convince me that would be a very bad idea indeed.
