Lunacy (Blood Trails Book 13), page 23
That thought gave me pause, and I reached for my waist pouch. “Bizbee?”
The grig shoved the flap up just enough to peer out, but not enough to be seen. “Is it safe?”
“No. But I need you to remind me of something tomorrow. I need you to make a note—a physical note—to look into Flint’s tattoos.”
“What tattoos?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Bizbee grumbled, but disappeared back into my waist pouch.
The leannan sidhe was still lying where I’d left him. His eyes were closed, so I couldn’t see if they were still that unsettling inky black.
“Flint?” I said, keeping my voice low.
He didn’t respond.
Slowly, I crept forward. “Flint. Are you all right?”
Still nothing. Concern grew, overriding my caution, and I knelt beside him. It was likely that healing that much had exhausted him. Maybe left him unconscious.
I reached for him, but his eyes cracked open before I could touch him.
“Get help,” he said, his voice so hoarse I almost couldn’t make out the words. “You can’t.”
“I can’t what?”
“Just…get help.”
I looked at my familiar where she hovered in the air beside me, wings beating furiously not just to stay aloft, but to keep her from freezing in the cold air. “Stay with him, make sure no one else finds him.”
Peasblossom nodded, blessedly choosing not to argue with me. I noticed she’d drawn her tiny sword before she blinked out of sight, making herself invisible. Treating Flint as much as a threat as a charge under her protection.
I made my way back into the tunnel. As soon as Ruth saw me, her eyes bulged and she rushed forward.
“Shade, are you all right?”
“Flint is hurt bad. Burns from a flamethrower. He needs help.”
Immediately two people from the crowd stepped forward, each of them holding a bag at their sides. First aid kits.
I held up a hand, still looking at Ruth. “Flint used dark magic to heal himself. He’s likely more exhausted than anything. Be cautious.”
Ruth read my tone, as I’d known she would, and her jaw tightened. For a second, I watched respect for me for being up front with her war with the instinct to err on the side of protecting her pack. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she decided to leave Flint out there. Not to risk her own.
“He saved my life,” I said quietly. “I’ll understand if you won’t bring him in. But if you won’t, then tell me now. I’ll have to get him to safety myself.”
Ruth’s eyes hardened. Whether I’d meant to or not, I’d just put her in a horrible position. Put her pack at risk. Or put her alpha’s mate at risk. Neither were going to go over well with Liam.
“I’ll take care of the sidhe,” she said finally.
I paused long enough to let her see my gratitude, then left her to handle the medics and made my way out of the basement and back to the upstairs landing where Flint and I had stood before. I needed to rest, but first I needed to make sure everything was under control.
Liam? What’s going on out there?
Something happened, or someone gave the order to retreat. The men that are left are starting to run away. And I hear sirens. It’ll be over soon.
Thank goodness, I said, unable to keep the exhaustion from my voice. Let’s not do this again.
You don’t sound very good, Liam’s voice said, sounding sharper than it had a moment ago. What happened?
I’m okay. Just need some rest. Ruth is sending out a team to retrieve Flint, he took a lot more damage than I did.
Damage?
You’ll see. I’ll see you when you come inside.
All right. Wait for me in my office?
I sighed, but agreed, then turned to head for the main stairs to go back down to the ground floor.
Before I could reach the stairs, I heard the sounds of crying coming from a few rooms down. I recognized the voice as Magda’s, and a flicker of anger gave me the energy I needed to walk to the door. It was open partway, and I pushed against it.
As I’d expected, it was the guest room Liam had had made up for his father. The ground between the bed and the floor was covered with blankets, and a single pillow. As if someone had been sleeping on the floor. Magda.
I gritted my teeth, then forced myself to take a deep breath. Later. I would speak with Cormac later.
Magda sat on the bed inside, her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking from the force of her sobs. She cried like her heart was broken.
“Magda, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“Danielle is gone,” she sobbed. “She’s gone, and they’ll think that makes her guilty. They’ll hunt her down, and they’ll kill her.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
Magda swiped at her tears, but only managed to make her eyes even redder. “I went down to see her. Ruth said no, but I…I went to see her anyway. Everyone was so busy, everything is such a mess. I went to see her, but she wasn’t there. I couldn’t find her anywhere, there was no one in the cells—”
“No one?” I asked sharply. “What about Emma?”
Magda shook her head. “I didn’t see her either.”
“Magda, I need—”
Something hit me in the back, hard. It was like being punched, but with the force centered in a tiny area that made it hurt that much more. My spine ached from one end to the other, but I whirled around, magic weak and flickering, but ready.
Cormac stood in the doorway, a gun in his hand. The expression on his face told me he hadn’t known I was wearing a vest.
I didn’t give him a chance for a second shot.
“Fulgur!” I thrust one arm forward, channeling the energy inside me down my arm. Heat seared my nerve endings as my hatred for the man who’d just shot me fed the spell, made it stronger, more intense. Red energy sizzled over my skin, mixing with the near-blinding white-blue light as it arced toward the murderous alpha.
When lightning hits the human body, it can do all kinds of damage. Burns, rupturing of the eardrum, eye damage, and cardiac or respiratory arrest.
With any luck, he’d feel all of them.
Cormac didn’t have time to make a sound. The lightning struck him in the chest, and was gone before I could blink. The scent of burning flesh hung in the air as the alpha’s body crumpled to the floor.
Chapter 22
“What have you done!”
Magda’s scream made me jump. Before I could turn around, the female shifter rocketed off the bed to collapse to her knees beside Cormac’s body, her knees pressing the blankets forward to form a nest around his body.
Tears streamed down her face as she put her hands on her husband’s chest, gently as if afraid of hurting him. “Cormac? Cormac, my love, speak to me.”
My heart pounded, the rush of blood in my ears so loud I couldn’t hear myself think. Cormac had tried to kill me. Shoot me. Inside New Moon? The trembling I’d felt before Peasblossom had fed me the spell to stabilize me returned. That lightning spell was going to cost me. Survival instincts were wonderful things, but what they never mentioned when a granny lifted a small car off her grandchild was what happened to that woman’s body when the adrenaline passed. In a moment I’d be shaking from head to toe, and loss of consciousness would follow soon after that. I had to get out of here before that happened. And Cormac and Magda were between me and the door.
“What were you thinking?” I said, unable to help myself. I looked down at the blankets on the floor, the ones that had distracted me, made me angry when I thought Cormac was making his wife sleep on the floor like a pet. I strongly suspected that had been a ruse. A distraction. Now I was quite certain the blankets were there to catch the blood. “You can’t possibly think you were going to get away with murdering me.”
Cormac groaned and tried to sit up. Immediately, he hissed, one hand flying to his right temple where a tiny droplet of blood was welling up. Fury pulsed through the empathic link I shared with Peasblossom and a moment later, the alpha werewolf hissed again as another dot of red blossomed on the other side of his face. Relief poured over me so fast I nearly collapsed. Peasblossom was here.
“Don’t get up,” I told him. “Not yet.”
A growl trickled from his throat, and murderous blue eyes met mine. Again, he tried to sit up, the tension in his jaw betraying the pain and effort it cost him. And again, he hissed as more droplets of blood began welling up over his cheeks and temples.
“Peasblossom is remarkably agile,” I said, reaching out with my foot to kick the gun away. “You heal fast, but eventually, she’ll go for the eyes. I’ve got to tell you, it’s not pleasant to watch. I can only imagine what it feels like.”
“Bitch,” he snarled.
“You shot me.” I shook my head, then stopped as the room swayed around me. It would be very bad if Cormac realized how weak I was right now. “In your room at your son’s rehab center. What on earth were you going to tell everyone? Tell Liam? Tell Brenna?” I looked down at the gun he’d dropped on the floor when the lightning hit him. “I assume you got that gun from one of the men outside. Was that the extent of your plan? Use one of their guns and pretend one of them mysteriously entered the building and shot me in your room?”
I bent down and lifted the edge of the blankets that lay over the floor. There were three layers—the bottom most of which was a shower curtain, I assumed that had been removed from the bathroom. I was right. This had been meant to catch the blood.
I looked up, noticing the open window for the first time. “Shoot me, throw me out the window? That’s the best plan you could come up with?”
“On short notice,” Cormac said in a low voice. “You have to be prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.”
Magda had stopped crying during our exchange. She hadn’t scooted back away from Cormac, but all of a sudden she looked like she wanted to. Like maybe it had occurred to her that with the drama over, Cormac might suddenly return to previous concerns. Like her involvement in Daryl’s fake death. A few minutes ago she’d been helping him try to murder me, and now she was afraid she would be the new target. What kind of life was that?
I shook my head. “I don’t have time for this.” I reached out telepathically to Liam. Everything okay out there?
Yes, we’ve arrested sixteen people. No deaths so far, but some injuries. I’m heading inside to talk to Ruth.
Make a pit stop in your dad’s room?
What happened?
His voice in my head sounded immediately more alert.
I’m sorry, but your dad tried to kill me. I glared at Cormac. Shot me in the back. The vest stopped it, so I’m fine, but—
I couldn’t actually hear Liam roar, not through the telepathic link. It was more like a feeling, a surge of anger so strong that my brain immediately provided the roar I was sure went along with it.
Liam made it to the bedroom in record time, and when he flowed forward to fill the doorway, my breath caught in my throat. Liam was a large man, and like most people, he looked even bigger when he was angry. His blue eyes shone with an iridescent light, sparks of gold winking at me when he turned his head. His clothes were bloody, but there were no injuries I could see. I wondered if it was his blood and the injuries had healed, or if it belonged to someone else.
Cormac had gotten off the floor when Liam’s footsteps first echoed down the hall, and this time Peasblossom had let him up. I moved closer to the window as Cormac moved in the other direction toward the bathroom. Liam’s gaze went to me first, a head to toe inspection quickly determining I wasn’t physically injured.
Then he looked at his father. “Come with me. Now.”
Cormac slowly drew himself up to his full height. He stared at Liam with all the confidence of a father facing down a much younger son, as if there were no part of his mind that worried he was in any serious trouble. Liam may as well have been a five-year-old announcing he was eating cookies for dinner.
“I don’t know what she told you,” Cormac said calmly. “But she’s the one who attacked me. Isn’t that right, Magda?”
“She hit him with a bolt of lightning!” Magda said, her voice thick with renewed tears, her voice quivering just so.
I wish it surprised me that she was so quick to take his side again. But it didn’t.
Silently, I lifted my long hair and turned, letting Liam see the bullet hole in the back of my coat. Then I nodded down at the floor where I’d kicked the gun. “Should still have his prints on it.”
“I took that from one of the men outside,” Cormac argued. “Protecting your territory.”
“And then he used it to shoot me.” I looked down at the floor. “The bullet should be in the blankets somewhere.”
Liam never looked away from his father. “I said come with me. Now.”
Cormac opened his mouth.
I never saw Liam move. One minute he was in front of the door, the next he was on top of his father. Magda was screaming again, over and over until it was one long sound.
I registered things in chunks. Liam’s arm partially turned, the limb longer and thicker, with claws sprouting from his fingertips. Cormac’s face a bloody mess, one eye ruined.
Cormac was a large man, and he’d been alpha a long time. Based on what I knew of him, I guessed he’d seen a lot of fights. Been in a lot of fights. Survived, so obviously won a lot of fights. But Liam had shocked him with his actions, and he didn’t waste one speck of that advantage. He committed, and he committed hard.
I jumped as Liam hefted his father’s body up and swung him into the dresser, battering Osbourne senior’s body against the wood so hard the front of three drawers cracked. Then he flung him into the wall, bruising the other side of his body and breaking a lamp in the process. He was on him again in a second, a fist in his hair, one of his father’s arms twisted behind his back. It was over in seconds, but it felt like forever.
Cormac managed to get his feet under him as Liam dragged him toward the door, but by then Blake and Edwin both stood in the hallway just outside. Osbourne senior spotted them, realized he was outnumbered. The senior wolf could do nothing but bleed as he was led out of the room. I hoped there was an audience waiting downstairs. Lots of people to see him bleeding and defeated. Beaten by the real alpha.
Magda collapsed to the floor, screaming and sobbing, completely hysterical. I felt a buzzing in my head, then realized I was swaying on my feet. It seemed my body was ready to choose a time to rest for me.
There was no way I was going to allow myself to pass out here in Cormac’s room, so I shuffled forward, toward the door. I was halfway there when I realized Magda hadn’t left when Cormac did. She was still there on the floor, but now Ruth was kneeling beside her, a small bag tucked under one arm.
“Breathe.” She put a hand on Magda’s shoulder. “Take a breath. Listen to my voice. Just breathe.”
She slipped the bag onto the floor and unzipped it with her free hand. I stared at the hypodermic needle. It was small, the sort used to give diabetics an insulin shot.
“I’m going to give you something to calm down, okay?”
Magda didn’t say anything, and Ruth took that for consent. She gave Magda the injection, then looked up at me, the questions on her face crystal clear.
“Cormac tried to kill me. Liam told him to come with him. He said no. Liam made him go.”
My voice sounded farther away than it should have. Slurred as if I’d been drinking.
Ruth rose from the floor and took a step closer to me. “Are you okay?”
“It’s been a rough day.” I shook my head, then regretted it as the motion made the room sway. “And it’s not over yet. Danielle is gone, we need to find her.” I stiffened as something Magda had said came back to me. “Did you take Emma out of her cell?”
Ruth frowned. “No. Why?”
“We might have a bigger problem.” I glanced at Magda. “I need Magda’s phone.”
Ruth looked confused, but turned her attention to Magda. “Where is your phone, Magda?” she asked gently.
Magda didn’t respond.
“It’s on the bed,” Peasblossom said suddenly. “It’s there, on the bed where she was sitting!”
I allowed myself to sit down on the bed as I picked up Magda’s phone, trying to push away the heavy weight slowly claiming parts of my body. I had a potion that would make a short nap feel like a full night’s sleep, but first I needed to find Danielle.
Danielle’s number was in the recent call history. I dialed her number and waited.
“Are you okay?” Danielle answered, her voice sounding panicky. “They didn’t let him hurt you, did they?”
“Magda is fine, Danielle,” I said calmly.
Silence.
“Running away won’t solve anything, Danielle. Come back and tell us what happened. It’s better for you if you turn yourself in. And for Daryl.”
“I don’t think so,” Danielle said coolly. “But I have a counter offer you might be interested in.”
“I don’t know if your offer will be as tempting as mine,” I said, putting a lilt in my voice. “If you hurry up and come back, you might catch Cormac before his face heals. Before his eye grows back.”
There was a strangled sound on the other end of the phone. “How?”
“Liam. Cormac tried to shoot me.”
The silence was long enough this time that I actually dared to hope Danielle was considering it.
“Tempting, but no. No, I don’t care what happens to that monster anymore. All I care about is Magda. I’m going to text you an address. Bring Magda to that location and leave her there.”
I waited, but she didn’t continue.
“Are you really going to make me ask?” I asked. “Do we have to play out the whole drama?”
