Mercenary Read online

  Nathan kicked out again as Scath lunged forward. His hoof caught her in the mouth, snapping off one of her long white teeth. Scath snarled, green eyes brightening into emerald flames. I gritted my teeth. This fight had to end now. We had no time, we had to get upstairs.

  “Sol metus!” I shouted, throwing out an arc of searing green energy. I dove as I hurled the spell, aiming to land by the window and the dangling curtain.

  Nathan’s eyes, now glittering with specks of crimson, focused on me, and his muscles tensed. My skin tingled in anticipation of his touch, the needle-like hairs on his skin drawing more blood. I winced as I hit the wall, scrabbling at the curtain as I slid to the floor. The curtain pulled free of its rod with a snap.

  Sunlight poured into the room, and Nathan screamed as my spell amplified the light piercing his eyes. Bad enough that Nathan was naturally nocturnal, but with the additional focus of my spell the searing sunrays left him in blind agony. He kicked out toward the rumbling growl coming from Scath, but he missed. Scath brought her claws forward, scoring Nathan across the face, ruining one blind eye, then following that slash with another to his midsection.

  I didn’t have time to watch, to see how badly the sidhe was hurt. I bolted for the door. Three running steps carried me down the short hallway. I’d just raised one leg to take the first step up toward Jeff’s room when I heard a thud from above.

  I had a split second for my brain to register someone exploding out of Jeff’s room. The figure was moving too fast for the sharp turn required to go down the stairs, and instead smacked into the bedroom door opposite the hidden room behind the tapestry now held aside. The figure tilted madly as he pivoted, but regained his balance enough to keep his feet when he careened down the stairs.

  I flattened myself against the wall just in time to avoid a collision, my eyes bulging as I realized it was a baobhan sidhe.

  Another one.

  Chapter 21

  The second baobhan sidhe made a beeline for the room where I’d left Nathan. I stood frozen in place, desperate to get to Liam, but needing to stay put to make certain the two sidhe didn’t try to get upstairs again. Maybe I could slow them down. First line of defense.

  A few seconds later, the sidhe who’d stumbled down the stairs lurched out of the office with his cohort in his arms. Nathan’s body was limp, blood pouring from his stomach. Blood and liquid from his ruined eye coated his face. His partner glared at me from a face caked with drying blood, a promise of revenge in the expression, then lunged out the open front door. I heard a hiss as he plunged into the sunlight, and a few seconds later a car door slammed.

  I stood there frozen, my mind spinning, unsure if I should give chase, or send Scath after them. The cat sith stood at my side, tail lashing side to side, muscles tensed, ready to run. Nathan had said Liam was in danger. Had he referred to his partner? Or something else? Should I try to catch up with them, try to get more information now that they were weakened?

  “All right?”

  I turned at the sound of Liam’s voice, perturbed by the garbled nature of his words. When my gaze met his, I realized why he sounded different. The alpha was partially shifted, his body bigger, covered with grey fur, and his face more wolf than man with a long snout and teeth to match. Dark gold eyes studied me, burning in the aftermath of whatever fight I’d missed. If it had been anyone else, I would have been terrified, and as it was, it took me two tries to speak.

  “I’m fine.” I busied myself closing and locking the front door. When I got back to the stairs, Liam was gone, back in Jeff’s room. I glanced at the bloody hallway leading back to the office, but turned to the stairs first. There was too much to clean up with one sweep. I’d take care of the bloody mess later, after I made sure Peasblossom and Jeff were all right.

  Scath prowled up the stairs beside me, despite the fact that there really wasn’t enough room to do so safely on the narrow staircase. If I slowed, she slowed, and if I sped up, she sped up. It was both annoying and reassuring that she seemed dedicated to remaining at my side.

  Right at my side.

  My chest tightened as I turned to enter Jeff’s makeshift hospital room and the first thing I saw was Dr. Dannon lying on the floor. There was a blood smear on the wall closest to his head. Peasblossom perched on his forehead with her tiny pink palms pressed to his skin, her wings vibrating behind her in a steady buzz. She looked up at me when I came in, and her wings stopped moving, sagging in relief.

  “You’re okay.”

  I nodded and stepped inside the room, glancing toward the bed. Thankfully, Jeff looked undisturbed. “I’m fine. What happened?”

  Beside the bed Liam rolled his shoulders, body shuddering with the release of energy as he shifted back into full human form. Ostensibly to make it easier to talk. “Peasblossom told me about Nathan. I was almost to the door when the baobhan sidhe leapt into the room and threw something at Dannon.” He gestured to the unconscious doctor.

  “It was sleeping powder,” Peasblossom said. “It wouldn’t have hurt him, but when he fell, he hit his head.”

  “Good thing you were there,” I told her.

  Her wings lifted and her face brightened. “Yeah. If I hadn’t been here, he could be dead.”

  A concussion was more likely, but head injuries were nothing to laugh at, so I let her have that one.

  “He was aiming for me,” Liam continued. He gestured to another blood spot on the wall beside the door. “Blackjack attacked him, and he hit Dannon by mistake. He rallied and went for Jeff. Then he heard Nathan screaming, and he must have figured his partner hadn’t taken you out like he was supposed to. He was outnumbered, so he bolted.”

  “There’s no guarantee he won’t be back with reinforcements—if he doesn’t have people waiting already.” I bit the inside of my cheek, staring at Jeff. “We need to wake him up. But I don’t know if I can—” My gaze landed on Blackjack, once again perched on the head of Jeff’s bed, and I froze. “Or maybe there’s another way to talk to him.”

  I took a careful step toward the bed. Blackjack raised his wings and opened his beak, feathers fluffing in warning. He was already a huge bird, but now he looked enormous. And rather peeved. I kept my voice low and calm.

  “Blackjack, I need to help Jeff. But to do that, I need you to help me.” I took another step. “Peasblossom, get the astral projection supplies.”

  Peasblossom was unzipping the pouch already as if she’d guessed my idea. She shoved half her body inside. “Bizbee! Bizbee, we need the light purple candle and a lighter. And a bag of salt!”

  “Stop shoutin’, there’s nothing wrong with my hearing!”

  “Blackjack,” said the raven.

  “Jeff is in trouble,” I said, not mincing words. “He’s in danger. More people will come here, and they’ll try to hurt him. I need your help to talk to him.”

  Blackjack tilted his head, staring from me to the purple candle Peasblossom was hauling out of the pouch. “Roger.”

  “Yes. Yes, we want to help Roger. We need Jeff.” I kept my eyes on the bird as I took the bag of salt from the grig. “I’m going to go to the dreamworld. If Jeff is asleep I might be able to find him there. It would help me find him faster if you would come with me.”

  The bird didn’t say anything. Beady black eyes followed every movement as I retreated to the door. “I’m going downstairs. Come with me. Please. I need your help to find him in time.”

  Liam watched with interest as the bird flapped its wings and looked from me to Liam. It opened its beak again. “Out.”

  I paused on the threshold. “I think he wants you to leave too. He doesn’t want to leave Jeff alone with you.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever been told what to do by a bird.” Liam hesitated, then stepped away from the bed. “I’ll stay on the bottom of the steps.” He glanced around. “This room doesn’t have any windows. If I stay at the lower landing, I should hear it if Jeff wakes up.”

  “Good.” I nodded at Blackjack. “Let’s
go then.”

  I said a prayer of gratitude when I left the room and Blackjack sailed down the stairs ahead of me. If the sight of the blood all over the floor bothered the raven, he didn’t show it.

  Liam followed, carrying Dr. Dannon with him. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I headed for the kitchen and its generous floor space, and Liam settled the unconscious doctor on the couch.

  I stood in the middle of the kitchen and waited for Blackjack. The raven hopped onto my shoulder, snapping his beak in warning. That close to my eyes, the thick bill was as good a threat as any, and I nodded my acknowledgment. No tricks.

  “All right, Peasblossom, I want you to stay outside the circle with my cell phone.” I waved the phone in question and set it on the floor. “If I don’t come back soon, call Gary and tell him what I’ve done.”

  “Who’s Gary?” Liam asked coming to stand at the bottom of the stairs where he could still see into the kitchen.

  “A shaman who specializes in astral travel. If something happens to me, he’s the best bet to get me back.”

  “Be careful, Shade,” Peasblossom said, her tiny voice worried.

  I took the purple candle and the lighter and set them on the floor. Once the flame flared to life, I started drawing out the salt circle. “I’ll be careful. Make sure nothing happens to Jeff.”

  Liam nodded, but didn’t say anything, his blue eyes watching as I used a drop of my blood to close the circle. I lay on the floor with Blackjack shifting his feet to stay on my shoulder. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and opened my mind.

  The dreamworld is to the astral plane what the astral plane is to the real world. But while the astral plane can be manipulated by anyone who knows what they’re doing, the dreamworld is more often manipulated by those who don’t. The astral plane waits for commands. The dreamworld reaches into your brain for ideas.

  The scent of the candle’s essential oils drifted over my senses, the lavender overriding the milder scents. The spelled candle pushed at my mind, and after a quick, dizzying moment, I felt a change in the energy of my surroundings. I opened my eyes.

  I couldn’t see a thing. I stood in a field of grey mist, blind to anything but the giant raven sitting on my shoulder. Blackjack stared into the grey fog surrounding us as if he could count the individual droplets of moisture. This close to my face, his bill looked much larger than usual, and I noticed a reddish tint I hadn’t seen before.

  I flexed my fingers and toes, and rolled my head to stretch the muscles in my neck. To survive the dreamworld, I needed to ground myself as best I could, calm my thoughts so the dreamworld didn’t reach into my brain for anything too interesting. Three deep breaths, in for the count of seven, out for the count of eight. I concentrated on the feel of my breath as my chest rose and fell, and the sensation of my muscles flexing as I stepped forward.

  “All right, we need to find your master. Blackjack, where’s Jeff?”

  Blackjack launched himself off my shoulder and sailed into the fog. The thick grey moisture rolled back, and I let out a sound between a gasp and a squeak as I found myself walking on thin air, looking down on a forest from a mile or so overhead. Tree tops waved at me from below, and when I took a step, the wind cupped my body as I slid forward. It felt like flying.

  Apparently, the dreamworld was using Blackjack’s memories to build itself, so I was getting a bird’s eye view of our trip. I tried not to look down, concentrating instead on the black corvid body sailing through the air ahead of me. As long as I kept my eyes straight ahead, I would be fine.

  Probably.

  “Tell me what you saw. Show me!”

  The sound of Arianne’s voice startled me, and I stumbled, wobbling in midair with my feet on what felt like solid ground. Blackjack’s talons closed around my shoulder, and I concentrated on that pain to ground myself. When I blinked, the bird’s eye view vanished, and I was standing in a forest, surrounded by thick trees.

  Jeff knelt in a small, mostly clear area, bowed until the debris of the forest floor tickled his forehead and stirred his dark brown hair. His hands were bound behind him, locked together by handcuffs that glittered like marble. I stiffened. No, not marble. Amethyst.

  “Lives are at stake, and you kneel there letting them die in your silence.” Arianne’s voice thickened with emotion and she drew a deep, shuddering breath. “You will tell me what you saw. I will have the truth if I have to tear your mind to ribbons to find it.”

  I leaned around a tree to get my first look at the dream sorceress. My lips parted, and I stared.

  Arianne was in her element. She was a beautiful woman on the physical plane, but here, in the dreamworld, she was radiant. Her black hair slid around her shoulders like liquid silk, tendrils writhing as if gravity had little effect on them. Her skin was no longer a pale brown, but a glowing white with purple and gold veins. Her eyes were burning mercury, a silver so bright it hurt to look at them. She was a goddess carved of amethyst and given life.

  She had to know I was there, but she didn’t spare me so much as a glance. Instead she took another step toward Jeff, stretching her hand toward his bowed head.

  “Stasya is dead. Killed by the baobhan sidhe. Tell me who else was there! Who was the baobhan working for?”

  She was almost screaming by the end of the sentence, her chest rising and falling so fast it destroyed the illusion of being carved from stone.

  Jeff didn’t look up, didn’t move. He remained kneeling as if he were completely at peace, content to kneel here in the forest for as long as it took. He didn’t say a word.

  Blackjack dove through the air and stabbed at the top of Arianne’s head with his bill, not enough to do damage, but more of a warning. She screeched and swiped at the air with one hand, holding her scalp with the other. Blackjack swooped in a wide circle then landed on his master’s shoulder, lifting his wings and snapping his bill at Arianne. Yelling at her in corvid.

  Jeff tilted his head, but the sight of his animal companion didn’t calm him as I’d expected. Instead, his jaw tightened, his shoulders going rigid. I frowned. His animal companion had come to his aid. He should be happy. I always felt better with Peasblossom around. Except…

  Arianne stared at the bird. Slowly a smile crept across her lips. Dread settled in my stomach.

  “Tell me what you saw.” She raised a hand toward the bird. “Or when you return to the waking world, your bird’s mind will stay here. You can sit on the physical plane and wait for his body to die.”

  Now Jeff raised his head. But he didn’t look at Arianne. He looked at me. And I could see clear as day the accusation in his eyes. The demand. I’d brought his bird here, I’d put him in danger. Why?

  “Arianne, stop this.” I took a step forward, bringing myself into her peripheral vision. She had yet to acknowledge my presence, but I knew better than to think I’d snuck up on her. Most likely she simply didn’t consider me a threat. Not here.

  “Talk or the bird becomes a vegetable,” Arianne continued.

  “Did you kill Roger?” I asked speaking louder and taking another step forward. “I assume you had to go into his mind to find a connection to Jeff so you could locate him here. Roger was already in a delicate state. Did you kill him?”

  Arianne glared at me. “No. But if he dies, his blood will be on your hands, not mine. More power has done you no favors. You still blunder about like a child, shoving your face in situations that don’t concern you and leaving things worse than you found them.”

  “Spew venom on me if it makes you feel better, but we both know what you’re doing.” I took another step, angling myself between the angry sorceress and her feathered victim. “You feel guilty because Stasya lived in a war-torn country and thrived, but after two weeks here, she was killed while under your care.”

  Arianne stumbled back as if I’d struck her. Her amethyst face paled, making the purple and gold lines stand out like bulging veins. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. I slid the rest of
the way between her and Blackjack.

  “How dare you,” Arianne whispered.

  Behind me, Jeff moved, just a whisper of clothes warning me of the movement. I straightened, blocking him from view as much as possible. If he could get out of the cuffs, he might be able to wake up.

  Arianne’s focus was on me now. All part of the plan.

  “You have no idea what you’ve done,” Arianne snarled. “Underhill is moving against Aaban and Charbel—surrounding them in their own home.”

  “They’re surrounding the ifrits at home?”

  “Yes. I spoke with Aaban before they cut off communication. Underhill is there, putting all their people into place.”

  “They can’t attack the competition like that. That would be enough to bring in the Vanguard,” I argued.

  Arianne’s face twisted into a mask of fury. “That would be true if one could prove that Underhill attacked them to take out the competition. But if they attacked them as punishment for Scoria killing one of their employees… Well that is the way of the Otherworld, isn’t it? An eye for an eye.”

  I shook my head. “They can’t prove Aaban killed Stasya. Not yet.”

  “Ian Walsh is high court sidhe,” Arianne snarled. “He’ll have set them up. Now all Underhill needs to do is make sure no one is around to challenge the accusations they’ve leveled against Scoria.”

  “Or maybe they’re trying to rescue the sidhe the ifrits took prisoner,” I responded evenly. “The one the Nassirs are torturing for information the same way you accused Walsh’s agents of torturing Stasya.”

  Arianne jabbed a shaking finger at me. “No. You’ve bought their lies, and now that they believe their campaign against my friends has worked, they’ll kill them both. Don’t you see? Underhill operates in the grey. They don’t need proof they’re right, they only need to make sure there’s no proof they’re wrong. The Vanguard does not interfere with infighting. They will get away with it. And it’s all because of your meddling, your willingness to believe their lies!”