"I accept your apology." Macha's hair and clothes quieted along with her voice. "Now that there is no ward standing between you and Brina, it will be up to you two to move forward. The next time you come up against an obstacle in life, and you two will, figure it out. Don't wait for me or anyone else to solve your problems. You're by far the best Maistir I have and more than suitable to be Brina's husband. If she ..." Macha took a breath that made her voice catch. "When she returns, you two have my blessing to be together."
"Thank you. Would you mind moving aside so I can see ... her?"
Macha took a moment, then she floated out of the way.
Tzader couldn't breathe. "No, the druid said-"
"That he hoped the hologram would last four days."
Eighty percent of Brina was gone.
At the rate the image was deteriorating, would the lingering pieces of Brina's hologram last even one more day?
Breathe. Brina had not vanished yet. Tzader shouted, "Darwyli!"
The druid appeared, took one look at the hologram and muttered, "Worse than I thought."
Tzader hadn't needed to hear that. "How long does she have?"
Swinging his ancient gaze past Tzader to take in Macha, Darwyli lifted two white eyebrows in question.
Macha lowered her chin and pushed a narrowed-eye look at Darwyli. "You may answer his question, druid."
Darwyli harrumphed, then his expression eased with understanding when he addressed Tzader. "'Tis not long. I think we're down to less than a day."
Tzader pinched the bridge of his nose. "This can't be happening."
"We have a greater problem, Tzader."
He dropped his hands and stared at Macha in disbelief. "Do you really think that's possible?"
Her animated face and hair turned stone-cold still. "I've been called to a Tribunal meeting."
"Now? Haven't they heard what we're up against?" Tzader shouted, furious at VIPER, the Medb, Noirre majik and the world in general.
She lifted a hand to ask for silence when she could have used that same hand to lock his jaws. When she spoke, her voice was softer than he'd ever heard before. "That's why I believe they've called the meeting. We are the force behind VIPER and the coalition. We've always held the majority of control because of that power. Now that our forces have been weakened, sightings of the Medb have been reported all over the world. Our people estimate over forty witches and warlocks in Atlanta alone."
Her words hollowed out his gut. "Tell me that the Tribunal is raising a defense to help our tribe."
Her chuckle was short and grim. "Hardly. I'm fairly certain they are calling me in to ask me to withdraw my pantheon from VIPER voluntarily so they won't have to do it by force."
Energy sparked around Darwyli. "That would be an insult you could not allow."
None of that made sense to Tzader. "Why would VIPER even consider such a thing when we still have the largest army of nonhumans?"
"For that very reason," Macha explained. "VIPER does not have the resources to defend our tribe when they know every enemy we've ever had will come for us, starting with the Medb. The Medb's current lack of leadership will only add to the chaos. VIPER is pulling in all agents to protect its base of power."
"We can only assume the Medb lack leadership at this point," Darwyli said, but Macha ignored him.
Disgust stamped each of Tzader's words. "The coalition would leave us high and dry after all the Beladors have done for them?"
Macha's hair lifted up and down when she shrugged her shoulders. "Ours is not the kind of world that binds allies forever. They may simply look at this as nothing more than evolution, the survival of the fittest."
Tzader searched for something appropriate to say, but the only word that covered it was, "Fuck."
"I'm not a fan of that language, but it's not far from my initial reaction. I'm going there now and I will stretch out the meeting as long as I can. You won't be able to reach me unless you request Sen to come for me. If he does, the mere fact that my pantheon can't maintain its defense without me will draw a vote of no confidence with regard to keeping us in the coalition. You're in charge while I'm gone. We can't afford for any issue to be brought in front of a Tribunal right now. Understood?"
"Yes."
Macha lifted her hand and paused. "If Brina returns, I'll know it immediately. Or if ... she doesn't, I'll know that, too. Pull in the gryphons and all our warriors on the island to the castle if that's what it takes to hold Treoir, but it must not fall into the hands of the Medb even without Brina here."
Macha disappeared.
Silence stumbled through the room.
Darwyli sighed with the weariness of one so old. "I don't mean to add to your burden, Tzader, and I didn't want to speak of this with Macha present, but I think you should know that the hologram's disintegration may affect Brina."
"You don't think she can return?" Tzader's heavy heart rallied from too many blows to thump with panic at that possibility.
"No, I believe she can return as long as she has something that offers a path back, which is this hologram. But that projection is part of her, just as breathing is. I only want you to be prepared for the possibility that she may not return to us whole."
As Tzader turned back to the hologram, another piece of Brina's dress broke away, crystalized and twinkled out of existence.
He wanted her back no matter what.
How had his mighty tribe come to this point?
Chapter 18
Everything was too quiet, even in an old neighborhood at ten in the evening. Even the balmy breeze of earlier had settled.
Where was that witch doctor?
Evalle searched the night for movement from where she and Adrianna hunched down in a dark shadow created by a deteriorating, single-story ranch-style house forty years old. A modest home on what was still a nice corner in the town proper of Stone Mountain, Georgia. This house was newer than many in the area like the residence across the street she'd like to own. She loved how someone had glassed in the porch on one side. That two-story brick-and-stone structure had to be at least seventy years old, and came with a nicely trimmed yard.
As opposed to the weeds surrounding the house she hid beside. A fallen For Sale sign in this yard told of the tough housing market, and two broken windows pointed at a bad influence infiltrating the neighborhood.
The human scum that local police handled.
But dealing with demons and witch doctors like Nadina fell under Evalle's job description.
She studied a two-story, saltbox-style colonial house also across the street and next door to the brick home with the glass porch. The unadorned wooden structure leaned to one side. Understandable for a house built before the Civil War and still settling into the Georgia clay. A security lamp on a pole just past that house shed the only light in this area.
Evalle reached for her spelled dagger and came up empty. She'd left it hidden in Storm's Land Rover. Adrianna had warned her that the spell on the dagger could possibly alert Hanhau to Evalle's presence, assuming they found a way for her to sneak into Mitnal.
Thinking out loud, Evalle whispered, "We might be staking out the wrong house."
Adrianna hadn't moved a muscle since crouching next to her when they arrived forty minutes ago. "Kai said Nadina had taken possession of a former Civil War infirmary near a bald mountain. We're within sight of Stone Mountain, the only bald-looking mountain I know of in this area, so the question is whether your friend's intel on this specific house is good."
True. Stone Mountain was a gigantic granite belch, one big smooth chunk of rock rising over sixteen hundred feet.
"I'm not questioning Isak's intel. If I pressed him, he'd tell me the dates this place was active and how many soldiers were treated here right down to their names and injuries. His information is solid. I'm just wondering why we haven't seen a sign of Nadina."
"She probably knows something or someone is hunting her. I would."
Evalle swept a look at Adri
anna, who had said that in all seriousness. "Can she find us first?"
"I honestly don't know what she can do, but I wouldn't underestimate her."
As if I have to be told that after Nadina tricked Storm, who knew the witch doctor better than anyone? "What do you think Kai meant by Nadina taking possession of this house? Does she mean literally?"
"To some degree, yes. If this house was a former hospital, then it will be full of spirits. Nadina would use her majik to overpower what is generated by the spirits still present in the building." Adrianna gave a soft sigh, the only sign of any weariness. "Where's your artillery division?"
"Isak said he'd be here by ten." Evalle lifted her watch. "He's got forty-five seconds." She looked up, took in the immediate area, then gazed over her shoulder, searching every shadow down the street behind her that crossed at this intersection.
A shape emerged from a black pocket of nothing off to her right three houses away. She whispered, "Here he comes."
Adrianna stretched to look past her. "Where?"
"Give it a minute."
Isak covered sixty feet of distance without ever coming fully into focus while doing so. Adrianna didn't have Evalle's natural night vision, but even so if Evalle hadn't been familiar with the way Isak and his men operated, she wouldn't have known what to watch for.
"Oh," Adrianna murmured with a hint of feminine admiration when Isak crossed the last thirty feet to reach them. He wore a monocular that allowed him to see everything Evalle could.
Describing Isak as attractive was too limiting.
Blue eyes full of sharp intelligence, a body built for bulldozing over the first line of any defense and a sexy grin capable of leaving panties strewn in his wake.
Big, bad and black right now from head to toe, even black smudges on his face to camo his lightly tanned skin.
Judging by the usual amount of weapons both visible and assumed hidden in that vest among other places, he was armed to take down a city by himself. The rifle-like weapon he held at ready was similar to the one he'd loaned Evalle to kill Svart Trolls, a mercenary bunch of black ops nonhumans who'd invaded Atlanta earlier this month. But this new mega weapon painted in matte black appeared to be outfitted with a few extra tricks if those three switches meant anything.
He took one look at Adrianna and she moved aside, making room for him to drop down beside Evalle, which should have lowered his intimidation factor a full notch, but no. Not when a man had shoulders as wide as a refrigerator and sharp eyes loaded with threat for any danger.
Still, she'd put Storm up against him any day when it came to a badass throwdown. Like facing an entire underworld of demons.
But thinking about that would not help right now.
Evalle said, "Thanks for coming down here, Isak. You want to show me how that works?"
"Not necessary. I'm staying until I know you're clear."
Yeah, she was afraid of that.
Adrianna turned on the sex kitten voice. "So you're Isak?"
He finally swung his attention to address the Sterling witch, but his entire focus had been on Evalle first.
Sure, it was tacky on her part, but Evalle enjoyed a smug moment. Isak hadn't stumbled over his tongue the minute he got a load of Adrianna in her undercover getup-a tight, black cat suit designed for maximum cleavage display ala classic James Bond flick.
But, Evalle had once again committed a social faux pas by not introducing them. Hostess skills were not her strength. She said, "Isak, this is Adrianna Lafontaine, and Adrianna, this is Isak Nyght."
Adrianna pulled out a smile that could light up the entire block. "Nice to meet you."
What was with the Sterling witch? She flirted without effort around the men on the team, but Evalle had never noticed Adrianna showing a sincere interest like this. Her smiles and attention to the guys had always been more along the lines of dressing up a display case that sat behind an invisible do-not-touch barrier.
Isak didn't rush to answer Adrianna, taking a long visual sweep of her before he asked, "What are you?"
Way to kill the sex-kitten routine.
Adrianna's entire demeanor shifted subtly, but enough that Evalle felt the need to warn Isak. "Adrianna is a witch. A powerful one you don't want to piss off."
"Witch, huh? Does that make you human or nonhuman?"
Adrianna's frosty personality re-emerged. "That makes me not the least bit interested in your opinion."
Evalle had kept an eye on the frame house and caught a shadow pass by a window. "Hey, you two, I see activity."
Isak's attention zeroed in immediately. "What are we after?"
Oh, boy. This is what Evalle had avoided discussing over the phone with him. "A female witch doctor." She eyed his mega weapon again. "That's not the same blaster you brought me last time, is it?"
"No. You said you needed to contain something, but not kill it. This is a new model that has three levels of stun."
Adrianna's eyes had narrowed more when he used the word "it" to designate what they were hunting. As an Alterant, Evalle had suffered being called an "it" more times than she wanted to count.
And now she was a gryphon, but she hadn't shared that information with Adrianna or Isak.
"There's definitely someone in there," Adrianna confirmed. "I just saw a movement on the second floor, too. It's as if she's walking around from window to window, watching the area surrounding the house."
Isak asked, "Why do we have to leave her alive?"
Adrianna kept her voice down but snapped, "You don't even know what she's done. How can you assume killing her is the right choice?"
Evalle cringed at the censure in Adrianna's voice even though the witch was correct, but saying so right now might change Isak's mind about loaning that weapon.
"She's a nonhuman," Isak replied, voice hard. "And a threat of some kind to Evalle. That's reason enough."
Any other time, Evalle might gloat over Isak's concern, but that had been before she realized Storm was the only man she would tolerate sounding possessive around her. Isak knew that, but chose to ignore it.
Adrianna leaned in, shoving all that cleavage forward so Isak had a front row view, which he didn't miss. She asked Evalle, "Does he know why we're doing this?"
"No, I don't," Isak replied, turning to Evalle. "Not that it matters if this woman is a problem for you, but why are we here?"
Remind me again why I asked these two to help me?
Because Adrianna had the witch juice and Isak had the firepower.
Got it.
Evalle cleared her throat, stalling, then finally explained to Isak, "That witch doctor tricked Storm into following her to the underworld, another realm. I need her to get Storm out of there, but I can't do it without Adrianna casting a spell over her to force Nadina to do what I say. That's why I need you to stun her."
When Isak didn't reply, Evalle's shoulders fell. She hadn't lied to him, but neither had she told him everything on the phone.
"Nadina is the witch doctor?"
She had a burst of hope return at hearing Isak ask about Nadina. "Yes." Evalle risked a glance at him.
Isak's jaw could be carved from rock. He stared at the house, assessing something, then he slanted his gaze at her. "Guess I have to help you."
She liked the sound of that except for one part. "What do you mean by 'have to help me'?"
"If I don't, you won't come to dinner. If I do, you owe me dinner on my terms."
Adrianna was enjoying this way too much. Her eyes literally twinkled, the witch. It wasn't as though Evalle could refuse Isak since there was a standing dinner appointment that she'd agreed to, but that had included Kit, Isak's mother who'd issued the invitation.
Dinner on his terms wasn't hard to figure out.
Isak wanted Evalle alone for one evening.
He wasn't going to help her unless she followed through on her commitment, which she had to do anyhow since she owed Isak's mother for several favors.
Why did it feel like
she'd be betraying Storm to go with Isak?
How was she going to save Storm without him?
"Fine," Evalle agreed. "But I choose the date."
"Not a problem as long as it's within a week from today."
Maybe Nadina would smoke Evalle and this would all be moot. "Okay, done."
Isak grinned. "Let's go bag a witch doctor." He flipped a lever on his weapon.
Adrianna asked, "What did you just set for power?"
"Level One. It'll take down a demon."
Evalle considered the Svart Troll she'd zapped in a recent battle. The troll had been out for ten minutes. "Is the power similar to the stun setting on the weapon you loaned me for trolls?"
"No. The first level on this has twice the takedown ability."
Would that blow up a witch doctor with Nadina's powers?
Chapter 19
Evalle followed Isak's moves and Adrianna shadowed behind them. When they all reached the house, Isak gently tested the knob on the rear door. Locked. He reached inside his vest, but Evalle tapped his shoulder and signaled him to move aside.
She put her hand on the knob and after two soft snicks, the door opened.
Isak's uncovered eyebrow rose at seeing her kinetics in action. He'd once seen her toss a forklift using kinetics, but he still didn't know all that she was capable of. Just the fact that he'd work with a nonhuman instead of blasting one was a major step.
But he'd cooperated with nonhumans only when Evalle asked or was involved.
When this was done, she'd make good on the dinner she owed him. She'd use that time to explain once and for all that they could continue being friends, but nothing more. She'd tried once and he'd translated her involvement with Storm as a challenge.
Male psychology.
Storm had agreed not to rip Isak to pieces as long as Isak didn't touch Evalle. Explaining this IOU dinner without setting Storm off was going to take some work, but Evalle would worry about that once she had him safe at home.
She'd face anything to make that happen.