Night Huntress

Page 28

 

  Our teapots were smashed, but I managed to find four intact mugs. The cupboards had been emptied, but I finally located a box of Celestial Seasonings Lemon Zinger and dropped a tea bag into each of the mugs.

  Iris shivered as Camille sat by her side, holding Maggie. “Can you tell us what happened?” my sister asked.

  “Shortly after you left, I was washing up breakfast dishes when I heard a crash from the living room. I didn’t call out. First, I knew everybody was gone, and second, it sounded like someone overturning a shelf or something rather than the slam of a door. And then I smelled it. Orange and sugar vanilla and jasmine . . . and I knew that Karvanak was in the house. ”

  She hung her head. “I was afraid to run out back. He might have had guards outside. So I gathered up Maggie and slipped into Menolly’s lair. As the latch closed, I could hear somebody enter the kitchen. Another moment, and I would have been too late. There was a lot of noise, shouting and crashing. I crouched in the dark and waited. I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t have my cell phone, and when I picked up the land line down on Menolly’s nightstand, it was dead. ”

  I picked up the receiver on the wall phone and listened. “No dial tone. They must have cut the wires outside. ”

  Camille handed Maggie to Iris and wandered over to what had been the playpen. She removed a large skillet from the mattress pad, then pulled the cushion away from the debris, making sure no broken glass was stuck to it. She set Maggie on the cushion and dropped to the floor beside her.

  Iris let out a long sigh as she looked around the room. “How’s the rest of the house?”

  “Just as bad as the kitchen. Except for Menolly’s lair. We’re facing a lot of cleanup. A lot of loss. ” The kettle whistled, and I poured our tea.

  “Oh man, what about the Whispering Mirror?” Camille jumped up.

  “I didn’t notice,” I said, and she took off for the stairs.

  I pressed my fingers to my temples. A headache a mile wide was pounding out a frenzied beat in the back of my mind. Migraines R Us, I thought.

  Smoky opened the refrigerator door. The demons had apparently ignored it. The contents were intact. He pulled out a loaf of bread, lunch meat, and all the fixings for sandwiches and silently set to work. I had to give it to him. When the chips were down, he did what needed to be done without urging or complaint.

  Camille returned to the kitchen as Smoky finished making a platter of roast beef sandwiches. We looked at her.

  She shook her head. “Shattered. We’re going to have to send someone through the portal to Queen Asteria and ask her if she has a spare. All of my spell components have been trashed. Some are missing. And on the not-so-urgent but irritating side, my makeup’s been upended and smashed. Thank heavens for hardwood floors. If I had a carpet in my bedroom, it would be trashed. ” She pulled out her cell phone. “I’m calling Morio and Roz. We need all the help we can get. ”

  While Camille talked quietly on the phone, Iris dragged in a trash can from out back. I turned my attention to the mess on the kitchen floor. Sandwich in one hand, with the other hand I began tossing chunks of broken glassware and battered pans into the can.

  Iris joined me, kneeling over a spot by the table where at least four place settings of our good china lay, smashed to bits. She gathered up the halves of a broken serving platter in her hands and hung her head.

  “I’m so sorry, girls. I feel like I should have been able to stop them. ”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Smoky said. “You’re lucky you had time to hide. You saved yourself, and you saved the cub. Otherwise, you’d both be demon fodder by now. R?ksasas are cannibalistic, you know. They feast on anything that walks on two or four legs. Karvanak would happily munch you down for an afternoon snack and then follow up with Maggie as dessert. So don’t even think that you were lacking courage. You did the smart thing. Now, sit at the table, and eat. ”

  Iris flashed him a grateful smile. “Thank you for that, my dragon friend. I felt so helpless, sitting there in the dark. For about two hours, I wondered whether it was safe. Should I try to come up? Should I wait? What would happen if Delilah or Camille came home alone and found the R?ksasa in the house? It’s been a soul-searching morning, that I can tell you. ”

  I stared at the mess. Now that my worry over Maggie and Iris was quelled, a new, uneasy feeling began to grow. “Oh shit. Oh hell. ”

  “What’s up? What’s wrong?” Camille asked, looking over at me from where she was sorting a few unbroken plates from the rubble.

  “Chase! I went to see him at his apartment. The living room was trashed. I stopped in at Erika’s, but she said she hasn’t seen him since yesterday afternoon, and I’m pretty sure she’s telling the truth. ” My gut twisted. Had Karvanak been there? I hadn’t smelled the telltale scent of his fragrance, but then again, he had plenty of lackeys working for him.

  “Do you think—” Camille dropped the bag. “You don’t think the demons took him, do you?”

  “I don’t know,” I said miserably. “There wasn’t any blood—not any that I could see. Only the living room was tossed. I left just as Sharah arrived. But, could it be coincidence? Iris, do you have any idea what the demons were looking for?”

  She shook her head. “No. The seal, perhaps?” With a loud sigh, she motioned for Camille to join us at the table, then wiggled her fingers. The whisk broom and dustpan Camille had been using righted themselves and went to work on their own. “There’s no need for us to bother ourselves with this mess when I can set the tools to work by themselves. ”

  “Or who,” Smoky said after a moment.

  “Who what?” I asked. Camille had found some potato salad in the fridge and was dishing it out to go with Smoky’s sandwiches, which were so well-endowed with beef and cheese that the meat overshadowed the tomatoes, lettuce, and bread. I didn’t mind. I was a carnivore. I bit into a second sandwich and closed my eyes as the taste of rare beef trickled down my throat.

  “I mean, maybe the demons weren’t looking for a what, but a who. What if they were searching for Iris and Maggie? All of your cars were gone except for Menolly’s, and Karvanak knows she’s a vampire. He knew she’d be asleep. You’ll notice they didn’t come during the night or early morning, when you’d all be at home and awake. ”

  I didn’t like where this was going.

  “I think the demons have been waiting for a time when Iris would be alone and unable to protect herself,” he said.

  “You mean, they were out to kill her?” Camille asked, thudding into the nearest chair.

  “Not necessarily—” Smoky stopped as my cell phone rang, cutting him off.

  I flipped open the phone. “Hello?”

  A low voice, masculine and throaty, answered. “Is this Delilah D’Artigo?”

  “Yes,” I said. Warning bells were ringing loud and clear in my gut. The energy coming through the line was so threatening that my hackles rose.

  “Karvanak here. Shut the fuck up and listen. Your boyfriend’s life depends on your ability to follow instructions. ”

  Oh hell! They did have Chase. I hastily motioned to the others and held my finger to my lips, motioning for Camille to crowd next to the receiver so she could listen along with me.

  “I’m here,” I said.

  “Good girl,” he said. “Here’s how this is all going down. I know you have the fourth spirit seal, so don’t even bother lying about it. You hand over the seal and my renegade flunky to me. I hand over your boyfriend—relatively untouched—to you. Sound good?”

  Shit, he thought we still had the seal. Of course. How would he, or any of the demons, know we were giving them to Queen Asteria? Shadow Wing probably thought we were gathering them to use for ourselves! I kept my mouth shut. I might be naïve sometimes, but I wasn’t stupid. Camille glanced at me, her jaw set.

  “How long do we have to find it? We haven’t got the seal. Not yet. ”
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  “Sure you do. But just on the off chance that you’ve somehow lost track of the gem, allow me to be generous. Reflect on what your detective means to you. And you should know, if you decide to back out of our little deal, your boyfriend takes a one-way trip back to the Subterranean Realms, and I’ll sell him into slavery. ”

  Taking a deep breath, I asked, “How do I know Chase is still alive?”

  “A logical question. One I’d expect, so tell your sister—or that damned sprite you share your house with—to go look on the front porch. I’ll wait. ”

  I motioned to Camille. She headed for the front door. When she returned, her face was ashen, and her hand shook as she held out a small, open box. In the box was the last knuckle of a pinkie finger and a ring. It looked like the fingertip had been bitten off. The ring was Chase’s. I forced myself to swallow the bile that was rising.

  “What the fuck did you do to him?”

  “You like our little gift?” Karvanak laughed. “As a bonus, I’ll even let you talk to him. ” There was a muffled sound as the phone changed hands, and then a familiar voice came on the other end.

  “Delilah—Delilah—” Chase sounded both frantic and in pain.

  “Chase! Oh great gods, are you all right? Your finger—” I wanted to ask him where he was, but Karvanak was smart. He’d kill Chase if he even suspected I was trying to cadge information out of him.

  “Never mind my finger,” Chase said. “Listen. I’m sorry about everything. I love you. ”

  “I love you, too—” I said, breaking into tears. “We’ll save you. Just hang on. Do what they say. We’ll rescue you. ”

  “No! Don’t deal with them,” Chase said, his voice raspy and fearful. “You can’t let them have the seal—”

  “Enough. ” Karvanak was back on the line. “Use the tip of his finger for scrying if you want to know it’s his for sure. And meanwhile, think about this: There are a lot of demons who like to play with humans down in the Subterranean Realms. There’s always a great call for slaves there, and toys. And we’ve perfected the art of keeping our prisoners alive, even when they’d rather die. ”

  I kept my mouth shut. It wouldn’t help Chase at all if I showed how upset I was. “We need time—”

  Karvanak laughed. “I thought you’d see it my way. I’m in a generous mood. You have thirty-six hours. Don’t expect any extensions, and don’t let the charge on your cell phone die. Both would be very, very bad ideas. ”

  As the line went dead, I closed my phone and looked at the others.

  “You talked to Chase?” Camille asked.

  I nodded.

  “I assume Karvanak wants the fourth spirit seal. ”

  “He wants a little more than that. He also demanded that we hand over Vanzir. If we don’t, he’ll sell Chase to the Sub Realms, into slavery. ” All of my anger at Chase vanished in a sea of worry. I broke down, lowering my head to the table as the stinging salt of tears washed over my face. “I can’t let anything happen to him. I . . . I . . . ”

  Camille rested her hand on my shoulder. “You love him, even if you are mad at him. ” As I nodded, she rubbed my back, and Iris hurried to fetch me more tea. How the hell were we supposed to handle this? Unable to keep up pretenses any longer, I gave in to my fear and wept until there were no more tears to come.

  CHAPTER 22

  As soon as dusk hit, we gathered around the table. We’d managed to clean up most of the mess, though the house looked a lot more empty than it had that morning when we left. Most of our knickknacks were gone, and some of the furniture had been destroyed.

  We’d already sent Morio through Grandmother Coyote’s portal to Elqaneve, to tell them we needed a new Whispering Mirror. He returned a couple of hours later with the promise that we’d have one before the week was out.

  Now, Smoky and Morio sat on one side with Camille. Zach and I sat opposite them. Menolly parked herself at the head of the table, while Iris and Roz took the other end.

  Menolly had instructed Luke—a werewolf who was her head bartender at the Wayfarer—to take over for the night. I’d asked Vanzir to join us a little later. We needed to discuss matters before telling the dream chaser he was technically part of Chase’s ransom. No telling what he might do once he found out that Karvanak had plans for him, and they probably didn’t involve a welcome-home party. Not that I intended to hand him over. He knew too much about us and our operations by now.

  “What do we do? We can’t give him the spirit seal. For one thing, we already handed it over to Queen Asteria. Even if we did still have it, we couldn’t trade it. Not even to save Chase. ” Camille had a strained look on her face. We all did.

  I stared at my glass of milk. “I know. If we start making deals with them, we might as well just throw open the portals and invite Shadow Wing to go all Godzilla on us. ” Logic tasted bitter in my mouth, but there it was—the bottom line. Even if Karvanak had kidnapped Iris, we wouldn’t trade the seals for her. And I wasn’t about to hand over Vanzir, either. Terrorism thrived on positive results, and if we gave in now, we’d be admitting defeat.

  “Collateral damage,” Menolly said. “That’s what it comes down to. It’s easy to say no to striking a bargain when the victims are nameless. But when the bodies take on the faces of friends, that’s when we’re forced to make hard choices. ” She glanced over at Camille. “Like I had to with Erin. ”

  “Erin . . . ” I said. “You’re right. She was targeted because of us, too. ”