Blood Trinity

  "Any idea who conjured the majik?" Evalle glanced up when Grady didn't speak, and she caught him considering his answer. Oh, she knew that look, and it was trouble. "Don't even think to negotiate a new deal."

  He covered his heart with the bottle in his hand. "I'm hurt that you'd question my integrity that way."

  Nightstalkers had no integrity or loyalty as a rule, willing to sell the same information over and over as soon as they could shake again. But Grady had been different, an exception to the rule, and he'd protected intel in the past.

  However, that show of insult on his face right now was nothing more than an act.

  He belted down another quick slug and wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his flannel shirt. "Most likely, it's a witch conjuring Noirre, but that doesn't rule out another being, since we ain't got a Who's Who directory of black majik folk around here. There ain't been a Noirre in the south for the past fifteen years I been hangin' loose. Only ones I ever heard of worked alone."

  Evalle smiled at how he described his years of being a Nightstalker as "hanging loose." More than once she'd wondered if Grady was the derelict vagrant he presented to the world with his ragged speech or if his core personality was the highly educated man who peeked out from beneath the charade at times.

  But that didn't matter right now. If he was right about a lone witch being behind the Noirre majik, she jumped to the only conclusion she could.

  Adrianna.

  The witch who came from a long line of corrupt witches. After all, most witches were good people who harmed no one. That was their code: Do no harm. Whatever you send out into the universe will return to you threefold. That kept almost all witches in line. However, there were those who did dabble with the darkness, and Evalle couldn't rule out the possibility of the Medb being here either.

  But still she couldn't let the thought of Adrianna go.

  Those like Adrianna and her family who danced on the dark side didn't adhere to those happy pony rules. They were the deadliest of all because they had no conscience, and all that mattered was what they wanted.

  If Adrianna really was here to work in VIPER's favor and not turn on them, her first test would be finding the witch behind the Birrn.

  Would that help or hinder Evalle's position if Adrianna found out the Birrn had been looking for an Alterant?

  Then again, she couldn't see Adrianna doing anything to benefit her.

  The heavens grumbled, threatening to turn this into a full sauna evening.

  "I've got to make the most of tonight. That all you got on the demons?" Evalle gave her watch a quick glance. Grady would start to fade soon, then he'd be hard to find for an hour or two.

  VIPER didn't want her mentioning the Ngak Stone even though Grady would know about it being lost in Atlanta two years ago. But he might have something new to share if she positioned the question creatively. "Or anything else? Any unexpected energy floating around? Maybe a female with unusual powers who's new on the scene?"

  He took another swig. "Not part of the original deal."

  She should take his bag of French fries back, but the whining would be worse than pulling a sack of trick-or-treat candy away from a four-year-old. Not a pretty sight on a ghoul his age. She tried a sly approach. "I need intel now on anything unusual and quick. Something to show VIPER I'm on the ball."

  Grady shrugged. "And I'm running out of my anytime minutes. Want to shake again?"

  "You know I can't shake for another hour."

  "Then give me an hour of prime time Wednesday night."

  She grunted a disparaging noise at the ridiculous request. Even from Grady. "Want the Brooklyn Bridge while I'm at it?"

  He growled and stomped around, putting on a show to let her know she'd ticked him off. Then he stopped suddenly, concentrating on something. His eyes stared off into the black skies.

  She kept silent, since that was how he looked when he listened to some invisible spirit.

  His lips moved without saying a word, then he flinched at something he heard before his gaze shot to her. "That's all I got on the demons, but Kardos has more."

  She frowned at that. "What does he know?"

  "Not sure, but I heard he and his brother were outside the Iron Casket when the Birrn caught him."

  "I'd believe Kardos was stupid enough to hang out in the parking lot of Deek's nightclub, but not Kell. What makes you think Kardos knows more?"

  "Because he's at the Iron Casket right now."

  "Inside?"

  "Yep."

  She didn't like the suspicion raised in her mind at hearing all that. Had she made a mistake with Kardos and Kellman? Had they set her up with a demon? She just couldn't believe that but would give Kardos a chance to explain. That meant her next stop was the IC.

  Someone shoot me. She absolutely did not want to deal with the owner of that nightclub tonight. Or any other night, for that matter. "Can't that boy stay out of trouble for five minutes?"

  "He don't seem worried about making his next birthday, that's for sure."

  Yeah, and the first thing Kardos was going to explain when she found him was how he'd gotten past Deek's tight security that didn't allow teens into the club. "Okay, bud. Back to--"

  Grady started fading. "I don't have nothing for sure yet, but there's a synergy moving through the city. I might have more later if you want to trade something like ... more time."

  She'd lose him for a couple hours now, because unlike the other Nightstalkers, who tried to stay in one spot so they could be found easily, he tended to reappear anywhere in a ten-block area. "You be here when I come back with information on that synergy."

  His form flickered as he took a deep drink before answering. "You know I ain't got no control over where I go next."

  "You would if you'd just concentrate when you start fading."

  "Like I need to be stressed out over anything at this point in my life? I am dead, dammit."

  "Yeah, and if you don't get me the info I need, you'll be even deader."

  He laughed. "Like you'd ever do me that way." He guzzled the last of the booze before he faded out and the bottle tumbled to the ground.

  Evalle felt a tingle run down her spine. Something in the air wasn't right, but she didn't know what it was.

  The stone has been found.

  She had no idea whose voice that was. Yet it'd been crystal. She shook her head to clear it. Was that a witch messing with her?

  Or a warning sent by Grady?

  She didn't know, but it didn't matter. She had to do what she had to do. Turning around, she headed back to her bike so that she could go to the last place she wanted to.

  May Macha have mercy on her, because Deek would not.

  ELEVEN

  Evalle rode fast to the Iron Casket in a quick downpour that knocked a couple degrees off the hideous temperature but did nothing to beat down her concern over Kardos and the possible danger he might be in.

  Over and over, she saw him being bludgeoned or worse if one of the staff had discovered him in the club. There were so many hideous things that could be done by ancient beings to a young person, especially an untrained male witch.

  Just thinking about it made her blood run cold.

  She parked her bike in a half-filled parking lot and turned off the engine. She couldn't believe she was about to head into Deek D'Alimonte's territory alone. An immortal centaur who could morph into a human, Deek owned the Iron Casket and was without a doubt one of the nastiest creatures who'd ever lived. No one knew why really. He just hated the entire universe.

  I am courting death here.

  There was serious bad history between the Beladors and Deek. He had no patience for any of their kind, and if he saw her inside, there would be a brawl.

  Just don't let me get arrested.

  All she had to do was retrieve one pain-in-the-ass male witch before Deek saw her. Dame Fortune, don't be on vacation tonight. 'Cause she was about to need her badly.

  Evalle quickly scanned the area, loo
king for threats. Whoever was seeking her probably had even more demons gunning for her. Every shadow could hide an assassin or demon whose only mission was to take her unawares.

  Rule Number One: Stay Vigilant.

  She put on her sunglasses and checked the back pocket of her jeans for cash.

  Kardos was so going to pay her back for the cover charge. Little snot. She headed for the entrance. The rain was fading. Droplets clung to her vintage BDU shirt. Not as stylish as most of Deek's clientele. But that was all right. She wasn't here with the same intent as the rest of the patrons, looking for a victim or a lay. She was here to beat sense into one severely testosterone-poisoned idiot.

  Deek's warehouse had multifaceted panels of slanted black and silver covering the entire outside. Panels that gleamed in the rain. In full sun, she'd bet this place flashed like a polished black diamond.

  Deek had turned the inside into a showcase of black marble and glitter intended to lure a Fae to the sparkle like a werewolf to fresh meat. Then the ever surly Deek had forbidden any Fae to tread here. If any were dumb enough to do so, it invited a major ass-whipping.

  Next on his kicking list--a male witch not yet twenty-one.

  The real question was, how had Kardos gotten past the two bouncers who looked like Goth gargoyles standing outside the door? She hoped the teenager hadn't used majik to gain access, because Deek would kill anyone who used majik in his place.

  Anyone.

  Even more frightening, she couldn't see any way Kardos would have gotten past those two guards without majik.

  As she neared the front door, the dull staccato of throbbing music vibrated through her. She smiled at the first of the two black-swathed mountains she reached. "Any chance I could go in for five minutes without paying? Just got to find somebody, then I'll be right back out?"

  He lifted an eyebrow in amusement. "Any chance we can spend a night at your house?"

  "When the devil sits on icicles." She handed him the ten dollars and let him stamp the inside of her wrist.

  When he opened the door, the music charged forward, slapping her body and ears. Not a packed house, but enough gyrating bodies and clusters of groups moving through the three levels that she'd have to poke around to find her target.

  Unless Kardos had left.

  Rushing through the crowd, Evalle covered the downstairs in a matter of minutes and was just taking the first step to go up to the second level when the music ended. She glanced across the room just in time to catch a bright flash of familiar blond hair moving through the room.

  Kardos snaked his way off the dance floor and into the hovering crowd that swallowed him.

  Or had he seen her and taken off?

  She spun around and plowed through warm bodies smelling of silky cologne and sweat to reach the other side of the room just as Kardos zipped through the rear exit. How had he gotten past the bouncer at the back door, who was carrying on a conversation with a patron?

  Deek killed unobservant bouncers. Crap. Kardos was definitely using majik.

  Flaming moron.

  "Hey!" The bouncer stopped her. Now he decided to be alert? "No one leaves through the back door and that means you, baby. The bathroom's upstairs. The front door is on the opposite end."

  Oh, to be able to blast the arrogant snot until he bled. But that would no doubt tip off Deek that a Belador was here.

  Grinding her teeth in frustration, she all but left a vapor trail as she rushed through the club, trying to get outside to catch Kardos.

  She ran to her bike and shoved her helmet on.

  By the time she circled around the street along the back of the club, Kardos was hauling ass, but still in sight.

  That was the good news.

  The bad news was that he had a young woman with him.

  The really bad news?

  That girl was Bettina D'Alimonte, Deek's nineteen-year-old sister he treated like a goddess.

  As in an untouchable virginal goddess. And Deek demanded that any man who came within a mile of her must sacrifice his penis or his life.

  Damn, that boy was working hard to die young.

  Deek wouldn't care that Kardos was a year younger than Bettina, only that Kardos was a witch who came with a full set of male running gear.

  Evalle raced forward and sped twenty feet past the teenage pair strolling along as if Kardos's death wasn't imminent. She slammed onto the sidewalk, cutting them off. She flipped up her face shield, which should have made anyone walking toward her on a semi-lit street take notice, since her eyes glowed in the darkness.

  A sick lump clenched her stomach when they kept coming as if they didn't see her.

  How could one person be so stupid? All she wanted was a five-minute conversation with him. Not a new migraine. She had to separate those two and return Bettina to the nightclub before the girl was reported missing and Deek started a manhunt. Or more to the point, a testicle hunt.

  Evalle glared at Kardos. "What do you think you're doing?"

  Bettina answered in a lifeless voice that said someone else had control of her. "Walk out the back door to the first street. Turn left."

  Oh crap.

  Who had them locked in a trance? More to the point, what had them in a trance?

  When the teens reached Evalle, she held up her hand. "Stop."

  They walked right past her, still heading down the street that extended into a dark void where the streetlights didn't reach.

  After kicking down the side stand, she ran forward to grab them. A wave of power blew past the teens, stirring their hair. They stopped walking.

  That energy came at Evalle.

  She put up a shield an instant before it blasted her. Her shield allowed the energy to flow over her without effect.

  But it gave her a blast of something she could use. The majik smelled old, centuries old, and dry as a desert.

  Kardos and Bettina stood still, facing the dark end of the street.

  Evalle lifted her hands and shoved back at the majik, pushing it toward the source.

  Sparks exploded around the teens.

  Okay, that hadn't worked.

  She was lucky it hadn't hurt one of them. "You can't have these two." She moved around to position herself in front of the teens. Wary of what was coming for them, Evalle braced herself.

  The air stirred like a sinister cloud, announcing that something badass wasn't happy.

  Out of the darkness came a man with the slow, casual lope of a predator heading for his prey. His leather duster fanned out behind him. Since there was no air current to move it, it was a sign of his power radiating around him. Black hair fell past his shoulders, with two thin braids hanging along each side of his face. His eyes radiated bright yellow in the darkness, their double pupils making a spot in each one that was obvious even from this distance. Gorgeous and masculine all the way, he didn't stop until he reached the streetlight.

  The hairs on the back of her neck rose as fury sped through her veins.

  Vyan.

  The Kujoo who'd pulled the Beladors into an unsanctioned battle two years ago and almost unleashed an army that would have destroyed everyone and everything. Never had the Beladors confronted an enemy so strong, but it was because Vyan had possessed the Ngak Stone then.

  A sick feeling of dread permeated her bones. If he was here now, it was so that he could reclaim the stone and finish what he'd started.

  His gaze radiated his hatred and repugnance for her.

  That was okay. She didn't like him much either.

  "You interfere with me once again, half-breed," Vyan said as if Evalle merely stood in his path and wasn't a true threat.

  She tsked at him and returned the disdain full force. "Poor Vyan, ever posturing. Trey kicked your ass once, and I can do it this time." That threat had a nice ring to it even if she was bluffing her boots off. Had it not been for her linking with Tzader, Quinn and Trey, Vyan could have annihilated her along with everyone else while he'd held the Ngak Stone.

  Hop
efully, he'd forgotten that part.

  She looked over to Kardos and Bettina, who were still in his thrall. "I have to say that you are brave to risk your freedom for them." Shiva had allowed him his freedom on one condition--he had to behave in the human world.

  He laughed evilly. "The terms were that I not attack the Beladors." He glanced over to the teenagers. "Lucky me, neither of them are in your ranks."

  True, but she was admitting to nothing, and he wasn't touching these two kids. Cocking her head at the pair, Evalle asked, "What do you want with them?"

  "I merely played Cupid. The boy said he wanted the girl. Voila. Isn't love grand?"

  Evalle sucked her breath in sharply. "You in a diaper ... just can't see it." She sharpened her gaze on him. "You with an arrow aimed at someone's heart ... that I believe. And I know you're lying. Kardos would never trust a stranger with something so personal. He's a street survivor, not an idiot." Well, actually not true, since he'd have to be mentally deranged to have a crush on Deek's sister. "Release them, Vyan. I have no patience tonight, and I will cut your throat rather than deal with you."

  A strange glint darkened his eyes, like he was silently laughing or mocking her. "I have no quarrel with the Beladors. Guess I better set them free. When they wake up, you might want to tell them the tale of Hansel and Gretel." He turned and disappeared into the black abyss he'd emerged from so fast that it took her several heartbeats to realize he was gone.

  What was that action?

  She stood there, completely stunned. That had been way too easy, and nothing with Vyan ever was.

  She thought about his parting words. Had he just told her to warn the teens about a witch who lured children into a trap to eat them? Was he giving her a warning that a witch was behind this? It seemed inconceivable, and yet ...

  "Evalle?" Kardos's tone held a note of fear in it. "What are you doing here?"

  Turning around, she focused on Bettina's shocked expression, which changed to confusion when the girl looked at her hand clasped in Kardos's.

  He realized they were holding hands at the same time. His cheeks flaming bright red, he quickly let go and stepped away.

  Evalle let out a relieved breath that he did in fact have a modicum of survival instinct. "We have to get Bettina back quick, before--"

  The sound of running feet rushed toward them.

  Or was that the sound of hooves?