Boreal and John Grey Season 1 (31 page)

“And do you know where he is? What he’s like?”

Finn shook his head.

Not enough to dampen her elation. She could kiss Finn for this. Okay, she could kiss him no matter what, if she thought he wouldn’t punch if she tried — but
whoa
...  “Thank you, Finn.”

Flipping her phone open, she called Dave.

***

“Yes, it makes sense,” Dave said, standing at his desk, hands clasped behind his back. His eternal three-day beard shaded his cheeks and chin. “Of course everyone would treat him, or her, like gold.”

“
Her
?” Ella muttered, propping her feet on Dave’s paper-laden table.

“Feet off,” Dave said and turned to glare at the door and Finn. “Close it.”

Finn kicked the door shut. Dave’s face spasmed and his fists came forward as if he’d grab Finn and beat him into the wall.

Whoa
. Ella dropped her feet and shot upright. “Dave. Calm down.”

Dave turned his back to them. “I’m perfectly calm. Yeah, it all makes sense now. Why the Guardians and the Dark elves would be after him. He must be alive or the Gates wouldn’t have opened.” He took a shuddery breath. “He can’t be allowed to live.”

“Or she, huh? Joanne Grey or something?” Ella walked around the desk to face Dave. “Killing him presupposes finding him, and if the Light Elves are the ones with the urge to invade worlds, then we can safely assume that they have him and are keeping him safe.”

Finn scowled at nothing in particular, muscular arms crossed over his chest, legs apart. His gaze snapped to her, eyes narrowing.

Hurriedly she looked away.
Stop panting after him, Ella. Very unbecoming in a special agent
. “So what next? Does the organization have any guidelines for this sort of situation?”

“I’ll have to notify my superiors,” Dave grated out, turning to nail Finn with his gaze. Finn shifted his stance and lowered his chin, glowering daggers.

Oh boy. Alpha males
.

“We need to talk numbers here,” Dave grumbled, lifting his chin at Finn — what, a challenge? “Do you know how many elves we’re talking here, son? And weapons?”

Finn didn’t miss a beat. “They don’t need many to defeat you, old man.”

“Humor me,” Dave hissed and rounded the desk, advancing on Finn. “Do that and I won’t take you into custody to make you confess who you really are.”

“Dave.” Ella rushed to insert herself between the two men, raising a hand to stop Dave. She’d punch him if she had to, boss or not. “Back down.”

“How can you ask me—”

“She has over a hundred dragons,” Finn said, his voice cutting through. “And at least forty hurricane engines. And that’s just the ones I know of.”

Dave wiped a hand over his mouth. “What do hurricane machines do?”

“Create hurricanes.” Finn cocked his head to the side. “And storms.”

Ella sucked a sharp breath. “With added magic.”

Finn nodded.

“What’s the fuel they use?” Dave asked.

“Natural gas. Similar to yours.”

Dave cursed. “That means they can recharge their machines here. Any chemical weapons?”

“Seeds. Of special mushrooms.” Finn swallowed hard. “They take root inside you, eat you up.”

“Lovely,” Ella muttered. “Finn has told me of more crazy weapons the elves will use on us. Sick stuff, I tell you.”

“What can we do to survive?” Dave asked.

Finn shrugged. “Run.”

“Run where?” Dave snapped.

“Far,” Finn said, baring his teeth. “Very, very far.”

“We must find John Grey and stop him,” Dave said. “Closing the Gates permanently is our only chance. And you.” He jabbed a finger at Finn. “You know more about this, as you’ve just proven by telling us about John Grey’s abilities. I’d bet my life on it. And you’d better start talking.”

“Or what?” Finn said, lips peeling back in a sneer, ice-blue eyes fixed on Dave.

Shit
. “Guys. We’re working on this together, right? Killing each other won’t help.”

“You’re not one of us,” Dave hissed at Finn. “Are you?”

“As much as you are,” Finn hissed back.

“We’ll see about that, sonny.”

“Dammit, stop!” Ella got in Dave’s face. “Get off his back.”

“Are you on their side now, too?”

“Their side? What, the elves’? Are you out of your mind?” She placed a hand on Dave’s chest, intent on shoving him back, but an electric shock went through her arm and she jerked back. “The hell?”

“Don’t,” Dave ground out. “Don’t tell me you’re not pro-elf, Ella. You’re fascinated by them, aren’t you? I read Simon’s notes, you know. You can see through to their world, can’t you?”

Cradling her numb hand to her chest, she took a step back, fear spreading like ice inside her. “I can’t remember any of it, Dave. We’re trusting in the notes of someone we never really even knew.”

“He had no reason to lie. How could you see through the Veil?”

“I don’t know.” She took another step back and a hand landed on her shoulder, startling her so badly she yelped.

Finn stepped in front of her. “What is it you want?”

“I want to know what’s going on,” Dave spat out the words. “I want to know how she can see
Aelfheim
, and what a Stabilizer is. I want to know who you are and your role in this mess. I want...” He heaved a breath. “I want to understand and to protect this world.”

“Then we want the same,” Finn said, his voice steady and calm. “I said I’m on your side, and I meant it. I don’t expect you to believe me, but it’s the truth.”

So if your mother beckoned once more, wouldn’t you run back to her?
Ella shook her hand, trying to bring back some feeling into it. God, she wanted to believe Finn wouldn’t betray them — but one had to be as objective as possible, right?

Even where it concerned a really hot elf.

Said elf turned to her and sniffed. “
Vaettir
,” he bit out, and oh, boy, did she hate that word.

“Where?”

“Outside.”

Ella drew her gun in one movement and went to the door, easing it open.

“What’s going on?” Dave asked.

Ella pointed her gun through the crack, checking the corridor. “Shades.”

***

Ella had hoped Finn would hang back — after all, for whatever reason the Shades seemed to want him — but of course he didn’t. He fought by her side moving down the HQ main corridor, Dave at their back. Terrified people scurried about, trying to keep out of the way, hiding inside the offices, under desks and behind chairs.

“No warning,” Dave grumbled.

“Told you,” Ella hissed as she spun to kick a goblin solidly in the middle, then stepped in to bury her knife in its gut. Or whatever it was it had. The goblin shrieked and puffed out of existence.

Finn grunted as he stabbed into a rock troll and dropped to one knee to avoid the fist of another. Ella drew a
shuriken
from her belt — a girl could never carry too many weapons — and threw it at the creature. It struck the troll in the forehead, sending it backward, and it wavered and fizzled out.

“We have wards lining the whole HQ, dammit,” Dave muttered right behind her and there was another shriek. She turned as another goblin faded back to the Grey.

“Not working. Things are changing.”

A woman —
one of the accountants
, Ella thought distantly — made a run for the elevators. A six-foot troll intercepted her and smashed her against the wall. The woman slid down and sprawled.
Dead?

No time to find out. Finn shoved Dave and stepped in front of him, slashing a Shade in an upward thrust, then spun and threw his knife into another. Dave gaped for a moment before schooling his expression back to a scowl and turning to tackle another troll.

Advance, slash, retreat, check over shoulder, duck, thrust, fall back. A familiar dance, and Ella lost herself in it.

Then she heard Finn cursing; at least it sounded like it. Drawing another
shuriken
she whirled to find him held in a troll’s meaty fist, feet dangling.
Deja vu. An alley. Finn kicking at a troll’s legs, trying to break free
.

And again Finn was in the way of her bullets.
No clear target. Dammit
.

She drew back her hand and threw the shuriken in an arch; it grazed the creature’s arm and it stumbled back, but didn’t let go of Finn. Her gun. She pulled it free of its holster and aimed, but damn, target still not clear. Finn kicked and slashed with his knife but couldn’t get a good hit in.

“Ella!” Dave shouted and pushed her sideways, his knife gleaming as it arced over her head, hitting something right behind her. The air sizzled. Two goblins closed in and she raised her other hand with the knife, backpedaling.

Two shots rang, one after the other, felling the goblins. Not iron bullets, because they didn’t vanish, but Ella stepped over them and finished them off, vaporizing them.

Who had shot them? She looked up and frowned. “Sarah?”

Simon’s girlfriend — stiletto heels, mini skirt and all — held the gun in both hands, looking grim.

Ella never thought she’d be so glad to see her. Then the air shimmered behind the troll holding Finn off the floor. Faces pulsed through it, coalescing into the form of a woman. A familiar one.