Chaos Burning (23 page)

“How about you two come quietly with me and I’ll make it as painless as I can? Not the kneecap part. Your friend there will walk with a limp over the last months of his life. If I let him leave here alive anyway. That part’s up to you.”

They tried to flank her and she blocked the way with her magick, the blast of it sending one of the mages several inches off the pavement and back into a nearby wall. “You’re soft. I’m not. I’m not a junkie either. Weak, weak, weak.”

“If you’re so strong, why use a weapon instead of your magick?”

“I’m strong and smart. Seriously, why wouldn’t I use a weapon as well as my magick?” This was why she’d been making the entire hunter team there hit the gun range every single day. They couldn’t allow themselves to count on their magick. Not wholly. They had to learn how to use everything they could to defend themselves. Mages didn’t use guns. Turned witches didn’t either. They had their magic and it blinded them to their weaknesses. Which was just fine with her.

In the background she heard a car approach and risked a look over her shoulder to check and be sure it was Gage. It was so. She turned back to the mages but the one she’d shot was gone. Stupid and careless of her.

“I’m going to need a prisoner. You can be one. Or you can be a casualty. Whichever you prefer is fine with me.”

“How many?” Gage asked as he approached.

“Three. I shot one in the knee. He’s gone now. I don’t know where.”

“I’ll go look.”

“Don’t let your guard down. There could be others out there.”

He gave her a quick look and then took off.

“You can’t defeat him.”

“The Magister or Cyrus what’s-his-face?”

They both stepped back at the use of the Magister’s name.

“You should surrender now.”

“You should shut up and decide if you want to die or come in with me. As for the Magister and his lackey? Pffft, they
don’t know who they’re dealing with. You’re on Owen land. We will not allow you to harm our witches or the Others here in our area. We will not go down without a fight. And just because some of you were once witches and threw that away doesn’t mean you understand just how far we’ll go to protect ourselves.”

She continued to get closer. Close enough to see the fear on their faces. She pointed the Sig at the head of the tallest one. “What’ll it be?”

“I don’t answer to you!”

So she shot him and turned to the one with him. “Next.”

His hands went up. “Prisoner. Prisoner!”

“Smart choice.”

But right as she got the magick cuffs on him, she was tackled to the ground, the asphalt digging into the exposed skin on her arms, her head hitting so hard she saw stars and tasted blood.

Now
she was really mad as she got to her knees and managed to send out a spell to knock her prisoner out. If he wasn’t already dead anyway.

She heard Gage in the distance, calling her name and turned, weapon out, spell already pouring from her when a bolt of energy so dark, so powerful and ugly hit her and sent her reeling again.

This time it was she who hit the nearby brick wall as she managed to get a few shots off at the man she figured was Cyrus Pasqual.

“Your energy tastes like fear.” She wiped her sleeve over her mouth, smearing the blood. “And I think you’ve cost me a sweater. Damn it, it’s very hard to find these old cashmere sweaters. I spend too much time combing thrift stores as it is.”

“Your magick tastes like candy.”

She curled her lip as she brought her most likely broken arm up to block a spell. The pain had settled back into a dull haze, but moving her arm hurt like a bitch.

Still, she batted the spell away and managed to get her own sent in his direction. Gage joined in on her other side and when Cyrus’s attention was on him, she took a deep breath, willed her arm to stop shaking and shot him in both knees, sending
him to the ground with a howl of pain. She had a clip with the spelled bullets in her backpack and wondered if she should just use them and be done with it.

“Get him. He’s a far better prize than that idiot over there.” She leaned back against the wall to catch her breath and control the pain with a blocking spell.

Gage cuffed Cyrus and she rounded up the other prisoner and tossed him in the trunk.

“I’m calling my mother. She’s a doctor and can help with your injuries.” It wasn’t a request and she wouldn’t have argued anyway. She had a long night of interrogations ahead of her and she couldn’t waste any time pretending she wasn’t hurt.

“Take us to the new holding cells. We can’t risk anywhere else right now.”

“Do you need a hospital?”

“No. I thought my arm was broken but it’s just dislocated. You can pop it back into place. The rest is just minor.”

“Minor? Jesus, Lark, you’re covered in blood and road rash.”

“I’ve been mauled by werewolves, slashed by a vampire or two, had my left arm broken twice, my nose broken a few times. A few dislocations here and there. This is really just some scrapes. I’m okay. I promise.”

He groaned, but made the call to his mother, who agreed to meet Lark at the Owen offices. They’d been keeping the location of the prisoners secret. It was best for everyone if only a very few people knew. Knowledge could be a dangerous thing and they didn’t want to make targets of their witches for that reason.

“We’ll get them situated and then I’ll meet her there. Did you find the other one?”

“Found some blood. But it looks like someone must have picked him up. The trail ended cold a few blocks away. Ginger was right behind us. She’ll take care of the dead mage and clean the scene. Let me drop you at the building. You can use one of the cars to get over to the other location.”

She shook her head and nausea bloomed and then subsided. “Good call on Ginger. And no, I’ll get this garbage squared away first.” She made a rookie mistake in not expecting them
to have more people. The pain would serve as a powerful reminder not to forget she was dealing with monsters. She couldn’t afford to get soft.

Gage started to reply but thought better of it so she sat back and thought about the next steps as they made their way the few miles south.

Teo and Ginger were already at the location, waiting to get the prisoners in cells. She approved of that mightily.

“I’ll be right back.” She headed toward the bathroom to clean her face up. Her eyes were messed up and she needed to rinse out the dirt and blood. Teo stopped her on the way.

“Your arm is dislocated.”

“Yep. Gage’s mom is going to meet me at the Owen building in a bit. She can fix me up then. I’ll live for now.”

“I was a medic. In the army. Let me help.”

Duh. She felt like an idiot for not remembering that. “Thank you.”

“We’ve got some painkillers here if you want.”

“I know it’s going to hurt. Just do it and I’ll take some Advil. I can’t afford to be groggy.” She’d have to use the spell she used with the first prisoner to get into the heads of Cyrus and his little friend. And that took focus.

“All right.” He felt along her shoulder gently. She took a deep breath and blew it out a few times and then nodded to him. Quickly and efficiently he made a quick, hard movement and her shoulder popped back into place. She clenched her jaw and down onto the scream and only allowed a huff of sound to come.

“Thank you,” she managed to say as she licked her lips.

“Advil. Now. Want some help cleaning your face and arms up?”

So she ended up in the bathroom with her shirt off so he could tend to the abrasions and clean out the gravel and dirt. He wrapped her up. “You’ll be a rainbow tomorrow.”

She laughed and it didn’t hurt as bad as she feared. “I’ll have to factor that into my fashion choices then. Thank you for helping.”

One last look into the mirror and she noted she looked far more badass, pissed-off woman than assault victim.
Which cheered her. It would be a lot harder to intimidate her prisoners if she looked injured rather than scary.

Gage looked her up and down and nodded. “You ready?”

“Call your mom and tell her I’m okay. Teo here patched me up. Of course now I know he’s got the skills so I might be pressing him into service for that here and there. Nice to have a medic on the team.”

Teo blushed and ducked his head a moment.

“All right. Are they conscious?” She looked through the things they’d confiscated from the prisoners. She picked up a silver charm. “A talisman. Not good.” She riffled through the desk one-handed until she found a small bag and put the charm in it. “We need to get this out of here. It needs to be de-spelled.” She looked through the rest. “What kind of moron takes his wallet to a snatch and grab? John Deforest. Lives in Michigan according to his driver’s license. I want a full run on him.”

Ginger took the bag of confiscated items and left quickly with them, promising to contact them ASAP with any info he found on Deforest.

“Cyrus had nothing on him.” Ginger shrugged.

“He’s not nearly as dumb as John there. Cyrus also has a lot of stored magick right now. But he can’t hold it very long. Deforest is going to be a drone. Like the others. They won’t know anything. But I’m going to ask around anyway.”

“Are you going to use the spell?” Gage handed her a mug of tea and she took it, sipping. It helped and heaven knew she’d need the energy and power to handle Cyrus. The others would be relatively easy, but Pasqual was clearly higher up on the food chain and for good reason.

“I’ll probably have to, yes. The drone may not be that difficult. But Cyrus is another story. We’ll take it step by step. I want Teo in the room with me. Gage, will you video again?” She’d found a lot of use in looking over her interrogations. Picked up her mistakes, learned from them. Noted the things that worked as well. They all needed this sort of behavior as second nature, especially now.

“Got it. I called Meriel, by the way. She wants us to keep her apprised.”

“Good. Don’t call Nell until the morning. She’ll only fret.” And she didn’t need that.

SIMON
had been going over that night’s receipts when Dominic came into his office.

“Good night tonight.” He indicated the computer screen.

“Meriel is going to kill me and Lark too, most likely, but I know I’d want to hear if it was me.”

Before he knew it, Simon was standing. “What? What’s wrong with Lark?”

“She got ambushed when she was out on patrol. She’s all right. They got two prisoners including Cyrus Pasqual.” Simon understood the savage look on Dominic’s face. Pasqual had tried to kill Meriel just a few months before and had also been working with Gloria Ochoa, Dominic’s mother and a turned witch. At the time, Pasqual had gotten away and they’d been looking for him ever since.

“Gage called Meriel to fill her in. They’re going to interrogate the prisoners now. You’ll see her later I’m sure. I just wanted to tell you. Meriel said Gage told her Lark is scraped up and had a dislocated shoulder. Teo is a medic, he treated her and got her arm fixed up.”

Simon heaved a sigh and then started to pace. “Damn it.”

“You know this is who she is, right?”

Simon laughed, but wasn’t totally amused. “Yes. I do. And I respect it and all. But fuck, I hate it too. I hate that she’s in danger. I hate that she gets banged up and bruised. I hate it that she rolls with it because she’s been getting banged up and bruised on the job for most of her life. I wish I could protect her. But she’d hate it and at base, it’s who she is.” She was so fierce. It was sexy and he admired her for it. But… she was his and there were times he wished she were a secretary or a lawyer or anything where she didn’t get stalked by assholes on a daily basis.

“She’s living with you now at least. You can take care of her when she’s on your land and in your den. This is a good thing. I know I sure as hell felt better when Meriel and I started living together.”

“Where is she? I don’t want her driving home with a messed-up arm.”

“I can’t tell you that, Simon. I’m sorry. Only a very few people know the location. It’s not that I don’t trust you. But I can’t tell you.”

“Fine.” He knew he snarled it, but Dom didn’t bat an eye. “I’ll call and leave a message for her that she’s to call me when she finishes so I can come get her. She’ll be exhausted when she’s done anyway. Told me the kind of magick she uses when she does the interrogation spell is one that drains her more than a lot of other stuff.” He looked up quickly. “Shit, don’t tell her I said that.” She was so stubborn she most likely wouldn’t like it shared that she was ever tired or weakened.

Dominic snorted. “No problem. I saw the video of the last time. I know that kind of magick is very power consuming. She’ll draw from the font if she needs it.”

If she didn’t, he’d kick her ass.

Chapter 19

“SO
, John, how are things?” She sailed into the room and sat across from where Deforest had been cuffed to a hook set into the floor. They’d gone over his body from head to toe while he’d been unconscious and found the spell written into his skin. The spell that would have allowed them to essentially use a kill switch on their prisoner remotely.

Startled, his eyes widened as he realized she knew his name. “I don’t know anything. You can’t hold me.”

“Your next line is:
There are rules!
And be sure to whine when you say it. Your friends did. Of course then one of them ended up dead because your master didn’t like that he’d been taken prisoner.”

Deforest sat farther back, shrinking away from her.

“Yep. I didn’t kill him. I’d tell you if I did. Mainly because I can’t find it in me to care one way or the other. I’m sure you’d appreciate that your master put that same little failsafe into you too. Only we disabled it.” She sat back and let him hear the rest of the sentence she hadn’t said out loud. If anyone killed him, it would be them.

“There are rules.”

She sighed. “So predictable. Didn’t I tell you you’d say that? So here’s the deal. You aren’t human. You’re not a witch either. In fact because you’re a mage you don’t fit in any category of protection. Which sucks for you, but not for me. For me, it’s pretty cool because I can do whatever I want with you and no one will care.”