Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) (25 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

T
he light glowing
at the end of the long corridor was not the bright liquid gold that had surrounded Patrice, but something darker and murkier—less like summer sunlight and more like the pits of hell. With a hint of avocado green.

It was malevolent light.

They stepped into it.

They were in what looked like city hall’s attic—the part with the unreinforced floor that would drop anyone standing on it into the offices below. But there were almost a dozen people standing around and the floor remained intact, which meant this couldn’t be the actual attic and they were no longer in city hall.

Meaghan didn’t plan on jumping up and down to find out.

Patrice and Natalie stood at one end of the space, bathed in golden light. At the other end, illuminated in the murky, hellish light stood a gray-robed wizard. And a woman. Dressed like a witch of the Circe wannabe variety—flowing blonde hair, too much silver jewelry, and lots of black leather.

Halfway between them, Jhoro kneeled, head down, arms bound behind his back.

The woman stepped forward. There was some black lace in her ensemble, too.

“Give me a break,” Meaghan said, rolling her eyes. She’d meant to mutter it, but it chimed clear, as if she had a microphone.

The wizard threw back his hood and Meaghan recognized him.

Cooper. The ostensible leader of the Order, the man who’d torn off Jamie’s amulet and shoved him through the gateway into Fahraya. A tall strong man, bigger than John, he had close-cropped, dark hair, speckled with gray, and a face that would have been handsome but for the cruelty stamped into every line.

“Finally,” Cooper said. He turned toward the woman. “Orinda, my love, meet Keele’s daughter and—” he gave a cold chuckle, “the former king, if you can call it that, of Fahraya.”

The woman smiled, her face equally twisted with cruelty. “You didn’t tell me she was so . . .
old
.”

Meaghan’s fear evaporated. No way was she letting this caricature of a witch talk shit and get away with it. “Who are
you
calling old, Bellatrix? Nice bleach job, but you really should get those roots looked after. And black leather? Not a good look for you. Gives kind of an overstuffed luggage vibe.”

Jamie snorted with laughter.

The woman glared at him, waved her hand, and Jamie cried out in agony. He crumpled to the ground, nearly taking Meaghan and John with him.

The woman waved her hand again, and this time John fell to the ground writhing in pain. She looked at Meaghan, smiling, and lifted her hand a third time.

Meaghan stood there, fire extinguisher tucked under one arm, her free hand on her hip, an eyebrow raised. She wanted desperately to help John and Jamie, but stood her ground. She would not give Cooper and his girlfriend the satisfaction of seeing her panic.

The witch flicked her hand at Meaghan.

Nothing happened.

The witch stepped back, startled.

“Tacky
and
stupid,” Meaghan said, her voice dripping acid. “Which part of impervious don’t you idiots understand?”

The witch bristled. “Stupid? I’m not the one who thought she could protect the town by keeping the wizards out. I walked right in and set all this chaos in motion. Who do you think cast the first love spell?”

Meaghan grimaced. Magically blocking any wizards from getting near Eldrich hadn’t been Meaghan’s idea, but she’d approved it.
They used a witch to get to us last time. How could I think they wouldn’t do it
again?

Because the Order’s stated belief was that women shouldn’t be permitted to do magic. Except, apparently, the boss’s girlfriend. Which was exactly the sort of hypocrisy she’d encountered throughout her government law career.
Some leader I am. Where was your bullshit detector on that one, Meg?

Orinda gave Meaghan a saccharine smile, then flicked another spell. Jamie and John cried out together in pain.

“Enough,” Patrice shouted. “They’re under my protection.”

Cooper merely smiled. This time he waved his hand and Jhoro cried out along with John and Jamie.

Now Meaghan wanted to run to Jhoro, but knew she had to confront Cooper. “Get out of my town.”

Cooper laughed. “
My
town.
My
protection. Maybe for now, but soon it’s going to be
my
world.
” He pointed at Patrice. “Where are your sisters, little one? So much power, but you don’t know how to wield it, and,” he pointed at the circle of light contracting around her, “it’s fading fast.”

He turned back to Meaghan. “And you.” He laughed again. “No power at all. Being impervious means nothing. Less than nothing. Yet they all look to you. We both know what a bad idea that is, don’t we?”

Meaghan’s face flamed. The bastard
knew
. Maybe it was only a lucky guess, but she’d been telling herself the same thing since that day in June when she learned the truth about Eldrich and herself.

But, who, Meg, are you going to believe? This evil cackling bastard and his bitch girlfriend? Or the people who know and trust
you?

Meaghan thought of Eliot. And Annie. And Russ. All telling her how strong she was, how she could see the world clearly when others couldn’t. All calling her boss.

She looked around. John and Jamie slumped on the floor, moaning in pain. Patrice stood like a goddess in her golden circle, but it was now visibly shrinking, the golden light fading. Natalie stood by her side, eyes screwed shut in concentration, chanting, as if fighting against an invisible foe.

Meaghan looked over at Jhoro, hunched on the floor, seemingly in agony. Curled on his side, his golden hair matted with blood, Jhoro had his back to Cooper and the witch. He stared up at Meaghan with his vivid blue eyes, and winked at her, a big Cheshire cat grin on his battered face.

It took all Meaghan’s effort not to do a visible double take.

Jhoro was faking.

Her heart lurched in her chest and hope flared inside her.

Cooper hit him with another spell. Jhoro cried out, while giving Meaghan a massive eye roll, and shaking his head slightly as if saying “can you believe this guy?”

Her confidence streamed back. Whatever the source of Jhoro’s power, it was stronger than Cooper’s magic.

Let’s see if he falls for this one again
. Meaghan buried her face in her hands and began to sob noisily. She was so exhausted by now it wasn’t hard to summon up real tears. The hardest part was not bursting into manic laughter at the same time.

“You’re right,” she wailed. “It’s a terrible idea.” She rushed to John and Jamie’s side and knelt beside them. “Please don’t hurt them anymore.” She turned away from Cooper and crouched next to John. Now it was her turn to wink.

His eyes widened slightly, slanted towards Jhoro, and then back to Meaghan.

She nodded slightly in return.

John pulled her towards him into a rough hug and whispered, “He is faking?”

“Yes.”

“You have a plan?”

“Working on it,” she breathed. “Follow our lead. If you see a chance to get out of here, take it.”

A pair of rough hands pulled her away from John. One of Cooper’s minions. The fire extinguisher fell from her grasp, but John caught it before it hit the ground and tucked it under his legs.

The minion dragged her over to Jhoro and dropped her next to him.

She tried to stand and the hands shoved her down. “Knees, bitch.”

Meaghan sighed. Always the knees with these jerks. She gritted her teeth. She might bristle when called old, but she wasn’t young and kneeling hurt like hell.

Jhoro looked up at her from where he lay on the floor and winked again.

Back to business. Meaghan slumped onto her side next to Jhoro and commenced with the show. “Please,” she sobbed, her face hidden in her elbow. “Let them go.”

Already her knees felt better.

The tacky witch laughed.

Meaghan ignored her. Time to see if she could get Cooper talking. He’d fallen for it in June. She let loose a fresh wave of sobs. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because I can,” he said and then laughed.

She gave him a moment, but he didn’t elaborate.

Come on, already. Start blabbing.
“What’s going to happen to us?”

He chuckled. “Why you’re going to die, of course. But by then, you’ll be only too glad to go. After
they
finish with you.”

And more silence. He was going to make her drag it out of him.

“Who are they?” she sobbed.

“
What
is more accurate,” the leather-clad witch chimed in. “And when they get here, they’ll burn the human world to ashes. Except for us.”

Of course they will
, Meaghan thought.
Will one of you start monologuing
already?

Cooper complied. “They exist outside time and space, and even the most powerful magical beings fear them. They are magic itself. Once they were free to roam the worlds, magical and otherwise, and they fed freely on the fear and flesh of those who defied them.”

Ka-ching
. Scary bad monsters who, regardless of how bad and scary they were, apparently weren’t roaming anymore. Meaghan sobbed louder. “Aren’t they free now?”

“Soon, old woman,” the witch said. “Soon.”

“Yes,” Cooper said. “They’ve been trapped a long time, but soon, finally, they’ll be free.”

“But won’t they . . .” Meaghan sobbed louder. “Won’t they kill us all?”

“Not us,” the witch said. “They’ll reward us.”

Cooper, with a faint tone of annoyance, Meaghan noted, said, “We know how to control them.”

You sure about that?
Meaghan shifted on the ground. Now her hip hurt. And she didn’t think she could do anymore faux crying and be believable.

With even more annoyance in his voice, Cooper said, “And that’s all you need to know.” He turned to a minion. “Bring her. Time for the first sacrifice.”

“You aren’t using Keele?” the witch asked. “I want to see her burn.”

Cooper said nothing for a moment. Long enough to betray his growing impatience with his girlfriend. “In time, love, in time. But the first must be properly . . . prepared. You know this.”

The witch sighed in exasperation. “Fine. Let’s get on with it then.”

The minion dragged a limp figure from the shadows.

Marnie.

Meaghan almost started to cry again, for real this time.

Marnie was naked and filthy and battered. The ring had been torn from her nose and her hair had been shaved, roughly, with a knife, judging by her torn and bloody scalp. Dried blood crusted her thighs and buttocks.

But the look on her face was even worse. She wasn’t dead, but she might as well have been. Not even fear registered on her face. The interior light in her eyes was extinguished, replaced with a flat, vacant stare, devoid of hope or feeling.

Seeing the look on Meaghan’s face, the witch cooed. “She wanted love. So we gave it to her. Over and over and over.”

Meaghan had thought there couldn’t be anyone in the Order she hated more than Cooper, but she was wrong.

“How,” Meaghan said, her voice shaking with fury, her pretended fear gone, “could you do this to another woman? How?”

The witch laughed. “She wanted it.”

“Thank you,” Meaghan said, through gritted teeth. “You’ve made it very easy for me to kill you when the time comes. Cooper’s
girlfriend
. Pathetic. You can’t even be evil in your own right.”

“She’s stupid in her own right, though,” Natalie said behind her. “So is he.”

Meaghan turned to look.

Patrice stood in her circle of golden light, smiling at Natalie. “Nice trick, Nat. I can’t believe they fell for it.”

“Fell for what?” Cooper sneered.

“My light-dimming trick,” Natalie said, as a blinding flash of golden light filled the space.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

T
he world lurched,
like somebody had jammed on the brakes.

When the blinding light faded, the space in which they stood had changed.

It was smaller and grimier. Dust motes danced in the rays of morning sunshine beaming through the huge arched window—now empty of glass—that sat high in the stone wall. Cardboard file boxes lined the wall adjoining the solicitor’s office. Debris and office supplies lay scattered across the floor.

They were in the unfinished attic of city hall. For real this time.

Cooper shouted at the minions and two of them stepped toward Natalie and Patrice.

And disappeared, leaving only their screams and a cloud of plaster dust.

Patrice laughed. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. These floors are like Styrofoam.”

“Unreinforced,” Natalie said. “Except for a few key spots.”

“Here?” Patrice said.

“No, this is magic,” Natalie said. “And it’s getting heavy. Would you—”

“Oh, right.” Patrice closed her eyes and after a moment said, “Better?”

“Thanks. Would you grab Marnie and Jhoro, too?”

The ropes binding Jhoro’s arms dissolved like cotton candy. He crawled over to Marnie and put his arms around her. Marnie stared blankly over his shoulder. Wherever she had gone inside herself, she wasn’t ready to come out.

Meaghan felt the floor vibrate underneath her.

Patrice looked at Natalie. “I reinforced the floor.”

“All of it?”

Patrice shook her head. “No, I had to pull . . . I don’t know . . . stuff from other parts of the floor. So they’re even thinner.”

“You can do that?”

Patrice nodded. “Apparently.”

“Thin it out over there.” Natalie waved toward Cooper and the witch. “That’s one of the reinforced spots.”

Patrice squinted in concentration, then shook her head. “I can’t. Jamie’s too close to them and he’s throwing off too much power.”

“Good to know,” Cooper snarled.

Meaghan looked a question at Natalie. She grimaced in response. Meaghan could tell by the look on Natalie’s face and the way she moved her hands that she was trying to set up a barrier around John and Jamie.

With a loud cry and flourish of his hands, Cooper gestured toward Jamie.

“Patrice,” Meaghan shouted. “Stop him.”

Patrice shook her head, her face twisted in anguish. “I can’t. There’s too much magic in the sigils.”

John threw himself on top of Jamie, but it was no use. Cooper flicked a hand and John cried out in pain and rolled off his son. He jerked a few times as if struck, then lay still. Jamie’s body rose, with a jerk, into the air and flew, as if thrown, landing in a heap at the feet of the leather-clad witch.

“For me?” she said, in mock surprise. She leered at Jamie. “How thoughtful.”

“Now that we have the original,” Cooper said, “we don’t need the other.”

“But you promised I could play with the new one,” the witch said, pouting. “Before you killed him.”

“With the other one back, we won’t have to kill the new one. You can keep him as a pet. But now we have work to do, and we still need the whore,” Cooper hissed. He stepped forward, past Jamie, and lifted his hands again.

This time Patrice was ready. Cooper’s hands were thrust back. This time, it was Cooper who cried out in pain. He stepped back, doubled over, but stayed on his feet. He jammed his left wrist under his right armpit.

“My turn,” Patrice said. “Remember? You broke my wrist, back in June.” Her look grew dark. “When you forced your way into my home, terrified my children, and kidnapped my husband.” She scowled and when she spoke it was in a different voice. “When you hurt my family.”

Meaghan shivered. Whatever impelled Patrice now, it wasn’t human. Her eyes were a solid, shiny black, like polished obsidian, with no white or iris visible.

“Justice will be done,” Patrice said. Her voice echoed with tones Meaghan had never heard in a human voice.

She was no longer Patrice. Up until now, even at her scariest, Patrice’s essential nature, her humor, her compassion, had shone through. But a stranger now stood in her place.

Meaghan looked at Natalie, but Natalie had her eyes closed in concentration, muttering.

“You are alone,” Cooper hissed. “In an untried vessel.”

Patrice smiled. “This child is strong. This vessel will serve. I will have justice for the wrongs you have done her.” But, despite her strong words, she staggered and fell to one knee.

Cooper smiled. “Told you so.”

The blonde witch turned to Cooper. “Who the hell is this? I thought you had the only one. And where the hell did
it
go? The mob broke up half an hour ago.”

“Shut up, Orinda,” Cooper said, still cradling his broken wrist. “Heal this. We need to get back on schedule.”

“Heal it yourself,” Orinda said, annoyance in her voice. She gestured at Patrice. “Who is this bitch and how do you know her?”

“We have no time for your ridiculous jealousy,” Cooper said through gritted teeth. “I’ll explain later. They’re waiting and the window will close soon. Would you like to explain to them how your petty female complaining caused us to miss this opportunity?”

Orinda grew visibly pale. She shook her head, chastened. “No. I’ll fix it now.” She held his broken wrist between her palms and murmured a spell.

With a grunt, Cooper pulled his hand away from her. “Better.” He smiled at her. “Isn’t it better when you obey me?”

Orinda nodded and stepped away, her head bowed.

Meaghan could almost imagine feeling a tiny spark of compassion for the woman. If Orinda wasn’t such a bitch.

“Cheer up, my love,” Cooper cooed. “You’ve given me an idea.”

“I have?” Orinda flipped her hair with a silver-ringed hand, her moment of unease forgotten. “I love it when I do that.”

Meaghan rolled her eyes and said, “Pathetic.”

Cooper ignored her. “Yes, you have.” Cooper closed his eyes, concentrating. “We have the perfect vessel right here. It can bring the whore right to us.”

Marnie shoved Jhoro away. “Get off me, you faggot. I should have killed you when I was in your father.”

Cooper smiled. “About time you showed up. The mob tired you?”

Marnie stood up and looked down on herself. “Too many good things to eat. I needed a little time to digest. A post-meal nap.” She ran her hands up and down her body. “The shame is tasty, but I assume this is merely a snack, and you have a task for me.”

The Power was back.

Cooper nodded. He held out his hand. “Bring her to me. She’s more than a snack. She’s a sacrifice to our masters.”

Marnie’s breath quickened and she smiled. “Thank you for this honor. I will serve you well.”

Jhoro grabbed her from behind. She swept her arms up, breaking his grasp, drove an elbow back into his nose, then turned and jammed her knee into his groin. He fell to his knees with a grunt and curled into a ball.

Marnie straddled him, grabbed a handful of his golden hair, and pulled his head back. She jammed her knee into his neck, pinning him and partially choking him with the weight of her body, then wrapped her hands around his throat and squeezed. “Don’t try your shamanic crap on me, boy. It didn’t work on me in Fahraya and it won’t work now.”

“No,” Patrice shouted. “Stop!”

“Your crap won’t work on me either, bitch,” Marnie said. “Not without your sisters.”

Patrice grunted and collapsed. Natalie, still trying to cast a spell, ignored her.

“Marnie,” Meaghan called to her. “I know you’re still in there.” Compassion had worked to undermine the Power in the past. “Don’t let this thing take you. Don’t let them win.”

Marnie rolled her eyes. “You again? Going to drown me in another wave of maternal instinct? All I smell now is big fear. Ooh, and the doubt. That was there before, but it’s had time to marinate.” She licked her lips. “Magic makes it much easier to consume someone, but for you, I’ll make the extra effort.” Jhoro’s pawed ineffectually at Marnie’s hands as she throttled him. “Let me finish up here.”

Meaghan scrambled to her feet and threw herself at them.

Marnie lost her balance and fell, giving Jhoro the opportunity he needed to escape. He rolled onto his side, coughing spasmodically, his face brick red. He tried to pull himself onto his knees.

Marnie, now on the floor with Meaghan, kicked out hard with her heel and hit Jhoro square on his temple. He collapsed, unconscious.

Meaghan was a good fighter when she had to be, but the Power, with the strength of Marnie’s youth, was better.

Now she straddled Meaghan, wrapping her hands around Meaghan’s throat, and choking her. With a big grin, Marnie said, “I’ve wanted to do this since the first moment I met you.”

Meaghan’s hands scrabbled in the detritus on the floor, searching for something, anything, she could use to defend herself. Blackness surrounded her field of vision and everything else was covered in a yellow haze.

She felt something cold and metallic under her hand and lifted it. A stapler. The new, sleek, lightweight, ergonomic stapler Jamie kept on his desk. The stapler Meaghan had seen levitate.

With her remaining strength Meaghan slammed the stapler into the side of Marnie’s head.

Marnie snarled, but hung onto Meaghan’s throat with both hands. The stapler was ripped from Meaghan’s hand and flew out of her reach.

Not steel
, Meaghan thought, as the darkness took her.