Read Imperative: A Quinn Larson Quest Online
Authors: P. A. Wilson
I tried to get the book back, once. She threw fire dust onto my hand before I touched the binding. I kept my eyes on my hand so I could convince my mind that the flesh wasn’t roasting off the bone. It was over in two minutes. But that was two minutes of agony. “You bitch. And to think I was beginning to like you.”
Cate stepped away from me holding the book in her hands. “You know, I always liked you. Even when you were being an idiot. Like now.”
I lunged for her and she wiggled away at the last second. I reached again and she danced around the room holding the book just out of my reach. After what seemed like an hour, but was probably only a few minutes, I stopped chasing her and held onto the bench while I gasped for breath.
“Are you feeling calmer now?”
I grinned and snaked my arm out to pull the book away from her. “Yes, you win.”
She pushed in beside me and opened the book. “Good. So before we go looking for spells, I think we need to figure out a different way to deal with this.”
“Did you mean it when you said you liked me?” If the world was going to come to an end, I had nothing to lose by asking.
She was looking at the list of spells, running her finger down the right side. She didn’t look up when she said, “Yes, I’ve had a crush on you for a long time. I didn’t think you were ready to hear that until now.”
I opened my mouth to protest when Olan flew in at a breakneck pace. “There you are. I have news.” Then he stopped and looked at both of us. “Ah, I see you’ve noticed you are sweet on each other.”
“It is much worse. They lose control of their powers. If I remember correctly, it took four creator spirits to control him. That one took it from a needle. I don’t know what will change if drugs get into the power they are stealing. I’d say we need to be more cautious and act faster.”
Great, just what we needed. “So what news did you bring?”
Olan puffed himself up. “As you know I am an excellent spy.” He waited until we both nodded. “I overheard Iain setting up a meeting down on Nelson and Park Lane tonight. If we go there, maybe you can catch the fairy or the Sidhe. I don’t know.”
“They are really changing the game plan if they have moved operations to the park.” Cate said. “There are a lot of people going through that area every day. Not a good place to leave a body.”
I knew the Sidhe were going to get too arrogant to be careful. “What did you hear, exactly?” I hoped Olan had misunderstood, knowing it was a blind hope because Olan was an expert eavesdropper.
“Iain was talking to a Sidhe woman. She asked him if he really thought this was wise. I didn’t hear what ‘this’ was. Iain said. ‘Yes, he will be worth it’. I think they are planning to get someone important, or powerful.”
I grabbed my leather coat and motioned for Olan to lead the way. Cate followed Olan and I locked the doors after us.
It was a short walk to the park, so we were there in ten minutes. This intersection was one of the entrances to Stanley Park, the tennis courts and the lagoon were a short walk in either direction.
“It they’ve decided to jump on the drugs bandwagon, this is the place.” Cate jerked her head slightly toward three men standing near a bench. They had their hands in their pockets and Bluetooth receivers in their ears.
“Are you sure this is the place?” I asked Olan who was sitting on my shoulder, making me feel like a pirate.
He turned his eye to me and nodded. I realized he would be keeping silent as long as humans were around.
I turned to Cate and led her to a bench some ten feet closer to the streetlights than the drug dealer’s station. “Can you sense any Sidhe?”
She closed her eyes for a minute. “Fifteen feet, maybe a bit more, into the trees. No fairies, though. None at all.”
“We must be early.” I really hoped so, one death a day is enough. If we could catch the Sidhe, one of us could let the fairy know that the deal was off. “Stand still and I’ll disguise us.”
It would be pretty easy to slip past the drug dealers. I’d watched them before. They were looking for customers and as long as we didn’t look like competition, they would let us pass. I gave myself a glamour of long bushy hair, to hide Olan. And I hid Cate’s red hair under a hood, filling in the curves of her clothing to create a short chubby man silhouette.
She looked down at her new body. “Couldn’t you find a better disguise for me?”
“I don’t think we want to parade a pretty red haired witch past the three musketeers.” I cut my eyes toward the group who were ogling a street walker as she strutted by with a client.
“Good idea.” She dropped her voice from contralto to tenor. “Thanks for thinking I’m pretty.”
“Don’t go all girly on me.” I laughed and motioned for her to stand. “Let’s get to that Sidhe.”
We made it past the three dealers with only one offer of drugs. Cate led us through a few bushes to a clearing just out of sight of the main path. It looks like the Sidhe were not as reckless as I first feared. A body could rest in here for a while before someone stumbled on it. Although there was not going to be another body. We were here to make sure of that.
Cate held her finger to her lips. Even though I wasn’t planning on chatting I pushed my lips together to show I understood. She pointed toward an ancient oak and cupped her other hand behind her ear. I moved closer and realized I could hear quiet voices from the other side.
“Did you find the right human?” That was Iain. Interesting, it never occurred to me that he would be anything other than a go between.
“Of course.” I didn’t recognize the other voice, but the accent said Sidhe. “It is almost time.”
“I’m ready.”
Cate and I looked at each other; I didn’t feel any fairy presence. I flapped my hands like wings and raised my eyebrow. She shook her head. And I noticed the absence of bird sounds too.
I gestured with my hands and a tiny web formed between them. Cate nodded. A snare spell would be the easiest. I pushed more power in the spell and felt some draining from Olan. The web was large enough to hold two fully grown Sidhe.
I pointed at the left side of the tree and then Cate. She moved into place. We were going to rush around the tree and I would fling the web at the first being I saw. We would get our captive and make the best of it and the chosen victim would be safe .Just before I gave the signal to go, Olan flapped off my shoulders and disappeared into the night.
I nodded and both of us moved around the tree. I held up my hand to cast the web and stopped. There was a human woman on the ground, her back arched in a convulsion, her lips an unnatural color. I saw her fingers tearing into the ground. Her eyes were staring at the tree canopy with no light of comprehension.
Cate stood frozen on the other side of the tree trunk. I took one step toward the woman as she sighed and collapsed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the swirl of a cloak and a sudden absence of something that had been standing in the shadow of another oak.
I dismissed the spell and grabbed Cate’s arm. We ran in the direction of the motion.
I heard a series of chirps from above as we entered a clearing at the edge of the park. Only a few tall rhododendrons hid us from the street. I turned to see Cate step into the clearing, her disguise gone. Her eyes widened she opened her mouth. I spun to see what had shocked her.
Ten Sidhe males stepped out of the bushes and we were surrounded.
I stepped toward Cate and she turned so that we stood back to back facing the Sidhe. “Sorry,” I said over my shoulder.
“No problem. This isn’t your fault either.”
I felt her shoulders move and realized she was forming a spell as she talked. I called back the web, it was an easy spell and I figured the first step was to decrease the number of attackers. “What have you got?”
“A stun spell. I figure a spirit wizard would be uncomfortable with fatal spells and I didn’t want you stopping to lecture me in the middle of a fight.”
Ah, twin one. I didn’t recognize him earlier because he was covering his face. Now he threw back the hood and I could see all the bruises.
“Did I do that? Or did Fionuir punish you for letting me get away?”
“Queen Fionuir to you.” He stepped forward. “This time you will not triumph.”
“The odds are in my favor.” I said and threw the web. He tried to avoid it but my aim was true and he found himself wrapped in a sticky net that contracted and hardened as he fought it. We all watched as he collapsed to the ground.
“Who’s next?” Cate asked. I saw a ball of light growing in her hand.
The other Sidhe closed the gap and the circle became a step tighter.
I picked through the charms in my pocket. I always carried a few defensive spells, even though I hadn’t come prepared for an ambush. Cate bounced the globe of light in her hand like she was getting ready to toss a grenade. I found a thistle in my coat pocket that contained a confusion spell,
I don’t know why they didn’t rush us, we were totally unprepared and the fight would have been over in a flash. Maybe they thought we were ready for them. “Cast that and I’ll think of something.”
Cate tossed the globe underhanded; I felt her body slide to the ground beside mine. With our bodies out of the way, the flash should affect the whole circle. I palmed the thistle and found a bee ball. I kissed it and slammed it against the ground before grabbing Cate and rolling on top of her. If I guessed right, my kiss would keep the bees away from me and if she was under me, they wouldn’t find her either.
I heard the buzz grow as the bees expanded to life size. The ball held a hundred bees. A second after the ball released the bees; I heard two things, Sidhe shouting in pain and Cate swearing at me.
“Get off me you oaf.”
“In a second, the bees need to latch onto Sidhe taste before it’s safe.”
She stopped struggling. The Sidhe yelps slowed and I took the chance to look up, the flash from Cate’s spell should have dissipated enough by now. Three of the Sidhe were running for cover, pursued by a trail of hungry bees. Two were unconscious; I’m not sure what happened to them. The other four were batting at attacking bees and trying to cast spells to disperse them.
We both started to stand but I felt something touch my leg. Suddenly the strength was gone. I looked down and saw a vine attaching itself to me. A glance at Cate showed she was not yet touched. I tossed the thistle toward to Sidhe who seemed to be casting the vine and pulled out my pocket knife.
The Sidhe dodged the thistle but it did manage to catch two others in its confusion net. Unfortunately, it also caught the remaining bees. They flew out into the trees to get away from the people smacking at them.
The vine was still trying to attach itself to my leg. It was not getting enough purchase to get anywhere, but if it decided to get under my pants I figured it would at best be an immobilization spell.
At worst, I was going to die.
I slashed and caught it on the tip with the point of the knife and it collapsed like a punctured balloon. I looked up as Cate threw the rain spell and saw Olan swoop down from a tree with a stone in his claws.
The two Sidhe caught in the confusion spell stood looking up at the sky. When the rain slapped at them, it was a buckets of rain spell, it knocked them over. Olan dropped the stone on the head of the most aware Sidhe and we were suddenly able to take a second to breathe. It wouldn’t be long before someone gained enough sense to attack for keeps. We still had four Sidhe who could attack if they thought of something.
“Can you do another web?” Cate asked, I noticed her face was drawn; she was putting too much energy into her spells. “I don’t know how long we’ve got, but if you can put down two more, we should be safe to run.”
I nodded and started to spin the web between my hands, then decided to split it. I would have to put more energy into the spell to create two webs, but with two I could pin down the remaining Sidhe and we could leave. If the worse we got out of this a need for a long nap, I would consider it a victory.