Remnants of Magic (3 page)

Although still gasping frantically, he stopped the struggle. With his eyes squeezed closed, Kieran let him keep his throat arched toward Stephan, the sign of submission to which the canine mentality responded predictably. The snarls from the wolves calmed. London might only have what little knowledge of the fey she’d managed to glean since Rico cursed her, but she knew wolves and vamps better than many knew themselves.

The growl from Stephan, at the throat arched before him and the stillness of the yielding prey, sounded almost as sexual as it was bloodthirsty. He might have had his prey right there, in the open air with the wild scents around them, if London hadn’t warned him of the dangers. Instead, Stephan ordered, “Bring them.”

They hustled London ahead, so she couldn’t see Kieran, though she imagined they manhandled him as roughly. She heard Stephan order, “Take him upstairs. Lock her in the basement.”

London fought to escape, though it was wasted effort. The wolves had height and strength on her, not to mention fangs and claws when they wanted them. Right now, they all remained in human form. Just more proof that they didn’t think her a threat. They shoved her through the basement doorway. Had she not been prepared, she might have tumbled down the stairs, possibly getting injured in the process. Instead, she caught the railing. By the time she recovered her balance and charged the door they slammed it in her face. London pounded on it. “Stephan! Let me out!” The wolves outside laughed at her futile effort, but she didn’t care. Let them think they’d trapped her.

London jogged down the steps as quietly as she could, digging her cell phone from her pocket. She dialed Selena again. “Come on. Come on. Pick up.”

The basement appeared like most any other at a casual glance. Selena had the manor specially designed and constructed a few decades ago. The concrete walls and floor secured from easy access and from inadvertent light exposure. Loads of old furniture and boxes littered the area, making the basement seem like nothing but storage space. London knew better though. Vampires watched the old movies; they knew the would-be-slayers liked to corner them in basements and other such places. While it provided a good bunker against light and attack, no vamp wanted to get cornered like that. Selena least of all.

The cell phone couldn’t keep a signal so London switched it to ‘silent mode’ and stuffed it into her pocket. Along the back basement wall a bank of shelves held all manner of tools and bits of hardware. London grabbed the hidden switches that released the secret door and swung the entire shelving unit open on silent hinges.

The rooms beyond provided a safe place to hole up for the daylight hours in comfort. The two bedrooms, one on either side of the hallway, might be a little dusty, but they were still elegant. Nothing in Selena’s living quarters was ever anything but plush, even her fallout shelter. The closet at the end of the hall stashed a small arsenal of weapons. London holstered one at the small of her back, another under her blazer beneath her left arm. She’d selected the non-silver bullets. She wasn’t out to kill the wolves, or the Sidhe in the crossfire, just wound them if she needed to. They’d heal up soon enough and wouldn’t hold too much of a grudge for it, considering this was a justified battle over prey rights, at least to the mindset of the wolves.

Through the hatch at the end of the hall, London found a narrow passage leading straight up. The ladder fixed into the wall carried her from the basement up to a covered, faux chimney. She climbed out and used the uneven bricks for hand and footholds to descend to the roof. London checked her phone again. At least she had a signal now. She dialed Selena.

Selena answered immediately. “London, why are you going to the manor? You’ve never gone to the safe house before. I’ve loaned it to Stephan while he’s visiting.”

“So I’ve noticed. Selena, I caught a Sidhe. Stephan’s taken him from me.” London eased her way down the roof, heading for the trellis.

Selena released a long string of colorfully blended curses. “We’re on our way.” The line cut off. London stared at the screen on her phone until it went black, acknowledging the end of the call. This was bad. Worse than she’d expected. Selena had said ‘we.’ She meant to come in force, with enough vampires to handle a houseful of crazed werewolves whacked out on the magic in the Sidhe’s blood. Not the phone call to Stephan asking him politely to hand over her prey and send her about her business that she’d hoped for. The Sidhe were rare, nearly extinct after the Collapse of the Mounds, and it looked seriously like this one was about to spark a race war to claim him.

‘Oops’ didn’t begin to cover this screw up.

Chapter Four

London crept down the trellis to the second floor veranda. The motion detector lights had switched off and only the stray light from inside cast a faint illumination out into the pitch of the night. Even still, she crouched low and moved on the balls of her feet, quick and silent. The first window looked into Selena’s master bedroom, right next to her vanity. London peeked inside.

The window had been partially raised. Selena never installed screens. The upper half of the bed was the only thing she could see and it was vacant. The voices from within reached her easily, though from this angle she couldn’t see anyone. She heard a startled hiss through teeth, and then Kieran said, “Ah! You know what? Huh? How about we talk about this, you know? Maybe… Maybe work a deal, right?”

London poked her head inside, ever so slowly. Leaning in just far enough to glimpse past the vanity’s mirror, she could barely see someone’s back, but then he stepped forward out of view. She heard the sneer in Stephan’s voice. “What do you have to offer that I can’t simply rip from you?”

London jolted back at the sound of fabric tearing violently. She couldn’t help but wince at the sound of Kieran’s outcry.

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.” She hissed under her breath. She ducked down and hurried to the next window in the line. This one overlooked the room from the other side of the bed.

“You’re right. You’re right,” Kieran said, desperation making his words tumble out in a jumbled rush. “You could just tear me to shreds, but you don’t want to do that, right? Right? You don’t want to kill me, right? You want to keep me around for a while. But here’s the thing; if you spill my blood you’re going to have a real mess on your hands. I mean, not my blood, which would be a mess, yeah. But a much bigger mess, right? Like that lass said, your buddies will go ballistic, right? Come charging in here and kill you and me both, most likely. Have you seen what the smell of Sidhe blood can do to a wolf? Huh? I have. Trust me, you don’t want to go there. Seriously. Trust me on this. You gotta trust me on this!”

Oh, geez. If talking his way out of this was all he had, Kieran was as good as dead. London’s heart shuddered with a fear unlike anything she’d ever known. No time to question it. No time to fight against it. Even if it meant her life, she couldn’t let Stephen kill Kieran.

London rose from her crouched position to peek in through the second window. From here she could see everything. The chain of Kieran’s handcuffs had been slung over a light fixture high on the wall, stretching his arms over his head. His shirt was in tatters. Apparently, Stephen enjoyed tormenting his prey. The wolf lightly dragged his claws from Kieran’s right shoulder diagonally across his smooth chest, but didn’t draw blood yet. The Sidhe flinched away, gasping at the hint of pain and anticipation of worse. Stephan deliberately primed Kieran with adrenaline. No doubt that would only make the effects of the magic-laced blood hit harder when he finally consumed it.

Stephan ignored Kieran’s babble. His voice practically purred with a hungry growl. “Should I take the blood from your neck? Or straight from the source?” He placed a claw against Kieran’s jaw and turned his head to the side.

As his head tilted, the Sidhe’s gaze hit London. The force of those eyes sent something rushing through her. Desperation. She had to get him out of there. She raised her fingers to her lips, a gesture for him to stay silent.

His eyes narrowed, not trusting her. The panic sweat glistened on his skin, making him shine in the light. So perfect and handsome. Stephan wouldn’t leave him like that and London figured Kieran knew it as well as she did. Unlike vampires, werewolves didn’t feed from single fang pricks. They fed from open gashes.

London pulled out the handcuff key and showed it to him.

His mouth set as if he didn’t believe her, but then he started talking again. “Are you sure we can’t talk about this? Maybe just a needle prick in the finger? You know? Something small. Something that won’t give off a lot of scent. How about that? Would that work? I think that’d be a perfect idea. Don’t you?”

London started to crawl through the open window as quietly as she could. She froze when Stephan’s claws pierced Kieran’s chest, high on his pectoral muscle. Kieran’s outcry ended with a growl of pain through clenched teeth as the wolf dug his claws in deeper. His eyes stayed fixed on London, his outburst covering any sound of her climbing the rest of the way through the window.

She drew her gun in her right hand, handcuff key still in her left. London charged them. Even as she leapt against Stephan to shove him clear of Kieran, she pressed the key into the Sidhe’s hand.

Had she not caught Stephan off guard, she’d never have been able to knock him back, even with the full force of her bodyweight behind it. He was that solidly muscled and she was on the lightweight side. London lifted her weapon, aiming it at the wolf’s heart. “Stay back!”

Stephan regained his balance and then gave London a onceover before laughing at her. “You’re one determined lassie. I’ve got to admit, I’m impressed.” He lifted his bloodied claws to his face and licked them. His pupils dilated from even so tiny a taste of the Sidhe blood. His good humor vanished into a snarl. The bloodlust hit him instantly and London knew when a wolf lost control of the lust there wouldn’t be enough of the prey left in recognizable pieces to even guess what or who it had once been. Stephan’s muscles bunched, a fraction of a second from pouncing on her.

London fired a shot. It hit Stephan center mass. The wolf didn’t even blink. A fleeting thought flickered across her mind.
I should have grabbed the silver bullets.

The Sidhe’s arm grabbed her around the waist, jerking her back. He raised an outstretched hand before him. Nothing happened that London could detect, but Stephan howled in agony. He grabbed his ears, blood trickling from them. The other wolves in the house howled, pain in their song. Stephan dropped to his knees, grabbing his head like it might explode.

“Let’s go!” Kieran shoved her back toward the window, keeping his hand aimed at Stephan until he escaped through the window himself.

“What did you do?” London shouted as they ran toward the steps leading down from the veranda to the ground.

“Think death ray on the frequency of a dog whistle. Now, shut up and run!” He pushed her ahead of him, driving her toward the tall weeds that might conceal them. The motion detector picked them up and flicked on the outside lights.

The growls and snarls from behind them transformed from pain to fury. They certainly noticed the lights. The scent of Kieran’s blood, dribbling down his bare chest only to be stolen away by the leaves they crashed through, left a perfect trail that would only drive the wolves into a frenzy. That they didn’t already hear pursuers pounding the ground behind them meant the wolves were giving up any appearance of humanity, transforming into the wolf-human hybrid form that could easily overtake them. They had maybe an extra minute head start from the delay, but it would be immediately lost with the advantage of the werewolf shape.

London slipped, but Kieran caught her hand and jerked her back to her feet. “How far do the wards reach?”

The high grass slowed them down, and they weren’t going to lose the wolves that could scent them easily. “Run toward the car path. We’ll get farther faster.” She cut toward the road, pulling him with her. “I’m not sure how far the wards reach. Try teleporting.”

“I’ve been trying.” The ground on the car path had better traction for their footing. They ran full out, side by side, Kieran never releasing her hand.

A howl cut through the night, so much closer than London had hoped. “They’re coming!”

Headlights burst from a bend in the path up ahead, racing toward them. Kieran skidded to a stop, but London yanked him hard, getting them both clear before Selena’s sedan ran them over. The car rushed by and only once it completely passed them did it hit the brakes. Two more cars in close pursuit stopped in time to narrowly avoid rear-ending the one ahead of it.

The back door of Selena’s car flew open and the vampire rushed toward them. She wore form-fitting, black spandex— her workout clothes. Probably switched out of whatever slinky dress she’d been wearing into them on the ride over. Her long blond hair was swept back into a sleek ponytail. “London!”

Selena barely reached them before the pack burst through the tall grass. Most of the other vamps hadn’t even managed to step out of the vehicles before the werewolves attacked. Screams and roars mingled into chaos. Selena shoved London and Kieran. “Last car! Go! Get away!”

Kieran reached it first, claiming the driver’s seat. The engine hadn’t been turned off, so he shoved it into reverse just as London got into the passenger seat. The Sidhe twisted around as he drove backward as fast as the car would go. London yelped as she saw a werewolf lunged at Selena and the vampire catch the beast by the throat. The last thing London saw before they cut the turn was a werewolf bursting past the battle, racing after them on all fours. She screamed at Kieran, “Don’t slow down!”

The werewolf flung himself onto the hood.

“Kieran!”

The Sidhe spun the car. The wolf flipped off, cast deep into the greenery and out of sight. In the spin, they’d done a complete one-eighty. Kieran shoved the gearshift into drive and stomped on the gas. In another minute, they cleared the path and skidded back onto a main road. Kieran didn’t slow down, heading back west toward Kilkenny.