Rogue Belador: Belador book 7 (32 page)

Chapter 31

Tzader kept an eye on his team as they walked nonchalantly past the original Atlanta Life Insurance Building, which had been vacant for quite a while. Four stately columns stood along the front wall, reaching up to the third floor.

The captured white witches had been hidden right under their noses in the heart of the Sweet Auburn district in downtown Atlanta.

Shielding this from scrying or tracking must have taken a massive amount of power.

Queen Maeve and Cathbad would have that level of power, but no reason to stash the witches here instead of taking them back to Tŵr Medb.

With a quick look around, Trey slipped into the shadows at the far side of the building. When he pointed up at the half-covered window where some of the boarding had rotted away, Tzader stepped up and cupped his hands.

To conserve their energy, Tzader signaled that he’d give Trey and Evalle a boost up to the ledge. Trey stepped into Tzader’s cupped hands, and Tzader used kinetics as he tossed Trey up to the third floor.

Evalle went next, then Storm, who bent his knees and leaped silently to the ledge like a jaguar on steroids.

Tzader backed off and took a running start, then pushed off in a flip, shoving the palms of his hands down to use kinetics for a last push the rest of the way. He landed hard.

They all paused to listen for any disturbance below.

When no one came charging up, they huddled.

Trey said, “They’re in the basement. I saw them through an opening where a vent came out, and heard the warlocks talking about guarding the witches until their queen showed up.”

Tzader asked, “Did you see Lanna?”

“No.”

Hopefully the young woman had been stuck somewhere out of view from that point. Tzader owed Quinn more than he could ever pay for keeping Queen Maeve and Cathbad occupied. He could not lose Lanna while Quinn stood in the gap for all of them.

Turning to his new team, Tzader explained, “I’ll take point. Let’s find the stairs and try to get down there without alerting them.”

Easier said than done in an old building, but they were in luck. The steps to the basement were metal, which didn’t creak as wood might.

He slowed as he neared the basement, which had no door blocking their way. No one spoke, but with his Belador hearing powered up, every shoe scuff came through loud and clear.

He eased forward to peek into the room.

Five beds that looked like sacrificial pedestals each held a woman, strapped down. The three on the far end of the room were middle-aged, average-looking women. The fourth one coming back this way was a younger woman who had been stripped, and her head sagged to one side. If the eyes staring at him were alive, that one was locked in her own personal horror.

The closest table held a woman with the wrinkled skin and white hair fitting Mother Mattie’s description.

Where was Lanna?

If Queen Medb had taken her, why leave the rest of them here?

Tzader hoped Mattie could give him answers. Using hand signals for Storm’s benefit, he told his team there were two guards at the far end, two at this end, and one on the far side who had a clear view of the entire room.

Trey gave a signal that the first warlock on the left appeared to be the leader, from what he’d seen earlier. That made sense. The other four stood still while their leader kept checking his watch.

Evalle’s voice filled Tzader’s head.
Storm just whispered an idea to me. He’ll go down there as a jaguar.

Tzader said,
They might kill him on sight.

She looked at Storm, who held her gaze until she told Tzader,
His majik will protect him and give us the element of surprise while they focus on him.

Tzader gave Storm a thumbs-up. Storm turned and left, hurrying back up the steps.

Where’d he go?
Tzader asked Evalle after she’d shared the information with Trey.

I don’t know. He told me he had a plan, so I trust him.

A huge black beast raced down the stairs, yellow eyes glowing and lips pulled back to expose sharp fangs.

Storm burst into the room and roared so loudly the windows should be exploding.

Tzader dove down the stairs and around the corner right behind him.

Warlocks were yelling and throwing hits of power at the jaguar’s coat, striking him glancing blows.

Storm flew around the room, slapping sharp claws at anything standing that could bleed.

Tzader engaged the warlock Trey had fingered as the leader, who kicked and spun his hands like a ninja set on fast-forward. He hammered a kinetic blow at the warlock’s head before the Medb could release whatever he was spinning.

The guy flew backwards, slammed the wall, and came down on both feet, ready to fight.

Damn, that sucker was going to be tough to kill.

Evalle and Trey each engaged a warlock. Storm leaped onto the back of one and chomped down on a big shoulder. The warlock screamed.

If he had any idea of what
Scáth
Force could do, Tzader would link with Evalle and Trey, but they did not link unless they were certain they could defeat an enemy.
Scáth
Force were unknowns at this point.

Tzader kept tossing kinetic slugs, right, left, right, left.

Blood sprayed from the guy’s nose on the last one.

Lifting the warlock by the throat with kinetic force, Tzader had intended to slam him down.

The bastard’s black lips opened, and a torrent of purple smoke boiled in Tzader’s face, blinding him momentarily. He couldn’t let go unless he was ready to die.

Boot heels ran across the floor behind Tzader.

That had to be the one who’d planned to escape and bring back reinforcements. Just as Storm had said.

Listening to the footsteps, Tzader spun twice and threw the smoke-bomb warlock in the direction of the noise with every bit of kinetic power he possessed.

Bones cracked as bodies smacked together and hit a solid wall with a crunch that should mean dead.

Eyes burning from the acidic smoke, Tzader could barely make out the two warlocks as they scrambled to their feet. Both launched their bodies at him. Not
nearly
dead enough. This was taking too damn long.

Everyone and every
thing
kept delaying his getting to Brina.

Screw it. He was done.
I will not lose
the woman I love
.

Running toward them, Tzader lifted his hands and shoved his energy into a kinetic wall powered by all the frustration of the past week. The force slammed into the duo, driving them back into the concrete wall.

They hit so hard this time that both heads shattered like crushed eggs.

Tzader kept ramming them anyway. If not for the Medb, Brina would not have had to be locked away for years. Now he had to yank a dragon out of a throne shape, and he couldn’t even do that. He’d avoided accepting it, but that damn scale would run out of energy in less than an hour.

There was no way to reach her before that. Maybe not ever.

Someone grabbed an arm on each side of him.

Evalle said, “Tzader, they’re dead. We’re done.”

He shook with the adrenaline flooding him, but he dropped the connection and the bodies fell in two mangled heaps. Turning, he sucked in a deep breath, aware of Trey and Evalle watching him. “I’m fine. How are the witches?”

Trey said, “Those three at the end of the room are dead.”

Evalle ran up the stairs and came back just as quickly with an arm full of clothes. “Over here, Storm,” she called to the big cat still stalking the room, like a predator pissed off because his hunt had been cut short.

She dropped what he needed in a clean spot and used his coat to cover the young woman with the blank eyes. “This one’s got a pulse, but she’s cold and in bad shock.”

Tzader moved over to Mattie and started freeing her legs from the leather straps. Mattie made a noise. Tzader stepped up to face her. “Are you okay? Is anything broken or ... hurt?”

“I’m fine.” She sounded drunk, but he doubted she’d had a drop of alcohol. “My granddaughter.” She turned to the side and whimpered. “What did he do to her?”

“Are you Mattie?” Tzader asked, trying to engage her again.

Sniffling, the witch looked around. “Yes. Where is he?”

“They’re all dead.”

She tried to sit up and Tzader put his arm behind her fragile body. She said, “Those are Medb warlocks. They didn’t kidnap us.”

“What?”

Her words were still a little slurred, but new strength wound through her voice with each word. “That bastard. A disgusting, yellow-skinned wizard.”

Grendal? Please tell me I’m wrong.
Tzader didn’t want to ask the next question, because he knew the answer would make him sick. “Did you see a young woman here by the name of Lanna?”

“Yes. His creepy assistant captured her sneaking around outside. She’s a sweet girl. When that slimeball questioned her, she said she’d used a bit of animal hair to find me. She said it loud so I would hear. She was letting me know my Oskar was safe. Look around you. This whole, horrible thing was about finding that girl. The wizard had offered to trade Queen Maeve
five
of us for Lanna, but then he found her first.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.
Tzader turned to Storm, who had just pulled his shirt over his head, finished dressing. “Can you scent Lanna in here, Storm?”

“No, and I didn’t scent her outside either. The wizard must have cleaned her scent or replaced it. I
could
smell the strongest scent in here, and it’s the same odor I encountered twice a few months back. I didn’t recognize it last night at Mattie’s house,” he said, walking over to Tzader. “The trail was somehow concealed from that point, too, which was not normal.”

Tzader admitted, “I think Grendal’s the wizard behind all this.”

Evalle walked up. “It’s got to be him, Storm. He was involved in the beast games.  You picked this scent at Mattie’s house that you recognized as being from the illegal beast fight in the mountains where we met Imogenia.” She cringed in Tzader’s direction. “That you don’t want to know about since you were Maistir at the time, so forget I mentioned that.”

“The least of my worries right now.” Tzader swallowed. “Grendal has Lanna. This was all set up just to capture her.”

Evalle said, “We heard. What are we going to do now?”

Tzader looked at his watch.

All he could think about was that the dragon scale Brina had was losing power by the second.

She’d be alone, and vulnerable to whatever Macha had in mind, none of which was in Brina’s best interest.

If Macha hadn’t done something already.

Brina’s last time in hologram form had him worried. The fact that she’d been failing to dream walk concerned him even more. He’d been refusing to focus on any of that because, if he did, he’d lose his ability to think clearly or to lead his team.

Mattie stared at her granddaughter and snuffled softly.

Tzader patted Mattie’s shoulder. “Our people will be here soon. We have druids who can help her.”

“We have Adrianna outside shielding some of our group, too,” Evalle said as she walked around Mattie’s table to stand next to Tzader.

Mattie turned her nose up. “I don’t need any Sterling witch to take care of my family.”

Ah, hell. Tzader didn’t want to put those two anywhere near each other. Adrianna’s patience had already been tested severely by Daegan.

When Trey came over, he explained that he was handpicking Beladors he could trust to transport the women, but he had to find the ones who were not already on duty with non-Beladors and give them time to access ambulances not presently in use. Trey asked Mattie questions about what had happened. Knowing him, he was also using telepathy concurrently to communicate and organize the medical support.

Evalle nudged Tzader with a shoulder.

He asked, “What?”

“Don’t give up hope,” she whispered. “We
will
save Brina.”

He gave her a sad smile, not even trying to deny where his mind had been. “I have to break a two-thousand-year-old curse to free a dragon and take him to Treoir. I have no way to
get
the dragon to Treoir. I also have to find Lanna before Grendal leaves the country with her, and Quinn is putting himself in danger right now trying to keep Maeve and Cathbad out of our way. Looking pretty bleak.”

He reached to free Mattie’s arm from the leather clasp.

Light flashed and a cloud of sparkles showered in one spot. When it cleared, a six-foot-two woman with rich mocha skin, eyes sparkling like sapphires, and auburn hair blanketing her shoulders stood glaring at everyone in the room.

Her gaze landed on Tzader’s hands still holding one last strap on Mattie’s arm.