Witchlock (2 page)

Evalle’s black Gortex motorcycle jacket had seen its share of battles and her scuffed boots concealed sharp blades for fighting.
 

Adrianna asked, “Have you heard anything from Rowan or Nicole?”
 

“No. Should I have? Is something up?” Evalle swatted away hairs that had slipped loose from her ponytail. She ignored the three guys she passed whose jaws dropped in Adrianna’s direction.
 

“Maybe.” Adrianna paused and must have realized no one was listening to them or that only Evalle could hear her over the kids squealing in delight. She continued, “The white covens across the country are forming councils in major areas now that the Medb have dumped warlocks and witches into Atlanta. The fighting between Beladors and the Medb faction is spilling over into the witch population. Until now, no witch has ever had to declare if he or she was dark or white.”
 

Evalle stopped again and turned slowly, scanning the crowd. With the same happy faces and winter clothing, they were starting to blend together.  What was Adrianna saying? Something about the Medb?
 

The Medb were the oldest and deadliest enemies of the Belador race, and even though Evalle had recently found out she was half Medb, she held no sympathies for that coven. Didn’t matter. The witches would have to work out their own issues, because VIPER had bigger problems.
 

As one of six agents covering the park tonight, Evalle had to determine if she’d actually seen a demon, and whether it was the same one that’d been sighted an hour ago in the town of Stone Mountain.
 

When Adrianna didn’t say anything else, Evalle ran back over the conversation. She’d been only half listening about the witches. “So? What’s the problem?”
 

“If the witches form a council here, which they will because Rowan is pushing for one, then VIPER will recognize the council, which means VIPER will expect me to tell them where my loyalty lies.”
 

Evalle lifted her hands. “Just declare that you’re a Sterling and be done with it.”
 

“It’s not that simple. Never mind,” Adrianna murmured, then looked around as she switched topics. “Think the Medb coven is behind this demon tonight?”
 

Evalle growled in frustration. “Who knows? VIPER should never have welcomed the Medb into the coalition. The Medb spend a few days acting like good Samaritans, killing demons that
they
created, and VIPER conveniently forgets how many years of blood has spilled between the
Beladors and the Medb. Apparently they’ve
also
forgotten that dark witches are dangerous and untrustworthy as a rule.”
 

Adrianna lifted a sharp eyebrow at that slam.
 

Evalle rolled her eyes at the Sterling witch, who had used her dark powers to help Evalle—and VIPER—more than once. She amended her statement. “Present company excepted.”
 

Having once been the bane of Evalle’s existence, Adrianna was now … a friend, though Evalle still had to work at the trust part. Wind swatted more loose hairs around her face. When Evalle stretched her neck, she looked up past Memorial Hall to where spotlights illuminated the carving of three Confederate soldiers on one side of the bald mountain.
 

Power snapped around Evalle again and she jerked her head around, searching and rubbing her arms. “Did you feel that?”
 

“That buzzing?”
 

“Yes. Like some kind of energy.”
 

Adrianna shrugged. “Probably a ghoul in the area.”
 

“I don’t think so.” Evalle moved through the crowd, ignoring the stares at her dark glasses.
 

They’d stare even more if she took them off.
 

Adrianna tagged along. “When will Storm be back?”
 

“By nine in the morning, last I heard.”
 

“Good, because I’ve waited as long as I can, but I—”
 

Evalle’s phone chimed with a text, but the default tune that played meant it was not Storm. She lifted the phone and gave Adrianna an index finger signal to hold her thought. Then she read the text:  
Your week is up
.
 

Oh. Hell.
 

“You look like you just heard from the Grim Reaper,” Adrianna quipped.
 

“Worse. Isak.”  Evalle pushed the off button and put the phone back in her pocket.
 

“You haven’t gone to dinner with him yet?”
 

“No.”  
 

“Why not? You told him you’d get in touch within a week after he helped us contain that witch doctor.”
 

“I know that,” Evalle groused back at her and returned to her surveillance. She rubbed her eyes again. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to Storm before he had to leave town and I’m not about to have him come home to hear that I was having dinner with another man while he was gone.”
 

“With a hot warrior no less,” Adrianna teased. “You’re afraid to tell
Storm.”
 

Evalle didn’t have the energy to argue.
 

Isak would not wait long. The last time she’d ignored him, he’d sent his black ops team to snatch her off the street.
 

Then he’d served her a mouth-watering Italian meal.
 

A profiler would have a field day with the men in her life, but the only one who mattered was Storm.
 

Evalle widened her stance and said, “I’m dealing with the Isak situation as soon as Storm is back.”  Sounded perfect. Confident. Decisive.
 

A total lie.
 

Adrianna snapped her fingers. “Anyhow, as I was saying, I need to meet with you and Storm about our deal.”
 

There went Evalle’s fantasy about the down time VIPER had promised her this week. But Adrianna had helped Evalle and Storm several different times. They both owed her major debts. Plus Adrianna had yet to say what she wanted, and Evalle smelled a secret. “I’ll check with Storm. If he’s good to go, I am.”
 

“I don’t have much time—”
 

The suspicious guy stepped back into Evalle’s line of vision once more, stared in her direction, then turned to walk away from her and Memorial Hall.
 

Evalle lifted her hand. “Wait a minute.”  
 

Adrianna huffed, “What
now
?”
 

Evalle kept her eyes on Mr. Khaki Pants as she told Adrianna, “There he is. I’ll be right back.”
 

Adrianna leaned to look in the same direction Evalle had been watching. “I’m supposed to be your backup.”
 

“Look, this may be nothing more than my eyes playing tricks on me because of all these damn lights,” Evalle explained, “But that’s the guy. I saw something odd happen to his face earlier.”
 

“What kind of odd?”
 

“It was just a blur. I can’t call in a blurred face or I’ll never hear the end of it at headquarters. Just stay here and keep an eye on the crowd. If I’m not back in fifteen minutes, call in the cavalry.”
 

“Fine, but I’m not going to deal with Tzader going off on me if you get hurt.”
 

“He won’t.” Tzader Burke was Maistir of the North American Beladors, and one of Evalle’s two best friends. “He’ll go off on
me
,” Evalle assured her and hurried forward, weaving her way through miniature Santa stalkers.
 

If she could just catch one more flicker of change in that guy’s outward appearance, she’d know for sure what she’d seen before hadn’t been an optical illusion created by all the mash of lights around her.
 

Her special sunglasses shielded her eyes from normal city lights at night, but this place was uber-bright. Give her pitch dark anytime, where she could see without eye protection.
 

Taking off her glasses would reveal unnatural neon-green eyes, but more critical, it would leave her blind and vulnerable. As dead tired as she was, the glare from the screaming-white strings of Christmas decorations in this park might be tricking her eyes.
 

Wind whistled through nearby bony branches, jangling leaves that hadn’t fallen and offering an eerie background to the jolly event as Evalle moved away from the crowd noise.
 

She curled her chilled fingers, working out the stiffness in case she had to use the spelled dagger hidden inside her jacket.  
 

Khaki Guy hadn’t acted like any demon she’d ever gone after.
 

Decisions, decisions.
 

There’d been no demon sightings in the Atlanta area for five whole days—until this evening here in Stone Mountain.
 

Everyone had thought the recent infestation had been put to bed. VIPER was adamant about getting this corner of the country back under control before the trolls made good on their threat and informed the humans that monsters lived among them.
 

That would be pandemonium.
 

The man she trailed slowed to watch a family walking toward Memorial Hall, then he kept moving.
 

If the potential demon-in-khaki-slacks wasn’t raising hairs on the neck of anyone in this crowd, then either this guy was just another park visitor or this group didn’t have a lick of spidey sense. As long as the coalition did its job, these people would continue to go on about their lives, content in their ignorance of anything unnatural in their world.  
 

Keeping pace with her target but far back enough to be unobtrusive, Evalle searched ahead. The only obvious destination in his direct path was the park’s Summit Skyride, where high-speed cable cars zoomed visitors from ground level to the top of the mountain and back.
 

Thankfully, that attraction had been shut down for the night.
 

She’d heard VIPER agents rave about the view, but she’d pass. She got nauseated fifteen feet off the ground.
 

Strangely, she had no fear of heights when she shifted into her gryphon form and flew, but she wasn’t allowed to do that in the human world, even
if no humans were around.
 

The guy slowed when he encountered one of the park’s uniformed personnel near the entrance to the skyride structure.
 

Evalle held up. The minute that security guard sent her suspect back toward the festivities, she’d return, too.
 

But that didn’t happen.
 

Khaki Guy said something to the guard, then continued walking until he stepped up on the platform that led to the parked cable cars.
 

Evalle picked up her pace, sliding from shadow to shadow so no one would see her using unnatural speed. When she reached the security guard, he stood perfectly still, staring straight ahead. She waved a hand in front of his face. He was breathing, but locked in time like a living statue.
 

She had all the confirmation she needed that Khaki Man was not what he seemed.
 

She sent a text to Adrianna that she definitely followed something nonhuman, but she had yet to determine what it was exactly, so stand by for an update.
 

Evalle shoved the phone in her back pocket and closed the distance.
 

Demon, troll or
other
, he was not disappearing again.
 

Chapter 2
 

When Evalle reached the platform, Khaki Guy was trying to open the doors on the parked cable car. They were probably powered by hydraulics.
 

No human could break those apart.
 

Khaki Guy held his hands back-to-back and pushed his palms out, inching the doors open. The mechanism controlling the gears cried in protest.
 

Just great.
 

Now she’d have to call in Sen, the VIPER liaison and a roaring pain in her backside, to fix that before she left. Sen could thaw out the security guard and purge the man’s memory while he was at it.
 

She called out, “You can’t ride without a ticket.”
 

Ignoring her, the guy leaned forward, growled in strain, and shoved the doors open with a bang before he turned around. He still looked just like Joe Suburbia, but then he opened his mouth.
 

Guttural demon voice came out. “Who are
you
?”
 

She respected any being’s strength, but she had to clue this creature in before he decided to go toe-to-toe with her. Sometimes clearing up any misconception saved getting her favorite clothes bloody. “My name’s Evalle. If you’ll come quietly with me, I won’t hurt you.”
 

“I don’t have to do what you say.”
 

“That’s where you’re wrong. She pulled off her dark sunglasses so he could experience the full effect of her glowing green Alterant eyes, a mark of being half Belador and half Medb. Don’t even get her started on
that
issue. The fact that she was an Alterant had played havoc with her life for as long as she could remember. “I’m with VIPER and I have authorization to take you in.”
 

He stared at her, or more like
through
her, not blinking, which was creepy on a human face. Then he asked, “We’ll go together?”
 

Did he think she worked on the honor system?
 

Sure, I’ll give you an address for the hidden VIPER headquarters in the North Georgia Mountains and you’ll turn yourself in while I go home and take a long hot bath.