Wolves and the River of Stone (23 page)

Carter casually walked over to the vampires and Hugh. I wondered if Edgar realized an Alpha had just placed himself within striking distance. Dominic looked up from his digging and pointed at Edgar. I heard Vik mutter something before Hugh and all three vampires burst into laughter. They went back to digging like the fuzz hadn’t shown up.

I threw my arms wide and smiled. “You missed the party, Eddie.”

Edgar’s cohorts, an older blonde woman and a young Japanese woman, glanced at each other and then back to their leader. Edgar shook his head and held his hands open as he gestured at the destruction. I was pretty sure he was begging for an explanation.

“Edgar Amon,” Zola said. The slow cadence and tone in her voice brought the attention of all three Watchers. “This is the work of Philip Pinkerton, a dark necromancer.” She looked pained as she finished the sentence.

Edgar’s eyes narrowed. “Again with this nonsense?”

Zola cocked an eyebrow and swept her gaze across the carnage-filled horizon.

Edgar closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Check the perimeter. I want to speak with the group alone.” The other two suits disappeared into the woods at opposite ends of the glen. My eyes widened when Edgar’s professional façade vanished. Anger creased his face when he turned back to Zola. “Adannaya, Pinkerton is dead. What are you talking about?”

I almost crapped myself when Zola reached out and put a hand on Edgar’s shoulder. “Amon, it’s true, and he has followers. A lot of followers.”

Edgar shook his head. “No, impossible. The Watchers would know. Something would have come up.”

“No, this is
Philip.
He knows your system. He helped bring the Watchers out of the Stone Age. If anyone knows how to evade you–”

“It’s him.” Edgar’s face soured and he turned away from Zola. He looked nauseous. “Someone has to be held responsible for this mess. I’d rather prefer it be Vesik.”

“What?” I said. “What’d I ever do to you?”

Edgar leveled a glare at me.

“Ah, fair enough,” I said.

“Edgar, Ah don’t have time for this right now.” Zola gently pushed him aside with her scorched cane. Zola bent down and started digging beside the vampires and Hugh. Vik handed her a spade and she nodded her thanks.

“You may cite me if you wish,” Hugh said. He didn’t look up from the furrow he was digging in the dirt. “I have no issues with the Watchers’ duty.”

“That is kind, wolf,” Zola said. “She glanced at Edgar. “Ah think we should play a game, Edgar. If you can spell this wolf’s name, you can issue him a citation.

Edgar blew out a breath. “You haven’t changed a bit, Adannaya.” He actually cracked a tiny smile and I thought my world was ending. “What is your name, wolf?”

“Hohnihohkaiyohos,” Hugh said.

Edgar glared at Zola for almost a minute. His mouth was open and his eyebrows were raised. I was waiting for him to break down crying or laughing. Instead he just shook his head.

“You get used to it Eddie,” I said as Foster snickered.

“All clear.” The voice came from the tree line.

I glanced up to see the fortysomething blonde woman hovering out of the woods. Edgar’s posture was rigid and his face stone by the time I turned around.

“No, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you people,” Edgar said.

“Goodness,” Zola said. She was digging in one of the deeper gouges the vampires had dug up. With the vampires’ and the werewolves’ help, the center of the glen had been dug into a trench almost a foot and a half deep. Zola worked the spade around in a careful circle and then dug her fingers into the earth. “Got it.” She smiled as she stood up and started picking pieces of dirt out of the small object in the palm of her hand. A few seconds later I recognized it. I’d seen one before.

“Zola, what is that?” I said. The vampires and the wolves gathered around us. I squeezed Sam’s hand when she put it on my shoulder.

“It’s a soulstone, a rather large one. It’s not a major stone, but Ah suppose it’s why Philip and the wolves led us here. Zachariah used it to power their trap.”

“Fucking hell, Ashley has at least two of those things in her house.”

Zola’s head jerked back and her mouth moved without making any sound. “What? Philip can detect the soulstones at a distance ... no ... now that we have this one ...”

My heart sank. “They’re going to go after her.”

Zola grimaced and nodded before she spoke. “Any dark necromancer can detect a soulstone at distance, even a small stone. But Philip is a very good bastard.”

“Yeah, and Ashley has one the size of a goddamned softball.”

“
What?”

“She has one a little smaller than that one, but she was holding one in a photo at least the size of a softball.”

“How in the hell?” Zola said. “Where could she even? Shit. Call her, she is in danger.” Zola looked up and said, “Carter, do you have anyone near the shop? Ashley is in trouble.”

“Give me a phone. Mine got smashed.” He pulled some electronic remnants out of a small pocket on his boxer briefs. I tossed the durable chunk of plastic Sam used for a phone to Carter. He dialed and his face hardened as the phone rang. “Maggie? No, I’m fine. Ashley, the Wiccan priestess, is in trouble. Get anyone you can over there. It’s going to be bad.”

Zola’s hand clamped down on Edgar’s arm. “Amon, you are a good man, help us. Our friend is in danger.”

Edgar’s face closed down when Zola called him Amon. I don’t know what he was thinking, but his hand shook as he pried Zola’s arm away. “For what I owe you, Adannaya.” His head snapped to the side. “Agatha, Nomiki, get started on the cleanup. I have to follow-up on a lead.” Edgar started to float away.

The suits nodded and disappeared over the earthworks.

“We’ll meet you there,” Zola said. Edgar held up his hand and drifted to the northwest.

“L
et’s move befo–” Zola squeaked as Vik picked her up.

“We will be faster,” Vik said. “Carter, are you okay to run?” The Alpha nodded.

“Come on, Demon,” Sam scooped me up like she was carrying me over the threshold and I didn’t even have time to blink before we were tearing through the woods. Gravel and shadows blurred by in a nauseating blend of gray. We were at the rental in a minute.

Carter and Dominic climbed into the front seats. Everyone else crammed into the back. The SUV lurched as Carter pushed it to its absolute limits.

“Can you do something about the police?” Carter said.

“Yes, a little.” Foster fluttered from Dominic’s shoulder to the dashboard and sat down with his legs crossed. “It’s only a little misdirection, so if you run into someone, chances are good people will notice.”

“Do it.”

Foster nodded and closed his eyes. I watched him, something to keep my mind off Ashley, but I couldn’t see any shift in his aura or the nearby ley lines.

The air roared over the missing sunroof as we hit the highway. My stomach churned with angst as my mind crawled back to Ashley. I liked her. She did good things, was always friendly, even when I knew shit was bothering her. I gritted my teeth and tried to be optimistic. The wolves were going over there. Nixie and Cara and Aideen would be with them. A Watcher would be there. I needed to keep my mind off the less optimistic scenarios.

I bowed my head and turned slightly toward Zola. “Tell me about Aeros.”

She nodded and dug in her cloak. Her hand came out with a small charm that looked strikingly like a severed ear. I didn’t want to know if it really was. Zola saw my apprehension and rolled her eyes. She slapped her hand, with the ear charm, onto my palm and held it tight.

A thin wave of power wrapped around us and the excited voices in the car grew muffled. We could just barely make out what they were saying.

“They won’t hear you now, boy. The less people know about Aeros, the better.”

“So, how did Aeros give Vicky demigod-hood?” I paused and tapped my chin with my free hand. “Is that a word?”

Zola smiled and shook her head. “Ah want you to understand, this is not something you can repeat.” Her voice turned into a quick whisper despite the sound barrier. “Ah trust you Damian, don’t think that Ah don’t, but Ah’m only telling you so you won’t pester me with questions at the wrong time and have someone overhear us. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. What you said before is true. Only a god can grant a demigod its power.”

“So Aeros is really a god?”

Zola rubbed her face and blew out a breath. “Damian, Aeros is not just a god. He is an O
ld
God, a true child of the Old Ones.”

I blinked at Zola and raised my eyebrows. “What? The Old Ones?” I shook my head. “No, I mean, yes, he’s old and he’s a god, but I didn’t realize that’s what you’ve hinted at. Bloody hell.” I’d always thought the Old Gods were scary stories to tell on Halloween until Zola had shown me a photo of one, locked deep within the arctic ice after a war with another god. I’d had nightmares of the blasted thing for weeks. Beings so vast and powerful we puny humans could scarcely hope to understand them. Some masqueraded as supermassive black holes, devouring galaxies that wandered too close, while others thought on a smaller scale. Some hid in the oceans and dragged sailors to their doom using masses of tentacles the size of redwoods. Others hid in the shadows and fed on the lost and the homeless, while a few stormed across the worlds of the living and the dead in an unbiased plague upon reality itself.

Zola laughed. “Yes, do you understand? He is careful, but if someone of ill intention gained that knowledge ...”

“Goodbye world.”

“Simply put, but yes.” Zola pulled her hand away and tucked the creepy ear charm into her cloak. The muffled sounds of the vampires, the werewolves, and the wind tearing across the hole in the roof returned to sharp definition.

I felt a hand on my shoulder before I heard Alan’s cavernous voice. “Your sister’s alright for a vampire, Vesik.”

“That’s just because you don’t know her yet,” I said with a sideways grin.

Sam was far less gentle as she smacked the side of my head.

“Ow.”

We laughed and joked, but the tension was palpable. I don’t think the rental ran below ninety five except for a few turns that would have rolled us. Everyone fell silent when we reached Fifth Street and Carter took a hard left. In another minute we were driving into the small cul-de-sac Ashley called home.

The front door of her ranch-style home was obliterated. A good chunk of wall was missing between the door and the front window, and scorch marks still smoked across the brickwork. There was a trail of churned earth and smoldering grass leading back behind the house. The fight had come outside.

“Foster,” Carter said. “You and Damian check the house. Everyone else follow me. We’re going hunting.”

No one said a word.

Carter barely had the rental in park when I jumped out and ran to the door.

“God damn it!” I screamed and punched what was left of the door frame. The wolves and the fairies were nowhere to be seen. They’d probably left in pursuit of whoever had torn up the house. The front room was destroyed. The couch and the coffee table were splintered and coated in gore. Ashley was on the ground. Her leg was obviously shattered and looked like so much bloody rubber. She coughed. It was wet, and pain savaged her face as a stream of red ran from her mouth. Her right hand clutched an athame. She was still conscious. Tremors wracked her body as she tried to breath and her eyes begged me for help through a flood of tears.

“I came too late,” Maggie whispered. I glanced at the wolf for the first time. She was in the corner near the window. Her left hand was mangled. The living room around her was a mass of blood and dismembered limbs. I recognized the severed head of the necromancer, Michael, who I’d seen with Zachariah. Terror was etched across his dead face. There were at least two torsos amongst the gore. Good riddance.

“No.” Foster’s voice was stern. “Get her shirt off. Nudd be damned, it’s not too late. I need contact with her skin.”

I didn’t hesitate. I pried the athame out of Ashley’s grip and sliced through her shirt and her bra. She whimpered as I lifted the cloth to avoid cutting the skin below and more blood ran from her mouth. Ashley’s entire chest was red and swollen and I felt tears running down my face. I jumped out of the way as Foster pushed in beside me. I put my hand on her cheek. “It’s okay, we’re here. It’s okay.” I felt a horrible guilt twist in my gut for lying to her like that.

Foster placed his left hand just below Ashley’s right breast. Her body trembled as he made contact with the wounds and her flesh gave much further than it should have, her ribs not supporting the pressure. Foster’s right hand went over her heart and I’ll never forget the set of his face and the steel in his voice when he said,
“Socius Magnus Sanation!”

The room went completely white and silent but for the high pitched whine of a massive flash of power. I was still blind when Ashley’s screams tore at my eardrums. Foster’s incantation started pulling her body back together, and she felt it. All of it. When I regained some of my vision I could see the veins in Foster’s face pumping visibly beneath his skin. He shook with the power he was channeling into Ashley.