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MY FORMER COLLEAGUES returned an hour later. They were wearing their usual work clothes and carried a variety of weapons. I’d spent my time pacing and sipping from a glass of whiskey that Drake had poured for me, willing my hands not to shake. Ruen hadn’t moved from his seat. He’d gone into some kind of vampire trance again.
A fairy emerged from the elevator next. She was small, dainty and wore a thick black winter coat over black trousers and a blue silk shirt. Her blonde hair was piled high on her head. Her eyes were razor sharp as they swept around the room. “Lord Gilden,” she said in greeting in a musical voice.
“Gracelyn,” he replied with a nod of respect. “Thank you for coming at such a late hour.”
“I’m sure it will be worth it,” she said, while studying me intently. “You must be Saige Sterling,” she said.
“Hi,” I said lamely. “It’s nice to meet you.” I’d debated about calling in the favor Ungul owed me, but my gut told me to hold it in reserve.
“Your aura says otherwise,” she said with a tiny smile. “You’re anxious, frightened and terribly, terribly angry.”
That about summed up my emotions and I shrugged. “I’m a complicated woman.”
She gave a tinkling laugh, then turned to the weredragon again. “As we discussed on the phone, I will teleport your team to and from a location near Valac’s castle in Germany. In return, you will owe me a large favor.”
“Agreed,” he replied with a curt nod and I winced. Dragons dealt in favors frequently, but they were usually on the receiving end of them. This time, he was going to owe someone else, but I was ultimately going to pay the price. He flicked a look at me and I grimaced in understanding and acknowledgement. “Keep the lesser demons busy and let Ms. Sterling deal with Valac,” he instructed his team. “She’ll be able to resist his demonic spells.”
“What type of demon is he?” I asked.
“He’s a hatred demon,” he replied. “He’s able to turn people against each other, even couples who are deeply in love.”
All three couples on our team exchanged disturbed looks at that news.
“We’ll keep our distance from him, my lord,” Zahir said.
There was no question that Valac had to die. He’d taken someone precious from me and had probably been torturing her for the past few hours. Ruen was almost quivering with the need to kill. He’d come out of his trance when the others had arrived and was now on his feet.
“Do we need to do anything?” Theo asked the fairy nervously. None of us had ever been teleported before, so this was new to us all.
“Gather into a tight group,” Gracelyn requested. We shuffled together until we were touching the person next to us. I glanced over my shoulder at Drake to see he was watching me intently again. Smoke drifted from his nostrils, which meant he was close to the edge. To the edge of what, I didn’t know.
Gracelyn began to chant in a foreign language that was probably fae. The room seemed to spin around me and I lost my balance. We all grabbed for each other, then the floor dropped away. A second later, we landed on solid ground. I’d closed my eyes to lessen the dizziness. They snapped open again to see we were in the woods.
Felicity staggered away and barfed into a shrub. Otis didn’t look much better off. His face was green as he rubbed his partner’s back. Everyone looked shaken by being teleported. Ruen and I hadn’t been as affected as the others. I figured we’d been through the portals so often that being teleported was a breeze in comparison.
The moon was only half full, but it shed enough light for me to see an ancient castle looming in the distance. I could sense weak demons on patrol and reached for my mini crossbow.
“I hope we don’t have to do that again anytime soon,” Hugh said in a raspy voice, shuddering in reaction.
“The fairy will need to teleport us back to Nexus,” Ruen reminded him. “I’m to call Lord Gilden after we’ve rescued Aurora and we’ve returned to this location.”
“Great,” the werelion muttered sourly. “I’m sure the return trip will be just as much fun.”
“I can sense a few guards ahead,” I told the team to get them to focus. “I’m going to take them out.”
“We’ll do it,” Zahir offered, gesturing at himself and his partner. “We can move a lot faster and quieter than you can.”
I nodded in agreement, glancing at Ruen in surprise when he didn’t zoom after them. He’d been given leave to use his beloved knives, but he was making no move to utilize them. “I was ordered to keep you safe,” he said unhappily. Drake must really want his payment from me to force us to work closely together again.
“Let’s move,” I said to the team when I sensed the demons’ lives being snuffed out.
The werelions took the lead, with Otis and Felicity going next. Ruen and I brought up the rear as we forged our way through the trees. Zahir and Yareli cleared the way, killing most of the demons who’d been keeping watch outside. We neared the wall of the castle without mishap. Some of my tension eased that we hadn’t roused everyone in the building.
“I can sense Aurora down there,” I whispered, pointing in the direction of what had to be a cellar beneath the castle. The structure was made out of dark gray stone. It had looked cold and unwelcoming from a distance, with tall walls, narrow slits for windows and four turrets. Up close, it was even more imposing.
“I’ll search for an entrance,” Ruen murmured, then scurried away. He didn’t drop down to all fours and go into cockroach mode this time. I was surrounded by six deadly bounty hunters. He trusted them to keep me alive while he was gone, not that I needed them to.
Zahir and Yareli had taken down a dozen pimples so far. Dozens more were inside the castle. We’d be overwhelmed quickly if they became aware of us. We needed to get in, find Aurora and kill Valac before he sent his minions after us.
Speaking of Valac, I could sense him close to my bestie. He was a carbuncle, which meant he wasn’t going to be easy to defeat. His spell would turn my companions against each other long before they could help me free Aurora. I couldn’t let any of them get close to our foe, or they might not make it out of the castle alive.
Ruen appeared like a black clad specter, making me start. I realized I could sense him now that his restrictions had been partially lifted. “I found a door that I think leads down to the cellar,” he whispered. “It’s locked with magic.”
“Show me,” I requested.
We trooped after him, staying close to the wall so we wouldn’t be spotted from above. Ruen led us around the corner to the back of the castle. Two bodies lay in the shrubs nearby. I’d felt their lives being snuffed out and figured he’d been responsible for it. Their throats had been slit from ear to ear from his savage attack. He hadn’t fed on either of them, which was a surprise. Rescuing Aurora took precedence over satisfying his addiction to blood.
I tried the handle of the thick wooden door and it didn’t budge. Bearing down with all of my weight did nothing. I rammed my shoulder into it in frustration. Ruen scowled at me for making too much noise.
“Let me try,” Felicity whispered, pushing me aside.
I opened my mouth to make a derogatory remark, but she pulled a charm out of her pocket. She brushed it against the door handle and the lock clicked. “That did the trick,” she said smugly and pushed the door open to reveal a staircase leading down. It was lit with electric lights, so I wouldn’t need a flashlight.
“Felicity and I buy a variety of spells from a witch, including ones that break through locking enchantments,” Otis said with a grin. “We might not be as strong and fast as the rest of you, but we have our uses.”
I gave the pair a grateful smile, then Ruen pushed past me to enter first. His knives were back in his hands again. He must have cleaned them on the corpses before sheathing them when he’d come to retrieve us.
Zahir and Yareli ghosted into sight and we all followed Ruen down the stairs and into the cellar. The vamps had eradicated all of the demons in the woods, leaving none of them alive. Theo pushed the door shut, but didn’t close it all the way, just in case we needed to make a hasty retreat.
