WE RAN THROUGH the underground parking lot and out into the bright sunshine. I blinked, my eyes watering as they adjusted, and for a minute, I thought maybe I was seeing things. Because really, how could I be seeing what I was seeing? They were all supposed to be dead.
Then again, I’d been wrong before.
Five black skinned ogres ranged in front of us. Five of the toughest, meanest, most bloodthirsty of all the ogre tribes blocked our path. The tribes of black skinned ogres were bar none the worst to deal with. Moody, angry, and prone to violence. Kinda sounded like me, actually.
“Shit,” I muttered.
The biggest of the ogres, who stood easily nine feet tall and three feet across the shoulders, stepped forward. “You’re in our territory. Trespassers are killed on sight.”
“Fuck off, your territory is south. Portland,” I snapped, wishing I’d left Ito’s lame ass behind, he was going to slow us down. I had him tucked under one arm, like an oversized football. Not exactly agile for maneuvering.
He pointed to his chest. “Pic is my name. Our tribe has held the Seattle area for three hundred years. We do not associate with the southern ogres.”
“What, are they the white trash cousins everyone is embarrassed to see show up for Thanksgiving dinner?” I grinned, unable to help myself.
His lips twitched, and for a second, I thought I might have won him over. “They are weak, cowardly, and stupid.”
“Can’t disagree with that. I’ve killed my fair share of them,” I said. Anything to get us out of here in one piece.
With his free hand, he swept out a broadsword easily four-feet long, but the real feature was the split in the blade. As if two swords had been welded at the hilt and part way up the blade was then allowed to spread north and south. The other four ogres nodded in agreement. I noted there was no foul language flowing from him. Maybe that meant he was more civilized? Somehow I doubted my theory.
“You understand then that they are weak if they are able to be killed by a puny girl like you,” he said.
“Puny girl. That’s a new one,” I said, and normally I’d tell him to take his puny sword and shove it up his asshole, but I was trying to play nice. Kinda.
“Well, we’re leaving, so no offense, but I didn’t know it was your territory.”
He pointed his blade at me, and eight humans in TSA uniforms stepped out from behind us, guns raised, aimed at . . . not the ogres, but me. Seriously? What the fuck was going on? I slowly put Ito down. He was about to be on his own. He groaned but didn’t open his eyes as I lowered him.
Pic smiled. “We learned that a few well-placed humans were integral to survival in this world.”
“No way I can talk you out of this?” I tried one last time. Because I was pretty sure I couldn’t kill them all. And then there were the triplets at home. What if they had some sort of weird ogre sickness? What if we needed blood from one of these douchebags?
“Cactus, you can help out this time, I hope?”
“You got it, puny girl.” The laughter in his voice almost made me smile. Almost.
Pic tipped his head to one side. “You think a plant can help you?”
“A plant that breathes fire,” I said.
Cactus flung his hands and three fireballs shot at the ogres. They fell to the side. I grabbed Cactus around the waist and ran forward. The ogres roared as we ran through their ranks, dodging the reaching hands. The humans opened fire with their stupid guns, and I didn’t bother to zigzag. With this much supernatural vibration throwing things off, we should be okay, or so I thought until a bullet slammed into my left shoulder, spinning us around completely.
I stumbled, got my feet under me and kept running. “Cover us, Cactus!”
He flung a hand back and threw several fireballs at random.
“How did you manage to piss off so many people in such a short time?” Nigel asked as he ran at my side, keeping up with ease.
“Talent,” I breathed back. We slid to a stop at as we reached a main road. I didn’t even know which one. I just raised my hand and flagged a cab down. My luck turned, and a cab pulled over in seconds. I pushed Cactus in and Nigel leapt in next.
“Kerry Park,” I said as I slammed the door. “And hurry.”
The cabbie grinned at me and I groaned. “Seriously?” What the hell kind of karma was happening with me lately?
“I’m hurrying, don’t worry,” Ivan said. How was it that he managed to be our cabbie twice in a row? Was he stalking us? Somehow I didn’t think so. I ducked my head down and tried to keep a low profile as the cab zipped in and out of traffic. I had no doubt the ogres would pursue us. I just didn’t know how exactly that was going to happen if they would be on foot or have some sort of vehicles of their own. I was betting on foot. Maybe hoping was a better word.
A thought hit me. I tapped on the glass. “Wolf, any local supe knowledge in that brain of yours?”
Ivan glanced back at me once and then his eyes were back on the road. “Depends. What are we talking?”
“Ogres. Black skinned, one of them goes by Pic.”
Ivan cringed. Wonderful—when a werewolf cringed, things were going down the poop chute faster than a greasy burger.
I tapped the glass again. “Spill.”
“Avoid him from now on out if you can. He’s not altogether there. Thinks himself a king, and has even pulled in some humans as slaves last I heard.” He glanced in the mirror again. “By the look on your face, your first introduction to him didn’t go well, did it?”
“Fuck no,” I muttered. “That’s the understatement of the day.”
Of course, I would end up dealing with an ogre with an egomaniac problem. “I got firsthand contact with that shit. How big is the tribe he runs?”
Ivan took a hard right, barely slowing the cab. “Bigger than most. Close to thirty was what I heard through the grapevine.”
I leaned back in my seat, my heart racing for a different reason now. Eve was in Kerry Park all on her own. “And their home base?”
Not Kerry Park, not Kerry Park. The mantra rolled through my mind as I begged whatever gods would listen to my pleas.
Ivan glanced in the rearview mirror. “You’re headed there.”
Of course, we were. Fucking hell, this day was going to push me to my limits.
I reached over and put a hand on Cactus’s arm. My hand throbbed where the burn was, but it was healing, slower than the break in my arm for sure. “When we get there, we’re going to run for Eve. Understand? Full speed.”
Cactus nodded, but his face was pale. I slapped him with my less burned hand, just hard enough to put some color in his cheeks. “Snap out of it. You’ve got a fucking flesh wound, you aren’t missing a limb or bleeding out you fucking pansy ass.”
He didn’t get angry which surprised me. “It’s not the wound, Rylee. It’s what’s in my head.” He tapped a hand through his wild red hair. “I’m trying to fight it, but it’s getting harder, like a voice I can’t deny. Sometimes it sounds like me, other times I know it’s not, but the line between them is blurring.”
I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him close enough that I could have kissed him if I’d been inclined, which I most certainly was not. This was not the time for mental breakdowns.
“I don’t care what is going on in your head. Get your shit together. Eve is out there. She is our way out of this mess, not to mention a part of my family. We are going to move our asses. We are going to get to her and the three of us are getting the fuck out of this city. Got it?”
He nodded, his whole body stiff. “Yeah, I got it. Thanks for the pep talk.”
Fucking passive aggressive shit. I hated it on anyone. But there was no more time for slapping the sense into him.
Ivan pulled the cab over. “Here we are. Good luck.”
I noticed that Nigel said nothing until we were out of the cab. “Now that was a mutt.”
“Cactus, time to go,” I said.
He nodded and we took off into the park. Nigel stuck close, but for the most part kept his mouth shut. Maybe he could help me yet, answer the questions I would never have the chance to ask Ito. One could hope.
We raced through the manicured park, disturbing more than one young couple walking hand in hand, and one pair that were more than hand in hand. Nigel ducked in and bit the guy on his bare ass in mid thrust. Even I had to laugh as the guy screeched and completely lost his rhythm. Maybe Nigel fit in better than I thought. It was the sort of stunt Alex would have pulled in mid battle.
Cactus straightened as we ran, as though he gained strength from where we were. Which could have been possible. He was an elemental after all. I didn’t know all their secrets, though it looked like I was going to need to.
Running side by side, we were well matched in speed, though I knew I could take it up a notch. I couldn’t leave him behind and that was all that held me back; whatever thing Lark had asked him to do was important too. Leaving him behind wasn’t an option.
Around us, the trees shivered and flashes of color caught my eyes here and there. But it was the smells and the sounds that made me doubt if we were going to make it in time.
The sound of multiple hearts beating as they ran to either side of us, the scent of blood and steel, of adrenaline and lust; all of it was a heady mix for the vampire in me. Ogres were if nothing else consistent. They loved only two things in the world.
Fucking and fighting. And not always one without the other.
A guttural roar exploded from the right of us. Cactus flicked his fingers and the trees bent and swept toward the ogre before he had time to launch himself at us.
“Good move,” I said.
He grunted, and kept an eye on his side of the trees. I recognized where we were and knew we were close to where we’d left Eve, close enough she would hear me if I called out. “Eve, incoming! Fly!”
She screeched in response and the sound of wings lit the air up. I gritted my teeth as we burst through the last bit of trees. Eve was in the middle of the small clearing, ogres on all sides of her. Shit toast, this was going downhill faster than I’d thought possible.
Pic was not there, but he didn’t need to be for us to be in shit neck deep. There were enough ogres to take us out three times over without breaking a sweat. I didn’t slow my feet for a single stride. “Eve, go!”
She leapt into the air, the ogres cried out as they launched toward her. This was going to be close. I wasn’t getting a second chance at this. Time to push the limits of my abilities and see what I could really do. Until now, there’d been no need. I could pretend I was still normal, still more human than not. Faris and Doran had done pretty amazing things with their vampire strength and abilities. So surely I could too. Hell, I knew I could. I held my arm out to Nigel and he leapt up without me having to say a word.
Cactus, on the other hand, was a bit thicker. I grabbed him and swung him around so he was on my back, riding piggyback style. “Rylee, you can’t—”
“Watch me.” I put all my energy into the run, almost flying us across the clearing. The sound of weapons being drawn, bows being pulled taut, the curses rising in the air as they missed us. At the last second, I leapt up, pushing off as hard as I could and Eve swooped down. There was a moment where I thought maybe I’d miscalculated and we’d fall into the tribe of ogres as thick as one of the bramble patches we’d passed. But Eve was there, and she caught us at the height of my jump. Her talons wrapped around us, pinning the three of us against one another.
Shrieking she swept us over the tree tops. She swept in a circle once so we were looking down on the group of ogres staring up at us. She dropped a rather large shit as we passed over them. I saw it hit, a splatter that was not going to endear them to us in any way, shape, or form. The ogres cried out and Eve laughed. “That’ll teach them to mess with us. Eat my shit, losers!”
Nigel laughed. “I like her.”
Cactus waved a hand in front of his face. “What the hell? Did you save that up for the last month?”
I held my breath, not needing to add Harpy shit to the things I’d smelled up close and personal as a vampire with super sensitive receptors. I let a full minute pass before I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Eve, go north, we’ll find a spot, stop, and regroup.”
“You got it,” she called back.
Nigel squirmed in my arms. “You can put me down wherever.”
“No, I think not,” I said. “Why was Ito taking you to the Pit?”
Nigel rolled his eyes. “Because I’m a familiar. The queen suddenly got it in her head she needed a new familiar so she sent that idiot Ito after me. I’m famous, you know. Even legendary when it comes to familiars. There’s only one close to me in age and she has a habit of her charges dying.”
I frowned at him, thinking I knew who he meant. But I wasn’t going to tell him I knew Peta. “Keep talking.”
He sighed. “I don’t know much more than that. Ito is one of her regular thieves, as you saw, kind of an ass. He is always out on a job and happened to stumble on me when I was asleep.”
That caught my attention. “Explain that last bit. About him being a regular thief.”
Nigel grunted. “It won’t do you any good. As soon as some strong elemental gets a hold of you and realizes you know too much they’ll wipe your memory. It’s how they do things.”
My turn to grunt. “Where have you been the last six months? Hiding under a rock? Elementals are no longer the myth they once were.”
He bared his teeth at me. “And if I was under a rock?”
“You missed out on a hell of a lot of shit that went down.” I filled him in on Orion, the demons, and the major battle that had been rather close to ending the world as we knew it. The Elementals and how they’d helped out at the last battle, and most importantly, Lark and her role in everything.
His eyes never twitched, he never gasped. At the end, he nodded. “Not surprised. That was coming for a good long time. So Elementals have been outed then? Supernaturals know all about them?”
“I suppose the supernaturals who are left know about them. At least they suspect.” I realized then there was no real reason for anyone to think the Elementals were anything but amazingly powerful witches. Except for those in my closest circle who knew Lark and what she was, no one else had a clue as to what actually went down. It must have shown on my face because Nigel laughed.
“See, even now you realize they hid from the rest. So maybe you know, and can even claim them as friends, but they’re good at keeping a low profile. They don’t want you to know about them and that isn’t going to change. It’s programmed into them to stay out of sight and under the radar.”
I tightened my hold on him. “None of that matters right now. Explain to me about these thieves and how they operate.”
Nigel rolled his eyes and his big, cupped ears twitched back and forth a few times. “Every elemental family has at least two thieves. Usually they have some other job so they look normal, or they’ve been ‘banished’ so they aren’t expected to survive like Ito. Consider them the undercover cops of the Elemental world. Except they aren’t the good guys. They do the dirty work no one likes to think about. And they are rewarded for it.”
He paused and seemed to be gathering his thoughts. “They search out whatever it is their king or queen wants.”
“I thought that’s what the Enders did,” I said and from behind me, I felt Cactus nod.
Nigel sighed. “Yes, the Enders hunt down criminals, that’s true. But the thieves are hunting other things. Things that the average Elemental knows nothing about. The majority of their work circles around bringing in partlings.”
That was a new one on me.
“What the hell are partlings?” I looked over my shoulder at Cactus who shook his head, a frown creasing his face.
“Don’t look at me, I have no idea what he’s talking about.” He grunted.
Nigel barked. “Of course, you don’t. No one does. I do only because I’ve been around as long as I have. Partlings are children of children of children of elementals. Someone with a miniscule amount of elemental blood coursing through them. Not enough to manifest into something supernatural as you’d get with a breeding closer to the root of things.”
I frowned, as I ran his explanation through my head. “I’m not sure I’m following.”
Again he sighed and pointed a paw at Cactus. “Like if Cactus, here, knocked up a human girl, they’d probably give birth to a witch. Someone with extra power in the area of fire and earth. As an example. But,” he paused, “if that girl had a baby with a human, and that child then had a child with a human, the elemental blood is diluted. To the point where there is nothing but a whisper of elemental in them. Those are partlings. The blood is there, but faintly to the point that without any training, it may never show up.”
His words made sense, and yet, they still buzzed in my ears. I thought about the burns in Belinda’s bed and the matching burn on her father’s face. Could she be one of these partlings, with a connection to fire as her element?
“Okay, so partlings. Almost human, fraction of elemental blood in them, got it. Why would these thieves go after them?” I asked.
Nigel locked eyes with me. “Slaves. They can withstand whatever element their home is with some training. They are hardier than humans, and by the way, the rules don’t say much against taking them, because technically, they are still more human than Elemental. The rulers say it’s so they can train them to use their powers. It’s a loophole essentially.”
“When in reality they are nothing more than chattel,” Cactus said and then he slowly whistled. “Holy shit.”
Nigel nodded. “Right. Long-lived, hardy slaves that don’t actually exist as far as the rest of the Elemental world is concerned. If they don’t exist, then nothing wrong is being done. Right?”
I mulled over Nigel’s words, comparing them to what I’d learned from Camos at the flower shop. “Do these partlings have some sort of tramp stamp? Like a birthmark?”
Nigel blinked up at me. “Shit, you already knew about them? You trying to trip me up and make me lie so you can kill me?” He squirmed his sharp nails digging into me, drawing blood.
“Fucking well, stop it!” I grabbed his front legs. “I didn’t know for sure. But I’ve been learning things, you spaz.” Nigel relaxed and I let him go. To be fair we were still squashed together by Eve’s talons, but I didn’t clutch his legs in my hands.
“You can’t blame me for being leery. Elementals are douchebags. Constantly trying to make you prove yourself to them, always trying to make you look like a liar,” he grumped.
No more words were exchanged as we flew. Cactus tried, but I ignored him. My thoughts rolled over and over. Trafficking elemental partlings, putting them into slavery. Putting familiars into slavery. It fit with what I’d found out so far, but that didn’t make me feel any better about getting Belinda home safely.
“Rylee,” Eve said, “I see a spot on a beach where we could land.”
“Do it.”
She swept downward and my legs whipped out behind me like I was in some sort of crazy carnival ride. Nigel yipped several times, high-pitched and excited. His tongue flopped out one side of his mouth and again I was reminded of Alex. I didn’t want to be reminded of my friend. Certainly not by the black-backed jackal who was obviously out for himself and nobody else. I didn’t need that in my life.
Eve paused in the air, ten or twelve feet up and let the three of us go. We tumbled out of her claws. I landed in a crouch, Nigel landed on his feet and Cactus landed sprawled to one side. He lay there long enough that I went over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Cactus.”
“Mother goddess, Rylee. Something is wrong with me.” He rolled onto his back and threw an arm over his eyes.
I crouched beside him. “Listen, if you’re sick I have to leave you behind. If you’re injured I have to leave you behind. I can’t slow down.”
“I’m neither. Something is wrong inside my head. It’s like I can’t control my emotions . . . I’m not myself.” He pulled his arm from his face and the fear in his eyes was visible.
I blew out a slow breath. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing.” He sat up. “I just want you to know. So if I do something stupid. Or dangerous to you or . . . to Lark . . . promise me you won’t let me hurt her.”
I closed my eyes. What the fuck was with all these people in my life who wanted me to off them instead of taking control of themselves on their own? That’s what I wanted to say. But I was learning to hold back. Ha.
“Fuck off, Cactus. Hold your shit together so I don’t have to take your head. Got it? Find your puny balls, man up, and do the right thing.” I stood and raised an eyebrow. “Got it?”
His mouth hung open and he slowly nodded. “That was not the pep talk I was expecting.”
“I don’t do pep talks. I do ass kicking.”
Nigel snorted a laugh. “I think I might like you.”
“The feeling is not mutual,” I said, and he laughed.
“Oh, I wouldn’t expect it to be. You know you make me think of a Tracker I knew once. Maybe you’re related? Name was Brin.”
I’d heard the name but I was pretty sure I wasn’t related. “I know of him. Not related.”
“Hmm.” Nigel squinted his eyes at me. “You sure? I think you have his nose.”
I rolled my eyes and walked past him to where Eve stood, her feet half buried in the wet sand. “How are you? Is your wing okay? Do you need to rest?” Good grief, I sounded like a mom.
“Rylee, I’m fine. Stop fussing over me.” She shook her head side to side, sending her feathers into a spray. “I assume you have an idea of where we are going?”
“Nigel,” I called over my shoulder. “If the girl was picked up by a Salamander, we can assume he took her to the Pit?” The Pit being the home of the fire Elementals, aka Salamanders. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was. I’d never been there. But Lark had talked about it, and I suspected it wasn’t going to be a two-hour flight.
“Good assumption.” He stretched his front legs out in the sand as if doing a yoga pose, a perfect downward dog. “Not that you’d be able to get her out. The slaves are always kept well away from the rest of the population and only in service once they are fully trained to keep their mouths shut. Sometimes takes years before they are allowed out of the training rooms. Assuming they survive the training that is.”
“And how do you know all this?” Cactus asked. Good question, one I was curious about myself.
Nigel grinned at him, a strange pulling back of his lips that made me think he was a bit bonkers. “I told you, I’ve been around a long, long time. You don’t live as long as me without learning a few things you aren’t supposed to.”
So we needed to get to the Pit, find a way into the slave quarters, grab Belinda and get the hell out without any of the fire elementals noticing. Because if Ito was any indication, things would get ugly as soon as anyone realized what I was up to.
“Cactus, you’re going to the Pit, right?”
“Yeah. Mother goddess,” he muttered, “I know where this is going. Rylee, I don’t think Lark would want me to help you.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped. “And you know it.”
He shook his head, then slowly nodded. “You’re right. See, this is what I’m talking about.” He tapped his skull. “Something is manipulating me. I’ve not been myself since we left Tian Shan.”
Damn, he was right. He wasn’t the man I’d known while I’d been in hiding. Not at all. Like someone else had taken up residence in his head. “Okay. I’m going to keep you on track. At least until we get the kid out of the Pit.”
Nigel snorted. “You aren’t really going to the Pit. Are you? Tell me you aren’t that stupid.”
Eve stomped a clawed foot at him and he yelped and jumped away. “Don’t you talk about her like that or I’ll eat you for breakfast, you mangy mutt. She isn’t stupid. She saved the world while you hid under your rock.”
He bared his teeth at her. “Try that again, you oversized chicken, and I’ll tear you a new asshole.”
This was getting out of hand. I stepped between them. “Stop it. Both of you. Eve. We are going to take Cactus with us, and he’s going to help us get into the Pit and find Belinda. Nigel here is going his own way.”
“What? Why?” he barked.
“Seriously?” I stared at him, and slowly shook my head. “You don’t like us, we don’t like you. I think that’s enough of a reason to part ways.”
He shrugged his thin shoulders. “Yeah, but you might need me. And I could help.”
“I doubt that.”
His eyes grew serious. “Do you know that a familiar of an elemental is rarely heard by anyone who is not an elemental?”
“Yup.” I moved to Eve’s side and motioned for her to hold out her wing so I could check it over. I ran my fingers through the tips still there and she winced. “Still tender?”
She nodded. “Getting better.”
Nigel pushed his way between us. “Then did it never occur to you that the reason you can hear me might be because you need my help?” He was at my feet, sitting calmly as if he were a well-behaved dog. I looked down at him. He was anything but a dog, but he was no Alex either.
“I don’t need a familiar,” I said, and even I heard the pain in my voice. Fuck.
“Ah. You lost one?” He nodded. “Then I understand that perhaps better than most. I’ve lost three charges. Each one I cared for nearly a thousand years.”
“Like I said,” I ran my fingers through Eve’s feathers again, “I don’t need a familiar, or a sidekick, or a new dog.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw his large ears perk up. “Was it a canine then? Like me?”
Eve squawked. “Nothing like you. He was loyal and kind, and sweet.” She choked on the words and pin pricks of tears teased at the edges of my eyes.
Nigel said nothing, though there was an understanding in his eyes I didn’t want to see.
Cactus cleared his throat. “If Eve is up to it, we should go. We have to cross the Pacific.”
“Ocean?” she squawked.
Shit. That was a hell of a lot farther than I was thinking. “Like the whole thing?”
“Yes. The Pit is in the ring of fire. The Island of Japan is what the humans call it.”
Fuck it all to hell and back. “Eve, we’ll hopscotch. We can stop in Hawaii and then fly from there. Doable?”
“Yes. I’d go the whole stretch, but not with carrying three of you.”
“Nigel isn’t . . .” I looked up to see him already sitting on Eve’s back. He grinned at me.
“Whether you like it or not, I’m coming with you. I may be an asshole, but I’m good at keeping people alive. For some reason, I think I should keep you alive. Be grateful.”
“I don’t need your help . . . anymore,” I amended.
Cactus put a hand on my shoulder. “I hate to say it, but he’s probably right. He might be good to bring along. A familiar is trained, wired even, to keep people alive. We’re walking into a place that is designed to fry you to a cinder. Even if you weren’t a daywalking vampire.”
Damn it. I didn’t want someone trying to take Alex’s place. But I wasn’t so fucking foolish to think I couldn’t use help. I’d learned that the hard way. There were times I couldn’t do it all on my own, and trying only got people I loved hurt.
I swung up onto Eve’s back and Nigel crouched in front of me. I tapped him on the head. “One wrong move and you’re going overboard in the middle of the ocean.”
He grinned up at me. “By the end of this, you won’t want me to leave.”
I snorted. “I doubt that, mutt.”
