Everything was too quiet, even in an old neighborhood at ten in the evening. Even the balmy breeze of earlier had settled.
Where was that witch doctor?
Evalle searched the night for movement from where she and Adrianna hunched down in a dark shadow created by a deteriorating, single-story ranch-style house forty years old. A modest home on what was still a nice corner in the town proper of Stone Mountain, Georgia. This house was newer than many in the area like the residence across the street she’d like to own. She loved how someone had glassed in the porch on one side. That two-story brick-and-stone structure had to be at least seventy years old, and came with a nicely trimmed yard.
As opposed to the weeds surrounding the house she hid beside. A fallen For Sale sign in this yard told of the tough housing market, and two broken windows pointed at a bad influence infiltrating the neighborhood.
The human scum that local police handled.
But dealing with demons and witch doctors like Nadina fell under Evalle’s job description.
She studied a two-story, saltbox-style colonial house also across the street and next door to the brick home with the glass porch. The unadorned wooden structure leaned to one side. Understandable for a house built before the Civil War and still settling into the Georgia clay. A security lamp on a pole just past that house shed the only light in this area.
Evalle reached for her spelled dagger and came up empty. She’d left it hidden in Storm’s Land Rover. Adrianna had warned her that the spell on the dagger could possibly alert Hanhau to Evalle’s presence, assuming they found a way for her to sneak into Mitnal.
Thinking out loud, Evalle whispered, “We might be staking out the wrong house.”
Adrianna hadn’t moved a muscle since crouching next to her when they arrived forty minutes ago. “Kai said Nadina had taken possession of a former Civil War infirmary near a bald mountain. We’re within sight of Stone Mountain, the only bald-looking mountain I know of in this area, so the question is whether your friend’s intel on this specific house is good.”
True. Stone Mountain was a gigantic granite belch, one big smooth chunk of rock rising over sixteen hundred feet.
“I’m not questioning Isak’s intel. If I pressed him, he’d tell me the dates this place was active and how many soldiers were treated here right down to their names and injuries. His information is solid. I’m just wondering why we haven’t seen a sign of Nadina.”
“She probably knows something or someone is hunting her. I would.”
Evalle swept a look at Adrianna, who had said that in all seriousness. “Can she find us first?”
“I honestly don’t know what she can do, but I wouldn’t underestimate her.”
As if I have to be told that after Nadina tricked Storm, who knew the witch doctor better than anyone? “What do you think Kai meant by Nadina taking possession of this house? Does she mean literally?”
“To some degree, yes. If this house was a former hospital, then it will be full of spirits. Nadina would use her majik to overpower what is generated by the spirits still present in the building.” Adrianna gave a soft sigh, the only sign of any weariness. “Where’s your artillery division?”
“Isak said he’d be here by ten.” Evalle lifted her watch. “He’s got forty-five seconds.” She looked up, took in the immediate area, then gazed over her shoulder, searching every shadow down the street behind her that crossed at this intersection.
A shape emerged from a black pocket of nothing off to her right three houses away. She whispered, “Here he comes.”
Adrianna stretched to look past her. “Where?”
“Give it a minute.”
Isak covered sixty feet of distance without ever coming fully into focus while doing so. Adrianna didn’t have Evalle’s natural night vision, but even so if Evalle hadn’t been familiar with the way Isak and his men operated, she wouldn’t have known what to watch for.
“Oh,” Adrianna murmured with a hint of feminine admiration when Isak crossed the last thirty feet to reach them. He wore a monocular that allowed him to see everything Evalle could.
Describing Isak as attractive was too limiting.
Blue eyes full of sharp intelligence, a body built for bulldozing over the first line of any defense and a sexy grin capable of leaving panties strewn in his wake.
Big, bad and black right now from head to toe, even black smudges on his face to camo his lightly tanned skin.
Judging by the usual amount of weapons both visible and assumed hidden in that vest among other places, he was armed to take down a city by himself. The rifle-like weapon he held at ready was similar to the one he’d loaned Evalle to kill Svart Trolls, a mercenary bunch of black ops nonhumans who’d invaded Atlanta earlier this month. But this new mega weapon painted in matte black appeared to be outfitted with a few extra tricks if those three switches meant anything.
He took one look at Adrianna and she moved aside, making room for him to drop down beside Evalle, which should have lowered his intimidation factor a full notch, but no. Not when a man had shoulders as wide as a refrigerator and sharp eyes loaded with threat for any danger.
Still, she’d put Storm up against him any day when it came to a badass throwdown. Like facing an entire underworld of demons.
But thinking about that would not help right now.
Evalle said, “Thanks for coming down here, Isak. You want to show me how that works?”
“Not necessary. I’m staying until I know you’re clear.”
Yeah, she was afraid of that.
Adrianna turned on the sex kitten voice. “So you’re Isak?”
He finally swung his attention to address the Sterling witch, but his entire focus had been on Evalle first.
Sure, it was tacky on her part, but Evalle enjoyed a smug moment. Isak hadn’t stumbled over his tongue the minute he got a load of Adrianna in her undercover getup–a tight, black cat suit designed for maximum cleavage display ala classic James Bond flick.
But, Evalle had once again committed a social faux pas by not introducing them. Hostess skills were not her strength. She said, “Isak, this is Adrianna Lafontaine, and Adrianna, this is Isak Nyght.”
Adrianna pulled out a smile that could light up the entire block. “Nice to meet you.”
What was with the Sterling witch? She flirted without effort around the men on the team, but Evalle had never noticed Adrianna showing a sincere interest like this. Her smiles and attention to the guys had always been more along the lines of dressing up a display case that sat behind an invisible do-not-touch barrier.
Isak didn’t rush to answer Adrianna, taking a long visual sweep of her before he asked, “What are you?”
Way to kill the sex-kitten routine.
Adrianna’s entire demeanor shifted subtly, but enough that Evalle felt the need to warn Isak. “Adrianna is a witch. A powerful one you don’t want to piss off.”
“Witch, huh? Does that make you human or nonhuman?”
Adrianna’s frosty personality re-emerged. “That makes me not the least bit interested in your opinion.”
Evalle had kept an eye on the frame house and caught a shadow pass by a window. “Hey, you two, I see activity.”
Isak’s attention zeroed in immediately. “What are we after?”
Oh, boy. This is what Evalle had avoided discussing over the phone with him. “A female witch doctor.” She eyed his mega weapon again. “That’s not the same blaster you brought me last time, is it?”
“No. You said you needed to contain something, but not kill it. This is a new model that has three levels of stun.”
Adrianna’s eyes had narrowed more when he used the word “it” to designate what they were hunting. As an Alterant, Evalle had suffered being called an “it” more times than she wanted to count.
And now she was a gryphon, but she hadn’t shared that information with Adrianna or Isak.
“There’s definitely someone in there,” Adrianna confirmed. “I just saw a movement on the second floor, too. It’s as if she’s walking around from window to window, watching the area surrounding the house.”
Isak asked, “Why do we have to leave her alive?”
Adrianna kept her voice down but snapped, “You don’t even know what she’s done. How can you assume killing her is the right choice?”
Evalle cringed at the censure in Adrianna’s voice even though the witch was correct, but saying so right now might change Isak’s mind about loaning that weapon.
“She’s a nonhuman,” Isak replied, voice hard. “And a threat of some kind to Evalle. That’s reason enough.”
Any other time, Evalle might gloat over Isak’s concern, but that had been before she realized Storm was the only man she would tolerate sounding possessive around her. Isak knew that, but chose to ignore it.
Adrianna leaned in, shoving all that cleavage forward so Isak had a front row view, which he didn’t miss. She asked Evalle, “Does he know why we’re doing this?”
“No, I don’t,” Isak replied, turning to Evalle. “Not that it matters if this woman is a problem for you, but why are we here?”
Remind me again why I asked these two to help me?
Because Adrianna had the witch juice and Isak had the firepower.
Got it.
Evalle cleared her throat, stalling, then finally explained to Isak, “That witch doctor tricked Storm into following her to the underworld, another realm. I need her to get Storm out of there, but I can’t do it without Adrianna casting a spell over her to force Nadina to do what I say. That’s why I need you to stun her.”
When Isak didn’t reply, Evalle’s shoulders fell. She hadn’t lied to him, but neither had she told him everything on the phone.
“Nadina is the witch doctor?”
She had a burst of hope return at hearing Isak ask about Nadina. “Yes.” Evalle risked a glance at him.
Isak’s jaw could be carved from rock. He stared at the house, assessing something, then he slanted his gaze at her. “Guess I have to help you.”
She liked the sound of that except for one part. “What do you mean by ‘have to help me’?”
“If I don’t, you won’t come to dinner. If I do, you owe me dinner on my terms.”
Adrianna was enjoying this way too much. Her eyes literally twinkled, the witch. It wasn’t as though Evalle could refuse Isak since there was a standing dinner appointment that she’d agreed to, but that had included Kit, Isak’s mother who’d issued the invitation.
Dinner on his terms wasn’t hard to figure out.
Isak wanted Evalle alone for one evening.
He wasn’t going to help her unless she followed through on her commitment, which she had to do anyhow since she owed Isak’s mother for several favors.
Why did it feel like she’d be betraying Storm to go with Isak?
How was she going to save Storm without him?
“Fine,” Evalle agreed. “But I choose the date.”
“Not a problem as long as it’s within a week from today.”
Maybe Nadina would smoke Evalle and this would all be moot. “Okay, done.”
Isak grinned. “Let’s go bag a witch doctor.” He flipped a lever on his weapon.
Adrianna asked, “What did you just set for power?”
“Level One. It’ll take down a demon.”
Evalle considered the Svart Troll she’d zapped in a recent battle. The troll had been out for ten minutes. “Is the power similar to the stun setting on the weapon you loaned me for trolls?”
“No. The first level on this has twice the takedown ability.”
Would that blow up a witch doctor with Nadina’s powers?