Black hat 8 gray seas, p.2
Black Hat 8 - Gray Seas, page 2
“Derry is a loser.” She rocked her chair onto its back legs. “And he can suck it.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Clay announced to the table. “The famed warg mate bond in action.”
“All’s fair in love and riding sea monsters.” Her smile was all teeth. “That’s how we keep it spicy.”
Before I heard a detailed accounting of the aforementioned spice, I plunged back into my briefing.
“There’s been no word from Aedan or movement from Calixta.” I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. “We don’t know where they’re holed up, with whom, or when they plan to strike. Meanwhile, as of this morning, Stavros is alive and well in Hael.” I sprouted claws from my fingertips, pricking neat holes in my slacks. “That means Asa remains a prime target.”
A heavy silence blanketed the table, and Clay honed his gaze on me.
There was a very good reason Asa hadn’t come to work with me as the other half of my security detail.
Blay was MIA, and he had been since Asa wrested control to allow the farm’s doctor to save their lives.
There was lingering tenderness in his gut that worried me too, and exhaustion dogged his footsteps.
Days ago, I reminded myself. He almost died days ago.
Time, and daily healing sessions with Colby, aka Mystical Med Mage, would cure the rest.
Colby, who had absorbed the news of Aedan’s sacrifice the same way she adapted to her new life with me. She ignored everything that came before. Not a healthy coping mechanism by far, but I hoped to get him back before she did any real damage to herself. I didn’t know what else to do. For either of us.
“That’s why Marita is here.” I forced myself to breathe. “I couldn’t think of a fiercer guard for Asa.”
“Aww.” She made a heart with her fingers and pounded it against her chest. “You do love me.”
A flicker of annoyance pinched Clay’s features before he smoothed them, but I could have told him no one would ever take his place in my heart. Could have but didn’t. Because payback ought to be savored.
“Might I ask,” Asa inquired, linking our fingers, “why the centuria wasn’t tapped for this job?”
“You may.” I allowed his touch to ground me. “I want a guard who doesn’t think like a daemon.”
“Isn’t that counterintuitive,” Clay cut in, “when we expect daemon retaliation?”
“Asa can provide Marita with the daemon perspective,” I explained my reasoning. “Based on his suggestions, and her prior experience in this field, she will tailor her precautions to give him the widest coverage possible.”
“That frees Moran up to stay at the farm,” Asa observed, “to watch over Mother and Peleg.”
“Oh, does it?” I pushed my eyebrows up my forehead. “That’s a happy coincidence.”
Asa made a soft noise in the back of his throat that telegraphed his disbelief.
Until Callula recovered enough for portal travel, in another day or two, she was a guest in our infirmary. The hope was, when we returned her to the temple, that Asa’s grandmother might have learned how to sever my link with the Hunk. That had been our bargain, but we had no guarantees of her success.
Peleg, on the other hand, would be on bedrest for a couple of weeks. He was awake and talking, but the Hunk had walloped him good while protecting Colby from his rough handling. He required more time to heal from his injuries before Moran settled him in his own room and read him the Colby riot act.
If I had my way, Callula and Peleg would have Asa for company. I would leave him behind the wards with the entire centuria to guard him. But he nixed that idea. Obviously. Or he wouldn’t be sitting next to me.
The worst part was I couldn’t kick up a fuss since I would pitch a fit if he tried to bubble-wrap me too.
“All right.” He accepted my plan without complaint. “In that case, thank you for your service, Marita.”
“Thank me when it’s over,” she countered, “and you’re not dead.”
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I pretended not to have heard my worst fear blabbed without a filter.
“Protecting Asa is priority one,” I plowed ahead. “Locating and detaining Luca is priority two.”
As the woman responsible for freeing Dad from his cell beneath the mansion, and the pot-stirrer behind the recent black witch rebellion within Black Hat, I had decided to kill two birds with one stone. Gift Luca to the director, and it got her out of our hair. Plus, I hoped it restored me to the director’s good graces.
Easy access would make it much simpler to kidnap him and trade him to Calixta in exchange for Aedan.
“Incoming,” Clay said under his breath then louder, “Thanks for closing the restaurant for us, Krish.”
A quick twist of magic unraveled the spell, and if the smell bothered anyone, no one mentioned it.
“Anything for you, sugar.” A slender man with dark eyes braced a hip against the table. “What’ll it be?”
“Chili pakora and keema samosa to start, with enough garlic onion naan to build a fort, please.”
Studying Clay over his order pad, Krish chewed on the inside of his cheek. “That for you or everyone?”
“Ha.” Marita tapped her menu where it rested on the table. “That’s just for the lightweight.”
While Clay spluttered incoherent noises, she ordered half the appetizers and a wide selection of flatbreads.
If a peckish golem could eat a side of beef in one sitting, a hungry warg could put a dent in the herd.
“The rest of us—” as in Asa and me, “—will have tandoori keema kulcha.”
Now that Asa and I had progressed in our fascination beyond requiring each other’s saliva to make food palatable, I was on a mission to discover Asa’s tastes, which was proving to be a delicious journey.
Once the waiter was out of hearing range, I zeroed in on Clay. “You know each other?”
The restaurant was his suggestion, but he was a fan of Indian food, so I hadn’t given it another thought.
“Krish and I go way back. He’s a good kid. You don’t see many gandaberunda out this way.”
Gandaberunda were two-headed birds of immense power, but they rarely ventured outside of Jaipur.
While being friendly with Clay counted for something, I recast the spell to give us a bubble of privacy.
“How do you intend to lure out Luca?” Asa rolled his thumb over my knuckles. “Use Saint as bait?”
Luca and Dad’s relationship was rocky. Mostly because he shirked her terms to spend time with his dead wife’s vengeful spirit. (Yes, my life is a lot right now.) He had every intention of fulfilling their bargain, by bringing down the director and Black Hat, just not on her timetable.
“Nanette Bakersfield.”
“The technomancer?” Clay rested an elbow on the table, and it tilted toward him. “What about her?”
As a technomancer, Nan cast spells using technology, resulting in her status as an elite hacker.
The Toussaint coven hired her to erase their involvement in stealing corpses from New Orleans morgues to feed a sea monster they planned to sacrifice to grant a young witch the power of resurrection.
Which, yeah, might sound even crazier than the whole vengeful spirit mom thing.
(Did I mention my life is a lot right now?)
“Nan hacked the Kellies to gain access to us, and Colby returned the favor. She’s been tracking Nan since New Orleans. While there’s no guarantee Luca is nearby, their credit card statements indicate they often travel together.” I pitied the fool who underestimated my little moth girl. “So, really, Nan is our target.”
“Find Nan,” Marita hummed with approval, “we find Luca.”
“Coming in hot,” Krish called as he backed through the kitchen door into the dining room.
The poor thing carried three trays balanced up one slender arm and a plate in his opposite hand.
A tug on my magic unraveled the spell, and I pretended not to catch the whiff of rot accompanying it.
As Krish extended a plate toward Clay, a burst of pale light strobed throughout the dining room.
Asa cupped the back of my head, shoving me down, but the earth-shattering boom that shook the floor toppled everyone from their chairs. Food spattered my cheek in a fragrant burst of garlic, a vicious snarl rent the air, and the world went dark and hot and silent.
CHAPTER TWO
A persistent whine in my left ear annoyed me enough I pried my eyes open and found myself staring at a blue sky with fluffy white clouds rather than a drop tile restaurant ceiling. I sucked in air to comment but couldn’t inflate my lungs. Probably the fault of the hulking crimson daemon flattening me into a pancake with Marita spread-eagle across his back like a cherry on a sundae. The metal beam across her shoulders, pinning her in place, didn’t help. Neither did the golem crushing my right arm under his hip, also stuck in the fetal position beneath debris from…an explosion?
“Blay?” I wiggled my hips, but I couldn’t budge. “Marita?” I tugged on my numb arm, hissing. “Clay?”
With Colby tucked in Clay’s soundproof pocket, she wouldn’t hear me if I called out to her.
“I…can’t believe…” the rubble shifted above me as Marita stirred, “…I got blown up…on the first…day.”
“Yeah.” Oxygen whistled through my parted lips. “Sorry about that.”
“Are you…kidding me?” Her laughter was wild and eerie in the silence. “Best first day…ever.”
A low groan vibrated through my bones when Blay roused himself. “Rue?”
“I’m here, big guy.” I stroked his silky hair with my free hand. “Thanks for protecting me.”
Flames engulfed him before he could respond, leaving a battered Asa in his place.
The rubble shifted at his decrease in mass, causing metal to groan before settling again.
“Hey.” I cupped Asa’s dusty cheek. “You two okay?”
“That daemon is a genius.” Marita shimmied up Asa until our eyes met over his head, and she grinned at me. “Shifting into Asa gave me an extra foot of wiggle room.” She squirmed through the gap. “Hold on.”
With space to maneuver, she flipped herself over our heads, landing in a crouch with her back to us.
“Check on Clay first.” I sucked in greedy gulps of oxygen. “Colby’s in his left suit pocket.”
Metal clinked and broken tile crunched under her boots as she dug him out.
“He can’t die, right?” She wiped a hand over her mouth. “His head is dented like a soda can.”
“We can fix that.” I relaxed a fraction. “Any movement?”
“None.” She crouched beside him. “He’s not breathing.”
“His shem must have been smudged.” I could handle that too. “That means he’s inanimate.”
Good thing too, or else he would be screaming at the sky over the incineration of his wig.
The poor thing resembled bad hair plugs across the visible side of his scalp, the hair burnt to nubs.
“He’s curled pretty tight.” She grew a fingernail into a claw. “I’ll have to cut her out.”
“Be careful,” I rushed out, unable to stop myself.
“I will be,” she promised then gently began slicing through the material. “Moment of truth.”
Careful of the charred fabric, Marita peeled the pocket open like a banana to reveal one shivering moth.
“Hey, cutie.” Marita scooped her up and inspected her. “You look good. How do you feel?”
“Okay.” Her antennae twitched as she surveyed the damage. “What happened?”
“We’ll figure that out later.” Marita carried her to a clear spot under the open sky. “Sit right here.”
Wobbly on her feet, Colby plunked down on what used to be the hostess stand, kicking up plaster dust.
“Asa, you’re next.” Marita clomped over and reached for him. “This might hurt.”
“Rue—”
“—is trapped under you and can’t go anywhere until you do.” Her jaw set. “Your safety is my priority.”
Hooking her hands under his armpits, she gingerly hauled him over me into a clear space on the floor.
Only when her watch snagged on loose strands of his hair did my sluggish brain register the danger.
“Marita.” I lurched into a crawl then swayed onto my hands and knees. “Watch out.”
An impressive snarl curling her lips, she scanned the area for threats, frowning when she saw none.
“Are you sure you don’t have naan in your eye?” She sniffed the air. “I’m not picking up on anything.”
“You touched Asa’s hair.” I groaned as my ribs protested my movements. “The y’nai…”
“Those hand-chopper-offer things?” Her eyes flashed with a golden sheen. “I’d like to see them try it.”
That was the thing about y’nai that made them so dangerous. You didn’t see them coming. You touched Asa’s hair, your hand popped off your wrist, and you were left gaping as your arm stump spurted blood.
“Asa?” I cut my palms on debris but kept going. “Can you sense them?”
“No.” He leveraged himself into a seated position. “As far as I can tell…we’re alone.”
“You’re no longer Stavros’s heir.” I put it together. “The usual rules must no longer apply.”
Hard to believe, even with Asa’s status revoked, that Stavros would pull them off spy detail out of spite.
Then again, he had to cheat to have a hope in Hael of beating Blay, so maybe his pride was that blinding.
The wail of sirens announced the arrival of the human fire and police departments, as well as EMTs.
“Activate hair bow protocol,” I ordered Colby. “Now.”
Gliding a zigzag path to me, she hit me in the forehead then scrambled up into my hair to burrow.
“Ma’am,” a young woman called from a shattered window. “Stay where you are, and I’ll come get you.”
That sounded like a good idea to me, so I didn’t budge except to sit and wait.
“Well, well, well.” A familiar outline filled the doorway as soon as it was clear. “Look who we got here.”
“Long time, no see, Marty.” I blasted him with a fake smile. “What are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood.” He scanned the wreckage. “Saw the smoke and came to investigate.”
Marty wasn’t the type of guy who shouldered extra burdens, so I doubted his cameo was that innocent.
The restaurant was owned by a paranormal family and staffed with them too. That guaranteed Black Hat would generate a case file. Especially since the compound was within spitting distance of the restaurant.
But Marty as first agent on the scene? Nah. I wasn’t buying it. My luck was bad, but not this bad.
“Look at you, being all civic-minded.” I shifted my attention to the nice human who began examining me. “Who called it in?”
“Not sure.” She ran through the standard battery of tests. “You with that guy?”
Without specifics, I wasn’t sure who she meant. “The sexy one, yes.”
A laugh spluttered out of her as she picked glass shards from a cut on my shoulder.
“The suit over there?” I hooked my thumb toward Marty. “I’m his boss.”
The lovely mottled red his face turned before ripening into purple was worth pulling rank.
“Oh.” Her steady hands failed her. “You’re FBI too?”
“Yeah.” I peeked over her shoulder to find a baffled Asa receiving basic medical care. “We all are.”
With the y’nai absent from their posts, the EMTs could sweep his hair behind his shoulder away from his wounds without suffering instant retribution. His instinctive flinch at their touch made it obvious he was uncomfortable with strangers acting so freely with him.
“I’m sorry about your friend.” She finished up and bandaged me. “We’re waiting on another ambulance and another set of hands before we move him.” She gathered her used supplies. “Sit tight. I’ll be right back, and we’ll take you and the others on a ride to the hospital to get you checked out.”
Part of the magic animating a golem twisted the perceptions of humans to show them a dead body if the golem’s shem was smudged or destroyed, leaving it vulnerable until its master or kin came along to fix it.
As soon as she turned her back, I picked my way to Asa. “Got an elastic?”
“Always.” He fished out one, though it took him two tries, and handed it to me. “They’re really gone.”
The twist of regret and relief on his face told me who he meant.
The y’nai, who had been a constant in his life, had cut their ties too.
“I, for one, won’t miss them or their constant tattling to Stavros.”
Moving into position behind him, I finger combed his poor hair then worked it into a tight French braid. I watched the tension melting from his shoulders before I had even finished tying off the end with a snap.
“Thank you.” He took my hand, kissed my wrist. “I’m still processing.”
To say you wanted nothing to do with your family, or their legacy, was one thing. For the reality you had really, truly severed those ties to punch you in the face? That hurt. Not because you wanted to reclaim what you had lost, no, that had been the whole point, but because it forced you to see yourself in a new light. To ask who am I without the burden of familial expectation pressing down on your shoulders.
Losing the y’nai was a wake-up call for him, for me too, though I had been assigned mine only recently.
Asa would bounce back, he just needed a minute while his worldview realigned.
“Where’s Marita?” I had lost track of her after the EMT set to work on me. “I don’t see her.”
“She stepped outside to make a few calls.” He searched my face. “Are you okay?”
“Ask me again once we get Clay reanimated.” I sat beside him. “And Marty is in our rearview mirror.”
“We need to clear out the humans.” He touched his side, winced. “Before they take Clay to a morgue.”
“Marty is here.” I heard doubt in my tone. “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and he’ll actually do his job.”
“Just how hard did you hit your head?”
