Fate Forsaken (20 page)

“Are you okay?” Rho asked, patting her on the back. Surely the poor girl wasn’t coughing because she was choking, but Rho didn’t know how else to be useful.

“I’m fine.” Trinador coughed again before she finally sat up. “Man, I hate that part.” She turned toward Eldon. “I think the problem may be bigger than you thought.”

Nick tore across the room in a flash to fall beside Trinador.

Eldon ran behind him but went straight for Rho. “You did good,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss against her hair.

She shivered, still a little spooked at the sight of Trinador seizing again. “Thanks.”

“What did you see?” Nick asked.

Trinador’s eyes were wide as her gaze bounced between the three of them. “This is an inside job. No question about it.”

Nick’s brow knotted, and Eldon’s jaw tensed, their expressions turning serious instantly.

Rho frowned. “How can you tell?”

“Members of the Collective are bound together through magick. Very, very old magick. The impact leaves a trail that can’t be mistaken.” Trinador stared at Eldon, her expression grave. “Whoever created that tracker wasn’t just a magick mover.”

“What are you saying?” Eldon asked.

Trinador shook her head. “That person is a member of the Collective.”

Chapter Twenty

R
ho tilted her head to the side, trying to make sense of what Trinador was saying. The person tracking Cadence was also a member of the Collective? Did Eldon know the person? And could there be more than one?

“We need to go. Now.” Eldon rose to his feet and extended a hand down to Rho. “Come on.”

Rho gave him a puzzled stare but took his hand. “What’s wrong?”

Eldon’s lips were two thin slashes, his brows knotted as he seemed to be calculating silently in his mind. His expression told her clearly there was more to his mood, but she couldn’t understand what had made him so upset. Okay, so the Collective was involved. They’d kind of expected that, given the level of magick used. What did that mean for the team?

“This is bad. I have to tell Cadence right away.” Eldon pulled Rho to her feet, and Nick did the same for Trinador. “Tim and Preshea need to know what’s happening, too.”

“Do you want me to call them?” Rho asked then remembered. “Never mind. Cadence said the phones could be tapped, damn.”

Eldon stepped forward and pulled Trinador into a quick hug. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for us.” He turned to Nick and shook his hand then tilted his head toward Trinador. “Take care of her.” Giving them each a quick nod, he clasped Rho’s hand in his. “You understand why we need to leave.”

Trinador nodded quickly and made a motion toward the door. “Get out of here. Do what you have to do.”

“We’ll be fine,” Nick added. “Call me when you can.”

“What’s going on?” Rho protested as Eldon pulled her toward the front door of the cottage. He tucked her massive purse onto her shoulder, opened the door, and ushered her through.

Enough
. She wasn’t going to be pushed around by anyone, especially Eldon. Being around all of these magick movers was a little like being an outsider at some exclusive club. Everything always happened around her, but no one ever thought to clue her in. That stopped right now.

She froze in the middle of the cobblestone path and whirled around, holding her hands up. “Can you just stop for one second? Tell me what’s happening. What’s going on here?”

Eldon blew out a deep breath. “This is serious, Rho. A breach in the Collective could mean that all magick is compromised.”

“How?” She didn’t understand how the Collective worked, exactly, but she couldn’t see how one person getting out of line could be such a big deal. Vamps got out of line all the time. That was why she was the executioner. Surely magick movers had a similar zero-tolerance policy.

“We can talk on our way to the metro.” Eldon slipped his arm through Rho’s as he raced along the sidewalk.

She allowed him to drag her along. “Fine.”

“The Collective exists for a reason,” he said quietly. “We protect all magick movers and keep people from performing illegal spells. To know that someone in the Collective is going after Cadence and has abandoned those principles—that’s scary.”

“You can’t control them? We have ways of dealing with rogue vamps.”

“We can’t just kill a member of the Collective.” Eldon shook his head. “They know magick that the ordinary mover public doesn’t. We have access to spells and records that are kept hidden for a reason.”

“You mean they’re dangerous,” Rho said.

“Extremely.”

They jumped onto the metro as quickly as they could and headed straight for the loft. When they stepped off the train, they were greeted by two familiar faces.

“There you are.” Tim waved a hand in greeting. “Our train just got in, too. We weren’t able to find anything at the basilica.” He smiled but quickly turned serious when he glanced over at Eldon. “Everything okay?”

Preshea gave Rho a quick nod.

“Not exactly,” Eldon answered. “We were just heading back to the loft to meet up with you.”

“You look like someone just took a swing at you with a bat,” Preshea said. “What’s going on?”

“Let’s go to the loft. We can talk on the way.” Eldon spoke quickly as they traveled back to their home away from home. In detail, he explained everything that had transpired to the best of their knowledge. Which was limited. Rho filled in all of the little details as best she could, including the protection moonstone Trinador had given her and how that was supposed to help.

“Trinador sure is being nice to you, considering she has every right to be pissed,” Preshea said quietly as they reached the stairs of the loft. Eldon took them two at a time, and they all followed suit.

“Tell me about it.” Rho kept up pace until they nearly reached the top landing.

“Oh, no.” Tim froze mid step, his voice quiet.

Rho stopped behind him and glanced up. Her heart sank to her shoes. The door to the loft had been left ajar, the doorjamb splintered into a million pieces. “Oh, God.”

All four of them darted forward. Eldon was the first one to the door and he threw it open, revealing Rho’s worst nightmare.

“Holy shit.” Rho’s gaze bounced from wall to wall then to the floor, taking in the red spattering that sure as hell wasn’t paint. The metallic stench of blood hit her nose, only this time her reaction was far from hunger. It was fury.

“Evette!” Eldon shouted. “Lukas! Are you here?” His hands glowed blue as he took a step forward. No doubt he was harnessing a nasty dose of ley line fire, should the culprit of this attack still be in the house.

Which wasn’t a bad idea. Rho jammed her hand into her purse, yanking out her Glock and turning the safety off at the same time. She lifted the barrel and pointed it toward the doorway with both hands before falling in step behind Eldon.

The moment they were through the door, they split up into different directions. The tiny loft shouldn’t take long to cover.

“Evette!” Rho called. She rounded the corner and threw open a closet door. “Lukas!” Nothing.

She knew instinctively that they weren’t there. The blood had to belong to their hosts. Aside from her teammates, they’d been the only two people with access to this loft.
God, please let them be okay.
They weren’t part of the team or the Collective. They’d done nothing but be kind enough to open their home to a friend in need, along with three strangers. They didn’t deserve anything like this. There was so much blood. Just the sight made her stomach curl.

Moments later, they all reconvened in the kitchen.

“They’re not in that section,” Preshea announced.

Tim shook his head. “Mine neither.”

“Damn it!” Eldon slammed his fist on the counter. The plates in the cabinet above clattered with the movement.

“What’s this?” Rho leaned forward to examine a black oval-shaped box sitting on the countertop. While she might not be the most observant person, she didn’t remember seeing anything like that before. Evette rarely kept anything on the counters. She said the kitchen was too small.

A strong hand clamped on Rho’s arm and yanked her back then pulled her in a vise grip. “Don’t touch that,” Eldon said softly in her ear before he released his hold on her slowly.

The team huddled around the oval box.

“What is it?” Tim asked, leaning forward but not touching it.

“It’s a voice box.” Eldon stepped forward, shoving Rho behind him.

Like a child. “I can stand with everyone else, you know,” she said, forcing herself not to stomp her foot.

“Everyone be quiet and listen,” Eldon ordered. “Voice boxes are self-destructing messages. They relay a message one time, and then they incinerate themselves in ley line fire and they’re lost forever. I’d be willing to bet whoever did this was kind enough to leave us a love note, but we’ve only got one shot to catch the message.”

“I can record it on my phone.” Preshea pulled the cell phone from her back pocket and held it up.

Eldon shook his head. “It won’t work. The magick encodes the message. It can’t be recorded or replayed.”

“Damn,” Tim muttered.

The culprit who’d left the note was no idiot. This box was nothing short of untraceable, given the moment a message was provided, it could destroy itself. Damn effective way to relay a message anonymously.

“Make it speak.” Preshea folded her arms across her chest, her expression icy.

“Stand back.” Eldon stalked around the countertop, the blue flames already crawling from his hands again. He extended his palms forward and glanced up to meet Rho’s eyes.

She nodded. Man, she was beginning to hate this magick stuff. The days of creating a cup of coffee out of thin air just for shits and giggles were gone. Now every spell she witnessed was for defense or to advance in their mission. Or to keep someone from dying. Preshea and Tim took a step back, each one standing on either side of Rho.

The flame at Eldon’s hands intensified. “
Aperire.”
He moved his hands in an unfamiliar, graceful pattern, circling them around the box. “
Loqui vestri nuntius!
” With a jump backward, the flames left Eldon’s fingertips in a rush.

The lid on the black oval box slowly opened. A voice boomed, “Bring me what I know you have, and your friends will keep their lives. Be at
La Sorciere Taverne
at noon. Tell no one. Fail to show, and they will not live to see tomorrow.” The box dissolved, turning into a pile of black sand on the countertop.

Rho met Eldon’s gaze with wide eyes. Despite the bloody crime scene, their friends were alive. Someone had Evette and Lukas, and there was still a chance they could get them back.

“It’s four in the morning,” Tim said as he glanced at the clock on the stove. “We have eight hours.”

“Why noon?” Preshea asked.

Realization dawned on Rho. “Because they don’t want me to come. They know I’m a vampire. I can’t walk outside at noon.”

Preshea scowled. “Bastards.”

“Then they must not know you can walk in the daylight.” Eldon stepped toward Rho and gripped her arms with his hands. “But with my help, you can.”

“You don’t think they’ll have provisions, just in case you have a trick up your sleeve?” Rho couldn’t believe that they’d be stupid enough for that. Whoever was behind this had been smart. Smart enough to track Cadence, find the team’s temporary headquarters, and kidnap Lukas and Evette. At least judging by the mess in the loft, they’d put up a bit of a fight.

Tim shook his head. “Rho is right. Whoever we’re dealing with knows exactly what game they’re playing.”

“I’ve got to tell Cadence what’s going on.” Eldon reached into his pocket and took out the phone Lukas had given him.

“Not so fast.” Tim grabbed on to Eldon’s wrist. “What are you going to tell her? We can’t jeopardize Lukas and Evette. For all you know, our conversation is being monitored right now.” He shook his head. “Nothing you have to tell her is important enough to compromise their safety. We’re the only people who can help them now.”

Eldon paused. The muscles in his jaw flexed for a moment before he glanced up and gave Tim a quick nod. “You’re right.” He whirled around to Preshea and Rho. “Grab any weapons you have and set them out in the living room. I’ll search them for spells. Leave everything else here.”

“Where will we go?” Preshea asked, already starting to disarm.

“Nowhere. If they found us here, they’ll find us anywhere.” Eldon headed for the living room and the team followed. “We might as well stay here until it’s time to leave. Our time would be better spent strategizing than running around trying to hide.”

Rho snatched her bag from the bedroom she’d shared with Eldon and tossed it on the floor. If her weapons had been spelled, she’d be pissed. No one touched her weapons. If they messed them up, they’d pay. And if they messed with Evette and Lukas, she’d make them very familiar with the business end of her blades.

She plucked the knives from her weapons bag and tossed them on the ground. “They look clean.” From where she stood, she couldn’t see any evidence of tampering. Still, magick had a way of remaining hidden until the worst possible moment. She tossed several guns and ammo boxes on the ground beside her blades.

“Bring me your clothes, too,” Eldon ordered, not losing his focus as his hand glowed with blue flames. He’d already started going to work on the firearms.

Preshea frowned. “You think they’d mess with those?”

“You want to try them on and find out?” Eldon asked.

Without a word, they all disappeared to round up their wardrobes. This time Rho brought her duffel, along with Eldon’s. She tossed them on the ground beside her guns.

“This one’s clean.” Eldon held up a handgun, and Tim took it from him before shoving it in a holster at his waist. “Let me see those.” He motioned to the bags of clothing.

Tim, Rho, and Preshea moved them to the ground beside Eldon.

Hand still glowing, Eldon hovered his palm over each of the four bags. When he got to the last bag, he stopped. “Son of a bitch.”

Anger punched through Rho’s chest, and she stepped forward. The cursed bag had been hers. “What? Did they touch my stuff?”

Eldon shook his head in disbelief then lifted his chin. His intense eyes focused on hers. “You’re a target.”

“How?” Tim folded his arms across his chest.

“Everything in her bag is tainted.” Eldon glanced up at Tim. “They put an acid spell on it.”

Rho’s stomach turned as she stared at everything she owned in horror.

Preshea leaned forward to inspect the bag but didn’t touch it. “What the hell does that mean?”

“The second these clothes hit a vamp’s skin, they turn to liquid silver,” Eldon spat. He stared at the contents of the bag, his hands shaking by his sides. The scent of anger permeated the air around him like burnt leaves. “It was designed to kill her slowly and painfully. Disgusting, filthy magick. I can’t believe they’d use this spell.”

Rho’s last blood meal climbed higher in her stomach, threatening to liberate itself. She swallowed hard, clasping a hand over her mouth and fighting the urge to throw up. Without thinking, she took a step back. Not only did someone not want her around when the team went after Lukas and Evette. They wanted her dead.