Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood) (38 page)

“Ashe.”

She glanced over at Spider. Giving Cole an oblique glance, Spider grimaced as she came up beside her. “Look,” she said, keeping her voice low. “Far be it from me to agree with wizards, but… you sure about this? You’re risking a lot based on the word of a guy who tried to kill you.” She paused. “Two, actually.”

Ashe hesitated, feeling her expression mirror the girl’s own. “You see another option?”

Spider looked away. “It just sounds like a trap. Claiming not to know about any tunnel, getting you to head for their prison rather than the main building…” She shook her head. “He works for the Blood, and they would’ve had more than enough time to plan something between when Cole called and you showed up here.”

Ashe exhaled, her gaze sliding to the vehicle holding Harris.

She knew they were right. Elias, Cornelius, Spider, all of them. Harris couldn’t be trusted, and there wasn’t a shred of evidence to say he wasn’t just trying to finish what he started a few weeks ago. And Cole wanted to save his dad. It was incredible he’d helped them get this far.

A phantom ache throbbed in her chest, and her hand twitched with the impulse to rub at it, if only to make it go away.

Harris could be leading them into a trap, and everyone here could wind up dead as a result. But at the same time, her only other option consisted of throwing what Merlin were left at Chaunessy and hoping any of them made it inside the walls alive.

“We have to try.”

“And if he’s lying?”

“Then you shoot him,” she answered, her voice tight. “And make sure to aim for his heart.”

Without another word, she headed for the car.

“You sure this is the right place?” Cole asked.

“They didn’t want the prisoners near Chaunessy,” Harris replied. “Security risk.”

“No, it’s just… a hardware store? How’s that useful?”

“Apparently the former owners left lots of material for building cages behind,” Harris responded wryly. “And from what Mud said, the old security was still in place, so it worked well.”

Barely listening to them, Ashe tilted her head around the corner of the alley to get a better view of the squat building nearly two hundred yards away. Hemmed in by newer structures, the one-story block of brick sat trapped at the rear of a weathered parking lot. Cameras were mounted on each corner, however, keeping every angle covered without a blind spot to spare.

Behind her, Nathaniel made an annoyed sound, and she closed her eyes briefly before pulling back. Because of the cameras, the Merlin wouldn’t be able to get close, and the magical defenses on the building meant an outside attack could never be fast enough to beat the wizards inside to an alarm. There wasn’t a better plan than the one they had, but that didn’t stop it from leaving her sick to her stomach at its risk.

At the other end of the alley, the chain-link fence clinked as Spider and Samson slid past to join them. “Bus, Memphis and Blackjack have the next street and the vehicles covered,” the girl said quietly as they came closer. “So what’s the plan?”

Fighting the urge to let her gaze go to Nathaniel, Ashe didn’t answer. “Everyone else in place?” she asked Elias.

He nodded. She echoed the motion, pretending not to see the wary look Spider was giving her.

“Make the call,” she told Harris.

The detective eyed her briefly and then turned away, drawing out his cell.

A moment crept past. Her eyes slid toward the rooftops as though she could see the wizards hiding there.

Harris cleared his throat. “It’s me. Yeah. Because you gave me the number. I–” He grimaced. “Listen, I think I might’ve spotted someone connected to the queen, but it’d be better if you identified them too.” He paused. “Because if I go to Brogan and I’m wrong…” He waited. “Fine, I’ll share credi– no, just share.” Another moment passed. “Fine.”

He hung up the phone. Drawing a tired breath, he scowled. “It worked. He’s coming.”

“Get him in the car so he can’t run, and we’ll take it from there,” Elias reiterated.

The detective just headed for the sedan parked inside the alley entrance.

Trying to ignore the look that passed between Elias and Nathaniel, she followed the others back into the shadows. Dumpsters and moldering cardboard boxes crowded the rear of the alleyway, while decomposing trash plastered the concrete. Her nose wrinkling, she stepped carefully around the overflowing garbage to hide behind one of the rusted bins.

“Awesome,” Cole muttered, and she glanced over to see him extracting his foot from an unidentifiable substance on the ground.

“Quiet,” Elias ordered from across the alley.

Cole shot him a dark look.

She turned back to the entrance, sparing a glance for the doorway just beyond the garbage bin. They had options in case this went wrong, so there wasn’t any reason for concern. Not yet, anyway. Either the path through the building or the one past the fence would get them out of here.

Assuming they could extricate themselves from the garbage in time to escape.

Grimacing, she pushed the thought away and tried to focus on how little she could breathe and remain conscious. The seconds were like a physical pressure, filled with eye-stinging fumes and the instinct to draw more air, and just when she was certain the little bastard wouldn’t show, the sound of shuffling footsteps carried down from the street.

She fought the urge to sigh in relief. It wouldn’t go well, and she needed all the oxygen she could get. Shifting slightly for a better view, she peered through the gap formed by two of the dumpsters.

An oversized coat drawn around him till he looked like an anthill with a head on top, Mud edged into the alleyway entrance, his gaze twitching around on overdrive the entire time. Looking first one way, then immediately the other, he barely paused at the sight of Harris before continuing his scan of the alley and the street.

“Where are they?” he asked. “The people you saw?”

“A couple blocks from here,” Harris answered. He gestured to the sedan. “We can take my car.”

Mud started down the alley. From the corner of her eye, she saw Spider and Samson shift position, getting ready to move.

“So what’d they look like?” Mud asked.

“Eh, African-American guy, maybe early twenties or so. Thought I remembered him from Utah.”

Mud froze. Across the alley, Ashe heard Samson give a low growl of irritation that would have put Nathaniel to shame.

“Really?” Mud asked, suddenly thoughtful. “You saw him here?”

“You know someone who looks like that? Good, then you’ll–”

“Anyone else with him?”

Harris shrugged. “We’ll see when we get there, right? Hop in.”

Mud didn’t move. “You sure you didn’t see anybody?”

For a heartbeat, Harris eyed him, and when he spoke again, she could almost hear the cop in his voice. “Why?”

“No reason.”

Harris paused, and then dropped his hand from the door handle. His brow furrowing, he circled around the front of the vehicle, nothing in his demeanor to indicate any awareness he was blocking Mud’s exit.

“What’s going on, buddy?” Harris asked, his tone concerned. “You don’t tell me what’s up, I can’t help.”

Mud hesitated and then glanced around furtively. “Okay, look,” he confessed. “That guy? Two problems. One, if he’s here, it means the good ol’ bloody queen probably is as well. And two, he’s supposed to be dead. Brogan promised me after I tipped him off about that train station where he and his little ‘Hunters’ were hiding that he’d have his people kill them all.”

“Oh, that son of a…” Samson snarled under his breath, his hand tightening on his gun.

“Really?” Harris asked, sounding worried. “Well, I’m not sure it’s the same–”

“I’m not going to find out,” Mud interrupted, ignoring the other man’s motion to get in the car. “The guy’s a cold-blooded killer, Detective. His whole group are. And that bitch girlfriend of his…”

He gave an exaggerated shudder and started back for the street.

“Wait,” Harris protested, keeping himself between the man and the exit. “We still need to check before telling Brogan.”

“You check,” Mud snapped, trying to shuffle around the detective.

Elias glanced to the others. “Move!”

She fled the stench of the dumpsters on the heels of Nathaniel, with Spider and Samson barely a heartbeat behind. At the sound of their footsteps, Mud looked back, his beady eyes going wide, and then he spun faster than she’d have imagined the little man could move. Reacting quickly, Harris darted between him and the street again, his hands raised to stop Mud from escaping.

A gun appeared in Mud’s hand like a conjuring trick and Harris barely had time to tense.

Fire left her, charring the man’s fist and knocking the gun wide. Bullets struck the brick wall as the weapon went flying and Mud collapsed to the ground, clutching his hand and howling.

Nathaniel strode up to Mud and hauled him from the concrete to slam him into the brick wall. Moving past them, Elias headed for the alley entrance to check the street, while Spider and Samson watched the little man as though waiting for the moment when the wizards would be done with him. To one side, Cole scanned the ground for the gun, and then scowled when he realized it’d fallen through a grate to the sewers.

Harris just stared at her.

Uncomfortably, she avoided his stunned gaze as she came up behind Nathaniel.

“You… you…” Mud panted. “She–”

“How do we get inside the prison?” Nathaniel demanded.

“She burned my hand!” Mud shrieked into the wizard’s face.

Nathaniel grimaced at the man’s breath and then pressed him harder into the wall. “I won’t ask again.”

Mud just choked, his focus returning to his blackened skin. Nathaniel growled in annoyance, casting a glance to Elias.

“Switch,” Elias said, jerking his head at the street.

Nathaniel waited for the wizard to join him and then promptly dropped Mud to the ground. Ignoring the cry of pained alarm behind him, Nathaniel headed for the alley entrance.

Disgust tingeing his expression, Elias crouched down in front of Mud. “You have a choice,” he told the whimpering man. “You help us, and maybe we’ll heal your hand. Or you don’t help us,” he glanced over his shoulder, “and we leave you with them.”

Mud’s beady gaze went to Spider and Samson.

“What’s it going to be?” Elias asked.

Contempt twisted through the pain on Mud’s face. “I’m not afraid of them.”

Expressionless, Spider drew her gun, letting it hang by her side, and instantly, the little man went pale, his scorn melting.

“Uh-huh,” Elias agreed. “I can see that.” He sighed, pushing back to his feet. “Guess we’re done, then.”

He motioned to Spider and Samson as he started to turn away, only to stop at an inarticulate gurgle from Mud. Elias glanced back.

“W-what do you want to know?” Mud asked, his eyes locked on Spider and the gun.

“How do we reach the prisoners?”

“Prisoners?”

“Oh, for pity’s sake,” Elias said, motioning to Spider and Samson again.

“No!” Mud protested. “I mean… you want the Taliesin? They’re down the street. In the building down the street. Um, it’s the–”

“We know which one it is.”

“Oh. Uh…” Mud looked between the wizard and the cripples. “Can you just have them–”

“No,” Elias replied. “What can you tell us about the security?”

Mud swallowed hard, his eyes darting around the alley. “They, uh… if they know I…”

Spider shifted position slightly.

“Oh-two-seven-eight-three,” Mud said, the words tripping over each other to come out. “Code for the door. Access pad’s behind the third brick left of the handle. The code is oh-two–”

“Fine,” Elias cut in. “What other defenses are there?”

The little man looked desperate, his eyes twitching from Spider to the wizard and back. “Uh, guards?” he offered. “Four of them. Security cameras too. Three outside the building, two watching the side streets, and six inside.”

“Are the cameras connected to anything at Chaunessy Tower?”

Mud shook his head. “Just the monitors inside the prison. They’ve got an alarm, though. If the guards trigger it, it goes off at the main building.”

“Magical defenses the same?”

Mud nodded.

“What about guards on the surrounding buildings? Anyone watching for an attack?”

The man scoffed desperately. “They didn’t think you’d come for the
Taliesin
. They thought your plan was to go after the kid.”

Mud stared at him as though questioning why the wizards weren’t doing that anyway.

Elias ignored the expression. Stepping away from the little man, he glanced briefly to Nathaniel and then drew out his phone. Dialing quickly, he kept an eye to Mud as he waited for the call to go through.

She turned away, her stomach beginning to churn again.

“Four guards,” Elias said succinctly when Cornelius picked up the phone. “Eleven cameras. And we have the door code.”

“Ashe,” Spider said.

She hesitated, and then looked over. Behind her, Elias continued to relay the information Mud had given them.

“The plan?” the girl pressed.

Ashe’s mouth tightened.

“Nathaniel’s going in,” Cole supplied. “They set it all up on the way here.”

Spider looked between them. “He’s a wizard,” she said, as if uncertain why they weren’t seeing the obvious. “The guards’ll spot him a mile away and call the Blood.”

Cole grimaced. “She’s going to take his magic.”

Spider’s brow climbed.

“Bound wizards aren’t visible the same as unbound ones,” Ashe explained quietly. “Not as much, anyway. And he just needs to make Mud get him to the door. Once the defenses are dropped, Elias’ll open a portal and we’ll head in.”

Spider watched her for a moment. “And if they do spot him?”

She didn’t answer.

The girl rolled her eyes. “Screw that.” Turning sharply, she looked to Mud. “Hey, scumbag. Layout of the inside.”

“Huh?” Mud sputtered.

“Spider, what are you–” Ashe started.

“Guards, moron. Alarms.” Spider continued, ignoring her. “Where are they?”

Across the alley, Elias cut off the phone conversation, his brow drawing down.