Taliesin Ascendant (The Children and the Blood) (41 page)

He started for the door.

Harris didn’t move. “Are you a wizard?” he asked, barely feeling his own incredulity at the word anymore.

“Like hell,” the man scoffed, turning back. “I’m the same as you, buddy. Honest guy caught in their war, though I was born on their side. Call me a cripple, wizards do, and they can go to hell for it. Now, really, unless you want us both dead, I suggest you let me get us out of here before Brogan shows up and blows this place to kingdom come.”

Harris’ eyebrows rose.

“Well, you called, didn’t you?” Mud said as though it was obvious. “Told them where she was, back before the bitch survived being shot. Good job, by the way. Between you and me, wish it’d worked.”

He flashed a yellow grin. “But yeah, you called, we came, I damn near got caught by ferals but it all turned up roses because hey, here I am, here you are, and now here we go.”

Mud headed for the door.

“What about the wizards?” Harris said, pushing away from the wall and starting after him, his pace slowed by his tingling legs.

“Guards are dead,” Mud said over his shoulder as he pulled open the door.

Harris stared as the man checked the hall. “All of them?” he asked, unable to keep the incredulity out of his voice.

Mud glanced back. “The ones that count, anyway,” he said defensively. “Others are upstairs, the oblivious freaks. Took me a bit to get away from the guy that bastard Elias set on me, but some Blood across town got ‘em all spooked now. Jerk wasn’t paying as much attention to yours truly as he should’ve been.” He chuckled. “But yeah, called Jamison’s group first chance I got, and now they’re coming to wipe out these lemmings and set a trap to bring her in.” Mud grinned. “He’s got a plan for Bloody Queen Ashe and oh, there ain’t no way it’s gonna be pretty.”

Still grinning, the little man shuffled into the hall. Warily, Harris followed, glancing in both directions before leaving the room. His gaze caught on the guard propped up over the stairway banister.

Small caliber bullet wound to the chest, he noted. Probably from close range.

He looked at Mud.

The man’s grin took on a dark edge and he drew a silenced weapon from the folds of his coats. “Bullets’ll kill a wizard if they don’t know they’re coming, my friend,” he said. “And I got about a million ways to hide a gun.”

Harris didn’t answer. The man seemed to read his thoughts anyway.

“Oh, give it time, Detective,” he chided, clapping Harris on the shoulder. “We’ll kill her yet.”

Chuckling, the little man scurried up the stairs.

Harris eyed the body briefly and then followed. The door at the top of the stairway opened into a short hall. At the end, a restaurant kitchen glistened, though the place was mostly empty with only a few cooks and waitresses moving about. One of them headed into the dining area, pushing past the swinging door with a bin of napkin-wrapped silverware in her arms, and through the opening, he could see additional waitresses bustling around, while a hostess busily straightened her post by the entrance. Only one other person occupied the room, seated in a booth against the far wall, and Harris paled at the sight of her. The harpy with the gold glasses didn’t turn, however; her gaze was locked on the windows and the front door.

Ducking back, he looked to Mud with a grimace, but the little man ignored the expression. Anticipation glinted in his beady eyes, and Harris’ brow drew down at the sight.

The back door opened. A man strode in, passing them with a derisive glance. In the dining area, the harpy gave a shout and an explosion reverberated through the room, bringing screaming on its heels.

“Time to go,” Mud announced cheerfully.

The little man darted for the exit. Across the kitchen, the harpy burst through the swinging door, two men chasing her.

Shoving off the doorframe, Harris raced out of the restaurant as all hell broke loose behind him.

*****

The sedan flew through another intersection, barreling past the red lights and the traffic, and besides Lily, none of the people in the car with him batted an eye.

Struggling to keep from being obvious, Cole glanced askance at Ashley for what felt like the hundredth time. Black tendrils of hair fell around her face and blended with the jacket covering her, and her dark eyes swept the streets with a predatory gleam, as though daring the world to attack. Seated on the opposite side of Lily, she clutched the little girl’s hand, readjusting her fingers every couple seconds as if to reassure herself the child was real.

He hadn’t recognized her. It wasn’t the new look, or the dust covering her, or the dried blood from the scratches on her face that she didn’t even seem to notice. It wasn’t that he’d only seen her for a few minutes all those months before;
the wild car ride and its results were firmly etched in his mind. It wasn’t any of those things.

Up ahead, the blood-covered linebacker she’d called Nathaniel shifted in his seat and Ashley’s gaze snapped toward the man instantly. A heartbeat went by. The wizard shook his head. Ashley looked back out the window, her fingers continually gripping and re-gripping Lily’s hand.

It was that she was so different. And when he’d seen her barreling down that alleyway, he hadn’t for a moment considered it was the same girl he’d given up for dead in a forest fire nearly half a year before. The thought hadn’t even occurred to him. And as for the rest of it…

His gaze dropped to Lily’s hand resting lightly in his own.

She didn’t glow like the little girl, but she damn sure was a wizard. And a formidable one, if the migraine from hell he’d gotten from her brief display of power was any indication. But he’d bet the Summers’ farm she hadn’t been able to do any of that back when they first met. At least, he was fairly sure. Maybe.

But now she killed people. Without hesitation, without hardly doing more than registering they were there. She’d just eliminated those four wizards in a heartbeat, and then moved on as though it was nothing.

Yet, it wasn’t like the wizards hadn’t been out to hurt them too. And given the chance, he would’ve tried to stop them as well. It was just… just…

Unable to keep the grimace from his face, he turned back to the window.

His dad. And Ashley being alive. And the Blood. And being back with a bunch of Merlin all over again. It was too much. Just too much.

And he had no idea what he was going to do now.

*****

Ashe tensed as a man on the sidewalk glanced toward the road. Raising a hand, he called a greeting to a lady on the other side of the street.

And then their car shot past him, with leaves and paper fluttering madly in its wake.

Up ahead, a yellow car flew through a stoplight to a chorus of horns and shouting pedestrians. Her chest constricted all over again, and then the intersection was behind them and the yellow car was gone.

Crystal’s dead eyes rose before her, followed instantly by the memory of Ghost screaming.

Jaw clenched, Ashe trembled. She couldn’t think about them right now. About what’d happened or how many more were dead behind her. She couldn’t handle it and she had to stay focused because, if she let it, the fear would run away with her and she’d be useless. Paralyzed. She couldn’t risk that.

Not again.

At a crosswalk, a woman looked their way. Ashe’s gaze snapped over, magic twisting beneath her skin, ready to strike.

The woman hesitated, a distracted expression coming onto her face. Turning back, she glanced to the shops behind her as though trying to figure out if she’d forgotten something.

Their car raced past. Expression fading, the woman shook her head and then briskly crossed the street.

Shivering, Ashe forced herself to breathe.

Lily’s hand moved in her own and her gaze flicked down. The girl’s skin was darker. Tan in the way it got after hours in the summer sun. She’d been outside somewhere. And there was a knick like a paper cut on her ring finger. She always got those when working on her crafts.

Joy and fear surged again and Ashe swallowed hard, tearing her gaze away and fastening it on the street. She couldn’t let herself look at Lily for too long. The sight just made her want to crumble and cry, and she couldn’t afford that. The emotions. The distractions.

And the questions.

Lily looked human. Completely. No hint of a Merlin aura touched the girl, and she didn’t feel like a cripple. Cole was. Ashe could tell that easily. But from Lily, there was just… nothing.

Ashe watched a couple glance toward the road and then continue on their way. She pulled another breath into her lungs.

Her sister wasn’t like the Blood. She wasn’t and she couldn’t be. The lack of what surrounded other wizards didn’t matter. It just meant Lily was different. Special.

Lily had always been special.

But she had magic. Or something. Ashe’s gaze darted to the staff propped between Cole and the girl. There’d been light inside that when she’d first seen Lily holding it, although the wood was inert now. But the staff was familiar. Important somehow, though the memory kept flitting out of reach. It’d been in a book, one of the countless books, but beyond that she couldn’t seem to grasp it.

Fighting a scowl, she ordered herself to stay focused. She’d ask them about the staff later. Hell, she’d ask them about everything later, from Cole’s reason for saving them in the first place to where the two of them had been all these months. They’d talk when there was time. When people weren’t trying to kill them at least once an hour.

She didn’t want to think about what she’d do if they couldn’t.

Taking another breath, she shifted as the car whipped around a turn. The skyscrapers of downtown were gone and somehow in the past few minutes, trees and houses had appeared. Foliage obscured the sky and the aging homes crowded one another to the exclusion of any grass between. Squirrels raced for safety as the car shot by, and on the sidewalk, a young man walking his dog suddenly scrambled for control as the animal tried to flee.

Something dark flashed beyond the trees.

Ashe’s brow furrowed. The car hugged another turn and she bent in her seat, looking past Lily and Cole as her gaze tried to pierce the thick cover of leaves.

“What is it?” Cole asked.

She didn’t answer.

The trees parted.

Ashe’s blood went cold. “Elias…”

She saw him glance back and then follow her gaze to the window. For a moment, he looked confused, his attention darting between the road and the horizon.

And then his breath caught. The car accelerated and jumped the curb in attempt to round the corner faster. In her seat, Lily whimpered, her grip tightening on Ashe’s fingers, and as they left the neighborhood, the trees gave way to afford them full view of the horizon.

Ashe pulled Lily’s hand closer.

In the distance, black smoke poured into the afternoon sky. By the sides of the road, people had stopped, watching the billowing clouds.

The car flew past them all.

At top speed, the sedan crested a hill, bringing the mall into view. Flashing lights ringed the parking lot and scattered crowds waited on the sidewalks, held back by barricades. Beyond the massive building, flames roared, stark against the backdrop of trees.

“Councilman,” Nathaniel said, his eyes on the fire.

Elias didn’t answer.

His face darkening, Nathaniel looked over. “Elias!”

The man’s gaze flicked in his direction.

“The Blood could still be there,” Nathaniel finished more quietly.

Another moment passed. Elias’ gaze darted to Ashe in the rearview mirror.

She felt sick at the look in his eyes.

He slammed on the brakes. The car fishtailed and then skidded to a stop several blocks from the flames. Trembling, Elias eased his hands from the wheel and looked to Nathaniel.

“Where else can we go?” the large wizard suggested carefully.

Elias let out a breath and then nodded. “Outside town,” he said, his voice rough. “We have another safe house that the council doesn’t–”

He cut off as his phone buzzed. Hurriedly, he yanked it from his pocket and thumbed it on.

Another breath escaped him. “I saw. Where is she?” A moment passed. “Thank you,” he said sincerely and then hung up the phone.

The engine roared as he smashed the pedal to the ground.

“Katherine’s safe,” Elias told them. “She’s at Joe’s house.”

Nathaniel said nothing. His gaze slid back to Ashe, the caution in his eyes mirroring her own.

The sedan raced down the road. Bright new stores became fading older ones, and then the commercial district vanished behind a wall of greenery as Elias sent the car flying down a side street. Stout ranch homes surrounded them, each evenly spaced house looking a million miles from the parking lots only a few hundred yards away.

“Who’s Katherine?” Lily whispered.

Ashe glanced down, trying to ignore the somersaults her stomach turned at the sight of the girl. “His wife,” she said quietly.

Lily’s brow furrowed worriedly and she leaned her head against her sister’s arm. Swallowing, Ashe struggled not to tremble at the feeling of her there.

Spinning the wheel, Elias whipped the car into the driveway of a brick two-story house. Hitting the brakes, he barely waited for the sedan to come to a stop before throwing the gearshift into park and then shoving open the door.

Nathaniel made a growl of displeasure. Glancing back, he gave Ashe a pointed look and then followed Elias from the car.

Jaw tightening, Ashe eyed their surroundings. Flowering bushes only half-heartedly tamed crowded the house, blocking the view of the backyard and creeping up to obscure the first floor windows as well. The brick box of a garage sat at the end of the drive, encircled by its own wreath of greenery.

A door slammed. Katherine rushed from the backyard, her hair disheveled and a guard on her heels. “Are you alright?” she demanded, her sharp gaze sweeping the two men and the car before returning to Elias. “What happened to you?”

“We’re fine,” Elias replied, embracing her. “Are you okay?”

The guard’s gaze went to Nathaniel. “All clear, sir. The daughter’s still at school so the house is empty.”