Ink & Dagger (Sins of Eden #1)

38. Chapter XXXVIII

Chapter XXXVIII

Jaxon

A drian placed his hand on my shoulder and together we blinked again, landing outside the old boarded up warehouse, just as Emily had described. She stepped forward in a rush, reaching for the door, but I yanked her back.

“You stay between us, Sweet Witch. We don’t know what lies behind those doors,” I growled. She narrowed her eyes at me. “We stick together. I can’t lose you,” I whispered the last part, willing her to see the pain in my chest at the thought of something happening to her.

Her face softened and Adrian let out a snort. I whipped my head in his direction.

“What?” I grumbled.

“You can drop the Dom mode, we’re not in the bedroom, Lux,” he said with a dimpled grin.

Because this was the time for wise ass remarks.

A scratching noise from the other side of the door drew our attention back to the warehouse. Stepping forward with my hand still in hers, I reached for the door knob and slowly pulled it open. A small red blur shot forward headed straight for Emily and I quickly shifted her behind me, protecting her.

“Cerys? Fuck, Cerys. What are you doing here? Where’s Charlie?” Emily asked, stepping around me as she bent down to pick up the ball of fluff.

“Did you hear that?” Adrian asked quietly as he looked around. “I think someone else is here.”

The Familiar howled in pain, restlessly squirming for freedom from Emily’s arms and she set her down gently. Emily gasped as she stared down at the fresh blood now coating her hands.

“Show me,” she instructed, an edge of hysteria in her voice.

Cerys shot off through the door with Emily quickly sprinting after her.

“Dammit, baby, it could be a trap,” I shouted, racing to catch up through the quiet warehouse.

Machines and soot lay untouched within the building. Years of decay and stagnant dust building up along each. It looked as if the place hadn’t been used in decades.

With Adrian hot on my heels, we sprinted through the old warehouse before coming to a thick iron door that Cerys sat screeching and pawing at with her non-injured paw.

“I’m going first,” I said to both of them, resting my hand on the handle.

Emily nodded and I turned to look at Adrian, a silent exchange passing between us. If anything happened down there, he was to get her the Hell out of here.

Opening the heavy door as quietly as I could, we all looked down into the dark void below. A set of rusted metal steps plunging down into what I could only guess was the boiler room and storage area sat in front of us. On silent feet, the four of us crept down, listening for any sounds along the way.

“I can’t see a fucking thing,” Adrian whispered from somewhere behind me.

Taking the last step, I held my arm out to keep them behind me and cast a ball of fire in my hand to light the room.

“This is where he was,” Emily whispered into the empty room.

As I brought my ball of light closer to the middle, Adrian growled low in his chest and barreled past us both. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the blood smeared ground.

“They kept him caged in a Demon trap like a fucking animal,” he grit out, pacing the outside of the Demon circle. “Whoever has him knows what they’re doing.”

Emily sucked in a sharp gasp from beside me and grabbed my arm, startling me. “Jax,” she said, a quiver to her voice. I followed her eyes to the edge of the room.

The scene before me had me wanting to set the entire world ablaze. Engraved daggers and whips with metal cat-tails, the tips coated in blood sparkled in the dancing flames of my fireball as I lifted my hand higher to illuminate the room.

Adrian continued pacing back and forth just outside of the Demon circle, growling low in his chest, before stomping across the room to the weapons in the back.

He turned to face us, his eyes black and curved horns on display as he huffed and clenched his fists.

“Jax,” my Sweet Witch whispered again. The sound of her anguished voice broke through the haze of rage that was trying to consume me as well. “We have to find them.”

“We will, baby. I promise. We’ll find them and we’ll make sure that whoever fucking took them pays for daring to lay a finger on them.” Holding her hand, I turned and looked at Adrian.

“Adrian, go home and see if you can find footage around the warehouse then meet us at Emily’s studio.” I ordered.

Without another word Adrian blinked and I turned to Emily.

“Come on Sweet Witch, let’s go back to your shop and try the locating spell together, if Charlie was here then she’s most likely wherever they’re holding Kill,” I told her.

“Hold on.” She dropped to her knees in front of Cerys and scratched gently behind her ears. “Hey girl, you did so good. Go find Charlie and keep her safe, we’ll find you soon. When you find her, tell her that I love her and I’m coming for her.”

As Cerys apparated, Emily slowly stood, glancing around the room as if looking for something.

“You ready?” I asked gently.

I didn’t know what she was searching for, but she looked distraught as she surveyed the room.

“Ghost should have been with them, but I can’t sense him here. I can’t sense him at all.”

“Fuck. We’ll find them all, baby,” I assured her, brushing a lock of hair away from her face.

Her features hardened in determination as she looked up at me, her dark green eyes flickering to a brilliant shade of gold. I could see the rage and vengeful promise as she spoke.

“I know we will. I won’t rest until we do.” She took my hand and we blinked to her studio.

Broken picture frames and smashed glass from Erik’s destruction lay all around us as we stepped into the lobby, but with a confident stride she let go of my hand and took off for the back rooms, ignoring the mess as she remained focused on her mission.

I watched silently as she began pulling out everything needed to perform the location spell. She formed a pentagram on the floor with the candles then she sat and gestured to a spot to her left for me to join her.

“Fucking Hell. I just had all of this fixed,” Adrian grumbled from the front, glass crunching beneath his footsteps.

“We’re back here, Gula,” I called, taking my place beside Emily in the pentagram.

Adrian looked around the room as he took a seat beside me in the pentagram, but Emily ignored his presence as she began her ritual. Reaching out to take my hand, she ran the sharp blade across the pad of mine before doing the same to her own.

“Squeeze your fist over the water. Like this,” she whispered.

I did as she instructed and leaned back, watching as our blood swirled together in the water. The only noise in the room was Emily’s soft chanting as Adrian and I watched in awed silence.

“Listen Lux, I’m not saying anything about your Witch,” he said under his breath. “But are we sure that her friend isn’t in on this? I mean, her Familiar was at the warehouse where Kill was and now we can’t find either of them? For all we know, her friend could be the one holding him prisoner.”

Emily stopped chanting abruptly and stood. Her nostrils flared and her eyes glimmered a brilliant gold as she approached him, before pointing the blade tip to his throat.

“You don’t know a damn thing about her. Charlie would never do something like that and she would never fucking betray me. If you want to help, then keep your gods-damned mouth shut and let me work or get the Hell out of my shop,” she spat before pointing down the hall with the knife.

Adrian raised his hands in surrender, but as she turned away from him to sit back down he glanced over at me, wide-eyed with eyebrows raised at the shock of her scolding him - a Prince of Hell. I may have laughed at his expression if he hadn’t just insulted my Witch.

Emily settled back into place and resumed chanting. The half-moon necklace rested in her bloody fist as she closed her eyes and shut out everything else. My heart raced as her body glowed and I gripped Adrian’s arm to keep him in place as he began to stand.

I hadn’t even asked what she was preparing to do. I’d been so focused on finding my brother that I hadn’t thought to ask how she’d managed to do it the first time. I shifted uncomfortably as I watched. She was definitely a fucking Angel.

How I didn’t realize it last year when I first started following her, I had no idea, but she was stronger than she realized. Sitting within this circle beside her was almost painful to bear as she used her magic to search. My skin burned and needles pricked at every nerve in my body, as if I was sitting in an electric chair. I didn’t know how much longer I could withstand her magic.

Minutes trickled into hours as Adrian and I sat stoically on the floor, glancing back and forth between the goblet of water, Emily, and the candles that didn’t seem to melt while we waited. I couldn’t help but think about how quickly all of this had spiraled out of control.

What first started out as searching for my brother, now had us on the hunt for a missing Witch and my Maritus’ Familiar. Would we actually be able to find them all? And if we did, would we be able to save them? And what of the prophecy? Could I really bring Emily to Hell, knowing that my father wanted to use her in our war?

This shit had gone too far, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I was just about to stand and shake Emily from her trance as an audible gasp left her lips and the light surrounding her faded.

“Fuck,” she shouted.

She shot to her feet and kicked the goblet across the room. “Fucking Hell, I knew it!” she screamed.

I quickly stood and took her in my arms, holding her tightly to me as she screamed obscenities and raged.

“What is it, baby? What’s going on?” I asked, delicately lifting her chin to look up at me.

She looked like the Angel of death in all her fury as she stared into my eyes.

“I think I found him,” she gritted out before turning to look at Adrian. “Both of them,” she spat, before looking back at me. “Something was keeping me out, but I can feel Charlie there. The whole fucking house is surrounded. I don’t know how we’ll get in undetected.”

“What do you mean? The house is surrounded by what?” Adrian asked, quickly standing up from the floor to join us.