Wayward Devils (Souls of the Road #4)

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I t took fifteen minutes of spell writing, herb burning, and magic chanting for my wrist to feel almost as good as new. Then I was firmly encouraged (ordered) to get some sleep before the evening’s work.

Cassia and her coven didn’t give me another thought, completely ignoring me as they went about their preparations for the rise of the full moon.

I shuffled off to one of the small bedrooms attached to the back of the place, following my gut instinct for where Lula might be.

I knocked on the door once, then tried the handle. It was unlocked, so I opened it.

Lula lay on her side on the wooden-framed double bed. Lorde was curled up in a pile of pillows on the throw rug that covered most of the floor. A ceiling fan made lazy turns, stirring the cooler air the air conditioner pushed out with a soft hum.

“There you are,” I said softly, even though it was only the three of us in the room.

“Here I am,” she replied just as quietly.

She watched me walk into the room, her gaze ticking down to my unwrapped wrist, then back to my face.

“All better.” I wiggled my fingers for proof. “Mind if I join?”

“Did they send you here for a nap?”

“They threatened to turn me into a frog if I didn’t.”

She smiled, then scooted back to the edge, making room for me. “Come on over, Kermit.”

I opened my mouth and made a half-hearted wave of hands to mimic the Muppet.

That got a huff of a laugh out of her, and I felt some of the tension, the fear in me, ease.

I settled onto the bed, springs creaking and popping as I lay down to face her, my boots hanging off the end.

I hadn’t expected a high-quality mattress, but it was surprisingly comfortable.

“This is nice,” I said, the fatigue of the last few days, weeks, weighing heavily on me.

She hummed and adjusted her feet, resting the toes of her shoes against my shins.

“I don’t want you to go tonight,” she said. “To find Rhianna. I want you to stay here.”

“I don’t want you to go, either,” I said. “I know you’re fast and strong. But Lula, that does not make you invincible, love.”

“I never thought…” She licked her bottom lip. “Ricky said Raven was right.” She shifted the pillow under her head. “She said Dominick was turned by the monster who attacked us. I know killing him isn’t our goal. I know killing him doesn’t have anything to do with finding the monster who attacked us. Doesn’t really have anything to do with finding the book and destroying it, which is what we should be doing.”

“Or hiding the book,” I said, “if we decide to believe what Raven was saying about Ordinary.”

“Believe a god?” She slipped her hand forward and rested it on my hip. “Doesn’t sound like us.”

I put my hand on her back, the heat of her skin under the soft tank top warming my fingers. I pulled us just that small bit closer together and made a sound of agreement.

“So,” I said, “I think we need to choose how we’re doing this tonight. And whatever choice we make, we do it together.”

“I can’t walk away from saving that little girl. If there’s a chance, I want to save her.”

“I agree. And that means we do it together.”

She hesitated. I could see how much she wanted to argue, how afraid she was for me. “I know,” I said, even though she hadn’t said anything. “I feel the same about you. We will keep each other safe. We’ll trust that we can each take care of ourselves, right?”

She didn’t look away, didn’t frown. But I knew she wanted to argue a different way forward.

“Love.” I tipped my head down so we were eye-to-eye. “I can’t let you go into that vampire’s territory, into that vampire’s home, alone. It’s just not in me.”

“Brogan, if you’re hurt…if you’re killed…”

I shook my head. “I’m capable of staying alive, of being with you, no matter what tries to keep us apart.”

“You have to promise me you’ll remember you’re human.”

“I’m not human.”

“Human enough.” She lifted her hand and cupped the side of my face. “Promise me.”

“I promise I’ll remember I’m human. But trust me, love. There has not been a moment since Cupid brought me back to this flesh and bones body that I have forgotten it.”

That seemed to settle something in her, and she rested her hand on my hip again. “Has it been difficult?” she asked. “You haven’t talked about it.”

“Haven’t I? Feels like I’m constantly complaining.”

She shook her head. “Is it worse being human than you remember?”

“Worse than before we were attacked by At?’s monster? That was so long ago, I don’t know. No, not worse. I think it’s better. Little things surprise me. I like that.”

“Little things?”

“How soft a bed can feel. The smell of dew as the sun rises. You.”

“Me?”

I hummed and brushed stray strands of her hair away from her face. “The silk of your hair. The scent of your perfume. Your lips.”

Her pupils were wide, nearly eclipsing the ring of golden amber glow. “What about my lips?”

I hummed again, as if trying to remember what I was going to say. “Let me see…” I leaned toward her, closing the space, angling my mouth toward hers.

She shifted upward, her eyes fluttering closed, her lips soft, inviting.

My blood thrummed a heavy beat. Heat coiled and bloomed outward, setting my nerves on fire. Every sensation was magnified, the air too hot, too cold, the distance between her body and mine finite, endless.

I slid my hand under her shirt, caressing the lean line of muscle down her back, then drew my hand forward, tracing the curve of her breast with the back of my thumb.

She shivered. “Brogan?”

“Yes?”

She swallowed, opened her mouth, swallowed again, wordless. Then she was there, her mouth against mine.

We didn’t need words, had never needed them to tell each other what we felt, what we wanted, what we needed.

I yawned and scrubbed the back of my head, glad the moonlight was bright enough I could see our very black dog as she poked around in the dry grass and shadows outside the honky tonk.

I’d gotten a couple hours of sleep before Lu woke me to shower and change.

We’d both agreed Lorde would be staying behind with the witches. We hadn’t discussed our rescue plan, or how we intended to take out Dominick.

Lorde trotted over to me and bumped my hand with her nose. “Ready to go inside?” I asked.

She wagged her tail and started toward the front of the building. I followed behind.

The building was cooler inside than outside, but not by much.

They’d pulled back a false ceiling to reveal magic symbols painted on the wooden frame above the wall. An array of windows in the roof were formed in the stages of the moon cycle from new to full.

The moon wasn’t quite overhead yet, but it still shone bright enough to bathe the bar in silver light.

The place was filled with people, everyone moving from one area to the other, like this was another kind of dance, weaving energy with soft chants and gestures, setting out crystals and herbs, bones and blades, and other offerings in a circle around the dance floor.

I knew just how much power this coven could tap into on that floor when they all worked together.

This time their focus would be to keep their land and people safe from vampire attack and also to cloak us while we moved inside the vampires’ territory to find Rhianna.

I found an empty spot by the wall where I could watch, and parked myself and Lorde there.

Just a few minutes later, Lu strode into the room. She’d showered and put on black pants and shirt and braided her hair back.

The silver wing feather key hung around her neck on the same chain as the stopwatch, and the cloaking bracelet Ricky had given her was on her wrist. She’d strapped on her knives and hooked the explosive acorns into her belt.

She scanned the room, finding me, then strolled over. “Did I miss something?”

I shook my head and realized I’d been staring at her. “No. You look perfect.” I opened my arms. “Me?”

Her gaze turned critical as she considered my loose, long-sleeve shirt, dark pants with the vampire-killing knife sheathed at my hip, and the ring that was supposed to give me speed on my finger.

“The spool of thread?” she asked.

I patted my pocket. “Unless you want to carry it?”

She shook her head. “Would you stay if I asked you to?” she asked, moving closer to me.

“Right next to you. Every step, love. I can’t stay behind.”

She pressed her lips together against the argument I saw in her eyes.

“We’re going to be quiet,” I said, “fast, and careful.”

She stepped into my embrace.

“If you die again, Brogan Gauge,” she whispered fiercely against my heart, “I will tear the heavens down to find you.”

“Won’t have to. Death won’t let me in.”

The embrace lasted just a moment longer, then she stepped back, adjusted the chain at her neck to hide the feather and watch under her shirt, and squared her shoulders.

Abbi appeared from out of the crowd, Cassia, resplendent in a flowing black gown that glimmered in the moonlight, beside her.

“We need to be really fast,” Abbi said. “Really, really. The spell won’t last long.”

“An hour would be best,” Cassia agreed. “We might be able to hold the cloaking for longer, but if you can find her and get her out in an hour, the spell will be strongest.”

Hado, the tiny cat at Abbi’s feet, drew up into the shape of a man made of shadows, his golden eyes glowing. He handed Abbi the mortar and pestle she used for her magic.

“You sure you don’t want Abbi to stay here?” Lula asked. “To help support the spells?”

“I’ll help them,” Abbi said. “But I can help you too. If I stay here, it will be harder to help Rhianna.”

“Thank you, Moon Rabbit,” Cassia said. “And thank you, Lula and Brogan. Please bring our child home safely.”

“We will,” I said.

Cassia bowed to Abbi, then made her way back into the flow of people.

“Are you sure you shouldn’t stay?” Lu asked Abbi again.

“I’m sure,” Abbi said. “And you need me. Because I’m powerful. So powerful! I’m going to be bright as the sun!”

“Nope. You can only be bright as the moon,” I corrected her. “The sun is much brighter. Besides, we’re trying to hide, Pumpkin, not be seen.”

“I’m still gonna be bright. You’ll see. Come on.” She and Hado started toward the door where Variance was pacing and throwing glares our way.

The witches stopped milling around and gathered in the center of the room in a loose circle. They silently walked around the circle, once, twice, thrice.

Then they began singing.

The song rose slowly, a soft call and answer that whispered from the corners of the room, from the rafters, from the hidden spaces.

As more and more voices joined the call, as more and more voices joined the answer, the song became wind, the rustle of green and leaf, the twining of root and soil. Magic rose, humming in struck chords, gathering thick, strong, whole.

Silver moonlight met that magic and paled into neon pastel, a web woven upon light and song. The spell spread across the circle, shifting subtly, threads of light and sound pulling and knotting into an intricate spider’s web above them.

The web lifted to the ceiling and hovered there, becoming heavy with moonlight that dripped like dew drops down each thread to the witches below.

Lula, next to me, was just as mesmerized at the show of magic. I reached for her, my hand extended palm down.

She, without looking, without seeing me, extended her hand, palm up.

We had done this for years. Me, invisible, her, unseeing. We had always known when the other was there. When the other was reaching out.

We clasped hands, and she looked over at me. I nodded, and together, we strode out into the night.

Franny was outside, wearing clothes that looked like she was ready to hike the badlands.

Abbi and Variance stood by an SUV with its engine running.

“Don’t worry about Lorde,” Franny said, as she opened the doors of the SUV. “Pru’s going to look after her. She’s wonderful with dogs.”

“Thank you,” Lu said.

“Shotgun!” Abbi called.

“No,” I said. “Adults in the front seat.”

I moved toward the front door, but Variance was already there, sliding into the seat and slamming the door behind him.

I scowled, but Lula tapped my arm. We took the center set of seats, and Abbi hopped into the seat in the back.

The car was spacious, modern, and aggressively cooled by the AC.

“How fast can you get us there?” I asked.

“Twenty minutes.”

“I could get there faster on my feet,” Variance said.

“Yes, but you aren’t doing this on your own,” Franny said, sounding every inch like an auntie who was not going to take any shit. “Because if you think you can dump the Moon Rabbit, or the Gauges, or me, Variance McClellan, you have another think coming to you.”

Variance pulled his shoulders back.

Franny made an intricate sort of waggle of her fingers and a wave of exhaustion closed around me. It took everything I had to keep my eyes open.

“Enough,” Variance growled.

Franny snapped her fingers, and the overwhelming fatigue was gone.

I was excruciatingly awake, as if I’d just downed a couple extra strong cups of coffee.

“I hate when you do that, Auntie,” Variance said.

“Well, then. Stay in the car. Stay with us , Vari. It’s going to take all of us to save her.”

He didn’t say anything more, so Franny adjusted the mirrors, revved the engine, and took off like a bat out of hell.

The city of Amarillo had a population of just over two hundred thousand people. I didn’t know how many monsters were in that town, but I did know Dominick’s ranch could house dozens of vampires.

Dominick’s vampiric call to battle was strong enough my headache was back, but otherwise, I could ignore it.

Both Lula and Variance had gone into that eerie stillness and silence only a supernatural could attain. It was taking a lot more concentration and will for them to refuse that call.

Franny pulled the car onto the shoulder outside the city limits. Amarillo was still a ways off, sparkling in the distance.

A barbed-wire fence ran along the side of the road. Beyond that stretched dry ranch land dotted with scrub.

There were lights out that way, in a configuration that indicated they were from the ranch house. Other smaller lights around that cluster had to be outbuildings.

“I think I should go in with you,” Franny said.

“No, you absolutely should not,” Variance said before any of the rest of us could chime in. “There are already too many of us going—too many chances we’ll be seen or caught. You’re our way out, Fran. Our best way to get Rhianna home quickly and quietly.”

I saw the conflict on her face, but she sighed. “I knew you’d say that. And you’re right. You’re right, Vari. I brought this in case she needs it to remember.”

She pulled a little stuffed toy out of the door pocket. The palm-sized, lumpy beige thing might have once been an elephant, but it had been worn until it had lost an ear, a leg, the tail, and an eye.

Variance seemed to soften slightly, then he tucked the toy into his pocket. “Don’t stay after dawn,” he said. “If we’re not back in two hours, go home, Franny. Get safe.”

“I’ll be right here when you come back. I’ll be fine. We’re bringing her back this time, Vari.”

A flashlight beam flickered beyond the fence, three quick blinks, then three long ones.

“That’s your inside man,” Franny said. “Find Rhianna. Bring us Dominick’s blood. Be careful. I love you.”

Variance was out of the car before any of us had unbuckled our seat belts.

We quickly followed, but he wasn’t waiting.

He’d already stepped over the section of fence conveniently broken and lying on the ground, and was making his way across the field, aiming toward where we’d seen the flashlight beam.

Abbi, with Hado in man form, bounded ahead of both me and Lula. We were right on their heels.

The flashlight flickered again, and Variance readjusted the angle of his approach.

The taste of dust kicked up by our boots filled my nose and mouth along with the pitchy scent of juniper and mesquite.

It wasn’t just my headache. Everything about this mission made me queasy.

“How bad is it?” I asked Lula.

She knew I meant the vampiric call. “I can handle it.”

“Are we trusting their inside person? Are they, like, a spy?” Abbi asked as she trotted to keep up with Variance’s long stride.

“Only one way to find out,” Lula said.

A figure walked our way. A man, I thought. Familiar.

He stopped a couple yards away from us, and we stopped too.

“Fuck, no,” I growled.

The man—the hunter, Hatcher, who Lula had been sneaking around with— smiled. “Well, look at us now.”

“The Hunter?” Abbi asked.

“The asshole,” I answered.

“Both, yes,” he said. He had traded his white shirt and cross necklace for plain, dark pants, boots, and a black shirt. He didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons, but appearances could be deceiving.

“You’re working with the witches?” Lula asked.

He nodded.

“Why?”

“Dominick has something of mine. A token. I want it back.”

“Get it yourself,” I said.

He shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that. There are…limits to my capabilities.”

“What capabilities?” I blurted. “You shot my dog because you missed shooting my wife. Given the chance, you sure as hell would have done more than that. You stole the damn book and sold it to the damn god who wants us dead.”

“I was jumped. I lost the book before I could take it to my client.”

“Who is your client?” Lula asked.

“We don’t have time for this,” Variance said. “We’ll find your token, if you keep your promise to the witches.”

“Like hell we will,” I said.

“Headwaters,” Hatcher said. “Headwaters hired me to look for the book. You found it before me in Illinois.”

I blew out a breath. Great. Lula had been working for the mysterious magic and antiques collector for years. Now we find out Headwaters had sent a monster hunter to get the book, even if that meant killing Lula. Did that mean Headwaters was working for At??

“We don’t need your help,” I said.

“Fuck that,” Variance growled. “I don’t give a damn if you hate him, if he knows where my daughter is, we follow him and give him anything he wants.”

“What can he do?” Abbi asked.

Yes, her voice was small, but she was a deity. It carried and silenced us all.

“I know our powers,” she went on, her demeanor that of a mentor, an ancient. “What are yours, Hatcher?”

He shook his head. “First, I want the agreement sealed. I will help you save the child, and I will tell you where I’ve hidden the book. For that you will return the token to me.”

“You just said you lost the book,” I said.

“I stole it back when Cupid and At? were fighting in Oklahoma. Bring me my token. Then you’ll know where the book is hidden.”

“Fuck the book,” Variance said. “I’ll make sure you get your token.”

“No.” Hatcher didn’t even look at him. “I want the promise from them.”

Them, meaning us.

“Hunter,” Abbi said. “What can you do? You will show me what you are.”

Hatcher glared at her, but then his expression went slack. His eyes unfocused and his stance relaxed.

“Oh,” Abbi said, “I see you now. Yes. We will retrieve your token in exchange for you telling us where you hid the book, and your help in rescuing Rhianna.”

“Abbi,” I warned.

“No. He can do this,” she said. “He’s important. Show them.”

Hatcher shuddered as if he’d just felt a cold breeze, then took two steps backward, fear rushing his movements, his eyes narrowing.

Yeah, she was not what she looked like.

He stopped himself from outright turning and running. Whatever that token meant to him, it was enough that he would face down a deity.

He tipped his chin up at an angle, but kept his gaze firmly locked on Abbi.

Then he held his hand out toward Variance.

Variance drew a strand of hair out of his pocket. There was enough moonlight, the strand glittered silver. He gave it to the Hunter.

The Hunter dropped the hair into his mouth.

Between one breath and the next, the hunter was standing there.

Then he wasn’t the hunter.

He was a little girl with Variance’s eyes: Rhianna.