Green-Eyed Envy (27 page)

“Hello.” The phone beeped a couple times, signaling a dangerously low battery. I scowled since I knew good and well I’d charged it the previous night.

A burst of static sounded in my ear followed by a tinny voice. “ . . . Riss . . . Cori’s gone . . . her anywhere. Need to find her.”

I frowned. “David?”

Another buzz of interference and then, “You gotta find her, Riss!”

Definitely my brother’s voice begging me for help. And oh gods, it sounded like something had happened to Cori. My pulse pounded in my ears. What if the Megaera had gotten hold of her and was even now planning to use her as a hostage? Or even worse, what if they’d already killed her—
No! She’s fine. You’ll find her and get her back to them.

“David, I’m on my way now. Just stay calm.”

The cell phone beeped insistently as I slammed it closed and shoved it into a pocket. Victor’s expression seemed more concerned than annoyed now, but it didn’t fool me. Something was
definitely
not quite right with Vic the Slick.

“Something you need to keep in mind,
Victor
. My family comes first for me. Always have and always will. And if you
ever
try to force me to do something against my will again, you better reconsider because
nobody
uses me. Nobody.”

His mouth opened and closed several times, but I didn’t wait for a response; I simply turned away and took off toward the safe house. Whoever had snatched Cori had sure as hell better hope she escaped before I caught up with them.

I HALF RAN TWO BLOCKS BEFORE DUCKING into an alleyway and shifting into Fury form, trusting the darkness to shield me from prying eyes as I launched into the air and flew straight toward the safe house. Less than five minutes later I let myself into the safe house, only to find it in a state of uproar. Serise paced the living room floor, hand curled over her stomach and teeth clenched. David comforted Jessica on the sofa while one of Scott’s cousins tried without much success to entertain the two baby girls crying in a playpen on the far side of the room. Scott’s
other
cousin aimed a weapon my way until he registered my identity and lowered it. Serise’s two sisters burst into the room from the rear of the house and calmed down upon recognizing me.

Jessica leapt to her feet and gave a relieved gasp. “Marissa! Thank God you’re here.”

Wow. I didn’t get to hear her say
that
too often. If ever. “What
happened
? Where’s Cori?”

She waved a piece of notebook paper in the air, and I snatched it. Cori’s familiar feminine handwriting spelled out several hair-raising lines.

I let the paper flutter to the floor and met Jessica’s anguished gaze with one of my own. “My gods, you mean she actually
snuck out
? Past two—no three—Harpies and two Warhounds? Not to mention her
parents
? ”

The aforementioned Harpies and Warhounds had the grace to look embarrassed, but Jessica just gave me a no-nonsense look. “David and I were bathing the girls down here when she snuck out from up there.”

David broke in. “If you’ll remember, Riss, you were a master of sneaking out of the house during your teenage years yourself. And we’ve been more worried about others sneaking
into
the house, not someone sneaking
out
. ”

Okay, so he had a couple points there, not that I’d admit it out loud.

I shook my head impatiently. “Whatever. When did you find the note?”

“Maybe fifteen minutes ago. She can’t have gotten far, but we didn’t want to leave the girls here to go look for her. Not until we spoke to you.”

“No, no, you did the right thing. I want all of you to stay here and safe. Serise and I will track down Little Miss Sneaky and drag her ass back here in no time flat.”

Serise gave a tight smile and strode across the room to me as I lifted my arm toward her. She slashed a thin line of blood into my skin and did her Harpy mumbo jumbo while a horrified Jessica looked on. David turned her away when he realized what we were doing, but the damage had already been done. Oh well, not like I ever took pains to hide what I was from the magic-hating woman. Besides, she’d best get used to it. Olivia would
definitely
manifest Fury abilities when she got older, and chances were that Cori would, too—provided she survived the ass-chewing when I caught up with her.

 

 

SERISE’STRACER SPELL WORKED LIKE A charm, and we followed Cori’s trail to a movie theater less than a mile away. I frowned at the crowds bustling inside and outside the large building and pondered the best way to extract my wayward niece without causing too large of a commotion. Not that I really cared if I mortified the almost sixteen-year-old girl in front of her friends; but I
did
care about drawing unwanted attention before I got her back to relative safety.

Then I caught a blur of motion near a side exit of the theater and realized someone else hadn’t been too afraid to cause a commotion. I shot off toward the alley in a flash, trusting that Serise would guard my back. Voices grumbled angrily the closer I drew to the dimly lit stretch of asphalt, and my heart picked up speed when I recognized one of them as Cori’s.

“ . . . don’t care
who
you say you are or
how
good a friend you were to Aunt Vanessa. I’m
not
coming with you and you can’t make me. So just back off!”

That’s my girl!
I let a small, proud smile curve my lips and then put on another burst of speed, determined to reach my niece before whoever she confronted could try and “make her” go with them.

“Calm down, sweetheart, and listen. The Elder Furies want to speak with you and they sent me to bring you to them.”

“I don’t care if the Moerae herself sent you to summon me. I’m not a Fury yet and I know my rights. You can’t take me anywhere without a guardian, and you sure ain’t my guardian, lady.”

I finally caught sight of a scowling Cori with her back pressed against a grimy brick wall, hands crossed over her chest, and eyes narrowed. Standing just a few feet away from her was a shadowy figure I could just make out as wearing an all-too-familiar red leather uniform. I channeled a thread of magic to boost my eyesight and wasn’t particularly shocked to recognize the face that went along with that voice as being Durra’s. Several dozen feet still separated me from her so I didn’t risk alerting her to my presence by crying out.

On the downside, that also meant Cori didn’t know I was rushing to the rescue.

Durra apparently tired of reasoning with the stubborn teenager (I could have told her how futile
that
would be) and decided to switch to force. Her serpents hissed as she stepped forward, grabbed hold of Cori’s arms, and began summoning the magical breeze that would allow her to take flight as I had earlier. I put on another burst of speed, but it was useless: I’d never catch up to them before she got my niece into the air.

Apparently Cori had the same thought and she liked it even less than I did because she totally gave in to her inner fury. Literally.

Cori gave a shriek of anger and threw back her arms, breaking away from Durra. Magic pulsed through the air, flowing across her body and shifting things a little here, a little there. Honey blond hair became charcoal gray. Deep blue eyes shifted to unearthly onyx facets. T-shirt and jeans were replaced with a sleeveless red leather vest and pants, battered sneakers replaced with red leather boots. Last, but not least, brilliant sapphire light washed over her arms, radiating from each shoulder down her arms and leaving in its wake rainbow-hued serpents with iridescent eyes. The serpents hissed, flicked their slender tongues, and twined their way from her upper arms to lower.

Pride nearly overwhelmed fear, and I could do little but gape at her for several seconds. I’d
known
my niece would become a Fury, but never had I expected to be lucky enough to see her first transformation. Tears pricked my eyes, and I called myself all kinds of a fool but couldn’t help it. What an honor the gods had bestowed upon me.

Fortunately, Cori didn’t waste time on going all mushy; no, she got down to business. She shrieked again and kicked out with her booted foot, catching Durra off guard, since she’d been just as surprised by Cori’s transformation as I had been. The Megaera flew back into the air and hit the opposite building’s wall with a sharp impact. She grunted and fell to the ground in a boneless heap, eyes rolling back into her head as she fell unconscious.

Damn. That really
is
my girl!

Cori hissed as loudly as her serpents and advanced on the prone form of her enemy, raising wicked-looking talons that burst from her hands with little thought on her part. It didn’t take a genius to know that if I didn’t step in right away, Cori’s inner Fury would have no trouble finishing off the woman who’d tried to snatch her. While that might make things easier in the short term, there’d be long-term consequences, not the least of them the tremendous sense of guilt she’d feel when her uncontrollable Rage wore off.

I summoned my own magical breeze and half jumped, half flew the remaining dozen feet separating us, slamming into my niece and forcing her back against the wall once more. She spat and clawed at me worse than any Cat might have done, once again inspiring a surge of pride. Damn, but she was going to make a great Fury someday.

“Cori, stop it. It’s me, Aunt Riss.”

She continued fighting for another few seconds until my words finally pierced the veil of Rage holding her in its grip. Once they did, she narrowed glowing green eyes and peered at me intently. I gave her a calm, reassuring smile and nodded. “It’s me, baby. Now calm down and let go of the Rage. That’s it, just take some deep breaths and forget about the woman behind me. Breathe in, breathe out. You can do it.”

I heard Serise moving behind me and trusted her to make sure Durra wouldn’t strike while I wasn’t looking. I focused on talking my niece down from her Rage-filled ledge. It took several minutes, but finally she threw herself into my arms, sobbing, and slowly Fury magic receded, leaving once more only a blond-haired, blue-eyed mortal girl clothed in blue jeans and a T-shirt. With, of course, one unmistakable difference. Each of her arms now bore an apprentice Fury’s rainbow-hued serpent twining from upper shoulder to elbow.

Cori was now, for better or worse, a Fury.

OF COURSE, THE LAST THING EITHER SHE OR I wanted to deal with in that moment was her mother freaking out over her Fledging, so we decided the best thing to do for now was magically disguise her tattoos until things had calmed down some more. I’d have to tell my mother as soon as possible, of course, but for now we lost nothing by keeping her parents in the dark. They had plenty enough to worry about what with trying to keep all three girls safe.

Serise took care of preventing Durra from following us, and I didn’t ask for details. She promised she hadn’t killed the woman, and that was enough for me. She also agreed to keep quiet about Cori’s transformation, for which I was grateful. Cori’s parents let her have it when we got her back to the safe house, once they’d assured themselves she was unharmed. She kept glancing at me with a smile in her eyes, no doubt knowing how damned proud I was that she’d Fledged, and then nodding at them with a properly chastened expression. I was
so
going to have my hands full mentoring that one.

And as the gods were my witnesses, mentor her I would. I had no clue how I’d work out all the logistics or when I’d be able to start her training, but no way would I trust her with anyone else. Mom, maybe, but she’d have her hands even fuller than I did once she was voted into Stacia’s vacant Conclave seat.

The rest of that evening passed by uneventfully enough. Scott never showed up, but I didn’t get too worried since my cell phone battery had gone completely dead sometime after David’s last call. He’d undoubtedly called and left a message he’d gotten caught up with that damned client of his. If something worse had happened, Mom would have found out and put in another appearance.

I stopped by Best Buy bright and early the next morning to replace my defective cell phone charger and plugged it into my computer at the MCU so I could wade through several voice and text messages.

Sure enough, the first text came from Scott. Its header indicated it had been sent during Harper’s dress fitting, but the damned cell hadn’t sent an alert at the time thanks to the dying battery.
Needy client strikes again. Stuck with him all night. Call me at my place tomorrow PM.
Well, that explained why he’d never popped by the safe house the night before, something I’d barely noticed with all the hullaballoo going on.