shaede assassin 05 - shadows at midnight (7 page)

Ty pushed himself out of the chair, clearly more than ready to get the hell out of Dodge.

 I stood as well and said to Raif, “We’re leaving in the morning. Before dawn. We’ll swing by on our way out to pick everyone up.” I didn’t need to tell him to have them outfitted with more weapons than they could carry, this was Raif I was talking to after all.

He inclined his head. Very kingly of him. I was already out the door when Raif said, “Darian, a moment.”

Tyler stopped ahead of me and turned. “Go ahead,” I told him. “I’ll be right out.” No one would hurt me here, no matter how angry. Ty gave me a tight-lipped smile that was more of a grimace and poofed into thin air. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I stepped back into the study and eased the doors closed behind me. “Tighter security than when I was here last.”

Raif rounded the desk and wrapped me in his arms. Thank god. I was starting to worry that the pod person had taken over for good. “I’m happy you’re free, but gods, Darian. Of all the asinine things for him to do—”

We could have gone on for hours about the asinine things Xander had a tendency to do. And likewise, I wasn’t going to bring Ty back into this by trying to justify his decision to go along with Xander’s plan. Rehashing what was said and done wouldn’t help anything. “I’m going to get him back,” I said. “I won’t leave that place again without him.”

“Be careful, Darian,” Raif said. “Don’t let all of this be for nothing.”

In other words, don’t die.

“I’ll have excellent backup,” I replied.

“Gods, I wish I could go with you.”

Raif took a step back and I once again took note of the exhaustion that lined his proud warrior’s face. Ruling a country from half-way across a continent had obviously taken its toll. Raif didn’t want this job. He’d never wanted it. Xander was the king and it was my job to bring his ass home.

“Believe me, I wish you were too. Hold down the fort until I bring him home,” I said. “Don’t let that fucker take his throne.”

“I won’t,” Raif flashed a deadly smile.

“Good.”

CHAPTER SIX

“Did you really think it would be that easy, Darian?” Ty gave me a wry smile.

Of course I did. My mouth puckered into a pout.
Damn it
. I’d tried to wish Xander out of Padma’s custody knowing that it was a long shot, but hoping just the same. He’d made her a Shaede—well, half Shaede—and that forged a bond between them. According to those mysterious Jinn rules, wishes couldn’t interfere with the bonds of others. Those stupid rules totally sucked balls.

“I told you, magic is null in the canyons. Even if he had no bond with Padma. Even if he was lying right out in plain sight, you couldn’t have wished him out of there.”

I bellied up to the bar at The Pit, thankful for a little down time in my favorite haunt. Levi was working tonight and he leaned in as Ty and I bent our heads together and tried to form a game plan.

“Rakshasa are like Klingon war ships,” Levi remarked. “They can cloak their magic, their lairs…it makes them virtually impossible to track.”

Lair. That pretty much described Padma’s ratty dirt hole to a tee. If she’d been an actual Klingon, she would have been a hell of a lot easier to deal with. “Okay, so we can’t wish Xander free and we can’t wish ourselves inside. Then the only way to get to him is to fight our way through.”

“And I can guarantee you that the route won’t be the same,” Ty added. “The entrance to the labyrinth might not be the same. The tunnels could have changed. So could the traps. We’ll be flying blind.”

Way to rock the optimism, Ty
. Sheesh.

“I have a suggestion.”

Our heads turned in tandem toward Levi. The kid was crafty, not to mention connected. I wouldn’t put it past him to have a solution to our problem. “I’m listening.”

“It wouldn’t be exact, but you could have a witch try to scry Xander’s location.”

“Scry?”

“Using magick to find something,” Ty replied. His sour tone didn’t go unnoticed.

“Don’t be a hater,” Levi said. “Natural magick has its benefits.”

I didn’t exactly share Levi’s optimism. The last time I’d dabbled in human magick, it had cost me dearly. “I’m not interested in paying the price for a human spell.” Money didn’t factor into buying magick and the cost was usually more than the buyer could afford to spare. I knew that firsthand.

“Scrying doesn’t necessarily require spellwork,” Levi explained. Ty snorted in response and I gave him a look as though to say,
I know, right?
“All we’d need is something that belonged to Xander. The witch could do the rest.”

Blergh
. I hated to admit that the idea was tempting. Human magick fell outside of the parameters of the supernatural world. Perhaps a human witch could circumvent whatever supernatural power Padma had over the canyons.

“No,” Ty looked at me as if he’d heard my thoughts. “No fucking way.”

I quirked a brow. “It couldn’t hurt.”

“It couldn’t possibly help, either.”

Levi’s brow furrowed, marring his supermodel good looks. “Pamela could scry his location for you. Probably within a couple of miles. Do you want to make this rescue mission easier, or do you want to get your asses kicked?”

Assess
not
kicked was definitely preferable, but I doubted we’d get out of there completely unscathed. That’s not to say I was anxious to work with the human witch again. Pamela was Levi’s ex and pretty damned powerful in her own right. She’d cast a glamour on me about seven months ago and I wasn’t quite over the trauma brought on by letting her do it. “Can she meet us tonight?”

Ty cut me a look, his jaw flexing with agitation. “We can do this without magick, Darian.”

I got the impression it was his own magic’s impotence in this situation that had Ty squirming. “We can,” I agreed. “But I’d rather go into this with whatever leg up we can get. No spells, no incantations. Believe me Ty, the
last
thing I want is to get caught up in that shit again.”

He let out a resigned sigh as he raked his fingers through the coppery tangles of his hair. “Fine.”

Levi flashed his signature panty-melting smile. Obviously pleased he’d won his argument. “I’ll call Pam. In the meantime, can you get something of Xander’s for her to work with?”

My katana was technically Xander’s. So were the daggers he’d given me when I returned from my last visit to
O’Anel
. But maybe the witch needed something he’d owned recently, sort of like giving freshly worn clothes to a bloodhound. “I can get something. Where do you want to meet?”

“Your place?” Tyler rounded on Levi and the poor kid wilted like a flower under the midday sun. “Here is fine,” he amended. “We’ll work in the office.”

Ty didn’t seem any happier about that suggestion. “All right. I’ll head back to Xander’s and grab something we can use to track him.” I turned to Tyler. “Are you coming?”

Levi cleared his throat and his eyes slid to the side. I looked toward the entrance to see a man walk into the bar, his commanding stature drawing the attention of most of the patrons there. I knew him… Had seen him before. Here.

Just before Lorik had kidnapped me I’d been sitting at the bar, chatting with Levi. I’d exchanged a few polite words with the stranger, but damn had he ever creeped me out.

Recognition lit Tyler’s eyes as he took my hand in his and gave a gentle squeeze. “Will you be okay to go to Xander’s alone? I’ll stay here and wait for you.”

Part of me wanted to call both Ty and Levi out on this bullshit and demand that they start ponying up some information. But I’d decided a while ago that if our relationship was going to work, I had to put my trust in Tyler. If something shitty was about to go down, he’d tell me.

“All right.” My voice quavered more than I thought it would. It’s not like I needed an escort, but I couldn’t deny that the recent turn of events in my life had me more than a little jumpy. “I won’t be long.” In and out, that was the plan. I didn’t need to hang around Xander’s house and chit-chat. “Get your witch lined up and ready to work, Levi.” I leaned in to put my mouth to Tyler’s but he turned his cheek as though unaware of what I was about to do, his gaze lingering on the man winding his way through the bar.

Yeah. Something was definitely up and if I had to guess, the Synod was involved. I hopped down from the stool and made my way across the bar. The stranger’s intense gaze met mine and a cool smile curved his full mouth. He nodded his head to me in acknowledgment as we passed one another and I fought the urge to turn around and stare. I didn’t need to see him to know that the mysterious man was headed in Ty and Levi’s direction. Damn it, the need to know what the hell was going on burned in my gut like a cinder.

Later.

I could unravel that mystery later. After I got Xander back. After I made sure he was safe and sound back at his house. And after I made Padma pay for what she’d done to us both.

#

When I got back to The Pit, there was no sign of mister Tall, Dark, and Foreboding. There was, however, a somberness in the air that hadn’t been there when I’d left. And considering our impending suicide mission, it made me more than a little nervous.

Xander’s scent still clung to the shirt I held in my hand. The soft, almost silky fabric slid through my fingers as I twisted it nervously in my grip. Everything the Shaede King owned was high-end, apparently even his t-shirts. I tried not to think about all of the things that had happened between us as I stalked toward the bar. Shifted my focus from the what ifs and coulda beens as I took a seat next to Tyler. Refused to think about anything that might crumble my emotional resolve. I needed to be a stone-cold bitch to get him out of there. Padma’s cruelty had to be met with cold indifference. I couldn’t allow myself to feel an ounce of sympathy or guilt over what had brought us to this point. This was a
job
. Period.

“Where’s the witch?” I asked without preamble.

“Um, right here.”

I turned to find Pamela sitting at Tyler’s right shoulder. I’d been so preoccupied looking for the mystery man when I came in that I hadn’t even noticed her sitting there. A tingle danced along my spine as our gazes met. For a human, she had an interesting energy signature. Power rippled from her in a gentle vibration. Sure she was human, but she was nowhere near mundane. I decided to forego pleasantries. Pretending that her presence didn’t spike my anxiety wasn’t going to help me get through this any better. Simply being in the same room with her threatened to send me back into that moment when I’d adopted the façade of Kade’s dead mate. And that would only lead me down a road of memories I’d tried damned hard to leave behind.

“Cool.”
Cool? Really?
My conversation skills hadn’t improved much over the years. “Let’s do this, then. The faster we can pinpoint Xander’s location, the better.”

Ty and Levi exchanged a tense look. I couldn’t help but wonder what had gone down while I was retrieving Xander’s shirt.

“Are you ready, Pam?” Levi didn’t seem too concerned about expediency, but instead was looking out for his girl. It was sweet. I was willing to bet that with all of the broken hearts he left in his wake, there was a support group somewhere for Levi’s exes.

“Yep. All I need is quiet place so I can focus.”

Good luck finding that here. It would have been better to do this at my place and I still wasn’t sure why Ty had put the kibosh on that.

“I can make the back office soundproof,” Tyler responded. “Will that work for you?”

His preoccupied tone sent a trickle of dread into my bloodstream.

“It’ll be fine,” Levi assured us.

Invisible insects traveled the length of my spine as Pamela watched me from the corner of her eye. Her anxiety was almost palpable, souring the air with a pungent tang. It seemed as though she didn’t want to be here any more than we wanted her here. I didn’t like the reminder, no matter how innocent her part had been, in the debacle that had landed me in Kade’s possession and at his mercy. And he’d had
none
.

Worrying over my ordeal with the long dead Cambion and the subsequent aftermath wasn’t going to get Xander back, though. What was done was done and there was no use living in the past. That chapter of my life was closed. It was time to let the wounds scar and move on.

Ty made himself at home at the desk in the back office and Levi plopped down on the old worn couch beside Pamela. I closed the door behind me and a shimmer of color passed over Ty’s gaze as the sound from the bar beyond the doorway muted as the latch slid into place. The act took no effort whatsoever. If I hadn’t noticed Ty’s gaze, I wouldn’t have known he’d used an ounce of his magic to silence the room.

I cleared my mind of any troubling thoughts and leaned against the desk beside him. He reached out and brushed the backs of his fingers against my hip, sending a pleasant shiver over my flesh. I gave him a soft smile and in turn, he studied me, his own expression contemplative.

“Do you have a map?” Pamela asked quietly from the couch. “And I’ll need something that belongs to the person you’re trying to find.”

Tyler reached for his back pocket and unfolded a map of Goblin Valley State Park, smoothing it out on the desk’s surface. Pamela reached into a black pouch and produced a pendulum attached to a long silver chain that looked a lot like the key to
O Anel
. Her stone was a quartz crystal however, whereas mine was an emerald. I reached up and feathered my fingers over my bare throat. If Padma ever discovered the true purpose of what she’d stolen from me, we’d be fucked. Just one more reason to get back to her nasty rat hole of a lair and put the bitch down.

Pamela took the t-shirt from my hands and wrapped her pendulum in the soft fabric. She held it firmly in her grasp and allowed her eyes to drift shut as she murmured something under her breath. The meditative moment lasted for several minutes and not a single one of us spoke. No point in disrupting her concentration. We had one shot to make this work because with or without a map, we were leaving for Goblin Valley tomorrow.