Wicked Misery (Miss Misery) (13 page)

“Sylphs.” Lucen snapped up his cellphone again. “Come on.”

Chapter Ten

“Come where?” I demanded.

“Downstairs. I’m calling Dezzi. We’ve got to have this out.”

I gripped the doorframe in the hallway. “I can’t face down a horde of angry sylphs plus a gang of satyrs. I don’t even have a protective charm on me!”

“You don’t need one. I’m protecting you.”

Oh great. And who was protecting me from him?

Since Lucen’s face was tight and his eyes glowed brighter than usual, I decided to keep my comment to myself. Lucen was right. Best to face this all down.

I’d once read some proverb that said courage wasn’t about not feeling afraid. Courage was about being scared shitless and doing what needed to be done anyway. I wasn’t so sure. In my case it wasn’t courage. It was resignation.

A bread knife sat on a recently used cutting board. I stole it as we passed through the kitchen. Resignation wasn’t always bloodless, and damned if I was going down without kicking and screaming. Of course, if the sylphs got their magic around my soul, the knife would be pointless. But, hey, I could pretend.

I followed Lucen, who was on the phone rounding up Dezzi’s council, into a pantry off the kitchen. He unlocked the deadbolt on a door and led me down a flight of narrow, dark stairs into a dingy storeroom. Cases of beer, wine and liquor sat on the floor, and the shelves were filled with packing boxes. Lucen unlocked yet another door, and we popped out in a small industrial kitchen.

The Lair, I realized. We were in The Lair’s kitchen.

We came out behind the bar into the empty pub, and Lucen switched on the lights. Through the shadowed glass, I saw slender silhouettes had gathered out front. They huddled close to the building under the tiny awning. I attempted to count their number, but it was impossible.

“Our council is coming,” Lucen said. “Relax.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

He threw me a wry glance and unlocked the final door. I braced myself and hid the knife behind my back. The angry voices subsided.

“Why hello, Sylla, Felice, Assym…” Lucen rattled off the names of several sylphs I didn’t recognize. “How kind of you to drop by. If you wanted an inter-council meeting, you really should have contacted Dezzi first or given me some warning. Dropping by like this could be construed quite aggressively.”

“Shove it, Lucen. Are you letting us in to get the human or not?”

Lucen glanced toward me. “I can let you in. Handing over the human is something else. But please.” He gestured elaborately. “Come on in.”

I tightened my grip around the knife handle as ten sylphs poured into The Lair. They all turned their smooth, plastic-like faces and icy eyes on me. Mentally, I prepared myself for an attack, but none came. Perhaps it was more fun for them to drink up my fear, or perhaps they hadn’t yet sorted out who would get me if I was addicted.

Just one freaking protective charm. I couldn’t have worn one freaking protective charm on a regular basis? But no, I couldn’t have. The longer it touched my skin, the faster my body would use up the charm’s magic, and I didn’t have the money to replace charms that often.

Lucen hadn’t moved from the doorway. “What do you want with Jessica?”

One of the sylphs, probably an older man although it was hard to tell, tossed his silver hair. “She is wanted for murder by the Gryphons. We intend to turn her in.”

My jaw dropped. Even Lucen started. That had to be a lie.

Hadn’t it? Would sylphs really cooperate with the Gryphons? And how had they found out so fast?

Two sylphs approached me, and I stepped back.

“She is not yours to take,” Lucen said. His voice had lost its gentle mockery. “She’s under my protection, and any attempt to take her will be met with force.”

“A human is under your protection?” Sylla smirked.

I flushed, recalling her comment about Lucen being my master. Obviously I was no addict, but I couldn’t understand Lucen’s attempt to protect me any more than the sylphs apparently could. Not to mention I had a strange feeling that I was missing something. There were too many shocked expressions on those flawless faces.

The older sylph raised an eyebrow. “Does Dezzi approve of this?”

“Of course she does.” Dezzi’s accent cut through the murmuring. She’d appeared in the doorway silently. Her black braids were piled so high on her head that she was nearly Lucen’s height, and her voluptuous figure swayed to a silent music as she entered the room. Her power swept over me, leaving me dizzy and conflicted. Fortunately, it was not on me that she concentrated. A couple of the sylphs shrank back.

Behind Dezzi, more satyrs filed into the bar, including the black-haired one I’d met the other day. He winked at me but stayed close to Dezzi. They were all armed, as was Lucen who must have grabbed a gun from somewhere.

“Assym, it was very rude of you to bring your council here without giving me notice.” Dezzi approached the older sylph, and the other sylphs retreated behind him. “Rude, and I might say unwise unless you wish to incite a war.”

Assym, who must have been the sylphs’ Dom, smoothed invisible wrinkles from his bright blue shirt. “We were not aware this concerned anyone but the human.”

“When you’ve been harassing us for weeks?” Lucen slammed the door. “That’s funny.”

“And now,” said Assym, “we have word that the true culprit was the human, so we are here to collect her.”

Dezzi waved a hand, and the satyrs began shuffling tables around. “Is it true that you’re wanted for the crimes?” she asked me.

I braced myself. “It’s true the Gryphons want to arrest me. I didn’t kill anyone, though.”

Lucen crossed the room to stand closer to me. “You can tell she’s not lying.”

“Well, one of you is.” Assym banged his fist on a table. “We demand justice. The human must know something. Turn her over to us, and we will turn her over to the Gryphons.”

“Since when do you cooperate with Gryphons?” I asked.

“For once our interests align.” He sneered at me, and I felt a brush of insecurity as he whipped my mind with his magic.

Suddenly I was self-conscious, horribly so, aware of every fault and flaw—a human so easy to break, mentally and physically. My fighting skills were terrible. I could never land a decent left-handed punch. Freckles marred my face. My nails were brittle, my knees too thick to be attractive. My magic was too weak to be classed among the preds, and too freakish to earn me credit among humans. I was puny and pathetic. I’d be nothing without Assym’s help.

My will shuddered, then the connection was blasted apart by a wave of knee-weakening lust. I staggered back into a table. Heat swept over me, leaving behind the vivid sensation that Lucen was pressed against my body, every bare-skinned inch of him seeping into my flesh, filling my head with his scent, parting my lips with his tongue and my legs with his hands.

Then the power withdrew. Shaking, I inched away from the real Lucen who hadn’t shifted position by Dezzi. Logically, I knew he’d been trying to break Assym’s hold on me, but I couldn’t be thankful when it meant he’d exerted his own power in Assym’s place.

My kingdom for a protective charm.

Assym’s smirk morphed into a frown as he realized he’d lost his grip. The sylphs and satyrs had pulled two tables together and sat facing each other like opposing tribunals. I stood off to the side, unsure what was going on other than the fact that I was deep in the salamander shit.

“The Gryphons believe her responsible for murdering our addicts,” Assym said, folding his hands. “They will soon trace her to Shadowtown. We do not want her here, nor them. I demand you hand her over before the Gryphons harass us all. If you don’t, we will stand by our original assumption that you’re involved in the murders too. Now, more than ever, it seems likely. Why else do you protect her?”

Dezzi pushed braids over her shoulder, never once losing Assym’s gaze. I held my breath. She had no reason to defend me other than the satyrs’ own issues with the sylphs. “None of my people will hand over someone who has been placed under our protection until I investigate the matter myself.” Behind Dezzi, Lucen flinched but remained silent while his Dom spoke. “Your accusations and harassment of my people have been baseless from the beginning. The human remains under our care until we decide otherwise.”

“You are thieves and murderers.” Assym stood, and the rest of the sylphs followed his lead. “If you want a fight with us, Dezdemona, you have one.”

The satyrs mirrored the sylphs’ action, and I tensed, sensing a coming magical shitstorm. Both sides were lost in a shouting match, their words indistinguishable above the thunder rumbling overhead.

What would happen if a fight broke out? Besides the fact that I’d be toast? Screw this, I had to do something. “It’s the magi!”

I had to yell it twice before I got anyone’s attention, but finally they quieted. “The dead addicts all had their hearts removed. I overheard the Gryphons telling that to Xander the other day. It must be some magus who’s responsible.”

Dezzi turned to Lucen. “Did you know this?”

“Jessica told me a few minutes before you arrived.”

The satyrs’ Dom pressed her lips together and glared at Assym. “There, you see? You should gather your facts before you start making accusations.”

“Prove it,” the sylph said. “The Gryphons believe you’re guilty, and that’s good enough for me. My people’s addicts have been killed. No one but a satyr or a satyr’s pet would do that.” A couple sylphs chuckled. “So you prove it to me, satyr pet, or even the Gryphons won’t be able to protect you from us.”

Unfortunately, Lucen wasn’t crazy enough to use a salamander fire-forged bread knife. Too bad, because if I’d known the blade would kill him, I’d have been tempted to see how close I could get it to Assym’s heart before his posse stopped me.

Satyr’s pet, my ass.

“Prove it how?” I demanded.

His ice-gray eyes froze mine. “That’s your problem. You apparently have access to all sorts of information. Very convenient. I’ll give you three days then my patience runs out.”

“Three?” Impossible. My lungs constricted at the mere idea.

Murder gleamed in Dezzi’s eyes. I suspected she would have liked to kill Assym, me and Lucen all about now, but her voice remained steady. “Why bother, Assym, if you are to be that unreasonable? We need a week, minimum.”

“Four days.” Assym narrowed his eyes.

“Six.”

“Five.”

“Agreed.” Dezzi held out a hand.

I exhaled, feeling sick to my stomach. Nice to give me a say in the matter.

Assym took Dezzi’s hand, and they shook like kindergartners being forced to make nice on the playground. “Prove it or we come to collect you, satyr’s pet, and I don’t give a damn about your protection.” He snapped his fingers at the other sylphs. Together, they walked single file out of the bar.

As soon as the door shut, Dezzi shoved Lucen into a seat. “You got me into this problem. I don’t know why you offered our protection to this human, but you see the consequences? I expect you will both get us all out of this mess in the next five days, or you will be the first I send to meet Assym’s warriors.”

The black-haired satyr, whose name turned out to be Devon, hung a “closed until further notice” sign on The Lair’s front door while Lucen set beers on the tables. Desperation drove me to accept one. My end was nigh. What the hell.

Most of the satyr council had disappeared. Dezzi had just left her first three—Lucen, Devon, who was her lieutenant, and a woman named Lucrezia who was her second. Dezzi said she’d be back later. She had other business to attend to, but she wasn’t about to trust the fate of Shadowtown to a human. The tension in the bar was thicker than a dragon’s hide. Whatever else Dezzi expected to blow up in the course of a fight, she’d predicted a large part of Boston would go with it, especially if the magi were involved.

The rest of the council had gone to rally their people for imminent war.

Obviously they had a ton of confidence in my ability to figure this crap out.

I swigged my beer, grateful at least that Lucen’s protection afforded me one benefit—the satyrs weren’t working their magic on me. Lust stirred within when they got too close, but it was nowhere near as bad as I’d feared. Either they were trying to leave me alone, or they were too distraught about the coming magical apocalypse to exude pheromones. Probably the latter.

“So how many of their addicts have been killed?” Lucrezia asked.

“Four that I know of.” I slumped in my seat. “The bodies haven’t all been found in order of death, though. Could be more that haven’t shown up.”

“Where are the other three hearts then?”

“Eaten by whatever magus is committing the murders?” Lucen flipped the cap off his bottle. It went flying across the bar, bounced twice before hitting the end, and fell into a trash can. Not a bad trick if I’d been of a mind to appreciate it.

Devon tapped his fingers together. “Jess, do you have any enemies among the magi? We do, so it figures they might want to start fights with us, but it’s odd that they’d pick on a human.”