Inner Demon
Author: Jocelynn Drake
Date: 2014-10-28 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Urban Fantasy; Fantasy; Short Stories; Vampires; Demons; Novella; Fiction; Magic; Paranormal
Description: Gage is a powerful warlock in Low Town, where elves, faeries, trolls, goblins, and vampires walk free among humanity. But there are two dangerous entities murdering families and children, and Gage needs to stop them before anybody else gets hurt. When Gage discovers a demon locked away it offers him access to dark magic in exchange for its freedom – a dangerous opportunity, but one that could save his loved ones. Gage must choose between what is right and what is easy … except he’s running out of time.
Publisher: Harper Voyager Impulse

Dedication

To All My Personal Demons

We’ve made some good books together.

Contents

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Jocelynn Drake

Copyright

About the Publisher

Chapter 1

They were waiting for us.

Darkness blotted out everything when Bronx and I arrived at what I thought was Serah’s final destination. Before I could summon up a light spell, they were on us. Pain slashed across my arm as if someone had taken a knife to my flesh. A blunt object crashed into my side with an ugly cracking sound indicating that a couple of my ribs had broken. One of my assailants jumped on my back, wrapping his long, thin arms around my throat, cutting off my air supply.

Over the screeching of my attackers and skittering of claws across pavement, Bronx released an eardrum-shattering roar followed by the sickening thud of his fists pummeling soft flesh. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could start to make out the troll as he picked up his smaller adversaries and threw them across the room.

Sucking in a slender thread of air as I tried to fight my way free, I tapped the energy in the air and sent it out in a raw, angry blast. Some small part of my brain prayed that Serah wasn’t in the direct path of the energy, but I was too oxygen starved to give it much thought. I just knew that Bronx would be able to survive it.

Panicked screams filled the air as my enemies scampered away. Someone new shouted above the din and the screams immediately stopped. I didn’t recognize the language that was encased in the howl, but it didn’t sound friendly.

A twisted spell glowed in the forefront of my mind. I didn’t know if I had glimpsed it in a book or if it was the conjuring of my own panic, but the feel of it was dark and violent. My stomach churned at the thought of letting this loose, and yet I still gathered together the energy. I wanted the death and destruction to stop. I wanted the violence to end. I might not have started this fight, but I was ready to fucking finish it.

“Stop!” Serah shouted somewhere to my right. “Everyone stop! It’s a misunderstanding!”

“Light!” I barked, throwing out my right arm. The only sound in the suddenly dense silence was the soft patter of my blood raining from my arm as I moved it.

Several balls of white light jumped from my fingertips and elegantly floated upward until they reached a ceiling two stories above us. A quick glance around revealed that we were in an old theater and surrounded by goblins. Fuck. This wasn’t good at all.

Serah was being held by the back of her thick coat by the tallest of the goblins, his orange eyes reflecting with a sickening menace as he glared at me. The TAPSS investigator didn’t look as if she had been harmed. Only her knit cap was a little askew.

Bronx was leaning on one knee to my left. His heavy wool coat had been shredded by the goblins and there were several cuts on his body that were slowly bleeding. Looking over at me, he gave me a small nod to indicate that he was okay. Trolls could take a beating, but no one wanted to take on a horde of goblins. They weren’t strong or even particularly smart, but they had numbers on their side. Take out one, and three more were waiting to take his place.

“It’s a misunderstanding,” Serah repeated, trying to keep her voice calm now that we were no longer trying to kill each other.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

Another goblin stepped forward, slighter in build with long, stringy black hair. I had a feeling that this one was a female, though there was still nothing attractive about her appearance. However, she quickly settled all doubts when she opened her mouth, revealing a hauntingly melodious voice. “You’re hunting the pregnant women of this city.”

I had to give my head a little shake as if to clear it before I could bring myself to respond. Her voice was so strangely contrary to her appearance. It was like listening to a nightingale’s song leap from the snout of a warthog. “I’m not. I’m trying to protect them.”

“Lies,” the goblin holding Serah shouted. “You attacked us! Set our home on fire!”

“I didn’t! You attacked us first!” I yelled back. It was much easier to argue with this asshole. He sounded like he was aching for a fight and I was more than ready to give it to him.

“You lied to enter our home,” the female pointed out.

The next words died in my throat. There was something about the sound. I didn’t want to argue with her. It was almost a compulsion. This goblin could have given the sirens a lesson or two about control.

“We tried the truth, but your people kept slamming the door in our face,” Serah explained while I fought to untangle my tongue. “We came to discuss the murders with you. We wanted to know if you had heard or seen anything.” She unzipped her coat and reached into an inner pocket to produce the little leather wallet that held her TAPSS badge. “We’re trying to catch the killer.”

The female frowned at the badge. I couldn’t tell if she just wasn’t impressed with it or if she was more concerned about the fact that Serah represented an officer of the law. TAPSS might not have any kind of jurisdiction over the kinds of illegal activities that they were involved in, but goblins didn’t care for anyone within the law-enforcement field.

“And you are working with a warlock?” she inquired after a moment of silence.

Serah sighed, shoving the badge back into her pocket. “It’s complicated.”

No shit.

“We’re just trying to track down the person who has been killing pregnant women.” Bronx broke in, once again sounding like the voice of reason. “Do you know anything? Have you seen her?”

I wanted to smile at my old friend. His questions, at least briefly, distracted them from the guy performing magic who was clearly not a part of the Towers regime. I’d already been blackmailed by one bastard who knew my secret. I had no intention of going down that road again.

At this point in our investigation, I’d take a good description of the woman. With all my spells and Gideon’s, we hadn’t even managed to get a good look at this bitch. Our big breakthrough was that the killer was a woman and likely human. Fantastic. That only narrowed it down to a few thousand occupants of Low Town.

“We’ve not seen her that we know of,” the female said, lifting her angular chin a bit. “The killings have scared the women we have working for us. Two have left Low Town, threatening to break their contract with us.”

“Wait! You hire women to have babies for you?” Serah demanded. She struggled to twist around so that she could look at the pair of goblins beside her, but the male was still holding her slightly off the ground by the back of her coat.

I groaned and rubbed my temple with my left hand. We didn’t need to get into this now. The ex-cop was well-informed when it came to many things about the occupants of Low Town, but apparently there were holes in her education.

“Where did you think they got the babies?” I murmured.

The look she gave me made it clear that she thought they had been stolen from their cribs. While that was their old way of doing things, the result was that they had the cops hunting them down, which was really bad for business. Now the goblins just hired poor women with few options when it came to making any kind of good income. When it came to the actual conception of the babies, that’s where my own knowledge fell short. I didn’t see these guys paying women to go to a sperm bank for artificial insemination.

“We have heard that the werewolves are planning to go hunting for her tonight,” the male said, ending the awkward silence.

“Whispers are that she hunts on the south side because that is where she lives,” the female goblin added.

I dropped my hand back to my side and nodded. It was what I had been expecting. “Can you confirm her race?”

“Human,” she said firmly only to have the word whispered in an eerie echo through the building. The other goblins that surrounded us shifted, their nails scratching along the concrete as if they were circling me. The tension that had slipped from me started to return, funneling into the lights that still hovered above us. I hoped they weren’t getting into position to have another go at me. They knew I was a warlock, which meant that I could kill most of them in the blink of an eye. The only problem was that those I couldn’t kill in that breath were likely to kill me in the next breath.

“I’m confused,” Serah announced suddenly, snapping everyone’s attention back to her. “If I wasn’t grabbed by the killer, why did you grab me?”

She had a good point. I hadn’t been expecting to encounter the goblins tonight. With the police making the hunting of this killer such a priority, the goblins had taken a big risk in drawing attention to themselves by getting involved.

“We’re protecting you,” the female said. She grinned at Serah, intending for it to be reassuring, but her wide mouth of sharp, jagged teeth made her look almost like a piranha swooping in for a bite. “We can keep you safe. She won’t find you with us.”

“Fuck!” I shouted, jerking everyone’s eyes back to me. “They’re behind the disappearances!” I waved my good arm at the goblins surrounding us, disgust filling me.

I should have been relieved that the other bastard that Gideon and I had been chasing hadn’t gotten them, but this whole escapade had turned out to be a giant dead end. We went out searching for a psycho-killer bitch and instead we got a bunch of goblins snatching women so they could be locked away for safekeeping. The only thing in that arrangement that had me worried was that they might be pressuring the women they were protecting into giving up their babies as payment.

“What?” Serah gasped.

“We had to do something to keep them safe. The cops had failed,” the male goblin argued, giving Serah a little shake. “And we will keep you safe too.”

I cursed under my breath. This day just kept getting worse.

“I don’t need your protection!”

“Of course you do. The killer will get you.”

“No, she won’t. I’m not pregnant. This was all a police sting operation, and I was bait. We were trying to catch her and you grabbed me before we could find her.” To further prove her point, Serah completely opened her coat and pulled up her loose shirt up to reveal her padded stomach. The goblins looked utterly flabbergasted for a second. The male released her, shoving her away from himself as if she were diseased.

“Hand the other women over. The cops will place them in protective custody. They’ll be safe,” Bronx said, pushing to his feet to tower over the goblins that surrounded us.

“The police can’t protect them!” the female screamed. The pitch of her voice sliced through my brain so that I curled against it while clenching my teeth.

When I was sure that my ears weren’t bleeding, I opened my mouth to argue, but the words stopped in my throat at the sound of approaching sirens. The police were racing toward us and I arched a questioning eyebrow at Serah.

“There’s a tracking device somewhere in all this padding,” she said with a shrug.

The goblins took that as their cue to run. Or rather, disappear. One by one, the goblins surrounding us in the old warehouse vanished, slipping backward into the shadows as if they were made of them. The female glared at me, seeming to hesitate in decision.

“Keeping the women means that police will start to hunt you as well. Bad for business,” I said evenly.

“The abandoned Sleep Tight Inn outside of town,” the female growled at me before she disappeared.

With the immediate threat gone, the pain in my arm and ribs came back to me. I was suddenly sore, exhausted, and cold. Sighing, I dropped to the dirty concrete, too tired to keep moving. I knew I needed to use the healing spell that Gideon had taught me to fix my ribs and close the gash on my arm, but I was just too damn tired to move.

“Gage!” Serah shouted, rushing over to kneel beside me. “How badly are you hurt?”

“It’s not that bad. I can take care of it,” I said. Wincing, I lifted my right arm to look at where the goblin had sliced through my coat and shirt. Blood had soaked through the cloth, which had helped to slow the bleeding.

Bronx limped over the last few feet and dropped on the ground next to me, looking exhausted and a little ragged as well. But he graced me with a small smile and a chuckle. Yep, this was a normal night for us.

“It might be too late for magic,” Serah said against the sounds of screeching tires and slamming doors.

I cursed my luck and doused the magical lights hovering close to the ceiling. I didn’t have the strength in me to teleport Bronx and myself to another location. Between the pain and the bone-grinding fatigue, I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to get up off the floor. I was just ready for this day to finally be over.

“Did you hear what the goblin said? The abandoned Sleep Tight Inn,” I pressed. I knew that as soon as the cops swarmed on us, we’d be swept off to the hospital and I didn’t want the kidnapped women to be overlooked.

“Got it. I’ll tell them as they arrive.”

“Good. If anyone asks, tell them that the goblins grabbed Bronx and me too,” I whispered to Serah as the first cop burst through the door with his gun drawn.

“What?”

“Just do it,” I replied, tucking my right arm against my chest while trying to find a position that didn’t make the pain in my side worse. I hadn’t yet had the chance to fill her in on what I’d done to Eddie and how I’d gotten there. She was going to have to do some quick explaining about how we’d managed to beat the cop and I didn’t want anything too sketchy to come out of her mouth. There wasn’t enough energy left in me to erase any more memories tonight.

In the next couple of minutes, close to thirty cops poured through the various doors spread around the building. Some quickly ran over to us while others conducted a search of the old building. They weren’t going to find the goblins. They were long gone now. Years of surviving in the shadows had taught them how to effectively elude the law.

Of course, they’d had their own troubles with the Towers, but then so did everyone. Many of the warlocks and witches didn’t care for their ability to travel via shadow across vast distances. According to the history I studied while I was an apprentice in the Towers, a large number of goblins were tortured by being kept in a constantly sunny room. Death by dehydration and sunburn was not an enjoyable way to go.

Serah, Bronx, and I were questioned by Detective Curtis about the incident. I’ll admit that I managed a small mind-reading spell just so I knew what Serah and Bronx told him. My story needed to be pretty damn similar. I used the same spell on Eddie when he wandered over, looking a bit uneasy when he stared down at me. The prick didn’t remember my using magic on him, but he also didn’t remember my getting grabbed by a goblin. He was also feeling unclear about how he got knocked out in the first place. It certainly didn’t recommend him to his superiors, when he was supposed to be protecting Serah. Regardless, my secret was safe from this asshole.

Unfortunately, that didn’t help me when it came to the goblins. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. The leaders of the local goblin clan knew that I could use magic. Sure, an ogre from the local mafia might have mentioned it, but it didn’t mean that they had to believe him. All doubt had been wiped away when I starting tossing around spells like party favors.

While I didn’t think that they were going to link me with the Ivory Towers, I was worried that they might try to leverage that valuable information, much like a dark elf that was now dead. And what was my answer to this new problem? To kill them? To kill all the goblins that that been present? Or to kill all the goblins in Low Town?

God, this was really starting to feel like an unending cycle of death, spiraling down the toilet that was becoming my life. I tried to help the people that I cared for, I tried to save a few lives, and what did it get me? More trouble. More death. If anything, today had proven to me that it would have just been better if I hadn’t bothered to get out of bed.

And to add to my fun, I was now being forced to go to the hospital so I could get stitched up. I’d rather the goblins come back and rough me up some more than go to the hospital, where I could wait under the glare of blinding white lights in a too-cold room.

There had been no hiding my bloody arm when the paramedics arrived. Gritting my teeth, I let them help me to my feet while shooting a glare over at Serah. They hadn’t discovered my broken ribs and they weren’t going to. It was one thing to get a few stitches and maybe a nice painkiller. I wasn’t going to wait through a bunch of X-rays that my shitty HMO wasn’t going to pay for in the first place.

At the same time, Bronx was carefully helped into another ambulance. After making a loud fuss, I got them to promise that Bronx and I would be taken to the same hospital. I’d gotten Bronx into this mess and I was going to keep an eye on him, even if I was forced to do it from a hospital bed. One look from Serah made it clear that she thought I was being a big baby. I didn’t care. I was broken, bleeding, exhausted, and no closer to finding the killer.

Damn. I needed a drink.

Chapter 2

In my first trip ever to the emergency department of a hospital, I discovered that blood makes a difference in how quickly you are taken to see an actual doctor. Apparently, moaning and whining about the pain will get you triaged and sent back to the waiting room until a doctor is available. Dripping or gushing blood will get you ushered back with a bevy of nurses, physician assistants, and even a doctor or two will poke his head in while people with mops remove the trail you’ve left on their nice clean floor.

I was covered in blood, not all of it mine, but I didn’t need to explain that. They were content to deal with all the blood that was still leaking out of me. Happily, it was a flesh wound that just needed a bit of stitching up. While I was being bandaged and hooked up to an IV that unfortunately didn’t contain painkillers, another person was asking me a barrage of questions that were all necessary for billing purposes.

With a bit of a struggle, I handed over my insurance card, though I had no idea why. My insurance wasn’t going to cover a goblin attack. At least I’d taken the time to use what little energy I could pull together while in the ambulance to mend my fractured ribs. This little production was already taking long enough.

On the plus side, I got to close my eyes and relax a bit when someone finally gave me a painkiller. Muscles all over my body relaxed and my eyes slid shut on a sigh. The past several days had been hell and they didn’t look to be improving anytime soon. I was tired down to my soul. Sleep sounded so good. And not just a good night’s sleep. I wanted to sleep for months. I wanted the world to drift away and I wanted to float in a black blanket of silence that covered everything.

“Gage?” A soft, tentative voice drew my eyes back open to find that the doctor who had been stitching me up had left and Ellen, Gideon’s wife, was standing in the open doorway. A look of concern furrowed her brow as she took in my disheveled appearance.

“Hey.” I smiled, extending my good arm to her.

Closing the door, she quickly crossed the distance between us, taking my hand in one of hers while her other gently brushed back the hair on my forehead. She was a natural mom.

“Are you okay? I heard someone say your name and I had to check. I hope you don’t mind.”

I squeezed her hand and let my eyes drift shut again. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have been brought in, but there were too many people about.”

“Of course you should have been brought in. You’re covered in blood.”

“It’s not all mine.” A lopsided smile lifted my mouth as I opened my eyes again to look up at her. Yeah, this was a great painkiller the doc had finally given me.

“I’m not surprised.” A frown replaced her smile.

“I’ve been through worse.”

“It doesn’t mean you don’t need help every once in a while,” she said tartly. I wondered if she ever used that tone of voice with Gideon.

“Thanks,” I sighed, letting my eyes drift shut again. With my wounds taken care of, they were likely waiting for the painkiller to wear off a little more before finalizing my discharge. Not much more time to enjoy this relaxed feeling before reality came crashing back in.

“Gideon told me your news,” she started, her voice dipping to a whisper as if she was afraid someone else might be listening even though we were alone in the private room. “I’m so sorry, Gage.”

A different kind of pain intruded on my blissful, relaxed peace. Being on the run, chasing after one killer or another had helped me push back my troubles with Trixie and our baby. But it all came crashing back with Ellen’s sweet concern.

“Why did you stay?” I asked when I could swallow past the lump in my throat. “Particularly when you were pregnant with Bridgette? What did he do to make you feel safe? To protect you?”

Ellen regarded me silently for a minute, her hand gently brushing my hair back in a soothing caress. “I stayed with Gideon because I loved him and I thought he was worth the risk. I knew the dangers and there is no protecting against all of them. You take your chances. I’m grateful for the time we’ve had together. It could all end tomorrow or we could have another fifty years ahead of us. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we appreciate the time we have right this second.”

“But you’re not scared?”

“Of course I’m scared.” She shook her head at me, making feel as if I had asked why the clouds couldn’t be covered in purple polka dots. “Only a fool wouldn’t be scared. Even after all this time, I still wake up some nights, terrified that something has happened to him. I can’t count the number of times I’ve run to Bridgette’s room; sure that someone has stolen her from us. But then I reassure myself that we’re as safe as we can be in this world and we just trust that God is watching over us.”

“Do you feel guilty for risking Bridgette’s life by staying with Gideon?”

“Guilty? No, I’d feel guiltier for denying them the right to be together and know each other. Gideon loves his daughter and will give his life to protect her. What more can I ask for?”

“Safety? A long life.”

Ellen gave me a sad little smile. “I understand Trixie’s reservations. I really do. But I’ve worked as a nurse for a long time. I’ve seen countless people die. I’ve watched patients who lived nearly a century waste away in pain the last few years, their memories a blur. Was their life better for having lived those last years in pain? I’ve watched children die far too young, but happy for the joy they experienced in their short time. I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity. Bridgette’s life is better for knowing her father, even if it means that it could be shorter for it.”

I squeezed the hand I was still holding. “Thank you for your honesty.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have the answers you’re looking for. I do understand her point of view and can’t fault her for it, though I wouldn’t wish this pain on you.” Giving my hand a gentle squeeze, she released it and stepped away. “Get some rest tonight. I’ll go check on your discharge. They should have you out of here soon.”

“Thanks, Ellen.”

She reached for the door and paused before turning back to look at me. “All that being said, I do want my daughter to live a long life. If the quality Gideon provides stops outweighing the potential quantity, I would take her from him. Bridgette’s life and happiness are my first priority.”

I smiled at her, once again impressed by her quiet strength. Ellen was a fierce woman and Gideon was a damn lucky man. “I never doubted it.”

Serah peeked into my room after Ellen stepped out, her arms wrapped around my coat, which she was holding to her chest. She looked pale and worried when she had to no reason to be. Sadly, all I could think was that I had all these women looking after me and worrying about my health, and not one of them was the one I wanted most to see pass through the door. But I appreciated it nonetheless. A warlock could do worse.

“They’re discharging Bronx now. He just needed a few stitches,” Serah reported. I’d sent her to track down the troll as soon as the doctor arrived. I wanted to be sure he was getting the care he needed. Some people were anxious around trolls when they were injured—they weren’t the most tolerant patients. “I also just got a call from a friend on the force. He said all the missing women were discovered safe and unharmed at the inn, like the goblins said. After some questioning, they’ll be headed home.

“Glad to hear it.”

“How are you?”

“I’m fine,” I said, holding up my bandaged arm to her. “A few stitches and a prescription for some decent painkillers. Not the good stuff, but then you can’t hand out the good stuff for a minor goblin attack.”

A reluctant smile briefly tweaked the corners of her mouth as she stepped into the room. “I know. I just don’t handle hospitals too well. I’ve known too many people who went in, but never walked back out again.”

“Towers?” I asked, only to silently curse myself, wishing I had never spoken in the first place.

Her smile returned, and this time it looked as if she was trying to reassure me. “Not as often as you’d think. I knew a couple people on the police force who were killed by the Towers. One during the attack this past fall down by Diamond Dolls.”

I swallowed back the bile that rose in the back of my throat. I had been there and walked away because Gideon had convinced me to. Those witches and warlocks had been searching for me, hoping to draw me out by creating chaos. It had nearly worked. There were times I thought I had been wrong to listen to Gideon, but then it was likely that I’d be dead now if I hadn’t. Or more people would be dead now if I hadn’t.

Looking back solved nothing.

“But being a cop in Low Town is always dangerous. My old partner was killed by an ogre high on fix. I had a friend in college killed by a vampire she was dating. It was an accident. He took too much one night. I had some neighbors killed a couple years ago by some trolls during a turf war on the west side.”

“Tough city,” I murmured.

“That’s just it, Gage,” she said, drawing my gaze back to her face when I had looked down at my hands. “The Towers have taken the blame for a lot of our problems, and they’ve earned a good chunk of it, but the Ivory Towers aren’t the only thing that’s wrong with this city. You’ve got to stop thinking that you’re to blame for everything that goes wrong.”

“You think that’s what I’m doing?”

“Yeah, I think you’re beating yourself up when things go wrong and most of the time it has nothing to do with you or the Towers.”

The speech was starting to sound far too similar to something that I’d already heard from Gideon. If I was a smart man, I’d pay attention to their words.

“Well, this time the goblins beat up on me.”

Serah frowned at me and started to open her mouth to say something about my glib response, but the door swung open behind her, forcing her farther into my room as a tall vampire glided inside. For my first hospital visit, this was turning into a party, though the presence of the vampire wasn’t what I’d call a good thing.

He pinned me with a dark look as he pressed his lips into a hard, thin line. If he kept it up, he was going to pierce the interior of his mouth with his fangs. “Powell, you’re recovering,” he softly drawled. His words were supposed to be a question, but they certainly didn’t come out sounding as such.

When he spoke, it finally dawned on me why he looked so damn familiar. The asshole worked for TAPSS and had stopped by Asylum to put the so-called fear of God in me when I opened my parlor to the public years ago. It had taken more than a little arguing and hoop-jumping to finally get my license for the parlor. The whispers had already started about me in the upper levels of TAPSS and I was forced to spill my secret in an effort to get my license. This schmuck knew the truth.

“Hello, Harvey. It’s nice of you to visit me in the hospital, but it’s really unnecessary,” I said with a wide grin. I know, Harvey. A vampire named Harvey! A name like that really ruined your ability to be afraid of the man despite the fact that he was over six feet and was as wide as a lineman.

“It’s Weston,” he hissed, his fangs flashing at me as he clenched his teeth. “I’m sure it is unnecessary, considering, but I didn’t come to see you.” He turned his dark glare on Serah, who took a nervous step backward toward my bed.

“Mr. Weston,” she said firmly. She was trying to sound as if she wasn’t intimidated, but I don’t think anyone in that room was convinced. Other than his name, he was a frightening creature and we could only hope he’d eaten before visiting the hospital. The scent of blood hung in the air and I had no desire to see his more predatory instincts triggered.

“What’s going on with this investigation, Ms. Moynahan? I was expecting much better results by now.”

“We’re getting closer, sir. I was involved in a sting operation this evening to try to catch the killer now that we’ve identified a link between the victims,” Serah eagerly explained.

“You were involved in a police operation. Not a TAPSS operation. I shouldn’t have to remind you that you are no longer a police officer, but a TAPSS investigator. This inquiry that you are pursuing is outside of our jurisdiction.”

“But this woman killed a tattoo artist. She’s become a danger to the people of Low Town because of a tattoo.”

“All of which should have been clearly documented and turned in to your superiors and the Low Town police, as needed,” he snapped, his sharp voice like a whip cracking across her skin. “Hunting down this killer is not your responsibility. It is a job for the police.”

“But the tattoo—”

“Documented and catalogued. Nothing more.”

“Sir, we can’t let this woman remain loose. I’ve been working with Gage to track her down and—”

“I’m fully apprised of the fact that you’ve been relying on Mr. Powell’s skills to track this person down, and it stops now. You have other duties you have been neglecting. You will cease your association with this man and resume your other duties.”

“Mr. Weston, she’s killing pregnant women!”

“Leave it to the police. Continue this investigation and not only will you be fired, but I will also hand you over to Low Town police personally on obstruction charges. Do I make myself clear, Ms. Moynahan?”

“I understand, Mr. Weston,” Serah said in a low voice while meeting his narrowed gaze.

I couldn’t see Serah’s hands as they were buried in my coat, but if her shoulders were anything to go by, they were balled into tight fists as she fought the urge to brain the vampire with the nearby computer monitor.

The asshole was bringing down hell on her head when she was risking her own life to save a few others and get a killer off the street. Did he have a point about the fact that hunting this killer wasn’t in her job description? Sure, but hunting down murders wasn’t in my job description either and I was still doing it. Maybe this world would be a better place if more people stepped up like Serah and tried to help instead of stepping back and arguing that it wasn’t their job.

The vampire continued to glare at her for another second before gliding silently out of the room. He never gave me another look, as if he wanted to pretend that he hadn’t been in the room with a warlock the entire time.

I waited several seconds for Serah to say something or at least relax her shoulders but it never happened. She just continued to stare straight ahead at the closed door. If it were me, I would have been running through all the things I would have liked to say to the asshole. But then, if it were me, I probably would have said more of them out loud. I guess it was a good thing that Serah had more restraint than me.

“You gonna keep looking for the killer?” I asked, but it sounded more like a statement.

“You better fucking believe it,” she growled.

With a grunt, I slid my legs over the side of the bed and sat fully upright on my own. “Call me when you need me.”

Serah twisted around suddenly, looking surprised that I was still willing to help her. “You know I’m not officially doing this as a TAPSS investigator, right? I can’t make you help me.”

I laughed, rocking back a little. Exhaustion, blood loss, and painkillers were combining to make me loopy. “You couldn’t make me help in the first place. I was never doing this because you’re a TAPSS investigator.”

“You weren’t? Why then?”

I shrugged, plucking my coat out of her arms. “My girlfriend asked me to. My pregnant girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I guess that would do it.” Her brief smile quickly died and she took a step back away from me. “But Weston could take away your license if you continue to help me.”

“True, but I don’t think I would lose it for long. I’ve got ways of being very convincing when I want to be.”

“True,” she said with a little sigh. “Let’s see if we can get you out of here then, scary magic man. You look like you’re about to drop and it’s too damn expensive to stay the night here.”

“I’d never sleep,” I said as I slid to my feet. She looked skeptically up at me, knowing that she saw a man who could barely keep his eyes open as he swayed on his feet. “I’d be too afraid of them removing a kidney or something while I slept. You can’t trust the fucking hospitals. They’re the true source of evil in this world. Not the Towers, the hospitals.”

Serah giggled as she pulled open the door and led me toward the nurses’ station. Someone had to know what I had to do to get out of this joint. Once I was free, I’d grab Bronx and the three of us would make a run for it.

“You’re ridiculous.” She chuckled.

“I’m serious. You ever seen a hospital bill? They’ll steal your arm and your leg.”

“Idiot,” she murmured, but she was smiling.

I was relieved to see her happy, already shaking off Harvey’s comments. It was better this way. There was no use in trying to convince her that she should listen to the blood sucker and stop her hunt before she got hurt. The woman was on a mission to stop this killer and to prove something to her peers. I just prayed that whatever it was that she had to prove wasn’t more important than her life.

Chapter 3

I stomped my feet on the welcome mat, knocking off the snow that was clinging to my shoes before I pushed open the front door. Warm air brushed across my cheeks, chasing away the cold and bringing a sigh from my lips. The house was quiet except for the soft murmur of the television in the living room—someone was watching the evening news. Holiday decorations were carefully placed on the small table and cards were taped to the large mirror hanging on the wall.

The quiet was welcome after the chaos that had consumed my life. So far, I was lucky that the Towers hadn’t found my parents. That ugly part of my life had yet to leak into their home on the north side of Low Town. Common sense said I shouldn’t come here, but I couldn’t help myself. It was the only way I knew to maintain my sanity.

“Hey Dad!” I called as I stripped off my coat and hung it in the hall closet between my mother’s and father’s. “Did you catch the score for the Warriors game last Sunday?” Low Town was lucky enough to field its own professional football team, though it had been a long time since we’d had an actual shot at a championship game.

A frown puckered my brow when no one responded. I thought I was loud enough to be heard through most of the house. Hell, at least one of the boys should have heard me and come banging down the stairs to greet me as they usually did. My parents had generously agreed to take in a pair of runaways from the Towers and were keeping them hidden while trying to give them some semblance of a normal life.

Walking down the hall, past years of family pictures, I stopped in the living room to find it empty. The small television was on in the corner with the evening news signing off in favor of a game show. My father’s favorite glass sat on the side table next to his chair, half filled with iced tea. I stood in the center of the room, straining to hear any sounds in the house, but it was as silent as a tomb. There should have been something. My parents were always home in the evening. Hell, they should have just finished dinner and the smell of my mother’s amazing cooking should have filled the air. But there was nothing.

“Mom?” I called, turning toward the kitchen.

My heart stopped as I took my first step. Lilith stood in the open doorway, a haunting smile playing with her nearly black lips. Her gray skin took on a somewhat pearlescent shine in the soft lamplight and her black dress clung to her curves like a second skin.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded, forcing the words out past a lump of fear in my throat.

“I thought we could take some time to chat,” she purred, taking a step toward me. I could see her legs moving as she approached me, but her motion was so sinuous I was sure she was slithering.

“Where are my parents?”

The Queen of the Underworld smiled, but it was all sharp teeth and fangs. “Occupied.”

“Where the fuck are they?” I roared, my temper snapping in the face of nearly crippling fear.

Lilith was on me in a second, her face less than an inch from me. Her smile was still in place but it looked all the more menacing now that all I could see was her teeth and bottomless black eyes. “Don’t forget yourself,” she snarled. “I have a piece of your soul. You also belong to me for two years of your life and I don’t have to return you to the land of the living if I don’t want to.”

I swallowed back my own angry retort and straightened. There was no need for the reminder that I was headed straight into her hands at some point. The thought of my parents being in her clutches was enough to make me shut my damn mouth.

Stepping back, she arched one pencil-thin brow at me in question, but I didn’t say a word. “Good. What I want to discuss with you is this association you’ve apparently struck up with one of Simon’s playthings.”

The demon. This was not something I wanted to talk about with her. Not when this demon planned for me to destroy Lilith.

“I want you to stay away from it,” she continued, slowly strolling back toward the kitchen. “I’ve got it under control so it won’t kill you, but demons are nasty things full of lies. I don’t want it whispering things in your ears, filling your head with tales that will only get you destroyed. It’s only looking out for itself.” She flashed me a soft smile, trying to appear as if she was actually concerned for my safety.

“It’s only looking out for what it wants.”

Her smile widened. “Exactly.”

“Like you,” I added.

Lilith’s smile melted away like heated wax. Her long bony fingers curled into fists, but she didn’t rush me like I expected. No, she did something worse.

“You forget who the true power within the Underworld is, Gage,” she hissed. The lights in the kitchen blinked out so that the shadows in the dimly lit living room lengthened. “My reach includes both this world and the next. Stay away from the demon or face the consequences.”

Lilith slithered backward into the kitchen so that she was instantly swallowed whole by the darkness. A second later, I heard a voice that shot straight to my gut.

“Gage?” My mom’s frightened voice warbled from the blackness and my knees nearly gave out. A low growl rumbled after my name, followed by a crash of broken furniture. A woman’s terrified screams cut through the silence, slicing my soul in half. I plunged into the darkness . . .

And sat straight up in bed on a strangled cry.

Blinking and fighting the twisted blankets around my legs, I struggled to get my bearings. I was in my room. In my apartment. Safe. The fucking bitch had invaded my dreams . . . again. Covered in a cold sweat, I tamped down a sob of equal parts fear and relief while I tried to find a peaceful center in which to think. My hand was shaking as I pushed it through my tangled hair.

Despite my attempts to reassure myself that it was only a dream, I snatched up my phone and called my parents’ home. My mother’s sweet voice danced across the distance after the second ring and she only laughed at my concern. Everyone was fine and safe. Nothing had happened. I got off the phone as quickly as I could, not wanting to worry my mother since I was struggling to get my emotions under control.

Dropping my cell phone back on the bedside table, I fell back into bed and ran my hands roughly over my face as I tried to organize my thoughts. Serah had dropped me off at my apartment at just before ten the night before, after taking Bronx to Asylum. I had stripped out of my filthy, bloody clothes and collapsed in the bed. I had no memory of falling asleep. But then, I think I was out before I’d finished pulling my blankets up around me.

The alarm on my phone had me jumping a couple minutes later. It was time to start my day whether I wanted to or not.

Sliding out of bed, I snatched up my phone and turned off the alarm. But I stood there, dumbly staring at it for several seconds. There were no missed call or text messages from Trixie. I had seen her briefly last night when she arrived at the shop for her shift just before Bronx and I left with Eddie. But she’d never called to check on the progress of the sting or if everything was okay. The distance between us was growing by the second and I no longer knew how to close it. She was pulling away so that it would be easier to return to her own people.

Was I going to let her go without a fight? Not a fucking chance.

I kicked the coffeemaker on before jumping in the shower to scrub away the dirt and blood I hadn’t bothered to get off myself the night before. Clad in some nearly clean jeans and a T-shirt that had only one small hole it in the side, I grabbed some white chalk, my wand, and a mug of black coffee as I walked into the living room.

Putting down the coffee, I inspected the twelve stitches I’d received the night before, closing the wound the goblins had given me. The skin was red and puckered around the dark thread. It looked so barbaric and medieval compared to the neat and tidy touch that magic was capable of. Lightly holding the wand in one hand, I concentrated on the healing spell that Gideon had shown me. The power flowed easily through me and up the wand to hit my arm with laser-like precision. The wound closed and healed before my eyes while the stitches slipped from my flesh, leaving the thread coiled on the coffee table. In a matter of seconds, I had completed what would have taken weeks of natural healing. Magic had some positive purposes and I was going to show Trixie that.

Putting my wand down on the table, I picked up the piece of chalk and cleared a large open space in the middle of the scarred coffee table with my arm. I drew a large circle on the slightly uneven surface and then decorated the edge with a series of symbols, linking the circle to a specific location within Trixie’s apartment on the other side of town. With the circle grounded and locked against any potential intrusions, I put down my chalk and picked up my wand again.

Holding the hawthorn stick and my free hand up before me, I paused to draw in a slow, deep breath. My eyes slipped shut and I relaxed the muscles in my shoulders. The energy in the air seeped in through my flesh and flowed through my veins so that my soul was now bound to the energy of the world in a deeper way. In my mind, I created the image of a tall crystal vase filled with colorful flowers. I could see purple and yellow irises, pink carnations, and orange birds of paradise.

As I released the breath I had been holding, I pushed the energy out through the tip of the wand, directing it toward the circle, building the image in my head up from the bottom. The crystal and the water in the vase caught the light coming in through my blinds and bounced it about the room. The flowers formed in a colorful profusion, overflowing from the vase.

When my creation was complete, I spoke a word, activating the connection I had drawn with the circle. There was a flash of light and the vase of flowers was gone. If I had done it right, the vase was now resting in the center of her dining-room table. She’d see it when she walked to the kitchen to brew her first pot of coffee for the day. If I had done it wrong, it was very likely that I had created a large mess in her apartment.

After sending the flowers, I swiped my hand over the top of the table, smearing the chalk so that the writing was no longer legible and the spell couldn’t be tapped by another. Feeling confident and a little more at ease, I finished getting ready and left for Asylum.

Something was wrong.

Stepping over the threshold at the Asylum parlor, an odd tingling crept over my body. Something felt wrong about the place. Locking the door behind me, I sent a series of seeking spells through the building to see if anyone was hiding or if any spells had been left on the place that I hadn’t put there. But nothing turned up. I used more aggressive spells, but still nothing turned up. I restarted the antiglamour spell and searched every inch, including the second floor apartment and the basement.

It was only when I stepped into the basement that I finally relaxed. And I realized why something felt wrong when I stepped into the lobby. The tattoo parlor was my home; the one place I was sure I belonged in this world, but it wasn’t helping me find my center any longer. The sickening part was that the cellar now gave the peace I unconsciously longed for.

The symbol spray-painted on the far wall rippled as the demon shifted, its powers stirring to life with my presence. I couldn’t sense its emotions or feel the contact with its thoughts like I could in the Towers. The spell that bound it at the parlor kept it more tightly locked down, but there was no question that it was watching me.

Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I checked the time. It was barely after eleven. I had nearly an hour before the parlor was supposed to open and my first appointment of the day wasn’t until two. I had some time to myself. Time for research.

Turning off the lights and leaving a sign on the door that I’d open the shop at two, I teleported to just outside the Dresden Tower. The memory of Lilith’s nightmare haunted my thoughts, but I wasn’t going to let her put me off. I could keep my family safe from her. I needed the secrets hidden in Simon’s rooms if I was going to find a way to protect Trixie.

An uneasiness crept through me, squeezing my chest until it became difficult to breathe. It was early evening in Dresden. The warlocks and witches would be about in the Tower at this time. There would be no avoiding them. But I had an easy excuse. I was unraveling the defensive spells on Simon’s rooms. I was also a member of the guardians, sort of, and had a right to be there.

There were a couple gasps and murmured comments when I walked through the front door. I didn’t stop as I walked straight to the empty tube and rode it up to Simon’s level. The dark energy was no longer present in the hallway and there was no resistance when I entered the pitch black rooms.

The door slammed ominously as I stepped in as if it had been caught by an errant wind. Elation surged from the demon to hit me in the chest. I had returned. I had come back without its coaxing, because it thought it had me. Sadly, I wasn’t too sure that it wasn’t right about that.

The rage and anguish that had plagued me on my first visit were noticeably subdued this time. The childhood memories that constantly followed me, whispering of pain, blood, and betrayal were silent. I knew if I continued to visit and study here, I’d succeed in chasing Simon’s ghost away at last and these rooms would become mine. And there was some small part of me that was excited with the thought.

“Lights,” I said in a firm voice.

In an instance, lights flared to life around the main room and then on through the kitchen into the bedroom. A fire crackled in the hearth while the magical orbs glowed warmly overhead. And still the eagerness from the demon didn’t wane at the idea of being commanded by someone it considered to be inferior.

Not inferior. Just poorly trained.

The demon’s cool voice whispered through my head, making me more than a little uneasy that it was picking apart my thoughts.

“And you’re planning to change that.”

If you let me. . .

“I’ve got a few hours to do some reading,” I said, walking over to the table in the center of the room, where I had left the two books the demon had pulled aside for me. The first one looked ancient and I suspected that Simon had “borrowed” it out of the Dresden library and never gotten around to returning it. The book on demons was more disturbing because it looked as if most of the handwriting was Simon’s, though the first few chapters were in a different script. Simon’s mentor?

Picking up the general magic book, I carried it over to the large, overstuffed chair in front of the fire and tossed it on the seat while I pulled off my coat. When I turned back, the demon book was in the chair.

“I don’t think starting with demons is the best idea when I’m weak in too many other areas,” I grumbled as I turned back to the table to pick up the other book.

But I can help you in those areas until you grow strong.

“Or I can just grow dependent upon you and never learn those things for myself,” I snapped irritably.

That works too.

The demon’s amusement never wavered.

Grabbing the book I wanted, I dropped the demon book on the floor beside me and flopped down in the chair, putting my feet up on the footstool. I flipped open the old tome and started skimming over the topics laid out before me. A lot of the information was familiar, though it gave some background that I had been sorely lacking. Yet it wasn’t long before I was craving a notepad and pen so I could make some notes.

The thought had barely occurred to me when a hardbound journal appeared at my elbow along with a black pen. I stared at it for a moment, surprised that it looked identical to the ones I had been using for years to make notes regarding spells and potions I uncovered since leaving the Towers. When I picked it up, I got a whiff of a familiar scent, marigolds and blood.

“Did you get this from my basement at the parlor?” I demanded, sitting up with a jerk.

Of course. You needed to make some notes.

“You can bring things from one place to another?”

As long as they’re connected.

As the words crossed my mind, there was a soft shifting of the stones in the center of the room that contained the demon’s symbol. Simon’s rooms were connected with the parlor because I had drawn the same symbol that Simon used.

“Did he know I used the same symbol?” I asked softly, suddenly wondering if he could have used the same connection to walk right into my parlor during the past several years.

No.

“Can you bring through larger items?”

Size has no bearing.

“What about a person? What if Bronx or Trixie walked into the basement? Could you bring them here?”

It would not be . . . healthy for living creatures.

I could feel the demon’s amusement at the thought and a chill pricked along my flesh.

“It would kill them,” I said, crossing off the idea as a potential way of getting my friends immediately out of danger should the need arise.

No.

“But . . . ?” I prompted when the demon chose not to elaborate.

Their minds would break under the burden of the journey.

Before I could question the demon about what it meant, the book at my feet opened with a snap and the pages flew until it found the proper entry. With a grunt, I picked up the book and placed it on top of the one I had been reading. A quick glance revealed that the original writer of the book had done quite a bit of research on the region where demons resided, or rather where their corporeal form resided.

It wasn’t a pretty place by the sound of it, making the Christian version of Hell look like a summer retreat for girl scouts. Not a place I wanted to visit. Luckily, Lilith had something entirely different planned for me, though I doubted it was much more pleasant.

A groan slipped from my lips as I sat back in the chair again, when I realized that I’d turned the page twice since picking up the book. I wasn’t supposed to be reading this one, but my mind immediately starting soaking up the information, as if it had been starved for too many years. And maybe it had been. It had been a decade since I’d been permitted to study any kind of magic, leaving me eager to study anything I could get my hands on.

“Look . . .” I started and then stopped when I realized that I had been about to use the demon’s name, but didn’t know it. Hell, I didn’t even know if demons had names. Did they need them?

Zyrus.

I flinched at the hissed sound. It was like someone had stabbed a red hot knitting needle through my frontal lobe.

Say it.

“Why?”

Say it.

“Why? Will it give you some kind of power over me?”

The demon chuckled. No.

“Will it give me power over you?”

You mean more than you already have? No.

I hadn’t thought so. There was no power in the name. If you wanted power over someone, you needed a bit of their blood. Or better yet, a chunk of their soul.

“Then why do you want me to say it? I didn’t think that demons had names.”

The pages in the book started flipping again to stop on another section that Simon had written about demon names. There wasn’t much there, but there was no mention of any danger inherent in speaking a demon’s name. A few other demon names were listed there, but I found it interesting that the demon that guarded Simon’s rooms wasn’t listed.

“You didn’t tell him?”

No. Say it.

I could feel that its amusement was fading and it was growing more irritated, but I wasn’t going to be cowed by this creature. It had said that it needed me, that it was the pawn that I had claimed in this game. I wasn’t going to follow its directions without a damn good reason.

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

Say it first.

I frowned, not liking the fact that it was trying to bargain now. Looking down at the book in my lap, there was no warning about saying the demon’s name and I was confident there was no power in a name. Could there be any real harm?

“Zyrus,” I said between clenched teeth.

Zyrus, the demon repeated, correcting my pronunciation while sending a fresh stab of pain through my head.

“Zyrus.” I winced as I hissed the name. With his voice in my head, the “U” became more of a soft “I,” sounding like “ZEAR-ris.”

Zyrus.

But something frightening happened this time when it said the name. The pain was gone. I could still sense the demon’s emotions, like its pleasure and amusement at my saying its name, but the nausea that always accompanied it was gone. I was also starting to get thin snatches of the creature’s thoughts.

“What the fuck?” I demanded, lurching to my feet while dumping the books in my lap onto the footstool.

I could feel the demon organizing thoughts to formulate a response. It was all murky and gray, but I could actually feel it more clearly now as if we were connected. Yet before Zyrus could explain, a heavy pounding echoed through Simon’s old rooms as someone demanded entrance.

“I know you’re in there, traitor!” the warlock shouted as he pounded on the door.

Excitement built in Zyrus as it moved from hovering close to me to the door. It was hoping the warlock would force his way inside the rooms. This creature was not on my list of people it could not kill. The thoughts were coming more clearly now as the demon was focused on the intruder. It had been far too long since it had killed something. It had been feeling frustrated since it had failed to kill the magical intruder in the basement at the parlor and was eager to rip into the flesh of something.

“Wait!” I said in a low voice, trying to tighten the leash on the demon without needing to actually lock it away within the symbol. Putting the demon away meant that I would be on my own against the warlock if he did come into the rooms.

The demon pulled back slightly and was far from pleased about it.

He means to do you harm.

“I don’t doubt it.”

Let me protect you, Master.

Even with our new connection, my skin still crawled at that hissed word. There was a layer of malevolence to the word I hadn’t sensed before. Zyrus wasn’t pleased with its newest yoke, but was willing to accept it if it got it closer to its goal.

“The council has tasked me with dismantling the defensive spells on Simon’s rooms,” I shouted back at the warlock while trying to push down the demon’s thoughts and desires.

“You gave up your right to have access to his books and notes, traitor! Come out of there!”

“I’m not finished with defenses in here. I’m having some trouble unraveling them all,” I lied.

“Let me see what kind of mess you’ve made,” the warlock grumbled as if he were dealing with a particularly slow child. I knew he didn’t give a damn about me and cared only about getting access to Simon’s work.

There was a rattle of the doorknob and for a breath, time stood still. I hung on the edge of the abyss with Zyrus floating just over my shoulder. This warlock was invading these rooms and meant me harm. He was eager to get his hands on Simon’s research, though I wasn’t exactly sure what interested him. It irked him that I might be touching it, a traitor to the Towers and my mentor.

I exhaled. My heart beat once. Twice. “Be quick,” I whispered.

The door started to swing open and total darkness consumed the rooms again. I sat down in my chair as the door slammed shut. The warlock muttered something in surprise and then there were only his screams.

I felt myself being torn into two pieces. A part of me was sick at the sounds of ripping flesh and organs, accompanied by the high-pitched screams of terror and pain that finally gave way to low moans that followed the warlock into his death.

The other part of me was swept up in the demon’s glee. There was such joy in its triumph, in the shredding of the warlock who had meant to cause me pain and possibly even death. Traitor. The warlock called me a traitor, and I knew he had no intention of sharing Simon’s research with his brothers and sisters of the Ivory Towers. He had killed countless people in his years as a warlock and Zyrus had put an end to it at last. The world was better off with this monster gone. With the help of Zyrus, I had made the world a little bit safer.

When the room was finally silent, I relaxed in my chair, waving my hand toward the fireplace so that flames jumped to life again. Zyrus circled back to me, practically purring in its contentment, as if it expected me to give it a little pat on the head as a reward.

“Clean up the mess, please,” I said, trying to suppress my own conflicted feelings.

As you wish.

Zyrus rushed off toward the mutilated remains of the corpse while I picked up the book on demons I had been reading. I had only a couple more hours to get some research done and then I had to return to Asylum. There were people in Low Town who needed tattoos and potions.

I also needed to get away from Zyrus for a few hours so I could think clearly. The demon offered a tempting solution to my problem. Could I use it to pick off the warlocks and witches of the Towers one by one until the world was finally safe? Was it wrong to use a demon to save the world? I wasn’t sure anymore.

For now, I had access to Simon’s books and I knew I was safe while I did my research on magic. There had to be a way to take down the Towers. There had to be a way for me to keep Trixie and our baby safe.

Chapter 4

I returned to the back room of Asylum just after one thirty. There was too much on my mind after Zyrus had killed the warlock for me to continue reading. Too much in my life was changing and slipping away from me no matter how hard I worked to hold it all together. Zyrus had presented me with an option that I still wasn’t sure I should jump on, yet it was almost guaranteed to be the one thing that fixed everything. Wasn’t that what I wanted? Wasn’t I willing to sacrifice myself in order to keep Trixie and the baby safe?

As soon as I arrived, I realized that I wasn’t alone in the parlor. The energy zipped to my fingers without a thought, an aggressive spell at the ready on the tip of my tongue when the person called out.

“Gage? Is that you?” Trixie asked from the main tattooing room. Her heels clicked across the linoleum floor as she approached the back room.

With a heavy sigh of relief, I released the magic and walked down the hall to meet her, a smile growing on my face.

“What are you doing here so early?” I asked, pressing a quick kiss to her pursed lips. She wasn’t happy. Had she not seen the flowers that I sent?

“You mentioned yesterday that you wanted to do inventory, so I came in early to help. Where were you?”

“Shit!” I slapped the heel of my hand against my forehead. “I am an idiot. I’m sorry. Yesterday was so insane. I completely forgot.”

“I noticed,” she murmured as she returned to the main tattooing room and sat on her little stool. “Where were you?” she repeated, giving me a very pointed stare. “I checked the basement.”

My heart leapt into my throat and I couldn’t breathe. “I said never to go into the basement without me!”

“I didn’t go down. I opened the door and saw that the light was out. I called down there. I figured unless you were lying dead down there, you weren’t in the basement. Where were you?” Her voice was growing sharper with each word.

I forced a casual shrug. “Nowhere important. I was doing a little research on the many problems that are in my lap at the moment.”

“Am I one of those problems?”

My eyes narrowed on Trixie and I felt my teeth clenching. My dear girlfriend wasn’t usually so combative, but there was no question that the woman was looking for a fight. Something had upset her and now I wondered if it was something I had specifically done or if I was just getting the brunt of her anger because I was convenient. Or maybe it was hormones? Pregnant women were emotional. Did that apply to elves as well?

“Trixie, I don’t see our situation as a problem,” I said calmly, hoping to diffuse her anger before we were embroiled in a fight.

The lovely elf just shook her head and sighed. “You went back to the Towers, didn’t you?”

Confusion furrowed my brow and I forced myself to sit down in the chair across from her. “You know I did. I told you about that already.”

“No, I mean that’s where you were just a minute ago. You went to one of those damn Towers to do your research.”

Blood froze in my veins at her words. How could she possibly know about that? I hadn’t told her about going back to Simon’s rooms or the fact that I had done any research at the Towers in relation to any of my current problems. “How did you know?”

When Trixie lifted her green eyes to me, there was a world of disappointment resting in those sad emerald orbs. “Gideon told me.”

“What? When did you see him?” I demanded, jumping to my feet.

“He was here a little while ago. He’s worried about you.”

“Bullshit,” I muttered, shoving one hand through my hair so that it was now standing on end. I started to pace, but there wasn’t a lot of room for moving around because of the various chairs and little tables filled with tattooing supplies.

“He is and so am I. What are you doing there?

“Research.”

“The only kind of research you could be doing at the Towers is magic. What are you doing with magic, Gage? You’re not supposed to be using it.”

“Things have changed. I told you that. The Towers have backed off from that edict,” I said with an absent wave of my hand.

“Not so much that using magic just willy-nilly is safe,” she snapped. “You created those flowers with magic and sent them to my apartment with magic.”

“You could tell?”

“I’m a Summer Court elf, Gage! I could smell it. Those flowers aren’t real.”

“Of course they’re real.”

“No, they’re not. They were created by magic, not nature. I can smell and feel the difference. Those flowers have no soul. They never lived. They were never connected to the earth and they never spent a single day in the sun.”

“I’m sorry. I wanted to give you something nice. Prove that magic could be used for something positive and pretty,” I shouted. My volume was rising with hers and it was becoming harder to get a hold on my emotions so that I could keep this conversation from exploding.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but hate the fact that you’re using magic more.” Brushing some hair from her face, Trixie pushed to her feet so that she could more easily look me in the eye. “When you were hiding from the Towers and the world, you were careful about your magic use. You made sure that no one saw you, no one knew. You found other ways to get the things you needed. Now, it seems like magic is your first choice for everything.”

“Only because it’s the more efficient way of getting things done.” I paused and took a deep breath, reminding myself that she was just worried about me. I should feel pleased by her concern. “Look, I’m using magic because it’s the only way to accomplish what I need. The Towers aren’t hunting me any longer, so there’s no danger.”

“But don’t you see? Using magic is a danger in itself. You’re becoming dependent upon it. Nothing good ever came of using magic that frequently. It warps things. Twists it.”

“That’s not true.”

“The Towers,” she said quickly before I could continue.

“I’m not the Towers! I’m not one of them! I’m not a killer!” But as the word left my throat, I felt myself pale and my heart stutter to a halt in my chest. I wasn’t a killer, right? That was the line I had always drawn in the sand that separated me from the assholes in the Ivory Towers. Yet, I had let Zyrus kill that warlock. I had let goblins die in that fire when I could have stopped it. I had clung to that rationale for years; used it as a reason for leaving the Towers. But it wasn’t true. Not anymore.

“I know you’re not a killer, Gage,” Trixie said gently, pulling my horrified gaze back to her face. “But I’m afraid of things going too far and you not being able to stop yourself. You’re using things that are bad.”

“What are you talking about?” I whispered.

“There’s something . . . some magic that you’re using now that is . . .” she paused, wrinkling her nose as she tried to find the right word. “It’s like . . . it’s tainting you. You smell different and you feel different when I’m near you. It’s not good and you need to stop whatever it is. It’s gotten worse from last night to this afternoon.”

Zyrus. She could feel my association with the demon, though she didn’t know exactly what it was.

“I’ve got everything under control. Nothing has changed,” I said firmly, though I don’t know if I was trying to reassure her or me.

“No, you don’t. You’re using magic—”

“Of course I’m using magic. I’m a warlock. You knew that before we started dating. You knew who I was before our first kiss. Do you regret it now?”

“I knew what you were before we started dating,” she corrected, evading my question. She stood, her hands balled into fists at her sides as she stared at me. “But I don’t know who you are anymore.”

“I’m Gage Powell, father of the baby you carry and the man who has been tasked with making you and this city safe so that you won’t run! I’m doing this all for you!”

The air crackled with magical energy that I was barely holding in check. Whenever my emotions slipped past my control, magic followed eagerly behind it so that I ended up destroying light bulbs and glass containers without even trying. A part of me wanted to hear something explode or shatter. I wanted to see something eaten away by snapping flames. But the tears Trixie was struggling to hold back were enough to keep me from letting loose completely.

“I never asked you to change,” Trixie said, her voice wavering with each word as it pushed aside the thickening silence. “I love you as you are and would never change you.”

Her words were a balm on an old, ragged wound that refused to close. The electric charge of energy drifted away and I took a deep breath, reining in my temper. Something in me still longed to cut the magic loose, but I could feel the urge coming from outside of me more than in my own soul. Zyrus was restless in the basement as it undoubtedly sensed the anger and frustration growing within me. But I wasn’t going to give in to the demon. I was in control, not the demon. It called me master and I would be the master in this situation.

“I’m not changing,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “I’m using more magic because I am constantly being thrown into situations that demand I use it. The people I am up against are using magic and I have to use it to stay alive.”

“The flowers?”

I clenched my teeth against the spike in my temper and waited a beat before speaking. “That was a mistake. I see that now. I’m sorry.” I wasn’t sure I actually agreed with her on that point. But I could see that the flowers had unnerved her and I didn’t want to upset her further. Unfortunately, the look in her eyes made me think that I wasn’t entirely convincing.

“The magic has to stop.”

“You tasked me with ensuring your safety so that you will stay. Magic is the only way I can do that.”

“Magic only makes things worse.”

She was being stubborn and ridiculous. Yes, I understood that the Ivory Towers had hunted down and slaughtered most of her people. I understood that the Towers still had a deep distrust and hatred for all elves. But that did not mean that all magic was bad. Magic could be used for good and that was what I was doing now. I had protected her and Bronx and countless other lives in Low Town with my magic over the years. Yes, I was using it more frequently now but I wasn’t afraid of the Towers removing my head because of a little cloaking spell or a memory charm.

I opened my mouth, not really sure what I was going to say, but I knew my tone was creeping back toward shouting. The words never had a chance to leave my tongue. A sickening wave surged through the parlor, moving from north to south, leaving me feeling like I’d been hit by a truck.

Gasping, I collapsed to the floor on my hands and knees, my heart struggling within my chest to start beating again. Dragging in a breath, I felt the air burn down my throat, like acid on my lungs. I choked, coughing and unwilling to take in a second breath, but I couldn’t fight it more than a few seconds. The next was easier, though still painful.

Across the room, I could hear Trixie coughing and choking as well. I slowly turned my head to look at her and winced. It was like my brain had been reduced to sludge and was now free to slide around in my skull. Trixie stayed on her feet, but was leaning heavily on the counter behind her. Her face was pale and sweat was streaking down from her temple.

“Are you okay?” My voice was like brittle autumn leaves, cracking and breaking at the slightest touch.

She nodded, slowly easing back onto her stool. “You?”

“Getting there.” I still didn’t feel up for standing, but I needed to get up and move.

“What was that?”

Fear rippled through me. There was no mistaking it. “Death Magic.”

“What? What’s that?” she asked and I was surprised. The elves were a long-lived race. I was sure that she would have heard of it. Of course, the Summer Court was the least likely to use something like that since they so highly valued life. Maybe she didn’t know about it because it was something that had never touched their lives.

“A dark kind of magic.” Reaching up, I grabbed the edge of the counter and pulled myself back to my feet. I stood still, swaying a bit as the last of the dizziness and nausea started to fade. “I’ve been tracking this killer for the Towers the past couple of weeks with Gideon. It’s why I’ve been away so much. We’re trying to catch this bastard before he destroys more people.”

“Is this the same person who killed Kyle?”

I shook my head, a part of me wishing they were the same person just so I didn’t have to find a way to catch two lunatics. “No.”

“You need to go?” Trixie said it as a question, but it didn’t feel that way. We needed to talk more. To work out this issue she was having with my use of magic, but it had become obvious that we were just going around in circles. Maybe it would be best if we just walked away right now so that we could both cool off and think clearly. Truth be told, I was beginning to wonder if I could think clearly being so close to one of Zyrus’s doorways. I hadn’t thought the demon could influence me, but the creature’s emotions were starting to tangle with mine and that couldn’t be a good thing.

“I need to catch this asshole before he hurts more people,” I said, careful not to add that this killer was now in Low Town and things were on the cusp of getting nasty if he found the other killer stalking innocent women.

“It’s okay. Go. I’ll keep an eye on things here.”

I hesitated, staring down at the wide-eyed elf who was still too pale. For a moment, I thought about loosening the bonds on Zyrus so that it could protect the first floor of the tattoo parlor and watch over Trixie, but it was far too dangerous. I couldn’t trust the demon to properly guard her and I doubted the elf would welcome the protection of a demon.

Trixie’s safety had become a tenuous thing. A demon was an easy answer as nothing could stop the creature but me. Yet, there was a tiny voice in the back of my head that was slowly getting louder. It was saying that Trixie and the baby would be safest with her own people. But I shoved that voice back down into the darkness.

Trixie couldn’t leave me. There would be nothing left of me without her.

Chapter 5

The street was silent as the sun sank toward the horizon, casting long shadows across the snow-crusted lawns. A crisp, bitter wind swept through the neighborhood, rattling the bare tree branches and reminding me that I was an idiot for not pausing long enough to grab my coat, though I was beginning to think that I had left it in the Towers rather than the parlor. Damn, my mind was anywhere but where I needed it to be.

Prior to leaving Asylum, I slapped on a cloaking spell to hide my sudden appearance from the normal residents of Low Town, but it wouldn’t have hidden me from the person working the Death Magic. I didn’t have anything in my bag of tricks that would help me on that front. Gideon and I had been two steps behind this asshole for too long. Now that he was in Low Town we had to act fast, which meant there wasn’t time for fancy Towers suits or better cloaking spells. I was just grateful that I had started carrying my wand with me at all times.

My heart stopped upon arrival. The neighborhood reminded me too much of where my parents lived. I knew the tracking spell had taken me to the north side of Low Town, but I couldn’t have told you my exact location. Twisting around, I took in the street of two-story brick homes and evergreen shrubs, willing my heart to slow down. It wasn’t my parents’ street. The killer wasn’t close to my family. Relief made me light-headed while my hands shook from something other than the cold. It was enough that I was constantly worried about Trixie. I didn’t need something new to throw on the fire.

Farther down the street, a car rumbled to life, the sound echoing off the buildings before it pulled sharply from the curb and headed away from me. I reached out, sensing the air, but the magical energy didn’t follow the car, so I didn’t think it was possible that the killer was escaping that way. The tang of death was heavy. I was hoping that I had acted quickly enough and he was still here.

Crossing to the sidewalk, I crunched through the frozen snow. The cold bit at my fingers and I fought the urge to shove them into my pockets. I needed my hands free if I suddenly found myself faced with the killer. Without Gideon at my back, I felt like I was at a distinct disadvantage against this insane fucker.

The thickest concentration of the energy was only a few houses down from where I’d arrived. It wasn’t as bad as when Trixie and I were initially hit at Asylum, but it was heavier than either of the times Gideon and I had shown up at the other two locations. My stomach lurched and churned, trying to force out its contents, while my heart hammered in my chest. An aching throb had started in my temples, threatening to split my skull. Whatever this magic was, it didn’t agree with my own magical inclinations and body chemistry.

A ripple of energy slipped down the street from behind me and I jerked around, my feet nearly slipping out from beneath me on a patch of ice. Gideon stood in the middle of the street, his cloak waving around him like a pair of ebony wings. The warlock looked pale in the fading light, probably feeling just as shitty as I did. Prior to the great revelation of this past summer, I had always thought that the warlock spent most of his time in his assigned Tower, but I was coming to the understanding that he actually spent the majority of his time here in Low Town to keep a close eye on me as well as to be close to his family.

Gideon took an unsteady step forward, his wand clenched in his left hand while his other hand was open and held out before him as if feeling the waves of energy shifting through the air. It actually took him a few seconds to notice me. At first, I would have been little more than a waver in the air before he pushed the cloaking spell aside to reveal a ghost-like image of myself.

Dropping his hands to his sides, he swiftly closed the distance between us. “You weren’t going to wait for me?” he inquired, looking around at the nearest houses.

“Neither were you,” I pointed out.

The warlock gave a nearly imperceptible shrug of his narrow shoulders. “I was confident that you would catch up.” He paused and looked over at me, frowning. “Though I thought you’d at least have the sense to change clothes.”

I grunted and continued down the block, heading toward the house from where the magic emanated. “I didn’t want to waste the time. We’ve been too close and just missed him.” A large two-story Georgian-style redbrick house with dark evergreen shutters rose up in the middle of the block. The front windows were dark, but dim light glowed from the back of the house, possibly the kitchen, and was leaking down the main hall. “Besides, we’re still in Low Town. Someone could recognize me.”

“If anyone happens to see us together, I promise to knock you around,” Gideon said with a little smirk. “Wouldn’t want to ruin your precious cover.”

“Fuck you,” I growled as I stepped around the smug warlock and walked up to the front of the house. I was just ready to get this done. I knew there was no chance of Trixie and I finishing our discussion until we were both done working for the night, but it would be nice to go back to her with news that at least one psychopath had been stopped.

The house looked empty. Of course, if the killer had murdered everyone on the premises like he did the last time, then the place would look empty.

“Do you know where the local nests are located?”

I shook my head. “One of them is on the west side, but I don’t know about the other one.” Vampires were notoriously secretive about where they slept during the day. But then, if you burned away to ash in the sun and were significantly weaker during the day, you’d be a little paranoid too.

Gideon swore under his breath, taking another look around the silent street. “We’ll just be cautious then. No magic if you can help it.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”

Gideon glared at me for a second as he tucked his wand back up his right sleeve. “You take the back door. I’ll go in the front. We’ll search from bottom to top.”

With a little wave of my hand, I started around the side of the house, heading toward the gate in the six-foot wooden privacy fence that lined the backyard. The fucker had picked a pricy neighborhood in which to settle. He couldn’t have spent much time here because the neighbors would have definitely noticed something strange going on in the house. It had been my experience that the more money a person had, the more attention they paid to what their neighbors were doing. Or maybe that was just the neighborhood my family lived in when I was a kid, living in an upper-middle-class subdivision littered with houses just like this one. You couldn’t sneak out of your bedroom window without someone being there to call your mom two minutes later.

The gate creaked as I pulled it open on frozen metal hinges. At the same time, a security light flashed on, flooding the back lawn and stone patio with harsh white light. I blinked a couple times, my eyes adjusting to the bright glare after walking for so long in the fading afternoon light.

A high-pitched laugh drew my eyes to a tall, thin man seated on the swing of a child’s playground set. He had hair as white as snow and his skin had a strange gray cast to it. His lank, stringy hair fell forward, covering most of his face, but one glimpse of his eyes revealed madness burning in their liquid black depths.

“I can seeeeee you, warlock,” he called in a singsong voice. Using his feet, he pushed off the frozen ground, swinging slowly while his bare hands gripped the metal chains on either side of him.

“Who are you?” I took a couple cautious steps into the yard while letting the gate close behind me. Was I finally faced with the madman who had been slaughtering people as he traveled north? He certainly didn’t look as if he was in his right mind. Could the Death Magic have driven him insane? There had to be a chance of that, but then didn’t you have to be insane to kill children in order to raise the dead?

“You’ve been following me,” he continued. His voice had a strange melody to it, as if it would be extremely pleasing if it weren’t entirely creepy at the same time.

“You’re the psychopath who has been murdering those children.”

The white-haired man cocked his head to the side so that his eyes were completely covered, but I wasn’t willing to bet that he was blind. “Psychopath? That’s not a nice word. But warlocks aren’t very nice. You’ve killed so many.”

“Like you.”

His laughter rang out, echoing through the silent neighborhood. There was a sickening child-like innocence to that sound, which twisted in my stomach. The man kicked his feet out and lay back as he swung higher. His white hair fanned out behind him in a cascade of starlight, shining in the glare cast by the security light.

I pulled some magical energy together, preparing to defend myself. I didn’t know where Gideon was in the house, but the warlock would realize that I hadn’t entered yet and would come looking for me. Right? He was my backup. And I was going to fucking need it. This guy was definitely not human. He wasn’t an elf, a siren, an incubus, or a shifter.

“No need for that, warlock,” he called as he straightened, his hair falling back over his face when he leaned forward. “I’m not going to kill you yet. I need you alive to see my final creation. My moment of triumph.”

“But maybe I’d rather see you dead now,” I muumbled before sending out a debilitating spell meant to incapacitate the fucker but keep him awake for questioning. One of the few spells I’d picked up from Simon during my studies.

The madman laughed again, the sound like needles prickling along my arms. The spell just washed over him as if he wasn’t even there. My heart stumbled and for the second time I wished that I felt more secure in having Zyrus watch my back, because it would know what I was faced with.

Gideon! I mentally reached out for the other warlock.

“Calling for help?” he taunted with a soft giggle.

“What are you planning?” I demanded, hoping to distract him long enough for Gideon to join me.

“Oh, I can’t tell that now. It would ruin the wonderful surprise.”

“Never been a fan of surprises myself.”

“No, warlocks aren’t.” The man’s voice changed suddenly, becoming cold and biting like a sharpened blade slicing through the fatty tissue around your stomach. The singsong mocking was gone. “You don’t like anything you can’t control and manipulate.”

“No, we don’t,” I said, grinning broadly at him. The boiling anger that lay just below the surface was something I could use. If I could get him pissed, then I might be able to get him to make a mistake. Lord knows I’d done that often enough in my life.

“Your time is coming. We’re going to destroy you all,” he snarled.

I gave an indifferent shrug. “And who is ‘we’? The Towers have got a lot of enemies.”

The man chuckled. It had become a low and ugly sound as it tumbled across the lawn toward me. “But that would be giving away the surprise.” And then it was like he’d flipped a switch. His high-pitched laughter returned as he started swinging again. “Nice trick, warlock, but you’re not going to get me.” His singsong voice had me clenching my teeth.

At the sound of the back door opening, the man was consumed in a brilliant flash of white light. When I could finally see again, an enormous white owl was perched on the wooden beam that held the swing. The owl watched me and Gideon, who was now standing on the patio just past the back door of the house, and then the owl extended his massive wings and took to the air.

I started to form a new spell that would pull the bastard back down to the ground. There was no way in hell I was going to let this prick out of my sight. I’d find a way to get some answers out of him. But I never finished the spell . . .

A surge of raw energy blasted through the backyard, similar to what I had felt at Asylum earlier in the evening. The power of it threw me backward, tearing through the defensive spell I had erected like it was wet tissue paper. Pain exploded in my spine as I slammed into the wooden fence. Boards creaked and splintered under the impact, but I didn’t go through it. I collapsed in a heap in the yard, my face down in the dirt and snow. My organs clenched and burned while my brain felt like it was melting in my skull. My cheeks were wet, but I couldn’t tell if I was crying in pain or if my eyes were bleeding.

It took all my energy to roll partially onto my side so that I could throw up without choking on my own vomit. When I had flushed both the coffee and old pizza I’d had from my system, my stomach decided that it needed to rid itself of stomach acid and then blood. Sheer exhaustion was the only thing that finally stopped the massive purge.

Gage. . .

Gideon’s voice drifted weakly through my head and I cringed. He didn’t sound any better than I felt. With some effort, I rolled onto my side, curled into the fetal position as I prayed for the pain to stop.

Promise me I’m going to die, I sent back to the warlock. I hurt so bad in more ways than my brain could comprehend. I just couldn’t accept the idea of living much longer with this pain.

You will . . . if you don’t tap into the magic around you.

“Good,” I whispered. There was an end in sight.

Do it, Gage. Pull in just a little energy. You’ll feel better. It helps.

I lay there. The pain was growing worse instead of subsiding. My bones were being slowly ground into dust and my lungs weren’t pulling in enough air. I couldn’t catch my breath. Too much pain. It was burning through me. I just wanted it over.

Tap the magic. Or do you want that killer hunting Trixie?

Gideon’s comment was barely enough to snap me out of my wallowing. Clenching my teeth, I released my last breath and opened up the little door inside of me that allowed the energy to flow in. Gideon lied. It made the pain hundred times worse.

I screamed. My legs jerked straight out and my back bowed off the ground, but the energy rushed in. I gasped, sucking in my first deep breath since being hit. My heart pumped and life flowed through my body, shoving out the dark magic that the bastard had hit me with.

It felt like I was on the ground, covered in sweat, tears, and blood for hours, but only a few minutes passed. My arms trembled when I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked around. The yard was a little darker now that the strange man was gone. Gideon had made it to his feet, but he didn’t look all that steady as he leaned against the side of the house. He was ashen and his face was streaked with what was probably both sweat and tears.

“What the fuck was that?” My voice sounded like I’d been gargling broken glass for cheap thrills. With a grunt, I pushed myself to my feet and immediately fell back against the fence when the world violently shifted around me.

“The bastard forced the Death Magic into us. The energy was trying to take over our bodies. It would have killed us.”

“And then what? Zombies?”

“Don’t know. Possibly.”

I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing while my mind turned over the bastard who had tried to turn me into a brain-munching, shambling horror show. He’d appeared pretty confident that he wouldn’t kill me, but I couldn’t agree with him. If Gideon hadn’t known what to do, I would have been quite content to let the Death Magic consume me in the hopes of death relieving my pain.

When I was sure I had my bearings again, I opened my eyes and pushed away from the fence to stand on my own. My cloaking spell was gone, and I just didn’t have the strength to put it back into place. I was still using the energy I had pulled in to heal my damaged body.

“What the hell was he?” I demanded, starting to slowly walk toward Gideon. I prayed that the neighbors didn’t pick that exact moment to look out their windows. Of course, I seriously doubted that anyone in this neighborhood frequented my parlor, but then I was taking enough chances in life, I didn’t need to add to my troubles.

Gideon straightened, his eyes slipping back to the swing set. “I don’t know. I didn’t see him long enough to recognize any distinguishing traits. I also didn’t sense anything in his magic use that would have identified him. Did you?”

“No,” I grumbled.

Frustration was building. If I had finished my schooling in the Towers, I might have been able to recognize what the bastard was, but my knowledge was considerably lacking. As it was, I could only recognize most creatures if I’d met them in the past.

Raking my fingers through my hair with a groan, I turned back toward the house. “On the plus side, I don’t think he’s planning to leave town. He mentioned having a surprise, a final triumph that he wanted me to witness. He’s sticking around to perform his final show here.”

“Wonderful,” Gideon muttered. “Did he mention what exactly that would be?”

“Nope.”

“He give you an address of where he was staying?”

“Nope.”

“Then I guess we do some digging here before I report back to the council,” Gideon said as he turned back toward the door he had exited minutes earlier.

“Why report back? We don’t know who or what this asshole is. We also don’t know what he’s planning.”

“True, but they need to know if something bad is about to happen. We can call in more guardians to search the area.”

“Is that really a good idea? Do we want more witches and warlocks running loose in Low Town? How many people do you think they’ll slaughter in their so-called search for this prick? A few hundred?”

“And what choice do we have?” Gideon shouted back at me, throwing the door open. “I don’t like the idea of it any better than you, but this guy has to be stopped before he opens up hell beneath us all.”

And maybe that’s exactly what this asshole was planning to do if he was hoping to free Lilith. I shook my head. “We’ve got to figure out what this guy is and what his plans are before we tell the Towers. We saw what the guardians did to Indianapolis when they felt threatened. They’ll do it all over again, but this time it’ll be Low Town that’s a smoldering pile of rubble.”

The warlock stood in the open doorway with his back to me, his head lowered. We were trapped. We needed more help, but the Ivory Towers’ preference for blowing things away and asking questions when the smoke cleared would result in too many deaths and not enough answers.

“Let’s look around the house and do some more digging,” I said calmly, trying my best to sound reasonable rather than desperate. “Something helpful might be found in there, giving us an edge that we didn’t have before.” Anything so we didn’t have to call in more warlocks and witches.

It was with considerable reluctance that Gideon nodded his head and continued into the house. I followed behind him, clinging to what little hope I could muster that we might actually get ahead of this prick and stop him before the Towers leveled Low Town.

What we found didn’t help our cause.

Chapter 6

After a quick search through the ground level, where we found nothing, we descended the stairs into what appeared to be a family room and play area for the kids of the house. As with the other sites, the psychopath had been kind enough to leave behind some bodies in the basement. The only thing different was that he’d changed his style of murder, which left me torn between crying and wanting to level the city myself.

In the center of the family room, we found children tied back to back in a pair of wooden dining-room chairs. The little boy looked to be about four years old and the girl was six or seven. It was easier to guess because they both still had their heads. The fucker had punched into their chests and ripped their hearts out.

Their young faces were still streaked with tears from where they had cried for their parents before being murdered. Their horror was a palpable thing, seeming to suck the oxygen from the air. Where were their parents through this? Had the children been forced to watch their parents being murdered before they finally met their own grisly end? Or was it the other way around?

Gideon cleared his throat, dragging his gaze away from the tortured pair. “No writing this time.” His voice was rough and I pitied my companion. Sometimes I could almost understand the Towers’ edict against warlocks and witches having children. Bridgette had to be on Gideon’s mind, haunting him while he stood in the blood of children so close to her age.

“He’s not experimenting anymore,” I murmured, trying to find my own voice through the sadness and rage.

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “He knows what he’s doing now. I think he perfected what he was attempting with the vampires.”

“Then why do this?” I waved a hand at the two children, starting to lose my grip on my temper.

“To get our attention. To taunt us. To bring us out so that we could finally meet, letting him show us that he’s not afraid of the Towers.”

I sighed, rubbing my head as I turned away from the kids to trudge back up the stairs. “The Ivory Towers have pissed off every race on this planet. You care to take a guess as to which one has figured out how take on the Towers and win?”

Gideon followed me up the stairs to the kitchen. The room was nearly spotless. There were a couple glasses and a plate with bread crumbs in the sink. A roast was defrosting on the counter. Someone had planned ahead for dinner that night. Our killer hadn’t resided in this house. No, he’d just stopped by to kill the kids so that we could meet at last.

“You think there’s a reason he chose this house?” I asked, turning around the island in the center of the room to face Gideon. “I mean, he took some risks coming here in the middle of the day. People would have noticed someone strange in the neighborhood.”

“Possibly. Of course, he could have been using a cloaking spell just like you.”

I shrugged. “Maybe, but I don’t sense any of the magic residue from him like I did at the first location.”

Pulling out his wand, Gideon started for the front of the house. “Let’s finish our search. The owners are around here somewhere.”

I hope they’re dead. It sounded horrible in my head when I thought it, but I really didn’t think they’d want to know how their children died or why.

I got my wish, but there was a price for that. We found the parents on the second floor, but one look at them confirmed that our killer now had a partner. The bitch who had been stalking pregnant women had been here and worked her horrific skills on the parents.

The parents were found in a nursery. The husband was tied to the rails of the baby bed while the wife was across from him, leaned up against the dresser. She had been killed in the usual way; stabbed in the chest and slashed across the stomach. However, judging by the blood crusted to the man’s wrists and the broken rails, he had been forced to watch the death of his wife before our killer took him out with a long cut across the throat. His death had been slower.

Looking at how the two victims were arranged so that they could clearly see each other, I was sure that this murder had been personal for our female psychopath. In all the other deaths, they had been terrible but relatively quick and completed in secrecy, taking limited risks. She picked the location, not the white-haired weirdo.

“They found each other,” Gideon said emotionlessly from behind me.

What he meant to say was, We’re fucked.

“Tell the council,” I said past the lump in my throat. Something big and nasty was bearing down on Low Town and we needed help. “Just try to keep them from destroying the city.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

Shaking my head, I stepped around Gideon and started back toward the first floor. “I’ve got to call Serah. She might be able to figure something out that we haven’t thought of.”

“You think?” Gideon asked skeptically, following me down the stairs.

“I’m telling your wife you said that. Humans are pretty damn resourceful and you know it.”

“True,” he conceded, sounding more tired with each passing minute. This investigation was wearing us both down.

“I really doubt that we’ll be able to track the magic user, but the woman chose this place. Serah might be able to pull some info out of the cops that would allow us to track down the other killer.”

“Agreed.”

Gideon went quickly around the house and into the backyard, wiping away any evidence that we had been there, while I stepped outside under a cloaking spell to call 911 to report screams and a strange man at this address. The second call was to Serah to tell her the whole story.

As I pulled up her number in my cell phone, I hesitated. She’d been warned away from this case. If she kept pushing, she would lose her job. And yet, I still completed the call, because she wasn’t the type to walk away. I’d met few people more determined or tenacious than she. Serah was not going to stop until the killer was caught and dragged in front of a judge.

With the scene reset to look as if we hadn’t been mucking about the place, Gideon disappeared. I could only assume that the warlock was heading to one of the Ivory Towers to report to the council. I dreaded the idea of more witches and warlocks getting involved in this hunt for a madman, but Gideon and I were a step behind and outgunned when it came to taking these assholes down. We needed help, but I was afraid that we were getting the wrong kind. I wanted someone to act with the precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel, not a five-year-old with a chainsaw and too much sugar.

I hesitated, trying to decide where to go. It was with some disgust that I found myself standing in what had been Simon’s rooms within the Dresden Tower. I at least had the excuse of wanting to pick up my coat, but as I stood there holding it in my fists, I knew that the truth was that I didn’t want to go back to Asylum. There was too much unsettled business between Trixie and me, but I didn’t have any new answers for her.

Throwing the jacket down, I slumped in a chair with my head in my hands. Zyrus danced around me, excited by the scent of death clinging to me like a second skin. In my desperation, I even tried asking the demon if it knew what I was up against, but Zyrus was unable to help. It recognized the magic as Death Magic, but it didn’t know who had cast the spell or even why.

Shoving myself out of the chair in frustration, I paced over to the bookshelf on the far wall, but I didn’t pull anything down. What creature existed now that might be old enough to know what Death Magic was? What creature would be powerful enough to use it as well as have a vendetta against the Towers? The Dark Elves? Definitely, but that man didn’t look anything like a dark elf. His hair made him similar to the Winter Court, but that was the only similarity between them. The stranger’s features had been softer, more rounded than the Winter Court elves.

My mind kept going back to the first trip Gideon and I took to investigate the magical disturbance. The magic we had sensed there had been different. Extremely different. Something I had never encountered before. It wasn’t fey and it wasn’t shifter, despite the man’s ability to easily change forms.

Could Gideon be right in that this creature, this man, was one of the Lost Ones? They certainly had a bone to pick with the Towers, since it was believed that all of their kind had been wiped from the Earth centuries ago. There were a few species out there that were on the cusp of being categorized as Lost Ones, but the only groups who had truly earned the title were dragons and unicorns. Had I just seen one of those?

I shook my head. Couldn’t be. I wouldn’t have survived an encounter with either creature if it had been. Then again, I had barely survived the encounter as it was. Gideon had pulled my ass from the edge.

Fuck.

And what if it was one of the Lost Ones? What was I supposed to do? Kill him, officially destroying the last of his kind. That’s what I wanted to be known for! Gage, the man who slaughtered the last unicorn. Gage, the dragon slayer.

I roared with rage. Twisting around, I blasted energy through the room, shattering every glass vial, jar, and beaker in its path. Papers scattered, flying through the air.

What the fuck happened to just being a tattoo artist? When had my life gotten so damn complicated? I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands and tried to clear my thoughts, but they kept getting pulled along the timeline of my life. Was it when Simon came back, hunting me? Should I have not killed my mentor to survive, but let him kill me that night last summer? It would have gotten me out of the Towers’ hair, but it would have landed me solidly in Lilith’s hands, which couldn’t possibly be a good thing.

Was it when I faced down the Towers and saved my brother’s life? No witch or warlock likes to be shown up, and that was what I accomplished by outmaneuvering them. Or maybe things went off-balance when I solved the elves little reproduction problem?

Trixie blamed magic for all my problems and magic was involved in all those incidents. But what would have happened if I hadn’t used magic? My brother would be dead, Low Town would be a smoking crater in the earth, the elves would be going extinct because they couldn’t have babies . . . oh, and I’d be dead. Sure, magic had caused all those problems in the first place, but it had fixed it all as well. Where did you draw the line? How did you stop the cycle?

Flopping back in the chair, I stared at the mess I’d made across the room. Glass glittered in the pale light while scattered paper soaked up the liquids that were spreading across the table and onto the floor. I didn’t know the answer. It felt like I was left with only two choices. On the one hand, I could let the Towers kill me. That would stop them from bothering Trixie and our child. But, in my opinion, that was a really shitty choice.

On the other hand, I could use the magic and information that filled this room and many like it in this Tower to take down the witches and warlocks, dismantling the Towers and all their power. Removing the Towers meant removing the threat from Trixie and the world. That road was long, treacherous, and unlikely to lead to a happy ending for me.

“Is it even possible to get rid of the Towers?” I murmured, talking to myself.

Of course you can. The man who destroys Lilith can do anything in this world.

The demon’s words reminded me that I had another task waiting for me that I’d rather not think about. Zyrus still had its little black heart set on me destroying the Queen of the Monsters. I wasn’t sure how the fuck I was going to accomplish that feat, but that seemed a little more possible than the road I currently faced against the Towers. I might just be reassured by the idea that Zyrus had already read in the future that I had the ability to take Lilith down. It was too much to hope that such a thing was possible.

“And become a murderer in the process,” I muttered, dropping my head into my hand.

Murderer for some, but savior for your world.

I would happily give my last breath to save the world for Trixie and my child. But then dying was easy. Was I willing to become a murderer for my love?

Serah called, jerking me from my dark thoughts. She said it was safe to return to the scene of the crime now that the cops had arrived and locked the place down.

Glancing around Simon’s old room, I sighed. I needed to stop spending time here. It wasn’t good for my state of mind. I also needed to stay focused on the problems directly in front of me. If I could catch the killers, the city would be safe and I could turn my full attention to Trixie. Maybe then it would be time for me to part ways with Zyrus. It might not be too keen on the idea, but I didn’t think hanging around with a demon was good for my health.

Chapter 7

Night had claimed the city when I crawled back to my apartment. The investigation at the crime scene had taken longer because of the changes made by the killer. I kept my mouth shut about the fact that they were now looking at the chaos created by two separate killers. The Low Town police didn’t need to chase after the other asshole. I was still trying to figure out how a pair of warlocks was going to take these lunatics down. Humans didn’t have a chance.

When Serah dropped me off, she promised that she’d follow up with me as soon as possible. She was confident that we’d get closer to the killer now because she was sure she could establish a link between the victims and the killer. I just pitied them. How could you piss someone off so much that this was the result? The world had enough of pain and death already.

Rubbing my eyes, I shoved my key in the lock and froze. Someone was in my apartment. I could feel them on the other side of the wall. Their energy was warm and inviting, though the occupants felt agitated, as if they were anxious about my arrival. Very carefully, I probed the room to find that Trixie was in the living room along with . . . her brother.

My heart stopped for a second and I leaned my head forward to rest it against the door. I didn’t want to move forward. Hell, I wanted to back away and go hide at Asylum, where I could bullshit with Bronx and pretend that my girlfriend wasn’t leaving me. But they would have heard the key going into the lock. They could probably hear me breathing. I didn’t get the choice of acting like a coward.

Turning the key in the lock, I stepped into my living room to find Trixie sitting on the edge of the couch with her hands folded tightly in her lap. Her brother Eldon was prowling my dining room and kitchen, a scowl on his face. I scowled back at him. We’d never actually gotten along. I think it had to do with the fact that I was a warlock and that I was the reason his sister had chosen to stay in Low Town rather than returning to her people. Of course, I was the one who had saved their race, so you’d think he’d cut me a little slack, but not this prick.

Carefully closing the door behind me, I walked over to the dining room table and draped my coat over the back of one of the chairs. Eldon had stopped pacing and out of the corner of my eye I could see Trixie now standing beside the sofa. I wracked my brain for the perfect words to say: the words that would win her and convince her to stay. At that moment, I would have promised anything. If she wanted, I would give up magic. I would find a way to be a normal guy who did normal things that didn’t attract the attention of murderers, thugs, and the Towers.

But the words I needed in that instant would be a lie, and we both knew it.

“I thought you were going to give me more time,” I said softly, breaking the tense silence that had grown in the room.

“It’s too dangerous,” Eldon said in clipped tones. My head jerked up and I clenched my teeth, fighting the urge to snap at the man.

“Don’t, Eldon,” Trixie sharply said, surprising me. But then I had no doubt that she could sense that I was just about to crack. Trixie always knew how I felt. “Just let me talk, please.”

Without breaking his gaze, Eldon nodded stiffly. The elf leaned back against the wall across from me, folding his arms over his chest.

“I thought it would be best if I left now,” Trixie said. Where her brother’s voice was like a sledgehammer beating against me, Trixie’s sweet voice was a blade, slicing through my heart as if to remove it completely from my chest. “The weather has been getting worse and we’ve heard whispers that the Winter Court is planning for heavy snowfall at the start of the new year. It would be safest if I leave now.”

A sigh slipped from my parted lips. I dropped my head to stare down at the top of the table before turning to face her. “You know that’s not the reason. If you’re going to leave with my child, the least you could do for both of us is to tell the truth.”

Tears glistened in her wide green eyes and I almost wanted to take the words back. My first impulse was to take her into my arms and tell her that it would all be okay and that I understood why she was doing this, but I couldn’t. I was hurting too and I didn’t understand why she had to do this when it was killing us both.

“Low Town is too dangerous.” Trixie paused and cleared her throat, though her voice wasn’t any less rough when she continued. “You’ve become too dangerous.” When my gaze narrowed on her, she started speaking much faster as if she was trying to head off my next words. “You’re messing with some kind of magic that is just bad. I don’t know what it is, but you’re changing. You’re becoming more reckless. The Towers are demanding more of you, and I’m afraid that you’ll never be able to escape again. I’m afraid for you, Gage. I’m afraid that if they keep demanding, eventually you’re not going to want to leave. “

“I’m fine—”

“No, you’re not. You’ve been hunting down two different killers while still keeping up with your hours at the parlor. You’re spreading yourself so thin that you’re barely sleeping, barely eating. It’s affecting your control over magic. Most people wouldn’t notice, but there’s a change in the air wherever you go. It’s like waiting for lightning to strike.”

“I’ve got it under control. I’m f—”

“No, you’re not!” Trixie closed the distance between us and cupped my cheeks in both of her hands. “Please, you have to realize that you’re not fine. We’re not fine. You need help. You need to stop and get away from the Towers.”

Tears slipped down her pale cheeks when she blinked, but she didn’t wipe them away. She kept her hands on me and I was at last shaken by her fear. Her crisp fresh scent floated around me. If I closed my eyes I could see a spring rain on a green glade filled with wildflowers. I could hear birds singing and I could feel the cool water hitting my face. The feel of her, of her own gentle magic, broke through the sludge of darkness that had coated me for so long.

“I just wanted to keep you safe,” I said, struggling to get the words past the lump in my throat.

“I know, my love. You have tried so hard, but what we wish for will take more time and more power than either of us possesses. So long as the Towers exist, they’ll haunt us. I’m afraid of bringing a child into that kind of life.”

“What if it were just you? Would you stay?” I asked. It was a stupid question to ask because it didn’t reflect reality any longer. But something irrational in me had to know that she would have fought for me if she had only herself to worry about. Somehow, I thought knowing that would help ease the pain that was suffocating me.

“Yes,” she said in a rush. She stood on tiptoe and pressed her lips to mine in a kiss made damp by her tears. She kissed me a second time and then kissed my chin as she stood flat-footed on the floor again. “If it were just me, I’d stay. Damn the Towers and the danger. If it was just me, I’d stay with you. I would fight for you and I would win.”

Reaching out, I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms tightly around her as I squeezed my eyes shut against a sudden burning. I didn’t know if her answer made me feel better or worse. I’d loved Trixie for so long, and we’d had so little time together. We didn’t start dating until after she’d found out the truth about me. I respected her too damn much to take a chance on a relationship without her knowing that I was a warlock. Now I was losing her.

“Trixie,” Eldon said, reminding me that the elf was still here. My arms reflexively tightened around Trixie as if he’d tried to pull her out of my arms. Maybe in a way, he had. He was reminding us both that it was time to go.

It was an inner struggle but I finally loosened my hold on her and took a step back, even though I kept my hands locked on her forearms. I looked down at her, confident that I’d always remember what she was wearing at that moment. She had on her favorite worn blue jeans with the small hole in the right knee. Her pale blue sweater reminded me of the summer sky on a cloudless day. Beneath the sweater, she wore the black T-shirt I’d randomly picked up for her as a joke. It had a picture of an animated ninja cat on it because I complained that she moved so quietly around my apartment

I placed my right hand over her lower abdomen, which was only now starting to show a little bulge. “Do you know what it’s going to be yet?”

She placed her hand over mine, holding it there. “Not yet. Another month. Maybe a little longer. Do you have any suggestions for names?”

“I do,” I said with a fragile smile, my head popping up to look at her. Releasing her, I knelt down before her so that my face was directly in front of her stomach. I gently placed my hands on either of her hips, my thumbs brushing against her stomach. She was so small and slender in my hands. I’d never get to see her grow large with our child. I shoved the thought away and clung to the happy moment I’d held just a second ago.

“I never told you this, but when I went to see Mother Nature, I met several souls who were living in her . . . place,” I started, struggling for the right words. Mother Nature lived in a sort of energy crossroads, having largely abandoned Earth because of the warlocks and witches making a mess of everything. “There was one soul in particular. He was so very small, so very young. When I saw him, he had curly blond hair and blue eyes. He was beautiful, Trixie. And the moment I held him, I knew he was mine.”

“You met your son?” Trixie asked in a hushed whisper.

I looked up to see her expression filled with surprise and wonder. I smiled at her, loving the feel of her hand as her fingers slid through my hair in a reassuring caress. “I think I met our son. The soul of the child I held, I knew he would one day be my son, but I didn’t know who his mother would be. But if the baby you carry is a boy, I think it will be the soul that I met.”

“I hope you’re right,” she said in a strained voice.

“When I was with Mother Nature, I called him Squall. Could you . . . ?”

She nodded, wiping away fresh tears with her free hand. “I’ll honor it.”

“Thank you.” Leaning forward, I pressed a kiss to her abdomen while inwardly praying that this wasn’t the closest I ever came to kissing or holding my child. I stayed there for a second, my forehead pressed against Trixie’s stomach as I blinked back the tears and swallowed past the lump that was choking me. My throat was raw and the ache in my chest left me feeling as if my heart had been passed through a meat grinder.

After several deep breaths, I stood again and took a step back. Trixie was crying openly now, while trying to keep a smile pasted on her lips as if she could reassure me that this was for the best.

“I’ll send pictures and letters somehow. I’ll keep you updated on everything, I promise,” she said in a wavering voice.

“And I will find a way to make it safe. Even if it means tearing down the Towers one by one. It will be safe for you and our child. We’ll be together one day, I promise you that.”

“I know we will,” she said and then turned quickly and hurried out the door. The sound of her sobbing could be heard echoing down the hall as she descended the stairs.

Eldon moved to follow after her, but I grabbed his shoulder and slammed him against the nearest wall. The elf glared at me, his hand going to his side like he was going for a weapon, but I was already there in his face.

“You will watch over her. Keep her safe with your people. Do you understand me?” I snarled.

“Yes,” he hissed as me through clenched teeth.

“No one bothers her. No one goes near her or upsets her.”

“My sister is in enough pain. I would not have her suffer more.”

“And our child—”

“I will protect the child as if he were my own,” Eldon replied, his tone softening slightly for the first time.

“I don’t what him to suffer because of who his father is.”

“The child will not.” Eldon paused, looking a little uncomfortable. “While I might not be fond of you, the people of the Summer Court know what you have done for our race. You are . . . respected. Your child will be held in high esteem.”

With a nod, I released Eldon and stepped away from him. The elf gave me a small bow of his head and slipped out the open door. The silence of the empty apartment was suddenly overwhelming. I closed the door with a loud slam and leaned against it with my hands over my head.

“I will keep you safe!” I screamed, the desperate shout reverberating through the emptiness. “I will destroy them all! I . . . I will keep you safe.”

And then I let the pain consume me.

Chapter 8

I woke up lying half under the dining-room table, staring into the kitchen. I had no idea how I’d gotten there. It was only extreme discomfort that finally drove me to sit up. Sun poured through the open window blinds, casting the dusty living room in a golden light that was almost sickening considering the state of my life. Trixie was gone and I felt like I had no reason to ever move again. There was no reason to get up, make coffee, take a shower, or breathe.

Leaning back against the wall, I placed my elbows on my bent knees and roughly rubbed my face. My eyes felt like they had a pound of sand in them and my throat was raw. The throbbing ache in my head was getting worse the longer I stayed conscious. It was tempting to call up a snowstorm to blot out the sun while I crawled into my bed to stay for a few days.

But what would that have accomplished? I groaned and leaned my head back until it banged against the wall behind me. Trixie would still be gone. The killer stalking pregnant women would still be free, murdering more people. The other psychopath would be preparing his final triumph and Gideon would not be able to stop this asshole alone. And the Towers needed to be taken down permanently.

If I stopped the killers and destroyed the Towers, Trixie would come back. The world would be safe. She’d have to come back. I didn’t know if I was right or even if that was the sanest thought to cross my mind that morning, but it was a start. It was enough to get me to my unsteady feet. I had to hold on to the hope that I could get her back—that I could prove to her that I could create a safe home for her and our child.

I started the coffeemaker, creating more noise than substance in the process as my brain was having trouble getting my hands to obey commands. With the dark liquid brewing, I climbedinto the shower while the water was still ice cold to clear my head and shock myself awake. I needed all the cylinders running if I was going to figure this one out.

Serah would be hot on the trail of the tattooed killer and I fully expected her to call me with information at some point during the day. But the other murderer was out of her reach. The police might be able to identify the woman, but I needed Gideon to perfect the tracking spell with the blood he’d gotten from Serah. The only problem that was left was identifying the other killer. Gideon and I needed to know what the fuck we were up against before we met for the final showdown. He’d nearly killed us once. I didn’t think we’d be able to escape a second time.

Unfortunately, Zyrus couldn’t identify the fucker from the magic or the description I had given it. I’d kind of hoped that the demon had been around enough to be able to recognize every creature that walked the Earth. I guess there were still a few that escaped its notice.

I needed someone who knew a little bit about everything, particularly the dark side of this world. Someone who had his nimble little fingers in everything. And there was only one man in this city who knew everything that happened within the bounds of Low Town, and maybe even beyond.

Chang. The black-market dealer had his withered hands in everything, especially those rare, impossible-to-get items. He knew freaking everything without being told. And if I was lucky he’d know exactly what I’d need to do to defeat this asshole. I generally didn’t go to Chang for information, but rather for that rare item to complete a complicated potion or to save my ass from a nasty lunatic.

Turning off the water just as it was getting warm, I jumped out of the shower and toweled off the majority of the water still running down my body while hurrying to my bedroom. My heart was racing. I finally had a shot at getting one up on this bastard. It was a big first step in getting Trixie back.

Hell, if I could get rid of these two assholes today, I could maybe convince her to stay. Trixie and Eldon couldn’t have gotten too far from Low Town. I could use a tracking spell to find her and convince her that it was safe to come back.

I made a complete mess of my bedroom, or rather an even bigger mess than it already was, as I searched for something that was in the gradient of mostly clean. It had been weeks since I’d last bothered to take a pile of clothes down to the laundry room in the basement of my apartment building. For the past several days, I had been surviving on clothes that weren’t covered in blood, ripped to hell, or smelled like spoiled milk and feet.

The faded black jeans I pulled on were my last pair of clean pants. I’d either have to do laundry or wear shorts tomorrow. For most people, the choice would be clear considering that it was December and the temperature hadn’t climbed above freezing in more than a week. Sadly, as I pulled up the zipper, I found myself praying that I didn’t get blood or a new hole in these because I would be wearing them tomorrow.

Sucking down one cup of coffee, I filled a travel mug with more and left for Chang’s. It wasn’t too far from the parlor, but it was a long drive because of the slow morning traffic that was struggling to pick its way through yet another blanket of snow. These damn Winter Court fey needed to back off with the fucking snow. Low Town wasn’t so far north that usually we got several feet of snow each winter. But now it was nearly every other day that we were getting a fresh coat, giving residents just enough time to dig themselves out before it started all over again.

By the time I found a parking spot more than a block from the entrance to Chang’s, my head was throbbing and I was trying to push down an ugly case of road rage. I’d nearly been hit by a bus when it slid into my lane while trying to stop for a light. Taking a deep breath, I sipped my coffee and waited until I was calm before stepping out into the bitter cold that failed to be alleviated by the bright sunlight reflecting off the piles of snow.

Burrowing down into my heavy wool coat, I walked briskly to the site of the burned-out Diamond Doll strip club. I paused in front of it, frowning at its blackened walls and boarded-up front door. The Towers did this. Fourteen people had died that day and several dozen had been injured in their attempts to escape. Most of the buildings on the block were boarded up, while others were simply vacant, the previous owners having left in search of somewhere safer to live. The gods only knew where that was.

With a shake of my head, I continued past the strip club and turned down an alley beside it. Taking a quick look over my shoulder to make sure no one noticed me, I entered through what looked like another boarded-up door; but the boards were only there for show. Chang still had a business to run regardless of the chaos the Towers created. This was probably a better cover for him than the strip club.

I walked quickly across the fire-scorched concrete floor past broken chairs and shattered glasses. The bar was almost completely gone and I smiled wistfully at it. I missed seeing Jerry Caskey, the owner of Diamond Dolls. We’d talked on a number of occasions as I waited for my turn to talk to Chang. I’d even gotten into the habit of picking up a coffee for him at a nearby cafe before coming in. A mocha-coconut coffee with nonfat milk, whipped cream, and toasted coconut flakes. I felt like an ass ordering it most of the time, but it made Jerry smile.

But the Towers had ruined that, like they had ruined so many other things in this world.

Cutting through the main room of the club, I entered a narrow hallway that had led to the washrooms. I put my shoulder into one of the blackened doors and it opened slowly without a sound. This room was untouched by the fire. The floor, ceiling, and walls of the small room were all completely done in a bright white. There was no smell of burned wood and as I walked across the floor, I left behind no sooty tracks on the perfect floor.

This was the first time I’d visited Chang since the attack on Low Town, but I knew that he would still be here. His place would be untouched by the Towers. The man had survived too long, acquired too many things, and knew too much to ever be caught by a warlock or a witch.

But his dogs were missing. Named Patty and Cake, the two Doberman pinschers were the most frightening dogs I had ever seen, and I didn’t even know if they were real. There was so much magic circling the old man that I was never quite sure what was an illusion. When it came to the dogs, I wasn’t willing to take a chance on their teeth.

Pushing the call button for the elevator, I was a little surprised when the door immediately slid open. Still no dogs waiting for me. I stepped into the elevator and hesitated. One of the dogs always pushed the button, knowing exactly where to find its master at any moment. Of the four floors besides the ground floor, I usually met Chang on the third floor of the subbasement, but the last trip had taken me to the first floor, which housed a giant underground Garden of Eden. With a growl of frustration, I pushed the button for the third floor, hoping to find the old man in his usual spot.

When the doors opened again, a familiar but unhappy sight was waiting for me. I found the dogs. They stood just beyond the open doors, their teeth bared as they growled. I stepped back until I hit the far wall of the elevator, my open hands raised before me. Every muscle in their lean bodies was tensed, waiting for a command from their owner to tear my throat out.

“Whoa!” I shouted, already mentally pulling together a defensive spell. “What the hell, Chang? I need to talk to you.”

To my surprise, the little old man stepped out from behind a shelf piled with his goodies. He wasn’t happy. “You’re not welcome here! Get out!” he shouted, waving his cane at me.

At the same time, the doors started to shut. Stretching my right leg out, I pressed the “open door” button with my toe. I kept it pressed there while balancing on my left foot. The dogs flinched and my heart stuttered in my chest. Holy shit! These dogs were going straight for my freaking nuts if Chang gave the command to attack!

“Listen, Chang. I need your help,” I said, trying to sound calm and not half as desperate as I felt.

“Go away, Gage Powell. You’re too much trouble.” Chang gave an irritated wave of one hand before he started to walk farther into the room and away from me.

“Damn it, Chang!” I swore as the little old man disappeared behind some shelves. I glared at the dogs, who were still growling at me while eyeballing my crotch like I was smuggling doggie treats down there. Reaching behind me, I pulled my wand out of my back pocket and waved it quickly at the dogs before they could react, inwardly praying that these were real fucking dogs and not some nasty spell. The moment the sleep spell hit them, they blinked a couple times, gave jaw-cracking yawns, and then lay down outside the elevator.

Sighing, I dropped my foot from the button and lunged forward, catching the doors before they could close. I carefully stepped around the sleeping dogs, figuring that I had close to an hour before either one of them stirred. More than enough time to talk to Chang and get the hell out of there. I had no idea what had crawled up his ass and died, but I was getting to the bottom of this. Chang had always helped me in the past and he had to know something of use now.

Once I was past the dogs, I hurried my pace to a jog and darted around the shelves I had seen Chang cut down, but he wasn’t there. Fuck, that old man could move fast! I paused, trying to guess where he’d gone when his voice drifted above the collection of objects.

“Get out of here, warlock. You’re not welcome here.”

“Come on, Chang! We’ve worked together for years,” I shouted back, trying to get a fix on his location from the sound of his voice. My eyes danced over crystal prisms holding snippets of actual rainbows, treasure maps under glass, and what looked to be Excalibur half hidden under a stack of fast food napkins and ketchup packets. “I need a little information and then I’m gone.”

“The last time you were in this part of town, the Towers burned half the neighborhood.”

“That wasn’t my fault! I didn’t lead them to you. Hell! They still don’t know about you, old man.”

“How do you know they’re not following you now?”

“They’re not, Chang. They’re not interested in me anymore.”

The old man stepped out from a shelf, his muddy brown eyes narrowed on me. “Yes, that’s because you’re one of them again. You are not welcome here, Gage Powell. Get out.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Chang!” I snarled, shoving both of my hands through my hair. “You know I’m not one of them. I had no choice but to go back to work for the guardians. They were going to kill me if I didn’t.”

The black-market dealer didn’t look convinced and I swore, briefly looking for something to kick in my frustration. That certainly wouldn’t have endeared me to Chang. “I’m still trying to protect the people of Low Town from the Towers. That’s a lot easier to do if I know what the Towers are planning, right? It’s better than working blind like I had been.”

“I’m not convinced.”

“Do you seriously think I would be part of a group that nearly wiped out my girlfriend’s people? Do you think I would willingly be part of a group that would hunt down my child if they found out about him?”

For the first time since I’d met him, Chang looked surprised, but that was understandable since the man made it his business, a very lucrative business, to know everything that was happening. “You’re having a baby?” he whispered.

“Trixie is, yes,” I said in a sigh, my shoulders slumping under the weight of the thoughts as well as the renewed ache at her loss. My anger flashed to life again in the next heartbeat. “And if you tell a goddamn soul I swear I’ll give you something to fucking worry about.”

Chang’s dark expression eased a little as he stared at me, possibly weighing what he knew of me. I had been going to Chang for several years after being introduced to the old man by my tattooing mentor Atticus Sparks. It should have been no surprise that I would end up with a tattooing mentor who liked to color outside the lines of what was legal from time to time. And Chang’s goodies definitely wouldn’t have been on TAPSS’s list of approved ingredients for potions.

I never said one word to Chang about being a warlock. He’d sold me things to get past suicidal vampires and crazed warlocks. He’d even helped me escape the Grim Reaper once. I thought we had a good understanding, but the fact that he believed I could willingly return to the Ivory Towers hurt. It hurt more than I would have thought it could.

“Come on,” he grumbled, motioning for me to follow him as he shuffled along a winding course through his massive warehouse of unique goods. I smiled faintly when we walked over the flying carpet still pinned down on each corner by a stack of books. Apparently Chang hadn’t been successful in getting rid of it yet.

As we walked, I filled Chang in on what had happened in the Towers that saw me returning to the fold, as it were. He nodded, his free hand absently touching his various treasures as he passed them, as if their presence comforted him. Chang moved a little slower than he usually did. He looked older too, as if he’d aged a few years since my last visit, at the end of summer.

On the last turn, we stepped into a large open area that had a little kitchen setup, with a refrigerator that looked like it was straight out of the fifties. Off to one side sat a small dinette set with four chairs arranged around it. A heavy sigh slipped from Chang as he sank into one of the chairs and stretched his legs out in front of him.

“You doing okay, Chang? You’re not looking so hot.”

The old man snorted and looked me up and down once. “You’re not looking so hot yourself,” he said irritably.

“Trixie left,” I murmured as I sat in the chair that put me on his left.

Chang nodded. “Not surprised. It’s dangerous up there,” he said, motioning toward the ceiling. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a slightly crumpled packet of cigarettes. While not a smoker, I was surprised that I didn’t recognize the label on the front. The picture was of a woman who looked like a Bettie Page pin-up girl holding a cigarette and smiling. But instead of perfect white teeth, her mouth was full of sharp fangs. Holding one cigarette between his thin lips, Chang started to pat down his pockets as he searched for either a lighter or matches.

With a little grin, I snapped my fingers on my right hand, creating a teardrop of a flame on the tip of my index finger. As I held it out to him, Chang leaned forward and took a couple draws, getting the cigarette lit. Satisfied, the old man leaned back and smiled at me. “How long have you been waiting to be able to do something like that in front of me?”

“I haven’t been,” I said, waving my hand to extinguish the flame. “Smoking is bad for you.”

“Not as bad as you’d think,” he murmured cryptically. We sat in silence for a couple minutes as he puffed pensively on his cigarette while I tried to ignore the acrid smoke hovering in the air around us. I appreciated the companionable silence. Too much had happened recently to fill the void with needless chatter. Chang also knew that he wasn’t going to be able to sell me any of his random knickknacks today.

When he was half finished, Chang ground out the cigarette in a little black plastic ashtray in the center of the table and pushed to his feet. “More is wearing on you than your girlfriend troubles.”

“There’s this crazy bitch killing pregnant women for a reason I can’t even guess,” I said, watching as he pulled open the yellow door of the rounded refrigerator and started digging through the drawers. “And then there’s this other psychopath. He’s killing kids and . . . and . . .”

“Death Magic,” the old man murmured. He straightened, holding oranges held in either hand.

Chang handed me one of the oranges before easing back into his chair. I smiled as I turned it around in my hand. It was a sanguinello, a blood orange; the same type that Chang had sold me a couple years ago when I had been trying to help my vampire ex-girlfriend out with a problem in her nest. It was the same time that I met Trixie.

“You do have a way of getting yourself into trouble,” Chang murmured, slowly peeling away bits of the thick orangish-red rind.

“Tell me about it.” I put the orange away from me, setting it against the ashtray in the center of the table so it wouldn’t roll around. “I think we’ve got a good lead on the woman. She’s human, with an Alpha Conversion tattoo. It’s made her insane, but in the end, she’s still just a human. My problem is the other asshole. I have no idea how to catch this guy. Fuck, Chang, I don’t even know what he is! How am I supposed to stop him if I don’t know what he’s capable of?”

“He is the one who is using this Death Magic?”

“Yes,” I sighed. Jumping out of my chair, I paced into the kitchen area and turned back, running my hands through my hair. “When we started tracking the guy, he was putting all this strange writing on the wall, like he was experimenting. Gideon seems to think that he didn’t quite know what he was doing. But as he moved farther north, he got better at what he was doing. He slaughtered vampires and brought them back as zombies.”

“Death Magic is very old,” Chang said slowly, nodding. “I don’t even remember the last time it was used. The Ivory Towers destroyed all the spell books years ago. This man would have to experiment if he was to accomplish what he was seeking.”

“Yes, but who or what is he? Who used the Death Magic in the first place?”

“Humans.”

“What?” I said, stopping sharply. “That’s impossible!”

“Why?”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. These crimes were so horrible that I didn’t want to think about my own people being responsible for them. But then, the Towers were still humans and they were responsible for all kinds of atrocities. I guess I just didn’t want the humans to be responsible this time. I needed it to be someone else.

“It was a very long time ago. They were a sect splintered off from either the Picts or the Vikings that had settled in the region. They were fighting very bad wars and had lost many people. They wanted a way to raise their dead so that they could continue to fight. They started stealing the children of their enemies and killing them so they could bring back their dead.” Chang sighed, staring down at the orange in his hands. “They had some help. Goblins stole the children. There were also some Dark Elves who helped to twist the magic.”

“But as you said, it’s been a really long time. Who the hell remembers?”

“There would be a few. Not many. What did this man look like?”

I frowned and resumed my pacing. “Tall and thin, he had white hair and large black eyes. There was a kind of . . . luminescence to him. It reminded me of the fey, but he was . . .” Turning back to face Chang, I stopped and stared at the old man. He was sitting perfectly still, his head down so that I couldn’t see his face, but there was a new tension in his lean frame.

“You know,” I said in a low voice. “You know who this bastard is.”

“Yes.”

“Are you working with him? Damn it! Are you what he is, Chang? I know you’re not human. You’re too damn old and know too many damn things. You do magic. Are you one of these things?”

“No!”

“Then what the hell are you? You seem to know all my secrets.”

When Chang looked up at me, his dull brown eyes were gone, replaced with bright red eyes. The irises were narrow, vertical black slits like those of a cat. The old man smiled, revealing a row of sharp, pointed teeth, while a thin stream of smoke curled out of the corner of his mouth. I took an unsteady step backward away from Chang as he smoothly pushed out of his chair, displaying an ease of movement that I’d never seen in him before. He waved a hand at me that was now covered in red scaly skin and tipped with black talons.

“You would put me in league with that creature?” he growled. His voice had become deeper as if his chest was massive. “Have I ever done anything to make you believe that I would kill the innocent for my own gains?”

“No, Chang, but we’ve both got our secrets.”

His smile widened and he gave a little shake of his head as if he pitied me. I was beginning to feel like I deserved a little pity but that thought was lost to me in the next second as the air tingled with a rush of magic. A bright light engulfed Chang like it had the white-haired man, and my heart stopped for a second in my chest.

Where the other man had transformed into a large white owl, Chang was larger and far more frightening. When the light waned, I blinked my eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the normal light levels of the room, but I immediately wished I hadn’t. Standing before me was a dragon.

I tried to take a step backward but I simply fell on my ass, staring up at the massive creature. He was huge in the small, confined space. His wedge-shaped head nearly brushed the two-story ceiling and his long tail was wrapped around his body to keep it from crashing into any of his shelves of treasures. His entire body was covered in dark red scales and his black-and-red wings were folded against his back. Lowering his head to me, he cocked it slightly to the side as if to say “Happy now?” No. No I wasn’t. I was so much better off in the fucking dark on this one.

“I thought all the dragons were gone,” I said in a rough voice.

It was probably the most inane comment I could have made, since Chang really didn’t need to be reminded that all the dragons had been killed by the Towers, but then my brain wasn’t working properly. There was a voice in the back of my head screaming for me to attack or at least put up some kind of defensive spell, but I couldn’t. And it wasn’t because I was faced with a dragon, one of the most magically powerful creatures in the world. It was because this dragon was Chang. I’d worked with Chang for years. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a friend, but I had never gotten the impression that Chang hated me either.

“No, we’re not all gone,” he replied, his voice a deep rumble that shook the ground beneath me. “But our numbers are very few.”

Chang exhaled and a cloud of smoke swirled around me. I coughed and waved one arm in the air before me, trying to clear it away. When the smoke finally thinned, I found that we were no longer in Chang’s underground warehouse of goodies. Now we were in the middle of a green field with snowcapped mountains rising up in the distance against a pale blue sky. At first I thought it was all an illusion because it didn’t feel as if we’d traveled across any great distance, but I could feel the warm sunlight on my face, and the sweet breeze ruffled my hair.

I looked over at Chang to ask him where we were, when he lifted his head toward the sky. Following his gaze, I gasped and nearly fell back against the ground to see dozens of dragons soaring across the sky, their massive wings spread on the wind and their brilliant scales reflecting the sun.

“There was a time when our numbers were great. We filled the sky and made the earth tremble with our roar.” Chang’s voice was a deep rumble as he watched his brothers and sisters pass overhead, swooping and circling in a beautiful dance. “And when we wished to watch the other creatures of this world, we changed shape and walked as humans. Despite our new forms, some humans knew what we were. They recognized us.”

“Warlocks and witches,” I whispered.

Chang nodded. “Recognizing their great gift, we taught them magic.”

“No,” I cried, shaking my head in denial.

The dragon ignored my outburst and continued his story while watching the sky: “We taught them to control the weather, the seasons, life and death. We showed them how to extend their lives and how to heal nearly any injury. In the end, they were more like dragons than humans, but there was never enough power. We showed them how to stop time, steal souls, and scorch the sky, but it was never enough.”

“Why?”

Chang paused and finally dropped his gaze to me. “Because they were always afraid that we knew more.”

“So they killed you . . .”

“Yes,” he hissed.

“I’m sorry.”

I don’t know whether Chang heard me. He’d lifted his head back toward the sky, his eyes following a brilliant blue-and-green dragon as it streaked across the heavens. “It has been more than a century since I saw another of my kind. Will you kill me now, warlock?”

“No!” I shouted. Digging my heels into the earth, I pushed back to my feet. Of course, standing didn’t really make me feel better since the dragon towered over me. “Why the hell would I even think that? I don’t give a damn what you are and you know it. My only concern is stopping this lunatic. Are you helping him?”

“No.”

“Then why would I kill you? Not that I could. We both know I couldn’t hurt you, Chang, so the question isn’t fucking funny.”

“I am a dragon.”

“Yeah, and I’m a freaking warlock and a member of the goddamn Towers! You gonna kill me now?” At this point, anger was starting to overwhelm the fear I felt. Or maybe I was just shouting at the dragon because I was scared out of my mind. It wasn’t the wisest course, but the past few days had succeeded in pushing me to my breaking point and I was a little beyond rational thought.

“Maybe.”

“Damn it, Chang! I’ve had enough games!”

Magic crackled in the air and there was a low rumble of something like thunder even though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. One of the dragons roared as it passed overhead, as though it sensed the sudden surge in magic.

Trixie was right. I was losing control of the magic; my anger and frustration was overpowering my control.

Taking a couple steps closer to Chang, I held my hands out and open toward him. “I’m a warlock, Chang, but you know I wouldn’t hurt you,” I said in a low voice. “We’ve known each other for too long. You’ve helped me out of too many bad scrapes. I think we’re as close to being friends as the two of us are capable of being.” I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, savoring the smell of lavender hanging on the air. I’m sorry about your people and the Towers. I’m sorry—”

A hand landed on my shoulder and my eyes jumped open to find Chang, the human version of Chang, standing beside me in the little kitchenette in the warehouse below the earth. Worry drew deep lines in his wrinkled face and I couldn’t remember him ever having that expression when he looked at me. “The fate of my people is not your fault.”

“So you don’t hate the Towers?”

A small smile pushed away some of the concern in his eyes. “No, I hate them and would like to see them gone after their betrayal, but taking that hatred out on you will not bring back my lost people.” The old man eased back into his chair as if his body was suddenly plagued with aches and pains, but there was a mischievousness glinting in his brown eyes. “But that’s not to say that I didn’t think of using you a time or two in hopes of causing the Towers problems. Of course, you’ve managed that on your own over the years. You didn’t need any nudging from me.”

“Are you helping this person working the Death Magic?”

Chang frowned at me and I knew I’d insulted him. “No.”

“Do you know who this is?”

“No. I don’t know him personally.”

I clenched my teeth. He was evading my question with that little addition. Getting the truth out of Chang was sometimes like nailing Jell-O to the wall. The bastard hoarded information like he hoarded his other treasures and only willingly gave something away when he thought he could get something more valuable in return.

“Do you think this person is also a dragon?”

“No,” he said quickly, the word jumping from his tongue sharp and clipped. I was afraid that he ruled out this person being a dragon because his actions were so tasteless and reprehensible. He simply didn’t want to be related to this creature in any way.

“Then what in the world is doing this? It’s not like I can make a list of likely enemies. Everyone hates the fucking Towers.”

“You can. There are not many races who are old enough to know about Death Magic and powerful enough to control it.”

Closing my eyes, I rifled through the lists of creatures I had learned about while living in the Towers. When it came to magical powers, there weren’t a lot of races that were a big threat. Most of the races that could use magic had only very specific and limited abilities. That’s not to say those abilities couldn’t be really fucking nasty, but there were limitations. Elves were great magic users, but they were limited specific nature-related abilities. Summer Court elves were into plant growth and weather magic, while Winter Court elves worked in glamour and illusions as well as weather magic. Dark elves were nasty, but even they weren’t powerful enough for Death Magic.

In fact, warlocks and witches were the ones with the most scope and depth to their magic use. As far as I knew, our limitations were only a lack of knowledge and a lack of power to control the spell. The only other ones I had ever heard of who had that kind of magical range were dragons and . . . fuck.

My eyes popped open and I stumbled away from Chang. I paced as far as I could from him, but I think I was really just trying to get away from the idea in my head. Gideon had floated the notion days ago, but I knew that neither one of us actually thought it was possible. I couldn’t accept it.

“No, Chang!” I snapped, turning around to point at the old man.

A smug smile rose on his lips. “Not liking the answer doesn’t change it.”

“No, they’re dead.”

“You thought all my people were dead.”

“Fuck!” I shouted, half tempted to just sit down in the middle of the floor and stay there until the world crashed down around me. Unfortunately, that was looking a lot closer than it had just a few days ago. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”

“Kill him.”

My head jerked up and glared at Chang. “Really? Kill a unicorn? You want a warlock to slaughter what is likely the last unicorn. I can’t even begin to count all the things wrong with that statement.”

“He is the last if he truly is a unicorn.” Chang nodded and then continued, dashing the little hope that had burst forth that he could be wrong. “I would know if this person was a dragon. I can sense when there are others near. This is not a dragon. A warlock?”

I shook my head. “No. He may have looked human, but the feel of him was off. There was nothing human in him, and certainly nothing human in his magic.”

“Was his hair like liquid starlight?”

I nodded, remembering thinking those exact words while the man was swinging.

“And in his eyes were the whole of the heavens?”

“Yeah.”

Chang looked at me and the pity was obvious now. “Dragons are of fire and earth. Legends say that is why we like gold, silver, and gems so much—they are woven into our souls. I think we just like collecting things,” he said with a wink. But he soon sobered from his bit of playfulness. “The unicorns were of the heavens. They are the purest form of magic, but only its lighter forms. They can control life and the mind. Their powers harness the purity of the soul and the movement of the planets. I’ve never heard of one using Death Magic—never would have thought it possible.”

“That’s why he struggled,” I murmured, talking mostly to myself. “Because it’s counter to his own instinctive magic.”

“He’s succeeded in mastering it.”

But at what cost? The creature I glimpsed last night was not sane, not by a long shot. Had the Death Magic destroyed his mind? Or would outliving every single member of your race do that? Would watching all the unicorns get slaughtered by the Towers over too many long years drive you absolutely insane?

In the end, it didn’t matter what drove the unicorn insane.

I stared at Chang across the open space of the kitchenette and there was a new distance between us that I had never felt before. For the first time, I felt like I was standing before him not as a tattoo artist but as a warlock, and he was sitting there not as a black-market dealer but as a dragon. Lines had been crossed today that were never meant to be crossed and I didn’t think we’d ever be able to go back.

There was a part of me that wanted to ask him if he had any little magical relic or trinket that could help me—particularly if it meant that I could stop the unicorn without killing him—but I couldn’t say the words. Chang shook his head as if he’d read my mind, and maybe he had. He was a dragon.

“I have nothing that would help you.”

“Would you tell me if you actually did?”

Chang gave me a little smirk. “I would. There is no love lost between unicorns and dragons. This plan is a bad one for him. Too much death. And if the Towers realize they’ve missed a unicorn, they might start looking for dragons again.”

A ghost of a smile returned to my lips for a moment. Chang was a very shrewd man . . . err . . . dragon. It was much easier to hide when someone wasn’t actively looking for you.

“Do you think he’s trying to free Lilith? He’s gathering and perfecting Death Magic. It’s the only reason I could think of for him doing this.”

Chang’s brow furrowed as he stared at me, his quick mind turning over my suggestion. “I think such a thing is possible with Death Magic, but I do not believe that is his goal. I find it hard to believe he would put trust in such a creature.”

“He’s insane,” I said with a shrug.

“That may be true, but I still do not think he would take such steps to put power in the hands of another.”

“Then what’s the purpose?”

“I’m sorry,” Chang said, shaking his head. “I cannot even begin to guess.”

I nodded, accepting his answer. Chang had given me more information than I’d been able to discover on my own. I’d keep digging and hunting this bastard until it was finally over.

Getting up, Chang grabbed my untouched orange and carried it over to where I stood. The old man took my wrist and placed the orange into my open palm. “Two things,” he started, the smirk gone from his expression. “First, I think you have a way to defeat this unicorn, but it means making a difficult choice.” He paused and stared up into my eyes, as if he were trying to read something written on my soul, and then he lightly sniffed the air. “You’re nearly there. I think you will make the right decision at the right time.”

“How do you know?”

Chang chuckled and released my wrist. “I am a dragon. We know these things.”

“And second?”

“Please, don’t come back.”

His words weren’t a surprise, but that didn’t stop the slash of pain that cut through my chest. I’d been visiting Chang for years for random magical items and words of advice. It hurt that I was no longer welcome in his underground domain. “Ever?”

The old man tilted his head slightly to the side in thought, his face scrunched up in a mass of wrinkles. “No. Just wait a long time.”

“Should I ask what a long time is to a dragon?”

The old man chuckled. “You’ll know.”

Nodding, I could accept his wishes. I might not like them, but I could certainly understand them. I clutched the sanguinello in my left hand and extended my right hand to him, not really expecting him to take it. “I’ve appreciated all the help you’ve given me over the years and I promise I won’t tell anyone your secret.”

Chang hesitated, staring at my hand for a second before he finally shook it. “And I have appreciated the entertainment you have given me over the years. I am also disappointed that I never got the other two rivers from you.”

A bark of unexpected laughter jumped from me, knocking my head back as I released his hand. Chang was always so damn practical. He’d had his heart set on getting the complete collection of water samples from the five rivers of the underworld. So far, he’d earned only three from me and I suspected that I was the only living person in this existence who possessed the other two.

“I guess I’ll just have to use that as an excuse to gain entrance into your warehouse again.”

Chang shook his head at me, a rueful expression on his face, as I turned and walked slowly back to the elevator. Being banned from Chang’s hurt, but I liked to think that he was only keeping me out until the world was quiet again. Then he’d let me return. Of course, that was all assuming that I found a way to defeat an insane unicorn. My hopes were not high.

Chapter 9

I wished I could blame Chang. Or maybe Trixie, Serah, and everyone who had dropped chaos into my life. But in the end, I was to blame for not paying attention to my surroundings as I stepped back out on the street. My mind reeled from too much information and too few answers. Shuffling down the sidewalk with my hands shoved in my pockets, not watching my surroundings, I found my way back to my battered SUV. He was waiting for me. The white-haired lunatic leaned against the grille, smiling at me. I was in trouble. I just didn’t realize how much, until pain exploded in the back of my head, sending me down into the darkness. See, kids, it’s important to pay attention to what the fuck you’re doing.

When I awoke, I was half frozen and my head was throbbing in time with my heart. I blinked, trying to open my eyes, but instantly wished I hadn’t. Dirty light streamed in through some nearby windows, magnifying the pain in my head. I was surprised that I hadn’t been bound, but then the unicorn had proven that he didn’t need to bind me. He was more powerful than me and I didn’t have a chance of escape unless he allowed it.

A groan rose from my lips as I pushed onto my forearms so I could look around the place. A warehouse. An abandoned warehouse. Why the hell did every asshole with an evil scheme have to hide out in an abandoned warehouse? Why couldn’t I be kidnapped and taken to a nice B and B or a hotel that offered room service? No, it was always a warehouse filled with rusting equipment, broken wooden skids, and rats irritated at having their domain invaded by bleeding humans.

And did Low Town really have that many abandoned warehouses? The city council needed to do something about the job situation in this town.

“I told you I didn’t hit him too hard,” said an unknown woman in a petulant voice.

“You’re right, Missy. I guess our young warlock has a harder head than I initially thought,” responded her companion. This voice I recognized, sending a chill through me. It was the unicorn.

I didn’t raise my eyes to them yet, but concentrated on looking around my surroundings as I slowly sat up. They were going to give me only a few more seconds to myself and I needed to know as much as I could about where I was if I was going to have any hope of escape. There was no benefit in attacking them. While I was sure that I could take out the human woman, there was no chance of defeating the unicorn, despite Chang’s words of encouragement. I needed more time. A plan to retreat to Simon’s rooms in the Towers had started to form in my mind before I was attacked near my car. I had thought that I would do some more research, formulate a plan, but now my only focus was surviving the next few minutes.

With no brilliant ideas forthcoming, I planted my hands on the dirty concrete floor and raised my gaze to my kidnappers, preparing to get to my feet. But my heart stopped in my chest when my eyes fell on Trixie. The lovely elf was seated on the floor with her arms bound behind her around a pole. Blood matted her blonde hair on one side of her head. The worry I briefly glimpsed in her wide green eyes subsided the moment I met her gaze and then it was replaced by anger. Now that she was sure that I was alive, my dear girlfriend was pissed and ready to do some damage of her own.

The unicorn and the woman leaned against the pole on either side of Trixie, wide maniacal grins stretched across their faces as if they were waiting for me to start laughing at this wonderful surprise. Equal parts fear and rage swirled in my stomach and pumped through my veins.

It took some effort, but I managed to pull my eyes from Trixie and restart my heart as I stood. The world bobbed and swayed beneath me. The bitch had likely given me a concussion, but I didn’t risk calling forth any magic to heal it. I didn’t need to give these assholes any reason to attack me just yet. I’d survive a concussion. They weren’t going to survive the shitstorm I was looking to drop on their heads now that I knew that it wasn’t just me they were threatening.

“Who the fuck are you and what do you want?” I growled, rubbing my temple with the heel of my left hand.

“Oh my! Direct, isn’t he?” the unicorn mocked with a high-pitched laugh. “I figured that old dragon would have told you.”

“Just told me what you are,” I muttered. No reason to deny it, since he already knew who, or rather, what, Chang was.

The unicorn gave a little push away from the pole and stepped forward so that he was standing between me and Trixie. “The name is Vincent, not that it really matters,” he said with an elegant little bow and a smirk. With a flourish of his hand, he waved at the woman who remained at Trixie’s side. “And this enchanting creature is Missy. She’s the nymph who has been ridding your city of its human infestation, but then I’m sure you already guessed that.”

Missy looked like your average, thirtysomething female—except for her eyes. Shoulder-length blonde hair framed a narrow oval face from which red eyes burned with the light of insanity. Dark energy hung around her like a second shadow. Kyle’s potion had created a monster that I would never have expected. The power burned within her and her body wasn’t able to contain it all. It oozed from her, burning away her soul with each passing day.

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask the woman why she had felt the need to go down this self-destructive road of murder and pain, but I swallowed back the words. Hatred radiated from her like a nuclear plant in meltdown.

No, I kept my focus on Vincent. Nothing could stop him, but he was the one with the power to kill me in the blink of an eye. He was the one determined to turn Low Town into a ghost town in an effort to bring back . . . something. Chang had killed the suggestion of Lilith, leaving me struggling to figure out Vincent’s master plan.

“So, what’s the plan now, Vinnie? Hoping to wipe out all of Low Town?” I asked, dropping my hand back down to my side. At the same time, I shifted my left wrist, checking to see that my wand was still tucked securely up my sleeve. I wasn’t yet sure what the hell I was going to do against the asshole, but for now I was content to just buy some time. The more time I had, the more opportunities there were to make something happen in my favor.

“I had thought about it,” Vincent admitted, scratching his chin. “One town is as good as any other, but Low Town has two warlocks settled within her rotten bosom. I figured there had to be something special about this town if two warlocks were hiding here.” He lowered his hand as a gruesome smile stretched across his thin lips and the same insane light flickered in his eyes. “I thought I would have to destroy every living thing within the wretched little burg just to complete my spell, but then I found something better.”

“And what’s that?”

Vincent waved his hand back at Trixie and cackled. “Why her, of course! She’s just what I need to raise them.” This time he lifted his hand to my left and I twisted around to gaze into the warehouse behind me.

I stumbled back a step in stunned horror at the sight of rows of pale white bodies . The closest wasn’t more than twenty feet away from me. It was a naked woman wrapped in white fabric that shone like silk. Her long white hair looked like it had been recently brushed and spread in a fan beneath her. In the center of her forehead was a shining ruby about the size of my palm.

My gaze skipped over them all. They all looked like that. Perfectly groomed, wrapped in pristine white cloths with gems in the middle of their foreheads. Despite being dead for centuries, there was no hint of decay or rot. They could have all been sleeping. There had to have been at least fifty of them lined up there.

The vampires brought back to life were more than just a message to the Towers; they were an experiment in actually raising the dead. But it still didn’t make any sense. How could killing Trixie give him the power to raise all of his people? Or maybe he didn’t intend to raise them all with just her? Maybe he needed only one and then together they would fan out across the city, murdering people until all the unicorns were returned to the living.

I shook my head as I turned back to Vincent. He was smiling as he brushed his hair back to reveal the onyx stone winking in the middle of his forehead. The stories I’d heard while living in the Towers said that in human form the unicorn’s horn was replaced by a priceless gem of remarkable size. Supposedly the only way to get the gem and the core of the unicorn’s power was to kill it while it was in human form. But then, the gem wasn’t nearly as valuable as the horn.

“I don’t get it. What could killing Trixie get you? Killing an elf isn’t going to raise all the dead.”

“No, you idiot!” Vincent screamed, stomping his foot like a three-year-old preparing for a massive tantrum. “It’s not her. It’s what she’s carrying.”

I tried not to react, but I felt myself grow sick and pale at his words. He knew about our child. Trixie wasn’t showing and we had told very few people, but somehow he knew.

The wicked grin returned to Vincent’s face as soon as he realized that he had me.

“How did you know?” I demanded in a rough voice over the lump in my throat.

Vincent giggled with glee. “How could I not? I am a unicorn. We are the keepers of life and innocence, guardians of the pure. I would have been able to sense the growth of your child from across the globe. I have spent a lifetime preserving the remains of my people and when I sensed your child spring to life, I knew it was time to finally act.”

“There’s no point in this,” I said in a low, even voice, while inwardly I was fighting the urge to rip this fucker’s face off. “One child, one life, won’t give you the years needed to bring back all of these unicorns.”

Rushing back over to Trixie’s side, Vincent knelt beside her and lightly patted her on the top of her head. She tried to jerk away from him, but her struggles only amused him. “You see, that’s what I thought was the key to Death Magic, too,” he admitted, sounding excited with the idea of talking a little shop with a fellow spell weaver. “And humans are all the same. You’re lucky if you can squeeze about seventy years out of them before they’re wrung dry.”

Giving Trixie one last affectionate look, he pushed back to his feet and turned toward me. “But then I made the most brilliant accident while in Charlotte. I grabbed a child who had been destined to be one of you,” he said with a sneer as he pointed at me. “The poor thing just didn’t know it yet.” He paused, giving me this faux sad face before loudly clapping his hands together. “But I saved her from that nasty fate. She did give one last burst of magic energy to save herself, created out of the stress of the situation. Surprised the heck out of both of us!”

“And because of her, you were able to raise all the vampires you murdered,” I finished, grinding the words between my teeth as I spoke.

Vincent danced around in a little circle as he giggled with manic glee. “The power from that little girl alone raised all those blood suckers and I still had plenty left over!” When he stopped, he looked disappointed by the fact that I wasn’t celebrating with him. “Don’t you see? I figured it out! It wasn’t just a matter of lifespan and years. Even a witch doesn’t have that long of a life; a few centuries at best. But it’s also about potential! A witch will pull in and use magic in multiple ways throughout her lifetime. It’s the potential to change and affect lives; the potential to change the world around her in so many ways. That’s the real power of Death Magic. You harness the years and the potential!”

And in my child, Vincent saw an enormous lifespan and amazing potential because the child would have the ability to tap magic through its elvish heritage and my warlock genes. In the end, it was enough to bring back the unicorns from the dead.

My stomach twisted as I watched Vincent celebrate his breakthrough, my mind blank as to what I could do to get out of this mess. No, that was wrong. I needed to get Trixie out of this mess and permanently away from this bastard. But knowing that I was up against an insane unicorn with way too much power at his fingertips, I was left struggling for an edge.

“To tell you the truth,” Vincent continued with a heavy sigh, “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do to generate enough energy. I thought I might blow up a few grade schools, but that wasn’t going to be enough. But you solved my problem! And I even get the wonderful pleasure of killing the child of a warlock while he watches.”

“And what about her?” I jerked my head toward the murderous woman, still unsure of how she fit into the picture with Vincent. If he’d found all he needed with Trixie and my child, then why would he ever need to work with a human? I’d always assumed that he’d need the help killing innocents to raise the necessary power. “You don’t need her.”

“My sweet little Missy?” Vincent cooed. He stepped over to the mad woman and pinched her cheek. “No, I guess I don’t need her, but then you don’t really need a pet. She amuses me and has such a brilliant talent for killing.” The unicorn gave me a little shrug as if embarrassed by his sentimental weakness. “And if I should ever need a little Death Magic to raise another army of zombies, Missy would be so happy kill some poor souls for me.”

“I’m happy to kill for Vinnie,” she purred.

“I’m sure you are,” I muttered, inwardly wishing that they’d just kill each other, but that wasn’t going to happen. Not for this happy couple. “What—”

Shots rang out, echoing through the massive warehouse and cutting off my question. I dropped to the ground, seeking some kind of cover when there was none near me. Lying flat on the dirty concrete, I chanced a look around to find Serah coming in from a side entrance with Gideon hot on her heels. The cavalry had arrived at last.

“Watch out! He’s a unicorn!” I shouted as I pushed off the ground and scurried over to Trixie. I never saw the warlock react to my words, but then Gideon was a master at hiding his emotions. He just kept his eyes his adversary, while Serah kept the other bitch busy.

Just a couple feet away from Trixie, a massive force slammed into my chest, knocking me away from her. My shoulder hit the concrete first and my right arm went numb for a second from the impact. Gritting my teeth, I pushed back to my feet, flexing my fingers against the pain as I quickly checked to make sure that my arm hadn’t been knocked out of its socket. My shoulder hurt like hell and my skull felt like it had been cracked, but my brains weren’t leaking out so I’d push on.

A quick assessment of the magic in the air revealed that Gideon was attempting to put a binding spell on Vincent to keep the fucker from killing one of us with magic. I was willing to be a whole lot less subtle. I already owed magic two years for killing; what did it matter if I tacked on a third? It took frighteningly little time to mentally call up a spell that would rip Vincent’s heart from his chest.

The reluctance I’d felt just a short time ago at Chang’s about killing the last unicorn? Gone. Evaporated in an instant when I saw Trixie held captive. Vincent was insane and he was killing innocent people to raise the dead. He’d threatened Trixie. Threatened my child. He was going to die.

With a rush of twisted magical energy, I threw it at the unicorn, ready to send him screaming into the next life, but it never reached him.

Vincent’s high-pitched laugh rose above the gunshots and the screaming. With a light wave of his hand, he pushed away the spell I’d created as if it were a butterfly fluttering about his head. “Did you really think you could get to me so easily?” he chuckled. “Your magic is useless.”

It looked like he was right, but there had to be a way. The Towers had destroyed nearly every dragon and unicorn on the planet. I didn’t have a freaking clue how they managed to do it, but I was willing to bet that they’d done it with magic, since they didn’t do a damn thing without it.

My gaze darted briefly to Serah as she fired at Missy. The killer was bleeding from several gunshot wounds but they weren’t slowing her down. Serah popped out a spent magazine as she ran, leaving it to clatter against the concrete floor and reaching for a fresh one from her coat pocket. The TAPSS investigator turned and fired again.

As Gideon aimed a new and lethal spell at Vincent, I magically jerked some rusted rebar free from a partially crumbling pillar. The steel rod whistled through the air as it cut across the warehouse, chasing behind Missy until it finally caught her. With a twist of my wrist, the rebar wrapped around the woman, pinning her arms against her sides and trapping her legs together so that she dropped to her knees with an enraged scream.

“Keep your gun on her!” I shouted at Serah while I turned my attention back to Vincent. The unicorn needed to go down, if only for a few moments. Anything so I could get Trixie out of danger.

Taking my lead from Gideon, I tried to match a second binding spell to the one he was attempting, hoping that power from both of us might work.

But still, Vincent waved it off with a yawn. “Here. Allow me to give you a lesson.”

I didn’t have time to even flinch at those words. The magical energy crushed me to the ground. It wasn’t the same as when he’d used Death Magic, but rather it tasted sweet like spun sugar and caramel apples. Yet, it was tainted and twisted, leaving you sure that the caramel also contained poison. Pain clamped down on my muscles and my scream was echoed by Gideon’s. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the warlock hit the ground a second before me.

I blinked and found myself staring at Trixie. Her mouth was open, but I couldn’t hear her shouting over the roar in my ears. Or maybe that was my own screaming. The blood in my veins was on fire, pouring through my body so that it ignited each organ. The elf strained against the ropes that held her arms behind her. She was getting free, but I was afraid that she’d come to me if she did. I didn’t want her to save me. I wanted her out of here. I wanted her safe.

The pain suddenly eased. My gaze darted to Vincent to find that blood had blossomed on his shoulder. With Missy somewhat secure, Serah got one shot off at the unicorn, but now she had his attention. The TAPSS investigator dropped her gun to her side and took a wary step back toward her captive. Missy snarled as she struggled to get free. Blood soaked her long-sleeved cotton shirt from her gunshot wounds, but she didn’t seem to notice. The rebar was keeping her trapped and all she wanted to do was to tear into Serah. But she didn’t need to. Vincent was about to do that.

“Vincent!” I shouted, my voice hoarse from screaming.

“Later,” the unicorn muttered, making a little shoving motion in my direction so that I stumbled back to the ground as the wave of magic hit me.

Gideon caught on that we needed to be more direct in our approach. He punched Vincent with a nasty spell that was meant to boil the creature’s flesh off his bones. A small shriek cut through the air as Vincent wasn’t able to immediately unwind the spell. Large red blisters broke out across his hands and face before popping, making it look like his skin was starting to ooze away.

With a snarl, Vincent made a single slashing motion at Gideon and the warlock went down with a gasp. He landed on his side facing me and I could see that the front of his shirt had been shredded and was becoming dark red with his blood. Gideon didn’t move for several seconds despite the fact that Vincent was closing in on him.

“Vincent!” I screamed, trying to draw the unicorn away from my companion, but he paused only long enough to toss a spell behind his shoulder. I cringed, waiting for it to hit, but it never did. Trixie screamed, her body twisting against her bonds as she attempted to get away.

Swearing vehemently, I quickly unraveled the spell attacking the elf as I pushed to my feet. Her screams stopped a second later and she nodded her thanks to me. With Vincent’s attention trained on Gideon, Serah rushed over to start cutting through Trixie’s ropes.

For a breath, the world slowed down and everything became startlingly clear. Gideon and I couldn’t beat Vincent. The Towers might have crushed the unicorns and driven them to extinction, but it couldn’t be done with one warlock and another who’d never finished his apprenticeship. Vincent had centuries of experience and access to power that I couldn’t tap on my best day. At my peak, I couldn’t use the same powers that Vincent had punched through me . I needed an edge, something to level the playing field, or we were all dead.

Pulling my wand out of my left sleeve, I pushed the tip into the palm of my left hand as I looked over at Serah. “Stay there with Trixie and don’t move until I tell you,” I said in a calm voice.

“Gage,” Trixie rasped, fear filling her wide green eyes.

I wanted to apologize to her. To reassure her that everything would be okay. But as I hovered on the precipice in that second, I knew the road I stood on would take me farther away from the woman I loved. There would be no going back. There was only this road or death. I gave her a small smile. I was choosing life for her and my child.

Using my wand like a knife, I cut the demon’s symbol into my palm. As I finished the last line, I whispered the words of the spell I used to unlock the doorway. And the whole world changed in the blink of an eye.

I roared as a torrent of energy flooded into my frame, lifting me up until my toes barely scraped the ground. My arms were flung out to my sides as the energy filled every fiber of my being. Pain was erased and I felt alive!

No, it was better than that. I felt powerful. It wasn’t the same power that I tapped into every time I cast a spell. It wasn’t the energy cast by every living creature on the planet. This was darker magic, drawing from the well of energy in the Underworld. This was the power of the demons. True death magic.

As I slowly settled back down onto my feet, a darkness fully cloaked me, wrapping its way around my soul. I could feel a low chuckle echo up through my body before thumping against my brain. Zyrus. The demon was no longer outside, terrorizing anyone who came close. No, the demon was now inside of me and reveling in its newfound freedom. It could now feel things in ways it never could before when set loose upon this world. Dark, malicious emotions twined with mine, blending and merging so that it was difficult to determine where I ended and the demon began. The next laugh I heard rumbled up my own throat.

Vincent froze a couple feet from Gideon and stared at me. There was a mix of horror and hatred in his lean face, twisting his features so that his inner insanity and ugliness were visible to the naked eye. A grin stretched my mouth wide and the demon’s twisted joy washed through me and became my own. Together, we had the power to take down the unicorn, and Vincent knew it.

His eyes darted back to Gideon as the warlock moved slowly, trying to push into a sitting position. The unicorn lunged at him. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to attack him or simply trying to use him as a shield, but we weren’t going to allow it. Dropping my wand on the ground, I reached out both hands and threw out a chunk of the energy boiling within me, throwing Vincent toward the wall farthest from Gideon. A pain-filled cry rose from the unicorn as he crashed against it and fell to his knees.

I walked deeper into the warehouse, sparing a quick glance at Gideon, who was now watching me in stunned horror. The air crackled and snapped with magical energy. Overhead lights popped out but were quickly replaced by glowing red orbs hovering in the air. Zyrus stirred within me as I neared the injured warlock, sensing an easy target.

He caused you trouble, my master.

“He’s not our target,” I snarled, forcing the demon to focus on the unicorn that was rising to his feet.

He will harm us. We will have to kill him later.

“Later.” I clamped down on my control of the demon and closed the distance between myself and Vincent, which helped Zyrus to forget about Gideon. The demon he’d glimpsed something from the future regarding Gideon, but I couldn’t worry about that now. I had enough trouble in my present to deal with. The future could wait.

The unicorn was ready for me, instantly pummeling me with some threads of Death Magic he’d found a way to save. It either wasn’t as strong as what he’d used on Gideon and me, or the presence of Zyrus was making a significant difference, because the spell caused only a slight cramping before dissipating completely.

“Now it’s my turn,” I murmured, unleashing a series of spells that rolled off my fingertips like fat drops of rain. There was no need for remembering complicated words or symbols. With Zyrus I was tapped into the raw energy of the Underworld and I could twist it into doing my every whim. The power had become just an extension of who I was, like another hand or leg. Or maybe it was just a bit of my soul. It didn’t matter. I didn’t need to think about it and I didn’t want to.

Vincent’s maniacal laughter was replaced by his screams, which helped to ease some of the anger that had lit a fire in my brain. The horrible tension in my shoulders and the throbbing in my head slipped away with Vincent’s pain and blood.

“Gage!” Gideon shouted in my ear. His hand clamped down on my shoulder and he jerked me around so that I was half turned away from Vincent. I blinked, feeling slightly dazed. I’d lost track of time, as if my body had stepped outside the stream of seconds as they ticked by. I shook my head to clear it and Zyrus roared inside me at the interruption. I was confused. Why had the warlock stopped me? Why was he touching me? Why was he alive . . .

“Gage, you’ve got to stop this. There’s no reason to torture him,” Gideon argued. He was partially bent over as he stood and his face was deathly pale from blood loss. I could sense the pain that wracked his body, and it pleased Zyrus. “Just end it now,” he whispered through broken lips.

“No reason?” The words tumbled from me, but they echoed through my brain as well. Who had said them? Was that me? Zyrus? “That son of a bitch has killed dozens to raise the dead. He tried to kill us. He was planning to kill my girlfriend and our child. Wouldn’t you let him suffer if it was your family being threatened?”

“No. I don’t believe in torture,” Gideon said firmly. He straightened a little, meeting my gaze. Something he saw there made him flinch and his frown deepened, but I didn’t care.

“Lies,” I snarled. Knocking his hand off my shoulder, I gave him a hard shove so that he was thrown to the ground several feet away from me. “You’re a warlock. A member of the Towers. You all torture. You thrive on fear. I was there. I know. You’re like them.”

“That’s not true, Gage. Think. Take a deep breath and think. I’ve protected you. I have just as much to lose as you. I would do anything to protect Ellen and my daughter.”

An image of Ellen smiling up at me at the Christmas party, the warm sympathy filling her brown eyes, danced through my brain. She wouldn’t like me hurting her husband. She wouldn’t like me fighting with the man who had protected me from the Towers. It was like a punch to the gut. For a moment, I could feel my mind ripping free of Zyrus.

A loud, harsh gasp filled the silence of the warehouse and I stumbled back a step. It was like coming up for air after being submerged for far too long. I mentally clawed for some handhold, anything to keep from letting Zyrus take over again, but I knew it was a fight I couldn’t win for long.

“Watch out!” Serah screamed.

I twisted around to Vincent in time to see him pulling together a new spell. In that instant, I lost my fight against Zyrus and the demon surged back into the driver’s seat of my body and mind. Chunks of broken glass, wood, and steel jumped from the warehouse floor and flew through the air. Pure, raw energy grabbed Vincent and pressed him, spread-eagled, against the wall, so that the flying flotsam could spear him through the arms and legs.

Vincent laughed, a low, choking sound. “It’s fitting. A warlock destroys the last unicorn this world will ever see. And to do it, he had to be possessed by a demon. How will history remember this event? Who will be painted as the monster?”

A slow grin spread across my faces and I stepped close to him. “No one will remember.” I reached out my right hand toward the rows of pristine unicorns and their bodies ignited one after another. Vincent’s screams were more deafening than when I’d tortured him. He struggled, fighting to pull free of his bonds both physical and magical, but it was for nothing. I stared at him, drinking in the pain deeply etched into his pale face as he watched the black smoke billowing through a broken out skylight. The last remains of his people were reduced to ash.

His screams became heavy sobs as he hung his head. The last hope of the unicorns was gone in a cloud of greasy black smoke.

“No one will remember you,” I said softly, my voice almost a caress. “No one will remember your fight to save your people. No one will even know you ever existed.”

Vincent raised his eyes to my face and I knew I’d never forget the hatred that blazed there. I was glad.

Lightning quick, I pulled a large shard of glass from where it was pinning his wrist and plunged it straight through his heart. The unicorn gasped and stiffened in pain, and the mad light disappeared from his eyes.

As I turned away, I became aware of Missy’s hysterical screaming. Pulling the shard of glass from Vincent’s chest, I walked toward her, leaving a trail of unicorn blood behind me as it dripped from the glass. Standing before her, Zyrus stirred, overjoyed to see her bouncing between mindless rage and abject despair at the death of her companion. Her eyes were wide, and spittle and blood dripped from her lips. She tried to rise and attack me, but she couldn’t get to her feet while still wrapped in the steel rebar.

“How could you! He was beautiful! He was perfect!” she screamed at me until her voice started to become hoarse.

In the distance, I thought I could hear Trixie shouting for me. Or maybe it was Gideon. But I couldn’t focus on it. Missy was a Christmas gift just waiting to be unwrapped. Clenching the glass shard in my hand, I grabbed a chunk of her hair and wrenched her head back, holding it at an awkward angle. She could no longer move, but it didn’t stop her enraged screaming. That was good.

With the glass in my hand, I slashed across her stomach, letting blood pour forth from the massive wound. Her angry curses instantly turned to pain-filled screams that echoed off the walls of the warehouse. With a chuckle, I plunged the glass into her heart. The screams stopped with a gasp. I released her hair, letting her fall to the ground in a heap as life drained quickly out of her body.

Backpedaling from Missy, I clung to the relief and joy that Zyrus felt because there was something sick churning in my stomach. I could hear Trixie weeping softly and it was like little daggers driving straight into my heart. Unfortunately, Zyrus heard the sound as well. The temporary pleasure it got from slaughtering the last unicorn was shoved aside by a hunger for yet another kill. A pregnant elf.

I tried to clamp down on the demon, but the longer it was roaming free within me, the more destruction it caused, the stronger it became so that it was nearly impossible to hold my position. Stealing a glance at Trixie, I was nearly ripped to shreds by fear when I saw that she was slowly approaching me.

“No,” I rasped, falling backward to my ass just so that I couldn’t walk toward her. “Get out of here.”

“Gage . . .”

“Gideon, get her out of here!” I roared with more force as I vainly struggled to think of a way to get Zyrus out of me. If she came too close, if she touched me, I was going to kill her and I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. The demon was pooling all of its energy toward that one mindless goal.

She wants to leave you. She will leave you and take your child.

“She needs to leave me,” I groaned. I clutched my head with both my hands, wishing I could rip my skull open just so I could pull Zyrus out of my brain. Pain lanced through me as the demon screamed and slashed holes into my soul. “It’s not safe. She needs to leave.” I kept repeating the words while squeezing my eyes shut, hoping that if I heard the mantra over and over again I would get control over Zyrus.

You can’t let her leave us.

“Gage?” Trixie’s voice sounded closer. Touchably close.

“Gideon!” I screamed in desperation, my voice cracking. The warlock was the only thing that could protect her from me.

A breeze brushed against me as the warlock rushed in, intercepting Trixie. “You can’t. Leave this place.”

“He needs help,” Trixie argued, panic entering her lovely voice.

“He’s going to kill you if you don’t leave,” Gideon snapped.

I sensed movement near me and I wanted to cry. I’d forgotten about Serah. A gentle hand touched mine and my control over Zyrus snapped like a rubber band. We lunged for her, mouth open and fingers curled as if they were tipped with talons, ready to shred flesh until there was nothing left but a bloody puddle. A low rush of energy shoved Serah out of my reach and a scream exploded from my throat.

Using the demon’s momentary shock and disappointment, I tangled up some dark energy with my fingers and slammed my hands down on the cold concrete. At the same time, I whispered the same words I’d used while carving the demon’s symbol into my hand. Chunks of concrete exploded up into the air around me as magic blasted down into the foundation. In a flash of bright white light, the demon’s symbol was carved into the concrete. With the last breath I could draw, I shouted the binding spell.

Zyrus gathered its energy and launched us at Trixie and Gideon, but my body crashed against an invisible barrier marked by the edge of the symbol in the concrete floor. The demon’s rage consumed me until I felt my own consciousness floating back away from Trixie’s horrified looks and Gideon’s sadness. My body slammed into the barrier again and again in the demon’s desperate bid to be free, but the binding spell held.

You’ve betrayed me!

“No, you are attempting to betray me,” I said in a low, broken voice. My throat was raw from the screaming, and I no longer cared that my companions could hear me speaking to the demon I’d summoned. “Our target was the unicorn. That was all.”

I want the elf.

“You can’t have her. And neither can I.”

“Gage, please, let me help you,” Trixie said softly, tears streaking down her too pale face. Blood stained her tangled blonde hair and there was more blood on her wrists where she’d struggled against the ropes. She’d been hurt because of me and I wanted to cry. This was my fault.

I slowly collapsed in the middle of the symbol, my legs folded in front of me. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so tired in my life. My body ached. Pain reached down to my soul as Zyrus continued to throw a temper tantrum within me.

Let her help you.

Zyrus taunted, but we were one and I knew its hope was to have Trixie step inside the binding spell so that it could attack. I was too tired to keep holding it back. Zyrus would win and Trixie would be dead.

“You called me Master,” I murmured, ignoring Gideon’s stunned expression. “You will obey me.”

Zyrus cursed me, causing more pain to tear through my head, but I forced an ugly laugh when I wanted to scream. “You need me.” When the demon stilled and grew thoughtful, I closed my eyes and said silently, We need each other.

The demon sensed the promise in those words and I felt its smile. Its struggles for control ceased completely and Zyrus redirected the energy that it had toward healing all my aches and pains.

Turning my left hand over so that the palm was up, I looked at Gideon, who was watching me warily. “Heal the cuts,” I said, because I knew the demon would never willingly erase his doorway into my body.

The warlock slowly released Trixie, making sure that she didn’t rush toward me before he approached us. Zyrus stirred restlessly within me, but it didn’t act as if it was plotting an attack. It was fighting its own instincts demanding that it kill the warlock. Without crossing the barrier created by the symbol in the floor, Gideon reached out his wand and used the same healing spell he’d taught me just days ago. The cuts slowly disappeared, not even leaving behind a scar.

Zyrus gave a final snarl through my head before the demon was pulled from me and into the symbol upon which I sat. With the symbol no longer etched into my hand, the demon’s powers were sucked into the concrete floor. It was still close, watching everyone and everything, but it could no longer reach out and harm anyone.

I slumped, leaning heavily to the side on my right forearm. Never had I felt so drained in my life. It was like my very life force had been used up by the demon. And maybe it had.

“Is it gone?” Gideon asked cautiously.

I nodded, patting the concrete with my right hand. “Trapped outside of me.”

And still no one approached me. No one held me, offering comfort or support. They stayed back, afraid.

“What the hell was that all about?” Serah demanded loudly as she walked toward Gideon and Trixie, still giving me a wide berth. “Your eyes were glowing red.”

“A bad spell,” I lied.

“Bullshit,” Gideon snapped, drawing my gaze up to his face. He was pissed. “What the fuck do you think you were doing? You—”

“You would have done the same!” I growled at him. Anger helped put some energy back into my frame so that I could push to my feet. I swayed slightly. While the pain was gone, I was still exhausted to my core. Zyrus rumbled beneath me, but it could only look on and cheer my rage. I ignored the demon. It had caused enough trouble for one day. “If that had been Ellen tied up, you would have done—”

“No. Never!”

“Then you’re a coward and she’d be dead. We’d all be dead.” I stepped closer to the warlock, getting up in his face so that he couldn’t look away from me. “We had nothing. Vincent was toying with us. I wasn’t going to let that thing kill Trixie and my child because you’re afraid.”

Gideon glowered at me, looking at if he’d like nothing more than to break my nose with his fist, but he held back. It was probably best because I wasn’t holding on to my own emotions too well My mind had become a little frayed at the edges and I couldn’t risk looking too deeply at things. I wasn’t ready to start thinking about the fact that I’d killed the last unicorn and destroyed the bodies of the others. I didn’t want to think about the fact that I’d very nearly killed my own girlfriend and our child because I’d let a demon control me. The disgust and self-loathing would have snapped what little hold I had on my sanity.

“The Towers will find out,” Gideon said. The warlock blinked and I saw a brief shimmer of tears in his cold eyes. My bravado wavered. What I’d thought was anger in his voice was actually gut-wrenching fear for me; fear and disappointment.

“Tell them. I’m not afraid of the Towers anymore.”

Gideon nodded. He blinked again and the tears disappeared. His expression was cold and empty. “I’d once said that we would end this.”

I recalled the moment vividly in my mind. He’d been holding the dead body of a young girl in his arms; an apprentice witch who had tried to escape the Towers and got caught in the crossfire of a magic fight. I hadn’t thought of Alice in weeks. Another victim of the Towers.

“And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Gideon turned away and clamped a firm hand on Serah’s elbow. He nearly dragged her out of the building with him, not uttering another word. I felt the tiny tugs of a smile at the corners of my mouth. The woman had been in over her head for the first moment, but it hadn’t slowed her down. She also didn’t exhibit an ounce of fear for Gideon as she argued with him every step of the way. Not only did she not understand what had happened, but she wasn’t willing to abandon me. It was touching and misguided. I needed to do something about her.

It was with some reluctance that I looked back at Trixie. She stood several feet away, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Her tears had dried on her face and the love I was so accustomed to seeing in her eyes had been replaced by fear and a horribly deep sadness.

“You summoned a demon,” she whispered as if she had to say the words aloud so that she could finally grasp what had happened.

“I couldn’t let Vincent kill you.”

“Maybe you should have.” She shook her head and bit down on her lower lip. “You say it’s gone, trapped, but I can still feel it on you. It’s what I’ve been feeling for days now. You’ve tainted yourself.”

“And I’d do it again to keep you safe.”

“No!” she shouted, her calm shattering at last. “You can’t do this to yourself. Not for me. I’ll stay. I’ll stay and we’ll be a family together here in Low Town. Just promise me that you’ll never summon the demon again.”

I wish I could say that her offer tempted me. It hung in the air between us like a golden apple on a low branch. I would have the only thing I had ever wanted in this world — the woman I had loved for years. All I had to do was say yes.

“Go home to your people, Trixie. I’ll come for you and our child when I’ve made this world safe for us. We’ll be a family then.”

Trixie nodded and turned away without another word. There were no more tears, but then we’d shed too many for ourselves lately. We’d run out at last. I watched her slowly walk between the smoldering remains of the unicorns, her thin body partially obscured by tendrils of smoke and floating ash, until she stepped outside and out of my life.

No matter how much I loved her and wanted her to stay, she had to leave. It would not be safe to be together until the Towers had been taken down. I would end this.

On a roar of pain ripped from soul, I summoned up a burst of energy and directed it at the symbol carved into the floor, pulverizing the concrete to tiny pebbles so that the portal was closed forever. Stepping outside, I reduced the warehouse to ash. It was a beginning.

Epilogue

Serah found me two weeks later, sitting on the wooden stairs behind Asylum, my elbows resting on my knees as I stared blindly out at the thickening darkness. Bronx had just shown up for his shift and I’d left our new tattoo artist in his capable hands. I’d hired the guy the week before as well as another artist who was coming in afternoons four days a week. My own schedule was empty, but then I was bowing out, preferring to rent out the space rather than ink. My heart wasn’t in it anymore. I had other things demanding my attention.

“Hey Houdini.” Serah greeted me with a tense smile that did nothing to erase the worry in her eyes. “How’s tricks?”

“Just a bunch of white rabbits and playing cards,” I murmured as a reluctant smile tugged at one corner of my mouth. Something in me flinched to see her again. When she stepped into the darkness, memories of the warehouse flashed through my brain. But then the horror never completely faded from my mind. The blood of the dead was never completely washed from my hands.

But as I pushed through the horror, I found that a small part of me was relieved to see her. While I had no love for TAPSS, the investigator had proven herself to be a dedicated force for good. I respected her brains and tenacity—I just hoped they didn’t get her killed.

“What are you doing back here?” she asked, taking a quick glance around the empty parking lot and the adjoining alley.

“Am I under investigation, Officer?” I mocked.

Serah glared at me, tucking her hands into the pockets of her puffy winter coat. The pale blue under the harsh glare of the security light was an almost cheery spot in the night.

“I’m not with TAPPS anymore.”

“Why?”

“Harvey canned me two weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

Serah shrugged and gave me a little smile. “I knew it would happen. He warned me and I ignored him. It’s the price I had to pay.”

“Stubborn ass,” I murmured, managing a faint smile.

“Yeah, well, I’ve got something better. I’m starting a private investigation firm. I figure I’ll have more luck helping people that way rather than wasting another minute with the police or TAPSS.” She stared at me a moment before shaking her head. “It’s freaking cold and you seem to have forgotten your coat.”

I didn’t know if it was so much that I’d forgotten my coat as it was that I simply didn’t care. My thoughts were muddled tonight, but I had good reason. “I came out here to think.”

“Want to talk about it?”

The first genuine smile I’d had in two weeks lifted my mouth. “No, but thanks. I’ll be fine.”

“I heard that Trixie left. I’m sorry.”

A soft grunt escaped me and I nodded, my gaze dropped down to my hands without really seeing them. Trixie was gone, but I could still feel her. I blinked and my eyes focused on her name tattooed on my inner left wrist. I’d completed it two days after she left, when I’d found one of her hairs in my brush. By adding it to the potion I’d placed in the ink, I could now feel her at all times. She was sad but safe.

Serah pulled a knit hat out of her pocket and pulled it down over the top of my head to my ears. “Looking at you makes me cold,” she complained.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, how did you and Gideon find me?” I asked after an extended silence. I’d been pondering that since Gideon wouldn’t have been able to use whatever usual tracking spell he preferred to keep an eye on me. Vincent had blanketed that warehouse in cloaking magic to stay hidden from the Towers.

“Oh, that,” she said, her grin growing. “I’d stopped by Asylum to tell you that we’d figured out the tattooed lunatic was the ex-wife of the man who’d been murdered at the last site. Turns out he divorced her because she couldn’t have kids.”

“And after discovering that he’d remarried and had the family she couldn’t have caused her to go screaming over the deep end,” I finished.

“Something like that.”

“Anyway . . .” I prompted.

She gave a small shrug, shoving her hands back into her pockets. “About the time I showed up and was looking in your window that warlock popped in. He thought you were in some kind of trouble. When we couldn’t find you here, he did some kind of spell and we poofed over to corner of Main and Pershing. After some looking around, we spotted blood on the sidewalk. I guess it was yours because Gideon managed to use that to track you to that warehouse.”

And the rest was history, so to speak. I’d heard snatches of the story on the news over the past several days, but I hadn’t really paid much attention. I’d been focused on my own plans.

“Was there a reason for your stopping by today?” I asked when Serah didn’t move on to a new topic.

“Well, I was just thinking that you said you’d wipe my memory once this whole thing was over. You know, protect your secret.” She looked expectantly at me, but I said nothing. “It’s been two weeks,” she nudged.

“Do you want to forget?”

“No!” she said quickly, jerking back a half step. “I want to remember.”

“Then you will.”

“Are you sure? You’re not going to wipe my memory?”

I smiled at her as I pushed to my feet so I could descend the three stairs to the ground. “Good night, Serah. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely wipe your memory in the morning.”

She gave me a little bow and laughed, catching my little joke that her memories were in fact safe from me. “As you wish.”

Straightening, she paused on her way back into the parlor, looking over her shoulder at me. The smile was gone and the worry had returned to her gaze. I had no more comforting words. I could only hope that she didn’t come to regret remembering exactly what I was. That kind of knowledge always seemed to carry with it a high price.

I waited another ten minutes before following her into the parlor. My muscles were stiff and my feet were nearly numb from sitting outside for so long. The warmth of the shop helped me thaw, filling my body with biting pins and needles as blood flowed into my extremities again.

Locking the back door, I stopped and closed my eyes, drinking in the sounds coming from the front of the shop. Bronx’s deep voice rumbled as he told a story, punctuated by a burst of laughter from the new guy. All this was underscored by the steady buzz of a tattooing gun as it steadily carved through the flesh of a client. Six months ago, the buzzing noise was the most comforting sound in the world to me. It was the sound of normalcy. It was the sound of my ordered life. It was the sound of control.

But now it was a reminder of what was and could never be again.

In the middle of the room, I pulled up the trapdoor that covered the basement stairs. Descending to the lower level, I pulled the door closed after me so that I was swallowed up by the absolute darkness. But I didn’t need any light. I’d descended these stairs hundreds of times.

At the foot of the stairs, I reached out and grabbed the beaded pull chain on my first try. The small dirt-floor room was flooded with dim yellow light. Across the room near my work bench, Lilith stood with her arms folded over her stomach as she glared at me. I wasn’t surprised. The shadowy figure had been haunting me since the showdown at the warehouse. At what she hoped were my vulnerable moments, a transparent vision of the Queen of the Underworld would appear in expectation of scaring me out of my current course of action.

“It doesn’t have to be this way, Gage,” she whispered to me. I was no longer sure if I was actually hearing her voice or if the words were merely floating across my brain.

“I don’t see how I have any other choice in the matter,” I replied, walking past her to the one cabinet with a large padlock on the front. From the far wall with the spray-painted demon symbol, I could feel Zyrus stirring. The demon had been giving me a wide berth recently while I was in the basement at the parlor, but then we’d been spending a great deal of time together in my rooms at the Towers.

Of course, the Towers were less than pleased with Gideon’s news that I was dealing with demons. But for now, they held back, watching and concocting a plan to deal with me. For now, they steered clear of me while I was in Simon’s rooms as well as in Low Town. There hadn’t even been a whispered sighting of a warlock or witch in Low Town since the unicorn’s death. The Towers were afraid, though they’d never admit that one lone warlock had a chance at defeating them. But then, they hadn’t a clue as to what I planned.

Without bothering to pull the key out of my pocket, I unlocked the padlock with a wave of my hand and pulled it free of the cabinet. As I opened the double doors, I whispered the reveal spell and a pair of bottles appeared in the very front of the top shelf. There was a slight tremble in my fingers as I picked up the bottle labeled “Styx.”

“Don’t do this, Gage,” Lilith snarled, but I noticed that her image was already fading. “I don’t need you. I will find another. Come into my domain, and I’ll destroy what’s left of your soul.”

The demon’s laugh tumbled through my head and I smiled at the misty remains of the dark queen. “You’re just one stop on my journey to getting the life I want.”

Placing the bottle on the workbench, I pulled my long-sleeved shirt over my head and stood bare-chested in the cold, letting the heavy silence sink into me. I glanced down at the tattoo I’d had Bronx complete for me a week ago. It was the demon’s symbol drawn over my heart. The ink had included a mixture of angel feather and water from Acheron, the Underworld river of pain. The unique potion acted as a buffer between Zyrus and myself, allowing me to have better control over the demon and its powers while not falling to the rush of its emotions quite so easily.

“Are you ready?”

Defeat Lilith and free the Underworld from her grasp, and we will lead an army to destroy the Towers.

It was a fair trade and I had nothing left to lose. Picking up the bottle, I pulled the cork out and held the glass vial aloft in a toast. “For Trixie and my child.”

I drank down the Styx, the very water that was supposed to have made Achilles invulnerable, and I waited for darkness to claim me. When my two years in the Underworld were complete, I’d have all the powers of the demons with me. I would reduce the Towers to nothing but fire and blood.

I’d make this world safe for my love. Or I would make it burn.

Acknowledgments

There was a time when I didn’t know if this book would ever see the light of day. But when I sat at the computer, I knew that Gage had one more story that he had to tell the world. One last warning. One last lesson.

I want to give a big thanks to the Harper Voyager crew who has seen me through nine books. Pam and Jessie, you’re always there to cheer on my books and I will always be grateful. A big thanks to Diana for taking a chance on a dreamer addicted to the written word. We worked on eight books together and I’ve learned so much from you. And a big thanks to Kelly for being there to safely escort Gage into the waiting arms of readers one last time.

Last but far from least, thank you to all readers who have taken a chance on a guy determined to find his way through a strange world while protecting those he loves.

About the Author

Jocelynn Drake is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dark Days series, and lives in Florida. When not at her desk, she is most likely to be found playing video games, watching movies, or hanging with her family.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Also by Jocelynn Drake

THE ASYLUM TALES

The Asylum Interviews: Bronx

The Asylum Interviews: Trixie

Angel’s Ink

Dead Man’s Deal

Demon’s Fury: Part 1 of the Final Asylum Tales

Demon’s Vow: Part 2 of the Final Asylum Tales

THE DARK DAYS NOVELS

Nightwalker

Dayhunter

Dawnbreaker

Pray for Dawn

Wait for Dusk

Burn the Night

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

INNER DEMON. Copyright © 2014 by Jocelynn Drake. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition OCTOBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062359421

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