Chapter 21
Tia waited for the van to disappear into the back lot before she motioned for Lynch to lift her through one of the empty windows on the opposite side of the massive structure. She assumed that there would be guards waiting for the latest batch of sacrifices that were being delivered. She wasn’t going to risk an unnecessary skirmish when she was so close to discove ring the truth.
Once inside, she grimaced at the musty scent of stale air and the layers of filth that covered every inch of the floors and walls and the weird drips of condensation that leaked from the steel beams far above her head. It was hard to believe that anyone would choose this location as a lair. Especially a male like Batu who’d demanded the finest comforts, including floors tiled with rare mosaics and hand-stitched tapestries on the walls.
Did that prove he’d died forty- five years ago?
No, but it did mean that if he was alive, he was cle arly desperate.
Which only made him more dangerous.
Not sure whether she was hoping the bastard had survived so she could be the one to kill him or desperately praying that he was gone and this was nothing more than a sick joke, Tia moved toward a distant door that had long ago rusted away. She could hear the muffled sound of voices heading in her direction, and she wanted to be in a place to watch where they were going with out being seen.
It turned out to be easier than she expected.
By the time she’d reached the opening, the handful of demons were being herded into a small storage room, most of them stumbling forward as if they were still drunk or high. A second later a steel door was slammed shut by a heavy-set demon wearing leather pants and a hoodie who turned to lean against the wall, clearly designated as the guard. The poor creatures were locked inside, like cattle waiting for the slaughter.
With a frown, Tia retraced her steps, not halting until she was out of earsho t of the demon.
“Where’s Joe?” she muttered. She’d seen him get in the van, but he hadn’t been with the victims currently trapped in the storage room. So where was he? And how had he escaped?
“Who?” Lynch demanded.
“Stay here.” Tia headed back toward the doorway. “I’ll be back.”
“Where are you going?”
“I want to find out who else is in the building.”
“Wha t should I do?”
Tia glanced over her shoulder, annoyance stabbing through her as she met her servant’s worried gaze. She hated being fussed over. She wasn’t helpless. Not even close to helpless. But, for the first time in a very, very long time, she forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. Lynch had been a loyal servant for decades, she sternly reminded herself. And the fact that he was concerned didn’t have anything to do with his lack of confidence in her abilities. He genuinely cared what h appened to her.
“Keep an eye on the hostages. If they get moved to a new location, I want you to follow,” she commanded, pointing a finger in his direction. “But don’t get caught. I’ll be seriously pissed if you get yourse lf sacrificed.”
“No one’s sacrificing me,” Lynch growled, but he couldn’t disguise his pleasure that she’d bother ed to warn him.
With a shake of her head, Tia dismissed her servant from her mind. She was obviously getting soft in her old age, she decided, pausing long enough to reach into her pocket and pull out a small orb. Pressing it between her fingers, she watched as a silver mist spiraled upward, growing larger as it twirled around her. Within seconds it had shrouded her in a layer of magic that allowed her to disappear int o the shadows.
Cautiously tiptoeing over debris that littered the ground, Tia pressed her back against the wall as she exited the room. The guard was busy scrolling through his phone as she inched her way in the opposite direction, but any noise was going to alert him that h e wasn’t alone.
Or at least it should alert him. From his bored expression it was clear he didn’t think much of his current job. It might take more than a rustle in the darkness to attract his attention.
Stepping into yet another connected building, Tia halted to scan the shadows. The vast space echoed with emptiness, but she could sense the presence of several demons. Unfortunately she had no way of knowing where they mig ht be gathered.
Only one w ay to find out.
Crossing the long room, Tia’s steps slowed as she neared an open doorway. It wasn’t the soft glow of light that alerted her that there was someone nearby. It was the tingle of magic. A magic that was intim ately familiar.
Maya.
Keeping the mist wrapped around her, Tia scurried forward, avoiding the light that spilled into the room as she pressed her back against the doorframe.
“You’re sure his name is Batu?” Maya’s voice floated through the stale air, her voice sharp with suspicion.
Tia curled her fingers into fists, leashing the fury at the mere mention of her former master. Her greatest danger would be to allow her emotions to cloud her mind.
“Not Batu, he’s Lord Batu,” a female voice cor rected sharply.
Leaning to the side, Tia caught a glimpse of an older woman standing in the center of a circle and next to her was a younger female. There was a low hum of magic, which indicated she was a mage, but not nearly on the same level as Maya. Or herself. Was it the mage who had shoved Maya into the s trange mirror?
Maya’s back was to her, the rigid angle of her head a sure sign that she wasn’t as calm as she was try ing to pretend.
“Where is this Lord Bat u?” Maya asked.
The younger mage shrugged. “With his disciples and the late st sacrifices.”
“In this building?”
“Unfortunately.” The mage’s tone was sour. “Because of you, we were forced to relocate. This is hardly the setting for a creature of his power, but it’s not fo r much longer.”
“But you haven’t physically seen his face?”
“Why are you nagging about whether I’ve seen his face or not?” the woman snapped. “He’s whispered through the mirror and I’ve been in his presence, even if he has been heavily robed. He’s magnificent. That’s all that matters.”
Tia rolled her eyes. If it truly was Batu, there was nothing magnificent about the bastard. He was a cruel, selfish prick who would use the mage and destroy her as soon as he was done with her.
Maya made a sound of disgust, but she didn’t bother to warn the younger mage that she was playing with fire. Why bother? She’d discover her mista ke soon enough.
“So now what?” Maya instead asked.
“Simple . Now you die.”
“It’s going to take a better mage than y ou to kill me.”
“No, just a smarter one.”
“You?” Maya’s voice drip ped with scorn.
As expected, the impulsive mage stepped forward, putting her within easy distance of one of Maya’s potions that were no doubt stashed in her satchel. Idiot girl. Even if the mage didn’t know that Maya always carried an arsenal of potions that could level a small town, she should have sensed she was being deliber ately provoked.
The mage tossed her blond curls, too arrogant to sense her danger. “Do you think I wasn’t pre pared for you?”
“You’re saying this is a trap? ” Maya drawled.
“Of course it’s a trap, you stupid bitch.”
“Let’s see it.”
“I don’t think so.” Tia abruptly stepped into the room, drawing on the magic that surged through her blood as she silently prepared a spell. “We don’t have time for this nonsense,” she said as Maya sent her a s tartled glance.
“Who are you?” the younger mage sh rilly demanded.
“Shut up.” Tia released her magic with a wave of her hand, not bothering to watch as the magic hit the young woman to send her flying backward, although she did hear her hitting the wall with a dull thud. “Are you done playing with her?” she asked Maya with a lif t of her brows.
“I think so.” Maya wrinkled her nose. “She didn’t have any usefu l information.”
“ Then let’s go.”
“No!” The mage scrambled forward, her face flushed with a combination of pain an d fury. “Stop.”
“I told you to shut up.” Tia casually sent the woman flying backward again before turning to head o ut of the room.
Walking next to her, Maya’s back was rigid, as if she wasn’t as delighted as she should be to have her old friend make an unexpec ted appearance.
“I didn’t need you to rescue me,” Maya muttered.
Tia made a sound of impatience. “Can’t you just say thank you without trying to start a fight?”
Prepared for a full-out squabble, Tia was caught off guard when Maya’s tension abruptly eased and she sent her a rueful smile.
“Thank you.”
“A miracle.” Tia kept her tone light, careful not to goad her companion.
She told herself it was because she didn’t want to start a fight when they were both on the same team. At least temporarily on the same team. Or maybe she was just getting old enough to concede that her pride wasn’t always the most important thi ng in her life.
Turning back in the direction she’d come, Tia retraced her steps. Now that Maya was with her, she didn’t have to sneak around. Together they could create a trap and wait for the demons—and whoever else might be lurking in the dark—to s tumble into it.
“It’s just a habit, you know,” Maya abru ptly announced.
“W hat’s a habit?”
“Sniping at each other.”
Tia nodded, although she didn’t think it was entirely habit that caused Maya to resent her.
“You blame me for not doing more to save you from Batu.” The words tumbled from Tia’s lips. As if they’d been waiting a long time to be shared. Probably fo rty-five years.
“And you blame me for abandoning you once we were free,” Maya countered.
Tia grimaced. Okay, that might be true. “The classic frien ds to enemies.”
“Only we’re not enemies, are we, Tia?” Maya murmured . “Not really.”
Tia sucked in a startled breath, jerking her head to the side to meet Maya’s steady gaze. “What a re you saying?”
“For forty-five years I told myself that I walked away from you because of your obsession with gaining power.” She shrugged. “I didn’t want to spend my life battling for something that would never bring me happiness.”
Tia didn’t bother to insist that she wasn’t obsessed with power. All she wanted was the ability to destroy anyone stupid enough to try to ens lave her again.
Right now she was more interested in what thoughts were running through Maya’s head. “That wasn ’t the reason?”
“In part, I genuinely had no interest in conquer ing the world.”
“Why conquer the world when you could peddle coffee, right?” Tia c ouldn’t resist.
Maya thankfully ignored her. “But I’m starting to think there was more than one reason I fled my homeland,” she confessed. “And why I’ve kept you at a distance.”
“Tell me.”
“I didn’t want to be reminded of my time spent as Batu’s slave. I needed to start over and I couldn’t do that if I was constantly haunt ed by my past.”
“Including me.”
“Not you,” Maya protested, as if sensing that her words had managed to touch a raw nerve. “It was also the guilt I felt that I betrayed you. I knew you would nev er forgive me.”
Tia grimaced. When she’d realized that Maya had not only left their home, but had also disappeared from the country, she’d been furious. It had felt like a dagger in the heart after she’d done everything in her power to shield Maya from Batu’s cruelty, not to mention training her to cont rol her magic.
“I didn’t forgive you,” she said, then with a sigh, forced herself to admit that she wasn’t as bitter as she’d assumed over the past four decades. “But that didn’t stop me from traveling to New York when I realized you w ere in danger.”
Maya sent her a startled glance. “I thought you were here because you suspected that Batu survived.”
“As it was so recently pointed out to me, I didn’t need to contact you if that was my only reason for being in the area,” Tia pointed out in dry tones. “You hurt me when you left, Maya, but if I’m being honest, I didn’t have to think about you again if I didn’t want to. You weren’t a threat to me or my ambitions.”
“That’s true. My dreams are much simpler than ruling the world. But I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying.”
“If I held on to my grudge, then I had a reason to keep you in my life.” The words came out stiff. It wasn’t easy for Tia to lower her barriers, and even more difficult for her to admit that she might regret losing her oldest friend.
She took great pride in her independence. Only a weakling needed others.
Maya came to a halt, her brow furrowed as if she was carefully choosing her words. “You know, we can’t heal all the wounds from the past,” she finally said. “But perhaps we can heal a few of them.”
Tia scowled at the dangerous longing that tugged at her heart. For the past forty years she’d been telling herself that she didn’t need other people. Family and friends softened a woman. They made her vulnerable. Then again, maybe her independence didn’t have to be all or nothing. There might be room to collaborate with another mage, assuming she had the proper skills and talent to be wort hy of her time.
“Perhaps, ” she conceded.
As if realizing this wasn’t the time or place for repairing their fragile relationship, Maya glanced around.
“Why are you headed in t his direction?”
Tia nodded toward the doorway. “The sacrifices are locked in a storage room dow n the hallway.”
“Is that how you fou nd this place?”
“Yes. I followed them after they were taken from the rave.” She shrugged. “Now that there are two of us, it makes sense to hide in this area. Eventually someone’s going to come and get the demons. We can follow them to the myst erious leader.”
“Clever,” Maya agreed, pursing her lips and appearing to consider the hasty plan. “We should also weave a tracking web on the floor. That will give us the opportunity to keep some space between us and the captors without losin g their trail.”
It made sense, and, moving a few feet from her companion, Tia judged the angle of the door and breathed the words to the familiar spell. The magic tingled through her blood, not a full-out bubble since the threads to create the web were simple to conjure, but enough to send a shiver of bliss racing through her. There was nothing more addict ive than magic.
Not sex, not money, not even power.
Just the wild beauty that humm ed through her.
Then she felt the soft brush of Maya’s power combining with hers, threading the strands of the web together, and another shiver raced through her body. She’d forgotten the pleasure of sharing a weave with another mage. Especially Maya, who formed the web in perfect harmony as Tia spread it across th e cement floor.
Squashing the strange ache that felt perilously close to loneliness, Tia tied off the spell with a flick of her fingers.
“Where’s your leech?” she demanded, well aware the male would b e in the area.
He’d obviously bonded with Maya. He wasn’t going to allow her to be in danger without being close enough to rush to the rescue.
“He sensed the magic again. He’s hoping to trace it to its source.”
Tia frowned. She still didn’t understand how the vampire could sense magic that eluded a mage.
“Does he thi nk it’s Batu?”
Maya looked grim as she shrugged. “Is it possible tha t he survived?”
“I woul d say no, but—”
“But what?”
Tia’s jaw tightened as she recalled the strange shimmering strand that she’d seen flow from the crevice in the hidden chamber directly to the center o f Maya’s chest.
“Something’s still at tached to you.”
Maya flinched, but even as her hand lifted as if to touch the invisible strand, he r eyes widened.
“Did you see that?” she rasped, stepping past Tia to stare at th e distant wall.
“D id I see what?”
“There was a figure running across the bac k of the room.”
Tia moved to stand next to her companion, unable to see anything in the thick shadows.
“Was it robed?”
“No.” Maya sent her a confused glance. “Honestly, it lo oked like Joe.”
“Shit.” Tia had forgot all about the aggravating m ale. “Come on.”
Tia sprinted forward, determined to capture Joe before he could disappear again. Maya was swiftly at her side, her expr ession puzzled.
“You thi nk it was him?”
“I saw him getting into the van with the other sacrifices they lured from the rave,” Tia said. “But between the city and here he vanished. I was searching for him when I stumbl ed across you.”
“What’s he doing here?”
Tia’s magic swirled and hissed through her as she prepared a spell that would wrap the mysterious Joe in an indestructible net. This wasn’t a pedestrian tracking spell. She was going to need all the power she could s crape together.
“I intend to find out ,” she snapped.
“Careful, Tia,” Maya warned. “He isn’t what he seems.”
“I already figured that out.” Reaching the back wall, Tia was forced to slow her pace as she searched for a doorway. “Where the h ell did he go?”
“I’m here.”
With a magic that was impossible to detect, Joe parted the shadows. Suddenly Tia could see that he’d ditched the cloak he’d been wearing to reveal his velour-running-suit-fishing-hat- bearded glory.
“ What the hell?”
“Shh.” He pointed toward a large drain that was cut into the cement. “We need to hear this.”
Curiosity overcame her annoyance, and Tia leaned forward, peering through the opening. It was hard to make out what was beneath them. It looked like a cement-lined tunnel. A sewage drain? Som e sort of vent?
She was still trying to figure it out when the low sound of male voices echoed through the air and Maya sucked in a sharp gasp, her hand instinctively reaching out to g rasp Tia’s arm.
“Ravyr ,” Maya rasped.