Thirty-Four
After picking up the teleporters, we bring them to the house, then march them into the garage. They have black hoods over their heads and steel gloves over their hands, which are tied behind their backs with witches snares, thin golden chains spelled to be unbreakable. Dayne touches the two of them on their arms, dropping them to their knees with his magic. He pulls the hoods off them, and they blink rapidly at the influx of light into their retinas.
The older of the two is a woman. Light skin with high cheekbones and runic tattoos weaving across her chest and face, wrapping around her neck and over her arms. Her bubblegum-pink hair is shaved on one side and long on the other, a complementary color to her lime-green eyes.
The other one is a young male, probably around Rudy’s age. Even lighter skin with platinum-white hair ruffled about his face. His pale-yellow eyes makes him look washed out.
Their gazes land first on me, standing in front of them, then on the three chimeras strapped to the chairs behind me. Pools of blood and severed bits lie at their feet. Their heads hang down – looking dead to the newcomers rather than just passed out.
Jerking back in horror, the two of them scream.
I squat down in front of them as they try to scramble backwards with their hands tied behind their ass, and their feet kicking across the floor.
“Zohfiik ije,”
I say in Drazic. meaning //The rules are simple.
The language is guttural, harsh, and angry, almost like a mix between German and Spanish. It’s a primitive tongue despite being the second oldest language in all of the Seven Planes; the demons are always looking for a reason to fight, so why bother fixing communication? Magic is also wild despite our attempts to tame it, and the chaotic creativity of Drazic allows it to breathe like it needs to.
So all witches share this language.
“Vicara, ke aloze.”
//You do what I want, I’ll smuggle you back home.
Their screams stumble into choking whimpers as they stare at each other in horror, no doubt thinking I want them to fight to the death, and only the victor will get to go home. My jaw tics at the complexity of the language, but I can only hope they’ll understand as I keep going. Given neither of them speaks Eknor (which Lou does) or English, this is the only one we have in common.
“Hojez, alovanajez,”
I continue. //You don’t, and I will kill you slowly.
As threatening as that was, they perk up a little, hope flaring in their eyes. If they were fighting to the death, then I wouldn’t have to kill them for failing. So now they realize I want them for a job.
“Heevan, alokimal vanajez.”
//Enough.
When they do so immediately, I know I got my point across. Enoch and Ezriel dropping the chairs might have been a bit theatrical, but I need them to focus. To skip the whole phase of trying to fight back and escape.
“Si alovicara si?”
the man rasps as he looks between me and his sons. //What do you want from us?
I tell them about Eduardo’s network, and I make it clear that if he finds out we’ve hijacked our way into it, then their family will live a very long life in this garage.
I snap my fingers, and my shadow husks walk up the stairs, controlled by the twins’ magic, not mine. They move to stand behind the seven chairs, and my hostages, having finally woken up from Khalid’s spell, all scream and cry behind their gags. The smell of fear permeates the air. A few of the children piss themselves. The teleporters yell at me, and Stormie’s fingers twitch down at her sides as she waits to see if either of them are foolish enough to try to attack.
The odds aren’t in their favor. The risks are too great. We can kill their loved ones far faster than they can speak a spell – if they even know how to do that.
But push a desperate man…
And he will turn into an animal.
Take those I love...
And I will become something far worse.
When neither of them make a move, I nod at Dayne, and he removes the gloves from their hands, then the chains from around their wrists.
The two teleporters rub their hands and flex their fingers, but whereas the woman looks at her children, the man looks at us, clocking where we all are. Biting back a cruel smile, I turn away from him, goading him to take the shot.
There is a reason I asked for two.
One of them is only here as an example for the other.
As the air crackles behind me, I dart over to the first boy of his. He doesn’t even get a chance to scream before my knife slices across his throat. A quick death. Merciful.
The man roars behind me. A bolt of red fury slams into a pink shield as I turn to face him. A half a dozen other bolts slam into various shields of blue as my brothers all protect themselves. His attack was impressive, trying to take us out all at once, but Dayne already has him down on the ground, one hand on his shoulder. Forced to be still and quiet, only his eyes can scream.
My gaze moves to the woman. Shaking, she tries to calm her own screaming children, shouting words that are meant to be soothing, but her partner, a woman with blue hair to her pink, is rocking her chair back and forth as she shrieks behind her gag. As their terror rolls through the air, the Craving hits hard in my stomach, and my teeth ache. It has been weeks since I’ve eaten, and the urge to feast grows stronger every day.
Fighting it down, I walk calmly over to the man’s second and last son. “Elivici,”
I say, addressing the woman. “Chi.” > //Pay attention.
Holding her terrified gaze, I slit his throat. She clasps a hand over her mouth. The man’s wife jerks her chair up and down, trying to free herself so she can fight back. The man’s eyes grow wider, terror eating him up inside. Dayne looks away, unable to stomach watching the kids die. But he does not stop me either, and he does not let the man go.
I kill his wife next.
Then Dayne kills his hostage quickly, stopping his heart with barely any movement of his fingers. He releases him, and he drops to the ground with open eyes. He might have died fast, but he died full of rage and fear.
I turn to look at Elivici.
She trembles and cries in silence.
“Vicara, ke aloze,”
I repeat, reminding her there is only one way she and her family go home.
Her lips trembling, she nods.
Cleaning my blade on the dead mother’s back, I gesture for Elivici to come with me. Then I slip the knife into its sheath and lead her out into the night.
Vlad is already waiting for us, ready to take her to one of Eduardo’s circles. He got a dozen locations by interrogating the captured Death Hunt members and has been scouting them out to see which one would be the best to hit without drawing attention. Morn Tower, where Antonio took Khalid and his girl after kidnapping them, is the closest one, but it’s owned by civilians. The police might’ve rounded up anyone associated with the Death Hunt they could, and Aleric and I have been killing or recruiting anyone who’s remained, but enough innocents have their fingers in Morn Tower that we can’t touch it. It gives Antonio an instant way back to the area, but the fact that he let us know about it by dragging my brother there makes me suspect he has another one nearby. There’s no better way of sneaking into a place than by going through the back door that no one knows about because everyone is busy guarding the front.
My eyes soften as I walk up to the vampire. He looks as shit as Dayne and I do. There was a moment when him and Rudy were… something. A thing sounds too solid for what they were. Not Romeo and Juliet sneaking out behind our backs. Not in love. Not just sex.
My brother loved everyone but the man in front of me. He went out of his way to antagonize him, and the two of them got into blows more than once. Vlad is the only one Rudy has ever deliberately affected with his magic, and he’d do it all the time – a type of pushing away, of destroying it before it destroys me.
But at some point, they started sleeping together. Rudy came home smelling like Vlad, and he kept that scent for the next few months. I pretended like I knew nothing; their relationship would have caused an all out war if the Death Hunt thought our two gangs were forming a secret alliance. Ironically, we went to war anyways, so I wonder if Vlad regrets keeping Rudy in the closet. If he regrets that lost time now that my brother is gone.
Then again, they haven’t smelled of each other for over a year. Even though their relationship would no longer cause any strain, they’ve stayed apart. Bad blood festers between them, and yet…
Vlad is only here because of him.
We don’t exchange pleasantries. We might share a love for Rudy, but we’re not anywhere close to being friends. In utter silence, he grabs Dayne and phases him to the school Micha was being held at. It’s risky going back there with the SCU crawling all over the woods now, but it’s the only place we can be sure that Antonio isn’t watching. Dayne can keep them hidden with his magic, but he’s willing to risk getting caught in order to save Micha.
After Vlad takes the teleporter, I head back into the garage to help clean up the bodies – a task normally left to Rudy. My brothers can’t take them into their shadows as that’ll call the monsters to their storage area, increasing the risk of losing the items they hold there. So we’ll burn them into ash – the fire reminding me of Micha, then bury them deep underground, beneath the new flowers we plant in Leno’s honor.
Memories. Honor…
I want more than that.
And I don’t care how much of the world I have to burn to make it happen.
My jaw tight as I help dig a six-foot hole, I vow to bring my wife and brother home.