Chapter 11 #3
“Are you somewhere private? This is a conference call with everyone on the team except Elinor.”
My throat closes. “Elinor…” I wheeze, just as I hear a shout from Alistair.
“She’s okay.” That’s David, rushing to reassure us all. “Andrew, are you somewhere secure?”
“I’m on the street outside a takeout place,” I say, looking around. “But nobody’s close enough to overhear. What happened to Elinor?”
“Ambush,” he says grimly. “The doctor’s with her now, but he says she’s going to be fine. Concussion, and fractures to three ribs and her left ankle. Some bruising. She’s been in and out of consciousness, but I’ve been assured there’s no major head trauma.”
“Fuck. Fuck!” That’s Gideon, eloquently vocalizing what we’re all feeling.
“You’re sure she’s okay?” Alistair demands, his voice rough with worry for his cousin.
“Yes. Our field medic was in the second car and was able to get to us pretty much immediately. The emergency clinic doctor did a more in-depth assessment, and I had a CSG doctor called in to see her as soon as I woke up. She’s going to need rest and healing, but she’ll be fine.”
I barely have time to feel relieved before the rest of his words sink in. As soon as he woke up ?
“David!” The exclamation comes from several mouths.
“I’m fine,” he promises. “A minor concussion, not even worth keeping me for observation, and my left wrist is sprained. The concussion from the blast knocked us all out.”
“Start at the beginning,” Percy says. “From the moment you went dark.”
“It’s not that interesting. Everything was going as planned. The only change was that the van we’d originally intended to take to the compound had a flat tire and nobody could find the spare. We need to have a serious talk to the crew here, because that’s just shoddy.”
“Noted,” Percy says a little dryly, and I can tell he’s wondering, as I am, if David’s head injury might be troubling him more than he thinks. “So you took a different vehicle?”
“No. I mean yes. There was another van there, but Elinor thought it seemed a little too convenient that nobody could find the spare tire for the van I’d checked over personally, and Andrew’s instincts were screaming at me”—he’s definitely not thinking right.
David would never normally say something like that—“so I commandeered SUVs instead. Because Ellie was with us, we needed two, which turned out to be a good thing. Our attackers didn’t seem prepared for two vehicles. ”
“It does make a leak seem more likely, though,” Sam comments grimly. “And worse, someone actively working against us from inside CSG.”
“How did they get you?” Gideon asks.
“We were on a very lonely stretch of road,” David continues.
“We came around a bend and they had a truck across the road, blockading it. I don’t know exactly what weave they hit us with.
I only had a second’s warning, but it looked…
different somehow. It didn’t actually hit us, anyway.
Thanks to Andrew’s warning, I had some very complicated defensive weaves around the cars.
But the concussion wave from the impact knocked all of us in the car out, and then the car went off the road and hit a tree.
We’re lucky none of us were injured worse. ”
“You’re lucky they didn’t try to finish you off,” Alistair points out.
“Oh, they did. I wasn’t awake for that bit, but our second car got some warning when we lost contact with them, so they came around the bend ready for anything.
Apparently the attackers were chipping away at my shield in an attempt to get to us when they were taken out.
Three were killed in the scuffle, but two are still alive.
I’m told one is even uninjured. I’ve put them on suicide watch with people I trust, but I’d appreciate if you could get a personally vetted team out here to take them into custody for questioning. ”
“Have we had any reports on Tish?” I ask. “This doesn’t make sense. If he knew our plans, that you were coming, and has the resources to stage this ambush, why is he holed up with a bunch of human cultists?” My instincts are screaming at me, and the frustration of not knowing why is killing me.
“Nothing,” Percy says, and there’s that tiny trill of power in his voice that he gets when he’s in full communication with the magic. “I’ll reach out to the human government now, but I think we have to assume their agent has been compromised.”
“I think so,” David agrees. “It’s been several hours since the initial attack.
You should have had some kind of warning by now.
I’ve got someone calling our contacts in the clan Sam’s father is part of,” David says.
“If Tish heads that way, they’ll be ready.
But Andrew’s right. We thought we’d cut him off from all his resources and contacts.
If he can still muster this kind of force, I would have expected him to be safely hidden in another lab bunker. ”
“We’ve missed something,” Sam bites out. “What the hell—”
“Ward breach at the office!” Percy’s shout cuts through my head like a knife.
“Noah’s there!” I cry, spinning and taking off at a dead run.
I can hear their voices still, but I’m not listening.
Fuck, I never should have left him alone.
Who could this be? Surely not Tish—how would he have gotten across the country so fast?
And why would he be trying to get into the CSG office?
But who else could it be?
I push myself to run faster. It’s too fast—any human who sees me will know something’s not right. But I’d rather deal with the fallout from potential exposure than subject Noah to being in Tish’s hands.
“Andrew! Wait! Don’t go in alone!” Gideon’s yell cuts through the chaos of my thoughts as I round the corner where the building is. “I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
I’m not waiting for him.
Of course, as I approach the building and watch through the glass walls as he flashes into place, I remember that he can teleport.
Reaching the glass after-hours door, I prepare to blast right through it, but Gideon’s already there, holding it open.
I don’t break stride as I head toward the stairwell. One glance at the dark elevator panels tells me they’re all locked down just as they should be. Gideon falls into step beside me.
“Percy can’t get hold of building security,” he mutters. “There’s a team on the way. We protect Noah first and try to hold them here.”
I nod curtly, saving my breath for the five flights of stairs ahead.
By the time we’ve managed three, I’m aware via the chatter in my ear—Percy never ended the call—that half a dozen demons from enforcement have arrived and are following us up the stairs. Building security still cannot be reached. And Noah’s not answering his phone.
But nobody’s tried to leave the building.
So what the fuck is going on up there? Maybe they don’t know he’s there.
Maybe he’s hiding so well, they’re just doing what they came for—whatever that is—so they can get out before we arrive.
They have to know a ward breach would have us here within minutes, so whatever they’re doing, they should be trying to leave soon.
I push myself to run faster, but even with the power of my years, my stamina can only take me so far.
Gideon yanks me to a stop as we make the turn to the fifth flight of stairs, and while I want to shove him away and keep going, I make myself be reasonable.
We’re both breathing hard, and we need to be ready to tackle anything when we enter the offices.
Silently, I count to ten, forcing myself to regulate my breathing and using vampire mastery to settle my heartbeat. It’s not the safest thing in the world to do, but I’m not an inexperienced baby.
In my ear, Percy says, “Noah’s okay, Andrew. I’m getting a very strong message from the magic that he’s unharmed. I-I think he’s telling it to tell me. But… I’m not sure where he is. Be very careful going in; something odd is going on.”
I look over to Gideon, who nods, pointing to his ear. Together, we creep up the last flight of stairs and pause by the door. It opens directly into the CSG reception area.
Gideon holds up three fingers.
My fangs descend and claws slide out.
Two.
I brace myself.
One.
He yanks open the door and I hurtle through, senses on high alert, aware of Gideon two paces behind me.
There’s no one here, but I can sense the broken ward… and smell burnt hair?
Fuck me, Noah’s using fire. That means they found him. But then why is it so quiet?
Gideon grabs my arm before I can take off out of reception.
“Wait,” he mutters. “Was the ward breached from inside?”
I freeze, then focus my attention on it.
The after-hours ward that protects CSG is a work of art.
It was created by a team of sorcerers over months and is so delicately interwoven that it should have taken hours—or days—to break through.
Percy should have had much more warning of what was happening, and the team of sorcerers attempting to break in—because that’s what it would take—should still have been here in reception working on it when we arrived.
An actual full breach within seconds like this shouldn’t be possible.
But Gideon’s right. I can’t see weaves the way a sorcerer can, but even I can tell that the breach in the ward came from the inside. So… Noah breached it?
The world spins around me.
Why would he do that?
Actually… why would he do that?
I look at Gideon. “Why would Noah breach the wards from the inside?”
Percy replies. I’d almost forgotten he was still listening. “To warn us.”
Gideon shakes his head. “That doesn’t make sense.
The ward should have warned us. It’s supposed to notify you when someone tries to breach it—which it did.
It wasn’t created to guard from the inside, but if someone was trying to get in from the outside, you would have been advised.
” He shakes his head again. “We can talk about this later. We need to clear the offices.”