Chapter 14 Archer
Chapter fourteen
Archer
Like a caged tiger, I paced.
The guys had all gone their separate ways, none of them able to stomach another second with my surly ass.
Vine was in his room, the bass of his sound system thumping through the walls of the brownstone as he pouted like an angsty teenager.
Corson was in the basement, punishing himself in the weight room he’d set up there.
I could picture it, sweat pouring down his reddened face as he cursed me with every set he lifted.
Mal had taken to the skies hours ago, and I wasn’t sure we’d see him again before sunrise.
And Delilah? She was still tucked away in the room that Vine had showed her to earlier.
I knew because I could fucking feel her there, her presence niggling at my senses like a thorn, small and sharp and utterly fucking annoying.
Standing in the front parlor, I strode from one end to the other, the long and narrow space acting like the perfect runway to contain my anxious thoughts.
Corson had given me an earful before he had descended to the basement, and the other two had shot plenty of disgusted looks my way. More than enough to realize they thought I was being an unholy idiot.
I didn’t like admitting that they might have been right.
The witch was clearly in trouble, alone against the entirety of the Order. It was stupid to think that she could be working with them when she was clearly connected to Phips.
He wanted her to trust me, but, even if she didn’t, I was going to trust him.
So the witch lived. For now.
But that didn’t stop the strange clenching in my chest when I thought about her up there, all alone in the night. She didn’t even have her things. I’d hidden them in my Rip and had given her no indication that I had them.
And still, she hadn’t complained.
Letting out a sigh, I ran both hands down my face, suddenly feeling exhausted.
Knowing I should probably get at least a little bit of rest before the sun rose and I needed to decide our next move, I turned, heading for the stairs.
A few hours in my bed would probably make a world of difference to my fucking attitude.
I hadn’t even made it halfway up the steps when the entire front window blew inward, glass scattering across the parlor like confetti.
“Corson!” I shouted, opening my Rip and reaching for my bow and quiver. “Vine! We’ve got company!”
Sliding the quiver over one shoulder, I pulled out an arrow and notched it, continuing to climb the stairs backwards as I pointed my weapon at the shattered window.
“Greetings, Archer,” came a voice I’d not heard in several decades. “How serendipitous to find you here, holding my property for me.”
“Nothing here belongs to you, Moira,” I called back. “Be gone, witch.”
A deranged cackle was my only response.
That and a bolt of crackling electricity that shot into the house, the burst of white fire lighting up the darkened room like a firework.
“What the fuck is happening now?” Vine whined, his heavy steps letting me know he was right behind me. “Can’t a guy listen to Seven Nation Army on repeat without being disturbed?”
“Looks like that’s gonna be a no.”
“What is it this time?” Vine asked, opening his own Rip and pulling out a wicked-looking short spear and spinning it with dexterous hands before he used his magic to light it on fire. “Shifters? That pack of rogues we spanked a few months ago come looking for revenge?”
“Nothing so pleasant.”
“I was afraid you were gonna say that. Where’s Corson?”
“I’m here.” Looking to the far side of the room, I could see Corson standing in the shadows with his back to the wall, a heavily spiked mace in his fist as he glared through the shattered window into the night. “How the fuck did she find us?”
Another ball of lightning crashed into the room, splatting to the floor like liquid fire and leaving a scorch mark on the hardwood.
“That bitch. I just had these floors redone.”
“Just send the girl out and I’ll be on my way,” Moira called.
“What do you want with her?” Things were starting to add up in my brain; Delilah, the Fallen Key, Phips’s letter, and now Moira. It was far too many coincidences to not recognize a pattern.
“The Order has a fairly hefty bounty on her pretty little head,” Moira replied. “Every hunter on the east coast is going to be looking for her.”
“How did you even know she was with us?” Vine asked, the spear still spinning like a flaming baton.
“Oh, I can learn a lot of things with the right tools.”
I grimaced. Moira Thornheart might be a filthy bounty hunter, but she was also a powerful Haruspex. There wasn’t much she couldn’t figure out with hot entrails and some knuckle bones.
I paused, another realization striking me hard.
“You killed Phips.”
“Sorry.” Soft footsteps crunched over broken glass as Moira approached, her deceptively small form entering through the shattered window, the hell hound that was her constant companion trailing behind her like a dark menace.
Wearing her signature purple leather pants and black tank top, Moira looked like a sexed-up caricature of a video game heroine, right down to the thick brown braid that hung down her back.
“While I’d normally love to take credit for taking down a Guardian, that wasn’t actually me. ”
“Then what happened to his fucking liver?”
“Oh.” She giggled, lifting her head and fixing me with a smirk.
“That was definitely me and Malum here.” She gave the hell hound an affectionate pat on the head.
His body was huge, way bigger than the average hell hound, and he looked even larger standing beside the diminutive witch.
“But the priest was already dead when we got there. I just saw an opportunity so I took it.”
“Of course, you did. You’re an opportunistic parasite, so I’d expect nothing less.”
“Hey!” Her pretty face morphed into a hateful scowl. “Get off my fucking case, Archer. I’m out here hustling like everyone else. A girl’s gotta look out for herself in the big wide world, you know?”
“You’re no girl!” Vine taunted. “You’re a bottom feeding nightmare.”
“That’s not what you said when we were in Athens together.”
I gaped at Vine, and he at least had the decency to look embarrassed.
“What? She was persistent as fuck and I’d had too much ouzo!” Looking back down at Moira, Vine added, “And you were a bottom feeder in Athens, too, if I recall.”
It took a second for his words to sink in, but when they did, I cringed.
“Vine, you sick fuck.”
He only grinned
“Fuck you, Vine. I’m tired of this bullshit. Give me the girl, Archer. I’ve been tracking her across four states. I’ve earned her. She’s mine.”
No, she’s mine.
The thought struck through my mind out of nowhere, and while I didn’t have the capacity to really examine it at the moment, something about it felt right.
She was mine, whether she liked it or not.
Pushing that aside for later, I glanced behind me, hoping that Delilah was smart enough to have stayed in her room. The entire upstairs was warded, but that witch was slippery. Who knew what she would attempt.
“Moira, you know that’s not going to happen. We’re never going to hand over the witch.”
“If you won’t give her to me, I’ll just have to take her.”
“Never.”
Mal’s single word, coming from behind me, was pure threat. I hadn’t even known he’d returned to the house, but I was glad for it.
The low growl that emanated from the hell hound was full of promised violence, lips curled back and revealing a row of sharp, vicious teeth.
The teeth that had torn my friend open so his bitch of a mistress could harvest his organs for her scrying.
“Moira, you’ve no business here. The girl belongs to the Umbra Fratrum. Take your mutt and be gone before I send you and that flea bag into the Pit.”
Eyes darting around the room, Moira calculated her chances, magical energy crackling along her arms as she considered. If there were only one of us, she could probably put up a decent fight, but all four of us? Against just her and the dog?
She’d lose, spectacularly, and she fucking knew it.
“Fine,” she finally conceded, stepping back toward the broken window with a haughty sniff as she released her power, the magic on her hands fading away.
“A woman knows when she’s not wanted.” Vine snorted, but said nothing.
“I’ll go, but I’m warning you, Archer. The word is out.
The bounty is massive and I’m not the only one who will be hunting your girl.
Before long, the entire Guild will be on her tail.
You may have her, but you’ll never keep her. ”
Turning on her heel, Moira darted back out the window, Malum following like smoke on the wind.
“She’s so fuckin’ hot,” Vine breathed, staring at the spot where she’d vanished into the night as he doused the fire on his spear and it disappeared back into his Rip.
“She owes me a window,” I grunted, replacing the arrow in the quiver and sliding it and my bow back into my own Rip.
Turning, I started up the stairs, planning to find Delilah and ensure she was...if not alright, then at least not harmed.
But I froze, my anger returning when I spied her, standing on the landing, clinging to a shirtless Mal like he was her hells damned savior.